Librarian 1.5

new blog

2008-07-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'm retiring this blog. Visit my other blog at wordpress, if you're interested.

Mashup Editors

2007-12-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Cool! I actually made a mashup using Yahoo pipes! To be fair, I basically copied Todd's idea and mashed together a bunch of rss feeds, but still, I succeeded. I decided to take all of the EKU Library Learning 2.0 Participant Blogs and mash them together.

Here's the result. Pretty nifty. I can't tell what order they're in, though. Hmmm.....

Mashups

2007-12-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

I get the idea of Mashups in theory, but I'm not really finding any useful ones (other than Flickr or Google Maps ones, perhaps) that I would need on a regular basis.

I went to the Mashup Directory and stumbled apon the Amazon Light 4.0 mashup, which is supposed to do all of these things:

Tools - When viewing an item's page, with a click (or two), you can

Buy the item from Amazon.com
Add the item to an Amazon.com Wishlist
Send URL to a friend with GMail
Set up a DropCash Campaign
Send URL and Title to your Blog on Blogger
Send URL and Title to your Del.Icio.Us Account
Lookup a book at your Local Library

Sounds cool. Unfortunately, neither EKU nor the Madison Co. Public Library is on the Local Library list. As I am a curious person, I actually contacted Jon Udell, who generated the list, and he actually replied pretty quickly that he no longer updates it. Oh, well.

Podcasts

2007-12-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

I must admit upfront that podcasts annoy me. I quickly grow impatient, thinking "This would go so much faster if I could just read it!" Or, I try to listen to a podcast while doing other things, and then I don't really pay attention. I will try to open my mind for this lesson, though.

Well, I first tried Yahoo audio searches for "installing flooring" and "home renovation." I'd like to try to replace my carpeted bathroom with something else, and I thought, maybe if someone's created a podcast with handy tips, I could listen on my way home from work or while I cook dinner. No dice. C'mon, Home Depot or Lowe's, get with it!! No podcasts, but I did find this.

So, next I got boring and searched "libraries" and I came up with this: "Libraries Become Temporary Refuge for Homeless", an NPR story. Of course! I forgot that the only non-annoying podcasts to me are re-broadcasts of radio programs (a media that is produced so that it is enjoyable to listen to). So I went to NPR's feed page to see if I'd like to add anything to my Bloglines account. I added the several feeds (Books, Children's Health, Movies, Music, Reviews, and Food). Cool. I've been meaning to do this for a while.

O.K., so this wasn't so bad after all...

YouTube Addendum

2007-12-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

O.K. Without YouTube, the world would not get to experience this little gem, which combines the irresistable pop culture of the late 80s with the elaborate nerd-dom of library-land:

1987 - Betty Glover Library Workout Tape Ad

Re-Discovering YouTube

2007-12-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

I love YouTube. I get lost there. You can find videos on just about any subject - libraries (over 29,000), cataloging (a relatively modest 3,500), John Waters' movies (about 233), cats (about 260,000!), sustainable agriculture (189), global warming (over 22,000), and so on. I couldn't think of a topic not represented. Granted, much of the stuff is weird and not very useful, but there's a lot of really good stuff, too.

One of my favorite things on YouTube is UC Berkeley's site, on which they are loading videos of actual class sessions. So, you can watch a series of videos on "Physics for Future Presidents". Or, you can watch a video on the intersection of Intellectual Property and Search Engines. How cool is that? I think this is exactly the kind of thing that public universities (and private universities, for that matter) should be doing.

And Libraries are using YouTube, as well. Try a search for "library tutorial" in YouTube and see what you get. There are a lot (a lot) of really poorly done (boring, badly lit, too long, etc.) videos in there, but this is a pretty good one - although perhaps a little too long:

Using Databases To Find Articles

It was produced by "UNBSJ", which I'm assuming is the University of New Brunswick - Saint John. One thing I've noticed about a lot of these libary tutorials is that the narrators often sound very sleepy! I think they're trying to speak slowly and clearly to be understood, but perhaps it would be better to get some peppy students to read the scripts.

This one's a little more fun, at least for us catalogers (these guys must have a lot of time on their hands!)

AACR2 Trailer

Web Based Applications

2007-12-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

*Web 2.0 Applications, Part I*

I appreciate the straightforward simplicity and usefulness of the UCD Library 2 Go blog. It presents a list of the major Web 2.0 applications with simple descriptions.

I have used several of these applications, and am interested in exploring others when I have extra time (Extra time? What's that?!). Google Earth is extremely fun to play with. PBwiki is, so far, my favorite wiki platform because it is intuitive and simple to set up. I recently experimented with Google Docs after an extremely frustrating experience I had with our Sharepoint intranet software (inability to edit a document because someone checked it out and never checked it back in). So, I tried working with an Excel spreadsheet in Google Docs and had different frustrations - mainly, it was very slow loading when switching between tabs.

I think EKU students would appreciate using either Google Docs or wikis for group projects and presentations, as well as for online courses. I think academic library staff should definitely familiarize themselves with these types of tools so that they can assist patrons with them, if necessary. It is also important for everyone, and especially for university employees, to be lifelong learners.

*Web Applications, Part II*

Well, for this assignment, we've been asked to create a document using Google Docs or Zoho writer. I've already done this, so I tried logging into my Google account to play with my Excel document and refresh my memory. However, on my home computer, I can't get past the cookies page. It keeps telling me that I need to enable cookies. I've done this. I've lowered all the security settings. Still, it won't let me in! So, this is a big barrier, and would have to be the thing I "dislike the most" about relying on web-based applications.

My recollection about Google Docs is that it was pretty easy to use, but had fewer options (fewer font colors, etc.). I like the ability to work collaboratively with others using this type of software, and think that the collaborative aspects of web-based apps would be the most useful for students.

Wikis

2007-12-06T16:34:00.001-08:00

Lesson 14: Well, I guess I'll be self-promoting and say that my current favorite wiki is one that I am developing with a group of other librarians for information on preserving electronic resources. The preservingelectronicresources wiki grew out of a post on the ERIL listserv a little while back looking for information about publishers and perpetual access. I blogged about it. Well, the original wiki set up at tikiwiki is difficult to edit and frankly doesn't look very good, so a few weeks ago I set the one up at pbwiki and the group agreed that we'll set up shop over there. I hope it will develop into a dynamic, collaborative clearing house for information on digital preservation issues.

Lesson 15: Editing the sandbox was fun. I embedded a YouTube video of two members of my favorite band playing one of their songs in a bathroom. They have a whole series called "The Bathroom Sessions."

Wikis can be used for any collaborative process, and are especially helpful for collaborating across geographical distances. I currently participate in 4 work-related wikis:

The ER&L Conference Planning Wiki
The aforementioned preservingelectronicresources wiki
A wiki that a colleague of mine in a different state, whom I have never met face-to-face, are using to plan a conference presentation
The EKU Library Learning 2.0 wiki.

Tagging, part 2

2007-12-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Wow. Margaret makes elaborate lessons!! Here we go...

Tag clouds - I don't find tag clouds particulary useful. The idea is to highlight the tags that are used the most, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are the best tags. The smaller tags (which might be more precisely what you are searching for) get lost in the cloud. It's just a personal preference, I guess.

del.icio.us - I haven't had a del.icio.us account for very long. Here it is. I can see great potential for this tool, but I just haven't had time to set it up properly (I need to add more sites, more tags, and bundle the tags to make them more useful). Del.icio.us is generally helpful because you can access your favorite websites easily, whether or not you are using your personal computer.

Del.icio.us would be helpful for any type of scholarly communication (sharing references with students or colleagues). Here is an example of a professor's del.icio.us account who discusses his (or her?) approach to del.icio.us and teaching.

Here is a list of libraries who use del.icio.us and are discussed in a Library Journal article about social bookmarking and tagging. I followed some of the university library links that applied del.icio.us to various areas of librarianship. In the area of technology, McMaster University Library's web team uses del.icio.us to track sites they like as well as other information about web design. Colorado State University Pueblo's reference department uses del.icio.us to provide links to subject specific websites - they've grouped their tags in a really helpful way. And the University of Georgia Libraries cataloging department uses it to track cataloging links. I may steal that last idea!

Tagging, part 1

2007-11-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

For this Learning 2.0 lesson on tagging, we've been asked to compare searches in Google and in our OPAC.

Google search for "website design" yields 18,000,000 results
OPAC keyword search for "website design" yields 0 results
OPAC keyword search for website design yields 5 results (2 of which are irrelevant)
OPAC Subject search for website design yields 0 results (info note to "See: Web sites", although the appropriate subject heading is Web sites - design)

Cataloging is a controlled vocabulary whereas tagging is not. There are benefits and downsides to both. Controlled vocabularies allow us to collocate all information on a particular topic, despite changes in language, idioms, etc. For fields with quickly changing terminologies (such as everything related to computers), traditional cataloging cannot keep up. Even non-technological fields suffer from the out-dated quality of subject headings (see my LibraryThing post for a discussion of the "cookery" example). Tagging is more flexible and allows for a faster pace of change, but precision is lost.

Creating your own search engine

2007-11-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, back in Library Learning 2.0, and Lesson #11 on Search Rolls. I actually put this lesson together for the Library Learning 2.0 planning group and when I was done, I didn't feel like actually doing the exercise. Then I stopped doing any exercises for almost 4 months! What a slacker.

Anyway... 4 months ago, I created a health-related search roll over at Rollyo. It's got your typical mainstream sites, plus some alternative medicine sites that I like. I love the idea of Rollyo, but like many other 2.0 tools, I play around with it a couple of times and then don't think to go back and use it again.

Easing Back into Blogging

2007-11-27T16:21:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a crazy semester and so it's been over two months since I blogged. I'm going to try to finish the Library 2.0 lessons, but rather than jump back in with those, I thought I would post about the most helpful RSS feeds I have discovered. At the Consumer Product Safety Commission website, you can subscribe to RSS feeds on recalls! And you can choose separate feeds for children's products, toys, household products, etc. I've gotten a lot of recall notices for items that didn't make it big in the press, including one for boppy pillow covers, of all things.

We've incited a riot!

2007-09-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I asked my helpful and talented graduate assistant Laura to start working on a spreadsheet that would outline the standard access models offered by various publishers to whose content we subscribe. The intent was to have some basic information available about possible future access to help us decide whether to go e-only for a particular journal title. We realized that these licenses change a lot, but if a publisher clearly stated that they would only keep, say, a 10-year backfile, and that they didn't have an agreement with any of the archiving organizations, and the journal was a core journal in the field, then we would be hesitant to drop the print. The pressure to go e-only is strong, though, and budgets are limited, so we're still dropping many titles in print even if they don't offer any kind of perpetual access or archiving.

Anyway, a couple of days ago, this message was posted to the Electronic Resources in Libraries listserv:

We are gearing up to convert print and print + electronic journals to electronic-only. In discussions the same questions keep coming up:

· Is the full-text a complete copy of the printed issue?
· Does the publisher provide perpetual access to subscribed volumes after cancellation?
· Is the publisher part of an initiative to guarantee long-term access (CLOCKSS, Portico, etc.)?

Those are pretty much questions we all ask when faced with this situation. I was wondering if anyone has compiled a list of answers for publishers that we can use and build on for our own collections? I would hate to reinvent the wheel if someone else has done the work.

Laura innocently posted that she would be happy to share the document that she had compiled and a firestorm ensued. Dozens of messages were posted to the list asking for a copy. Even more messages were sent directly to Laura. Clearly, this is information that people need! Bonnie Tijerina at Georgia Tech suggested that we set up a wiki for this on the ER&L site, and shortly after we announced that was in the works, we were blogged about.

More on this to come. I have to get to work on the wiki now. What a crazy end to the week!

2007-08-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

I'm too busy with the annual serials renewal nightmare to attempt serious blogging - Learning 2.0 is just out of the question! - so I was pleased to read Cindi's post, which made me laugh. I had to go and try it. I was sure I would get the Geek, too, but instead I got this...

What Kind of Guy Will You Fall For?
	You would fall for the sensitive guy. You'll find your future man wherever turtlenecks are sold. He will have depth, introspection, and a disturbing knowledge of musical theatre. And he may be a little weird. But hey, while your girlfriends cry over broken hearts, you'll be having Shakespeare read to you every night.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Even funnier than that is this one:

Which Springfield Resident Are You?
	You are part Krusty the Clown. Being the life of the party isn't always easy. Most people adore your vibrant and unique sense of humor, even though it's just a facade disguising your cynical outlook on life.
	You are part Apu. On the outside you are kind and a hard worker, but you lead a deceptively simple life. Though your cleverness might be underappreciated, you never miss an opportunity to sneak ahead in life.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Random technical glitch

2007-08-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Cindy discovered today that some of our EBSCOhost database links were resolving to the Searchasaurus platform. For some reason, this struck me as totally hilarious.

This is what the link to European Journal of Biochemistry produced:

It should have gone here:

Cindy e-mailed, "I am just trying to imagine a serious biochemistry researcher digging around for some journal article in this journal and coming across this lovely purple interface with the kiddie font. Too bad he can’t see the cute purple dino to accompany it."

Maybe our lives would be less stressful if we did use the Searchasaurus platform on a regular basis! It certainly gave me a good laugh. :)

The Future of Libraries

2007-08-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

This blog post at LibraryThing is hilarious.

LibraryThing

2007-08-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not so sure that I'll continue to use LibraryThing very much in the future, but as a cataloger I did notice one really interesting thing about it. When you're in the "List view" and the "E" style of your library, you can see the Library of Congress Subject Headings (aka LCSH) for the book. Then, you can compare those headings to the tags that people have given them.

This is the view that you want to choose:

What you may notice, depending on the subject matter of your book, is that the LC subject heading language is quite different from the folksonomy.

For example, one of the books in my LibraryThing library is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. This has, of course, the somewhat notorious subject heading of "Cookery." Here's the tag cloud for this book:

Cookery is certainly there (tagged by librarians, no doubt!), but cooking, cookbook, food, and recipes, are more common tags for this. Of course they are. Who knows to look for "cookery" besides librarians?!

One more example is The Baby Book, by William Sears. The LC subject headings for this title include

~Infants > Care
~Infants > Development
~Infants (Newborn) > Care
~Newborn infants > Care

Here's the tag cloud:

Infants is so small you can't even see it.

Library 2.0 spectrum

2007-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting little graphic posted by David Lee King.

I've been thinking about this issue a lot, lately - which is why I named this Blog "Librarian 1.5." I haven't really felt like a full-fledged web 2.0 citizen for many reasons. Here are a few:

I'm really not into chat. I tried setting up accounts in the chat services, but because of my very non-unique name, I couldn't create a "handle" that those who know me would automatically think of. I couldn't keep track of my login name versus the name that displayed. I just got frustrated and haven't logged back in again. E-mail is supposedly a thing of the past, but it works better for me!

I don't get "texting" at all. Why would I want to sit and type messages to someone on a tiny keypad? Why not just call and leave a message? I don't get it.

I can't remember any coding language. I use a small amount of such language in the backend of our library's openURL link resolver, and I always have to go back and consult previous records to remember how to do it.

Based on King's library 2.0 spectrum (the terminology of which has been widely criticized) I'm pretty far to the Web 2.0 side of things, but I can't help but feel like I'm always just barely keeping up with it all. I'm also kind of skeptical about the usefulness of a lot of it. How many applications do I really need? At what point does it get in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish? Do I really need to twitter?

Library Blogosphere survey

2007-07-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

Meredith Farkas over at the Information Wants to Be Free blog is conducting a survey about Library Bloggers. The results should be interesting.

What is Your Dangerous Idea?

2007-07-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Food for thought on a Friday afternoon: David Gelernter's article What are People Well Informed About in the Information Age? This was published in print in What is Your Dangerous Idea: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable, edited by John Brockman, but you can read all of the ideas from the past decade (a different "Question" every year) online at the Edge World Question Center.

New blog

2007-07-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

I have a blog over at WordPress, but I'm getting frustrated because I can't add any widgets that use javascript (i.e. flickr badge, worldcat search, etc.) unless I upgrade to a paid account. And I'm just too cheap for that, so I guess it's time to migrate to Blogger. I chose WordPress because of it's clean design look, but until they expand their available widgets, I'm movin' over here.