Roy Tennant's Planet

Comment Challenge Day 4 - Ask a Question

2008-05-05T02:45:02+00:00

Today’s mission was to ask a question in the comments on another blog. Said questions were supposed to be “open-ended and thought-provoking.” I’ve gone ahead and asked two questions.

The first stems from a post on the Langwitches blog, in which Silvia discusses adding Technorati tags to your posts. She discusses a Wordpress plugin called WP Tags to Technorati, which will do pretty much as it says: It takes the tags you enter into the Tags field in the blog post form and converts them to tags that link to Technorati. This makes sure that your post is searchable via those tags at Technorati. Except that with Wordpress, you don’t actually need to use the plugin for that to happen. After a quick exchange with Silvia in her post comments, I decided to ask the plugin’s creator what I was missing. That’s pretty open-ended, isn’t it? Haven’t received a response yet.

But then I got to thinking that this wasn’t really the type of question that activity organizers had in mind as far as though provocation was concerned. So I decided to do a little better. Kevin posted a video on his blog that quickly toured the blogs he’s visited during the Comment Challenge. It got me thinking about video commenting and so I threw the following questions in his direction:

Do you think video commenting of the variety provided by Seesmic is the future of commenting? Is it the logical evolution? Does video make conversations easier or harder? Do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?

The comment hasn’t actually been moderated yet, so of course, no response either. I’ll update when I hear back from Kevin. I’d be interested in your thoughts on video commenting, but why not hop over to Kevin’s blog and join the conversation there (unless it still hasn’t actually started, in which case feel free to comment here).

What’s Your Signature Statement

2008-05-05T02:13:26+00:00

Most academic librarians go through their careers performing a host of jobs and filling a multitude of functions. From selection to reference to instruction and more we are true workplace multi-taskers. But amidst all these different activities have you ever stopped to ask yourself what’s at the center of it all? What defines you as a librarian? What’s your signature statement?

Before we get to the statement let me share my source of inspiration. It involves revealing a guilty pleasure. I watch little television outside of the occasional sports event. But the one show I never miss since it began several seasons ago is Hell’s Kitchen. I have no rational explanation for this other then to say I get a kick out of shows involving restaurants; I never even watch food channel programs. I got hooked when I caught a few episodes of the short lived reality show featuring Rocco DiSpirito that chronicles his effort to open a restaurant. If you ever thought your job was stressful, demanding or just plain crazy, you are not even in the same league as to someone trying to open or run a restaurant.

Without going into great detail about Hell’s Kitchen just know that in the first episode each aspiring chef must prepare and present his or her signature dish - which Gordon Ramsey promptly trashes in the most humiliating fashion possible. Nearer to the end of the show the surviving two contestants usually prepare their signature dish for a panel of food experts in one of their final competitions. A chef’s signature dish, according to Ramsey, defines the chef. It sums up in a single presentation all their skills, and expresses their creativity and accumulated experience. The signature dish says “this is who I am”.

I’ve not thought much about this idea until just recently when reading through the book Crucibles of Leadership by Robert J. Thomas. On page 80 Thomas briefly profiles Bill Russell, perhaps the greatest basketplayer of all time; Russell played center for the Celtics team that won eleven championships. In the book Russell reveals that his earliest source of inspiration was his public library. He recalls a fascination with art books. He realized he couldn’t draw or paint, but marveled at the works of famous artists. The valuable lesson that he took away from his reading was that all the world’s great artists had a distinctive quality that Russell thought of as the signature statement. While he didn’t become the next Michelangelo, he did create his own signature statement and applied it to his overpowering defensive style to become the dominating player of his era (you Wilt fans may beg to differ). No one else could capture Russell’s signature style.

I have never heard an academic librarian express his or her signature statement. It’s not uncommon, I believe, for educators to have a statement of teaching philosophy, but if we’re educators how come we have no way of concisely stating what defines us as a librarian or educator. So my humble proposal is that academic librarians should develop their own signature statement that provides insight into the distinctive characteristics that define them as a librarian. To guide you, consider Thomas’ definition: a phrase or sentiment that serves as a source of inspiration that guides both the heart and the mind. Since my personal philosophy is to avoid asking others to do something that I wouldn’t or haven’t done myself, it’s only fitting that I take a shot at my own signature statement. I think my passions for keeping up, blended librarianship and design thinking certainly contribute to my signature statement. So here’s what I came up with:

Ideas and innovation inspired by a desire to learn in the service of my community.

Well, just like most of those signature dishes, it needs some work. If you are willing to create a signature statement for yourself, share it as a comment.

Done.

2008-05-05T00:24:03+00:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Done., originally uploaded by leah the librarian.

Maker Faire mimesis and open speculation

2008-05-04T21:59:21+00:00

O'Reilly's Make magazine and the Maker Faire that we're hosting today and tomorrow in San Mateo, California have been described in many ways, ranging from a revival of the mid-20th-century love for Popular Mechanics magazine to an exciting new impetus for teaching children about science. During my six hours there today, I noted its strong connections to powerful and fundamental human urges toward creation, mastery, and the reproduction of our own culture.

Some of the Maker Faire centers are devoted to the kind of do-it-yourself projects shown in our magazine. Anyone from a four-year-old to a mechanically adept adult can find challenge and satisfaction at these tables. Projects in another building took a big step up, showcasing the brain children of engineers who devoted their spare time to building games and toys or aiding their communities with research projects. A number of the booths seemed to be run by Renaissance men and women who were making a living from their creative combinations of art and technology.

In this regard, I found many science projects at Maker Faire more aesthetically satisfying than the self-consciously mind-altering artworks I've seem at some contemporary art shows. Many artists seem to lose their intuition for balance and beauty when trying to make a point, and their explorations of the promising channels offered by technology can end up clogged in its pipes. There is some computer-generated and networked art that is beautiful, thought-provoking, or both, but I'm been disappointed too often by art shows. Maker Faire focused on the fun first of all, the achievement second, and the aesthetics third. Ironically, this worked better.

The difference between the more modest DIY tables and the advanced displays were like the difference between shooting off a toy rocket and planning a trip to the moon. Both of the latter activities were represented at the show, incidentally. I talked to the lunar project, which had already produced a tiny rover robot and was competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. They offered attendees the chance to record a message to leave on the moon, using a solid-state storage chip. I asked what database they used, expecting something such as BDB or Derby, but found out it was good old MySQL. So I wrote a message saying that I hoped relational logic was consistent throughout the universe.

Maker Faire is a string-and-duct-tape combination of O'Reilly's, Emerging Technology, Open Source, and Money:Tech conferences. It features a fair number of expected hacks, such as a 1956 Ford Truck retrofitted with a Navy boat diesel engine and upgraded to run biodiesel, or an industrial-sized version of the old Diet Coke and Mentos fountain. But it's core commitment to pushing the boundaries of science and engineering are clear, and many of the satellite booths cover such topics as organic gardening and solar energy. It also showcases people reviving obsolete technologies such as blacksmithing. The very first Make project was there (a camera suspended from a kite to take aerial photos), right next to a more formal and sophisticated approach that has been on sale since 1989.

The open source facet of Maker Faire comes in the publishing and teaching of techniques. It's a kind of shared speculation about the future and what we could all do if we tried. The ultimate impact, like the free software movement, is to enhance everyone's mastery of their environments and both the tools and the confidence for solve one's own problems.

This kind of training is particularly important for children, who get turned off from science early in conventional schooling and rarely even encounter the joys of engineering. O'Reilly's Make division is involved in many projects, at Maker Faire and elsewhere, to change the way children learn science. This process--which reflects the way most of the great scientists became their mature selves--can not only increase the number of scientists and engineers, but alter the kinds of scientists and engineers they are.

And as a movement, Maker Faire offers a complete social and business environment. One building was given over to companies offering DIY tools such as laser cutters.

As MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld wrote in his book FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, the spread of DIY knowledge internationally can let people in communities everywhere create the tools they need to build their economies and fix their environmental problems. Maker Faire stands at the center of a movement that can save the world.

If that sounds grandiose, let me argue that there is no shortage of grand ideas at the show. I was struck by how many Maker Faire participants loved to create images of people, animals, or (especially in the case of the fabulous Flaming Lotus Girls (who are not all female), plants. Many of them (including again the Flaming Lotus Girls) also have a fascination for setting their creations on fire or blowing them up in other ways. Thus do the intensely inspired tinkerers show their awe toward the universe's most intense creative and destructive powers.

Another psychological grounding for many of the projects was mimesis, a Greek word often used to describe the attempts of artists to reflect reality. Maker Faire participants loved to use new and idiosyncratic materials to build familiar objects, or the reverse.

As an illustration, one of the most popular and highly visible projects was a hundred-foot wide, fifteen-foot tall reproduction of the old children's Mousetrap game out of spare parts and discarded planks. The mad scientist behind the whole thing called it both Weapon of Mouse Destruction and Life Size Mousetrap. The latter was an understatement, because the scale was more on the size of humans than mice. Unlike the original game version, the Life Size Mousetrap almost always works, presumably because its creators are truly trained engineers and the larger scale and masses allows them to calculate the components' behavior accurately.

As I already explained, many of the Maker Faire exhibits were artistic as well feats of engineering, so it was fun to see the Life Size Mousetrap accompanied by Esmerelda Strange, the one-woman band, and a cat-and-mouse skit.

I can't hide the pleasure I had today at Maker Faire; it was perhaps the most effective combination I've ever seen of fun, education, and appreciation for a job well done. It must be thrilling for people who have spent evenings and weekends for the past fifteen years working on some project with intense personal meaning to be able to show it off to thousands.

The 50,000 expected visitors to Maker Faire probably add up to a significant fraction of all the people who ever read all the books I've edited for O'Reilly in my fifteen years here. Of course, several of my books have had ripple effects through society, as Maker Faire does. But to anyone who's attended, seen what it does for children, and felt its effects on oneself, there's really nothing more to say.

(Update, May 4: the weekend attendance at the fair is now estimated to be 75,000-80,000.)

Can you help?

2008-05-04T18:23:13+00:00

http://www.web2learning.net/archives/1715

Nicole writes:

Karen Coyle has a great post on her site where she calls for help on creating “An easy, online, social library catalog.” Why another cataloging tool? Karen has recently returned from Kosovo where many of the library don’t have catalogs and certainly don’t have the resources to run many of the affordable solutions out there. Here’s Karen’s checklist:

A social networking site where the society members are libraries, not individuals.

The ability to capture copy cataloging from other libraries or create cataloging on the site itself.

Full Unicode support, both for the interface and for the data.

The ability to capture and create records using a MARC-compatible format.

The ability to export the library catalog records in MARC format.

A reports function that could print off the results of searches or even the library’s inventory, so it could be used off-line.

The creation of groups of “library friends,” that is other libraries whose data should be included in searches and displays. This will facilitate sharing and also will serve users in areas where resources are scarce and scattered.

A search and display interface that looks like a modern library catalog

It all has to be easy to use with no training required, and not require any technical support on the part of the library.

Read Karen’s entire post and if you think you can lend a helping hand, let her know.

One of My Blogging Blindspots

2008-05-04T18:42:47+00:00

People talk about blogs being conversation spaces in a large part because of their comment features. And I love the fact that people can comment on blogs. I get ridiculously excited when people comment on the posts I put up here (seriously, every single time it's like I've never gotten a comment before). And I like the option to respond to other people's thoughts (though I do this far too rarely). But I almost never think to check other people's blogs to see if there's a conversation unfolding in their comment threads. Except for a handful of times over the last three years, someone else has had to say something like "did you see that comment on so-and-so's blog?" before I'll remember to go check on these things. Personally, I think the fact that I read blogs through my RSS reader hinders my comment reading. I rarely click through to the posts themselves. But clearly other people are able to do it, and I know they're using RSS readers, too.

I won't say this is my biggest weakness as a blogger, but it's right up there. So I've been watching with interest as other blogger-librarians undertake the 2008 Comment Challenge. And while I watch them work through this challenge, I'll try to think about my own commenting and comment-watching practices. How important is it that I watch comments? Am I OK with my default mode of catching up with comments when somebody else reminds me to go look? If not, is there a way that I can remember to check comments on other people's blogs that fits into my online lifestyle?

Those of you that have this thing figured out. How do you do it?

p.s. Goodness! I just realized I missed my blogaversary... over a month ago! This blog is now entering its third year.

Home Again

2008-05-04T16:20:07+00:00

I had the great honor to return to my library school alma mater last week to give 18th Annual Elizabeth Stone lecture at The Catholic University of America. It was an opportunity to talk about myself (which is always easy) and to talk about the future of libraries (which is always hard). I was a bit embarrassed to admit that it was my first time back to CUA, but I was suitably punished by the fact that they recorded the talk.

I was quite graciously received by the CUA faculty (which now only includes one member from my time there from 1994-1996), students, and fellow alumni. It was difficult to see firsthand that the Library and Information Science Library where I worked for two years had been dismantled in preparation for a new information commons space. A plant had taken the spot where my desk once stood...a desk that held the IBM 286 on which I created my very first website in early 1995.

I regret having taken so long to return, but the occasion of the lecture was a great way to come back. Elizabeth Stone was still hanging around as Dean Emerita in old Marist Hall when I was there. She seemed omnipresent, in fact, and she was one of the few faculty to actually use the library (which is probably why it got absorbed into the main library). I'll admit to not ever speaking very highly of my library education, but as I reflected on my time there and the faculty who taught me, I suddenly had a new perspective.

Each of them, including ones I never even had classes with, had some impact on my career and the way I think about librarianship. Dr. Hsieh Yee taught me to love cataloging (something I will blog about another time); J.W. Coffman (my advisor, who I learned passed away recently) taught me that the separation of theory and practice was not as wide as many perceive it; Barry Wheeler taught me to question all technological assumptions; Paul Koda taught me never to take myself or the profession too seriously.

I received kudos for the lecture, which included a lot of stuff I have said in other venues. But frankly, I am grateful to CUA for inviting me back because it made me reflect on the last decade plus in a way that I would not have otherwise.

Minds on Fire

2008-05-04T16:18:27+00:00

Via one of the Dom Profs:

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf

Just downloaded to read. Looks great so far:

The most profound impact of the Internet is its ability to support and expand the various aspects of social learning.

LOEX: Web 2.0 & Students

2008-05-04T16:07:41+00:00

Don’t miss:

http://blog.zsr.wfu.edu/pd/2008/05/02/roz-at-loex-teaching-web-20-to-students-15/

Their own Web 2.0 Awareness Survey

74 students

Awarness of Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Blogs, Podcasts, Social tagging, Wikipedia, Other Wikis, RSS

RSS had not heard of 92%, 0% had ever used
Social Bookmarking 68% had not heard of
Other Wikis 45% had not heard of
Podcasts 51% had heard of but had not used
5% had blogs
8% had uploaded videos

Audience discussed how their students compare - similar experiences — students are not seeing new technologies as ‘exciting’ the way librarians do….for them it’s like a new feature on a car — or a refrigerator…..

Librarians respond to Web 2.0 — we see it as a way to connect, market, facilitate — but do students want us there?

Read the whole post. Libraries may be extending presence and service via the tools but are we also tapping into how our students are using them?

MIT reinvents the Post It Note

2008-05-04T16:04:09+00:00

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/01/mit-reinvents-the-post-it-note-with-post-it-notes/

Watch the video and ponder how we could use this in libraries: quick and dirty notes for planning, tagging books for pickup, etc.

How about a LOUD SIREN?

2008-05-04T15:44:35+00:00

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2927/flashing-lights-warn-library-visitors-to-be-quiet

(Thanks to Ken at Crown Library for the heads up.)

IM - A New Language

2008-05-04T15:40:17+00:00

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/ksu-ima050108.php#

OMG! LOL. TTYL. For many adults over the age of 30, the former groupings of letters would seem incoherent, but for a newer generation of technologically-savvy young adults it can say a lot.

“Instant messaging, or IM, is not just bad grammar or a bunch of mistakes,” says Dr. Pamela Takayoshi, Kent State University associate professor of English. “IM is a separate language form from formal English and has a common set of language features and standards.”

Takayoshi, Kent State associate professor of English Dr. Christina Haas and four Kent State undergraduate researchers examined the language of instant messaging. Using IM conversations produced by college students, the group analyzed and identified nonstandard features of the IM language, or the places where writers had used language features which varied from Standard Written English. They found that what looked like nonstandard features of written language were, actually, the standardized features within the IM language. The language of instant messaging was found to be informal, explicit, playful, both abbreviated and elaborated, and to emphasize meaning over form and social relationships over content.

“When we look at the kinds of technology young people are using today,” says Haas, “we see that many of those technologies — IM, blogs and Facebook — are writing technologies. Even the phone is used for writing now.”

Currently, the Kent State team is extending their analysis of IM to the popular Web site Facebook.com to determine whether the site’s language is similar or different to instant messaging standards.

Fascinating study! First thought: are we including studies like this in LIS classes focused on teens and youth? I hope so. Second thought: Teens that can’t get access to Facebook, etc are missing a chance to explore this type of writing/language. Libraries - make sure you offer access!

Micro Interactions + Direct Engagement

2008-05-04T15:29:09+00:00

| View | Upload your own

David Armano posts a presentation on Micro Interactions at his blog Logic+Emotion. I think he really taps into an important opportunity for libraries. Take a look and checkout his well-cited and well-crafted show.

Don’t miss the points about consumer-generated content, Starbucks and lifestreaming. Does your library have a way to participate in your users’ lifestream?

Win: The director works for 2 hours at your job!

2008-05-04T15:07:39+00:00

Win: The director works for 2 hours at your job!, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

One of the prizes at WNPL Staff Day!

Other libraries could do this.

Thanks Warren Newport Public Library!

2008-05-04T15:05:08+00:00

Staff Development Day at Warren Newport Public Library, Gurnee, Illinois, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

Friday I was tickled to spend the day with the staff at Warren Newport Public Library, in Gurnee, Illinois for their Staff In Service. The theme of the day was WNPL 2.0, so I think I was in the right place.

I was especially thrilled to customize THL for them, complete with slides that highlighted the cool things they are doing. One surprise was finding a Yelp review I was able to incorporate into the show:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/warren-newport-public-library-gurnee

I stayed for a nice lunch (complete with many vegetarian options), and watched a bit of the breakouts: gaming, DDR, video-making for YouTube and web 2.0 exploration. I appluad the planning team for the day, the library’s insightful director Stephen Bero, and the staff as a whole. They were engaged, curious and ready to explore.

Flickr Set here

The Hyperlinked Library: WNPL 2.0 are here.

IM, Social Networks & Email in one?

2008-05-04T14:51:27+00:00

So, now that I’ve gotten used to my Mac and love the tools I’m using I find Digsby.

One combined buddy list for all your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat Accounts.

Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby.

Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace account (other network support coming soon).

Customize digsby with application skins to give it a personal look and feel.

Digsby offers complete synchronization between computers and installations. Everything from the skin you chose to your pre-defined status messages follows you from place to place.

Is anyone else using this instead of Adium? Or is anyone using this at all? What do you think?

Microhoo

2008-05-04T12:42:07+00:00

An interesting weekend on the Microhoo front. I don't think it's over yet. Jerry Yang called MS's offer a distraction. I wonder what he'll call the lawsuits and class actions when Yahoo's stock falls next week. It could take years to finish writing this story.

Either way, for libraries, there aren't many free search engine web harvests left and all suffer the influence of SEO.

Stephen

A call for help

2008-05-04T12:00:29+00:00

Karen Coyle has a great post on her site where she calls for help on creating “An easy, online, social library catalog.” Why another cataloging tool? Karen has recently returned from Kosovo where many of the library don’t have catalogs and certainly don’t have the resources to run many of the affordable solutions out there. Here’s Karen’s checklist:

A social networking site where the society members are libraries, not individuals.

The ability to capture copy cataloging from other libraries or create cataloging on the site itself.

Full Unicode support, both for the interface and for the data.

The ability to capture and create records using a MARC-compatible format.

The ability to export the library catalog records in MARC format.

A reports function that could print off the results of searches or even the library’s inventory, so it could be used off-line.

The creation of groups of “library friends,” that is other libraries whose data should be included in searches and displays. This will facilitate sharing and also will serve users in areas where resources are scarce and scattered.

A search and display interface that looks like a modern library catalog

It all has to be easy to use with no training required, and not require any technical support on the part of the library.

Read Karen’s entire post and if you think you can lend a helping hand, let her know.

Comment Challenge Day 3 - Join a Comment Tracking Service

2008-05-04T04:35:38+00:00

So despite a fantastic day at Churchill Downs, I’m committed enough to attempt the day 3 challenge just minutes before midnight of day 4. As luck would have it, all I’m challenged to do today is sign up for a comment tracking service. I’m a little perplexed by this, in that the “how to join the challenge” instructions told you to sign up for one before you even got started.

Conveniently for me, I’ve already joined both coComment and co.mments. They are similar, yet different. coComment is slicker in that it has a handy Firefox extension that embeds a coComment interface around any comment box. This allows you to start tracking the conversation right at the point of commenting without any sort of clunky bookmarklet or other kludge that takes you away from the main task of adding to the conversation. But my initial impression is that the site on the whole is slower than co.mments, especially in actually updating conversations with new comments. I’m focusing more on coComment right now, since that’s the tool of choice for the challenge, but I’m going to keep using both tools for some discussions and therein continue my evaluation.

Touch screen

2008-05-04T01:49:45+00:00

When we tried out the Kindle a while ago, my son immediately began to touch the screen. But no, the only effect was to leave marks.

This morning in our local Border's I noticed that they had little notices stuck above the screens of their enquiry system. They said that these were not touch screen systems and that people should use the tracker ball and button.

It is interesting how things come to be expected ....

Kindle again

Quick Bookmarks: del.icio.us Digg Google Reddit Furl

Social Media Report

2008-05-04T01:29:00+00:00

Universal McCann, an international social media communications firm, has just released their 3rd Wave report comparing the growth and use of social media tools across the globe.

What’s interesting to see is how far the US is adoption-wise compared to many other countries. But in looking at countries like Korea and Netherlands, who’s adoption rate was both much higher and earlier than the US, it’s easy to see that G3 broadband makes a huge difference.

“Social media – and blogs in particular – are becoming a more important part of global media consumption for internet users than some traditional media channels.

Globally 73% of internet users are reading blogs with 48% including these consumer-generated content in their weekly media diet.

While not markets are as developed, in each of the 29 countries surveyed social media is becoming a key constituent of global media consumption.”

Catch the highlights from the study in this slideshare, Wave .3

myLOC

2008-05-03T23:55:14+00:00

Did you know that Library of Congress had a personal portal? I didn’t see any announcements about it, so thanks David for pointing it out.

Through myLOC.gov, the new personalized Web site of the Library of Congress, patrons can continue their exploration of the world’s largest collection of knowledge, culture and creativity. Visitors can bookmark areas of interest online and continue their exploration of the Library’s collections by connecting with digital content from their in-person visit. The site also features interactive versions of the same exhibition content physically at the Library, educational resources, information for visitors and a page where users can create their own virtual collection of Library objects.

Faxing via the Web

2008-05-03T23:15:59+00:00

When I started working at home I realized how inconvenient it was to not have a fax machine (we don’t have a land line - but our printer can fax…). I spent ages searching for a fax tool that would let me do everything with PDFs online. Today I find a link to Drop.io fax on Lifehacker.

Drop.io itself is a pretty neat service:

Drop.io enables you to create simple private exchange points called “drops.”

The service has no email signup and no “accounts.” Each drop is private, and only as accessible as you choose to deliberately make it. Create multiple drops, add any type of media, and share or subscribe as you want. To make a drop just click the big red button that says ‘drop it’

Adding fax, just makes it that much cooler!

You can now fax documents directly into and directly out of your drop, for free.

No more fax machines, or expensive online fax services. Faxing just shouldn’t be that hard - and it should be free. With drop.io it is both easy and free.

Google Search for Macs

2008-05-03T23:08:26+00:00

Oooo - this looks neat:

I haven’t played with it yet, but Google has a Mac search now.

If you run into a problem on a Windows computer, all you have to do is type a little description of the problem and Google takes care of the rest; Mac users, on the other hand, often need to include a little context in their search—instead of typing a query like text editor, you type text editor mac. Google’s Mac-specific portal, found at http://google.com/mac/, now includes a Mac-specific search box. It’s not groundbreaking, but the guaranteed Mac-specific results could come in handy next time you’re looking for a specific application or you’re troubleshooting your Mac.

Found via Lifehacker.

My Mountain Plains Library Association Talk

2008-05-03T22:42:25+00:00

Just got back from Salt Lake City yesterday - I gave a breakfast talk titled The Future is Not Out of Reach: Trends & Transformations for MPLA’s annual conference. Some of you might enjoy the pdf of the slides, too - feel free to click and peek!

James Rettig, of all people, attended my presentation (hey - a free breakfast is a free breakfast)! I was able to meet him briefly - he seemed pretty cool. I shook hands and said “hi…” I SHOULD have said “thank you for all those amazing books and articles that got me through library school!”

Anyway… enjoy the slides, and thanks, MPLA for inviting me to speak!

Working Your Community’s Blogosphere

2008-05-03T21:04:54+00:00

Recently, Darren Rowse at ProBlogger posted Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are the Blogs to Watch. Darren says “Mom blogs are poised to become the next big “It” when it comes to the internet–they’re gathering power like no other blogging niche and will only get bigger and better.” Then he lists some reasons why - go read the article to get that list.

And now, a thought (that I’m swiping from more than one presenter at PLA) that continues to swirl through my head weeks after PLA is over: what local community blogs are you reading? Sure - you read 800 library technology blogs, and another 500 non-library tech blogs (no, I don’t read that many blogs). But how about some local blogs?

The gist of what I heard at PLA goes something like this: subscribe to some blogs in your local community and start participating on them via commenting. What does that look like? Here are some initial thoughts:

answer questions they ask - even link to library content in your comment
answer those questions they needed to ask, but didn’t - you know what I mean…
Make normal, interested-sounding comments… that is, if you’re really interested
Supply useful additional details when you see them - again, linking to the library’s stuff in the process
Friend some locals on twitter/facebook/myspace/etc
Set up some vanity searches in technorati and Google alerts, and thank people when they mention your library! How cool would that be?

So yes - this is a bit more “active” than what librarians tend to be used to… but if you want to make an impact in your local [digital] community, you need to be participating. Because if you aren’t participating, you don’t exist.

31 Day Comment Challenge: Day 1

2008-05-03T20:13:01+00:00

The first activity in the comment challenge is to do a comment self-audit. Here’s mine:

How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?

It is so variable. Probably on average I comment on three blogs a week. Sometimes I don’t comment at all, sometimes I comment a lot. Sometimes my comments are a sentence or two long, sometimes they’re more like a manifesto. It all depends on how busy I am and how compelled I feel to comment on the posts I’ve been reading that week. Three isn’t much. I feel like I should be contributing more.

Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?

I don’t, and this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I rarely see what happens in the comments after I’ve commented unless my comment was particularly impassioned and I’m eager to see the response. So I’m happy that subscribing to coComment is part of this project. I’d like to keep up with these conversations better, because it’s so easy to forget where you commented when you’re keeping up with hundreds of blogs.

Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?
I don’t think I comment at the same blogs, but since I don’t keep a close watch on my comments, I may just not be noticing a pattern. I usually comment when something catches my attention in a positive or negative way. When Ryan wrote about how he’s been using social software to grow his local network, I commented because I thought it was awesome. When I read a post on Penelope Trunk’s blog that really bothers me (which is frequent… that’s why I’ve decided to unsubscribe… I don’t need to read blogs that raise my blood pressure), I comment and express my disagreement. If someone is asking a question that I feel like I have an answer to or an opinion on, I’ll comment. Sometimes I’ll just comment to say “congratulations!” or “great post!” I haven’t seen any pattern to where I comment and I frequently do so in places where I’ve never commented before.

Next I’m supposed to look at how my commenting measures up to what is suggested in the Lifehacker guide. Here are their suggestions and my thoughts on how I’ve done:

Contribute new information to the discussion.
Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.
Know when to comment and when to e-mail.
Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.
Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional.
Do not feed or tease the trolls.
Make the tone of your message clear.
Own your comment.
Be succinct.
Cite your sources with links or inline quoting.
Be courteous.

I feel very strongly about only writing comments that contribute something to the conversation. I usually avoid commenting if someone has already said what I wanted to say (which inevitably leads to less commenting), but I don’t like to write something on someone else’s blog if it’s not going to add to the discussion in some way. The only exception to that is when I’m adding my congratulations in response to someone’s good news. In that case, I think redundancy is a very good thing.

I’ve learned my lesson about when to write a comment and when to either hold back or email the person. With emails, I usually wait 24 hours before sending something if I feel there is any chance I might regret that. With blog comments, an entire conversation can take place in the space of a few hours, so waiting 24 can make your comment as good as useless. So it adds to that sense of urgency. Still, it’s better to wait than to react. I have made some big mistakes in this area in the past, and it’s probably led to my reticence in commenting in the first place. I’ve learned from people like Walt Crawford and Karen Schneider that when in doubt, it’s much better to send someone an email than to comment publicly if it might hurt them or might be too personal for the blogosphere. Being “right” publicly may be great, but it doesn’t feel good to know that you made someone else feel like crap. I don’t comment anymore when I feel bad or angry. And I’ve learned not to comment on sites like the Annoyed Librarian because it’s futile and just feeds the bad behavior of her “usuals”. Letting go has been a hard lesson for me to learn, but I feel a lot better when I do .

As far as being succinct, well… if you read this blog, then you know that’s pretty much impossible. But I’ll try to do better next time.

An easy, online, social library catalog

2008-05-03T20:56:52+00:00

One thing that I learned in my short visit to Kosovo is that there are many libraries there, and I'm sure in every region and in every country, that are small and have no catalog. (There are also large libraries without catalogs, but the solution for them is more difficult than what I am proposing here.) I went online to see what software might be available for these libraries, and came to the conclusion that 1) the software they need does not exist and 2) there's no reason for catalog creation to be as complex as we've made it. As a matter of fact, if we look around us there are many online systems that are free to users, or nearly so, require no training, and that function on a fairly large scale. What I'm proposing here is actually no more complex than most social networking systems, but with a library bent. Here's what we need:

A social networking site where the society members are libraries, not individuals.
The ability to capture copy cataloging from other libraries or create cataloging on the site itself.
Full Unicode support, both for the interface and for the data.
The ability to capture and create records using a MARC-compatible format.
The ability to export the library catalog records in MARC format.
A reports function that could print off the results of searches or even the library's inventory, so it could be used off-line.
The creation of groups of "library friends," that is other libraries whose data should be included in searches and displays. This will facilitate sharing and also will serve users in areas where resources are scarce and scattered.
A search and display interface that looks like a modern library catalog
It all has to be easy to use with no training required, and not require any technical support on the part of the library.

Sound impossible? Hardly. Essentially, I'm thinking of a cross between MySpace and Librarything, with a user interface that looks something like Scriblio. It could also be called a Worldcat with an easy cataloging interface and very, very low user fees. It may benefit from some of the features of the wiki world, with shared editing of bibliographic data, so I guess I should add the Open Library into the mix.

There are many people encouraging libraries to use Open Source systems like Koha, but the libraries I'm talking about here have no capability to run software, much less Unix-based software. They may have only one computer, and it has to be used for everything: Internet access, office applications like document creation, and, if they have the capability, the library catalog. For those that do have at least part-time Internet access, the ideal system would be run online, with no technical requirements on the library's part.

The MARC requirement is an important one. The system does not need to support the full MARC record, but support for a standard minimum record means that the libraries can use each other's data for copy cataloging, and that some time in the future they may be able to contribute their records to library systems or to regional union catalogs. The ability to form networks between libraries is essential to overcome the incredible scarcity that exists for people living in rural and under-developed areas.

We already have many of the parts of this system, and I'm confident that the technology is no problem. We need the organization and the sustainability. Please send along any suggestions you have for how we can get this done.

Comment Challenge: 31 Days to Being a Better Blog Citizen

2008-05-03T17:01:36+00:00

One of my favorite blogs is the Bamboo Project Blog by the brilliant Michelle Martin. Michelle writes about social software in the non-profit sector, e-learning, workplace learning and more, so while it’s not a library blog, there’s a whole lot to be learned there. Now, she is coordinating a project called the 31-Day Comment Challenge. Here’s a description from Kim Cofino:

We would like to have a month of focused commenting for those of us that are interested in becoming better blog citizens (thanks to Martin Weller for the phrasing) by actively participating in conversations and sharing your learning, especially with those new to blogging.

We would like to challenge participants to be better blog citizens tracking who is the commenter with:

* The most comments on a wide range of blogs (not just the “top” edubloggers)
* The most high quality comments that thoughtfully reflect on the topic
* The comments that provoke and promote the most learning

Sue has even managed to secure monetary prizes from coComment and other sponsors (more details on the prizes soon).

This challenge really speaks to me. I’ve been dealing with some pretty major family issues over the past six months that I wouldn’t dream of writing about on this blog, but have left me much much more focused on the homefront and also much more in my own head. And it’s definitely made me a bad community member. While I’ve continued writing blog posts, I haven’t commented enough, haven’t taken part enough in Twitter, IM, etc. And yes, it was (and is) necessary because there are only so many hours in the day to get things done. But I want to be a better community member.

I love the conversations I’ve taken part in over the past 3 1/2 years in the blogosphere and the friendships I’ve made. Conversation is what makes this a community enterprise rather than just a bunch of random people writing (shouting?) into the void. We write posts. We comment on posts. Sometimes we comment on posts in our own posts. The conversation flows from blog to blog, from comment to comment. There’s something amazing about this, because I know when I started blogging I didn’t think I was joining a community. What a pleasant surprise.

So, it’ll probably take more than 31 days for me to accomplish this, since I have a lot going on right now (and will be in Puerto Rico for the last three days of May), but I hope this project will remind me of what it means to be a good citizen of the blogosphere. You all are my community, though I’m glad it’s not the sort of community that calls when you miss going to church one weekend. I’ve always been the sort of person who feels alternately pulled towards sociability and solitude. Each one ebbs and flows at different times and it’s nice to be part of a community that is accepting of that ebbing and flowing (thanks RSS!).

Social hardware

2008-05-03T13:21:28+00:00

Social hardware

Originally uploaded by freerangelibrarian

I brought this small travel power strip to IA Summit 2008 (write-up pending, but it was great). I’d like to say it was my idea, but it wasn’t; I snarfed the concept from Cindi Trainor. It’s small, powerful, sturdy, folds up neatly, and is insanely useful.

Some of its uses are obvious if you’ve ever been in a hotel room where you found yourself moving furniture to get to the second plug, but as someone at IA Summit 2008 commented, “It’s very social hardware!”

If you travel with a laptop, you know the scene: you are in a coffeeshop, airport waiting room, or conference room. There are two plugs on the wall to be shared among many people. You can either arrive early, hog one of two outlets, and pretend people aren’t staring at you with sad puppy-eyes, or you can plug in your strip and invite others to share.

Or you don’t arrive early, and someone is avoiding eye contact because he or she is using the outlet and feels bad about it. (At IA Summit, one of the plugs on each side of the room had the wifi router — made for great wifi, but also reduced available outlets by half.) Maybe someone promised their boss they’d cover this session in-depth, and their battery is low, so they really, really need the plug… but they know they’re using it at the expense of others.

So you whip out your new social hardware and say, “May I share your outlet? I have this powerstrip!” Relief pours over your new friend’s face, because these people doesn’t want to be hogs — they’re just looking out for their own interests in a situation that makes it hard to share.

It’s not just that you are able to share a power outlet with a stranger for a few minutes, but you’ve enriched a touchy social situation and made the world a little closer.

It’s the best small hardware purchase I’ve made in years. The only problem comes when you have to leave early and three people are plugged into your strip — just tell them it’s $17 on Amazon and “don’t leave home without one.”

Bookmark to:

Passion Quilt: Be Curious

2008-05-03T10:37:44+00:00

Ever since Greg tagged me, I've been mulling over a seemingly unanswerable cluster of questions. It goes something like this: "What? I have to choose just one thing? And how can I quantify 'most passionate' when I'm not given to passion? And it should probably be serious, right? And... one thing? Really?"

As often happens, I learned what it was that I wanted to say when I wasn't actively thinking about this challenge. All of a sudden, while munching my sandwich and mentally rehearsing an upcoming instruction session, the phrase "Be Curious" popped into my head. Without curiosity libraries, childhood, and life would be pretty barren. And thus my Passion Quilt contribution was born.

Places to go from here:

The original image is here
you can see other passion quilt images in this flickr group, this technorati search, or this Google blog search.

The original meme rules (with commentary):

Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title. (Check, though I must say that if you search Flickr for "curious" you get a boat load of cute cat pictures.)
Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry. (Mostly check and check.)
Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce. (Clearly my rule-following ability can only be sustained through one and three-quarters rules. Consider yourself tagged, or not, as you wish.)

technorati tags: passion_quilt

Move over Free Cone Day: Saturday is Free Comics!

2008-05-03T05:39:45+00:00

Each year in the Spring, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream runs a “free cone” promo at their stores. Kids (and parents) line up around the block—last year my two ice cream junkies waited 40 minutes—40 minutes on line and the cone was gone in five! Luckily, the goodies from Free Comic Book Day should last quite a bit longer (and could bring returns for years).

All you need to do is stop by a participating comic store and make your free pick from a selection of titles like Archie, Superman, Hellboy, World of Aspen, X-men, Tiny Titans and many more. Seriously. These are free. I know you are thinking: “What’s the catch?” Nothing is free, right?

Well, apparently this is. Thanks to some major discounts from comic publishers, the past few years have allowed thousands of comic retailers in the US, Canada, and internationally to give away millions of comics to happy readers.

Hard to believe but this year is the 7th Annual event. Retailers decide at what level they want to participate and can set their own eligibility rules, but the basic premise boils down to free comic books for readers on May 3, 2008. For full details you can refer to the FAQ, check out the Free Comic Book Day, website, or see what the good folks at I Love Libraries have to say.

Whatever you do, don’t wait too long. This is only happening on Saturday. Check out the Comic Shop Locater to find your nearest store. Then get out there and get your (or send your patrons out for their) free comics! Because in my book free comics beat free cones any day!

Comment Challenge Day 2 - Comment somewhere new

2008-05-03T04:16:44+00:00

Playing catch-up on the Comment Challenge, we proceed immediately into the day 2 task, which is to comment on a blog I’ve never commented on before. As it turns out, I already completed this task earlier today by joining a conversation regarding strategies for organization over on Julie Strange’s blog.

But wanting to push myself at least a little, I used Technorati to look through some of the posts using the challenge tag ‘comment08′ and ended up at a post discussing Google Notebook on the Langwitches blog. I shared my way of using del.icio.us to accomplish tasks similar to those for which the author is using the Google product. A new conversation is born and perhaps a new connection forged. I’ve already found value in what is really such a simple “challenge.”

Might be playing catch-up again this weekend ’cause tomorrow’s Derby Day and I’ve got horses to see and money to lose.

Comment Challenge Day 1 - The Commenting Audit

2008-05-03T03:48:26+00:00

First, I’m to answer the following three questions.

How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?

More this week than usual. I had a few experiences in the past where I wished I’d kept my mouth shut and that put me off commenting for a long time. I think I’m a little wiser now and know when to contribute and when to bite my tongue.

Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?

I tried coComment a few years ago, before the Firefox extension existed. I found it cumbersome to use the bookmarklet and I never really followed up on anything I marked. The current implementation is much better.

Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?

In recent history, I’ve been most like to comment on the same small group of blogs, comprised mostly of people I know well and whom I expect will get where I’m coming from. The few situations where I wished I’d stayed out of it figure strongly in that behavior.

Part 2 of this exercise is to look at Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments and assess how I’m doing in regards to the various tenets set forth. I won’t pick them apart individually, but let me point out some strengths and weaknesses with brief comments.

Tenets in which I fare well:
Stay on topic. (I’d give myself a B+.)
Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional. (I’ve learned. At one point, this would have gone into the other category.)
Own your comment. (Damn skippy.)
Don’t comment for the sake of commenting. (How do people have the time?)
Do not feed or tease the trolls. (Seen enough other people make this mistake over and over again.)

Not so well:
Be succinct. (Trying. Failing.)
Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all. (Hard to self-assess on this one, but I suspect I occasionally fail in this department.)
Make the tone of your message clear. (I’ve failed in this department a few times, resulting in much more negative energies that I would have ever intended.)

So I’ve got some work to do. It only took me 15 minutes or so to run through this assessment, but it’s already been enlightening. Saying things more clearly with fewer words is my main challenge moving forward.

ARROW discovery service - new interface

2008-05-03T03:35:15+00:00

This week the new-look ARROW Discovery Service was launched featuring faceted browsing, tag clouds and access to more statistics such as the most popular authors and institutions. The ARROW Discovery Service includes metadata records harvested from institutional research repositories across Australia and from the Australasian Digital Thesis Program.

Faceted searching enables results to be refined by institution, subject, resource type, date or creator.

If you are looking for Australian research, the ARROW Discovery Service is a great option to get started. The majority of records do link through to online versions of papers, and email alerts can be set up if you need to monitor research in a topic area. But at this stage I can’t see any sign of RSS feeds.

The service has also made available a search plugin if you want to add this as a search option to your browser search box.

ARROW is seeking feedback including suggestions for improvements. Send an email with “Feedback” in the subject line to arrow(at)nla(dot)gov(dot)au.

The 31 Day Comment Challenge

2008-05-03T03:15:20+00:00

I’m all for a challenge, especially a challenge that encourages active engagement in the digital community, seeks to move people away from the one-way information stream and gets conversations started. So I am joining my new friends Lauren Pressley and Marianne Lenox (along with not-as-new friend Sheila Kearns) in tackling the 31 Day Comment Challenge.

The premise is simply to push bloggers who accept the challenge to be more proactive about commenting on other people’s blogs. The challenge is structured around a series of daily activities designed to gradually push you further and further beyond your normal commenting behavior. At least, that’s what I’m anticipating. The progression of the first few activities looks promising.

The group of challengers (which, as of my signing up, number 96) is using coComment to track and share the conversations they are starting. This is a good excuse for me to get back in the habit of following up on the conversations I already start on other blogs. I’d tried coComment some time ago and found it too cumbersome for me to want to use regularly. The Firefox extension makes it much simpler and much more likely that I will actually track conversations. It’s worth checking out.

I’m sure this is not the first time something like this has been attempted, but it comes at just the right time for my renewed desire to start and join conversations. It’s about to be day 3, so I’d better get crackin’. Like I said, I’m all for a challenge.