Internet Librarian Ship: 2006

Monday, December 18, 2006

Google Goes to College: (pointer)

http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/12/google-goes-to-college.html

This item from the ALA Techsource Blog was very interesting. I could see
the various google services being used for a course or a school even
without integrating them via _Google Apps for Education_.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Amateur Indexing and Amateur Geocoding: a boon to librarians?

Chris Hammond Thrasher (in Fiji no less!) commented on my post to a Facebook Library 2.0 interest group discussion. He writes:
"I think that you are right, institutional inertia in the face of new technologies can be severe - especially when libraries are faced with technologies that can seem threatening to librarians. A good example is social bookmarking. Many librarians are threatened by this sort of "amateur classification" and how popular it is. I suspect that some GIS professionsals are also concerned about the amateurization of their spatial data through initiatives such as geonames.
Is this concern founded or unfounded?"

and my reply...

I think it is a genuine concern only in the sense that the amatuer classification is seen as marginalizing the professional classification of catalogers and indexers. I highly doubt that those prefessionals need to worry about the "dirty data" of amateurs getting mixed up with professional metadata | geospatial data | cataloging records.

As I see it, it is the epitiome of the professional catalogers or GIS professionals work to be invisible to the user. If cataloging or mapping (if we may conflate the nature of their tasks), is effective, users locate the information they need without needing the knowledge of a classification system.

To take a different tack, let us consider the average person who is actively tagging their bookmarks, flickr photos or map applications. If I may be so bold as to hazard an educated guess, the active taggers are early adopters, and digital natives. From what we understand about digital natives, one way they seek information or learn new subjects is by appealing to their peer group, rather than to "experts"

In my view, "Web 2.0" tools that invite personalization, participation, and, for lack of a better word the "mnemonicization" of descriptive data simply enhances the amateurs understanding of the complexity of classification concepts and are hence creating a class of better educated library users.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Geotagging content in libraries

I wrote this in a discussion topic for librarians and Web 2.0 in Facebook.
"In these posts so far, the librarians are asking if any _libraries_ are geocoding or geotagging content. But isn't it true that the institutional response to new technology, and especially the "chaotic - anyone can edit" world of Web services is pretty slow? Would it not be more apt to ask if any librarians are geocoding content and building sites and services which one day might be recognized as valuable by libraries?"

link: Library 2.0 Interest Group Discussions

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Lynn's comments

1:21 pm, Tuesday November Twenty-first. Lynn Westney, my fellow reference librarian walks past with her signature jaunty gait and says, "Why do people leave their gum in the drinking fountain?" Why indeed Lynn, why indeed.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Tagging: what happens if it gets sold? Is that really a problem?

"AML" (at my library) Our DB and Web server administrator frequently establishes stand alone, "unpublic," (that is, not advertised or linked to the users), Web 2.0 software such as blogs wikis and tagging software. The reason they are not made available to the public are myriad, but one stated reason is that the current public products like del.icio.us, blogger and so forth may one day be sold, taking all of our lovely and lovingly created content with them to sap as marketing information. As a result, the Server administrator has established the alternative tagging software called "Scuttle."
From Scuttle's "about" page: "Scuttle is based on an open-source project licensed under the GNU General Public License. This means you can host it on your own web server for free, whether it is on the Internet, a private network or just your own computer. Scuttle supports most of the del.icio.us API. Almost all of the neat tools made for that system can be modified to work with Scuttle instead. If you find a tool that won't let you change the API address, ask the creator to add this setting. You never know, they might just do it."
I'm glad to know there are multiple projects out there, but I'm not sure the concern is warranted by our Server admin. I would like to hear more reasons why we should be concerned about the potential sale of our tags or bookmarks. I'm not sure my life would be adversely affected by the use of this information.

Relevant links:
Tame the Web: http://tametheweb.com/2006/11/so_lets_talk_about_tagging.html
Original post: http://jennimi.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/asist-2006-poster-session-so-lets-talk-about-tagging/

JennX's Flickr shots of session:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennx/tags/asistpostersession2006/

Friday, September 22, 2006

during the tornado warning in chicago.

Twitter??

I just joined a "keep in contact" type of site started by the odeo.com people. Ostensibly, anyone I call my friend can text my phone via their phone or the web and I can receive it via web or phone. I can see how it might be very useful to people who need to keep in constant contact, or for someone trying to coordinate the actions of several people at once, like an operator for a large phone system or messaging system. I'm sure there are other applications. I'll see how it works out for me. Coincidentally, I learned about a "service" called treasure trooper. you can make money by filling out surveys and participating in market research.

Monday, September 11, 2006

time management

I've got to change my icon/pic. I am sick of the cutesy one I posted a year ago.
There are so many time management and productivity methods available. A senior colleague of mine once said he tried to read a new one once a year. Not a bad method to stave off the boredom of routine; replace it with another! I just like to read about them, but I rarely put one into practice. They are just a time filler. Here is an article on families and multitasking and productivity from Time, link courtesy of Eszter's Blog: The Multitasking Generation (Time)

Monday, August 28, 2006

Early adopters, Web services, and viral agents

A post on Eszter's Blog about vanity license plates got me thinking about something completely different.
I read her blog in Omea reader. It is a bit much since it wants to be your feed reader, news reader and mail and browser all in one, and I just use it to read rss posts. Anyway, when I read the blog, the "Bookmark and share this post" icons are formatted in an unnumbered vertical list, so I noticed them more than if I was reading your blog from its native site. I wonder, in this nascent stage of web services, linking utilities, and folksonomies, are early adopters diligently posting to del.icio.us, reddit, digg, furl, spurl, etc. in order to proliferate or populate their favorite service? If so, are eager users becoming "viral marketing" agents?

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

test your bandwidth (and it looks cool too!)

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.

read more | digg story

Monday, August 7, 2006

Eric Staller's "ConferenceBike"

I couldn't resist posting this link to the conferencebike quicktime movie. It is a miraculous invention and a charming movie
From the site: "CONFERENCEBIKE, 1996 - present: We live in an age of mobility and convenience. Our technology, our cars and laptops and cellphones, are insulating us more and more. The CONFERENCEBIKE is an antidote, a symbol and a tool for coming together: where the boardroom meets the gym, takes a ride in the park and says YES! to life."

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

wikibooks

I knew Wikipedia was a phenomenal resource, but recently I discovered Wikibooks, "a collection of free, open-content textbooks that you can edit."

Internet Librarian Ship