Presentation Links…

For my fellow classmates… During my presentation tonight, feel free to glance at these webpages.

Maurer School of Law at Indiana University

Blawg in Bloom

meta-this, meta-that

So, we have come to the point in my S603 technology course when I am going to start blogging about blogging. As we say here at SLIS, this assignment is über meta. The following are my reflections and opinions concerning the process of blogging in this class, WordPress.com, and blogging in general.

Online Tutorial = Problem Solver

This photograph was taken in 1916 of a classroom at the Horner Avenue School in Toronto, Canada. Notably, online classrooms look a bit different.

In library instruction, one difficult topic that often presents itself is a student’s failure to comprehend effective search strategies. It could be beneficial for libraries (be they academic, legal, or public) to provide online video tutorials of how to create effective searches for different databases. If well advertised by the library’s website, a student could access short (yet critical) instruction on database use. Given the nature of the training, it would probably be best to make this a tutorial video, so as to effectively co-mingle audio and visual learning. The video should not be too long in length, as the kids of today have the shortest attention span in the history of civilized people. Additionally, as all search engines have their quirks, I would direct the videos to address specific search engines (perhaps the most popular ones offered by the library.)

Is social bookmarking relevant? Helpful? A bunch of crap?

Like most things in life, there is a dramatic separation between theory and practice. This axiom holds true in the realm of social bookmarking. The idea of accessing what websites people find important is critical. Without question, we can learn a lot about individuals and society through this process. Unfortunately, when I begin exploring social bookmarking, I am finding the domain clouded with mountains of extraneous data. The only way that this will get better is if intelligent people stay committed to the process.

To explore social bookmarking in-depth, I registered with a site called Diigo. This website markets itself as a research tool. In fact, the homepage focuses on three areas: research, share, and collaborate. Each area is couched in terms that appear to be directed at the academic community as the website uses terms likes annotate, archive, and knowledge repository. This does not appear to be directed at people who use the Internet to satiate their popular culture interests.

An example of the marketing language used by Diigo.com.

a fine example of pesky kids

A good example of a “mashup” is this video that takes the No Country for Old Men trailer and replaces the action with Scooby Doo characters. Genius really.

Here is the original trailer for comparison.

My Crappy Webpage = The Technical Definition of a “Mashup”

For our mashup assignment, we needed to create a webpage with six different elements. I decided to add: a video from Dailymotion, a RSS feed, a slide show from Picasa, a PDF document on Scribd, a Meebo Chat widget, and a Google Map. Notably, all of the elements are random, so do not go to my website looking for a cogent narrative.

Fortunately, there are people with talent in the world who can make mashups that make sense and work. My friend Michael owns and operates a website devoted to this called youmapper.com. My favorite map that he has created is the one to track meth labs.

If you go to my webpage, you just might find a slide show of images from the American Civil War. And a bunch of other random crap.

Librarian pokes at keyboard. Provides answers. Film at 11.

In No Country for Old Men (2007), the elderly character Ellis croaks out the following statement: “Whatcha got ain’t nothin new. This country’s hard on people, you can’t stop what’s coming, it ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.” I think this lesson is apt in just about every area of life. Change is coming, and libraries will not be spared when it arrives. Consequently, the introduction of virtual reference should be viewed as just one more step in a library’s evolution.

Herbert Putnam was the eighth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1899 to 1939. He introduced the Library of Congress classification scheme. He was also an extremely sharp dresser. From top to bottom, he looks great: tie, waist coat, jacket, and pants.

Reference departments need to examine, analyze, and adjust to the ways in which people communicate with one another. Just as librarians from yesteryear introduced innovations, the librarians of tomorrow will continue in their footsteps. Herbert Putnam, the eighth Librarian of Congress, did not spend his days updating the reference blog at his desk. He was responsible for introducing the Library of Congress classification system. Which I am sure at the time was met with more bewilderment and questioning than virtual reference. Librarians across the country are implementing virtual reference services with varying degrees of success. As we discussed in class, the success of these programs relates to two main issues: (a) whether the virtual reference services being advertised and (b) whether your librarians are competent and willing to engage in virtual reference work. The first issue involves marketing savvy and a willing audience, and the second issue involved successful hiring practices. All of this can be relatively difficult to control, and managers in the library setting just have to do their best and hope it works out.

As someone who often engages in virtual reference, I would give the following advice:

• Have a document that is a list of common phrases that you can cut-and-paste into your virtual reference interaction. This speeds up the process for you and the patron. My phrases include things like: “Hello. This is the reference desk. How can I help you?” and “Thank you for this questions, please give me a minute to check the library’s catalog.”
• Use software like Jing to quickly create images and videos that explain concepts to patrons.
• Remember to provide a referral to a librarian that specializes in that field.
• Remember to type in complete sentences. I know this might be hard when you are instant messaging, but remember your role as someone who provides access to information. Broken sentences make you look like an ass-hat.
• And finally, be conscious of the service you are providing, your audience, and your commitment to non-discrimination. There has been some interesting research on the topic of whether virtual reference is “color-blind.” As a profession, we need to be cognizant of possible problems in this area. One article on this topic by Pnina Shachaf and Sarah Horowitz can be found here. (I hope this link works, it uses a DOI number and it requires you to have access to Indiana University.)

Music for Blogging

This has been my tune the past few days… The group is well-worth a listen: a mighty good range of instruments, darling lyrics, and inspiring.

Clunky Machine or Fantastic Device… Let me tell you…

When I hear the words “RSS Feed Reader,” my interest is not peaked. I mean, it sounds like a clunky machine used by brokerage houses in the 1950’s to evaluate a commodities exchange.

This is NOT a RSS Feed Reader

My erroneous perception of the phrase does not alter the reality and usefulness of the RSS Feed Reader. (Fortunately.) To use a terrible and unfortunate analogy, the RSS Feed Reader is like the big box store (Target, Wal-Mart) of data collection. As you only need to go to one store for skin cream, pajamas, televisions, and groceries; on the web, you only need to go to one place to review all of your favorite websites. For the purposes of this blog post, I thought it would be useful for me to evaluate two different RSS Feed Readers. The following is merely my two cents, which is a gross over-valuation for my opinions…

The first RSS Feed Reader that I investigated was Google Reader. This is a reader that I personally use, so my evaluation comes with months worth of use.

The home page is relatively simple and is sparse in its color choices. It is primarily white and shades of blues. The viewer is guided to what has been read or not read by using bold or un-bolded fonts. The home screen highlights a series of blog posts that have not been read. The information architecture of this site focuses on what you have read

The home screen for Google Reader

The following are some of the positive aspects of Google Reader. One nice part about this RSS Feed Reader is that it is advertisement free, other than the Google branding of the product. Additionally, given the popularity of Google, a number of websites and blogs allow you to specifically click on following their site on Google.  The reader allows you to organize into folders and add your own tags.

One drawback is that the entire post is not always available on Google Reader, and you need to click a button taking you to the source website. This potential criticism goes to the heart of a RSS Feed Reader’s purpose: should it have all of the content or should it simply be an index that will direct you to the desired site if you want to read the article in toto.

Here is a Link to a Blog Post for Gawker.com. Notably, the entire post is not in the Feed Reader interface.

For comparison’s sake, I also examined a RSS Feed Reader called NetNewsWire, which is a product put out by a software developer called NewsGator Technology, Inc.

The interface is very “clean” and reminiscent of the Mail program put out by Apple, Inc. The buttons across the top are simple and perhaps more clear than those used by Google Reader. Both programs allow readers to sort the posts by date, read/unread, and source. I must say, there is something orderly about the NetNewsWire style of having alternating highlighted lines, as if you are looking at an inbox of emails.

NetNewsWire Interface

The main drawback of NetNewsWire is that it is not web-based. Consequently, you cannot follow your RSS Feed when you are on the go in another city, or you do not carry your laptop around with you. Additionally, as you can see, in the bottom-left corner is an advertisement. Bleh.

In conclusion, I could see myself using both products. Presently, I am a student who moves back-and-forth from home to the library without my computer. Consequently, Google Reader is a good choice for me. If I find myself “settling down” and being a one-computer kind-of guy, I can see myself having a relationship with NetNewsWire.

RSS Feeds

This seems like witchcraft to me. It is not absolutely clear to me what is going on, but I am also a little slow. I am waiting for the light to turn on in my head.

http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~frunge/s603/simplepage.xml