LibrarianInBlack

LibWorld article about library and librarian blogging

I was asked by Infobib, a German library weblog, to write up a brief summary of library and librarian blogging in the United States for the LibWorld project.  They've been compiling these overview articles from countries across the world, and the U.S., they said, was the "hardest assignment."  Boy was it ever!  I did my best though, and advance apologies to the hundreds of bloggers out there whose blogs didn't get mentioned, including those of many close friends and colleagues.  There were simply too many to include every site!  I hope I at least did a half-decent job of capturing the spirit of library/librarian blogging here in the states.

The Libworld project is an interesting one, and if you're wondering what's happening in libraries in particular countries it's a good place to go to get some leads on blogs that track such goings on. 

Searchs Result Visualization Aids Discovery

Another interesting article to check out: "From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web", a Tech Report from the Human Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland.  From the abstract:

Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results.  This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney).

found via Information Visualization

User Satisfaction and Librarians' Reference Behavior in Chat Reference

A large study of librarians' behaviors during online chat reference was recently conducted and the resutls written up in RUSQ: "The Effects of Librarians’ Behavioral Performance on User Satisfaction in Chat Reference Services" by Nahyun Kwon and Vicki L. Gregory.  422 chat transcripts were analyzed, the researchers looking for evidence of the librarians actually practicing the RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers.   The results found that:

Five of these behaviors – receptive and cordial listening, searching information sources with or for the patrons, providing information sources, asking patrons whether the question was answered completely, and asking patrons to return when they need further assistance – were revealed as strong predictors of user satisfaction.

The report is interesting, and duplicates what other report shave show in the past as well: good reference librarian behavior is just as important online as it is in person.  What we do with users, whether they're standing in front of us scowling impatiently or miles away at a computer screen, all comes back to customer service no matter who or where they are.

If you haven't looked at the RUSA Guidelines linked to above, I suggest that you do so and that your organization's reference team takes a look at them as a formal training exercise.  Even though they were last revised in 2004, they do still include guidelines specific to both in-person and remote reference. 

When Wikipedia Won't Cut It

Jessica Hupp wrote an article some time back for CollegeDegree.com: "When Wikipedia Won't Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts."  A good list of some ready reference materials online, you may find some sites here that you haven't used before.  Lists like these usually spark discussions at staff meetings, too, with each person having a site they think should have made the cut, or another few sites they'd want to add to it.  About 1/4 are sites I would include on my own top 25 list, but the sites listed are certainly ready reference materials worth bookmarking.  At any rate, a good resource to share with your colleagues :)

found via Peter Scott's Library Blog

10 Questions for Every Blogger

10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves, by Damien Van Vroenhoven, is a quick read worth the time of anyone blogging, be it for your own personal use or for your library.  Aside from the grammar mistake in the title that drives my English-major brain crazy (it should be "himself" or "herself," not "themselves"), the article is great.  I would like to se libraries pay special attention to #5: "Does my content speak to people on a human level?"  Away with admin-speak!  Away!

eBooks on Demand

Exciting things happen in Europe.  Maybe I'm over-romanticizing this, but it often seems that European libraries do some pretty astounding things way before libraries here in the U.S. do. 
One of the projects that caught my eye recently is eBooks on Demand (which has been abbreviated to EOD).  The project is described on the website as follows:

eBooks on Demand (EOD) is a new and exciting service, whereby millions of books will be available on request in electronic form. This project, co-funded by the EU, comprises 13 European libraries from 8 countries!

An eBook request service spanning 13 libraries and 8 countries.  Wow! Berlin, Estonia Copenhagen, Slovakia, Vienna....  The service is limited to books written before 1900 (copyright), but what I like is that the way you order books is from the participating libraries' catalogs.  See a record for a book that you want, but it's at a university 3 countries away?  No problem.  Click on the EOD button, and get it digitized and sent to you as a PDF.  I love the idea and would be happy to see libraries in the U.S. do something similar.  Why can't we?  We already have dozens of libraries participating in the Open Content Alliance and Google Book Search digitization projects, but the difference is in the request feature.  Someone wants to read something rare, difficult to find, and precious?  Digitize it and soon they have a PDF that they can use to their heart's content.

When I was in graduate school for my first (non-library) master's,  we saw an Irish play performed on video during one class...a one-man play.  Astounding.  I was riveted.  So, looked it up in the library catalog the next day to get a copy of the text to read.  Nope.  No copies.  Looked in WorldCat - one copy in the whole of WorldCat, in an Irish library.  I was lucky enough that upon an ILL request they actually sent it over, and in those days since I was a student ILLs were free too.  I got that book, I was naughty and photocopied every page so I'd have it forever, and sent it back to Ireland.  The fact that only one library had it surprised me.  The fact that they would send the only registered physical item halfway across the world surprised me even more.  With a service like EOD, I could have had a PDF in my hot little hands in days and the precious item would never have had to leave the library.

Website quality checklist

A while back, Carsten Cumbrowski wrote an article for Search Engine Journal entitled 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website.  The list of 50 is broken into categories: accessibility, navigation, design, content, security, technical issues, marketing, and legal stuff.  Reading it myself, and thinking about both this website and my library's, many ideas popped into my mind.  As the author wrote:

This 50 questions long questionnaire might trigger something here and there for some of you or maybe brings some forgotten item from the long to-do list back into your mind.

LibraryThing in academic libraries

Earlier this month, Barbara Fister posted an informative post on the ACRLog about using LibraryThing for academic libraries.  Check it out!

Lookybook: eBook picture books

Apparently many bibliobloggers got the same email I did announcing Lookybook, an eBook site in beta.  It is an eBook site dedicated to children's picture books.  There are not many eBook sites out there for children, so this one is a real find.  There are 200+ titles currently, with a goal to have over 1,000 by mid-2008.

Users can register for free and create their own bookshelves, leave and read others' reviews and ratings, share favorite books via other applications (like Facebook, del.icio.us, digg, and StumbleUpon), email links to favorite books to friends, and more.  You don't have to be registered to read the books, though. 

New books are featured on the homepage as is the BookTumbler - a random book selector.  You can search for books or browse by author, title, genre, or subject.  Above is a really cute book I found via a subject browse for "cats" (but of course).

Another neat feature is that any one any published author can submit a book to Lookybook, so any picture book authors and artists out there can get their book ePublished.

There are of course links to buy the books, which is why the site is free, I suppose.  Books are marked as copyrighted material, and the resolution of the pages is so small as to make pilfering unlikely.  That small resolution is one of my only two suggestions for the site.  In some of the books the small size made the text nearly impossible to read, and for children who are used to large text it would probably be unreadable.  The second issue is that there are no indications how many pages there are in the books, or where you are in the book itself.  So you don't know if you're halfway done or near the end (important factors in selecting and continuing stories with sleepy kids).   

All in all, though, it's a great site and easy to use.  I can see huge applications of this for parents - I have several friends with small children who use their laptops for bedtime stories via eBooks.  This site is free - which is great!  Why not hold an eBook storytime at your library?  The size of the books' on the webpages may be an issue, as I mention above, so try it out first to see if it would work.

Podcasting 101 wiki

Greg Schwartz tells us that he has updated his Podcasting 101 wiki, a veritable treasure trove of podcasting tips, steps, and resources.  If your library is moving toward podcasting or currently doing it and you just want to learn more, take a look at Greg's wiki.  Greg is the foremost authority on podcasting in libraries, by far. 

In his post updating us on the wiki's status, Greg also mentions Talkshoe, the service he uses to create Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a live interactive audio program where people can chat about current library issues.  It's totally free and has an amazing set of features.  Check out their About page to learn more.  I could see some interesting applications in libraries for a technology like this - perhaps a live call in reference show, or a live discussion about local issues, or a book group!

Gmail Tips

If you are a Gmail user like me, it's worth your time to read Gmail Hacks: 35 Tips & Tricks, from Best of the Web.  The Gmail keyboard shortcuts and how searching for "label:unread label:inbox" will force all unread messages to the top were both certainly new, and useful, to me.  There's also a Greasemonkey script that searches your message for references to attachments, and if you haven't actually attached something, will warn you!  Something like that for Outlook would be great for a lot of workplaces!  Lots of other good stuff in there too.

Santa Cruz selects open source Koha

The Santa Cruz Public Library has selected Koha as its next integrated library system (ILS).  The world of open source ILSs has grown tremendously in the last few years, with products increasing in quality and number.  Koha is a clear stand-out product.  Dan Landry, Director of IT for the library, reports in the press release that Koha was a clear choice because of the library's long-time use of open source for other applications.  Go Santa Cruz!

PageOnce

I am still catching up on my feeds so only now read this great TechCrunch review of a service called PageOnce that puts all your accounts on one page in a personal portal.  You just pick the sites you want to see on your portal, and voila, there it is.  You can also take a brief tour of the service if you're curious about exactly what it does or looks like.  You can register here.  The one good thing about being late is that when TechCrunch posted, it was still in private beta but now it's launched for real, so no invitations needed :)

Firefox shortcuts

If you're a Firefox user and are looking for more keyboard shortcuts or was to get Firefox to work better for you, read 20 Amazing Firefox Shortcuts to Save You Time and Money from SEO Noobs, a site I was introduced to recently and am enjoying quite a bit.  Their blog focuses on SEO (search engine optimization), which is something every library should be thinking about and probably hiring somebody to work on if you don't have anyone in-house who can do it thoroughly.  And most libraries don't, let's be honest.  This is one of those areas where hiring a consultant is perfectly justifiable.

Free math courses online

Math, get your math here!  This great list of free math courses from Education Portal, Where to Find Free Math Courses Online, would be a great boon to students everywhere.  Man do I wish we had the Internet when I was in school.  Math killed me!

AnyTV: watching television on library computers?

I have not yet partaken of the "watch TV on the computer" phenomenon, but I am hearing endless rave reviews about AnyTV - a free service that lets you watch television and listen to radio from your computer.  From their own description of the service:

Watch local TV, world TV, Live TV, satellite TV from countries of all world in different languages on your PC with anyTV not just at home, but at the OFFICE , work or wireless. Watch 2630+ Online TV, 6910+ Video clips. Listen to 4750+ Online Radio.

Sounds cool, huh?  Makes you want to try it?  I love how they do "OFFICE" in all caps...supervisors are going to love that.

The screenshot to the left shows the menu (from a screenshot on their website).   Looks pretty simple, no?

I know I am opening a can of huge worms, but if we provided this service on library computers, users could use our machines to watch television too.  Now, wouldn't that be cool?  Headsets, yes, headsets...  I can see lines forming now for reservations, people getting cranky at the guy watching the SciFi Channel because they need the computer to write an English paper.  But all of that happens now anyway with YouTube, MySpace, email, you name it.  This seems like a very cool addition to me.  But then again, I don't work on the public desk any more, so I suppose I shouldn't be throwing ideas like that at any one :)

Architectures for Collaboration

Peter Brantley has written an inspired article for Educase entitled "Architectures for Collaboration: Roles and Expectations for Digital Libraries."  He discusses why digital collections must be a focus for libraries - search engine optimization, preservation, facilitating discovery, etc.  While the focus is on digital libraries themselves, I found much that applied to any library's online presence, period.  Definitely worth a read.

WorldCat.org homepage changes

The WorldCat.org homepage has changed a wee bit.  The WorldCat blog is asking for comments on the new design, but none have been posted yet as of this writing.  And if you can't remember what it used to look like, use the wonderful Wayback Machine.

iGoogle Gadgets, Library Style

If you haven't explored the possibility of creating iGoogle Gadgets for your library (little widgety things that users can put on a customized iGoogle homepage), then check out iGoogle Gadgets @ Your Library, a presentation by Ed Metz that he so graciously shared with us via Slideshare.

Critical Approaches to Web 2.0

First Monday's March edition has a focus on critical thinking approaches to Web 2.0.  Articles by Michael Zimmer, David Silver, Anders Albrechtslund, and others cover topics like interactivity, market ideology, privacy issues, and (of course) hype.  I feel better informed after reading this issue - kind of like I feel after reading material from a political party I don't necessarily agree with but want to understand more.  Many of the issues that are raised by the authors are completely valid - and should stimulate some critical thinking of your own.  Enjoy!

Facebook new privacy and IM features

Facebook is launching an instant messaging tool as well as additional privacy controls, including the ability to create various friends groups with different permissions for each.  TechCrunch's article on the news is most informative.  These features should be rolled out Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, so keep your eyes open!  I am really looking forward to the IM feature, and can see several potential uses for the friends groupings...even for libraries.  I'll keep ruminating on that one until I have enough worth saying :)

25 Useful Social Networking Tools for Librarians

College Degree Tutor put out, a while back, a list of 25 Useful Social Networking Tools for Librarians.  A good list to read for an overview of how social networking can enhance staff development and user services.

Ten PC Troubleshooting Tips

Here's a good practical article from Extreme Tech: Ten PC Troubleshooting Tips by Joel Durham Jr.  The table of contents and options to save/email/print the article are at the bottom of the page: a good one to pass on to the library staff (if they're encouraged to troubleshoot their own PCs).

a whola lotta ALA listservs

The ALA Marginalia Blog recently highlighted the 150+ ALA-related electronic mailing lists that are out there.  You can see a list at the ALA e-lists page.  There are a lot of lists here I didn't know existed.  I wonder how active they all are?  I know the ones I subscribe to vary greatly in activity levels.

I see such dichotomies in the discussions happening on listservs, on blogs, on social networking groups for libraries (like on Ning or Facebook).  There is some duplication, but it seems like certain topics or certain types of information only go out or comein one way.  The solution to getting the most comprehensive info is to look at all of them - including the ALA listservs that pertain to your work.
 

Filtering Your RSS Feeds

If, like me, you add more RSS feeds every week than you do items to your shopping list, you may want to start filtering your feeds - managing them, as it were.  6 Ways to Filter your RSS Feeds, from Josh Catone at the ReadWriteWeb, offers six technologies that do just that.  FeedRinse gets the top endorsement.  Take a look!

Andrew Keen: provocateur and nothing more

I attended a symposium tonight, "Is the Web a Threat to Our Culture?," at the University of California-Berkeley, sponsored by the UC Berkeley School of Information, the UC Berkeley Library, the UC Berkeley Mass Communications Department, and the Berkeley Center for New Media.  The talk was a forum between the ever-intentionally-provocative Andrew Keen (author of the much-maligned The Cult of the Amateur) and Paul Duguid, adjunct professor at the UCB School of Information (both Brits, oddly enough).  The moderator was Geoffrey Nunberg, adjunct professor at the UCB School of Information.   In a room that seated roughly 80 people, 100 or more of us packed ourselves in.  The session was being video-recorded, so hopefully it will be made available on the school's audio archive soon!

Summary of the Talk
The moderator, Nunberg, began by discussing students' "elevator speeches" about the School of Information - and that a common theme was the study of information in a cultural and social context.  He then talked about how our idea of "the ideal web" also ended up including things like pornography, fraud, defamation, unreliable information, and defamation, just like the rest of the world.  He began by asking Keen "What is wrong with Web 2.0?"

Andrew Keen was the first speaker.  He began by suggesting that generally there are two things wrong with Web 2.0: it doesn't do what its ideological supporter says it does and it's also a bad thing for cultural producers and creators.  Keen defined Web 2.0 as a term coined by Tim O'Reilly as a marketing tool that O'Reilly tried to trademark for his conference (which came off as a snotty half-truth dig at O'Reilly that has been debated elsewhere).  Web 1.0 was premised on taking traditional professionally created content and using the internet as a traditional distribution channel for content, largely because information is cheaper to distribute electronically than in physical form. 

Web 2.0 is a turning on its head of 1.0 to Keen: Google epitomizes everything both good and bad about the Web 2.0 revolution.  Rather than creating content themselves, Google’s search engine supposedly becomes more and more intelligent through the tracking of our own activities - out of the wisdom of the crowd you get an AI that weeds through information, and on which they can sell ads, therein lies the money.  Google doesn't have to employ experts to create its search engine, but Yahoo!'s does (says Keen).  He cited Wikipedia, MySpace, and YouTube as Web 2.0 models - other empty vessels in which we dump our content and create content from which they can make ad revenue. 

Web 2.0 allows everyone to publish on the web - he cited "the blogging revolution" as an example.  By doing so you do away with the experts, the professionals, the music publishers, the Hollywood people, the "cultural hierarchy" (not Keen's term, but something he took from who he calls "the Web 2.0 Boosters'").  He states that his opposition believes that Web 2.0 creates a cultural arena where there are more and more voices to be heard.  In his view, most of that content is worthless and pointless and by giving consumers' the right to access free content of many types, they expect free content of all types.  The crisis in the music business, television, publishing, and the movie business, newspaper business, is both a consequence and a cause of Web 2.0 to Keen.  To Keen, Web 2.0 is not making us any more democratic.  It's increasingly difficult to make money as a creative professional: fewer journalists, fewer mid-level authors, and it's not being replaced in a coherent way by a business model on the web.  The only people getting rich off of Web 2.0 are the people at Google and other large companies.  Keen stated again that "None of these companies are employing professionals.  None are employing experts and people with real talent." 

Paul Duguid replied with his part of the talk.  He noted that Keen’s book is really about experts - not about amateurs.  Duguid notes that the experts aren't defending their turf as cultural producers, haven’t stepped up to the plate, and now want “us” to defend them.  Duguid noted that the first time he met Keen, he had wanted to record him for a podcast, Keen has a blog, Keen makes money off of the cult of the amateur.  The paradox, to Duguid, is that to Keen there is no money in the deal of Web 2.0, and that this is the problem.  [Keen later agreed with this].  Duguid poked fun at Keen as a self-confessed amateur who has made a living off of this subject, bashing Web 2.0, and yet using Web 2.0 at the same time to do that very thing.  Duguid doesn't believe that technology has just come along and laid things flat.  These traditional experts, and their avenues for expression, still exist.  They just need to defend then now for the first time in history. 

Duguid also discussed the problematic definition of "culture."  Keen typically bashes Lawrence Lessig and Duguid feels that both of them are more alike than they think: Lessig believes these technologies will help culture grow while Keen believes it will kill our culture.  To Duguid, neither argument really works.  Duguid cites a Benedictine monk who published a book about how the book was going to destroy the culture of the scholar.  We find ourselves in a circus defending the ideas at either end of the spectrum.  Do we really want to defend Clear Channel, Tower Records, Britannica, the RIAA, and advertisers?  These people have had “a stinking business model” for years.  Do we trust traditional advertisers more than "the new kind"?  Who is the “right” cultural gatekeeper?  The newspaper, as Keen keeps coming back to?  Should they be?  Duguid cited Keen's "language of moral panic."  Everyone is worried about losing a piece of the pie that is theirs. 

Duguid stated that he is dubious of Wikipedia as a research tool, and that it is asinine when it chooses to be, and useful as well--a mixture.  Keen says it's put together by idiots.  Duguid cited numerous examples of factual discrepancies in Keen's book where he gets information wrong, and Wikipedia actually gets it right.  One example: Duguid cited the part in the book where Keen talks about the Huxley quote about monkeys typing out the works of Shakespeare - and Duguid noted that Wikipedia gets the story right, that it never happened.  The many examples of data, cultural information, and simple facts from Keen's book where Wikipedia gets the information correct and Keen does not, were riotous to hear as a laundry list.  Duguid finished by calling Keen a simplistic technological determinist.

Keen responded that he's "just never good with details."  That he was "sloppy" with his book and that the strength of his book is not in the detail, but its ability to drive a conversation.  It's not an academic book.  It's a provocative book.  Keen says that the story of the book itself may be a good commentary on Web 2.0.  His initial book idea (Digital Vertigo) was rejected by an agent and he was told that he should write an anti-Web 2.0 book.  So he did.  He said, though, that it has become "a viable commercial enterprise."  But he's made money and a name out of it through intermediaries - professional publishers, professional marketers.  From his point of view, he makes money out of writing because he took the traditional path, and that’s the only way to do it to him, and so all is well.  He said that he particularly detests Lessig, and does not want to be lumped in with him.  The purpose of the book, Keen said, is to remind ourselves that we created technology, and think critically about how we use it culturally.  "Technology is not inevitable, it doesn't exist outside the humanistic abstract."  He said it's not a coincidence that this kind of technology came out of the libertarian northern California area – we elitist few.  He also refused the label as a "technological determinist." 

Duguid clarified that he wasn't originally looking for errors - he looked at examples of discussions of cultural figures specifically in the book, and that is where the mistakes were made.  He emphasized again the difficulty in determining what "cultural" means.  No one defines it.  Not Keen.  Not Lessig.  When we say the web affects culture, or that it is a cultural revolution, what do we mean?  Duguid again called Keen a technological determinist, that Keen proposes that Web 2.0 can only do one thing, that it can only destroy culture. 

It annoys Keen to blog, he says.  His blog is always by definition bad because he's not willing to give away good stuff for free.  He wants to be paid.  He published his first anti-Web 2.0 manifesto in a magazine.  He would not have put that on a blog for free – to him, because it came through a well-established magazine it means more. 

The moderator jumped in and cited his little local newsstand in San Francisco and its plethora of offerings of all sorts, levels of popularity, and audiences.  The same way, there are terrific blogs out there by economists, linguists, musicians, and other experts have something valuable to say and can do so without the traditional editorial intervention.  If you don't want to read the 5 million blogs by Illinois high school students you don't have to.  So, what's the problem?

Keen responded that quality is hard to define - that's the problem.  He said he envied academics - they are paid to be experts.  They have the extra time to publish their work.  From the perspective of the academics, this Web 2.0 economy is a good one.  The blogosphere is ideal for people who can make their money doing their research, not those with day jobs who end up giving away their expert content "for free" instead.  Keen says that he thinks that Web 3.0 will hold experts seizing control of the Web 2.0 publishing tools and putting themselves out there. 

Audience Questions
A gentleman said that the interplay between technology and culture is integral.  But one of Keen's core issues is that the creative class is becoming disenfranchised.  When was the creative class franchised?  It is a tiny part of the creative class who ever made a living off of their creativity.  Keen countered with the example of journalists.  The questioner still said that Keen's class of people getting screwed over by Web 2.0 is pretty small, and that these sweeping generalizations are not fair to make.  What is the value of the mainstream media?  Keen says it has a lot of value and that the Web 2.0 people say it's never fostered much talent or allowed a democratization of media expression.  Then he said the following: “Media is the vehicle for the distribution of quality information.  Media is not a vehicle for righting social wrongs.”  By leveling the playing field of the media, Web 2.0 proponents believe that social and cultural biases will all be righted.  Keen defended the media, especially the music business, as weeding out junky content.  That’s their point. 

Another questioner raised the issue that many of the "intellectual class" work with corporate interests, are influenced by others, work as consultants, and so how do we trust the intellectuals at all?  Keen says it's all very well to criticize the mainstream media, but what's the alternative?  An unmediated wild blogosphere?  He states that if the New York Times goes away, what are we left with...Google News?  Are we OK with that?  How are our "young people going to know what to trust, who to trust, for information about the world?"  Keen states that "we" are information and media literate - we know when something is garbage and when it isn't.  But young kids don't.   Then Keen actually said: "The YouTube generation is much less intelligent." 

Duguid replied that we shouldn't romanticize the past and preserve a failing business model.  Duguid cites the music business that did nothing to try to change and have now reaped what they sowed.  Why should we feel pity for their failed business model?  Keen went back again and again to the newspaper issue - we need to preserve newspapers, a mainstream media, a media we can trust.  A high quality media outlet should survive and generate revenue.  If it doesn’t, what then?  (Indeed, what then?  Godzilla?)

Another commenter noted that Web 2.0 didn't fail to democratize content creation, it is a thus-far failure to democratize the payment for content creation.  The content consumers outnumber the creators, and he sees a future where we pay for what we view in micropayments based on the market hierarchy as determined by users - better content gets better payments.  Keen responded that it is not okay to give away content - he's against what he calls "absurd charity."  Keen says that that Web 2.0 has created a permissive sense of content ownership and that everything becomes advertising and it's difficult to determine the difference between content and ads.  Web 2.0 has given a new generation of web users the misapprehension that they are entitled to free content.  They have gotten out of the habit of paying for content and never will again.

Another commenter noted a change in the photojournalism industry, where there is a generic sense of photo databases that all agencies use and draw "good enough" images for stories instead of using the original content of photojournalists.  What's happening with image banks is the end of the line for photojournalists, but there is a value slope and Web 2.0 is democratizing photojournalism, thereby decimating an entire profession.  Keen stated that traversing the hierarchy of the experts is something we should do and be willing to do to get our creations published.  The gatekeeper model is a good one in his mind.

The final commenter simply noted that what we need is to teach critical thinking skills to all our citizenry.  If weeding through content to find what is trustworthy is truly the goal, than that is the only answer.  Go libraries and teachers!

Sarah’s Commentary
Keen truly didn't seem to believe half, if not more, of what he was saying.  He was being sensationalist to be sensationalist, provoking to provoke, irritating to irritate.  I was disappointed.  After all of this guy's build-up, I would have expected a more thoughtful, intelligent, and rousing defense of his position.  Instead, he seemed half-bored.

I would challenge Keen to define “professionals.”  Does he mean “content experts with degrees and positions that make lots of money or have fancy titles”?  Is that a professional?  Web 2.0 companies all over the place hire professionals, including content professionals, and other types like librarians, IT analysts, programmers, you name it.  Who he means by “professionals” is very unclear.

I think that Keen’s assertion that Web 3.0 will be the “experts” and “professionals” taking over the reigns to the web is ludicrous.  Expert information may become easier to discern from the chaff, but I don’t think the role of the gatekeeper will once more be assumed by anyone.  The gatekeeper wasn’t needed – he got fired for a reason.  He’s not coming back.

Keen’s idea that the media is an outlet for “quality information” and not a way to address social ills made me physically sick.  The media can do what it wants, or what it is told to do, depending on the people in charge and the political climate.  The media can bolster a political regime, and that’s cool according to Keen, but if the populace wants to use the media as a way to get lesser known voices heard, people who have been traditionally disenfranchised, then to Keen we are a bunch of morons.  What a sad, sad thing to believe.  What a sad, sad statement of ignorance.

Keen’s comment about the YouTube generation also made me very angry.  To paint an entire generation with such broad paintstrokes, and to say they are stupid, is again ignorant at best.  How many generations have been saying that the one that follows it is less intelligent, less hard-working, less imaginative?  Come on…the web didn’t cause some massive shift in our children’s intelligence.  To claim that to be the case shows a lack of knowledge about not only studies that show the opposite, but also just plain general common sense.  I think that critical thinking skills are essential, as the last commenter pointed out, but adults aren’t necessarily media literate.  I would say that “information literacy” and “critical evaluation” skills are not age-based at all.  There are the good, the bad, and the ugly in every age group.

I enjoyed Duguid’s point about the absurdity and regression of trying to ask “society” to save a failing business model that fails because so far it hasn’t met society’s needs.  And do I feel badly for the big record companies or advertisers?  No.  If their model isn’t working with our new information exchange models, then the market will push them out for something that works better for the market.  That’s how the market works.  Long live the market.

The gentleman who raised the issue of micropayments and the shifting economic model was very interesting to me.  Keen seems to only care about money, so, there’s his answer.  It’s already happening in music with bands who start on MySpace being discovered by fans and given money to record an album, and then, and only then, being discovered by the big record labels.  Voluntary micropayments for websites, software, and open source goodies abound.  The model is shifting.

I unfortunately did not get to ask my question.  I wanted to talk about how the “making money off of your content” doesn’t always come from publishers and traditional gatekeeper avenues.   My own case is an example, where my blog started small and I wrote out of a sense of wanting to contribute to the community of libraries.  It slowly grew, and I wrote, and it grew more, and I now make money because of it - speaking engagements, being asked to write for journals, consulting, blog syndication in online subscription databases, etc.  Had there been no blog, I doubt that some of the publishing opportunities I’ve had, not to mention the speaking, ever would have happened.  And I know this to be the case for many librarians and IT professionals.  So, in the case of self-publishing, it doesn't un-do, or disallow, making a name for yourself or even money.  It actually lets you get away from the traditional publishing industry that may not look at you twice otherwise.

I also wanted to challenge Keen that it seems to be all about money for him, that creating content on a non-paid basis isn't worth it, and that his experience is not that of many people.   I would have cited the library biblioblogosphere as a key example of this.  Some of us care enough about what we do to create for the sake of sharing and for the sake of bettering our small slice of the world.

Widgets and Widgetry

Check out Aaron Schmidt's great cover article for Multimedia & Internet @ Schools: "Widgets and Widgetry: Copy, Paste, and Relax."  The content isn't just for school libraries - all libraries can get some ideas from Aaron's musings!  It's wonderful that it's available for free online too.  Thanks ITI!  Aaron comments on his article a bit on his blog too.

ACRL webcasts, chats, and wiki

The Association of College and Resource Libraries (ACRL) is doing a lot for their members and libraries in general.  They have been busy!  Check out some of their latest initiatives:

• the first-ever "ACRL Springboard Event" on April 2nd from 11:00am-12:30pm CDT.  It's a free 90-minute "interactive webcast" for ACRL members with Henry Jenkins (Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities and co-director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program)
• a new ACRL Chat OnPoint series: 30-45 minute-long monthly informal chats starting at 1pm CDT that are open and free to anyone and take place in a Meebo chat room.  March 27 will be the inaugural chat and will focus on the newly mandatory NIH Public Access Policy
• ACRL has teamed up with LAMA to create the ACRL/LAMA Guide for Architects, a space-planning resource directed at architects and others planning higher education library spaces

OCLC WorldMap prototype

OCLC recently announced the OCLC WorldMap prototype, a new service that "provides an interactive visual tool for selecting and displaying international library holdings represented in WorldCat, and publishing, library, cultural heritage, and collection data."  It requires Flash.  They are asking for feedback on the system, so give it a try and let them know what you think!

Wetpaint new social features

Wetpaint, a popular "social publishing platform," announced recently that it had "gone social."  So now, not only can you create a free private or public site on Wetpaint, you can connect with your site users in different ways.  What's new on Wetpaint?

• friends network
• custom member profiles
• compliments feature
• enhanced member directory
• "what’s new" dashboard
• to-do lists
• friend activity RSS feeds
• "promote my site" wizard
• photo gallery

Cell phone text-to-speech device

NPR did a great story about a wonderful new cell phone that reads text aloud for blind users.  The fact that it's a combination device - cell phone and hand held reader - makes it a more desirable device.  The phone is the product of a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies and the National Federation of the Blind.  What a nice advance!

Best Free Software List

Check out this list of the best free software from PC Magazine.  Of the 157 items listed, there are a lot of great options on the list that could be of interest to libraries for the public or their staff.  The article is multiple pages, with each category on its own page which makes slogging through the list somewhat tiresome and lengthy, but it's worth it.  You will find free operating systems, image editors, office software, anti-virus and other security programs, and a lot more.  Heck - you can even forget the library for a second and just look at the list for your own purposes!  There is a lot of good stuff here.

New East Asian Library at UC Berkeley

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California-Berkeley opened its doors for the first time today.  It is the first freestanding library in the United States dedicated to East Asian collections and houses 450,000 items in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.  News stories abound, but for a few, check out the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle, and some beautiful photos and a video of the library can be found on the UC Berkeley News website.

Books for Ears

Andrea Mercado has alerted us to a fabulous site for libraries to know about and use: Books for Ears.  A review site dedicated to audiobooks, this site was created by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth.   The reviews are written in accessible English - nothing fancy or academic here.  See the review for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (read by Stephen Fry) as an example.

Of course you can search, but you can also browse by genre, authors, and readers, and get RSS feeds for specific categories.  That is really nice - libraries could grab that feed and display it on their audiobooks or recommended books section of the website.  You can subscribe to get all updates via RSS or email as well.  Fabulous! 

LibraryThing for Libraries has stats!

Another update from LibraryThing: LibraryThing for Libraries now has statistics!  You can see numbers like: how much of your collection is covered with LT recommendations, tags, and links to other editions, tag popup and search use, and more.  As we libraries love our stats, this should help those libraries using LibraryThing for Libraries show some real-world numbers to the decision-makers, and to show staff that it's really making a difference!  Great work Tim Spalding, ye of big brain and master code knowledge!

Google Book Search API: LibraryThing and libraries grab it right up

Google has released a new API that allows easy linking into any of the books included in Google Book Search.  It's called "the Books Viewability API" and lets you more easily embed links to books on your own website.  As an example, Google pointed to the Deschutes Public Library that uses "preview this book at Google" links in their catalog (here's an example).  Tim at LibraryThing used the API immediately to fold Google Book Search content into LibraryThing results and has also released code that lets you fold Google book covers into your catalog too.  Ooooh, sweet open goodness.

Many libraries pay for similar services from vendors like Syndetics or Content Cafe, though the coverage of titles is going to be radically different and what you get is different (e.g. with these two companies you get cover shots, book reviews, summaries, etc. in addition to potential "preview" options).  Admittedly, Google's preview option is probably superior, though, in most cases.  LibraryThing's adoption of the API's content holds great things as well.  It's a lot to think about!

IMLS report on use of museums and libraries

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has released the results of InterConnections: A National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information.  The report addresses the way people find information and their perceptions of and interactions with public libraries and museums.

Web-based CMS article

Ruth Kneale (Random Musings from the Desert) has a fabulous feature article in March's issue of Computers in Libraries entitled: "From Static to Dynamic — Choosing and Implementing a Web-Based CMS."  At a time when many libraries, including mine, are reexamining our CMS choices, articles with words of wisdom from experts like Kneale fall like welcome pearls from above.

Reasons for librarians to use Exalead

If you read this blog regularly, you will know that I spout off about using alternative search engines and tools effectively quite a bit.  "We are librarians after all," I often say.  In response to a piece I did a while back on 10 Reason Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google, search engine expert Phil Bradley has written 10 Reasons Why Librarians Should Use Exalead.  Exalead is a long-running alternative search engine with a lot more power and flexibility than your typical Google or Yahoo options.   

Go ahead and read all ten reasons, but the tenth reason, which Phil cites as the most important, is worth quoting here:

10. The advanced search functionality. I've left this until last because it's the most important. You can run phonetic searches, proximity searches, specific language searches (and boy! do these people have a lot of alternatives), a title search, link searches, search by date, a prefix search, site search, exact words or phrases, optional terms, proper Boolean logic with parentheses as well, and regular expressions for things like character repetition, 'or' options, single character options and so on. The example they give is /mpg(1|2|3)?/ which is very neat.

New YouTube APIs

If your library is YouTubing, then you should be aware that they have released a new set of APIs that let non-YouTube developers create new and nifty things.  Here are the APIs that they added:

• Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
• Add/Edit user and video metadata
• Fetch localized standard feeds for 18 international locales
• Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
• Customize player UI and control video playback through software

Basically, if your library is embedding YouTube into your site, or wants to do some funky nifty stuff with your YouTube content, then these APIs just made it easier for you (and other developers) to create the very perfect things you have in mind.

If your library is looking for something small and easy to do with your YouTube content, try out their YouTube video bar which inserts a small sidebar with stills from and links to your video content.  Think of it as a Flickr badge for videos!

2008 Movers and Shakers

Congratulations to the 2008 Movers and Shakers, the Library Journal award for library staff who make a difference in our profession and the lives of their users.  I know of the work of many of the people on the list, but a special congratulations to people I've actually worked with and/or had lengthy discussions with to some extent: David Lee King, Char Booth, Michele Boulé, Caleb Tucker-Raymond, and Tim Spaulding.  All of you rock the library world!

Using a wiki for public FAQs

An email from Anna Creech some time ago (I can haz a slooow responz timez) pointed me to a project her library (the Boatwright Memorial Library at the University of Richmond) is doing: a public wiki of FAQs called "How Do I?...Library FAQs.".  Even cuter, it's nicknamed Boatipedia.  As Anna wrote to me, not many public libraries have used wikis in this way, and I think it is a stellar idea.  Take a look and see if it would make sense to do something similar for your library!  Wikis are one of the easiest things to set up and to edit, making them attractive for all staff.  Take a look and see if it would make sense to do something similar for your library! 

Green Libraries Unconference

The Arlington Public Library is holding a *free* one day Green Libraries Unconference April 23rd in Arlington, Virgina.  The focus is on discussing sustainable and green business practices in public libraries.  The unconference was conceived at the famed and acclaimed Library Camp NYC, an unconference that spawned a great many ideas.

It does not appear that there will be any virtual participation or broadcasting of the unconference, but I do hope some bloggers will find their way there to share what happens with the rest of us!

found via Peter Scott's Library Blog

Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

Something for all librarians (and other library staff who work at public service desks) to definitely check out: The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines (as a PDF or a XLS) from AltSearchEngines.com.  Read the Top 10 FAQ on the alt engines too.  Every good librarian should be aware of alternative search engines, their strengths, and how to find the right one for the right job.  In the age of digital media and still-hidden data inside databases of immense proportions, these alternative engines can be invaluable in finding information for our customers. 

It would be great for libraries to have a brief brown-bag with staff about alternative engines - a kind of "bring your favorite alt engine" show and tell.  I can guarantee that much would be learned by all.

Book Lovers Have Emotional Bond with Paper

The always fun ars technica has a brief post entitled Book Lovers Have Emotional Bond with Paper.  We knew that.  Studies keep coming out that show this - that people like the visceral touch of paper in their hands.  And I for one don't think that will stop any time soon, but nor will that stop some users from turning to digital media to do some or all of their reading.  A blended experience is the most likely outcome, not a hard and fast march in either the digital or the analog direction. 

Block Facebook's Beacon -or- Stopping Facebook from Spying on You

Facebook gives out a lot of information about you, including what you are doing on other websites and applications.  It's all part of their new advertising schema and is referred to as the Facebook Beacon.  Some people don't like that one bit.  One thing you can do is to block the Facebook Beacon through Firefox's BlockSite plugin.  This post from the Idea Shower tells you how.

via Librarian Activist

Web Developer's Field Guide

Web developers be alerted.  The Web Developer's Field Guide is one of those few, invaluable one-stop-shop resources for everything you need to do your job well.  From CSS galleries to color palettes to ajax, this site has it all.  And you can suggest resources to be added to it as well, so if you know of a real gem, make a suggestion.

SharePoint, Google Sites, and the battle of the free vs. for pay

I posted about SharePoint blogs recently and got some good comments from readers