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June 30, 2006
Happy Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:39 PM
Can you trust data?
A friend sent me this small item from the Globe & Mail which has nice implications for many librarians:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060628.gtcabriefs28-3/BNStory/Technology/
Flawed data is IT workers' dirty little secret
"The widespread use of faulty business data is a dirty little secret in today's business world, leading to bad business decisions, lost productivity, and increased on-the-job stress. This crisis of confidence in business information is going largely unnoticed by businesses, but can they afford to ignore it?"
Globe and Mail Update
June 28, 2006
"The survey by Harris Interactive found that 72 per cent of 1,560 U.S. information workers admit to having made business decisions that later turn out to be wrong because they used flawed data from spreadsheets, reports or business intelligence gleaned from the Internet. And 87 per cent said they have had their data challenged or questioned by their boss or co-workers.
Despite this, 94 per cent said they continue to believe most of the data they collect is trustworthy, the survey, sponsored by Vancouver-based software company Business Objects, found."
Here is additional info from the Business Objects website:
Press Release:
http://www.businessobjects.com/news/press/press2006/20060626_data_quality_survey_comp.asp?intcmp=hpbanner_dataqualitysurvey
Executive Summary:
http://www.businessobjects.com/products/dataquality/survey.asp
These might make a good foundation for cute little memoes in your boss's in-tray after his or her July long weekend.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2006
SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Awards Winners at ALA
SirsiDynix Honors Five Libraries for Building Better Communities
Organizations recognized for enterprising uses of technology, will receive US$10,000 each
NEW ORLEANS, June 24, 2006 – SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries, announced today the recipients of its Building Better Communities Awards, which recognize libraries for creative and enterprising uses of technology to improve their user communities.
The 2006 Building Better Communities Awards recipients are: Calgary Public Library, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Delaware County Community College, Media, Pa.; Hamilton Public Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Hancock County Library System, Bay St. Louis, Miss.; and INFOhio, Columbus, Ohio. Each recipient receives US$10,000. The five recipients, as well as 10 other finalists, were recognized at a special ceremony today during the American Library Association Annual Conference.
“SirsiDynix established the Building Better Communities Awards to recognize library organizations and the important roles they play in their communities,” said Patrick C. Sommers, SirsiDynix chief executive officer. “The five recipient libraries and their staff members are excellent role models to libraries and librarians everywhere. Their outstanding efforts to create better places for us to live, work and learn should educate and inspire others to do the same. On behalf of the almost 700 employees of SirsiDynix worldwide, I congratulate these excellent institutions for their work.”
About 130 SirsiDynix North American libraries were nominated for the inaugural awards. A panel of independent library leaders from Canada and the United States pared the nominees down to 15 finalists. Five recipients were then chosen.
Carole Moore, chief librarian at the University of Toronto and a member of the selection committee said:
“The response to the Building Better Communities Awards is spectacular, and the quality of the nominations made the selection committee’s decision extremely difficult. The nominees included a mix of public, academic, K12, state and special libraries, and they ranged in size from large metropolitan libraries to small community libraries. Since there are no categories for these awards, this mix proves that libraries of all types and sizes can use technology to become indispensable to their communities and their users’ search for information and knowledge.”
The following are descriptions of how the recipients are using technology to reach their communities:
· Calgary Public Library – The library’s popular Open for All project explores computer technology with the underserved and socially excluded groups, as well as special needs and at riskchildren, teens and adults. These groups, without access to computers otherwise, gain experience with public access terminals, Internet connections and productivity software.
· Delaware County Community College – The library, working with the Department of Allied Health and Nursing, makes library resources available in software format for access by nursing students’ personal digital assistants (PDAs) during their hands-on clinical portion of their curriculum off campus.
· Hamilton Public Library – This project involves an innovative new Web site called myhamilton.ca, offering city services electronically to residents and business people. Through this site, http://www.myhamilton.ca/, Hamilton residents can connect to everything they need to know to live, learn, work and play in Hamilton.
· Hancock County Library System – In the postHurricane Katrina community of Hancock County, the public library led the way in restoring Internet connections and telephone service within its walls to help local residents communicate with friends and family, as well as with insurance companies, federal agencies and other recovery resources.
· INFOhio – Beginning as the dream of a few educators, INFOhio has evolved into a grassroots effort to provide all Ohio students with equal access to online resources and to promote statewideinformation sharing through a single library automation system and union catalog.
To learn even more about the Building Better Communities recipients, visit www.sirsidynix.com/awards.
# # #
Posted by stephen at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
Off to ALA
I am heading to ALA in New Orleans today for the next week. I am looking forward to the conference and my talks there.
On Saturday from 1:30-3:30, I'll be debating Joe Janes with Roy Tennant moderating on "The Ultimate Debate: Who Controls the Future of Search?" Woooooo. Sounds like a dust up in the making!
On Sunday I'll be doing a session for YALSA from 8-1 am on Millennials. I hope to engage the audience in this one!
I'll be at the annual LJ Movers and Shakers Lunch on Friday. That is always a wonderful and fun event. Every table has a great conversation - practically Bloombsury for librarians.
Loads of other meetings and dinners with friends, partners and clients too. I am particuarly looking forward to seeing some of my SirsiDynix colleagues - too few opportunities to connect with this great grop
I'll also be in our exhibit booth often so drop by and say hello if you want.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2006
Special MySpaces
There seem to be a cornucopia of MySpaces coming out.
Here's one that seems to be a MySpace for Academics (Thanks Sarah).
http://www.academici.com/
I thought you might find it interesting.
I've recently seen a MySpace type site for Mommies, and one for Denmark as well as others. It's a trend!
I wonder why libraries aren't collaboratively creating these environments for our users? Is the only real collaboration we do about ourselves, our own networks - cataloguing together, webjunctioning together, buying through consortia together, meeting our needs. Are we too local?
Can we truly claim to be user centered? Other than geographically, how?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:07 PM | Comments (1)
Simple Gaming in Libraries
Aaron Schmidt has written a good overview of gaming in libraries in the latest issue of School Library Journal here.
There are several library blogs on this topic as well as having been a few gaming in libraries conferences this past year. Loads of food for thought.
It's practical and is a good place to start thinking and debating about how your library might jump on this trend. It's not a fad. There's a reason why these games outsell book, magazines and newspapers. There's a reason why they comprise a big part of military training. They do belong in learning and community spaces.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)
Mississauga Library System
Here's the link to the Mississauga Library System's Staff Day Presentation. It was on Web & Library 2.0... and they invited a bunch of city IT folks too. Good idea.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:40 PM | Comments (1)
Beer or iPods...
OK - If you need any more proof that iPods are a big trend post-secondary world, read this USA Today piece.
BEER #2- LOSES TOP SURVEY SPOT TO iPOD
"Among the findings:
• iPods were the No. 1 "in" thing on campuses; 73% of students mentioned it. iPods were even more popular with Hispanic students (77%) and women (76%).
• Drinking beer tied with the college networking site Facebook.com (71%).
• Nos. 4 to 10 were drinking other alcohol (67%), text messaging (66%), downloading music (66%), going to clubs (65%), instant messaging (63%), working out (62%) and coffee (60%).
"We knew iPods were pervasive on campus as a learning and entertainment device, but we didn't see it rating that high," Weil says. "But I don't see any reason for Anheuser-Busch and Coors to worry."
That iPods and Facebook are two of the top three, and several other components of a digital lifestyle are highly ranked (social networking site MySpace was No. 13), suggests "how rapidly Internet-based phenomena can emerge," says Dan Updegrove, vice president for technology services at the University of Texas at Austin."
I always hearted the library before beer. But that was the 70's and we were more into white wine.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
Some MySpace Library Initiatives
I surfed through a few cool SirsiDynix MySpace libraries last night. I cold surf forever but here's a few cool ones that are trying to find the future.
Topeka and Shawnee County Pubic Library
http://www.myspace.com/tscpl
It looks like this library on MySpace has taken MySpace one step further for both themselves as well as authors. They have started incoporating author's book videos into their myspace to promote a book in their collection. I can really see this taking off and book videos being used heavly as a marketing tool. It looks as though its a win win situation for both the library and authors.
Hennepin County Library
http://www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary
Note they’ve managed to get their OPAC search box into their MySpace presence!
Albany County Public Library
http://www.myspace.com/acplwy
Note the school links and practice exams. Practive exams - now there's value!
Easy Hint: Just search the various "L" words in the MySpace search box and limit the search to MySpace. It works not bad. Besides, if the majority of your teen users are already here, you have to understand this space. Play.
Use the comments to tell me about what makes your MySpace presence work.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:11 PM | Comments (3)
Worth Repeating
Here's a neat insight from Dave at the 2 Cents Worth blog.
I wonder if we older folks have been taught digital civics too. It's more than that old netiquette.
I need to keep this in mnd as I prepare for my early morning talk about the Millennials to YALSA at ALA on Sunday.
Stephen
"MySpace now has 72 million users (1). That is larger than the populations of 213 countries (2). Perhaps we could deal with the social online networks thing if we thought of it for what it is — MyNation. This is their digital nation. They are citizens, and they’ve never been taught digital civics.
1 Bulik, Beth S.. “How MySpace is Like World-of-Mouth Marketing on Steroids.” AdvertisingAge. 5 Jun 2006. Crain Communications. 15 Jun 2006
2 “List of Countries by Population.” Wikipedia. 15 Jun 2006. Wikimedia Project. 15 Jun 2006
Posted by stephen at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
LONG OVERDUE: a Fresh Look at Public Attitudes about Libraries in the 21st Century
Here's a must-read report from a friends group with a difference. If you get to meet these folks at ALA say thanks.
Stephen
Dear Colleagues:
What do Americans think of libraries in the age of the Internet? We thought we'd ask, so we engaged Public Agenda to conduct a major national public opinion study. We are delighted to share the final report with you today. For a copy of Long Overdue: A Fresh Look at Public and Leadership Attitudes About Libraries in the 21st Century, as well as an overview and fact sheets of interest, please visit here.
A glimpse into the results:
* As you might guess, libraries top the list of public services receiving an "A" grade, ahead even of police and schools;
* More than half the public (52%) would rather raise taxes than cut library services or charge fees for them;
* 9 in 10 Americans believe that libraries will be needed in the future, regardless of technological developments.
But along with the good news comes a wake-up call to the library community:
* Engaged citizens who vote in local elections and care deeply about libraries are no more likely than others to support libraries financially, or to advocate for their well-being -- they simply don't know that library funding may be in jeopardy;
* Elected officials recognize that communities trust libraries, but they do not fully employ (or fund) libraries to solve pressing community problems -- problems that libraries are uniquely positioned to help resolve.
The report concludes by identifying four specific challenges that libraries could help communities meet, allowing them to fill a vital community need while simultaneously positioning themselves as funding priorities for elected officials:
* Providing a safe and engaging space for teens;
* Supporting adult literacy and other components of workforce development;
* Expanding access to the Internet and other uses of technology;
* Becoming a community hub, making government forms and services easily available.
Our website includes examples of libraries providing just these critical services, in addition to the text of the full report, an overview, a press release, and more. Here is the link again: http://www.lff.org/long_overdue061306.html
Long Overdue was sponsored by Americans for Libraries Council, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as part of a broad-based advocacy initiative to build knowledge of and support for libraries. The next step in that effort will be the launch of a new advocacy website, actforlibraries.org, this July. We will send you a launch announcement as soon as we go live!
In the meantime, we welcome your feedback on this watershed study. We would also appreciate your help in raising awareness of the findings, particularly among policymakers.
Please feel free to forward this note to your contacts, to share our press release with your local news media, and to send a copy of the report or the summary to the elected officials in your community and state. Your communities and your libraries will benefit.
Many thanks for your interest and support.
Sincerely,
Diantha Dow Schull,
President
Americans for Libraries Council
Posted by stephen at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 9, 2006
Workplace Librarianship
Are you a workplace librarian looking for those trends. Here's the latest report from the ILO's International Labour Conference "Changing Patterns in the World of Work."
There are quite a few macro issues discussed here - many independent of technology - that will have an impact on our work.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
How MySpace Works
Sarah pointed to this one. Want to know how MySpace works? The great How Stuff Works site has a section on How MySpace Works.
It covers all the stuff (including safety) that you might want as an overview. Don't miss the subtopics in the drop down box.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
Some recent Google stuff and Libraries
I visit too many libaries that have public workstations that are purposefully made dysfunctional (often by IT teams with good intentions but poor understanding of how these PC's are tended to be used). Too many library public PC's don't have any productivity tools on them (word processing and spreadsheets for example), while some disable the USB ports or disallow IM, even e-mail!, etc. Some talk in their annual reports about their efforts to bridge the digital divide with public stations where these good intentions are somewhat negated by their actual implementations. One amusing story happened when I was in one library that let people print to hard copy at no charge (good) but patrons could not make an electronic copy and add it to their, document, bibliography or paper, etc. It was suggested that people could e-mail it to themselves and have an e-copy that way. I was met with blank stares when I asked how many of the people who were using library PC's because they had no PC of their own would find that useful.
Anyway, some things are happening in this space that might be helpful. I regret that it involves using some of the new beta services from Google. I don't deny that workarounds are sometimes the only way to do the right thing in some situations.
You can do word processing on the web using Writely which is now owned by Google. Folks can upload, input, edit, and store documents here. And SHARE too.
This week Google launched the beta of Google Spreadsheets. Same ting. It's a web based tool for doing, ummm, spreadsheets. Take a tour here.
The neat thing about these is that actual teams of people can easily collaborate when these tools are web based.
Blogger can be built as a collaboration tool for book clubs, school classes, etc. It's web-based too.
Do your folks need to clip items and make notes about what they find on the web. Try Google Notes.
And yes, if you need to avoid the storage problem and the USB issue, just use Google Base and Gmail and you've got your stuff. You can have gigabytes of free storage that you can share too.
Lastly, if your library blocks IM, show them Meebo. It works with most of the major IM clients. Be subversive. The digital divide doesn't deserve less. It deserve the same - equal, equitable, whatever. Would we lend books that were disabled in some way - no covers?, no table of contents? Why do some provide substandard experiences?
Now, it's probably not a great idea to get hooked on free services where the rules are controlled by comerce and advertisers. You also get what you pay for, but if we can't deliver what's needed, there's always another way!
Maybe there needs to be one PC that does it all until the PC rule makers write up the justification for the specification that delivers these epxeriences.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:48 AM
Intranet 2.0
Sometimes special librarians feel more insulated from some of the Web 2.0 trends as their environment can be very controlled by IT or coporate policies. I am at the SLA Conference in Baltimore until Wednesday and this is on my mind. Lo and behold this report comes over my aggregator.
The chapter written by Bill Ives and Kathleen Gilson and is entitled, "Preparing for Intranet 2.0: how to integrate new communication technology into your intranet." The whole report is called "Transforming Your Intranet" and you can download it for free here or here.
It's a great place to start to understand 2.0 concepts in the Intranet environment.
On a related note, you might want to take a look at Patrick Cormier's blog Information Management Now. He often discussed 2.0 ideas for government and specialized workplace contexts.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)
Creeping me out
From TechCrunch:
"A team from Google Research has developed a prototype system that uses a home computer’s internal microphone to listen to the ambient audio in a room, determine what is being watched on TV and offer web-based supplemental information, services and shopping contextual to each program being watched."
OK - so some people want all of of our phone calls and others want to sue for all of our internet search strings, what's next? Privacy, Smivacy!?
More info in the post. It's not April 1st.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)
Normative Data Project
Many know that one of my favourite things being done by SirsiDynix is the SirsiDynix / Florida State University Normative Data Project or NDP. You can find out lots at the site and sign up too. You can also follow my colleague, Bob Molyneux's NDP Blog. His most recent announcement is that the data is now updated through the end of 2005. Cool. Dr. Data's analyses get more interesting every day.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)
Buffalo Erie County Public Library
As a kid in Toronto one of our most fun trips was to go shopping in Buffalo and visit Niagara Falls. Fond memories.
I got the fun opportunity to visit with the management team and board of trustess and some staff last month and talk about the future of libraries.
We talked about personas (BECPL is a personas partner with SirsiDynix) as well as Normative Data (BECPL is a pertner there too). Here's PPT about that. We also talked about the bigger tech trends and innovation. Here are PPT's for that and that too.
Despite a challenging fiscal environment, BECPL is trying hard to be great for their community.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library (my hometown!) asked me to reprise my "Are Libraries Innovative Enough?" speech for their information Services Staff Day.
It's great to do speeches for your hometown library!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:11 AM | Comments (1)
Council of Governments
Here's a link to the PPT for the presentation to the many public Libraries that for the Council of Governments library division in the DC area and the states that surround DC. Again we talked about "Provocations". The world of libraries is certainly a challenge right now!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)
CASLIS Edmonton Dinner Speech
Here's a link to my PPT Presentation on Web 2.0 for the annual dinner of CASLIS Edmonton / GELA in Edmonton. It was at the Faculty Club of the University of Alberta on June 1st and it was great to see so many good friends.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
NEOS Presentation
Here's my PPT presentation to the NEOS Consortium in Alberta. Twas fun to be in Edmonton on June 2nd. They're pretty innovative there but we tried to push the envelope.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)
George Brown College Presentation
Here's a link to the presentation I did for George Brown College in Toronto. It is called "Provocations: Channelling the Information Surge"
They had a very innovative and engaging staff day where each table had a wireless PC loaded with working versions IM, Skype, virtual reference, etc. and they had to comunuicate between the work teams at each table and with eachother by using the technology as team. Loads of fun ensued!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)
Funny Scenario
Here's a bittersweet but funny scenario from Steve Lawson at the "See Also" blog as the library digital divide moves along:
A biblioblogger visits the local branch library
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2006
MySpace Learning for Libraries
My latest column for SirsiDynix OneSource is titled, "How Can MySpace Inform Library Portal Development?" This time I tried to focus on what public and academic libraries can lear from MySpace. (Previous versions focused on special and school environments.)
SirsiDynix offers a lot of portal oriented products and content, and I think this MySpace/Facebook/Bebo stuff offers a lot of stuff to learn what thhis can look like for pstive effect.
Some folks have been misinterpreting my fascination with Millennials and their ways. I am not suggesting that there is no need to educate them and to teach them life skills for the future they'll live. I am suggesting that there is a different foundation to build on and we need to be cognizant of some of their ways to align our portals, content, lessons and services for maximum advantage and impact. They're not aliens. They're just diverse from us and that's good. Diversity needs to be respected when we build services, content and programs for various demographic communities. We know this when we design for seniors communities (and they're changing radically too), so it shouldn't be a surprise that youth are different too.
Enjoy,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
Eye Ball Tracking Video
If you're really interested in this eyeball tracking technology you can watch a great video of it in action here at Seth Godin's Blog.
It's very cool. It's very interesting to see how people's eyes scan websites. So far there is some early work that shows Boomers, Millennials and post-Millennials have very different eye movement with respect to websites. (Sometimes referred to as A, F, or O movements.)
As always libraries are challenged by having a foot in every camp.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)
Usability
I am pretty pumped about some of the usabiity studies SirsiDynix has been doing in partnership with Kent State University School of Library and Information Science. Here's a new article from SirsiDynix OneSource.
The “Eyes” Have It: Eye-Tracking and Usability Study of SchoolRooms by Drs. Greg Byerly, Jason Holmes, David Robins, Yin Zang, and Athena Salab.
What particularly cool here is that this is new age work with Millennials and post-Millennials.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Awards Finalists
A pretty cool groups of libraries!
Stephen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Lebron Miles
Corporate Communications Director
1.256.704.7152
lebron.miles@sirsidynix.com
Fifteen Finalists Named for Building Better Communities Awards
SirsiDynix will give US$10,000 to five library organizations for innovative uses of new technology
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 6, 2006 – SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries, announced today that the Building Better Communities Awards committee has narrowed a list of approximately 130 nominated libraries down to 15 finalists seeking recognition for innovative uses of new technology to improve their user communities.
The committee, consisting of independent library leaders from throughout Canada and the United States, will select five North American libraries to receive US$10,000 each for their creativity and accomplishments. Through the Building Better Communities Awards, SirsiDynix seeks to recognize library organizations that create better places to live, work and learn, while encouraging libraries everywhere to follow the examples of these outstanding institutions.
Award recipients will be announced at the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, June 24, 2006, in the Oak Alley Room of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Two Poydras St.
The finalists, in alphabetical order, are: Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library, Atlanta; Calgary Public Library, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Delaware County Community College Library, Media, Pa.; Hamilton Public Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Hancock County Library System, Bay St. Louis, Miss.; INFOhio, Columbus, Ohio; Kenton County Public Library, Covington, Ky.; Lansing (Ill.) Public Library; Memphis (Tenn.) Public Library & Information Center; North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, N.C.; New Mexico State Library, Santa Fe, N.M.; Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, N.C.; Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Va.; Vick Knight Community Library, Elsinore, Calif.; Wichita (Kan.) Public Library.
“It’s been delightful to have a chance to review the nominations and to see the myriad ways in which libraries of all kinds – public, academic, state and special, large and small, rural and urban – are making extraordinary contributions to their communities,” said Clifford A. Lynch, executive director of the Coalition of Networked Information and an adviser to the awards panel. “I really welcome the Building Better Communities Awards as a way of both showcasing and honoring these contributions.”
To learn more about the Building Better Communities finalists and the work in their communities, visit www.sirsidynix.com/awards.
NOTE TO EDITORS: The Building Better Communities Awards ceremony is open to the media. Photographs of the recipients will be available after the event. If you plan to attend the ceremony, please contact Lebron Miles, corporate communications director, at lebron.miles@sirsidynix.com or (256) 704-7152.
# # #
About SirsiDynix
SirsiDynix is the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries – vital institutions whose primary mission is to make sense of the vast world of information for people and communities. This is an exciting role as libraries assist people in discovering and using knowledge, resources and other valuable content for their educations, jobs and entertainment. In concert with key industry partners, SirsiDynix supports this strategic role for libraries by offering a comprehensive integrated suite of technology solutions for improving the internal productivity of libraries and enhancing their capabilities for meeting the needs of people and communities. SirsiDynix has approximately 4,000 library and consortia clients, serving more than 300 million people through more than 20,000 library outlets in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. For more information, please see www.sirsidynix.com.
© 2006 SirsiDynix. All rights reserved. SirsiDynix and the SirsiDynix logo are registered trademarks of SirsiDynix or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Posted by stephen at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)
June 5, 2006
Pointer to an Educause Web 2.0 article
Here's another useful article on the impact of Web 2.0 stuff on teaching and learning.
Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? by Bryan Alexander. [EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 2 (March/April 2006): 32–44.]
Now, it manages to cover Web 2.0 for Educause readers without ever mentioning libraries or librarians (or books for that matter), just a generic information profssional. Interesting.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:44 AM | Comments (0)
June 4, 2006
14-18 year olds and their tech
I'll be doing a few panels of Millennials in the coming months. I always enjoy talking to these people and their insights and thoughtfulness always impresses. Therefore, I was particularly interested in this posting:
Emergic's Rajesh Jains quotes Paul Kedrosky who quotes Steve Jurveston here:
"Guy Kawasaki arranged a panel of 14-18 year olds to address that question for an audience of investors.
All six panelists have iPods and cell phones (50% Motorola, 83% Cingular) and are active computer users (50% Mac).
None of them buys ring tones or cell phone applications. None of them plays mobile videos or listens to music from their cell phone. They primarily use their phones and computers to communicate.
With the computer, multitasking is the norm -- with 13 open IM windows, music, email, browser and homework.
Gaming and TV were mildly interesting to 1 panelist.
Two panelists were MySpace users. The others expressed a certain backlash and purposeful resistance to the addiction of MySpace. One 14 year old used to be an active MySpace user but stopped after the police came to her school to warn the students about various dangers lurking there."
Now I know that it's all in the sample, but I also know that out of the dozens of these panels I've done, these results are not atypical.
Are our library services ready for this market?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:37 PM | Comments (1)
June 3, 2006
Being Mobile
Picked this up on another blog, but this article shows some neat numbers.
"-Over one trillion text messages were sent via mobile phones worldwide in 2005.
-One billion mobile phones will be sold in 2006 (812 million sold in 2005)
-The mobile phone is the most common electronics device in the world and considered the fourth window of content after television, the big screen and the personal computer.
- Asia Pacific is the world’s largest mobile phone market.
- There are 409 million mobile phone users in China as of the end March 2006.
- There are more mobile users than landline customers in China.
- During the recent Chinese New Year season, 2.7 billion SMS-es were sent.
- About 50% of all handsets shipped around the world have inbuilt cameras."
This has changed in such an amazingly fast time. Are we ready in North America for when this revolution really takes off? Can libraries be easily accessible in a .mob world? Are we ready for audiobooks and music through the library to smartphones? Almost I'll bet. Some libraries are already experimenting well.
Now South Korean offers recently started offering all TV there for free to all digital phones. Cool. Remember when TV was free in North America? Anyone still see a sea of antennae out their windows? I don't even remember seeing people taking them down! They just vanished. I wonder where old phones go to die.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:54 PM | Comments (0)
More on the Impact of Academic Libraries
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that more students named the library as an important factor in enrollment.
The article is online but requires a subscription for access. Here's the preview but you likely have access through your regaulr aggregator databases and public libraries (right?):
"Facilities Can Play Key Role in Students' Enrollment Decisions, Study Finds
By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE
Do dormitories, libraries, academic buildings, and student unions really help colleges land -- and keep -- students? A new study sponsored by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers says the answer is a clear-cut yes.
However, the buildings that matter most to students may not be the ones college administrators and others would expect.
"Buildings related to academics are the most important," says David A. Cain, vice president and associate in the higher-education sector of Carter & Burgess, a consulting company. "Students really want to know what type of facilities are in their major."
Buildings still matter. They're just not enough.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:49 PM | Comments (0)