Stephen's Lighthouse: November 2006 Archives

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November 30, 2006

Social Software Activities in the Content Space

The Bivings Report has has produced a new study this month called:

The Presence of Magazines on the Internet Look at this chart from the report and note how many social applications have developed a strong presence in the magazine publishing space.

Here's another Bivings Report from August 2006:

The Use of the Internet by America’s Newspapers

Again, notice how social this content space has become.

Library Land is, partially, a content space too. I wonder how a selection of the top library websites and portals would fare in a chart like the ones above? I'll have to find the time to see a goodly set.

Learning is social
Community is social
Networks are social
Libraries and schools are social
Research is social
Creation is social
Human is social
Student and scholarly life is social

Look at some of our ancient social tools - collaborative collections, WorldCat, consortia, citation analysis, etc.

Libraries are social institutions. We have a clear and valid interest in applications and environment that drive social experiences.

Now, we can use the tools and content provided by Web 2.0 type thinking to create new and dynamic experiences for our users. Cool.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:09 PM | Comments (1)

November 29, 2006

Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Land

I often talk about libraryland needing to know more about how the web search engines work and about search engine optimizers. Danny Sullivan, formerly of Search Engine Watch is now starting a new blog and website. It's called Search Engine Land and it laucnhes Dec. 11th. Danny has been the must see conference speaker for many years and a true star in this area and widely respected for his insights and opinions. Here's his latest press release. Keep your eyes open.

Stephen

Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land Launches December 11

Search Engine Land is a new search news blog launching December 11, 2006. Danny Sullivan, along with Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz, will be providing information about search engine marketing and how search engines work in general, from a searcher's perspective. At launch, the site will provide:

Original content covering developments in the search space.

Daily blog posts covering search news from across the web.

SearchCap: A daily email newsletter recapping search news from Search Engine Land and across the web. Also available by feed.

SearchCap Monthly: A monthly email newsletter recapping search news over the past month. Also available by feed.

A fresh, clean look -- complete with logo. What you see here is NOT how the site will look December 11!
We're all excited to start with the new site, which we hope will serve as a sort of "search newspaper of record" for the industry, a clearinghouse of significant search news. Danny and Barry dive in on December 11. Chris joins them the first week of January 2007.

You can sign-up for the site's feed now, to keep up with any further developments before our launch and to get actual stories sent to you beginning December 11, when we open.

Prefer email? We'll send you our SearchCap newsletter, a recap of everything we post plus search news from across the web, at the end of each day. No, we won't rent out your email address to anyone! You can also unsubscribe at any time. An unsubscribe link is included at the bottom of every email.

Want the SearchCap by feed? It will come to you as part of our main site feed. We'll also make this available as a separate feed after launch.

Want the SearchCap Monthly? That will be open to sign-ups shortly after we launch. Either check back then or take our daily newsletter, to be informed of when the monthly newsletter is open to subscriptions. It will also be available as separate feed, after launch.

Want to advertise? We expect to have a special Founding Sponsors package together shortly. For more about this, please contact sales@searchengineland.com.

Need to ask about something else? Please contact Danny via this form.

Postscript: I've edited the post a bit since it was first written, to reflect that we now have dedicated pages for some of the things mentions. Specifically:

Our Search Engine Newsletters & News Feeds lists all the site feeds, newsletters and how to subscribe.

SearchCap: Daily Search Engine News Recap is the new home for our daily newsletter and sign-ups.

Search Month: Search News In Review is the new home for our monthly newsletter, which is now being called Search Month rather than SearchCap Monthly.

Posted by stephen at 7:03 AM | Comments (1)

Google Answers - Library Reference Cage Match

We win one battle (insert proper emoticon for irony here). Now let's get to be the best. Yahoo Answers still going strong and Cha Cha coming up the side...

[Of course to win the battle we would have had to be fighting...]
Stephen

Adieu to Google Answers
By A Googler

Posted by Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher, Software Engineers

Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here. The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months. For two new grads, it was a crash course in building a scalable product, responding to customer requests, and discovering what questions are on people's minds.

Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn't drink water emitted by your air conditioner. Even closer to home, we learned one afternoon that our building might be on fire.

The people who participated in Google Answers -- more than 800 of them over the years -- are a passionate group committed to helping people find the information they need, and we applaud them for sharing their incredible knowledge with everyone who wrote in.

If you have a chance, we encourage you to browse through the questions posted over the last 4+ years. Although we won't be accepting any new questions, the existing Qs and As are available. We'll stop accepting new Answers to questions by the end of the year.

Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users. We'll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want.

Posted by stephen at 6:59 AM | Comments (3)

November 28, 2006

Citations, Footnotes, and Bibliographies, oh my

There are so many tools now to help us with citing references properly. In no particular order, but ready for click and learn, we've got:

RefWorks http://www.refworks.com/
EndNote http://www.endnote.com/
ProCite http://www.procite.com/
BibDesk http://bibdesk.sf.net
Biblioscape http://www.biblioscape.com/biblioexpress.htm
Biblioexpress 3 http://www.biblioscape.com/biblioexpress.htm
Noodle Tools NoodleBib Express http://noodletools.com/login.php
Wikindx3 http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/index2.html
Zotero http://www.zotero.org/
Connotea http://www.connotea.org/
CiteULike http://www.citeulike.org/
KnightCite http://webapps.calvin.edu/knightcite/
EasyBib http://easybib.com
KBibTeX http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~fischer/kbibtex/
BibUs http://bibus-biblio.sourceforge.net/
Evernote http://www.evernote.com/en/downloads
Refbase http://refbase.sourceforge.net/
JabRef http://jabref.sf.net
OttoBib http://www.ottobib.com
The Citation Machine and Son of Citation Machine http://citationmachine.net
Sente http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/
SourceAid http://www.sourceaid.com/
Hot Reference http://www.hotreference.com/
Aigaion http://www.aigaion.nl/index.php?page=features
SimplyBibTeX http://www.technotecture.com/?node=projects/simplybibtex/main
Jorge http://sourceforge.net/projects/jorge

I am certain there are plenty more! Besides the top three comprehensive services, I am seeing a surge in the popularity of Zotero and Noodle Tools. What are you seeing?

Many have dozens of ways to cite - MLA, APA, Turabian, Scientific Notation, Chicago, and more - horrors for the student thesis and dissertation writer.

Most are free but the paid services seem more complete in the AR/OC area. Some are open source, Mac, Linux, and more variations on a theme. Some just sit inside your browser as a quick tool.

It seems there a few excuses not to cite properly any more. Plagiarists beware. Some even capture web page citations on the fly! I can't believe I did this the hard way (tracking down references after the paper was written (grin/groan))

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:56 PM | Comments (0)

Movies and the Library

Brian Matthews at the Ubiquitous Librarian blog has a very interesting posting that is a brainstorm (from an obviously creative brain) of ideas on how to use our video/film/DVD collections to promote the library. There are a lot of good ideas to build on here. They're mostly couched in an academic or college library scenario but it's not a huge leap to apply some of these to school or public library environments or to create your own.

Don't forget that many new and classic film trailers are on YouTube and some of the other streaming sites. Sometimes you'll have film or play scripts in your archives or the original books or plays in your collection. And don't forget the film scores in your sheet music or CD collections. Biographies of writers, celebrities, etc. can play a role here too. I still love the idea of Library YouTube FilmFest.

With DVD collections accounting for a good amount of some libraries' circulation and the interesting higher drop off in older DVD circulation, it would be a good idea to develop some promotion skills in the long tail of our media collections.

We take great care in preserving and collecting the old films of the early days of our media culture. We should be careful to make sure we pay some attention to the objects of our current culture.

Besides, anything to make the library fun, attractive and educational.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)

Trends in Chat and IM

TechCrunch has a neat little posting about trends in Chat. Read the whole post here. The comments are interesting too. Here's the big six headings:

1. Interoperability
2. In-Browser Chat
3. Location Based Chat
4. Flexible Identities
5. Contextual Chat
6. Rich Media Chat

It's interesting to read these ideas in the context of libraries, virtual reference, our conversations and relationships with users as well as trends in the technology. I believe that all of these ideas are good opportunities but ultimately the market decides what they (real end-users) are comfortable with and what they will use. It is paramount that we continue to focus on simplicity as the magic sauce in this space.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

Great New Video about the Future of Schools

Many of you will have seen the amazing EPIC 2014 video from 2004 and its follow up EPIC 2015 and know how transformational they were in the world of thinking about the future and the web, especially for news and libraries. If you haven't viewed these 8 minute mini-videos on the web, go there now! Here's a link to the Google Video version.

Karl Fisch’s has produced a video called 2020 Vision for schools and school libraries. It is amazing too. Run, don't walk, to view this almost 16 minute tour de force.

Of course, it's based on the fact that next year’s kindergarteners will be the class of 2020! Time will fly!

These 'scenario' style videos are great places to start the conversation about what we're building and are we building it 'right' for the future these kids will encounter.

Have some fun viewing this and maybe set up some discussion groups.

The old 2014 / 2015 shorts were pretty right on - so far - let's see how this one does...

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

Delaware County Community College and the SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Awards

The Delaware County (PA) Daily Times published a nice article on Monday on one of SirsiDynix's 2006 Building Better Communities Award winners. Cool.

The customer is Delaware County Community College. You can read the whole article here. This is a very neat project where the library removed the issues of time and space in accessing medical information in real healthcare situations. Very cool.

The paragraph where the awards are mentioned says:

"As a result of the program’s success, the college was nominated for a SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Award, which recognizes innovative uses of technology solutions for libraries. Approximately 130 applications were submitted and DCCC was the only academic library of the five North American winners to receive a $10,000 prize. The award was used to buy 14 additional PDAs and the corresponding software."

DCCC - Way to go to get some PR for libraries! It's great to see the funds going to supporting more innovative programs at libraries.

Watch for the 2007 SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Awards announcement in the New Year. Start thinking about what you're doing that's innovative and transformational. This is one of the richest awards in libraryland and we hope it puts a spotlight on library creativity. You too can be on stage at ALA in DC in June getting a big cardboard cheque!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:18 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2006

Gaming and Libraries

This is bound to be a bestseller!

Gaming.Libs.LTR.page

“What if traditionally apathetic library users were instead motivated to get up early on a Saturday morning and plead for library staff members to open the doors?” author Jenny Levine asks in the introduction to "Gaming and Libraries: Intersection of Services," the 5th issue in volume 42 of Library Technology Reports.

I can hardly wait to read it.

Now - How many libraries have already ordered their shiny new PS3's and Wii's and games to be the coolest kids on the block and attract the next generation of users into their branches? Have you got the gaming mags on the shelf? How about a few books that support avatar creation and backstory development? Graphic novels seem a good fit... Hmmmm seeems to like a strategy...

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:34 PM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2006

Inside a Dog

The State Library of Victoria in Australia has created a neat service called Inside a Dog which I have blogged and spoken about before. It's just made six months old.

In its first six months there were:

1,000 book reviews
60,000 visits
3,700 competition entries, and
7 amazing writers in residence.

The Australian Writers' Marketplace even put insideadog at the top of their list of Best Australian Writers' Blogs.

The creators tell me that the most active day is a Tuesday, and the least active a Saturday (presumably too much else on). And the most active hour of day is 4-5pm. so young people are not being made to look at the site at school, they are coming to it by themselves.

Either way this is a very successful effort at creating a national social recommendation engine for teens.

Don't get the name? Groucho Marx said "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

Cool.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

Wiki Choices

The great Cohen also posts a link to do side by side comparisons using a single feature comparison list of the features of dozens of wiki software (Who would have thought there were so many!?).

Trying to decide which wiki to implement? Here's a place to start!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)

What's hot and new in social software

Steven Cohen did a great presentation at Internet Librarian about the a-z of social software.

Christine at Waterloo PL postyed the list here. It looks like a good list to bookmark and play with to learn more.

Posted by stephen at 2:12 PM | Comments (0)

VideoSearch

Well, I've blogged about the podcast search engines so I might as well point you towards a new beta called PureVideo Search (beta).

This one searches 30 different providers including the following all at once:

PureVideo
YouTube
AOL Music Videos
Stupid Videos
Hollywood Videos
College Humor Videos
CNN Videos
ESPN Videos
MSN Videos

It also has a top ten list for each.

I've always liked SingingFish and Blinkx for searching video and TV content as well. I wonder what search will look like on library sites when we have large collections on video and audio?

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:09 PM | Comments (0)

State of the Blogosphere

The latest quarterly report on the state of the blogosphere has been released by Technorati. You can find it on this blog.

If you've ever wondered how the blog world is growing and what causes eruptions of postings, etc., this report has a few answers based on its tracking 57 million blogs.

There are charts on:

Growth of the blogosphere
Growth of posting in the blogosphere
New blogs per day
Daily posting volume
Comparisons with mainstream media
Comparisons by 'authority'
Blogs by language (is the phenom global?)
Blogging byb hour of day
etc.

Interesting scan.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

Information Literacy Testing

The Educational Testing Service has released the preliminary results of their first ICT (Information Communication Technology) Test. The ICT test is designed to find out where the information literacy benchline is today for college and university students. From their site: "The ICT Literacy Assessment is a comprehensive test of Information and Communication Technology proficiency that uses scenario-based tasks to measure both cognitive and technical skills. The assessment provides support for institutional ICT literacy initiatives, guides curricula innovations, informs articulation and progress standings, and assesses individual student proficiency."

You can find the early results on this slideshow.

Inside Higher Ed reported it poorly, at least in the headline (Nothing like hinting at a touch of disrespcet for your market!):

"Are College Students Techno Idiots?"

ETS REPORT SAYS STUDENTS NOT INFORMATION LITERATE A new study by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) suggests that although college students appear fluent with technology, many are unable to effectively use computers to solve information problems.
Students are comfortable using technology for leisure and social activities, but the study indicates that they have much more trouble evaluating online material and using technology effectively to find needed information. In the study, which surveyed more than 6,300 college students and high school seniors, fewer than half correctly identified from several choices the Web site that was objective, authoritative, and timely. Irvin Katz, a researcher at ETS, said, "It’s not only in academics but also in the workplace that people don’t have the necessary critical skills to access information."
Inside Higher Ed, 15 November 2006
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/15/infolit

Anyway, this is a great start on understanding how our students are behaving and moving beyond the simple qualitative and obvservational evidience (that is often too laden in prejudice to be useful). I am sure this test will improve and deliver more good data in the future for those institutions who choose to implement it.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

LibWorm

Here's another customized search engine for library folk. It's called LibWorm.

You can read about the launch by its creator, David Rothman and Frankie Dolan here. To quote:

"With LibWorm, you can search over 1100 feeds, including more than 800 biblioblogs, many LIS journal TOCs, and many other information sources of interest to libraryfolk.

Any search in LibWorm can be outputted as an RSS feed, so LibWorm should be a very useful way to track mentions of your favorite subjects in the biblioblogosphere and beyond.

You can choose to use LibWorm’s built-in aggregator by registering for an account, and this will also facilitate the social aspects of the site that will be implemented in the future."

It is getting some nice initial buzz at Tame The Web, Phil Bradley's Weblog, and Information Wants to be Free.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

November 24, 2006

The Media Format Graveyard

I went out to look for a VHS copy of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". She's teaching grade 8 Human Geography this year. Not simple. We already own a copy in DVD format but my wife's school only has a VHS player. I think it would be easier just to buy the school a DVD player! Anyway, all the stores I checked no longer carry VHS. I will have to try online.

Remember all the other old formats that quietly went mostly extinct? Cassette tapes, reel to reel, vinyl records, 8-Tracks, Beta, VHS, and more.

Variety published this obituary for VHS.

So what are you plans to experiment with the new formats as we prepare for the death of DVD's and CD-Rom? Several libraries are already doing some innovative stuff with streaming media.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)

Delicious Collaboration

Here's a good posting on how to del.icio.us for group collaboration.

Del.icio.us is a fine tool for groups to share tags and bookmarks, such as reference teams, development teams, acquisitions teams, children's librarians, book clubs, etc. The opportunities for libraries are almost boundless. Many folks are already hooked on del.icio.us for their personal use but the group features are excellent and underused. Take a look.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:44 AM | Comments (0)

Cyclic RSS Feeds

ResearchBuzz points to a good idea and source. Check the link here.

It's all about cyclic RSS feeds. What are they?

"A cyclic RSS feed has only a certain number of entries (or "episodes" or "issues" if you want to call them that) and is designed to be read in a specific order. For example, if you were to take Moby Dick and divide it into 100 parts, and publish them all in one huge RSS feed, that would be a cyclic RSS feed. Or you might use it for a 10-part tutorial on saving time searching, or how to use the library, or something like that."

You might even decide to send out your "15 minutes a day" training practice sites this way. Combined with podcasts it could be a cool app too.

You can use a free site called Feedcycle.com.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:35 AM | Comments (0)

Adding Fun To Training

Looking to add some fun to your training slides?

Try the Comic Strip Generator.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, in the spirit of international detente, and for turkeys everywhere, Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and colleagues to the south o'me. Canada has its harvests in and our Thanksgiving was long ago! But it is unseasonably warm here too.

I am thankful for my family (and not in rank order!):

Zachary

Sydney

And, with no picture because she wouldn't like it much, Stephanie.

And all the rest but especially Jimmy.

I am also grateful for:

My friends
My colleagues at SirsiDynix
SLA
Canadian Library Association
Ontario Library Association
Nature
Writers
Bloggers
Travel
The World
Conferences
The Environment
Peacekeepers
Decorations
Museums, art galleries, zoos and aquariums
Art and beauty
Theatre
Celebrations
Words with an extra 'u'
and those who make us safe

Happy Thanksgiving. Innovate. Peace.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:41 PM | Comments (3)

November 22, 2006

Getting to know your second life

First of all, having a second life does not in any way cast aspersions on your first life. Both can co-exist quite happily. Second, your second life has little to do with your after life, unless you get too deep into some of the seedier places there - some of the worship places.

Want to know more about Second Life but don't know where to start?

Try these:

Second Life Library 2.0 InfoIsland blog

Second Life Tip Sheet

Second Life Lessons

Virtual World Slide Show

FT's Get a Second Life

And, wait for early 2007 when the SirsiDynix Institute will host a tour of Second Life.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

Broadband Personas

Here's an interesting grouping of broadband personas that I picked up from Gwen at Internet News.

The full article by Enid Burns called "Five Personalities Emerge From Broadband Users" is here.

Good insights include:

"Broadband users are often characterized as "one homogenous group of people," [and like most generalizations, they're not!]

"Broadband growth has continued at a 60 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching one-third of all Americans over age 13."

"Its adoption has created a population of five segments with unique characteristics: content king; social clicker; online insider; fast tracker; and everyday pro."

"The content king looks to the Web for entertainment. ... Social clickers, who skew both young and old, use the Internet as a means of communication. ... The online insider consumes content across the broader Web. ... Fast trackers typically use the Internet to seek out news and information. ... The everyday pro is characterized by personal productivity and efficiency and looks to the Internet to fulfill those needs."

It's an interesting article with more detail on each persona.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)

Podcasts and Libraries

Well, the most recent report from The Pew Internet and American Life Project tells us that the downloading of podcasts by Internet users has grown almost 75% in about 6 months. 12% of Internet users have downloaded a podcast according to their survey in Aug. 2006 compared with 7% in Jan/Feb 2006. Find the PDF (4 pages) here.

Interesting data. What does it mean for libraries?

First, we know that our Internet users have different profiles than our walk-in clients. So we might want to promote different containers for different users. For example, an audio-book users is more likely to be a commuter (highway driving, train, etc.) and might need different marketing and services.

What are the uses of podcasts in libraries?

- Library Tours (can even be downlaoded to smart phones)
- Story hours / Story Time (record your kiddy librarians)
- Information Literacy and Research Help (check out the many already in iTunes, etc.)
- Library updates and library news
- Colldecting and indexing good free podcasts (found through the podcast search engines)
- Local history (collected from veterans, pioneers, local characters, etc.)
- Teen book/DVD/Game reviews (collected by the circulation desk)
- Music collections
- Audiobook collections (ON iPods and MP3 players)
- Library events (like Science Fair help, Literacy nights, author readings)
- Library debates
- Archiving class lectures
- Library marketing podcasts (how to use RSS, databases, VR, etc.)
- Training
- Library gadget petting zoos (for staff and patrons)
- Public speaking training (partnering with groups)

There's an interesting list of links on the Library Success wiki.

All it takes is imagination and a microphone that costs less than $20.

Of course, you'll all remember that a podcast is, simply put, an MP3 recording posted to a blog, which allows it to be broadcast through an RSS feed. Do the same thing with a digital video and you've got a vodcast.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:52 PM | Comments (1)

November 15, 2006

Store Design and Public Libraries

Twice this year my seatmate on the plane has been a senior exec at a major retailer in charge of store design. it was interesting to discuss libraries and what we can learn from retail and what they could learn from libraries.

My first seatmate was from The GAP, Baby GAP, Old Navy, etc. She discussed their target audiences and the challenge of building hundreds of new stores quickly and changing the old ones to keep up with consumer tastes and preferences. It was interesting to note that they re-program stores every 3 to 5 years. They were also introducing new lines and a new store concept. I doubt too many libraries even add a new coat of fresh paint that often! I wonder if we should.

My second seatmate was a store exec for Abercrombie and Fitch, A&F, a&f, Reuhl, Hollingers, etc. He really talked about knowing your audience and what they prefer but also attracting their attention to your stuff as well as your core product. Their core product is jeans, no discounting. Our core product is books. They are just starting to go international - Canada and London UK - so they're starting to see cultural differences beyond the US. He was talking about how they are going for dark stores and spotlight displays to catch customer's attention. They are putting in steps so people can look down upon or walk up to displays. Levels allow them to change it up. They are also covering up some display windows with shutters to offer a sense of mystery and make the customer wonder what's inside. With so many libraries lacking clear displays and windows, maybe A&F is catching up to us! I have been at libraries lately that only have signage on one side of their building!

Anyway, I know the workshops and speeches by Paco Underhill at library association conferences about the profession of merchandising and what libraries can learn from it. At a recent visit to Seattle Public Library I saw a display of color blocked books (every cover was yellow) and I have to say, it got my attention too. I suspect we can learn a lot more from retail without going whole hog into store style libraries. I know the Library Normative Data Project uses a lot of insights from Wal-Mart srtyle analyses.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)

Google Custom Search Engine (CSE)

Robert Berkman over at the Intelligent Agent Blog has pointed towards a new Directory of Google Custom Search Engines.

"Well, these Google custom search engines are coming quickly now, and so what do we need? Yes, a directory of these so we can all find the right niche custom search engine for whatever research we're engaged in.

There are several of these collections popping up now, but it looks like the most complete and comprehensive is CustomSearchGuide.com. And there's even a "Business and Finance" tab to locate advertising/marketing; economics custom search engines and several more."

Bob has created a Business Research Search Engine.

I've written a future column on custom search for Information Outlook. Watch for it in about 2 months.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:17 AM | Comments (2)

Beyond YouTube

With Google’s acquisition of YouTube being final this week, it’s getting an awful lot of attention. There must be more to media streaming than YouTube. Check out Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 blog on the range of alternatives and competitors. It’s a nice summary and review of an emerging major content provision channel that matters to library land. Since the secret sauce in this sector appears to be the concept of ‘sharing’ we should be watching this closely. Sharing is what libraries do best.

Here’s the short list (They’re all nicely linked on Dion’s post – Yeah, I’m lazy tonight):

YouTube
Movielink
iTunes
Apple
Eyespot
Blip.tv
Veoh
Videojog
Flurl
Yahoo! Video
Google Video
Movie Tally
Fandango
Amazon

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:15 AM | Comments (4)

Podcasts Through Your Phone

I picked up this idea on a posting in Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch. I always thought you had to download software to a phone in order to listen to a podcast. This is how VoiceIndigo works.

Check out his reviews on two new services, Fonpods and Podlinez, that allow users to listen to podcasts directly from any telephone. Both of these services require nothing more than the ability to call a telephone number and listen. Read more here. I can see a time when ads and 800 numbers make this even more seamless. Skype might work now.

Anyway, the world gets more exciting everyday.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:11 AM | Comments (0)

Mini Business Cards

A few weeks ago I was so jealous of Michael Stephens’ business cards! They were an unusual size and they had variety and pictures on them. These are called “Minicards”. As Michael would say “That’s hot!”

There’s a new printing company that ties itself to Flickr called MOO. You can use any of your Flickr images on your Minicards. You order them batches as small as 100 and you get to choose which Flickr images you want and can have as many as there are cards in one batch.

How could you use them? I can brainstorm hundreds of ideas here but, for starters:

• Use them as business cards
• Have photos of your library club kids put on Flickr and make personalized business cards for them to promote the library
• Make up a set for your trustees with their photos so they can promote the library
• Take photos of story hour and promote it with cards. Lead them to library’s URL for the event calendar.
• Take photos of your volunteers and donors and make a mini Hall of Fame on Flickr and give them the cards
• Use the photo side of the card as trim on book displays
• Offer them as custom bookmarks with actual customers on them
• Leave them about in malls, hotels and clubs, like those restaurant recommendation cards
• Promote theme months and events with a picture (Imagine your Halloween costume winners on next year’s cards)
• Make Xmas themed ones with pictures of holiday books
• Make cards for your mascot (or their handler) to hand out to get invites to other community events. The mascot’s picture can be different on all of them!
• Ask for your community to send in community pictures on a theme (like libraries, reading, crafts, genealogy,…) and create a community themed card set.
• Give the summer reading club cool weekly incentives as cards
• Have something to hand out to school visits when they get their shiny new library card. Is there a celebrity TV, radio, sports start in your town who could send in a photo and message?
• Get personalized professional cards for staff that are easy to have with you when they’re recognized in the mall or food shopping or at the soccer / T-Ball / baseball game. Put the URL on it, for sure.
• Promote your tagline, mission, or vision in great graphical form. All it takes is a digital photo and a free Flickr account and a few bucks to buy some cards

Gee, I wonder if they’d make stickers too…. My imagination is running away with me! I love this service - Cheap and Cheerful. Used effectively, you can increase card ownership, traffic, circulation, program attendance…

Learn more at this posting on the Business Innovation blog. It shows you how to do it and it is simple!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:07 AM | Comments (2)

Acquisitions in the Search Space

Here's an AJAX timeline of acquisitions by the folks at Google, Yahoo! and MSN over the past six years by Shamula at John Battelle’s Searchblog. OK, go look.

Interesting, eh? Where are they heading? Are the big three aiming for the same target or is there a pattern here?

Hmmmm.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:03 AM | Comments (0)

Scary Text Messaging Speed

Last weekend, 16-year-old Ang Chuang Yang of Singapore typed a standard text message (SMS – short message service) in 41.52 seconds beating the previous U.S. held Guinness world record of 42.22 seconds! He won 25,000 US in cash and prizes.

Want to try to beat it yourself? Here’s the standard phrase used by the Guinness people:

"The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Start exercising your thumbs! And don’t blame me if you get RSI or carpal tunnel thumb! With texting being a key feature in many library services for holds and fine notification and virtual reference, you might want to add this to your next library Olympics along with the book cart drill teams.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:01 AM | Comments (1)

Explaining Facebook

Brian Mathews at The Ubiquitous Librarian has a fantastic blog report about a speech by Mike Murphy, Chief Revenue Officer of Facebook. Mike was one of the youngest execs at Yahoo and now, in his 40’s, is one of the oldest at Facebook. The presentation was about social media and the opportunities to engage users. It is a wonderful report with tons of insights. Even the audience questions are enlightening. I recommend it. It’s an example of event blogging at its best. There’s a lot to learn.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

Engaging Your Audience

My favourite marketing guru, Seth Godin of Purple Cow and Big Moo fame recently gave an AMA sponsored speech that outlined the five key themes to keep in mind for any organization attempting to get its message out into the world:

“1. Ideas that spread win;
2. The industrial complex has been 'broken' by the Internet;
3. Don't TELL people why you're better; TEACH them why you're better;
4. Use emotional marketing: do they love it?
5. Work the grapevine - have spirit and passion - use a megaphone, not a funnel.”

Just as a discussion point, I wonder how well we use these themes in libraries. It really isn’t just about marketing, or promotion, or publicity, or public relations, or sales. It not just the traditional measurements - circulation, ILL, clicks, etc. How do we truly ENGAGE them? Are they spreading our message? Are we seeing them (by them I mean the great public – students, users, moms, etc.) quoted in the newspaper, on the news, on blogs, in MySpace, and more? What’s showing up in our ego feeds? What does your blog comment feed reveal? What does your Wikipedia entry look like? (You have one right? You checked? If it’s not there you built one, eh?)

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)

Adding Meaning and Value to Information

Dave Pollard of How to Save the World fame has written a longish posting based on his presentation to KM World in Santa Clara this month. It’s a good read with a lot of wisdom. This stuff is especially important to special librarians and those who deliver personally constructed special services.

His list of the 12 principal ways to add value to information is worth posting over your phone!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

Seniors Too

There’s often someone telling me that I talk too much about the Millennials and that seniors deserve love too. As I enter my AARP years, it’s likely that I’ll pay more attention to my own cohort. However, I did like these latest presentations from Pew about Seniors and the Internet.

Maybe I’ll ask Lee Rainie from the Pew to talk a bit about all age demographics this year at the SirsiDynix Superconference (http://www.superconference.info).

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

Web 2.0 Sites to Play with

Here's the blog posting I mentioned today in the SirsiDynix Institute session.

It's a list of the best of the best web 2.0 sites to play with an learn. Just visit a couple a day and you'll be better informed within weeks. (It's huge and will keep you occupied in your downtime for a while. Just keep it open in another window to fill those holes.)

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:39 PM | Comments (0)

Unsuggesting / Suggesting

Tim Spalding at Library Thing sent me a note this week about a new concept he's playing with there. I mentioned it on the SDI this morning so I thought I'd link to it here too.

Here's his note to me:

"A propos of your post on Book Recommender Services, LibraryThing now offers a new service with a twist — the worst recommendations possible. "UnSuggester" turns the conventional algorithm on its head to discover the most dissimilar books. People who read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, for example, do not read Shopaholic. Fun stuff, weirdly.

http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester
Blogged about http://www.librarything.com/blog
Best,
Tim"

One of my favourite thinking styles is to turn concepts on their head and view them from another facet. So this is what can happen!

Interesting,

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

TV Interview about Second Life

Check out the cool TV spot featuring SLA member Jill Hurst-Wahl.

You can view it here.

Jill comments on the experience on her blog here.

Good work Jill.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

Nov. 14th SirsiDynix Institute Links

Here's the list of links that matches most of what I mentioned in the webcast - 25 Technologies in 50 minutes. The archive of the webcast will be ready soon at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com if you missed it.

Stephen

1. RSS

Digg
http://digg.com/

Moreover
http://w.moreover.com/site/products/ind/rss_feeds.html

Newsgator at SLA
http://www.newsgator.com/news/archive.aspx?post=110

2. Wikis

PbWiki
http://pbwiki.com/

MediaWiki
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

Wikipedia
http://www.wikipedia.com

3. Blogging

Blogger
http://www.blogger.com

Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/

Six Apart Movable Type
http://www.movabletype.org/

WordPress
http://wordpress.org/

Vox
http://www.vox.com/

4. Photos

Flickr
http://www.flickr.com

Google Picasa
http://picasa.google.com/

5. Photoblogs

6. Tags

de.licio.us
http://del.icio.us/
General Tagging:
Bag of URLs http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/eye/bag/
Blogmarks http://www.blogmarks.net
Del.icio.us http://del.icio.us
Feed Me Links http://feedmelinks.com/portal
Linkfilter http://linkfilter.net/ Livemarks http://sandbox.sourcelabs.com/livemarks/
StumbleUpon http://www.stumbleupon.com/ Wists http://www.wists.com/
Dude, Check This Out! http://www.dudecheckthisout.com/
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/
FURL http://www.furl.net/
Spurl http://www.spurl.net/
Scholarly Tagging
Connotea http://www.connotea.org/
Unalog http://unalog.com/
CiteULike http://www.citeulike.org/
Simpy http://www.simpy.com/
ArXiv http://arxiv.org/
Merlot http://taste.merlot.org/

7. YouTube

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/

MovieFlix
http://www.movieflix.com/

8. MP3

Napster
http://www.napster.com/

KaZaA
http://www.kazaa.com/us/index.htm

MP3.com
http://www.mp3.com

Pandora
http://www.pandora.com/

Limewire
http://www.limewire.com/english/content/home.shtml

Overdrive
http://www.overdrive.com/

iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/

9. Streaming Media

Podscope
http://www.podscope.com/

Podzinger
http://www.podzinger.com/

SpiralFrog
http://www.spiralfrog.com/

10. Google Office

Google Docs and Spreadsheets
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F<mpl=WR_tmp_2_lfty&nui=1

Google Calendar
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=cl&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcalendar%2Frender

11. Instant Messaging

Cha Cha
http://www.chacha.com/
MSN Windows Live Messenger
http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
Yahoo Messenger
http://messenger.yahoo.com/
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
http://www.aim.com/
IRC
http://www.mirc.com/
ICQ
http://www.icq.com/

12. IM Aggregators

Meebo
http://www25.meebo.com/index-en.html
Trillian
http://www.download.com/3000-2150-10047473.html
GAIM
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

13. Visualization

KartOO
http://www.kartoo.com
Touchgraph Anacubis
http://www.touchgraph.com/
Antarcti.ca
http://www.antarctica.net/

14. Second Life

Second Life
http://secondlife.com/

Teen Second Life
http://teen.secondlife.com/

InfoIsland Second Life Library 2.0
http://www.infoisland.org
http://infoisland.org/drupal/

15. Avatars

Make a Simpson Character
http://www.devilducky.com/media/41026/

Make a South Park Character
http://images.southparkstudios.com/games/create/

16. Retrievr

retrievr
http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

17. Podcasts

18. MySpace

19. Facebook

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com

20. Skype

Skype
http://www.skype.com/

21. LibraryThing

LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com

22. Endeca

Endeca
http://www.endeca.com

23. Virtual Reference

Docutek
http://www.docutek.com/products/vrlplus/index.html

24. Folksonomies and tag clouds

These are everywhere but look at Flickr and de.licio.us for examples.

25. Blinkx, Singingfish, etc.

Blinkx
http://www.blinkx.com/

Singingfish
http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

LAST:
Learning 2.0 at Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County
http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/

My 43 Things article
http://www.sirsi.com/Pdfs/Company/Abram/InfoTech_Feb2006.pdf

I hope you all enjoyed the Institute today.

Have fun!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:44 AM | Comments (1)

November 10, 2006

Sharing PPT Presentations

I think I might try this since I am such a PPT addict. There is a new beta product out called SlideShare

Read this post, "SlideShare - Sharing Your PowerPoint and OpenOffice Presentations a la YouTube, By Luis Suarez on Personal KM".

Another new trick for sharing big presentation files like webcasts, PowerPoints and podcasts, is zSlide (thanks Gary) which is a simple software which enables to send and receive e-mail attachments of any size without clogging e-mail boxes thanks to Peer-to-Peer transfers. I'll be trying it.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:47 AM | Comments (1)

The Future of eLearning

Gary Price at ResourceShelf points us to a 90 Minute webcast on e-learning:

Video Webcast: The Future of e-Learning

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/11/08/video-webcast-the-future-of-e-learning/

Andrew Pinder, Chairman of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta), discusses his vision of the future of e-learning. What are the key challenges for building a technological and institutional infrastructure for education in the 21st century?

Steven Bell notes at The Kept Up Academic Librarian that increase in distance learners is defying predictions that it should be plateauing. From Steven's post:

"Roughly one in six students enrolled in higher education -- about 3.2 million people -- took at least one online course last fall, a sharp increase defying predictions that online learning growth is leveling off. A new report scheduled for released Thursday by The Sloan Consortium, a group of colleges pursuing online programs, estimates that 850,000 more students took online courses in the fall of 2005 than the year before, an increase of nearly 40 percent. Last year, the group had reported slowing growth, prompting speculation the trend had hit a ceiling. Read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/11/09/colleges.online.ap/index.html?eref=rss_education"

Despite the barriers and less than optimal learning experience, distance education is growing. While it's not clear from the CNN article I think it really counts just regular higher ed enrollment and not continuing education and other types of off-the-shelf learning. It's a trend that can't be ignored.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)

Another Web 2.0 Sandbox

Here's another Web 2.0 sandbox to play in.

Real World Software Development
Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites

"Web 2.0 sites are cropping up all over the place! From Social Bookmarking Sites, to Real Estate sites, this list has only the best Web 2.0 Sites available today! What makes a site a Web 2.0 Site? Web 2.0 is the second coming of World Wide Web. New and improved sites that make the web their platform, provide users a way of interacting with each other, and organize and categorize their content are perfect examples of Web 2.0. Below is a list of web sites that are the best of the best! If you would like to see some added to the list, please comment below!

Other Great Real World Lists

The Complete List of Visual Studio Add-Ins and Tools
The Complete List of Ajax Tools
The Complete List of CSS Tools
The Complete List of Great Free TV Web Sites on the Internet

All sites have been checked with The Web 2.0 Validator."

Anyway, it's a place to try to see which of the thousands of 2.0 companies and sites out there might make it through to the real world. As always, only a few will 'make it' but those folks who pllay with them will be better prepared when the next Google, MySpace or YouTube breaks out.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 8, 2006

7 Things You Should Know About Facebook

EDUCAUSE has released a PDF called "7 Things You Should Know About Facebook"

Abstract: Information literacy—the ability to negotiate the opportunities and risks of the Internet age—is increasingly important. Facebook, a leading social networking site, highlights the information literacy challenges college students face. The site allows individuals to create profiles that include almost anything they want to post and dynamically links their information to others with similar information. While Facebook allows for easy, spontaneous networking, students may not recognize the potential consequences of submitting personal information to a public forum.

The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning practices and technologies. Each brief focuses on a single practice or technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use "7 Things You Should Know About..." briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues.

You can acquire the simple 2 page PDF here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

MySpace's average users

Average is as average does. On an average day... Well, you get it but averages are interesting and people who like numbers really like averages.

Anyway, I found these numbers interesting:

1. ComScore reports that:

"Visitors to MySpace.com and Friendster.com generally skew older, with people age 25 and older comprising 68 and 71 percent of their user bases, respectively. Meanwhile, Xanga.com has a younger user profile, with 20 percent of its users in the 12-17 age range, about twice as high as that age segment’s representation within the total Internet audience. Not surprisingly, Facebook.com, which began as a social networking site for college students, also draws a younger audience. More than one-third (34 percent) of visitors to Facebook.com are 18-24 years old, approximately three times the representation of that age segment in the general Internet population.

“While the top social networking sites are typically viewed as directly competing with one another, our analysis demonstrates that each site occupies a slightly different niche,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “MySpace.com has the broadest appeal across age ranges, Facebook.com has created a niche among the college crowd, Friendster.com attracts a higher percentage of adults, and Xanga.com is most popular among younger teens. There is a misconception that social networking is the exclusive domain of teenagers, but this analysis confirms that the appeal of social networking sites is far broader.”

"An analysis of visitors to MySpace.com shows that as the site has experienced dramatic visitor growth, it has become more popular among older Internet users. The most significant shift has occurred among teens 12-17, who accounted for 24.7 percent of the MySpace audience in August 2005, but today represent a much lower 11.9 percent of the site’s total audience. Conversely, Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6 percent of the MySpace visitor base, an 8.2 percentage point increase during the past year."

“As social networking sites have become mainstream, the demographic composition of MySpace.com has changed considerably. Last year half of the site’s visitors were at least 25 years old, while today more than two-thirds of MySpace visitors are age 25 or older,” continued Mr. Flanagan. “It will be interesting to monitor the shifts in Facebook’s demographic composition that will undoubtedly occur as a result of the company’s recent decision to open its doors to users of all ages.”

The press release has charts.

2. And a blogger reporter has MySpace confirm that it is turning gray.

So there you have it. MySpace has an average user of about 31 years old. Combine that with recent research that the average gamer is 32 and we see everything hot and new is pretty mainstream.

So if we block these sites in libraries we're pretty much blocking our relevance to the mass market in our communities. If we avoid being 'present' in that space we avoid connecting with the major commmunities of our users.

Hmmmmm.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:26 PM | Comments (3)

Social Networking and Libraries

This press release tells me a few things:

1. Social networking sites drive traffic to other sites (not too fine a point but MySpace can drive traffic to library sites too.)

2. It's growing faster than other modes and we're seeing video, music and social converge in new ways. (Libraries play in all those camps too so the alliance is natural.)

3. There are some top 20 social sites that I've never heard of (arrghhhh).

Stephen

One in 20 US Internet Visits Went To Social Networking Websites In September 2006

Hitwise Releases US Consumer Generated Media Report:

MySpace Responsible for 83 Percent Increase in Traffic to Shopping Websites

NEW YORK, NY – November 8, 2006 – Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that in September 2006, one in every 20 US Internet visits went to one of the top 20 social networking websites, nearly double the share of visits compared to a year ago. This and other findings were released today in the Hitwise US Consumer Generated Media Report, which examines recent trends in social networking, photo sharing and online video.

MySpace (www.myspace.com) was the undisputed leader in social networking, receiving 82 percent of visits among the top 20 leading social networking websites in September 2006. Visits to MySpace increased by 51 percent from March to September 2006, outpacing category growth in visits of 34 percent. Other social networking websites which received larger than average growth in market share of visits between March and September 2006 were: Bolt (www.bolt.com), up 271 percent; Bebo (www.bebo.com), up 95 percent; Orkut (www.orkut.com), up 63 percent; and Gaia Online (www.gaia.com), up 41 percent.

The influence of MySpace crosses over into other industries as users integrate social networking visits with other web activity. In September 2006, 2.4 percent of visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites came directly from MySpace, an increase of 83 percent since March 2006. Other industries receiving increased traffic from MySpace in that period were Telecommunications, Banks and Financial Institutions, and Travel.

The report also highlights how photo hosting and user generated video websites have become a new cog in the creation of content and present additional opportunities for advertisers. The market share of visits to the leading photo hosting website, PhotoBucket (www.photobucket.com), increased by 43 percent from March to September 2006, while visits to community-oriented photography website Flickr (www.flickr.com) increased by 49 percent and visits to YouTube (www.youtube.com) were up 249 percent in the same period. YouTube ranked at number 26 among all US Internet domains in September 2006, and Photobucket ranked at number 34.

“This report shows how influential the creation and consumption of user content has become as a web activity, and demonstrates its significance in driving web traffic to other categories,” said LeeAnn Prescott, director of research at Hitwise. “The use of social networking, photo hosting, and online video websites represent a significant shift in online user behavior, and Hitwise Clickstream data is particularly useful in understanding how these users are interacting with the web."

To receive a copy of the report please visit:

http://www.hitwise.com/registration-page/us-cgm-report.php

For updated data on the topics discussed in the report please visit:

http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/11/social_networking_sites_recove.html

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,200 global clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology captures the anonymous online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement, and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise is a privately held company headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends and statistics, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.

Posted by stephen at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

Kudos

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto
By Laura Cohen

Nov. 15th UPDATE: Check out this video from Laura Cohen, a pairing of "library 2.0" ideal quotes with images: A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto. It's even got a musical score!

Cool.

Good for you!!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

User Generated Content

From the lastest Pew presentation to the FTC:

"More than a third or 35% of online adults create content online, and 57% of teenagers 12-17 make their own content to post to the Web. Younger users and home broadband users are the most avid content creators, and most post their creations online to express themselves creatively and to share their experiences with others. Beyond blogging and YouTube, the increasingly prevalence of broadband and the ever-increasing opportunities for creating and sharing content digitally contribute to the expansion of this phenomenon and even to the expansion of the definition of online content creation itself."

I wonder how much user generated content there is on library websites and what the nature of that content is?

Blog postings
Blog comments
Book reviews
Tags
Presentations
YouTube videos
Podcasts
Board Minutes
eBooks
Art
Photos
Genealogies
Local histories
Club notes
Book clubs
Community meetings
more...

What other types of content from our users do we host? It's certainly a good way to connect to communities and users. How do we make these services more explicit and valued?

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

Social Networking Sites

If there's any question that I get most often it has to be some variant on the following:

1. Our board has banned all social networking sites...
2. Our schools filter all instant messaging, MySpace, Facebook, and the rest...
3. We don't allow any social sites on our public computers...
4. Our director has ordered all of MySpace blocked...
5. IT blocked everything on their own and all they'll say is 'viruses'...
6. All blogs are blocked...

"What can we do?"

Anyway, some of these issues will be addressed over time. As the children in these communities turn to underground social networking - hiding in crawlspaces for a MySpace fix, using IM on the street, and sneaking back alley research on unfiltered ghetto PC's for the topics assigned in family studies and health...

Anyway, I commend to your attention, the great work from the folks at ALA's YALSA blog. For 30 days they have been highlighting positive uses for teens and social networking sites. Each posting is called "Positive Use of Social Networking" #1 through 30.

Now they’ve compiled it into a big PDF called SOCIAL NETWORKING AND DOPA.

As Aaron Schmidt at walking paper points out better than me: "The ideas presented point out how libraries can engage not only their younger users but general community as well. They are a great illustration of how libraries can reach out and, dare I say, be proactive. School librarians can read this and get inspired, and then use it to combat the fears of admin."

This little project of YALSA took a great effort and shows what the best of blogging and associations can do. Well done!

Stephen

p.s. YALSA's Blog is also a great place to stay in touch with young adult service trends.

Posted by stephen at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)

My SirsiDynix Institute Presentation on Nov. 14th

I'll be in Calfornia on the 14th so I'll be webcasting from there. I hope this quick tour through fun technologies to play with and review and how they might be used in the best interests of library strategies will be entertaining and educational.

Stephen

Stephen Abram MLS — Vice President Innovation, SirsiDynix
25 Technologies in 50 Minutes
Nov 14, 2006 | 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific (Do the math for other time zones)

Lots of technologies are due consideration for our library portals. Which would be on your top 25 list? We can't do it all at once but we should be trying more than a few out to learn about them. Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix's Vice President of Innovation lists a technology application every 120 seconds in this roller coaster ride of what's out there in LibraryLand and which one's are worth playing with and seeing if they'll be useful to your library and your community of users. Join us for the cook's tour of what's in the front of the pack for the 2.0 Community Portal. Maybe I'll use an egg timer dinger for every 2 minutes!

Posted by stephen at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

Information Fluency

Laurie the Librarian is reporting on a discussion on the ili-l@ala listserv on alternatives to saying "library instruction."

Here's their list so far:

Library Instruction Class
Information Literacy Class
Information Competence Instruction
Library Research
Instructional Library Research
Information Literacy Instruction
Research Instruction
Information Research
Information & Research Literacy
Research & Information Literacy
Research Education
Beyond Google
The Information Code
Better Research--Faster
The Process of Research
Information Systems Instruction
Information Research Strategies Library Training
Library Research Instruction
Information Fluency

Steven Bell also commented on my dislike for the term "information literacy" after I've made clear my dislike in a few speeches lately.

I believe it goes something like this: "Why do we market one of our key products and competencies under the term 'information literacy'. Is it great marketing to make your customers admit to to being illiterate in order to buy into your service? Are Beauty Salons called Ugly Repair Rooms? Is perfume called stink remover and marketed to smelly folks who must admit that in the first step of a 12 step program? Are we founding Library Illiterates Anonymous without the anonymous? So let's remember that amongst us chickens, the professionals who know the deep stuff, we can call it information literacy but for others let's find other words that meet our goals better. Let's find better marketing hooks to lure in the great unwashed information user."

I'll bet there are boundless attempts at fun marketing out there for library research skills training. Leave some in the comments if you can remember some. Something like:

Pimp Your Research Skills
Library Research Bling
Roll Your Own Research Paper
Pass that essay next time!
Research Tricks and Secrets
Citations on the Plane (with cool movie poster mashup)
Stay The Course. Mighter Marks with Better Research
Clicks and Tricks in the Library
Between Google and Catalogue
Deal or No Deal: Research Tricks

There's nothing wrong with a little fun in our marketing.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

Ms Dewey Outed

Loads of discussion lately about the Ms Dewey Search engine.

You've met her haven't you - that vaguely siren-like search helper who personalizes the search process.

You can meet here here.

Of course we now know that this effort comes from the Microsoft sandbox. Of course you guessed that from the high production values anyway, eh?

Either way, I wonder if OCLC can make a little cash here over the Dewey trademark... or is there a deeper relationship?

Also, the Google experimental search engine, SearchMash is worth a look. It's still in Kindergarten but it shows promise. Reminds me a bit of Exalead.

I find it interesting that both sets of parents hide their parentage.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2006

Generation Nation: Beyond Millennials

Judy Siess (OPL Plus) pointed me to this good article in DestinationCRM.

Introduction to Generation Nation, http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?articleid=6463

"Read on for fascinating and informative aspects about Generation Nation.

Y Me
Members of Generation Y were the first to mature in a media-saturated, tech-savvy world--here's how to blow past the buzz and get the brand into their brains.

X Ways
Generation X's consumer identity isn't easy to pin down, but a large aspect of successful selling to this crowd involves clarity, honesty, and open communication.

Wild & Crazy
Companies see green in graying Baby Boomers' attitudes and outlook on life.

Elder Effect
Mature consumers are marketing's underserved age bracket, and campaigns usually miss the mark with this cohort. Here's how to fix these efforts' misfires."

Worth a quick read.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

ChaCha leaves Alpha and goes to Beta

Cha Cha, the new escorted search engine has left alpha and gone to beta. It's pretty interesting. I wonder whether guided search will catch on. It's somewhere between IM and VR (instant messaging and virtual reference). It seems like a new ladder of search is emerging.

Anyway., it's worth a try to see how it plays. I always thought librarians' best quality was our subversiveness. So the ChaCha Underground is an interesting positioning. Thousands of guides already!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:55 PM | Comments (2)

News from SirsiDynix Institute

Maybe my ego will get totally out of control and there are those who say it already has, but this announcement is a real joy for me. I get to work with a fabulous team (Yo! Kathryn and Lebron) and the SirsiDynix Institute offers such great programs, webcasts, podcasts (check them out on iTunes!) and other features that are open to the entire library sector in real time or for viewing later. I am truly proud to be able to influence the SDI programs even more. If you have some ideas, leave them in the comments.

Stephen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Collette Tucker
Public Relations Specialist
1.256.704.7099 ext. 7578
collette.tucker@sirsidynix.com

Stephen Abram Named Chief Strategist of the SirsiDynix Institute

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Nov. 6, 2006 – The SirsiDynix Institute, a forum for professional development in the library community, announced today that Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, was recently named chief strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute. Abram will continue in his role as vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix.

The SirsiDynix Institute is an ongoing forum for professional development in the library community. The Institute monitors library industry trends and issues of concern to the library community. The Institute will utilize Abram’s renown nationally and internationally to attract speakers that are industry leaders in the industry for the Institute’s webinars, executive conference and other events. Abram will also assist in developing themes and topics for these events and will continue to speak and represent both SirsiDynix and the SirsiDynix Institute at national and international library and technology events.

A leading, international librarian, Abram has been with SirsiDynix since 2004. Abram has more than 25 years of experience with libraries, both as a practicing librarian and in the information industry. He is a frequent keynote speaker on issues that affect libraries, their communities and librarians. Abram is the president-elect of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and is set to serve as president of SLA beginning 2008. He is a Fellow of SLA, and, in June 2003, he was awarded SLA's highest honor, the John Cotton Dana Award. Abram is also the past president of the Canadian Library Association and was president of the Ontario Library Association in 2002.

“The SirsiDynix Institute has been near and dear to my heart since its inception,” said Abram. The Institute reaches out to the library community as a whole and is not tied to particular technologies. Not all in the community share the same technologies; they do, however, share the same concerns, hopes and visions for their libraries. I look forward to working even more closely with the SirsiDynix Institute to continue to grow and expand its reach and impact throughout the industry.”

# # #
Note to Editors:
Photographs of Stephen Abram are available for download at http://www.sirsidynix.com/Newsevents/Pressroom/logousage.php
About the SirsiDynix Institute

The SirsiDynix Institute was founded by Dynix in 2003 and is funded by SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions. The SirsiDynix Institute is a forum for professional development in the library community. Monthly webinars, the SirsiDynix Institute Executive Conference and other events provide librarians with access to industry leaders and a forum to keep up to date on relevant issues and trends impacting libraries. The mission of the SirsiDynix Institute is to support librarianship and advance the work of librarians around the world. The focus of the SirsiDynix Institute is on library issues, not products. More information on the SirsiDynix Institute is available at www.sirsidynixinstitute.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 5:04 PM | Comments (4)

SirsiDynix Institute Executive Conference

The SirsiDynix Institute Executive Conference program has been released. I think it is the best one yet. If you lead any kind of library, this conference is for you and it's associated with the SirsiDynix Superconference in Colorado Springs in Feb. 2007.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:03 PM | Comments (0)

Waiting for cats to bark!

Finally, part 3 is out of:

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark - Competing with Google and its Ilk,

If you've been following my 3 part series for SirsiDynix OneSource, you'll find it by linking above.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 1, 2006

The Pew on Web 2.0

I meant to blog this ages ago. A new report from the Pew on the internet's ohnlgong evolution.

Riding the Waves of "Web 2.0"
Date: 10/5/2006 by Mary Madden, Susannah Fox

“Web 2.0 has become a catch-all buzzword that people use to describe a wide range of online activities and applications, some of which the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been tracking for years. As researchers, we instinctively reach for our spreadsheets to see if there is evidence to inform the hype about any online trend. This article provides a short history of the phrase, along with new traffic data from Hitwise to help frame the discussion."

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)

Health Web Sites

Hitwise is reporting that Health and Medical websites are the top category for searchers right now. Hmmm. Apparently people start on the web first to check out their health...!

Category Percentage of Traffic from Search Engines (as a proportion of total category traffic)

Period - Week ending October 14, 2006

Category
Percentage of Websites Traffic That Came From Search Engines

Health and Medical
43.51%

Education
41.58%

Food and Beverage
39.90%

Government
31.76%

Community
30.99%

Note - data based on the share of upstream traffic received from Search Engines category among a sample of 10 million US Internet users

Source: Hitwise

Chris Sherman SearchEngineWatch Search Day picks up on this. His analysis is very good and very scary Halloween posting. He quotes the new report from Pew.
The full 21 page PDF report, Online Health Search 2006, can be found on the Pew Internet & American Life Project web site.

His latest is here titled "Rampant Malpractice Among Health Searchers" and the previous one called "Survey: Searchers are Confident, Satisfied & Clueless" is there.

What are we doing in libraries to ensure our services and collections and training address these issues? Should folks trust the web to the extent they do???? Have you weeded the old health and nutrition stuff well? etc. etc.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:23 PM | Comments (0)

Health Web Sites

Hitwise is reporting that Health and Medical websites are the top category for searchers right now. Hmmm. Apparently people start on the web first to check out their health...!

His latest is here titled "Rampant Malpractice Among Health Searchers" and the previous one called "Survey: Searchers are Confident, Satisfied & Clueless" is there.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:23 PM | Comments (0)

What Teens Want

I follow the YPulse blog since it follows teen issues. This posting is well worth printing and reading (it's long) but it summarizes a lot of the thinking and research going on in this space. Serve teens? Are teens going to grow up and show up in your workplace? Read this.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:18 PM | Comments (2)

"Skinny on Web 2.0"

A short article from Information Week that has a simple definition of web 2.0:

"Web 2.0 is all the Web sites out there that get their value from the actions of users."

It lists Wikipedia, Digg, Technorati, Flickr, and Frappr as examples.

Gotta love the conclusion: "Radical innovation is alive and well on the Internet."

Could we write the article about those libraries that get their value from the actions of their users AND employ radical innovation. There are some. Off the top of my head, my list would start with (but not be limited to):

Hennepin County (OPAC on their MySpace and more)
Charlotte & Mecklenberg (Library Loft anbd Imaginon and Learning 2.0)
Alliance Library System (Second Life Library 2.0, InfoIsland.org)
InfOhio and Boston PL (SchoolRooms.net)
NCSU and their Endeca OPAC overlay
Queens PL and their Aquabrowser
Sun and Stanford and their Grokker pilots
Anything John Blyberg does at AADL.org

Leave more in the comments.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:09 PM | Comments (1)

Library RSS feeds for us

A cool press release for SLA members at Internet Librarian (Disclosure: I am president elect of SLA but would still blog this new tool):

Stephen

23 October 2006 Press Release
Contact:
Cara Battaglini
+1.703.647.4917
cara@sla.org

SLA Partners with NewsGator to Deliver Free Customized RSS Feeds to Info Pros

Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 23 October 2006 - The Special Libraries Association (SLA) announced today that it has partnered with NewsGator to launch an online service that delivers RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to the desktops of thousands of information professionals. This exclusive service is free only to members of SLA, and is available at www.sla.org as part of the SLA News Connections.

"Access to online content is nothing new to our community," said Janice R. Lachance, Chief Executive Officer of SLA. "Access to real-time RSS feeds, however, is new to the business world, and we saw this as an opportunity to expose our members to a practical solution through their SLA experience. We are thrilled that NewsGator has delivered this wonderful service for SLA and the global community of information professionals."

SLA News Connections now includes access to open Web content driven by NewsGator's reader. Members of SLA can access the content through the "Resources" tab on the SLA home page. Newsgator is also offering free educational Webinars and a special SLA member discount on their solutions for businesses. More information is available in the News Connections area of the SLA Web site.

"RSS is ideal for information professionals because it enables them to find, read and disseminate information much more efficiently than with traditional delivery formats," said J.B. Holston, President and CEO of NewsGator Technologies. "The SLA's branded reader not only helps them increase the value of the information they provide, but also exposes their members to new technologies that reduce information overload and improve communication and collaboration within their own organizations."

Questions about SLA News Connections may be directed to Carolyn Sosnowski, Information Specialist at SLA, on +1.703.647.4914 or csosnowski@sla.org.

For more information about NewsGator Technologies or any of its products and services, call +1.877.669.6437

About SLA
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves more than 11,000 members in 75 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic, and government information specialists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives. For more information, visit us on the Web at www.sla.org.

About NewsGator
NewsGator Technologies is the world's leading RSS platform company. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises, and online content providers. Using NewsGator products and solutions, businesses and consumers can subscribe to news, information, podcasts, and other relevant content more efficiently and effectively than with traditional channels. With NewsGator, users have access to RSS information via the Web, Microsoft Outlook, mobile devices, and both Windows- and Mac-based desktop clients. All NewsGator products synchronize seamlessly, enabling users to read their RSS feeds anywhere, anytime, with any device. For more information, visit www.newsgator.com.

Posted by stephen at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)