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November 30, 2007
Xmas List 2
And I want this one too!
"From: Red Ferret: "Credit Card Size Digital Video Player. They’re small, expandable via MicroSD cards, rechargeable via USB, have a built-in FM radio and feature heat sensitive glowing buttons. What more could you possibly want, people of earth? $99.99.
These mini video players are small on size but are big on features with full-size bright high-res screens and 8 hour battery life. They’re perfect for playing your favorite movies and music. Choose from the Neon M3 with heat sensitive glowing buttons and a 2.4 inch LCD screen or the Ice with a brushed aluminum finish and a slightly larger 2.8 inch display. Both have 2GB of storage built-in and can be expanded via memory card."
Gee - I wonder if my kids and wife read my blog. Grin.
Stephen
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:10 PM | Comments (0)
Xmas List
I want this for Christmas:
The Vertipod looks a bit like a one-passenger helicopter turned upside-down. Its propeller is on the bottom and the pilot stands on a platform built around it with back support and controls at waist-level.
It is powered by a 440-cubic-centimeter engine that runs on gasoline or ethanol and can be activated with a pull-start, like a lawnmower. The VertiPod is intended to travel five to 15 feet above ground at a top speed of 40 mph. Bitar said it will be sold for $10,000 in a kit that can be assembled in a weekend.
“It actually flies, unlike a hovercraft, which is just a ground effect,” Bitar said. “It could have applications for law enforcement, especially border patrol, but it will also be available to the consumer market.”
Too cool for school.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:00 PM | Comments (2)
Misleading Reading
if:book has a great critique of brilliant critique of the NEA Reading report
The NEA's misreading of reading:
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum writes an elegant and concise critique of the National Endowment for the Arts' ominously titled new study of American reading trends, "To Read or Not to Read", which is a sequel to their 2004 opus "Reading at Risk." The basic argument is that reading, or what they rather awkwardly refer to as "voluntary reading" (that is, reading done purely for pleasure or self-improvement) is in a precipitious state of decline, especially among the young — a situation which poses a grave threat to our culture, democracy and civic fabric.
Though clearly offered with the best of intentions, the report demonstrates an astonishingly simplistic view of what reading is and where it is and isn't occurring. Overflowing with bar graphs and and charts measuring hours and minutes spent reading within various age brackets, the study tries to let statistics do the persuading, but fails at almost every turn to put these numbers in their proper social or historical context, or to measure them adequately against other widespread forms of reading taking place on computers and the net.
The NEA report is here. And Kirschenbaum's analysis is here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)
SirsiDynix Institute on Roving Reference
Guide to Roving: An Essential Service for Library 2.0
Presented by:
Joan Giannone - President, Mentor Group Training Inc.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 11 a.m. - noon Eastern / 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Pacific
Across North America, and around the world, Libraries are working to implement Roving Reference as a practical way to both improve service to their existing customers, and to attract and convert new ones into loyal patrons. Both Public and Academic Libraries are encouraging their staff to step out from behind their desks and reach out to their "hidden customers" - the 50 % or more - those thousands of customers - who are reluctant to approach staff at the Reference desk and so remain un-served. One of the driving forces behind the need for Roving at Libraries has been, and continues to be technological change. And following in the wake of the implementation of technology in any organization is the challenge posed by transition. Technological Change is comprised of external forces (Library 2.0, RSS, Wikki's, IM, Installing free downloadable digital content, policy changes, structure change, etc.). Transition is internally focused: (the reflection, re-grouping, reorientation and training people have to go through before the change can work) .because, unprepared people can be nervous, or even resistant.
Register now to take part in this FREE webinar.
Joan Giannone is a recognized mentor and trainer with over 20 years experience helping many organizations and Libraries achieve positive results, by focusing on communication and satisfaction for customers and staff. As President of Mentor Group Training Inc., Joan has dedicated all her company's energy over the last 4 years solely to supporting the progress and success of Libraries. Many Library managers and staff have heard about or have attended one of Joan's workshops, listened to one of her audio presentations or read one of her articles published online.
Her popular BLOG "Joan's Compass" has 27 articles and submissions about Roving. (www.mentorgrouptraining.com)
Register for this SirsiDynix Institute webinar at:
https://events.livemeeting.com/SirsiDynix121107reg.htm
If you have missed previous SirsiDynix Institute events, or are unable to make this one, we have an extensive archive posted at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php. You can check them out at any time.
More 2007 SirsiDynix Institute events at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/.
Enjoy
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2007
CommonCraft Videos
Have you viewed some of the CommonCraft videos?
Their tagline is: "Sensemaking for the masses".
Anyway, they have a series of videos, a la YouTube style, that explain a number of new technologies in plain English. Here are a few videos that seem useful:
Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Social Networking in Plain English
I've added CommonCraft to my RSS feeds just to see what they come up with next. Besides videos they also post some useful stuff 2pointOh-wise.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:36 PM | Comments (1)
Self-paced Learning with Learn More
Today I discovered a new blog called LibraryStream: Watching the flow of the social networking library.
“Learn More is a series of self-paced discovery entries for library staff interested in venturing out on the social web. Each post is meant as a short introduction to a different social website, tool, or concept. It might not be ground-breaking information to veteran readers of the blogosphere, but I hope each brief summary will act as a gentle nudge for newcomers to social networking.”
Currently, the series includes:
Avatars
Flickr
Youtube
Delicious
More are promised. This is a very useful complement to the Learning 2.0 / 23 Things initiatives.
It's so great to see so many new initiatives to enhance continuous learning in libraries!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
Meetup and Libraries
Anyone else out there using Meetup in Libraries or for Reading Groups?
Here's more about it from the site:
"About Meetup
Meetup.com helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face. We believe that the world will be a better place when everyone has access to a people-powered local Meetup Group. That's our goal.
Meetup Groups help people:
Find others who share their interests
Get involved locally
Learn, teach, and share things
Make friends and have fun
Rise up, stand up, unite, and make a difference
Be a part of something bigger — both locally and globally
We're proud to give more power to the people and we believe it's possible to make a profit and make a difference."
Here's a list of librarian groups from the site:
The DFW Librarians Meetup Group
Meet other local Librarians to discuss new books, trends, and to have fun! Any librarian in the Dallas or Fort Worth is welcome to join us.
The Los Angeles Young Librarians Meetup Group
A social group for librarians in their 20s and 30s. The purpose of this group is to give us librarians a chance to get together and "network" (eww.. I hate that word). Suggestions are welcome, but basically, I just envision this as a way to make…
The San Francisco Librarians Meetup Group
Come bond with library and information science professionals and students. We talk about job hunting, school, and other issues facing librarians.
The New York Librarians Meetup Group
A place for New York Librarians of all types and backgrounds to gather and discuss developments in the field, professional opportunities, books, emerging technologies, library 2.0, and good old-fashioned librarianship!
Monroe Free Library Friends, Staff, Board Members
This site is a private meeting area for friends and associates of the Monroe Free Library of Monroe, New York, to share information.
Russian Authors at the Brooklyn Public Library
Traditional "Russian Authors" series will begin its new 2007-2008 season in the brand new auditorium at the BPL's Central Library. The programs will run from October through May and will be held on the 3rd Sunday of every month. All programs are in R…
The Fullerton Public Library Book Club Meetup Group
Join us at the Hunt Branch Library (next to the Fullerton Pooch Park) for our all-new monthly book club. We have scheduled a vareity of books, both fiction and non-fiction for all book lovers. The first starts in September.
Star Trek Event at Miami Lake Public Library
This is the first Star Trek event that will be held at this library branch. I am looking to extend this event with to have other scifi offerings including book, tv and movie discussions, games, and possibly podcasting.
I searched librarian, library, book club, reading club and reading as well so there are loads of other related groups. I saw this on The M Word and thought it looked useful as a model for library tactics.
Just curious.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:00 PM | Comments (1)
The Evolution of Communication
I've known Tim Bray for many years. He worked on SGML projects for us at Thomson in the early nineties before he co-invented XML and helped found OpenText.
His blog, Ongoing, is a nice mix of thought and family. His latest posting is a nice piece on sorting out human commmunication using the factors of immediacy, lifespan and audience. Read it here.
He starts by looking at our expanding options - half of which emerged in my own lifetime.
........................Age in Years (2007 estimate)
Homo sapiens...~200,000
Language .........> 50,000
Writing .................5,000
Telephone ...............131
Broadcasting ...........101
E-Mail ......................25
IRC ..........................19
Texting ....................15
IM ...........................11
Blogging ..................10
Twitter .......................1
Libraries are all about communication, eh. And this is one of the issues of our age.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:50 PM | Comments (1)
YouTube Trends and Sources
Asi at No Man's Blog did this a while back and I think it's interesting to note the sources of YouTube videos. You know my hobby is to watch library videos instead of CNN when I have free wireless in my hotel!
YouTube Trends Report #5 - series finale (double bill)
Reviewing the 100 most viewed videos of all time ,here's the categories she finds:
"User Generated 39% - there are 3 main categories here:
(1) skills - we are very fascinated by extraordinary skills whether it’s dance, or music, magic or ninja stunts. (11)
(2) new talent stuff: directed/animated - from simple lip syncing, through political commentary to more series budding of talent (20)
(3) home video - cute stuff rules!, as well as some extraordinary things caught on camera. (8)
User Distributed - 30% of which 12 are TV of film moments, 14 music videos, 4 manipulative daft stuff
Commercial 29% - 22 music videos, 4 trailers, 2 ads and this funny SNL video."
There's loads more in the original posting.
So what does this mean to libraries? My list of good videos for libraries includes:
1. Libraries have trailers - yes book reviews are not that much different than a DVD trailer.
2. I see libraries linking to movie trailers to promote their DVD's.
3. Libraries use YouTube to train and transfer skills.
4. Libraries humanize themselves with some excellent and edgy humourous videos.
5. Libraries promote their services with videos of story hours, gaming nights, book talks, rock the shelves events, etc.
6. Libraries have video tours.
7. Libraries promote staff and directors' skills and personalities.
8. Libraries collect or help create their end users' video efforts with teen video contests etc.
9. And more (comment with a link if you have some good uses for your library).
Either way, libraries can use YouTube for their own strategic and tactical goals. Hey - quirky skills training - database searching is the new DDR!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
Speed of Light
I've been following the work of this wonan for years.
"Lene Vestergaard Hau can stop a pulse of light in midflight, start it up again at 0.13 miles per hour, and then make it appear in a completely different location."
So cool. More here "Harvard Physicist Plays Magician With the Speed of Light".
I still remember being taught that you couldn't do this. So much for skool larnin.
Now, doesn't most of our electonric stuff travel on light in glass fibre? Wonder what will happen there.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
Academics Staff and eBooks
This report was recently released by ebrary.
2007 Global Faculty E-book Survey
Sponsored by ebrary
(If you want to receive a free copy of the full report (46 page PDF) you have to register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wS8CU8W9N_2fIwRuMq5gNMsw_3d_3d)
Here's the Table of contents and the list of questions that were addressed:
Survey Results
1. Dates of survey
2. Total number of respondents
3. Participating countries
4. Basic Carnegie classification for U.S. institutions
5. Primary Program
6. Respondent’s primary program by category
7. Do you or have you offered a course with an online component?
8. Number of years as a faculty member in higher education?
9. How would you describe your level of computer literacy?
10. How would you describe your level of awareness of electronic resources at your library?
11. What types of electronic resources and tools do you currently use for your research, class preparation, or instruction?
12. How do you currently integrate the use of e-journals into your courses?
13. How do you currently integrate the use of e-books into your courses?
14. How do you find out about electronic resources available through your library?
15. How would you characterize electronic access to journals as compared to print?
16. How would you characterize electronic access to books as compared to print?
17. How would you characterize the value of search engines like Google when you are doing research or preparing instruction?
18. Do you prefer using online resources or print for your research, class preparation, and instruction?
19. Please estimate the percentage of information resources for research, class preparation, and instruction that you access electronically as compared to print.
20. What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of PRINT resources for your research or instruction?
21. What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of ELECTRONIC resources for your research or instruction?
22. Which of the following online resources do you think are appropriate for use by your students for most of your assignments?
23. What types of electronic resources do you ask your students NOT to use for your assignments?
24. Are students required to use print or electronic resources for assignments in your courses?
25. Where do you think students are accessing most of the information resources beyond the textbook and handout that they use for your assignments?
26. What are the difficulties associated with information resources?
27. Of the following instruction methods for information literacy, which would you be willing to have for your course?
28. How necessary do you believe instruction in information literacy is to student research and learning?
There are pages of insights based on the data at the end of the report.
Sheila Webber at Information Literacy Weblog also pulled thiese stats:
"Approximately 50 percent of respondents indicated they prefer using online resources for research, class preparation, and instruction versus 18 percent who prefer print resources.
• "Eighty-five percent of respondents viewed information literacy as very necessary, compared to 15 percent who stated it is somewhat necessary and less than 1 percent who find it unnecessary.
• "Almost an equal number of faculty members require students to use electronic resources as print for course assignments.
• "Fifty-three percent of respondents indicated that Google and other search engines are powerful tools for finding information. Twenty-nine percent indicated Google and other search engines are more useful tools than the print resources provided by the library, compared to 11 percent who indicated they are more useful than library-provided electronic resources."
I found the long section on advantages and disadvantages of e-journals vs. p-journals, p-books vs.e-books to be very interesting. The objectiosn to use or blended use are useful for strategy development in promoting these formats. I suspect that the better maturity of e-journals as a format drives some of their higher acceptance and that projects like Amazon's wireless Kindle, Project Gutenberg, Google's massive book digitization project and the open content Alliance's projects will drive further progress on some ebook acceptance for some domains of knowledge.
Worth checking the pulse regularly.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
eBook Humour
I loved this bit of play and humour.
Let's compare ebooks to paper-based books.
Then let's compare the car to the horse.
Check out the originals here and here. Doug at Blue Skunk blog rocks!
(Interestingly I remember charts comparing professional online services to the web.)
Hmmmm. Is it evolution or revolution?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
Facebook Applications
As libraries start to create Facebook applications using F8, it's interesting to look at what the nature of Facebook apps is and what models are out there. I've seen libraries using Facebook to add Meebo features, add their OPAC, links ot their blogs, do virtual reference and and link to their Second Life presence or community.
Asi Sharabi’s blog, No Man's Land, has a great post worth reading. Read the full post for the deep stuff but I found the taxonomy of apps interesting (how's that for library geekiness.)
Facebook Applications Trends Report #1
Asi bases her survey on the 8648 facebook applications as of Nov. 23 (it's 581,728,070 installs across 9,487 apps on Facebook with over 168,000 developers today) from the Facebook analytics site - Adonomics (previously Appaholic).
She used the data to carry out a systematic analysis of the 100 most popular applications (those that have at least 1 million users) - and take a snapshot as to what people are doing in Facebook.
What are the major buckets of applications that people add to their Facebook pages? Is it just fun and play?
"Looking at these 100 most popular applications a very interesting picture revealed. There are overall 3 categories that these applications can be organised into:
Identity formation - 43%
Phatic Communication - 37%
Other - 20%
Identity Formation - 42%
18% are self-presentation tools.
24% are collective identity formation
Phatic Communication - 38%
Phatic Communication (apps used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact rather than exchanging of ideas, or, in other words, apps used to communicate sociability more than information.)
"1. I exist.
2. I’m ok.
3. You exist.
4. You’re ok.
5. The channel is open.
6. The network exists.
7. The network is active.
8. The network is flowing."
Keeping the network alive through social cohesion activities like pokes, themes, gifts and contextual/seasonal activities.
Other - 20%
Social Organisation - 3%
Communication tools - 9%
Games - 8%
What could this mean to libraries? With the exception of bond issue campaigns and card holder campaigns we don't usually go for popularity. At this point, no more "than a quarter of the 100 most popular applications have more than 10% daily active users." I'd be happy to get into the other category. We're on the ground floor and I doubt we would get into the international top 100, but in our context and for our user bases, we could do some good work in communities and educational institutions.
Remember that libraries are social institutions. Even our book clubs can be as much or more social as they are about books and reading. Moms and tots events - same thing. Student training... let's not be in denial about the strong and vital social role our libraries play in our institutions and communities.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)
Reading Down or Up? Not
Long post but reading is a key issue for libraries and informed strategies are based in good information.
I've been a member of the Stephen Krashen's notification list for many years - ever since I heard him speak once at OLA and my various involvements in the role of school libraries. You can find out more about his work and subscribe to his announcment list here.He is one of the key thinkers and statistical iconoclasts about studies on NCLB and also reading. He is a must read for teacher-librarians.
Recently, there has been a lot of commentary (blog and mainstream media) about the NEA's new study ("To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence," at www.nea.gov) which echoes the findings of a 2004 study ("Reading at Risk") but brings in more recent data from many more sources, including federal agencies, universities, nonprofit foundations and business research organizations.
"Among the findings: (read the article at StarTribine.com):
• Nearly half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure.
• People ages 15 to 24 spend only seven to 10 minutes per day on voluntary reading (about 60 percent less than the average American).
• Reading scores for 17-year-olds are down, while those for 9-year-olds are at an all-time high (ground that is lost in adolescence).
• Even while reading, 58 percent of middle- and high-school students are watching TV, listening to music or using other media.
• Literary readers among college graduates dropped from 82 percent in 1982 to 67 percent in 2002."
It is a crying shame that these numbers have been regurgitated uncritically by the mainstream press so often.
Krashen brings forward a lot of good points and here are some of my favourite quotes from Krashen's letters, notes and postings:
"The [Pasadena] Star is right: According to one of the studies (Kaiser M Generation) the NEA reported on, when you include reading magazines, newspapers, and the internet, young people are reading about an hour a day, much more than for book reading alone.
It is also not clear that young people are getting worse. Young children show no decline over the last two decades. The NEA says that reading scores for 17-year-olds have dropped since 1984, but the drop is only four points over 20 years, not much on a test in which the top 10% scored nearly 100 points more than the lowest 10%. If you choose a different year for comparison, there is no change at all: 17-year-olds today read just as well as 17-year-olds did in 1971."
"A close reading of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) report, To Read or Not to Read, as well as other research on literacy shows that it is not clear at all whether people are reading less or reading worse these days. Here are just a few of the problems with the NEA report.
The NEA quotes a Pew study that reported that only 38% of adults in 2006 said they read a book the previous day. The NEA fails to note that in a Pew study done in 2002, that figure was 34%, and in 1945 it was 21% (Link and Hopf, People and Books, 1945).
The NEA says that teenagers do very little book reading, compared to younger readers, citing the Kaiser M Generation Project. But in a footnote, the NEA notes that if you add magazines and newspapers, there is no difference among the groups. If you add time reading from the internet, available in the Kaiser paper, teenagers report reading about an hour a day, much more than the seven to ten minutes reported in another study (American Time Use Survey) they cited.
The NEA tells us that college students read less than they did in high school. They don’t mention Hendel and Herrald’s study (College Student Journal, 2004). They found that college students read quite a bit and that book reading did not decline between 1971 and 2001.
Finally, all of these surveys are suspect. As Timothy Shanahan has pointed out (comment on Google, November 19), responders sometimes don’t think some kinds of reading are worth reporting. In one poll of teenagers, of 66 respondents who said they did “no reading” 49 checked several categories of leisure reading when asked what they liked to read (Mellon, School Library Journal, 1987).
The NEA also reported that reading scores for 17-year-olds declined from 1984 to 2004. But the 2004 national reading scores for 17-year-olds in 2004 are identical to those made by 17-year-olds in 1971. Whether there has or has not been a decline depends on which years you choose for the comparison. In addition, the “downward trend” since 1984 is quite small, four points on a test in which the highest 10% and lowest 10% differed by nearly 100 points, spread over 20 years. (The NEA did not claim there had been a decline for younger readers.)
The most outrageous misreporting in the NEA report is in table 5F, where we are told that test scores for the lowest scoring 10% of 17-year-olds dropped 14 points between 1992 and 2005. A look at the actual report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (The Nation’s Report Card: 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics, 2005) reveals that most of this happened between 1992 and 1994, a ten-point drop. Similarly, seven points of the nine-point drop between 1992 and 2004 for the lowest 25% occurred between 1992 and 1994. Clearly, something was wrong with one of those tests.
There have been complaints about the decline of literacy in the United States since 1874, when Harvard flunked more than half of its incoming freshman class on a writing test. There was no clear evidence of a decline then, and there isn’t any clear evidence of a decline now."
"Research shows that better libraries and the presence of credentialed librarians result in higher reading scores on a wide variety of tests, including the national test of reading."
"To Read or Not to Read also tells us that 38% of adults said they read something yesterday, citing a 2006 Pew report. But they do not mention that Pew reported that in 2002 the figure was less, 34%, and a major study of reading published in 1945 found that only 21% of those ages 15 and older said they read something yesterday, with the most reading done by
those lazy teenagers, ages 15-19, 34% (Link and Hopf, People and Books, 1945).
Adults are also reading less, according to To Read or Not to Read, and college students read less than they did in high school. Not mentioned, however, is one study showing that college students read quite a bit, and this has not changed over three decades. Hendel and Harrold (College Student Journal, 2004) surveyed the leisure activities reported by undergraduates
attending an urban university from 1971 to 2001. Among the questions asked were those related to leisure reading. In agreement with other studies Hendel and Harrold reported a decline in newspaper reading and reading news magazines, but there was no decline in reported book reading. On a scale of 1-3 (1 = never, 2 = occasionally, 3 = frequently), the mean for book reading in 1971 was 2.35; in 2001 it was 2.26, with only small fluctuations in the years between 1971 and 2001.
Moreover, the ranking for reading books was higher than that reported for attending parties (2.14 in 2001), going to the movies (2.16) and for all categories of watching TV (sports = 2.07). Reading held its own despite a clear enthusiasm for surfing the internet (2.78) and e-mail (2.84), both newcomers.
Are Americans reading worse? To Read or Not to Read also claims that children don't read as well as they used to, and once again, it is the 17-year-olds who are to blame. We are told there has been a "slow downward trend" since 1984 on national reading tests (NAEP long-term trends). But if we chose a differen date as a starting point, there has been no change. Scores for 17-year-olds in 2004 are identical to scores achieved by 17-year-olds in 1971. And the "downward trend" from 1984 is not that large, only 4 points on a test in which the highest 10% averaged 333 and the lowest 235, a spread of nearly 100 points."
"There is very little evidence to support USA Today’s statement that Americans “of every age are reading less and less for pleasure” (“Americans close the book on recreational reading,” November 19). The National Endowment for the Arts’ report only claimed that reading was declining for 17-year-olds and for adults, not for younger children, and even this claim is not
well-supported.
For example: The report, as USA Today noted, says that only 38% of adults in 2006 said they read a book the previous day. The report fails to note that in 2002, that figure was 34%, and in 1945 it was 21%. Also, when all kinds of reading are considered, including magazines, newspapers, and reading from the internet young people report reading about an hour a day."
As for Canadians, we're apparently reading more. See the Statistics Canada survey here.
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/econ162a.htm?sdi=reading. Let's hope
Canada keeps education towards the front of our priorities. Costly but necessary.
People see my PPT slides that assert there is evidence that overall reading is up across all types of reading (Don't even get me started on the reading skills needed for gaming). I worry that some of the research is driven by poor assumptions and special interests. Experts like Krashen who challenges the research on academic grounds are one reason why I think there are reasons for hope that there is a balanced view.
Library folk are definitely passionate about reading and have been for centuries. When poorly analyzed or reported 'research' attempts to position our efforts as failures or inadequate, we should fight back.
So the next time someone subjects you to a soundbite that says: "Nearly half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure," you can respond that yes - since almost 40% of these folks are in higher education now after high school (versus 17% in the 60's and 70's) they're getting an education and reading for purpose. They don't have time to do it all while they get ready to take on the jobs of the future. They'll come back to reading when they get their degrees and certifications and start competing with the Boomers for jobs.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:04 AM | Comments (5)
November 24, 2007
San Jose State University SLIS in Second Life
An interesting article and interviews with the team at SJSU about their experiences offering credit courses in Second Life:
The virtual university
SAN JOSE STATE JOINS INTERNET-BASED WORLD OF SECOND LIFEBy Kara Andrade
San Jose Mercury News
Nov. /2007
One day Professor Jeremy Kemp entered his classroom and found himself next to a student dressed as a gigantic monarch butterfly.
But Kemp was not startled in the least that one of his students had sprouted wings. Since he started teaching at the virtual campus of San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, students have also appeared as robots and giant bowls of Jell-O."
Very interesting.
Stephen
(Disclosure: I am on the international advisory panel)
Posted by stephen at 7:49 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2007
Better Temporary File Sharing
I heard about this on the cool Hey Jude blog and it's amazing.
FileURLS is a nifty online tool that quickly lets you share a file. I experimented with a fairly large PPT and a DOC file. There is currently no need to set up an account. It lets you set an expiry date up to 7 days in the future. After it uploads your file - and it is very very fast (I was amazed) - it gives you a simple URL. You can then e-mail the URL created, or place it in your blog or wiki.
Anyway, it will handle any file up to 250MB. I can think of many timies when this would have helped me out a lot - especially when I need to get around e-mail filters that limit attachments to 4MB.
This is too simple to be true and beats FTP hands down!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)
Dumpr Fun
Thanks Sarah at Librarian in Black for ths link to Dumpr. One of the 23 Things / Learning 2.0 exercises is to learn how to have fun with photos. The point is that we can inexpensively make very attractive promotional materials and posters to engage our users in the great programs and services we offer.
Anyway, you should check out Dumpr, where you can turn your photos into customized Rubik's cubes, jigsaw puzzles, legoize photos, age them, and a lot more.
Here are a few I made in minutes:
Stephen trapped in a Rubik's Cube.
Stephen trapped in a soap bubble.
Turn any photo into a sketch.
Stephen as an alien.
Which came first, Stephen, the chicken or the egg?
It's probably sad that I find this fun, but it was. Anyway, I can imagine there are a few sites like this that can liven up any research skills course, pathfinder or poster.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:01 PM | Comments (0)
New Ways to do Tours and Orientations
I've seen this at a few museums and art galleries but this posting in Red Ferret made me think. How wonderful would this tool that allows for message to be spoken in context to anyone's cel phone be for library tours and orientations.
Guide By Cell - create and beam an audio guide direct to your customers’ mobile phone
Face it - nearly every student has a cel phone and they basically are attached to it like an umbilical cord 24/7. And also, your library just can't give a great tour and orientation to every single first year student, or a review for returning students.
Now, just think if you required every student to register for an orientation and you could track that they did it and followed the tour. Cool. Hey, if you treated it liuke a library fine or lost book you could probably deny them their diploma (grin). No one shold be allowed to graduatre saying they never darkened the door of the library! Bwooohahaha.
Read then posting. Use your imagination and your radio voice. So simple. So inexpensive.
If we know we have great services to offer every student, how do we get these independent Munchkins to find out about it. It looks to be worth a try.
And if you're a public library and you have an art collection, special collections and neat stuff, this could be a cool tool too.
Anyone out there doing this in libraries? I'd like to hear about it in the comments.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)
The 10 worst consumer tech trends
Thanks to Michael at Tame the Web for this interesting article:
The 10 worst consumer tech trends
by Erin Bell, PC World Canada
10. Closed source technology
9. Over-promising and under-delivering
8. Fanboys
7. Region encoding
6. Licensing Fees
5. Format wars
4. Proprietary File Formats
3. Annoying web ads
2. High cost of wireless data plans
1. DRM
It cannot be argued that public libraries are not affected by consumer trends and many of their suppliers are captive to some consumer market evolving technologies and business models that are beyond their control.
I would have added a few that are more annoying for libraries:
1. Competing eBook formats and incompatible readers - lack of a global standard
2. The lack of a cross-format streaming media / video player
3. MP3 files for music or audiobooks that cannot be played on iPods or MP3 players or vice versa
4. Content embargoes, nuff said.
5. Pay walls on newspaper websites.
I am sure there are more but these are the top 5 I hear the most about.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 7:05 PM | Comments (2)
ASCII Art
I've always found ASCII art (typewriter art in my youth) to be very interesting. This however lifts my spirit.
The late Paul Smith (1921-2007) who had cerebral palsy "is probably is one of the first to use ASCII characters to make art. Through the years, he developed techniques to create shadings, colors, and textures that made his work resemble pencil or charcoal drawings."
The above is just a detail from one of his many works. See more at his website.
Awesome.
I had dinner last night for a good friend's birthday at a wonderful multistar restaurant, Celestin. The chef / owner had been in a car accident years ago and is a paralegic. He has a special stand-up wheelchair and cooks everything and supervises the kitchen to a very high standard. Just goes to show, that with the right attitude you can achieve your dreams.
We have lots to be thankful for.
Happy US Thanksgiving!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2007
Blog Usability
I can't say that I personally take all the advice here but here it is:
The Ultimate Guide to Blog Usability: 36 Tips and Resources
Here are a few (details in the original post):
Make sure your links are easy to follow
Always connect visitors to appropriate pages.
Navigation Bar
Organize archives
Link your logo to your homepage
Set up your own domain name
Allow visitors to search your site
Link to your blogroll
Related posts
Let readers decide how to open links
Test your links before publishing a post
Match your blog’s title to the Web address
Clearly describe where each link directs readers
Make it easy for readers to digg you
Show your readers that you’re involved with your blog beyond your regular posts
Create an “About” page
Provide contact information
Respond to comments
Develop a short autobiography
Pick a design theme
Choose an editorial theme and stick to it
Replace text with images
Limit the number of animated images you use
Don’t let advertisements dominate your blog
Organize and resize photo images
Use subheadings for long posts
Maintain a consistent writing style
Post articles regularly.
Be aware of your use of color.
The post has a few blogs showing best practices (to copy - grin).
Hmm - I've got a few things to do better. Always learning.
p.s. Don't miss thiis one either:
No More Comment Spam! 46+ Free Tools and Resources to Stop Blog Spammers
My comment spam in running into the thousands every single week. Who are these idiots!?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:26 PM | Comments (1)
Eye Tracking Study Insights
Here's a useful post.
Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies
SirsiDynix has been involved in a number of eye trakcing studies that have helped to underpin an understanding of website design. Some of the inisghts in the link above are related to ads, but, there are a few that are relevant to library sites. My favourites are:
Bigger images get more attention.
Text attracts attention before graphics.
Clean, clear people's faces in images attract more eye fixation.
Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
Formatting can draw attention.
Headings draw the eye.
Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page before moving down and to the right.
Large blocks of text are avoided.
Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.
Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
Show numbers as numerals.
Type size influences viewing behavior.
Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus.
White space is good.
Anyway, there are short explanations of the 23 key learnings from these studies. How many are you using?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
Using the Web at home and at work
I find the visuals in this posting useful.
I find that some data on broadband availability in communities difficult to use and understand. Most data talks about whether people have broadband at home OR at work OR at school. That data is good but it's the overlap that is more important.
What percentage of folks have access to broadband at either home, work or school? That's a better number to discover the penetration of decent physical access for most users. That combined with free or for-fee access through Internet cafes, libraries, hotel lobbies and Starbucks, et al, gives a clearer picture of digital availability. Cut the data by the rural, small town and city environments and we'd have a better conversation about where the digital divide really is. Then perhaps, equitable access strategies could be designed from solid data.
Just a thought. Anyone know of a good source of reasonably current data of this nature?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:06 PM | Comments (1)
Thanksgiving Fun
Forget your iPod charger when your visiting family this week? Need something to zone out with and faking listening music through your headphones not working for you?
Charge Your IPod with Onions and Gatorade
What do you do if there is no socket outlet available to charge your IPod? Don’t worry. An onion and Gatorade will do the job.
Don’t forget to wipe off your USB cable afterwards.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2007
Google's Android Endgame
And people tell me I am too hard on Google...
SLATE: Technology: The future and what to do about it.
Yes, Google Is Trying To Take Over the World
Next step: Take out Ma Bell.
By Tim Wu
Posted Friday, Nov. 16, 2007
"Google has an astonishing sense of its manifest destiny."
Interesting read - conspiacy theory or oracular vision?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)
Kindle and Sony Reader
eBook readers - more of 'em trying to capture our attention.
Newsweek has a cover story about Amazon's Kindle e-book reader that is blogulously popular right now:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983
Another almost ready for primetime eBook reader is the Sony Reader. You can read about it here.
You can find hundreds of blog postings and articles and comparisons on the web about these new device innovations. I won't link to them here - you all know how to search blogs and the web.
I know libraries who have bought various ebook readers regularly over time. Virtually every one of these readers has not been a market success. Is that critical? No. Do I believe that someday there will be an ebook reading device that succeeds. Yes. Are they better able to judge new devices, the success of ebooks and more? Sure.
Whether we will be kindling or reading ebooks in the future is up for debate. I think these devices are getting closer to realistic success. The real issue is how can libraries react to these innnovations? I worry that many just read the postings and articles and form an opinion. Is that the best learning mode? For some, maybe. For most, no. I prefer the sandbox approach. Playing with the device (beg, borrow, buy, steal) works. Everyone doesn't have to but someone with a library perspective needs to play with these things anad comment. There was a huge debate on a few library discussion lists that I was on today and not a single highly opinionated poster had actually handled a Kindle. Interesting that. Think about all the articles you may have read before handling an iPod. I truly did not 'get' the ease of use of that form factor until I touched it. No amount of reading trumped the experience. Interesting that.
Another place to add to your RSS feeds is the Teleread blog. Find it here. With the various Google, Yahoo!, Open Content Alliance and MS etc. book digitization projects worldwide, there will be millions of ebooks available within a few short years. Will we be able to make fine judgments about the best devices to choose? What is our R&D plan?
I bought a OLPC laptop (One Laptop Per Child) this week. It's sort of my US Thanksgiving donation and a chance to play with this innovative device. Is it the future? I doubt it. It will be for some kids overseas. Will I learn a lot from this? I bet I do. I'll also have a better informed opinion. Cool. I wonder what colour it will be? I'm hoping for orange.
I'll need to buy an e-reader soon too. I'll wait before I try it in the bathtub. Like most North Americans I take showers and tend to read almost 100% of the time clothed. I think I'll try to evaluate and understand the device in some context that actually matches my real behaviours.
Time to play. Maybe I can get one for Christmas... (Hint)
Stephen
p.s. I think that ebooks are more about textbooks, long form or scholarly articles and non-fiction than fiction and entertainment focused periodicals. I still like my People and Wired mags and fiction in paper. That's a personal preference. Then again, my reading is truly dominated by e-formats - e-mail. blogs, websites, e-articles. I can't imagine that ebooks will be a huge leap.
SA
Posted by stephen at 5:43 PM | Comments (2)
November 19, 2007
Marketing Help
Every once in while vendors offer some useful resources. ProQuest has offered help with public library marketing and has recently added an academic library toolkit to its free resources.
I looked over the The "Library Marketing ToolKits" and found them to be a good start and quite neutral - so you can promote the libray and not just one product but acn also promote that product in context. I suspect you'd find this helpful, even if you aren't a ProQuest, CSA or Serials Solutions client.
The question is posed: "How do you remind your user community about the great online resources you offer, when they think all they need is Google?" That's certainly one of the key questions we encounter all the time. The tools and samples in these free kits will help.
For Academic and Public Libraries, the kits include:
- How-to guide on Marketing Your Library’s Online Resources (PDF)
- Customizable flier (including "Where to start first... Free Web vs. Online Databases") (PDF)
- Customizable poster (PDF)
- Customizable ad (PDF)
- Customizable press release template (Word)
- Customizable radio script (Word)
- Digital "commercial" for your library, downloadable to school or library homepage (Flash)
- Sample database descriptions that speak “patron” rather than library language (Word )
Might be worth a quick download - especially if your budget is small and anything can help! You can find them here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
December's SirsiDynix Institute
You're An Expert In Library Operations And You're Ready For Your Next Career Move - Is Your Resume?
Date : Dec 04, 2007
Start Time : 11 a.m. Eastern
Length : 01:00:00
Constructing an engaging and compelling resume that has a potential employer thinking "I need this one on my team!" could be among the most difficult tasks we face in the area of career planning. But there is help. Ulla shares the key insights from her many years of assisting others create strong and visually appealing resumes that will do more than simply get you a job similar to the one you have. Starting with the premise that we are each the worst possible choice for creating our own resume - we are too modest, take some things for granted, etc - she takes us through her "10 tips" for resumes and cover letters that leave a solid professional impression. Have a copy of your own handy as you listen!
This session will be useful for promotions, job changers and recruiters / interviewers too.
Presenter: Ulla de Stricker -Consultant, de Stricker Associates
Ulla de Stricker, in consulting practice since 1992, helps clients deal with the full gamut of knowledge management challenges, bringing to bear decades of experience. Since the late 1970s, Ulla de Stricker held information industry positions with responsibility in the areas of strategy, design, and market client relations. She managed the Canadian operations for DIALOG in the 1980s and built the electronic publishing venture for a Canadian unit of Thomson in the early 1990s. She is well known for her bold vision of the future of the library profession and is a popular speaker at information conferences internationally. www.destricker.com
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
Mob Rules
Any speech that ends:
"Still, there is one thing I can recommend: have courage and keep moving. Standing still is not an option. The world has changed. The world is changing. The world will change a whole lot more. Good luck."
Has to be good. The speech is called:
Mob Rules (The Law of Fives)
by Mark Pesce who is one of the early pioneers in Virtual Reality, a writer, researcher and teacher. The co-inventor of VRML, he is the author of five books and numerous papers on the future of technology. His current project is HyperPeople: what happens after we’re all connected?
I discovered this speech through Will Richardson's Weblogg'ed and you can read the whole thing here.
It is an interesting read and might be good at Article Club (a lunchtime book club for time challenged, low achievers).
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:55 PM | Comments (0)
Our work is not done
Source:
*Phillips, Gary W., PhD. “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators from Comparing States and Nations.” American Institutes for Research. 14 Nov 2007. American Institutes for Research. 18 Nov 2007 <http://www.air.org/publications/documents/phillips.chance.favors.the.prepared.mind.pdf>.
I picked this up from David Warlick's blog 2¢ Worth:
According to the National Science Foundation (NSF, http://www.nsf.gov/statistics), the average U.S.
citizen understands very little science. For example:
- 66% do not understand DNA, “margin of error,” the scientific process, and do not believe in evolution.
- 50% do not know how long it takes the earth to go around the sun, and a quarter does not even know that the earth goes around the sun.
- 50% think humans coexisted with dinosaurs and believe antibiotics kill viruses.
On the other hand, according to the NSF, the general public believes in a lot of pseudoscience.
- 88% believe in alternative medicine.
- 50% believe in extrasensory perception and faith healing.
- 40% believe in haunted houses and demonic possession.
- 33% believes in lucky numbers, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, and that UFOs are aliens from space.
- 25% believes in witches and that we can communicate with the dead. *
Now clearly science and belief can co-exist. That's the foundation of the separation of religion and state as well as people's basic rights. It is still distressing to me that so much knowledge is required to be taught to ensure that people can use the information wealth that is provided to them through such tools as databases and search engines. Can we fill the gap through information professionals for the most important questions of our time?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:44 PM | Comments (1)
Social Web Taxonomy
This posting is inspired by a posting by Jack Vinson at Knowledge Jolt. The blog is missing today but I'll link to it if it returns. {link working now} The posting was titled "Various social networking and communications technologies by Jack Vinson."
Anyway there are many social technologies and applications. Building on Jack's list, I think they might be thought about in the following buckets:
Social Communication
Social Content
Social Sharing
Social Collaborative Applications
Social Networking
Face to Face
Here's some examples (perhaps an attempt to define by example too):
Social Communication
audio conferencing
e-mail
instant messaging
threaded discussions
discussion lists
presence management (ie. Twitter)
phone
fax
chat (many-to-many)
postal (snail) mail
Social Content
wikis
blogs
tagging
forums
open access model publishing
tag clouds
Connotea
Flickr
Delicious
LibraryThing
sometimes web pages (static / informational)
podcasts
open source software
Social Sharing
communities of practice (CoP) software
groupware / teamspace (asynchronous)
knowledge portal
SharePoint
Lotus Notes
Google Apps or Zoho
Social Collaborative Applications
videoconferencing (WeBex, LiveMeeting)
virtual meeting tool (synchronous)
group decision tools
project management tools
shared calendars
development support tool (IDE)
document versioning tool
file servers / VPN
Social Networking
Facebook
MySpace
Mixi
Bebo
Academici
Face to Face
watercooler
coffee pot! Bar, Starbucks meetings
lunch / dinner
hot dog cart
conferences
meetings
parties
unconferences
hackfests
I don't intend this to ever be final in any way or even remotely comprehensive. I am just trying to find a way to differentiate all of the new social tools we have virtually and physically in order to think about them more clearly - before they all merge like porridge. Right now I am finding it very useful to distinguish social networking from social content in conversations. We also need to separate the emerging demand for metadata about living people in social networks from content metadata (including writings, authors, etc.). I think it helps the discussion to draft a few ideas for comment.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:18 PM | Comments (2)
Multimedia Cataloguing
Looking for other ways to catalogue media other than print? Check out Mashable's 20+ Media Cataloging Sites (Live links and moore here):
Desktop Cataloging
Ant Movie Catalog
Bruji.com
Collectorz.com
Delicious-Monster.com
DVD Profiler
EMDB.tk
IMediaMan.com
Media Catalog Studio
Readerware.com
Online Cataloging
AllConsuming.net
BookBump.com
ChasingTheFrog.com
DVDSpot.com
Junklog.com
Lib.rario.us
LibraryThing.com
Listal.com
Shelfari.com
ShelfMates.com
Squirl.info
VCD-DB
YourSharade.com
Some actually load MARC like records in but the social features are more interesting to me.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 5:07 PM | Comments (1)
November 17, 2007
SLA's CLICK University
Juanita Richardson, 2008 Chair of the SLA Leadership & Management Division gave a session at the Toronto hosted Libraries Without Borders II – the 4th Northeast Regional Law Libraries Meeting (NE2007). It was called “Education Without Borders: Distance Education for Librarians." She posted parts of her talk and I thougt it could use wider distribution. SLA has done so much innovation to build a year long professional development series online in addition to the conferences and chapter/division events ov erhte past few years.
SLA had been invited to speak because it is recognized for having a leading edge project to provide distance education to librarians: Click University. I have to agree since I have followed this project since its inception. It is amazing and one of the least understood value added services for SLA members. It was launched at the SLA conference in Toronto in 2005 and has grown a lot since then.
CLICK U has achieved its initial commitment to members: “You will be able to do everything from finding an article in the library all the way to taking an advanced degree.” With CLICK U, you will be bound to find something you want in the format you want. There are 7 different content areas based upon different learning styles and different paces:
- SLA virtual seminars (ie. Click U Live) (As expected, Gary Price's Research Toolbox was a huge hit);
- CE sessions (from SLAconference – recorded and delivered as webinars);
- Course libraries (all based on self-paced learning – with the “course of the month” offered free);
- Courses from adjunct faculty, like the copyright courses from Lesley Ellen Harris;
- SLA certificates program with the much-vaunted Competitive Intelligence certificate program;
- Full Degrees and certificates offered in partnership with Drexel, Syracuse and the University of Toronto Professional Learning Centre.
- Leadership & Management books and articles online from eBrary;
Three SLA member value things that don't seem to reach people's consciousness:
1. You can find the CLICK U Live sessions on the SLA website. December's is an excellent two-parter on Taxonomies delivered by international expert Jay Ven Eman.
2. Some of the courses and podcasts are free and some are low fee. The monthly free one is always highlighted on the CLICK U homepage. The current course of the month is "Writing for Publication."
3. People seem unaware that the certificate programs offered by SLA are internationally accredited. The Special Libraries Association has been authorized by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) to award the IACET Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits to SLA members who complete courses through Click U, the first and only online learning system for post-graduate information professionals. See more here (your HR / training folks will know IACET).
Here are the next three IACET CEU Certificates Program Courses
CIC01. Introduction to Competitive Intelligence
7 January 2008
KMKS01. Introduction to Knowledge Management & Knowledge Services
14 January 2008
CCM100. Introduction to Copyright Management: Principles & Issues
21 January 2008
4. Did I say eBrary Leadership and Managememt Library is free to members? OMG - this is so cool.
The eBrary database covers a wide range of topics to enable professionals to make important business decisions. From information on how to become a more effective leader to examining best practices from the world's most successful CEOs this database is applicable throughout an employee's career path. Key subject areas include: leadership, entrepreneurship, strategic planning, management, organizational behavior, personnel management, project management and risk management.
This library alone is worth the cost of membership.
So who’s ready to join SLA now? Try linking here to do so (grin).
Expect more valuable services announced in 2008, in addition to those we already offer.
Stephen
(Full Disclosure: I'll be President of SLA starting in 2008! I'd love to have you with us.)
Posted by stephen at 4:55 PM | Comments (0)
Best Bargain Academic Libraries Conference
This is the bargain of the year. If you're an MLS student it is free! If not, it is only $99.00. And housing can be had inexpensively in the UAH conference center. Anyway, I think that it is two days of the sessions with some of the most transformational thinkers in the academic library world right now. I'd love to see you there.
If you're wondering how social networking tools might work in academia, thinking about gaming and its role in learning, working on your information or learning commons, devloping a traiing program to move your staff to the next plateau, building an institutional repository or just organizing for this century, there will be lots of food for thought!
The Second Annual E-Info Global Symposium hosted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville Library will take place on December 6 and 7, 2007.
You can find out more here.
The blog is here.
December 6 - Transformation: Leadership & Learning
12:30-12:45, Welcome - Dr. David B. Williams, President, UAHuntsville
12:45-2:00, E-Info Global Overview & Program
Introduction, Theme Setting Keynote
Stephen Abram, VP, Innovation, SirsiDynix & Conference Chair
2:00 – 2:15, Break
2:15-3:00,Transformation Leadership: Process & Change
Jeff Trzeciak, McMaster University
3-3:15, Break
3:15-4, Social Tools on a Shoe String
Elizabeth Unger, Kansas State University
4-4:15, Break
4:15-5, SuperTeaching
B. J. Dohrman, IBI Global
5:15-6:00, Five Weeks to a Social Library
Amanda Etches-Johnson, McMaster University
6-8, Reception
December 7 - Transformation: New Worlds & New Directions
8-8:45, Continental Breakfast
9:00-10, Information & Learning Commons
Barbara Tierney, University of North Carolina Charlotte
10-10:15, Break
10:15-11:00, Trends in e-Repositories
Jill Hurst-Wahl, Hurst Associates
11:00-11:15, Break
11:15-12:00, Gaming Trends in Academic Libraries
Scott Nicholson, Syracuse University
12-12:15, Break
12:15-1, Transformation Leadership: Direction & Dynamics of Change
Rick Luce, Emory University
1-1:15, Closing Comments
You can register here.
I will admit that I am quite involved in this symposium. Jane Dysart and I developed the program and I am the conference chair as well as a speaker.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2007
I'm just saying
Not that I need to improve my social skills (yeah, right) but this post was good reminder for me. I find the "Personal Development with The Positivity Blog" a delight in reminding myself to remain positive.
How to Improve Your Social Skills: 8 Tips from the Last 2500 Years
By Henrik Edberg on People Skills
1. Listen
2. Actually be interested in the other person.
3. Don’t listen too much to criticism.
4. Don’t babble on and on.
5. Treat others as you would like them to treat you.
6. Keep a positive attitude.
7. Use silence.
The long post is better than this list.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:10 PM | Comments (0)
South Carolina and SirsiDynix SchoolRooms
South Carolina State Library Rocks.
Click here to see their YouTube video about the statewide (all schools and public libraries) launch of SirsiDynix SchoolRooms.
SchoolRooms is now in several states (like Ohio, Delaware, South Carolina) as well as a few major cities (like Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego) and more coming on board soon.
Cool.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)
Beyond Second Life and into 4D
"A team of medical researchers at the University of Calgary medical researchers up at the University of Calgary in Alberta has spent the last six years working on a remarkable "4D" hologram system called CAVEman. Combining data from CT scans, X-rays, biopsies and other medical tests, it creates a gigantic, realistic model of a patient's body. It's supposed to help doctors see "the big picture" by combining as much data as possible and blowing it up to gigantic size. In a word, it's awesome. But they've got even bigger plans brewing.
The next step for CAVEman is to allow doctors to actually reach inside of the holograms and actually feel the tissues and compare densities. They also want to add organ sounds. Eventually, they want to be able to create patient-specific models to help explain things to patients visually. It's downright remarkable. Let's see this technology brought over to the world of video games, OK? Now that would be a useful application of technology, not this medicine mumbo jumbo. [CAVEman via Washington Post via Book of Joe]: Read more here.
Wow! And I just play with avatars...
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:59 PM | Comments (0)
New Book on Google
Are you or your institution one of Google's partners? It's a tad pricey but Steve's bookks are always good.
Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator
"This is the first time someone has made a detailed study of the major patents held by Google and has extrapolated the company's possible business strategies. Traditionally, it has been difficult to get to grips with what Google is. The company is not specifically secretive; rather, it is unforthcoming about its aims, plans, strategies and ambitions. "Provide access to the world's knowledge" is about as focused an articulation of mission as one can get from the Google people. No big PR puffs; no in-depth briefings. And, from a quick outside perusal, the company seems to dabble in all sorts of technology areas and buy up all sorts of high-tech companies, which makes measuring progress or evaluating strategic orientation somewhat difficult.
Stephen Arnold, in this successor to "The Google Legacy", concentrates on analysing Google's potential via a study of the company's intellectual property (patents). Google is a company of engineers and mathematicians, not a company of sales, promotion and legal wizards. Mathematics is the foundation of Google's wizardry and, as analysed by Arnold in this new study, the Googleplex is a wondrous construct that gives Google a major competitive advantage in a wide variety of possible fields: enterprise services and computing, web and enterprise search, publishing, banking, advertising, telecommunications. The Googleplex can crunch, analyse and extrapolate rapidly, intelligently and economically from extremely large quantities of data. The owners of such a machine can test and probe a variety of markets, and their existing base income from advertising gives them billions of dollars to use in their probes and explorations. "Innovation at Google is the fuel needed to power the Googleplex and to satisfy Google's hunger for ever more powerful, capable systems and software," explains Arnold. "Google, unlike Amazon or Yahoo, is built on mathematics, not engineering".
This major new study of Google concentrates on deriving information about the company from an analysis of its key patents. These patents are often difficult to discover, since Google rarely files under the Google name; an exhaustive hunt of some of the key Google technical staff is required in order to unearth many of the patents held by Google. "I have a keen awareness of Google's transformation from a search company to a digital Exxon or Wal*Mart," writes Stephen Arnold in the current study. "These are companies that operate at a scale that their competitors cannot easily match. If Google can continue its upward trajectory, it will emerge as a genetic variant of the multi-national corporation or what I call a supra-national enterprise."'
Lots more after the link.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
Email is for Old People
"Email is for Old People"
I don't believe that but I hear it all the time in focus groups with students up to 30.
Read this:
The Death of E-Mail
Teenagers are abandoning their Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts. Do the rest of us have to?
By Chad Lorenz, Slate
If it's true it would be interesting to discuss. We save money by sending holds and overdue notices by e-mail. Are we ready to try testing and IM and Facebook and more?
How about reference? We know e-mail reference is pretty unsatisfactory. Are we needing to put reference into IM, texting, Facebook and Meebo faster?
I will go through withdrawal gvien by blog and e-mail addiction. But then I am middle-aged as long as I live to 106.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)
9 Short Term Technology Predictions
The Bivings Report has these 9 short term (2008) tech predictions. Follow this link for details.
1. The ASUS Eee laptop is going to sell like hotcakes over the holiday season and other manufacturers will soon follow suit in creating light, barebones, home-use laptops.
2. Apple will announce a digital camera with integrated video recording and wifi, and seamless YouTube video upload functionality.
3. RIM will release a 3G Blackberry and the Curve will prove to have been a huge success.
4. PS3 will outsell the XBox360 in the US.
5. The Wii will outsell all other game consoles, but the number of game sales per owner will be significantly lower than on other platforms.
6. 24 inch widescreen monitors will hit the mainstream and soon thereafter will become the norm.
7. Cellular providers will start to offer cell-phone Internet plans with VOIP.
8. Google will embrace OpenID and it will finally take off.
9. The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps will start collaborating and the price of Bu-Ray and HD-DVD media will be sub-$20.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:47 AM | Comments (2)
SLA Wisconsin Chapter
One of the things about travelling a lot is that I get to visit more SLA Chapters than usual!
Anyway, here's the dinner speech I did in Wisconsin.
10 Cool Technologies and Your Library’s PR Plan
SLA members are the best.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
SLA San Andreas & San Francisco Bay Area Chapters
Another visit in California was to the SLA San Andreas & San Francisco Bay Area Chapters. It was a real nice dinner on the Stamford Campus and then they had to listen to me. It was a treat that SLA CEO Janice Lachance made it there too. Here are the PPTs:
Charting the Future of SLA and Libraries Social Web 2.0
They managed to delay the earthquakes until the following week!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
SLA Southern California
One of the nice benefits of being incoming SLA President is that I get to visit SLA Chapters around the world. In this case I visited SLA Southern California Chapter and we had a lovely panel discussion, dinner and I gave an after-dinner talk. Here it is:
Charting the Future of SLA and Libraries
Humour abounded (as did smoke from the awful fires) and I got baseball caps from both USC and UCLA.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
Milwaukee and Waukesha County Federated Library Systems
I visited Wisconsin and saw the fall colours. Here are the slides for the workshop I did for the Milwaukee and Waukesha County Federated Library Systems.
Reality 2.0: Attracting and Engaging the
Millennial Library User
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
Pennsylvania Library Assn Conference
I visited State College PA for the Pennsylvania Library Association Conference.
Here are the slides for my keynote:
Social Libraries: Soaring to New Heights
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
NY3Rs Association Workshop
Leadership Symposia are fun. Here's one I did in Saratoga Springs NY:
Academic Libraries 2007 Conference
The Library is Everywhere: Maps and Minefields
NY3Rs Association: Academic and Special Libraries Section, NYLA
(The fun part was landing on Halloween and arriving at the hotel to find a Fantasy convention en costume!)
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
Monterey Public Library
Here's the lunchtime session I did in Monterey for the local libraries. They were lovely hosts.
Thanks,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
California Library Association Conference
Here are the slides from my keynote for the California Library Association Conference in Long Beach, Cal. Flying over the fires was a little scary.
5+ Top Strategies
for Library Success
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)
California Library Association Executive Institute
Here are the slides for the workshop I did for the California Library Association Executive Institute:
Information 3.0: What’s Next?
Be Afraid, Break The Inertia
It was a little smokey due to the fires but not as smokey as other stops.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
NYLA Millennials Session
Here are the PowerPoints for the NYLA session on Millennials.
Baby Busters, Gen-X and Born Digital Babies
Millennials Information Behaviors
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
NYLA Session on Diversity
I visited Buffalo for the New York Library Association (NYLA) Conference. It was rainy but the visit was warm. Here are PPT's.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
CODI Presentations
I gave this presentation last week at our clients' User Group conference, CODI. Here are the PPT's.
5+ Top Strategies for Library Success
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
OCLC Member's Council
I had the nice opportunity to be invited to address the OCLC Member's Council at their Fall meeting. It was great fun and a great thoughtful audience.
I chose to speak about Information 3.0: What's Next?. Here are the slides.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2007
Roy Tennant at CODI
Roy gave an excellent keynote speech at the CODI conference in Pittsburgh last week. He has posted his manifesto here (reproduced below and he invites more comments on this excleent piece):
This is offered in an attempt to rationalize the relationship between libraries and library systems vendors, which is presently unhealthy. I encourage comments directly on this post (see below) or emailed to me directly.
Consumer Rights
I have a right to know what exists now and what is potential future functionality. — Marketing materials may tout a new product or a new version of a product, but I have a right to know what I will receive if I buy the product today.
I have a right to use what I buy. — For example, it should not cost extra to create another index of my data.
I have a right to the API if I've bought the product. — An application program interface (API) is simply a structured way for one application to communicate with another. In other words, the ability of a software program to send a structured query to another application and receive a structured response. Using the API for a product I've bought should not incur an additional charge.
I have a right to complete and accurate documentation.
I have a right to my data. — This includes the ability to bring forward not just my records, but also usage data (for example, how many times a book was checked out), since such information will be increasingly important for relevance ranking and other purposes.
I have a right to have read-only access to the database. — There are many good reasons why customers should be blocked from writing directly to an underlying database, but there are none for being able to only read from the database.
I have a right to not have simple things needlessly complicated.
I have a right to know the development path and timeline for a product I have purchased.
I have a right to take technical questions to staff capable of understanding and answering them.
I have a right to not be an involuntary beta tester.
I have a right to have my work on local customizations and settings preserved across upgrades.
Consumer Responsiblities
I have a responsibility to know the needs of my users.
I have a responsibility to put the needs of my users before my own.
I have a responsibility to communicate my needs clearly and specifically.
I have a responsibility to verify that the enhancement requests I make are really what I want.
I have a responsibility to assign enhancement priorities fairly. — Not every enhancement request can be top priority.
I have a responsibility to realize I'm not special. — Therefore we should try to come to agreement on how to do the same things so we can minimize the investment in writing software to help us do it.
I have a responsibility to select software using a fair and reasonable process. — Specifically, can we all agree to stop the pain of the RFP process? Please?
I have a responsibility to report reproducible bugs in a way as to facilitate reproducing them.
I have a responsibility to report irreproducible bugs with as much detail as I can provide.
I have a responsibility to view any adjustments to default settings critically.
Shared Responsibilities
We share a responsibility to begin from a position of mutual respect. — Only after a party makes an ass of themselves should we be free to make disparaging comments about them.
We share a responsibility to communicate well.
We share a responsibility to establish and maintain a rational enhancement process.
We share a responsibility to keep the needs of the end-user paramount.
We share a responsibility to lighten up and have fun! — I mean, no one dies in libraries. Let's get some perspective.
Note: Substantial contributions to this manifesto were made by Thomas Dowling and Carl Grant. This was first made public at the 2007 CODI Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, 8 November 2007."
I tend to agree with most everything here - especially over the costs to vendors and libraries incurring overbuilt RFP processes without an effective ROI to either party. Also, since we have supported API's in the SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS for almost 2 decades and trained thousands of clients in API programming, that aligns with my beliefs in a hybrid ILS and the necessity of both vendors and clients to create the user experience mosaic. SirsiDynix's library of shareable API's is getting quite large and will transfer to SirsiDynix Symphony as well. All and all Roy's manifesto is a great and balanced list that's reasonable in its intent and maturity.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:19 AM | Comments (2)
Blog Readability
Another useful tool (Thanks Phalbe):
Blog Readability Test
What Level of Education is Required to Understand Your Blog?
Note: This tool also works on MySpace profiles, LiveJournals, Facebook, and most websites
I used to know the difference in the readability scores of the NYT, WSJ, USA Today, NY Post, etc. What is your target audience? This blog test at a high school readability level. Some friends' blogs range from elementary, junior high through university readability. All that matters is alignment and not talking over or under your readers' abilities.
How do your various virtual presences align with your target audiences?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:06 AM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2007
Picture It
I am always looking for sources of pictures and graphics for presentations, postings, websites etc. I'll bet you are too. Lord knows that straight text PPT slides are abuse on a higher order! And I won't even comment on screen shots of webpages that you are expected to see from the back of the room without so much as a pointer arrow or circle to draw your attention to the place on the slide that the speaker is commenting on! Powerpoint doesn't kill people, people kill people.
Anyway, this posting might help you engage folks in your presentations and training sessions:
10 Places to Find Free Images Online and Make Your Content More Linkable
I'd also add that many of the pictures on Wikipedia are available as well. A Creative Commons search in Google (etc.) finds many useful graphics too.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
ROI and Public Libraries
I picked this up from the SLA Rocky Mountain Chapter disucssion list (Thanks Nicolle and Ty):
"Whether you're a public library director or a public library user, there is a return on investment (ROI) resource for you. Check out the...
CALCULATORS
Personal ROI Calculator http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/usercalculator.php
This online tool calculates the individual estimated return on investment for the Colorado public library of your choice. Other states have done ROI calculators, but not like this one!
Do you work in a public library? Well, this calculator can be customized for your library's website. See DPL's at:
http://www.denverlibrary.org/news/dplnews/roi_calculator.html (it is also linked from their homepage). Or if you prefer, it can be a direct link from your library's website. Link to the calculator on the LRS website and your library's name can be pre-filled in the drop-down box.
Either way, it can be a fun, yet powerful tool to demonstrate the dollar-and-cents value of your library.
Library ROI Calculator http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/calculator.php
This tool estimates the ROI for your library using a peer-based return on investment calculator.
OTHER RESOURCES
At the CAL Conference last week, Zeth and I did a presentation on the ROI study for public libraries. The PowerPoint presentation and other resources we discussed can be found on the ROI page at:
http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/.
Other resources on the ROI page (http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/) include individual reports for participating libraries, newspaper articles, and links to other studies.
Zeth also recently added a function called "LRS Conversation" so that you can share your comments online about the ROI study or the personal ROI calculator. We look forward to reading what you have to say!"
Worth a look!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)
Podcast: Why is innovation important?
Segment 1: Why is innovation important?
This is part 1 of the re-created audio for a workshop that i found via the Killer Innovations blog:
Innovation acceleration
Technology Adoption
Innovation Reality
Innovation Gap
Innovation Delay
Innovation Impact
Executive View of Innovation
The Challenge of Innovation
The Value From Innovation
Accompanying slides are here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2007
Facebook Institutions
The floodgates open.
Sarah, the Librarian in Black, reminds us that getting our libraries into Facebook, and having an effective profile there, has never been easier. "Facebook opened up business and institutional profiles. You can put all sorts of information in to your profile, interact with the public on your comments "wall," and people can become your library's fans--letting your library's information feed into the feed they see of their friends and family's activities. For a couple of examples of how libraries have done this well, see the Facebook profiles of the Hennepin County Library and the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County."
Of course, this doesn't mean you don't get to have a personal page that presents your personal presence and great expertises in dramatic and personal fashion. When people are looking for friends and expertise they should be able to find librarians!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:17 PM | Comments (1)
November 5, 2007
The Librarians on ABC (Australia)
Well I've been waiting and it's here. Yay.
Read the news.com.au commentary:
Comedy's new chapter: The Librarians
By Stephen Downie
October 31, 2007
MOST people think of libraries as places full of dusty, unreadable tomes, nerdy types and ... well, silence. There is certainly nothing funny about libraries, is there? However, a darkly witty new ABC comedy, The Librarians, is set to dispel this myth.
They're putting the 6 part series up online so there's no waiting for DVD or syndication.
Check it out here. CLick on FILM to get to the current episode. (The trailers are fun too.)
It's rated M for mature. Hurray. (I am sick enough to truly enjoy the children's librarian character). Please don't watch this unless you have a slighty warped or tilted sense of humour.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Caroline Middlebrook has written "The Big Juicy Twitter Guide," in seven parts:
1. What is Twitter?
2. Socialising With Twitter
3. Using Twitter Properly
4. Twitter Tools: Platform-specific
5. Twitter Tools: Web Applications
6. Hacking Twitter
7. Multiply Your Twitter Audience
Find the whole guide here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
Paleo-Future
Another fun blog to take the wind out of futurists sails:
Paleo-Future: A look into the future that never was
Where's my flying car, my rocket backpack, robots cleaning my house, space tourism, ...?
The Nov. 1 PacBell videos are fun.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)
NYT and online courses
Here's a nugget from this article in the New York Times:
Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere
"Welcome to the brave burgeoning world of online education. It’s a world most of us, whether we like it or not, will have to grapple with, as students, tuition-paying parents or employees. Nearly 3.5 million college or graduate students, one of every five, took at least one online course last fall, double the figures of five years earlier, according to a survey of 2,500 campuses published last week in a collaboration among the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the College Board and a Babson College research group"
I wonder how many academic libraries have a clear and successful strategy for reaching these students? What are the best practices? How are they given research success training? Are they easily identified and marketing to? How do they get their library cards, passwords, registrations, etc.?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
Make your own video games from Scratch
There has to be a library use for this one from Kate at InfoDoodads:
Make your own video games from Scratch
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:56 AM | Comments (5)
Canadian Digital Information Strategy : draft for comment
Canadian Digital Information Strategy: draft for comment
We are pleased to announce that the draft version of the Canadian Digital Information Strategy has been released for public comment. The Strategy results from a series of meetings that took place across the country in 2005 and 2006 to gather views from content producers, users and government officials. In the course of the deliberations, more than 200 stakeholder organizations offered ideas or commentary, and nearly 100 of Canada’s leading thinkers from across the information environment participated in a national summit in December, 2006.
Building on this rich set of input, the strategy has been drafted by a 24 member development committee. It addresses some of the critical issues in digital information production, preservation and access, and proposes a range of actions to strengthen the Canadian digital information environment.
The Committee welcomes public comment on the draft strategy by November 23rd 2007. Please visit http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cdis/index-e.html to download the strategy document and to provide comments.
The objectives and proposed actions outlined briefly in the executive summary are:
Toward strengthening digital content:
- mass digitization on a national scale
- a conducive digital production environment
- improved digital production practices
- diversity in digital content production
Toward ensuring digital preservation:
- selection and capture of digital content for long-term retention
- distributed digital preservation repository network
- preservation-related research
- new workplace skills
- increased public awareness of digital preservation issues
Toward maximizing digital access:
- mechanisms for democratic, ubiquitous and equitable access
- seamless access and global visibility
- more open access to public sector information and data
- effective communication and management of copyright
- increased user research
For more information, you can read the 63-page document.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2007
Wow- Tipping Point all in about 2 weeks.
It has been quiet on the Internet front until the past couple of weeks.
Now it's war.
Facebook gets a $750,000,000.00 equity investment from Microsoft and two equity capital firms.
Facebook introduces social ads on top of their 'open' platform for development within Facebook.
Google heads past 10,000 licensed traditional publishers and adds new libraries all the time.
Google heads past $700.00 a share during a market drop.
MySpace acquires Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.
Thomson continues work on the major acquisition of Reuters.
Google announces today that MySpace, Bebo and SixApart (who sold us the software for this blog) have joined Google OpenSocial - their new "open" platform for development anywhere. Read more here or here.
Addition: The list of partners mentioned seemed to have grown a bit: Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.
We are about to see the biggest transformation of the web experience since people thought e-mail, or search or content were kings. Killer apps?!
AND! The Canadian dollar has soared past the US $ for the first time in years. Time to shop on the road again - just bought a new leather jacket (actually 2!!).
And the first US Boomer allied for their pension.
Strap yourself in, the rest of 2007 and 2008 are going to be a fine ride. Enjoy.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:33 PM | Comments (2)
Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future
An oldie but a goodie:
Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future
Categories:
Events
Light Bulb
Automobiles
Airplanes
Computers
Radio
Space Travel
Rockets
Atomic and Nuclear Power
Films
Telephone/Telegraph
Television
Railroads
Other Technology
It's interesting that so many of these quotes come from experts and great and powerful people.
Amateurs on the edge - be afraid, very afraid. Next thing you know they'll be publishing their thought for anyone to see on the Internets.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:39 PM | Comments (0)
E-Learning Examples
Looking to see examples of what e-learning looks like?
As we try to integrate and link library services and resources to e-elearning in our communities, it's useful to see a few examples.
Follow the links in this post for useful examples:
e-Learning Demos
Examples of E-Learning
Where are Examples of eLearning? Lots Right Here!
exemplary elearning solutions
what is a "good example"?
LCB Big Q for June: Eg of e-Learning
The Power of Three
Where are the Examples of eLearning?
Example of eLearning
Designing e-learning
Show Me the Examples! ASTD Big Question for June
Two examples of elearning
Creating a Blog in Blogger
Best Examples of eLearning
[Examples] of simulations: a dynamic list of entries with playable examples
I'd love to hear about how libraries are organizing to supporting e-learning. How do you develop the pedagogical skills? How are liaisons being designed with developers, technical systems, Blackboard(etc.) and professors/TA's. etc.?
Since every learner who is not inside the library talking to you and your colleagues is a de facto distance learner we need to get real good at this. We see so many institutions that now have more moments of truth virtually than they do physically, it's time to prioritize the distance/in person differences dyad. Interesting times.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:22 PM | Comments (0)
Academic Library Strategies
Here's a sample academic library strategy. It's from
A Strategy for Academic Libraries in the First Quarter of the 21st Century
by David W. Lewis*
* David W. Lewis is Dean of the University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 755 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, dlewis@iupui.edu (CC)
Link to:
Word version
PDF version
"Abstract
The wide application of digital technologies to scholarly communications has disrupted the model of academic library service that has been in place for the past century. Given the new Internet tools and the explosive growth of digital content available on the Web, it is now not entirely clear what an academic library should be. This article is an attempt to provide a strategy for academic libraries in what is left of the first quarter of the 21st century.
There are five components of the model:
1.) Complete the migration from print to electronic collections;
2.) Retire legacy print collections;
3.) Redevelop library space;
4.) Reposition library and information tools, resources, and expertise; and
5.) Migrate the focus of collections from purchasing materials to curating content.
Each of the components of the strategy and their interactions will be considered. It is hoped that the result will provide a useful roadmap for academic libraries and the campuses they serve."
There you go. I am speaking at the NYLA academic leadership program in Saratoga Springs today and tomorrow so this link is for them. Read this Easter Egg and Discuss.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:01 PM