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July 29, 2008
Objection Handling For Learning 2.0
This is a useful series of posts.
All of the links are also in the last post, no. 15.
15 Objections to Social Learning in 15 Days
From The Engaged Lenring Blog by Kevin Jones
"For the next three weeks, each business day I will be posting a new objection to Social Learning, with my answer in writing. Now, my answer may be different in practice because of the particular situation and due to the fact that not all questions are answered by words, but rather by action and experience. But at least it is a start."
Objection #15 - The Silent Yet Deadly
Objection #14: Prove It!
Objection #13: How Do You Measure ROI?
Objection #12: How Will You Measure That It Is Working?
Objection #11: Too Much Info
Objection #10: Wasting Time
Objection #9: They Aren’t Technical
Objection #8: Out of Date Information
Objection #7: The Information is Wrong!
Objection #6: Mixing Things Up
Objection #5: How Do You Know it’s Accurate?
Objection #4: Posting Anything, Including Bonobos
Objection #3: Control of Information
Objection #2: What Does This Have To Do With Training?
Objection #1: Socialize!
Nice effort.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:24 PM | Comments (1)
July 28, 2008
Vinyl Veni Vidi Vici
Here's some nice stuff on format changes.
Say So Long to an Old Companion: Cassette Tapes New York Times
It's a nice obituary.
And the library angle is discussed nicely at The Monkey Speaks.
And for a nice humourous contrarian view, you can check out the CanWest news service's seemng national campaign to bring back vinyl:
And the Ottawa Sun chimes in too:
I worry when I read quotes like this:
"At least 10 independent record stores in Ottawa now specialize in vinyl. Meanwhile, CD sales continue their painful plummet..."
What a mess statistically and informationally. Confusing a niche market with a mass market alone is frightening. Publishing it in the newspaper as fact is journalism at its worst.
If libraries had take this attitude we'd still be focusing on scrolls.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:04 PM | Comments (4)
Is Cuil Cool?
I can't find out right now if Cuiil is Cool. The latest entry in the Daniel vs Goliath reality show of Google slayers is Cuil (pronounced 'Cool') but it's usually down.
I'd like to try it though. I claims that it has a larger Internet Web harvest than Google or MSN. Some folks who have gotten in to this start up from ex-Googlers say it gives interesting results but nothing consistently better yet.
Maybe they'll get their own humourous FailWhale or Bloglines Plumber soon.
Worth watching.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:42 PM | Comments (4)
July 26, 2008
What to call library user communities....
Library Journal is running a poll on their homepage this week. It's interesting. I've been following research lately on what library users are called and what they want to be called.
Here's the poll as of this morning (Saturday July 26).
It's interesting since it doesn't reflect what I'm reading and hearing (including some of Joan Fyre Wiliams research) in the actual polls of what our communities want to be called!
I've always hated the term 'patrons' for library communities. Museums have patrons; Michelangelo had a patron; Foundations have patrons; Patrons give hug sums of money. Everyone using a library isn't a patron. (I also hate that it's the root of patronize which has a weird double meaning.) It's just an awful, patronizing word that delivers little value to us in positioning ourlseves for success with our communities. Since so many use it, it'll probably take a 12 step program to get folks to stop this habit.
Client has been usurped by both the for fee consulting sector as well as other parts of the social service sector. Being a client of the penal system, foster care, social work case, etc. has a different meaning to being a client of a library and has different implications for service.
Customer is very business-oriented and feels like there is some ultimate monetary transaction will be involved. It feels very retail which isn't negative but has a different context. A monetary positioning is not a great positioning for most types of libraries. Also, library communities tell us that they definitely don't want to be called customers of libraries.
User just feels like it's librarian jargon that doesn't echo with our real communities. In the outside world it's been co-opted by the drug addict environment - drug user. We'd love our users to be addicted but it's a negative positioning. Also, I am uncomfortable with the concept of being 'used'. It's often negative to say "She used me." It really doesn't imply the benefits of library service well enough.
Reader is nice but limiting. Sometimes they're readers, but we don't really think of many of our services as merely reading - even if reading is a key skill for gaming, computer and web use. Books are great but libraries are so much more than all that. Also, libraries' competitive advantage against other options is our people and reader just positions us in that limited 'just books' model. The OCLC research showed that too many people think we're just book, books, books. We don't need to reinforce a strong positioning already, we need to expand on it.
So 'member' reflects something that works for me (and the research with actual library end users). I'm surprised that this jargon isn't entering our sphere quickly enough - habits are hard to break. This isn't a scientific poll but it refects the language that I hear folks using and those words aren't what our users want to hear. I like the way it implies an engagement with the library's community. It's great if people think of themselves as members of the library, with membership cards. Membership has it's privileges (American Express calls their cardholders members). National Geographic calls their subscribers members. I like the concept of promoting memberships in your local library. It starts with a respect for the two-way social contract between libraries and their communities.
Of course, when you're talking to city councils and municipal budget committees it's OK to throw in the odd 'voter' or 'taxpayer' or 'ratepayer' (grin). You gotta be political sometimes.
I am assuming that this LJ survey response is pretty public library focused, but maybe not. I think student, learner, faculty, etc. work in schools and academia and colleague, co-worker, etc. work in special libraries.
Points card
Credit card
Debit card
Social Security card
Driver's License card
Frequent Flyer card
ALA membership card
Library card
Library User card
Library Patron card
Library Customer card
Library Client card
Library Membership Card
I made a choice to join and I'm proud of it, and to be associated with others in my community.
Members, it works for me.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:12 AM | Comments (11)
July 25, 2008
Boomers better be brainy
From Sabrina Pacifici:
Job Market for Aging Boomers Will Favor Brains Over Brawn
"Baby boomers looking for jobs in growth fields that welcome older workers will want to dust off their diplomas rather than their treadmills, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.
Abstract: "Boomers will probably want to work longer than earlier cohorts, but their continued work requires that employers hire and retain them. Employers value older workers for their maturity, experience and work ethic, but worry about out of date skills and high costs. Slower overall labor supply growth may increase demand for older workers if employers can easily use older workers to do the work once done by younger workers. Future jobs will require less physical demands and more cognitive and interpersonal skills, trends that favor educated older workers, but job opportunities for less educated older workers may remain limited."
Most of the fastest-growing occupations that already employ above-average shares of workers age 55 and older rely on an educated workforce, such as personal financial advisors, veterinarians, social and community service managers, surveyors, environmental scientists and geoscientists, registered nurses, and instructional coordinators. The list also includes postsecondary teachers, archivists and curators, social workers, management analysts, pharmacists, counselors, and business operation specialists...
Will Employers Want Aging Boomers? by Gordon B.T. Mermin, Richard W. Johnson, and Eric J. Toder, looks at the current demand for older workers—especially the 77 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964—and explores how it may change over the next decade. The study examines how changes in the nature of work, different occupations, the characteristics of older workers, and overall labor force growth might affect future job prospects for older Americans."
Cool. Library work is mentioned a few times.
There's hope for me!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)
July 23, 2008
Public Library Trends
American Libraries is reporting this cool development.
Gannett Releases Searchable Public Library Trends Database
Gannett News Service released a searchable database July 17 that compares trends affecting public library systems between 2002 and 2006. The analysis used data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as well as statistics collected from state library data coordinators, compared figures for the some 9,200 library systems, and found that library visits increased by roughly 10% during that five-year period and that circulation of materials rose by 9%.
You can find the Gannett database and use it here.
What you need to know to explore this database
Use the database to search for trends affecting public library systems between 2002 and 2006. To get started, choose a state and then a county.
Select a library system from a list to learn more about changes in circulation of items such as books and videos, number of visits to the library, operating expenses and the number of computers for public use. The reports on each system include general demographic information about the counties where those libraries are located.
You can compare how your local library system with others across the country by looking at these reports:
» Public library systems with the highest circulation per capita
» Public library systems with the most Internet-capable public computers per capita
» Public library systems with the largest operating expenses per capita
Since this is a news service creating this database, it must be there to support news stories. I wonder if Gannett is choosing libraries as a story arc in 2008-9?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)
Major Drivers of Web User Expectations
So what does drive user web expectations? A good argument could be made that they expect what they see when they visit the top sites on the web. SearchEngineWatch has a neat posting on the latest (June 2008) ConScore data for the top 50 ad networks and top 50 web properties:
"In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time. Microsoft trails in third with 119 million. AOL is in 4th with 110 million and Fox Interactive rounds out the top 5 with 85 million. Here's the chart:"
"In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list:"
I find this data interesting. In LibraryLand we spend so much discussion time focusing on Google and Amazon that we neglect to see some of the others that are setting expectations too. I find some surprises on the list. AOL is much higher than I would have estimated. And unique visitors as a measurement removes the odd ad sales success factor that draws attention to Google in particular. Also, some of the subject specific sites for weather and sports for example and retailer sites rank highly too. You'll also note that the top 10 sites are closer together than their ad sales revenue would predict. It wouldn't take much of a merger or two to change the game.
And I'll still bet that the number of unique visitors to all library sites in the US is higher!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 2:05 PM | Comments (0)
Blog Readership Study
The Pew has posted their latest blog readership statistics.
New numbers for blogging and blog readership
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | Pew Internet Posts
"Blog reading
In our spring tracking survey we took two new measurements of blog reading, each of which captures a slightly different set of behaviors. Our first measure of blog readership uses the present-tense question, "Do you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?". In total, 33% of internet users (the equivalent of 24% of all adults) say they read blogs, with 11% of internet users doing so on a typical day.
Our second blog readership question is based on a slightly different question construction: the past-tense "Have you ever read someone else's online journal or blog?" This figure is consistently higher than the one discussed above; this is because its wording captures people who once read blogs but now do not for whatever reason. 42% of internet users (representing 32% of all adults) answer this question affirmatively.
In addition to serving as example of the power of question wording, there are also some interesting demographic differences in our two blog readership questions. For example, male and female internet users are equally likely to say that they do read other people's blogs (35% for men, 32% for women). However, among internet users men are more likely to say that they have read other people's blogs (48% vs. 38%). We suspect that this is due to the male-heavy nature of the initial blog readership population--men are generally heavily represented among the early adopters for most technologies, but women catch up over time. Due to the way the second question is worded, it captures some of those (largely male) early adopters who are not captured in the first question.
Blog creation
We only asked one question about blog creation, making these figures fairly straightforward. 12% of internet users (representing 9% of all adults) say they ever create or work on their own online journal or blog. For a majority of bloggers, working on their blog is not an every-day activity: 5% of internet users blog on a typical day. This question uses the same present-tense construction as the first blog readership question above."
These are higher percentages than I would have thought. And not because I don't think people are reading blogs. In fact I think more people read my staff through posting on this blog than publishing my book or writing my many print columns. I just think most people don't know when they're reading a blog. I've even had librarians tell me they never, if ever, read blogs! But when you ask if they read Drudge, Perez Hilton, Facebook or MySpace pages, or some popular blog enabled website in their discipline, etc. you can almost always get a yes. I think that most people don't know when they're reading a blog just because it looks like a webpage.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)
Mii and Wii
I'm still not as good as my kids at Wii. I need more practice but work just gets in the way.
Libraries are certainly finding many uses for the Wii and it's quite multi-generational too. There are educational uses too.
The latest “7 Things” document from Educause is on the Wii:
7 things you should know about... Wii
What is it?
Who’s doing it?
How does it work?
Why is it significant?
What are the downsides?
Where is it going?
What are the implications for teaching and learning?
As usual - loads of info crammed into a 2 page PDF.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)
Libraries and Bad Economies
The Consumerist blog has a good posting on:
7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy
It appears that the post was written by a librarian but the many comments are excellent and the users had even more ideas.
Continue promoting the benefits of libraries bfore you need to.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
2008 Video Game Industry Research
2008 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry (16 page PDF; 120 KB)
Source: Entertainment Software Association
2008 SALES, DEMOGRAPHIC AND USAGE DATA
65% of American households play computer or video games.
The average game player age is 35.
In 2008, 26% of gamers were over the age of 50.
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is: 40
Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%).
13 is the average number of years adult gamers have been playing computer or video games.
59% of gamers play games with other gamers in person.
94% of the time parents are present at the time games are purchased or rented.
63% of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.
83% of the time children receive their parents’ permission before purchasing or renting a game.
Parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play 88% of the time.
Loads more in the report.
I just love research survey data that challenges pre-conceived notions.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2008
Research Publications Online: Too Much of A Good Thing?
Research Publications Online: Too Much of A Good Thing?
"New research shows that as more scholarly and research journals are available online, researchers cite fewer, newer papers
Having research papers and other scholarly writing available online gives researchers access to a great deal of materials without having to enter a library. But how does this impact the new research that they produce? James Evans at the University of Chicago has studied this question and his conclusion is surprising--despite having greater access to scholarly materials, researchers are actually citing fewer papers. The papers they do cite tend to be newer and are likely to be cited by other researchers.
Thanks to the Internet, scientists now have access to an astonishing number of research papers, scholarly journals and other papers. But according to new research conducted by James Evans, a professor sociology at the University of Chicago, researchers are actually citing fewer papers than ever, and they tend to cite newer papers that are also cited by many of their peers. In this interview, James discusses what got him interested in the topic, how he conducted his research and what he believes are some of the implications of this trend.
The researcher's findings appear in the July 18 issue of Science magazine."
SOURCE: National Science Foundation,
www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111928&govDel=USNSF_51
Here's another argument for libraries to promote their digital vaults and make them more easily accessible and known. Research should be well-informed.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
The Google Dilemma
You might have seen this already but if not, it's a really good article by James Grimmelmann on who controls what you see in your search results. Grimmelmann is a Prof. at the New York Law School.
Here is the abstract:
The Google Dilemma
James Grimmelmann, New York Law School
Abstract
Web search is critical to our ability to use the Internet. Whoever controls search engines has enormous influence on all of us; whoever controls the search engines, perhaps, controls the Internet itself. This short essay (based on talks given in January and April 2008) uses the stories of five famous search queries to illustrate the conflicts over search and the enormous power Google wields in choosing whose voices are heard on the Internet.
http://works.bepress.com/james_grimmelmann/19/
This article doesn't even address the issue of ads, so it's very interesting on many other levels.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2008
50 Ways to use Social Media
Jeremiah Owyang has another good post:
50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective
1) Listening: Gleaning market and customer insight and intelligence
2) Talking: Engaging in a two way discussion to get your message out (and get messages in)
3) Energizing: Letting your customers tell your prospects on your behalf (viral, word of mouth)
4) Supporting: Getting your customers to self-support each other
5) Embracing: Building better products and services through collaboration with clients
Strategy, Training, and Planning
It's an interesting list of how to social networking and 2.0 technology to better understand users, customers
Another good list is from Chris Brogan:
50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing
It seems a shame that so many libraries don't engage in enough active listening to their markets of users. The annual (or worse every 5 year) survey just isn't enough anymore, if it ever was.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:35 PM | Comments (0)
Venture Capital
Sometimes I talk about following the money to see where investors are targeting growth in sectors we care about.
Check out this TechCrunch post and the great charts in it.
VC Deals In Charts (Q2 2008)—Exits? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Exits?
It's interesting to still see huge amounts of capital in the knowledge intensive sector of software, biotech, industrial/energy, medical, and media/entertainment. Apparently VC optimism for the sector is holding for now.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:12 PM | Comments (0)
Facebook Global Growth and Penetration
With Facebook's new look this week, I thought this little piece of data was interesting:
O'Reilley Radar has a neat post showing the growth of Facebook by country and number of users by country over the last four weeks!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:08 PM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2008
Library use grows
Library use grows, but varies by region; Utah among states at topBy Ledyard King
Gannett News Service (July 17, 2008)
"WASHINGTON - Each year, more than 1 billion people visit libraries to borrow books or videos, log onto the Internet or participate in various community programs.
But government support for libraries, and how much community residents use them, varies widely across the country. Gannett News Service analyzed data obtained from the federal government's National Center for Education Statistics for 2002 and 2005 and from individual states for 2006."
Highlight from the data are (chekc the full article for more):
- "Visits to libraries nationwide increased roughly 10 percent between 2002 and 2006 to about 1.3 billion."
- "The South lags the rest of the country in per-capita visits to libraries,"
- "Circulation ... increased nationwide about 9 percent, from 1.66 billion to 1.81 billion, between 2002 and 2006."
- "The number of Internet-capable computers soared 38 percent between 2002 and 2006 - from about 137,000 to nearly 190,000."
- "Nationally, library spending on day-to-day costs such as staffing and materials was $31.65 per person in 2005. The District of Columbia, and local governments in Ohio and New York topped the list, spending at least $50 per capita. Local governments in Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee spent the least - less than $17."
Lots of good stuff here. And libraries always show increases during difficult economic times.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:21 PM | Comments (0)
Learning
I like to think I've got a pretty good personal learning network (through SLA and other associations as well as conferences and 23 Things). I was impressed by this thinking stick blog entry.
Stages of Personal Learning Networks Adoption by Jeff Utecht
http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=652
"Stage 1 Immersion: Immerse yourself into networks. Create any and all networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to. Collaboration and connections take off.
Stage 2 Evaluation: Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which networks you really want to focus your time on. You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure out a way to “Know it all.”
Stage 3 Know it all: Find that you are spending many hours trying to learn everything you can. Realize there is much you do not know and feel like you can’t disconnect. This usually comes with spending every waking minutes trying to be connected to the point that you give up sleep and contact with others around you to be connected to your networks of knowledge.
Stage 4 Perspective: Start to put your life into perspective. Usually comes when you are forced to leave the network for awhile and spend time with family and friends who are not connected (a vacation to a hotel that does not offer a wireless connection, or visiting friends or family who do not have an Internet connection).
Stage 5 Balance: Try and find that balance between learning and living. Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin to understand that you can rely on your network to learn and store knowledge for you. A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can learn when you need to learn and you do not need to know it all right now."
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
The Value of SLA
Here is the long version of my SLA Columns in the July issue of Information Outlook.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:58 AM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2008
Houston Area Library System (HALS)
I am spending today and Friday doing all day workshops for Houston Area libraries, like Harris County PL. We are having a great time. Here are the PPT slides:
Library 2.0: Where Do We Go from Here?a>
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:13 PM | Comments (1)
SLJ's 23 Things for School Librarians
Are you looking for a Learning 2.0 / 23 things project aimed at school libraries and teacher librarians? (If you're a special librarians you're obviously already on the SLA 23 Things program!)
Brian Kenney, editor of School Library Journal, announced SLJ's effort here:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/850000285/post/1860029586.html
SLJ's 2.0 Program Begins July 21
"Have you heard of 23 Things, the self-guided program for learning about 2.0 web technology? It was developed by Helene Blowers a couple of years ago at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and since then has been adopted across the country by public and school libraries, districts, and even entire states. It consists of a number of "things," or small exercises, that you do online to expand your knowledge of the 2.0 web and social networking, from blogs and podcasts to wikis and Twitter.
For a while now (and prodded by SLJ Technology Editor, Kathy Ishizuka) I've realized it would be a great idea if all of us here at SLJ went through a "23 Things" like experience. After all, we are always writing about different 2.0 applications, shouldn't we experience them as well? Walk the walk, talk the talk, and all of that...So I resolved that we'd do it this summer.
Then I got to thinking: if we're going to do it, why not open it up and invite everyone to join us?
So that's what we are going to do. But we're not going it alone; we've asked 2.0 guru, Dominican faculty member, and season trainer Michael Stephens to join us for the ride. Beginning Monday, July 21, Michael will author a blog here on SLJ.com that will lead us through the different exercises, offer guidance, answer questions, and even provide a little hand-holding. We're calling it "All Together Now: A 2.0 Learning Experience."
There's no need to sign up--just show up. Again, we'll begin on July 21 and wrap things up in early September.
My "Gearing Up" post is here:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/290000629.html#530030053
Our work will begin the 21st of July! Starting Monday, I’ll put up a post here -- the first of our “things” - with instructions to explore. The first thing is getting a blog and trying out blogging.
I’ve worked with a lot of libraries doing these programs and folks sometimes confess they are scared to dive in. These tools seem too new or hard to use. This program is designed to alleviate those worries. Work at your own pace. Work with a colleague or friend. I kid you not, this is a perfect time and a perfect place to experience these things. These rules will help:
Explore. Try things out. Don’t worry about “breaking” anything! Ask questions. There are no dumb questions. AND It’s okay to make mistakes.
The blog address for the program is:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/290000629.html
It's just wonderful to see stuff like this program grow!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:06 PM | Comments (2)
Changing People's Minds
Guy Kawaskai pointed to this site today and it might prove useful someday.
ChangingMinds.org
How we change what others think, believe, feel, and do
Theories about persuasion are here.
I liked the section on resisting persuasion too. I guess I'm a little ornery.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
Ologeez
I don't know how to pronounce it. Ologeez is an interesting experimental start-up out of Stanford. (They don't do very well at incubating start-ups with messes like Yahoo! and Google starting at Stanford.)
It attempts to improve on the PubMed generic interface (which is so lame) and add a social networking aspect with a scientific focus. I love the idea of making vertical search community focused and social tagging aware.
Read more here and here and here and here and here.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:04 AM | Comments (1)
July 16, 2008
Ask and I shall receive
A friendly reader pointed me towards this 2007 graphic after I asked if one existed.
Thanks,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)
Not to put too fine a point on it
This graphic from SearchEngine Watch tells the story from the previous post:
This is for the US. GOOG's share is often higher in other countries.
I'd love to see a pie chart for the public social tools like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Mixi, etc. Anyone seen one?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:09 AM | Comments (1)
Is everyone in play?
This morning Reuters is reporting that TimeWarner is seeking to strike a deal with either Yahoo or Microsoft for AOL. (Yep, they're dancing with two partners.) The article says that the discussions "have taken on new urgency ahead of Yahoo's Aug 1 shareholders meeting." So the next two weeks are going to be interesting.
What does this have to do with libraries? I watch this stuff because there are huge impacts on the community and information ecology when the big players involved affect nearly every major web experience that our users have. For example, Congressional testimony this week says that a Google/Yahoo alliance would control 90%+ of the search and ad market. MS has the majority of desktops. AOL owns Bebo and Microsoft has an investment in Facebook and Murdoch owns MySpace - all of which show glimpses of the future of our technology and social environment tools. What often goes unsaid in these articles are other assets like Yahoo's delicious and Flickr as well as all the companies' involvement in the development of the Cloud. .And, of course, if you follow the money, some estimates say that over 80% of the ad opportuity is there and not in search. It's a real soup right now and it affects our strategies big time.
This is getting so interesting. Will libraries have a big opportunity to create a third way or will we merely play along with the rules driven by the ad supported tools?
The next Congress (and indeed governments and parliaments around the world) are going to be very busy figuring this one out.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2008
Another New Free OCLC Report
Another new OCLC membership report is available to all for free. If you depend in some way on public funding then this study reports on some of the foci and strategies needed to be more successful. Worth the download as always.
From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America
"OCLC was awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding and to evaluate the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding in the U.S. The findings of this research are now available in the latest OCLC report, From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America.
Among the findings from the report:
- Library funding support is only marginally related to library visitation.
- Perceptions of librarians are an important predictor of library funding support.
- Voters who see the library as a “transformational” force as opposed to an “information” source are more likely to increase taxes in its support.
-The report suggests that targeting marketing messages to the right segments of the voting public is key to driving increased support for U.S. public libraries.
Purchase a print copy of the report or download a free electronic version at the OCLC Web site."
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:43 PM | Comments (0)
Stanford Professional Publishing Course
Last week, I had the honour of opening the Stanford Professional Publishing Course international preconference with a talk on technology trendhs in the market of readers an libraries. This was a very interesting group of people from all over the world involved in electronic and prnt publishing in news, media, magazines, and books.
Here's my PPT's:
The Digital Transformation of Publishing:
Information 3.0
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 6:38 PM | Comments (1)
Writing in the iWorld
The basic rules of writing haven't changed for the web. We just need reminding occasionally.
Here's a few links that I found helpful:
How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)
[original] HOW TO SAY NOTHING IN FIVE HUNDRED WORDS
Avoid the obvious content
Take the less usual side.
Slip out of abstraction.
Get rid of obvious padding.
Call a fool a fool.
Beware of Pat Expressions.
Colorful Words.
Colored Words.
Colorless Words.
I'll try too be more interesting. (I did read de Bono's book "How to be interesting")
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)
Managing Complication
It's an old joke that you can put five librarians in a room together and in ten minutes you'd have three associations, one task force, a wiki and two committees.
It sometimes seems like we can complicate a cheese sandwich.
Therefore I was glad to see this short post:
3 Good Reasons to Stop Thinking So Much, And How to Do It
By Henrik Edberg on Success
How to stop thinking so much
Be aware of the problem.
Set deadlines for decisions.
Be present.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:02 AM | Comments (5)
Microhoogle
Isn't this the best soap opera ever?
I don't know if the best novelist could dream up a cast of charaacters like Icahn, Yang, Schmidt, Balmer, et al.
Of well, it's fun to watch. And it's still not over.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2008
There's been a bunch of debate about Twitter and its reliability as it grows. I think this chart is very interesting.
More here.
I remember when AOL went thrpough its high growth phase and couldn't handle it well. It survived too, sort of.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
You'll like this post
Check out yesterday's Globe and Mail article:
Socially awkward? Hit the books
HAYLEY MICK
From Thursday'July 10, 2008
Selected excerpts but read the whole thing:
"A group of Toronto researchers have compiled a body of evidence showing that bookworms have exceptionally strong people skills."
"readers of narrative fiction scored higher on tests of empathy and social acumen than those who read non-fiction texts. And follow-up research showed that reading fiction may help fine-tune these skills"
"Fiction doesn't get a lot of respect," he said. "It has always been viewed as false and as a frivolous thing that had no bearing on real life. But the fact of the matter is, there are effects that continue on after we close the book."
You knew that amnyway, didn't you?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2008
Gettng Value from Conferences
June 2008's Information Outlook column was the annual one on:
Getting the Most Out of Your Conference Experience
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:55 AM | Comments (0)
Two Letters
My Information Outlook columns in March and April were open letters. Here they are:
March 2008
An Open Letter to My Boomer Peers
April 2008
An Open Letter to My New Peers
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:51 AM | Comments (0)
Information Overload
Here's a Feb. 2008 Information Outlook Column:
Is There Such a Thing as Information Overload?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:48 AM | Comments (0)
4th SLA President's Column
Here's my 4th SLA President's COlumn for Information Outlook:
Can you tell I'm catching up on some postings?
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:45 AM | Comments (0)
3rd SLA President's Column
Here's my third bi-monthly SLA president's column for Information Outlook:
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:43 AM | Comments (0)
Yukon Trip
I had a great time in the Yukon and visited nearly every type of library in Whitehorse.
Here's my first formal presentation:
Library Futures: What’s Next?
Dealing with exponential change
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:39 AM | Comments (0)
ALA ILL Pre-Conference
I did the opening presentation for the ALA Resource Sharing pre-conference.
Here's the PPT:
Throw Off Your Policies and Expozse Yourself
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 1:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 9, 2008
How the Google generation thinks differently
From the Times Online:
July 9, 2008
How the Google generation thinks differently
Digital-age kids process information differently from parents. Our writer admits misjudging how her son was learning
Interesting read. (Although they apparently still have a "Women's Section" in the UK. I read it anyway.)
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)
Michael Wesch Lecture
I picked this up from the CASL discussion list in Canada. It deserves wider distribution:
"Many of you have probably seen Kansas SU prof Michael Wesch's thought-provoking video, "A
Vision of Students Today". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o.
Recently Dr. Wesch spoke at the University of Manitoba where he explained the the basis of this video in a talk entitled, "Michael Wesch and the Future of Education." I found it fascinating! He describes how he so naturally incorporates emerging technologies into his courses from the smallest seminar type class to the largest lecture theatre filled class.
More importantly he not only talks about the technologies but how he encourages extraordinary participation and collaboration from his students by engaging them in meaningful learning activities.
Although the video is 66 minutes long...pour a coffee, iced tea or glass of wine and enjoy this dynamic presentation from a master teacher."
http://umanitoba.ca/ist/production/streaming/podcast_wesch.html
Dubbed “the explainer” by popular geek publication Wired because of his viral YouTube video that summarizes Web 2.0 in under five minutes, cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch brought his Web 2.0 wisdom to the University of Manitoba on June 17 (see video above).
During his presentation, the Kansas State University professor breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.
“It’s basically an ongoing experiment to create a portal for me and my students to work online,” he explains. “We tried every social media application you can think of. Some worked, some didn’t.”
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
Learning Along With Your Library Community
Check out this cool innovation from Yarra Plenty Libraries in Australia:
A Taste of Web 2.0: Connecting Online @ Your Local Library
They link to it from their homepage.
What Yarra Plenty Library is doing is that they're running a 6 week Web 2.0 program for the public. They're starting July 25, and the self-paced online course will introduce their cardholders to some popular Web 2.0 applications. Those locals who complete the program will go into the draw for one of 9 iPods. Here's the sort of tools they're promoting users learn:
Skype
SecondLife
Create a blog
Flickr and photosharing
Image Generators
LibraryThing
Google Maps
Google Book Search
iGoogle
Podcasts
E-Books Audio Books and Overdrive
YouTube
MySpace
Facebook
Cool!
Steal this idea.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
Next SirsiDynix Institute
Video on the Web: A Primer
Date : Jul 15, 2008
Start Time : 11 a.m. Eastern
Length: 1 hour
Video on the web is one of today's hottest social networking trends. But what can this emerging technology do for libraries? What is a videoblog and why use one on your library's website? This in-depth session answers these questions and more. Come explore how libraries are using video for outreach and learning through a variety of case studies, discover tips on what types of content work best for different types of libraries, and learn what to consider when planning for and implementing videocasting at your library.
Presenter: David Lee King
David Lee King is the Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He has spoken in the U.S. and Canada about emerging trends, website usability and management, digital experience planning, and managing techie staff, and has been published in many library-related journals. David was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for 2008, and writes the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries Magazine with Michael Porter. David maintains a blog at http://www.davidleeking.com
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)
July 8, 2008
Google Envies Second Life
Google has entered the Second Life virtual worlds space this week with Google Lively.
Google says:
"Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design"
You can learn more at SearchEngineWatche's Comprehensive Guide to Getting Started.
I suspect avatars that are beyond gaming are moving into the real world a lot more. I'll predict that 2008 and 2009 will be even bigger in terms of people moving into these worlds.
And on that note, there was another major announcement today on Global Neighborhoods.
"Sometime earlier today an avatar was successfully teleported from a SecondLife Virtual World preview Grid onto an OpenSim world developed by IBM, marking the first incident of virtual space travel by a virtual life form. While the folks at Linden Lab are emphasizing the limitations of what was accomplished, one cannot help but marvel at the implications of what it means."
The video of the event feels like a a cross between teleporting on Star Trek and the moon walk. I have the feeling that I am watching a beginning.
This development was pretty fast since I only blogged the IBM goal a few months ago (grin).
The commentary on the announcement also speculates that this may be as important as when the first US website went live (with a nifty picture of the first US website creator!).
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
Home Broadband Connectivity Breaks Through the Halfway Mark
One of my favourite regular Pew studies:
55% of adult Americans have home broadband connections
There was no growth in broadband adoption among poorer families or blacks, while growth was strong among rural residents, older Americans, and those in households earning $20,000 to $40,000
7/2/2008 | Release
Washington, DC – Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home, according to a May 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 79% have a high-speed connection while 15% use dialup.
The 17% growth rate from 2007 to 2008 represents is comparable to the 12% growth rate recorded in the 2006 to 2007 timeframe. However, several groups exhibited little or no growth in broadband adoption at home from 2007 to 2008:
Among adults who live in households whose annual incomes are less than $20,000 annually, home broadband adoption stood at 25% in early 2008, compared with 28% in 2007.
Among African Americans, home broadband adoption stood at 43% in May 2008 compared with 40% in early 2007.
“The flat growth in home high-speed adoption for low-income Americans suggests that tightening household budgets may be affecting people’s choice of connection speed at home,” said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of Research at the Pew Internet & American Life project and author of the report. “Broadband is more costly on a monthly basis than dial-up, and some lower income Americans may be unwilling to take on another expense.”
Nonetheless, several groups exhibited strong growth in home broadband adoption from 2007 to 2008, namely:
Older Americans: Those age 50 and over experienced a 26% growth rate in home broadband adoption from 2007 to 2008. Half of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 have broadband at home. Some 19% of those 65 and older had home broadband access as of April 2008.
Lower-middle income Americans: Those with household incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 annually saw broadband penetration grow by 24% from 2007 to 2008. Some 45% of those in that income range reported having broadband at home in April 2008.
Rural Americans: 38% of those living in rural American now have broadband at home, compared with 31% who said this in 2007, or a growth rate of 23% from 2007 to 2008.
While broadband adoption for low-income Americans has been flat, many broadband users show a willingness to pay more for broadband in order to get faster speeds. Some 29% of home broadband users say they subscribe to a more costly premium broadband service in order to have a faster home high-speed experience. A few even have fiber optic connections at home – 2% of broadband users say they have fiber at home.
The Pew Internet study also explores the reasons why many Americans – either dial-up users or non-internet users – do not have high-speed internet connections at home. Among the 10% of Americans (or 15% of home internet users) with dial-up at home:
- 35% of dial-up users say that the price of broadband service would have to fall.
- 19% of dial-up users said nothing would convince them to get broadband.
- 10% of dial-up users – and 15% of dial-up users in rural America – say that broadband service would have to become available where they are.
Overall, 62% of dial-up users say they are not interested in switching from dial-up to broadband.
Americans who are not online – 27% of adults who do not use the internet – are likely to be older (their median age is 61) and have low incomes. When non-internet users are asked why they don’t use the internet, here is what they say:
- 33% of non-users say they are not interested.
- 12% say they don’t have access.
- 9% say it is too difficult or frustrating.
- 7% say it is too expensive.
- 7% say it is a waste of time.
“Economic factors play a large role in why some people don’t have broadband, but about one in ten non-broadband users say that service isn’t available where they live,” said Horrigan. “Beyond price and availability, some non-broadband users simply don’t see the need for having a high-speed connection at home.”
Other key findings from the survey are:
Price of service:
- Broadband users report an average monthly bill of $34.50 for high-speed service, 4% lower than the $36 reported by broadband users in December 2005.
- Dial-up users report a montly bill of $19.70 for service, an increase of 9% over the $18 figure reported in December 2005.
- Always connected users: Some 34% of online users say they have gone online away from home or work using a WiFi connection on their laptop. Among this group:
- 64% say they use free WiFi services when they do this.
- 58% use WiFi in public places such as an airport or coffee shop.
The Pew Internet Project’s report on broadband adoption is based on the Project’s April-May 2008 survey of 2,251 adults, 1,153 of whom were home broadband users. The Pew Internet Project is an initiative of the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Pew Internet explores the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Project is nonpartisan and takes no position on policy issues."
Of course, the vast majority of Americans have broadband access through home, work or school. If you factor in public libraries then over 95% do. This approaches telephone and TV penetration.
If anyone questions why libraries are investing in web apps and experiences, this is why. It's where the users are.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
Update Your Browser!
This is a useful study in case you want to encourage you institution and your users to install the latest (remarkably free) browser upgrade. According to this study, 45.2% of Internet users were not using the most secure browsers. and this is an optimistic number since it doesn't cover out-of-date and vulnerable browser plug-ins!
Anyway, it's worthwhile to be up-to-date. And this short study is readable and not too geeky.
And while you're at it, make sure you have the Unicode compliance your users need. It's frustrating for too many users not to be able to display their language on public terminals. It's not just about serving diverse communities but even mathematicians and scientists needs to see the Greek characters in the formulae! The latest data shows that the majority of global websites are unicode compliant.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
Latest Academic Library Statistics (2006)
The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) has released this today:
Academic Libraries: 2006 First Look
Selected Findings
Services
• During Fiscal year (FY) 2006, there were 144.1 million circulation transactions from academic
libraries’ general collection
• Academic libraries loaned 10.8 million documents to other libraries, and borrowed 10.3 million
documents from other libraries in FY 2006. In addition to the interlibrary loans,
academic libraries received 1.2 million documents from commercial services in FY 2006.
• During a typical week in the fall of 2006, of the 3,600 academic libraries in the United States
31 were open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week
• During a typical week in the fall of 2006, approximately 1.1 million academic library reference
transactions were conducted, including computer searches.
Collections
• At the end of FY 2006, there were 221 academic libraries that held 1 million or more books,
serial backfiles, and other paper materials, including government documents.
• The nation’s 3,600 academic libraries held 1.0 billion books; serial backfiles; and other paper
materials, including government documents at the end of FY 2006.
• In FY 2006, academic libraries added 22.2 million books, serial backfiles, and other paper
materials, including government documents.
Staff
• Academic libraries report 93,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff working in academic libraries
during the fall of 2006.
• Academic libraries reported 26,500 FTE librarians in during the fall of 2006. Librarians
accounted for 28 percent of the total number of FTE staff working in academic libraries during
the fall of 2006.
Expenditures
• Academic libraries’ expenditures totaled $6.2 billion during FY 2006.
• During FY 2006, academic libraries spent $3.1 billion on salaries and wages, representing
50 percent of total library expenditures.
• Academic libraries spent $2.4 billion on information resources during FY 2006.
• Academic libraries spent $94 million for electronic books, serials backfiles, and other materials in FY 2006. Expenditures for electronic current serial subscriptions were $692 million.
• During FY 2006, academic libraries spent $106.3 million for bibliographic utilities, networks,
and consortia.
Electronic Services
• In the fall 2006, some 72 percent of academic libraries provided library reference service by e-mail or the Web.
• Fifty percent of academic libraries reported providing technology to assist patrons with disabilities in the fall 2006.
Information Literacy
• During FY 2006, some 48 percent of academic libraries reported that their postsecondary institution defined information literacy or the information-literate student.
• During FY 2006, there were 34 percent of academic libraries that reported their postsecondary
institution had incorporated information literacy into its mission.
Full Report (PDF; 1.1 MB)
Supplemental Table (PDF; 169 KB)
Always useful to get the NCES stats stuff!
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:13 PM | Comments (1)
Happy Anniversary at the Lighthouse
Today is the third anniversary of Stephen's Lighthouse.
I've done 1,794 postings not including this one. I've had almost 1,400 comments. Thanks.
I get between 500 and 1,000 blog spam (splog) per day. The filter handles most of it but really who are these idiots! Why not work for world peace with that kind of talent and energy? What a sad waste of a human brain.
Anyway, it's still fun. Here's what I wrote on July 8, 2005.
"Well here's my first formal blog posting. Welcome to Stephen's Lighthouse where I'll muse about things library and librarianesque.
The lighthouse theme is based on what lighthouses do - shine a light on the waters and/or sound a horn to help ships navigate the course. They don't always stop the ships from crashing onto the rocks but they help most of the time.
So, arrogant or not, I hope that this blog contributes in some small way to helping the good ship Library World navigate to their vision of the future,"
Still trying to write about and point to stuff that interests me in the hope that it interests you.
Cheers,
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 10:05 PM | Comments (2)
July 7, 2008
Young People and Social Networking Services
This report is international and fairly balanced. It might be useful in some of your communication with and training of parents and other groups.
Young People and Social Networking Services
This Digizen project is "designed to investigate how social networking services can and are being used to support personalised formal and informal learning by young people in schools and colleges.
The work opens by asking “What are social networking services?” This section investigates current definitions of social networking services and provides a comprehensive review of current social networking service types and activities.
In Evaluating social networking services, this report then describes how to use a toolkit – a social networking evaluation chart covering six different social networking services, and an accompanying checklist, which are available to download from the Digizen website to evaluate services. The chart is not definitive, but provides a comprehensive framework covering significant relevant issues such as site age restrictions, the presence of adverts, collaborative tools, security issues and data management restrictions.
Benefits and opportunities evaluates the potential educational benefits to individual users, as well as outlining some of the opportunities that educators and schools using social networking services might take advantage of. This section looks at issues around digital literacy and social engagement, skills and identity development, and opportunities for better understanding e-safety and data management issues.
Barriers and risks looks at current barriers to using social networking services within education, including staff development and support issues, and risk evaluation and management approaches. Risk areas that educators should be aware of are outlined, and approaches to manage these are addressed. Issues include users’ perceptions of the environment they are posting in, personal data management, and cyberbullying and potentially illegal behaviours.
Ideas and examples showcases innovative practice, providing links to a range of projects and examples where social networking services have been successfully used to support both teachers and students. Links to current debates around specific services are also included.
Finally, the Glossary describes some terms that readers may be unfamiliar with."
Sections of the report
1.What are Social Networking Services?
2.Social Networking Services evaluation
3.Benefits and opportunities to support learning and teaching
4.Identifying and managing risks
5.Social Networking Services Ideas and Resources for learning and teaching
6.Download the complete report here [This PDF file is 1.1 mb - 37 pages]
Worth a read.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)
PDF Now an ISO Standard
PDF now ISO standard
Also, Adobe Systems releases Version 9 of Adobe Reader
"The International Organization for Standardization has approved the PDF as a standard format for electronic documents. ISO has christened Version 1.7 of PDF, the current working version, ISO 32000-1.
“As an ISO standard, we can ensure that this useful and widely popular format is easily available to all interested stakeholders," said ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden in a statement. "The standard will benefit both software developers and users by encouraging the propagation and dissemination of a common technology that cuts across systems and is designed for long-term survival.”
Developed by Adobe Systems, PDF is a digital document format designed to preserve the layout and appearance of an electronic document — or the scanned version of a paper document — on different platforms. Adobe submitted the format to ISO for standardization in February 2007.
With Adobe relinquishing control of PDF, the ISO Document Management Applications Technical Committee will review any changes made to the format. The openly published standard provides the technical information required for writing software programs that can create and read PDF files, ensuring that organizations will always have some tools available to render PDFs, even if Adobe stops shipping its PDF viewer.
This is not the first version of PDF to be under ISO’s care. The organization also oversees PDF/X, a subset for the printing industry, and PDF/A, for long-term archiving of documents.
In related news, Adobe has released the latest version of its free PDF viewer, Adobe Reader. The new version is the first to support PDFs with embedded interactive Flash animations, a feature made available with the recently released Version 9 of Adobe's Acrobat PDF creator. The new reader also allows multiple users to annotate and update documents through the company's online collaboration service, Acrobat.com.
"PDF documents are well beyond simple visual representation of paper on a screen," said Bobby Caudill, group manager of global government solutions at Adobe.""
I've never been a great fan of proprietary PDF's but they are ubiquitous and a major part of libraries' service propositions. The upside to an ISO standard is that developers can now more confidently develop access to these docs as well as ensure some sustainability should Adobe itself change direction.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
12,000 Laptops a Week!
I was amazed at this study:
[17 page PDF]
Executive Summary: "Everyday business travelers are putting the sensitive and confidential data of their organizations at risk when they travel through airports."
1. Business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops per week in U.S. airports. [!!!]
2. Only 33% of laptops lost and found in airports are reclaimed.
3. Over 70% of business travelers feel rushed when trying to get on their flights and 60%
worry that delays due to security checkpoints will cause them to miss their flight.
The stress of rushing to catch a flight combined with the number of items business travelers
5. Over 34% of business traveler who say they do take steps to protect the sensitive or
confidential information in their laptop computers don’t know how this information is
protected.
6. According to U.S. airport representatives, the most common airport locations where
laptops are lost include security checkpoints (40%) and departure gates (23%).
Recommendations and Conclusion
Lost laptops in airports are a serious issue for business travelers and their companies. As
revealed in this study, very often business travelers’ laptops contain sensitive or confidential
business information that is vulnerable to a data breach.
According to our Cost of Data Breach Study, the average business cost when confidential
personal information is lost or stolen is $197 per record.4 Obviously, even one missing laptop
can become a serious problem for any organization. To avoid having this occur, we recommend
the following simple steps.
Label your laptop. Provide your full contact information so that if the device is found, airport
personnel will be able to reach you or your company quickly.
Allow enough time. Airline travel is a hassle that only gets worse when you don’t allow
enough time. Stupid mistakes can be avoided if you slow down your pace.
Carry less and think ahead. Have a mental strategy when removing laptops and other
possessions prior to screening at a security checkpoint.
Take appropriate security measures to protect your information. Consider the use of
encryption technologies and always backup your system.
Think twice about the information you carry on your laptop. Is it really necessary to have so
much information accessible on your computer?
Know who to call. Airports need to do a better job coordinating the lost and found process,
especially when it concerns the loss of a laptop computer or other data-bearing devices.
Looks like a job for SuperLibrarian! The report is at least a useful one to send to your folks.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
Wall Street Journal Ad Campaign for Librarians
As president of SLA I am pretty excited about this partnership:
One of the great events at the annual SLA conference in Seattle was to see the full page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal promoting the value of information professionals. One smaller ad ran before the conference and the for four days in a row they ran in the WSJ at full page size. Another has been seen after the conference.
This unprecedented campaign which will continue through 2010 is the result of the fine relationship between SLA and Dow Jones (owners of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Company (which includes the Factiva brand).
Here is the full text of the ad:
The right people, information and decisions
Behind every good business decision is an information professional.
The competitive advantages you bring to the table are superior management strategies and decision-making capabilities. Both originate from information that’s been gathered, organized and shared throughout your enterprise by people called information professionals.
The relevant, high-quality business information you need to take action doesn’t turn up all by itself. Whether internally or externally produced, it’s the lifeblood of people who work for you: librarians, knowledge managers, chief information officers, Web developers, information brokers and researchers.
The Special Libraries Association, with support from Dow Jones Factiva, is behind your most profitable decisions. To learn how an SLA information professional can benefit your organization, visit www.sla.org today.
For a PDF suitable for posting on your library's bulletin board or intranet:
http://www.sla.org/PDFs/WSJ-SLAad.pdf
If it's in the WSJ, then it must be true! Watch for more from this campaign over the next couple of years.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
July 1, 2008
Happy Canada Day
Well Happy Canada Day!
I think this is the first Canada Day I've spent out of Canada. I am still at ALA in Anaheim. My friends are all on the beach on Lake Erie at the cottage raising the flag right now - noon ET and singing the national anthem. Our tradition is that the youngest kid there raises the flag.
O Canada!
It's also my Dad's birthday - Happy birthday Dad.
Anyway, I am looking forward to visiting Yukon tomorrow since I've never been there before. That'll be my Canuck celebration of Canada for 2008.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at 11:48 AM | Comments (2)