This week our topic is next generation catalogs and how they interact with Web 2.0. I found the readings very interesting and also could relate to many of the issues that were discussed concerning online catalogs. NWC library where I have worked for over 30 years implemented their "first generation" online catalogue in the early 1990s. I was there to see the catalogue go "online" and I will admit it was sad to see the card catalogue taken away.
At first it was viewed as a good research tool by our patrons, however problems did arise with the continuing development of the web. Searching our online catalogue was far different than searching the web with Boolean searching and this was hard for most of our patrons. Over the years our patrons have become more savvy with Web 2.0, and have expected more from our online catalogue so we have tried to enhance our catalogue to meet their needs. This however is an "ongoing process" due to new technology that is developed on a regular basis--second and third generation catalogues.
The readings make a good point that I think is worth mentioning. The analysis of the 6 catalogues definitely proves the point that libraries are constantly trying to improve their catalogues to better assist their patrons. "The success depends on both parties involved: libraries need to design social tools that are intuitive, and useful and users need to contribute and use the services provided by the catalogue".
Libraries must take a good look at their clientele, and determine how they fit into this rapidly developing atmosphere of next generation catalogs. What is good for one library may not be good for another, however web 2.0 is playing a big part in determining how to make the library catalogue user friendly and remain relevant for the patron.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Book Review
Please find my book review of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lima555/sets/72157626946750922/with/5826410896/
My first attempt at a flickr presentation. It can be also be viewed as a slide show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lima555/sets/72157626946750922/with/5826410896/
My first attempt at a flickr presentation. It can be also be viewed as a slide show.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tag Gardening and Folksonomy
This week we are continuing our discussion about social tagging. We read two very interesting articles that pertained to this topic. As I said before I really have very little knowledge about social tagging, is that good or bad, I am still not sure! After reading these articles and exploring CiteULike, Library Thing and Flickr, I feel I have a better understanding of social tagging. I also explored http://delicous.com a bit and found that very interesting. After talking to one of our reference librarians, I discovered our library has used these cites for sometime.
After looking at these websites and reading the articles, one point that keeps reemerging is folksonomies must be useful and findable. With no set guidelines for social tagging, the user must use his or her own judgement to create these tags. The popularity of tag clouds seem to make the entire process easier especially for a newbie to social tagging such as myself.
Comparing folksonomy tags to "gardening activities" and breaking the process down step by step makes the entire process a bit easier to understand for me.
One of the concluding remarks in the article by Wichowski states "folksonomies may be flawed, but they are at present, the best means known to track what is happening with the non-mainstream of the information environment". I think this is so true. Folksonomies certainly will evolve, however they are a great tool to use in social networking at the present time.
After looking at these websites and reading the articles, one point that keeps reemerging is folksonomies must be useful and findable. With no set guidelines for social tagging, the user must use his or her own judgement to create these tags. The popularity of tag clouds seem to make the entire process easier especially for a newbie to social tagging such as myself.
Comparing folksonomy tags to "gardening activities" and breaking the process down step by step makes the entire process a bit easier to understand for me.
One of the concluding remarks in the article by Wichowski states "folksonomies may be flawed, but they are at present, the best means known to track what is happening with the non-mainstream of the information environment". I think this is so true. Folksonomies certainly will evolve, however they are a great tool to use in social networking at the present time.
Friday, June 17, 2011
SOCIAL TAGGING
This week our topic is "social tagging". We read a very interesting article by Hesham Allam that was published in the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management. My knowledge of social tagging was extremely limited before reading this article. His article was very interesting and makes a few great points for a new social tagger such as myself.
I particularly like the point he makes, that anyone can perform social tagging, by freely attaching keywords to the content of a Webpage. I am still a bit hesitant in this social networking world, so that point puts me at ease.Although, at the same time, I can completely understand why social tagging can be a bit ambiguous because there are no set guidelines. Social presence is a great motivator for social tagging and I can see how this can give an individual more freedom to express themselves through communication and ease of retrieval.
Social tagging is a great concept, and I have been looking at sites where this is done. I have become familiar with flickr, which I think is a great website to share info. I will be doing my book review via a flickr presentation. Our next assignment will be to look at additional social tagging cites and I will post on that next.
I will end this post by tagging this with the appropriate tags.
I particularly like the point he makes, that anyone can perform social tagging, by freely attaching keywords to the content of a Webpage. I am still a bit hesitant in this social networking world, so that point puts me at ease.Although, at the same time, I can completely understand why social tagging can be a bit ambiguous because there are no set guidelines. Social presence is a great motivator for social tagging and I can see how this can give an individual more freedom to express themselves through communication and ease of retrieval.
Social tagging is a great concept, and I have been looking at sites where this is done. I have become familiar with flickr, which I think is a great website to share info. I will be doing my book review via a flickr presentation. Our next assignment will be to look at additional social tagging cites and I will post on that next.
I will end this post by tagging this with the appropriate tags.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tips for Facebook and Twitter Updates
We read a very interesting blog post by Kivi Leroux Miller that had to do with Facebook and Twitter updates for nonprofits. It had some great tips especially for someone who is new to both Facebook and Twitter.
The first point that was made is to determine the "goal" of your tweet or post. I never really thought about this fact, but it is an important fact especially in such a limited format. The "Three G's of Positive Social Media Marketing", was another point that struck home.
1. Being Genuine, how true is this.--a fine line to draw in getting your point across, but not giving to much information.
2. Generous- being very helpful and give them additional resources.
3. Grateful-Saying thank you is always appropriate, especially by retwetting.
The notes that were offered in this blog were especially interesting. I tend to be long winded, so with only 140 characters to tweet, I will have to be genuine and conscience. I also appreciated the shorten URLs link...that is a great help.
Social capital is very important in any social network and by building your social capital by following a few of these simple rules you will flourish in this world.
The first point that was made is to determine the "goal" of your tweet or post. I never really thought about this fact, but it is an important fact especially in such a limited format. The "Three G's of Positive Social Media Marketing", was another point that struck home.
1. Being Genuine, how true is this.--a fine line to draw in getting your point across, but not giving to much information.
2. Generous- being very helpful and give them additional resources.
3. Grateful-Saying thank you is always appropriate, especially by retwetting.
The notes that were offered in this blog were especially interesting. I tend to be long winded, so with only 140 characters to tweet, I will have to be genuine and conscience. I also appreciated the shorten URLs link...that is a great help.
Social capital is very important in any social network and by building your social capital by following a few of these simple rules you will flourish in this world.
Mobile Communication
One of the topics we are discussing this week is mobile communication. Many libraries are adopting this new technology and it seems to be working for most. I think the following remarks from our readings are pertinent for libraries when looking at mobile communication.
Students are results-oriented and value convenience. This emphasis coupled with the design constraints on some devices promotes a need to get to relevance quickly. Socialization, personalization and location awareness become very important.
This new mobile communication will defiantly impact libraries, in how they develop collections and how research skills are evaluated. Two points that were brought up in our readings. I think the main point that I gained from our readings this week, is to keep the application as simple as possible for the end user, the library patron.
In this day and age of instant gratification, most patrons will find it a necessity to use this technology. Is this good or bad, I am still not sure.
Students are results-oriented and value convenience. This emphasis coupled with the design constraints on some devices promotes a need to get to relevance quickly. Socialization, personalization and location awareness become very important.
This new mobile communication will defiantly impact libraries, in how they develop collections and how research skills are evaluated. Two points that were brought up in our readings. I think the main point that I gained from our readings this week, is to keep the application as simple as possible for the end user, the library patron.
In this day and age of instant gratification, most patrons will find it a necessity to use this technology. Is this good or bad, I am still not sure.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Twitter and More
I recently created my first twitter account and I have to say it is just fantastic. I was aware of this social media however never created an account and thus never followed any individuals or organizations. Not sure if I was not interested, or just a bit hesitant due to my lack of technological expertise. I think I am following about 35 different individuals and groups thus far. I am sure more will be added over the coming weeks. Of course, I am following all of our fellow students in LSC 597 and also the following groups:
This week I am following SLA in Philadelphia. One of the reference librarians I work with is attending the conference and tweeting from there.
https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23SLA2011
I am also following the latest happenings at URI. Nice to get info about things that are happening on campus especially during the summer months.
https://twitter.com/#!/URINews
I am also following Brigham and Women's Hospital. My daughter is employed there and I like to see what is going on in the medical field.
https://twitter.com/#!/BWHSurgery
I am also following OCLC. I use this a great deal in my daily activities, with interlibrary loans and also cataloguing, so it is good to keep up with any new info.
https://twitter.com/#!/OCLC
Of course to keep my knowledge of the entertainment world up to date, I am also following E-online. Maybe frivolous, but fun.
https://twitter.com/#!/eonline
I have not tweeted as much as some in our class, but twitter has opened up a whole new world of social media for me. I look forward to learning a great deal from this social media network.
This week I am following SLA in Philadelphia. One of the reference librarians I work with is attending the conference and tweeting from there.
https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23SLA2011
I am also following the latest happenings at URI. Nice to get info about things that are happening on campus especially during the summer months.
https://twitter.com/#!/URINews
I am also following Brigham and Women's Hospital. My daughter is employed there and I like to see what is going on in the medical field.
https://twitter.com/#!/BWHSurgery
I am also following OCLC. I use this a great deal in my daily activities, with interlibrary loans and also cataloguing, so it is good to keep up with any new info.
https://twitter.com/#!/OCLC
Of course to keep my knowledge of the entertainment world up to date, I am also following E-online. Maybe frivolous, but fun.
https://twitter.com/#!/eonline
I have not tweeted as much as some in our class, but twitter has opened up a whole new world of social media for me. I look forward to learning a great deal from this social media network.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Library, Cuts, Cuts, Cuts
I am going to deviate a bit from social networking and just express my concern pertaining to a few articles in our local newspaper. In the past 2 weeks or so, I have seen 2 or 3 articles concerning cuts in libraries, staff reductions, lay offs and even the closing of some small public libraries in R.I. I realize this is a very hard time for many cities and towns. Budgets are stretched to the max as well as every dollar being scrutinized to the extreme, however I do not understand why libraries are always one of the hardest hit " community needed facilities" that suffer.
The following quote was in the article and I think it makes the entire situation so clear--
Not to take anything away from Fox News, but as Walter Cronkite said: “Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”Hopefully things will change for the library world soon.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
E-textbooks....Good or Bad
Our assignment this week was to read a variety of blogs and choose one or two postings that caught our eye and discuss the issues. After looking at all the blogs, I have to say two blogs written by Nicholas Carr were very interesting. His blog about Zero Tolerance for Print and E-Textbooks Flunk an Early Test were both thought-provoking and compelling. The first blog post made me wonder why in the world politicians would outlaw printed material. I really can not understand that at all. The post made excellent comments stating that we definitely are a long way away from learning what is gained or lost from the printed word. The ultimate goal of any school is to satisfy the needs of their patrons and I would say the same is true for any library. I will have to look at this politician's reasoning in depth to get a better grasp of his thinking or should I say lack of thinking concerning outlawing printed material!
The second post was even more interesting because the library I work in has been discussing the use of E-Readers and has finally set up a pilot project with some of the students. I work in an academic graduate level library, and have for many years. Our student body consists of military officers, civilians from government agencies and also a large volume of international officers. A diverse group indeed! There has been much discuss at this college and especially the library concerning E-readers and issuing the readings to our students using this type of technology. In fact our continuing education department has been testing this type of technology for the last two years or so using iPads. This year in fact we set up a pilot project to give iPads to students in 5 seminars. That is about half of our student body. The iPads contained all their readings for the semester. On an average our graduate students are required to read about 400 pages a week.
Since our school year is almost over we recently received the survey results back. I have to say it is a mixed bag so to speak. Most of the students love the ease of using the iPads, not having to carry around dozens of books. However, there were some problems that did arise. It is funny because a few of them were mentioned in Nicholas Carr's blog. The biggest problem that most of our students mentioned was the difficulty in relocating pertinent info. Our students are required to do a major research paper of about 50 pages, and this was one big problem for their research. I believe this is the "cognitive map" problem that Carr refers to. Another problem had to do with the color illustrations, however that maybe just a technological problem. Overall the students did like the iPads and would recommend them to be used in the future. Our college is looking at all the results and will hopefully make a decision within the next few weeks as to the future of iPads.
As I said before I have worked in this library for many years. I have seen many students carry dozens of books, for their required readings. I am afraid that is a thing of the past....I am still not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing.
The second post was even more interesting because the library I work in has been discussing the use of E-Readers and has finally set up a pilot project with some of the students. I work in an academic graduate level library, and have for many years. Our student body consists of military officers, civilians from government agencies and also a large volume of international officers. A diverse group indeed! There has been much discuss at this college and especially the library concerning E-readers and issuing the readings to our students using this type of technology. In fact our continuing education department has been testing this type of technology for the last two years or so using iPads. This year in fact we set up a pilot project to give iPads to students in 5 seminars. That is about half of our student body. The iPads contained all their readings for the semester. On an average our graduate students are required to read about 400 pages a week.
Since our school year is almost over we recently received the survey results back. I have to say it is a mixed bag so to speak. Most of the students love the ease of using the iPads, not having to carry around dozens of books. However, there were some problems that did arise. It is funny because a few of them were mentioned in Nicholas Carr's blog. The biggest problem that most of our students mentioned was the difficulty in relocating pertinent info. Our students are required to do a major research paper of about 50 pages, and this was one big problem for their research. I believe this is the "cognitive map" problem that Carr refers to. Another problem had to do with the color illustrations, however that maybe just a technological problem. Overall the students did like the iPads and would recommend them to be used in the future. Our college is looking at all the results and will hopefully make a decision within the next few weeks as to the future of iPads.
As I said before I have worked in this library for many years. I have seen many students carry dozens of books, for their required readings. I am afraid that is a thing of the past....I am still not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Is Blogging Dead????
One of our assignment's this week was to read a blog by Debbie Wiel. One of the entries our professor liked had to do with---"IS BLOGGING DEAD?" Although her blog is mainly directed at corporations, non profits and even individuals can gain a great deal from her words. First, I must say I certainly hope blogging is not dead! I just started blogging, and, I love it! I do follow many blogs, and enjoy reading the posts. OK, Facebook and Twitter are great, but I feel that blogging is here to stay because of the digital footprint that it leaves for us. That was one point Debbie Wiel made and I completely agree. I think blogging is an education it itself and we can learn a great deal from it.I do realize that technology is constantly changing and there is always something that is suppose to be better. In the future there maybe something better than blogging, however I do not feel that way at this point in my short, yes only one week--social media career.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Facebook and Privacy
We were assigned an article to read for our Social Networking class that dealt with facebook and privacy. I am a newbie to facebook, and I have to say it is really amazing to connect with so many people. Most of my friends and family are on facebook, but I have always been a bit hesitant to join this social networking group. I am still a bit nervous about my privacy and especially the control I have over my account. I hope to make wise choices, and this article pointed out many hints for the face book user. The article can be found at:
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02.
This article was very help and I plan on using all of the points mentioned. Nick O'Neill's conclusion is especially noteworthy.
http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02.
This article was very help and I plan on using all of the points mentioned. Nick O'Neill's conclusion is especially noteworthy.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Culture of Connectivity and Other Readings
After viewing the Culture of Connectivity video and doing the other readings, two important facts stand out. First, social media networking is changing rapidly and it is hard to keep up with the pace. Secondly, libraries must try and use the best applications of social media for their patrons , as outlined in their strategic plan, and their mission. This may not always be easy, but the patrons must come first.
Danah Boyd's presentation was very enlightening. She touched on many points and spelled out the data that she had collected concerning social media. Her talk was very interesting, especially to someone who is very new to all aspects of social media. One of the most interesting concepts she discussed was social privacy. What actually is social privacy and are you entitled to it when using a social networking site? I hope to find out more info on this topic as our library is facing this problem of sorts.
The readings this week were very interesting and set a good foundation for someone who had no knowledge of facebook, blogging or twitter one week ago.
Danah Boyd's presentation was very enlightening. She touched on many points and spelled out the data that she had collected concerning social media. Her talk was very interesting, especially to someone who is very new to all aspects of social media. One of the most interesting concepts she discussed was social privacy. What actually is social privacy and are you entitled to it when using a social networking site? I hope to find out more info on this topic as our library is facing this problem of sorts.
The readings this week were very interesting and set a good foundation for someone who had no knowledge of facebook, blogging or twitter one week ago.
Terrible Twos and 2.0 Library
The creation of Web 2.0 has created many new features for people to use especially in the library world . I am still unclear as to the exact definition of Web 2.0. As this article mentions others are too. I tend to agree with the group that believes this is a new conventional wisdom. Good or bad, that still has to be decided. However if this does create better interactive web sites, that is a plus especially when dealing with digital literacy, which is still a big concern. This article brings up an excellent point-- how will Web 2.0 change library services? I have worked in a library for almost 30 years, and we have always done things the same way, because it was always done that way. I am afraid this school of thought is "old school" and our library is changing slowly to keep up with Web 2.0. It may not be easy for this old schooler to change, but I am afraid I must to better serve our patrons. Constant changing world of social media like it or not!
Social Media Revolution
Just some remarks to begin with. I am afraid we are in the midst of a revolution. Yes, a social media revolution. It is very apparent from a new user to many of the media sites, that information is changing on a daily basis. However, it is important for libraries to keep up with this changing network. This revolution is here to stay and librarians must adapt and adhere to the changes in the info world. Social media is here to stay.
Chronicle of Higher Education
Hello All,
I received a link to the following article from our library director today. I know we will be covering copyright later in the course. I thought this maybe of interest.
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Dont-Know-About/127706
I received a link to the following article from our library director today. I know we will be covering copyright later in the course. I thought this maybe of interest.
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Dont-Know-About/127706
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