Ramblings, citations and "brainwaves" of a college librarian in Toronto. 475 square feet refers to the size of my home, not the size of my office or library.



Doggies on Death Row


Dogsindanger

The service aggregates dogs with limited odds of adoption, from shelters across America. Powerful IT, or sick and sadistic?


TokBox



Coolest Presentation Technology



Value of Search


"Kevin Kelly asserts that "The value of web search is in the hundreds of billions. But what is most interesting to me, is that this huge "industry," this huge appetite, has materialized out of nowhere. If we ask 800 billion questions today and expect to get instant answers, where were those 800 billion questions 20 years ago?"
The other classic search route is the library. US libraries in the 1990s counted about 1 billion library visits per year. Out of those 1 billion, about 300 million were "reference transactions," or questions. We could be generous and count any visit to the library a "search," as in searching for a book or topic.
"Search has been considered a non-essential luxury. But once it becomes ubiquitous, good, and free, we will find it is no longer a luxury but essential. As long as there are biz models that will deliver this good for free, this value will be hidden. The free in fact disguises its value. I believe we are at a cusp where we become increasingly dependent on search.""

Kevin Kelly


Twitter/Micro Blogging



Library Swag


Looking to be proud? These guys have lots of rah-rah gear!





David Lee King

People think about change in different ways

* Positively
* Negatively

Librarians and change

* slow change
* fast change

Transformation taking place in social networking world

* Social networking is really taking off
o Mentioned in mass media
o patrons noticing and caring
* RSS, RSS Reading, tagging, comments, mash ups, user generated content, friending
* Comments
o old way - one-on-one, letter, not a public conversation
o new way - public conversation, AADL
* Friending
o old way - business card
o new way - Facebook, YouTube channel, MySpace, Instant Messaging buddies
+ you can be friends for life
+ connections regardless of geography
+ trusted source
* Content
o old way - books on a shelf
o new way - staff generated, patron generated, pieces of web pages, subscribed to
+ different types of media
+ tell stories, give the library a human voice
+ Denver Public Library - YouTube video contest
+ participative in nature
+ Stevens County wiki (Stevens County Public Library)
* Tagging
o old way - authority controlled, librarian created
o new way - user generated, personal keywords
+ Scriblio - each book is a blog post
* Web as Platform
o old way - patrons visiting the library to access the library
o new way - patrons visit library to access the web to do stuff outside the library
+ use web to create content, access services, get information
+ library as launch pad to a destination
* Mashups
o Freely combine content from more than one information source
+ syndetics, amazon
+ LibraryThing for libraries

Whys and Hows

* Relevant to the next generation
o IM and text messaging
o creating user generated content
o using web 2.0 tools for storage, bookmarking, entertainment
* Mobile technologies are getting smaller and easier to use
* Activities have to be more interactive
* Teach the current generation
o concept of information literacy changing
+ teaching people how to use social tools effectively
+
# Flickr class
# MySpace for parents program
+ show people how to save time
# RSS
# different forms of communication (IM)
# Bookmarking
# working smarter by using tools
* Be a community leader
o become a community resource
o be relevant to their users
* How do I find time?
o changing the focus
o changing job description
o changing services we provide (karen’s comment)
* letting go of the past
* do something scary
* Granting time
o give time for reading, playing, learning, creating
o send staff to formal training
o practical training for staff
o buy books for training
* When making changes…
o describe change succinctly
o plan carefully
o help people respectfully let go
o constant communication
o model new behavior

5 year forecast

* more interaction more participation
* personalization
* more multimedia
* mobile - actual functionality for non-nerds
* easier designs (via templates and skins)
* National Library of New Zealand conference “in 2017 libraries will be…”
o anywhere, anytime, anyhow
o libraries will be about communities not computers
* one things is sure: change…


Audio Graffitti


Audio Graffitti

To all those who take the time to make life interesting. Thank-you!



While audio ebooks are doing fine, text ebooks are so-so at best. Why? They lack the multimedia experience. If I look at a photoshop book online I want it to have this:







until then, they're going to be boring.


Just Ask Me (JAM) Desk


Yes. Yes. Yes. This is what my library needs!

JAM Desk



I'm sure they did not invent the idea, but I like this page from YorkU libraries. It easy to use to get what you need to know. I love it!


Buying Books From Chapters Indigo for School Libraries


Premier Dalton McGuinty says he is making "the most significant" investment in school libraries in a generation with a promise to spend $120 million on more books and librarians in elementary schools.

"We'll be providing 1.7 million more books on an annual basis. For every elementary school, that means 430 more books every year."

McGuinty said he could not have done it without the help of Reisman (Indigo), who has agreed to provide the new books at cost.

McGuinty said librarians play an integral role in fostering a child's interest in reading, which is why he is setting aside $40 million of the literacy investment to hire more.

Humm...is Indigo dumping unsold books on libraries? or using government dollars to get leverage with publishers on price? Smells dirty. I like the hiring of school librarians though.


eBooks on Mobile Phones


"American publishers look at how the Japanese have embraced reading books on mobile phones and wonder if that response can happen here. The sale of electronic books for mobile phones grew there by 331 percent, from 1.6 billion yen (about $14 million U.S.) to 6.9 billion yen ($58 million) in 2006 over the previous year, according to the Digital Content Association of Japan." ADWEEK

It will not take off here if "business as usual" continues. Pricing will be important, something industry here has failed to accept. It works in Japan becasue it is cheap. Here, if its mobile, it is treated as a luxury good, when it comes to pricing. But it is not. Its value is way less than the real thing. Way, way less, buit the suits don't get it.


Linkage Between Offline and Online Marketing Activities


Tim O'Reilly has something interesting to say again.


Book Facts


"Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000

Number of these that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000

Number that sold more than 100,000: 483.

So even though more than 1,000,000 books get written, few are read at any substantial level.

Few are bought for individual libraries as a percentage of the total corpus.

Now book discovery is changing.

What will be the impact of OpenWorldCat on discovery? What percentage of all books get in there? It's loaded or working in Google, Amazon, Ask, Yahoo!, MSn, etc...?

Many books are showing up in fulltext now through the Google Publisher program, Amazon, Google digitization, Project Gutenberg, Alouette Canada, the Open Content Alliance, and other digitization projects workdwide.

Are we on the edge of being able to find the unread!?"

Stephen Abram

My question is, if you can't easily buy it, borrow it, get it...will that piss you off and stop you from looking for a book, next time around? That would not be good for libraries...I already see that to some degree with PhD students.


TV Show Music, Search Engine


Okay...this made my day. LOL!


Guide to Twitter in Libraries



Google Presentation


Okay...something else to play with.



Taylor, K. (2007) Copyright and research:
an academic publisher's perspective. SCRIPT-ed 4(2) 233-236

Adams, Andrew A, (2007) Copyright and research:
an archivangelist's perspective 4(3) SCRIPT-ed 285



Students and social media study.


Stuff Others Say Is Cool


VoiceThread
Record voice to go with slides or photos. Each voice comment is associated with one image so if you want to change something, it's easy to change just that one.

Phixr
Photo editing online

Picnik
Photo editing online

Proxify.com
A way to bypass Internet filters sometimes



Teach them to say yes to licensing...

Wierd world...

Read here.


Putting Google Maps to Work for Library Referrals


Okay...I have a summer project lined up for a student. A google map of all the libraries of interest in teh GTA... Thanks Darlene.


Oakland Crime Spotting


If you're ever in the market for a house...this would be nice to have.

A google map of all the recent crimes.

I saw a Toronto Star article listing all the addresses...maybe I'll make my own map?



Okay, am I the last person to see these wicked pathfinders?

Also:
A Librarian’s Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides



I'm not a fan of motivational speakers...but after the last two weeks I have had, this seems useful.


Scientific Citations In Wikipedia


First Monday has a nice ditty on out-bound links in science articles in Wikipedia.


Wikipedia Begins to Cull the Herd


The Los Angeles Times reports on how Wikipedia's focus has been shifting from adding articles to pruning them back, and the arguments among the Deletionists and Inclusionists that have resulted.


Lynetter's Snippets


Enjoy them here.



Two good library marketing stories in one week? How is that possible!

First the mud flaps...now this.

Twitter Tees.



Sutree
SuTree calls itself a “knowledge community”, and indeed it is; this Israel-based DIY service indexes short how-to video lessons, lectures, and tutorials from across the Web. Members of the SuTree community can link to, tag, and categorize lessons in the form of videos, Flash presentations, PowerPoint files, audio-only files, and more. Community users can provide content ratings, comment on lessons, and send lessons to friends. Fans of the website can add a SuTree search box widget to their website or blog.

Instructables
Instructables launched in 2005 and was founded by a group of MIT Media Lab alums who formed a company called Squid Labs. This step-by-step instructional website provides a space for users to contribute detailed tutorials on hands-on projects ranging from how to build an electric racing car, to creating an invisible book shelf, to how to make a RFID pet food access control system. Instructables mainly consist of images uploaded and placed into step-by-step order by the author and accompanied by instructions, but may also contain video files from Google, Yahoo! and YouTube.

5min
5min is a place for people to watch and share DIY videos which are no longer than 5 minutes long. An interesting feature of the 5min website is their Smart Player which lets viewers watch vids in slow motion, zoom in and out, view the frame-by-frame, or storyboard view. Each member of 5min is assigned a “Studio” or user profile where their work is displayed, and can upload videos, tag, and categorize them, as well as create storyboards for their videos. Users can subscribe to others’ studios, rate videos, leave comments, create favorites, send tutorials to friends, or send messages to other members. The 5min community has RSS feeds througout for those who are interested in subscribing, and they also offer vid URLs and embed code to post your favorite lessons to a variety of social networks, blogs, or websites

Videojug
Presents professionally produced how-to and ask-the-expert short films on topics ranging from how to tie a Windsor knot, to managing debt, to buying a home. VideoJug shares their expert advice through 26,000 videos in over 100 subjects and also lets members upload their own instructional videos and photo slideshow tutorials which they review. Videos are available for download to iPod, PSP, or cell phones, as well as viewable on the website and many are accompanied by printable transcripts or user tips. Community members can email video lessons to friends, favorite vids on the website or through major social bookmarking websites, place user ratings, make comments, suggest alternate titles for films, etc.

Sclipo
This Barcelona-based DIY video-sharing website sees members contributing tips on everything from how to solve a Rubik’s Cube to how to play the drums. Tutorial creators can tag and categorize their videos as well as map their location within a Google map. All users have a user profile page called an Academie and community members can message each other, subscribe to one another, rate video lessons, leave comments, favorite videos, send vids to friends, and leave monetary “tips” for other users who have indicated their Paypal addresses. Sclipo makes video URLs and embed code available for those who want to post video lessons to other websites. A unique feature of the website is the Sclip Live service which enables teachers to join and hold live instructional sessions with their students.

Teachertube
An instructional video service geared toward teachers, TeacherTube launched in March 2007 and offers a community space for sharing educational videos. Run by a family of educators and set up much like the YouTube interface, TeacherTube provides channels, over 200 groups, playlist capabilities, friends, and detailed user profiles. These educational vids range in topic from the Emancipation Proclamation to the physics of golf. Lesson creators can tag and place their videos into appropriate category channels, as well as make them public or private, and attach support files such as documents and presentations. Community members can add videos to favorites, email to friends, and add content ratings.


Magazine Backfiles on DVD


Seems National Geographic won their court case, they don't have to pay contributors for use of their stuff in their DVD collections.

Playboy, Rolling Stone and others will soon be released as entire backfiles on DVD.

Ohh, the entire Road and Track backfile would make an awesome Christmas gift for me....


Finally, Someone Agrees With Me


I've been ranting for some time that we need to get a Library Presence on other people websites, and not just a link to our website. Karen says:

The future of Web Services isn’t the Library website

Thanks,

Karen!


RIAA Inspires PRISM


"PRISM" (Partnership for Research Integrity in Science & Medicine)
http://www.prismcoalition.org/

PRISM is an anti-Open Access lobbying organization, to counteract the accelerating growth of Open Access publishing.

A review of the new evil in our mist.


Creative 404 Error Pages



I remember one 404 error page from MIT Libraries that blamed "stupid flatfile-ers"...in reference to flatfile databases over relational dbs.

My favorite


The complete list.



One cataloguer's rant.



This new application allows access to their library catalogue, Ask Us Services, RefWorks and Get It Citation linker from within the Facebook platform.

Read about it...here




Chocolate Store Google Mashup



Library Marketing...the Good


Think fast...what word comes to mind when I say "library marketing"?

I doubt it is "sex"...but since sex sells and is used by advertisers is was only a matter of time for libraries to try.

Way to go Wyoming Libraries!


ISBN Hand Copying = Shoplifting


Seems bookstores, especially textbook, bookstores, are banning people from writing down ISBN's of books they want to get elsewhere. As someone who test drives books at F2F bookstores, and then orders online for better pricing, I'm worried.

See more here.



Now that we're at dollar parity...folks are re-recognizing the scam prices we pay ofr U.S. products in Canada. Vendors say it is due to volume and business cost differences. I say, just order online from U.S. suppliers until vendors "submit" here. It is already happening with cars...


Tattoo Artists Try To Control Thier Work


I thought I'd heard everything on copyright...seems tattoo artists don't like others making money off their designs. So if I have a custom tattoo, and I sell myself to a ad in a magazine, as a model, they want to sue for copyright infringement because I made money off my upgraded body? I might have associated their work with something they don't care for...

Scary stuff...

Drawing in Permanent Ink (Jordon S. Hatcher)

Lawyer says, get a contract that covers...any copyright that
artist may have; Indeminification by client for the artist for any supplied
work; Reservation or licence-back of right for artist to use
photos of the work; Client agrees to credit the artist in commercial photos


Cult of the Amateur - Andrew Keen


A cute diatrible against Web 2.0.

If creators cannot make money because they effectively loose all control over their IP, and anonymous information reigns supreme, what we have is a return to the middle ages, where the barbarians run free and all we have left is memories of the good things we used to have.

If teachers read this book, they'd understand the mindset of their students so, so much better.


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