Have been doing a bit of catching up reading our blogs (and the public library ones) and have decided how clever we all are!
However this thought was followed by the worry - but what will become of us.....
Yes, I'm talking digital preservation. Web 2.0 Warming.
Can you imagine:
Rare or Underdone long gone
Pea Green Boat capsized
Library Wars lost and
Euphemus ephemera
Unthinkable.
However, I'm buoyed up by a quick visit to the PANDORA site and the contributors' selection policies - one par in particular: (My bold)
5.10. Organisational and Personal Web Sites Web sites of individuals and organisations will not generally be collected unless they are of sufficient state significance or if they provide information of cultural or research value unavailable elsewhere or if they are of exceptional quality or particular interest.
Well now, that puts my mind to rest. Everyone, back to some significant and enduring blogging.....
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Two peas
Ah, the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year 2007:
"pod slurping noun the downloading of large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer."
From: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2140
Have only just this year got my own very groovy little ipod shuffle and my first iTunes account. A birthday present belying middle age. So have been enjoying my $1.69 forays into downloading.
Haven't really experimented much with podcasting elsewhere. Have had a quick look at the Library of Congress webcasts and British Library podcasts. Of all the Web 2.0 technologies, I think this one's got fabulous potential for our industry. Client education / entertainment / infotainment / staff training / talks / events / exhibition guides etc. Cheap and easy to produce and the offerings are more likely to withstand the test of time. Hey, no fashion disasters to embarrass us later and no makeover necessary!
A recent visit to the ABC site reveals a plethora of pod (and vod) choice. You will never miss anything on the wireless again. (Well as long as you get in fairly soon after you missed it.) Their set up is nice and easy to use. Listen now or later.
Sadly the one thing that really took my fancy - Garrison Keillor's News from Lake Wobegon wasn't theirs to podcast - and led me on a merry chase to try to and hear "the latest news and views from the little town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." "
Obviously the folk there are pretty IT savvy too, as I was a bit lost when told to paste the URL into my podcasting client.
Sure, there were links to iTunes and how to download from there, but my "client" if that's what it is, was at home.
I followed another link to audible.com where it was just was just 95c (US) to listen, but I didn't have the small change and wasn't feeling strong enough for another batch of passwords.
Back home to Radio National and the choices are many and blissfully free. And, hey, if I get the head movements right, no one on the bus will suspect I'm listening to Background Briefing.
And on a different but related topic you might be interested to know that the Macquarie Dictionary 2007 People's Choice Award went to…
"password fatigue noun a level of frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember, resulting in an inability to remember even those most commonly used."
"pod slurping noun the downloading of large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer."
From: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2140
Have only just this year got my own very groovy little ipod shuffle and my first iTunes account. A birthday present belying middle age. So have been enjoying my $1.69 forays into downloading.
Haven't really experimented much with podcasting elsewhere. Have had a quick look at the Library of Congress webcasts and British Library podcasts. Of all the Web 2.0 technologies, I think this one's got fabulous potential for our industry. Client education / entertainment / infotainment / staff training / talks / events / exhibition guides etc. Cheap and easy to produce and the offerings are more likely to withstand the test of time. Hey, no fashion disasters to embarrass us later and no makeover necessary!
A recent visit to the ABC site reveals a plethora of pod (and vod) choice. You will never miss anything on the wireless again. (Well as long as you get in fairly soon after you missed it.) Their set up is nice and easy to use. Listen now or later.
Sadly the one thing that really took my fancy - Garrison Keillor's News from Lake Wobegon wasn't theirs to podcast - and led me on a merry chase to try to and hear "the latest news and views from the little town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." "
Obviously the folk there are pretty IT savvy too, as I was a bit lost when told to paste the URL into my podcasting client.
Sure, there were links to iTunes and how to download from there, but my "client" if that's what it is, was at home.
I followed another link to audible.com where it was just was just 95c (US) to listen, but I didn't have the small change and wasn't feeling strong enough for another batch of passwords.
Back home to Radio National and the choices are many and blissfully free. And, hey, if I get the head movements right, no one on the bus will suspect I'm listening to Background Briefing.
And on a different but related topic you might be interested to know that the Macquarie Dictionary 2007 People's Choice Award went to…
"password fatigue noun a level of frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember, resulting in an inability to remember even those most commonly used."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Q&A
What to make of Yahoo Answers. Well, it's more the questions that are fascinating....
I think it's enterprising of the slam-the-boards librarians to do what they're doing. A nice bit of marketing, but judging by the questions, somehow I don't think they'll convert all the question askers. I thought of giving it a go myself, but where to start?
Some examples:
I think it's enterprising of the slam-the-boards librarians to do what they're doing. A nice bit of marketing, but judging by the questions, somehow I don't think they'll convert all the question askers. I thought of giving it a go myself, but where to start?
Some examples:
- How can i get my eyeshadow to look blended and fade to another color?
- What should I wear to Jack Johnson concert?
- Is it important that molecules have different sizes?
- What is there to consider before deciding to become a mother?
- Do you feel that many of us waste time wanting what we do not have or do not need? Do you face this problem?
Or this one which made me suffer reference guilt:
- Do you feel lonely when no one answers your question?
Hard to walk away from, but I'm walking away!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Delicious?
Well I finally got on to tagging. A few quirks to it. I worked out the hard way that it won't take two word tags, as my cloud looked like a dog's breakfast (now that would be delicious).
I guess that rules out attaching LCSH headings!! Once over that hurdle the process of tagging sites was easy. However adding it the blog was not easy at all. Where is the widget??? Where is the chiclet??? I didn't know what a widget was last week and now I feel like dashing off a letter of complaint pointing out my right to be provided with one. Library Thing was a breeze. I won't tell you how many times I tried to get that little cloud to cooperate. The fonts were wrong / it wasn't visible at all / it was too big / it was wrapping around. Even now (look over to the right) there are annoying underlinings that I can't get rid of and are ruining the whole feng shui of my blog.
I certainly think the idea of having portable favourites is very handy. However, I'm not so sure about the the "social networking" aspects. I'm not that interested in knowing what other people's bookmarks are - their books yes - their bookmarks, not so much so.
Also if I look at other people's tags will that always be useful - what I mean by one tag, won't be what you mean by it - control without a controlled vocabulary?
OK, it's about browsing and discovery and I need to loosen up. As the light and breezy Delicious Help information advises:
If you don't get it right away, that's OK -- you don't have to. Tagging is pretty intuitive and can take some practice to fully understand. Try it and experiment a bit! There are no wrong tags.
Now that attitude wouldn't get you a Distinction in Bibliographic Organisation 101.
I guess that rules out attaching LCSH headings!! Once over that hurdle the process of tagging sites was easy. However adding it the blog was not easy at all. Where is the widget??? Where is the chiclet??? I didn't know what a widget was last week and now I feel like dashing off a letter of complaint pointing out my right to be provided with one. Library Thing was a breeze. I won't tell you how many times I tried to get that little cloud to cooperate. The fonts were wrong / it wasn't visible at all / it was too big / it was wrapping around. Even now (look over to the right) there are annoying underlinings that I can't get rid of and are ruining the whole feng shui of my blog.
I certainly think the idea of having portable favourites is very handy. However, I'm not so sure about the the "social networking" aspects. I'm not that interested in knowing what other people's bookmarks are - their books yes - their bookmarks, not so much so.
Also if I look at other people's tags will that always be useful - what I mean by one tag, won't be what you mean by it - control without a controlled vocabulary?
OK, it's about browsing and discovery and I need to loosen up. As the light and breezy Delicious Help information advises:
If you don't get it right away, that's OK -- you don't have to. Tagging is pretty intuitive and can take some practice to fully understand. Try it and experiment a bit! There are no wrong tags.
Now that attitude wouldn't get you a Distinction in Bibliographic Organisation 101.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
A portrait of the artist as a young dog
This 15 minutes of fame took just a bit longer than 15 minutes to achieve
Made with the Big Huge Labs Warholiser
I don't know much about art...
But I know I don't like soup
(made with the Big Huge Labs mosaic tool)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
You make everything groovy.....
With apologies to the Troggs. I think I love Library Thing.
It's the first Web 2.0 application that I've been tempted to invest quite a bit of my own time in. (OK so maybe I watched slightly more Youtube videos than strictly required).
I can't explain it, but it's inordinately fascinating to be able to look at pictures of your books. Hyperreality - as once read, I don't pay that much attention to them on the shelves. But there they are with their real covers cheerfully looking at me from my pc, randomly rearranging themselves.
And how bizarre to find that other people have 20 / 50 / 60 of my titles. Who are they? I thought I was special. (Mind you, some of these people have a serious book problem.) Spookily, some are also librarians.
I know I'm not completely smitten as I haven't been tempted (yet) to make pictures of myself from my books. You are what you read?
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/you-are-what-you-read/
Are there other possible applications? Fridge Thing, where you can download pics of your groceries from online supermarkets and compare with other people's holdings? You could have a little widget on your blog that allows you to open the fridge door and peer in. If this idea catches on you read it here first.
It's the first Web 2.0 application that I've been tempted to invest quite a bit of my own time in. (OK so maybe I watched slightly more Youtube videos than strictly required).
I can't explain it, but it's inordinately fascinating to be able to look at pictures of your books. Hyperreality - as once read, I don't pay that much attention to them on the shelves. But there they are with their real covers cheerfully looking at me from my pc, randomly rearranging themselves.
And how bizarre to find that other people have 20 / 50 / 60 of my titles. Who are they? I thought I was special. (Mind you, some of these people have a serious book problem.) Spookily, some are also librarians.
I know I'm not completely smitten as I haven't been tempted (yet) to make pictures of myself from my books. You are what you read?
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/you-are-what-you-read/
Are there other possible applications? Fridge Thing, where you can download pics of your groceries from online supermarkets and compare with other people's holdings? You could have a little widget on your blog that allows you to open the fridge door and peer in. If this idea catches on you read it here first.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Whither the wiki.....
Have been moseying around the wikis. The ubiquitous Wikipedia for one.
As an exercise I had another look at the West Wing page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_West_Wing
(Picked something I'd know about!) Loved the way the TV series comes up first with a see also to the actual West Wing.
It's a bronze star winning page - really well put together - and a great example of communal brain power that a wiki can muster (editors hail from Belfast to Tasmania)
But, it's not all smooth sailing, just click the Discussion tab to see some of the erudite argy-bargy going on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_West_Wing
Regarding quality, clicked a few entries elsewhere on Wikipedia and loved the warnings:
This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (Good advice!)
See the full list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/Disputes
Loved: The quality of this article or section may be compromised by "peacock terms".
And: Discussions on this page may escalate into heated debate. Please try to keep a cool head when commenting here.
For an interesting insight into how it works check out the Wikipedia entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
(and yes, they deal with the issue of whether Wikipedia should have an entry on itself!)
Look at the discussion page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikipedia
for some spirited wikipedians locking horns (personally, I like editorial disagreement better with West Wing quotes!)
Wikis bring to mind the HG Wells quote that no human urge is stronger than the urge to change someone else's copy...
How well wikis could work for libraries would turn, I think, on issues of whether a wiki is fit for the intended purpose, the level of control/moderation and whether it's designed for internal (library staff) or external (community) participation. Think it would be a good application for manuals / training / newsletter style communication. But trickier for community participation? The Ben Franklin one looked good - but the visitor comments section didn't seem to be enabled. I liked the Library Success Wiki, but it seemed to have had some vandalism probs.
A recent SMH article
http://www.smh.com.au/news/perspectives/facebook-up-to-it/2008/02/26/1203788290835.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
(thanks to a public library blogger for sharing it) looked at the uptake of web 2.0 tools by industry and government and noted
"Among strongly tied co-workers, a wiki can function as a kind of online whiteboard."
So I guess that's the key - where there's already collaboration and a common purpose - a wiki is going to leverage that - otherwise it's just track changes gone berserk.
As an exercise I had another look at the West Wing page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_West_Wing
(Picked something I'd know about!) Loved the way the TV series comes up first with a see also to the actual West Wing.
It's a bronze star winning page - really well put together - and a great example of communal brain power that a wiki can muster (editors hail from Belfast to Tasmania)
But, it's not all smooth sailing, just click the Discussion tab to see some of the erudite argy-bargy going on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_West_Wing
Regarding quality, clicked a few entries elsewhere on Wikipedia and loved the warnings:
This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (Good advice!)
See the full list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/Disputes
Loved: The quality of this article or section may be compromised by "peacock terms".
And: Discussions on this page may escalate into heated debate. Please try to keep a cool head when commenting here.
For an interesting insight into how it works check out the Wikipedia entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
(and yes, they deal with the issue of whether Wikipedia should have an entry on itself!)
Look at the discussion page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikipedia
for some spirited wikipedians locking horns (personally, I like editorial disagreement better with West Wing quotes!)
Wikis bring to mind the HG Wells quote that no human urge is stronger than the urge to change someone else's copy...
How well wikis could work for libraries would turn, I think, on issues of whether a wiki is fit for the intended purpose, the level of control/moderation and whether it's designed for internal (library staff) or external (community) participation. Think it would be a good application for manuals / training / newsletter style communication. But trickier for community participation? The Ben Franklin one looked good - but the visitor comments section didn't seem to be enabled. I liked the Library Success Wiki, but it seemed to have had some vandalism probs.
A recent SMH article
http://www.smh.com.au/news/perspectives/facebook-up-to-it/2008/02/26/1203788290835.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
(thanks to a public library blogger for sharing it) looked at the uptake of web 2.0 tools by industry and government and noted
"Among strongly tied co-workers, a wiki can function as a kind of online whiteboard."
So I guess that's the key - where there's already collaboration and a common purpose - a wiki is going to leverage that - otherwise it's just track changes gone berserk.
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