Monday, August 13, 2007
The Paradox of Choice
(1) Choose When to Choose - If choice makes you feel worse about what you've chosen, you really haven't gained anything from the opportunity to choose. By restricting our options, we will be able to choose less and feel better.
(2) Be a Chooser, Not a Picker - Choosers make the time to modify their goals; pickers do not. Good decisions take time and attention, and the only way we can find the needed time and attention is by choosing our spots.
(3) Satisfice More and Maximize Less - Maximizers suffer most in a culture that provides too many choices. Learn to accept "good enough" since it will simplify decision making and increase satisfaction. Results are subjective sometimes; yet, satisficers will almost always feel better about their decisions.
(4) Think About the Opportunity of Opportunity Costs - The more we think about opportunity costs, the less satisfaction we'll derive from whatever we choose.
(5) Make Your Decisions Nonreversible - The very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances that we will change our minds. When we can change our minds about decisions, we are less satisfied with them.
(6) Practice and "Attitude of Gratitude" - Our evaluation of our choices is profoundly affected by what we compare them with, including comparisons with alternatives that exist only in our imaginations. The experience can be either disappointing or delightful. We can improve our subjective experience by consciously striving to be grateful more often for what is good about a choice and to be disappointed less by what is bad about it.
(7) Regret Less - The sting of regret (actual or potential) colours many decisions, and influences us to avoid making decision at all sometimes. Although it is often appropriate and instructive, when it becomes so pronounced that it poisons or even prevents decisions, we should make an effort to minimize it.
(8) Anticipate Adaptation - Learning to be satisfied as pleasures turn into mere comforts will reduce disappointment with adaption when it occurs.
(9) Control Expectations - The easiest route to increasing satisfaction with the results of decisions it to remove excessively high expectations about them.
(10) Curtail Social Comparison - We evaluate the quality of our experiences by comparing ourselves to others, so by comparing ourselves to others less, we will be satisfied more.
(11) Learn to Love Constraints - As the number of choices we face increases, freedom of choice eventually becomes a tyranny of choice. Choice within constraints, freedom within limits, is what enables us marvelous possibilities.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Long Tail, Searching, and Libraries
In other words, although thousands may want to buy a hit song, if you add up all those who want to buy lesser-known titles, they might generate as much or more revenue than the hits themselves. Working in a library or information centre, it is important to tap into both the "head" of interest and the "long tail" that follows behind. Here are the major concepts if applied to libraries:
Rule # 2 - Let Customers Do the Work - Have user-submitted reviews, which are often well-informed, articulate, and most important, trusted by other users.
Rule #3 - One distribution Method Doesn't Fit All - Some want to go to stores, some want to shop online. Some want to research online, others buy in stores. Some want them now, some can wait. Let the customer choose.
Rule #4 - One Product Doesn't Fit All - Allow for different formats of the same thing. A CD album can be "microchunked" into music videos, remixes, all in a number of formats and sampling rates. One size fits one; many sizes fit many.
Rule #5 - One Price Doesn't Fit All - Although this doesn't apply to most libraries, it's important to keep in mind that different people are willing to pay different prices for any number of reasons, from how much money they have to how much time they have. Whatever the library charges should reflect room for flexibility.
Rule #6 - Share Information - More information is better only if it's presented in a way that helps order choice, not confuse it further. Thus, information about buying patterns, when transformed into recommendations can be a powerful marketing tool.
Rule #7 - Think "and" not "or" - In markets with infinite capacity (virtual ones), the right strategy is almost always to offer it all.
Rule #8 - Trust the Market To Do Your Job - Online markets are nothing if not highly efficient measures of wisdom of crowds. Collaborative filters, popularity rankings, and ratings are all tools that reach this goal: don't predict; measure and respond.
Rule #9 - Understand the Power of Free - A powerful feature of digital markets is that they put free within reach; since costs are zero, their prices can be, too. Services such as Sktype and Gmail attract users with a free service and convince some of them to update to a subscription-based premium that adds higher quality features. Libraries need to use digital economics to their advantage: perhaps use free as a starting point for profits?
Friday, August 10, 2007
Web 2.0-ness
Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Definition of Web 3.0
Friday, August 03, 2007
Happy Long Weekend
Monday, July 30, 2007
The Constant Inconstancy...
Nothing is meant to be stable, everything is wobbly and incoherent. Here are the technologies that have changed so much over the past decade. Think of the changes to come! So many more passwords to remember!
(1) ICQ (90s) –> MSN Messenger
(2) Yahoo! (90s) –> Google
(3) Friendster (90s) -> Facebook/MySpace
As librarians and information specialists, I think it’s unproductive to lament about the constant inconstancy. Rather, we should channel our energies at anticipating new technologies and tools and integrating them into the workplace. Be comfortable with change. Think of it like this. Just like collection management, books come and go. We weed by replacing and displacing. The same goes with internet technologies. If it is our jobs to keep up with the latest titles, then why can’t we do the same with the latest technologies?
I’d like to end off with a haiku of my own:
Hi Web 2.0
I admire your brevity
We will meet again
Friday, July 27, 2007
Academic Library 2.0
(1) Content Collaboration (wikis and online office applications)
(2) Social Bookmarking (Connotea, Del.icio.us)
(3) Media Sharing (Youtube, Yahoo! Video)
(4) Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace)
Take a look! It's well worth the read.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Top 5 Must Read Books for the Information Professional
(1) The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (by Chris Anderson)
(2) Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams)
(3) The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (by Thomas Friedman)
(4) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (by Malcolm Gladwell)
(5) Everything is Miscellaneous (David Weinberger)
Friday, July 20, 2007
The Perfect Job
Congratulations Kiera! All your hard work during these two years has paid off. Big time! Keep up the good cheer and good work, and the sky's the limit for you in the upcoming years. You are an inspiration and a reminder to all that dreams can be achieved.I'm loving my job, just love it! I have to make this fast since my lunch break is ending. Basically, I get to do a ton of interesting things, and stuff outside children's services. I'm on a Child Friendly Edmonton committee which includes people from all over the city, I'm working with others on a section of the business plan to improve our multicultural/new immigrant services, I'm finishing up putting together a wack load of dual-language kits for new immigrant families, working with the YMCA to help them get books for their bookclubs, part of the team to plan the hoopla that is the final Harry Potter, planning a professional development day in the winter with a few other librarians, and then a huge project my boss and myself developed called 'Kids Read! Edmonton' along the same lines as Canada Reads except for kids. It is a lot of fun, and a lot of work, everything from marketing, web design, author meetings, programs to plan, presentations to potential sponsors (like the Edmonton Oilers!), etc.
And then I have about two hours a day on desk, ongoing personalized booklists for kids and teens (they request them online), and I'm planning a sign language storytime for the fall. Oh, and then there's all the summer reading club programs to both coordinate and participate in. The children's librarians here do more project work than programming. I kinda have had to jump in for theprogramming part, ask to do more than what is actually required of me since I want and enjoy storytimes, craft programs, etc. Then there's always a tour to give to library students or classes. There's arranging author visits, and simply trying to rejuvenate some of the staff (hardest part).
Did you follow all that? I get to do a bit of everything. I feel like I get the best of all worlds: individual projects, time with the kids in the stacks, collection development, creative input, presentations, outreach, virtual readers advisory, some management, and even some spatial analysis and furniture selection. I have to make a list of what to accomplish each day or else I couldn't keep track of it all.
I think I was lucky that this position was brand new, and I have a great boss who is really encouraging, positive, wanted me, knows that I'm new and still learning but seems to have faith in me. We 'check in' just enough for me to feel alright. I feel less new although the less new I feel the more I feel I still need to learn. Patience, patience, just need more experience.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
The End of the Information Age
Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash
Monday, July 16, 2007
Library as a Social (and Intimate) Space
The Time Traveller's Wife, a book that I've read recently, is about a pair of lovers who meet in a library in Chicago. The main character, Henry DeTamble, is working at the Newberry Library while Clare Abshire is looking for The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry in 1991, he has never seen her before, even though she has known him most of her life, for Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. This heartrending story is only a reflection of the many relationships that take place in the library.
Which leads me to my point: librarians should be very proud of the silent role they play in society. Not only as educators and information providers, but also as managers of social space. Libraries are very sensitive and special places - it's not all about gate counts and user surveys. Librarians have a very unique responsibility even though they are often not aware of it. They are not only guardians of books, but also of community and intimacy, both virtual and physical.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
More Than Meets the Eyes
(1) Generation X & Y - The audience was mainly people born during this generation, and it showed, too, as they buzzed with anticipation right up till the opening credits. They knew the cast, the names, the plot, the dialogue, the most finest of details. And director Michael Bay delivers flawlessly with a very exciting nostalgic action flick. What does this mean for libraries, especially academic and public ones? It means that they, too, need to adapt to the tastes of their audience, which has grown up. How does Transformers achieve this?
(2) Technology - The movie is updated version of the 80's series. Instead of continuing with an anachronistic setting, this movie adapts to current day necessities, such as MP3's, cellphones, eBay, DVD burners, and 2GB flashdrives. As libraries move forward in time, it too, needs to continually adapt to realities of their time, and engage their audience with social software, Web 2.0 technologies, and new ways of doing things. Libraries can't afford to stand idly by.
(3) The Long Tail - In this movie, the long tail plays an important role in the battle of good versus evil. Sam (aka Spike in the original series) holds an important key to the very survival of the universe. Unknowingly he is auctioning it off on eBay. Chris Anderson first coined this term in 2004, arguing that Web 2.0 has altered the traditional business model, for businesses with distribution power can sell a greater volume of items at small volumes than of popular items at large volumes, which contradicts the long-held models of supply and demand economics. What does this mean for librarians and information specialists?
(4) Web 2.0 - Greater understanding of this new way of information delivery. No longer are "best-sellers" the way to go in collection management and user services. Greater forces are at work with the "new" Web and in order to be successful in this new paradigm and be leaders of this changing world, librarians should not only be continually aware, but also creative in maximizing these up-and-coming (some of them not even invented yet) technologies for their libraries.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Postmodern Librarian
the stance of the reference librarian as non-expert will move the profession of librarianship away from the technocrat/expert model and back towards its earlier mission of service and human-centred values.In proposing that there is an analogy between the new postmodern theories of psychotherapy and the ways that librarians work with patrons seeking information, Stover argues that knowledge, culture, technology, and cognitive-behaviour all play a role in the new fabric of postmodern librarianship. Everything gets broken down and hierarchies are flattened. In my experience working in libraries, things are moving, albeit slowly. With globalization and Web 2.0, are the foundations being laid for this new way of managing libraries?
Sunday, June 24, 2007
From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0
But take a look at KPMG librarian Hope Bell's The Internet: A New Opportunity for Information Specialists written in 1997, and compare it to University of Saskatchewan librarian Darlene Fichter's Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World written exactly ten years later. Although the Web has changed quite a bit, the importance of the librarian's role in teaching users how to use the technology has not. Let's take a look at just how things have not changed in 10 years.
(1) Learn about social media (2007) Vs. Get started - Get connected (1997)
(2) Create a Web 2.0 marketing plan (2007) Vs. Network with your organization (1997)
(3) Participate! Join the conversation (2007) Vs. Become an expert (1997)
(4) Be remarkable (2007) Vs. Position yourself as an expert (1997)
(5) Help your library content travel (2007) Vs. Educate and Train your users (1997)
(6) Monitor Engagement and Learn as you go (2007) Vs. Don't Stop (1997)
(7) Be part of the multimedia wave (2007) Vs. The Impact (1997)
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Beauty of Google Scholar
Friday, June 08, 2007
Why Librarianship?
Everywhere I see, job ads are popping up with job descriptions that MLIS degree holders possess. Particularly in non-traditional settings, librarians are suited for positions once limited to business, communications, and computer science graduates. Because of the Internet, librarians are partitioned into positions that require unique and specific needs. Instead of a dying breed, librarians are part of a profession that is expanding into different horizons and possibilities. Indeed, physicals walls are crumbling and replaced by virtual ones. Why will we never disappear? I argue four reasons:
(1) Technology – Not just the internet, but social software, “wireless” technology, etc. Librarians are known to be at the forefront of translating technology to users. First it was the OPAC, then the internet, now Web 2.0.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Introducing the Web 2.0 Ensemble
(1) Wikis - Pbwiki
(2) Blogs - Blogger
(3) Podcasting - Youtube
(4) Social Bookmarking - Del.icio.us
(5) Social Search Engines - Cha Cha
(6) RSS Feeds - Feedburner
(7) Social Networking Services - Friendster
(8) Reputation-Management Systems - Digg
(9) Instant Messaging and Virtual Meetings - Google Talk
(10) Online Social Gaming - Second Life
Sunday, June 03, 2007
The Library as a Conversation
(1) Social Networks - The content of a site should comprise user-provided information that attracts members of an ever-expanding network. (example: Facebook)
(2) Wisdom of Crowds - Group judgments are surprisingly accurate, and the aggregation of input is facilitated by the ready availability of social networking sites. (example: eBay, Wikipedia)
(3) Loosely Coupled API's - Short for "Application Programming Interface," API provides a set of instructions (messages) that a programmer can use to communicate between applications, thus allowing programmers to incorporate one piece of software to directly manipulate (code) into another. (example: Google Maps)
(4) Mashups - They are combinations of APIs and data that result in new information resources and services. (example: Calgary Mapped)
(5) Permanent Betas - The idea is that no software is ever truly complete so long as the user community is still commenting upon it, and thus, improving it. (example: Google Labs)
(6) Software Gets Better the More People Use It - Because all social networking sites seek to capitalize on user input, the true value of each site is definted by the number of people it can bring together. (example: Windows Live Messenger)
(7) Folksonomies - It's a classification system created in a bottom-up fashion and with no central coordination. Entirely differing from the traditional classification schemes such as the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress Classifications, folksonomies allow any user to "social tag" whatever phrase they deem necessary for an object. (example: Flickr and Youtube).
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The Long Tail and Emily Dickinson
Think of Emily Dickinson. Although she had lived during the 19th century, it wasn't until a century later that her works were "re-discovered," and appreciated by readers. True, the shift from the Victorian to Modernist had helped, but one can imagine what would've happened if Dickinson's ingenuity occurred during our times. According to the Long Tail, things would've been different. Her works wouldn't be hidden in her drawers, but perhaps would be published online or print-on-demand. With services such as Amazon and Netflix, the playing field has been leveled. (Think Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat).
Because physical geography and scale are no longer important, artists no longer need sales to occupy spaces on bookshelves and video stores. Even the most obscure of artists can have their work published online (be it on Youtube, Lulu.com, or Blogger). In many ways, the "steroids" of wireleness, as Friedman had put it, has merely intensified Dickinson's rise to fame in a matter of months (or days), up from from years and decades. This is the power - or perhaps - inevitability of Web 2.0.
For libraries to move into the "next" level, they must consider how to integrate Web 2.0 concepts such as the Long Tail into their operations. It's not difficult; in fact, it's likely inexpensive and likely not very time-consuming at all. It requires only creativity and an open mind. Here is what Anderson proposes for maximizing the power of the Long Tail:
(1) Make Everything Available - Unlike bookstores, which shelves books based on sales figures, Web 2.0 services make everything available. Without the need to worry about physical space, all you need is a database or catalogue, and some marketing, and voila, you let the patron decide for himself what title(s) he wants. It doesn't matter if it the item gets used only once, what matters is that it's there at all.
(2) Cut the Prices in Half. Now Lower It - When you lower the price, consumers tend to buy more. If lots consumers buy bits and pieces of something, that adds up and in the end, everyone is a winner. (Think iTunes).
(3) Help Me Find It - You can't select what you can't find. Amazon is one service that cleverly employs its users' recommendations, social tagging, and uses encourages an element of social networking for patrons to browse its huge selection of merchandise. It must be the smartest marketing ploy since Coke's secret formula. If libraries can maximize on such creativity, the sky's really the limit. Especially since gate counts are decreasing...
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Librarian 2.0?
(1) Understand the power of the Web 2.0 opportunities
(12) Use the latest tools of communication (such as Facebook) to connect content, expertise, information coaching, and people
(13) Use and develops advanced social networks to enterprise advantage
(14) Connect with everyone using their communication mode of choice – telephone, Skype, IM, SMS, texting, email, virtual reference, etc.
(15) Encourage user driven metadata and user developed content and commentary
(16) Understand the wisdom of crowds and the emerging roles and impacts of the blogosphere, Web syndicasphere and wikisphere
Monday, May 28, 2007
What Makes a Librarian?
Why have [librarians]? Anyone can do searching on Google. And anyone can point out which area the books belong to...To a certain extent, he's right. I'm glad I had heard this comment. There are many who echo his sentiments. And in many ways, it should force us in the profession to reflect on what we actually do. Why are librarians important? Why is it necessary for professional training? Why should we be compensated well for what we do? Here are my reasons:
(1) Management - Not just staff, but also the collections, the buildings, the budget, openings and closings, conflict resolutions, and just about anything else related to the running of a library. There's a lot of responsibility involved, and the higher up one is, the greater the pressure. If not done properly, your position is on the line, and the library's as well.
(2) Knowledge - Effective reference work means effective retrieval and searching skills. That means having a deep understanding of precision/recall, different commercial databases, boolean searching, reference titles, good memory, insatiable curiosity. Above all, it means intelligence. You can't be an effective librarian without a broad knowledge background, and that is why librarians need at least six years of education and a master's in order to be a librarian. All librarians are well-read, intellectual, and extremely creative; there's a reason it's a graduate programme.
(3) Bibliographic Control - Librarians may not all be cataloguers, but at the end of the day, effective searching means a solid understanding of MARC records and controlled vocabularies. Regardless of which kind of library, librarians need to have a good grasp of vocabulary in order to do competent searching on databases and search engines.
(4) Information Technology - Librarians have always been underestimated in their technological savvy. But I am always surprised at just how much of it is required in their work, and most librarians if not all do an excellent job despite the lack of formal training. Librarians have always been ahead of the game in technology, first with huge computers, then OPACs, then then databases, then finally the Internet. Now with Web 2.0, librarians are once again at the forefront with integrating blogs, wikis, and social software into their work.
(5) Teaching - I am forever amazed at the amount of teaching that librarians perform in their work. Yet, much of this teaching is unrecognized and underappeciated. Librarians teach a lot: from using a mouse, to writing resumes, to using Web 2.0 tools. Much of the time, librarians are not even formally trained with the pedagogical theories; they teach well based on their intuitive intelligence and passion for their work. So with that said, librarians deserve a pat on the back. Bravo to you all!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
To Continue with Web 2.0...
(1) Individual Production and User Generated Content - Free social software tools such as blogs and wikis have lowered the barrier to entry, following the same footsteps as the 1980s self-publishing revolution sparked by the advent of the office laser printer and desktop publishing software. In the world of Web 2.0, with a few clicks of the mouse, a user can upload videos or photos from their digital cameras and into their own media space, tag it with keywords and make the content available for everyone in the world.
(2) Harness the Power of the Crowd - Harnessing not the "intellectual" power, but the power of the "wisdom of the crowds," "crowd-sourcing" and "folksonomies."
(3) Data on an Epic Scale - Google has a total database measured in hundreds of petabytes (a million, billion bytes) which is swelled each day by terabytes of new information. Much of this is collected indirectly from users and aggregated as a side effect of the ordinary use of major Internet services and applications such as Google, Amazon, and EBay. In a sense these services are 'learning' every time they are used by mining and sifting data for better services.
(4) Architecture of Participation - Through the use of the application or service, the service itself gets better. Simply argued, the more you use it - and the more other people use - the better it gets. Web 2.0 technologies are designed to take the user interactions and utilize them to improve itself. (e.g. Google search).
(5) Network Effects - It is general economic term often used to describe the increase in vaue to the existing users of a service in which there is some form of interaction with others, as more and more people to start to use it. As the Internet is, at heart, a telecommunications network, it is therefore subject to the network effect. In Web 2.0, new software services are being made available which, due to their social nature, rely a great deal on the network effect for their adoption.
(6) Openness - Web 2.0 places an emphasis on making use of the information in vast databases that the services help to populate. This means Web 2. 0 is about working with open standards, using open source software, making use of free data, re-using data and working in a spirit of open innovation.
Monday, May 21, 2007
MBA and MLIS
In fact, librarians often have a more difficult job because they not only learn about the profession while in library school, but must also learn how to manage, often right out of school and into their first day on the job.
1. Science vs. Profession - There are two schools of thought in the history of MBA education. The Carnegie school believes in business as a science; hence the curriculum is very much lecture-based. The Harvard school believes business is a profession; hence, its curriculum is case studies-based. But there is little emphasis on actual management, which is ironic because the very skills needed in graduates of the program once they are hired and assigned senior managerial positions, don't have the requisite skills. In MLIS programs, there appears to be two schools of thought, too: (1) The I-School approach; and (2) the "traditional" library school. But what appears to be neglected is solid management skills on project management and leadership courses.
2. Experience vs. Education - MBA programs attract the best and brightest - but often the youngest and inexperienced. There is a huge disjunct between passion and ambition, with the latter being the more dominant of the two. Instead of admitting seasoned veterans who have managerial experience, MBA programs are often comprised of students with either only a year or two of "work experience" or straight out of undergraduate studies. Hence, MBA programs are not training managers like they're supposed to, but instead are giving ambitious individuals credentials to bypass the corporate ladder, and jump straight into influential positions. The MLIS appears to offer a similar ticket for those who want to move up, but not necessarily move in.
3. Integration vs. Specialization - MBA schools don't produce graduates with the skills to be managers because they force specialization rather than integration. Disastrously, specialization does not a good manager make, because it merely produces individuals with narrow skills and knowledge whereas managers need to be able to selectively adapt from a wide array of tools for different situations. In other words, while managers need to see the "big picture," MBA programs only pushes particular concepts, ideas, and rules on them and lets the individual to sink or swim after he or she graduates. MLIS pushes various combinations of "core" courses from cataloguing and reference without and leaves it at that.
4. MB/A vs. ML/IS - It appears these programs are comprised of two different intentions. While MBA programs are structured around "business" and "administration," where on one side is B: specialization in the business functions mostly for people with little experience, and on the other side is A: administration and management: programs designed to educate the experienced, and so adopting a wholly different approach. Similarly, MLIS programs are of "librarianship" and "information science." In essence, faculty is split among these two streams and often, the product is disintegrated and inconsistent.
5. Fast-track vs. Professional Will - What the MBA has produced is a culture of elitism, where one realizes that the MBA is not an education, but rather a fast-track up the corporate ladder. Whereas experienced and dedicated individuals languish in their positions because of their lack of credentials, MBA graduates freely jump from one industry to the other, and into positions without much knowledge of the industry other than the soft introductions from their MBA courses (or none at all). What this has created is a culture of "elitism." Managers at the top of the pyramid often lose sight of lower echelons when in fact they need to be seeing the whole pyramid. Mintzberg interestingly proposes an equation for explanation: Confidence - Competence = Arrogance
6. Best Bang for the Buck - With the high cost of education, applicants want to maximize on their education. Hence, the most popular programs are those of the shortest length (12 months) but offers the same degree as those with lengthier schedules. In a way, isn't this the same with MLIS programs? In terms of breadth, does this really shortchange students? Or perhaps the question should be, why the disparity?
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Seven Steps to Searching The Invisible Web
Strategy #1: Adopt the Mindset of a Hunter - Searchers are passive users of information-seeking tools while hunters are use tools, but also take advantage of their environment, the weather, knowledge of their quarry to act opportunistically whenever possible, using all manner of tactics when stalking their elusive prey. Thus, when attacking the Invisible Web, an active mind is needed to turn over every stone, ceaselessly looking for new "possibilities" of every website encountered keeping in mind that one can never find "everything."
Strategy #2: Use Search Engines - Even though a great deal of content of the Invisible Web is hidden in databases unreachable by search engines, some of this content have Web interfaces still have simple HTML pages that are visible to search engines.
Strategy #3: Datamine Your Bookmark Collection - Invisible Web content sometimes are already on webpages, but hidden in the databases within the site. Look through the sitemap and really "dig" into what the site has to offer.
Strategy #4: Use the Net's "Baker Street Irregulars" - Even Sherlock Holmes relied on an extensive intelligence network, a motley crew of street urchins called the Baker Street Irregulars, to provide him with the most updated information of London. The Web has its own group of characters that are experts on searching and take pride in sharing their knowledge with others. Take advantage of such resources, which often includes discussion lists (and now blogs).
Strategy #5: Use Invisible Web Pathfinders - Such pathfinders are like directories that lists links to Invisible Web resources.
Strategy #6: Use Offline Finding Aids - Books, magazines, and journals offer valuable content about the Invisible Web. However, instead of relying on such printed material for website reviews, the trick is to find the "unreviewed" material by personally exploring the webpages for hidden databases and Invisible Web resources.
Strategy #7: Create Your Own "Monitoring Service" - This requires a two-step procedure. First, identify the Invisible Web resources you find most relevant and monitor the "What's New" or press releases pages. The second is to subscribe to "What's New" lists such as the Librarian's Internet Index New This Week for weekly emails about useful internet resources. Of course, Web 2.0 has made this possible for everyone with RSS feeds!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Mr. Bean Goes to the Library
I just couldn't help not sharing with you this intriguingly funny Mr. Bean clip, starring Rowan Atkinson (one of my favourite comedians) which is one of the rare sketches that didn't quite make it to the big screen and got left on the cutting room floor, only to be released when the DVD format came out. Just in time, too, for Mr Bean's return the big screen with his latest movie when it comes out later this summer. This clip is certainly ones that librarians would hold their breaths. Enjoy!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The 10 Forces
#1: Collapse of Berlin Wall: The fall of the Berlin Wall is the starting point for leveling the global playing field. Because the event became the ultimate symbol for the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the global economy.
#2: Netscape: With Netscape, the World Wide Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by scientists, to everyone who has internet connection.
#3: Workflow software: Technically, what makes this possible is the development of a new data description language, called XML, and its related transport protocol, called SOAP. Such programming allows a vast network of underground plumbing which enables Web and software applications to communicate with each seamlessly.
#4: Open sourcing: New open source software such as blogs and wikis has allowed communities to upload and collaborate on online projects. Free software has leveled the playing field for all, preventing big businesses to monopolize as they could in the past.
#5: Outsourcing: Outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way. At the same time, poorer countries such as India benefits because not only can workers can achieve a better lifestyle and higher pay without leaving their homes, India as a whole becomes a global economic power by preventing a braindrain because of these new technologies.
#6: Offshoring: Similar to outsourcing, countries that could not produce certain products in the past suddenly can do so and become global players. Offshoring allows countries such as China to manufacture the very same product in the very same way, only with cheaper labor, lower taxes, subsidized energy, and lower health-care costs . How? With the internet, anyone from anywhere can have fast, free information blueprints to build just about anything and anywhere.
#7: Supply chaining: Using Wal-Mart as its primary example, supply chaining allows horizontal collaboration among suppliers, retailers, and customers to create value at a more efficient pace and at a lower price, thus resulting in the adoption of common standards between companies and more efficient global collaboration.
#8: Insourcing: Using UPS as a prime example, insourcing is about one company performing services on behalf of another company. For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees. Instead of being competitors, businesses are actually collaborating with each other in order to maximize profits and efficiency through the use of greater communication technologies.
#9: In-forming: With the advent of Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search, everyone who can type has the same basic access to overall research information. Search engines has become a total equalizer. In-forming is the ability to not only build an deploy one's own personal supply chain - a supply chain of information, knowledge, and entertainment, but also for self-collaboration - that is, becoming your own self-direct and self-empowered researcher, editor, and selector of entertainment, without having to leave the house or office.
#10: "The Steroids": "Wirelessness" is the ultimate "flattener" because it amplifies and turbocharges all the other flatterners, making it possible to do each and every one of them in a way that is "digital, mobile, virtual and personal." Some of these new technologies are already a big part of our lives, including cell phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over IP, or VOIP. These are but the early technologies: the best is yet to come.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
The Mashup Competition for '06
The 'mashup' is a point in time; a means to an end. Our purpose is not, necessarily, t encourage the neverending development of small tweaks and hacks around existing systems. Our purpose is to create a safe and incentivised environment within which the whole sector can begin to give serious thought to what they actually want in the future. Should we continue to change the systems we have incrementally, or are we approaching the point at which some revolutionary change is required? Mashups are 'easy', mashups are quick. Mashups free their creator to think differently, and to try the unexpected. Some of that which they learn will inform our collective thinking as we move forward.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Globalization 3.0
Globalization 1.0 (1492 - 1800) - The world shrank from size large to size medium. It was about countries and muscles. The key driving force was how much muscle, horsepower, wind power, and steam power a country had and how creatively it deployed it. The main question was: Where does my country fit into global competition and opportunities?
Globalization 2.0 (1800 - 2000) - This era shrank the world from a size medium to size small. The key agent of change was multinational corporations (MNC's), which went global for markets and labour, spearheaded by the Industrial Revolution. The key dynamic forces behind this era of globalization was technology: steamships, railroads, telephones, then mainframe computers. The main question was: Where does my company fit into the global economy?
Globalization 3.0 (2000 - present) - We've entered the era where size small has shrunk to size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. The dynamic force behind our unique era is the power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. The dynamic forces behind this is software in conjunction with the creaton of a global fiber-optic network that has made us all next-door neighbours. The question now is: Where do I fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, collaborate with others globally?
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Web 2.0 Course this Summer at University of Western Ontario
The term “social software” has been applied to Web-based software tools that facilitate communication, collaboration, and network/community-building. This course will explore social software applications such as blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking, tagging, and online social networks within the context of library services.
What do you think? Is it time that LIS faculties make Web 2.0 courses mandatory, or at least integrated into the curricula? Here is a schedule of the weekly topics.
- Week 1: Introduction to social software
- Weeks 2 & 3: Blogs - introduction to technology, terminology & software options. Discussion of blog content, design, usability, and library case studies.
- Weeks 4 & 5: RSS - introduction to RSS technology and specifications. Discussion of RSS trends and current issues, review of RSS aggregators, hands-on, and library case studies.
- Week 6: Wikis – technology, software options, hands-on, and library case studies.
- Week 7-8: Social bookmarking, tagging, folksonomies – technology, trends and current issues, hands-on, and case studies.
- Week 9-10: Online communities and social networks – trends and current issues, exploration of various online communities, hands-on, library case studies.
- Week 11: Gaming and virtual worlds.
- Weeks 12-13: best practices, discussion, evaluation.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Search Engines for '06
It's very easy simply to concentrate on the 'Big Four' search engines - Ask, Google, Live and Yahoo, while missing out on what is happening elsewhere. I know that I'm as guilty of that as anyone else and so for this column I thought I would look back over 2006 and see which search engines have come to my attention, what I think of them, and see how well they have actually fared. This is of course by no means a comprehensive list, and I will inevitably have missed out some but I hope I will have caught the main contenders.
My search engine of the year? Cha Cha. Why? I've written a post about it a while back ago. It's a superb compliment to searching for those "needle in a haystack" type reference inquiries.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Top 10 Library Blogs
(10) Blog on the Side - Darlene Fichter, Data Library Coordinator at the University of Saskatchewan, never fails to offer fascinating insight into the technological side of the information profession. Each post offers a little something different. Hence, it makes my top 10.
(9) McMaster University Library - This one's kind of unfair. A university librarian shouldn't be ranked so highly. (Doesn't he better things to do?) And that's absolutely why Jeffrey Trzeciak offers such an exciting blog. He gives us a glimpse of the inner workings of a university librarian's viewpoint. Indeed, there is management-speak, but underneath the marketing and formality, is hidden a fabulous hub of fascinating ideas and fabulous vision of Library 2.0.
(8) Michael Habib - I'm just astounded at how far Mr. Habib will go. The sky's the limit for this man. And he's only just finished his MLS a few months ago. I consider Habib to be one of the foremost experts of Library 2.0 theory, as he wrote his dissertation on it.
(7) Library Crunch - Michael Casey's blog about Library 2.0-related issues in LIS. Casey is the progenitor of the the term "Library 2.0" and not surprisingly, his blog offers the most innovative insights into the profession.
(6) davidrothmman.net - Very highly technology-charged blog with superb insight into the latest medical library-related happenings.
(5) Vancouver Law Librarian - Humorous and enlightening, he offers more of a tech-related posts in the legal information profession.
(4) Meredith Farkas - One of the up-and-coming stars in the library world, Meredith has already published articles, contributes frequently to the blogosphere with thoughtful analysis, and even built the inaugural Five Weeks to a Social Library free online course for working librarians.
(3) Krafty Librarian - Michelle Kraft is in my mind, one of the top health librarians in the field, and her blog posts indicate her knowledge and passion for her profession. She is also very updated on the technology side of her area of librarianship, which is a challenge, since hospital libraries are not often the most receptive places for technology due to data privacy.
(2) The Google Scholar Blog - This one's definitely a biased decision; but one which I don't think is overly so. I am confident that many will agree with me that the information in this blog not only serves the medical community, but the information profession. The Google Scholar is on sabbatical on the moment, but his year of material is worth the price of admission alone.
(1) Tame the Web - I rank according to the following criteria: visually creative inteface; length of existence; originality of posts; and quantity/quality of feedback. Michael Stephens, a professor and professional librarian, has a blog that meets all of these criteria. It's definitely worth checking out.
I believe blogging is a new beginning for librarians; whereas in the past, discourse was confined to monthly journal articles, which could only draw response sporadically through conferences and workshops and the occasional phonecall, the blogosphere has transformed and leveled the playing field. Librarians are actually ahead of the game now; we can exchange our views within seconds. I'm proud to be apart of this profession, and excited about where it's going.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
An Early Web 2.0 Definition
Saturday, April 21, 2007
BCLA Conference: Day #2
It was a particularly interesting session in that it provided an account of the process that brought the eHLbc vision to life, such as creating a request for proposals, creating steering and planning committees, as well as identifying future steps that are being planned. In providing the entire BC academic and health care community with high quality, cost-effective, equitable and easily accessible health library resources that will support and improve practice, education and research, eHLbc appears to be taking a huge step for the health practitioners.