Assignment 8: Mashups

Mashups

I chose the mashup, Lazy Library at http://lazylibrary.com, to explore. Lazy Library searches Amazon to find books on specific topics that are 200 or less pages long. I was less than impressed with the searching algorithm as my search for "Macs" found quite a few false hits. The first hit was for a book, Volume II - Natural Penis Enlargement: Methods of Avoiding and Curing Impotence, Premature Ejaculation, and Erectile Dysfuction Safely . . . .  Only one of the first ten books listed were actually about Mac computers. I got the feeling that I would need to spend quite a bit of time skimming the search results, time a reader who wants to read as little as possible might not appreciate investing!

Rollyo

Looking through the librarian blog postings I found on privacy in Rollyo, the one entitled "How Public is Your Privacy?" caught my eye.  The Shifted Librarian, author of the blog entry, links to two articles that take opposing views of privacy.  The second article was published in the New York Magazine and discusses the various ways young teens and adults live their life on the Internet now. The Shifted Librarian speculates that for our own protection, we should consider registering our names and that of our children on the Internet to prevent identity theft.

Finally, I created a custom searchroll of ten consumer health and patient information Web sites I commonly search. The searchroll is available at http://rollyo.com/marciafrancis/consumer_health.

Marcia

Assignment 7: Podcasting

Podcasting, in my view, is just another technology libraries can use to reach their patrons. Library podcasting may focus on news about events and activities, information about collections and services, instruction regarding how to find information or use resources, etc. 

Libraries need to know their local population and tailor their podcasting activities appropriately. It is wonderful to make information available on the Internet to everyone in the world, but libraries still need to remember to serve their primary clientele first. Some libraries may find their user population is not interested in podcasts yet, but they should continue to monitor the situation in case that changes.

I never thought of using YouTube videos to help with staff training, but I found this mock instruction session that could be used for exactly that:

 

And finally a brief vent:

I have been subscribing to podcasts via iTunes for at least a year without any problems and regularly view and listen to podcasts on my video iPod. I found using Odeo frustrating and plan to avoid it in the future. The interface is cluttered, the searching clunky, and everything I was interested in said "Subscribe in iTunes." What would I bother with Odeo? iTunes is available in both Windows and Macs, so I would encourage others to try it out if possible.

Marcia

Assignment 6: Online Photo Sharing

Libraries can share photographs about their facility and activities to generate interest in activities, provide information, promote their resources, etc. I can see how these online photo sharing sites also could provide a cheap way of sharing local collections of photographs, photographs that may be treasures to individuals who will never visit the libraries and would otherwise not know about the existence of the photographs. 

Library of Congress is hoping viewers of their photograph collections will enhance their collections by providing additional information regarding the photographs.  It is not unreasonable to believe that local libraries also could benefit from collecting additional information regarding their photograph collections.

There are some issues that I would like to hear discussed or written more about.  What photographs are worth posting? Who wants to look at them?  Photographs of people are more interesting, but there are some concerns with that like privacy. Not everyone wants their photographs posted on the Internet for everyone to view.  Before posting photos of other people, you need to get their permission. That can be a pain to do and to track. 

The process for posting photographs is fairly straight-forward, but it does take time. It also requires some expertise with digital photography and/or scanning, as well as photo manipulation, if a library wants to post eye-catching photos to represent itself well. Given that time is finite, what work will be postponed or cancelled to allow this activity to be done in libraries?

Marcia

IHSL Reference Desk

I just posted a photograph of the Idaho Health Sciences Library (IHSL) Reference Desk to Flickr and to my Facebook account, as well as here. 

It's not an exciting photo, but I needed to post something for a Week 6 assignment. I also prefer not to post pictures of myself as people really do make judgments based upon appearance, no matter what they might claim.

Marcia

Assignment 5: Web Office Tools

Is this the future of all software products? What do you think? 

This may be the future of some software products, but probably not all. The more widely used software that is used to create collaborative information products may end up this way. Other software may not be profitable to switch to this model of distribution and use. 

Some software produces personal information, information created by one person for the use of that one person. Privacy would be a concern in these cases, and switching to a Web-based software would be undesirable. For instance, why would I want to have my Quicken electronic checkbook available on the Web? I do not need access to that wherever I go, and if I did, I could download the information and run Quicken software on my PDA, a device that is under my direct control.

I was dismayed during my review of the course information to see little mention of safeguards for security and privacy. Password protection may or may not be enough, and how are the companies safeguarding passwords? For some documents security and privacy will not be a concern, but every organization produces documents and files that are unsuitable for public review. Although we collaborate at my university to complete performance evaluations, I would be uncomfortable having our evaluations hosted somewhere on the Web by a company that may or may not be concerned about our confidentiality rules.  

Companies routinely are bought, are sold, merge, go bankrupt, etc. in today's business world. When this occurs, files saved by a Web-based service may or may not be preserved. One of the authors in this week's readings mentioned backing up files posted on the Web. If this is a necessity, then document authors still have problems with document management and control that Web hosting of files is supposed to alleviate.

I can understand the positive aspects of collaborating and sharing information via the Web office tools, but I have less need for this right now. I prefer to have more control over what I share and how I share it. Our campus is implementing an ERP system at this time that I hope will allow for some of this collaborative functionality and also safeguard internal documents and files. Our current content management system, Moodle, already allows opportunities for sharing and collaboration by faculty and their students.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Marcia

Assignment 4: Del.icio.us

I had been using del.icio.us for about three weeks prior to starting this assignment. It is a great way to access bookmarks from anywhere, but I also appreciate the ability to easily tag bookmarks (and borrow tags from other del.icio.us users) for easier retrieval. I have not had a need to search del.icio.us for other useful sites, but I anticipate that will be a useful alternative to simply googling topics. 

Librarians have created bibliographies on special topics or for specific courses for decades. Del.icio.us can provide a way of easily posting and sharing bibliographies of online resources. Print resources also could be included by simply linking to information about those print resources (OPAC records, Web or wiki pages, etc.). The links to the del.icio.us "bibliography" could be shared within courses (Moodle, Blackboard, WebCT, etc.), linked from library Web pages, and even included in a library catalog if library policies allow that.

Our library is planning to create a del.icio.us account we can share that will quickly help us locate commonly used reference resources. Some of these resources do not fit the traditional library categories of databases, books, journals, etc., so it has been difficult to include them on our Library's Web pages or within our library catalog.

Marcia

Assignment 3: Social Networking Tools

I think it is good that MLA is considering social networking tools to connect to members. However, MLA needs to keep in mind that not all members have the time or want to use social networking tools. I have noticed many email messages related to lack of time and this CE course, as well as messages about confusion regarding where to find information (Email? Blog? Wiki?).  Librarians are experiencing information overload, just like our patrons. These members will not appreciate one more place to check for information in addition to email, work phone messages, cell phone messages, blogs, etc. For myself, I value my privacy and am just not the sort of person to hang out on Facebook or any other social networking tool in my precious moments of spare time (Forget work time, because things are just to busy for that!).

The key to this is making information available in a variety of places such as email, blogs, etc., so members can choose the format that is most useful to them. I realize that makes MLA's communication efforts more difficult and time-consuming, but it is the only way to reach the wide range of age groups and interests represented in MLA. If members, especially younger members, prefer to use social networking tools to communicate, then MLA needs to accommodate that.

My library, like most libraries, has limited staff, decreasing budgets, and increasing demands for service. We have to carefully prioritize our work, and I do not believe spending time creating a Facebook or MySpace page will be a high enough priority for a while. If I hire a student assistant that is comfortable in Facebook and/or MySpace, however, that is an assignment I would consider giving them.

I agree with Meredith Farkas observation in one of our readings:  "I think before we do anything, we should really get to know our patrons and what their attitudes are with regards to social networking software and privacy. We can’t pretend that what works at one library will work at all of them."

Our health sciences library' patrons tend to be non-traditional students who are juggling marriage, children, full-time jobs, and school. They also tend to be older and less techno-savvy, so I do not believe Facebook or MySpace would be effective ways to communicate with most of them right now. Because many of these patrons are less older and techno-savvy, they also more commonly raise concerns about privacy in online environments. If Ranganathan were alive today, he probably would adapt his law of library science, "Every reader his book." to now say, "Every reader his choice of communication."

Marcia