RSS --> Current Awareness 2.0

Today I sat in on a workshop that David Rothman did on RSS. Over the course of three hours, Dave demonstrated and had us use services that I was familiar with and several that I wasn't.

Dave began by explaining RSS and XML. XML provides a structure that allows information to be interpreted correctly by many tools...and in this case, a variety of RSS readers and tools.

Dave had us create Google Reader accounts, which also meant that we had Gmail accounts. Dave believes that you should use a good reader for RSS and that you should have access to an email account (other than your normal work account) for use with some of the web tools. For example, when registering for Service X, we put in our Gmail account info, rather than our normal email accounts, thus protecting our normal email accounts from possible spam.

While we used Google Reader during the morning, Dave acknowledged that there were other tools we could use. Personally, I'm hooked on Bloglines.

Once we saw how one subscribed to RSS in Google Reader, then we used/saw:

• RSSFWD
• Yahoo Pipes -- powerful, but confusing
• FeedRinse
• PonyFish
• del.icio.us -- I had not seen the "for:" tag before, because I'm not a big del.ico.us user, but that is cool!

What Dave kept emphasizing was that RSS could help these librarians do current awareness for their users. Many database services have RSS as do news services, etc. So a librarian could know what's new before his users do (e.g., medical staff). He even talked about receiving RSS feeds in MS Outlook then using rules to redistribute the information to users automatically! I have received RSS feeds on my client's behalf in the past, then filtered and sent to them what they needed to know. What he demonstrated today would do that much more quickly -- if done properly -- and with much less human interaction. Given the prevalence of RSS now (unlike a couple years ago), I think it would be easy to get users to understand the process and why the materials were sent to them.

So what am I going to do differently now? I have a couple noisy RSS feeds that I'm going run through FeedRinse. That should make them more tolerable. After that, I may have to get more intimate with del.icio.us by uploading most of my bookmarks to the service.

I wonder what the others from this morning will do differently?

BTW Dave started the morning with this video (worth watching)...

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Technorati tag: RSS

Article: Schools respond to iPhone's popularity

Yes, schools are giving students iPhones, creating web sites that view better on iPhones, and are considering developing resources specifically for the iPhone. They are also studying how iPhones are being used in education.

I got to use an iPhone in January to do some web surfing. I'd seen them before, but hadn't been able to use one. WOW! It was very easy to use and I know I could easily get hooked on one. Given that it would allow me to waste time as well as have information at my fingertips, I haven't purchased on yet. Likely, though, we'll all have one (or something similar) with the next few years. And then we'll wonder how we ever lived without one!

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Technorati tag: iPhone

Social tools help with protests supporting Tibet

Someone said at a recent event that if you wanted to see up-to-the-moment images from news events around the world, go to Flickr. This week, Flickr and other social networking tools are being used to lend support to those protesting in Tibet against the Chinese. On Flickr, you can see photos from protests that are being held around the world. While the news media may not be reporting on the range of protests that are being held, you can clear see in Flickr that many people in many locations have taken to the street in support of Tibet.

Depending on the social networks you are using, perhaps you have seen messages of support or links to additional information. On Facebook, groups that support a free Tibet are picking up members (example) and sharing information.

While governments and other organizations may think they can ignore the information exchanges that are happening using social networking tools, they will soon find that the cannot. Nor can they block those conversations from happening. The tools are doing what they were created to do. They are placing information and power back into the hands of the people. No matter where we are, our voices can be heard.

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Technorati tag: Social Networking Tools

It's about coffee pots, not staff meetings

Social networking tools create simple ways for people to communicate with each other. They are akin to everyone meeting at the office coffee pot and exchanging information. Social networking tools provide us with a virtual coffee pot that is always on and is located in a room that will fit everyone. I can quickly exchange pleasantries and important information with Josh, Kelvin, Connie and many others, no matter where they are located or what their current project focus. Our virtual coffee pots may be a combination of tools including Facebook, blogs, wikis, Twitter (microblogs), VOIP and email (gasp!).

Just like at the office coffee pot, information flows quickly and freely. Ideas are tossed about, information shared, and problems solved. We come and go at will, knowing that when we return there will be someone there to talk with.

This is the type of information sharing that we all hope a staff meeting will be, but isn't. Staff meetings are controlled conversations on specific topics, and for a limited period of time. A staff meeting may not exchange the information that is really needed nor solve immediate problems. They are more likely to be status updates.

I wonder if there would be a way of using social networking tools to replace a staff meeting, or to make a staff meeting more fruitful? Could the meetings topics be gathered via a wiki? Could people then add information to the wiki about those topics, including solutions if needed? Could microblogging software help information to be shared during the meeting without interrupting the entire group? Perhaps Kelvin raising a concern and people microblog solutions to Kelvin, while the meeting continues? Would that be too disruptive? Or is it a just a variation on how meetings are run now (with winks, nods, and notes being passed)?

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who is using social networking tools to replace or enhance staff meetings. I suspect someone is doing it! Thankfully for me, I don't have staff meetings...instead I wander to the virtual coffee pot, give them my status and find out what I need to know that can make my day more productive.

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Technorati tag: Social Networking Tools

Twitter in plain English & in 2.5 minutes

If you have had a hard time understanding or explaining Twitter, this short video should help.

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Technorati tag: Twitter

Penelope Klein interviewed about the library camp/unconference

WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, heard about the unconference held in East Syracuse last week and was intrigued. That led to an interview this morning with Penelope Klein, one of the unconference organizers and a three-minute news story.

It would be interesting to know how the reporter heard of the event. I'm guessing that he heard about it while covering the Library Lobby Day in Albany on Tuesday. Or perhaps a little birdie whispered it in his ear. No matter -- the more people who hear about unconferences, the better!

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Technorati tags: unyunc, unconference

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 6

The afternoon break out session I hosted was "Intellectual property, digital rights, DRM, and copyright." Maureen Southorn was the scribe. Six of us discussed a broad range of topics and the resources posted in the wiki reflect that. We even talked about plagiarism!

Now we're in the wrap-up session and people are reporting on all of the sessions that were held today.

Our first library unconference in Upstate New York will soon come to a close. The feedback has been very positive, with people being appreciative of level of interaction. Even our two speakers today liked the format. Two participants just said -- "It was lovely." "Engaging."

I t-h-i-n-k we may do this again!

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Technorati tags: unyunc, collection development

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 5

Ellen Reynolds, from the Pioneer Library System, is out afternoon keynote speaker. Her topic is “Does Your Collection Need Analysis?” Upfront she mentioned Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science.

Collection management basics:

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Plan
• Fund
• Build
• Organize
• Access
• Market

What are the collection numbers (received from ILS reports)?

• Number of items in the collection
• Percentage of an area (970s) of the total collection (adult non-fiction)
• Circulation for the area
• Percentage the area circulation represents of the total circulation area
• Average age (of the collection)
  
• Average circulation
• Turnover rate
• Median age (of the collection)
  
• Median circulation
• Percentage of collection in circulation on a given day
• Percentage of collection that hasn’t circulated

What are we looking for?

• Holes in the collection
• Things that have gone missing
• Is it missing? Misplaced? Stolen?
• Strengths
• Weaknesses – missed purchases
• Titles to weed
• Primary reason for doing this analysis
  
• Titles to update
• Lost treasures
• Could be books on the bottom shelf that no one bends down to look at.

Basic information t begin with:

• Call number
• Item type
• Age level
• Genre
• Number of circulations
• Date of last circulations
• Publication date

Turnover rate is how often a book is used each year. The turnover rate differs by collection. Picture books, for example, should circulate more frequently than history books in a public library. Circulation rate will also differ by type of library.

Collection analysis can be used for budget planning. Budget projections include many calculations...what stands out is understanding what the collection should entail and then the cost of creating that collection (as well as how long it will take to build that collection).

Can you increase circulation and turnover, while decreasing the size of the collection and decreasing the age of the collection? Yes! She is showing us a chart from Sodus Free Library that demonstrates that.

When looking at specific books, Ellen also tells libraries to evaluate these things for a specific title:

M - Misleading
U - Ugly
S - Superseded
T - Trivial
I - Irrelevant
E - (Available) Elsewhere

The process that Ellen goes through with libraries is not haphazard. Some libraries may not be happy with the results and she is okay with the fact that some libraries will not weed as fully as she recommends.

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Technorati tags: unyunc, collection development

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 4

Well, the session "Print vs. Digital" has turned into a small conversation. We started very much off-topic and then began talking about why managing digital collection is important.

Each aggregator defines full-text differently. You have full-text articles. A publication, however, may not include all its articles in the digital version. So the publication is not full-text. In addition, several issues may impact the content, such as copyright and the publishers ROI on the content.

Publishers don't always notify libraries -- in a timely fashion -- the changes to their electronic resources.

Digital collections can tremendously increase a library's holdings without using more space in the library.

Managing the digital resources requires gross attention to detail.

Given the hassles, why provide digital resources? Increased access. It is also easier for the user (less hassle).

How do the publishers handle "walk-ins" who use college resources?

Who has ebook collection development policies?

This session really became an education session for the four student volunteers. Class was in session!

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Technorati tags: unyunc, collection development

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 3

This is day #2 of the Library Camp and we'll be focusing on collection development. Technically today is called the Collection Development Conference. Our first speaker is Ed Shephard, who is the Head of Collection Development & Management at Binghamton (NY) University Libraries.

[Yes, today we have two keynote speakers as well as eight unconference breakout sessions, then a Reporting Session at the end of the day.]

His themes...first he thought of "Challenges in the Age of Libraries 2.0," but then based on the discussions yesterday, he has selected "Adapt & Adopt." He is not going to talk about the traditional challenges that libraries face in collection development. Instead he going to talk about the new challenges (overall decisions and duties).

The "business" of collection development:

• The business models -- used within the industry (publishers) -- keep changing. This is shifting under our feet all the time (quick sand):
• Cost shift
  
• Shift from physical production to digital production
• From physical inventories to...
• In our services are being provided
• In libraries, we know do electronic maintenance of our collections, not just physical maintenance.
• From "check in" to "check on." We used to check-in print collections (serials), but now we need to check on our collections (electronic collections). Libraries need to shift their resources to work with their electronic collections, not with the print collections.
• At BU, the print serials are not placed on the shift; they are sent straight to the annex and available by request. That has created a new work flow within the library.
• Fair pricing models
• How do you come up with fair pricing models that take into account 24/7 access, etc., for publishers and libraries?
  
• FTEs, number of seats, consortial bundling
• Need to negotiate (which some librarians are not comfortable doing)
• Need to maintain access to paid content, which is crucial
• Licensing agreements dealing with interlibrary loan (ILL)
• Fair use in the electronic world
• The BIG DEAL
• One of the elephants in the room
  
• Must you take content you don't want in order to be part of the deal?
• Can NYS get to a point to where it is on the same model as Ohio or California?
• Political considerations
• Libraries cannot afraid to have several "big deal" packages
• The three big aggregators (for academic libraries) are EBSCO, Gale and ProQuest
  
• Bundling & unbundling
• A problem is when publishers pull out of a bundle in order to go out on their own
• Exclusive deals
• The Open Access / Non-profit movement
• Still in its infancy
  
• Archival integrity
• Left field future scenarios
• the disappearance of format as a crucial element
Library 2.0:

• What interactions can we make using Web 2.0?
• What are libraries doing? People ask the question at conferences as if doing informal environmental scans.
• Library 2.0 may be more developed in public and school environments, although making in-roads in the academic environment
• Increase communication and connection with users
• RSS feeds help people keep current with the literature (Current Contents, current awareness)
• On-demand provision
• New ways of receiving direct requests to the library
• What is the role of the user in collection development decisions?
• Turning ILL requests, for example, into actual purchases
• What level of review and approval is needed (and by whom)?
• Moving away from "just in case" model of collection development to "just in time."
• As print runs become smaller, will the book really be available when the demand occurs?
• Social tagging
• Faceting built upon some of the capabilities of the ILS. Helps the user see information differently.
• The lack of uniformity, defined vocabulary, unmediated -- could make this concept less useful to users.
• If unmediated, would it lead to an unwieldy mess? Can we maintain a balance.
• Is this better left to individuals to implement in their own information space, rather than being imposed on everyone? Could users (and their tags) be connected to each other, as appropriate? Do we have systems sophisticated enough to do this?
• Information provider services
• Putting you eggs in one basket
• What are the fiscal constraints? Are your decisions price driven or politically driven?
• Are their self-composed restraints (e.g., IP authentication)? Staffing? Expertise?
• Multiplicity of interfaces
• How many can we have?
• What is the role of federated search?
  
• Binghamton Univ. is using MetaLib
• Can libraries get providers to unbundle their content from their services?
• Search across multiple sources. Searching using one interface.
• There are limitations.
• Lowest common denominator searching.
• Archiving
  
• Serials and ebooks
• How long will vendors keep content available?
• Will they bail on archiving due to the lack of return on investment (ROI)?
• JSTOR
• Keeping track of who owns and has access to what.
• Repositories
• Implications on space and staff
• Local considerations
• Mostly "overcome-able" with time
• Browsability
• Can institutions share collections? While that may have a positive impact on cost, what does that do to browsing?
• People like the Amazon model of table of contents and sample text.
• Adding services (such as these) means adding costs.
Collection development needs to be sure that any cost savings are using to enhance services and the collection.

How will this affect the concept of "collection development"?

• "Building" a collection?
• Permanency?
• Content vs. services
• Financial sustainability



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Technorati tags: unyunc, , collection development

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 2

The final breakout session of the afternoon for me was "Implementing & Using Technology" with 10 participants. Mark Costa was the host and Bradley Shipps was the scribe. We talked about the breadth of technology that is used by -- or under the preview -- of a library including computers, TVs, projectors, MP3 players, etc. While we and our users must be aware of the technology, our goal is the use of content. We talked about the smart house and other places were technology is available yet not the focus.

"We like the technicians in the garage." We, unfortunately, need to be able to troubleshoot, select the correct technology for our patrons, etc.

Now the final session -- the wrap-up or Reporting Session -- is going on. Every host is going through three things that stood out from each session.

This has been a wonderful day! There has been lots of conversation and many ideas exchanged. Tonight there is a session on gaming (board and electronic), then tomorrow is the Collection Development Conference.



Photos from Tuesday night.

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Technorati tag: unyunc, Technology, social networking tools

Library Camp @ Syracuse, part 1

Today is the first day of our Library Camp and today's focus is The Future of Libraries. We have more than 80 people who have signed up for the two-day event, including librarians from school, academic, public, and special libraries (hospital & museum) as well as a couple consultants and a couple of SU faculty members. People have come from Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Watertown, Albany, and Corning -- so this is truly an Upstate NY event.

Feedback so far is very positive. People like the conversations, the ability to "talk shop" during the sessions. One person mentioned that the unconference is calm, less hurried than normal conference. People have shared ideas and web sites. People are offering support to each other, which is very appreciated.

The first session I was in was "2.0 Show and Tell" which had 24 participants. Jen Sullivan was the host of the session and Kat Burturla was the scribe. Since this was the first unconference session of the day, the conversation started slow, but once it started, it kept going! People mentioned that they (the librarians) are more advanced using 2.0 tools than some of their patrons. They need to be able to use and teach about the tools, since their patrons are coming to them for help. Some grandparents are feeling pressured by their grandchildren to learn and use some of the social networking/web tools. Others mentioned that students don't want to be networking through Facebook, etc., with library staff.

One person mentioned that the need to prove return on investment for these tools. Just knowing about them is not enough. Can we prove the benefits?

One person said that she is building the library's web site using HTML, not only to keep it simple but also because that meets her users' needs.

Tools/sites mentioned including:

• Wikis
• http://www.buffalostate.edu/library/
• http://askehbl.wordpress.com/ (The blog for the Buffalo State Library.)

The second second in the Technology Track was "Open Source" with 13 people. Mark Costa was the host and Kathryn Lulofs was the scribe.

• N-view (composer)
• OPALS
• Drupal
• Open Journal
• Open Conference
• Google --> Sites
• RIT Ghost Map, http://library.rit.edu/
• http://www.opensourcecms.com/
• http://www.wikimatric.org/
• http://www.eol.org/

We also talked about open access journals (content) while "open source" is the structure.

What is a librarian's role in open source?

The error rate on Wikipedia is similar to the error rate on a printed encyclopedia. However, errors in Wikipedia can be corrected more quickly.

After a buffet lunch (excellent food), the third session was "Social Networking" with 13 people Kathryn Lulofs was the host and Mark Costa was the scribe.

We began by brainstorming ideas for a school library system on doing a "teleconference" using different web-based tools. She took lots of notes and walked away with ideas to follow-up on.

A participant from RIT showed us the widget that they built for searching their library catalogue from Facebook. Ken from Buffalo State showed the Meebo Me widget that he has placed in Facebook for doing chat reference. (Good anonymity and good for the deaf community, for example.)

One school librarian mentioned that students need to understand the implications for social networking tools. Since there is no access from schools, teachers and librarians cannot help students understand the pros and cons of these tools that they are using outside of the school setting.

What makes the library's homepage the community's homepage? What should be on the homepage to entice people to come back? What makes "a page" a page people will use everyday?

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Technorati tags: unyunc, Technology, social networking tools

Inbox Zero

Connie Crosby (via Twitter) spoke highly of this video and the concept of Inbox Zero. The video is of Merlin Mann, the editor and founder of 43Folders.com, talking at Google in July 2007.

I'm watching/listening to the video now and it is already "striking home."

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Technorati tag: Tools