March 2006

The Nev n Dave blog has some great tips for blog reading. Ten, actually. Tips I think are useful include:

#5 - limit how many feeds you subscribe to on a particular topic. [me] - good suggestion. Do you really need to read 100 blogs on the same topic? Probably not. Another similar idea - why not subscribe to a technorati search on a topic,r ather than individual blogs? That way, you’ll catch good stuff without cluttering up your feed reader.

#6 - periodically test your feeds. Leave a feed unread for a week. Then spend some time doing a catchup and ask yourself “was that really worth my time?” [me] - another great idea! This sounds like a handy way to see if the content on a particular blog is still relevant to your needs/interests.

A similar idea is…

#8 - Add a ‘quarantine’ category for new blogs [me] - that way, you’re not dropping the feed into a category and then forgetting about it. It allows you to try it out and see if the content works for you.

So - if you’re feeling bogged down by blogs, go read the full article and try some of these handy tips.

I just saw New Catalog Kiosk from the Library TechBytes blog. And it’s a great idea, too!

Helene mentions her library’s Catalog Kiosk - go take a peek at the image, then come right back. They have created an in-library web page “kiosk” that points to lots of library information - just in a user-friendly way. It includes:

• Access to the catalog, with a big, fat “Begin Search” button
• A My Account link
• A Find Articles search box
• Staff recommendations
• Upcoming programs
• News
• Button to the general library website

I find this a great way to integrate content for patrons inside the library. This allows staff to concentrate on “most wanted” information at the Public PCs (or “Kiosks”), while still maintaining a global website that brings together even more information.

Great job!

I just had an interesting thought about library websites and mashups. Look at Wikipedia’s definition of a mashup:

“A mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.”

… and it goes on …

“Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and JavaScript.”

I was thinking about how I could add the concept of mashups into my fledgling web 2.0 presentation, and trying to come up with a not-too-techie example or two (pass some along if you have them!). And it dawned on me - those pesky Subject Guides that I talk about frequently could be considered to be mashups!

Why? A Subject Guide for a library website combines information from different sources. It can point to and even house information from the catalog, like new books or videos on a specific topic. It can point to articles in a database. It can point to original content created by staff. It can point to global web content. The catch is that it focuses on one area, or topic.

And in the process, a subject guide can use a combination of HTML, RSS, XML, Javascript, PERL, ColdFusion (in my library’s case),etc to create these guides.

OK - a subject guide maybe doesn’t really catch the geeky essense of a mashup, because for the most part, we aren’t using APIs or public interfaces to capture the information. But still - the concept is the same. We are taking information from “more than one source,” and combining it into an “integrated experience” that will help our patrons quickly find the information they need.

Library 2.0, Web 2.0, Mashup, Subject Guide

I taught my first Web 2.0 class a few days ago, and I think it went well! There were 9 attendees, and millions of questions… And the questions/comments were great - they were, for the most part, things I hadn’t thought of. Here are some of them:

• Are Web 2.0 tools authoritative? Especially in regards to blogs and Wikipedia. So we discussed concepts like currency of web information, accuracy (mentioning the Wikipedia vs Britannica study), and how a “regular joe” blog writer could actually post accurate, authoritative information.
• Copyright! Is all this content under copyright, how does a library use this type of copyrighted material, etc. So we discussed that, and the concept of Creative Commons licenses.
• Accuracy again - Wikipedia came up more than once. Librarians weren’t comfortable with the concept of Wikipedia - allowing anyone to change articles. I didn’t think of this until class was over, but will use it next time - if something is inaccurate on Wikipedia for 1 year… is that bad… compared with an inaccuracy in a printed version of Britannica - that inaccuracy exists forever (until the library gets rid of their copy). I’d say Wikipedia wins out.
• Tagging - this concept threw pretty much the whole class for a loop. First - why would someone want to tag an item on the web? Second - how in the world can a non-authoritative, non-controlled vocabulary tag be useful in a search?We probably talked for 20 minutes about tagging! Again, something I thought of after the fact - I think next class, I’ll hold up an apple, and have the class “tag” it for me. That should provide a good example of real world tagging in action.
• Flickr - why would anyone in their right minds WANT to put images on the web?
• Privacy in general - we had a good discussion about how the younger generation isn’t as interested in privacy issues, and is more interested in sharing and networking.
• Time - some thought these new tools were great, but wondered about the time involved to create content using them. So we discussed how to meet library goals in the digital age, that some goals might need to change, and that if these types of tools, that in essense extend a library’s reach, seem important… then library job descriptions and functions might need to be revised to meet those new goals. Honestly - you can’t keep up a blog if you don’t have time to post, don’t have anything to post, and don’t really care to post in the first place.

  I’ll be doing another big class (the first one went for 3 hours) in May, and I’ll be doing an extremely shortened version (1 hour tops) next Friday at my library’s staff day. I’ll let everyone know how they both go.

Library 2.0, Web 2.0