Jay Cross on Informal Learning

What is said here could be used in any workplace setting. We are looking at a revolution in the way we learn AND the way we work together. Great piece!

Trailer for "Hollywood Librarian"

The Washington Post did an article on the premiere of this film at ALA in D.C.
Here's the trailer:

C|Net's 100 Best Webware Apps

C|Net just came out with this list of the 100 best webware apps. Some are familiar, like FireFox, Opera, IE, Google's Reader for RSS feeds, Netvibes, Safari, StumbleUpon, MyYahoo, GMail, LiveMessenger, Trillian, Meebo, FaceBook, Friendster, Digg, MySpace, ChaCha, LinkedIn, etc.

But I'm new to: OpenID, DeviantArt (sounds scary!), Me.dium, Pando, AllPeers, Wikia, and many others.

All apps are divided into 10 categories (kind of like the Dewey Decimal system...):

• Browsing
• Communications
• Community
• Data
• Entertainment
• Media
• Mobile
• Productivity & Commerce
• Publishing
• Reference
  

Proof that More than One Search Engine is a "Good Thing"

"Try more than one search engine for different results." That's the line I give to my Internet searching classes. Here's a study funded by Dogpile.com in collaboration with U of Pitt and Penn State: Different Search Engines, Different Results: A Research Study by Dogpile.com

New Way to Promote Books Using Web 2.0 Technology

TurnHere and Simon & Schuster are teaming up to create a new Website called BookVideos.tv: the Story Behind the Story.

Here's the description from the Website:

"BookVideos.tv offers compelling video stories that give readers insights into some of the world’s best authors. The social media video site offers the back story about the lives, personalities and the inspirations of these engaging writers. We created Bookvideos.tv to give readers the real story behind the story. It is the place where your favorite books and authors come to life, and it’s also where you can engage with the literary community on a whole new level. Using the site’s variety of social media tools, you can embed an author video on your own Web site or blog, email it to a friend, or share with your book club. You can also subscribe to the videos using RSS, add them to del.icio.us, or Digg your favorite new title. Readers are encouraged to come back often as new videos are added on a regular basis."

A Brain and a Book (Lang article from Chronicle of Higher Ed)

Lang reminds us that we all need to get periodically "unplugged" to reconnect with our "real" environment in this article from Chronicle of Higher Education.

NanoTreking with PBWiki

We had three successful NanoTrek sessions using the free Peanut Butter Wikis.

Students research various nanotechnology topics and posted them to wikis. All the students were new to wikis but PBWiki interface is so easy to use they were quickly adding colors, plugins, and having a great time learning.

The educator's videos and some database research I did on using wikis in classrooms helped me figure out how to incorporate this with our information literacy mission.

Funny Library Technology Video

Medieval Tech Helpdesk

Vonnegut, Tech Skeptic, Dies

My favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut died last night. A self-proclaimed secular humanist, Vonnegut questioned everything: war, science & technology, religion, etc. Something he did last year really impressed me--he made a virtual appearance on Second Life where he was interviewed by John Hockenberry of Infinite Mind.

Mashups with Google's MyMaps

Didn't get into the mashups session at ACRL-- it was packed--no standing room! Decided to educate myself on the topic. Found a CNet video on doing mashups with Google's MyMaps. Did a little mashup on Williamsport.

ACRL Conference Wiki

Joann and I are creating a wiki as a way to share what we learned at the conference. It's a work in progress, but check it out!

ACRL Conference

I'm here in beautiful Baltimore with more than 3,000 other library souls. Most of the sessions I've attended have been packed (had to sit on the floor). Poster sessions were overcrowded. Here I go complaining.

John Waters' keynote was hilarious. Got to remember to watch "Pink Flamingos" again and check out some of the othere films he's made. Wonder if any are on YouTube? Gotta check...

NanoTrek Camp Wiki

I'm trying to work out how to create a Wiki for a NanoTrek Camp that's to be held here at PCT in April.

My boss and I did some brainstorming and came up with the idea of using the PBWiki and giving peanut butter cups to the students for fun. I've been reading articles about using Wikis in class and found an interesting article in Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki-Based Collaboration

NanoTrek Camp Wiki Ideas:

1. Create a list of research topics for nanotechnology:

• Careers in nanotech
• Environmental impact of nanotechnology
• History of nanotechnology
• Recent discoveries in the field of nanotech (last 5 years)
• Medical applications
• Nanobots
• What are benefits/dangers of nanotech?

2. Require that they find each of the following kind of resources:

• Organization’s website (.org)
  
• Government website (.gov)
  
• Article from a database
  
• Educational website (.edu)

3. For each resource listed above summarize your findings and explain why this is a good resource for this information.

Virtual Reference: Criticism

The Shifted Librarian just posted her experience with a Virtual Reference service:

What Is a Virtual Librarian?

She links to another librarian's similar experience:

MassAnswers, a 24/7 ref project, answers my question sort of

Having worked for five years as a Virtual Librarian, it made me think back to how I answered questions. What did I do when I was certain that the best answer was in an off-line resource? Because I worked for a statewide consortia, I had access to almost all the databases that each member had in their collections.

I worked from home, so I was far removed from their print resources, but they all had online catalogs from the same ILS. If a question required the use of a print resource, the plan was for a staff member at the library to scan the page(s) required and email them to the student/faculty/staff. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times this happened.

Most of the questions were answered with online resources. Either the student had difficulties naviagating their library's Web pages or they needed help searching online databases. Only rarely was a print resource required.

This brings to mind the questions: Are students now more proficient at searching online resources? Can we "out Google" Google by using the print resources available to us? Google Scholar is limited by the copyright act...if we make print resources available on demand, are we in violation of the copyright act?

Web 2.0: Blogs & Wikis

Recently two articles have been published that discuss the authority of blogs and wikis. When, if ever, can they be used as reliable information resources?

The Wikipedia article: Schiff, Stacy. "Know it All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?" New Yorker July 31, 2006.
Schiff argues that while "Wikipedia is to Britannica as American Idol is to the Juilliard School," it has a wealth of information not available in the traditional encyclopedia. For every three errors in Britannica, there are four in Wikipedia. Pretty good stats for a startup!

The blog article: Zeller, Tom, Jr. Anne Frank 2006: War Diaries Online. New York Times July 24, 2006.
The blog is the 21st century's personal narrative. This is primary source material. To get a real feel for what is going on in the Middle East today, go to any of the blogs listed in this article and read what is really going on from a first person perspective. Not only will you find text, you will find photos and videos of events as they happen--uncensored!

Scholarly Publishing Goes Digital

From Inside Higher Ed: "New Model for Scholarly Publishing"

Rice University Press is making a comeback as a digital publisher. Their rationale?

• no pressure to publish works that will sell enough copies to justify print run
  
• junior professors will have an easier time getting published
• more affordable publishing
• more streamlined
• maintain peer-review

These publications will be available for free download on Connexions.

VoIP Phones

Earlier this summer, the IT department installed Cisco IP phones. The library is only the second department on campus to be using these state-of-the-art gadgets. The sound quality is much better than that of VoIP in the old days (3-4 years ago). There is an echo reminiscent of that heard on WATTS line many years ago. There is no latency--guess this is a packet-preferred system.

Some cool features include:

• Voice mail that is forwarded to e-mail
• All kinds of rings....most of which can't be used in a library setting...
• online directory of other IP phones on campus
  
• caller ID on campus from other IP phones
• caller phone listings
• unanswered call queue
  

"Generation Deaf"

This article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education was interesting:

Staff at the U of Illinois Urbana were surprised when students in the library failed to react to a tornado siren. They were all listening to iPods and other devices at volumes that exceeded the sound of the siren’s blast…

Are students that disconnected from RL that they are unaware of possible dangers? Should we be sure that our emergency warning systems include a visual alert system--flashing red and blue lights? I'm told our new library has these, but will they be visible to everyone?

Librarian Trading Card

Librarian Trading Card, originally uploaded by rfisher2861.

I just had to try this!

Internet Down!

The Internet went down yesterday. I reached for the phone to call ITS, but realized that it's an IP phone and THE INTERNET IS DOWN!! I tried calling ITS with my cell, but wasn't able to get through as their phones are also IP...

Fortunately this only lasted for an hour. I sent a student to the ITS department to find out what was going on. They told him that the connection had been down for 4 hours...How could that be?

You don't really know how much you depend on the 'Net until it's down. I had almost forgotten that I could use my computer if I checked the "workstation only" option.

Advice? Stay calm and breathe deeply. Enjoy the silence!