the tail end of the long tail

...can libraries as a whole effectively utilize the "long tail" of our collections? Is it worth it? What would we have to do? or, what question didn't I ask that I should? why should I ask it?

to effectively use the long tail of our collections libraries would need to cooperate, pooling resources, creating a virtual centralized inventory which, I think, are the fundamental principles and objectives of ILL, consortia.....the NJ Union List of Serials. Libraries are increasingly offering more and more resources in digital formats. So, I think libraries are doing it, but maybe the more important question is how might it be done better, more effectively.

• perhaps designating specific member libraries to specific niches
  
• incorporating as many opportunities and tools as possible to give users/customers a way to impact, influence, "crowdsource" (pg. 219), customize their experience to their needs and their own time and skills.

the benefits/detractions of podcasts vs. text blogging

The benefits of podcasting compared to text-based blogging:

• There is another level of detail to podcasts that text-based blogging cannot achieve. I don't know if it is actually authenticity, but there is a more human, personal quality to spoken words; podcasting can add emotion to content where it might be indiscernible in text.
  
• Good for users who cannot read for a variety of reasons ranging from visual impairments to a lack of time.
• Good for auditory learners.
  

The detractions of podcasting vs. text blogging

• Podcasting requires a little more equipment than text based blogging. Access to a keyboard is fairly ubiquitous and text blogging can be done anywhere, but microphones are (I think) not necessarily standard and recording a podcast requires somewhat more privacy and space to create and not disturb others.
• Podcasting cannot be edited as simply and easily as text based blogs. In the worst case, once a podcast has been posted, in order to "edit", a new mp3 must be generated and uploaded. Text blogs can be edited in situ.
  
• Not so good for visual learners. For myself, I am a better and more careful reader than listener and it's not so much that I don't actually listen, but I will try to take advantage of the opportunity to do other things while I listen and often find my attention drifting, listening less carefully.
  

a podcast story

This is a story that I always think of as my Mr. Magoo moment.

the long tail

Libraries/librarians act as New Producers to the extent that they are concerned with the development and the implementation of usage-centric metadata, making media more accessible to users, rather than production-centric metadata. Looking at Anderson’s Architecture of participation diagram (pg. 84), while librarians can and do create original media, the more traditional role is closer to being a ‘remixer’ – modifying and/or adapting the works of others to fulfill info needs—able to harness the production-centric metadata to achieve that end and able to create usage-centric metadata to make the information more accessible to users.

“..new tastemakers are simply people whose opinions are respected. They influence the behavior of others, often encouraging them to try new things they wouldn’t otherwise pursue.” (pg 107)

Because they may not know those things exist, or there’s a connection between something they do like and an unknown. I’m thinking specifically about the long list of ways the library where I work provides variations on the “what to read next” theme. We have stacks of free bookmarks that start with the line “If You Like author A, you might like B,C,D, or…”, we have email newsletters promoting new titles, Notable Books, anything else that both promotes the library itself as a useful institution and the materials housed within. And from the 'If you build it, they will come'-category, my library (and no doubt as many others with budgets that permit) buy new packaging or formats in an effort to be current, anticipating needs based on experience. For example, we got 100 or more Playaways in and it took some promotion within the library, talking them up, demonstrating how easy they were to use, mentioning to someone borrowing books-on-tape or CDs that we’d just gotten in a new format they might like to try. Ditto Blu-ray, but this may backfire. There's some internal debate about whether enough patrons have the players, or whether there's going to be a reaction from the public as there was when the VHS-DVD transition started.

I’m a little vague on the New Markets question….reread that chapter twice and cannot see the link to librarians.

There is one point that I completely disagree with Anderson though. In the comparison of Google to a library, claiming that the “constraints of physical shelves” are no match for the freedom of natural language searches in Google. Anderson uses the example of his own book and all of it’s various and potential shelf placements using the Dewey Decimal System versus the category-free access in Google. I thought the implication that shelf browsing as the primary means to access his book in a library was odd, or at least presumptive. I guess I’m wondering if he knows about subject headings which combat the issue of books (or any other media) that span two or more subjects.

no rest for the wicked

or, my educational experience at SCILS....
is actually a continuation of an educational experience that began in 2003.
Through a happenstance meeting of a new friend at the Avon 3Day in 1999 and a variety of personal circumstances/events, I decided I wanted an MLIS. I love libraries; after working at a public library for a couple of years, I realized that the order and organization, the impact of technology, the value to the community each library serves made it an interesting place to work, with some level of predictability, but there is an everyday element of surprise and novelty as well - new books, new questions, new knowledge. However, there was no applying to grad school before I'd finished my undergraduate degree that had been deliberately abandoned in a inexcusably lucid moment some 20 years earlier. I finished my B.S. in an online program in the minutes in between working, parenting, marriage, homeownership, and being a friend (it also ate most of my weekends), but I came out confident I could survive the rigors of grad school, learning at 6 credits per semester, able to write and communicate clearly, nimble with electronic resources, and juggling all the people and other important things in my life. I turned in my final project three weeks before orientation at Rutgers in August 2006. And I was barely prepared for what I'd gotten myself into.

This program has been more difficult than I ever would have imagined (despite the fact that I am frequently reminded that it's library science, not rocket science). The reading and lectures, my own attempts at stretching the day, adding minutes at the start and hours at the end, and the gallons of the jet-fuel I brew in my kitchen only helped up to a point (and earned me an ulcer last summer), but there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment as the semesters progress.

I am grateful for this distance-learning option, I simply would not have been able to pursue either of the degrees any other way and I have no one to blame but myself for having limited options, but the truth of the matter is that I think it's been a pretty great ride. I've had some truly outstanding professors, having stayed in contact with three of the six I've had so far. I love the incredible and endless collection of materials I can access through the RU Libraries. I have developed some new skills; my perceptions about many things have changed and expanded. Socially, I think there are certainly fewer casual acquaintances -- name recognition and a sense of mutually achieved survival isn't really the same thing as having a cup of coffee in the same place and chatting once a week before class-- but, I think I probably have developed as many better friends as I would have in person.

My educational experience set at Flickr
Our collective educational experience

google analytics

Browser:
84% Firefox
13% Explorer
1.7% Opera
0.87% Safari
Connection Speed:
Cable: 79%
Unknown: 16.5%
DSL: 4.3%

yawn.

So much to look at, so many reports and browser and connection speed is just the beginning (and not nearly so cool or colorful as some of the others). I have to say the Map Overlay was lots of fun and very interesting, I have sense of how geographically scattered some of us are and, at the same time, anticipated how concentrated most visitors would be, but sort of curious about the visitors from Seattle and Monterey, CA.

I had a commercial site a couple of years ago, hosted by GoDaddy and until the last year the stats were free (it became a premium service, or part of a hosting package I wasn't paying for), I checked them everyday and had a real sense of where visitors were coming from, what they were looking at and how long they were staying. It's hard to say what it all really means, but it gave me something to base changes on, or conversely - leaving what seemed to be working alone.

As soon as I figured out Google Analytics, I sold it at work and I think we now have the code installed on just a couple of the library's web pages. I think the fact that it was free was a huge plus, but the tipping point was the browser/operating system report - at least there's a sense of being able to test the site to see what most visitors are actually seeing.

pbwiki vs wetpaint

I was all set to love wetpaint, forewarned that it was more design-y/creative, but while the template choices were very good and fun, I find the ads overwhelmingly distracting. So much so that I would not set up a wiki there. And, for sake of argument, I set up an account at wikispaces as well - it's very spare, not so many colors and distractions.
However, form follows function to greater degree with wikis than blogs; it seems to me that blogs are our personal spaces, and while people should and do visit those spaces, the creators are the only ones obligated to work in them. Wikis can be personalized, but the visually busy look detracts (and distracts) from the work.

google docs in academics

I think using Google Docs is an improvement over the way Word (or some other) docs are sent via email in an attempt to complete a group project and, in any group larger than two, it can be a challenge to maintain enough control so that there's only one version of a mutually created and edited document. It circumvents using different colors to keep authors straight, progress is not held up by a group member with a scheduling issue, and there is no need for one person in the group to take on the responsibility of trying to coordinate all of the changes or having to police other members.

Another clear benefit is that Google Docs increase flexibility in terms of time and location of contributors; being able to create/edit/publish text documents and spreadsheets does not require specific software, just an internet connection to access free web-based software.

It seems like it serves an obvious need in online courses with group work and I think both online students and some faculty --some faculty seem very interested and open to trying to incorporate all or any new technology; some seem to prefer to go with what works-- would certainly explore the possibilities this option offers. I'm not certain how much need there is for this for on-campus students --it's not my experience-- but I would guess that the difference between online and on-campus students is commuting time and/or geography, I would not assume was less busy or had fewer commitments than the other; Google Docs would allow students to collaborate despite conflicting schedules.

scils598s08 tag at del.icio.us

If looking at the kinds of titles on others' bookshelves act as a window into who they are, getting a look at the kinds of sites people visit and save has to be a close second. I think this is a great way to introduce eachother as well as being great way to dive into the class AND it will grow as the course progresses, evolving into a collection of useful tools and web finds.

It usually hits me three weeks after the end of the semester that I neglected to save an item contributed to the webliography, or a site that was recommended somewhere along the way, but by bookmarking them in del.icio.us, we're creating a resource that will endure....or at least be accessible beyond the limits of the semester.

implications for the educational system in the U.S.

based on Brown & Duguid's (2002) conclusions.

The warning or conclusion I found most interesting, and perhaps most plausible was that technology has the potential to create a new glass ceiling for many students particularly those who are or were likely to be educationally and/or socially marginalized to begin with; education made possible by technology may not take into account the other factors that interfere with learning. Furthermore, distance-learning students may achieve the appearance of an equivalent degree yet those students will have missed out on the interpersonal and group learning experiences and social dynamics --"communities of learning"-- which are the flip side of the educational coin, and professional opportunities will be just out of reach for technically credentialed, though unprepared individuals.
Brown & Duguid suggest that there will have to be parallel changes in the institutions to create and maintain communication and interaction between students, faculty, administration and institutional services that may lead to (or be precipitated by) fundamental changes in how we think of education: as a student-directed constant, rather than ending at the completion of a degree.

librarything

I looked at librarything years ago and was fairly unimpressed, doubtful about the potential of it, wondering how useful subjective tagging was going to be toward contributing to some sort of cohesiveness between all of the individual collections.

So very glad I took another look and this might actually be a service I would subscribe to and use. Three fierce readers in the house and conservatively 250 linear feet of sagging bookshelves, so I gave it a whirl and listed about ten books either sitting on my desk or the closest ones on the nearest bookshelf. I did not tag, all I did was enter titles.

It's a simple enough process to register (although the free account only allows 200 books); the paid account choices are very reasonable. Entering books into your library is much faster and far more convenient than I recall, typing in either title, author, ISBN, etc. produces a list of possible matches from Amazon (with the choice to broaden the search), click on the correct edition and -- it's done. Tags can be added, status --currently reading or to be read-- along with a page for an incredible level detail (which would be a great place to keep track of loaned out books), including reviews, the source of the book, cost....anything. It can be as detailed (or not) as the owner of a given collection wants. Each title can be clicked on, linking to a cloud tag of other members' tags for that book, recommendations for other books, and reviews from other members.

Extra features include widgets, chicklets, being able to access the account from a cell phone/mobile device, importing and exporting titles, I know I probably missed or am simply not mentioning the boatload of other ways to customize and put this resource to use.

The social aspect is passive in some regards --by adding a book, that listing is linked to other libraries/users with the same title-- but the active social possibilities of librarything are varied and numerous, with groups designated by book or reader characteristics, providing members with areas to post, debate and discuss. With a librarything widget it's possible to link our other online social selves to our librarything personas and holdings.

The only thing I looked for but did not find was whether it's possible to list a title, but being able to keep it private. Anyone know?

bloglines vs. googlereader redux

just a quick note and observation...
I went to my googlereader page completely by accident and realized that with a number of subscriptions and only checking on the page periodically, googlereader is actually easier to skim and use than bloglines. Because my bloglines account is open in a separate tab for about 15 hours per day, I read things as they come in or at least within a few hours, but for occasional or even just once per day use (and presumably with a life less dominated by a computer screen), I think I'd switch my aggregator to google. I really did not understand what seemed like the overwhelming preference for googlereader until I saw the way multiple subscriptions and ten days accumulation of posts displayed. For anyone else who thought they preferred bloglines, go take a look at your googlereader page.