Mashups and more… oh my! May 2, 2008

So for our last week of the MLA Web 2.0 CE we are exploring mashups and API. What a fun way to end the course! This was a true discovery exercise for me. I’d heard of Web mashups before, but never took the time to understand what they were. The whole idea of “mashing” two or more things together to create an entirely new application is not a new concept; however, the ways in which mashing is being used on the Web is exciting and unique. There are so many mashups out there, that I had a hard time finding one to write about! I tried to find one that would be library-specific or book-specific. I found one that was pretty interesting. Library Chick’s Book Search is a customized search engine for full-text online books. A lot of the online books that you’ll find here are classic novels and the like. Something like this could be quite useful for public library patrons. I did search for medical and nursing information, and came across titles from the National Academies Press. All in all, this is a nice comprehensive resource for linking to a wide variety of free e-books.

However, mashups really show their power in mapping. I had a lot of fun looking at the Alkemis Local NYC mashup. This site offers a Google-powered map superimposed with links to live NYC traffic webcams. It was quite fun to hop around the streets of New York (virtually!) and see people walking around on the streets and taxi cabs rushing by.

The idea of customized search engines a la Rollyo is a novel idea — I even created my own search engine of stores where you can buy Marc Jacobs goodies (though I can only afford his perfume; not the clothes; but, I can dream…).

Librarians Love YouTube! April 28, 2008

Typing in a simple keyword search in YouTube for library, libraries, or librarians yields some pretty impressive results. I have some personal favorites, The March of the Librarians and The Betty Glover Library Workout Tape (a remnant from the 80s; check out the microfiche and the card catalogs; not to mention the 80s hairdos).

However, my all-time favorite is this vintage vocational guidance film on librarians, circa 1946:

While the above examples are all very fun videos to view, libraries are using YouTube for more serious endeavors, such as instruction. A good example of this would be online tutorials. Various software programs exist for the creation of online tutorials; however, the use of these programs can be incredibly cumbersome and time-consuming. Using video as an alternative would save lots of time! Moreover, patrons may be more enthusiastic to click on a library tutorial available via YouTube — it sort of adds to the “cool” factor, which cannot hurt libraries, right? Live-action videos of database demonstrations can bring the librarian to the user, without that user actually visiting the library. I do not think that video-based instruction can replace the dynamic of in-person classroom instruction, however. If anything, video tutorials can serve as a nice supplement to what was learned in class (students will have the opportunity to refresh their minds a bit by re-playing a video demonstration). Podcasting could be used for the same purposes, just as a more portable medium! In particular, video and podcasting may be helpful for distance learning students who cannot visit the library for personalized instruction.

Photosharing… it’s everywhere! April 23, 2008

When the daguerreotype was invented, who would have ever thought that in the future most photography would go digital… and be shared easily and quickly in the electronic environment!

It seems like every week, I am receiving emails of shared photos from my sister, friends, and family members. Photosharing is definitely everywhere these days. Check out my photos in PhotoBucket here.
Not much there yet… just playing around so far!

So, if photosharing is everywhere, and as librarians we’re trying to be everywhere that are users are (theoretically), how can photosharing be used in libraries? One way might be to use the “slideshow” feature of photosharing websites. Perhaps images of new library resources (e-resource logos; book covers; etc) could be posted as a slideshow on a library’s webpage. This could be a good way to grab your user’s attention in a visual way. Also, photosharing could be used for virtual library tours, or photos could be posted from special library events. In many ways, I think that this could serve as a strong marketing tool.

Web Office Tools April 11, 2008

How many times have we been prepared to give a PowerPoint presentation in a new classroom, only to discover that our jump drive does not work at the last minute and our ppt file is mysteriously gone! … and, we forgot to email the presentation to ourselves (just in case).

Something like Google Docs could totally eliminate this worst case scenario! An entirely web-based presentation, with no other hardware required! What a thought! Heck, you don’t even need to have PowerPoint software installed at all. Presentations like this could be accessed anywhere, anytime… as long as you have an Internet connection. I recently “lost” my beloved jump drive (in actuality, I believe it was stolen during a kitty playtime incident; see culprit below), so I really understand the benefits of web-based tools such as this. You could log-in to your Google Docs account at work, create your presentation, and finish it up at home — all without the worries of “Did I remember to bring my jump drive with me?”

I am realizing a strong theme in all this Web 2.0 fabulousness: collaboration.  Tools like Google Docs allow you to add collaborators to a specific document.  So, let’s say you’re working on a document for a committee.  Everyone is unable to meet in-person to revise the document.  Google Docs can eliminate this problem.  It is Web 2.0 technology such as this, that makes our lives a lot easier.

The questions was posed:  Is this the future of all software products? I definitely do not think it is the total future for all software usage.  However, I definitely think that as more people learn about these Web-based options, the more people will utilize them.  It is important to note that computer usage has so much to do with familiarity; and, after all, people are so familiarized with traditional software tools.   So, let’s see if there are a few of us willing to venture into the brave new world of online document sharing…

Social Bookmarking April 2, 2008

Of all the CE assignments thus far, the social bookmarking exercises have been the most enlightening — only because I was quite unfamiliar with social bookmarking prior to this week. Last summer, I created a del.icio.us account, but quickly abandoned the project due to a lack of understanding, time, and patience!

After playing around with del.icio.us today, I found that it serves multiple purposes. Something like this could definitely replace someone’s traditional favorites or bookmarks folder(s). The bookmarking capabilities in del.icio.us are far more interactive. Primarily, del.icio.us is most beneficial when used as a personal bookmarking tool. It provides a fun way to find new websites of interest. An article discussing the basics of social bookmarking by Davey Winder (from the November 2007 issue of Information World Review), offers reasons why social bookmarking is not only a replacement to the traditional favorites folder, but also a replacement to the traditional search engine. Since bookmarks can be tagged and shared, users can connect to similar booksmarks that other folks have tagged — thereby opening up a world of new websites that might not have been discovered via a search engine. I could see the potential of social bookmarking for research assistance, however I think that library users would be confused by all the different tagging features, and the general interface of a site like del.icio.us. Wikis tend to look a little cleaner in terms of organizing links to research databases and other online reference resources.

All in all, I will definitely be using my del.icio.us account for my future social bookmarking needs! I’ve also begun to invesigate the academic social bookmarking service CiteULike. I’ll keep you posted on what I think.

Social Networking March 31, 2008

Everywhere you look, librarians are hopping on the social networking bus.

For libraries and librarians, social networking definitely has its positives and negatives. As a modern tool of communication, social networking has endless possibilities. For communication among members of large organizations, such as the Medical Library Association, tools like Facebook and MySpace can be helpful for connecting a group of folks all interested in health sciences librarianship. In particular, I really enjoy the clean interface of Facebook, as opposed to MySpace. In this regard, I feel that Facebook is a much better tool for networking among large groups of people. The “Events” option in Facebook would definitely be helpful to keep MLA members up-to-date on the latest activities and events in medical librarianship. Linkedin is another great tool that could connect professionals with similar interests. In many ways, Linkedin reminded me of an interactive CV!

Above all, the cleanliness of the Facebook interface lends itself to a more intuitive usability (how’s that for some information architecture terminology??) than MySpace. With MySpace, I noticed that many users tend to go crazy with the fancy (or rather, distracting) backgrounds and layouts. MySpace pages usually take forever to load… leading me to lose my patience! I think library users would feel the same way. Yet another negative aspect of social networking involves privacy issues. Users in professional positions should be very careful to mark their profiles private and only viewable to requested friends. I’ve read about young college graduates losing out on job opportunities because they had a risque MySpace page that their potential boss just so happened to look up. In addition, Facebook does have some pretty scary fields that users can enter — such as telephone number and home address! A colleague of mine even mentioned that you can fill in your credit card number. Yikes.

In the near future, I do not see my library having its own Facebook or MySpace profile. We have a very specialized user population here, and traditional means of communication have worked well in the past. When I attended a Web 2.0 seminar last summer, one of the presenters said to never hop on the 2.0 bandwagon just because other libraries are… only do what works for your library. While online social networking may not be the best option for my library, I could definitely see us utilizing wikis.

Blogs & Wikis March 20, 2008

The purpose of blogs and wikis is very similar: to easily communicate and disseminate information. However, they both function quite differently.

Blogs
Blogs are great for a number of things, especially in a library setting:

• To quickly post pertinent news items (new resources; new services; etc.) to your library users
• To serve as a quick and simple news feed in someone’s RSS reader
• All in all, blogs are better suited for keeping up to date on daily items of interest and are meant to be viewed and scanned in spurts

Wikis
Wikis are equally well-suited to the types of information that librarians provide access to:

• Wikis work wonderfully (say that 3x fast!) for more detailed information on a specific topic (for example: a course page; a “pathfinder” for information sources; etc.)
• As opposed to blogs, wikis seem to be meant for longer viewing periods and are geared for more involved participation from the end user (for example: students in a class using a wiki as a course page – to keep up on assignments, class discussion, etc.)
• Also, wikis have great potential for replacing library help sheets that librarians typically keep in PDF format. With wikis, the updating process is much easier and more streamlined.

While wikis and blogs are different, they do share the Web 2.0 characteristic of encouraging interaction among various people.

RSS Feeds @ My Library March 11, 2008

In health science libraries, RSS feeds can help librarians and library users keep up with the ever-increasing bulk of published medical literature. Currently, I use Bloglines as my RSS reader. I enjoy the ease and convenience that comes along with having a web-based aggregator.

For our first Web 2.0 CE exercise, the interesting possibilities of iGoogle caught my attention. I created my own personalized iGoogle page, adding ToC RSS feeds for various journals including: Nursing History Review, Western Journal of Nursing Research, Evidence-Based Nursing, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, and the Journal of the Medical Library Association. I did have a difficult time trying to RSS PubMed searches into iGoogle. I followed the steps for getting an RSS feed of a PubMed search, but each time I tried to copy and paste the feed into iGoogle, I received an error message: “information is temporarily unavailable.” I’ll keep playing with this and see if I can figure this out… could just be a step I’m missing.

In many ways, I think something like iGoogle could be very helpful for librarians wanting to keep up with different tables of contents for journals they frequently read. With iGoogle, the user is able to create their very own personalized health science “journal” of new content.

As part of the information management elective offered at my library, I enjoy showing medical students how to create a Bloglines account and RSS different PubMed searches. Once I show this technique to students, they begin to see the practical purpose that RSS feeds can serve in their professional life. I demonstrate this technique in the context of how it can help physicians remain current on what is being published in their speciality area journals. Librarians can also use this feature as a means to keep up on literature searches that are run for faculty, residents, and staff. RSS feeds can allow librarians to see if anything new has been published for a past search that was done.