I think that my main benefit from the Hyperlinked Library MOOC was clarity. The post that best illustrates this for me is "My Empty Reference Desk". I came to a realization that a librarian's professional blog is like a reference desk as a result of Sarah Ludwig's guest lecture.
Another big realization came in my first post about multi-tasking. When I re-framed multi-tasking as inter-leafed practice, I felt better about it. It also helped me to choose tasks that were more compatible to combine. This has helped me in both my studies and my job. I may never feel as comfortable with multi-tasking as I am with single tasking, but I know now that I can do either one.
I had the most fun writing "I Love Goodreads" because Goodreads has been such an important part of my life. Soon after I posted it, this social networking website began a process of change that was probably inevitable due to its major growth spurt. It will never be the same as it had been, but I will still look back on the old Goodreads fondly. As soon as I wrote this post, I knew that I wanted to form a Goodreads tribe. I'm glad that other members had the initiative to act as the leaders as I would have if I had the time to do so. I'm glad that the tribe accomplished something for the MOOC by establishing the group on Goodreads and providing a reading list for Context Book.
My most emblematic quote from these posts would be:
"I've been riding the connecting paths between books all my life."
This is also a prime example of a realization because I never really wrote or thought about it that way. It just occurred to me that my life had been about discovering connections between books when I heard David Weinberger say that there weren't any.
I also actually discovered phenomena that I knew little or nothing about during this course. I had only heard the word "Makerspace". Now that I know what it is, I've fallen in love with the concept. If I work for a library that has a Makerspace, I will want to establish the Makerspace fandom that I discussed in my Context Book assignment.
Another phenomenon that I discovered as a result of this class, which is already causing controversy in the library profession, even before its release is Google Glass. As I said in my Director's Brief, it has great potential and equally great danger. A tool is never inherently dangerous. It's all in how it's used. I would like to be optimistic and assume that everyone will want to use the power of Google Glass for good. Yet humanity is a complex and unpredictable species. We never really know the consequences of any new technology in advance. Some librarians believe that there is reason to be concerned about Google Glass, and I can definitely see their perspective. Threats to intellectual freedom and privacy have been a major concern to me this semester as I have been making my way through the topics in the Intellectual Freedom Seminar. With that perspective, I can't look at Google Glass without a great deal of ambivalence.
I feel that MOOCs in general are a good learning format for me. My first MOOC was on Google search, and it was also very helpful to me. I use the tools that I discovered through that MOOC every day.
I am sure I will partipate in other MOOCs. I am very self-motivated and love to explore a curriculum on topics that interest me without the pressure of grades. I think I will always want to continue my education as long as I live. I hope to encounter some of the librarians I've seen in this course in other MOOC adventures.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Making Connections
This post originally appeared on the Hyperlinked Library MOOC.
The content in this module that had me scribbling an outpouring of notes was the video on which David Weinberger gave his talk on Too Big To Know. I wasn't responding because I agreed with his remarks, but because I didn't. I enjoy disagreeing. I feel like I'm in a dialogue with this presentation. We have common ground. I understand that Weinberger's work is about making connections which is the theme of Module 2. We do have some radically different assumptions which I first noticed when he said "Books are no good at connecting you to other books." What did he mean? I've been riding the connecting paths between books all my life. How did he not see them?
For one thing, non-fiction books of the scholarly sort have bibliographies. If there are topics raised in the book that you want to pursue, you can find the author's sources and continue reading on those topics. (I have to admit that I eventually became dis-satisfied with bibliographies because they always led me backward to books that had been written before the ones that I had already read. If I wanted to travel forward in my reading, I would have to go online to search for the recent work in the field. That's why I use Google and Goodreads.) Non-fiction books also often mention influential books in the text itself. In fiction, there are connections to be found by reading the blurbs. The authors who have written those comments usually have some similarity to the author of the novel that you've been reading. It can be a similarity of theme, approach, characters or style. If I liked the original novel, I sometimes find that an author who wrote a blurb on the back cover is just as wonderful. There are also Author's Notes and Acknowledgements that help you find connections between books or their authors. It would be difficult for me to come up with a statement that is more untrue than the idea that books don't connect with each other.
The most popular post on my review blog, The Unmasked Persona's Reviews, is "Living With Wolves in Fact and Fiction". This is a post that combines a review of Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf with the book that inspired it, The Man Who Lives With Wolves by Shaun Ellis. I found out about this connection by reading the Author's Note. Jodi Picoult is a bestselling writer. There must be thousands of people who blog that read this author. Why was I the only one who noticed the connection between these books and acted on it? Maybe it's because I have never shared another Weinberger assumption that a book is "a stopping point". For me, it's a starting point. Once I become interested in a topic, I want to find different perspectives from the one that I encountered in the first book I read on the subject.
I suppose it's that need to pursue those connections that makes a librarian. When I started the SJSU SLIS program with LIBR 200, my instructor told us that librarians are generalists. His name is Mark Stover and I am very grateful to him. For the first time, I knew what to call myself. I was not a specialist, but a generalist. I was interested in everything. Maybe others in my class didn't identify with the term "generalist" as I did. The power of a label is that some people will wear it proudly. The most appalling thing about a label is that it doesn't fit everyone. Perhaps some of those in my LIBR 200 class wondered whether they were meant to be librarians. I never did. I feel that the world needs generalists. As I listened to David Weinberger, my conviction was confirmed. Generalists make connections.
If someone can't find connections between books, it would be difficult to perceive connections on the internet. This is a teachable skill, not an inborn gift. It's a skill that is the foundation of research. Students who don't see connections will be unable to form a hypothesis or assemble the resources necessary for a literature review. Even linked data won't be a panacea for people who don't see why data connect. In our colleges and universities, librarians are the ones who teach this skill to new students. The internet should produce more generalists because the number of connections increase exponentially on the internet. It isn't called a "web" for nothing. Those who can't see that it really is a web shouldn't panic. A librarian will show them the way.
The content in this module that had me scribbling an outpouring of notes was the video on which David Weinberger gave his talk on Too Big To Know. I wasn't responding because I agreed with his remarks, but because I didn't. I enjoy disagreeing. I feel like I'm in a dialogue with this presentation. We have common ground. I understand that Weinberger's work is about making connections which is the theme of Module 2. We do have some radically different assumptions which I first noticed when he said "Books are no good at connecting you to other books." What did he mean? I've been riding the connecting paths between books all my life. How did he not see them?
For one thing, non-fiction books of the scholarly sort have bibliographies. If there are topics raised in the book that you want to pursue, you can find the author's sources and continue reading on those topics. (I have to admit that I eventually became dis-satisfied with bibliographies because they always led me backward to books that had been written before the ones that I had already read. If I wanted to travel forward in my reading, I would have to go online to search for the recent work in the field. That's why I use Google and Goodreads.) Non-fiction books also often mention influential books in the text itself. In fiction, there are connections to be found by reading the blurbs. The authors who have written those comments usually have some similarity to the author of the novel that you've been reading. It can be a similarity of theme, approach, characters or style. If I liked the original novel, I sometimes find that an author who wrote a blurb on the back cover is just as wonderful. There are also Author's Notes and Acknowledgements that help you find connections between books or their authors. It would be difficult for me to come up with a statement that is more untrue than the idea that books don't connect with each other.
The most popular post on my review blog, The Unmasked Persona's Reviews, is "Living With Wolves in Fact and Fiction". This is a post that combines a review of Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf with the book that inspired it, The Man Who Lives With Wolves by Shaun Ellis. I found out about this connection by reading the Author's Note. Jodi Picoult is a bestselling writer. There must be thousands of people who blog that read this author. Why was I the only one who noticed the connection between these books and acted on it? Maybe it's because I have never shared another Weinberger assumption that a book is "a stopping point". For me, it's a starting point. Once I become interested in a topic, I want to find different perspectives from the one that I encountered in the first book I read on the subject.
I suppose it's that need to pursue those connections that makes a librarian. When I started the SJSU SLIS program with LIBR 200, my instructor told us that librarians are generalists. His name is Mark Stover and I am very grateful to him. For the first time, I knew what to call myself. I was not a specialist, but a generalist. I was interested in everything. Maybe others in my class didn't identify with the term "generalist" as I did. The power of a label is that some people will wear it proudly. The most appalling thing about a label is that it doesn't fit everyone. Perhaps some of those in my LIBR 200 class wondered whether they were meant to be librarians. I never did. I feel that the world needs generalists. As I listened to David Weinberger, my conviction was confirmed. Generalists make connections.
If someone can't find connections between books, it would be difficult to perceive connections on the internet. This is a teachable skill, not an inborn gift. It's a skill that is the foundation of research. Students who don't see connections will be unable to form a hypothesis or assemble the resources necessary for a literature review. Even linked data won't be a panacea for people who don't see why data connect. In our colleges and universities, librarians are the ones who teach this skill to new students. The internet should produce more generalists because the number of connections increase exponentially on the internet. It isn't called a "web" for nothing. Those who can't see that it really is a web shouldn't panic. A librarian will show them the way.
Unique Items and Digitization
I really heard Michael Stephens in the Hyperlinked MOOC's Module 7 lecture when he complained about the fact that an item that was unique should have been digitized. I understand his perspective, but it's important to know why very few unique items are digitized.
There is a great deal of unique material out there in archives. Some of these archives share facilities and technical services staff with a library. I recently toured one such institution, and the archivist said that it would take him another year to complete the creation of finding aids for this archive's collections. Since I took a course on Archives and Manuscripts at SLIS, this didn't astonish me. I know about the challenges involved in the processing of archival materials.
Let me tell you about finding aids. In addition to a couple of paragraphs about the nature of an archival collection, finding aids provide some descriptive details. The collection may contain hundreds of items. A library cataloger is usually describing one item at a time. When a cataloger creates MARC records of archival materials for the library's catalog, they are described at the collection level. A patron will then know about the existence of a collection, but will only have a general idea about its contents. A finding aid is more specific. The items are ordinarily organized in folders that are contained within boxes. The finding aid of a collection will most often describe it at the box level. If there are fifty boxes in the collection, the archivist will record the box labels on the finding aid. Please note that this is two levels of description above the individual item level. If an archivist had to describe every single item in a collection, the cataloging backlog would probably take decades to resolve. Finding aids are digitized using the metadata standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I also studied at SLIS.
The creation and digitization of the finding aid is a prerequisite for digitizing items in the collection. Digitized objects need metadata. The finding aid gives patrons important background about the collection even if it doesn't include specific metadata about the item itself. So the next step in the digitization process would be to locate the object. This isn't necessarily a simple matter. There might be a number of boxes that contain similar materials. The archivist will need to examine the labels on every folder within those boxes in order to find the one item to be digitized. Then the archivist will scan the object, and provide item metadata that will usually appear on the same web page as the digitized object. This entire process is time consuming and labor intensive. It's also costly. Could mobile technology assist with the process? Well, a mobile phone could photograph the object, but that isn't really a problem that needs to be solved. I think that the barriers to digitization of unique materials from archival collections illustrate that technology isn't always a panacea. Unique materials are too complex to be described by a computer. This process still requires skilled human beings.
There is a great deal of unique material out there in archives. Some of these archives share facilities and technical services staff with a library. I recently toured one such institution, and the archivist said that it would take him another year to complete the creation of finding aids for this archive's collections. Since I took a course on Archives and Manuscripts at SLIS, this didn't astonish me. I know about the challenges involved in the processing of archival materials.
Let me tell you about finding aids. In addition to a couple of paragraphs about the nature of an archival collection, finding aids provide some descriptive details. The collection may contain hundreds of items. A library cataloger is usually describing one item at a time. When a cataloger creates MARC records of archival materials for the library's catalog, they are described at the collection level. A patron will then know about the existence of a collection, but will only have a general idea about its contents. A finding aid is more specific. The items are ordinarily organized in folders that are contained within boxes. The finding aid of a collection will most often describe it at the box level. If there are fifty boxes in the collection, the archivist will record the box labels on the finding aid. Please note that this is two levels of description above the individual item level. If an archivist had to describe every single item in a collection, the cataloging backlog would probably take decades to resolve. Finding aids are digitized using the metadata standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I also studied at SLIS.
The creation and digitization of the finding aid is a prerequisite for digitizing items in the collection. Digitized objects need metadata. The finding aid gives patrons important background about the collection even if it doesn't include specific metadata about the item itself. So the next step in the digitization process would be to locate the object. This isn't necessarily a simple matter. There might be a number of boxes that contain similar materials. The archivist will need to examine the labels on every folder within those boxes in order to find the one item to be digitized. Then the archivist will scan the object, and provide item metadata that will usually appear on the same web page as the digitized object. This entire process is time consuming and labor intensive. It's also costly. Could mobile technology assist with the process? Well, a mobile phone could photograph the object, but that isn't really a problem that needs to be solved. I think that the barriers to digitization of unique materials from archival collections illustrate that technology isn't always a panacea. Unique materials are too complex to be described by a computer. This process still requires skilled human beings.
3D Printers and Intellectual Freedom
Hugh Rundle presented a number of arguments against libraries owning 3D printers in his blog post “Mission Creep” at http://hughrundle.net/2013/01/02/mission-creep-a-3d-printer-will-not-save-your-library/. There was one argument that I found myself wrestling with. What if a user wanted to print a gun? Wouldn’t the library be morally responsible for any crime committed with that gun? Could libraries become unsafe as a result of users printing weapons? How could libraries stop them from doing such a thing if the library owned a 3D printer?
This assumes that 3D printer technology is advanced enough for the printing of guns that would work and cause actual harm.
For guidance on this issue I consulted PC Magazine’s August 2012 article “Can A ‘Printable Gun’ Change The World?” by Damon Poeter which can be found at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408899,00.asp . This article states that a printed gun would be likely to explode in the hand of its creator which implies that the technology isn’t that advanced. Yet this situation could change. Programming a 3D printer not to accept weapon files will only prevent them from being printed until some hacker finds his or her way around the programming. This brings us back to the question of a library’s moral responsibility for whatever emerges from a library 3D printer. Yet couldn’t someone argue the same about books? After all, who knows what dangerous or morally repugnant ideas might appear in books? Someone might borrow a crime novel then go out and re-enact a homicide described in its pages. Is the library responsible for that? Shall we empty the library’s shelves because the reaction of readers to books can be unpredictable?
There was a time when librarians thought that libraries should only carry the most “wholesome” and “morally elevated” books, and should restrict access to everything else. There are those that believe that libraries should still censor. According to an article by Judith Krug called The Aftermath of the Children's Internet Protection Act , Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist wrote in the plurality opinion in United States v. American Library Association that libraries should “deny access to resources that aren’t of requisite and appropriate quality.” This opinion dealt with a case brought by the ALA to remedy the inadequacies of internet filters which screen out legal websites. As I recently pointed out in a discussion post in SJSU's LIBR 234, the Intellectual Freedom Seminar, the decision to place the burden of ameliorating the deficiencies of filters on libraries isn’t the only one that could have been made. Will we one day be saying that although 3D printers prevent anything illegal from being printed, they also prevent the printing of perfectly legal objects? Will an ALA intellectual freedom activist like Judith Krug need to tell us again that it isn’t the mission of libraries to restrict access? Will librarians need to enter a code to enable the use of the 3D printer when we are satisfied that a user doesn’t want to use it to print any object that might be harmful? How will “harm” be defined? Will library staff need to monitor 3D printer users at every moment to make certain that they aren't contravening regulations about harmful objects?
This is a technology with troubling implications. I don’t presume to present solutions to the complex hypothetical situations that could arise once 3D printers become more sophisticated. We can’t truly know all the consequences. Yet someone should stand up for the ALA’s position on restriction of access if we don’t want libraries to be the type of institutions that imprison minds rather than setting them free.
For guidance on this issue I consulted PC Magazine’s August 2012 article “Can A ‘Printable Gun’ Change The World?” by Damon Poeter which can be found at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408899,00.asp . This article states that a printed gun would be likely to explode in the hand of its creator which implies that the technology isn’t that advanced. Yet this situation could change. Programming a 3D printer not to accept weapon files will only prevent them from being printed until some hacker finds his or her way around the programming. This brings us back to the question of a library’s moral responsibility for whatever emerges from a library 3D printer. Yet couldn’t someone argue the same about books? After all, who knows what dangerous or morally repugnant ideas might appear in books? Someone might borrow a crime novel then go out and re-enact a homicide described in its pages. Is the library responsible for that? Shall we empty the library’s shelves because the reaction of readers to books can be unpredictable?
There was a time when librarians thought that libraries should only carry the most “wholesome” and “morally elevated” books, and should restrict access to everything else. There are those that believe that libraries should still censor. According to an article by Judith Krug called The Aftermath of the Children's Internet Protection Act , Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist wrote in the plurality opinion in United States v. American Library Association that libraries should “deny access to resources that aren’t of requisite and appropriate quality.” This opinion dealt with a case brought by the ALA to remedy the inadequacies of internet filters which screen out legal websites. As I recently pointed out in a discussion post in SJSU's LIBR 234, the Intellectual Freedom Seminar, the decision to place the burden of ameliorating the deficiencies of filters on libraries isn’t the only one that could have been made. Will we one day be saying that although 3D printers prevent anything illegal from being printed, they also prevent the printing of perfectly legal objects? Will an ALA intellectual freedom activist like Judith Krug need to tell us again that it isn’t the mission of libraries to restrict access? Will librarians need to enter a code to enable the use of the 3D printer when we are satisfied that a user doesn’t want to use it to print any object that might be harmful? How will “harm” be defined? Will library staff need to monitor 3D printer users at every moment to make certain that they aren't contravening regulations about harmful objects?
This is a technology with troubling implications. I don’t presume to present solutions to the complex hypothetical situations that could arise once 3D printers become more sophisticated. We can’t truly know all the consequences. Yet someone should stand up for the ALA’s position on restriction of access if we don’t want libraries to be the type of institutions that imprison minds rather than setting them free.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Director's Brief: Google Glass
The following was written as an assignment for The Hyperlinked Library MOOC in the form of a report to the director of a library on Google Glass. It is appearing here for the first time.
This is a preliminary report on a technology that has not
yet been released to the public. It is
based on internet reports and opinions.
I don’t expect any final decisions to be made at this point, but we
should be thinking about the issues raised by this new form of computer
technology.
Google Glass is a wearable computer
in the form of eyeglasses. It can be
integrated with prescription lenses. It
contains a computer chip, a camera, a battery, a motion sensor and WIFI. It can be voice activated, but it also has a
touchpad that is worn on an arm for silent activation. It will allow Glass wearers to take photos or
record videos hands free, and upload them automatically to Google’s cloud applications.
(Houghton, 2013).
The miniature screen is a cube located in the upper right hand corner
of the device, and there is a microphone behind the user’s ear. (Arapaho
Libraries, 2013). Perceptually it will
seem like the screen is eight feet away. Severely nearsighted people won’t be
able to see it clearly without integration with their prescription lenses.
There is a red light that is visible when something is being recorded. Glass shuts off every 30 seconds and needs
to be re-activated. If users record
frequently, the battery will need to be re-charged within 90 minutes. Google
states that with normal use the charge should last an entire day (Liedtke,
2013). It currently doesn’t include
GPS. Wearers will need to tether it to
an Android smart phone for access to the
advertised Google Maps functionality that will allow them to get directions (Houghton
,2013).
There are 8,000 beta users
currently testing Glass. (Stephens, 2013) They or their employers are paying
$1500 to test this device. After it’s
scheduled for release in April of 2014, it will probably cost approximately
$500.(Epstein, 2013) There are a number of librarians and library systems who
are demonstrating the beta version of Google Glass to their
users.
There are numerous potential uses.
Most prominently mentioned is the ability of physicians to receive
information (e.g. the patient’s vital signs) while continuing to perform
surgery (Doyle, 2013). Although I have seen no one point this out, if a surgeon
were distracted during surgery by the Glass information feed, his surgical
instrument could slip and harm the patient.
So this may not be a good use for Glass.
Of particular interest to libraries are educational uses involving interactivity and virtual field trips as well as information feed to students (Kwikboost, 2013)and the likely ability that Glass may have in the future to simultaneously translate to and from any language. Google Glass beta tester, librarian Arian Kruppa reports that Glass currently can’t understand any language other than English(Tween Tribune, 2013). The widely reported speculation that Glass will be able to translate is based on the existence of Google Translate. This means that a translation application for Glass could be developed by Google.(Titlow, 2013)
An
important negative attribute of Glass is its radioactivity. Google has reported the radiation of Glass to
the FCC. The FCC has ruled it safe. Yet since it’s worn constantly on the head,
Glass may increase the incidence of brain tumors (Wang, 2013).
Another
serious issue is the danger of a data breach.
If Google’s cloud is hacked, which has happened in the past, users’
identity information will be completely compromised. In response to criticism, Google has
prohibited facial recognition applications from the Glass equivalent of Google
Play. (Houghton, 2013). This would
prevent Glass from identifying persons in Glass videos, accessing their
identity records and imperiling their data in the event a breach.
Reference
librarians may be impacted by Glass wearers intruding on reference interviews
conducted at the public reference desk ,and violating their confidentiality by
videotaping them and uploading them to You Tube. One solution could be to conduct all
reference interviews in a private space by default.
Violation
of privacy is a widely expressed concern about Glass. Although Google removed an application that
would allow photos to be taken silently by blinking, Denver Post reporter Michael Liedtke states that while he was wearing Glass, he
was able to record a video of a Google
representative discussing privacy as it applies to Glass without his
knowledge by pressing a small button on the right frame without speaking a
command aloud.(Liedtke, 2013) The arm touchpad would also allow silent
commands. So it will be possible to
photograph or record individuals without their knowledge or consent.
A
relevant study involving the possible impact of the prevalent presence of Glass
wearers on society is a 2008 study called
“The eye of the camera: Effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior” by Rompay, Vonk and Fransen which showed that there is tendency to act in
people pleasing ways in the presence of security cameras (Rompay et al, 2009). Glass could have a chilling effect on speech
which would be contrary to democratic values.
A study
dealing with the concern that Glass will make users more distracted deals with
the surprising finding that only 2% of
the population can multi-task successfully.
Scientist David Strayer called them “supertaskers” and discovered that their brains are
organized differently from the other 98% of us. (Sundem, 2012) A Harvard
Business Review blog article by Peter Bregman states that multi-tasking reduces productivity
by 40% because switching between tasks causes a loss of time. Bregman cites a study by Ophir, Nass and
Wagner in The Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences that heavy multi-taskers are more distractable than
light multi-taskers because those who multi-task more lose their ability to
focus on any task. (Ophir et al, 2009).
So it would seem that Glass may aggravate trends that were initiated due
to the common use of smart phones. If
Glass becomes as popular as portable technologies it is likely that the average
attention span of technology users will continue to decline.
The
privacy issue can possibly be dealt with by having Glass wearers sign
agreements that they will not photograph or videotape library users or staff
without consent which will be kept on file.
If they violate this agreement, they can be suspended or banned
permanently from the library depending on the severity of their offense. A simpler solution might be to tell Glass
users to remove their devices, and ban Glass from the library as we have done
with cell phones. The Technology Committee will need to discuss
how best to deal with Glass wearers in our population.
As the Director, you will have the final
decision about the role that Google Glass should play at our institution. This is a powerful technology that may have
great benefits, but will also have great risks.
Since Glass is still in beta phase, the best recommendation may be to
wait and see what the impact of Glass will actually be instead of relying on
internet speculation. The Technology
Committee will consult with other libraries that have Glass wearers on staff to
find out what their experience has been with this device. The
version of Glass that is finally released may have significant differences from
the device that is currently being tested.
Let us weigh the benefits and drawbacks of Glass,
References
Arapaho Libraries
(2013) Arapaho libraries website.
Retrieved from:http://arapahoelibraries.org/googleglass
on November 23, 2013.
Bregman,
P.(2010). How and why to stop multi-tasking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski/ on November 23, 2013.
Doyle, M. (2013).
How Google Glass is now being used in surgery. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ptc/2013/11/05/how-google-glass-is-now-being-used-during-surgery/
on November 24, 2013.
Epstein, Su
(2013). A Google Glass future. Public
Libraries Online. Retrieved from: http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/11/a-google-glass-future/
on November 23, 2014.
Houghton, S. (2013).
Google Glass: Release date, news and features. Tech radar.AV. Retrieved from:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/video/google-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114 on November 23, 2013.
Kwikboost (2013).
Google Glass in the classroom: A transformational trend? Retrieved from:http://www.kwikboost.com/google-glass-in-the-classroom/ on November 24, 2013.
Liedtke,M. (2013)
Google Glass: Spectacle-like, but impresses. Denver Post. Retrieved from:
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_23825644/google-glass-spectacle-like-but-impresses-review on November 23, 2013
Ophir,E. et al
(2009). Cognitive control in media multi-taskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.09036206.
Rompay, T. et al
(2009). The eye of the camera: effects of security cameras on pro-social
behavior. Environment and Behavior,
41(1), 60-74. doi: 10.1177/0013916507309996.
Stephens, M.
(2013) News: Jen Waller, Miami Ohio librarian and Google Glass. Tame the web. Retrieved from: http://tametheweb.com/2013/10/06/news-jen-waller-miami-ohio-librarian-and-google-glass/
on November 23, 2013.
Sundem, G. (2012). This is your brain on
multi-tasking. Psychology Today.
Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-trust/201202/is-your-brain-multitasking on November 23, 2013.
Titlow, J.
(2013). 10 compelling ways people plan
to use Google Glass. Read Write.com. Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2013/03/07/10-compelling-ways-people-plan-to-use-google-glass#awesm=~oo9AUTXa3yPp1e
on November 23, 2013.
Tween Tribune
(2013). Are Google glasses worth $1500? Retrieved from: http://tweentribune.com/tween78/are-google-glasses-worth-1500 on November 23, 2013.
Wang, R. (2013)
Wireless radiation from Google Glass: Is there a risk? Pong. Retrieved from: https://www.pongcase.com/blog/wireless-radiation-google-glass-risk on November 23, 2013.
Online Professional Learning Network: Digitization
This is an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC that I am posting here, and then re-posting to my MOOC blog.
GOALS: Although I have numerous professional goals, the one that is my current focus is digitization. I will be taking a course on digitization at SJSU next semester. I feel that this could the most crucial professional set of skills that I have yet to learn. I don't just mean the act of digitizing objects. There is also curation of digital objects and digital preservation.
SCOPE: I'm currently a student about to embark on a LIS career. I'm discovering through this assignment that digitization is crucial to all professional paths of LIS. I have thought of becoming an archivist where I would need to digitize finding aids and carefully selected items from collections. I have thought of becoming an academic librarian where I might need to digitize theses or dissertations for a institutional repository. I have thought of becoming a law librarian who would help to preserve legal documents through digitization. It's also possible that a public library might want to digitize oral histories from local individuals. I was looking for people who would be experience resources, resources involving best practices, opportunities and approaches to digitization that I hadn't considered.
NETWORK:
Individual Contacts
Lori Lindberg at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarchive
Professor Lindberg was the instructor who taught me Encoded Archival Description which is used to digitize finding aids. This is the connection that was my starting point in digitization.
Emily Odza at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyodza
Emily Odza is a local librarian who is a relatively recent SLIS graduate. Her internship involved digitization of a special collection. I am interested in finding out more about what she learned.
Digitization Best Practices
Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov
There are links to guidelines for various formats and links to working groups for the still images and audio-visual formats.
Oral History in the Digital Age Wiki http://wiki.ohda.matrix.msu.edu/index.php/Main_Page
This is a wiki dealing with best practices for digitization of oral histories.
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials Wikihttp://wiki.lib.utc.edu/index.php/Technical_Guidelines_for_Digitizing_Cultural_Heritage_Materials
This is a best practices wiki maintained by the UTC Library Special Collections and Archives.
Digitization Blogs
Page to Pixel http://page2pixel.org/about/
This is the blog of Isaiah Beard, a digital curator at Rutgers University. He establishes standards and workflows for Rutgers University Community Repository
Info Overdrive http://infooverdrive.com/author/tonybarbeau/
Tony Barbeau is a corporate blogger who is interested in digitization. This is Kodak's document imaging blog. He recently wrote about preserving digital images in the cloud.
Collaborative Manuscript Transcription http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.com/
Ben Brumfield is an archivist blogger who is interested in collaboration between professionals and amateurs on digitization projects.
Free Government Information http://freegovinfo.info/node/3961
I was attracted to this blog by a white paper presented at the ALA Convention in Chicago in June 2013 called Wait! Don't Digitize and Discard! which deals with the need for non-destructive digitization in order to maintain copies of paper originals for long-term preservation purposes.
You Tube
Inside Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2tLyTPs7Y
Smithsonian is digitizing objects in their collection in order to make replicas of them with a 3D printer. National Geographic made this video.
Prezi
Oral History Projects From Interview To You Tube http://prezi.com/ozzqpnfhrpdt/oral-history-projects-from-interview-to-youtube/
This is a creative multimedia Prezi made by archivist Laura Ann Heller of the National Cowboy Museum detailing the entire process of doing oral history interviews, digitizing them and then making video clips for You Tube. There's lots to learn here.
NETWORK MAINTENANCE PLAN
This network will be maintained on my professional blog, Information Metamorphosis. There will be new technologies, new best practices to deal with them, innovative projects, contacts and blogs to add to this network. I hope to update it whenever I discover a new resource. I may also need to update the links for the current resources. This is a very exciting area of LIS.
GOALS: Although I have numerous professional goals, the one that is my current focus is digitization. I will be taking a course on digitization at SJSU next semester. I feel that this could the most crucial professional set of skills that I have yet to learn. I don't just mean the act of digitizing objects. There is also curation of digital objects and digital preservation.
SCOPE: I'm currently a student about to embark on a LIS career. I'm discovering through this assignment that digitization is crucial to all professional paths of LIS. I have thought of becoming an archivist where I would need to digitize finding aids and carefully selected items from collections. I have thought of becoming an academic librarian where I might need to digitize theses or dissertations for a institutional repository. I have thought of becoming a law librarian who would help to preserve legal documents through digitization. It's also possible that a public library might want to digitize oral histories from local individuals. I was looking for people who would be experience resources, resources involving best practices, opportunities and approaches to digitization that I hadn't considered.
NETWORK:
Individual Contacts
Lori Lindberg at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarchive
Professor Lindberg was the instructor who taught me Encoded Archival Description which is used to digitize finding aids. This is the connection that was my starting point in digitization.
Emily Odza at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyodza
Emily Odza is a local librarian who is a relatively recent SLIS graduate. Her internship involved digitization of a special collection. I am interested in finding out more about what she learned.
Digitization Best Practices
Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov
There are links to guidelines for various formats and links to working groups for the still images and audio-visual formats.
Oral History in the Digital Age Wiki http://wiki.ohda.matrix.msu.edu/index.php/Main_Page
This is a wiki dealing with best practices for digitization of oral histories.
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials Wikihttp://wiki.lib.utc.edu/index.php/Technical_Guidelines_for_Digitizing_Cultural_Heritage_Materials
This is a best practices wiki maintained by the UTC Library Special Collections and Archives.
Digitization Blogs
Page to Pixel http://page2pixel.org/about/
This is the blog of Isaiah Beard, a digital curator at Rutgers University. He establishes standards and workflows for Rutgers University Community Repository
Info Overdrive http://infooverdrive.com/author/tonybarbeau/
Tony Barbeau is a corporate blogger who is interested in digitization. This is Kodak's document imaging blog. He recently wrote about preserving digital images in the cloud.
Collaborative Manuscript Transcription http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.com/
Ben Brumfield is an archivist blogger who is interested in collaboration between professionals and amateurs on digitization projects.
Free Government Information http://freegovinfo.info/node/3961
I was attracted to this blog by a white paper presented at the ALA Convention in Chicago in June 2013 called Wait! Don't Digitize and Discard! which deals with the need for non-destructive digitization in order to maintain copies of paper originals for long-term preservation purposes.
You Tube
Inside Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2tLyTPs7Y
Smithsonian is digitizing objects in their collection in order to make replicas of them with a 3D printer. National Geographic made this video.
Prezi
Oral History Projects From Interview To You Tube http://prezi.com/ozzqpnfhrpdt/oral-history-projects-from-interview-to-youtube/
This is a creative multimedia Prezi made by archivist Laura Ann Heller of the National Cowboy Museum detailing the entire process of doing oral history interviews, digitizing them and then making video clips for You Tube. There's lots to learn here.
NETWORK MAINTENANCE PLAN
This network will be maintained on my professional blog, Information Metamorphosis. There will be new technologies, new best practices to deal with them, innovative projects, contacts and blogs to add to this network. I hope to update it whenever I discover a new resource. I may also need to update the links for the current resources. This is a very exciting area of LIS.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Context Book: Creative Synergy
I wrote this post as an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC which is San Jose State University's first MOOC. It is being posted here on Information Metamorphosis for the first time, and I will cross-post it to my MOOC blog.
This is not a book review. I read one book followed by part of another, and was suddenly inspired. Consider this strange equation. It doesn't have an equals sign because this post is the answer.
These are two authors who would be in an adversarial dialogue on a talk show. Seth Godin is very excited by the creation of communities based on shared goals on the internet. Jaron Lanier is deeply concerned by internet trends that he believes are dehumanizing. In fact, they are some of the same trends that excite Godin.
I hoped to share Godin's enthusiasm when I read his book, but instead I found him disappointingly repetitive. Godin is a motivational speaker. Hammering on the same points can work very well in a speech. I found a TED talk by Godin from 2009. If you view this, you will not have to read Godin's book and you will probably find it far more enjoyable. I embedded the video of this TED talk. If it doesn't appear in the version of the post that you see, it's here .
I absolutely agreed with Seth Godin about the potential of internet communities and the importance of the true fan spreading great ideas, but it wasn't until I read Jaron Lanier's dismissal of the creativity of mash ups devised by true fans that I felt galvanized to respond.
Mash ups are based on synthesis. They make connections. Someone who has never seen such a connection before could be inspired. It was after I wrote that response in my notes toward Context Book, that the idea of Makerspace fandom came to me. Libraries should think creatively about nurturing a fan community, and think fannishly (the way fans would) about creativity.
How do you promote a Makerspace? Some libraries have posted material about their Makerspace. I was impressed with the variety of services that the Detroit Public Library Makerspace offers. Here's a link to their page about it at http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/hype/hype-makerspace . Yet it seems to me that fans could spread the word about the Makerspace more widely than the library could on its own.
How do you establish a fandom? What if the patrons who use the Makerspace had a forum on the library website to post about their projects? There could be some great discussions that support the Makerspace. Patrons could post about the discussions on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter. This would increase interest in the Makerspace and its forum. In addition to discussion, there could also be creative responses. So suppose Sarah posted a picture of the dress she made on the sewing machine, and Joe posted a picture of the t-shirt with a silk-screened image that he'd just produced at the Makerspace. Then Judy mashes up the two images, and Bob becomes creatively inspired by the mashup and writes a poem about it. Kerry sees the poem, and writes a drabble based on the poem. A drabble is a story that is exactly one hundred words. Sam could have found the drabble amazing and made a video of himself singing a song that he wrote based on the drabble. These are the sorts of things that fans do when they get creative. Soon people would start coming to the forum to see the creativity and perhaps participate in it themselves.
Jaron Lanier criticized mash ups because they're derivative. He thinks that creativity will become exhausted because it depends on earlier work. Shakespeare was derivative. He borrowed plots from other writers who no one remembers. We remember Shakespeare because his derivative versions were so compelling. Shakespeare was not the only major artist who was derivative. No one creates in a vacuum. Artists form communities because they become inspired by one another's work. The people in a fandom do the same. Occasionally, there will be incidents involving blatant copying from someone else. Fans will then spread the word that the offender has plagiarized.
A Makerspace community forum will need guidelines and policies to prevent abusive practices such as cyber-bullying. (Yes, it happens, but I think Jaron Lanier exaggerates the extent of it. We are not all trolls as he claims. I also don't think Lanier should feed inner trolls by insisting that everyone engages in trollishness.) The forum will also need encouragement. Librarians should include creative responses in a description of what posts on the forum are appropriate. Perhaps they could add a supportive comment now and then. They could also survey the members of the forum about potential new Makerspace services which would cause these users to become enthusiastic about the possibilities, and write social media posts asking others to support these potential services. A Makerspace fandom is not expensive. When it grows to a certain size, it will become self-sustaining, and it will pay the library back with boatloads of community support.
This post is about synergy. My response to these two contrasting books is synergistic. So is the process of building a fan community on a library website. If your library doesn't have a Makerspace, consider how you could build a similar fandom around one of your programs.
This is not a book review. I read one book followed by part of another, and was suddenly inspired. Consider this strange equation. It doesn't have an equals sign because this post is the answer.
I hoped to share Godin's enthusiasm when I read his book, but instead I found him disappointingly repetitive. Godin is a motivational speaker. Hammering on the same points can work very well in a speech. I found a TED talk by Godin from 2009. If you view this, you will not have to read Godin's book and you will probably find it far more enjoyable. I embedded the video of this TED talk. If it doesn't appear in the version of the post that you see, it's here .
I absolutely agreed with Seth Godin about the potential of internet communities and the importance of the true fan spreading great ideas, but it wasn't until I read Jaron Lanier's dismissal of the creativity of mash ups devised by true fans that I felt galvanized to respond.
Mash ups are based on synthesis. They make connections. Someone who has never seen such a connection before could be inspired. It was after I wrote that response in my notes toward Context Book, that the idea of Makerspace fandom came to me. Libraries should think creatively about nurturing a fan community, and think fannishly (the way fans would) about creativity.
How do you promote a Makerspace? Some libraries have posted material about their Makerspace. I was impressed with the variety of services that the Detroit Public Library Makerspace offers. Here's a link to their page about it at http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/hype/hype-makerspace . Yet it seems to me that fans could spread the word about the Makerspace more widely than the library could on its own.
How do you establish a fandom? What if the patrons who use the Makerspace had a forum on the library website to post about their projects? There could be some great discussions that support the Makerspace. Patrons could post about the discussions on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter. This would increase interest in the Makerspace and its forum. In addition to discussion, there could also be creative responses. So suppose Sarah posted a picture of the dress she made on the sewing machine, and Joe posted a picture of the t-shirt with a silk-screened image that he'd just produced at the Makerspace. Then Judy mashes up the two images, and Bob becomes creatively inspired by the mashup and writes a poem about it. Kerry sees the poem, and writes a drabble based on the poem. A drabble is a story that is exactly one hundred words. Sam could have found the drabble amazing and made a video of himself singing a song that he wrote based on the drabble. These are the sorts of things that fans do when they get creative. Soon people would start coming to the forum to see the creativity and perhaps participate in it themselves.
Jaron Lanier criticized mash ups because they're derivative. He thinks that creativity will become exhausted because it depends on earlier work. Shakespeare was derivative. He borrowed plots from other writers who no one remembers. We remember Shakespeare because his derivative versions were so compelling. Shakespeare was not the only major artist who was derivative. No one creates in a vacuum. Artists form communities because they become inspired by one another's work. The people in a fandom do the same. Occasionally, there will be incidents involving blatant copying from someone else. Fans will then spread the word that the offender has plagiarized.
A Makerspace community forum will need guidelines and policies to prevent abusive practices such as cyber-bullying. (Yes, it happens, but I think Jaron Lanier exaggerates the extent of it. We are not all trolls as he claims. I also don't think Lanier should feed inner trolls by insisting that everyone engages in trollishness.) The forum will also need encouragement. Librarians should include creative responses in a description of what posts on the forum are appropriate. Perhaps they could add a supportive comment now and then. They could also survey the members of the forum about potential new Makerspace services which would cause these users to become enthusiastic about the possibilities, and write social media posts asking others to support these potential services. A Makerspace fandom is not expensive. When it grows to a certain size, it will become self-sustaining, and it will pay the library back with boatloads of community support.
This post is about synergy. My response to these two contrasting books is synergistic. So is the process of building a fan community on a library website. If your library doesn't have a Makerspace, consider how you could build a similar fandom around one of your programs.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Touring with ALASC: The African American Museum and Library of Oakland
ALASC stands for American Library Association Students Chapter. The San Jose State University chapter is very active and has received awards. I have attended several other ALASC tours during my SLIS career. They have always been interesting and insightful. This is the first time that I have gotten the opportunity to describe such a tour on my blog at the request of tour coordinator, Elissa Papendick.
The African American Museum and Library of Oakland (AAMLO)was originally a Carnegie library built in 1902. It is an Oakland historic site but it was severely damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. AAMLO was closed until funding could be found to repair the damage and re-construct the building. In the vestibule, I saw the plaque in honor of the restoration of AAMLO in 2001. I also noticed the sculpted head of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass which had been donated by former Congressman and Oakland Mayor, Ron Dellums whose papers have been deposited at the AAMLO archive along with those of current Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Ron Dellums was the original head of the Congressional African American Caucus. Barbara Lee is the current head of the Congressional African American Caucus. As a resident of Oakland, I am proud that Barbara Lee represents me in Congress.
I and my fellow LIS students first spoke to the archivist. He told us that many finding aids for the archival collections had been digitized, but he still had about a year's worth of work. He is trying to develop a collection policy for the archive. He expects it to be a 20-30 page document. There are 300 feet of archival materials on site and another 700-800 feet off site. Take a look at this page about AAMLO Archival Collections to get an idea of the amazing resources represented in this repository. There are 160 collections that are mainly photographic representing all aspects of African American life. He would like to digitize some of these historic photos for the public to view online.When asked about the Black Panthers, he responded that the AAMLO Museum has a small amount of Black Panther related material, but AAMLO archives didn't have the funds to purchase the papers of the most prominent Black Panthers. They've gone to Stanford University's archives. The archive is open to research scholars by appointment.
In the Museum's gallery on the upper level, there was an imposing mural called Journey of Promise which portrayed national figures in African American history, African American figures in California history and local Oakland African American figures. There were photo displays, and oral history videos in the permanent exhibit with accounts from a diverse collection of Oakland's citizens belonging to a variety of backgrounds and occupations. The current exhibit dealing with voting rights also deals with the issue as it applies to a number of different ethnic and cultural groups who have suffered voting discrimination.
It was in the gallery that the reference librarian spoke to us about the uniqueness of AAMLO. Executive Director Rick Moss is a historian and a curator. This makes AAMLO the only library in the Oakland Public Library system that isn't headed by a librarian. Since AAMLO houses a museum, archives and library under one roof this is appropriate.
The library is composed of a 13,000 item reference collection dealing with African American subjects. No one can check out any books at AAMLO's library. Every item remains on the premises of the library.
After browsing through the reference library, I went to talk to the archivist a bit about digitization using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I had studied at SLIS.
I was glad to discover a library, museum and archive that I had never visited in my own city. I hoped to return to AAMLO in the near future.
The African American Museum and Library of Oakland (AAMLO)was originally a Carnegie library built in 1902. It is an Oakland historic site but it was severely damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. AAMLO was closed until funding could be found to repair the damage and re-construct the building. In the vestibule, I saw the plaque in honor of the restoration of AAMLO in 2001. I also noticed the sculpted head of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass which had been donated by former Congressman and Oakland Mayor, Ron Dellums whose papers have been deposited at the AAMLO archive along with those of current Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Ron Dellums was the original head of the Congressional African American Caucus. Barbara Lee is the current head of the Congressional African American Caucus. As a resident of Oakland, I am proud that Barbara Lee represents me in Congress.
I and my fellow LIS students first spoke to the archivist. He told us that many finding aids for the archival collections had been digitized, but he still had about a year's worth of work. He is trying to develop a collection policy for the archive. He expects it to be a 20-30 page document. There are 300 feet of archival materials on site and another 700-800 feet off site. Take a look at this page about AAMLO Archival Collections to get an idea of the amazing resources represented in this repository. There are 160 collections that are mainly photographic representing all aspects of African American life. He would like to digitize some of these historic photos for the public to view online.When asked about the Black Panthers, he responded that the AAMLO Museum has a small amount of Black Panther related material, but AAMLO archives didn't have the funds to purchase the papers of the most prominent Black Panthers. They've gone to Stanford University's archives. The archive is open to research scholars by appointment.
In the Museum's gallery on the upper level, there was an imposing mural called Journey of Promise which portrayed national figures in African American history, African American figures in California history and local Oakland African American figures. There were photo displays, and oral history videos in the permanent exhibit with accounts from a diverse collection of Oakland's citizens belonging to a variety of backgrounds and occupations. The current exhibit dealing with voting rights also deals with the issue as it applies to a number of different ethnic and cultural groups who have suffered voting discrimination.
It was in the gallery that the reference librarian spoke to us about the uniqueness of AAMLO. Executive Director Rick Moss is a historian and a curator. This makes AAMLO the only library in the Oakland Public Library system that isn't headed by a librarian. Since AAMLO houses a museum, archives and library under one roof this is appropriate.
The library is composed of a 13,000 item reference collection dealing with African American subjects. No one can check out any books at AAMLO's library. Every item remains on the premises of the library.
After browsing through the reference library, I went to talk to the archivist a bit about digitization using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I had studied at SLIS.
I was glad to discover a library, museum and archive that I had never visited in my own city. I hoped to return to AAMLO in the near future.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Library Kindle Loans and Privacy
This is a re-blog from Information Metamorphosis on WordPress.
Since I'm a new blogger, I'm surfing the blogosphere and uncovering posts that aren't the most current, but I feel that I have a perspective to contribute to this issue.
I just viewed Sarah Houghton-Jan's video posted October 18, 2011 to her blog Librarian in Black and here is my reaction:
I do agree with Sarah Houghton-Jan that librarians must stand up to protect the public from potential misuse of any records dealing with their reading. Libraries have historically been a bulwark against censorship. They have had annual Banned Books Week events. Intellectual freedom has been an important value of the library profession. It's such a core belief for me as a future librarian that I feel that Sarah Houghton-Jan's call to action doesn't go far enough.
Amazon has records of all Kindle e-book transactions, not just library Kindle e-book transactions. If librarians really care about reading privacy rights and intellectual freedom, then they shouldn't confine themselves to pushing for the confidentiality of library downloads through Amazon. Neither Amazon nor the public will understand why library e-book downloads should have special status. I think it's important to put it out there that the personal data associated with any book transaction should be kept confidential. This should apply to all book vendors, not just Amazon. It's terrific that California has a reading privacy law. Yet when we're dealing with internet records, like those of online book vendors, the solution needs to be federal. Libraries should advocate for Congressional legislation that protects reading privacy in all contexts.
Since I'm a new blogger, I'm surfing the blogosphere and uncovering posts that aren't the most current, but I feel that I have a perspective to contribute to this issue.
I just viewed Sarah Houghton-Jan's video posted October 18, 2011 to her blog Librarian in Black and here is my reaction:
I do agree with Sarah Houghton-Jan that librarians must stand up to protect the public from potential misuse of any records dealing with their reading. Libraries have historically been a bulwark against censorship. They have had annual Banned Books Week events. Intellectual freedom has been an important value of the library profession. It's such a core belief for me as a future librarian that I feel that Sarah Houghton-Jan's call to action doesn't go far enough.
Amazon has records of all Kindle e-book transactions, not just library Kindle e-book transactions. If librarians really care about reading privacy rights and intellectual freedom, then they shouldn't confine themselves to pushing for the confidentiality of library downloads through Amazon. Neither Amazon nor the public will understand why library e-book downloads should have special status. I think it's important to put it out there that the personal data associated with any book transaction should be kept confidential. This should apply to all book vendors, not just Amazon. It's terrific that California has a reading privacy law. Yet when we're dealing with internet records, like those of online book vendors, the solution needs to be federal. Libraries should advocate for Congressional legislation that protects reading privacy in all contexts.
The Goodreads Experience: What if Everyone Cared About Cataloging?
This re-blog from Information Metamorphosis on WordPress refers to an earlier period of time when Amazon and Goodreads were in conflict. Now that Amazon has bought Goodreads, this conflict no longer exists. Amazon has resumed being a metadata partner of Goodreads. This post shows that people who are not catalogers do care about cataloging on Goodreads. I am sure they also care about cataloging on Librarything and other internet sites where ordinary users catalog.
Goodreads is a social networking site for book readers, but I have seen it characterized as a social cataloging site. The main purpose of Goodreads is the formation of connections between members based on their reading preferences. Yet another important function of Goodreads is the cataloging of members' books on virtual shelves. Since members can examine each other's shelves and compare books, cataloging facilitates the social networking aspect. There is a subset of volunteers that maintain the database who are called "librarians", but any Goodreads member can enter a record for a book that isn't found in search. A surprising number of members who aren't Goodreads librarians are concerned about the accuracy of the metadata. They post to the group for Goodreads librarians asking for the titles, authors, formats, numbers of pages, publication dates and ISBNs to be corrected. They are concerned about differentiation of editions as well.
When Amazon recently ended its relationship with Goodreads , Amazon's metadata could no longer be used. Although Goodreads did eventually establish a relationship with Ingram, Goodreads librarians were called upon to assist in finding alternate metadata sources. The current Goodreads policy is that users can only enter data from books in hand, or from libraries, publishers or author's websites. As a Goodreads librarian, I worked to recover data for books that I and my Goodreads friends had shelved.
During this transition to Ingram's metadata, concern over missing information in records has become very prevalent on Goodreads. There has been an increase in applications to become Goodreads librarians.
I mention all of this because there is an ongoing discussion on RDA-L, a listserv devoted to the discussion of RDA, on whether library users really care about metadata. Based on my experience of Goodreads, it seems to me that many do care. Professional library catalogers definitely are not alone in the metadataverse.
One of the stated purposes of RDA is to allow for metadata sharing in a linked data environment. The wide realms of metadata producers and users outside of libraries is being considered in the RDA development process.
Goodreads has been using Library of Congress name authorities for disambiguation purposes for as long as Goodreads librarians have existed. Worldcat is often utilized by these Goodreads volunteers to confirm the accuracy of user provided data. There has always been a strong link between Goodreads and the world of libraries. They are clearly an example of exactly the sort of non-library entity that RDA is intended to benefit. So an examination of how Goodreads utilizes metadata, and the metadata needs of its users should be relevant to any discussion of whether ordinary users really care about metadata.
Goodreads is a social networking site for book readers, but I have seen it characterized as a social cataloging site. The main purpose of Goodreads is the formation of connections between members based on their reading preferences. Yet another important function of Goodreads is the cataloging of members' books on virtual shelves. Since members can examine each other's shelves and compare books, cataloging facilitates the social networking aspect. There is a subset of volunteers that maintain the database who are called "librarians", but any Goodreads member can enter a record for a book that isn't found in search. A surprising number of members who aren't Goodreads librarians are concerned about the accuracy of the metadata. They post to the group for Goodreads librarians asking for the titles, authors, formats, numbers of pages, publication dates and ISBNs to be corrected. They are concerned about differentiation of editions as well.
When Amazon recently ended its relationship with Goodreads , Amazon's metadata could no longer be used. Although Goodreads did eventually establish a relationship with Ingram, Goodreads librarians were called upon to assist in finding alternate metadata sources. The current Goodreads policy is that users can only enter data from books in hand, or from libraries, publishers or author's websites. As a Goodreads librarian, I worked to recover data for books that I and my Goodreads friends had shelved.
During this transition to Ingram's metadata, concern over missing information in records has become very prevalent on Goodreads. There has been an increase in applications to become Goodreads librarians.
I mention all of this because there is an ongoing discussion on RDA-L, a listserv devoted to the discussion of RDA, on whether library users really care about metadata. Based on my experience of Goodreads, it seems to me that many do care. Professional library catalogers definitely are not alone in the metadataverse.
One of the stated purposes of RDA is to allow for metadata sharing in a linked data environment. The wide realms of metadata producers and users outside of libraries is being considered in the RDA development process.
Goodreads has been using Library of Congress name authorities for disambiguation purposes for as long as Goodreads librarians have existed. Worldcat is often utilized by these Goodreads volunteers to confirm the accuracy of user provided data. There has always been a strong link between Goodreads and the world of libraries. They are clearly an example of exactly the sort of non-library entity that RDA is intended to benefit. So an examination of how Goodreads utilizes metadata, and the metadata needs of its users should be relevant to any discussion of whether ordinary users really care about metadata.
New York Public Library's Biblion Project
I have re-blogged this post from Information Metamorphosis on WordPress. It deals with how a library can utilize linked data.
James Weinheimer's recent podcast of Cataloging Matters no.14 dealt with how linked data can be viewed in various ways. He concluded that library users needed selection to make sense of that vast network of links.
I retained Weinheimer's salient point when I viewed the recording of the San Jose State University LIS Colloquium presentation by Deanna Lee today. Deanna Lee is the Vice President of Communications and Marketing at New York Public Library. The subject of her talk was NYPL's Biblion Project. Biblion is an app that allows NYPL to present digitized archival materials in a manner that provides access to them for a much wider audience. It also allows users to browse the materials in the same fashion that they would browse the shelves of a library. This was a goal of Biblion. Lee wanted users to be able to make serendipitous discoveries. It occurred to me that the Biblion Project is an example of a library making use of the linked data paradigm. All the materials in the collection are linked through the app. Serendipitous discoveries are made by following links.
Lee pointed out that this project could not have been been realized so quickly if the collection didn't already have a finding aid and had not already been digitized. I need to point out that archival collections are digitized using metadata schemas. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) facilitates the digitization of finding aids. Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) is often used by archives and museums to digitize the items in a collection. So metadata is the foundation for the utilization of linked data. NYPL could not have selected this particular data set if the metadata hadn't already been made available to them. This is the key to the universe of linked data. So cataloging does indeed matter, and the methods used to catalog materials are crucial. This is the means by which libraries can remain relevant for users.
James Weinheimer's recent podcast of Cataloging Matters no.14 dealt with how linked data can be viewed in various ways. He concluded that library users needed selection to make sense of that vast network of links.
I retained Weinheimer's salient point when I viewed the recording of the San Jose State University LIS Colloquium presentation by Deanna Lee today. Deanna Lee is the Vice President of Communications and Marketing at New York Public Library. The subject of her talk was NYPL's Biblion Project. Biblion is an app that allows NYPL to present digitized archival materials in a manner that provides access to them for a much wider audience. It also allows users to browse the materials in the same fashion that they would browse the shelves of a library. This was a goal of Biblion. Lee wanted users to be able to make serendipitous discoveries. It occurred to me that the Biblion Project is an example of a library making use of the linked data paradigm. All the materials in the collection are linked through the app. Serendipitous discoveries are made by following links.
Lee pointed out that this project could not have been been realized so quickly if the collection didn't already have a finding aid and had not already been digitized. I need to point out that archival collections are digitized using metadata schemas. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) facilitates the digitization of finding aids. Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) is often used by archives and museums to digitize the items in a collection. So metadata is the foundation for the utilization of linked data. NYPL could not have selected this particular data set if the metadata hadn't already been made available to them. This is the key to the universe of linked data. So cataloging does indeed matter, and the methods used to catalog materials are crucial. This is the means by which libraries can remain relevant for users.
Librarything vs. Goodreads
This is yet another re-blog from Information Metamorphosis on WordPress that I created last semester when I was a Peer Mentor for LIBR 203 at San Jose State University School of Library Science.
Peer Mentors at SJSU SLIS do group presentations online through web conferencing. These group presentations are called meet-ups. When I did my Peer Mentor meetup presentation, I discussed Wordpress, Blogger and Librarything. I was hoping that someone would ask me how Librarything compares with Goodreads because I was completely prepared for that question. Since no one had any questions for me, I thought I would compare Librarything and Goodreads on my blog.
My recent experience cataloging on Librarything for a special library with a small collection has persuaded me that Goodreads is in no way the equal of Librarything when it comes to cataloging a collection of books. I have been so impressed with my ability to obtain complete bibliographic records from libraries for use on Librarything. Anyone who has cataloged on Librarything will be disappointed that Goodreads doesn't have this relationship with libraries. If a member wants to shelve a book on Goodreads that isn't part of the database, he or she can't simply pull up a record from the Library of Congress. If a book hasn't been previously shelved by a Goodreads member, or imported from Ingram, its current bibliographic partner, members must fill out every field in the record manually. Unfortunately, some members have no idea of how to record information from a book in hand. This means that the Goodreads database is riddled with errors. The volunteers who maintain the database at Goodreads have a task similar to the legendary Sisyphus. For every record successfully corrected, there will probably be ten more that require revision that have recently been entered manually.
So why do I still love Goodreads? The primary purpose of Goodreads is social networking for book readers, and that is the area where it excels. When someone requests to be your friend on Goodreads, you can do a book comparison. It will tell you what books you have in common and the percentage of similarity between you. There is an amazing array of affinity groups. Many select a book of the month to discuss or have reading challenges. Goodreads has also added a tool that allows group members to keep track of their challenge reads. Goodreads does everything it can to facilitate the formation of communities of readers.
Another thing that I love about Goodreads is that some of my Goodreads reviews appear on Worldcat. Although Goodreads can't import metadata from Worldcat, Worldcat can harvest reviews from Goodreads. I have established a shelf on Goodreads to identify which of my reviews appear on Worldcat. I am proud of my contribution to my favorite bibliographic utility through Goodreads.
Peer Mentors at SJSU SLIS do group presentations online through web conferencing. These group presentations are called meet-ups. When I did my Peer Mentor meetup presentation, I discussed Wordpress, Blogger and Librarything. I was hoping that someone would ask me how Librarything compares with Goodreads because I was completely prepared for that question. Since no one had any questions for me, I thought I would compare Librarything and Goodreads on my blog.
My recent experience cataloging on Librarything for a special library with a small collection has persuaded me that Goodreads is in no way the equal of Librarything when it comes to cataloging a collection of books. I have been so impressed with my ability to obtain complete bibliographic records from libraries for use on Librarything. Anyone who has cataloged on Librarything will be disappointed that Goodreads doesn't have this relationship with libraries. If a member wants to shelve a book on Goodreads that isn't part of the database, he or she can't simply pull up a record from the Library of Congress. If a book hasn't been previously shelved by a Goodreads member, or imported from Ingram, its current bibliographic partner, members must fill out every field in the record manually. Unfortunately, some members have no idea of how to record information from a book in hand. This means that the Goodreads database is riddled with errors. The volunteers who maintain the database at Goodreads have a task similar to the legendary Sisyphus. For every record successfully corrected, there will probably be ten more that require revision that have recently been entered manually.
So why do I still love Goodreads? The primary purpose of Goodreads is social networking for book readers, and that is the area where it excels. When someone requests to be your friend on Goodreads, you can do a book comparison. It will tell you what books you have in common and the percentage of similarity between you. There is an amazing array of affinity groups. Many select a book of the month to discuss or have reading challenges. Goodreads has also added a tool that allows group members to keep track of their challenge reads. Goodreads does everything it can to facilitate the formation of communities of readers.
Another thing that I love about Goodreads is that some of my Goodreads reviews appear on Worldcat. Although Goodreads can't import metadata from Worldcat, Worldcat can harvest reviews from Goodreads. I have established a shelf on Goodreads to identify which of my reviews appear on Worldcat. I am proud of my contribution to my favorite bibliographic utility through Goodreads.
The Value of the San Jose State University School of Library Information Science Peer Mentor Program
This is another re-blog from the WordPress version of this blog. I have decided to copy all my significant posts to this Blogger version because I will eventually be deleting the WordPress version entirely.
This post was created while I was a Peer Mentor at SJSU SLIS last semester.
Peer Mentors are students at SJSU SLIS . Debbie Faires, who runs the program, requests applications every semester. Peer Mentors assist students in LIBR 203, the required introduction to the tools and technology used at SLIS. There are a number of good motivations for becoming a peer mentor. My motivations were an interest in helping students and a need for recent instruction experience. I taught a training class for U.S. Census enumerators, but that was back in 1990. I have had no previous experience in online instruction, and I thought that such experience would be useful for my future career.
The Peer Mentor program was established because LIBR 203 instructors teach multiple sections of the course, and cannot be everywhere at once. Vicki Steiner, the wonderful instructor that I'm assisting, teaches four sections of LIBR 203. Students are attempting to finish the course quickly, and will often need immediate assistance. Peer mentors have more to offer students than their availability. We can offer our experience as students in the program. We can offer practical suggestions about study habits and organization. We can make recommendations for courses in the areas that interest individual students, and tell you about their workloads. We can tell you who to contact at SJSU SLIS if you have a particular problem. If we don't know, we can find out. That is the value of having a mentor.
Those who are training for the information professions are in the business of helping people. This means that successful candidates for an MLIS degree want to help others. I have found librarians and archivists outside of SLIS who were willing to assist me. This is an advantage of being part of a helping profession. Students at SLIS should look for mentors along their career path. The best way to find mentors is by joining professional organizations, but students can also find mentors through volunteering and through internships. I hope that my students in LIBR 203 will take full advantage of the opportunity of having a mentor, so that can be more successful students.
This post was created while I was a Peer Mentor at SJSU SLIS last semester.
Peer Mentors are students at SJSU SLIS . Debbie Faires, who runs the program, requests applications every semester. Peer Mentors assist students in LIBR 203, the required introduction to the tools and technology used at SLIS. There are a number of good motivations for becoming a peer mentor. My motivations were an interest in helping students and a need for recent instruction experience. I taught a training class for U.S. Census enumerators, but that was back in 1990. I have had no previous experience in online instruction, and I thought that such experience would be useful for my future career.
The Peer Mentor program was established because LIBR 203 instructors teach multiple sections of the course, and cannot be everywhere at once. Vicki Steiner, the wonderful instructor that I'm assisting, teaches four sections of LIBR 203. Students are attempting to finish the course quickly, and will often need immediate assistance. Peer mentors have more to offer students than their availability. We can offer our experience as students in the program. We can offer practical suggestions about study habits and organization. We can make recommendations for courses in the areas that interest individual students, and tell you about their workloads. We can tell you who to contact at SJSU SLIS if you have a particular problem. If we don't know, we can find out. That is the value of having a mentor.
Those who are training for the information professions are in the business of helping people. This means that successful candidates for an MLIS degree want to help others. I have found librarians and archivists outside of SLIS who were willing to assist me. This is an advantage of being part of a helping profession. Students at SLIS should look for mentors along their career path. The best way to find mentors is by joining professional organizations, but students can also find mentors through volunteering and through internships. I hope that my students in LIBR 203 will take full advantage of the opportunity of having a mentor, so that can be more successful students.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
My Empty Reference Desk
This is a reblog of my last post from the WordPress version of this blog. It includes a modicum of my frustration with WordPress.
This post is inspired by Sarah Ludwig's guest lecture on the Hyperlinked Library MOOC which is a non-credit course primarily for librarians that I'm taking at San Jose State University SLIS in addition to my for credit courses this semester. Sarah Ludwig pointed out that failing to maintain your social media that you've established for professional purposes is like allowing your reference desk to be empty. This is my professional blog. I haven't posted here since last semester when I was expected to blog as a peer mentor for LIBR 203. This blog was linked to the LIBR 203 class blog feed. This semester I have a Hyperlinked Library MOOC blog that I'm maintaining instead, but what about my empty reference desk here?
I decided that this would be an appropriate post to write on Information Metamorphosis and re-blog to Linda's Liminal Log, my Hyperlinked Library MOOC blog. Why do I blog less here than I do on my review blog on Blogger? Well, part of the answer is that The Unmasked Persona's Reviews is on Blogger. I prefer Blogger over WordPress. WordPress has usability problems. The biggest problem is having to fiddle with code way too much on WordPress. I can do it, but I'd much rather not take the time. Images don't display properly when I copy them from my hard drive. I never have problems with displaying images on Blogger. I could go on about WordPress's usability problems at great length, but I'm blogging before work today and my time is limited.
I also blog more on my review blog because I'm a natural blogger about books. Books are my passion. Blogging about books is like breathing for me. I don't naturally think of topics for this LIS blog. I've also been really engaged by blogging on Net Galley books, and books sent to me by an authors' publicist who discovered The Unmasked Persona's Reviews, and likes what I write. My book blog is really taking off. I want to feel as motivated about writing for Information Metamorphosis. Last semester, I re-blogged a review dealing with a book about a librarian which was the last post to appear here. The problem is that I don't read LIS oriented books recreationally very often.
I am now resolved not to allow this blog to be the equivalent of an empty reference desk. I'm trying to work on solutions to this problem. Re-blogging from Linda's Liminal Log this semester is a sub-optimal solution. I don't like to merely copy posts without added value, but maintaining two LIS blogs with original content in both simultaneously may be too much of a challenge.
Addendum: My decision to move Information Metamorphosis to Blogger should allow me to blog better and more frequently than I did on WordPress. It's an unqualified win for this blog.
This post is inspired by Sarah Ludwig's guest lecture on the Hyperlinked Library MOOC which is a non-credit course primarily for librarians that I'm taking at San Jose State University SLIS in addition to my for credit courses this semester. Sarah Ludwig pointed out that failing to maintain your social media that you've established for professional purposes is like allowing your reference desk to be empty. This is my professional blog. I haven't posted here since last semester when I was expected to blog as a peer mentor for LIBR 203. This blog was linked to the LIBR 203 class blog feed. This semester I have a Hyperlinked Library MOOC blog that I'm maintaining instead, but what about my empty reference desk here?
I decided that this would be an appropriate post to write on Information Metamorphosis and re-blog to Linda's Liminal Log, my Hyperlinked Library MOOC blog. Why do I blog less here than I do on my review blog on Blogger? Well, part of the answer is that The Unmasked Persona's Reviews is on Blogger. I prefer Blogger over WordPress. WordPress has usability problems. The biggest problem is having to fiddle with code way too much on WordPress. I can do it, but I'd much rather not take the time. Images don't display properly when I copy them from my hard drive. I never have problems with displaying images on Blogger. I could go on about WordPress's usability problems at great length, but I'm blogging before work today and my time is limited.
I also blog more on my review blog because I'm a natural blogger about books. Books are my passion. Blogging about books is like breathing for me. I don't naturally think of topics for this LIS blog. I've also been really engaged by blogging on Net Galley books, and books sent to me by an authors' publicist who discovered The Unmasked Persona's Reviews, and likes what I write. My book blog is really taking off. I want to feel as motivated about writing for Information Metamorphosis. Last semester, I re-blogged a review dealing with a book about a librarian which was the last post to appear here. The problem is that I don't read LIS oriented books recreationally very often.
I am now resolved not to allow this blog to be the equivalent of an empty reference desk. I'm trying to work on solutions to this problem. Re-blogging from Linda's Liminal Log this semester is a sub-optimal solution. I don't like to merely copy posts without added value, but maintaining two LIS blogs with original content in both simultaneously may be too much of a challenge.
Addendum: My decision to move Information Metamorphosis to Blogger should allow me to blog better and more frequently than I did on WordPress. It's an unqualified win for this blog.
Blogger Is Now For Students
I have decided to move my LIS blog to Blogger. I have long been frustrated by the lower standard of usability on WordPress. The new WordPress policy that free blogs will occasionally carry advertising was the final straw for me. I don't want WordPress to monetize my blog. It is important that a LIS student's blog look professional. Advertising on a blog is never professional, and will not be regarded as such by my potential employers. WordPress offers the option of paying for no advertising, but like many students I deliberately chose to work part-time so I would be able to complete my coursework. I am a bookkeeper, so I understand that budgeting is critical. I know that I can't afford any extra expenses.
I believe that all students should seriously consider moving their blogs from WordPress, and that Blogger is the best choice. It has the best useability and SEO. I think that faculty should also be steering students away from WordPress because of this new policy. Whether they want to steer students toward Blogger will be up to the university. They may want students to decide themselves. That would certainly be a valid policy. For me, the choice is clear. There are no drawbacks to this decision. I think that other students will realize this for themselves.
I believe that all students should seriously consider moving their blogs from WordPress, and that Blogger is the best choice. It has the best useability and SEO. I think that faculty should also be steering students away from WordPress because of this new policy. Whether they want to steer students toward Blogger will be up to the university. They may want students to decide themselves. That would certainly be a valid policy. For me, the choice is clear. There are no drawbacks to this decision. I think that other students will realize this for themselves.
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