2007

Our space?

LITA Blog and Wiki Interest Group Social Software Showcase Sat., 6/23, 1:30-3:00 Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room Part II of the Social Software Showcase. It’s tres cool that the Showcase is via a wiki. A group of library 2.0 users sat at different tables and discussed and demo-ed different software. It was hard to take it all in. I spent most of my time at the LibraryThing table. LibraryThing for Libraries uses JavaScript. It grabs ISBN, title and author, and links to an outside page. Pages generated are more accessible than the usual OPAC pages, which suck on so many levels. There was a table for Meebo which interested me, but no one seemed to be addressing it. Here’s the link about it on the page–looks interesting. There was also a table about the Facebook developer’s platform, which didn’t interest me much. The Twitter group got the largest crowd. Twitter with…

2007

Buzz buzz buzz

RUSA MAR–Chair’s Program Harnessing the Hive: Social Networks and Libraries Sunday, 6/24 10:30 am-12:00 pm Convention Center Room 144 A-C A standing room only crowd (300+) greeted what was definitely a hot topic (ubiquitous, too :D). The meeting included the RUSA MARS business meeting, which was brief. The Rethinking Reference preconference was sold out, and will be offered again next June. MARS is offering virtual poster sessions via their web site. I tried to find it. The announcement is here: I hope I can find the actual posters some time. Matthew M. Bejune from Purdue started the program. mbejune@purdue.edu He started with examples of social networking, some very well known (MySpace, Blogger, LiveJournal, AIM), to newer, less well-known such as couch surfing, webkinz (for children). Malene Charlotte Larsen has posted on 25 Perspectives on Social Networking. She has since added another ten perspectives. Doing research last fall, Matthew found 35…

2007

The library is open.

The Boyfriend and I arrived in DC Thursday night. We’re staying at the Holiday Inn on Thomas Circle. It is posh by our standards: we have two bathrooms, a fridge, a microwave, iron, blowdryer, coffeemaker, etc. I have been sick most of the last week with a stomach bug. I can finally eat again, but it’s not exactly enjoyable. Last night, we got in too late for the hotel restaurant, so we wandered about until we found something called Logan’s Tavern. Turned out to be a wine bar–zero beer on tap. This morning we slept late–jet lag kept us awake until around 1:30 am, so we slept until 10:00. Then we hopped on one of the free shuttle buses (if anything from Gale is ever free) and went to the convention center, which seems like a particularly uninspired exmple of civic architecture. I had never received my all-important conference badge…

2007

Some Thumbs Up

ALA RUSA MARS–Hot Topics Libraries2Go: Library Services for Handhelds Sat., 6/23 10:30 am-12:00 pm J W Marriott Salon IV Moderator, Mark Dehmlow of Notre Dame University joined via Skype. Home (Indiana?) awaiting birth of child. GRE word for the day is ubiquity. 95% of students have cell phones. Libraries need to portal their services to where the users are (except when driving :D). Services for handhelds are user-centered. First panelist, Bradley Faust from Ball State University. http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/lits/mobileproject/project_summary.html The Mobile Computing Project at Ball State began in 2004 with LSTA/IMLS grant. Better, faster higher capacity networks & handheld devices, now integrating with course management systems. Users want: Audio, ebooks, podcasts Mobile search Quick facts Directional tours of facilities, services Video tutorials, instructional videos Texting Regular web sites are unfriendly to small screens. Need short pages, easy to navigate, minimal images, anywhere access. BSU developed a new gateway to their catalog using…

2005

Who Do You Trust?

6/25/2005 RUSA/MARS User Access to Services Committee Do You Trust Your IT Staff? Do They Trust you? Talk about a topic close to my heart! Though somehow, in thinking about it before the conference, in my mind it morphed into “Does Your It Staff Hate You?” In fact, around Wednesday, I had to talk to someone in IT via phone, and I asked him if he hated me. He said no. Do I trust him enough to believe him? /humor This program was held on the fourth floor of McCormick, which had had a power failure. No elevators or escaltors, few lights, no A/C. I felt like I was in a Gibson novel as I traveled long, seemingly endless, dark service corridors and stairs. Maybe it was Stephenson? Heinlein? When my friend and I finally encountered humans, I said, “Our kind!” There were four panelists. If you want the names,…

2005

ALCTS PARS Reformatting Committee: Analog Digital Hat Dance

ALCTS PARS Reformatting Committee Sunday, June 26, 2005 8:00-10:00 a.m. Analog and Digital Preservation Technology Apologies for the lateness and the brevity of this post. I was both late for this session and had to leave early—the very worst kind of guest. However, I determined that I still really wanted to blog it. I went for the brief time allotted in part because I’ve been to good PARS sessions in the past. Even more, I went because this was the only session at ALA that came up in the event planner on a keyword search for microfilm. My day job is as a newspapers and microform librarian. This was held in one of the smaller conference rooms on the first floor of McCormick. Fairly well attended, i.e., someone in almost every third seat. When I arrived, the first speaker, whose name I did not get, was discussing video preservation strategies….

2005

ALCTS Newspaper Users Discussion Group

ALCTS Newspaper Users Discussion Group Sat., 06/25/2005 2:00-4:00 p.m. Palmer House Private Dining Room 5 Smallish room, approx. 25 attendees tops. I recognize most from previous NUDG sessions at midwinter and annual. OCLC Terminologies Project and the Newspaper Genre List. Eric Childress and Diane Vizine-Goetz, both from OCLC The mapping of fields from the U.S. Newspaper Project (circa 1970-1990) to MARC fields should be useful for those projects still working with the old data. Attendees described OCLC’s efforts to convert USNP LDRs to MARC 21 MFHD later this summer. Mark Sweeney, not present, has been involved in efforts. Microfilm and Digital Newspaper Projects in Pennsylvania Sue Kellerman, Penn State University Libraries Overview of progress on the PA Newspaper Project, which went on hiatus for 15 years due to lack of funding. Old data, rechecking, cooperation among repositories, filming, next steps. Plus very successful project to digitize Penn State student newspaper….

2005

“We will all be out of our comfort zone for a while.”

“We will all be out of our comfort zone for a while.” Googling the Better Mousetrap: Cyber Resources on the Front Line of Reference RUSA 2005 President’s Program Monday, 06/27/2005 Sheraton Chicago Ballroom VI/VII [Mere minutes late! Getting better at timing leaving the McCormick wifi teat and busing to a hotel. In my next life, I’m staying at the Sheraton. It’s right on the river, and I found the ballroom easily! Large ballroom, not quite full but crowded.] Most complicated evaluation form ever seen. Eek—forgot to fill out! Will mail… Panelists: John Dove, President, Xrefer Chris Nasso, Gale Group Bill Pardue, Arlington Heights Memorial Library Marilyn Parr, Library of Congress J. L. Needham, Google Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Abstract: How do information/reference sources live and grow on the web? A panel of librarians, publishers, and search engine designers will discuss: Design issues for online information resources: past, present, and future Patterns…

Top Technology Trends

Top trends in translation

LITA top trends [Note: I keep editing this on shuttle buses–hotel room does not have chair, back is killing me, and related issues. But still…] 7th floor historic tower of Hotel Inter-Continental Just little late this time—like 5 minutes while searching for Grand Ballroom. 7th floor not intuitive. Not as grand as Hilton grand ballroom (or GB in conference parlance—very heavy on acronyms—librarianese). But very nice for a wedding. No chairs left, so sat on balcony floor. Two other bloggers in site. Amend—nine laptops in sight and one person really fast on a PDA of some type. And that’s just what boyfriend and I can see on the balcony. [Kind of interesting to compare what I heard to what had been posted in advance on LITA blog…they changed some, and I heard different emphasis. It makes the value of attending ALA clearer. I have been trying desperately not to read…

2005

At the OCLC Symposium

At OCLC Symposium (arrived 40 minutes late. came directly from airport. traffic, etc.). These are pretty rough notes. Overall, it was a very interesting program on the role of libraries in the long tail, with a variety of viewpoints. Wish I hadn’t been late. I tend to be kind of worried about this issue. One questioner at the end asked about why can’t public libraries have the same depth of video holdings as Netflix. I’ve never considered that as a goal. But it was a clarion call from a user. The old truism that popularity has a lock on markets is over. Libraries can be guardians of the long tail, look at ways to provide access for our patrons, use it ourselves…so many ideas! Chicago Hilton Grand Ballroom—very grand. Lacy gold balconies, chandeliers everywhere. Great orange OCLC tote bags swag. Scream beach bag. Chris Anderson—Mining the Long Tail. Thin, very…