Tame The Web

LIS768 Student Project at Canadian SL site, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

So happy to see one of last semester’s LIS768 Projects highlighted at the Canadian Association for School Libraries.

http://caslnetwork.ning.com/video/lis-768-privacy-presentation

while I follow your eloquent points.., originally uploaded by leeleblanc.

Congrats to TTW Contributor Lee LeBlanc on his graduation! WooHoo!

I have a new post at ALA Techsource about attending EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives last month:

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/01/finding-my-tribe-at-educause.html

Keynoter John Palfrey, co-author of Born Digital, gave a thoughtful presentation on his work studying Digital Natives. The revelation that the room should have been filled with librarians as well as faculty and IT staff came when Palfrey acknowledged the issue of information overload facing the natives as well as all of us and noted that the wealth of information out there now available to young people via mobile device presents a key challenge for librarians: “In a world of information overload, who are your guides? Who are the people who help you find the most credible information when you need it?” Palfrey went on to say that librarians are in a perfect position to curate, collect resources and develop spaces for young people to find information and interact. I was the one who shouted “Amen” from the back by the power outlets.

Beyond session content, this conference was one of the most connected and open events that I have ever attended. All of the keynotes and featured sessions were streamed live on the Web as they happened via Silverlight and then archived for free viewing at the EDUCAUSE site. The combination of speaker and slides in a Web browser window has made going back to view sessions I couldn’t attend most enjoyable. This content is free and readily accessible on the web. I’d like to see more of this in our library conferences–more streaming and recording and more FREE access. Go watch Palfrey’s session or one of the others listed below. It’s probably the closest to “being there” I’ve ever seen for capturing a conference.

I’m still mining the presentations and slides at the EDUCAUSE site – my brain filled with what we could – and should – be doing for LIS students.

Links from my Dominican “Technology Bytes” session tomorrow:

Finding My Tribe at EDUCAUSE LI

WordPress as a Learning Management System – Move Over, Blackboard

Slides: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/TechnologyBytesSessionStephens.pdf

Links from ALA Techsource Post:

Born Digital: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/BornDigital/196238
ELI2010 Presentations: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/ELI2010/37186
Gardener Campbell’s Blog: http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/
Google Moderator: http://moderator.appspot.com/
Michael’s Hyperlinked Campus:http://www.educause.edu/Resources/CreativeCollaborationandImmers/196260
Twitter Symbiosis: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/TwitterSymbiosisALibrarianaHas/196234

Don’t miss this interview with the Kyle Jones all about the WordPressMU/BuddyPress sites he’s developing for my classes at

http://wpmu.org/wordpress-as-a-learning-management-system-move-over-blackboard/

Q: What are the pros and cons of using BuddyPress in an educational / classroom environment?

A: No other LMS that I’m aware provides such a human touch on learning. We really see the students personalities show in BuddyPress – they open up to each other, they open up to the world. We get to read their academic reflections on their blogs and are provided insights into their thought process on their wire posts. If you’re an instructor and you’re looking to create a personable and personal learning space BuddyPress is the way to go.

If you’re an instructor that prefers the lectern and strict office hours don’t come near BuddyPress with a 20 foot pole. There’s a real onus on the instructor to monitor the communication streams not for behavior but to keep in touch with what’s going on in their online classroom and to be involved in a very dynamic conversation. In just over a few weeks of class there’s been over 200 different types of posts on the LIS 768BuddyPress-powered course site.

But this the state of 21st century learning with online communication technologies and the always-on classroom. There’s a higher level of responsibility placed on the instructor to stay tuned into the collaborative online experience that organically develops.

I have been trying to figure out how to best describe the awesomeness that is content management systems to an audience whose technological knowledge will range from using email/Word to a little more advanced.  By the way, I have less than an hour to do so.

Instead of bemoaning my fate I am looking at this as an opportunity. I get to think about the “elevator speech” for content management systems.

After much thought I identified the two most important aspects, content types and permission levels.  These two aspects of CMSs are counter intuitive to organizations and individuals used to traditional websites.

Content Types
Separate the content from the presentation and let the content creators create the content. Content can be a blog entry, an image, a page, an advertisement for an event, a description of a database, a video, a link to a helpful website, anything really. The type of content doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that the content is easy to put on the website for the content creator.

For example, I want my youth librarians to be able to add upcoming programs. The “youth program” content type will need to display the title of the program, a description, an image to draw the eye, the date, time, the age group the program is intended for, and how to sign up.
For the sake of uniformity, I want:

• the title to be in the Arial font, grey, and to be defined as a header
• the image to float to the right of the description and be sized to 75px by 75px
• the description to also be in Arial, colored black, and the font to be sized to .9em, and be below the title
• the date to be formatted to short hand (01/30/10) and be bold as will be the time
• the age group to be in bold
• the youth program to automatically be placed in the youth programs list (sorted by date), be put on a calendar of events, and move to a place of high contact as the program’s date comes closer

An example of  a content type,  input form on the left, output on the right.

To ask a non web designer to try to figure out the necessary HTML/CSS or follow lengthy step-by-step instructions to keep this uniform format is crazy and a complete waste of time on many levels.  To have a single person format and position all the content is also wasteful.  Any CMS designer will be able to make what I described happen fairly easily.

Permission Levels

The idea of permission levels takes some time to understand for those used to one or two people being the funnel to getting content on a website, but should never be overlooked or underestimated.  Permission levels allows assigning particular users differing abilities.

For example, a youth librarian may be assigned the permission level/role “youth” and be able to add content such as youth programs, blog entries to the Youth Services Blog, databases to the youth research area, images to youth photo gallery, and administer comments on the youth blog.  An anonymous user could be allowed to add certain types of content (pending approval or not), comment without permission, or anything else.   The admin roll would be able to do everything.  The best CMSs allow the creation of roles to suit any organization’s needs.

The ability to think in terms of permission levels is hugely important.  It also completely revolutionizes websites which are meant to have community generated content, be that community: library employees, patrons in a town, or interested parties all over the world.

How are you selling content management systems?  If you are not using a CMS, why not?

Thomas and I have worked together at Internet Librarian International 2008 and back in the day doing a podcast or two about Library 2.0. He’s one of the good thinkers in LIS who I wish I had more of a chance to sit with and talk. Glad to see his take on the iPad this morning.

http://lib1point5.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/ipad-and-libraries-some-thoughts/

For libraries the iPad will have little immediate impact. What it probably will do, if it is a hit in the marketplace, is that it will fuel reader demand for e-books. I predict that it will be a slow development, but maybe too fast for many librarians. When the demand for e-books is for Nora Roberts latest romance novel, rather than some science fiction blockbuster or main stream popular science non-fiction, and the person wanting the e-book is the harassed mother with three kids running around her at the library desk, then e-books will have arrived in the library. This could happen if the iPad really hits it off with the public.

For libraries there are two main challenges:

1. How do we get content from the library to the iPad and similar devices, and can libraries use iBook or the AppStore as a delivery method? I think there will be several opportunities, and that binding libraries to a cooperation with Apple to get in through the iBook store probably will be difficult and even counterproductive. There are at least two avenues to go, either create an international LibraryBook app (open source of course), that will work on any operating system, or cooperate with the creators of any of the open source apps that are out there to deliver books through them. Both avenues has their pros- and cons, but I believe that to secure a future for the library brand it would be a good idea to develop a special library app.

2. Will the iPad and iPad like devices  change the media habits of readers? Very likely. The iPod and iPhone has both changed a lot of behaviour and expectations from library users, and how other devices are viewed and used. I expect to see increasing demand for content on tablets from readers and probably pressure on the library to deliver certain types of content, i.e. ebooks.

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on an iPad and try it out in my library.

So am I – to try it out with my students and colleagues at Dominican.

Deadline: 2 April 2010

• Got information to share with your peers?
• Worked on an innovative project at your library?
• Introduced technologies to increase the relevancy of your information service?
• Developed new techniques for managing electronic resources?
• Raised the profile of your library within your organisation?
• Created new opportunities within an information environment?

You’re invited to present at Internet Librarian International 2010, taking place on 14 & 15 October 2010 at Novotel London West, with a day of workshops on 13 October.

We’re looking for dynamic speakers from any country and all types of libraries to share their knowledge and experience about information tools, techniques, processes, innovations and management. If you’re running innovative projects within any of the following environments, we want to hear from you:

• Academic libraries
• Corporate information and knowledge settings
• Government libraries
• Health/Medical libraries
• Public libraries
• Non-traditional information settings

Get real, stay relevant. The reality of the current economic climate means that it’s imperative to provide pertinent services, utilise the most appropriate tools, and explore alternative approaches, regardless of your library type. Even if you’re managing information outside a traditional library setting – as web designer, content evaluator, portal creator, systems professional or independent researcher – you must continue to offer services that are relevant and cost-efficient.

Internet Librarian International seeks a mix of papers for conference sessions, workshops, and short tutorials. As always, our emphasis is on the practical rather than theoretical: case studies and proposals about initiatives in your organisation, not product pitches or overviews.

• Share your success stories – and your failures
• Tell us what lessons you’ve learned
• Describe what strategies work best for your information environment
• Continue to develop professionally by learning from your fellow information professionals
• Help others stay relevant by sharing your experiences at Internet Librarian International 2010

Possible topics include:

• Technology
• Mobile delivery
• Cloud computing
• Semantic web
• Social networking
• Surface technologies
• Moving toward Web 3.0
• Virtual research environments
• Augmented reality
• Library apps
• Future net
• Building for multiple platforms
• Resource Management
• Web content management
• Electronic resources acquisition and management
• Next generation catalogues
• Integrating/federating collections
• Open access
• Institutional repositories
• Copyright, DRM, DAM, intellectual property protection
• Digital curation
• Taxonomies, ontologies, folksonomies
• Web publishing
• Planning for the future
• Collaboration and partnering
• Forecasting trends
• Future scenarios
• Strategic planning for libraries
• Evidence-based librarianship
• New roles for internet librarians
• Information policy
• Adding value
• Using the web for research and reference
• Web search engines
• Search tips and techniques
• Distance learning
• Best practices for search
• Real-time search
• User generated content

How do I participate?

If you would like to be considered as a speaker, please submit your ideas at

www.internet-librarian.com/CallForSpeakers.shtml before the deadline of 2 April 2010.

The Advisory Committee review all submissions and notifications regarding acceptance are sent in early May. If your proposal is selected, the primary speaker will receive a free registration to the full conference, which includes lunches and a reception. Please note that the expenses of attending Internet Librarian International – including travel, hotel, and any other expenses – are the responsibility of the presenter.

We’re looking forward to receiving your ideas and suggestions before the submission deadline of 2 April 2010.

Marydee Ojala

Programme Director, Internet Librarian International

Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals

Allow me to gush a bit. One of my students from last semester has had her LIS768 blog highlighted by BestBizWeb:

SITE: Megan Mulherin’s Blog

URL: http://classes.tametheweb.com/meganmulherin

CATEGORY: Blog

PURPOSE: This is a blog about news, trends, and tips related to information, research, online searching, and library issues.

FEE/FREE: FREE

SOURCE CHECK: This blog is written as part of a library science class by Megan Mulherin. Mulherin is studying for her master’s in library science at Dominican University in River Forest, Ill .

OUR VIEW: We’re always pleased to find a thoughtful, well-written, and incisive blogger on the information industry, and we were particularly delighted to discover that this outstanding blog was created by a student. Megan tackles issues of interest to all the information industry, including business research. She is an excellent writer and has put together a well-designed and appealing site. Consider this site if you want to get some interesting news, reflection, and thoughtful analysis on online research, trends in searching, and the library/ information industry.

Megan graduated in January but she’ll continue to blog at http://www.meganbuttita.com/. Congrats to Megan!