Tame The Web

Greetings from the new Wordpress for iPhone app.

Brian Kenney writes:

Have you heard of 23 Things, the self-guided program for learning about 2.0 web technology? It was developed by Helene Blowers a couple of years ago at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and since then has been adopted across the country by public and school libraries, districts, and even entire states. It consists of a number of “things,” or small exercises, that you do online to expand your knowledge of the 2.0 web and social networking, from blogs and podcasts to wikis and Twitter.

For a while now (and prodded by our Technology Editor, Kathy Ishizuka) I’ve realized it would be a great idea if all of us here at SLJ went through a “23 Things” like experience. After all, we are always writing about different 2.0 applications, shouldn’t we experience them as well? Walk the walk, talk the talk, and all of that…So I resolved that we’d do it this summer.

So that’s what we are going to do. But Iwe’re not going it alone; we’ve asked 2.0 guru, Dominican faculty member, and season trainer Michael Stephens to join us for the ride. Beginning Monday, July 21, Michael will author a blog here on SLJ.com that will lead us through the different exercises, offer guidance, answer questions, and even provide a little hand-holding. We’re calling it “All Together Now: A 2.0 Learning Experience.”

There’s no need to sign up–just show up. Again, we’ll begin on July 21 and wrap things up in early September. 

Hi Michael,We just posted an article, “100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of”  (No link love here - MS) I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting. Either way, thanks for your time!

Fiona King

Dear Fiona - So glad I heard from you yet again, because I had saved a link to Stephen Francouer’s post “On Not Being Scammed:”

http://www.teachinglibrarian.org/weblog/2008/07/on-not-being-scammed.html

I hope Stephen doesn’t mind me shamelessly quoting his whole post - I just can’t help myself:

In the past month, I’ve received a couple of emails from “Fiona King” asking me to write about some library-related content on two different web sites that both focus on distance ed. I didn’t pay much attention to those email messages, the like of which I mostly receive from vendors hoping that I’ll mention their product on my blog (which, by the way, I never do).

I noticed that a few bloggers, though, had decided to post links to the blog posts that Fiona had suggested. Wondering who was behind the distance ed sites where those blog posts resided, I did a little investigating and discovered:

• neither site has any sort of “about us” or “who we are” content (first red flag)
• each site had a different person who registered it (learned this by doing a whois lookup)
• after googling the two people who registered the sites, learned that they are in business together and hope to get “fabulously rich” through SEO efforts and viral marketing of their blog network
• after searching the web for info on “Fiona King,” I came to the conclusion that she is the creation of the two bottomfeeders who created the distance ed sites

Although the content that “Fiona” asks us to link to is somewhat interesting, the methods that are being used to get us to link to it and the ulterior motives of the folks behind these emails is troubling at best. I have no interest in linking to their content just to help them “monetize” blogs under their control. They’ll have to find other ways to make money not involving me.

I had always felt a little weird about your emails before and now I know why. Please do not send me links again.

Sincerely,

Michael

Thanks Stephen for the insight into this “troubling” practice.

http://www.libraryforlife.org/blogs/lifeline/?p=5181

An inspired way to invite participation in the library blog! The folks at SJCPL are featuring library patron John D. Smith sharing how he uses the library. I heard that this will be the first of an ongoing series. Think about it: John tells family and friends he’s posted on the library blog and they take a look, etc. This could lead to more participation and maybe even folks asking to do guest posts!

Well done SJCPL!

Stephen Francouer writes about the usefulness of his library’s Reference Blog:

I am really pleased with the way that our library’s reference blog,Reference at Newman Library, has continued to thrive after being launched four years ago. We’ve now posted over 1300 messages (and hundreds of comments, too); our weekly average is about a dozen posts.

When we started the blog, it was intended to do away with the informal and haphazard systems we had to notify each other at the desk of technical problems and to alert each other to new resources and tools. We had been using:

• notes taped to the desk
• a printed reference manual in a 3-ring binder, which is now replaced by our password-protected reference wiki (screenshots)
• emails on internal listservs
• word-of-mouth (i.e., tell the person coming on after you at the desk what to watch out for)

With the blog, we made all that great content easy to publish, easy to share, and easy to find again later. Since most of my colleagues don’t like using feed readers to keep up with RSS feeds, I set up a system to forward every post to them via email as soon as the posts are published.

I’m pleased to see a discussion of this type of anecdotal evidence/support for using blogs and CMSs to improve productivity. This should definetely be part of the evaluation process. A click through reveals a survey on the blog itself: Where do you primarily read this blog’s posts? I agree with Stephen and the results of this small survey of the blog’s users - getting library on oard with RSS aggregators is an important and logical next step.

Ellen Druda, at Half Hollow Hills Community Library, writes:

A Love Supreme

Too much on this professor’s plate folks. I missed marking the five year anniversary of this blog on April 1st 2008. What an incredible time it’s been! These past 12 months were something and I’m so glad I’ve had the community we’ve built for support and inspiration. 

Last year at this time, I did remember and actually blogged about blogging at ALA TechSource too. Remember the Points of Unity? 

I’ll thank Blake for keeping TTW healthy and online. I’ll thank Kyle and Lee for contributing their time and viewpoints. And I’ll thank YOU -  for reading, responding and for sending me little snippets to share.

So pretend I remembered this on April 1.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/101655312

In the last three weeks, I’ve presented a special version of the Hyperlinked Library to groups of administrators and board members/trustees around northern Illinois. One question came up a few times:

Are there any library board members or trustees blogging?

Please comment if you know of one - AND maybe it’s time for someone in those groups to start! I know there are some rules/laws about what board members can say, etc.. but some tpe of bloging would be okay, wouldn’t it?

Marcus writes:

But something funny happened on the way to OJS: I became firmly convinced that the traditional journal model is antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians.  A better course is to develop and nurture excellent blogs, with multimedia capabilities and guaranteed preservation of the postings. This could be an entirely new blog that starts from scratch, or an established journal that evolves into a blog. 

One of his arguments:

Peer review should be a post-publication process, rather than a pre-publication process that sometimes drags out for many months.  If physicists can post pre-prints that get discussions flowing quickly, why can’t librarians?

Read the whole post. I am particularly interested in this for two reasons: I’m on the tenure track and peer-review is important for me and much needed AND I’d like to see more and more opportunities for folks to get their ideas out there, get credit for them, receive feedback, and move forward.

Practitioners and students alike should be able to experience the value of the blogosphere and use it to expand their thinking.I know many great folks in the field are blogging and extending the conversation.I think  Librarians like Cliff Landis, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor who are actively pursuing scholarly endeavors and working to make their libraries better could certainly benefit from a peer-reviewed, blog-based community-focused “journal” environment to get credit for their work, etc. And it should count for those librarians on the tenure track even as the feedback rolls on.

Students too. I just read 15 papers from my Library 2.0 & Social Tech Class — top notch stuff approaching emerging technologies, foundational library practice and more. I’d certainly send many of them to Library Student Journal but I also wish for more channels for publication. 

Finally, as a recent editor of an issue of IRSQ, it amazes me how long it takes from a call for papers to the publication date. Another benefit then is rapid dissemination of content. Why wait months or years?

Don’t miss CindiTrainor’s newly revamped and newly retitled blog: Citegeist. She ponders some fascinating uses of Twitter and other tools for research in a recent post:

 Say I am doing research with colleagues and find an article that should be included in the literature review section, when we get around to writing our article. Building on the FoxyTunes model, I would need a browser extension that can read citation information from a number of citation management sites as widely varying as EndNote Web, RefWorks, Reference Manager, Zotero, del.icio.us, or even a locally-created database, as long as there were a standard set of fields. Layer the OpenURL standard onto this extension and I suddenly have a way to link to nearly limitless related information, the first being the full text of the item itself, and other items by this author; other items with certain keywords; other articles from the same journal issue or title; frequency of citation of this article, author or journal; my local library holdings by this author, of this journal or on this topic. Those familiar with OpenURL link resolvers such as SFX will recognize that as a laundry list of many of the capabilities standard to those products. Add content made possible by Web 2.0, the Read/Write web, user-generated content–whatever label you want to use–my deli.cio.us bookmarks related to this research topic; blog posts about this author or topic; web search results for this author, journal or topic; the wikipedia entry for this author or topic. What about web-accessible information about the author him- or herself, such as videos posted to YouTube of recent presentations or podcasts of same? Photographs on flickr or screencasts on SlideShare created by the author? Here, I think we start to get a sense of an author as a human being rather than as a byline. How will this change the research process, if at all?

This perfectly points to the human factor that is becoming so important in what we do. Research - and many other forms of library use — are not only enhanced by this participatory upswing of features, technologies and channels for sharing, but I think the possibilities for learning are greatly improved as well. Watch Cindi’s blog closely, her voice is important.

Don’t miss the newly remodeled Swiss Army Librarian, I’ve really enjoyed some recent posts about open source, book suggestion links and a category devoted to reference questions.

Social media in the 1990s - remember the days?

The ALA Code is Not Enough: Fascinating thinking from the Other Librarian. Adding to course readings.

Jenny Levine and I are joining forces to run a fundraiser for good ole LISHost.

Jenny just posted about it at TSL:

If you’re a regular online, you probably know or know of Blake Carver. Even if you’ve never met him, you know his work. He’s been running and maintaining the incredible LISNews hub since 1999. This contribution alone is why many of us admire him for his dedication and vision.

In 2002, Blake started LISHost, an affordable website hosting service for libraries and libraries. On the very rare occasion the LISHost server goes down, you can tell something’s amiss because half the known LIS world must house their sites there. I do, as does Michael Stephens, and we can both tell you from first-hand experience that Blake does a superhuman job of maintaining the server (especially security) and providing technical support.

I can’t think of a time when Blake hasn’t responded immediately when there was a problem, when he said no to a request to add software just for me, or when he didn’t come up with a creative solution to a problem no one else would have wanted to deal with. And for all of his hard work (truly, the man must not sleep), he charges next to nothing for the services you get.

So to thank him for all of his efforts, both on our behalf and for the profession, Michael and I are raffling off a Nintendo Wii to help show our appreciation in the form of a fundraiser. Please note that neither LISHost nor LISNews is in financial trouble, and this is not a call to “save” them. This is simply a way for us to acknowledge Blake’s efforts and thank him for everything he does.

So here’s how it works. Everyone who donates $10 or more to LISHost by 11:59 p.m. on March 14, 2008, will be eligible to win the Wii. We’ll pull a name out of the digital hat, so-to-speak, and send you the Wii if you’re the lucky winner. To enter/donate, click on the button below. Your donation is your entry, as we’ll have a full list of names from Paypal.

I can’t begin to tell you, TTW readers, how helpful Blake has been getting this blog ported into WordPress — and he worked with me on it during the Holidays! If you’ve enjoyed the blogs and sites that LISHost serves, please consider a donation.

At Darien Library, staff at the front desk have their own blog. This level of openness and transparency does my heart good. When was the last time someone on your front lines got to do a shout out to the staff?
http://tinyurl.com/yut83k

Sometimes I lose sight of how wonderful the people I work with are and it takes a patron comment or the observation of an interaction to remind me of that very fact.

Last month a patron told Desketeer Alison that they felt we were the ‘Jet Blue of Libraries” for our willingness to go above and beyond.for our patrons. How nice is that?

So I end the week with a salute to my wonderful co-workers: To the Desketeers in all their fabulous Desketeer Diva-ness, to the Ref-Cadets who take on any and all questions (you would not believe the stuff they get asked!), to the Children’s Room Scouts who I swear must be deaf at the end of the day from all the activity that takes place in their room, to the Techies who if a computer can do, they will find a way to make it work for you, Shelvers who have the most thankless yet important job in the joint and to Admin-ministers who toil behind the scenes and do all the stuff that makes us able to open our doors every morning. Yeah us! We rock!

So next time you walk through the doors, check us out. You will be amazed at what we do.

Are other libraries experimenting with a “Front Desk” blog?

In my LIS753 and LIS768 classes, all of the students create Wordpress blogs for journaling, reflection on readings and assignments. I asked my graduate assistant and TTW contributor Kyle Jones to give his new MacBook Pro a workout by creating a spiffy “How to set Up WordPress” screencast. For weekend classes where our time is precious, this screencast will be invaluable. Students can set up a blog before class so we can dive right in! Online classes will benefit as well.

http://screencasts.thecorkboard.org/wordpress.mp4

Kyle gave me permission to share it here as well - I think it might be especially useful for any Learning 2.0 programs that get the participants started with a blog. Kyle has licensed it under the Creative Commons. If it is useful to you, please let us know.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Library Trainer

Originally uploaded by mstephens7

Great new redesign of the Library Trainer blog from PLCMC’s Lori reed. Check it out:

http://librarytrainer.com/

http://davidrothman.net/2008/01/10/the-beauty-of-the-dialectial-process/

First, there are many popular positions (technical, political, philosophical…) expressed in the blogosphere (and elsewhere) that I believe to be wrong-headed, foolish, unwise or silly. I also believe that decisions based on evidence and direct experience tend to get better results than those built on blogosphere buzz and hearsay.

“Web 2.0? doesn’t cause an information glut. What causes an information glut is being an information glutton, taking on more than anyone can reasonably manage. There aren’t too many RSS feeds. Rather, there are users who subscribe to too many RSS feeds. The solution isn’t for less data to exist, the solution is smarter, more selective use of the data. The tools that help us filter and manage the information that we care most about are continuing to improve in power and sophistication.

Read the whole post. I will however note that gathering evidence from authoritative Biblioblogs can go a long way in building your plan for technology implementation. Well done, David!

I also see David’s blog is a finalist in the category of Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog in MedGadget’s 2007 Annual Medical Weblogs Awards. If you read and enjoy David’s blog, head on over and vote:

http://www.medgadget.com/2007best_technology.html

There is a new blog at Moraine Valley Community College that is sure to inspire other similar blogs at other colleges.

http://ext.morainevalley.edu/green/

The Moraine Valley Library is excited to announce the a new blog, Green Today, Green Tomorrow as part of the library’s One Book, One College initiative in conjunction with the college’s larger Sustainability Initiative. This new blog is available at: http://ext.morainevalley.edu/green/.
“We hope that this blog will be a point of connection between the college community, the sustainability efforts on campus, and the educational opportunities that are part of the One Book program,” commented Troy Swanson, librarian, who coordinates the One Book program.

What a perfect match: blogging, “one book, one college” initiatives and going green.

(I realized some of the old TTW content was lost in the move. I’ll be posting a few downloads, etc to get them back up. This was a handout I used in blogging workshops 2005-2007))

Blogger’s Toolkit: Evaluating LIS Weblogs

Use Librarian’s Tools:

This is similar to evaluating sites for reference and inclusion on subject list. Questions to ponder when adding blogs to your aggregator or recommending them to colleagues:

• Author: Who is the blog author? Is that information easily accessible? Where do they work?

• Purpose: What’s the mission or goal of the blog? Is it stated? Is it a commercial venture masquerading as an informative site?

• Currency: How often are posts made? When was the last one?

• Objectivity: Is there a bias present?

• Depth: What’s the scope or level of substance? Are the posts essays? Links to other blogs that might be better?

Dr. Laurel Clyde, Weblogs & Libraries 2004:

Clyde addresses similar criteria as above and includes Web specific concerns:

• Does the blog have an appropriate format?

• Is it well organized?

• How attractive are the pages? The front page? The archives?

• Is it easy to navigate? Can you find your way back to the top page easily?

• Does it work in all browsers on all platforms?

• Has it been usability tested? Does it meet accessibility guidelines such as section 508?

• Do the links work and do they seem relevant?

• Is the order of postings useful? (Reverse chronological? Chronological? By subject?)

• Is there a method of interacting with the author? Comments? E-Mail? IM?

• Is there an RSS feed and is it easy to find? Does it work?

(Clyde, 2004, Weblogs and Libraries, Chandos Publishing, 28-31)

New Technologies: LIS Weblogs
Created by Michael Stephens www.tametheweb.com
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Download the PDF here : Evaluating LIS Blogs

Karen Schneider has an insightful post up at FRL:

http://freerangelibrarian.com/2008/01/06/how-to-be-famous-wink-wink-nudge-nudge/

There are some gems:

Don’t let ambition turn you into Eve Harrington. Remember All About Eve, where an ingenue claimed to be Margo Channing’s biggest, bestest fan, then walked all over her? Let your friendships be sincere, and don’t use people or filch their ideas and then “forget” to acknowledge them.

On the flip side, some people will latch on to you for no other reason than you’re well-known and you’re useful to them. Don’t worry, they’ll disappear when your star fades.

…

Some stuff needs to stay unsaid. When you’re highly visible, a little self-awareness and discretion go a long way. So-and-so at Your Place Of Work may be a creep or a jerk, or your boss may have done you seriously wrong, but ask yourself if you’d want to read tell-all blog posts where these people listed their takes on your shortcomings. (This reminds me of a time when my sister and I fumed to an older friend how our mother was making us nutty, and she replied with a grin, “You’re probably doing the same to her.” Oh.)mSimilarly, you may be in the throes of a personal or professional meltdown and feel the need to share the details with several million of your closest colleagues, but consider carefully how much of your life you want to share in perpetuity — as in, like, forever.

When I teach blogging in my classes, we talk about keeping perspective and keeping some things unsaid. We also discuss blogging ethics, which Karen has touched on before. I agree with Karen, the web’s memory is long and deep.

Don’t miss the whole post!

A nice meme to cap the year via Kathryn Greenhill:

December: Last night in LIS701: Introduction to Library and Information Science, we discussed our five “context” books.

November: Have you seen these jobs open at the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County?

October: I was honored to be asked by Brian Kelly to write a guest post for his blog UK Web Focus.

September: What a great way to welcome students back to the university library!

August: I keep coming back to this post “I didn’t get an MLS to do that.”

July: I’ve been watching for the first reports of iPhones accessing library Web resources.

June: TTW Guest Author Dr. Kate Marek: In keeping with Michael’s tradition in TTW, I’d like to use my posting opportunity to call your attention to a fascinating new technology that has just been unveiled.

May: TTW Guest Author Lee LeBlanc: This offer came about because of this. I started talking to Michael about some pretty serious (serious to me that is) ideas I have about libraries, information, college students, and leadership.

April: Wowza but time flies! Thanks to all the folks who read and comment — and inspire me!

March:Please vote for Jim Rettig for ALA president on March 15.

February: It’s true! Jaap and Erik are coming!

January: I’m a tad dumb-founded over this…

(Disclaimer: I included a little bit more than one sentence in some to give better context - did I violate the meme? Also, I didn’t count Flickr “Blog This” entries and the like because those didin’t include my own words (or official TTW guest author words..))

http://sospl.blogspot.com/

Dear Michael:

Stephen Boggs

Stephen - great to hear about your new blog! Keep the information coming. I’m sure it will be helpful to Indiana Librarians - and all librarians who may face uncertain changes as well.

Stephen is director of the New Carlisle Library: http://www.ncpl.lib.in.us/

I was just IMing with a trusted colleague and we hit on the influx of librarian and library blogs of late. I was reminded of some notes I made before a talk about blogging last spring. If you are just starting out, here are some things you might want to ponder:

A personal blogging mission statement: what are your goals? Your focus? It doesn’t have to be huge but it’s a good step to take.

Your blogging voice will develop over time - but be true to yourself and it will come faster.

Some folks don’t take to blogging after trying it. That’s ok. Write a sign off post and find another tool for your creativity.

Play nice. Cite your inspirations. Have fun.

Clare Leibfarth, Medical Librarian at the Affinity Medical Center Doctors Campus in Massillon, Ohio writes:

Would the readers of the Tame the Web be interested in learning about the conference blog http://65.181.189.143/ConferenceCall2007/ for the Joint Chapter MLA Meeting in Omaha?

Mark Funk’s presidential priorities include a commitment to increasing use of social media in association business. We’ve been doing this for a while in the Midwest Chapter!

Thanks for the note Clare! Folks interested in conference blogging click through and take a look at a great example. What an easy way to provide ongoing content and generate online interest before, during and after a conference.

Run don’t walk to this excellent post about “what it takes to create a great blog experience:”

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2007/10/the-4-cs-of-blo.html

The description of the C’s and the corresponding insights for each are image grabs from a presentation, so please click through and have a look. This could be a great planning document for the library blog.

Don’t miss adding to your aggregator the iLibrarian blog by Elyssa Kroski. Consistently these last few months, she’s offered up some concise, useful, well-written posts.

For example:

18 Different Types of Blog posts

A Librarian’s Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides

Thanks Elyssa!