NASIG Conference: Robin Sloan of EPIC 2014 Fame

NASIG’s first Vision Session (aka plenary session) featured Robin Sloan of Current TV. The description was intriguing: “…Media is becoming digitized and disaggregated, free to float across the internet and get downloaded and uploaded, blogged and sold, pirated and appreciated, remixed and reimagined…. So what about libraries and scholarly communication?…” What I didn’t realize until he was introduced is that Robin Sloan is one of the EPIC 2014 guys.

Robin showed the EPIC 2014 movie and then talked through a similar scenario concerning libraries in the year 2016.

Two points I took from Robin’s talk:

  1. The proliferation of content on the web (including movies like EPIC 2014) means that librarians are becoming less needed as gatekeepers. “Things that resonate can get an audience,” he said–without a formal selection process by a television station, production company, or a librarian. Librarians should think about what their role will be as this trend continues.
  2. Many of the trends Robin touched on are related to social networking and online communities. To attract younger library patrons, they should think about how they can provide opportunities for building community online. For example, in an academic library, such a community might be built around a particular area of research.

A few other points that caught my ear:

  • Some people are concerned about the possible disorganized, chaotic nature of Wikipedia, but in some ways the original building of the OED was similar: a community of individuals contributing entries.
  • The “IV” nature of technology (always on, always connected) changes people’s ideas of what they need to know and what they need to remember.
  • Blogs can be described as the “connective tissue” of groups in our society.

Robin is one of two contributors to the wide-ranging blog Snarkmarket and was formerly employed by the Poynter Institute, which has an interesting website.

Keeping Up: Beyond the Library

There’s a lot of talk about “keeping up” in the profession these days. In addition to traditional journals and low-tech ways of learning like conference and workshop attendance, library blogs are proliferating and online conferences of both the free and pay variety seem to be catching on. With so many options just within the library community, the thought of trying to keep tabs on developments in the wider world is a little daunting.

Nevertheless, it’s vitally important to keep any eye on new trends and technologies outside libraries, to know how our patrons use technology, and to understand the expectations they bring to our physical and virtual spaces.

One way to do this, of course, is to observe them when they walk through the (physical or virtual) door and to ask them directly what they expect and want from library services. But it’s also important to think further ahead and to be aware of what patrons might expect one year, two years, or even–gulp–five years out.

With that in mind, here’s just a handful of places to go for non-library technology news, along with examples of the most recent topics covered by each site:

  • FutureWire: use of gaming to educate people about the crisis in Darfur, cutting edge cell phones with “digital wallet” capabilities, and new light bulb technology
  • Wired News: net neutrality
  • TechCrunch: Google Health debut?, personalized news delivery service (EPIC 2014 anyone?)
  • BoingBoing: Smithsonion/Showtime update and fallout, CBS’s new free, ad-supported internet “channel,” net neutrality, history of Play-Doh
  • Gizmodo: round of new iPod toys (yes, the iPod is a toy, but it needs its own toys too), Intel laptops for kids, professors banning laptops in the classroom

There are many more sites that could be listed here, and I’d love to hear your recommendations.

If the word “daunting” is still running through your mind, consider splitting the workload with colleagues. Agree to follow BoingBoing and forward posts of interest if your friend will do the same with Gizmodo. Start with just one site and follow it for a couple weeks. If it’s manageable, add a second, or switch to another site if you find the first one isn’t worth your while. If you tend to read library blogs, look for one or two that include a lot of references from other industries.

Just be careful that you don’t spend hours of work time reading about Play-Doh!

PS: This blog post was made possible in part by NASIG wireless access. Thank you NASIG for supporting free wireless access for conference attendees!

Mobile Browsing and Text Messaging on the Rise

An April 19th article in Information Week discusses the rise in the use of mobile phones to access the web. The trend is stronger in Japan than either the United States or Canada (no surprise there); nevertheless, over one quarter of mobile users have used their phones to access the internet, according to the article.

The growth of internet-ready devices with small screens–whether video iPods, mobile phones, or “traditional” handhelds like PDAs–has implications for the kind of web design we do and the level of flexibility we need behind the scenes to ensure that everyone can use our websites. This is closely tied to accessibility for people with disabilities, which I’ll talk more about in a future post.

The article also mentions that text messaging is “the most popular mobile and wireless activity” (I think they actually mean most popular after using a mobile to make a phone call). Text messaging is a way to send short messages of up to 160 characters asynchronously to mobile phones.

If you’re interested in reading more about text messaging, blogwithoutalibrary.net has a useful summary of a CIL presentation on the topic by John Iliff of PALINET, including links to some libraries that are offering text messaging reference services.

Windows Live Academic Launched

Microsoft has launched Windows Live Academic. According to the site it “currently indexes content related to computer science, physics, electrical engineering, and related subject areas.”

The results interface has some interesting features, including a split panel that shows results on the left and an abstract or more info about one citation on the right, as well as a slider that allows you to see more or less information about each citation and therefore more or fewer citations in the results list.

Cool Tools Update at CIL

One of the best presentations I attended at Computers in Libraries was the Cool Tools update presented by Frank Cervone from Northwestern University and Darlene Fichter from University of Saskatchewan. The complete title was “Cool Tools for Webmasters,” but many of the tools they discussed were more general than the title implies.

They covered tools for tracking your passwords; widgets for accessing weather, maps, and Flickr photos on your desktop; web-based organizers; the Tiny URL generator; and, of course, Firefox extensions, which I’ll talk more about later.

Complete slides (PPT) via Darlene’s website

What Can You Do with a Wiki?

You may be familiar with Wikipedia, but you might not know about many other wikis. Are wikis just for geeks, or are they being used by the wider web world?

The Eastwikkers blog is highlighting 33 wikis in 33 days, showcasing all sorts of wikis: Flu Wiki, This Might Be a Wiki (They Might Be Giants fan site that clearly wins for best name), and even a library wiki: Library Success.

There are political wikis, travel wikis, educational wikis, including one just for the Science of Spectroscopy.

On the 34th day, Eastwikkers will post a wiki featuring all nominated wikis.

Closer to home, you might be interested in a wiki being used as a subject guide. Check out Biz Wiki, created and maintained by Chad Boeninger at Ohio University. Chad made a great case for using a wiki as a subject guide at Computers in Libraries. Although the wiki isn’t really collaborative (he was the only person contributing to it as of late March), it improves maintenance, linking, and search and discovery for business resources.

Hello World!

Welcome to Ab’s blog, a place for me to share information about technology and libraries with BU library staff. My goal is to provide links, information, and some analysis about library tech stuff. In the past I have occasionally done this via e-mail, but a blog seems like a less intrusive and more useful way to go. You can see what I think I might blog about from the categories list; undoubtedly the list will change and grow over time. A lot of what I post will be inspired by what I read on other blogs (see the blogroll for a partial list) and in journals and by what I hear at conferences. I hope it’s helpful; if there’s something you’d like to know about just drop me a line via e-mail or IM (acbtanya).

On My Mind

content management systems
podcasting
really understanding metasearch
firefox plugins and extensions
accessibility testing for metaLINK
usability testing for metaLINK
technical requirements for our website
public wiki
html finding aids on the fly
im for technical help
information architecture
integration