June 2006 Archives

Adapting the Netflix Model to Libraries...cool

Charging a fee for the service...not cool

Here's why I don't want this "fee based" service from my library...I already pay for it with Netflix...

Then again, if we could just simply freeze items on our hold list that we're not ready to read/watch/listen to, instead of just queuing them up in a particular order, I think this would be more beneficial to patrons.

I also feel that there's other benefits to Netflix that the library can't duplicate. The ability to see a list of movies we've already watched is one. Rating movies we've already watched, and seeing what our friends have at home or have already rated. The library is a long way from offering these services to me and the $13 I pay for the two movies we get at home every month is not killing our budget. Plus, I still use the library for movies...I just wait until the movies finally show up on the shelves after the 200 people who placed holds on them are done...if there's something I really want to see then I can order it on Netflix and get it in a day or two.

As for books, I rarely have time to read them but it would be nice to put them on my hold list as a "to read" item, it would stay there until I do have time and then I can get the requested item when I'm ready for it.

I agree that there's more that we could be offering our patrons for online services, but I hardly think that charging a fee for these services is the right direction...

Technorati : books, libraries, library, movies, netflix

I went to AADL after I got off work from my library today...I had a CD to pick up from there and one to return. I signed up for the adult summer reading program while I was there too. I figure if I ever get finished with Team of Rivals I could actually get 5 books read this summer. Trust me though, Team of Rivals will be the first one on the summer reading list, it's taking me forever to get through that audio book in my car (it's 30 tapes). I was thinking I should start taking it inside my apartment so I can finally finish it and move on to something else soon. It's a great book though so I don't want to quit this one, it's just hard to skip ahead when you're listening to the audio version. I have 3 waiting for me in my car and a 4th on its way that I wanted to read again. I can't remember the third one in my car but I know I have My Friend Leonard and the first Janet Evanovich book, One For the Money. I have Toni Morrison's, Beloved, on the way. I read Beloved in college (and I may be one of the very few that actually liked it), but it is the next Slate.com Audio Book Club selection...I usually end up deleting the book club podcasts because I never have time to read the books, but this time I actually wanted to listen to one. I think it might be interesting to read a book again that I initially read for school too...

Technorati : aadl, adult summer reading program, book club, summer reading program

Just messing around this morning I found Google Browser Sync. It's a Firefox extension that syncs your browsers on two different computers, it even remembers the tabs you have open when you closed your browser (no matter which computer you're using when you quit your last session). I don't have two different computers to try this out on but I did try it using my laptop and my Portable Firefox on my flash drive. I'm pretty pleased with it. I remember when I was setting up my portable browser I had wanted my bookmarks to be over there too but I didn't want to spend the time to duplicate them. Google gives you a clear warning that it may not be the best option for shared computers but it also gives you options for encryption of passwords and you need a password and pin when you first set it up.

Technorati : firefox, firefox extension, google, google browser sync

I'm in a strange mood today. I need to gather myself and get to school so I can meet with my group for our ethics presentation. I also have to finish writing my book review which I'm having a hard time with...I don't even know why because I absolutely loved the book I read! I think we have 'til midnight to get that done though...

I'm also sitting here thinking that I miss singing in choir. I have no idea where that came from either. Sometimes I miss playing in band too but there's absolutely no way I have time to join either a band or a choir. Maybe it's just because I keep thinking about all the things I want to do and how I never have time to do those things. I told Alex I wanted to go to Homecoming this year so I can get my choir fix this fall with the Alumni Choir but it'll be a quick fix. We went to Homecoming two years ago and it was pretty lame compared to other years. I suspect it was because they banned beer on "the hill"...at any rate there was nobody there...but we still had fun visiting with our friends.

I haven't responded to an email yet about getting a mailing list for the orchestra so they can send out brochures...she also said they aren't putting together the brochures until August, I should really do that next week but knowing me I'm probably going to procrastinate. I might work on it when I'm in Illinois next weekend. I should ask for a copy of the brochure so I can start working on their website sometime too...I missed the last board meeting for the season because I was working so I have no idea what's going on.

There's so much crap floating around in my head right now I just don't know what to do next! Maybe that's why I'm having trouble with this book review...I'm reviewing Ambient Findability by Peter Morville...basically a testament to how there's too much information out there and how we need to be better equipped to navigate through it all. This is my life!

Technorati : life, music, school

Last night I went to visit my dad in Waterville. It was nice to see him again, I'm terrible about visiting my family, I honestly probably visited more when I lived in Wisconsin and not 45 minutes away in Ann Arbor. My purpose for visiting was to go through some old photos I knew my dad had and take them so I could eventually scan and organize them...I'm not quite sure when I'll have time for this but it's on my to do list. My dad is moving and I didn't want him to throw the pictures away and I didn't necessarily want him to throw those into storage either. I liked going through the old pictures, my dad found a few that he wanted to keep too, but it was kind of bittersweet. He's moving from Toledo to Las Vegas...it's sad to me that he'll be so far away but it's also sad that he's selling the house I grew up in. I get sentimentally attached to things...hence wanting the pictures I guess. I can't wait to really go through them, organize them and share them with my family though.

Technorati : family, history, moving, pictures

Oh, this is funny stuff. It's a library parody of COPS...

Technorati : cops, librarians, library, parody

I've been using Netvibes for awhile now, but I didn't realize until I read this post on TechCrunch, as to just how cool it's turning out to be. Tabs are definitely cool, I was pretty excited about those for awhile, especially since that was my favorite feature on Pageflakes, but I wasn't compelled enough to switch over to that site. You can now add icons to tabs and create your own modules using Netvibes APIs and other APIs available. Netvibes has also created a developer site called Netvibes Ecosystem that allows developers to contribute their creations to the Netvibes community.

I admit that I haven't been using Netvibes that much lately. I found it good for taking notes and organizing some things but the whole start page thing kinda went dead when I enabled Session Manager on my Tab Mix Plus options. Now when I close my browser in the middle of something I know that it'll be there when I open it again. I realize that this behavior only encourages me to start many things that I'll get to later and clutters up my browser in the process...but as I've found out about myself, if I don't see it I don't do it. My need for organization and tabs in Netvibes would encourage me to hide things in the start page tabs and I won't see those when I open my browser...it's a personal dilemma that I will learn to deal with (maybe). Netvibes is still cool, and it is one of the many browser tabs that do open when I open Firefox.

Technorati : developers, modules, netvibes, netvibes ecosystem

A Slate.com article on the Mac vs. PC commercials caught my attention this morning. First things first, I love these commercials, they're hilarious. On the other hand, I'm a PC user and wouldn't be caught dead with a Mac in my home (my husband will support that too)...but even I can appreciate the humor in these commercials.

Although, it's easy for me to not be swayed by marketing, it turns out that these commercials are causing a ruckus in the Mac vs. PC world. Seth Stevenson, at Slate, calls them "mean-spirited", although I don't think I would go as far to say that...misleading maybe.

I think the two men are stereotypical users of each type of computer. Although I think I'm comfortable enough in my geekiness to not care to aspire to the "coolness" of the Mac user. Seth Stevenson's article brought up an excellent point about these stereotypical characters; one that I did not consider:

My problem with these ads begins with the casting. As the Mac character, Justin Long (who was in the forgettable movie Dodgeball and the forgettabler TV show Ed) is just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast. He's perfect. Too perfect. It's like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it. If the idea was to reach out to new types of consumers (the kind who aren't already evangelizing for Macs), they ought to have used a different type of actor.

The actor that plays Mac does represent a lot of Mac owners. I do hate being stereotypical here but it's hard to avoid. Mac users are a very small population of computer users and I can see how these commercials could make their potential market smaller instead of larger. I couldn't see somebody like my mom being inspired to buy a Mac based on this character anyway. I've long thought that the only people who will continue to use Macs are die hard Mac users, everybody else will use a PC. Seth continues with his analysis, only with the PC character this time:

Meanwhile, the PC is played by John Hodgman-contributor to The Daily Show and This American Life, host of an amusing lecture series, and all-around dry-wit extraordinaire. Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident. (Look at that hilariously perfect pratfall he pulls off in the spot titled "Viruses.") The ads pose a seemingly obvious question-would you rather be the laid-back young dude or the portly old dweeb?-but I found myself consistently giving the "wrong" answer: I'd much sooner associate myself with Hodgman than with Long.

By the way, Alex and I love John Hodgman on The Daily Show, he's hilarious! Even after watching all of the commercials I'm still happy to associate myself with the "portly old dweeb" character. Being a PC user I think it's because I can associate with the frustrations of being a PC user through this character. That's why the commercials are funny to me, because I can relate to a lot of PC's pitfalls...however, because of this, he gets my sympathy vote, and I end up disliking Mac even more...I think this isn't the emotion that Apple was going for in the ads...at least I hope it wasn't, otherwise they need to fire their marketing team.

Now, funny or not, these ads are still misleading. Yeah, you can do fun, cool stuff on a Mac. I do fun, cool stuff on a PC all the time too. Our games don't play on Macs well (if at all), Office on a Mac is not good, and if I did own a Mac, the first thing I would do is buy a new mouse (how do you use those things?!) I think the thing that PC users enjoy the most is that they have a wider variety of software available to them. Software is what makes the computer, not the OS. Don't get me wrong, I think Windows is not perfect, but OSX is not perfect on the other end of the spectrum (pretty, animated icons mean nothing to me when all I want to do is open a damn file). The perfect OS is somewhere in the middle and both companies haven't grasped it yet, however since I have a choice, I choose the platform that lets me run the most stuff with little issues. I can deal with having to clean my computer up at least once a month or so when it starts running slow (I used the metaphor of sending your car in for an oil change with my family this past weekend). I can also deal with the stupid Microsoft updates that seem to appear every two days. For me, the most appealing thing about being a PC owner is the freedom of choice...even though proprietary software exists on PCs (and sometimes annoyingly), we're not tied down to it. As a more advanced computer user I have yet to run into a computer problem that I haven't been able to fix on my own (one way or another), and let me tell you that if my family wanted to use me for tech support and they owned a Mac, the answer would be "no!", and I would tell them to buy a new computer.

Here's a compilation of comments about the commercials, also from Slate. Another fun link I found in all of this was an MS IPod parody video that answers the question, what if Microsoft redesigned the IPod box? What I love about this video is that is was made by Microsoft employees. PC users, and even Microsoft employees, know how to poke fun at themselves, I love that!

Technorati : apple, commercial, commercials, john hodgman, justin long, mac, mac commercials, pc, slate

I had to write about class last night, mostly because it was an "issues" class and I love talking about library issues. Here is what was on the agenda:

1. Banned/challenged books

2. Intellectual Freedom

3. Censorship

4. The Patriot Act

5. Copyright

I might be forgetting something...my husband must know me too well too, I came home and told him what we talked about in class and he said, "I bet you couldn't keep your hand down." I guess my spirits are lifting a bit after deciding to not take me to Germany, but it's still raining so I guess I'm still a bit gloomy.

Technorati : issues, libraries, library, school

I'm really sad about this. I was planning on going along on Alex's Germany trip in August, we even had me registered and everything, but reality hit us this morning and we realized that we just couldn't afford it. I think when Alex suggested that we pay for it using the credit card we just paid off I decided that it just wasn't meant to be. I'm really bummed. This is the second time we were planning on going to Germany together and the second time we couldn't go because we just couldn't find the money to go. The only difference about this time is that Alex is going for sure.

Alex is right about this not being his only Germany trip...we've even talked about moving there for a few years, but I'm less excited about moving there than I am about just visiting there. The last time I was in Europe I spent three weeks there and I couldn't wait to come home after two, I can't imagine how homesick I would be if I lived there. It's not like I don't have family over there, but I barely know them, I've met my grandmmother once and she doesn't speak to my mother...nor does she speak English. I think my aunt is a wonderful person, but also doesn't speak English. Plus, you would think after six years of German classes I should be able to speak the language...well I can't, and I'm not all that anxious to learn right now either. Yes, I'm horrible...I think I'm just upset that I can't go to a place that I really do love and my husband gets to go wthout me.

Today is a crappy day, plus it's raining so that doesn't help...and I have to go to work, I certainly don't feel like working today...

Technorati : germany, travel

I had a brush with copyright issues at work on Saturday and I've been thinking about it the past few days. The irony, however, is that the first article I pulled out to read for class tonight is on copyright issues in the academic library.

I have very strong opinions regarding this issue, my blog of old would probably represent that more than this one (back in the Napster vs. RIAA days), but I don't really care to go into it right now. It is a great issue to think about, especially in regards to intellectual property and downloading music. One of my favorite recent books on the subject is:

The Future of Music : Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution

I didn't have time to finish the book but I did make it more than halfway through, it's an excellent book on the subject. I will pick it up again soon, I hope.

Technorati : copyright, intellectual property, music, music downloading, napster, riaa

Another link posted on TechEssense.Info (mentioned earlier today) was about how a design firm, Maya Design, designed and developed the information architecture for The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh website. I still have to read through all of the great information on the site and on the design of the physical spaces, but just glancing at their website you can tell that it's awesome.

The first thing that struck me was something that I hardly see in library websites...people! In the top right hand corner of the website is the text, "Ask A Librarian" with a picture of a women. I clicked on the link...another person! Did you know that using pictures of people on your site makes users feel more welcome on your site? It's true. I just thought it was amazing that this sort of thing seemed out of place at first for me, especially since I've seen and helped design many sites that do incorporate images of people.

Oh well, the site is pretty good, it's worth checking out...

Library Journal also featured IA and Library Building Design in an article mentioned on the Maya site. I'd like to read through both of these soon...

Technorati : architecture, ia, information architecture, libraries, library, physical space

You'll be rolling on the floor laughing...

If amazon sucked like our old opac

I'm still laughing!

Technorati : amazon, library, library catalog, opac

TechEssense.Info has a nice post about Information Architecture Books and Resources . I wanted to point it out because I've read a few of these and I'm reading one now so I can support these reads.

Originally found at the blog on TravelPost.com, Michigan State Parks have Wi-Fi! Alex and I generally camp at state parks (when we're by ourselves...my mom likes private campgrounds) and we always take our laptops along when we do. In addition to Wi-Fi at the parks, many of Michigan's rest areas also have wireless internet. I'm quite positive all of their Welcome Areas do too.

I also want to say that Michigan does a great job with their Michigan.gov site. I signed up for an account to play around and I quite like the MyMichigan.gov area, which lets me save links to parts of the site I use most (right now Michigan eLibrary and Voter Information). Since their site is so huge with lots of great information, it takes a little while to hunt down the information that I am looking for when I'm on there so the bookmarking is a smart idea for their users. Michigan is on the ball with RSS feeds, podcasts, and blogs too! I just noticed that they also have a version of the site for Wireless devices.

Technorati : mi, michigan, parks, wifi, wireless, wireless internet

Thank goodness, I'm off the hook now! Actually, this post on MarketingProfs is quite interesting:

Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore

There's some good points, especially the first one...

#1- Traffic is generated by participating in the community; not daily posting - The blogosphere doubles in size every 6 months and cutting through the clutter will become ever more difficult with a new blog emerging every second. Daily posting deals with the clutter by adding more clutter.

There's a couple of good points here, one is community participation, the other is daily posting creates clutter. I have over 3000 unread items in my feed reader right now (don't worry I'm not fretting about it), there is a lot of clutter in there. However it puts more pressure on me to sift through the clutter and find those few things I do want to read. I think there's more value in participating in communities than focusing entirely on your own blog and how much you're posting. I'll tell you what, I got the most traffic out of my Sims Blog more than this one and that is because those of us who blogged about Sims had an instant community. We all participated in forums, shared tips with one another, shared objects and object sites, and shared our own Sims stories. It is time consuming to participate in a blogging community on this level, but it was also fun. If I had time to play the game and keep my blog I'd probably still be doing it because I love it. Don't get me wrong, I love keeping this blog too but I always feel like this one is a work in progress...

Technorati : blog, blog clutter, blog post, blog posting, blogs, communities, community, community participation

I added my two most recent assignments from class to my WSU Site today.

heidi go seek @ wsu - intro to the profession

I turned in my Library Visits assigment last night so I'll probably add that after I get it back and graded. I had done part of it wrong actually and I didn't turn it in during class, it wasn't due until midnight so I turned it in electronically instead. These assigments aren't hard, just a lot of work. The only one I'm disappointed in so far is our group assigment but I think I'll save my thoughts on that for the course evaluation instead.

Technorati : lisp, wayne state university, wsu

This article caught my attention on what the Portland Press Herald calls The Google Generation.

Last year children's librarian Debby Atwell put a new set of encyclopedias on the shelf at Thomaston Public Library.

A year later, it has yet to be touched.

"I have never seen an encyclopedia lifted from the stacks," Atwell said.

First of all, I love Google and I still direct kids to use encyclopedias at my library. Actually I use Google very rarely when dealing with patrons, and in many cases it's my last resort. For what our patrons are looking for I can usually exhaust our print and electronic resources more effectively than going immediately going to Google for every question. Of course there are questions I know I can answer right away on Google and then it could be my first resort (but this is rare and it's usually spelling...Google makes a great dictionary). I also believe that kids, especially older kids are realizing this and they're visiting the library more because they're not finding what they need on Google. What bothers me about that children's librarian quoted is that she isn't doing more to diversify where her patrons are getting their information. You can't blame the kids for going to Google every time they want to find something out, what we need is to teach children and our patrons information literacy, this younger generation more than any of them will need those skills and I think it will be what sets them apart in the workplace when they are older.

Oh and then there's this:

Reference materials are gathering dust on the shelves of libraries everywhere. Reference librarians are being reassigned to other tasks, and library directors are pondering the future role of the traditional lending library. The trend has sparked an angst-filled discussion for the past several weeks among librarians online.

It's a topic some librarians are reluctant to talk about for fear taxpayers will cut their budgets if word gets out that some of their traditional functions are being usurped. They blame the trend on the rise of online databases and search engines such as Google, a shift away from a print to a visual culture, and even on state and national learning standards that leave little time for school research projects requiring multiple sources of information.

Librarians...please stop being whimps...please! And quit blaming everything on Google, they're not your enemy, I actually think you are. What you should be doing is learning what Google is doing right, then taking where they're failing and making the profession better by it. Google is not perfect either, you know that, but quit blaming all of your problems on them. Also, you can't blame all of your problems on electronic resources either. Just because technology gives people easy access doesn't mean it makes them instatly easy to use. If you think we're living in a visual culture then use that to your advantage instead of moaning and groaning. I think my dad probably taught me this, but people waste a lot of time complaining about stuff they can't control anyway...let's use some of that energy to develop the things we can control.

Technorati : librarians, libraries, library, reference, research

From Free Range Librarian, The User Is Not Broken: A meme masquerading as a manifesto.

I had to share, but here are a few of my favorites:

• All technologies evolve and die. Every technology you learned about in library school will be dead someday.
• You fear loss of control, but that has already happened. Ride the wave.
• The user is not broken.
• Your system is broken until proven otherwise.
• That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system because "librarians need to help people" doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, and his system is broken, too.
• Most of your most passionate users will never meet you face to face.
• Most of your most alienated users will never meet you face to face.
• The most significant help you can provide your users is to add value and meaning to the information experience, wherever it happens; defend their right to read; and then get out of the way.
• Your website is your ambassador to tomorrow's taxpayers. They will meet the website long before they see your building, your physical resources, or your people.
• It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to find a library website that is usable and friendly and provides services rather than talking about them in weird library jargon.
• Information flows down the path of least resistance. If you block a tool the users want, users will go elsewhere to find it.
• You cannot change the user, but you can transform the user experience to meet the user.
• Meet people where they are--not where you want them to be.
• The average library decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies.
• If you are reading about it in Time and Newsweek and your library isn't adapted for it or offering it, you're behind.
• Stop moaning about the good old days. The card catalog sucked, and you thought so at the time, too.
• Your ignorance will not protect you.

Well, that's probably most of them, but they're all pretty good. There's a slew of comments to read too...

It seems I haven't been posting much these days, it could have a lot to do with me being busy but I think it has more to do with it being summer and I feel less like sitting in front of the internet for hours and being outside more. This is a good thing and I'm not complaining! It's a bit chilly right now (a cool 61 degrees), but I think by the time the weather warms up this afternoon I'll be sitting by the pool and enjoying my Saturday off. Later today I might consider working on my Library Visit project for class, but I'll probably hang outside with my laptop...hmmm, I wonder if our wireless connection reaches to the swimming pool...we're close but probably not that close :)

Technorati : information, library, library 2.0, library manifesto, opac