Libology Blog

In the time it has taken to transfer the domain, I have been thinking about the blog, especially what its focus is and will likely be.

I am, as of three minutes ago, changing the name of the blog from “LibrarySupportStaff.org” to “Libology Blog” and am adding another layer of discontinuity to what was meant to be a behind-the-scenes change of hosting services. It makes sense, however, to do this now instead of later, and make July 2008 the “month the blog went kabloee! and everything changed”.

A major focus of this blog, and my interest, will be library support staff and how they can improve library services.  The blog is more than that, however, which is why I think the name change is ultimately a positive thing.

There is a lot I have to do to clean up the blog, the main being updating the links that point to other posts.  Until then, please bear with our mess.

The Internet Search Environment Number (ISEN) is a fantastic idea.  On-line databases would be assigned their own, unique number, similar to an ISBN or ISSN, which would identify them as a resource.  This would aid tremendously in organizing and ultimately accessing these troves of information that, for the most part, belong to the deep web.

found via Catalogablog

Disclaimer: I have been an avid user of Scrabulous for several month (Stats:  70 wins and 3 losses, best bingo at 158 points), and am sad to see it go.  I am not posting because of this, however, but because of how the the article illustrates the problems with current copyright law.

Scrabulous Highlights the Failure of American Copyright Law is an excellent article in the Inquisitr.  They examine the copyright history of a game that started off with the name Lexiko, and compare it to the current patent laws as they apply to prescription drugs.

The intent of copyright is to encourage creativity by granting a period of exclusivity, but not at the exclusion of others with time. Copyright law as it stands today limits the creation of new works by denying the rights of others to create derivative works after a reasonable time. Copyright law today works against the greater good.

from LISnews

If you are reading this, then something has gone right!  I fought with the backup for nearly a week before giving up, and have rebuilt the blog from another method entirely.  This resulted in many duplicate entries, and it really messed up the post numbering scheme - so all links into this blog are currently dead

The good news is that everything seems to be here, and it seems to be working.  The entire blog has been moved to the Libology server, and the LibrarySupportStaff.org domain has been transfered.  This means that there are two links to this blog:

http://blog.librarysupportstaff.org/ (not yet linking to the new installation)

and

http://www.libology.com/blog/

Hopefully both will work equally well.  There may be a re-design in the works as well… one step at a time.

Thank you, loyal readers, for your patience.  I hope to soon be posting some of the interesting things that I have encountered in the past 11 days!

One of my plug-ins has caused instability in the database structure of the blog when it froze during a re-indexing of data… I have attempted to fix it (attempted to re-re-index, removed plugin, etc.) but am still having troubles.  I think it is time to see if the backup plug-in does what it is supposed to do.

If you are seeing this message, it means I haven’t fixed it yet (since this wasn’t part of the backup).

Oh, and by the way, this is a great reminder of the idea of backing up often.  I had backed up the entire database just before running the re-indexer doohickey.  I should have all the posts when restored.

Until then, sorry for things not working well….

Read Lori Ayre’s blog post at TechEssence to find out what she means by “Learned Helplessness”. I think she hits the nail on the head, then drives it home. I will be watching her future posts….

After more than a year, there has been a bit of activity at the Google Librarian Central site, though not what was hoped for when I heard that they were preparing an update.

What they announced in a post titled “Endless Summer” was that they were closing down the Librarian Central Blog and communicating via their newsletter. Comments and suggestions will be handled by a web form submission.

Ouch! Double-Ouch!! This is better than the dead silence of the past year, but just barely. We have been moved back in time, relegated to Web 1.0.

They could have kept the blog alive by posting the individual newsletter items one-by-one. They could have used the blog for items posted or discussed elsewhere, but posted there because of their interest to libraries. They could have opened things up a bit and asked for volunteers to coordinate topics and ideas for better incorporating Google into libraries. Any of these would have been about the same amount of work, and would have preserved or improved the dynamic and social aspects of the site. They backed away instead.

We are left to wonder why.

Classify is a new service from OCLC which returns class numbers (Dewey, LC, and National Library of Medicine) assigned to books in WorldCat. This could be a good way to use the “wisdom of the crowd” when you are not 100% sure where to group a particular book.

I noticed that the url had a “2″ at the end, so I removed it to see what would happen. It appears to be an earlier version of the service. I didn’t have any luck with the first few ISBNs I entered, but the example links work well.

Any other changes to the url bounce the user to the DeweyBrowser, which is a lookup service from a couple of years back. Although it also has a “2″ at the end of the url, nothing happens when one changes it. So much for rewarding curiosity

Classify found via Lorcan Dempsey’s weblog

Tim Spalding of LibraryThing has started a new ambitious project: develop a new shelf classification system that would eliminate the baggage of the 100+ year-old systems many libraries have in place, as well as create a system free from the trademark, copyright, and license issues connected with Dewey.

He is looking for a few librarians (one to five) to manage the project, and has started a LibraryThing group for everyone to join in the conversation.

This just started up this morning, folks… they’re still talking letters vs. numbers and general classification philosophy. We’re talking ground floor timing, so sign up and begin discussing!

found via Tim Spalding’s post to the Web4Lib list

100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of is the title of a post on the TeachingTips blog. And yes, there are a lot of interesting and useful links to be found (though I suspect you may recall hearing about a few of them before…)

found via LISNews

In February, I wrote about the shootings at Northern Illinois University, which happened about 100 yards away from a former co-worker (and current friend). I stressed that until something like this happens in your community, it seems remote and somehow not fully real. However, we must strive to remember that these things happen in real communities, to real people, and that individuals, organizations and institutions (such as libraries) can do much to be better prepared for tragedy.

Jessamyn at Librarian.net writes about a horrific murder which indirectly involved the local public library, and how they have reacted. As you read her post, and the news articles she links to, ask yourself what your library or organization can do now to be prepared for not only this type of event, or a shooting, or a book challenge, but what you can do to simply be prepared.

Once you have thought about it, discuss it with your co-workers and community members. Solicit ideas. Take the best ideas and put them into action. You may never need this, but if the unthinkable happens you will be in far better shape than if the only response is “we never imagined it could happen here!”

Do it this time, starting today… because you cannot predict where, or in what form, the next horrific event will occur. At worst, you will be prepared for something that may not happen; at best you may save lives.

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Louis L’Amour, Bantam Books is providing a free copy of “Education of a Wandering Man : The Centennial Hardcover Edition” to any free lending library in the United States.

found via the Unshelved blog

Peter Suber at Open Access News has an excellent post on the language being used when discussing copyright infringement of textbooks. I personally prefer what I have in the title of this post; results may vary.

We have been through this with digital music. Music publishers and distributers were all up in arms about downloading music, but now they have come to see that the paradigm is shifting and what was needed was a change in their approach. People will follow the rules, generally, as long as those rules make sense to them.

Watch for the misuse of language on both sides of the argument, and remember that the movement in publishing is towards open access and digital downloading. The sooner everyone understands this and adapts, the sooner people will get what they want/need at a fair price, and publishers will make a fair profit.

Marketing Your Library is a blog chock full of ideas, lists, and links for marketing, you know, your library!

from LISNews

continued from here…

Evergreen and Project Conifer (John Fink) was a progress report / Q&A session about the installation of the Evergreen ILS for a consortium of academic libraries (McMaster University, University of Windsor, and Laurentian University). John gave a fantastic overview of the project, intended to go live sometime next year. It is a large undertaking, especially considering that they are writing the code for the Acquisitions and Serials areas of the software. He had an observation that I found interesting (and have noticed as well): people using III’s Millennium ILS tend to have a higher opinion of the software than is deserved. It is good, and it works fairly well, but it is deeply flawed, in my opinion. I will add that users of Voyager need to be reminded of the good points of their system now and then, but that it is also flawed. I will say again that Evergreen is going to have a much bigger impact than people realize.

Open Book, a WordPress plugin (John Miedema) was another high-interest session, since I had installed and used the plugin just one week earlier. To discuss the plugin and the reasons behind its functionality and existence with the developer was a great experience. The group discussed Amazon, OCLC, and Google (and their relative restrictions and freedoms) at length. John is a great supporter of the Open Library project, and for good reason.

Metasearch / APIs / Facebook for Libraries (David Fiander, Geoff Sinclair, Me) was a bit of a blur, since I was at the front and trying to think as effectively as possible (more challenging some days than others). I got to discuss my idea (a piece of software that uses an API that is as straightforward as possible, which passes requests to various library and bibliographic systems and returns the results… this could allow search tools and OPAC overlays to work with a standard set of rules, as well as allowing meta-search tools to become more effective), but didn’t feel that any brainstorming actually took place. If someone doesn’t point out a big flaw in my thinking (especially when I am stretching my abilities beyond their comfort zone) I suspect that I am politely being listened to. Maybe not…

The Wrap-up went fine, but there wasn’t a call for action, or a consensus as to what should come next from all of this. I can’t say I expected one, but I was hoping to have some sort of Eureka moment. I did have a strong feeling that I was going to put everything together in an interesting way during the drive home on Saturday, but it didn’t happen that way (keep reading).

We then walked over to the BiblioCommons office for a buffet tray/beer/wine dinner party. I had some great conversations here, and completely forgot to find out what exactly it is that makes people speak of BiblioCommons in reverent tones. There isn’t a lot of information out there beyond it being a “complete social discovery system for libraries” (from their website). People whose opinions I respect are very impressed with it, and I was in a conversation with one of the people directly involved and never asked one question about it. Shame on me!

I ended up skipping the pub night outing, as I stopped by the hotel and felt tired, and spent the time putting pictures online. I went to bed early, and slept very fitfully, until about 4 a.m. That was when the gunshots began. There were 7 ro 8 of them, from at least two guns, sounding like they were just outside the building. I woke at the first shot, rolled out of bed (away from the window) on the second, and duck-walked to the bathroom with my phone as they continued. I was on the third floor, so I don’t think I was likely to get caught in the line of fire (I figure they were either shooting at each other, or shooting into the air). It was a very unpleasant experience, and I didn’t get to sleep for quite a while (and didn’t sleep well then). When my alarm went off, I decided to cancel my sightseeing activities, get some more rest, and leave Toronto straight from the hotel.

So that’s why I didn’t spend the trip thinking about neat library technology and such. Too bad, because this was as good a conference as I have ever attended, and I complimpent John, William and Stacy on their excellent work. I encourage more groups to consider this format (it would work well as part of a standard conference format as well… just set up a block of time, or a conference track, as an unconference).

Previous posts here and here…

I attended the One Big Library Unconference (Facebook too) last Friday, and haven’t had a chance to post about it yet, so here goes:

I arrived in Toronto around 7 p.m. on Thursday after a smooth journey. I stayed in a hotel about 3 walking blocks from the conference venue, mainly so I could park the car on Thursday and walk everywhere. In daylight the neighborhood, part of Toronto’s Chinatown, reminded me of the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago: a wide variety of people in a busy, urban environment that feels very alive. At night it became somewhat worrisome: many homeless people sleeping in doorways and sidewalks, groups of people “hanging out” and looking a bit dangerous, and panhandlers approaching passers-by for change. I never felt directly threatened, but was very aware of the potential.

The conference was sponsored by York University, and held at the Centre for Social Innovation. The building was very warm, but the facilities were comfortable and pleasant. Everyone I came in contact with was fantastic.

How can I describe everything? Take about 70 people, self-selected to be interested in Libraries and Technology, everyone intent on learning and interacting with others of like mind. I have never seen a conference group as positively engaged in all that they were doing. I think this came about from a combination of the Unconference format, the selection of a well-defined yet general topic, and just the right amount of planning and structure (and not too much of either).

The organizers introduced themselves and described the day’s schedule process. The topics that had been submitted via the wiki were laid out on sheets of paper (see the photos in the second post for detail) on tables, along with blank sheets for newer ideas. I suggested what I had been brainstorming about during the previous day’s drive, and voted on the topics I most wanted to attend.

They ended up combining sessions in order to include all ideas, meaning that I co-presented with two other people (kind of strange, since I wanted a roundtable discussion in order to brainstorm). While they were tabulating the votes and arranging the schedule, we all attended the first session.

Zotero: Start watching for the next update of this incredible tool… it is about to become even more powerful. Then, once you have that gem, watch for the next big release. A great summary is located on their roadmap. I am left with an exceptionally strong positive feeling about this tool and the people developing it. Trevor Owens did a great job with the demo and presentation.

Drupal: This ended up being more of a detailed presentation of what it takes to implement a new web presence in an institution when it involves dozens of people in many departments. Politics, control over presentation of content, and seamless functionality were the main points discussed. On alternate days I think it might just be better for a small team (no more than four people) to install, configure and implement the system. The other days I suspect the “many hands” approach might be better. I had hoped for more tips on installing and configuring Drupal (having installed and configured it for the first time only a couple of weeks ago… watch for an announcement), but didn’t get that. Good session, nevertheless.

Lunch was buffet sandwiches and fruit (and a wonderful coffee bar that was open all day). The highlight was the tours offered to the building’s roof, which has a rooftop garden installed. I enjoyed taking pictures of the people in my tour group.

(more in part 2)