November 2003 Archives

Blogs have a reputation for being personal, often trivial, online journals. But when considering blogs for an Intranet you need to get beyond the stereotype and keep in mind that blogs reduced to their bare bones are simply web pages with short entries in reverse chronological order that can be categorized by subject.

The content presented can vary dramatically. For example, any "What's New" page is a possible candidate for a blog. Do you want to distribute current awareness information? Consider a blog as an easy way to post to a web page, and also automatically distribute the entries via email if you so choose.

It was a long, painful transit strike. But it's over, at least for now, and I'm back on the train. And none too soon. My reading has really stacked up. Paying for parking in downtown L.A. was getting old, too. Then there was the traffic. But I digress.

My first day back I perused "KM and Elearning: A Powerful Combination", from Econtent (Oct. 2003). I was struck with how little I've heard elearning, or training of any kind, mentioned in the same sentence as KM. Yet the transfer of knowledge in professional training programs could be significant.

Even the best search engine can fail. But when it falls short of finding the most commonly requested information, whether on an external web site or an intranet, that's a real problem.

That's why I found Rich Wiggins' Internet Librarian presentation so interesting. He discussed in detail how he enhanced the search engine at Michigan State University in a way that no doubt improves the user experience.

Last week I was bemoaning the fact that secondary sources in legal research are getting short shrift. I suggested that the online services should push the appropriate treatise, ALR, etc. resources to the user based on the user's search terms.

So perhaps it wasn't an original thought. It turns out that Westlaw is doing just that with their new product, ResultsPlus.

When it comes to gadgets, you might think you've seen it all. If so, I suspect you'd be wrong. Barbara Fullerton & Brian Neale show unique items the likes of which I've never encountered in their Internet Librarian presentation, the Wacky World of Gadgets.

If you're new to blogs Darlene Fichter's presentation The Blogging Explosion—Libraries & Weblogs is a good introduction. She also includes examples of how blogs are being used on library web sites.

My favorite part was Darlene's clear definition of a blog, "A web page containing brief entries arranged chronologically."

Darlene Fichter's Internet Librarian presentation on tools for web development listed a variety of handy and useful utilities. I've already told you about ieSpell.

Also included were a couple of interesting PDF tools.

Thomas O'Keefe, in his article "Navigating the Law: Case-finding Tools Beyond Lexis and Westlaw" (Legal Information Alert, June 2003), makes an excellent case for the usefulness of hard copy case finding tools. He also notes in his concluding paragraph that the strategy of using case finding tools along with online full-text searching can be a difficult one to promote because such tools are disappearing from library shelves. Why are such useful tools going by the wayside? I blame it on the online research vendors and their love affair with full-text searching.

Creating a KM database isn't difficult. The technology is common, the tools are abundant. Of course, it takes thought and care. But after you've launched, that's when the real problem begins - maintenance. How do you keep the data current? If you've ever experienced this dilema, you'll enjoy a Dilbert cartoon from last week that pretty much says it all.

There aren't any easy answers. But I do have a few suggestions.

Perhaps too much attention is placed on the technology for KM, and not enough on the human element of implementing that technology. That's the conclusion you could come to after reading Nina Platt's excellent article appearing in the Oct. 2003 issue of Practice Innovations.

I haven't forgotten that I promised more information on the Internet Librarian sessions. I'm waiting until the presentations are posted on the Infotoday site before going into much detail because I'd like to include links to the original powerpoints.

In the meantime, here's here's a tidbit from Darlene Fichter's session on Web Tools. One utility she mentioned was ieSpell, a spell checker for Internet Explorer.

I'll warn you in advance, this post is totally off-topic, but all work and no play, etc., etc.

Those of you living outside California may not be familiar with the "Happy Cows" commercials. Luckily, you can view a few recent ones on the California Cheese web site. I just saw the newest one and it's great fun. Click to get past the splash screen, then choose "Happy Cows", "Happy Cow TV", then "Big Sheep". Enjoy.

Sometimes I wonder if my memory is worsening with age or whether it's just always been like that. Either way, there's no doubt I need all the help I can get.

So I've been on a quest to come up with a system to log conversations, events, meeting notes, etc. I'm still looking for the perfect solution, but in the meantime I've started using Outlook's Journal feature.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who wasn't fed up with spam. If you'd like some help dealing with the constant barrage of unwanted emails, you might want to take a look at my article, Weapon of Mass Disruption, published this month in Searcher Magazine.

In a previous entry I mention issues with the blocking of legitimate content when using Google's pop-up blocker. It turns out that the new version of the toolbar will let you make exceptions for specific URLs.

I just got back from Internet Librarian 2003 in beautiful Monterey. It was a great conference. More details will follow. In the meantime, here's a link to my presentation and handout on Delivering Research Results Electronically using Adobe Acrobat.