January 2004 Archives

During the course of a day, sometimes to no one in particular, I might look at an Intranet application and say "It's a blog." I'm saying that a lot lately. My co-workers think I have blogs on the brain. It's my way of noting how many places on our Intranet could be generated by using a blog tool rather than custom programming.

Here's one that probably wouldn't have occurred to me. D. Keith Robinson used Movable Type, a common blog tool, to create a policies and procedures pages on a hospital Intranet. This is different from what I would usually consider a potential blog application because it is much more subject oriented rather than date oriented.

No one has time for training. And let's face it, even if attorneys and staff did have time, they'd forget what they learned unless given an opportunity to implement their newly acquired knowledge within a fairly short time frame. But how can you successfully introduce new services, even something fairly straightforward, if you can't get your user's attention long enough to show them how to use them?

Offering just-in-time training can help, but trainers can't always be available at a moment's notice.

Spreadsheets are wonderfully useful things, especially for tasks involving calculations. But even Excel can be pushed to it's limit if it's not the right tool for the job.

That's easy for me to say. I know Microsoft Access much better than I know Excel. But trust me when I tell you that for many library-related tasks, databases are the only way to go. If you'd like to get started using databases take a look at "Spreadsheet Does Not = Database" in the Feb. 3, 2004 issue of PC Magazine.

I have a confession to make. Every time I open up my computer, even to do something simple like install a modem, I break into a sweat. The insides of the darn thing scare me. I attribute my computer hardware phobia to a summer evening in 1991 when a luckless telephone service representative tried to walk me through upgrading the memory on my Packard Bell 386 computer. In those days tiny jumpers had to be re-set in patterns unintelligible to man, woman and computer geek. It eventually took an experienced PC service rep several hours to figure it out.

So my computer is now two years old and I've never cracked the case. It may be time for me to screw up my courage, bite the bullet, and just do it. Why here, why now?

Lately I've been searching for just the right portable CD player to take on the train. I want one that plays MP3s and includes a FM radio. I'm a big fan of Amazon, but I was frustrated trying to search for a CD player with all these characteristics.

I tried searching using the terms "CD FM MP3", but still ended up with some products that didn't offer what I wanted. Amazon provides quite a few browse options, but of course, I could only browse one feature at a time, and so was left sifting through the results to find the right combination.

I happened to have a gift card for Circuit City, so I popped over to their web site, and low and behold, they included an option to refine the search by brand, radio built-in, MP3 capable and car kit included. Just what I needed! A faceted classification!

The option to post comments on lawlibtech.com hasn't been available for a week or so. I had to disable comments due to a spamming incident on the site. Comments are back, but I will be approving all comments before they are actually posted to ensure no spam creeps in. So please be aware that there will be a delay of up to a day before your comment appears. But don't let that discourage you! Please DO comment!

Last week I talked about wikis. Since then I've spotted couple of interesting examples of public wikis.

There's lots of talk about OpenURL link resolvers in academic and public libraries. In a nutshell, these OpenURL services direct the user from an online citation containing just the basic data, such as journal volume, page number and abstract, to what most of us are really after, the full-text of the cited material. Some can even direct the user to the full-text version that is licensed and provided by their library rather than one that isn't available to their users. Couldn't a legal version of this concept be a great boon for legal researchers? Let me explain.

I firmly believe in collaboration. I know I can accomplish much more in concert with others than on my own. Therein lies the main premise behind wikis.
(Econtent: If Two Heads are Better than One, Try 7,000 with Wikipedia)

But what exactly is a wiki, and as a practical matter, what is its reason for being? Those questions have taken me a little time to figure out. Luckily a recent article in PC Magazine, Take Back the Net, has helped clarify matters for me.

Just when you thought you've got blogging figured out, along comes another term, k-logging. Don't despair. It's a simple concept. K-logging stands for knowledge blogging, in other words, using blogging tools for knowledge management.

I just recently spotted an interesting article in Library Journal, April 2003, K-Logging: Supporting KM with Web Logs. Michael Angeles, a blogger himself, (http://iaslash.org/) discusses how librarians can support the information needs of k-loggers.

It may seem to some that blogging is the snake oil of the cyberage. It's often recommended to cure just about whatever ails you. The truth is blogging really can be useful in a variety of ways because it can help solve the universal problem of managing small pieces of information that are often be so elusive.

According to a recent article in PC Magazine, (Blogging for Business) blogging is being used by the Western States Information Network, a federal funded agency that collects, analyzes and share crime information, as a simple way to communicate. Think of it as quick and easy KM for law enforcement.

Web conferencing is one of my favorite web tools. The ability to share an application or Powerpoint presentation with people in different physical locations is extremely powerful. It's useful to a wide variety of people such as salespeople, trainers, presenters, lawyers and certainly librarians. And most web conferencing services are easy to use, and relatively inexpensive. So what's not to like! Well, more on that later.

PC Magazine reviews the major players in the web conferencing arena, including Webex, Microsoft Office Live Meeting (aka Placeware) and Raindance in Web Conferencing: Take a Meeting Online.

Any law firm intranet and/or document management system contains confidential documents not meant for general consumption. Any micreant can gain valuable information by simply sitting down at a computer connected to a law firm's network. Accordingly, all workstations on the network should be secured.

This raises an interesting problem for law firm libraries. Often libraries will have computers available for Lexis/Westlaw instruction, online catalog access, and other services. Sometimes these computers are in the line of sight of library staff. Other times they may be tucked into a quiet corner. They're intended to use by the attorneys and staff, but how can we be sure that a vendor, client, opposing counsel, or even the janitor aren't viewing information that they shouldn't?

Webmasters need to know what their users are looking for when searching the intranet. What are the top search terms? Do users understand that they're searching the intranet and not the entire web? Are they trying to search "invisible" content, such as phone directories? Are they using search terms that will get them where they want to go? If not, can the search engine be tweaked to improve results?

According to Darlene Fichter, analyzing search engine log files can greatly help webmasters improve their intranets. (Exploiting Intranet Search Engines for Data Discovery, Online, Nov./Dec. 2003.)

New Year's Day is always exciting when you live in Pasadena, whether you go to the Rose Parade or not. I was able to watch the 8:00 am fighter jet flyby from my front yard. They were a couple of miles away, but for a few seconds I had a clear view. Later in the day I got lucky when the three planes in formation flew directly over my house. I'm not sure where they were headed. Maybe they were on their way to the Rose Bowl. Regardless, it was an unexpected treat.