October 2006 Archives

I have a confession to make. When I received the Internet Librarian program several months ago, and noticed that there was an entire track related to mashups, I had only one question...what's a mashup? Since then I've seen mashups referred to in a number of different contexts, so by the time I arrived in Monterey, I had a limited understanding of them. In fact, I was listening to a KM presentation from the recent ILTA conference in the car on the way to Monterey, where one of the speakers referred to West KM and Lexis TotalSearch as mashups.

First, the definition; a mashup is a new breed of web app that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service. It's very common for mashups to use Google Maps as one of the sources, combining the map info with specific spots to be displayed. For example, here's a route map for deliveries mashup created by the Lewis & Clark Library.

Anyone can create a map-based mashup using CommunityWalk.com. Other Google map builders include YourMap.com, MapBuilder.net, and GoogleMapBuilder.com.

Mashups are not limited to simply Google Maps. Here's a very cool non-map mashup, Suprglu that will bring together information that you have stored in several different places, Flickr, del.icio.us, blogger, etc. into one page.

If you want a mashup more directly library-related, take a look at the book cover browser created by Mike Cunningham using the Yahoo carousel component.

To encourage the creations of library mashups, Talis Shared Innovation sponsored a Mashing Up The Library contest The winners were announced on Tuesday at that day's keynote.

Most of the information in this entry were gleaned from the Cool Tools & Mashups for Webmasters program, starring Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone. Their presentation included some neat non-mashup tools as well. For a complete list, see the presentations themselves soon to be posted to Darlene's page, and/or the Internet Librarian site. The Powerpoints aren't there yet, but hopefully they will be soon.

If you'd like the complete Internet Librarian conference on CD, it will be available from Digital Record.

Because I spend so much time on the content management-type tracks, I don't get to go to as many of the sessions in the searching track as I would like. I did, however, manage to sneak in one. Greg Notess' programs are always jam-packed with information, and his session on new search strategies was no exception. By the way, Greg has a new book out called Teaching Web Search Skills: Techniques And Strategies Of Top Trainers

Flickr, Tricia@cheeky attitude's photos

But back to search strategies. Greg re-iterated the conventional wisdom that any serious researcher should use more than one search engine, then demonstrated how you can use bookmarklets to make it easy to re-run a search in other search engines. These bookmarklets can be simply dragged from a page on Greg's web site to your browser favorites, links or personal toolbar.

Other selected tips:

• Northern Light is back as a business search engine.
• When you're looking for definitions, try Answers.com, Wikipedia, Yahoo Reference or Google's define feature.
• For popular terminology and technology topics, try searching at social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us
• Microsoft's newly re-named search, Live Search, sometimes has more recent new content than Yahoo or Google.
• Brand new from Live.com is the "linkfromdomain" search.
• Exalead is the only search engine with proximity searching.

Be sure to check Greg's Search Engine Features Chart for more information on specific search engine features.

I have some bits of information from various programs scattered throughout my notes. Before I get to some of the major topics, let me get a few of these down.

Increasing the use of our online materials is a challenge, so I thought I'd stop by the program on that very topic. One speaker, Lesley Williams, made the point the we should always use terms that people understand. While that sounds very commonsenscical, in practice, it's easy to use labels that don't resonate with our users. For example, she suggested NOT using the word database when referring to online research services.

In addition to lists of online services such as you might have on an Intranet page, many libraries are writing subject guides in the same vein as about.com guides. Packaging information in a variety of ways certainly should help get your users to the materials they need.

There's been a lot of talk at this conference about social networks and Web 2.0. While I've yet to see anyone demonstrate tagging in a special library environment or Intranet, that doesn't mean it shouldn't or couldn't or isn't being done. But there are some experiments going on in the academic library environment, such as PennTags, which enables tagging of titles in the University of Pennsylvania library catalog. (For more information, see some of the blog posts about Penntags.) Tagging could add an interesting dimension to any library catalog. I hope some of the library software vendors are considering building this kind of feature into their products.

More later...

Internet Librarian 2006 started officially this morning with the announcement from Tom Hogan (President of Information Today), that this year's program, the 10th, for those of you who are counting, claims the largest attendance ever. As a practical matter, that means that those of us who like sitting on chairs need to get to thieir chosen program a bit earlier than usual.

The keynote speaker was J. Jance, the mystery writer. She was delightful. We laughed and we cried as she described her struggle to become a writer. She ended with a song, and even gave us an encore. It's hard to imagine just anybody pulling that off, but she did it. It was the most unique keynote I've ever attended. [pictures]

Picture from Flickr, wanderingeyre

It will no doubt take me a few days to catch up on my conference blogging. If you just can't wait to get a conference fix, check out the Information Today blog, and add to your RSS aggregator a Feedster search on Internet Librarian. The free wireless in the conference center has been popular amongst the bloggers, so stuff is being posted at a fast and furious pace.

I'd love to tell you all about the sessions I attended today, but I'm fading fast, and I need to be fresh for tomorrow's program. So all I can do is promise more tomorrow.

I've attended Internet Librarian in Monterey many times, and I never tire of it. Of course, nothing's perfect. Much of the gorgeous coastline around here was shrouded in fog for most of the morning. Big Sur is an amazing place, but in thick fog you definitely don't get the same peak experience that you can enjoy with clear skies. Still, driving down highway 1 in a convertible with the top down, singing Beach Boy songs, had it's appeal. And just a quick travel tip, Cafe Kevah has the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life. The view is also supposed to be extraordinary, but again, there was the whole issue of fog.

By the time the fog burned off, it was afternoon, and I was due to attend a workshop conducted by Greg Notess on creating online tutorials. Luckily the session was good enough that I didn't spend too much time pining for the fjords. Heck, there's only so much beauty you can soak up in one day, anyway.

I've created some instructional web videos, but I wanted to learn more about the process. Greg's session didn't disappoint. By the way, you'll find much of the information from the handout, and a lot of other good stuff on Greg's new LibCasting - Screencasting and Libraries blog.

Greg talked about several different tools, but his software of choice is Camtasia. That worked for me, since I also use Camtasia, and picked up some good tips during the course of the session.

Short is good. Greg suggests keeping online tutorials under a minute if at all possible. He also recommends making sure to record videos in a screen sized to work within most people's browser window, and limiting your recorded screen are to only what's necessary. For example, you may not want to capture the entire browser, but rather, just the content area, unless the use of the browser toolbars are part of the instruction.

It's true, you can create short online tutorials without a huge investment of time, once you get the hang of it. However, if you expect your videos to be perfect, 30 DAYS might not be enough time. So keep your expectations reasonable. After all, you can best serve your users by accepting some slight quirks in order to get the videos completed and available. Besides, it makes you seem more human. :-)

Nevertheless, there will be errors that you'll want to correct. I liked Greg's method for correcting errors during the course of the recording. Whenever he makes a mistake, or encounters something that he wants to cut from the video, such as an email pop-up notification, he stops talking for several seconds. These pauses can be spotted on Camtasia timeline, thereby marking the points at which he wants to go back and edit.

My technique is a little bit different. I record until I make a mistake, which for me is sometimes a matter of seconds. :-) At that point I stop, edit out the error, re-do the mistaken portion, and continue on. I may try Greg's method to see which works better for me.

Among other valuable tips - when you start the recording, count to 3 or 4 before you actually start talking. Similarly, at the end of the recording, count again (silently, of course!) before stopping the action. This makes both the beginning and end less abrupt.

Screencasting is a great way to instruct users at the point of need. And these days, point of need is the only time most people are receptive. Since you can't be available every minute of the day, you may want to try experimenting with instructional videos.

Here's just what we need to improve the image of librarians....Ms Dewey, the sexy librarian with an attitude. Some have already suggested that she has considerably more sex appeal than an unnamed butler. (Starts with a "j".)

Maybe I don't get out enough, but Ms. Dewey is the first web site I've seen that provides commentary on the searches and actions of its users. If you become so enamored of Ms. Dewey that you fail to enter a search in a timely manner, she reprimands you. She even comments on your search terms. Try typing in your favorite, or not so favorite, politician to get a reaction. Bush, Gore or Rumsfeld as search terms will precipitate a personal response from the lovely Ms. Dewey.

I'm guessing that most people, me included, will just watch her waiting, not so patiently, for you to type something in the search box. The problem is that if you start browsing your search results, she still thinks you're not doing anything, and her complaints in the background start to sound like, umm, nagging. :-)

You'll need to have Flash v. 8 installed in order to enjoy the Ms. Dewey experience.

I wasn't impressed with the search results, and there's no question that Ms. Dewey would wear out her welcome in short order; she's definitely high-maintenance. But you've gotta try her at least once. Just a word of advice, if you take her for a test run at work, you might want to turn the volume down.

[Thanks, Brent!]

You'd think I'd get tired of trying out new web conferencing services. The truth is, I am. Still, I get sucked in every once in a while, since none of the services I've used to date combines ease of use with the feature set that I need.

So what do I want? Ease of use on the participant side is absolutely critical. When a participant is having a problem joing the conference, it can be difficult to troubleshoot since the moderator can't see their screen. There's a lot to think about when conducting a web conference, so making things simple for the moderator is important, too. On top of that, I need to be able to record sessions easily so that those who couldn't make the call can play catch up at their convenience.

There are also things that I don't need. I don't need a whiteboard. I've never used it, and probably never will. I don't really need to upload a Powerpoint. I simply use desktop sharing, and I can always open a Word document or run a Powerpoint from my desktop, so who needs them built into the software? Of course, I don't mind if services offer more than I need, but the problem is that sometimes it's hard to dig through all the bells and whistles to find the basics.

At a recent regional ILTA meeting, someone recommended ReadyTalk. It took several months until I was motiviated to give it a try. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised. It offers no more and no less than what I need, it uses java so it doesn't require a download and installation, simplifying things greatly for participants, and the recording works like a charm, with just one click. It doesn't offer too much, or too little. It's just right And it's about time!