boyd readings

Based on the readings by danah boyd (does anyone know why she does not capitalize her name?), libraries need to understand that if they want to connect with young users they need to have a presence on multiple SNS networks. There is an apparent socio-economic divergence between MySpace and Facebook users, so each system needs to include accounts in order to reach all of the target audience. There are other smaller niche markets which can be assessed, but primarily teens and young adults are using one or the other of these SNS in order to keep in touch with people. Understanding the different audiences and building a profile to enhance that knowledge would be very important research that a librarian or staffer would need to conduct prior to launching their "presence."

My favorite videos

While I was very impressed with all the videos... I was especially impressed with (in no particular order) Gabrielle's, Roel's and Renee's.

Gabrielle's was just plain hilarious besides being technically great. --> link

Roel's pictures were stunning, so even though making it caused great grief the final result was worth it! --> link

Renee's was very clever with a nice music/picture combo (plus a great idea that I will use next time I am expected to bake cookies). --> link

Great job everyone!

My Monsters

Here is a real quick video of my kids in various Halloween's past - figured it was "that time of the year"... (there are some classroom shots - they aren't ALL my kids!).





Original video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9O_SRoSfQ

educational vs. entertainment

In the Pew report on Online Video usage, the general statistics certainly point to much higher viewing numbers for entertainment videos versus educational videos. This statistic is not surprising nor is the data that points out the significantly higher viewing stats for younger vs. older viewers. What was interesting to note in the report was the consistency of viewing for educational videos across all demographics. While the numbers are not as high, they are much more balanced - old, young, male, female - roughly 20% of the population turns to the Internet to learn something via online videos. So while educational videos may not ever see the sheer number of hits that an entertainment video might, there is a significant market "out there" for online educational videos!

As the digital generation ages, I would imagine that online use of educational videos will keep pace. It is a format that they are used to and turn to quickly when looking for information. Producers of online educational videos should feel comfortable and secure in the market place (as long as they don't expect anyone to pay for the use!).

We Are SCILS598f08 (sung to the tune of "we are family")

It was a very interesting study of our school and personal lives to review the Flickr groups. What I discovered was...

We are a very mixed bag of grad students when it comes to how we are completing this program. Some on-campus day students, some on-campus night students, one that this is their first "only online" class, a few strictly online students... really no clear "winner" in this category. I think that speaks to the outstanding nature of this program that 20 people seeking the exact same degree are able to complete it in such a variety of ways. I feel like Rutgers is on the leading edge of education with this model, and am quite happy to be a part of it. After viewing the pictures of the "chairs of death" I am especially happy for my comfy, ergonomically correct, rolling wonder in my basement! I also learned we all have the same books at home :)

Personally, we all seem to be focused on many of the same things; our families, pets, outdoor enjoyment, books, and travels. We have a couple of oddball hobbies (not that the hobbies are odd, but that each one is not universally represented...) and more than a few caffeine addicts - but I think that goes hand in hand with grad school! I think we are a pretty interesting bunch, I would like to meet us!

PS - There are definitely a few very good photographers here as well (not me though - I am happy if people all have heads in my photos...).

It is all about balance

With shelf space being a "fixed" quantity, pushing collections into the long tail requires balance. By lengthening the tail in each library that would require shortening the head. There is only so much physical space, so the more that libraries play into the niche's, the less they can provide for the masses. But is a niche in one library a part of the mass in another? The best way for libraries to effectively represent the entire tail is the use of consortium's and inter library loans. Page 148 of Anderson's book says it all about the balance between heads and tails:

" If you just have the products at the Head, you find that very quickly your customers want more and you can't offer it. If you just have the products at the Tail, you find that customers have no idea where to start. They're unable to get traction in the marketplace because everything you're offering is unfamiliar to them. The importance of offering the stuff at both the Head and the Tail is that you can start in the world that customers already know: familiar products that tap into and define a space."

Libraries have to work hard at balancing the head and tail as well as locating for their patron's things they cannot immediately provide. Then they can tap into both the Head and the Tail.

The pop-in

So it was pretty cool to pop a little mp3 in my blog - I can see how this could enhance the whole blogging experience. There are some things that just are better communicated with sound...imagine blogging about your new favorite musical artist.... now imagine blogging about said artist AND including an mp3 podcast of them. Or how about those bragger blog's where people talk about all the wonderful things their kids do...and including the trumpet solo or soliloquy from the school play. I can definitely see where an occasional podcast popped into a blog would be an enhancement.

Where I see a problem is if you are a text based blogger who learns a new trick and includes podcasts in every blog - that would get tiresome and not serve the purpose of the blog. People are not always in a situation where they can listen (think cube farm at work and no headset...) when what they are expecting to do is read.

So podcasts in blogs are kinda like pop-in's from people - no big deal that you didn't know ahead of time for the occasional pop-in...but really quite annoying when it becomes habitual!

I hate Halloween

I know, I know how can you hate Halloween? Well let me tell you a little story...

click player to hear more....





click link if you prefer....

Halloween Story

Make It, Get It Out There, and Help Me Find It

Where do libraries and librarians fit into the "Make It, Get It Out There, and Help Me Find It" equation?

Make It --> Libraries provide the tools and training to assist patrons to become new producers. Workshops on how to publish, how to use new technologies, etc have been part and parcel of the public library domain for a long time. They have also lead by example. The number of libraries that are creating content on the web grows everyday.

Get It Out There --> Looking at the aggregator aspect of providing materials for public use - isn't that really what a library is? One big aggregator providing content to the marketplace? By sharing resources with others, libraries are able to provide inventory on demand, no matter how small the niche market.

Help Me Find It --> According to Anderson new tastemakers are "people whose opinions are respected" (pg. 107) and a librarian is typically used as a filter of information because their opinion is respected. They are also reaching out beyond just their own opinion by providing methods for other patrons to share their views. The use of surveys, book reviews, and book lists of frequent library visitors are providing community based recommendations as well.

When looking at these three forces, you can see that libraries and librarians have always been a part of the Long Tail.

Drank some more of the Google Kool-Aid

So I checked out the Google Analytics and the nerd in me was pretty impressed! I couldn't believe how much info you could actually get to - now I just need a reason to care! (I do understand that I would care if I hosted a website or blog read by more than just my classmates who *have* to - but I don't, so really there is not a lot of relevancy for me today on this. I will care some other time though....)

What I did learn is that Steve has trained us all pretty well and the Firefox visits beat the IE visits 70% to 30% - apparently you can only drink so much Kool-Aid from the big guys before you have to try the Delaware Punch. (does anybody else remember Delaware Punch? OMG it was good!)

Also there are alot of people on T1's - so I am guessing that several people might be doing some blog reading at their "day job"!! T1's beat out DSL, but only by a hair. And I am so sorry to the 2 people who accessed via dial up...life must be very painful over dial up.

honestly - Magnolia is not intuitive enough

Even though I am completely new to social bookmarking/tagging etc and the first time I ever tried Delicious was this week (Steve - you aren't reading this right? I found my "new to me" other ways!!) I can quickly tell I prefer Delicious over Magnolia. I signed up for Magnolia and honestly was at a loss - there is just no easy way to start. Okay, I gotta admit, I like the Magnolia graphic, it is peppy and my favorite color scheme but beyond that - not so much... I found a group that is in a class a little like 598 and using Magnolia, in case anyone is interested in what they are doing at San Jose State -> http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/classes/coursedesc.htm but beyond that I am bouncing around and not getting anywhere. It could be I am not concentrating, or it could be that it just isn't as easy to get going, I don't know! I must admit, I didn't add the buttons to my toolbars etc, as I already have more than enough junk going on for my personal, spare aesthetic tastes, but really it should be self explanatory what to do! So after its 15 minutes of fame I am giving up. Did I give it a fair shot? probably not. But in today's busy world with the myriad of choices at our fingertips I have to learned to move on if something just isn't clicking with me! So I am moving on and hoping that another classmate can better describe a product that I just didn't get!

Shelfari - my thoughts

Okay before I start let me make it perfectly clear that I know I am "different" than most when it comes to visual vs. text... I prefer the written word to pictures almost all the time, a picture does not always paint a thousand words for me! For whatever reason all the new *visual* stuff like visual dictionaries, visual displays of search returns, etc etc etc just confuse the heck out of me - give me a good old list any day!

Shelfari is designed to display your book collection virtually. I use (not very regularly) GoodReads currently so I understood the premise before signing up. Shelfari is definitely made for those people who like a visual representation of the topic. There is a customizable bookshelf that can display the covers of your virtual library. There are lots of ways to share your books and ideas with others, discussion groups, friends, etc. Each process seems very easy to set up, even for me! The only thing I had some trouble with is figuring out how to add new books. I found the button to do it, figured out the search, but did not get the feedback I was hoping for that I had correctly selected the books. Some of the cool things that I noticed were.... there is a tag cloud (like in delicious) for linking to book ideas, it seems very easy to move your books around to different shelves, there are tons of book reviews, there is an area that you can ask for recommendations, etc.

Overall - if you like the big visuals this is the one for you. If you are a more text based person then give GoodReads a try!