Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
March of the Librarians
The annual conference of the American Library Association (ALA) is in Washington, DC this weekend. I'm attending from Thursday to Tuesday and will spend most of my time with the Public Library Association (PLA). I'm looking forward to meeting new people and observing the conference in general.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Social Media
The lecture and discussion about social media today in LIS 2600 was pretty good. The idea that these are tools a library can use to invite people into the community is a useful way to frame the topic. Many people use these tools, so the library ought to use them too. The result may be more people playing a role and being involved in the library community.
One of the examples that speaks to the success of building a community is the open source movement. The article "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" that we read in LIS 2000 describes why open source works and how the process incorporates the best in people when they are collaborating on topics they feel passionate about.
One of the examples that speaks to the success of building a community is the open source movement. The article "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" that we read in LIS 2000 describes why open source works and how the process incorporates the best in people when they are collaborating on topics they feel passionate about.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Pierogi Mascot Fired
This post is weakly related to libraries or technology. It is about public relations. The Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team demonstrated how little they understand public relations when they fired a pierogi mascot for writing critical statements about the Pirates on his Facebook status. Earlier in the week, the Pirates admitted to extended the contracts of Manager John Russell and GM Neal Huntington, which had been kept a secret for a year. It's really one public relations disaster after another. Did the Pirates think that no one would pick up on this juxtaposition where the pierogi was fired instead of the GM and/or Manager?
I just think it makes for interesting commentary. I'm not in favor of firing JR or Huntington (yet) but to fire the pierogi the way they did seems like no one in their office has a sense for how a story like this plays out. Not well.
I just think it makes for interesting commentary. I'm not in favor of firing JR or Huntington (yet) but to fire the pierogi the way they did seems like no one in their office has a sense for how a story like this plays out. Not well.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A Day In My Life
Here's what I did today:
Morning
Morning
- Made iced tea for breakfast.
- Watched my cat Roberta while she was sleeping.
- Went grocery shopping for vegetables.
- Cooked roasted veggies.
- Read a few journal articles for LIS 2000.
- Looked over LIS 2000 small group dicussion board.
- Played tennis.
- Watched knuckle-baller Tim Wakefield pitch for the Red Sox against the Dodgers.
- Looked at some websites I found while reading the World Book Almanac.
- Looked over a few of my classmates blogs for LIS 2600.
- Rendez vous with a friend for dinner somewhere in Pittsburgh.
The Future of Public Libraries: Tending the Garden
Tending to existing customers of libraries should be first and foremost. I understand the need to broaden the base of users and to bring in larger numbers of users. However, I think there is an existing constituency that is being neglected. I would rather have fewer, more passionate advocates for the library over more lukewarm users. I also think the existing needs of patrons may be overlooked when the emphasis isn't on their particular needs and enhancing service to them. The "tending the garden" analogy is that it's easier to get great results from an existing garden or flowerbed over planting from seed. Enthusuastic supporters will advocate for the library and can be considered as a the best tool for success. It's also more likely that they will become lifelong supporters, not simply library users while their children are in school (for example).
Monday, June 14, 2010
Aggregating Web Resources | American Libraries Magazine
Aggregating Web Resources | American Libraries Magazine
Librarians working on digital collections have traditionally focused on the digital library management system that houses the items they select. The items reside deep inside the silos that are created. ORE - The Object Reuse and Exchange specifications provides the opportunity for items from different sets of collections to be aggregated together into one collection.
I think it's true when you hear in the library program that things might start making sense over time. I don't think an article or development like this one would have had any significance for me earlier in the program.
Librarians working on digital collections have traditionally focused on the digital library management system that houses the items they select. The items reside deep inside the silos that are created. ORE - The Object Reuse and Exchange specifications provides the opportunity for items from different sets of collections to be aggregated together into one collection.
I think it's true when you hear in the library program that things might start making sense over time. I don't think an article or development like this one would have had any significance for me earlier in the program.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
This video interview of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was posted to Bb for LIS 2000. One of the things he said is that the science or understanding behind what outcomes you'll get based on the software features you design is in its infancy. An interesting observation.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Omeka Assignment
Omeka seems to be a good tool for creating collections, even though I haven't used any other similar system. The challenging part is cataloging the item with the Dublin Core metadata scheme. Without having a good understanding of Dublin Core, many of the fields don't make sense to me. I can see that most of the metadata doesn't pertain to the types of items in my collection (documents & websites) so I've left much of the metadata blank.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
HTML
I had my first experience looking at HTML tags (or code). I had embedded the Jing video in an earlier blog post, and the size of the video was too large. The code from Screencast.com showed the width as 1920 & the height as 1080. I tried a few different dimensions and settled on 425x344. The embedded video fits in the blog, not perfectly, but good enough.
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Sunday, June 6, 2010
Is a National Identification Card Necessary for the Security of the Nation?
This issue was mentioned in the LIS 2600 textbook. There is a Federal initiative underway that calls for a national ID card. Some groups fear that the information contained in the cards would be shared among other government agencies and that would erode civil liberties. One of the examples given would that police power would be increased in an event where a person could not produce their national ID.
Other arguments include whether biometric data should be on the card or whether the information should be tied to a national database.
Many other countries have the sort of thing we're talking about. Each state has a requirement for drivers to have a license and to carry it at all times when driving. States even offer a state ID card for those who do not drive. I generally trust the government when it comes to protecting my information. One example, I believe the census bureau when they say my data is only used for census purposes. I believe we would have the necessary safeguards that would address people's privacy concerns. (Heck, I think we trust companies like Facebook and Google more than we trust our own government. Which is surprising!)
I can appreciate a healthy concern. However, I think a national ID card would be a good idea if it can protect people.
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Other arguments include whether biometric data should be on the card or whether the information should be tied to a national database.
Many other countries have the sort of thing we're talking about. Each state has a requirement for drivers to have a license and to carry it at all times when driving. States even offer a state ID card for those who do not drive. I generally trust the government when it comes to protecting my information. One example, I believe the census bureau when they say my data is only used for census purposes. I believe we would have the necessary safeguards that would address people's privacy concerns. (Heck, I think we trust companies like Facebook and Google more than we trust our own government. Which is surprising!)
I can appreciate a healthy concern. However, I think a national ID card would be a good idea if it can protect people.
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