Last post of 2k7! Starting next year, I plan to use something other than Blogger's default composition software. This thing is really rubbish. Hopefully, Open Office or Google Docs will work out better.
Oh, by the by, you should Google "30 things vbpl". Go ahead, I dare you.
Tell you what, I'll save you the trouble. Click here, and tremble! I'm gunnin' for number one, baby!
Happy New Year! See you in 2k8!
2007-12-31
2007-12-19
TAG! You're it!
Let's face it, this is an example of how language has changed over the years. When I was a kid, a tag was something that was sprayed on a wall or under a bridge. It was the signature of the artist who created the graffiti, and could itself be art. Now, it means something else. Something sinister.In this instance, tag refers to the labels we put on things so we can find them later. You save things in del.icio.us and give them useful tags, like "work" or "18th Century monarchs", so that when you try to find that site about Louis XVI, you know where to look. Hmm. "France", "revolution", or "beheadings" might be good tags for that site, too. And that's exactly the point. Unlike traditional sorting methods, tags work from the bottom up.
Take the example of the humble domesticated dog, Canis lupus familiaris. If you examine the dog's scientific classification, it begins at the broadest possible point, that of being a multicellular organism, and works down through the animal kingdom, having a spinal column, being a mammal, then a carnivore, then the family of animals that resemble dogs, to the rather more specific wolves and jackals, to just plain old wolves, ending with the subspecies of domesticated wolves (dogs). Wow. It's tag would, of course, be "dog". Maybe also "puppy", "cute", "beagle", "pet", or any number of other common identifiers that say "this thing here, it's a dog". Tags start from the presupposition that what we have is a dog. Not a multicellular animal with a backbone. And that's three steps into it!
To put it another way, if I told you that I saw a Haliaeetus leucocephalus, would you know what I was talking about? How about if I gave you some more information?
Kingdom: Animalia
Doesn't help much?
Phylum: Chordata
Don't speak Latin?
Class: Aves
I'll give this one to you: it's a bird.
Order: Falconiformes
Modern Latin sure is funny.
Family: Accipitridae
And you already have the genus and species for H. leucocephalus. Leucocephalus is Greek for "white head". Give up?
It would have been much easier if I had just told you it was a bald eagle, right? I'm willing to wager that few people tag bald eagles with "has a spine". Probably stuff like "endangered" or "national bird" or something. No disrespect meant to other nations and their fine birds, of course.
Take lots of people tagging things, and you create a folksonomy, a sort of common sense system of classification where the most commonly used terms are the most dominant. I hate that word, folksonomy. It sounds like something the Germans did at the end of World War II, when all the regular taxonomists had gone to the front and it was left up to young boys and old men to come up with names for things. But that would be Volksnamen, wouldn't it?
This is a nightmare for serious researchers, but a godsend for the average Joe. Joe probably wouldn't know how to find a picture of Canis lupus familiaris, but can show you lots of pictures of his dog.
No one says get rid of the old methods of classification. That would be silly. Top-down classification is essential to really divide things into categories for study and identicifation. But for plebians, things like "dog" and "eagle" are enough. Common sense tells us that Algebra is a type of mathematics. Do we need to classify it as "Mathematics - Algebra"? Probably not, unless you need different kinds of maths grouped together.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
2007-12-13
Less Than Two Weeks to Xmas
Okay, with just 12 days left before Christmas Day, I'd like to remind everyone reading (all two of you) that Child's Play Charity is still going strong on their annual holiday drive. It's all explained in detail on their site, www.childsplaycharity.org, but the short version follows:
Children's hospitals put up wish lists on Amazon, and you buy things from the lists. The gifts you buy go to sick kids laid up in hospital over the holidays. You can also donate directly using Paypal or the USPS. As of December 7th, over $600,000 was collected for sick kids around the world, but there's plenty of time to raise more.
Support the gamer's charity. You don't have to be a gamer to help out.
Children's hospitals put up wish lists on Amazon, and you buy things from the lists. The gifts you buy go to sick kids laid up in hospital over the holidays. You can also donate directly using Paypal or the USPS. As of December 7th, over $600,000 was collected for sick kids around the world, but there's plenty of time to raise more.
Support the gamer's charity. You don't have to be a gamer to help out.
Way Ahead of You
Some time ago, my boss said it was a good idea for me to create a MySpace account. You know, to get a handle on what the younglings were up to. So I did. Not sure if it's the resolution on these machines at work (1024x768), but it looks like rubbish on Internet Explorer. Get Firefox today. It's free, and friendly. Not at all like IE, which tends to say nasty things about you behind your back.
It turns out the resolution does impact it a little, but it's still mostly Bill Gates' fault.
What?
Oh, creating a MySpace account. Learn HTML. Here's a primer. While an ancient language by today's standards, it is the primary method for profile modification. Kind of like the Bible being available exclusively in Latin until the 16th Century (Thanks, Martin Luther) but not at all like that. Oh, you can still have neat things without knowing any coding thanks to the trusty Copy and Paste features available today, but without HTML you'll never be able to write "München" or craft a proper link in MySpace. If that doesn't interest you, never mind then.
Was it easy? I guess, until I got a hold of Project Playlist. Now I have some 120 or so songs and tunes clogging up my profile. It was bad enough when all I had was silly YouTube videos. Keeping up with all those songs is a royal pain in the Netherlands, but at least everyone can know what sort of garbage I would put on an iPod.
If I had an iPod. Which I don't. Hint.
It turns out the resolution does impact it a little, but it's still mostly Bill Gates' fault.
What?
Oh, creating a MySpace account. Learn HTML. Here's a primer. While an ancient language by today's standards, it is the primary method for profile modification. Kind of like the Bible being available exclusively in Latin until the 16th Century (Thanks, Martin Luther) but not at all like that. Oh, you can still have neat things without knowing any coding thanks to the trusty Copy and Paste features available today, but without HTML you'll never be able to write "München" or craft a proper link in MySpace. If that doesn't interest you, never mind then.
Was it easy? I guess, until I got a hold of Project Playlist. Now I have some 120 or so songs and tunes clogging up my profile. It was bad enough when all I had was silly YouTube videos. Keeping up with all those songs is a royal pain in the Netherlands, but at least everyone can know what sort of garbage I would put on an iPod.
If I had an iPod. Which I don't. Hint.
2007-12-12
Is the Pope Catholic?
Today's installment relates to this thing. The question to get my thoughts brewing was, "Should VBPL use a social networking site to connect with teens?" My answer is evidenced by the title of this post.
I saw some interesting statistics during the research phase of this post, statistics that seem to indicate the bulk of teens online are using sites like MySpace to communicate. Well, you have to go to Athens if you want to see the Parthenon. And no, not the apartment complex.
You know, last summer one of the Virginia Beach Central Library teen coordinators created a MySpace account for their Teen Advisory Group (TAG is the acronym used by YALSA). Sadly, I cannot link to the page because the operation was shut down by the city's IT department. Apparently, it isn't kosher to have any online presence not under their auspices. I wonder if our present experiment will suffer similar consequences.
Sometimes it is just a case of the left hand finding out what the right hand is doing and cutting it off at the wrist.
I saw some interesting statistics during the research phase of this post, statistics that seem to indicate the bulk of teens online are using sites like MySpace to communicate. Well, you have to go to Athens if you want to see the Parthenon. And no, not the apartment complex.
You know, last summer one of the Virginia Beach Central Library teen coordinators created a MySpace account for their Teen Advisory Group (TAG is the acronym used by YALSA). Sadly, I cannot link to the page because the operation was shut down by the city's IT department. Apparently, it isn't kosher to have any online presence not under their auspices. I wonder if our present experiment will suffer similar consequences.
Sometimes it is just a case of the left hand finding out what the right hand is doing and cutting it off at the wrist.
2007-12-10
RA Wiki
No, not that RA. In this case, the RA refers to "reader advisory", and the wiki in question is located here. Our Herculean task this time was to write a brief book review, post it to the wiki, and write about the experience. And this is my record of said activity.
Um, it was easy.
This, while a useful and valid way to use a wiki, is only scratching the surface. A wiki accessible to everyone but only edited by the brass could be used to update and display policy. Much better than the current "we'll update when we feel like it" method. Plus, said policy would be transparent; the public could read it and have less reason to complain when we don't renew their book because someone else has requested it. Or whatever.
That is just one possibility. Wikis are very adaptable. There are as many potential uses as there are stars in the sky.
Um, it was easy.
This, while a useful and valid way to use a wiki, is only scratching the surface. A wiki accessible to everyone but only edited by the brass could be used to update and display policy. Much better than the current "we'll update when we feel like it" method. Plus, said policy would be transparent; the public could read it and have less reason to complain when we don't renew their book because someone else has requested it. Or whatever.
That is just one possibility. Wikis are very adaptable. There are as many potential uses as there are stars in the sky.
2007-12-07
Library Wikis for Fun and Profit
Huh. More time away from the front desk to work on this stuff. I knew all those sacrifices to Sol Invictus would pay off.
I've been looking at some of the things libraries have been doing with wikis, as the Thirteenth Thing. Thirteenth. Maybe those sacrifices should have been made to Beshaba instead. Funny how divinities from the Forgotten Realms have had entries in Wikipedia for years, but webcomics were denied until very recently for not being "culturally relevant". Go figure.
In any event, some of those libraries are doing some really cool things with wikis. The best seems to be St. Joseph County. Their page is, for lack of a better term, sweet. Most of the other links from the 30 Things blog are still under development. Yes, that is one of the supposed "features" of the 2.0 applications, but the flaws are highlighted on some of these pages. All you can come up with is a link? Really? At that level, the information presented is useless. Supposedly, it will become more useful in time, but only if people use it. It's a paradox. Not one of those Terminator 2 paradoxes, but the genuine article.
So that's the interesting bit. A wiki is really great, but only if it gets used. On the other hand, it will only get used if is really great. Catch-22.
I've been looking at some of the things libraries have been doing with wikis, as the Thirteenth Thing. Thirteenth. Maybe those sacrifices should have been made to Beshaba instead. Funny how divinities from the Forgotten Realms have had entries in Wikipedia for years, but webcomics were denied until very recently for not being "culturally relevant". Go figure.
In any event, some of those libraries are doing some really cool things with wikis. The best seems to be St. Joseph County. Their page is, for lack of a better term, sweet. Most of the other links from the 30 Things blog are still under development. Yes, that is one of the supposed "features" of the 2.0 applications, but the flaws are highlighted on some of these pages. All you can come up with is a link? Really? At that level, the information presented is useless. Supposedly, it will become more useful in time, but only if people use it. It's a paradox. Not one of those Terminator 2 paradoxes, but the genuine article.
So that's the interesting bit. A wiki is really great, but only if it gets used. On the other hand, it will only get used if is really great. Catch-22.
2007-12-04
Do You Really Want to Know?
I am unimpressed with the Virginia Beach Public Library's attempt at providing IM reference. It's too hard to find, the response time is pathetically slow, and no one seems to use it anyway.
Just getting to the Meebo interface is an excercise in futility. From the City's main site, one first needs to find the link to the library's site then click on "Ask the Library" to get to the page. So, where's the link? Is it under "Online Services"? Nope. Despite being an online service, IM referece only appears under "Learning". You can skip the first agonizing step by jumping directly to the library's main page, conveniently listed on each library card. Still, having to click on anything from the main page to get to the IM reference page is an unnecessary step.
I never got a response when I tried to use IM reference. Not even a "afk brb". I mean, c'mon. Ten minutes is plenty of time to reply, considering I was able to find accurate information on Wikipedia within thirty seconds. I know the info was on point because it was verified using other sources. All while waiting for VBPL IM REF to say anything. Later that day, the IM reference was shut down, despite being an hour or more before it was scheduled to close. Maybe they were being mobbed, but that's no excuse to not say "wait a minute" or "hang on" or "go away".
The branch where I work was deemed too small and understaffed and was excluded from the program, but talking to people from other buildings, I've learned that IM reference is pretty quiet. Not surprising, when one considers that it's only available 20 out of 168 hours in a given week. I have neither seen nor heard any advertising for the program, which might account for low traffic. Also, the page actually encourages people who need immediate assistance to call the library. Way to embrace the technology, kids.
If the Virginia Beach Public Library System expects any results from online reference using messenger programs, they need to start taking it seriously. As it is, the relative difficulty in finding the site and lack of response by reference staff will continue to be reflected in low participation by the public.
Just getting to the Meebo interface is an excercise in futility. From the City's main site, one first needs to find the link to the library's site then click on "Ask the Library" to get to the page. So, where's the link? Is it under "Online Services"? Nope. Despite being an online service, IM referece only appears under "Learning". You can skip the first agonizing step by jumping directly to the library's main page, conveniently listed on each library card. Still, having to click on anything from the main page to get to the IM reference page is an unnecessary step.
I never got a response when I tried to use IM reference. Not even a "afk brb". I mean, c'mon. Ten minutes is plenty of time to reply, considering I was able to find accurate information on Wikipedia within thirty seconds. I know the info was on point because it was verified using other sources. All while waiting for VBPL IM REF to say anything. Later that day, the IM reference was shut down, despite being an hour or more before it was scheduled to close. Maybe they were being mobbed, but that's no excuse to not say "wait a minute" or "hang on" or "go away".
The branch where I work was deemed too small and understaffed and was excluded from the program, but talking to people from other buildings, I've learned that IM reference is pretty quiet. Not surprising, when one considers that it's only available 20 out of 168 hours in a given week. I have neither seen nor heard any advertising for the program, which might account for low traffic. Also, the page actually encourages people who need immediate assistance to call the library. Way to embrace the technology, kids.
If the Virginia Beach Public Library System expects any results from online reference using messenger programs, they need to start taking it seriously. As it is, the relative difficulty in finding the site and lack of response by reference staff will continue to be reflected in low participation by the public.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
