ACRl/NEC ITIG program on new technologies, 12-9-05, report
On Friday, December 9, 2005, I attended the Association of College and Research Libraries/New England Chapter, Information Technology Interest Group’s program on "Communication & Collaboration: Blogs, Wikis, and RSS Feeds" at Bryant University.
The program consisted of two speakers.
Megan Fox, Web and Electronic Resources Librarian at Simmons College http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/, was the first speaker. Megan, who is an engaging and interesting speaker, gave a whirlwind overview of new technologies in libraries, i.e. new tools and how libraries are using/can use them.
She began with new handheld devices: computer notebooks; PDAs; Ebook readers; tablet PCs; smart phones; gaming devices; smart watches; IPODs, etc.
Palm: the company is struggling in today’s competitive market. Megan mentioned the “life drive,” for everything: music, pictures, chat, email, etc.
Smart phones: Nokia cell phone most popular example; includes calendar; mps player, etc.
Blackberries: full-fledged phone; designed to augment but not to replace a PC.
Ultra-personal computer: all-in-one device with drop-down keyboard (so the keyboard is only exposed when needed).
Library uses for handhelds:
• Good for content that changes often or that needs to be referenced quickly, i.e. library hours; call numbers; ebooks. ILS vendors are marketing mobile online catalogs for small screens (Innovative’s is the AirPAC).
• Reference on the go: dictionaries, encyclopedias, health textbooks: download to a pda or smartphone.
• Subscription content: both book content and subscription journals; databases are being formatted for the small screen; this is driven by the professional markets, i.e. medical.
• Point-of-need search.
• Use for instant feedback during library instruction sessions; students with specially-equipped pdas could click a button indicating if they are following the presentation; could be useful for students who would not be confident enough to admit in the class that they need further explanation.
• Library staff services on the go: barcode attachment to simplify repetitive tasks; provide instant checkout; etc.
Megan next discussed blogs or weblogs, which are searchable; updated automatically (no need to wait for a third-person or webmaster to update); are easy to organize and keep up-to-date. Blogs are good for current information because they are updated immediately after each posting. Some libraries are using them to manage both internal and external communication (our library has a public blog at http://phillipsmemoriallibrary.blogspot.com/
She demonstrated several library blogs including RWU’s (I didn’t catch the URL).
RSS feeds, “really simple syndication” or “rich site summaries”. The feeds are a wonderful way to organize and keep track of multiple blogs, without the need to look at each blog individually. One subscribes to the feed for a blog; then the RSS aggregator service indicates whenever there’s a new post to the subscribed blog. The subscriber can see at a glance which blogs he or she needs to go to since there are new postings. This is one way to decrease the amount of e-mail one receives. (I subscribe to this via http://www.bloglines.com/) The Kansas City Public Library provides an RSS feed for every subject guide they produce; folks can keep track of when the guides are updated (I wonder if we could do this for our Find your way guides?)
Personalized RSS: “Library elf” is a free web resource which can be set up by the patron to manage all library accounts, from disparate libraries. A family could, for instance, add everyone’s library accounts and keep track of notices, overdues, etc., all in one place.
Podcasting is syndicated web audio (not text) content. Some public libraries are checking ipods out to their patrons with e-books already downloaded. This technology also can be used to enhance course assignments, etc.
Wikis are collaborative web tools which differ from blogs in that wikis include a much larger group with full editing rights, even the right to edit what someone else has written. It is easily possible to revert to a previous version, though. UConn uses a library staff wiki for staff documents and files (example of student procedures manual).
Instant messaging/chat: Live, real-time communication. The millennial generation uses IM or text-messaging far more frequently than they use e-mail. Megan mentioned that librarians must let go of perfection in order to use IM; messages can’t be too long; it isn’t important to check for good grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. The reference librarians at Providence College are using Trillian to provide chat reference service; it has been very popular since we implemented it in September of 2005.
Smartphone services: Example of Montclair State University’s “Campus Connect”: students can get registration information; details about upcoming events; can check if a classroom is available for use; can track the location of the campus shuttle bus, etc, all from their cell phones (must be a smartphone).
Social software: Folksonomie: how regular folks, not librarians, classify information. How to tag data so that “real” users can find it? Example of photo of new books: click on the photo to go to the catalog record for that book; also bookmarks that normally reside only on an individual’s computer: could put on a remote web server in order to let others use what the person’s done (including the changes he or she made to the name of the web site). For example, instead of “Welcome to the AAA site”, the user might use “Travel directions.” Those changes are useful to others.
Submitted by Janice Schuster, 12-12-05
The program consisted of two speakers.
Megan Fox, Web and Electronic Resources Librarian at Simmons College http://web.simmons.edu/~fox/, was the first speaker. Megan, who is an engaging and interesting speaker, gave a whirlwind overview of new technologies in libraries, i.e. new tools and how libraries are using/can use them.
She began with new handheld devices: computer notebooks; PDAs; Ebook readers; tablet PCs; smart phones; gaming devices; smart watches; IPODs, etc.
Palm: the company is struggling in today’s competitive market. Megan mentioned the “life drive,” for everything: music, pictures, chat, email, etc.
Smart phones: Nokia cell phone most popular example; includes calendar; mps player, etc.
Blackberries: full-fledged phone; designed to augment but not to replace a PC.
Ultra-personal computer: all-in-one device with drop-down keyboard (so the keyboard is only exposed when needed).
Library uses for handhelds:
• Good for content that changes often or that needs to be referenced quickly, i.e. library hours; call numbers; ebooks. ILS vendors are marketing mobile online catalogs for small screens (Innovative’s is the AirPAC).
• Reference on the go: dictionaries, encyclopedias, health textbooks: download to a pda or smartphone.
• Subscription content: both book content and subscription journals; databases are being formatted for the small screen; this is driven by the professional markets, i.e. medical.
• Point-of-need search.
• Use for instant feedback during library instruction sessions; students with specially-equipped pdas could click a button indicating if they are following the presentation; could be useful for students who would not be confident enough to admit in the class that they need further explanation.
• Library staff services on the go: barcode attachment to simplify repetitive tasks; provide instant checkout; etc.
Megan next discussed blogs or weblogs, which are searchable; updated automatically (no need to wait for a third-person or webmaster to update); are easy to organize and keep up-to-date. Blogs are good for current information because they are updated immediately after each posting. Some libraries are using them to manage both internal and external communication (our library has a public blog at http://phillipsmemoriallibrary.blogspot.com/
She demonstrated several library blogs including RWU’s (I didn’t catch the URL).
RSS feeds, “really simple syndication” or “rich site summaries”. The feeds are a wonderful way to organize and keep track of multiple blogs, without the need to look at each blog individually. One subscribes to the feed for a blog; then the RSS aggregator service indicates whenever there’s a new post to the subscribed blog. The subscriber can see at a glance which blogs he or she needs to go to since there are new postings. This is one way to decrease the amount of e-mail one receives. (I subscribe to this via http://www.bloglines.com/) The Kansas City Public Library provides an RSS feed for every subject guide they produce; folks can keep track of when the guides are updated (I wonder if we could do this for our Find your way guides?)
Personalized RSS: “Library elf” is a free web resource which can be set up by the patron to manage all library accounts, from disparate libraries. A family could, for instance, add everyone’s library accounts and keep track of notices, overdues, etc., all in one place.
Podcasting is syndicated web audio (not text) content. Some public libraries are checking ipods out to their patrons with e-books already downloaded. This technology also can be used to enhance course assignments, etc.
Wikis are collaborative web tools which differ from blogs in that wikis include a much larger group with full editing rights, even the right to edit what someone else has written. It is easily possible to revert to a previous version, though. UConn uses a library staff wiki for staff documents and files (example of student procedures manual).
Instant messaging/chat: Live, real-time communication. The millennial generation uses IM or text-messaging far more frequently than they use e-mail. Megan mentioned that librarians must let go of perfection in order to use IM; messages can’t be too long; it isn’t important to check for good grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. The reference librarians at Providence College are using Trillian to provide chat reference service; it has been very popular since we implemented it in September of 2005.
Smartphone services: Example of Montclair State University’s “Campus Connect”: students can get registration information; details about upcoming events; can check if a classroom is available for use; can track the location of the campus shuttle bus, etc, all from their cell phones (must be a smartphone).
Social software: Folksonomie: how regular folks, not librarians, classify information. How to tag data so that “real” users can find it? Example of photo of new books: click on the photo to go to the catalog record for that book; also bookmarks that normally reside only on an individual’s computer: could put on a remote web server in order to let others use what the person’s done (including the changes he or she made to the name of the web site). For example, instead of “Welcome to the AAA site”, the user might use “Travel directions.” Those changes are useful to others.
Submitted by Janice Schuster, 12-12-05
posted by Janice at 11:58 AM
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