CIL 2009 Day 3 - New Tools for Metrics & Measures

I originally had not planned to attend this particular session. I had planned to go to "Emerging Search Technologies." For better or for worse, the speaker for "Emerging Search Technologies" couldn't be there as planned (I don't know why) so I had to find something else. This session looked potentially useful so I went here.

All-in-all I think this was a useful session. There was a lot of stuff that wasn't that useful in it, but it was a nice discussion of usability and by the end of it I was convinced that we need to be doing more with usability. At the bare minimum I think the speakers made a very strong argument for Google Analytics, which can be installed onto the website and be used to track (broadly) user behavior on your site so you can see where they are clicking. This is something we've wondered about for a long time and I can't think it would be an entirely bad thing to look into using this to see if the way we think people use our site is indeed how they are using it.

Some other pieces of software were also mentioned that can use webcams and screen recording to track how users use the site in a more formal usability study. This is certainly something we may we may wish to consider doing and it could provide some useful information, although it would require explicit volunteers and a more concerted effort.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - What's Hot in RSS?

Steven M. Cohen (a regular at Computers in Libraries) gave his annual, entertaining list of sites and services that he thinks are notable in the world of RSS. Some of them are just sites that use RSS in some capacity and others can be used to create interesting RSS feeds. This year he had a list of one for every letter in the alphabet (fudging one and skipping a couple) presented in reverse-alphabetical order. Here's the list:

Z – Zoho – http://www.zoho.com – online documents

Y – YouTube RSS Search http://www.youtube.com/rss/search/???.rss (replace ??? with the thing you want to search for)

X - (he couldn't find an X)

W – WWWhatsNew – http://wwwhatsnew.com – in Spanish

V – Votes Database – http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/

U – JD Supra – http://www.jdsupra.com/

T – Tic Tocs – http://www.tictocs.ac.co.uk/ - table of contents RSS for journals

S – Scribd – http://www.scribd.com/ - YouTube for PDF files

R – Ravelry – http://www.ravelry.com/

Q – QuestionPoint - http://www.questionpoint.com

P – Page 2 RSS – http://www.page2rss.com/ - RSS feed for page with no feed

O – Open Congress – http://www.opencongress.org/ - Feeds for Thomas stuff

N – Nothing

M – Mashable – http://www.mashable.com/

L – Library Thing – http://www.librarything.com/

K – KillerStartups – http://www.killerstartups.com/

J – JustiaDockets - http://docket.justia.com/

I – I want to - http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/

H – Hunch – http://www.hunch.com/

G – Google Reader – http://reader.google.com/

F – Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/

E – eHub – http://www.emilychang.com/ehub/

D – Deepest Sender – http://deepestsender.mozdev.org/

C – Compfight – http://www.compfight.com/ - Image search (limitable to Creative Commons images)

B – Backup URL – http://www.backupurl.com/

A – Awesome Highlighter – http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Mobile Library Apps

For the first half of this presentation I thought I'd wasted my time coming to this session. Then I saw the second half....

The first half discussed the University of Connecticut's use of Windows Mobile PDAs with their students. I use a PDA, and still recognize that they are a dying technology and they aren't what I think of when I hear "mobile library apps."

The second half was a whole different story. Some very bright coders from D.C. Public Library explained their process for making an iPhone application for searching their SirsiDynix catalog system allowing their patrons to look stuff up and put it on hold. That's version 1.0. They have a road map for this product going up to 2.0, and are working on plans to get the thing so you could snap a picture of a book UPC, find it in the catalog, and then put a hold on it. And they are putting the source code of this thing on their development information site. So all we need to do now is learn objective C, get an iPhone developer's account, modify the code, test the modified product, and we'd have an iPhone app.

And by the way, they also implemented SMS library notices for SirsiDynix too.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Outreach

This session had several interesting ideas. The first half of the presentation focused largely (although not entirely) on the use of videos and video technology for educational purposes in an academic environment. The specifics of how the library (in this case the libraries at Ohio University) used videos is not particularly applicable to a public library, but the basic idea I think could be quite useful. The possibilities for making online video tutorials for certain kinds of online services available could be quite useful.

In the second half of the presentation the use of Flickr to post PowerPoint presentations was described. This is a clever solution to a particular kind of problem which could be useful, but I don't anticipate any particular application for this in the near future.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Learning Solutions Through Technology

Lori Reed from Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Sarah Houghton-Jan from San Jose Public Library gave this presentation on using technology for staff and patron training. Half of the presentation wasn't overly pertinent to particular needs of the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District as it dealt with a lot of remote training issues and the money that Charlotte-Mecklenburg was able to save by using technology to train people across it's large geographical area while not spending it on travel costs and time.

The second part had some duplication with the session from yesterday that dealt with web 2.0 training methods and tips, although the speaker did make several additional points which I think have the potential to be quite useful.

CIL 2009 Day 3 - Keynote

Michael Edson from the Smithsonian Institution spoke of the challenges facing the Smithsonian in the constantly changing online world. In particular, Edson described problems facing SI as a result of it's decentralized structure and its inability so far to establish itself as an online brand. In contrast he described the power of the commons and its importance, both historical and in a modern online context, particularly the success of IBM with its patent commons, the National Institutes of Health, the Library of Congress, Flickr Commons, and MIT Open Courseware. The Smithsonian, like libraries in many cases, has a grand history of being a source for the kinds of open information that these sources are now, but has lost it's place because of its inability to capitalize on its natural strengths in an increasingly global and interconnected Internet. This is a big problem in a world where "both the web and physical presence must be excellent for either to be excellent." He ended his talk expressing his hope that the Smithsonian will find its voice and take it's rightful place as a knowledge commons on the Internet.

CIL 2009 Day 2 - Dead & Innovative Tech

David and I had a good time at this thought provoking and entertaining evening session. I could try to summarize it, but I think that the official Infotoday Blog's coverage is probably just as good, if not better than anything I could do to describe this session.