I closed out my sessions at Computers in Libraries 2010 by attending this third session involving Sarah Houghton-Jan (librarianinblack.net), whom I also saw at the Dead & Emerging Technologies Session the night before and earlier in the day at the Mobile Tips & Practices session.
Despite the title of this session, my library isn't exactly "broke" but I'm always interested in money saving ideas, particularly given the economic environment and pressures from the community and the board to keep costs flat.
In this presentation Sarah whipped through dozens of products and services which filled pages of notes, and duplicating that whole list here would serve little purpose. She had lots of great tips and mentioned lots of interesting services and software solutions, several of which I'd never heard of. It was a good session and a good way to close out this year's conference.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 3 - Ebooks : Lanscape & Implications
This penultimate session for me at Computers in Libraries 2010 was ok, but I didn't get a whole lot of new information from it. It largely summarized the world of ebooks. For me, the best part of the presentation was done by someone who wasn't there, Jason Griffey from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who had to be somewhere else and recorded a brief talk in advance which was played on the screen. The main thing I found interesting from that was his assertion that eBook devices are headed towards a state as mass-produced commodities that will be cheap and that the platforms will be important. He suggested two platforms in particular of which I was not particularly familiar: thecopia.com a social platform for books and www.blioreader.com, a software solution for ebooks from Ray Kurzweil.
Griffey also predicted that a time was coming when publishers would abandon DRM as has been largely done in the world of digital music sales. I can only hope that he is correct in that matter.
Griffey also predicted that a time was coming when publishers would abandon DRM as has been largely done in the world of digital music sales. I can only hope that he is correct in that matter.
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 3 - Mobile Tips & Practices
Over the second two days of Computers in Libraries 2010 I have developed the opinion that we need to adopt a strong mobile-web strategy for our website, and this session went a long way towards cementing that opinion.
The presentation was divided into four mini-presentations, although in essence it was in three parts. First, Sarah Houghton-Jan from San Jose Public Library (a.k.a. The Librarian in Black) gave 10 steps to establish a mobile presence on the cheap. Then Jason Clark from Montana State University from Montana State University Libraries described their adaptation of a major site they run (which is not at all mobile friendly) into one that was mobile friendly. Finally, Laurie Bridges and Kim Griggs from Oregon State University described their mobile efforts and the various options they found available to them.
Combined, these presentations presented a good grounding in how one can go about making a mobile version of your site and why (despite the iPhone's decent ability to present a website largely as it appears elsewhere) it is a wise thing to do. Yet something else to put on the stack of stuff that really needs to be done.
The presentation was divided into four mini-presentations, although in essence it was in three parts. First, Sarah Houghton-Jan from San Jose Public Library (a.k.a. The Librarian in Black) gave 10 steps to establish a mobile presence on the cheap. Then Jason Clark from Montana State University from Montana State University Libraries described their adaptation of a major site they run (which is not at all mobile friendly) into one that was mobile friendly. Finally, Laurie Bridges and Kim Griggs from Oregon State University described their mobile efforts and the various options they found available to them.
Combined, these presentations presented a good grounding in how one can go about making a mobile version of your site and why (despite the iPhone's decent ability to present a website largely as it appears elsewhere) it is a wise thing to do. Yet something else to put on the stack of stuff that really needs to be done.
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 3 - Productivity Tools
This session, following the excellent free & open source tools, was a mild disappointment, but interesting nonetheless. Linda Kellem and Beth Filar Williams described, in an unusually democratic fashion several, generally free, tools which can be used for task management, scheduling and note taking. It was democratic because, lacking time to describe all of the tools they had considered to the extent they would have liked, instead they had an online vote to select which tools were discussed. I wasn't overly fond of this method as
The selected ones, with a little information about them were:
In the category of "Task Tools":
- it was hard for me to get a reliable, useful wireless signal and
- I had never used and had no opinion about any of the tools so voting for any of them over the other would have been completely arbitrary.
The selected ones, with a little information about them were:
In the category of "Task Tools":
Things (Mac/iPhone based). Application. Not cloud-based.
Todoist. Cloud-based. easy. Integrates with Google somewhat. Good with sub-tasks
Remember the Milk. Many things you can do with it. You create tabs. Supports tagging. Save search lists. Can share lists. Doesn't excel at adding notes and context.
Jiffle - Pulls in Google calendar data. displays times you are available
Cozi - for a "busy family" calendars/photos/widgets/tasks. Does groceries. Good for a small group.
ScheduleOnce - Might be good for scheduling a reference desk.
- Evernote - copy and paste from the web. Nice management features. Tagging.
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 3 - New & Open Source Tools
This was one of the great little sessions at Computers in Libraries where some people who have been closely watching and testing what's been coming out for the past year run down their list of favorite items.
The first of the two presenters was Darlene Fichter of the University of Saskatchewan. Her presentation on free tools included the following gems that sound like they may be quite useful for my purposes worth:
The first of the two presenters was Darlene Fichter of the University of Saskatchewan. Her presentation on free tools included the following gems that sound like they may be quite useful for my purposes worth:
Image editing with Aviary (aviary.com)
HTMLIPSUM html-ipsum.com (use to test a style sheet)
Are My Sites Up (aremysitesup.com). Monitor up to 5 sites 25 times per day for free.
Checking out the Buzz (socialmention.com)
Xmarks (www.xmarks.com) (formerly foxmarks) Bookmark sync for IE, Firefox, Chrome & Safari. Lets you tap into the hive mind of what other people have thought about it.
Siwapp (www.siwapp.org) invoicing. Track payments and due dates. Generate invoices in PDF
Limesurvey (www.limesurvey.org). Hosted on your servers. Unlimited questions/surveys. Multilanguage surveys.
Libki (www.libki.org) Kiosk management system. Web-based admin area. Manage library computer users. Manage library patron's time on computers.
Zotero (www.zotero.org) Citation Management. Citations stored in Firefox & on the web. Shared libraries. Online groups. Generate bibliographies with a couple clicks. Online PDF storage for full text.
Libstats (code.google.com/p/libstats/) Reference Statistics. Simple screen on a browser. Track reference questions. Data on server
- Omeka (www.omeka.org) Professional-looking online exhibits for your digital collections. Tagging and RSS
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 3 - Keynote
This morning's keynote speech was presented by Ken Haycock of San Jose State University. His keynote was a well presented and thought provoking analysis of what libraries traditionally have done and what they need to do to get things accomplished in their communities. Ironically, much of the point that Haycock made in his speech completely discounted the efforts, traditionally done by the Illinois Library Association during National Library Week (coincidentally the week of Computers in Libraries this year), to have a legislative day where board members, library staff, and concerned patrons visit the state capitol and request increased library funding.
Haycock instead sought to better define the terms of influence and advocacy and made a cogent point that libraries need to have active involvement at the local level in order to get the kind of political change and recognition that they need. At the core of Haycock's speech was this statement, repeated several times: "Advocacy is a planned, deliberate sustained effort to develop understanding and support incrementally over time." Additionally Haycock quoted someone (whose name I unfortunately did not write down) saying, "Advocacy is like banking: you can't make a withdrawal until you've made a deposit." The combined point of this being that libraries need to do things for people in government and people in our communities and build up political capital in order to then spend it. It is not enough to say (true or not) that "libraries exist for the public good and so you should make sure they continue to thrive." Without a clear understanding of the value that libraries provide, and that understanding having been imparted through explicit demonstrations of that value, libraries will continue to struggle, particularly in the current economic and political climate.
Haycock instead sought to better define the terms of influence and advocacy and made a cogent point that libraries need to have active involvement at the local level in order to get the kind of political change and recognition that they need. At the core of Haycock's speech was this statement, repeated several times: "Advocacy is a planned, deliberate sustained effort to develop understanding and support incrementally over time." Additionally Haycock quoted someone (whose name I unfortunately did not write down) saying, "Advocacy is like banking: you can't make a withdrawal until you've made a deposit." The combined point of this being that libraries need to do things for people in government and people in our communities and build up political capital in order to then spend it. It is not enough to say (true or not) that "libraries exist for the public good and so you should make sure they continue to thrive." Without a clear understanding of the value that libraries provide, and that understanding having been imparted through explicit demonstrations of that value, libraries will continue to struggle, particularly in the current economic and political climate.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Computers in Libraries 2010 Day 2 - Dead & Emerging Technologies Session
This evening session is always entertaining and informative, if a little rowdy, and this evening was no exception. My one surprise is, given the amount of loathing expressed for the iPad, no one included in the comments and criticism the news of the past few days that Apple is 1). adding multitasking to the iPad in the Fall (a good thing) and 2). has added some really objectionable clauses to the license agreement for developers for the iPhoneOS which restricts them from using anything that would make it easy to develop something simultaneously for (say) Android and iPhoneOS simultaneously (clearly a very bad thing). I'm sure the loathing of the device wouldn't have been lessened much by the promise of multitasking, but the latter point certainly would have provided a few more things to hate.
In addition to the iPad, Adobe's products (particularly Flash) were generally declared dead.
Android, HTML 5, Android tablets and the mobile/geolocating/social web were clearly hot and lively. There was some disagreement on the future of the mobile app, with Amanda Etches-Johnson of McMaster University declaring it dead (in favor of mobile web-based services) and David Lee King of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library considering the app still quite alive.
Stephen Abram's typical dense and opinionated (but very funny) presentation closed the affair as is typically the case when he's available to fill that role.
In addition to the iPad, Adobe's products (particularly Flash) were generally declared dead.
Android, HTML 5, Android tablets and the mobile/geolocating/social web were clearly hot and lively. There was some disagreement on the future of the mobile app, with Amanda Etches-Johnson of McMaster University declaring it dead (in favor of mobile web-based services) and David Lee King of Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library considering the app still quite alive.
Stephen Abram's typical dense and opinionated (but very funny) presentation closed the affair as is typically the case when he's available to fill that role.
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