Facebook and Libraries…07.15.10

The following are valuable “implications” for libraries using Facebook and other social media after having a patron “focus group” from David Lee King:

“…in the last three months, my library’s Facebook Page has added almost 900 fans.

We need to not treat our Facebook Page as an afterthought. Some of our more savvy, active patrons are using Facebook as a primary source for library news.

We need to develop strategy and goals around our Facebook Pages (and any other social media tool our library incorporates).

We need to be actively sharing and conversing. Not just broadcasting press releases, but actually holding conversations with our patrons (just like we do in our physical spaces)…”

New Pew Research Center Study Results About the Return of Jesus Christ…07.15.10

From the Pew Research Center today:

41% – Jesus Christ’s Return to Earth

“By the year 2050, 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. However, a 46%-plurality of the public does not believe Christ will return during the next 40 years. Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%) and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) predict Christ’s return to earth by 2050. One-in-five religiously unaffiliated Americans also see Christ returning during the next four decades. Americans with no college experience (59%) are much more likely than those with some college experience (35%) or college graduates (19%) to expect Jesus Christ’s return. By region, those in the South (52%) are the most likely to predict a Second Coming by 2050. Read more“

Who is Jesus…Really?

An Opening for Librarians…07.15.10

Seth Godin post Information About Information:

“The first revolution hit when people who made stuff started to discover that information was often as valuable as the stuff itself. Knowing where something was or how it performed or how it interacted with you can be worth more than the item itself.

Frito Lay dominates the snack business because of the information infrastructure they built on top of their delivery model. 7 Eleven in Japan dominated for a decade or more because they used information to change their inventory. Zara in Europe is an information business that happens to sell clothes.

You’ve probably already guessed what’s now: information about information. That’s what Facebook and Google and Bloomberg do for a living. They create a meta-layer, a world of information about the information itself.

And why is this so valuable? Because it compounds. A tiny head start in access to this information gives you a huge advantage in the stock market. Or in marketing. Or in fundraising.

Many people and organizations are contributing to this mass of data, but few are taking advantage of the opportunity to collate it and present it to people who desperately need it. Think about how much needs to be sorted, compared, updated and presented to people who want to choose or learn or trade on it.

The race to deliver this essential scaling asset isn’t over, it’s just beginning.

New Educause Quarterly Focus on Cloud Computing…07.15.10

Project Information Literacy…07.14.10

eReader Comparisons…07.14.10

2010 eBook Reader Product Comparisons (Click on chart for larger, detailed version)

1829 Map of Moon…07.13.10

Download the Original size – All sizes of this photo are available for download under a Creative Commons license.

Found at BoingBoing

Real Life Social Network from Google UX Team Member…07.13.10

“The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data: A Briefing Paper”…07.13.10

“The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data: A Briefing Paper”

Digital Preservation…07.13.10

Youth, Technology, and Learning: Opportunities for Librarians, Educators and Future Employers…07.13.10

From the Search Principle Blog:

The future of librarianship is in our hands, and we must be ready to fight for it…”…07.13.10

“Abstract: The future for librarianship is bright, but not if we continue to see our value in our collections and resources – instead of in ourselves. Librarians must take on a mission of facilitating knowledge creation where we configure our services and organizations around our members. Instead of focusing on tech services and public services we must focus on the goals and accomplishments of our communities – be they law practices, academia, or other agencies. The future of librarianship is in our hands, and we must be ready to fight for it.”
Slides: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/AALL-Lankes.pdf
Audio: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/Pod/2010/AALL.mp3*

Rural Libraries…07.13.10

Reader’s Advisory for Children…07.13.10

Librarians “Intentionally Marginalizing” Themselves…07.13.10

A couple of days ago I posted “Survey Illustrates Many Librarians Slow Adopters“.  I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the implications that should be staring the majority of librarians in the face.

Here is an insightful posting on Library Journal from insider Roy Tennant regarding the recent WebJunction Library Staff Report Their Use of Online Tools:

“Since my career has focused on technology, I run with a fairly geeky crowd. They range from hardcore coders to folks who know the ins-and-outs of wikis and blogs. These people are very well-read and highly connected.  So a post on the WebJunction site (disclosure: WebJunction and I work for the same outfit) about a recent survey they did came as a rather rude awakening. ‘In a survey to a random sample of WebJunction members this spring,’ Sharon Streams writes in the post, ‘respondents answered a question on how frequently they used online tools, either in or outside of their professional life.’

Before I go any further I want to highlight a couple things: a) the sample was WebJunction members, which means by and large library staff, and b) their answers were to include use of these tools both professionally and personally — in other words any use whatsoever.

Maybe you can tell where I’m going with this. While old school mailing lists fared the best, with nearly half of the respondents using them ‘daily,’ from there things went to hell in a hand basket. Only 35% of respondents use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis, and online magazines came in at 21% of respondents using them daily. From there only a handful of respondents used anything on a daily basis.

Viewed through a different lens, just a tad over 60% of the respondents used any of the listed tools on any basis more frequent than quarterly. And that would be, yes, email lists. Social networking sites: 55% used them monthly or more; Blogs: 34%. It’s even more bleak when you look at only responses from public library staff.

If you aren’t plugged in, how do you know what’s coming down the road? How do you forsee changes that you will need to accommodate? How will you spot opportunities? Even more importantly: How can you serve the needs of a clientele that you no longer understand?

Someone I know commented that ‘it looked to me like a graphical representation of an industry that was intentionally marginalizing itself.’ Exactly.”

Mmmmmm…07.13.10

British Petroleum Oil Spill – Unseen Victims and Culprits…07.11.10

Coming Soon: NookStudy from Barnes & Noble…07.11.10

From TechCrunch:

“…Barnes & Noble has developed NOOKstudy, a free (as in beer) software suite that could make the average college student’s life a little easier. The software, which will be available for the PC and Mac, gives students the ability to download and organize electronic textbooks, as well as keep all of their notes, syllabuses, and so on in one safe place. Handy. And no, you don’t need a nook to use NOOKstudy…”

Viva España! Spain Wins World Cup…07.11.10

10 Facebook Myths Busted…07.11.10

Boomers and Beyond: Reconsidering the Role of Libraries…07.11.10

Boomers and Beyond: Reconsidering the Role of Libraries

Check out a sample of the book now!

“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin”: Understanding the Handwriting on the Wall for Libraries and Librarians – Digital Curation is Your Future…07.11.10

The prophetic handwriting is on the wall for our profession. Those who ignore it are doomed to their deserved judgment.  The following bibliography is a good backgrounder on “digital curation”.

“This bibliography presents selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. Most sources have been published between 2000 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints for published articles in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical. See the scope note for further details: (See the scope note for further details.)…

Digital Scholarship > Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography

Copyright © 2010 by Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Google’s Social Media Work…07.10.10

From Mashable!

The Power of Metadata…07.11.10Accurate Metadata Sells Books

Excerpt of Publisher’s Weekly article Accurate Metadata Sells Books:

“There was a time when metadata—descriptive information such as a book’s title, author, or BISAC codes—was something only the warehouse crew had to worry about. ‘No one saw it,’ said Laura Dawson, CEO of LJNDawson.com, a consultant specializing in digital publishing services. ‘It was just warehouse data’” But that was before the rise of online retailing at sites like Amazon.com and BN.com as well as the growth in the popularity and sales of e-books.

Now, Dawson said, accurate metadata has become a marketing tool for publishers, a shopping guide for consumers, and an absolute necessity for distributors and retailers. The growth of the importance of metadata, Dawson said, led to the creation of ONIX, or Online Information Exchange, an XML-based standardized format for transmitting information electronically. (XML, or extensible markup language, is a digital format that allows data to be easily reused in other forms.) XML software is said to be easy to use, inexpensive, and its tags or descriptions are easy for people, as well as machines, to read.

ONIX is used to transmit book metadata to anyone involved in selling, distributing, or organizing books. Originally devised by a coalition of publishers and retailers under the auspices of the Association of American Publishers, ONIX offers an extensive list of data fields (as many as 200) that can be used to describe a book—i.e., the metadata. Metadata includes not only title, author, and ISBN but availability, pricing, publisher name, reviews, blurbs, territorial rights, and jacket images and can include much more. ONIX is now jointly managed by the Book Industry Study Group in the U.S. in conjunction with partners in the U.K., Europe, and around the world.

But while using ONIX ‘is not complicated,’ Dawson said, the need for accurate data as well as the increasing number of book products—from multiple format e-books to audio books, large-print books, and vast increases in self-published titles—has led to something of a metadata overload. In fact, the importance of metadata could help save the beleaguered copyeditor’s job, since metadata is only useful if it is accurate. Dawson called the situation ‘bloat’ and pointed to the increasing cost and time needed to manage information that has become essential for selling books in today’s marketplace.

Generally only the largest publishers can afford the staffing needed to manage their own metadata, while smaller publishers use companies like NetRead and Firebrand Technologies to manage and transmit their metadata. In the age of digital publishing, the more data available, the easier it is to sell or market a book. It’s all about the metadata, said Greg Aden of NetRead, which produces Jacketcaster, a software product that helps publishers organize and transmit metadata to retailers, distributors, and libraries. ‘Accurate, rich metadata sells books,’ Aden said…”

Survey Illustrates Many Librarians Slow Adopters…07.10.10

From WebJunction Library Staff Report Their Use of Online Tools

Library Mashups…07.10.10

Designing a Custom Mobile Library Catalog…07.10.10

The eBook eBook…07.10.10

2010 The Summer of British Petroleum – “The Summer of Our Discontent”…07.09.10

From Mashable!

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells waiting to leak in Gulf of Mexico

New Pew Report: Millennials’ Likely Lifelong Online Sharing Habit…07.09.10

New Pew Report: Millennials’ Likely Lifelong Online Sharing Habit