Wednesday was the last day of the conference and my last session was on Mashups, something I had heard a lot about, but knew next to nothing. The speaker was Nicole C. Engard from Libline and the address for the session was mashups.web2learning.net.
First came the definition of "mashup" – a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. Programmableweb.com is apparently a good source for mashups and 36% of mashups involve maps. Two editors for mashups are Yahoo!Pipes and OpenKapow. Some examples of mashups are: www.secretprices.com, lunchbox.allbusiness.com, readingradar.com, and tweetcongress.org. The simplest kind of mashup is to plot locations on a map (which explains why over a third involve maps). An example is maps.repository66.org. LibraryThing apparently has an API (Application programming interface – the code used to communicate) for book jackets. Mashable is a site to find API’s.
After this session came my last visit to the Vendor Hall, for a final pass, vendor swag, and to say goodbye to our vendors. After the Vendor Hall closed, we all trooped to the ballroom, for SLA’s business meeting, to hear the state of the organization, and to have a final set of speakers in a panel. Two main issues involve the board’s attempt to change our name (which will be the topic of a separate post) and something called Alignment 2009. I listened to the President’s speech on it and when I got back to Richmond I read the conference paper and downloaded the powerpoint presentation and I still don’t understand what it is. So if there’s someone who knows what Alignment 2009 means, please let me know.
The final speakers of the conference were on a panel consisting of Judy Woodruff (journalist), Robyn Meredith (author and journalist), Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist), John Patrick ("technology guru"). The conversation was wide-ranging, involving data and information, and the role technology plays in the transfer of both and what’s likely out on the horizon (more data coming at us faster and faster). Dr. Tyson stole the show and I was thrilled to discover he’ll be doing a talk in Richmond in the fall. I’m going!
After the panel discussion came the promotion for next years conference in New Orleans followed by the closing reception (beignets and chocolate cake). I can’t say I’m thrilled about Louisiana in June. Since budgets are likely to be tight or non-existent next year, I might go to Computers in Libraries in DC instead. I can only afford one of these things a year.
All in all, this was a great conference. Excellent, engaging sessions, opportunities to meet vendors and discuss their products, networking with a variety of members, and a little socializing to boot. So, what did I get out of the conference? A lot of ideas, recharged professional batteries, and new contacts. Whether the ideas I come back with get implemented or not, they start me thinking. And thinking is good.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
SLA 2009 Washington DC -- Tuesday
The first session of Tuesday morning that I attended was on the Future of MAHD Libraries. The speaker was Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media from the Smithsonian – and he was wonderful. (His slides are at slideshare.net/edsonm.) Among the notes I took was a definition of Commons (a set of resources maintained in the public sphere for the use and benefit of everyone), and the statement that free and open seems to beat closed and proprietary (in general, I agree). He also talked about the Smithsonian’s forays into Flickr and felt they had done well from this because of increased visibility and general good vibes from patrons. He almost made a believer out of me. He felt that most of the unintended consequences of jumping into Web 2.0 applications were positive. And he provided two interesting web site addresses – Alexa.com (shows web patterns) and Battlebrands.com (check how your company’s brand fairs against others.) The need to prioritize your activities was important – you can’t do everything at once. Another link is smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispace.edu. He also suggested searching for angry admin and web guy on YouTube. All in all, a very good session.
The next session was a representative from Google to discuss the Google Books lawsuit settlement. The settlement involves only books and only text. The copyright holders registry is public, searchable, and administered by the publishers and authors, not Google. He said there was an app for OPACs to be able to link to the public domain material (we need to check that out) and also made an interesting point that most of the hits for Google books come from the main Google search site, not the Google Books section. I’d really love to see the VHS partner with Google Books for some of our rare materials.
My last session of the day was called "The Tyranny of Choice". Basically, people tend to become less happy the more choices they have. (It’s kind of a bell curve, with happiness rising when there are 2-3 choices added and dropping significantly after 10 or so choices are available. The speaker stated that librarians are caught trying to provide for people who demand the very best as well as for people who are happy to just get something. More choices are not always optimal because of opportunity costs, choice regret, adaptation, and the curse of high expectations.
Halfway through the talk, I decided to leave and get some lunch. The Wall Street Journal group was offering free lunch to anyone who was willing to sit in on their presentation, so I took them up on their offer. The presentation was quite interesting. The Wall Street Journal has been working hard to add value to their site for subscribers, allowing them to create "My Wall Street Journal" and tailor the feed to those areas and columns they most follow. And the lunch was good too.
Tuesday was apparently my day for socializing. After visiting the Vendor Hall again, I went to a nearby hotel for the Cuadra Users Reception (our collections system vendor). It was nice to see Carlos Cuadra, his wife, quite a lot of the East Coast staff and their two major sales representatives. And it was fun to talk to other users about what they’re doing. One poor woman was trying to reestablish a library at her institution after a devastating fire. Everyone was very interested in what we’ve done with pre-defined searching.
After that, I went to another hotel to attend the Mid-Atlantic Chapters Reception. It was well attended and it was nice to catch up with the other Virginia Chapter members who I hadn’t see yet, but by 9:00pm, I was beat and went home. Nighty-night.
The next session was a representative from Google to discuss the Google Books lawsuit settlement. The settlement involves only books and only text. The copyright holders registry is public, searchable, and administered by the publishers and authors, not Google. He said there was an app for OPACs to be able to link to the public domain material (we need to check that out) and also made an interesting point that most of the hits for Google books come from the main Google search site, not the Google Books section. I’d really love to see the VHS partner with Google Books for some of our rare materials.
My last session of the day was called "The Tyranny of Choice". Basically, people tend to become less happy the more choices they have. (It’s kind of a bell curve, with happiness rising when there are 2-3 choices added and dropping significantly after 10 or so choices are available. The speaker stated that librarians are caught trying to provide for people who demand the very best as well as for people who are happy to just get something. More choices are not always optimal because of opportunity costs, choice regret, adaptation, and the curse of high expectations.
Halfway through the talk, I decided to leave and get some lunch. The Wall Street Journal group was offering free lunch to anyone who was willing to sit in on their presentation, so I took them up on their offer. The presentation was quite interesting. The Wall Street Journal has been working hard to add value to their site for subscribers, allowing them to create "My Wall Street Journal" and tailor the feed to those areas and columns they most follow. And the lunch was good too.
Tuesday was apparently my day for socializing. After visiting the Vendor Hall again, I went to a nearby hotel for the Cuadra Users Reception (our collections system vendor). It was nice to see Carlos Cuadra, his wife, quite a lot of the East Coast staff and their two major sales representatives. And it was fun to talk to other users about what they’re doing. One poor woman was trying to reestablish a library at her institution after a devastating fire. Everyone was very interested in what we’ve done with pre-defined searching.
After that, I went to another hotel to attend the Mid-Atlantic Chapters Reception. It was well attended and it was nice to catch up with the other Virginia Chapter members who I hadn’t see yet, but by 9:00pm, I was beat and went home. Nighty-night.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
SLA 2009 Washington DC -- Monday
Conference sessions started on Monday and I must say the sessions were excellent this year. The only one I left early was from hunger, not boredom.
The first program I attended was a vendor led program (OCLC) on their product, Content DM, which is an image management software. While our collections management system handles images beautifully, like most collections databases, is outside the grasp of search engines like Google (and as one speaker put it, if it’s not in Google, it doesn’t exist.)
I actually knew little about Content DM, so the session was interesting. The OCLC rep was Suzanne Butte, who gave an overview of the product and OCLC’s digitization services. OCLC not only sells Content DM, they also have services to digitize collections, as well as web harvest through Content DM (which we could possible use to catalog the VHS web pages – something we’ve talked about doing for a while.) Content DM has over 1,000 users and can handle images, audio, video, and pdf. Two users of the software also spoke: a representative from the George Washington Masonic Memorial Association and Stacia Clifton from the Peace Corps. The discussion afterwards was also interesting. Some people didn’t want the search engines to get to their stuff, which would be our sole reason for joining up. But different institutions have different goals.
The next session was on Web 2.0 with speakers from the New England Journal of Medicine and Marie Kaddell from Lexis Nexis. One tidbit was a new word – zettabyte (= 1 trillion gigabytes and it’s coming faster than you think.) The major points of Web 2.0 is the set of requirements to consider: it’s about web interfaces not web pages, it’s on the users’ schedule, if it’s not in Google, it’s not there (see above), and above all, blogs rule! I’m slowly being sold on blogs (which is why this is all going in a blog).
My last session of the day was a tour of the Folger Library. The tour was organized by the Museum Arts and Humanities Division (now called DMAH, but previously referred to as MAHD – which I much prefer.) I hadn’t been to the Folger in years. It was interesting to discover they collect more than just Shakespearean material. However, their view of customer service is very academic. Access to the library is by appointment only and unless you’re researching the theater collection, they prefer PhDs and PhD candidates. This wasn't unusual 20-30 years ago for specialized libraries, but in the world of the internet, social networks, and twitter it seems very -- outdated.
The first program I attended was a vendor led program (OCLC) on their product, Content DM, which is an image management software. While our collections management system handles images beautifully, like most collections databases, is outside the grasp of search engines like Google (and as one speaker put it, if it’s not in Google, it doesn’t exist.)
I actually knew little about Content DM, so the session was interesting. The OCLC rep was Suzanne Butte, who gave an overview of the product and OCLC’s digitization services. OCLC not only sells Content DM, they also have services to digitize collections, as well as web harvest through Content DM (which we could possible use to catalog the VHS web pages – something we’ve talked about doing for a while.) Content DM has over 1,000 users and can handle images, audio, video, and pdf. Two users of the software also spoke: a representative from the George Washington Masonic Memorial Association and Stacia Clifton from the Peace Corps. The discussion afterwards was also interesting. Some people didn’t want the search engines to get to their stuff, which would be our sole reason for joining up. But different institutions have different goals.
The next session was on Web 2.0 with speakers from the New England Journal of Medicine and Marie Kaddell from Lexis Nexis. One tidbit was a new word – zettabyte (= 1 trillion gigabytes and it’s coming faster than you think.) The major points of Web 2.0 is the set of requirements to consider: it’s about web interfaces not web pages, it’s on the users’ schedule, if it’s not in Google, it’s not there (see above), and above all, blogs rule! I’m slowly being sold on blogs (which is why this is all going in a blog).
My last session of the day was a tour of the Folger Library. The tour was organized by the Museum Arts and Humanities Division (now called DMAH, but previously referred to as MAHD – which I much prefer.) I hadn’t been to the Folger in years. It was interesting to discover they collect more than just Shakespearean material. However, their view of customer service is very academic. Access to the library is by appointment only and unless you’re researching the theater collection, they prefer PhDs and PhD candidates. This wasn't unusual 20-30 years ago for specialized libraries, but in the world of the internet, social networks, and twitter it seems very -- outdated.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
SLA 2009 Washington DC -- Sunday
The conference proper began on Sunday with the opening of the exhibits and the Opening General Session. The Exhibits Hall is always fun. Although I’m a specialist in a specialty (Collections Systems Manager in a historical society), I like to cruise all the aisles of the exhibits hall, taking care to look for vendors whose products we do (or could) use. And you get to pick up plenty of vendor swag (pens, notebooks, shopping bags, etc.). If you’re really into these freebies, the morning of the closing day is best. Vendors are often happy to give away things to non-customers, just so they don’t have to box them up later.
The Opening General Session if the first actual event of the conference. SLA is lucky to get really good speakers and this year was no exception – we had General Colin Powell. He’s a very funny, engaging speaker. His theme was how fast information is moving and how we have to keep up with it. One anecdote resonated with me. When he first became Secretary of State in 2001, General Powell was appalled to discover they were still using Wang computers and ended up buying 44,000 new computers to bring the State Department and all US Embassies and Consulates up to the 21st century. I arrived at the VHS in 1997 and discovered several staff were using computers with no hard drives and 5" floppy drives. While the VHS didn’t buy 44,000 new computers, the 33 we did buy allowed us to kick all those dumb terminals out the door in about six months. Nice to know we weren’t alone in this regard.
The Opening General Session if the first actual event of the conference. SLA is lucky to get really good speakers and this year was no exception – we had General Colin Powell. He’s a very funny, engaging speaker. His theme was how fast information is moving and how we have to keep up with it. One anecdote resonated with me. When he first became Secretary of State in 2001, General Powell was appalled to discover they were still using Wang computers and ended up buying 44,000 new computers to bring the State Department and all US Embassies and Consulates up to the 21st century. I arrived at the VHS in 1997 and discovered several staff were using computers with no hard drives and 5" floppy drives. While the VHS didn’t buy 44,000 new computers, the 33 we did buy allowed us to kick all those dumb terminals out the door in about six months. Nice to know we weren’t alone in this regard.
Monday, June 22, 2009
SLA 2009 Washington DC -- Saturday
This year, the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference was in Washington, DC. In spite of the fact my family has lived just outside of DC for 27 years, I signed up for the City Tour. The Saturday night City Tours are an SLA tradition. It’s wonderful these tours are organized for the conference-goers – otherwise, you wind up seeing nothing of your host city other than the Conference Center and your hotel.
Many of the sites included in the DC tour I had either never seen, or never seen up close. It was neat to walk up to the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol building (and see where President Obama took the oath of office), the World War II Memorial, and the White House. All in all, a very fun tour with a great tour guide.
Many of the sites included in the DC tour I had either never seen, or never seen up close. It was neat to walk up to the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol building (and see where President Obama took the oath of office), the World War II Memorial, and the White House. All in all, a very fun tour with a great tour guide.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Facebook is now my friend
Yes, I finally caved and joined Facebook. A number of friends began the chorus "join us" and I signed up for it. I was happy to find some old friends through the service as well. Although I have to admit, I have no intention of using it for work related stuff. If I need to, I'll set up a work account for that purpose. Never the twain shall meet .
Which brings up a thought that I'm not that different from a lot of Facebook users. If the surveys that have been reported recently are correct, many Facebook users keep the service for social communication only (or have two accounts). Basically, they don't want their boss hanging out with their friends. Yes, I know it's possible to set up different groups and the like, but I wouldn't want them being accidentally mixed up either.
All that said, I'm a believer in Facebook for being able to keep up with my friends.
Which brings up a thought that I'm not that different from a lot of Facebook users. If the surveys that have been reported recently are correct, many Facebook users keep the service for social communication only (or have two accounts). Basically, they don't want their boss hanging out with their friends. Yes, I know it's possible to set up different groups and the like, but I wouldn't want them being accidentally mixed up either.
All that said, I'm a believer in Facebook for being able to keep up with my friends.
Bad Blogger
I'm a bad blogger. I haven't written in my blog for over 3 months. So --
1. I didn't win the ipod drawing in December.
2. My position at the VHS was moved to a newly created department in February.
3. I got a new title (Collections Systems Manager) and a new office space (but I lost my window and private office), also in February.
4. We spent March getting settled in our new space and figuring out the scope of our new department.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
1. I didn't win the ipod drawing in December.
2. My position at the VHS was moved to a newly created department in February.
3. I got a new title (Collections Systems Manager) and a new office space (but I lost my window and private office), also in February.
4. We spent March getting settled in our new space and figuring out the scope of our new department.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
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