The Distant Librarian

Distance Learning Grant Opportunities

Over the weekend I was scouting around for a grant for a project I'm considering.  Most everything I've found so far is US-related/restricted, but I thought someone down there might find this useful.  Good luck!

Link: Distance Learning Legislation & Grant Opportunities.

Co-browsing on the cheap? - Jybe Beta Released

This is an extension for Firefox that supposedly also works in IE 6.  I have this installed and would like to try it out - anybody care to be a guinea pig with me?  Tried to connect to a colleague upstairs, but he couldn't connect for some reason (obviously this isn't ready for prime time yet).  I'm out of the office this afternoon, but drop me an email if you want to try this out and we'll set up a time...

" Jybe is an extension for Firefox that allows you to link your browser together to one or more friends' browsers and allows you to chat and browse the web together. Initial features included full frames support, chat, and a powerpoint presentation system, with more to come. Additionally, our plugin for Firefox is cross compatible with our identical plugin for Internet Explorer. Users of Firefox in Windows, Mac, Linux etc. can collaborate with users on any OS, and even users of Internet Explorer."

Link: Jybe Beta Released

New York Times Link Generator

I'm cleaning out some older posts today...  This certainly fits in the category of linking...  This utility (and accompanying bookmarklet) will allow you to create a link to a page on the NY Times website that they promise will never break.
Link: New York Times Link Generator.

Tagging LIS Course Resources

Hmm, this would seem a natural fit with the recent discussion of Embedded Librarians...
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Tagging LIS Course Resources

Subject Guides, the Folksonomic Way

“Del.icio.us, the bookmarking website with tags that I discussed on January 6, seems like the perfect tool for creating course-specific subject guides. Just agree on a tag, like the course number, and the subject librarian, professor, and students can build a subject guide cooperatively, on the fly.

I just tagged the two resources I identified for my Digital Libraries class with the course number. So they are now easily found by myself, and anyone else in the class, at del.icio.us/tag/sislt9409.” [Wanderings of a Student Librarian]

Joy Weese Moll demonstrates another way in which librarians and librarians-to-be can take advantage of tagging and folksonomies! It will be interesting to see if her teacher or her fellow students begin contributing to the tag. Here’s hoping….

[via The Shifted Librarian]

You say Potato... Jon Udell: Screencast guidelines

I used to subscribe to Jon Udell's blog and for some reason I stopped.  I think I'm going to start again.  Jon isn't a librarian on paper, but you may remember from a nifty little tool called Library Lookup. 

I just learned that he's starting to push a concept he's dubbed as "Screencasts", which seems to me to be a generic term for these Viewlets and Captivate projects I've been going on about for so long.  In a nutshell, he says, "show, don't tell".  And he's got 22 of these things up here to prove his point.  No, they're not all library-related, but you will learn something by watching them, and they will convince you you should be considering this form of instruction to reach your distance students!

Link: Jon Udell: Screencast guidelines.

Library Podcast - Open Stacks: Guess Who's Back?

Last November I wrote a little bit about the potential for podcasts in education (well, I linked to someone who thought the same thing I did...).  Earlier this week librarian Greg Schwartz emerged from his intellectual cocoon having transformed from a print blogger to a podcaster.  Well I'm sure he reserves the right to continue to type too, but I have to say I really enjoyed listening to his take on an article about folksonomies, a topic I had been purposefully not been paying attention to over the past few weeks.  What was great about hearing him discuss the concept was 1) I got to listen and learn during my commute rather than at the office, and 2) he did a really good job summarizing the whole concept and the issues around it.  I hope he continues, and I hope you give it a listen.  Oh, and if the term "podcasting" is new to you, he does a good job of explaining that in a non-threatening way too :-)

 

Link: Open Stacks: Guess Who's Back?.

New MLS to be offered at Weatherhead School of Management

Don't see this program listed on the Weatherhead Programs page yet, but this marketing announcement would seem to indicate that Syracuse and Case Western Reserve are teaming up to offer an MLIS degree via distance learning starting this summer.  Follow the link for all the details: Weatherhead School of Management.

(thanks for the tip Ken!)

Online Course from ALA | All Users Are Local

Course Description:
This seminar will provide you with the information you need to design a plan for library support of distance education at your institution. The seminar will cover administrative issues, services/resources, and how your home page can be developed to support your distance education program.

More information by following the link: ALA | All Users Are Local.

Search Engine Users - PEW Report

You've probably seen this already, but this is how your distance students think they do with search engines...  No significant mention of libraries, just some user demographics.

Search Engine Users

Internet users are very happy with their experiences searching the internet, but many are naïve about how they search and the results they find.

[via Pew Internet and American Life Project]

Embedded Librarians

There's an interesting thread on the OffCamp listserv right now about how best to become an embedded librarian.

Google Video Bookmarklet

Tangential to distance education (or at least library support of), but it was easy to build so I thought I'd post it here. 

Back in November there were a couple announcements about multimedia search engines.  Well today the 300LB Gorilla came to the door in the form of Google Video Search (beta of course).  Right now you can only search the transcripts of a limited number of channels, and the video isn't available to watch, but they obviously have the video, as they show screenshots all through the show.  For instance, here's the result for the Seinfeld episode of "The Library".

Ok, 'nuff about the product, you can learn more about it here and here.

Here are the bookmarklets to search Google Video (what are we going to call this one, Voogle?:

Mozilla / Firefox / Opera: Google Video
IE:  Google Video
Safari: Google Video  (thanks to Steve DiDomenico)

Just drag it up to your personal toolbar folder (Mozilla etc.) or add to favorites (IE)  and you should be good to go.

Please let me know if you learn that these don't work as expected with your browser...

Internet Librarian 2005

Internet Librarian 2005 runs from October 24-26 in Moterey, CA.  Call for speakers has a deadline of March 15, 2005.  I've always wanted to go to this conference, will this year be the year? 

Mentors needed

Interested in mentoring a librarian in the research process?  Right now, librarians have an opportunity to submit a proposal for the Off-Campus Library Services Conference in 2006, and the conference organizers are very interested in seeing more research-related proposals.  If you would like mentor a librarian, email me at tunon@nova.edu and I will pair you with a research "mentee".  For more information about the expectations for mentors and mentees, see the following:

To promote research in the area of library services to distance learners, the Research Committee in the Distance Learning Section of ACRL is facilitating a research mentoring program to support up-coming professional librarians who are interested in conducting research in this area and reporting their research findings at the Off-Campus Library Services Conference in 2006. Experienced researchers who volunteer to participate as mentors will be paired with new professionals interested in conducting research.

Broadly, the mentoring guidelines will be as follows:

Mentors will guide a mentee they are paired with in the areas of:
•       Content
•       Research methods
•       Pointing mentee to experts  who have conducted similar research
•       Helping mentee on how to present and communicate ideas
•       Providing feedback on research in progress
•       Pointing mentee to relevant/key literature
NOTE: Mentors are not intended to be editors of papers!

Mentees:
•       Have a good idea of what they want to research
•       Have a keen interest in the research topic
•       Conduct a literature review

Thanks!

Johanna Tuñón, Chair of the DLS's Research Committee
Head of Distance and Instructional Library Services
Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, FL
tunon@nova.edu

Publishing opportunity

The following showed up in my email box today - oddly enough not on any of my DE lists:

Library Instruction Publications is seeking contributions for a forthcoming publication: Empowering Distance Learners with Hands-on Information Literacy Activities.

Empowering Distance Learners will be a bit different from prior works published by Library Instruction Publications. It is designed as a "textbook" for use by distance education students. The book itself will introduce key information literacy concepts and give instructions for hands-on work. The instructor's version will be accompanied by two disks, one for the instructor who elects to use the text and the other with hands-on work for students to complete. The student version will include the one disk with the hands-on work.

The text will consist of brief (3-5 page) explanations of concepts and instructions for hands-on work. Each of these sections will be supported by accompanying instructor's notes and students' activities on the disks.

If you would like to contribute to the text and its supporting materials, please submit a brief proposal in which you address the following: the topic of the lesson; your approach to this topic; and why this topic should be included.

Proposals should be submitted to Kate Manuel (kate.manuel@gmail.com), by 31 January 2005. Notification of acceptances will be sent by 15 February 2005, with completed lesson plans due by 15 April 2005. Multiple submissions from individuals, groups, or institutions will be considered.

How to create persistent links Guides

More from our friends at U of Windsor (who continue to do my work for me :-)

Link: How to create persistent links Guides.

Macromedia Captivate vs. Qarbon Viewletbuilder Pro

At the end of last year I finally got around to playing with the demo version of Macromedia Captivate, and my initial impression was quite favorable.  In that brief review I promised that I would create identical tutorials in each tool so we could all compare the output.  They're not pretty or pedagogically sound; I just wanted to get something done for comparison's sake.  Here you go!

Captivate - ERIC Thesaurus

ViewletBuilder Pro - ERIC Thesaurus

My side-by-side impressions?  I do still like ViewletBuilder, and it's already bought and paid for.  It took me less time to build the ViewletBuilder tutorial, but I am inimately familiar with it, while this was my first kick at Captivate.  I've got to say either product can get the job done.  They both offer similar quiz features (I haven't looked at all the advanced features in Captivate yet, so there may be more there).  Captivate offers a lot more bells and whistles, including fancy animation and of course integration with the full version of Flash and other Macromedia products.

Cost: Captivate is $199 US for an educational license, ViewletBuilder Pro is $399 US for an educational license.  Hmmm, that's not good - I'm pretty sure that's more than I paid for the product back in 2001, though it has improved significantly.  ViewletBuilder Standard is available with an educational price of $239, but it doesn't offer the quiz or interactivity features.  I noticed while I was surfing the Qarbon website that they are offering a deal to upgrade from any of the competitors (Camtasia, Captivate, Robodemo, or Turbodemo) to ViewletBuilder Pro for $200, and I'll bet if you really pushed you might be able to get an educational discount on that price too.

Trial: You can try both products for free if you like - Captivate offers the full version for 30 days, after which it will cease to work, and ViewletBuilder offers the full version also for 30 days, but the products created will have a superimposed watermark until you pay for the licensed version, which will remove them.

Compatibility: Both products work on Windows 2K or XP.  ViewletBuilder works back to Win98, and also works on some Linux and Solaris platforms (probably not a huge market).  Unfortunately, neither appear to work on the Mac platform.

Oh, as I was uploading I noticed one other thing you might be interested in - the ViewletBuilder .swf file (Flash) was just about exactly half the size as the .swf file Captivate created.  I suspect the extra size comes from the animated text I used in the Captivate presentation.

Off-Campus Library Services Conference-Scholarship

Any students or new distance librarians out there interested in a free trip to Savannah next year?  Connie Hildebrand has just announced the following:

The Executive Board of the Off-Campus Library Services Conference is pleased to announce that a scholarship has been initiated to help library students and new librarians attend the Off-Campus Library Services Conference.  At present the recipient will receive free registration, which includes meals and $500 dollars for travel and rooms.  In return the winner will present a paper at the conference. 

We hope to build this fund so that it can be continuous and cover more than one person. If you are interested in supporting this project please contact Connie Hildebrand, Conference Coordinator, email: connie.hildebrand@cmich.edu    The conference registration form also will contain an option to donate to this project. 

For more information or to apply for the scholarship go to the conference web site at http://ocls.cmich.edu/conference  and look under conference announcements.

The application is available as an MS Word document here.

As I've posted before, IMHO this really is the best conference for distance librarians to attend, especially if you're new to the field.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations Migration

As a followup to yesterday's post about linking to dissertations in ProQuest Digital Dissertations, a colleague pointed me to this official page at ProQuest's site:  PQDT Migration.  My institution subscribes to the full text version of what is now being called ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, so what it boils down to is that instead of using our old link, we now use this new link to get to the new interface (run through EZProxy, of course).  More importantly, and something I hadn't realized, is that new new interface offers persistant links right in with the citation, so I don't need to worry about yesterday's mumbo-jumbo at all :-)  Nice job, ProQuest.  Oh, if you're interested in what the new interface brings to the party, here's a summary.

Getting closer to linking into Digital Dissertations

New category added for my blog today: Linking.  One of the things I use this blog for is as a reference tool, a place to keep annotated bookmarks.  As a new semester begins I'm asked by faculty to help them build persistent links to articles to insert into BlackBoard, and I can do the common ones (EBSCO and ProQuest) with my eyes closed, but when they ask for a less-common database I usually have to dig around to remember how to build a link for that product.  So here's the first of what I hope are many posts on how to create permanent links in various databases.  When possible I'll link to the vendor's instructions, but if I happen across a library page that just works, that's what I'll post, and that's what we have here.  Now personally I'm not sure what Mita's talking about when she says "getting closer" 'cause the links just plain old seem to work for me!  I suspect she's talking about the GetIT application they use, as opposed to manually building the links...

Getting closer to linking into Digital Dissertations As I have stated before, the most failed link from our GetIT has been from Digital Abstracts to Digital Disseratations. My colleague has been in contact with Proquest and I think we are getting closer to making links.
...                                                                                            [via Making Links]

OCLC's Data Visualization Pilot with Antarctica Systems Inc.

This is pretty neat.  I've seen other pilots of Antarctica's visual catalogue interface before, but this is the first one I've seen that attempts to lead you to an online version of the book in question.  The interface is really fast, which I appreciate.  Maybe that's because this is a small test set of data?  Took me a little while to find a search box (it's down in the lower right) - probably tucked away because you're "supposed" to click and drill down to get to the actual content.  I don't think that's going to happen in reality.  I think I would use an interface like this to search for a broad subject, and then start clicking the images to drill down.  But I'd want that initial search box more prominently displayed.

A little bit of trivia:  Antarctica is a Canadian company, and while the URL in this post mentions antarctica.net, you can also find the company's homepage at http://www.antarcti.ca  (get it? ;-)

Demo Now Available: OCLC's Data Visualization Pilot with Antarctica Systems Inc.

Data Visualization
Source: OCLC
Online Demo Now Available: OCLC's Data Visualization Pilot with Antarctica Systems Inc.
A must "see" for those of you interested in data visualization. From an announcement received via e-mail, "OCLC has implemented a data visualization pilot project in conjunction with to evaluate library users' experiences with searching and display of search results using a visual interface to the Electronic Books database on OCLC FirstSearch. Users of the Electronic Books database on FirstSearch will see a link at the top left of their basic, advanced and expert search and results screens to "Try an alternative view of Ebooks by clicking here." Clicking this link will take users to a visual representation of the Electronic Books database developed by Antarctica Systems, Inc. You may also view the pilot interface at: http://ebooks.antarctica.net.
For the purpose of this pilot, users will be searching in a static database of about 211,000 electronic book titles. The pilot will run through April 5, 2005."
See Also: Antarctica Systems Inc. and OCLC Announce 3-Month Pilot

[via ResourceShelf]

Can a country digitize everything it has ever written?

Michael Geist writes a weekly column for the Toronto Star called Bytes that often touches upon technology or ideas that would be of interest to distance librarians.  Unfortunately the Star requires you to register to view content, and while it's free it's still a pain.  Fortunately Michael also posts some of his columns to the Interesting People mailing list, which has an online archive.

This week Michael suggests that Canada should become the first country in the world to digitize everything it has ever written.  (Link: Can a country digitize everything it has ever written?.).  Great idea, but he goes into small detail about current copyright happenings up here that will pretty much make sure something like this never happens.  What a shame for us :-(

VRD 2004: Presentations

The proceedings of the 2004 Virtual Reference Desk Conference are now available online.  This conference was held Nov 8-9 in Cincinnati, OH.  There are 37 presentations online in the following categories: Management, General, Evaluation & Standards, Technology, Resources, and Research & Policy.

The 2005 VRD 7th Annual Reference Conference will be held on November 14-15, 2005 in San Francisco, CA.

ebrary Introduces Isaac; Launches Custom Collections; Announces Perpetual Access Model; Distributes Via Blackwell’s; Partners with BookSurge

My library doesn't subscribe to ebrary, but this is certainly news of interest to those supporting distance education...

ebrary Introduces Isaac; Launches Custom Collections; Announces Perpetual Access Model; Distributes Via Blackwell’s; Partners with BookSurge

[via EContent: Breaking News]

eLiteracy Conference 2005 :: Welcome to eLit 2005

This may have been announced before (I suspect so, as the deadline for the CFP is January 28th), but the 4th International Conference on eLiteracy is being held in Glasgow, Scotland from June 15-17.  A couple of my colleagues presented at this conference when it was last held in Glasgow in 2003; they really enjoyed themselves.  The conference website looks very well done too.

Link: eLiteracy Conference 2005 :: Welcome to eLit 2005.

The Future of Books

I think Technology Review might be my new favorite publication.  Just finished a short article called The Future of Books, by Jason Epstein, who "...worked in book publishing for more than 4o years. He was editorial director of Random House and founded Anchor Books, the New York Review of Books, the Library of America, and the Readers Catalog. Now in retirement, he wants to digitally reconstruct publishing, as digitization is re-creating the music industry."

Basically this article is a brief history of scholarly paperback book publishing in the US, ending with a vision of the future where books are commonly printed on demand.

I just had an email conversation with a student in Israel.  We determined there was pretty much no way I was going to be able to deliver books from my collection to her.  But if my library were willing to subsidize her, or if she was willing to pay the small amount (not predicted in the article) such print-on-demand would cost, someday in the future this might prove to be a very viable solution for the distance student.

This is also available as a PDF in Academic Search Premier (link should work if you have access on your campus).  Technology Review; Jan2005, Vol. 108 Issue 1, p60, 4p