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It's been a while since we've had a local weather report from the Distant Librarian. don't take this as any kind of complaint, 'cause up until about a week ago it's been positively balmy up here. This is the place you're going to want to be when global warming really hits! But right now, the report in one word is: Cold. Here you go in Celsius and Fahrenheit:
To go along with their other ...in plain English series, Common Craft has released a new paperwork video entitled Blogs in Plain English.
Rebecca Hedreen points out that NPR is in the middle of a two-part series on online education. You can listen online if you don't catch it over the air.
Don't have easy access to this one myself, will probably go through ILL, but it sounds like an interesting article:
LIBRARIES, SOCIAL SOFTWARE AND DISTANCE LEARNERS: BLOG IT, TAG IT, SHARE IT!
Secker, J; Price, G New Review of Information Networking (ISSN: 1361-4576); Volume 13, No. 1, pp. 39-52; 2007
If you use any kind of electric toothbrush - make sure you turn it off before you take it out of your mouth, or you're going to spray the toothpaste all over the mirror, which is a pain to clean, and if you're already wearing your work clothes, you may get them messy too. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I really like the interface and options at wetpaint, one of the free wiki-hosting companies. Like most free services, they embed ads on pages that you create. Except now, if you create an education-based wiki with them, you can email them and they'll remove the ads! Visit http://www.wetpaint.com/category/Education--Ad-Free for more details. They say:
Who qualifies for an ad-free wiki?
The following uses of education wikis qualify for ad-free status:
Here's one for the Mac users, and I'm surprised more people don't seem to know about it considering the "bloops" I hear as people adjust their volume during podcasts. As I don't use a desktop, I can only vouch for this on the Apple laptops, where the volume is adjusted using function keys. Quite a useful feature is that in addition to a visual representation of how loud your volume is during the adjustment, you get a "bloop" sound at the appropriate volume. But if you'd rather adjust the volume using only the visual cue and don't want to hear the "bloop", just hold the shift key as you're adjusting with the function keys. Here's what it sounds and looks like first as a default, and then as I press the shift key:
(Aggregator users may need to click through to see video)
A couple of library-related interviews from Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators series:
Stuart Weibel
On this episode of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell invites Stuart Weibel to reflect on his leading role in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. They also discuss how databases like the Online Computer Library Center's WorldCat - which consolidates bibliographic data from over 50,000 participating libraries - can enrich our experience of using and contributing to the web.
This is a little dry, but there are some good analogies and examples of why this stuff is important.
Beth Jefferson
On this episode of Interviews with Innovators, Jon Udell's guest is Beth Jefferson, the founder of BiblioCommons. Her company's new software aims to transform public libraries' online catalogs into environments for social discovery of resources that are cataloged not only by librarians, but also by patrons.
This product seems more geared towards the Public Library sector, but still sounds interesting, and I'm pretty sure she said they're working closely with SirsiDynix, which is the system we use at the U of C, so who knows, might show up at our school one of these days.
Just finished listening to one of Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators podcasts and would like to recommend it to anyone who's paying attention to the idea of gaming in education, or anyone who's not understanding the concept. I mostly fall into the latter camp, especially when it comes to gaming in libraries. I understand the idea of using games in libraries to draw teens, but haven't really bought in to the educational aspect of it, aside from some general skills one might pick up and be able to apply in the real world.
In the interview I'm recommending, Social Dynamics of Online Games, Jon talks with Dmitri Williams and George Vickers:
Dmitri Williams is a 35-year-old academic who studies the social dynamics of online games. He's also a committed member of a World of Warcraft guild in which George Vickers, a 17-year-old college student, plays a key leadership role. In this conversation, Dmitri and George reflect on the ways in which leadership and organizational skills can be developed in an online multiplayer game.
Two of the examples they discussed really made sense to me, though I still can't apply them to a library setting. First, they discuss how George is the Raid Leader in their World of Warcraft Guild, and how this has taught him valuable organizational and leadership skills. George points out that it's an ideal environment in which to learn and practice these skills, because unlike in the real world, if he fails, it's just a game. In the real world if he tried something and it didn't work he might get fired. Dmitri chimes in to acknowledge that it's a little humbling to be directed by someone half his age, but that it also gives him a chance to interact with and learn from someone with whom he otherwise would never have had contact. Lots of discussion of the social implications of the online environment.
The second example is with learning languages, and Dmitri makes the point that while one can of course learn French in the classroom, if you found a game someone was interested in, something fun and engaging, and then said for homework you have to play that game on a French server, and interact with everyone in French (either text or VOIP), you can be sure that the student would learn a lot faster, and aside from some initial frustration, wouldn't even pay attention to the fact that he was learning a language (being educated).
Good stuff - give it a listen.
For some reason in the car this AM the question popped into my head, "Why don't any of us go by the moniker of iBrarian?" I've seen cybrarian in many places, and that connotes a certain impression, but with all the iPod, iPhone etc. hype of the past few years, is this not a bandwagon to which we could hitch our cart? UW, Drexel and Syracuse (and others) seem to think so with their iSchools...
There are a couple of domains already registered as of earlier this year at ibrarian.org and ibrarian.net, but a Google search on the term mostly returns poorly OCR'd documents, and a search on LisZen and LibWorm both show that none of the bloggers are flinging the term around.
Is it just dumb or something?
Technorati Tags: ibrarian
D'Arcy Norman in our Teaching and Learning Centre appears to have had some spare time over the past couple days and has unleashed an altruistic project upon the citizens of Calgary - CalgaryBlogs.net. The front page of the site reads:
CalgaryBlogs.net is a free weblog hosting service. There are no ads, and no subscription fees. What’s the catch? There isn’t, really. I had some spare space on a server, and threw a copy of the excellent open source WordPress Multiuser blogging software on it. If you want a blog, help yourself. I do reserve the right to nuke any spam splogs and link farms. Assume your mother/firstborn/spouse/boss will read your blog. The only rule at the moment is “don’t be evil.”So hey, if you're a Calgarian, were a Calgarian, or maybe even wanna be a Calgarian, why not sign up? Tons of themes available - easy customization, and you can't beat the price, eh? Thanks, D'Arcy! (Wonder how we can get an announcement about this into Facebook w/o paying for ads...)
It's that time of year again! The Alberta Library (TAL) invites proposals for sessions at Netspeed 2008, to be held October 22-24, 2008, in Edmonton, AB.
Netspeed is a conference organized by TAL for librarians and technical staff from all library sectors. This conference serves to highlight new technologies of interest to libraries today. Sessions cover a variety of topics including emerging trends, newly implemented technology, and the impact these have on the library and the community.
Please note that session proposals must be received by January 25, 2008. Proposals for pre-conference sessions are welcome, as are suggestions for speakers and topics.
Session proposals should include:
Netspeed provides many benefits for speakers, including complimentary conference registration and assistance with travel costs. Please limit proposals to 2 speakers per session.
Please e-mail session proposals by January 25, 2008 to netspeed@thealbertalibrary.ab.ca.
For additional information regarding the Netspeed conference, please visit The Alberta Library at http://www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca/.
Haven't yet laid eyes on the latest version of MS Word myself, but in reading a review of the upcoming MS Word 2008 for the Mac I noticed it will include built-in citation management tools. Went and checked and see that it's already available in the Windows version. Interesting.
Technorati Tags: OSX, Word, Citations
Oh this is good - saw someone reference the Blog Readability Test (what level of education is required to understand your blog?) and of course plugged mine in to learn:
Then just for fun I grabbed the first blogger I thought of who actually writes, and this is what Meredith at Information Wants to be Free gets:
That's absolutely hilarious. I suppose it could be a compliment that she writes so well more people can understand... Make up your own mind if you want to trust this tool :-)
The other day I learned a neat Word trick that has nothing to do with libraries, but since part of the reason I keep this blog is to annotate things that are interesting to ME I thought I'd throw it up here in hopes that it's also of interest to you. I've got a few other ones so thought I'd stretch it out as some sort of semi-regular series.
Say for some reason you need to generate a large amount of random (or at least random-looking) text. Maybe you need to fill up a website or Word document to see how the formatting looks over several paragraphs or pages. Here's how to do it in word. Simply type in the following formula and hit enter:
=rand(x,y) where x=the number of paragraphs you want, and y=the number of sentences. You can read more about it at the MS Knowledgebase.
Click through to see it in action if viewing in an aggregator:
Work in Word 2004 on the Mac too :-)
Technorati Tags: Word, tricks
On December 6 and repeated on January 15 I'll be delivering a 2-hour presentation on Blogs, Wikis and RSS in the OCLC Western series of Keep Up! sessions. Members of OCLC Western (from AK, CA, HI, ID, MT, OR, WA) can register for $30, and if you'd like to attend but aren't a member it'll set you back $70 (but you still have to be from one of those states). See you there!
Technorati Tags: OCLC, Blogs, RSS, Wikis
Scott Leslie at edtechpost is seeking a zero-install remote screen sharing application - something that would allow him to see his patron's screen w/o the patron having to download an application. I think Yugma might do the trick, do any of you have actual experience with Yugma, or with any application that would fit the bill for Scott? There are a couple of decent suggestions in the comments of his post.
Technorati Tags: Yuma
You may recall that a week or two ago I had some trouble finding my way from the Monterey airport to the San Francisco airport. The woman at the car rental counter didn't have any maps outside of Monterey, and couldn't give me directions up to SFO. I don't have a fancy phone, but the one I have does support text messaging. Did you know you can text messages to Google and they'll fire answers back almost immediately? Really, to Google, that's 466453, no area code or anything else needed. Had I remembered that, I might've thought to use that option to get driving directions - you can bet I'll remember next time! Here's how it works:
The Thirteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference will be held in Salt Lake City on April 23-25. The conference is offering a comprehensive scholarship to a librarian or prospective librarian who meets the following requirements:
Awarded the August 2007 PRIMO Site of the Month, Publish, Not Perish is an online tutorial written by librarians at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "In this course you will learn to:
No specific mention of library application in this CFP, but let's hear from some of you Second Lifers:
Innovate, published as a public service by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services and sponsored, in part, by Microsoft is soliciting manuscripts for a special issue on academics in virtual environments. This issue focuses on the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) as an enhancement to K-21 education. A MUVE combines graphics and audio with the ability to communicate with multiple users in real time within the context of a 3-D virtual environment. MUVEs are not necessarily considered games, as programs like Second Life and There have no end goal or objective.
Harvard's CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion course opened the doors for other academics to use virtual environments to enhance teaching and learning. In the past two years, over 300 colleges and universities have claimed virtual land in an attempt to enhance content delivery. This virtual land and its future development occurs only a computer network. While critics and skeptics exist, many educators are looking to take the plunge and discover the potential of virtual-based teaching.
Submissions for this special issue may address, but are not limited to, these key issues:
If you would like to submit a manuscript on this topic, please review our submission guidelines at
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=submit and send your manuscript to the guest editors, Beth Ritter-Guth (bguth@lccc.edu ) and Timothy Shields (tshields@nova.edu), and to the editor-in-chief, James Morrison (jlm@nova.edu), no later than January 15, 2008.
Michele D. Behr writes to the OFFCAMP list:
For a presentation at the upcoming Off Campus Library Services Conference we are researching trends in document delivery fordistance learners. We are investigating factors that may impact use of document delivery services, i.e. level of automation, marketingefforts, number of electronic journal subscriptions and e-books, etc. We have developed a brief survey to gather information fromother institutions which provide document delivery services to their distance education communities.It only took me about 10 minutes, though I did have to stop to dig out my historical statistics...
We will be asking for statistics concerning your institution’s electronic journal subscriptions, numbers of e-book titles, documentdelivery statistics for distance education students, and student enrollment over the past five years. Gathering those statisticsahead of time or having access to them while you are filling out the survey may be helpful.
If you do not have the information to answer a question you may skip that question. Please answer as many questions as accurately asyou can.
We estimate that you will need 15-30 minutes to complete the survey.
The survey is available here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7CV0tkSiaz6HWekmOqadEA_3d_3d
We will be collecting responses until November 21, 2007.
Your response to this survey will be very valuable to our research, and we appreciate your participation in sharing this informationwith us. Please contact us with any questions or comments about this survey.
Sincerely,
Michele D. Behr
Julie L. Hayward
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI
michele.behr(at)wmich.edu
R-mail, one of the first RSS to Email utilities I really liked, was acquired earlier this year by NBC, of all things. After quite a bit of development work, R-mail has now been re-introduced as SendMeRSS. Site looks really slick, and if you click on the banner at the top of the page (only later did I see the Watch Video button) you'll get a nice explanation of the fact that they're simply sending RSS feeds to an email box.
Found a link to this on the ResearchBuzz blog: WikipediaVision allows you to see in almost real-time, random English-language edits to WikiPedia according to where they happen on Google Maps. When you watch it in real time it gives you about 5-8 seconds or so to read the title of the entry that's being edited, and then click through to see the actual edit that was made. To just get a flavour of how the thing works I sped it up for you:
I've noticed that if it can't fully resolve the IP address it seems to just default to the middle of the country in question (either that, or there are a whole lot of edits coming from some small town in Northern Saskatchewan!)So I, like many others, was fogged in as I tried to leave Monterey on Wednesday night. For me, the only thing United could offer was another attempt out 24 hours later. Not a single meal voucher, no help with a hotel, wouldn't pay for me to get up to SFO where I could grab a flight home the next AM. Thanks for nothing United, you've lost a customer for life.
So I ended up renting one of the last cars available at the Monterey airport and driving up to SFO in order to catch a flight out the next AM. The woman at the counter was nice, but didn't really seem to know much about the area and couldn't tell me the best way to get to San Fran, and oddly they only had maps for the Monterey Bay area. It was now 9:30, 3.5 hours after my flight was supposed to leave, and I just wanted to get going, so I pointed the car north and followed the only sign I saw that said San Francisco, and that was up Highway 1.
The impression that I got was that it would probably be an incredibly scenic drive on a sunny day. On a foggy night, however, it wasn't much fun. I'll have to try it again someday. Here's a Google Maps comparison of the route I should've taken vs the route I did take:
