I'm now on vacation and mostly unplugged until early July - see you then :-)
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I'm now on vacation and mostly unplugged until early July - see you then :-)
Posted at 11:37 AM in Miscellaneous | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
I've heard of CamStudio in passing, but for some reason had never given it a try before. A post by Chad at Library Voice prompted me to actually give it a go, and if you're on a really tight budget, this puppy will get the job done for your screencasting needs! It's definitely quirky, but it's better than Wink, IMHO. CamStudio allows for audio narration, but no post-creation editing. Well, actually it does give the option of outputting to a Flash Source File for post-processing in Flash, but I don't know Flash well enough to even attempt that.
Two of the biggest impediments are the fact that the SWF file that it creats won't play in Mozilla/Firefox unless you edit the HTML file it creates. Not a huge problem, but still. Second is much more of a strike for me, and that's the fact that while you can add annotations as you go, they have to be all perfectly planned out ahead of time. From the documentation:
"You usually prepare all your layouts before recording starts. When you start recording, you will click a hotkey / shortcut key to cycle through the layouts to display the appropriate captions at the proper time."The first test I did had better sound than this example - then I changed a setting and it came out more choppy, but I'm pretty sure it can be made to sound as it should. Here's a really quick sample for you.
Posted at 02:49 PM | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
An article from the most recent issue of The Electronic Library:
Title: Instruction via Instant Messaging reference: what's happening?
Author(s): Christina M. Desai, Stephanie J. Graves
Journal: The Electronic Library
ISSN: 0264-0473
Year: 2006
Volume: 24
Issue: 2
Page: 174-189
DOI: 10.1108/02640470610660369
Publisher:Emerald Group Publishing LimitedAbstract:
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze one Instant Messaging (IM) reference service to determine to what extent instruction is or can be offered in this medium and whether patrons want or expect it.
Design / methodology / approach – The authors surveyed IM patrons over a seven week period to determine whether they felt they could and did learn from chat transactions. Transcript content was analyzed to find out whether and how instruction is being offered.
Findings – Results show that patrons overwhelmingly welcome instruction and that it is provided in a large majority of cases, using a variety of bibliographic instruction techniques. The way the question is phrased, however, affects the likelihood of instruction to some extent.
Practical implications – The results of this study indicate that librarians should make a habit of practicing instruction in IM reference even when patrons do not appear to be asking for it.
Originality / value – The relationship between instruction and virtual reference has not been fully explored in the literature. Reference and instruction librarians
will benefit from this study's exploration of instruction in the IM medium.
Article Type: Research paper
Article URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/02640470610660369
Posted at 09:05 AM in Electronic Reference, Scholarship, Service, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
I'm recommending another Jon Udell production to you; this time a 43-minute interview with CJ Rayhill of SafariU about their product, and technology in education in general. SafariU is an O'Reilly customized textbook product that allows profs to pick and choose content to create a customized copyright-cleared textbook for sale to students, and that also can be completely searchable online. The first half of the interview is mostly about the product and how it came to be, and gave me a better understanding for the textbook industry. When I first heard of SafariU I didn't think much of it, as a librarian, but after hearing the interview I realize that of course it's not a product for libraries (gasp!).
The second half of the interview is where it gets more interesting, IMHO. Jon describes how blended learning (listening to lectures on his bike and then showing up for class to discuss the material) seems like a complete no-brainer. Then on to screencasting, where CJ posits that it's a natural fit/progression to allow instructors to incorporate multimedia into their custom textbooks. They admit that there's still a learning curve for people to be able to easily whip out a good screencast, but it's becoming more common and you will start to see them appearing in places like software reviews and "textbooks". That gave me the idea that screencasts could be effectively used to provide a very brief introduction to any new database your library rolls out. You don't have to necessarily teach someone how to use the thing, but why not spend a few minutes getting to know the new product (you know you have to do that anyway), and then record a 2-minute overview to orient folks to the new database?
There are a couple more goodies in the interview, go give it a listen.
Posted at 07:57 AM in Books, Document Delivery, Electronic Reference, Ideas, Linking, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
Laurie Prangue is launching a new print(!) publication titled Electrified, and she's looking for contributors:
"It's to encourage librarians and teachers to get excited about electronically-delivered education. The magazine isn't for high-end programmers, there are enough resources out there for them. Instead, this is for the average professional that can feel both excited and scared about the burgeoning delivery of online learning... and both need help and want to share what they've learned. The articles are meant to be written similar to cooking recipes, or knitting instructions, and need to be as clear and concise as possible. A bonus if the stories are enriched with the story of the author her/himself. Think good instructional design written in a conversational, breezy, personal style."Her first deadline is July 20th, so if you've got an idea (she's only looking for about 500 words for each entry), fire it off!
Posted at 01:26 PM | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
Thanks to the wonderful world of social bookmarks, Rebecca Hedreen points out this neat (slightly outdated) Comparison Guide to Distance Ed Programs for Getting the MLS. Part of the larger Become a Librarian site put together by the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, the chart provides links, cost for in and out of state tuition, residency requirements, credits required, contact info and deadline info. Also, and perhaps most useful of all, experiences from people who've been through the programs. Good stuff! I hope they're planning to keep it up to date.
Perhaps something similar could be done for the Canadian Info*Nation site? Probably not for distance programs, since I don't think we have many (or any), but for Cdn MLS programs in general.
Technorati Tags: MLS, MLIS, distance_education, Info*Nation
Posted at 11:41 AM in Ideas, Miscellaneous, Scholarship, Social Networks, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
I probably just missed it, but it was only today that I realized Google Scholar is indexing the ERIC database. That's fine and dandy, but scholarly, it ain't!
Technorati Tags: Google_Scholar, ERIC
Posted at 02:27 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
I've got two short audio files to recommend.
The first comes from the ALA Library 2.0 Bootcamp (which I think finished this week), and is from creativity consultant Kathryn Deiss. At first I thought it was a rebuttal to some of the posts that were disparaging the Bootcamp a couple of weeks ago, but then I realized it was more. It's only 7:09 long, and you can either listen online or after a download. Kathryn provides some wonderful quotes from Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures, a fabulous book I read a couple of years ago, and should again. (incidentally, Johansson has a blog that continues to provide stories from the Intersection). Quotes that help illustrate why it's hard to turn a ship like ALA (and your library), but also providing some ideas for how to do it anyway.
The second is an interview of Apostolos Gerasoulis of Ask.com by Dr. Moira Gunn on TechNation. Also short, clocking in at 26:25, it too can be heard online or after a download. Since Gary Price was hired by Ask.com I've been hearing more about them, and as a result of listening to this interview I've decided to make it my default search engine, at least for a while. Apostolos is a man with conviction, and some pretty good-sounding ideas...
Technorati Tags: Podcasting, Intersectional_shifts, innovation, Ask.com, Search_Engines
Posted at 01:21 PM in Ideas, Miscellaneous, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
I'm reading Naked Conversations right now, and earlier this week I was thinking how much I appreciate the TechSmith Visual Lounge blog. Once upon a time I had a good relationship with one of the customer service reps at Qarbon, and he kept me updated with what was new with ViewletBuilder, but he's gone now and they don't appear to be blogging over there, so aside from very sporadic newsletters I have no idea if they're still chugging away on the product. I have absolutely no dialogue with Macromedia Adobe Captivate. But sheesh, these are smart people at the other companies, surely they're keeping in touch with their users, and I just haven't gone looking to find their communications channels. So today I did. If I missed something you know about, feel free to comment:
Qarbon (ViewletBuilder, ViewletCam): User Forum (no RSS feed) Very low traffic.
TechSmith (Camtasia Studio, SnagIt): Visual Lounge Blog, User to User Forums (no RSS feed)
Adobe (Captivate): Silke Fleischer's blog (Silke Fleischer is responsible for product management and marketing for Adobe Captivate) - The rss feed listed on the blog didn't validate for me, but this one did. Silke's blog appears to be brand new, and I'm not sure how often it's going to be updated..., Captivate Support Forums (offers an RSS feed for the whole thing or for each category). Lots of user-to-user traffic in here, so this seems to be Adobe's preferred channel.
Technorati Tags: Screencasting, communication, customer_relations, RSS
Posted at 11:37 AM in Linking, Service, Tutorials, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
Still don't yet have a way to test these myself, but here are two more candidates for screencasting on the Mac:
Screenography -- Major Pro: has the ability to output directly to Flash. Con: does not record audio (they say they're working on it). $39.95 US (maybe regularly $49.95 US)
Screenography is an extremely easy program to capture your screen to various image, movie and Flash formats. Very useful for creating tutorials, training videos/CDs and demonstrations.VisualHub -- Major Pro: has the ability to convert pretty much anything into Flash. $23.32 US
Posted at 08:31 AM in Ideas, Tutorials, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
You've probably heard of Jon Udell before, possibly as the guy who built the first Library Lookup bookmarklet, or perhaps as the guy who's credited with coining the term "screencasting". Today though, I heart Jon because he built an unofficial RSS feed to receive episodes of This American Life as a podcast.
When I moved to Canada, NPR was one of the things I really missed. Yeah, I could catch it via streaming audio on the web, and I even purchased a program that would record programs broadcast via the web so I could listen at my leisure (this was pre-podcasting days), but it was a bit of a hassle and still required me to do a bit of tweaking. This is the way it's supposed to be - thank you, Jon!
If you've never listened to This American Life before, you really should - just wonderful programming. If you've been looking for a perfect feed to use to try out that podcasting phenomenon, I would recommend this show before all others! (what's cool is that you can also listen from their website, and/or your local NPR station if you're down south -or, as it turns out, on Sirius or XM).
Technorati Tags: Udell, Podcasting, Screencasting, This_American_Life
Posted at 09:40 AM in Ideas, Linking, Service, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (1)
The DLS Liaison Committee has compiled a list of programs at ALA Annual in New Orleans later this month, that may be of interest to the DLS membership. This was originally sent to the OFFCAMP mailing list:
Friday, June 23I was hoping to provide a link to the official ALA Conference website for you to go find out more information about these programs/presentations, but it appears that unless you're a registered attendee, the above is about all the advance information available! If you have more information about any of the above (perhaps you're one of the speakers?) why not post a little more information in the official ALA 2006 wiki?
(Pre-Conference)Saturday, June 24
- Reinvented Reference: The Integration of Digital and Traditional Reference Services -- 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Sunday June 25
- The Silent Majority? Identifying Hidden Users and the Underserved -- 8:00 am – 10:00 am
- Free eReserves: Saving Money, Saving Time, and Expanding Services with Open Source Software -- 8:30 am - 10:00 am
- LITA Distance Learning Interest Group -- 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
- The Ultimate Debate: Who Controls The Future of Search -- 1:30 pm - 03:30 pm
- Use What They Own, Go Where They Are: Plugging the Library into Student Gadgets and Habitats -- 1:30 pm - 03:30 pm
- * DLS Program
Stand by Your Students: Confront the Textbook Pricing Crisis with Advocacy and Alternatives --4:00 pm - 5:30 pmMonday June 26
- * DLS Meeting
All Committees -- 8:00 am - 12:00 pm- Open Source Programs for the Reference Librarian: When your Budget is More Limited than your Vision -- 8:30 am - 10:00 am
- Podcasting the Classroom: Impact, Implications, and Implementations of Podcasting for Teaching and Learning --10:30 am - 12:00 pm
- Copyrights and Licensing Wrongs: When Two Worlds Collide --10:30 am -12:00 pm
- Big Ideas, Small Staff: Successful Tactics for College Libraries --10:30 am -12:00 pm
- Who's Out There and What Are They Doing? Supporting the Independent User --10:30 am – 12:00 pm
- Privacy and Technologies in Libraries: Ethical Challenges and Responses --4:00 pm -5:30 pm
- * DLS Meeting
Executive Board -- 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
- * DLS Meeting
DLS Discussion Group --8:00 am - 12:00 pm- Ebook 3.0: The Converging of the Mobile Lifestyle Media Platform --8:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Abuse is in the Eye of the Beholder: Managing Challenging Users in Virtual Reference --10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Posted at 09:05 AM in Ideas, Miscellaneous, Scholarship, Service | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
Found this great list of screencasting resources as a result of a post by Amit at Digital Inspiration. This week (June 1), Jeremy Wagstaff's Loose Wire column in the Wall Street Journal is about Screencasting. You can't read the column online unless you have a subscription, though the article is currently available through Factiva, and in a month or so will be available in ABI Inform Global. I'll try to remember to come back and update this post with a link then. The list of resources linked at the top of this post is as long as the article itself, but the article is a nice concise introduction to the concept, summarized in this single paragraph:
Screencasts are really simple to grasp. And in some ways they aren't new. But I think they represent a great way to use computers to train, educate, entertain, preach and otherwise engage other people in a simple way. Something the Internet, and computers in general, have so far largely failed to do.
Technorati Tags: Screencasting
Posted at 10:53 AM in Tutorials, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)
Techsmith is looking for 25 beta testers for upcoming releases of their SnagIt (screen capture) and Camtasia Studio (sreencasting) products.
Technorati Tags: Screencasting, Beta, Techsmith
Posted at 03:10 PM in Miscellaneous, Tutorials, Web/Tech | Permalink | 0 Comments | TrackBack (0)