The Distant Librarian

Amazon.com to Acquire Audible.com

Another acquisition to end the month: Amazon.com to Acquire Audible.com

Innovation in a book about Innovation

OK, I'm sure it's not really an innovation, but it was the first time I'd ever seen it, and it makes so much sense!  I just finished reading The myths of Innovation, by Scott Berkun, and instead of offering the standard semi-useful bibliography, at the end of this book he provides a ranked bibliography.  The bibliography shows the books from which he took the most notes first.  What a great idea!

It's a really quick read, only 150 pages of actual text, and it did a really good job of sparking some ideas as I was reading.  The colophon is not to be missed either ;-)

Technorati Tags: Innovation, Berkun, bibliographies

ViewletBuilder 4 for the Mac - now with sound!

Update: whoops, I originally posted this calling it VB 5, but was contacted by Qarbon who pointed out it's actually version 4 (they're still working on 5 for the Mac)

Well hot on the heels of my complaint about not having a tool to edit .mov files, Qarbon shared with me a beta  of ViewletBuilder 4 for the Mac.  Now, they've had a Mac version out for some time, but also for some time the version they had didn't support sound.  They appear to have that bug licked.

While I'm no longer a huge fan of the ViewletBuilder / Captivate model of taking individual screen shots and then animating them after the fact, I do certainly appreciate the ability to mark up the screencast.  Here's a long (15 minutes!) walk through of how to build and annotate a very  basic screencast using ViewletBuilder 5 on the Mac.  If you want to actually see what's on the screen, look for the full screen button in the upper right.

Qarbon offers free hosting for two Viewlets of any size.  Educational pricing for ViewletBuilder is $199.

You can watch the actual Viewlet I built here. (there doesn't appear to be a way to embed)

Ovid responds to customer desires on tab naming

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how to use EZProxy to change the default wording on the tabs in the new OvidSP interface.  Seems we weren't alone in desiring a better name for the Ovid Syntax tab, and Ovid reports that on Friday, Feb 1 they're going to automagically switch the name of that tab to Advanced Ovid Search for everyone.  You can of course still use the EZProxy trick to rename it anything you want at all.  I'm looking forward to April 1 ;-)


Technorati Tags: OvidSP

What's actually missing from the Mac Screencasting options

...is the ability to edit the recording.  Specifically adding callouts; arrows, highlights, text overlay...  that sort of stuff.  I now have copies of both iShowU and SnapzProX, and they both do a really nice job of recording the screen.  Lots of variables like size of capture, frame rate, sound or not, but neither offers the ability to edit the recording, other than to pop it in to Quicktime Pro or iMovie to add titles, transitions, or trim and cut.  Is anyone aware of a Mac product that allows a .mov file to be annotated with highlights, text boxes, arrows, etc?  Can't wait for Techsmith to step in here...

Brrrr

That's C on the left and F on the right.  Wind chill on the way to work was reported as -49 C

Actually not complaining; it's been a very mild winter until right about now...

KBPublisher FAQ database at our library

Today we launched our new FAQ database here at the U of Calgary.  We're now using KBPublisher, an open-source product introduced to me by Chad Boeninger at Ohio U.  In addition to being searchable, and thus way better than one of those long lists with anchor tags, the neatest feature in the whole thing is that should someone decide they do want to go ahead and submit a question, as they're typing in the form KBPublisher watches the words they type and before they can hit the submit button, suggests answers that might actually already exist to answer the question.  If it's wrong, they can still go ahead and submit.

Here's a quick overview of our implementation:


Technorati Tags: KBPublisher, FAQs

JungleDisk for online storage

Does anyone have any experience with JungleDisk for online storage?  Really would love to hear some real-world feedback.

Thanks!


Technorati Tags: JungleDisk, AmazonS3

OEDb's Online College Rankings 2008

No mention of the importance of libraries here, but the Online Education Database has just released OEDb's Online College Rankings 2008. 

For each college, we gathered data for eight different metrics — acceptance rate, financial aid, graduation rate, peer Web citations, retention rate, scholarly citations, student-faculty ratio, and years accredited.

Pleased to see the institution where I cut my Distance Ed teeth, Nova Southeastern University, ranked at #4.  Wow, look at the number of Peer Web Citations they got - I'm guessing that raised them quite a bit!

Alchemist author increases sales by pirating his own book

Neat stuff!

"Paulo Coelho, the best-selling author of “The Alchemist”, is using BitTorrent and other filesharing networks as a way to promote his books. His publishers weren’t too keen on giving away free copies of his books, so he’s taken matters into his own hands.  He’s convinced — and rightly so — that letting people download free copies of his books helps sales."

Full post at TorrentFreak.


Technorati Tags: P2P, Books, Sharing

An update on the ANTS project

Hey, remember the ANTS screencast-sharing project?    I've stepped way back from it since assuming my new duties here at the U of C, but it's still going strong, and has undergone some major changes / improvements.    Here's an update that was sent to the COPPUL Distance Education group:

As many of you are aware, we updated our Wiki last spring and we notified this group.  Since then, we have been publicizing it outside of COPPUL and as a result we now have over 50 people registered on the ANTS Wiki.  One reason that we are atracting more and more attention is the contributions made by  our DE group (thank you very much!). Another reason we are growing is due to new contributions coming from outside of COPPUL.  Each time a new tutorial comes up, we are posting them on the ALA Information Literacy Listserv in order to generate interest in the project. It seems to be working.

Interest in the Wiki is also increasing due to many of the Wiki's features
that we are marketing as well.  They allow allow us to create more of a
community on the Wiki.  In particular individuals can:

1. Create individual profiles.

2. Send messages to individuals when they view their profiles

3. Take part in a Discussion Forum.  (It is hoped that the Forum will be used by people interested   in the uses of Shockwave Flash and Building Tutorials... that it will be a community of people who share what they know with others.)

4. Set up their profile to recieve notifications via E-mail and updates about Site activity (by setting up a Watchlist).

5. Encourage others to participate by using its Invite Others feature.

6. Post to the Wiki any time they want to Adopt a Tutorial, update our list
of tutorials for development, etc.

If you have not already done so, it is a good time to register for our new
Wiki and set up a profile.  I have recieved messages from about 4 new members.  Two of them were Distance Education Librarians.  So it is a good community to be a part of.

Both our old ANTS team members, as well as new team members, are also busy
working on several new innitiatives including:

1. A wonderful new site to host our tutorials with a lot of push technology
and sharing technology.  We will tell you more about it as it nears completion.

2. Paul Betty (at Regis University) is experimenting with using Google Analytics to measure Captivate Tutorial use and he will be discussing this at the OCLS conference in March. So look for it if you are attending.

3. Richard Baer (of Camosun College) is having students view different tutorials and provide feedback about what works well and less well.  He is just starting, but already we are getting some interesting feedback that we will share with the group when we have more data.

4. Bill Badke is now focusing on doing Information Literacy Tutorials. He also has agreed to oversee a working group devoted to working on Information Literacy within the ANTS project. It would look at what needs to be created, issues related to Information Literacy and Tutorials, etc.  A second group (focused on the Technology) will oversee the Wiki, Dspace, and the New site. This will allow us to bring specialized knowledge to different aspects of the project.

In December we also added a third new member to the group:  Duncan Dixon of Trinity Western University. Duncan created our CINAHL tutorials and is (along with Paul Betty and Richard Baer) helping with the new site. So we would like to welcome him and thank him for assisting with the project.  We would also like to thank Paul Betty and Richard Baer for the time and energy they have devoted to the project thus far.

As you are aware, the project team did grow this fall. I would like to say that we expanded it for two reasons:

1. To help with many technological develpments that require more hands. In particular, we needed people with expertise in Captivate, Camtasia, Wikis, and Broadcasting sites.  This expertise is important and whenever someone clearly had it, we felt it was important to include them in the project (be they a COPPUL or non-COPPUL Librarian.)

2. We are a project that is now open to non-COPPUL members, and having non-COPPUL members on the actual team, was a way to reinforce that we are more than just a COPPUL project.  This in turn encourages others to participate in this project via contributions.

More works still needs to be done and more help - and ideas about how to improve the project - is always welcome.  To begin however, do take the time to register for the ANTS Wiki (http://ants.wetpaint.com/ ) and post if you have issues related to online tutorials.

Cheers,

Carmen Kazakoff-Lane

Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries and wiki

Just learned that the new ACRL book Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries has an accompanying wiki.  And of course Meredith has a website where she constantly refreshes links for her book, Social Software in Libraries.  Neat ways to keep traditional print current!

Bibliography on Mobile Devices in Distance Education

Michele Reid posted the attached bibliography from the Midwinter Discussion Group session to the OFFCAMP list, and it's reposted here with permission.

 

Incorporating Screencasts In Online Teaching

From The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, No 3 (2007),   ISSN: 1492-3831 - Incorporating Screencasts In Online Teaching by Elaine Peterson.

I'm linking to the abstract page instead of the full text because from there you can choose HTML, PDF, or to listen to the article as an mp3, which sounds surprisingly good to me - neat option!

Abstract
Despite success in teaching the class ‘Organization of Information in a School Library Media Center’ (EDCI 545) online, one component continued to be a problem for students, the Dewey Decimal Classification System. To supplement the instruction, a set of simple screencasts was developed to assist distance education students. Benchmarks were established and a beta test conducted. It is expected that the next online class of students will have increased success because of the addition of screencasts. It is suggested that screencasts be considered as an additional tool for online learners across other disciplines, particularly when using databases that have layered sets of information, requiring multiple mouse clicks.

Interesting to me that while the author used links to the websites of the products she mentioned, the literature review only looked for traditional print literature, despite the fact that there's plenty of evidence in the blogosphere of libraries using screencasts for instruction...



Technorati Tags: screencasting, distance_education

ProQuest Acquires RefWorks

There sure seem to be a log of acquisitions lately!  Official PDF version, or:

BETHESDA, MD, USA (January 18, 2008) – RefWorks, LLC, the leading provider of a web-based research management, writing, and collaboration tool, has announced that it has been acquired by ProQuest, a Cambridge Information Group company.

With over 900 institutions worldwide and over 1M registered users, RefWorks has been successful in facilitating the advancement of scholarly work for researchers around the world and will continue to do so. ProQuest, with the development of their Research Solutions Businesses (Serials Solutions, COS and Dissertations), continues to focus on enhancing their research solutions offerings--- which directly aligns with our vision, mission and values. What does all this mean? RefWorks will be merged with the COS business which is part of Research Solutions Businesses. COS Scholar Universe is renowned for its networking capability, which provides direct access to more than 1.4 million active researchers from around the world in over 200 disciplines. With RefWorks and COS joining forces, researchers will be able to turn to one source for tools that help them identify colleagues with similar research interests, establish alliances and manage joint research projects. We see great synergy between the RefWorks and COS products that will allow us to better assist the researcher through their workflow process.

Externally there will be no changes to the product names and no changes from a customer perspective. We are enthusiastic about the opportunities this merger affords and confident of even greater success with our products.

Technorati Tags: ProQuest, Refworks