Curtin Colloquy

Click 06

2006-01-25T12:29:00.000+08:00

I should have posted this a long time ago, but better late than never: the closing date for submitting papers to the Australian Library and Information Association's biennial conference, Click 06, is 1 February, next week. So if you have anything you'd like to share with your colleagues, get cracking!

The conference will be held here in Perth, yes Perth, in September. The weather in our fine city is usually quite lovely at that time of year, and you'll also get to meet all manner of wonderful West Australian (not to mention Australian) librarians, so I hope you all come and visit, even if you're not presenting a paper.

Best jobs in 2006

2006-01-23T08:03:00.000+08:00

Just saw this list of the best jobs to have in 2006 (courtesy of US News and World Report via Yahoo - as pointed out by Christina), and amazingly, 'librarian' is listed as one of them!

The paragraph describing our profession states that:

The need for librarians, unfortunately, may decline because search engines make it easy for patrons to find information without a librarian's help.

I think this would be true if we weren't constantly changing what we do! I agree that search engines make it all too easy to find information, but I'd argue the need is still there for librarians to teach our patrons how to search (and I don't mean just what buttons to press), to discover, evaluate and point out new information sources, and to deliver information using all means available to us - and in means are as convenient as possible for our patrons.

Interesting use of RFID

2006-01-17T11:04:00.000+08:00

Here's one use of RFID technology I'd never considered:
RF-IDing the dead.

Gary Hargrove, coroner of Mississippi's Harrison County, began injecting radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into cadavers to cope with the mounting body count. He said the chips, supplied by a Florida company called VeriChip, helped the county identify and return storm victims to their families without mix-ups. The county also injected the chips into bodies dislodged from graves during flooding.

The author interviews the coroner in question and discusses the ethical issues involved.

I haven't yet gotten back into the flow of things with this blog, despite having read lots of articles that would have been good to share here.

Everything you ever wanted to know about e-books, but were afraid to ask

2006-01-09T14:58:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've all had pleasant and happy Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations, and to all Muslim readers, Happy Eid ul-Adha! I always like this time of year for the overall holiday feel and especially like it when there are lots of different festivals happening around the same time. Chinese New Year is coming, too...

But to get to the topic of this post, I just found a great bibliography of quite up-to-date materials on e-books, and thought it might be useful to some of us. It's available courtesy of Information Automation Limited: Writings about e-book publishing, 2005.

Bloglines down!

2005-12-20T09:35:00.000+08:00

Bloglines is offline for much needed plumbing works (it has been a bit patchy of late).How am I going to cope without it for the next few hours???

Treasures

2005-12-09T16:59:00.000+08:00

Just wanted to share some treasures I unearthed while skimming through my aggregator:

The Poetry Archive, which allows you to listen to recordings of contemporary poets reading their work for free (if you love the recordings you can buy them). The creators of the site point out that "Poetry was an oral art form before it became textual. Homer's work lived through the spoken word long before any markings were made on a page. Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it. When a poet dies without making a recording, a precious resource is lost for ever and as time goes by that loss is felt more and more keenly. What would we not give to be able to hear Keats and Byron reading their work?" Indeed. I can only imagine listening to one of my favourite poets, Rilke, reading his work - I don't think there are any recordings of him.

The British Library's The Writer in the Garden online gallery, which tries to showcase how authors "have inspired authors and how authors in their turn have shaped notions of the garden". Some great virtual books on display!

And of course I mustn't forget the National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries exhibition! It's not very often that I can say this, but here's the blog of one of the people who worked on the online exhibition: shelter.nu from Alex in Canberra.

Why I blog

2005-12-04T21:28:00.000+08:00

This post was inspired by Chad Boeninger (Library Voice blog). He wrote his answers to these questions back in the middle of November. It’s taken me a while to get to it, but I thought I might answer these questions too.

When did you begin to blog, and why?
I actually created my first blog in 2002. Back then I didn’t have any particular reason to write, so that blog died very quickly. This time around I started in June this year and the practice seems to have ‘taken’ – it has become a part of my daily routine. I started because I found myself having to learn more about blogs and blogging for work, and I find that the easiest way for me to learn something is to actually do it. Rather than reading about it, or going to a class. I also thought it might be useful to have a reason to write.

Does your job require a blog, or is it your own personal choice?
At this stage, no, so blogging is entirely a personal choice for me. I choose what I want to write about. Like many other librarian bloggers (and other bloggers), I’ve chosen to stick with blogging because I enjoy reading and adding my own small occasional contribution to the many conversations out there.

Do you write your blogs at work or elsewhere?
I mostly write at home, although I do occasionally post on this blog during my lunch break if I find something I simply must blog about. When it comes to my other blog, Ruminations, I actually have a strict self-enforced rule about not blogging at work. I just think the timestamp on a post would be a dead giveaway that I was not working (writing about my fountain pen obsession or my cockroach phobia would not count as work, I don’t think).

What is the primary purpose or aim of the blog?
This blog is where I write and collect material on issues affecting librarianship, academic librarianship in particular, as it’s the flavour I know best. Also technology – specifically all that ‘stuff’ that is starting to coalesce under the Web 2.0/Library 2.0 label. I hope to be able to help my colleagues by finding and pointing out material that may be of interest or some use to their work. I have been known to muse about how much I’ve learned reading other librarians’ blogs, so this is my attempt at giving something back.

Ruminations is for more ‘personal’ stuff. This-is-My-Life.

I originally started out thinking that I’d just be playing around with blogging software and all those tools and applications (del.icio.us, Flickr, etc) that plug into blogs. Somehow the writing superseded all that, although I still do play with things as I find them.

Does your company have any policies or guidelines about blogging?
Not yet. Amusingly, I have been asked to assist a senior manager who is on a working group specifically to decide on blogging guidelines and policies for our organisation.

Are your blogs monitored by your organization?
Not officially. Because I recently gave a presentation to my colleagues and handed them the URL for this blog as part of it, I expect/hope that at least some of them will be visiting here at some point. (Hello LIS people!) I don’t usually proclaim my name on either of my blogs, but I don’t think it would be too difficult to work out who I am from what I’ve written.

What inspires you to blog?
The sense of community. I feel a part of the biblioblogosphere, even if there aren’t (m)any of my closest colleagues engaging with me in this medium at this stage, and I’m still such a newcomer and don’t know many people. I’ve never ever felt a part of a community with email lists. I think there is a lot to be said for blogs as a one-to-many means of communication. Where email lists are cacophonous for me (RE: RE: RE: RE: FWD: – help!), blogs are easy to digest and easy to follow, and you can really see the conversations developing – and even participate in them yourself.

Do other members of your organization blog?
Not as far as I know. I live in hope…

One of my former colleagues, Kit, contributes to this blog from time to time.

There aren’t all that many West Australian librarians blogging yet, as far as I know. (Apart from Kit and one of her colleagues, are there any others??)

Is blogging for you an act of self-empowerment?
I’d never thought of blogging that way, but I suppose it is, in a way. Being better informed is empowering. There is so much out there it can be a fine line between being informed and being swamped by the information. Blogging can help a little towards clarifying things – for me writing about things is surprisingly useful, illuminating, even. Connecting with other people can also be empowering.

Do you feel you can write about anything and not be judged? Have you ever “vented” or wrote about negative feelings toward your organization?
I try not to. I’m always aware that things can be misinterpreted so I do try to be careful. I try not to name names. I do my best not to write anything about other people that could offend them. I try to only write what I would happily say to someone's face. If I feel I can tell Colleague X (or Colleague Y, or Colleague Z) to her face that I think she is a complete idiot, then I will write it here. No photos of people without their permission. I do my best to be accurate when writing factual stuff. I often write about things that I know about. I also write about things I am learning about. I try to have fun.

Do you feel like you are writing for yourself, or your audience?
Both. Often I’m trying to record some information for myself, as well as my responses to whatever it is. I do also try write as clearly and as interestingly as I can, because anyone could be reading this! Ruminations is definitely written for me – but I am starting to have ‘regulars’ so I find that I often do keep them in mind when I write.

What is RSS good for?

2005-11-29T10:12:00.000+08:00

VALISblog (in New Zealand) points to a nice list of seven things RSS is good for:

saving time
convenience
access to a richer pool of material
zero in on the information you want
to serve as an alert service
levelling the playing field (between micro-publishers and major news sites)
to drive conversation

The original post was on New Media Musings. A glance at that post showed me that apart from the list of seven, the author also suggests five reasons why companies should be using RSS:

1. Multiple gateways. It's another doorway or distribution channel for getting your content in front of readers. [CW's comment: Very true. We've been using RSS to communicate new titles in our collection, and see it as another way of promoting ourselves without adding to their email!]

2. Self-syndication. It allows publishers to syndicate content without the involvement of third parties. [CW's comment: And it's relatively easy to do too!]

3. The predictability principle. By far the most important reason is this: Just as with newspaper subscriptions, RSS subscriptions mean your content is guaranteed to be seen on a regular basis rather than via sporadic pull behavior. On a typical news site, a reader stops by an average of three times per month.

4. Loyalty. RSS can forge a closer relationship with readers if done in conjunction with a weblog or community feedback tools.

5. Future revenue streams. RSS could be a great way of distributing classified advertising and other targeted marketing opportunities as long as the user requests it and finds it useful.

It seems to me that these five points apply to libraries as well, apart from the fifth point, which may not be relevant to non-profit libraries. Still, RSS can be a marketing and promotional tool - everytime your feed is updated you remind your users you are there.

Ranganathan

2005-11-24T21:10:00.000+08:00

Interesting: David Weinberger at Joho the Blog points to his recently published article about Ranganathan (he who coined the Five Laws of Librarianship) . David credits Ranganathan's faceted classification with "saving IBM $500m a year". It's a short article with a clear simple introduction of Ranganathan's work - good for introducing the Great Man to non-librarians (and even for reminding some librarians). Take a look at the article (in PDF format) and see if it reinspires you to get reacquainted with his work, and to consider some of its applications today.

Wiki

2005-11-20T17:59:00.000+08:00

Wiki is another one of those buzzwords you’ve been hearing and possibly wondering about. As with other technology/web phenomena, there’s been a lot written about wikis, and there are lots of examples of wikis around as well. I’ll do my best to give you a bit of an introduction and point you to sites where you can learn more.

Definition
One definition of wiki is that it is “The simplest online database that could possibly work”. More detail: “Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.”

In many cases, anyone reading a wiki can choose to edit the information displayed there. You click the ‘Edit’ link on the wiki page and you’re away. Once you finish, you click ‘Save page’ or ‘Update’ and the changes or additions you just made are instantly incorporated into the wiki. Yes, it’s that easy. (Not all wikis are open to all and sundry – you will need to have a password to be able to make changes.)

Where did the word itself come from? Most online sources (such as Wiktionary) will tell you that it is “From Hawaiian wikiwiki ‘quickly’.” Another explanation, which I hadn’t heard of until I started really looking at the word’s origins, is that it is an acronym for “what I know, is” (see Wikipedia).

Uses
Probably the most famous wiki is Wikipedia. It is an online encyclopaedia that has been built from scratch by ordinary people! Anyone can contribute to or edit Wikipedia. Wikipedia has been around since 2001, and there are around 60 different language versions. For the English language version alone there are more than 818,000 articles (as of 20 November 2005). There has been much debate about Wikipedia – how accurate/unbiased/good is it? See, for example, this quite fierce critique, and this more recent overview of Wikipedia. Another overview of the impact of Wikipedia and wikis in general is available at Cnet. (Before this post gets completely hijacked by a discussion of Wikipedia, I’ll just say that as librarians we all need to be aware of it, especially when showing clients how to search for information on the web and how to determine if information is authoritative, and so forth. For another librarian's view of Wikipedia, take a look at Michelle McLean's blog.)

Because a wiki is so easy to edit, it is seen as the ideal collaborative tool, allowing groups of people to share information. In the corporate world, teams can use wikis to work together on projects.

I recently created my own wiki, just to experiment with, and I am pleased to confirm that it is very easy to use. I’ve been using my wiki to collect information and links to sites and articles on technology and libraries, so please do take a look at it. You are also welcome to be a contributor to it if you’d like, but you will need a password to edit or add stuff, so please ask me for the password if you’d like to check it out. (I’m also happy to give you a quick introduction on how to edit and so forth, so let me know.)

Benefits and drawbacks
So why are wikis good? Sean Forman says it very succinctly:
“Very easy page and structure creation.
Each contributes as able.
Gives free rein to go-getters.
Formation is evolutionary.”

But of course, it’s not all good – as Sean points out again:
“Graffiti happens.
Infringement happens.
Gardening is required. [the analogy of tending a garden is widely used when discussing wikis – sites that host or allow you to set up your own wiki are often called wiki farms]
Who owns what?
Not a discussion forum. [It’s not always obvious who provided or edited the information.]
Difficult to impart a chronology on documents.
… Formation is evolutionary.”

For more wikis to look at, take a look at my list.

Want to look at a wiki?

2005-11-17T13:47:00.000+08:00

I've created a wiki! It's at http://colloquy.pbwiki.com/. If you'd like to edit it, please let me know - leave a comment, or email me!

Celebrating Knowledge

2005-11-16T21:20:00.000+08:00

The Rambling Librarian has some interesting posts on his blog at the moment, reporting on the some of the presentations he attended at the recent Celebrating Knowledge conference.

See, for example, the report on the presentation by Doug Johnson, Director of Media & Technology, Mankato Area Public Schools, USA, on "The Future of e-Books". He proposes an interesting version of the e-book - not a version tied to a computer or PDA for reading, but one that is "padded, lightweight, uses a watch-battery & solar-powered, wireless, provides static memory, and has a "digital" paper, i.e. flexible display screen."

Thought provoking quotes by Doug Johnson, as noted by Rambling Librarian: "Students should come to the library, not to avoid the librarian, but because of the librarian."

Also: "Computers will not replace librarians. But librarians who know how to use computers will." This is something I'm realising, increasingly. So many of the people I serve know what they want, and to some extent, how to get it. (And of course they should, seeing as my colleagues and I work really hard to teach them the skills they need to find the information they need!)

If librarians are going to remain relevant we are going to have to continue to learn about information and communication technology, and continue to be able to provide our clients with the skills to how to use this technology. What value can we add, what can we contribute to the experience of a user of our resources and services?

When I started working in the library the web and email were increasingly useful tools and supplements to the resources we had for finding and providing information to our clientele. We now have databases, online journals, federated searching, RSS... What place will digital repositories, blogs, wikis, tagging, podcasting and so on have in the (academic) library? I am watching the continued development of the web with great interest and enthusiasm!

RSS

2005-11-15T06:01:00.000+08:00

RSS is a way of formatting and delivering data. It is used as a way of syndicating information, and it “provides an instant summary of new content appearing in a web site or blog. RSS makes new content available not only in the website or blog where it originates, but on your desktop.” (This was written by my colleague SGS who has a much better way with words than me. You may decide to just stop reading this entry and continue with her nice description of RSS instead!)

If you click an RSS icon you will see a page of what appears to be code - RSS feeds do not display correctly in a regular web browser. This is because the information is written in a particular format; an analogy would be if you tried to open a PowerPoint presentation in your word processor – the word processor would not be able to display the presentation in the correct format. To view anything that is in RSS format, you need to use an RSS reader (also known as an aggregator or news reader).

There are loads of RSS readers available out there - Wikipedia has an extensive list. There are two main types of RSS readers. (Actually there are more types, but I don't want to talk about them here.) The first type consists of programs that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. You may need to experiment with a few to see which suits you. I've tried RSSReader and SharpReader and both worked well on my PC.

The second type is the web-based variety, where you create an account with the service, which checks the feeds regularly and allows them to be read using your browser. Examples of web-based feed readers are Bloglines and Kinja. Google has gotten into the act too, and released their own web-based RSS reader, but at this stage I don't recommend it - it is still buggy and has a number of annoying problems that need to be fixed to make it good to use. (See explodedlibrary's review.)

Once you have chosen the RSS reader that suits you, you use it to subscribe to the RSS feeds of any blogs or websites you are interested in. (Most RSS readers make it easy to susbcribe to RSS feeds - they can detect the feed with the click of a button.) The RSS reader periodically checks the feeds subscribed to for any updates or changes to the sites, and provides you with a headline and a short easy-to-scan summary of each article or update, with links to the full articles. You can skim these headlines and summaries easily and only read the full article if it catches your attention.

I really like Bloglines and use it as my main aggregator. It suits me as I work on about four different computers every week! I don't need to worry about maintaining four different installations of a desktop RSS reader - with Bloglines I can log into the same list of feeds wherever I am. There is a very nice tutorial on using Bloglines available, written by Preetam Rai (thanks, Preetam, and thanks to the Rambling Librarian for the link).

If you are subscribed to the RSS feed of a blog (any blog!) you don't need to compulsively check to see if your favourite author has posted a new entry - your RSS reader will tell you! In my experience, most blog hosting sites (Blogger, for example) automatically generate the RSS feeds for each blog that lives on their servers. This means inexperienced bloggers, like me, do not need to worry about how to create the feed for their blog.

At the moment, people talking about RSS often mention blogs at the same time. Initially I found this a bit confusing because I didn't understand what 'personal online diaries' (this was my idea of what blogs were) had to do with RSS. I now understand why this link has happened - because blogs are so popular, and because most blogs have RSS feeds, the number of available feeds is huge, RSS too has become popular, and the usefulness of RSS is very obvious. Business is starting to get into RSS, as is academia (and academic libraries!). Increasingly, many 'regular' websites, particularly sites which are frequently or regularly updated also use RSS feeds to inform their readers of these changes. RSS is also useful for news sites, such as the ABC and the BBC, for instance. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is another prominent Australian example.

I haven't said anything about what the letters 'RSS' stand for. When I first started investigating RSS, I found it very confusing because different sources would say different things. RSS may stand for RDF (Resource Description Format) Site Summary (I really dislike acronyms within acronyms!), Rich Site Summary , Really Simple Syndication, or Really Stops Spam. There is also Atom, another Web syndication format. This is because of the way RSS has developed over the years, with different competing groups working on their own versions...

In the end, though, as Steve Shaw says, it doesn't matter what RSS stands for: “RSS is just another language of the web, but you can actually completely ignore the code itself, just like you can ignore the source code behind web pages that you visit - you are only interested in the end product that the code is designed to produce for you, the end user.” The content is what matters.

This post was originally written and posted for my other blog, way back in July. I've updated it slightly, but apart from that I can't really see anything I'd change at this point. Any comments are of course welcome.

Blog features

2005-11-13T13:04:00.000+08:00

Because each blog is made up of numbers of individual articles or posts, navigating a blog is somewhat different to navigating a 'non-blog' site.

Posts
As mentioned last time, the most recent post is usually the first post you will see on a blog. The date (and often the time) of posting is also displayed, either at the beginning of a post (next to or near the title of the post), or at the end of the post. You'll usually see the author's name. This is especially relevant if the blog is written by a group of individuals (you'll note that this post was written by CW, so all mistakes are CW's alone).

Comments
If comments are allowed, you will see a link called 'Comments' (or similar), usually at the bottom of a post (although some blogs display the comments link right up top next to the title of a post). The number next to the word 'Comments' indicates the number of comments that have been made by readers.

Query via email 16 November 2005: I tried to make a comment but it asked me to add html tags and had a username and password box and I got scared……
When trying to add a comment to this post, or any post hosted on a blogger.com blog (the blog's URL will have the word blogspot in it), you may see some information about html tags. Ignore this, unless you want to italicise or bold any of your comment - it is just a reminder that you can use such tags to format your text!

You can choose to log in to post using the blogger.com option if you have a blogger.com account - you might want to log in so that you can comment as your blogger 'persona' and leave your blog details for the owner of the blog and other readers to follow up on. The 'other' option is for you to leave your name or pseudonym and the URL of your non-blogger.com blog (or other website). I have also enabled anonymous comments, so you don't have to leave any 'real' name or URL.

Whichever option you choose, you will have to use the 'word verification' option which requires you to fill in the box with the letters you see. This is an attempt to deter so-called 'spambots' - automated programs used by despicable spammers to flood our blogs with spam comments. These spambots cannot read the letters you see, only people can - and because they cannot read these letters and fill in the box, they cannot complete the spam comment. Sometimes the letters aren't as legible as they could be - if you are unsure what the letters are, make your best guess. If the letters you type in the word verification box don't match, you will be given another opportunity to enter a different sequence of letters. (Thanks for asking, DB!)

Permanent links
Each individual post on a blog usually has its own URL or 'permanent' link (this link is as permanent as anything that exists in cyberspace - it should exist as long as the blog exists). The URL or permanent link for each post on a blog can be found either by clicking on or moving your mouse over the title of the post, the time or date of the post, or the hash # symbol at the bottom of the post. So, to tell your friends about this blog, you would use its URL: http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com. To mention a specific post, you would use its permanent link. For example the post I wrote earlier about blogs is at http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogs.html. (Tip: you can usually click on the name of a blog to go back to the main page and most recent post.)

Archives
Each post is automatically stored or archived, so you can see how long a blog has existed (the more venerable ones can be 3, 4, sometimes even 5 years old!), and go and look at previous posts. This blog has been around since June this year.

Archives can list posts one by one (although this would mean the list would get unmanageably long if there are a lot of posts!), week by week, or month by month. It can be interesting to see how a blog develops over time.

Categories
Another feature is categories or tags describing what each post is about. As you write and publish a post, you can describe what the post is about, using keywords or tags. This can be very useful because makes it very easy to sort and find posts on specific topics. It also means you can easily see what each blog is about by looking at its categories. I have not implemented categories properly on this blog, mainly because Blogger doesn't have it as an option, and I haven't bothered. (I did bother on my other blog, using this workaround.) Categories, like comments, are usually displayed at the end of a post.

Trackback
Trackback is another blog feature, although not one I have used much, again because Blogger doesn't seem to have it. A non-technical definition:

TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, "This is something you may be interested in." To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B. [A ping in this context refers to "a small message sent from one webserver to another."]

Basically, TrackBack lets you know if someone has linked to a post on your blog. Usually the TrackBack appears as a comment.

Wikipedia notes that TrackBack has been abused by spammers in recent times.

'Blogroll'
I like this term (which always brings me visions of sponge cake and jam!). It refers to the list of links to other blogs that a blogger will place on her/his blog. The blogroll on this blog (on the right of the page) is a list of blogs belonging to other library folk. Other links, to non-blogs, may also be listed. And sometimes a blogger will choose to showcase a favourite post.

I still haven't mentioned RSS! I feel another post coming on...

Compare and contrast

2005-11-11T09:09:00.000+08:00

CW asked me if I was still interested in contributing to this blog and I will for the time being...

Yes - today is my last official day of working at the Big Academic Library and next Monday I start at the small public library..I'm actually on leave at the moment - just had two glorious weeks off..... The process of resigning happened like a whirlwind for me.....and I was very surprised (happily) at the speed in which a temporary replacement was appointed...

I'm hoping that blogging will give me a vehicle to "compare and contrast". The new job won't have half as much funding and everything will be on a much smaller scale. However, I think that there'll be more commonalities than differences. I also think that by experiencing a totally different field of librarianship, I might be able to get a better handle on what a librarian is......although in the end,it's probably whatever you make it...... And I'm one of those who's hackles rise when non- librarians say that my job must be great as I get to read books all day. The old job meant that I was sitting in an office facing a computer for much of the day.. So I'm looking forward to more contact with the "clients" on a much more personal basis.

I think some were surprised that I was going from academic to public - it may be seen by some as a backward step, but not for me.....There is defintely a status hierarchy of librarians........I'm still not sure which type sits at the top (law or academic?), but I've been told that the poor old school librarian is the bottom feeder...

Anyway - no other thoughts for now...

Blogs

2005-11-10T20:05:00.000+08:00

You are reading this on a blog. For someone new to blogs¹ this is not necessarily obvious. A blog is a type of website. What makes blogs different from other websites?

Firstly, where the content of a 'regular' website is in the form of a series of web pages linked to each other, the content of a blog is in the form of 'periodic articles (posts)' that can be added very frequently; even several times a day. The posts are usually organised in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post first.

Secondly, "A blog is a website powered by software that simplifies publishing,organizing, and syndicating Web content." (from the Free Range Librarian's blog.) So while a regular website requires some knowledge of HTML to update (or create), it is not necessary to have such knowledge to create or maintain a blog. The blogging software does a lot of the work for you (instead, what is important is the content)².

I think these are the major differences between blogs and other websites. Another really interesting feature that blogs have is the facility for readers to write comments in response to posts. I haven't listed commenting as a distinguishing feature of blogs in general, because not every blog allows its readers to comment. Sometimes, blogs are written solely for the purpose of keeping their readers informed, and not for inviting discussion. The format and ease of updating a blog means that organisations may choose to use blogs to provide information to their staff, for example. In these cases, commenting may not be available as a feature.

There are many really interesting freely available blogs that have the commenting feature disabled; sadly,there are a lot of trolls (people who deliberately set out to post offensive or inflammatory messages, just to annoy others) and spammers out there - yes, spam also affects blogs. (This blog allows comments. To comment, scroll to the bottom of this article (post), and click on the comments link. You will be taken to a page where you can write what you think of this post. Or even just,"Hi CW, I read this!")

There are many, many, many blogs out there. I'm not sure that anyone can say definitively how many blogs there are, but one estimate says there are at least 20 million blogs out there. Perhaps part of the reason for the huge numbers is the fact that blogs are really easy to create. There are many sites that will host your blog - allow you to create a blog and continue to maintain it - for free. This blog, for example, lives on Blogger (also known as Blogspot), a free blog host that is owned by Google. This extensive list of sites that host blogs at Weblogs Compendium ("everything you need to know about weblogs/blogs") gives a good indication of the huge number.

Blogs can be written by individuals or groups of individuals. You'll note that Kit was my partner in crime on this blog - Curtin people who would like to try blogging are welcome to let me know! Join me!

I haven't said much about the content of blogs. I think they can be about almost anything - any topic the blogger wants to write about, basically. I have seen blogs about

news/politics/current affairs - this is a huge 'genre'. Some of these blogs are quite widely read, particularly in the US.
technology and the Internet (not surprising!)
particular professions and occupations- librarians, teachers, artists, lawyers...
hobbies and interests
commercial - to promote a product or a company
personal issues, rather like a journal

The final type of blog represents the current commonplace view of what blogs are, I think.

William Safire, the NewYork Times columnist, said, of blogs:

"Blog is a shortening of Web log. It is a Web site belonging to some average but opinionated Joe or Josie who keeps what used to be called a ''commonplace book'' -- a collection ofclippings, musings and other things like journal entries that strike one's fancy or titillate one's curiosity. What makes this online daybook different from the commonplace book is that this form of personal noodling or diary-writing is on the Internet, with links that take the reader around theworld in pursuit of more about a topic.

"To set one up (which I have not done because I don't want anyone to know what I think), you log on to a free service like blogger.com or xanga.com, fill out a form and let it create a Web site for you. Then you follow the instructions about how to post your thoughts, photos and clippings, making you an instant publisher. You then persuade or coerce your friends, family or colleagues to log on to you and write in their own loving or snide comments." (28 July 2002)

In many ways this definition is true, because there are many personal blogs that are written by individuals about their daily lives. However I think that's a very narrow, even elitist, view of blogs, because there are so many different types of blogs out there, and it doesn't take into account the contributions blogs are making to the public discourse. (For example, in times of disaster, bloggers are often the first to report and provide information. And discussions on blogs about issues affecting a country can help engage people.) The implication here is that personal musings by some average but opinionated Joe or Josie, being just average are not worth reading.

I think blogs are the next wave of 'desktop publishing', allowing all of us just average folks to express ourselves, share information, and maybe even make connections with each other. (One great example of this 'making connections' is the Operation Eden blog, written by someone whose family was affected by the recent Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. His sharing of his fears and hopes for his family is inspiring and really gives a human face to the suffering for those of us who are far away from the area affected.)

For us as librarians, we can write about our libraries and the issues we face, and share commonalities, differences, solutions, ideas... Sure, we will not all have the skill or the art of a great writer like William Safire or [insert name of any well-regarded writer here], and sure, there are lots of blogs that will not be particularly well-written or interesting to many, but does that matter?

¹This post was written to help inform some of my friends and colleagues. It is the first, I hope, of a series of posts, looking at technology and how it may affect libraries.²There is more to be said about the capabilities of blogging software - archiving, permanent links, and I didn't mention RSS!! - but I'll leave it for another post.

technorati tags: blogs, weblogs, blogging

Public library online

2005-11-06T20:00:00.000+08:00

Dropped in at my local public library - Perth City Library - on Friday. This library is my source of what I consider 'pulp fiction' (escapist fun easy reads that I can read in one sitting and don't usually bother to reread). I also get Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian language material from them.

As I was leaving with my three Malay language novels and two thrillers/whodunnits (Robin Cook's Vector and W.J. Burley's Wycliffe and the last rites), the library staff member made a real point of asking me if I had Internet access at home. When I said I did, she happily gave me a bookmark with the Perth City Council's URL on the back, and told me I could now search the library catalogue and even place requests for material they don't have in their collection, all from home! (I refrained from exclaiming that at last! they are offering this very basic service. I thought I would seem churlish and unfriendly.) She also told me that they'd also just recently added access to the Health and Wellness Online database, along with their existing Britannica, Ebsco and AusStats subscriptions.

I just checked the Health and Wellness database (from Thomson Gale) - simple to use and navigate, but I can't help but think that a lot of the information contained there is already available for free online. I suppose you can expect that it is going to be reputable information, without having to trawl through all hundreds of sites on the free web.

I was interested to see what Ebsco was offering - no Harvard Business Review, but you can read Cleo, Hecate, and National Geographic (with a 3-month embargo on fulltext). I was disappointed that they only had the bibliographic records for Choice and Reader's Digest, though.

All in all I'm glad to see that my local is offering more online options to readers these days. I wonder what sorts of views the city councillors have on public libraries...

Edit 7 November 6:45am: I neglected to mention that I really like the panorama of the view outside the library. I also like being able to see what books I've borrowed - since 1996!

P.S. Verdict on the two English language books: don't bother with either. Robin Cook's dialogue was atrocious and the characterisation stereotyped; the W.J. Burley seemed... remote... and you never really got to like any of the characters.

What's the future of libraries?

2005-11-02T21:29:00.000+08:00

Found this very interesting article on the Digital Librarian's blog (he, in turn, got it from catalogablog) today. Called The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation, I think it is well worth reading and pondering.

The author makes some interesting recommendations:

“1) Evaluate the library experience. Begin the process of testing patron’s opinions, ideas, thoughts, and figure out how to get at the heart of the things that matter most in your community. Survey both the community at large and the people who walk through the library doors. [I think this one is fairly obvious. I think we need to keep at it and do it continuously.]

2) Embrace new information technologies. New tech products are being introduced on a daily basis and the vast majority of people are totally lost when it comes to deciding on what to use and what to stay away from. Since no organization has stepped up to take the lead in helping the general public understand the new tech, it becomes a perfect opportunity for libraries. Libraries need to become a resource for as well as the experts in each of the new technologies. [Again another obvious one. It's hard for librarians to keep up with tech too. And what's taught in library school these days?]

a. Create a technology advisory board and stay in close communication with them.

b. Recruit tech savvy members of the community to hold monthly discussion panels where the community at large is invited to join in the discussions.

c. Develop a guest lecture series on the new technologies.

“3) Preserve the memories of your own communities. While most libraries have become the document archive of their community, the memories of a community span much more than just documents. What did it sound like to drive down Main Street in 1950? What did it smell like to walk into Joe’s Bakery in the early mornings of 1965? Who are the people in these community photos and why were they important? Memories come in many shapes and forms. Don’t let yours disappear. [Not just for public libraries, I think university libraries have a role to play here too. Funny, we've actually been discussing this at work just today!]

“4) Experiment with creative spaces so the future role of the library can define itself. Since the role of the library 20 years from now is still a mystery, we recommend that libraries put together creative spaces so staff members, library users, and the community at large can experiment and determine what ideas are drawing attention and getting traction. Some possible uses for these creative spaces include:

a. Band practice rooms

b. Podcasting stations

c. Blogger stations

d. Art studios

e. Recording studios

f. Video studios

g. Imagination rooms

h. Theater-drama practice rooms

[I like the idea of us providing so much creative space, but can imagine the tussles we will have with our parent organisations - and with each other! - over such innovations, and some might argue, departures, from the traditional role of the library. And of course there will be the inevitable space and financial issues to consider...]

Love those blogs

2005-11-01T06:59:00.000+08:00

Laura at lis.dom has just written about librarians' blogs ¹, the sense of community she's felt and the relative ease of joining this community. I have to say I agree with Laura, that the biblioblogosphere is a welcoming one, and one where "you can get by--get ahead, if you want to think of it that way--simply on the strength of your ideas and your willingness to express them". Even if I don't express them so good. And even if the number of Australian librarians blogging away out there is smaller than the American community - the nature of the liblogosphere is such that we eventually, gradually find each other.

I don't remember how I found blisspix, but I have been reading it for quite some time now, and through that blog I have found and learnt about many others. Through blisspix I found explodedlibrary, and from there, quite a few more Australian librarians and a lot more besides!

I'm subscribed to a number of librariany email lists but these days I find I enjoy reading and dialogueing with librarian bloggers more. I get so much email everyday that I find I tend to just scan most email that is not directly work-related (ie asking me to do something). I'm sure I miss a lot of goodness in email lists, but I just can't keep up with it all - by the time I get around to writing something in response to some gem posted on some list somewhere, the moment is long past and I decide there's no point trying to resurrect some topic that died three or four threads ago. And it's probably just me, but email these days also has that taint of spam to it, and I seem to find trawling through my Bloglines subscriptions FAR more enjoyable, informative and relaxing than I do reading email.

¹ What should I call them, biblioblogosphere, as Laura does? A bit of a mouthful! Liblogs? Biblogs? Anyway.

Vicarious conference attendance

2005-10-27T20:42:00.000+08:00

The last time I attended a conference of any sort was the New Librarians' Symposium in 2002, in Brisbane. I have no idea when I will next attend a conference, but if conferences continue to be as well covered and well discussed as the recent Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, California, well, I won't need to!

Libraryman informs us that he (and I presume other attendees) got to wear a green blogger ribbon at the conference. He took lots of photos, too (see below).

Tame the Web reports on a number of sessions he attended. I particularly liked his post about building commitment and excitement among library staff for projects involving tech.

LibrarianInBlack has lots of posts about the conference. She talks about how libraries can compete with Google, and reports on the state of search engines today, among other things. Check out her blog for more!

Library Web Chic too has interesting reports. For example, she reports on a survey conducted by John Kupersmith which discovers which library terms users understand, and, perhaps more importantly, terms they don't understand. Or take a look at her report of Lee Rainie's presentation on the impact of the Internet on society. (Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet and American Life project which studies and reports on Internet use in America)

Mamamusings too has reports - I particularly enjoyed reading her report on another session (or was it the same one as the one LibrarianInBlack attended? No matter, it's good to hear reports from different perspectives) about search engines. "Greg [Notess] says that he doesn’t like to start his searches with Google. As a reference librarian, if he starts with something other than Google it boosts his credibility with patrons—he’s not just doing the same thing that they do! :) "

And of course, we mustn't forget the photos! Take a look at all the photos on Flickr tagged IL2005.

No more neglect!?

2005-10-26T20:31:00.000+08:00

I'm still quite amused that readers continue to find this blog despite my neglect of it and the almost complete lack of promotion to date. My sincere apologies for the lack of recent updates - I hope to pick up the ~~reins~~ keyboard once again. Thanks to explodedlibrary for linking to it on your blog, and thanks to all you readers out there, whoever you are (feel free to leave a comment, should the mood take you)! Curtin readers in particular are welcome to let me know you are reading.

While I reel from the shock of Kit's imminent departure - she's leaving our illustrious library for another - I shall have to busy myself with thinking of other things, like what I should focus on with this blog. Do I want to find another person to share this blog with?

To date I have been using this blog to record links to sites of interest, with a (very) slight emphasis on academic libraries. I think this focus will continue to work for me, but what I really need to do is try to develop, and sustain, some semblance of a writing routine for Colloquy. There is certainly no shortage of topics out there!

Speaking of topics, if you haven't already seen it, take a look at the Rambling Librarian's blog, and particularly his recent series, Questions about becoming a librarian (I give you the link to the final post in the series - do browse through the rest of the blog for more posts, if you're interested).

Hidden tribes of the Curtin Library?

2005-10-04T15:09:00.000+08:00

I came across this article about the Hidden Tribes of the British Library....via misc.information
I made me wonder if there's a cultural hierarchy of our users that we just don't know about. Our library building has different areas and some students have made it their home, but I wonder what we'd see if we had cameras, a la "big brother".
Our funky new "lounge@your library has attracted chatty groups and works well for those who don't need to concentrate, or need to get on the net in a hurry......On level 3 - a floor filled with computers, it gets pretty noisy, mobile phones chirrup and squawk. As you work your way up the floors, it tends to get quieter. I'm sure we must miss a lot of the interactions that happen on the floors above us...
On another topic - an Academic Library that hires out bikes!

LibraryThing

2005-09-19T13:50:00.000+08:00

I don't think I needed another "social application" to play with. Flickr is time consuming enough, but now we have an extremely addictive, fun-to-play-with, site for your books. It's called LibraryThing, and it lets you catalogue any collection of books, online. It's extremely easy to use, and you can find the details of most books by entering its title, author, or ISBN. The system pulls data off the Library of Congress catalogue and various versions of Amazon.com (UK, Canada, French, etc) so it works pretty well for many Western publications (I did my collection of Malay language books as well, and I'm pleased to say that I share a few Malay books in common with the Library of Congress!).

I am well and truly addicted - so far I have catalogued 612 of the books at home - and I haven't even done half our collection yet!

Petition Google to fight plagiarism!!

2005-09-15T14:57:00.000+08:00

Many academics think that Google Scholar is a wonderful product - I use it myself and tell others about it on a regular basis.

However, many people don't realise that Google accepts money for the ads on its regular page - and quite a few of these are for businesses that encourage plagiarism or academic fraud.

Google screens the advertising it displays, to exclude those messages that encourage "idealogically unsound" activities, eg weapons.

This petition is hoping to sway Google to reconsider its policy in regard to these.

Find more on the scitech library question blog.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog

2005-09-02T16:25:00.000+08:00

Just found a very interesting blog, while looking for something else:

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog.

This blog is the "what's new" part of the The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (SEPB), which "presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet."

Interruptions

2005-08-29T13:19:00.000+08:00

This blog has been very quiet lately as both Kit and I have been swept up in the maelstrom that is work at the moment. (Thinking about work as a maelstrom reminds me of one of my classmates in library school who said she wanted to be a librarian because it is "a nice quiet job". I wonder if her misconception was corrected by the time she got her degree.)

I have still been following The World According to Blogs and Librarians' Blogs, I just haven't had the time to report on posts or topics of interest or amusement. Sorry!

I thought I'd share this definition of the Internet with you. If the Internet's a drunk librarian who won't shut up, I feel like a librarian who's been recovering from a very prolonged hangover...

This great cartoon, courtesy of librarian.net.

A Bit of Library Fun

2005-08-09T08:41:00.000+08:00

For a bit of light relief - over at Flickr, (this site is still one of my favorite addictions) the Library Mistress is assembling a great collection of library-related graphics - cartoons, advertisements, pictures and photos. My favorite is the Honda advertisement - even though it uses those old stereotypes !
This could be helpful if you're looking for something to add some spark to a presentation.

Found via Library Stuff

16 things that really, really annoy web users

2005-08-08T15:41:00.000+08:00

This list of how not to annoy the readers of your website, from The Gypsy Librarian (who got it from the Librarian in Black).

Top 5 annoyances:

Pop-up ads
Requirement to register and log in before content is viewable
Requirement to install extra software to view content
Slow-loading pages
Dead links

What annoys me most is music that plays automatically - it is usually of the muzak variety and not anything I would listen to voluntarily, ever. It also usually interferes with whatever music I might already have playing in the background while I surf.

The international student experience

2005-08-05T15:30:00.000+08:00

Practically all the students I've talked with this week have been international students, many of them new arrivals to our fair city. One, a PhD student, had only been here for 2 weeks when he knocked on my door. He looked tired and a bit uncertain and for some reason, when I looked at him I was reminded how I felt all those years ago when I first arrived here in Perth from Malaysia - lost, overwhelmed, emotionally drained, culture shocked, and wondering if I had arrived on another planet!

So, instead of launching straight into my spiel about the joys of searching databases and finding materials for one's literature review, I asked him where he was from, how long he had been in Australia, and how he was doing generally. I think he found it good to talk about how he was finding things, and it made him a bit more relaxed about asking questions when he didn't understand what I was showing him on the screen.

The meeting with that student really made me think about the experiences and difficulties international students must have when they arrive here to begin their degrees. For me as a teenaged migrant it was bad enough, but I did have my whole family with me so that I wasn't completely lonely and lost in those first few months!

Welcome Kit!

2005-08-05T15:16:00.000+08:00

Because I have been so ~~preoccupied~~ busy lately, I have neglected to welcome Kit as the second contributor to this blog! Welcome, Kit, and I hope you enjoy the blogging experience!

More contributors (or contributions) are always welcome!

A great list of E- journals with their RSS feeds

2005-08-02T13:20:00.000+08:00

I'm still exploring the wonders of RSS and finding new sources!

Found via an Educause blog

Pito's Blog gives a good rundown on the use of RSS by the Academic/Research/Scientific community - he also gives a good selection of Science & academic RSS sources - and best of all a link to this great list of E-Journals with RSS - courtesy of the University of Saskatchewan Library..

Instant Messaging

2005-08-01T11:45:00.000+08:00

Just saw the following on Library Voice (courtesy of the Gypsy Librarian) on instant messaging. IM is pretty popular among younger people. I suspect many of us less-younger people already know this, but what is of interest in the Pew Internet study on Teens and Technology, is the fact that some young people view email as something you use to communicate with old people. I guess the fact that I still like to write letters, by hand, using a fountain pen(!), means I am either strange and/or over the hill.

Issues facing Librarianship

2005-07-28T13:32:00.000+08:00

The other LISNews asks this very thought-provoking series of questions: what are the THREE BIGGEST THINGS facing librarianship?

1) What are the three biggest problems facing librarianship today?
2) In a perfect world, how would these issues get resolved?
3) Is there anything we as individual librarians and/or library associations can do in the real world to fix the Big Three problems?

Have a look at the original article for comments posted by LISNEws readers.

Gorman

2005-07-26T10:56:00.000+08:00

Courtesy of the Mad Librarian, a report from our very own Aunty, on an interview with Michael Gorman, President of the American library Association and editor of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2, on the United States' Patriot Act and its impact on American libraries.

I note that Mr. Gorman was recently 'embroiled' in a flamewar with librarian bloggers after an article of his entitled Revenge of the Blog People was published. He criticised blogs as "a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web".

A couple of the responses to Gorman's article can be read here and here.

What skills should a librarian have?

2005-07-25T10:08:00.000+08:00

Thanks to the Shifted Librarian, who pointed this list out. Twenty technology skills every librarian should have:

Word Processing Skills
Spreadsheets Skills
Database Skills
Electronic Presentation Skills
Web Navigation Skills
Web Site Design Skills
E-Mail Management Skills
Digital Cameras
Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
Videoconferencing skills
Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
Scanner Knowledge
Knowledge of PDAs
Deep Web Knowledge
Educational Copyright Knowledge
Computer Security Knowledge

Jenny, the Shifted Librarian herself, points out that the original list was published in T.H.E Journal (Technological Horizons in Education Journal), and was entitled '20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have'. Crossing out the word educator and substituting it with the word librarian makes it an interesting and useful checklist for us, and Jenny adds that "Of course, for librarians I would make it a top 25 list and add blogs, RSS, IM, wikis, and audio ebooks right from the beginning".

Looking at the list of 20, I definitely use/need all those skills, and of Jenny's additional 5, I am learning fast!

Because it's Friday...

2005-07-22T08:12:00.000+08:00

I love the fact that Dilbert is available via RSS! If you're interested in getting your daily dose of other comics via your aggregator, check out this list of RSS feeds for various comics. I was disappointed when I couldn't find Calvin and Hobbes in the list, but, HOORAY! it is available, courtesy of this blogger.

2005-07-20T18:49:00.000+08:00

I hate it when I accidentally delete a post before I post it. Now what was I trying to say, again?

Found an unusual site, The Convent Files. It's unusual in the sense that its author is a woman who is training to be a Roman Catholic nun. Courtesy of the Vampire Librarian (there is no irony or strangeness in this, the Vampire Librarian is a librarian who works the graveyard shift - she is lucky enough to have a job at one of those libraries with extended, extended hours).

Have been playing with a tool called RSSCalendar, an application which allows you to stick all your appointments into a calendar which you can then provide, to whoever wants it, in RSS format. I've put some of my appointments into it - see the right of this screen for my week! This could be useful for people who don't have access to your Outlook calendar, I suppose. Whatever will they think of next?

I need to get into a routine with this blog (have I said this already?). It's languishing a bit, unlike my other blog, which is doing really well.

Wiki wiki wiki

2005-07-18T14:09:00.000+08:00

I've been reading more about wikis and have found this great definition of the wiki.

Apart from major wiki-based sites like Wikipedia, some people are beginning to create their personal webpages using wiki. Like this wiki-based website BoliviaWiki for example. And there are quite a few collaborative ones too. Apart from Library Success Wiki, which I mentioned the other day, there is now also LisWiki.

What else is in wiki? Well, there is also this nice list of Things You Can Do With RSS, which is written on a wiki.

Looking at a resource like Wikipedia I do wonder about the information that is available there. After all, if just about anybody can write about whatever topic they choose, who's vetting the data for accuracy, balance, and so on? This blogger is considering the issue. With the recent bombings in London, he investigated the information that was being posted on Wikipedia, and notes that "Our whole concepts of accuracy and trust and truth are being challenged and redefined". As a teacher, he suggests creating lesson plans that help students to consider how valid or accurate the information on Wikipedia is.

Friday, continued

2005-07-15T12:40:00.000+08:00

Google has an SMS service! I choose to interpret this as the world's premier search engine catching up with the library we all know and love :) Unfortunately, at this point in time, it seems to only work in the US.

Take a look at this library's website: Ann Arbor District Library. Apparently one of their clients (a blogger) suggested to them that RSS feeds might be a good idea - and they have now implemented feeds for many of their services. Their front/welcome page provides news on the library. It is bloglike, and has numerous comments from their clients!

These links courtesy of the Librarian in Black.

Because it's Friday...

2005-07-15T07:25:00.000+08:00

... take a look at the Big Brother 2005 Dictionary (courtesy of Ricepot) - even if you are not a Big Brother fan. Some funny stuff!

What a week it's been...

2005-07-14T20:38:00.000+08:00

I won't grovel too much, except to say that it's been an insane week. I think I need to get into a routine for writing on this blog. Will have to figure out a way to make time during the day, or something.

Found an interesting service called PDF Online. Basically this is a free online service that converts your documents into PDF format! It converts PDF into HTML, and documents in RTF, TXT, DOC and XLS formats into PDF. Sounds almost too good to be true - I'll have to try it next time I need a PDF!

Something newish that may be of interest - not a blog this time, but a wiki: check out the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki which was started by Meredith Farkas. She has some interesting posts on her blog, too.

More blogs

2005-07-11T13:08:00.000+08:00

Please forgive the lack of posts! It's been a busy few days and the emotional turmoil caused by the recent London bombings didn't help. Also I'm not sure how I ended up with two blogs to maintain!

More interesting blogs:
EastSouthWestNorth focusses on the media in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A very interesting blog if you are interested in the media and the stories that attract media and public attention in that part of the world. The name is a direct translation of how you say the points of the compass in Chinese - instead of North South East West, it's Dong Nan Xi Bei (East South West North). That's my bit of trivia for the day!

Global Voices Online is a blog that looks at blogs all over the world. Its focus is very diverse and is a useful and interesting way to stay aware of blogs outside the English-speaking blogosphere.

And today's obligatory librarian blog is the Lipstick Librarian's blog.

A selection of blogs

2005-07-07T01:00:00.000+08:00

There are lots of really different blogs out there.

A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette
This blog could be subtitled: "If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything - blog it instead". The sad thing is that I can really relate to some of the posts!

Post Secret
This blog is unique in that it is made up of postcards sent in by people all over the blogosphere. Each postcard contains a secret. Funny, poignant, sad, disturbing, touching.

Samuel Pepys' diary
If Samuel Pepys was alive now would he have been a blogger?

RSS: The best thing since sliced bread?

2005-07-05T11:27:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the silence yesterday. Had a day off and spent my day doing other (less) productive things.

Just noticed the following post on the Blog Herald about RSS: it really seems as though every man and his dog is taking notice of RSS at the moment.

Oh, and academic librarians might be interested in the following article:
'Ten must reads for new academic librarians' by Abbie Landry, in Reference Services Review, Vol. 33 No. 2, 2005, pp. 228-234. (Curtin people, we have it online via Swets). This, courtesy of Sharon Uthmann via the ALIA new grads list.

Although the article is aimed at new librarians, it does have some useful pointers and reminders for librarians at all stages of our careers, I think. The only bit that may have less relevance for us here in Australia is the bit about getting tenure - but even that has useful pointers on writing for publication. (Which raises the question why DO we do it when many uni libraries don't even consider us academic staff??)

"How is your thesis going?"

2005-07-01T12:28:00.000+08:00

It's true that there is a website (or blog) for everything! Take a look at PhinisheD, a site that may be of interest to our Higher Degree by Research students.

Courtesy of Blisspix in Sydney.

"Why we do this"

2005-06-30T15:43:00.000+08:00

Why we do this is the subtitle of the Feel-good Librarian's blog. This being our profession - librarianship. S/he writes very eloquently about The Job, and why we do it (not for the pay ;) ). I find these posts to be frequently amusing, sometimes touching, and always thought-provoking. This recent post for example made me stop and think. Why did you become a librarian?

Flickr

2005-06-29T11:22:00.000+08:00

Apart from the usual text-based blogs, Flickr also presents interesting potential as a photo blog. There's a Libraries and Librarians group on Flickr, which is basically a forum for people to post their library and librarian-related photos. Other people came come and "oooh aaah" over your photos. Quite amusing :)

Start your own library

2005-06-28T12:57:00.000+08:00

Want to start your own library? Check out this Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection From Amazon.com. With a list price of $7,989.99 (40% discount), this could be a quick way to build a collection.

I'd LOVE to have this - but I think I'd have to buy a new house, or at least build an extension :)

Monday musings

2005-06-27T09:27:00.000+08:00

Don't forget to watch Four Corners on the ABC tonight:

What’s a university degree worth in the 21st century? Is the race for dollars breeding leaner, smarter universities? Or are they dumbing down in a quest to survive? Ticky Fullerton reports on The Degree Factories. Four Corners, 8.30pm, Monday 27 June.

In other news, over the weekend it was announced that Microsoft will be supporting RSS in its next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn). There has been quite a bit of discussion in the techie blogosphere, much of it along the lines of this comment. It is funny when you think about the fact the Mozilla and Firefox users already have a lot of RSS functionality that Microsoft is only now catching up with.

New domain assignations

2005-06-24T07:51:00.000+08:00

The .au Domain Administration (auDA) is apparently going to be allowing the registration of domain names that list a group or organisation's geographic location. The names of cities, towns, and suburbs can all be included in a domain name.

"Examples of these names include stkilda.com.au and bondi.net.au."

It sounds like a good idea but I'm not sure how meaningful such names would be for an international audience..

LISnews

2005-06-23T07:54:00.000+08:00

Not the Curtin version, this LISnews is one of the most comprehensive collaborative library blogs available out there. It is US-based, with a good coverage of international news and issues of interest to library folks everywhere.
For example today I found a couple of interesting news items posted on the site:

Bill Gates' thoughts on the future of email
Under the attention getting headline " RSS feeds are a librarian's wet dream", a link to an article entitled The importance of RSS
(Google going to be getting into RSS in a big way? Wow!)

I think this is a blog worth reading. It has many RSS feeds; you can choose from a range including academic, geek, and publishing.

Amusing search engine

2005-06-21T12:52:00.000+08:00

This search engine* looks for connections "between any two things".

My search for links between iPod and Batman found the following:

IPod
[Design / Compatibility] surrounded by a layer of soft rubber which also extends beneath it to insulate it from the circuit board
Rubber
[Current sources of rubber] perhaps on the basis that the garment forms a "second skin" that acts as a surrogate for the wearer's own skin. This is known as rubber fetishism
Rubber and PVC fetishism
The "Batman" films made heavy use of rubber and PVC imagery for Batman and Catwoman's costumes respectively.
Batman

Hmmm... I guess I wouldn't rush out and include this in an Info Lit class for first year undergrads, but it's still interesting, if a bit whimsical :)

*Thanks to Snail's Trail blog!

More Blogging for Librarians...

2005-06-20T11:43:00.000+08:00

RSS and Webfeeds: A Field Guide for Librarians. A PowerPoint presentation by Teri Vogel, Science Librarian, San Diego (5/17/2005) [Thanks JF for this!]

From Carol Cooke, Resource Development Librarian for the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library:

EndNote 8 review

2005-06-20T08:50:00.000+08:00

Library and Information Science Research journal has a review of EndNote 8, written by Marilyn Domas White (College of Information Studies, University of Maryland) in Issue 2 of Volume 27. The (very long) title is EndNote 8 (software) by Carlsbad, CA: Thomson ISI ResearchSoft, 2004. MSRP $329.95; upgrade $99.95; Educational $199.95; Student price $109.95 System requirements: For Windows: Windows 2000 and XP. IBM PC or compatible computer with Pentium 450-MHz minimum; hard drive with 180 MB of free space; 128 MB RAM; CD-ROM drive. Macintosh OS X version not available until Fall 2004. (Pages 269-271)

I was interested to note that there was no mention of the reported conversion difficulties for users of earlier versions.

Blogging and RSS for Librarians 101

2005-06-17T14:05:00.000+08:00

As alluded to earlier, there are loads of librarians busily blogging away out there. Some have compiled lists of resources on RSS, blogging, podcasting, and other uses of technology in libraries:

RSS for non-techie librarians by Steven Cohen .

Syndicate, Aggregate, Communicate: a Brief List of Resources was compiled by Nicole Hennig, Web Manager,MIT Libraries for the NEASIST Program.

A Weblog Webliography. This is a huge list of blogs in academia as a whole.

An Annotated Bibliography on Weblogs and Blogging, with a Focus on Library/Librarian Blogs... is a very detailed list by Susan Herzog, from Eastern Connecticut State University.

Libraries using RSS. From Iowa State University.

List of journals with TOC RSS feeds. I love this list, which is provided by the University of Saskatchewan Library. Note the blog on their ejournals news page!

Cohen, Steven M. and Jenny Levine have put together a huge presentation on blogs and RSS for libraries: “Weblogs/RSS 101”

Blurb on the Cohen and Levine presentation: “Weblogs have exceeded all expectations for use in the library world, and RSS is sure to do the same. In this hands-on session, users not only learn the ins and outs of using Weblog software (i.e., Blogger, Radio, and Movable Type) and how to read RSS feeds via a news aggregator (i.e., Radio, Newzcrawler, and Syndirella), but have the opportunity to actually work with the products discussed!! The instructors discuss how to set up a blog, review the positive and negative aspects of each blogging tool, and show how to set up and use news aggregators in the easiest way possible.”

Finally, if anyone would like to become a contributor to this blog, please let me know! You can comment on this post or email me :)

Legal blogs

2005-06-17T12:59:00.000+08:00

There's a quite extensive list of legal blogs available, compiled by Bonnie Shucha of the University of Wisconsin Law Library.

RefWorks

2005-06-17T07:54:00.000+08:00

Given that we are looking at RefWorks at the moment, I was interested to read the following review by Karen Schneider, the Free Range Librarian. She loves it! Check out the comments too.

Memory for a cold winter's day

2005-06-16T12:49:00.000+08:00

Memory for a cold winter's night
Originally uploaded by Constance Wiebrands.

Just playing with Flickr, a site which lets you upload your photos and then send them to a blog. Lunch breaks can be quite productive ;)

That photo is of the pool at the hotel we stayed at for our honeymoon. Feels like another planet, when it's a day like this!

Yet another librarian's blog

2005-06-16T12:08:00.000+08:00

Yes, there are loads of librarians blogging out there. I decided to put this one together to easily show my colleagues the huge number of library-related blogs that are available (please check out the links to librarians and library blogs on the right). Along the way it would be nice to have some discussion and chat too! :)