Rampaging Roy Slaven used to say the Web would be better once they got all the words off it.
Words in themselves make appear conspicuously informative, but as anyone regularly conducting basic web searches will know, they can easily confuse the issue. Those of us who started off in the early days of the Web with blunt search tools such as Webcrawler, then moved up to the slightly more sophisticated Metacrawler and AltaVista, were easily impressed by Google. As a regular user, I have begun to feel even Google's limitations though. Of course, sensible use of meta tags on pages has always helped.
The Semantic Web concept of languages designed for data is a good one, somewhat akin to the use of Subject Headings by cataloguers (if more advanced in its constructions). Of course, it runs the risk of turning into a bad idea if these become overly restrictive or absurdly over semantic (as many Subject Headings already are). People will, undoubtedly, also find ways to misuse whatever system, particularly if it means receiving more hits on their sites.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Voyage RSS feed
There's something just too volatile about Voyage. It's unpleasant to use - all out-of-focus, sliding about, overwriting and visual noise - hardly either engaging or enjoyable!
The most useful part is the "Manage my RSS feeds" link at the bottom, and there's plenty of friendlier RSS feeds available. Maybe this is to someone's taste, but it's certainly not to mine, and I am a visual person. It doesn't like your "Back" button either, which I always think deserves demerit points.
This Voyage made me seasick!
The most useful part is the "Manage my RSS feeds" link at the bottom, and there's plenty of friendlier RSS feeds available. Maybe this is to someone's taste, but it's certainly not to mine, and I am a visual person. It doesn't like your "Back" button either, which I always think deserves demerit points.
This Voyage made me seasick!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Kartoo
As I'd used Kartoo in the past to search for pictures, I delayed writing this up.
Doing a new search I was reminded about what I found with using it last time - for all its clever visual interlinking and detailed topic lists, Kartoo doesn't beat Google images for finding a picture of what you're looking for.
That said, as a general search tool for researching a subject the user knows little about, Kartoo could be of help, as it usefully narrows to the most useful sites fairly quickly, though these tend to be much the same - the Wikipedia, All Music Guide, Answers.com, National Geographic site, etc. - rather than very specific sites on the subject.
I'm not convinced the displays are for everyone either - some users are likely to find the look of the screens not to their taste and difficult to decipher.
Sometimes Kartoo comes to a dead end for no apparent reason, when I expect there are resources still to be found by a less fussy search tool. That's a problem with Metasearching in general though.
Doing a new search I was reminded about what I found with using it last time - for all its clever visual interlinking and detailed topic lists, Kartoo doesn't beat Google images for finding a picture of what you're looking for.
That said, as a general search tool for researching a subject the user knows little about, Kartoo could be of help, as it usefully narrows to the most useful sites fairly quickly, though these tend to be much the same - the Wikipedia, All Music Guide, Answers.com, National Geographic site, etc. - rather than very specific sites on the subject.
I'm not convinced the displays are for everyone either - some users are likely to find the look of the screens not to their taste and difficult to decipher.
Sometimes Kartoo comes to a dead end for no apparent reason, when I expect there are resources still to be found by a less fussy search tool. That's a problem with Metasearching in general though.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
VuFind
The VuFind demonstration was nice and straightforward.
The "Narrow Search" column that appears on the right is concise and clear - less confusing than the clusters used in Aquabrowser, if somewhat less happening and visually appealing to the MySpace generation.
For librarians who like cataloguing - and let's face it, who doesn't? :) - this look should appeal, as the layout looks comfortingly like Subject Headings.
These links work pretty effectively and Similar Items lists are also interesting - only as wrong as Amazon or LibraryThing, but not bad.
I thought I'd throw "armadillo" at the National Library's VuFind and the results were fascinatingly eclectic, including a picture, but somehow almost completely wide of the mark. Yes, it is the name of pieces of music, corporate authors and the rest, but it might have been nice to have had the term "Animals" at least appear in the subject area.
Poor old armadillo - the brand has been widely appropriated, but the beastie himself (apart from the one image) appears to have vanished from this main page.
Perverse, I know, but it gives some idea of the foibles of this kind scattershot approach.
The "Narrow Search" column that appears on the right is concise and clear - less confusing than the clusters used in Aquabrowser, if somewhat less happening and visually appealing to the MySpace generation.
For librarians who like cataloguing - and let's face it, who doesn't? :) - this look should appeal, as the layout looks comfortingly like Subject Headings.
These links work pretty effectively and Similar Items lists are also interesting - only as wrong as Amazon or LibraryThing, but not bad.
I thought I'd throw "armadillo" at the National Library's VuFind and the results were fascinatingly eclectic, including a picture, but somehow almost completely wide of the mark. Yes, it is the name of pieces of music, corporate authors and the rest, but it might have been nice to have had the term "Animals" at least appear in the subject area.Poor old armadillo - the brand has been widely appropriated, but the beastie himself (apart from the one image) appears to have vanished from this main page.
Perverse, I know, but it gives some idea of the foibles of this kind scattershot approach.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
LinkedIn appears to be a fine initiative. I was pleased to find that it actually had a category for "Libraries," rather than just "Education" or "Community Services" or similar. Yay, them - a promising beginning.
I do feel a bit over all the online "social networking" (how many MySpace friends does anyone need?!) - but LinkedIn appears to be achieving something a bit different.
This is my somewhat basic LinkedIn profile.
Looking under "Swinburne University of Technology Colleagues" seemed like a good place to begin, so I selected some and sent invitations. I also found a few who weren't in this list by searching their names.
I do feel a bit over all the online "social networking" (how many MySpace friends does anyone need?!) - but LinkedIn appears to be achieving something a bit different.
This is my somewhat basic LinkedIn profile.
Looking under "Swinburne University of Technology Colleagues" seemed like a good place to begin, so I selected some and sent invitations. I also found a few who weren't in this list by searching their names.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
New Books
This is to test a new books animated GIF. If this works, I might add it to the Library Blog, with a notice about the New Books lists.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Feedback
All in all, the 23 Things exercise has been useful in a number of different, but interconnected ways. One important factor that is easy to overlook, has been the Team-Building aspect of everyone engaging with new concepts and learning alongside each other.
The most important aspect of this exercise seems to me to be that it ensures a consistent level of knowledge across all staff. This makes use more informed and helpful to library clients, but also puts us in a better position to engage with future directions. It's also just fun!
While I had encountered most of these Things before, I hadn't actively engaged with all of them. I'm a long-time Blogger already, though ironically, I've lately decided to stop, at least for now. For that reason, my Library Thing Blog was only ever for this particular exercise.
The most important aspect of this exercise seems to me to be that it ensures a consistent level of knowledge across all staff. This makes use more informed and helpful to library clients, but also puts us in a better position to engage with future directions. It's also just fun!
While I had encountered most of these Things before, I hadn't actively engaged with all of them. I'm a long-time Blogger already, though ironically, I've lately decided to stop, at least for now. For that reason, my Library Thing Blog was only ever for this particular exercise.
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