The Doubtful Guest's 23 Things

The Semantic Web

2008-12-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Voyage RSS feed

2008-12-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

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!

Kartoo

2008-12-16T19:17:00.000-08:00

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.

VuFind

2008-10-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

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.

New Books

2008-07-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Feedback

2008-03-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Second Life

2008-03-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

While I decided not to join Second Life, I did get interested in it at the stage where the WWF set up Conservation Island. Until that point, I'd thought of online gaming (which this pretty much appears to be), to be an overly diverting distraction from real life. So, yes, it's an interesting movement, and it does involve real people in an "open" environment, but I don't feel any compulsion to join.

YouTube

2008-03-11T15:53:00.001-07:00

YouTube is amazingly useful if approached the right way. I'd long struggled to play proper A-shaped bar chords on the guitar, clearing the high E-string. I never managed to master it until I found a YouTube clip earlier this year, showing me just where to bend my finger in the right place. The key here was searching for the right terms. Wow, what a brilliant teaching device!

Anyway, getting back to libraries, the same is true. There is a wealth of information. Everything from televised user education classes and Powerpoints, to fully-fledged 70 minute filmed presentations/discussions such as the University of California at Berkley's Building Academic Library 2.0. Actually, this kind of thing can run in the background as a Podcast pretty well, but the visuals do help.

I think YouTube works best for short and direct films, such as music clips and advertisement-like quick pieces, or short speeches with images. Libraries are definitely a big presence, so more dedicated and imaginative film-makers in our ranks could make this a very powerful means of communication.

Pet photo

2008-03-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Fireworks, preferring Paintshop for simple web editing and resizing. Paintshop is good for other graphics as well, but only handles RGB webcolour, not CYMK print colour, so I use Photoshop if I need that.

I've resized and added a picture of the late Patch, the guineapig, to the "Pet Heaven" section of the Library Wiki.

This was a good exercise. Handling graphics and Wikis are both useful skills.

Library 2.0

2008-03-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

My immediate impression is that Library 2.0 approaches library resources and access in a manner comparable to the Internet - interactive, evolving, reactive and volatile. As I don't know much about Business 2.0 and Web 2.0, I have to agree with those who point out that this isn't new for librarianship. Constant change, geared to the needs of our clientele, has always been part of what we do, and we're always looking at way to improve the mechanics of the processes and relationships. "Radical trust" does involve looking at the old paradigm in new ways, and ones that the 23 Things exercise is definitely relevant to. While I agree with come critics that this process could get co-opted, rather than realized, as long as the underpinning philosophies are right, I doubt it.

del.icio.us and Podcasting

2008-03-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

I went to del.icio.us and typed in "Australian comics" just to see what might turn up.

Not bad. The first links turned up usual suspects, individual artists such as Shaun Tan and Ben Templesmith, along with particular titles like Platinum Grit.

While those were of some interest, there were also what I was looking for, general sites such as Heroes and Villains: Australian Comics and Their Creators, the Comics Down Under blog and the Hayase Australian Comics Wiki

"Heroes and Villians" has a nice Heroes and Villains Audio Tour and Audio Podcast Tour. I created a new folder to subscribe to this one in my Bloglines account, though really it's long over and unlikely to have any new material lately. I think, the individual mp3s in the audio section are more fun and easier listening.

del.icio.us is a pretty effective tool for finding stuff!

iGoogle

2008-02-14T20:53:00.001-08:00

Well, idon'tGoogle more to the point. I like Google for searching and the setup of iGoogle pages is indeed marvellous to behold, but I don't feel a need for another orphaned page out there, let alone another email address (to add to my work, home and Yahoo accounts). If I didn't already have a site or two I'm happy with, complete with gadgets, I'd be all over this, but I don't feel a need. Do I therefore fail this task?

Google Docs and Google Books

2008-02-14T20:38:00.000-08:00

Isn't Google Docs just a prettied up FTP site on which to park your stuff? That's useful for collaborative purposes, but I'm not sure I'd want to rely on something like this for accessing Files (rather than a USB stick, for example). Using the Internet to emulate a Desktop seems somehow a bit wasteful to me :).

Google Books is another useful tool, but I think librarians are well ahead in this area. Among other searches, I put in "Elisabeth MacIntyre" (my favourite obscure Australian children's books author/illustrator) and retrieved a nice, but far from comprehensive, list of results. Still, it did beat LibraryThing on this one, so it's certainly worth considering.

Putting in an individual title - my example was "Dodo: a brief history" - was very effective, retrieving a fine summary, with lots of places to go next.

Still, the real point is the fulltext, available or soon to be available, this way...

Google Maps - The World Just Gets Smaller

2008-02-14T20:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a while - I hadn't intended to leave it this long. Actually, I have been looking at some of these things, but didn't get around to Blogging about it.

Late last year I had a look in Google maps, and naturally had to try to find my place - not an easy task in any case - there it is in that yellow rectangle.

It was a good chance to check out Madagascar and Tasmania as well - fascinating!

MySpace and FaceBook

2007-11-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

I've had a number of invitations to join Facebook but haven't been tempted so far, though I did check it out when it first appeared. Also, I'm not keen to be easily findable - I'm easy enough to find for people who want to, without encouraging too many contacts :).

There were articles when Facebook first appeared asserting that it was classist, being an educated network, as opposed to the more Plebian MySpace. Without addressing that argument, I've always been put off MySpace by its visual "noisiness." A couple of my (older) children have MySpace sites (telling me stuff I don't really want to know), as do some of my favourite bands, but I don't feel compelled to set up there.

I have placed comments on some Blogs, so please gimme a star for that as well!

Bloglines and Google Reader

2007-10-17T23:34:00.001-07:00

I had a look at Google Reader today and added a couple of Blogs to it. I've had previous experience with Bloglines and they're similar, but I think I prefer Google Reader.

I don't really have much use for RSS feeders, as I go to the Blogs or LiveJournals I want to read when I want to read them, and don't worry about them the rest of the time :). LiveJournal works well in this way, as adding "Friends" means that you can click on that link anytime and see the most recent updates to all LJs in reverse order, as often (or not) as you want. Blogwise I prefer Blogger to LJ though.

Library Thing and Image Generators

2007-10-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

The idea of setting up another Library Thang account (when I already have one) fills me with inertia, so I'll just blow my cover and link to the one I already have:
A Dubious Collection of Literature.

Now you know who I am, there's probably no harm in me posting the result of my "Simpsonize Me" experiment. I actually hand-drew a Simpsonised self-caricature a few years ago for something else and it looked quite different to this (though this pic is sadly accurate :)).

Flickr

2007-09-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

As the next 23rd Thing I've set up a Flickr account at Doubtful Guest's Flickr pics.

I couldn't find much to put in it, so I think I need to borrow a digital camera and have a wander around.

I'm already a committed user of Photobucket, which operates along similar lines. I've also Blogged elsewhere for a few years now, which is one reason this Blog isn't getting a lot of use - I already have one (somewhat neglected) Blog out there. I used to think that Live Journal was going to be the next big thing, but that was before My Space and Facebook came along!

"You Have Been Catalogued!"

2007-09-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

Libraries have always had more than their fair share of Doctor Who fans and the first episode of Season 3 paid tribute to some of us! :)

23 Things

2007-09-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

As we're starting 23 Things here (see: 23 Things at Swinburne), I've created this Blog for the first task and to log as I go.

While I chose "Sand Dollar" (going with the classics!) for the look of the Blog, I plan to tamper with the colours pretty soon...