Roy Tennant's Planet

September 27–October 4, 2008 is ALA's annual Banned Books Week.

I think that this is one of ALA's great achievements since 1982 - keeping an eye on the freedom to read and pointing to the edges when we risk losing that freedom.

I have a suggestion. The freedom to read doesn't just involve books. Yes, some forces tried to ban novels when they appeared in the 1800's. We accept that's a bad idea now although many libraries banned books that I wanted to read as a kid (Hardy Boys, OK!) Graphic novels got their cache when one won a Pulitzer Prize. (Maus) Anyway, the freedom to read is much broader than books and I am not suggesting in any way that ALA change the banned books week. It still serves a high purpose.

However, this year, when we see continual attacks on many types of libraries, we see an attack on research, discovery and reading. These are fundamental to progress. Consider:

1. Special libraries telling me they can't get to the basic sites they need for research because they're banned on their system wide intranet. (I actually didn't do business with one company because of this since I figured their decisions were not well informed enough.)

2. School libraries where they can't use the basics of the Internet - many sites and whole tools are banned. Are these kids better off for being less well equipped than others? By pushing some simple tools like blogs and MySpace underground (and you can't block it) are we enabling our kids to learn in a good environment.

3. Public libraries that are being order to filter not just kids PC's but adult computers too. Who will be the first to sue a library for violating end user rights? When will we get that precedent? I suspect it'll be soon.

4. For all their lofty talk about academic freedom, are universities and colleges really sincere when they throttle some sites and tools under the guise of protecting bandwidth?

5. Adult, voting soldiers restricted in their access to the web. Defend our freedoms with our life, but don't expect to exercise that right as an adult?

Anyway, maybe we can start a new "Banned Websites Week" and collect the funny, sad and scary examples that everyone shares over coffee at conferences.

I once helped publish a database called "Canadian Business and Current Affairs" which was blocked by many school filters. 'Affairs' can't discriminate public, government or current affairs with the adulterous ones. I loved a client from long ago that once blocked access to itself and all of it's own websites. You see, they were in 'Middlesex' County. I guess any kind of sex is bad. I've got more. Every article or e-mail that contained the word 'specialist' at one site was blocked. You see, cialis, is in the middle of that word. I won't show too many more since I will be filtered and blocked for many of you. It's fun to share our war stories though.

This issue came to mind as I watched all of the tut tutting in the media this month about the blocking of certain websites and searches in China during the Olympics. The media was appalled and breathlessly held this up as an example of the lack of basic freedoms in China. Interestingly, simultaneously the US Congress and legislatures all over North America were passing or considering legislation to require filters and blocks on all kinds of content in public institutions like libraries, schools, universities, hospitals, colleges, clubs, and more. This was despite the proofs that no filter works well. How interested were the media in that? ALA has some work to here. Freedom to read is more than just books.

Just a thought. I think it might be a fun project to try for a year.

Stephen

September 27–October 4, 2008 is ALA's annual Banned Books Week.

I think that this is one of ALA's great achievements since 1982 - keeping an eye on the freedom to read and pointing to the edges when we risk losing that freedom.

I have a suggestion. The freedom to read doesn't just involve books. Yes, some forces tried to ban novels when they appeared in the 1800's. We accept that's a bad idea now although many libraries banned books that I wanted to read as a kid (Hardy Boys, OK!) Graphic novels got their cache when one won a Pulitzer Prize. (Maus) Anyway, the freedom to read is much broader than books and I am not suggesting in any way that ALA change the banned books week. It still serves a high purpose.

However, this year, when we see continual attacks on many types of libraries, we see an attack on research, discovery and reading. These are fundamental to progress. Consider:

1. Special libraries telling me they can't get to the basic sites they need for research because they're banned on their system wide intranet. (I actually didn't do business with one company because of this since I figured their decisions were not well informed enough.)

2. School libraries where they can't use the basics of the Internet - many sites and whole tools are banned. Are these kids better off for being less well equipped than others? By pushing some simple tools like blogs and MySpace underground (and you can't block it) are we enabling our kids to learn in a good environment.

3. Public libraries that are being order to filter not just kids PC's but adult computers too. Who will be the first to sue a library for violating end user rights? When will we get that precedent? I suspect it'll be soon.

4. For all their lofty talk about academic freedom, are universities and colleges really sincere when they throttle some sites and tools under the guise of protecting bandwidth?

5. Adult, voting soldiers restricted in their access to the web. Defend our freedoms with our life, but don't expect to exercise that right as an adult?

Anyway, maybe we can start a new "Banned Websites Week" and collect the funny, sad and scary examples that everyone shares over coffee at conferences.

I once helped publish a database called "Canadian Business and Current Affairs" which was blocked by many school filters. 'Affairs' can't discriminate public, government or current affairs with the adulterous ones. I loved a client from long ago that once blocked access to itself and all of it's own websites. You see, they were in 'Middlesex' County. I guess any kind of sex is bad. I've got more. Every article or e-mail that contained the word 'specialist' at one site was blocked. You see, cialis, is in the middle of that word. I won't show too many more since I will be filtered and blocked for many of you. It's fun to share our war stories though.

This issue came to mind as I watched all of the tut tutting in the media this month about the blocking of certain websites and searches in China during the Olympics. The media was appalled and breathlessly held this up as an example of the lack of basic freedoms in China. Interestingly, simultaneously the US Congress and legislatures all over North America were passing or considering legislation to require filters and blocks on all kinds of content in public institutions like libraries, schools, universities, hospitals, colleges, clubs, and more. This was despite the proofs that no filter works well. How interested were the media in that? ALA has some work to here. Freedom to read is more than just books.

Just a thought. I think it might be a fun project to try for a year.

Stephen

This true story doesn't start out funny. A close and old (not that old - just 50) friend was getting ready for an Alaskan Cruise. As Mary (not her real name) packed and tried on clothes she fell and broke her right hip and left wrist. Yuck. She doesn't have a full length mirror so she stood on the edge of the bathtub to see her hem length and fell in. Double yuck. [She now has a full-length mirror.]

Anyway, the hospital repaired her hip and wrist (twice) and got her started on physiotherapy. She was able to work on the physio from home and re-organize the house and family around her. Her family was very nice to her even though they had to cancel the cruise to Alaska.

Anyway, she was coming along nicely when she got a little worried by a clicking sound in her hip. Did she phone the library? Did she phone the great TPL Consumer Health Information Centre? Did she call her doctor? Of course not, she went on the Internet.

So she searches the Internet in direct violation of Abram's rule that no one should ever search their OWN medical conditions alone online. This I learned from deep personal experience.

She finds a site that seems directly on point - clicking sounds in the hip!

She reads the first paragraph. It doesn't sound good.

She reads the second paragraph. It's beginning to sound pretty scary.

By the third paragraph tears are welling in her eyes as she fears more medical interventions and pain. She's getting quite worried.

The fourth paragraph starts . . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Once you reach the paws . . ."

Yes folks, Google can't separate vet sites from human sites. But you knew that.

Maybe we need to license sick people to search and offer training at the point of need.

Anyway, 'Mary' provided my laugh of the summer, despite her pain. (BTW, the clicking is nothing abnormal.)

Stephen

Jenny Levine has delivered another great and fun project on the ALA website.

The READ Mini Poster Generator

Choose from one of four templates and just click the button to upload a picture from your hard drive. (One hint - leave some room above your head in the picture.)

Useful for web badges, profile pictures, and especially graphics for events such as Banned Books Week (which is coming up in September). Here’s mine. It's pretty bad and I'll have to get a funner digital picture for my rocketman poster.

Now, you can think of hundreds of uses for this right? They're printable too.

Everyone ready to gift every member of the summer reading club with a READ mini-poster?

Got your trustees pictures? Ready aim fire.

All staff into the pool! The Flickr pool that is.

Stephen

Indexed blog always comes up with very simple ways to explain complex things.

Now if the bottom axis was library members/cardholders and left axis was library programs/collections/services, is it easier to digest?

Cool.

Stephen

This year's Horatio Alger report on the "State of Our Nation's Youth," based on a phone survey of 1,006 students between the ages of 13-19 is out, and offers a somewhat optimistic survey of teens despite the world's condition.

"Teens Pessimistic about Future of the Country, Optimistic About Themselves and Own Future
10th State of Our Nation’s Youth Report Provides Latest Views of Nation’s Teens

WASHINGTON (August 5, 2008) – Teens are feeling the weight of the world now more than ever, according to a new report issued today. There has been a steep drop-off in the number of students feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country, falling from 75% in 2003 to just 53% today, a 22% decline in optimism over the past five years. Despite these declining views of a fading nation, teens are nonetheless positive as they envision their own futures. With 88% describing themselves as confident and 66% saying they feel optimistic about their own futures, they are making strides towards achieving success as young adults.

The 10th State of Our Nation’s Youth report was issued today by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. The report compiles the results of the national survey conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. The 2008-2009 report is a comprehensive study of American high school students’ opinions, apprehensions and aspirations. Highlights from this year’s survey include:

Presidential Election – 75% of teens say the election outcome will make a substantial difference in the direction of the country. Students’ biggest concerns are the economy and jobs (34%), and the war in Iraq (31%).

Global Warming – 72% of teens believe global warming is an urgent or serious problem. Caring about the environment is important to them, however the majority (58%) of teens do not consider themselves “environmentalists.”

Education in the Global Economy – To prepare themselves for the global economy, one in three teens say the most important school subjects are science and technology, and 38% wish their schools had more up-to-date technology.

Cyber Bullying – Of the14.9 million American high school students, 2.4 million (16%) reported that they have been a victim of cyber bullying, and a remarkable portion of teens, almost one-third (30%), now view online bullying as a greater threat then traditional bullying in schools.

Immigration – Teens are divided on immigration in the U.S., with 49% saying that it is more of a positive force then negative, while 40% have the opposite view. Teens’ opinions on immigration are in disagreement with their parents’ opinions, with only 39% of adults in another recent survey seeing immigration as a positive force.

“This year’s survey brings us valuable insight into American teens. They are confident, ambitious and optimistic in spite of the many challenges we all face as a nation,” said Peter D. Hart, president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. “What emerges from the research results is a portrait of a generation who believe in themselves and their abilities, despite anxieties about the country.”

Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc. has conducted more than five thousand public opinion surveys encompassing interviews with more than three million individuals over the past 30 years. This is the 5th State of Our Nation’s Youth survey that has been conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc.

The telephone survey included 1,006 students in grades nine through twelve and between ages 13 and 19. The sample of high school students was based on a compiled list provided by American Student List, the well-respected national list management firm, which specializes in maintaining lists of K-12 students. The survey sample closely matches U.S. Government (Census and Department of Education) statistics for age, area, race, and gender. The margin of error is ± 3.1 percentage points.

“A key mission of the Association is to invest in our nation’s teens, and with this research, we continue to utilize the tools to gain an understanding of America’s teens,” said David L. Sokol, President and CEO of the Horatio Alger Association. “Our aim is to initiate a dialogue between teens and the adults in their lives which encourages growth, appreciation, and most importantly success.”

The Horatio Alger Association is steadfast in its commitment to America's youth. Its network of field directors works with public, private and parochial school administrators as well as state departments of education throughout the country to share the State of Our Nation’s Youth results across the United States and to market the Horatio Alger scholarship programs.

For more information on the State of Our Nation’s Youth report, please see the following link or contact Chelsea Cummings, ccummings@qorvis.com, 202-683-3106/ Carrie Blewitt, cblewitt@qorvis.com, (202) 744-5270.

The State of Our Nation’s Youth Report in PDF form and Broadcast Quality Press Conference Video: http://www.horatioalger.org/youthreport08.cfm.

About The Horatio Alger Association

Founded in 1947, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans continues to fulfill its mission of honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in spite of adversity and of encouraging young people to pursue their dreams through higher education. The Horatio Alger Association offers three annual scholarship programs: the National Scholarship Program and state scholarship programs, available to high school seniors in all 50 states, and the Horatio Alger Military Veterans Scholarship Program for U.S. veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. The Association awards more than $12 million annually in college scholarships and has given over $63 million to deserving students since 1984. The Association is a 2008 Combined Federal Campaign participant, ID# 77062. For more information about the scholarships, please visit www.horatioalger.org."

Read the full report here.

Stephen

Gartner Group has another great hype cycle graph.

Dian Hinchcliffe has a nice commentary here.

Stephen

I have to start this review with a disclaimer. I have a plain old cell phone with no data plan That said - I’m thinking of trying to pay off my debt faster so that I can upgrade my phone and get a data plan because of this technology report by Ellyssa Kroski.

On the Move with the Mobile Web: Libraries and Mobile Technologies by Ellyssa Kroski is a quick guide to what mobile technologies are out there, how they can be used, how they are being used and what it means to libraries. Ellyssa introduced me to some amazing things I didn’t know about like 2D barcode scanners on our mobile devices.

What does this mean to libraries? As more and more people switch to web-enabled mobile devices, libraries are going to have update their websites and provide more mobile services. Some examples? Self checkout using your phone, notices sent via SMS and mobile ready websites and OPACs.

This technology report is a quick read and will surely make you wish you had a fun gadget to try out the tools that Ellyssa mentions. It was well worth the read.

I’ll keep you all posted as I make my way toward upgrading to a fancy multi-function phone.

The U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit has issued a wondrously clear and unambiguous opinion (pdf) that supports the enforceability of open source and public licenses. It is great news for user and contributor communities, and their lawyers. Nothing that I've seen posted so far actually quotes any of the juicy parts of the opinion, so I've included some of that.

The Back Story:

The software in the case is licensed under Artistic License 1.0, which was written by Larry Wall in the late 80s. The defendants allegedly copied the software into their own products without complying with key Artistic License requirements—they did not include the original authors’ names, copyright notices, references to the COPYING file, information about sources of the original files (e.g., SourceForge), or a description of how the original files had been modified.

The plaintiff asked the court for an injunction prohibiting distribution of the defendants’ products, arguing that by violating these license conditions, the defendants violated the copyright in the software.

In a nutshell (and omitting legal fine points), the decision under appeal denied the injunction, holding that copyright protection is not available for software distributed free-of-charge under an open source license.

This truly shocked the open source, free software, and public license community, and a coalition of groups led by Creative Commons filed a “friend of the court” brief (pdf) in support of the appeal. (In the interests of full disclosure—Allison Randal and I worked on the brief on behalf of The Perl Foundation.)

The Ruling:

The appellate court reversed the lower court’s decision in an opinion that open source lawyers have dreamed about but never thought that we would see.

The court paid tribute to the diversity and importance of the open source, free software, and public license community:

“Public licenses, often referred to as “open source” licenses, are used
by artists, authors, educators, software developers, and scientists who
wish to create collaborative projects and to dedicate certain works to
the public…Open source licensing has become a widely used method
of creative collaboration that serves to advance the arts and sciences in
a manner and at a pace that few could have imagined just a few decades
ago.”

And after noting that “lack of money changing hands” does not equate to lack of economic value, it wholeheartedly endorsed enforcement of the Artistic 1.0 license:

“The clear language of the Artistic License creates conditions to protect
the economic rights at issue in the granting of a public license. These
conditions govern the rights to modify and distribute the computer
programs and files included in the downloadable software package. The
attribution and modification transparency requirements directly serve to
drive traffic to the open source incubation page and to inform downstream
users of the project, which is a significant economic goal of the copyright
holder that the law will enforce.”

Perhaps the happiest aspect of the opinion is the assured and sophisticated discussion of open source processes, projects, and economic value. Although the briefs filed by the plaintiff and by Creative Commons undoubtedly assisted the court’s analysis, it seems safe to conclude that the court was already aware of the significance of open source—yet another sign that the “movement” actually has come of age.

Experienced cataloger and cataloging teacher, Brigid Burke, shares her thoughts about the future of cataloging in The Grim Outlook for Cataloging. In this long and thoughtful post, she critiques the development of the new cataloging code, RDA, and questions the need to shift catalogers' skill set to IT competencies.

So, the future of cataloging looks bleak and confusing. We have a new set of standards and tools being put in place that don't seem very revolutionary, and yet the hype says they are. ... If anyone wants career advancement, they will have to deal with administrators who will believe ALA's tripe about competencies, and no one will hire you if you're not a programmer/Web designer. Librarianship will not be about handling books any longer, even though libraries will continue to buy them.

Via Miscellany et al.

• 13 October 2008 - full draft of content released in online product for comment. Ready for final review
• 19 January 2009 - comment period closes
• Early March 2009 - Joint Steering Committee (JSC) and Committee of Principals (CoP) meet in Chicago. JSC will go over comments generated from final draft and incorporate them into RDA.
• Third quarter 2009 - RDA is released
• Last quarter 2009-early 2010 - CoP national libraries (LC, NLC, etc.) evaluate RDA prior to implementation

Dates taken from Pam Gatenby's presentation at the RDA Satellite meeting on Aug. 8. [emphasis mine]

Looks like RDA implementation won't start until some time in 2010. My guess would be spring 2010 at the earliest.

One of my RLG colleagues today brought us a question from an institution that was considering their options for what to do with a large mass of digitized content they were planning to create. The question was basically this: would they be better off just making it accessible themselves and letting the search engines guide people there, or join up with a large aggregation such as the World Digital Library?

This is certainly a good question, and one worth considering carefully, since it is a foundational question that has numerous ramifications down the road. But all things being equal (and they aren’t necessarily so stay tuned for more on this), more access is better.

That is, I would neither put all of my eggs in a “local only” basket nor in a “one big aggregation” basket, but both if at all possible. That is, retain control over your own stuff, but also syndicate it out to other places such as the World Digital Library, if that floats your boat, and other places that make sense as well. The one sticking point here is that you will need to know what is required to play well with those other locations and factor that into your planning. So if I were them, I would find out what the World Digital Library would want from me, as I would with any other aggregator I wanted to play with. Then I would do something locally that allows me to easily spin out the various versions required. I think this model provides the most flexibility and sustainability going forward than relying on any single solution, no matter what it is. Plus I would get the added benefit of being in many places at once.

So as I alluded to above, all things are often not equal, and here are some of the differentiating factors. It will likely take additional effort to make your metadata and/or content comply with the needs of aggregators. Depending on your local situation, this could require a significant investment (although I would argue that if it does you were probably planning on doing something locally that is not as flexible as it should be). Another is that if the aggregator, such as the World Digital Library, wishes to host the content as well (and not just the metadata), then you will have split usage statistics. But before deciding you can’t handle being in more places at once I would urge careful consideration of the benefits and drawbacks. The easier it is for people to find your content the more it will be valued. People can’t appreciate stuff they can’t even find.

I am the guest columnist for RUSQ’s Accidental Technologist this summer. The very cool thing is the full text of the piece is up and online at the RUSQ blog. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I wrote this last January while the snow and wind were raging outside my window - I’m glad it doesn’t seem super dated by now.

http://www.rusq.org/2008/08/18/taming-technolust/

Here are some of my favorite parts:

A fact: new technologies will not save your library. New tech cannot be the center of your mission as an institution. I’m still taken aback when I hear of libraries spending money for technologies without careful planning, an environmental scan of the current landscape, and a complete road map for training, roll out, buy in, and evaluation. When the latest technology hits, are you keen to add it to your library, boosting the coolness factor? For example, buying every librarian on your staff an iPhone as a way to improve reference services is probably not going to be a wise solution. You may have some happy librarians, but that type of technolust does not well serve the organization.

Some of the Ten Steps:

3. Be transparent. Communicate and make decisions via open meetings and weblogs. Michael Casey and I advocate for transparent libraries based on open communication, a true learning organization structure, and quick and hon-est responses to emerging opportunities. “Transparency–putting our cards on the table–allows us to learn and grow, and it lets our community see us for all we are, including our vulnerabilities.”⁴ This is incredibly important for management and administration. You are the ones that need to set the standard for open communication within your institution—walk the walk and talk the talk. I’m reminded of a talk I did at a larger, well-known library system, where five minutes in the director stood up and slipped out the back door. The staff took me out for drinks the night before and one said “we hope she stays to hear you. We can’t do anything without her approval and everything we put out on the Web is vetted through three departments.”
Pilots and prototypes are great if they are just that. Don’t call it a pilot project if it’s already a done deal: signed contracts, “behind the scenes” decisions to go forward, or a “this is the way it’s going to be” attitude will crush any sense of collaborative planning and exploration for the library. It’s a slippery slope to losing good people to other institutions.

5. Spot trends and make them opportunities. Scan the horizon for how technology is changing our world. What does it mean for your AV area if iTunes and Apple are offering downloaded rental movies? What does it mean for your reference desk if thriving online answer sites are helping your students? What does it mean when Starbucks or Panera Bread becomes the wi-fi hangout in town for folks looking for access? Read outside the field—be voracious with tech magazines like Wired and Fast Company. Monitor some tech and culture blogs. Read responses to such technologies as Amazon’s Kindle, and ponder if it’s a fit for your users and your mission. Being a successful trendspotter is one of the most important traits of the twenty-first-century librarian. Be aware, for example, that thriving, helpful virtual communities, open-source software platforms, and a growing irritation with what integrated library system and database vendors provide libraries could converge into a sea change for projects like Koha and Evergreen. Who knows how close we are to that tipping point, but trendspotting librarians will be far ahead of the game.

8. Plan to plan. Instead of willy nilly emerging technology projects, plan to plan. Create timelines and audit progress. This takes project management skills, something LIS educators (like me) should be teaching in depth! We need expertise in bringing projects to completion. Your “Digital Strategies Librarian” or “Director of Innovation and User Experience” should have impeccable management skills and be able to see the big picture. How do you find that person if you don’t have one? Evaluate current jobs and duties of your library staff. What can be done to streamline workflows and free up hours for new duties and new titles. Find who is suitable, then guide projects and people well. Have effective meetings with action items and follow up. I spent more time in meetings when I became a manager in my former job than practically anything else. Planning projects focuses creativity. Meandering meetings sap creativity.

http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/exciting-news-dutch-guys-are-releasing.html

Kathy Dempsey writes:

As the publisher’s site explains it: 
“With its infectiously upbeat outsider’s view of American libraries and the many challenges they face, this book and video set is sure to galvanize librarians of all stripes. ShanachieTour is a heartfelt love letter to American libraries: informative, inspirational—and a whole lot of fun!”

I had a wonderful time speaking at Columbus Metropolitan Library, helping to launch Learn & Play @ CML. One very cool thing is that they have outside participants following along as well as staff from all over the system. I was most impressed with the team who put the project together.

I customized a version of The Hyperlinked Library for them. The slides are here.

Rock on, CML!

LJ asked the Movers and Shakers to weigh in on “future proofing” libraries. One of my favorite responses comes from Char Booth:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6585850.html

Social Capital
The best way to future-proof libraries is not by electronically reimagining our most valuable attributes in a collective attempt to cheat obsolescence. Our insurance is going to come from a much more basic place—we have to turn inward, understand why libraries have been such fabulously lasting cultural institutions, and reflect on how best to transfer this to the modern information climate. 
Libraries represent thoughtfulness, peace, and possibility, and we should strive to keep them as transparent and accessible as possible. The profit imperative increasingly shapes the way that information is organized and accessed, but libraries can thrivesimply because we exist in opposition to this model. A truly national and effective libraries-are-viable-and-valuable advertising campaign that takes on grassroots and major media tactics would be incredibly worthwhile. 
It’s easy to recognize the tone this message might take when you consider the movements that are creating change on a broad scale. The social capital of libraries speaks to the same populist, sustainable spirit that drives the open source, open access, slow food, local, DIY, and green movements, the only difference being that we’ve been at it for millennia. Libraries are the quintessence of the sustainable information movement, and we create community spaces that simultaneously validate the universal human need for the social, the intellectual, and the thrifty. We also have an unbelievable wealth of dedicated staff for whom libraries are symbolic of the greatest good, drawn together in a vocational community of practitioners that could hardly be more enthusiastic or protective of the services we provide. It’s critical that we teach our users that they can believe in libraries like they can believe in any other good cause, because library sustainability is essentially in their hands. It is our responsibility to make sure that they have enough reasons to understand, appreciate, and advocate for us.—Char Booth, ‘08

I contributed this:

Openness
Future-proofed libraries will be flatter, more transparent institutions, free of hierarchal organization. They will constantly reevaluate space, service, and user engagement. I watch the Darien Library, CT, very closely as a way to see future ideas put into play now: circulation staff blogging and selecting materials, innovations with reference services, and a new building that will inspire the community as well as the library world. I watch the new spaces at libraries like Loyola, McMaster, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina State to see what the idea of the commons means to students and faculty. The librarians and staff creating these spaces realize the future is more about collaboration and space than rows of stacks.
The future-proof library will encourage my heart—to grow, explore, learn, and experience. It will know me and provide information I didn’t even know I needed. I will experience information in new ways, inside the library or wherever the library happens to be: on my “digital lifestream” device, via my home information/entertainment devices, and via the cloud of data that will be available to me wherever I go.—Michael Stephens, ‘05

If you’re in the area, be sure to sign up for my talk next week at CJRLC.

PRACTICALLY WEB 2.0: Practical Demos of Social Software Technology - August 27, CJRLC Lab - 10 AM-12 noon

Get more information here.

I hope to see you all there!!

Warren Cheetham comments on an article at Read/Write Web:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php

Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting asdaytraders. As we move into an era where content creation and distribution become almost infinitely cheap, the scarcest resources will no longer be storage or bandwidth, it will be attention….
…In order to cope with the overwhelming complexity of our digital lives, we are going to increasingly rely on tools that help us manage our attention more productively — rather than tools that simply help us manage our information.
It is a shift from the mindset of being librarians to that of beingdaytraders. In the PC era we were all focused on trying to manage the information on our computers — we were acting as librarians. Filing things was a big hassle, and finding them was just as difficult. But today filing information is really not the problem: Google has made search so powerful and ubiquitous that many Web users don’t bother to file anything anymore - instead they just search again when they need it. The librarian problem has been overcome by the brute force of Web-scale search. At least for now.
Instead we are now struggling to cope with a different problem - the problem of filtering for what is really important or relevant now and in the near-future. With limited time and attention, we have to be careful what we look for and what we pay attention to. This is the mindset of the daytrader. Bet wrong and you could end up wasting your precious resources, bet right and you could find the motherlodebefore the rest of the world and gain valuable advantages by being first. Daytraders are focused on discovering and keeping track of trends. It’s a very different focus and activity from being a librarian, and it’s what we are all moving towards.

Warren writes:

One of the great things about focusing on a library topic that is supposedly out-of-date--you can find cheap books on the subject at Amazon.com. So, last week I read an essay written by Michael Gorman circa 1979, Cataloging and the New Technologies. In it he presciently describes a bibliographic model very similar to the new, "future" RDA scenario #1.

Those of you familiar with the development of Resource Development and Access (RDA) will know that scenario #1 describes entity records connected by links.

Anyway, Michael Gorman often gets a bad rap out here in the library blogosphere, but in this essay he proves to be very forward-thinking indeed.

(This essay can be found in: Foundations of Cataloging: A Sourcebook.)

It's back-to-school season in the U.S. and social studies teachers everywhere are excited about the November elections and all of the ways that politics has evolved since even just four years ago. Technology is advancing. Internet fundraising has brought all kinds of new small donors into the political process, social networking is helping campaigns and citizens organize themselves in new ways, and YouTube, which didn't even exist four years ago, has swept the political dialogue.

With technology producing such dramatic changes in American politics, we want to make sure it's easy for teachers to bring some of the best Internet tools into the classroom to help students get engaged. Working with the National Student/Parent Mock Election, we've pulled together a site called Elections Tools for Teachers where you can find descriptions and suggested learning activities for tools like YouTube, Google Maps, Elections Video Search and Power Readers, which we announced here yesterday.

We want students to walk away from their engagement in this election with a sense of excitement about our democratic process and with the belief that their voices matter. As Gloria Kirshner, president of the Mock Election has said, "In the classrooms of today are the Presidents, Senators, Congress members and, most important, the voters of tomorrow. Whether we are sending these children to the White House or to the polls, we hope to send them with a deep understanding of 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.'"

Please let us know if you find Elections Tools for Teachers helpful in your teaching, and we hope you'll enroll your students in this year's National Mock Election on October 30th.

Posted by Galen Panger & Cristin Frodella, Google Educators Team

Martin Marlmsten is from the LIBRIS department of the Royal Library of Sweden – LIBRIS being the discovery interface for the library.

Since joining as a software developer has been absorbed in to the world of library search and discovery.  He played a major part in the build and launch of the latest LIBRIS search interface which has introduced under the surface some Semantic Web and Linked Data features.

We discuss his career, the use of User Centered Design & Iterative Development methodologies, the Semantic Web techniques and technologies he used, and their future applicability to the library domain.

Items discussed in our conversation:

•  LIBRIS
• User-centered design and the next generation OPAC – a perfect match?
• RDF / Linked Data representations of cataloged data via LIBRIS:
  • URI for the Royal Library - http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/S
  • URI for the subject heading "Mödrar" (Mothers in English) - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/154863
  • URI for August Strindberg - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/94541
  • URI for the book "The difference Engine" - http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/5060570
  • The book "The difference Engine" in OpenLink RDF browser - http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Flibris.kb.se%2Fresource%2Fbib%2F5060570
• Cool URIs for the Semantic Web

Martin Marlmsten is from the LIBRIS department of the Royal Library of Sweden ndash; LIBRIS being the discovery interface for the library. Since joining as a software developer has been absorbed in to the world of library search and discovery.#160; He played a major part in the build and launch of the latest LIBRIS search interface which has introduced under the surface some Semantic Web and Linked Data features. We discuss his career, the use of User Centered Design #38; Iterative Development methodologies, the Semantic Web techniques and technologies he used, and their future applicability to the library domain. Items discussed in our conversation: #160;LIBRIS User-centered design and the next generation OPAC ndash; a perfect match? RDF / Linked Data representations of cataloged data via LIBRIS: URI for the Royal Library - http://libris.kb.se/resource/library/S URI for the subject heading #34;Mouml;drar#34; (Mothers in English) - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/154863 URI for August Strindberg - http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/94541 URI for the book #34;The difference Engine#34; - http://libris.kb.se/resource/bib/5060570 The book #34;The difference Engine#34; in OpenLink RDF browser - http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Flibris.kb.se%2Fresource%2Fbib%2F5060570 Cool URIs for the Semantic Web Technorati Tags: Royal Library of Sweden,LIBRIS,Linked Data,Semantic Web,Library,Talis,Podcast

I've been running Ubuntu linux on an extra machine for a while now, although not using it for day-to-day work. I spend most of my time trying to download and install various free software that eats up many hours of my precious time. If I could bill for those hours, I could practically give up all of my consulting clients.

In a few weeks, however, I'll be taking off on a 6-week trip with an Ubuntu laptop as my only computing device, and admittedly this worries me a bit. Basically, most everything that I need to do can be done nicely in Ubuntu -- I have my office suite, my browser, Skype. I'm all set... as long as I don't need to install any new programs.

The nerd world touts linux as far superior to Windows, but I think it's only fair to recognize that there is one huge barrier to having linux take over the desktop, and that is: dependencies. Many linux programs do not come as stand-alone code, but depend on your system to have certain other bits of code installed. In essence, to install these programs you need to re-create the computing environment used by the developer. Sometimes that's not a problem because the developer used only modules that come with the operating system's normal install. But I've found that I'm often required to chase around the Net looking for less common bits and pieces, some of which may require me to compile them myself. And where on Windows and the Mac the installation instructions are simply "double-click on the downloaded file," instructions for the installation of linux programs can go on for pages (and invariably leave out at least one essential step).

Ironically, what this means is that linux is a powerful tool for developers, but simple "users" of the operating system have less available to them than they do on Windows or a Mac because it's just too hard to participate in the "Open Source revolution." I really want to try out OS software that's coming out of the library community, but I have yet to get any of it to run. I don't think I'm stupid -- I've solved some problems on my own, but never all of them.

I suppose I shouldn't worry too much about this. Both of the computers I have running Ubuntu at the moment are unable to process any updates due to mysterious problems caused by running the normal update procedure. I've posted to the Ubuntu forums and my message seems to be the only one that keeps getting zero answers. My rule now is to store nothing of importance on either machine and to keep a boot CD with me. The main thing is that I'm not giving up yet.

The Worldcat API was released beyond the original trial group while I was away.

The WorldCat Search API provides access to WorldCat bibliographic records and holdings using the FRBR concepts to pull together various editions of the same work. The API provides access to the WorldCat databases from clients that can send RESTful URI queries with either the OpenSearch or SRU protocols and can accept RSS, Atom, MARC XML or Dublin Core [WorldCat Search API [OCLC - Web and Data Services]]

Technical details are here; eligible users described here.

Quick Bookmarks: del.icio.us  Digg   Google  Reddit   Furl

Librarians and archivists: get ready for your worst nightmare. Oh, wait, too late! It's here. There are a growing cadre of web sites that are usher...

Infopeople instructor Lisa Bartle is on a mission to make life easier for staff involved in maintaining or upgrading library web pages: her new daylong workshop—“Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): Pixel-Level Control with HTML Ease”—begins with an explanation of what Cascading Style Sheets are and, more importantly, continues with plenty of tips on how to use them to simplify the process of updating what library members and guests see when they visit those pages.

The idea behind Cascading Style Sheets is simple and builds from participants’ existing knowledge of HTML: creating and using a series of templates allows those working with web pages to quickly make changes in typefaces, colors, and even the overall layout of a page once and then have those changes carry over to all related pages within a site. An added benefit is that changes can be reversed as easily as they initially are made, whereas library staff members using HTML generally add coding each time a modification is made to a web page.

“HTML is about structure. It’s about control. It’s not about presentation. Once you take this class, you’ll know what the big deal is,” Bartle notes. It is “not some big, fancy, difficult thing. It’s like HTML. That’s not scary. That’s not hard. And by the end of the day, you’ll be able to apply it to make significant changes to your web pages…without learning complicated programming.”

Bartle brings her workshop to life by demonstrating how dramatically we can change the look of a web page through CSS-level editing. Workshop participants viewing the CSS Zen Garden site, for example, see an initial web page, then (from the choices offered in the right-hand column of that page) see the same text dramatically reformatted through the use of Cascading Style Sheets.

The session is currently scheduled to be offered at San Diego County Library Headquarters (September 4, 2008); Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library (September 23, 2008); the California State Library (Sacramento: October 9, 2008), and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose (October 22, 2008) from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. each day.

To enroll in this $75 workshop, please visit the online registration site; to arrange for an additional (contract) session of the workshop, please use Infopeople's online form.

There really are so many things I like about my job. I work for an organization that I believe in and feel valuable by. I have super smart, savvy, dedicated staff. I get to collaborate with great people throughout the library on lots of different projects. But probably what I like BEST about my job is the fact that I get to experiment and try new things on a regular basis. This in turn gives me the opportunity to talk, teach and write about what I’m doing. For me it just doesn’t get any better than this.

To give you some idea what I’m talking about, I’ve been working on three projects over the summer. The first one was working with the WorldCat Search API to develop a WorldCat Wordpress Widget. The second project has been learning Drupal, in order to support the YourBIGWIG site and also our library’s intranet. The final project has been working on developing mobile applications and services using iPod Touch. Parts of each of these projects will continue for me in the fall along with some new projects involving APIs and digital library related stuff.

Truthfully, you can’t get three more diverse projects to work on at the same time. But that is what I like about my job. It is so varied that I can move from one project to another when I get stuck, burned out, bored or have just had my fill. It also gives me the chance to explore things that interest me and write about lots of different stuff. I told a colleague the other day that I was pretty sure that barring the preconferences I teach for Internet Librarian and Computers in Libraries I’ve never given the same talk (or even close to) twice.

It is nice because I don’t get put in a particular box as far as my work and I get to catch my colleagues off guard sometimes when I tell them what I’m working on.

No tag for this post.

The fourth Ignite Boston will be on Thursday, September 11, from 6 to 10pm at the Hooley House, one block from Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA. THIS IS A LARGER VENUE. So the acoustics will be better than our last event and there will be room to sit, stand and mingle.

From 6-6:45 pm, mingle and talk tech with your fellow FOOs, alpha geeks, and techies from the greater Boston area. After the mingling and social stuff, we'll have a couple of special keynote presentations to kick off our Ignite talks. Then, onto guest speakers who'll catch you up on the cool, new, innovative stuff going on in technology today. Don’t blink or you’ll miss their lightning-fast, five-minute presentations. During intermissions, get a cold beer and chat with speakers, sponsors, and O’Reilly’s own editors. Join us Thursday, September 11th, for a fun, energetic evening of talking, learning, collaborating and drinking!

RSVP If you plan to attend, email IgniteBoston at oreilly dot com for the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of your choosing. You must be present to win. There will likely be other items like tee-shirts and other promo items for those who alert us ahead that they plan to attend. Presentation Guidelines

Ignite is a user-generated event. If you’re interested in speaking, then submit a proposal for consideration.

Presentations must:

* Be no longer than 5 minutes

* Be on an innovative topic (no sales pitches, please!)

* Be viewable on a PC [a MacBook Pro with Powerpoint and Keynote, and PDF] with standard AV equipment

* Did we mention, no Sales Pitches.

For anyone that's never been to Ignite, you may find it useful to see a talk or two. Here's a link to examples from the Boston Ignite 3 talks.

I was at the dry cleaners yesterday. My dry cleaners is a joint dry cleaners and computer game arcade and cafe. I was in line behind about 5 teens who were getting their gaming smartcards that control their time on the PC's. Some kid mentioned something that happened in 1993. The cool looking pierced, purple haired kid next to him said, "That's ancient history, man. I wasn't even born yet!"

Arrghhh. Anyway, apropos of that . . .

"This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

Read the Mindset List for the Class of 2012 here.

Agree or disagree, this list is an annual treat.

Stephen

The global nature of our mission is reflected in the phrases the "world's information" and "universally accessible." To this end, you may have recently read about our 40-language initiative and the story of a community coming together to develop Google search in the Maori language.

Following on this theme, we'd like to highlight a few new products that enable a better online experience for Tamil speakers around the world.

First, we just released Google News in Tamil. Like other Google News editions, we gather stories from the various Tamil news sources on the web and present an automatically- generated summary with links to the most important stories in each section.

We recognize that it can sometimes be hard to enter Tamil text with existing keyboards. Our transliteration technology enables the conversion from English text to phonetically equivalent text in Indian languages. For example, using transliteration, you could type "vanakkam" and we would convert it to Tamil script as வணக்கம். We have embedded this technology in several Google products to make it easier to enter text in Tamil.

Google search in Tamil enables users to start typing in English and automatically get query suggestions in Tamil. If you wanted to enter the query "ponniyin selvan" in Tamil, just start typing it in English - e.g. "ponni" and we will show the Tamil suggestions:


Tamil transliteration in Blogger is designed for bloggers publishing content in Tamil when using the English keyboard for text entry. It's our hope that this will make Tamil content more popular and more easily available online.

Tamil transliteration in orkut makes it easier to communicate with friends and family by exchanging scraps in Tamil.

We hope that each of these products will help to bring the benefits of the Internet to the millions of Tamil speakers in India and elsewhere.

Posted by Vinodh Kumar R and Naren Manappa, Software Engineers

Last year, Bill Janeway really got my attention (pdf) when he noted that "over time, Wall Street 'firms began to trade against their clients for their own account, such that now, the direct investment activities of a firm like Goldman Sachs dwarf their activities on behalf of outside customers.'" As I wrote in my blog post at the time, Trading for Their Own Account, "I thought, whither Google, Yahoo! and Amazon?"

At the time, I noted the way that more and more information that was once delivered by independent web sites was now being delivered directly by search engines, and that rather than linking out to others, there were strong signs of a trend towards keeping the link flow to themselves.

This thought re-surfaced when Techcrunch launched Crunchbase. Now, rather than linking directly to companies covered in its stories, Techcrunch links to one of its own properties to provide additional information about them. I noticed the same behavior the other day on the New York Times, when I followed a link, and was taken to a search result for articles on the subject at the Times (with lots of ads, even if there were few results).

Journalism professor Jay Rosen noticed this too, and wrote the tweet that sparked this post:

@NYTimesComm Could you try to find out for me why Week in Review pieces do not link out even when vital to the story? http://is.gd/1Hzd

Follow Jay's link and you come to a story that indeed doesn't have any outbound links, except to other Times stories. Now, I understand the value of linking to other articles on your own site -- everyone does it -- but to do so exclusively is a small tear in the fabric of the web, a small tear that will grow much larger if it remains unchecked.

Business Week is also getting into the act, per a New York Times article entitled Topic Pages to Be Hub of New BusinessWeek Site:

The core of Business Exchange is hundreds of topic pages, on subjects as broad as the housing market and as narrow as the Boeing 787. Plans call for the number of topic pages to grow quickly into the thousands. (The first one created, which may or may not be in the public version of Business Exchange, was “BlackBerry vs iPhone.”)

Want to place a bet whether articles in the magazine will link exclusively to these "topic pages?" At least Business Week plans to have outbound links from the topic pages (Crunchbase does this too, just siphoning off the first step in the link stream, unlike the NYT roach-motel links.)

Each Business Exchange topic page links to articles and blog posts from myriad other sources, including BusinessWeek’s competitors, with the contents updated automatically by a Web crawler. Nearly all traditional news organizations offer only their own material, spurning the role of aggregator as an invitation to readers to leave their sites.

When this trend spreads (and I say "when", not "if"), this will be a tax on the utility of the web that must be counterbalanced by the utility of the intervening pages. If they are really good, with lots of useful, curated data that you wouldn't easily find elsewhere, this may be an acceptable tax. In fact, they may even be beneficial, and a real way to increase the value of the site to its readers. If they are purely designed to capture additional clicks, they will be a degradation of the web's fundamental currency, much like the black hat search engine pages that construct link farms out of search engine results.

I'd like to put out two guidelines for anyone adopting this "link to myself" strategy:

1. Ensure that no more than 50% of the links on any page are to yourself. (Even this number may be too high.)

2. Ensure that the pages you create at those destinations are truly more valuable to your readers than any other external link you might provide.

The web is a great example of a system that works because most sites create more value than they capture. Maybe the tragedy of the commons in its future can be averted. Maybe not. It's up to each of us.

Posted on behalf of Annette Gaskins

Maurice and I were delighted to have an opportunity to present this webinar for WebJunction!  We had over 70 participants who were evenly distributed across the country.  At least one participant was from Canada!

During our session, we shared our experiences as co-chairpersons of a team that designed, facilitated, and presented a Technology Fair, or “Petting Zoo” to the staff of our library system.  Our objective was to provide basic information and advice to librarians and administrators who would like to create a similar experience for their own library systems.

Attendees of the webinar shared their own ideas with the group.  For example, in answering the question What technologies could you use in your system or state?, a long list of ideas was generated, which I’ve shared below:

• rss
• cell phones
• CMS with RSS feeds
• Facebook
• kindle
• iPods
• mobile devices
• video
• gaming
• e-books
• wikis
• streaming video
• social networks
• iPhone
• cell phones
• game software
• playstations
• Wii for teen services
• mp3 w/netlibrary
• professional networking
• MP3 Audio Book download
• WebJunction
• Library 2.0
• myspace
• Overdrive
• IM
• moblie web
• Game systems
• IM reference services
• downloadables
• wiis–troubleshooting
• Nintendo DS
• PSP
• digital cameras
• YouTube
• second life
• Wii
• open source
• IM Reference
• social bookmarking
• MP3
• smartboards
• games
• thumb drives
• blogs
• wikis
• IM
• Flickr
• webconferencing
• Facebook
• Wiimote whiteboards
• all of them

By the conclusion most participants said that they were ready to attempt a Technology Petting Zoo of some kind in their own library systems.  A few said they were already in the planning stages.  We hope to hear from them - how the Fairs went, what their successes were, and how they handled any issues that come up.

You can access the archive of the webinar and associated resources or participate in a post-webinar discussion.

I have visited a lot of libraries this summer, looking for interesting architecture, technology, and landscaping that would make for good photos. I visited the new Daviess County Public Library in Owensboro, Kentucky, last weekend, and something really unexpected caught my eye--all the electrical outlets were covered with those little plastic dummies that render them harmless to toddlers. Being a parent, I thought this marvelous. Visiting a space that is not prepared for small children can be very harrying to parents; this small gesture (though probably the bane of many library staff member's existence!) may give parents just enough comfort to be able to enjoy their library a few minutes more. As far as I can tell, DCPL is the only library that I've visited this summer that's taken this simple precaution. See, by contrast, this photo taken in the Family Activity Center at the Boone County (Kentucky) Public Library.

I’ve been practising my presentation for the Libjam session at the Library 2.0 and beyond: getting our hands dirty unconference on Friday.

To give people time to write the program up on the wiki, and to get the energy level pumping, we decided to schedule a Libjam after we had set the topics for the day. The Libjam is a chance for people to talk about what they are doing in their libraries to get their hands dirty with Library 2.0. In. Just. Three. Minutes.

It sounded like a piece of cake, and like a good idea at the time we proposed it.

After trying to yell, talk twice my regular speed and cut half my slides - yes, I’m dumb enough to try to use Powerpoint - to pack it all into three minutes,  I’m coming to terms with how hard it is to say *anything* in just three minutes.

When I watched people at the Webjam Perth last year, they seemed to fit so much information into their presentations, and some of them even seemed calm about it all. I’ve gone back and watched some of the videos of the evening and am now really in awe of them .

One thing is for sure, it will be an adrenaline filled presentation. Not sure it will be intelligible. Maybe a pecha kucha would be a little less stressful ?

From the Libjam topics currently on the wiki, it looks like everyone else will be as stretched as I will be to smoosh it all into three minutes too. Wonder how strict we should be with the “exactly three minutes” thing? Much more of an arena sport (think Christians and Lions) if we stick to it. May the games commence!

• Murdoch University Library - web presence project
• Edith Cowan University - our learning 2.0 curve
• What happened since my last unconference - Hoi (really love to hear about YOUR stories too!!)
• DPI - effectively encouraging / promoting the use of Web 2.0 applications
• Curtin University Library - the story of a library blog
• SLWA Blog & wiki proliferation - any & all from SLWA
• Health Dept. - A Wiki as a collabrative tool in the Health Library network
• Water Corporation - promoting the library with a Library Toolbar

Last year I bookmarked MarkMail and then promptly forgot about it. Today I was searching for someone’s email address and was brought back to MarkMail - wow has it grown!!

Searching 4,310 lists and 22,872,030 messages. First list started in November 1992. There are 2,898 active lists, recently accumulating 5,907 messages per day.

Basically, MarkMail is a search engine you can use to search mailing lists. It’s built by MarkLogic - a group of awesome people!

More about MarkMail:

MarkMail is a free service for searching mailing list archives, with huge advantages over traditional search engines. It is powered by MarkLogic Server: Each email is stored internally as an XML document, and accessed using XQuery. All searches, faceted navigation, analytic calculations, and HTML page renderings are performed by a small MarkLogic Server cluster running against millions of messages.

Check it out for yourself!

Technorati Tags: markmail

I participated in a panel sponsored by the Libraries and Web 2.0 Discussion Group at the recent IFLA annual meeting in Quebec.  Here is some background and the means to access my presentation and speaker notes, for those who asked. The session attracted about 80 or 85 people. First, the description of the panel from the IFLA programme:

"The Open Knowledge Foundation (ONF) has criticized the draft report of the Working Group for Bibliographic Control of the Library of Congress because there is no provision for the access, re-use and re-distribution of bibliographic data without restriction. The ONF published a petition that all bibliographic data should be free which is supported by users and Web 2.0 services like Library Thing and the Open Library Project. What does that mean for our practice?

We would like to discuss this with representatives of the projects, national libraries and other major data providers. We think that we need to start the discussion as soon as possible and therefore invite all interested delegates to this first meeting of the Library and Web 2.0 Discussion Group."

Patrick Danowski (State Library of Berlin), chair of the Discussion Group, convened the panel and introduced the session. Panelists included Stephen Abram (SirsiDynix), me, Sally McCallum (Library of Congress), and Patrick Peiffer (National Library of Luxembourg and project lead for Creative Commons in Luxembourg). Karen Coyle (consultant--of late to Open Library) submitted a brief video called "free the data" to start off the panel. My presentation followed. 

For those who asked, I've put my presentation plus my speaker notes up on SlideShare.  During the upload to SlideShare, something strange happened, and the speaker notes for slide 2 are actually at the very end of the notes, so watch out for that. (In SlideShare, speaker notes show up as comments.) 

Here's a brief summary of what I presented:

--Information seekers expect seamless connections between metadata and content, regardless of source
--The information industry is being driven to a data sharing model based upon the value in the exchange and linking of data
--Nearly all organizations