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April 26, 2007

Wikipedia loved by the educated!?!?

I know many people feel strongly about Wikipedia but, I have always loved it. I love the democracy, chaos, and randomness of what is covered. the articles usually are written well enough to make me want to discover more information on the topic. Of course, I do not consider myself a great intellectual but, I am the type of person who likes reading encyclopedias or anything like an encyclopedia just for the heck of it. Wikipedia just seems like a good place to start before you go on to other sources to verify and expand your knowledge. It is just fun reading. Because of all the press coverage of Wikipedia it is one of the few Internet sources that people know they should question.

BizReport : Research : April 26, 2007

U.S. Wikipedia users are wealthy and well-educatedhttp://www.bizreport.com/2007/04/us_wikipedia_users_are_wealthy_and_welleducated.htmlDespite concerns about accuracy and reliability, Wikipedia remains a popular online source of information, as a study from the Pew Center for American Life Project recently revealed.
by Helen Leggatt

According to Pew’s latest survey, released this Tuesday, Wikipedia is used by 36 percent of American adults. The size and speed of the encyclopedic site means it is convenient, and fast, for consumers to source information on almost any topic.

Interestingly, for a site whose content has been called in to question in terms of accuracy and reliability, the users are well educated and earn good salaries. Half of Wikipedia's online users were college graduates and 42 percent of users earned more than $75,000...MORE

The full Pew Report can be found at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf

Posted by anna at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)

Dead Skunks and Library Discards

In the course of a discussion on weeding that occurred on one of the electronic mailing lists (LIBREF) I belong to, I came accross this great post from academic librarian Sarah Hood,

"In library school, we had a director at a small public library in a rural county come in and speak about what it's like to weed and 'dispose' of books that badly needed it. She said it got to a point where she would just make an annual trip, incognito, in her own vehicle, to the local dump and dump the books, which had been sealed up inside unmarked cardboard boxes, into the dump's dead-animal-hole. (Yes, I kid you not, there is such a thing as the 'dead-animal-hole' in most city dumps. Terrible to think, but...) But that's how difficult it was to weed and dispose of these books without the public going beserk."

WOW! Weeding really can get ugly!

Her story brought to mind one of my own. One of my first jobs after library school was at the Frederick Douglass Branch of the Champaign Public Library. Shortly before I got there, the previous librarian had weeded the collection. She got rid of a lot of junk but, unfortunately, she also weeded some unique African American literature and items of local interest. The community was in an uproar and the librarian was reassigned. Whenever we weeded anything we had to send it to the main library to be discarded. That was much better than the "dead-animal hole." Ahhh, the perils of weeding.

I have also worked in libraries that were so crowded that for every book purchased one had to be withdrawn. The public was aware of the situation but if it meant spending more on taxes to expand the building they suddenly didn't care what we got rid of unless it was a book they wanted.

Some of my friends were in a painful situation where they had to descimate the 900s so they could make room for more audio-visual materials in their library. It was painful for me too, because I had read many of those histories and travel guides. Especially the ones that were my companions and guides as I spent several months finding out about the Mutiny in India in 1857. I know you can't compare the life of a book to the life of a person but, I have had to weed some great books in my time. I always hoped they went on to find good homes in the booksale. I always wonder where does it end? Is a book less valuable than a DVD?

It is never the book as such that I mourn but, the knowledge that is contained within it. Do circulation figures alone provide enough of the picture to really do effective weeding. If we digitize our collections, especially the less in demand titles. can we make more room on our shelves while still keeping the knowledge and information alive and accessible? What do you think?

Posted by anna at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2007

Shift Happens

Someone on the Alliance Second Life mailing list posted the link to this short video that packs a wallop. It describes how quickly the world is changing and gives an overview of what educators and disemmators of information will be facing. You can watch it with or without the audio (it only has a musical background) here is the link:http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift

Posted by anna at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2007

Picture worth a 1000 words

A great visual for the library closing in Oregon...

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418/NEWS/704180329&Template=photos

Posted by anna at 1:59 PM | Comments (1)

Million Hours of BBC Free Online

Being a huge fan of the the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC), I love their newscasts as well as their programs, I was really excited to see this article from the Observer/Guardian. They hope to creat a supporting database for the shows that has scripts, expense reports, correspondence, etc. It sounds like it may be slow going as they secure various rights but I know I want to listen to the interview when "Antonia Raeburn talks to Grace Roe and Eleanor Higginson, two suffragettes from the Pankhurst era, about their campaign to win the vote" and the "poignant interview, broadcast on the day he was assassinated in April 1968, the civil rights leader says: 'The important thing isn't how long you live, but how well you live.'" And, of course the John Lennon and Yoko Ono " interview transmitted in January 1981, two days before the ex-Beatle was killed, and never repeated. They talk candidly about the motivation for their famous 'bed-in' protests."I can't wait...

BBC to put one million hours of its past online

Corporation wants its entire archive to be available for free

James Robinson, media correspondent
Sunday April 15, 2007
The Observer

Thousands of hours of broadcasting history are to be made available to the public online as part of a plan to open up the BBC's entire archive to licence-fee payers free of charge.
The radio and TV material, some of which has never been repeated, includes an interview with Martin Luther King filmed shortly before he was assassinated, and another with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in which the former Beatle talks candidly about the impact their relationship had on the band.

Other programmes include a 1956 episode of the nature series Zoo Quest in which a young David Attenborough captures the komodo dragon on film for the first time. The episode has never been repeated but could soon be available online as part of the ambitious project, headed by the BBC's director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield.

The BBC wants to put nearly one million hours of material on the internet for viewers to watch, listen to and download and has already begun the long process of retrieving and transferring programmes. A trial involving 20,000 users will begin next month, and the service could be available nationally in a year's time. Highfield will announce details of the scheme in a speech this week....MORE

Posted by anna at 1:20 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

Net schmet, let's just start over!

This article from USA Today certainly served as my Monday morning wake-up call. This is an amazing concept.

Researchers explore scrapping, rebuilding the Net

By Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press
NEW YORK — Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.
The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969...MORE

Posted by anna at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)

April 10, 2007

Library "Geeks" Behind Library 2.0 Covered in Wired

Wired has a great article about how librarians are taking Web 2.0 features and making them a part of the library..

Public Library Geeks Take Web 2.0 to the Stacks
Beverly Hanly 03.29.07 | 2:00 AM

When the IT director at North Carolina's Charlotte & Mecklenburg County public library began training staff in the latest web technologies, she lured reluctant participants with bribes -- a free MP3 player and the chance to win a laptop.

Six months later, the program they developed is the real prize. Learning 2.0, developed by public services technology director Helene Blowers, has become a surprise grassroots hit, available for free on the web and adopted by dozens of other libraries around the globe.

"The last thing we want is for people to come into our libraries and ask about Flickr or Second Life and be met with a blank look," said Christine MacKensie, director of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Melbourne, Australia, which just finished a four-month version of Learning 2.0. "And they certainly won't now."... More

Posted by anna at 2:54 PM | Comments (1)

Creating Online Tutorials for your Patrons

I remember back to the days when I had to offer hands-on Internet and Database training classes for groups ranging from 2 to 10 library patrons...Okay, I have stopped trembling and my hands are once again steady on the keyboard. I found these sessions ineffective and frustrating for a number of reasons.

That is why I am following with curiosity a discussion on Dig-Ref about libraries that have created online tutorials for patrons and staff to use. This seems to answer so many of the problems faced in face-to-face sessions for example: people not hearing, moving a head or falling behind the rest of the class, talking to or hectoring their spouse/friend instead of listening, needing to repeat the class, needing to arrange convenient times for staff and patrons, etc., etc. etc.

Here are some examples of what a few libraries are doing...

University of Central Florida Libraries

Helene Blowers Learning 2.0 and the blog set-up to answer all our questions about how the Public LIbrary of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County set-up online staff training. If you scroll down the blog you get podcasts, videos, etc.

What are you doing in your library?

Posted by anna at 2:29 PM | Comments (0)

Why some people don't "like" the Internet

A few posts ago, i wrote something about a study that said a significant number of people don't like or want to use the Internet. This article from First Monday provides a fuller picture..

Unpacking "I don't want it"--Why Novice and Non-users Don't Use the Internet
by R. Michelle Green

The simple statement “I don’t want the Internet” hides misperceptions and personal beliefs that many novices and non–users hold about technology. Most non–users have limited opportunity to interact with those embracing technology. Inclusion in (and exclusion from) a technologically rich lifestyle creates feedback loops that inhibit technology learning in non–users, while facilitating it in experienced users. Such factors compound, leaving non–users unaware of and uninterested in technology’s benefit...MORE

Posted by anna at 2:17 PM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2007

"National Archives Films on Google Video"

This is sooooooo cool! I just got this post fromJohn Jaeger on DigRef listserv. It has film from NASA, the second World War and much more. Great for reference questions...

National Archives Films on Google Video
http://video.google.com/nara.html

"Over 70 years ago, the National Archives was founded to preserve American historical documents, as well as the moments and events that could be saved in still photos, films, and audio recordings. Today the Archives is home to everything from rare historical footage (newsreels and government documentaries from the 1930s) to the 1969 moon landing. Now Google is launching a pilot program to digitize its video content and offer it to everyone in the world for free, and you can watch a growing selection on Google Video."

Posted by anna at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)