TechEssence.info

It is amazing how portable and remixable our content is these days. Using RSS and JavaScript, I can take content that lives on one Website and have it show up on five different pages. I can even specify how much of the content I want to show up on the page and what I want it to look like. And when I update that content on the original Website, it is automatically updated everywhere else. Using an RSS mixer, I can mix content from 10 different sites and create an entirely new RSS feed that contains content from all of them. By the time I syndicate that content elsewhere, it probably won't look anything like it did before. It may not even be possible to tell where the individual pieces of content came from. The question is, is what I'm doing ok?

Since I'm in the middle of moving from one software platform to another (leaving JSPs and Struts for Ruby on Rails if you must know), software choices have been on my mind. But then I picked up my latest Business 2.0 that came the other day and there it was. An article on Coghead, which aims to make code disappear and even the most code-phobic person able to create applications.

Our Content, Their Device: Three Uses of the iPod - Sarah G. Wenzel, Columbia University

The librarians at Columbia University have developed a variety of library content that can be used on an iPod.

They created a call number guide (visual) that can be downloaded on an iPod. They made downloadable map photos of the stacks available. To explain how to use it, they used documentation from the iPod Subway Guide to explain how to download the resources onto the iPod.

Using RSS to Promote Scholarly Publications - Ken Varnum, Tufts University

RSS stands for real simple syndication. It's an xml-based data format for syndicating content. Way to send a title, URL and abstract to aggregators, websites, etc.

Roy Tennant - Never the Same River: Libraries and Technological Change

The October Conference's theme this year is Cool Tools and New Technologies and there is quite an exciting roster of speakers discussing a variety of tech tools. I will be blogging as much of it as I can (other than my own talk!).

For a while now I've noticed that journal articles from some not-for-profit (but not free) content delivery projects--like JSTOR and Project MUSE--have populated my Google search results. But the implications of that never sunk in until I sat in on recent presentations by salespeople from both Thomson Gale and EBSCO, both of who say they are working with Google on a similar capability: results from their databases will appear in Google results.

Whether we want to admit it or not, none of us is completely objective when it comes to choosing technology, or anything else for that matter. We attempt to collect and analyze an unbiased portrayal of the facts, but there are always outside influences which affect and shape our decisions. While carefully researched recommendations by respected publications go a long way to helping us with our decisions, one arresting tale from a colleague about terrible customer service and frequent down-time will send most of us into a 180° spin. How can we make solid decisions about technology for our organizations? One way is to keep in mind some common “soft spots” that people have when making these choices.

The tangle of cords under the printer station has gotten out of hand. The server keeps crashing, and you can't get it fixed fast enough. You want an institutional repository, and someone to run it. Your web page is a disaster. Whatever the reason, you want a systems librarian.

Or do you?

Grants offer attractive opportunities for carrying out technology initiatives that might not otherwise be possible for libraries. But grant money isn’t truly free money. The additional opportunities for libraries afforded by grants require time, effort, and commitment. In most respects, planning and implementing technology grants are no different than any other type of grant a library may seek and receive.

When I look at the really innovative things that some libraries are doing with technology (Casey Bisson’s WPOPAC, what the Hennepin County PL has done with its catalog, and the Ann Arbor District Library’s amazing Web site being just a few notable examples) I am thrilled to see that these libraries had the vision and forethought to hire individuals with serious coding skills. Sadly, not every library can afford to do so. With budgets stretched thin, some libraries have enough trouble trying to provide the same basic services they always have. Libraries often hire young librarians for blended librarian positions expecting that a librarian can somehow do nearly full-time public service work as well as the tech projects they feel will take them where they want to go. At my library, there are many things I would like to accomplish that I just don’t yet have the skills to do. However there is no one else at my library that can help me accomplish those things. I think this is a very common problem at libraries. We all want a usable and dynamic Web presence. We want to improve the usability of our OPAC. We want to make our Web site more “social.” But we don’t have staff with the tech knowledge to take us all the way there.

Over the past couple of years, a number of Web sites and initiatives have sprung up that can help bridge the tech gap. These offer the ability to ask questions and get help from people who are willing to share their expertise with others. Most of these “expert locator” sites are designed for all sorts of questions, but one of the following sites is designed specifically for librarians with IT issues: