TechEssence.info

We are ALL busy. Yesterday for example, I had a plan of what I was going to accomplish at work, but then I came in to an e-mail from a student asking for articles about the Second Anglo-Afghan War (for which we had next to nothing in the databases so I really had to hunt), and after that I found out about some dead links I needed to fix on a Web page, and then I got a call from a professor whom I needed to talk through some database searches, and then I had a reference shift all afternoon. So by the end of the day, I was shocked to find that I'd barely gotten any of the things I'd wanted to accomplish done. Imagine, if this is going on every day, how I, or anyone else in our profession, can actually make time for any sort of continuing education work?

It is almost trite to be quoted as saying, "The Internet has fundamentally changed the ways libraries do business", but these changes are still manifesting themselves in ways we still do not fully understand. Thus, consider taking advantage of the "wise crowds with long tails" in your strategic planning. Put another way, this posting is a dual book review and commentary on The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.

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?

Executive Summary

Tagging refers to the process by which users assign terms meaningful to them to a resource in the online environment. The rise of social bookmarking Web sites have skyrocketed tagging systems into the mainstream.

Executive Summary

The Web is an amazing source of information on just about every subject imaginable. Increasingly, people are depending on the Web for news, professional development and education. In light of the continuous growth of the Web, it has become difficult to keep up with all of the news stories covered, scholarly studies published, and blog posts written. If you want to know what’s going on in the world or in your field, you may have to visit countless websites every day or you risk missing potentially important information. Many people have a list of sources that they regularly look to for news and information. However, as the number of useful Web sites grows, users find it increasingly difficult to visit all of the pages every day. In addition, some Web sites and blogs are not updated with any regularity. There is a way to keep up with online content from dozens or hundreds of Web sites on a single page. This technology, RSS, is essentially the antidote to information overload.

With Roy's gracious permission, I am going to hijack TechEssence briefly to canvass its readership about a potential conference-related set of online-only tutorials and workshops. If you couldn't be more horrified by the idea, pray accept my apologies for disturbing you and go on to the next post.

Instant messaging, also called "chat," has been attracting a lot of attention as a vehicle for providing reference service and improving communication among library colleagues.

What is IM, and how does a library get started with it?

This post is meant to complement the TechEssence white paper on wikis.

Wikis are really hot right now. It seemed to be all people were talking about at Computers in Libraries this year. People are starting to use wikis in libraries to encourage staff collaboration and to encourage patron participation online. Many people often become skeptical of "hot technologies" because they can get to be so over-hyped. However, I can confirm from experience that, when used properly, wikis can harness the collective intelligence in unprecedented ways, and have tremendous potential for use in libraries.

Executive Summary

It can often be difficult to harness the collective knowledge of your staff. Each of your staff members has a tremendous amount of subject expertise that perhaps no one else on your staff has. Whether it is your Architecture Librarian or your Head Cataloger, it is essential that you find a way to collect the knowledge they have or risk losing it forever when that staff member leaves the library. Whether you are collecting best practices, policies, or resources used, it is important that these things are written out instead of depending on individual staff members to know them.

Wikis are the ideal tool for harnessing the collective intelligence. Wiki is Web-based, easy to set up, and allows people with little tech-savvy to add information. If you have a group of people who would benefit from sharing knowledge and ideas online, you may wish to consider a wiki for the project.

When colleges and universities are developing distance learning programs, library services are often an afterthought. Sometimes, only once the programs have started do concerns crop up about how libraries can provide services to distance learners. Obvious issues that arise when libraries provide services to distance learners include interlibrary loan policy changes, how to provide online reference services, and whether the library's online resources are sufficient to serve the new programs. However, something of equal importance is the online presence of the library.