Web strategy and a book to buy

Interesting article on the need to have a web strategy when redesigning a web site.

http://newsweaver.ie/gerrymcgovern/e_article000871297.cfm

Letting Go of the Words; Writing Web Content that Works (Janice Reddish) -- Highly recommended by a number of usability gurus including Jakob Nielsen, Lou Rosenfeld, Steve Krug.

The House of Rep can be followed on Twitter

Wow! This is exciting for a gov docs librarian. The House of Representatives has a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/housefloor
I think this is really exciting!

Libraries in 2nd Life

I am attending a five (or is it six) week course on the role of libraries and librarians in 2nd Life , which is offered through the Univ of Illinois, Library and Information Science continuing ed program. Last night was our first class. I must admit sitting in 2nd life for two hours reading tiny little text messages was a bit exhausting, but overall it will be a worthwhile class.

The class takes place on Info Island, which is a library lovers dream world. The library is always open, great programs are offered, and usually you can find someone to help answer a reference question.

At present, there are over 600 (self-identified) librarians on 2nd Life from all over the world. That is pretty amazing to me. I am not convinced yet that it will last forever or that it is something that all libraries will want to be involved in, but it is certainly worth exploring. Will blog more about my experience there as I work my way through the classes.

Oh, if you are a resident on 2nd Life, my avatar's name is Sylvie Despres. Feel free to look me up! I can usually be found in the government documents section on Info Island.

Tagmash

Librarything has just started a new feature that allows you to search by combining unrelated tags. Take a look! Short version or Long version

Enjoy!

Library 2.0?

I am not fond of the phrase "Library 2.0." It suggests that libraries and librarians haven’t changed much in 2,000+ years. I suppose some librarians are still using library hand to write catalog cards, but probably not many. Okay, that may not be fair, but I would rather think of libraries as always moving forward and librarians as innovators who are willing to try new ways of providing services, communicating with customers, and collaborating with others in (and out) of the library world. The phrase “Library 2.0” does not evoke the image of the continual evolution of libraries throughout time.

Discussions about the current era in librarianship focuses on how new technology will change the way we do what we do. The discussion includes a lot disagreement about whether or not the new technology is a good thing. These discussions and disagreements are not new. Technology has provided us with a lot of new tools in the past-- telephones, microforms, computers (remember the old Hollerith cards?). I am sure that many of these were pretty controversial at the time. I can just imagine what was being said when someone suggested putting phones in the library. It seems to me, that we have always been on alert for ways in which technology can move libraries forward. We decide which tools we should use and how we should use them (hopefully, based on customer need and not just our perception of what customers' need).

Not all the new technology is something that will be used in the library, but it is still worth knowing about. Flickr may not be used as an everyday tool, but it could be incorporated into programs -- a library workshop on genealogy might include a discussion on the use of Flickr to share old family photographs, or as a space to post pictures from a photo contest for young adults.

All this discussion of library 2.0, reminds me of an old Gershwin Song "...the radio and the telephone and the movies that we know they're just passing fancies and in time may go." (Our Love is here to Stay) Your guess is as good as mine as to what will last and what won't -- who knows we may be instant messaging with our customers for years to come.

Rollyo vs Google Custom Search

Number 12 on the list of 23 things is to look at Rollyo (http://www.rollyo.com/). I remembered an email that I read last fall about Google's custom search engine (http://www.google.com/coop/cse/overview), which does pretty much the same thing as Rollyo. So, I decided to take a quick look at both of them. I much prefer the Google application over Rollyo.

The most striking and least appealing thing about Rollyo is the over abundance of red on the page. It hurts my eyes! True to its use of minimalist design, Google's custom search page is much cleaner and easier to look. I should mention that I developed a usability custom search engine on both of sites.

I also prefer Google because I already am using other Google applications (such as this blogging tool). I don't have to create another username or password. That is a big plus!

Beyond that it looks like both do pretty much the same thing. I will probably explore them more this weekend just for fun.

Online image generator

Had a bit of fun working with image generators online. The one that I liked the most was dumpr.com. Not only did it create a great sketch of my dog Zephyr, but it let me upload the sketch to my flickr account.

Here is the sketch of Zeph:

Not really sure how I would use the image generator for work at the State Library. Any ideas?

23 Things and Hip Librarians

Early this week, I forwarded the link to my blog to family and friends who weren't librarians. One of them asked what this 23 Things was all about. I promised him that I would post a link to info about the challenge: http://our23things.infopeople.org/

Another friend really liked the article from the NY Times, "Hipper Crowd of Shushers." He asked me to post the link to the article, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html

Now that I am back from a short vacation -- I am back to working through my 23 Things. I feel like I have fallen behind, but I am determined to catch up! While I was on vacation, I added a new feature to my blog -- a random listing of items that are in my Library Things library.