This is an interesting interview:

Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s sociology department, has discovered that students aren’t nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume.

Ms. Hargittai studies the technological fluency of college freshmen. She found that they lack a basic understanding of such terms as BCC (blind copy on e-mail), podcasting, and phishing. This spring she will start a national poster-and-video contest to promote Web-related skills.

Eszter goes on to explain her study and its results. I found the comments as interesting as the interview itself. One comment in particular made me laugh:

Finally someone says it. We listen ad nauseam to administrators and journalists blather about tech in the classroom and this generation’s web-and-computer savvy. Bollocks. My students (at an R-1) have had enormous difficulty posting documents to Blackboard and WebCT; don’t know how to use a program’s tutorial; don’t know how to save documents in different file formats than the default; don’t realize they can discover basic information about our university (e.g. a phone directory, a registration calendar) through our webpage. They are as tech savvy as they are anything-else savvy: not so much, unfortunately.

Here’s my question - the first time you tried to use Blackboard or WebCT were you able to post info to it? As a very web-savvy person I have to say that Blackboard at least (since I never had to use WebCT) is one of the most user-unfriendly tools I’ve ever had to use. Do not use Blackboard as a measure of your students web savviness. Also - I’m really glad I didn’t have this person as one of my professors. How can any instructor be so negative about their students? If you think they know nothing then how can you teach them effectively?

All that said - I agree with the studies results. I found it interesting that my sister who recently finished college didn’t know about things that are part of my everyday web life - RSS, Blogs, etc. We should never make assumptions about our students/audience. We should always start at the beginning - as educators it’s our jobs to teach students about these tools and how they can be used in the professional world.

A request for help posted to the Web4Lib List that I think might be of interest to you:

This is an appeal to the readers of Web4Lib to help me collect information regarding automation products used in libraries. I maintain the lib-web-cats database and use it as a tool for analysis of what automation products that libraries choose to purchase or implement. Lib-web-cats currently includes over 32,000 libraries worldwide. I believe that it’s important for libraries to have data regarding the adoption and migration patterns of these software products as they make decisions regarding their automation strategies. You can help in this effort by reviewing and updating the entry for your library in lib-web-cats, or submitting your library if it’s not already included.

While I try to carefully track ILS deployments, in this round of updates I’m especially interested in gathering data about the other genres of products such as link resolvers, federated search, electronic resource management, digital library tools, and next-gen interfaces. I’m interested in open source as well as traditionally licensed products. Current data regarding the population served by the library, number of items in the collection, and annual circulation helps in the analysis.

Please go to:
http://www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats

lib-web-cats is a component of Library Technology Guides:
http://www.librarytechnology.org

I would also like to mention that the annual “Automation System Marketplace” article published by Library Journal is now available in the April 1, 2008 issue and online, this year subtitled “Opportunity out of Turmoil.” The data that I have in lib-web-cats is indispensable in writing this article to corroborate and expand upon what the vendors provide.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6542440.html

I appreciate the assistance of Web4Lib.

-marshall

Yippeee!! When I first got my Mac I asked you all to point me to a tool that would work like Evernote for my Mac - well, TechCrunch reports that Evernote for Mac is finally here!!

Downloaded!

[update]Oh no! It’s a private beta! Fingers crossed for an invite![/update]

[update2]Yippee - got me an invite - will update you all on the status soon.[/update2]

Technorati Tags: evernote

As you know, I’ve recently gotten my first Mac. I’m still learning. One of the features I like the most is Finder. Last night my husband installed an awesome Windows app that gives Finder functionality to his PC - Launchy.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Using this open source application, Windows users can easily mimic the functionality of Finder without switching to a Mac.

I should mention that my husband is using Windows XP. He says that Vista has a function something like this but for some reason it doesn’t work for games - so if you’re a gamer, like him, then you probably want to give Launchy a go.

[update] Derik pointed me to an awesome app that is actually closer to Launchy - but for Mac. Called Quicksilver. [/update]

Technorati Tags: launchy

When we moved to our new house in August we decided that we didn’t want a land line and so we had to (well not really - but financially it made more sense) give up our Verizon DSL and switch to Comcast cable Internet. Since day one I’ve been complainng to my husband that Comcast is not as fast as DSL and their commercials are full of crap (sorry but they are). Today I read that Comcast has been intentially slowing down Internet traffic!!!

More Comcast fallout for your Wednesday afternoon. The ISP told the FCC yesterday that, yes, it does slow down Internet traffic for the greater good. The corp recently updated its TOS to reflect the fact that it shapes traffic. So that, in and of itself, isn’t new or exciting. The blowback that’s developing is, however.

A bill will be introduced to the House today that would disallow Comcast and other network providers from interfering with your Net connection. The idea here is that it’s in the public’s interest to allow unfettered access to the Internet in order to foster the next round of Googles and Yahoos. If your bandwidth is constantly futzed around with, how can you reliably use services like VoIP?

Why doesn’t Comcast just offer a legitimate unlimited service? Charge the power users (people like us, I assume) a little more but give them all the bandwidth they can handle.

Comcast Defends Role As Internet Traffic Cop [Washington Post via Slashdot]

Via CrunchGear.

[update] I have edited my title because I have just received an email from a friendly man at Comcast. It was not a canned email as you’d expect, yet it explained this situation a bit further and I want to be fair. From the email:

I would like to apologize for the speeds you are experiencing and I would like to work with you to correct it. The articles you reference are specific to Bit Torrent, and the traffic management is regarding these downloads only. If you are experiencing slowness while downloading Bit Torrents, this could be the issue. If you are experiencing slowness during other activities it could be a problem that we can correct. When you are experiencing slowness, run a speetest at a site closest to your home. I usually use speedtest.net. If the results are less than you should be receiving, then we should have a technician review your modem and the lines into your home.

I have kindly replied to this gentleman and have ensured him that I would make this information known to the public. I also took time to explain that I have had several customer service issues with the company over the years and that has probably prompted my harsh title:

I will take your suggestions to heart and do not plan on changing services anytime soon, but I do think that you should have fewer staff hours spent monitoring the Internet for posts regarding your service and more hours spent on actually providing services to prevent complaints in the first place.

So, there you have it - I have been maybe a bit too harsh - but after years of holding in my anger, I’m happy to finally have gotten a professional response from the company and will stick with them while we see if we can resolve these issues. [/update]

Did you know that Google had public calendars that you could add to your personal calendar? I didn’t - not until someone in one of the classes I was teaching pointed it out. This is why I love teaching small, hands-on type classes, I always walk away learning something from the students. Anyway, if you search for holidays for example you can get the holidays for several countries and add them right to your calendar with one click. It’s very handy!

Technorati Tags: google calendar, calendars

There will be an interesting discussion later this week on Blending Libraries and IT Organizations:

As technology and data become increasingly intertwined, many small liberal-arts colleges are combining their IT organizations and libraries to better serve students and faculty members. Xavier University, in Cincinnati, has embraced that model wholeheartedly (The Chronicle, January 18). It is constructing a new building to house the new organization, has scrapped the position of chief librarian, and has reduced the number of books in its library. Xavier is determined to make the new organization work, but some colleges have seen such mergers collapse because of cultural clashes between librarians and technology workers. Will more colleges adopt a blended organization? What are the keys to a successful marriage between the units? How do the roles of librarians and technology workers change?

I haven’t read the article yet - but I will before the 31st (which is when the chat will begin). This sounds like an interesting talk - although I’m not sure what they mean by “blending” IT & Library orgs - which is why I have to read the article

Today I had my first Skype call/interview. It was an interesting experience. It was for a podcast that will appear on Talking with Talis once I’ve started my new job. One big tip - find a place without distractions or dogs!! My house has an open floor plan and it’s freezing out today so my pups were indoors and decided to play with each other while I was on the call (something they almost never do).

As for Skype - what a great tool! You can use it to voice or text chat. You can also use it for playing games (like on Meebo) and other things I haven’t figured out yet It’s free to download and install - so you have nothing to lose by trying it out.

If you’re interested my Skype username is the same as all my others “nengard”

Technorati Tags: skype, podcast, talis

This from a post on the NY Times Bits blog:

In less than 14 months, any traditional television set still connected to its antenna will receive nothing but static, as the broadcasting industry cuts over completely to its new digital frequencies.

A recent poll by the marketing arm of the cable industry shows that most people still have no clue this is going to happen.

In a telephone survey in November of 1,017 people, only 48 percent said they had heard about the switch to digital television. And only 17 percent correctly identified 2009 as the year that analog television will be cut off. (The survey had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.)

Did you know this? I didn’t! Not that it really bothers me - I’m all digital at home (DVR included) - but this may be a shock to people like Dan and others I know who don’t have digital cable.

The first issue of the Code4Lib Journal has been released and the TOC looks pretty enticing - now I just have to find time to read some of these articles.

• Editorial Introduction "” Issue 1
• Beyond OPAC 2.0: Library Catalog as Versatile Discovery Platform
• Facet-based search and navigation with LCSH: Problems and opportunities
• The Rutgers Workflow Management System: Migrating a Digital Object Management Utility to Open Source
• Communicat: The Next Generation Catalog That Almost Was"¦
• Connecting the Real to the Representational: Historical Demographic Data in the Town of Pullman, 1880-1940
• BOOK REVIEW: The Success of Open Source by Steven Weber
• COLUMN: 700 Dollars and a Dream : Take a Chance on Koha, There's Very Little to Lose

While Thanksgiving has passed, I can be thankful anytime and I want to repeat Michael’s thanks to LISNews & Blake Carver.

I’m also thankful for LISNews and the hosting services that Blake Carver provides. He puts up with the mountains of spam comments TTW gets as well as all my strange requests. If you are thankful for the sites and services Blake provides also, head on over to:

http://www.lisnews.org/node/28308

to make a donation of any size to the efforts of the LISNews folks!

Blake provides an awesome service and is always responsive - something rare among the world of web hosts! While I don’t use his web hosting services (I didn’t know about them when I started this blog), I do use his services for other hosting needs and he’s awesome! Thanks Blake!

I mentioned when I started my new job that EverNote is an essential tool. Well I just found out via LifeHacker that you can get the $50 version of EverNote for free for today only.

Don’t miss this offer - unless you care about the limitations:

Please note that the software you download and install during
the Giveaway period comes with the following important limitations:
1) No free technical support
2) No free upgrades to future versions
3) Strictly non-commercial usage

This is not a review - so much as it is a review of points that have stuck with me from my reading of Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. I’m not done yet - but I can’t hold it in anymore - and my husband is tired of listening to me rant about library-type stuff

Point one: Allowing users to write reviews:

When I was at the NFAIS Humanities Roundtable, I faced this very question. “Why would we want to let amateurs write reviews?” and “Publishers will pull their content if we let them do that!” It was for this reason that I found page 59 so funny!

[Greg] Hark remarks. “Publishers said you’re allowing users to say that they hate a book.” The response from Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, as Hart recalls it, was: “It will sell more books…just not ones customers don’t like.”

This was in response to Amazon allowing users to review books in their store - and it’s perfect! My answer at the conference was another question. What’s to stop a professional reviewer from saying they hate the book? The fact of the matter is that the average reader cares more about what other readers think than what professional book reviewers think - at least I do!

Point two: Library catalog limitations:

Weinberger points out (on page 119) that when looking at a record in a library card catalog:

Generally you will not find how well the book sold, if it’s been banned in any countries, a list of the books it cites, the college the author attended, what the reviewers said about it, the full index from the back of the book, or how many times it’s been checked out of the library…

Now, while we aren’t using cards to store our data anymore (well most of us aren’t) we’re still following the same rules - and more importantly, we’re still thinking about how much time it would take for us to add that extra metadata.

This is the beauty of LibraryThing’s new Common Knowledge - while it doesn’t have all of these things it does have some and they’re adding new fields all of the time! I love it! One day I spent hours just filling in all of the info I could find on my favorite authors - not a great use of time - but so useful to someone searching for that book!

Point three: Knowledge is social:

Starting on page 144, Weinberger discusses our education system here in the U.S. and how we’re taught to work in silos. Students are made to sit and take tests to measure what they’ve learned:

The implicit lesson is unmistakable: Knowing is something done by individuals. It is something that happens inside your brain. The mark of knowing is being able to fill in a paper with the right answers. Knowledge could not get any less social. In fact, in those circumstances when knowledge is social we call it cheating.

When I was in college, I lived with my husband (boyfriend at that time) and we took many of the same classes - since we had the same degree. We would sit and do our homework together and yes, come up with the same answers. Most of the professors were okay with this as long as we could fill out those test papers on our own come exam time - all except one - but we won’t go there. Now, Weinberger guarantees that students are on IM, chatting while doing homework - which probably ends up with the same result - shared knowledge. This - in my eyes - is the way of the world! You learn so much more by sharing with others than you do sitting alone at your desk. This is part of the reason why I started this blog - I wanted to share what I was learning so that others could learn too.

Two more quotes from Weinberger in this section that made me interrupt my husband as he tried to read his book last night …

Memorizing facts is often now a skill more relevant to quiz shows than to life … One thing is for sure: When our kids become teachers, they’re not going to be administering tests to students sitting in a neat grid of separated desks with the shades down.

So true!! And:

One of the lessons of Wikipedia is that conversation improves expertise by exposing weaknesses, introducing new viewpoints, and pushing ideas into accessible form.

Long story short - knowledge should be shared! And in doing so learning will be more valuable.

More points to come:

I’m only 1/2 way through with the book - and I’m sure I’ll have more to share with you as I finish - if you haven’t read the book - I highly recommend it just based on the first 150 pages and the conversations that I’ve seen spring up from it!

I bookmarked this resource ages ago - but apparently it was only recently released:

The first official alpha version of Google’s OCRopus scanning software for Linux was released yesterday. OCRopus is built on top of HP’s venerable open-source Tesseract optical character recognition (OCR) engine and is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.

OCRopus uses Tesseract for character recognition but has its own layout analysis system that is optimized for accuracy.

OCRopus sounds like an interesting tool - but probably doesn’t come close to a tool like FineReader - which is the most awesomest OCR package I’ve ever used!

Technorati Tags: ocr

Via LibVive:

Public libraries are the natural venue for tech support problems to get fixed. Libraries care about people’s access to information, right? How about if we tack on an extra $1 to the cost of every new computer — and then fund libraries to stay open some extra hours in the evening (or on the weekend) so that people can bring their computers to be attended to?

A very interesting idea from Phil Shapiro at PC World.

Last night I gave a talk on the value of the content management system (CMS) at the Princeton Public Library. Most of it was live demos of Drupal, Joomla and the Jenkins Law Library intranet (a homegrown CMS), but I also had a few intro slides that are now on my Publications & Presentations page

• Managing Your Content: Everything You Need to Know about the CMS
  Princeton Public Library Tech Talks, Princeton, NJ, September 4, 2007

I was having a chat with Chris Schwartz the other day about which technologies we should be looking at for our library. She asked me if I thought we needed to pay attention to Second Life - if this was really where our students were. I don’t know the answer to this without asking the students, but based on those I’ve met, I don’t think we need to worry about Second Life just yet, but it might be good to look into some sort of IM or Virtual reference service.

In a comment to her own post the Annoyed Librarian says:

I don’t think it’s essential that all libraries have IM reference, or that all library directors blog, or anything like that.

And it’s so true! Reading that line just made me start to think about my chat with Chris and made me want to share with you all.

I’m all for everyone learning everything they possibly can, but not all tools are the right fit in all organizations. The problem is that people hear us techie librarians going on and on about the nifty new thing we learned how to use today and think we’re saying “If you don’t use this tool you’re lame.” - and maybe that is the case with some techie librarians - but with me, I just want to bring every tool I can to your attention - because one might just be the one you were looking for to solve that pesky little problem you were having

Straight from my inbox:

SHAKE UP YOUR THINKING
WITH THE PHILADELPHIA SLA'S TECH-TOPICS SERIES

The TechTopics Series will be comprised of three evening workshops concentrating on new technologies and tools, and are designed for anyone who is interested in keeping their skill sets up-to-date.

These "hands-on" workshops will provide you with an overview of new technologies such as wikis, blogs and other online office applications, and show you how to apply these key learnings to your organization!

These evening sessions are specifically designed for the busy information professional. For a nominal registration fee of $15.00 ($25.00 for non-members), you will receive interactive training in an open-learning setting designed to answer your questions on how to apply these best practices to your own work environment! Food and refreshments are included!

All workshops will be held in the evening in Room 116 at the Korman Computing Center on the campus of Drexel University, in Philadelphia, PA. If you are unable to attend in person, please bear in mind we plan to deliver these sessions via web-based simulcast as well!!!

Planned Sessions:

Registration will be from 5:00 - 5:30 pm for each session"¦

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 — 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The 2.0 Office: More Than Just Wikis & Blogs
Instructor: Nicole Engard

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 — 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
"Plug-in" to Firefox!
Instructor: Chris Curry

AND, in November 2007"¦
Second Life
Instructor: Tim Siftar

SAVE THESE DATES!

Information on registration and more details on the September session — coming soon!

Technorati Tags: sla, special library association, training

If you’re in the Princeton area on Sept 4, come hear me chat about the CMS at the Public Library Tech Talks.

I agree with Sarah - I want one of these nifty little things!! In fact - that was just what they were aiming for:

Though designers say the product is unisex, as a fashion accessory it may carry particular appeal to women, a group Intel has long wanted to win over. “Increasingly, women are often the decision makers, particularly with high-end purchases,” says Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. “More and more companies are starting to pay more attention to the female market segment.”

Cliff writes and interesting post about our online identities. The short summary is this - he posted a video for his staff use. He then deleted the account that held the video, only to find out that his video was cited in a paper.

I’ve come across this issue before. I’ve wanted to change my username for StumbleUpon which is different from every other professional account I have - but I know I can’t because so many people are connected to it.

Cliff asks:

1. How will we manage our online identities throughout our lifetimes?
2. What do we (as librarians and indexers) do about media that is constantly being updated/moved/deleted?
3. Where is that darn video?!?

I don’t have an answer to Cliff’s questions - but it does add to the problem of digital preservation we’re all facing.

To quote Richard Wallis from Talis - “Take yourself to this video of a presentation at the 2007 TED Conference. Don’t argue just take a look!”

WOW! At first it’s just neat … and then it’s gets neater … and then … WOW!!!

Favorite quote (with some editing out of ums):

What the point here really is is that we can do things with the social environment. This is now taking data from everybody, from the entire collective memory, visually, of what the earth looks like and linking that together and make something emergent that is greater than the sum of its parts.

PEW has a quick quiz to help you figure out where you fit in with other Internet users. Thanks Steve for pointing it out for me.

My results are not surprising. I’m an Omnivore!

Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.

Basic Description
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. Omnivores are highly engaged with video online and digital content. Between blogging, maintaining their Web pages, remixing digital content, or posting their creations to their websites, they are creative participants in cyberspace.

Defining Characteristics
You might see them watching video on an iPod. They might talk about their video games or their participation in virtual worlds the way their parents talked about their favorite TV episode a generation ago. Much of this chatter will take place via instant messages, texting on a cell phone, or on personal blogs. Omnivores are particularly active in dealing with video content. Most have video or digital cameras, and most have tried watching TV on a non-television device, such as a laptop or a cell phone.

Omnivores embrace all this connectivity, feeling confident in how they manage information and their many devices. This puts information technology at the center of how they express themselves, do their jobs, and connect to their friends.

Who They Are
They are young, ethnically diverse, and mostly male (70%). The median age is 28; just more than half of them are under age 30, versus one in five in the general population. Over half are white (64%) and 11% are black (compared to 12% in the general population). English-speaking Hispanics make up 18% of this group. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many (42% versus the 13% average) of Omnivores are students.

What are you?

Today I learned 2 new words: Metatasking & Informavores. I just finished reading Devin Zimmerman’s April 15th Library Journal article titled Metatasking v. Multitasking.

Metatasking is a process that involves undertaking any number of tasks that ultimately accomplish one primary objective.

As many institutions continue to move toward information commons and collaborative learning models, encouraging metatasking"”that is deep, focused multitasking"”makes sense.

* * *The term informavore has been bandied around to describe the role of information-seekers these days. But, in our information-gathering world, it simply makes sense for us to want to accomplish as much as we can and to use the technologies we have available to do so. We all do this in one way or another.

What an interesting way to think of things. I think I am a metatasker. I do juggle things, but I do it in an organized fashion. If I’m in the middle of a project and you IM me - you’ll just have to wait because I don’t like to break the flow.

I’m also an informavore - what librarian isn’t? I love gathering information - for myself, but also for others - that’s why this blog was started. I also send a ton of emails at work with “FYI” in the subject - sending fellow staff members links to resources I think would interest them - or help them in their work.

Devin also addresses the question of whether this constant multitasking (or metatasking) is causing Millennials to have shorter attention spans.

It’s wrong to assume automatically that today’s metatasking Millennials are unfocused. They’re just optimizing. Our students today are often simultaneously burdened with a full course load, jobs, families, personal lives, and more. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they try to get the best results in the least amount of time or with the least amount of effort.

Very interesting article - you should give it a read.

Hmmm - this is very interesting.

This article in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting on research done at The University of NSW suggests the use of Microsoft PowerPoint (and similar products) in lectures and meetings actually makes it harder to absorb facts, rather than being a reinforcement of key points.

Via Slashdot.

Technorati Tags: powerpoint, presentations