There can only be one...

Service point people! and also one highlander. which they really should have heeded when they decided to make some sequels. But I'm not talking about movies, I'm talking about Libraries.

So I have been rather lax with checking up on my RSS feeds of late, the new job is keeping me from having much time to formulate new stratagems for web interaction whilst I survey my new information landscape where I am positioned. But the first one I did read from Tame the Web was on the Reference Desk is Gone, something that had always bothered me. Previously I've worked in library's that have divided their reference services, and conquered them by having an all inclusive service point.

Almost every library I encounter has a different setup for this, and even in new purpose build ones they seem to be making this division concrete, but with marble to smooth over any such harsh facades. From my customer point of view I find it an unnecessary division, but once again, every library has its own contributing factors at play. Does a library have self checks? RFID? Roving reference? Split over multiple levels? Public/Academic/Specialist? Single institution/part of a network? All of these are influential, but can always be overcome with the right focus.

Probably one of the more notable things I've been able to observe in my years in the industry is the division between the so called professional and paraprofessional castes in the library world. When I first began my rise to library aspirations from the ashes of my historian/archaeologist dreams I was not aware of the segregation in the library ranks. Much like the lay person, I thought you worked in a library, you were a librarian (explaining this to people is always an interesting experience). It is not until you are inside the belly of the beast do that you understand your role, kind of like red and while blood cells working together, but with different functions. Sadly, this leaves little room for growth, and if you want to expand yourself in your role, you may come off with the body perceiving you as cancer. And it shouldn't be like that.

I've actually had this post sitting here for almost a year, but it has bothered me for at least three. Yes, you need the separation in the workplace, but in education as well? Having performed on both sides of this coined stage of discussion, I can say I've enjoyed what both aspects offer, but can see where the large overlap in skills used. And as these skills develop, will what motivates me be more important than any piece of paper reads in my career development?

And as reference enquires continue to decline, coupled with the increase in services offered, will mean education institutions will really have to look again at what it is to be working in the library industry.

Kinect for..what?

Ahh Microsoft, don't think I don't see you trying to get back into my life, and your library patron/marketing agent ploys won't fool me this time! Not even with a puppy sir! So I've changed jobs and now I'm writing by the sea, almost my 16 year old dream come true, but I'm not entirely writing fiction nor in Jamaica. But to the point: somebody asked me what kinect meant, the dictionary had no assistance, Kinetica was of no help, so onto the dark side, google. Turns out it is a revolutionary amazing never seen before motion detection anti sarcastic gaming device! much like the Wii however, all this motion detection of actual actions I should be actioning in real life seems to be taking it more away from playing games on a console to imitating the experience. Once again the world taunts me with its progress towards holodeck success. part of me is appalled at the notion that games are now asking you to mimic activities you could perform yourself; I can play pretend golf, throw a Frisbee, I'm sure I can even get into some hack n slash role play, but that one is better left to the games. Once again its all about the ease of access, but also personal preference. Music as another example: you can now never have to own physical music again or ever go and see a band live, hell you can even make music sans instruments. But, you can also live your life hunting down rare vinyl and attending warehouse shows for the over 30's. same love, but on a different wavelength. So in summation I am intrigued as to how far Microsoft will go with their new toy, but also worried about how people growing up with this technology will perceive their usage of it. But it all might just be me having gamer withdrawals at the expense of a social life.

Is private...rank?

Well, if you are in some from of army this may be in fact a true statement. Or perhaps you were a sometime PVP enthusiast in World of Warcraft some time ago and are quite proud of your obsolete rank. Or it may be the view of a certain CEO of facebook, and privacy just...smells.

but what kind of olfactory sensation are you on the receiving end of? The perfumed scents of the wide open Savannah of information that has been opened to you, or the brackish pungency of steel capped boots storming through your seemingly invincible invisible internal Internet walls of firewalls to expose your small time information sharing racket. so is it going to be hard times ahead?

Well, if you have a read of this little article you mind may be soothed by its information lozenge like qualities. If not, you may have some sort of allergic reaction to this one.

For me, I've always upheld the opinion that if I don't want information about me on the Internet, I won't post information I don't want out there. As for what others post about me, its up there with what others say about me. And I'm pretty happy with my stance on that. So how are you coping with change? For me its been a few weeks, and it really hasn't changed my Internet habits in the slightest, so I won't be in the habit of slighting it. However, it is always a good idea to asses what it is you are doing, how it is being sent and received, and how you feel about that. I wonder how this is affecting library pages...Anyway, I'm sure if Gene Roddenberry was alive he would agree that this is getting us closer to humanity forging forward, or putting me one step closer to seeing Star Trek come to life.

I'm on your Facebook, linking your internets

Ahh lolcats, the world is still a better when I place references to thee in my titles. So having upgraded my knowledge database of the Internet to a patchy 2.1, I decided to look at my mildly neglected bloglines. Sadly it was down for maintenance, so I thought I would peruse techcrunch which I've decided I will often do. When Bloglines is down anyway. That's where I came across/a cropper the latest news that facebook will acting like a gatekeeper/gateway to all things interesting on the web, see the article here.

So how does this affect you and me? Well if you are my friend Phil it means nothing to you, and you will no doubt be chastising me for wasting my time on facebook and not writing my humorous thoughts in my notepad for later telegrams to you. For the rest of my tech savvy interfriends, it means you can now delve even deeper into your 'im interested in your activities on the net, but I don't want to look like I'm interested in your activities on the net' habits. Make sense? partial credit?

Well, Since I have a strict moral code of not using facebook at work, and some sort of hazy rule about doing work at home (a holdover grudge from my uni days no doubt) I have yet to actually test what this will all mean to me. however tech nut Mr Scoble has sussed it all out for me.

But what does it all mean Mr Keith? it Mean to say in that in a Star Trek world, that if the web was like space, and the websites were like planets, facebook would be like the Borg. They would assimilate everything, and your (like)ness would be added to their own. I would write your own, but that avatar on the net, its theirs.

Humor aside, does it mean that facebook is evil? it certainly looks like it is trying to monopolise the way in which people will access the Internet. their nanoprobes will be everywhere. you can even chart your assimilation success! Do I want Facebook knowing everything I do so it can push products and services upon me? Well, do I want to tell my mum everything I do and everywhere I go so she can tell all her friends? Not really. I can see it being good in assisting me find things of interest, but bad in that my web activities are going to be monitored in the extreme. I will of course have to test this myself, but as usual, this Suburbanite is wary of big development moving in.

Darkness!!! Darkness is spreading!

Ahh, yet another humorous obscure reference completed. If Rick James was still with us today no doubt his keen senses would detect the spreading dark web of deceit that malware has wrought upon many an unsuspecting Internet user. So I ask, nay plead, when you are using the Internet adhere to this creed: what Would Rick James do?

Having been an Internet user for quite a while now, I have been able to mostly circumnavigate malicious malware. Sadly, even for such a tech savvy user, even I have succumbed to its dark clutches over the years. Much as I succumb to the distraction of my musical interests taking over at the mere mention of Rick James (truth be told I took a break mid post to search for recordings of the Rick James/Neil Young band The Mynah Birds...with success!).

Anyway, I've suffered trojans over the years, corrupted operating systems, and more viruses that a technical problem. And popups! they are like that annoying street spruiker that hits you up for something that you don't need, and without the proper defences against such intrusions (the line/popup blocker 'your right mate' is a doosy/doozy/doosie for these situations) you may be burdened by some physical and financial strains that you could really do without. That is until you reformat you life to rid yourself of such. Fitness First anyone?

Another I have encountered is friends being 'hacked' in MMORPGs in a way that is more debilitating that an avatar's death. This can go even even further into having your credit card account hacked. Apparently once upon a time my card was used to download a song off itunes. AS IF ITUNES! NAY! A good thing my bank knows of my hardcore hardcopy music collecting habits.

But onto phishing scams. Phishing scams are definitely one of the highlights of the low points of Internet life, with scams to tyrannise even the most trusting of individuals. It really is society gone wrong. They are often hard to spot, but giveaways can be misspelled email addresses, links to unofficial sites, and asking of personal account information. the library is often subject to these sorts of email scams, and personally I have received plenty of random emails from people. More that what I get from actual friends, which is a bit of a worry. I mean these scams seem to be more interested in my life than their human equivalents! Sadly there is always going to be greed in the world, and this is not only a case of being a faceless crime, but often an automated one.

So the latest patch of 2.1 is drawing to a close, and once again I have tried to equate how this new technology applies not only to my work life but also my social/personal life. I've also noted that I seem to add such technologies only slowly to my lifestyle, and with work they are also adopted extremely slowly, which is usually due to Council or Management misgivings on how it is best implemented. It can be frustrating at times but it is important to stick to ones guns on how such services are in the best interests of serving the public, with too much red tape preventing the ability to provide a meaning full service.

So does this mean this blog will end!? Well I actually think I will keep it going, keeping an eye on technology, and interesting ways it affects society. Plus I have grown fond of my own amusing ways I relate to the subject material. So if anyone has enjoyed reading this, congratulations!

Maaashups!

Ok, I'm going to state first up I've never been into mashups, though I have heard in my time some interesting musical mashups many would refer to as hip hop, something I am ludicrously into at the moment. I also have contracted a rabid penchant for vinyl, the staple in any good DJs diet. Coincidence? Fate? Kismet!?

As for the technological age of the mashup, the amazing perforation of the boundaries of ownership brought and wrought over online sharing has enabled a plethora of visual and aural bending creative endeavours. So anyway, I decided to take a quick flick across the boards to see what the latest flavours were.

Twitter was mainly on about music mashups, and when I happened to click on this unfortunate video, I'm pretty sure its in my repressed memory bin, sheesh! Flickr was thankfully a bit more tasteful in its artistic expressions, more heart; something I should develop more of an interest in once I find some time.

This lack of involvement has meant that I've had very little experience with actually using any APIs to generate my own mashups. The simple fact that we now have so many tools at hand to craft with is great to get people interested and started. But not me, not this time; time to browse what they have done for mankind.

bkkeepr has one of those fine grating titles I love, but its actual use would not be so bad to see what library users were reading, provided they wanted to share what it is they were in fact reading. Good as a tool to see what is popular.

Booktour is fabulously blocked at my library, so no dice there.

Libworm looks innaresting, but it is primarily US centric, so not so much for me here. Still it is an intriguing idea that they are running with; the possibility of a one stop feed shop with both searching and browsing capabilities. It's like having food and drinks! Sate AND Slake! Reminds me of my idea of the one global library system to rule them all that I have feverish dreams about that leaves me in a delirious stupor.

Visual Headlines is innovative in its presentation, as well as its stress on the computer I was on. Like giving me too much music to listen to with no real time to absorb it. So I can understand the duress such quality products being thrust upon once capacity; to be incapacitated by overloaded capacitors and other overloaded circuit/synapse themed sentences. Anyway, seems it doesn't like the whole visual interaction thing.

Intrestingness I like, not for the word (I'm going to have to get used to mashed words soon) but for the inspiration I feel to go out and take arty photography. Reminds me of my trip to the Newcastle Museum to take some snaps but to find they were all out of focus by a long way. Which I still used for a Uni assignment. Which of course left my lecturer wondering what they were looking at. So in effect I achieved the art of interpretation in its worst form.

Flickr Memari is deemed to much fun to be allowed at work, so twice no dice.

Let me google that for you is not a sentence you will hear me utter anytime soon, nor a sight to see me visit. I mean really? is google that hard to use?

Crime Reports seems interesting...I wonder how Boltwood street would fare in my fair state's north. Dubbed 'boltdown street' for the dual reason of A) if it wasn't bolted down it was likely to be stolen and B) unless you bolted down the street in swift fashion you were likely to be set upon by vagrants. Classy.

Walkscore - now there's a website for any budding fan of self propelled transport! Whilst it states that is States centric, a quick flash over the keys produced my location, with a behemoth score of 51%! So it seems this is the reason for my lack of visitors, they have seen my paltry figures and have wilted and balked at the though of said walk!

Interesting that the site primarily focuses on amenity data from Google maps, rather than how pleasant 6 lanes of never ceasing traffic is to my walkability. Not to mention all those great gradients on show in the area to test those tender tendons on! Still, its better than my Mums House, I mean you gotta go to Woolgoolga if you want a decent drink, take THAT Toormina pub (which if fair, even I wouldn't even go there). Still, I like the site, may even use it when I think of moving closer to the city.

A quick perusal of the web yielded Mashup Awards, though sadly it only serves as an archive now. Still, a good source to see what went down 2007-2009.

I think, therefore IM.

Instant messaging, not so instant is it really? I mean, I still have to type, wait for my Internet connection, the program to display. Even with voice operated systems I still need to verbalise my thought. Wheres the ESP? now that would be useful for instant messaging! but as I have yet to achieve such cerebellum feats of communication, I will direct my focus this instant to this instance of Instant Messaging.

So far my interaction with messaging has come in many forms. From Blogging whenever I feel like it or in later response to something I've read (similar to thinking of the ultimate comeback to a debilitating and social life threatening insult), to using IM chat on MSN Messenger, Facebook, and MMORPG games (the equivalent to that lightning quick riposte to a verbal vapulation, a most satisfying feeling for all involved). Another other joy with instant messaging is you can actually tell when a conversation is getting a little one sided, with a textual onslaught bleeding across you little chat receptacle, or even to the point of chatting to an offline friend (at that stage its best to switch to email).

Anyhow, Whilst I've had limited usage of skype, I have utilised online voice software often used for games, Ventrillo being one. You could even use this for conference calling, or a cheap way for endless conversation (as long as your Internet holds out). Hell I've even used it to talk to my mum.

Webcams however are where I draw the line. My pixelated moving image does nothing for my online persona's self esteem, and would hate to see my attempts to give someone 'the look' turn into a digitised blasphemous expression due to video compression. Diminishing returns people! In essence though I like the majesty of the written word for long distance communique times, and there is always the dog and bone.

Twitter as always seems interesting to me in a way, but I have yet to be compelled to jump aboard. The hash tagging is interesting, but with only 140 words to dispose on a discussion, it invariable ends in links to be a means to and end. In essence I compare it to posting newspaper headlines with a link to the article. ANd I don't like newspaper headlines at the best of times.

Once again my two cents, rounded down.

Documenting google: style guide

Well I figure google docs does indeed have its own style, and the latest 2.1 installment is the guide, like a librarian in a digital stack. Possibly maybe, probably no. After trying to F5 my memory on how this little feature functions via some plain English, YouTube seems to have decided to be of no assistance, or perhaps telling me I do not need it, like Obi-Wan coercing Luke to 'use the force'. It seems YouTube will only take you so far. Time to use some of that intuition!

Now back in my 2.0 days I was quite impressed with the power of google docs, but remember having to shift my mind from the storing in private @ home versus the potential of online collaboration on the net. The fact that this was nigh on two years ago is still a little startling,.
realising for all my good intent I haven't used it at all. Promises and words it seems. First handy hint off the block was now I can upload and store fines into docs! quite impressed indeed, especially if downloading word or excel documents onto a computer without said programs.

The ability to see revisions is also handy for documents you have worked on or collaborated with people, not only to see added/omitted information, but the documents progress. Had a quick look at the 12 things about google docs, some not so useful but the power to make your browser via toolbar plug ins your word processor is a very handy tool indeed.

Had a play around with making a quick form, useful tool to make quick tests our questionnaires. Sadly my enquiry to the 100 tips on docs use was met with indiffernent server failure, once more a portent that I am best to rely on my own intuition, always.

igoogle: the latest tool for ivillains

Looking at the interface for igoogle got me thinking: it really does remind me of ye olde super-villains with their underground lairs, poor reading light, and masses of monitors and gadgets to endlessly scheme at new ways of being a menace to society. to think that rather than needing a device for every pot they wanted their finger in, it has all been condensed onto one screen! though if they were an uber new age villain I guess they would spread it across two 30" screens just to make sure they are the envy of the villain fraternity. And to think of all savings they will make on electricity and hardware! Still, this will no doubt be offset by their high download needs as well as masking their IP address. but I digress...

So whilst my world domination plans have been on the shelf of late, I figured I'd at least set up my online interface so can jump right in, like I'd never aspired to be a wild mannered librarian. email, favourite blogs of musical contemporaries, I could go on forever! All the most useful plug ins as well, I'm sure they even have links to your flickr...err I mean Picasa online photos of the family to be just like that old workstation at home, and thousands of the most useful gadgets/widgets I'm sure.

Was that a tone of trepidation at the installation of this intrepid destination to my 2.1 exploration? Yes. whilst handy as it is indeed, I still find it to be an over glorified favourites list. I will admit is is great to use as a glance and pick out what info that interests you, but often anything you want to view will take you to another site. Still, I can see with the right concoction of widgets it would be a most powerful tool.

Ping on the other hand is a wonderful way to get that old 'I have command of your airwave dreams mwahahaha' feeling that all villains aspire to for shock and awe tactics, a must to get your fingers into peoples ears, or pull theirs out of them per se. a definite advantage to any institute that wants to post info across platforms, but one must be wary of the different uses and audiences one encounters across these: posting everything to everyone may not be the wisest. Definitely worth libraries investing in.

43 Marks and allmyfaves look interesting, especially the logolicious output of the latter, sure to dazzle any marketing image fixated people. its also a good way for users to see what other services are on offer in your 2.0 field of choice. Whilst I will keep them in mind for my own use, I think they would prove to be a handy tool for library users, especially allmyfaves.

Age of Man is Meant to be an Event

So if said title is found to be true, then this 'age' of 'man' should no doubt have some kind of organisation, event management mayhap, by aged 'men'. Whilst this is how things were no doubt done thorought the tumultuous times of man as we know it, there is now another way! a 2.0 Way! Hooray!

had an oogle at doodle, fast, quick n easy to set up invites and send em away, but even when I was sending an email out via gmail, I noted I could add one automatically. less options, but you get the idea.

Google calendar looks intriguing, and the sheer amount of 2.0 tools they have is seriously making me consider changing my main email account from hotmail. An instance where I could see it being of use would be for the tech team here that runs computer courses. We are all fairly busy and have to slot appointments for training when we can, so if we all had a communal diary per se, the qualms over finding time to allocate would be simple! but it would also entail everyone keeping info as up to date as possible. I also realised it would be quite a humorous way for people to elect what shifts they wanted to work throughout the week at the library. No doubt a disasterous but valuable experience in event management.

Event brite I've encountered once or twice before and actually find it amazingly useful, especially if creating events on 2.0 technology, it would be like having the first 100 people to successfully use Event brite get to attend! I have in fact used it in the past to attend events at the State Library, and a quick search brought up the latest Seniors in focus being held there in April. Really easy to organise any event, printed tickets, sliding scale ticket prices, it has it all!

after a play around on eventful a search for gigs on in my area showed me the pixies were playing on the 15th of march, but then deferred me to a world ticket site selling them to me for 225 Euros? and its already sold out? more of an aggregator of events rather than an instigator.

Anyvite takes a different tack and offers you a way to do personalised invitations online in a neat cute package. I could even use it for my upcoming birthday! Though I may still do D&D with the old p&p.

the Rssa is gssa nu thang.

sooo...RSS we meet again. I always knew your wraps on the latest low down on the tech beat were something well beyond my hollow stringy skills. I've been keeping up with you via our mutual friend Bloglines, where you have gathered quite the entourage to keep me constantly engaged without getting to know the real you. So do you have more to offer me and my fellow homes?

The answer would appear to be yes. Feedrinse has the sound of a dishwashing detergent, but it does claim to have to have the power to blast away those skerricks of spam and leave behind only the mightiest germs (or gems) that are of interest. Sadly, Bloglines does not seem to be such a big fan of sharing its home RSS feeds, and besides, I do prefer my own filtering.

I seemed to get the ol' 404 on filtermyrss, seems it needs the ol' 101 on how to run a website, though I suspect its just for today. feedsifter is a simplified version of Feedrinse, but it simply makes me want to have the option in Bloglines to filter my own. I can filter from the web but not my own list? Silly.

As for RSS going places? some say 'over the hill' but with tools like spokentext its really a powerful tool, as you can listen to that lengthy proposal from mike on your ipod on the way home from work rather that read it. I hope it has a Vulcan accent available.

As for being more efficient with my RSS I'm still fail at 1500 wpm, which really would have increased my capacity to get through my feeds. However I'm sure my comprehension and love of reading would convert to fail on a said win. As for the caring of sharing...its likeness has been added to my own blog.

As for my RSS use, I regularly check it 1-2 times a week, alternating which blogs I read if I don't get through them all, and comment on them occasionally here. The feeds are organised according to the rules of chaos, much like my cd collection as I never know what turn my tastes will take. As for what tools I used and liked, take a trip back in time to the start of the post to find out!

Casting from couch to screen

Ahh screencasting, how I have waited for thee. Multidue is the time I have spent lending my voice, prompting my audience with handy navigational hints with my musings and mousing to traverse there way across the cathode lit screens to find the drive users of computers have been lacking to complete their purpose for coming to the library.



first port of access is to the address of slideshare. Seems to me to be filled with lots of presentations etc used for, well, presentations. from the wealth of information available it would be an alternate to acquainting yourself with an unfamiliar product or service, or learing about one from another perspective. Lots of how to's for social networking are available. I myself have assisted in creating a powerpoint presentation for social media at my Library (with a little help from the common craft lads)which would fit in to what is being presented here. Neato, but still lacking a little something...



Authorstream was the next viewing, and once again similar with plenty of linking features. Now to see some in action!



I really liked the Public Library presentation on talking books, something we here are looking at. Was good to see how it had evolved over time into what is available to the public now. But still, these are often used as aids to a presentation, they are lacking a voice (you can add one, but still, not quite the same effect). What intrigues me is online screencasting.

So behold! by Awful attempt at a screencast. I was so unhappy that captions could not cover up my shonky work

Free online screencasting tool

Ninger is not a dirty word.

Ning, I never thought I'd see you filling these computer parts of mine again, its been ages since I saw you, August 5th 2009 to be precise. So this little adventure into the nings of other institutions is a good chance to rejuvenate the little bit of turf some of my fellow contemporaries have staked out.

1st stop is the Mosman ning, can they do no wrong? but I really like their embedded vimeo videos and collaborative forum section for book reviews that anyone can participate in. with good presence on their website (part of their reading lounge seamlessly inserted for their borrowers convenience). it offers a greater chance of interaction than what you would get with book reviews simply embedded into a catalogue via Librarything for instance, making it more akin to a book club online (though Librarything also offers this). It all depends on what level you want to engage at.

Next stop is the boldly stated Museum 3.0 not to be confused with web 3.0 (the push from sites to services if you need a catchphrase). Good to see that its pushing 2k members and they encompass the globe. Also it is comforting to see the existence of such a group that understands the need to think about pushing their collections to the user from beyond the confines of the traditional building, much like the Powerhouse Museum has.

Bibliotheek 2.0 tested my language skills and I deduced its Dutch. But even if I fail at languages, they do not fail in their efforts to comprehend the web as we know it, no matter how many upgrades it receives.

The final stop was the Library 2.0 Ning, where I was delighted to see some of my very own handy work on display via some of the images I had uploaded to flickr via widget action! Spurred on by this tangible thread of 2.0 communal togetherness pouring from my monitor to my digital heart I hastily applied for membership, but noes! the failure to encapsulate my digital persona with a picture has ruined all hope of becoming a member. True, I could have simply uploaded an image of a pen to suffice, but I will ponder how I want to be represented when words are no longer enough to capture the minds of my ningers.

Still, all in all a useful location that ties in to a lot of different social networks that may be associated with your institution, or even something of your own interest.