Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Collaboration Opportunities for Academic Libraries in Second Life

Thanks to CARL member Susan Boyd for this entry. Cindi Trainor gave a demo of Second Life to attendees at the recent CARL North IT workshop.


Tuesday, September 19, 2006 beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 1:00 Central, Noon Mountain, 11:00 a.m. Pacific, and 6:00 p.m. GMT

Collaboration Opportunities for Academic Libraries in Second Life

Join Lori Bell, Tom Peters, and other librarians for a roundtable discussion of the opportunities for worthwhile collaboration among academic libraries in Second Life, a 3-dimensional virtual reality environment.

This fall over 50 institutions of higher education are offering (or preparing to offer) courses in Second Life. Learn what libraries of all types involved in the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 project are doing to meet the teaching, learning and research needs of these courses being held in Second Life. Explore how academic libraries can collaborate while still providing access to local resources and services, and thus avoid re-inventing the wheel.

Sponsor: Alliance Library System.
Location: OPAL Auditorium.

URL to enter the online meeting room:


Tom Peters, OPAL Coordinator
TAP Information Services
1000 SW 23rd Street
Blue Springs, MO 64015
phone: 816-228-6406
email: tapinformation@yahoo.com
web: www.tapinformation.com

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Wikis 101



Phoebe Ayers (UC Davis) talked about wikis at the CARL North IT Demystifying Virtual Communication workshop. She showed how to edit a wiki in the very popular Wikipedia. She discussed its application for libraries. For example, wikis could be used for subject guides for the public, for library manuals, and conference planning.

Some examples of wikis in libraries include:

St. Joseph County's public library subject guides
ALA 2006 conference wiki
University of Connecticut Libraries staff wiki

Comparing wiki software resources:

Wikipedia entry
Wiki Matrix

Wiki Meetups:

Wikipedia Meetups
Wiki Wednesdays

RSS: What, Why, and How



Ilan Eyman (UC Berkeley) gave a talk on RSS at the CARL IT North Demystifying Virtual Communication workshop. He showed attendees how to set up an account with Bloglines and to add feeds.

Ilan shared some advantages of RSS over email. For example, no one can get your email address when using RSS. More and more database vendors are using RSS feeds. There was some discussion about libraries using RSS feeds to advertise new materials.

Ilan also shared some resources including the following:

Blog search engines such as Google Blog, Technorati, and Feedster

The UC Berkeley library has a page dedicated to feeds and RSS in general.

News is Free is its own RSS feed reader. Check it out.

Ilan feels that RSS feeds will become the resource for finding content to do research.

CARL North IT members






Photos of executive board members at the CARL North IT workshop.

Christine Holmes (SJSU).

Mari Miller (UC Berkeley and Chair, CARL North Information Technology Interest Group) and Carol Pearce (SJSU SLIS student) in the meeting room.

Susan Boyd (SCU) and Jackie Siminitus (AT&T) at the registration table.

Other members include Sheila Cunningham and Ann Hubble who were busy presenting at the conference. Photos in other entries.

Demystifying Virtual Communication workshop



A photo taken by CARL executive board member and UCSC librarian Ann Hubble of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, CA. The workshop organized by the CARL North IT Interest Group was held at the library.

IM who IM



Locke Morrisey from University of San Francisco and Cindi Trainor of Claremont College gave a presentation on the use of Instant Messaging in their libraries at the CARL North IT Demystifying Virtual Communication workshop. Presentations from the workshop will be available on the CARL North IT website. Cindi's presentation is also available at her own site.

Locke mentioned some questions to consider when contemplating IM:

Who will you serve? (your campus only, anyone)
How do you staff I.M. (dedicated person or I.M. as a part of reference overall)
How do you handle I.M., e-mail, and in-person at the same time (a policy?)
What kinds of questions do you answer on I.M. (at what point do you transfer to e-mail or live?)
Are there security issues?

Cindi discussed using SMS as another tool to reach library users. She recommended two resources to learn more about IM: Library Success, a best practices wiki and Library Support Staff. In addition, Susan Boyd, CARL North I.T. executive board member and librarian at Santa Clara University created a bibliography called Selected Resources on RSS, Podcasts, Wikis, and IM for Librarians for the workshop. Cindy also discussed IM culture, marketing IM, technology and other issues. Locke and Cindy are using Gaim as their client software which allows for multi-use protocols. IM as another communication tool has been a success in their libraries.

Podcast - 2005 Word of the Year



Sheila Cunningham (UC Davis) and Ann Hubble (UCSC) gave a presentation on podcasting at the CARL North IT "Demystifying Virtual Communication" workshop. Powerpoint presentations from the workshop will be available on the CARL North IT webpage.

Sheila informed the attendees that in 2005, the New Oxford American Dictionary proclaimed podcast as its word of the year. Also, according to a recent Student Monitor's Lifestyle and Media Study, iPods are more popular than beer!

Sheila shared the results of a pilot report on podcasts conducted at UC Davis. She also talked about how podcasts whether audio, enhanced or video, could enrich the higher education experience. Professors could add podcasts to their lectures as another learning tool. Several universities (Stanford and UC Berkeley for example) are working with iTunes University to distribute educational content.

Ann explained what's needed to create a podcast (the essentials: software, computer, microphone). She also created a podcast on the fly using iLife software (specifically GarageBand). Audacity is free software for Windows to create audio podcasts. Ann's podcasts for the UCSC Synergy lectures are available from the UCSC podcast page.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

"Ambient Findability" LC webcast

Library of Congress Webcast main page.

TITLE: Ambient Findability
SPEAKER: Peter Morville
EVENT DATE: 07/20/2006
RUNNING TIME: 45 minutes

DESCRIPTION: Peter Morville, widely recognized as a founding father of information architecture, discussed his recent book, "Ambient Findability," in a program sponsored by the Science, Technology and Business Division. Morville describes Ambient Findability as a safari of how people search for information and how they now find their way through a world of information overload. His previous book, which he co-authored with Louis Rosenfeld, "Information Architecture" was named "Best Internet Book of 1998." Morville's work has been featured in many publications including Business Week, The Economist, Fortune, MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal. He blogs at findability.org.

Speaker Biography: Peter Morville is president and founder of Semantic Studios, a leading information architecture, user experience and findability consultancy; co-founder of the Information Architecture Institute; and a faculty member at the University of Michigan's School of Information.

Walt Crawford on library blogs

Walt Crawford reviews 213 library related blogs from a list of 554 he selected in the August edition of Cites and Insights. Also included in the newsletter are a variety of metrics about the blogs.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

How do I ...?

I want to know how to set up an online calendar.

How do I create a blog?

Do clever things with wikis?

Share photos with others?

Inquiring minds want to know :)

I want to (a page of utilities) answers your questions. The website is now available as a blog with a RSS feed too.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Cyworld

Cyworld (beta) comes to us from South Korea. It is a social network like MySpace.

TLT Group classes on blogging, wikis

TLTG "offers workshop series and experimental stand-alone events online to faculty development professionals, faculty members, librarians, administrators, other support professionals, and technology specialists - anyone interested in improving teaching and learning with technology."

There are online fee based courses about blogging, wikis, RSS, Information Literacy, etc. Check out the schedule. They also archive their workshops.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

HigherEd BlogCon Library & Information Resources

"HigherEd BlogCon 2006 seeks to engage the Higher Education community in a conversation on the use of blogs, wikis, RSS, audio and video podcasts, social networks, and other digital tools in a range of areas in academe."

HigherEd BlogCon Library & Information Resources has a number of presentations of interest including Blogging in Libraries and Blogs, Wikis and IM for Subject Specialists.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

B/ITe newsletter

The latest newsletter of B/ITe (Bulletin of the Information Technology Division of SLA is available for your reading pleasure. The issue includes articles on blogging, OpenURL and federated searching.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Locating Library weblogs

2 Ways to find a library or librarian blog:

The Open Directory Project has a webpage for library weblogs. Expect to see our blog listed there too.

Librarian RSS feeds is another way to discover library blogs. Like the Open Project, you may submit your library related blog information. Yes, expect to see our blog listed there too.