Wiki World

The Wikipedia entry for wiki tells us that "Wiki" is an Hawaiian work meaning: quick or fast.

The Hawiian Electronic Library gives the following definitions:

wiki
vs. To hurry, hasten; quick, fast, swift. See alawiki. Hele wiki, quick time, quick step. E wiki 'oe, mai lohi (FS 111), hurry, don't delay. (Probably PEP witi, although Easter Island viti may be a Tahitian loan.) ho'o.wiki To hurry, hasten.

wiki
vi. To hurry; quick, fast. Cf. wiki. Mai lohi mai 'oe, e alawiki mai, don't be slow, be fast.

Wiki has become the name of a website format that allows easy collaboration among participants, adding to and improving the content of the website

For more information, our assigned readings were helpful:

1) Wiki in Plain English (3:52) -- an entertaining, short video introduction -- geared to the general public.

2) What is a Wiki -- a short, but useful introduction -- geared to librarians

I enjoyed the Wikis. I focused my attention on the Subject Guides, Course Guides, & Resource Guides section of What is a Wiki.

Biz Wiki Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA (mediawiki) included a video of the business librarian, Chad Boeninger, introducing himself and his Biz Wiki -- a nice personal touch. This helped convey that the librarian was accessible for questions and had a strong interest in helping and in his Wiki.

Chad Boeninger also had a chat box next to his video. He shared links to his business blog and twitter account -- again very open and accessible. He had a modest help page. The wiki was more like a personal website page done within a Wiki format. I couldn't tell if collaboration was enabled on the Wiki for members of the Uhio University community.

His Wiki consisted mostly of links to various business resources offered at the university library. It might take less clicks to reach the same material in a non-wiki format, but the clean look of the wiki makes searching an enjoyable experience. I wish he had include material on how to use the databases. Otherwise, going through his wiki was a very pleasant experience.

Library Research Guides Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, USA (mediawiki) does not feel like a wiki at all. It looks like a non-wiki webpage. It's primarily a set of subject research guides -- called "pathfinders" in the library world. It also has some course pathfinders, and links to individual librarian wikipages. The pathfinders are well done. I particularly liked the one on Economic Statistics.

Like Chad Boeninger's Biz Wiki, the Library Research Guides do not provide help regarding how to use their databases or the public websites listed on their pathfinders. The Library Research Guides wikipages were sometimes inconsistent in design or content -- some have librarian's picture, some do not; most have contact information, at least one did not -- English. Though librarians might be collaborating behind the scenes, there is no wiki format or functionality on the front end of the wikipages.

To their credit the Healey Library Course Resource Hub University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. (wikispaces) does provide some tutorials on the use of it's databases, but they are very poor -- they do however provide information for further assistance: Healey Library Reference Services, Live Online Chat, and E-mail a reference question.

There is potential in using more of the capabilities of wiki pages. Patrons would benefit from collaboratively creating better help pages, more useful database descriptions, and pooling their research experience into their own pathfinders with critical opinions and comments -- together with that of librarians and perhaps interested professors.

The Future of Libraries and Web 2.0

The article Web 2.0: Where will the next generation Web take libraries? in NextSpace, The OCLC Newsletter No.2 2006, addresses some of the issues that libraries face regarding The Internet, technology, and patron desire for access and interactivity.

The article is collaborative with several authors each contributing individual sections on Web 2.0 and libraries. However, the sections are long on possibilities, many without adequate detail, and they do not address the important issue of turning visions into reality.

Sometimes comments are made with little regard as to their consistency or sense. For example, Rick Anderson, Director of Resource Acquisition, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries, writes:

As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc. You think they can’t have everything? Think again. This may be our great opportunity.

How are patrons going to have access to everything? Can public libraries do this? Can academic libraries do this? Should they combine their resources? What would this cost? Should the government subsidize information access. Should "universal" information access be mandated and prices regulated?

News: Rossetta Stone has stopped selling licenses to libraries. The universe of everything just got a little smaller.

Rick Anderson writes "Think again", but why doesn't he do the thinking, instead of just leaving ideas suspended in midair? He writes: "This may be our great opportunity", but in what way? He does not say. These vague and general comments by Rick Anderson are the sort of comments that can be tossed off in a few minutes and then submitted as an article -- where is the work?!

I agree we need interfaces that you can easily learn to understand while you are using them -- the so-called "intuitive" interfaces. Rich Anderson writes:

But if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons. One-button commands, such as Flickr’s “Blog This,” and easy-to-use programs like Google Page Creator, offer promising models for this kind of user-centric service.

But not all problems with interfaces are due to poor design. A complex interface is also a function of the specificity needed to conduct research that focuses on very detailed material -- specialized science databases often require training to get the best results from them.

What's the problem? Searching is a skill that needs to be learned and practiced. Interfaces sometimes impede that search, but just as often searchers impede their own searches by not learning the basics of using the database they are trying to search. Indeed, Mortimer Adler's classic, How to Read a Book, teaches how to read a book effectively and efficiently -- why should online or database searching be any different?

We need better interfaces, but we also need better searchers.

It is amazing that Rich Anderson can assert: "But if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons", a patently false claim.

It would be enlightening if Rick Anderson provided examples of what he means by:

One-button commands, such as Flickr’s “Blog This,” and easy-to-use programs like Google Page Creator, offer promising models for this kind of user-centric service.

-- again, where's the work? Is he suggesting a "one-button command" search? How effective would this be? Is he suggesting searching should mimic Google's Page Creator. How so? Is he proposing that web design developers focus on user-centric interfaces? Is this cutting edge?

Rick Anderson writes:

We have to be a bit more humble in the current environment, and find new ways to bring our services to patrons rather than insisting that they come to us—whether physically or virtually. At a minimum, this means placing library services and content in the user’s preferred environment (i.e., the Web); even better, it means integrating our services into their daily patterns of work, study and play.

How? RSS? And, what patterns of work is he talking about? Indeed, what does he mean by daily patterns of work, by daily patterns of study, and by daily patterns of play? Image all the working people we meet: at the supermarket, at the mall, at the cinema, at the post office, at gas stations and at restaurants, and then image them enjoying library services during their "daily patterns of work"! I suppose that parents would welcome their children engaging the library in their "daily patterns of play" -- with regard to what: The Internet, CDs, DVDs, Gaming Software, or Educational Software?

This species of article is commonplace in library literature. For example, Micheal Stephens writes in his section:

This librarian bases all planning and proposals for services, materials and outreach on user needs and wants.

How do we distinguish between user needs and wants? Are all user needs and wants within the mission of libraries to satisfy? Should libraries provide the photocopying options of professional photocopying and image processing centers? Should libraries provide minimarts or cafes for their patrons? Should libraries provide postal services for their patrons? Should libraries provide showers and temporary rooms for homeless patrons? Should libraries provide daycare for working patrons? If these are patron needs and wants, then why not?

These writers provide a rich source of material for comment. I will simple end by noting that opened ended proposals like those of Micheal Stephens in fact are mostly fantasy that have little place in the real world.

If these writers focused on real world implementation of pragmatic programs extending library services in keeping with new technologies, rather than indulging in wildly unthought through proposals, these writers would have much more to contribute -- as it is, theirs is but a rather tedious pollyannish futurism.

Techno-Lousy?

The Technorati searches were a dissapointment.

The URL search and the Tag search produced very weak results. These searches made Technorati seem like a bunch of post-it notes linked to each other by tags.

The URL search for: http://www.pbclibrary.org, was almost empty of value -- unless you're interested in the brute fact that the URL generates lisitngs.

The tags for "web 2.0" were equally pointless. If you are interested in looking up a tag and "trying your luck", then you will be in for a windfall of fun, otherwise don't waste your time.

TheTechnorati homepage provides a better impression with links on Business, Entertainment, Politics, Technology, and by grouping results into "Rising Blogs by Attention" and "Rising Stories by Attention".

Technorati might serve some as a useful search portal on blogs, but my searches on it have not produced outstanding results.

Technorati has its own blog for those who would enjoy looking more deeply into the ways of Technorati.

WebFeat

WebFeat is a search engine that lets the user search up to 50 databases simultaneously on the Palm Beach County Library Website.

I searched for hometown news which in my case is the South Bronx. I did a title search for the phrase "south bronx", date range: 2008-2008, and selected all resources. Quite a few times the browser froze up and I had to close it down using the task manager -- what a waste of time that was!

Many of the databases returned zero hits. The greatest number of hits was on America's Obituaries & Death Notices (529 hits). The InfoTrac® Student Edition (87 hits) would not display -- another waste of time!

However, the Access World News (19 hits) did display. I read an article that alleged a school principal was getting teachers to "help" students find the correct test answers during the administration of a standarized test, High Test Scores, and Criticism, Follow a South Bronx Principal New York Sun, The (NY) - June 30, 2008.

Another story that caught my eye reported on protecting the environment, the community, and creating jobs in the South Bronx. One of the things it mentioned was a small project focused on creating "green roofs" -- covering roofs with soil and plants to help keep buildings cool, Sustainable South Bronx : Helping the Bronx Become a Sustainable Community New York Observer, The (NY) - June 23, 2008.

Using Access World News directly, I got 17 hits, but some did not have "south bronx" in the headline as I had selected. This was also the case, when using Access World News through WebFeat.

InfoTrac® Student Edition (87 hits) brought back hits outside of the target year (2008). I found no article that would open -- "page cannot be displayed" was all I got after trying on separate days to access the articles.

Even though the advanced search on InfoTrac General OneFile and on Access World News gives a more refined search, and dispite the problem accessing InfoTrac® Student Edition, WebFeat remains a good enough "quick and dirty" way of searching for information.

Quite Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a website that lets you save your favorites in an organized and easy to use format. It also has a feature that lets you identify you favorites with keywords of your own choosing -- these are called "tags". A user is able to enter a tag name and take a look at similiar favorites saved by other Del.icio.us users.

I enjoyed using Del.icio.us. I looked up the tags "tarot" and "husserl" (a major philosopher of the 20th century) each gave me an interesting assortment of websites.

I ran a google search on "tarot" and noticed that Goolge's first 10 hits had 4 sites that also appeared within the first 10 hits of Del.icio.us. I did the same for "husserl" and by chance the results were the same: google's top 10 sites listed 4 sites that appeared on Del.icio.us' first 10 listed sites

One Husserl link was dead on Del.icio.us -- since Goolge caches sites a dead link is still "viewable" on Google. Del.icio.us has sponsored links the same as Google. Google, of course, returned many more hits, but Del.icio.us -- which is like an informal web directory, seems a good enough place to start. Overall, using Del.icio.us created a more personal experience than using Google.

I liked the "design" tag on the PBCLS account which lead to a great online generator page on smashingmagazine. I also liked the "web" tag which lead to http://slashdot.org/with feature sections on technology and related news.

It's a Library Thing

LibraryThing is a library cataloguing system that let's you create an online catalogue of the books you own. The first 200 books are free; after that, there is a 10 dollar yearly fee -- or, you can opt for a one time 25 dollar life membership.

To add a book you simply click the "add books" tab found along the top of your LibraryThing homepage, type into the search box the name of the book you want to catalogue, and the system does the work of cataloguing the book. The catalogue entry includes a picture of the book, it's title and author, a description of it's content, how many members have also catalogued it, the number of reviews available on the book, and much more.

My favorite features of LibraryThing include the ability to see the libraries of members who have catalogued the same and similar books as I have, the ability to join discussions, being able to participate in groups, and contacting members.

On learning about LibraryThing, I prefer A very short introduction to LibraryThing which introduces you on how to get started.

Click on my Library Things Homepage Link to see my library.

Image and Text Generators

This poster was generated using AutoMotivator, a simple poster creation website -- images are provided and the user adds text.

This image was generated using LunaPic. LunaPic provides many tools and special effects for your images. Our lovely model is sporting an effect called "photo-spread".

This image was generated using Says-it. Says-it allows you to choose from various images and write in your own text. Here we see Arnold expressing his real feelings ...