Adventures of an InfoMage in Training

Monday, June 30, 2003

False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work Gary Price posts about an interesting study on what consumers (don't) know about search engines and how they work. 4:05:21 PM    comment [] Information Foraging There's been a very interesting discussion on the ASIS&T Information Architecture mailing list about Information Foraging. Then today, Jakob Nielsen chimes in on the topic by writing this article. Summary: The easier it is to find places with good information, the less time users will spend visiting any individual website. This is one of many conclusions that follow from analyzing how people optimize their behavior in online information systems. 4:00:32 PM    comment [] Annodex: New Web Tool for Audio/Video Information and Content New web tool to improve multimedia surfing "A new web tool makes online video and audio as interactive as text, say its creators. The software could enhance surfing, and help individuals and organizations manage large quantities of footage." "The new software, called Annodex, allows any section within a file to be given a descriptive tag - 'love scene', 'fight' or 'interview', for example. Tags form a stream of information that runs alongside the file, changing to keep track of it." [read the rest of the story] 10:03:38 AM    comment [] July "Cites and Insights" Now Available Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, volume 3, issue 8 (July 2003), is now available for downloading at http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ3i8.pdf This 20-page issue includes: Bibs & Blather: A Month without Writing Copyright Perspective: Why Make Records...? Censorware Chronicles: COPA Revisited Perspective: Making Sound, Making Music PC Progress disContent: The Magazine Quandary Scholarly Article Access: Open-access Journals Interesting & Peculiar Products -walt crawford- 9:23:31 AM    comment [] Passaic library privatization delayed As a follow-up to this story, voting on privatizing the Passaic library has been delayed. [via news12.com] A more extensive article can be found at newsday.com 7:57:42 AM    comment [] Library Terms That Users Understand Library Terms That Users Understand by John Kupersmith can help users access materials with fewer problems. The purpose of this site is to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It serves as a clearinghouse of usability test data evaluating terminology used on library web sites, listing terms that tests show are effective or ineffective labels. It presents alternatives by documenting terms that are actually used by libraries. It also suggests "best practices" for reducing cognitive barriers caused by terminology. [via Catalogablog] 7:37:47 AM    comment [] Bloggers Gain Libel Protection From Wired: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers." [read the rest of the story] 7:34:39 AM    comment []

Sunday, June 29, 2003

Boaters for Books There were no children's books anywhere. Visiting schools and libraries while she and her husband Dick sailed through the Caribbean islands four years ago, Kathy Oberle couldn't believe the predicament facing teachers and librarians there: no books, no money to buy them and students who could barely read. "What few books they had the librarians and teachers were hanging on to for dear life," Kathy said. But, with the help of family members, a Miami shipping company and a community of boaters, the Punta Gorda couple began to turn around that book shortage three years ago when they started Boaters for Books, a nonprofit group that sends books to Caribbean schools and libraries. [read the rest of the story] 9:05:12 PM    comment [] Libraries in the news from around the world Famous library lights up future for Sri Lanka "Locals hope its reopening will help heal some of the torment from a civil war that killed 64,000 people and displaced more than one million. They also hope it will bolster a peace process backed by a 16-month-old ceasefire between Tamil rebels and the government." [the rest of the story] Ancient Arabic manuscripts from Timbuktu go on view Collection may lead to a reevaluation of world history "It is an unprepossessing exhibit, and like most exhibits of documents, there's something inert about pages of old script lying under glass. The collection, however, is anything but inert, and it is at the center of great scholarly excitement." [the rest of the story]   7:32:44 PM    comment []

Friday, June 27, 2003

Gone Fishing! I'm outta here for a bit of weekend camping ... I have a number updates to post but not enough time! Catch you all on the otherside of the weekend! 2:07:30 PM    comment [] Donate Your Google AdSense Revenues! Steve Mallet mentions in his blog: if you're going to go the Google AdSense route, why not contribute your proceeds to the Electronic Frontier Foundation?   10:51:19 AM    comment []

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

News from Abroad New Libraries in Cape Town Remain Unopened "Cape Town has built two multimillion-rand public libraries - but they have never opened their doors because there's no one to staff them." Malaysia Libraries Urged to Take on the Digital Divide Moggie [Minister Energy, Communications and Multimedia] urged libraries and librarians to reposition strategies to meet the demands of the new era and develop virtual libraries.  “One of the important roles of librarians is to extend the benefits of global information resources to the local community through the introduction of new technologies in the libraries,” he said.  11:23:40 AM    comment []

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

In Other Search Related News... On Search: Intelligence. Here’s the problem: searching for words isn’t really what you want to do. You’d like to search for ideas, for concepts, for solutions, for answers. Instead, your typical search engine moronically sorts through its postings, and tries to solve your problems by looking at which words appear where, and how often, and so on. What we’d really like is an intelligent search engine. This essay is mostly about why we’re not likely to get one any time soon.... [ongoing] "Clustering" Search Engine Worth a Review. Vivisimo, co-winner of the 2002 Search Engine Watch award for Best Meta Search Engine, is featured in this new article,... [beSpacific] New Search Toolbars. (23 Jun) Two separate search services -- Dogpile and Hotbot... [TVC Alert] 8:45:56 PM    comment [] What's New in Google's World There's a lot going on with and around Google this week. Love it or hate it, you can't afford to ignore Google! Google Ads. Interesting write-up chez Zawodny about the Google AdSense program; pretty well anyone can sign up and put Google ads on their site, and get paid when someone clicks on the ads. So I signed up, although I don’t plan to run ’em for the moment. Except on this essay right here, along with some commentary on the program (soundbite: looks pretty reasonable so far).... [ongoing] MapQuest Teams with Google. (23 Jun) MapQuest users will now find search results from Google....[TVC Alert] Vivisimo Could Improve Google. (23 Jun) Even those who gush over Google will admit it returns... [TVC Alert] Google.rss. Outer-Court links to Google.rss !, a new tool (currently in beta) which will deliver Google results via RSS to your aggregator. While this seems useful on the surface, I'm not to sure how much of the Google results are listed here (looks like just the top 10), but it may be worth playing with. All of the search syntaxes are available, including link:.[Library Stuff] Google calls in the language police [LISNews.com]   8:43:05 PM    comment [] Passaic, New Jersey is considering privatized public libraries "Faced with a tight budget, not enough staff, and changing needs of the community, the city is considering hiring a private company to take over the cash-strapped public library system." LSSI used their successes in other cities like Riverside, CA, and Fargo ND when pitching their services to the library board earlier this month. After three years, Linden recently renewed their contract with LSSI for another five years where circulation and patron registration is up.   9:29:22 AM    comment [] Wired Calls it Filter Bashing Strange spin on an article that basically points out all the flaws of Internet filters (since when is that considered "bashing"?) but buried in the middle of the article is a pointer to a study (PDF)  published yesterday by the Online Policy Group, in conjunction with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that critiqued top filtering products. "The study concluded that for every Web page correctly blocked as advertised, one or more was inappropriately blocked. "In several cases, Doherty said, researchers could find no logical reason why a site was deemed off-limits. In one example, a top-selling filtering program blocked a primer on punctuation, tagging it as containing adult or sexually explicit material. Another filter assigned a pornography block code to a Colorado Arts Education page on model content standards for theater." 4:51:43 AM    comment []

Monday, June 23, 2003

After obscenity filters, watch for "terror filters" Andy Oram puts it well: 'After obscenity filters, watch for "terror filters". An important precedent has been set. With the legal and technical infrastructure in place, all the government has to do is add more and more to the banned content.'   1:28:58 PM    comment [] Library Group Launches New Subscription Management Tool InfoToday reports that: "The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries launched GOLD RUSH (http://grweb.coalliance.org), a new tool to help librarians manage subscriptions to electronic resources. Gold Rush currently has title lists from over 500 sources representing over 55,000 different serial titles. Later in 2003, the product will allow a library to load a list of serials from a local OPAC into GOLD RUSH. In the meantime, the GOLD RUSH Linker (link resolver) can send the patron back to a local catalog or union catalog for easy look-ups of local print holdings or cataloged items. Source: Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries" 10:20:03 AM    comment [] Justices Uphold Use of Internet Filters in Public Libraries. I wasn't thrilled to read about this first thing this morning: A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress can force the nation's public libraries to equip computers with anti-pornography filters. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology] Here's the official response from the ALA. 9:58:46 AM    comment [] Library cuts can be an incentive An editorial in today's Visalia Times-Delta summarizes how Tulare county in northern California has ended up dealing with cuts in funding: "The solution finally adopted spreads the pain around, and it hits everywhere. Every branch will lose some hours. The main library in Visalia will lose a day, Thursday. The county bookmobiles will shut down entirely." The editorial goes on to say: "What we're left with is basically an imperfect solution that shows everybody how critical the situation is. There is a good side to that, though, because now everybody in the county will be affected by the cuts to the libraries, and everybody in the county will be seeking to relieve them. If Visalia had not been affected, there would have been little incentive for folks in Visalia to appeal for the opening of branches in Alpaugh, Pixley and Ivanhoe." How are your local public libraries dealing with funding cuts? Are they closing branches and if so, which ones? Or, like Tulare county, are cuts being distributed across all library service areas? Which seems more fair? Is one approach better than the other? And finally, can funding crises really lead to better long term solutions? Let me know what you think -- leave a comment! 8:45:32 AM    comment []

Sunday, June 22, 2003

MSNBOT— The MSN Search Prototype Web Crawler This was the link I was looking for yesterday when I posted about MSN's new SearchBot. Additional questions can be sent to msnbot@microsoft.com :-) And here's some insider information from an anonymous source (via Scripting News). 11:24:53 AM    comment [] QandANJ.org -- Human Search Engine New Jersey reporter reviews the services of QandANJ.org: "I have used popular search engine Google to come up with thousands of answers, all on my own. But after giving QandANJ.org a try, I began to understand the limits of my information-searching abilities, not to mention the limits of the Web as a storehouse." "Internet junkies sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we can find anything and everything online. We know that isn't really the case, but we don't always remember it when Googling ourselves into a stupor."   9:11:07 AM    comment []

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Internet Bookmobile This is probably really old news but it's the first I've heard of it so hey, here goes nothing. The Library of Alexandria in Egypt has agreed to build an Internet Bookmobile (a project of the Internet Archive). 11:11:25 PM    comment [] Findus: Finding Books from German Public Libraries I ran across Findus, a "Perl Success Story," while perusing the O'Reilly weblog site: What began as a personal project is now serving more than 2 million books, CDs, DVDs etc. and about 500,000 reader’s accounts in about 90 libraries into the web. Automatically, daily, and with no work for my librarians. And they love this. :-)   10:18:53 PM    comment [] What Academic Reference Libraries Can Learn from Commercial Enterprises There's an intersting article in D-Lib Magazine titled "Google Meets eBay: What Academic Librarians Can Learn from Alternative Information Providers". Three learnings were highlighted in the conclusion: The importance of self-assessment The need to regularly monitor developments in the broader information landscape Academic librarians must better articulate their value to the educational enterprise. 9:53:49 PM    comment [] MSN vs. Google: Latest Buzz on the Web I suppose there's a bit of irony that I'm just going to point the Google News results for all the latest buzz about MSN launching their new search bot ;-) 8:17:27 PM    comment [] Jordan and the Middle-East As I read Leap of Faith: An Unexpected Life (and autobiography by Queen Noor, an American-born woman who married King Hussein, 1935-1999, of Jordan), my interest in Middle East history is re-emerging. In particular, I'd like to read more about King Hussein, so I wandered off to WILInet, selected Biography Resource Center (from the Gale Group) which in turn led me to several biographical entries, one of which included a section for Further Readings: There are one biography and one autobiography of Hussein, respectively, Peter Snow, Hussein: A Biography (1972), and Hussein, King of Jordan, Uneasy Lies the Head (1962). A more recent, comprehensive book on Hussein's kingdom is Peter Gubser, Jordan: Crossroads of Middle Eastern Events (1983). Hassan bin Talal, Crown Prince of Jordan and brother of Hussein, wrote a perceptive book explaining the Hashemites' thinking and accomplishments which is titled Search for Peace (1984). Other noteworthy books which deal with Jordan and King Hussein are P. J. Vatikiotis, Politics and the Military in Jordan (1967); John B. Glubb, A Soldier with the Arabs (1957); and Benjamin Shwadran, Jordan: A State of Tension (1959). I should also re-read A Concise History of Middle East (from World War I on), by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr. 7:55:20 PM    comment [] "Marian the Librarian" Nicked from my print copy of the magazine Real Simple (June/July 2003, pg. 176): The Organizer | Labeling: Books Fast: Everytime you get a new book, use a calligraphy pen or a metallic-ink gel pen to write your name on the inside cover. Elegant: Stamp hardcover books with a personalized "Library Of" emobosser from Williams-Sonoma; $25 (website and catalog only) to anoint a book as part of your collection. Classic: The Personal Library Kit from Knock Knock let's you play Marian the Librarian. It come with 30 self-adhesive manila pockets to stick on teh inside end pages of your books, cards to keep track of the borrowers, and even a date stamp and stamp pad ($30). Er, thanks, but I think I'll just stick with BookCAT for tracking my books and any old print program with 2" x 4" labels :-)   7:30:34 PM    comment []

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Finding vs. Searching! I'll need to go back and read the LJ article on Federated Search Tools when my brain isn't so fuzzy. Oh, and add Peter Morville's article, The Age of Findability, to the list while I'm at it.   4:38:58 PM    comment []

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Thousands of New Harry Potter Books Stolen Whoops! "£1m of Potter books stolen. Thousands of copies of the fifth Harry Potter book, worth about £1m, are stolen from a Merseyside warehouse. "[BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition] 8:01:23 AM    comment []

Monday, June 16, 2003

Communities vs. Bureaucracy -- Who Will Win? Community Efforts vs. Bureaucracy -- Who Will Win? In a strange twist of synchronicity, the following two articles ended up next to each other in my list of news stories this morning: Broadband entrepreneurs wire the nation. Around the UK, small communities are banding together to be part of the broadband revolution. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet. CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh cautions that a proposal being considered by the Council of Europe would impose impossibly bureaucratic controls on Internet users. [CNET News.com] 9:47:13 AM    comment [] Who knew there were Cyberfeminists? As I skimmed the article, My Son, the Cyborg [New York Times: Technology], I ran across this little tidbit: "Sadie Plant happens to be a cyberfeminist, with a hip cultural-studies background: her empirical research on mobile phones fits neatly into the visionary view of digital technology, in which it is seen as radical, emancipatory and really cool." Time to add "Zeros + Ones" to the reading list...  9:23:30 AM    comment [] Reading Newton Word for Word on the Web, Isaac Newton's Secret Musings. A project at the University of London aims to put the scientist's less famous writings online. [New York Times: Technology] "The Newton Project, a joint effort based at the University of London, aims gradually to post all of the scientist's previously unpublished work at a Web site (www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk), including thousands of pages of alchemical and theological writings..." 9:14:58 AM    comment []

Sunday, June 15, 2003

Up and Running with Radio UserLand I've spent most of today getting the home page of this new blog up and running. Overall, this has been the best blogging software I've used so far. Eventually, I'll have to migrate off the Radio UserLand website and onto my own personal site. Until then, here I am! 9:53:57 PM    comment []

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