The Long Tail and the Library World

When this book appeared on my reading list, I wasn't really sure how it would be relevant. Yes, I had heard of the book and was familiar with it content. During 2004 I was a subscriber to Wired Magazine (still am) when I first read about Andersons "Long Tail". However, I had always thought of it as a "business book" related to marketing and not really applicable to the LIS world. So, throughout the reading I am trying to relate the concepts to LIS perspective and I'm finding it to not be such a leap after all. 

How do we survive in a world that is truly 24/7 with everything available all the time? How do you as a brick and mortar business/library plan to service the needs of a clientele that is growing accustomed to this type of consumerism? We have more choice now then our parent's ever did and we have more freedom as to what we purchase. In one night online we can visit Amazon.com, then JCrew, and even Drugstore.com (to cure those late night LIS reading headaches). How does a library compete with this type of "all-access-pass"? Firstly, I think they are trying. More and more librarys are having richer online components, allowing patrons to do more online, even offering e-books and videos. They brick-and-mortar libraries themselves can never offer the selection that Amazon can provide, but what it can provide is customer service. Libraries themselves should try to focus on what these digital entities cannot provide and give that to thier patrons. They should try to stay abreast with the changes, but not run out of breath trying to keep up. They should instead examine those changes to then give the patrons what the "new-fangled-what-not" isn't. Be innovative, instead of just following along several paces behind. 

Our new digital society allows us to only consume what intrests us rather than lumping us all in together, in turn "shattering" as Anderson says the approach businesses have been taking thoughout most of the 20th century.  Are "hits" dead? Well, I don't think so, but at least now I feel like I have more of a choice on wheter or not to consume them. I am able to seek and find other items that interest me, leaving me less time for that "blockbuster". 

The ability of Anderson to explain our current state in this new, all digital, society was refreshing .  The more I read the more it seemed relevant to the Library/information World.  I honestly, wished I had more time to read it slower to let some of the more meaningfull sections really sink in. 

Using Del.icio.us in the Classroom Environment

Again, like with my Google Docs post below. I always am eager to recommend the use of Del.icio.us in any educational environment. Anytime I do research on a topic, I come across lots of useful resources and tools and always look to share those with my colleagues and classmates. Del.icio.ous makes it really easy to do this. You can instanty save links and mark links to share with users in your network. 

For using it in the Social-Software class I would make one suggestion. When studying web2.o applications, more imporant than setting up lots of accounts on different services. Studying web2.0 is really about studying what people do with the services they use, how they customize thier experience. Chief among all these is content! It's hard to get that depth on something kjscils598f08 just set up 10 minutues ago, let alone have any real depth of content. It has no history, no major customizations and really doesn't tell you that much about that user other than what they could set up in 10 minutes. Thats what social-software is about users and thier content, not how to set-up user accounts. So the challenge is trying to bring that experience into these accounts that users are setting up for purposes of the course. 

So I suggest when implimenting del.icio.us as part of the user introduction to "Social-Software" to really get the best use out of it you need to instruct current users on how to import thier previous del.icio.us bookmarks to thier "new" user "scils598" accounts. This is what I used to make my "scils" del.icio.us account have more breadth and thefore hopefully provide a richer user experience. 

Google Docs and the online/oncampus student

Any time the situation invloves any type of collaborative document creation, team-project etc. I always suggest Google Docs. Even most recently in my Information Visualization class, when I needed to collaborate with another student, I suggest that we both use Google Docs. Lucky for me this student had taken Social-Software with Steve last semester so he had an account. Work was seamless, easy and we got it turned in on time. I have used it for countless other SCILS classes including Metadata and Interface Design. Google Docs is my go-to, get-it-done, online-in-a-cloud favorite app. 

However, in most of these instances the professors had not even thought to work in this way. As a matter of fact most people don't think of working this way, and it's mainly cause they don't know that they can. Once they get going though, it really catches on and they start using it for all kinds of things personal and educational. I think reluctance to use the tool, would only be out of lack-of-knowledge of the tool. I really think that if they know it exists and know what the application is capable and they are open to using online tools for collaboration its a "no-contest" and they generally accept its use. 

As far as efficiency and collaboration its the best tool for the job. Documents are edited in real-time allowing all users to zoom in and out, making changes, adding content all without emailing one single document back and forth. Its one less thing to worry about for project collaboration. No more questions like "is this the most recent version?", "is this the one she/he just emailed me?". Google Docs makes it quick, easy and painless to collaborate on any project. 

PBwiki -vs- Wikidot

I've used PBwiki several times for class projects in the Library Science Program. I've always been frustrated however by its lack of CSS support unless you are a "power-user" and pay for an upgrade. I also like having a little more control over what my wiki looks like. I tried to see if I could do better. I really based on my choice of wiki software on the look of the website design itself, as the tours didnt really give you a look into the interface that you would be presented with and I wanted to make a choice quickly. 

• PBwiki -it's got ease of use on its side, new users should be able to create pages easily. 
• wikidot - its interface is a bit intimidating, it's hard to know where to start, having the "edit button at the bottom of the page is not intuitive. 
• PBwiki edit interface - uses very familiar icons, similiar to using MS office or any type of other popular text editing software, even similiar to Bloggers edit interface.wikidot - opts to use buttons
  
  
  
  
• Wikidot - opts to use buttons that are less intuitive. 
  
  
  
  
• Wikidot suppports all kinds of bizarre and unexpected editor features such as: mathematical equations, inline mathematical expressions, equation reference, bibliography block, citations and footnotes. 
• PBwiki - has many of the above Wikidot features, but they are buried in the plug-ins menu. 
• Wikidot - you can embed audio and video quickly
• PBwiki - you have to find the embed video in the plug-ins section
• Wikidot - not a wysiwyg editor
• PBwiki - closer to a wysiwyg than Wikidot
• Wikidot - has its own html/wiki syntax, not really a plus in my book
• PBwiki - uses nice and straightforward HTML
• Wikidot - no access to the HTML code
  
• PBwiki - can edit the HTML, but no CSS support

In a nutshell, I will gladly resign some control to have the ease of a nicely designed interface to use to create "quick and dirty" wiki pages. Don't think I will be giving up my PBwiki account any time soon for a Wikidot account. 

Del.icio.us -vs- Ma.gnolia

Well, lets just start by saying I am a die-hard Del.icio.us user and supporter. So I'm going to mainly focus on Ma.gnolia and how it differs from Del.icio.us. 

My first impressions:

• Ma.gnolia is its too cutesy! No IT/Techie in thier right mind will feel "cutting-edge" by logging in to share thier bookmarks via Ma.gnolia. 
• the interface is easy to use
  
• the sophistication of Del.icio.us is just not there (lots can be communicated through design)
• I do like the bookmarks page that the user sees first thing after they save a bookmark, but I also find it showing too much unrequested details. If I want to see that info I will select a tab that will show that to me.
• I really like the little webpage thumbnail preview nicely done, however when a thumbnail is that small is it really adding anything other than color to the page? 

Not a great first impression however, one that makes me not want to explore too much more. It's just not my style. However, I can see it's target audience being younger female users, Mom's, etc. Not power users. 

LibraryThing - a digital bookshelf

Library thing is a great way to keep track of your own personal book collection. Library thing allows you to catalog your own book collection. Personally, I use library thing to keep track of my leisure reading, as cataloging all my classical studies books would be a mountainous task. Library thing helps me also keep track of my collection by allowing a type of folksonomy tagging. For example I have my books separated into "unread" and "read" sections via tagging.  I also even have an "unfinished" tag. I tend to "mooch" lots of books via another site called "Bookmooch" and LibraryThing allows me to keep track of what's coming in and going out. 

The interface is very intuitive with navigation tabs: home, profile, you library, tags and add books among other more social and informative navigational tabs further to the right of the main interface. When viewing "your library" LibraryThing gives you several views and ways to examine your collection. 

List Covers

Tags

Styles A B C D E

Power edit Print

All fieldsTitles/authorsTagsReviewsCommentsSubjectsMost fields

In addition to various different way to view your collection. LibraryThing also integrates other services such as: GoogleBooks, Library of Congress Classifications. 

What makes LibraryThing web2.o is the users ability to also view others who have similiar collections to thier own, view all the users that have a particular book in thier collection. Along with lots of user groups users can join such as: Librarians Who LibraryThing or FantasyFans, to more inventive ones such as I Survived the Great Vowel Shift. 

Overall LibraryThing gives users the ability to play librarian of thier own collections, its no surpise so many librarians LibraryThing. Its great to control your inventory, so much so that some libraries are using it for thier collections http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6403633.html. 

When to put up the privacy curtains? You've just received a friend request from you Mom on Facebook...

Ok, just your average day, open up your email to find a Facebook request from you Mom. Yes, your completely and adult, nothing to hide, so no reason not to right? Right? Well, not so fast, I think. Why the hesitation? Maybe its because you also friend lots of people from work and don't want you mom posting weird things like "Miss you Honey, Oh, you look so cute!  -Love you Mom", "When are you going to come visit? - It's been too long, Mom", "do you want a crock-pot? Love, itchy poo" and any other number of weird things and topics. It's not so much you don't want her to see your stuff or read stuff about your friends. However, it's more like you don't want your friends and co-workers reading stuff from you mom, reading your mom's profile, etc. Then again her finding out about the two business trips you've taken right near her hometown via your status messages, might not be so easy to brush over. So what's next twitter? That will be interesting. I say you make a rule, the most diplomatic way possible. When it comes down to friending your mom, de-friend all your family (so no one feels left out) and tell them, I would like to keep my personal life private not from my family, but from everyone else. There, problem solved.