It seems this week is reference centric. For those that may have not read this, i offer an interesting article on the reference interview-do's and common mistakes:
Fox, Theodora. 2005. The lost art of the reference interview. One-Person Library 22(5): 3-5. Accessed LISA 25 October 2007.
LISA just has the abstract, and I recieved my copy of this article through a coworker, but it's definately worth checking out.
On to Jones, and his The Future of Reference Services Papers. Specifically, i wanted to talk about his "prediction" of ready reference. For years now I've seen the ready reference section at our library shrink from a shelf all on-its-own into a few small books. No doubt that popular search engines are cutting into the questions that ready reference had answers. Despite this, I found Jone's opinions on this matter quite comforting.
As technology improves, answers to quick questions become more available. I'm sure every student in this program whose focus is reference has been asked how they are going to compete with Google and others. The truth is, as Jones puts out, is that they don't compete.
While ready-reference may fade away, reference will continue to live on. At least, that's how I see it. Especially in an academic environment where convenience and speed must take a backseat to quality to insure good marks. Academia is a controlled enviroment that allows this, and will support the reference structure for years to come.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Incidently......
Staying Google free is Really, really hard when the OU website is powered by the damn thing, and so, aparently, is this blog. I'll be looking for a new home for this blog in the future. I guess i can just stay off the ou website and link up straight to D2L...
What a Day!
Sometimes it's fun to let my readers into some personal nuggets before jumping right in to Library orientated materials. I hope it keeps people coming back to read here!
Turns out today I have plenty of free time to blog. My car got busted into last night. The S.O.B. punched my lock in and stole my CD player. I hope he (or she) electrocutes himself with it. And with the heating unit on the fritz, i have plenty of time to set around and blog while i wait for the repair guy.
I've been on a Google free diet for almost 6 days on my computer. Believe me, its hard to do. Google has its fingers in sooo much stuff. Google is a great engine, but I disagree with their privacy policies, or lack thereof, really. And the more I read about em the more I grow wary of the "Don't be evil" giant. For those who wish to rid themselves of Google's gathering tendrils, I have four suggestions:
1. Use search engines that protect your privacy. Ixquick.com wipes their database of search results every 48 hours. Ixquick is a meta-search engine, actually. It crawls other search engines. Clusty.com is nice too. They don't track the IPs of who uses their engine, and they have a feature that organizes similiar results into "clusters," which is pretty swanky. No crawling through one big list to find the pages you want.
2. Beware the Firefox. Firefox is heavily in bed with Google, as is evident by the Google search engine appearing on the firefox homepage by default. However, Mozilla-firefox is still independent... for now. There is some literature suggesting that Firefox eventually plans to stream an adbanner in the actual browser, all supplied with specially tailored ads from Google. The sources I've seen so far aren't terribly credible, so i wouldn't freak over this one yet, but its something to keep an eye on. My advice, get comfortable with a new browser now.
3. Delete the Google Cookie. Blocking it doesn't do much good from my experience, so just delete it when it pops on your computer and try to stay off Google. This damn cookie takes two years to expire, and if you use Google services that require log in, the cookie associates your new location with the old one and continues to compile information on you.
4. Speaking of Google services, avoid Gmail. Google saves every email you send or receive. Even if you delete the email, Google keeps it. And, with email no longer being a protected form of correspondence, they can pretty much do what they want with it.
Since I went Google-free and decided to protect my privacy I've gotten a lotta crap to the tune of "Only someone who has something to hide protects their privacy." Seems most people don't understand the importance of privacy in their lives- to information searching, democratic processes, etc. I don't want someone reading my mind- which is essentially what happens when someone reads a list of search results.
Turns out today I have plenty of free time to blog. My car got busted into last night. The S.O.B. punched my lock in and stole my CD player. I hope he (or she) electrocutes himself with it. And with the heating unit on the fritz, i have plenty of time to set around and blog while i wait for the repair guy.
I've been on a Google free diet for almost 6 days on my computer. Believe me, its hard to do. Google has its fingers in sooo much stuff. Google is a great engine, but I disagree with their privacy policies, or lack thereof, really. And the more I read about em the more I grow wary of the "Don't be evil" giant. For those who wish to rid themselves of Google's gathering tendrils, I have four suggestions:
1. Use search engines that protect your privacy. Ixquick.com wipes their database of search results every 48 hours. Ixquick is a meta-search engine, actually. It crawls other search engines. Clusty.com is nice too. They don't track the IPs of who uses their engine, and they have a feature that organizes similiar results into "clusters," which is pretty swanky. No crawling through one big list to find the pages you want.
2. Beware the Firefox. Firefox is heavily in bed with Google, as is evident by the Google search engine appearing on the firefox homepage by default. However, Mozilla-firefox is still independent... for now. There is some literature suggesting that Firefox eventually plans to stream an adbanner in the actual browser, all supplied with specially tailored ads from Google. The sources I've seen so far aren't terribly credible, so i wouldn't freak over this one yet, but its something to keep an eye on. My advice, get comfortable with a new browser now.
3. Delete the Google Cookie. Blocking it doesn't do much good from my experience, so just delete it when it pops on your computer and try to stay off Google. This damn cookie takes two years to expire, and if you use Google services that require log in, the cookie associates your new location with the old one and continues to compile information on you.
4. Speaking of Google services, avoid Gmail. Google saves every email you send or receive. Even if you delete the email, Google keeps it. And, with email no longer being a protected form of correspondence, they can pretty much do what they want with it.
Since I went Google-free and decided to protect my privacy I've gotten a lotta crap to the tune of "Only someone who has something to hide protects their privacy." Seems most people don't understand the importance of privacy in their lives- to information searching, democratic processes, etc. I don't want someone reading my mind- which is essentially what happens when someone reads a list of search results.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
a blast from last week.
I'll try to keep this blog short. I was browsing some other blogs in the LM/LIS 5433 class and someone had blogged about the phenomenon that if a blog is too long no one will finish it.
This blog is a blast from the past because it highlights some feelings on last week's readings, specifically the Greenberg article. I thought his idea on how to go about building a structure for metadata schemes was interesting, but did anyone else feel that he was being intentionally vague and apologetic?
Its just a pet peeve with me. I like it when people take a hard position on academic issues. His entire closing statement in that article felt wishy-washy, and left me feeling like i had wasted my time with the read. I wanted hard guidance on how to deal with the burgeoning number of meta-data schemes, and he didn't deliver.
Next posting: Feelings on this week's reads! I'll try to be more positive!
This blog is a blast from the past because it highlights some feelings on last week's readings, specifically the Greenberg article. I thought his idea on how to go about building a structure for metadata schemes was interesting, but did anyone else feel that he was being intentionally vague and apologetic?
Its just a pet peeve with me. I like it when people take a hard position on academic issues. His entire closing statement in that article felt wishy-washy, and left me feeling like i had wasted my time with the read. I wanted hard guidance on how to deal with the burgeoning number of meta-data schemes, and he didn't deliver.
Next posting: Feelings on this week's reads! I'll try to be more positive!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Wiki Time!
Its that time. Its time to wiki. I love wikis. They are such a double-sided sword. On one hand, you have a mass contributing knowledge effort that allows everyone a democratic chance to share their knowledge or post what they have found. For people who like odd-ball topics like me, wikis offer a source to learn where encyclopedias drop the ball. On the other hand, there are a lot of mischievous trolls out there who would like nothing more than to misinform the general public. But i digress.
Soon i will begin editing at this URL:
http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Staff_Training
That wiki page is pretty darn bare. I intend to edit in tips for libraries based off my 4 years experience, knowledge from class, and professional people i interview. Specifically, I'd like to focus in on tips for the concept of the "floating librarian," because there doesn't seem to be much information at all out there on this particular position. Believe me, i looked.
Soon i will begin editing at this URL:
http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Staff_Training
That wiki page is pretty darn bare. I intend to edit in tips for libraries based off my 4 years experience, knowledge from class, and professional people i interview. Specifically, I'd like to focus in on tips for the concept of the "floating librarian," because there doesn't seem to be much information at all out there on this particular position. Believe me, i looked.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Pay Good Attention to What You Learn in KM/LIS 5433
I've been silent on this blog for quite some time. Can't be helped I suppose. I got my promotion to full-time status at the college I work at. I am now that college's first ever floater for thier library system. I'm not really sure why I haven't mentioned the college's name yet. For the locals, its a pretty easy guess where I work :)
At any rate, the new position has kept me pretty busy. As I'm the lucky first floater, no one, including me, is really sure exactly what my job entails other than filling in for people around the library and media departments and generally being a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-none. Perhaps because of this, the position has another aspect as a director of special projects around the library.
The current special project that I'm working on is integrating the library's page on Blackboard (this university's D2L) into Blackboard in some kind of useful, meaningful resource for students. The page has to have a total overhaul because, honestly, nothing has been done to it since its creation. Yowzah.
Not to preach, but pay attention KM/LIS 5433 students! One day you might find yourself thrown into a situation where you find yourself scrambling to use the resources taught in that class! And, with as many people in the program working in the library field in general, I'd bet cash money that some already have.
Blackboard only supports HTML edits in its current form. It can do others, but JAVA is real hit and miss. That linked HTML tutorial from the syllabus, www.yourhtmlsource.com, is a real life-saver.
At any rate, the new position has kept me pretty busy. As I'm the lucky first floater, no one, including me, is really sure exactly what my job entails other than filling in for people around the library and media departments and generally being a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-none. Perhaps because of this, the position has another aspect as a director of special projects around the library.
The current special project that I'm working on is integrating the library's page on Blackboard (this university's D2L) into Blackboard in some kind of useful, meaningful resource for students. The page has to have a total overhaul because, honestly, nothing has been done to it since its creation. Yowzah.
Not to preach, but pay attention KM/LIS 5433 students! One day you might find yourself thrown into a situation where you find yourself scrambling to use the resources taught in that class! And, with as many people in the program working in the library field in general, I'd bet cash money that some already have.
Blackboard only supports HTML edits in its current form. It can do others, but JAVA is real hit and miss. That linked HTML tutorial from the syllabus, www.yourhtmlsource.com, is a real life-saver.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Online Educational Experience
The title isn't too terribly creative I'm afraid. Quite simply, the topic for today is online education, and some of its pitfalls and advantages.
It appears to be common knowledge in the circles I run in that online education is expanding. No surprise there. Online content is expanding everywhere. Business, recreation... remember when having a business webpage was special? Now it’s practically mandatory. We know its expanding. However, what are the reasons why?
An easy answer is supply and demand. There is a demand for online education. Why is there a demand? Lots of reasons I suppose. Pursuing education has widened across to a great many age demo graphs in a great many fields.
What are the advantages of online education? The advantage I hear most often is that people can continue pursuing their educational needs without too much disruption to their daily lives. A guy can take online courses and still work that 8-5 job. This advantage is the reason for many entering the online educational community. The flexibility. In fact, this flexibility is often advertised by various educational institutions.
As of late, however, I have come to ask myself if the flexibility really exists, or if it is a false promise. A lure, if you will.
People that need the flexibility of an online class are often busy people. Working people. People with families that take a large portion of their time. For some reason or another, these people don't have time for the standard classroom educational environment, so they go online. The truth of the matter is that online classes really aren't well suited for the people that they attract and advertise to. If anything, online classes are more work-intensive than a "standard" class.
Since there is no standard meeting to bring conclusion to the end of a school week, online classes essentially run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no standard class meeting times; any time is a potential meeting time. The result of this is that there is a large influx and dispersement of information from students participating in the class diffused across a never-ending cycle of time. The influx of feedback from instructors follows the same pattern. The end result is that instead of taking off time to visit a physical class a few hours a week, you're always in class. Every day. Every hour.
The way to offset the never ending class is time management. But does time management in an online class really exist? If the class never stops, than isn't time management a different way of saying controlled procrastination? And if its procrastination, than how do you shake the perception of a never ending class?
So where then do online courses fit in? Not so much for the busy people, if the flexibility is in fact a myth. Or if the flexibility does exist, is it currently being overshadowed by other factors inherent to online education?
It appears to be common knowledge in the circles I run in that online education is expanding. No surprise there. Online content is expanding everywhere. Business, recreation... remember when having a business webpage was special? Now it’s practically mandatory. We know its expanding. However, what are the reasons why?
An easy answer is supply and demand. There is a demand for online education. Why is there a demand? Lots of reasons I suppose. Pursuing education has widened across to a great many age demo graphs in a great many fields.
What are the advantages of online education? The advantage I hear most often is that people can continue pursuing their educational needs without too much disruption to their daily lives. A guy can take online courses and still work that 8-5 job. This advantage is the reason for many entering the online educational community. The flexibility. In fact, this flexibility is often advertised by various educational institutions.
As of late, however, I have come to ask myself if the flexibility really exists, or if it is a false promise. A lure, if you will.
People that need the flexibility of an online class are often busy people. Working people. People with families that take a large portion of their time. For some reason or another, these people don't have time for the standard classroom educational environment, so they go online. The truth of the matter is that online classes really aren't well suited for the people that they attract and advertise to. If anything, online classes are more work-intensive than a "standard" class.
Since there is no standard meeting to bring conclusion to the end of a school week, online classes essentially run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no standard class meeting times; any time is a potential meeting time. The result of this is that there is a large influx and dispersement of information from students participating in the class diffused across a never-ending cycle of time. The influx of feedback from instructors follows the same pattern. The end result is that instead of taking off time to visit a physical class a few hours a week, you're always in class. Every day. Every hour.
The way to offset the never ending class is time management. But does time management in an online class really exist? If the class never stops, than isn't time management a different way of saying controlled procrastination? And if its procrastination, than how do you shake the perception of a never ending class?
So where then do online courses fit in? Not so much for the busy people, if the flexibility is in fact a myth. Or if the flexibility does exist, is it currently being overshadowed by other factors inherent to online education?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)