December 28, 2007 at 6:19 pm (searching, web resources)
…make it this one. Complete with reviews, lists and opinions from testers, AltSearchEngines will give you more Google alternatives to playtest than you might have dreamed of.
If you get the chance to click one more link today, why not try KoolTorch or HighBeam, two resources that Don W. tested and liked.
Many thanks to Gwen H. for the original link, and to the aforementioned Don W. for a) making time for research, and b) updating the reference del.icio.us.
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December 27, 2007 at 6:56 pm (Library 2.0, Meebo, collection development, news, web resources)
It’s good to go away, but it’s good to get back to the lab. On the front burners are:
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Collection development. Starting the week of Jan. 6th, watch this space for posts about recent purchases. This is part of a collaborative experiment in ordering non-fiction; my colleague from the First Floor, Bonnie M., may be posting here as well. Our goal is to order new non-fiction in all subject areas for both our departments, without unnecessary overlap.
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The return of Meebo. I’ve been asked to create a training for its use, so hopefully we’ve made progress on implementation! More details as I learn, and can share, them.
Amidst a flurry of reference questions, I skimmed my newsreader for treasure, and was not disappointed. Observe:
- Are the rumors of Web 2.0’s death greatly exaggerated? I suspect, yes. Just in case, though, I’m ready to continue my subtle traditional library services marketing campaign. If people do get fed up with the web, they’re going to need information guides more than ever.
- Folks interested in medical / wellness issues might want to check out Daily Strength, a social network created and moderated by medical professionals, to help people in need get support. Highly intriguing; from an information literacy standpoint, the fact that the “about” page contains credentials, bios, and contact info for the staff is definitely encouraging.
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A fascinating thread about
2.0 apps for education. The comments thread contains many links to apps you can explore for your library’s needs.
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I regret to report, however, that most of the content at
Bookrags is premium content; if it had more free stuff, librarians and students alike would eat this up. But don’t throw out your databases just yet.
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Finally, just for fun,
there’s a new online game in town, and it’s set off a debate among gamers that illustrates what they want and how they think. Anybody who wants to sign up with me and kickke it olde-schoole-duel, just let me know. I’ll be futzing with the brand-new female avatar options.
Isn’t it wonderful how every day in library science is a new adventure? Tune in tomorrow to see what new wonders and fresh challenges await…
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December 22, 2007 at 12:04 pm (personal, philosophizing)
Yesterday was the first day since the inception of this experiment that I was unable to make time to blog. Between the database renewals, the RSS research/dabbling, and the 24/7 queue in virtual reference, it was quite the day. Still, I think several months is a good long streak to have.
We’ll now take a short break until Thursday, when we’ll talk about goals and features for next year. I’m really excited about what we can accomplish in 2008, considering the goals and objectives under which I’ll be working. We don’t have to be perfect, but we do have to get better. I’m confident that next year, for both us and our patrons, will be better than ever.
Enjoy whichever holidays you celebrate, and we’ll see you next week!
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December 20, 2007 at 6:50 pm (Facebook, Library 2.0, traditional library services, web resources)
When I stumbled across Research Bitch in Facebook yesterday, I blinked. The app that advertises the service is called DoResearch4Me; here’s an excerpt from the description:
Are you tired of submitting keywords to the same old standard search engines? Do you want to find the information you need without skimming through hundreds of websites? Do you want to locate great quotes fast? Are you writing a research paper? Whether you are in high school or college, Researchbitch.com will help you get your research done faster and easier.
Researchbitch.com is a revolutionary search engine that does your research for you. With this search engine you do not use keywords, but instead, use whole thesis statements or instructions from your syllabus. You can also use 100 or more words from your outline, class notes, assignment, or even random thoughts. The more words you submit, the better the results.
The research results will show you only information that relates to your theme or topic. The results will be listed with a full description that allows you to see just the information you exactly need.
Could it be true? If so, students and librarians would definitely benefit. So I tried it out by submitting cut and pastes of two assignments I found while surfing the web. In the second example, I submitted option A.
Results were swift, to be sure. I submitted my samples before heading to the reference desk, and the next time I had a chance to check the site, the results were ready. You can check them out here and here.
Some thoughts:
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After the enthusiastic pitch about avoiding the same old search engines, I was a little surprised to see ResearchBitch using the mother of same-olds, Google, as an additional search option.
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Furthermore, the “Feed to Google” button still delivers triple-digit search results, in many cases. While 300+ hits is a decided improvement over 3 million, there’s still no guarantee that the 300 links are better or more relevant than the average EBSCO search might turn up.
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If EBSCO were the only option, you might call it a draw. However, a library like ours, with access to Gale’s History Resource Center (World) could make the search even faster and better.
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Instructor guidelines are treated as if they were part of the assignment, making for some interesting, non-relevant results. This criticism might seem unfair, given that students, could, arguably, leave those out of their submissions, if they liked. However, the average student, told s/he can use “instructions from your syllabus” will do just that, without a second thought.
There is also, of course, the name. Those of you put off by the moniker, which was clearly designed to entice students, can learn more here, at the sister site geared toward adult professionals.
Now, all that being said, for natural-language searching? The service isn’t bad. However, the reason my hackles went up is that, much like with Mahalo, I’ve once again turned up a service that professional librarians already do better. The difference?
It’s in Facebook, and we’re not.
Just something to ponder. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the fun and useful.
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December 19, 2007 at 6:55 pm (Facebook, Library 2.0)
Some things I’ve added to my Facebook profile recently, for experimentation’s sake:
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Meebo Me. My Meebo obsession continues. If we ever do build a Facebook Page someday, this could be yet another way to chat with patrons in a venue with which they’re comfortable.
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Patient Research (beta), from Elsevier. Search for medical articles, download for (at least) $4.95 a pop. I’m very curious about how this will pan out, given how much credible medical information is now available for free.
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SLIS Student. An interesting blidget (widget created from a blog) from San Jose State’s SLIS. Contains great screencasts/tutorials for newcomers to 2.0 concepts.
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JSTOR Search. If you’ve got JSTOR in your library, your patrons can search it from their Facebook profiles. Will they ever need to? Maybe not. But if you’ve got a presence, you’ve got a better chance at building trust.
I’ve been using Flickr and del.icio.us apps almost from the get-go, but they’re still worth mentioning as potentially useful items. There are also many library catalog widgets, from public and academic resources. Theoretically, you could make your entire Facebook profile a mini-library.
Doesn’t that make you want to dive right in and play with Facebook? No? This announcement from Stanford might force you to reconsider. If the database companies and universities are heading this way, will the public libraries have any choice but to follow?
Tune in tomorrow for some old-fashioned hand-wringing over another service with a Facebook app: Research Bitch.
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December 18, 2007 at 7:42 pm (philosophizing, searching, web resources)
If you haven’t yet stumbled across it, take a gander at Mahalo, a community-created search engine that’s trying to build a credible guide for popular web searches. Full-time and part-time “guides” build results pages for popular searches, saving the average Googler the hassle of wading through 7,000,000 results for Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan.
This could be an interesting, useful tool for wading through the thicket of pop culture weblinks. What makes me a little nervous, though, are the pages built around, say, mental health topics, or literature. If Wikipedia is your first, or even your third, pick for a serious research topic, that’s a problem. Sure, trained searchers know it’s a good “foot in the door” technique, but does the average web browser? More ominously, does the average web browser care?
What’s really interesting about Mahalo’s community-built results is that if you sign up to be a guide, or participate in the social community they call the Greenhouse, you can get paid for your contribution. Or, in other words, if you can do better, prove it…to the tune of $10-$15 per accepted results page. While this is a decided improvement over search engines like ChaCha, which pay their professional guides only pennies per search (or $5.00 per live chat hour if their FAQ is accurate), it’s still somewhat disturbing for those of us who spent a lot of time and money on our professional degrees. Note that in neither Mahalo nor Cha-Cha is there any sort of library or research expertise needed to be considered “professional.”
Thoughts? I suppose I come to both bury Mahalo and to praise it. It’s a great hammer, as hammers go. Would that every web searching problem were a nail.
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December 15, 2007 at 4:23 pm (Library 2.0, blogging, fiction, nonfiction, philosophizing, reader's advisory, reviews)
Having completed my Meebo feasability study, I’m between 2.0 projects at the moment. Next week I’ll dive back into RSS, and I really want to finish my blogging plan. Of all the 2.0 initiatives we could pursue, I think it’s the easiest to implement, and the best possible use of the least possible amount of staff time.
For now, though, it’s a slow, snowy day at the reference desk, and we haven’t talked about books for a while. Ergo, I give you some readerly suggestions for your weekend.
- For the foodies, Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken details the author’s search for her ancestor Adalgiza’s infamous ravioli recipe. Part cultural history, part confessional, Schenone’s prose is warm and accessible, and her search for order, structure and stability (in life, as well as in ravioli) are bittersweetly compelling.
- Prefer your family dramas fictional? For madcap adventures in a warmer climate, try The Hummingbird Wizard, by Meredith Blevins. The Szabo women don’t mess around when it comes to their men, and they certainly don’t let a little murder stand in their way. Hapless Annie, her adversarial mother-in-law, Mina, and her boozy, bluesy, sister-in-law Capri try to solve the murder of a man all three of them loved, in different ways, and for different reasons. Snarky, sexy, and funny as all get-out.
- For a more complex fictional adventure, you might like the linguistically complicated, dreamlike atmosphere of The Labyrinth. Catherynne Valente builds a sumptuous world in which a woman (perhaps) tries to find her way out of (possibly) a labyrinth (maybe). Steeped in uncertainty, this lush, complex train of symbols reads more like an epic prose poem than a novel. That’s not a complaint.
- If Valente’s work left you a little dazed and confused, you might want to turn to Joan Gould’s work for a little clarity. Spinning Straw Into Gold examines the various phases of women’s lives, and explicates the fairy tales (both classic and contemporary) that can hold the clues to navigating through each stage. Who knew getting married was a bit like being a selkie? What’s a selkie, you ask? Pick up this book, and find out.
If my book picks aren’t your cup of tea, check out what other CLP staffers are reading this month. Book picks are one area where I think a blog would definitely be an asset in our library system – think of how many employees we have, and how diverse their tastes are. We could offer the public a little something every day. Just one more 2.0 dream to have as the snow comes wafting down…
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December 14, 2007 at 5:46 pm (Library 2.0, blogging, philosophizing, web resources)
Today’s blog entry comes live from the reference desk. When I say “live,” of course, I don’t mean nearly as live as it could be if I were using a service like CoveritLive. Two detailed tutorials demonstrate, respectively, how the software works, and what a live blog experience would look like from the end-user’s perspective.
The link, helpfully provided by Don W., is worth exploring, particularly if your branch or department does a lot of programming. One plucky multitasker could create an interesting broacast of a poetry reading, author visit, or musical performance for folks who were unable to attend. You would, of course, need good traditional and e-marketing skills to get the word out about the event.
Just thinking “aloud.” We now return you to your regularly scheduled refdesk, which involves patent searching, art identifying, and poem hunting.
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December 13, 2007 at 5:24 pm (Library 2.0, fundraising, philosophizing)
I’ve been thinking about philanthropy lately, and how the brave new library world we’re funding will be bravely, newly funded. Today’s Times tells the tale of an intriguing twist on Facebook’s Causes application. Will people give online in a socially networked environment? In numbers big enough to make a difference? Remains to be seen – it is, however, very much the ethos of 2.0 that the Case Foundation is experimenting with the possibility.
This leads me to further wonder whether an enterprising library, perhaps one that didn’t want to use Facebook, could tinker with AppJet to create its own fundraising widgets. Because I’ve got widgets on the brain, I’d want some for reference too – let’s get our catalog in Facebook! But I digress.
Another alternative would be a service modeled after Donors Choose, which allows teachers to post proposals for ideas and materials they’d like funded. Interested parties can donate online; you can read more specifics here. Many, many teachers have book-related proposals posted, enough to merit an entire “Books” category. I wonder if ALA could create something like this for library fundraising? OCLC? A state library association, at the very least?
Now, grant you, I know next to nothing about fundraising. I have, however, learned a little bit in the last three months about how the next generation of users operates online. If these populations are not only our future patrons, but our future donors, maybe the library profession should be thinking in these directions as well?
Thoughts? You may say I’m a dreamer…
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