moonflowerdragon

Donating plasma

2011-12-21T18:54:00.147+11:00

My preferred type of gift-giving (considering I don't participate in the typical activities) at this time of year would be blood donation - except that I can only donate blood once every twelve weeks; so today for the first time I gave plasma instead. I can do this every fortnight. I guess I am 3/5 perceived typicality for a plasma donor (Bove, Bednall, Masser, & Buzza, 2011 [behind pay/study-wall]). I have the time available to give... others might find the time if it were recognised as a valid volunteer/participation activity (Is it recognised by Centrelink?).

Blood blitz this Christmas and New Year | Australian Red Cross Blood Service via kwout

I like and believe it is important that, in Australia, blood/plasma/platelets are *donated* (ie not *sold* by the human-producer).

I understand that if production of medicinal products from plasma is not in government hands (would that ever have been an option?) that a commercial enterprise would need to have a profit-motive - and yet I am curious as to the *level* of profit that stands to be made by such commercial enterprise [in Australia I understand this is CSL Biotherapies] from my donation. Can anyone suggest a way to discover that?

Another concern I've discovered stems from a threat to Australia's self-sufficiency in blood-product supplies from the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States of America. I read of this in a 2004 submission from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to the Australian Government - Where stands that threat now?

What would I think/feel if I found that Australia was importing plasma products from companies who buy plasma from humans (who do not then qualify as "donors")? It seems wrong, although I can't pinpoint why... is it just wrong for Australia to buy what we're not allowed, individually, to sell? I don't want that law to change, but so long as it stands, I think that restriction should be respected in the other direction - that others (government, doctors, companies) in Australia should not be allowed to buy products obtained through payment (or reimbursement) to the original individual human supplier.

Australian Red Cross Blood Service | Do something special, GIVE BLOOD via kwout

Reference:
(Behind pay-wall):

Bove, L. L., Bednall, T., Masser, B., & Buzza, M. (2011). Understanding the plasmapheresis donor in a voluntary, nonremunerated environment. Transfusion, 51(11), 2411-2424. doi:10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03168.x

Questions about Second Life experience engineering

2011-12-21T04:18:00.001+11:00

+
? What makes a great Second Life experience?
? Which answers to that could be applied by SL Libraries to enhance their/our projects?
? For that matter, how might LIS courses apply it to improve their classes about LISinSL?

-- no answers here --

please help me find answers

Small details made a recent Hunt an entertaining experience for me. Significant little event management strategies and differences I found between merchants' strategies made me wonder whether some might improve SL library services. Of course, many librarians* work innovatively in Second Life and some may already be demonstrating answers to these questions--if so I look forward to hearing (or googling up) about them.

In case serendipity does not favour me with answers I plan to continue:

Direct Observations

Does that sound like a great excuse to participate in more hunts; and visit featured Destinations?

I will keep using Flickr for noting positive and negative details of my experiences, although I suspect my detachment might make me too fussy? However observing, noting and analysing observations takes time, particularly as I battle distractions (new clothes; editing; wanting to build; chatting).

Others have been around longer, participated more deeply, and will have actually tried and tested ideas, so:

Web searches

The answers are bound to be out there, however this method has its own distractions:
..

Dwell On It: The Comic - Comic #110; Freedom and Safety via kwout

to which I was led by Pooky Amsterdam's defense** of Second Life against ignorant (inadequately investigative) journalism, to which I was led by:

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi … the Dresden Art Museum closes in Second Life « Prim Perfect via kwout

Nevertheless, such distractions demonstrate that there is a great diversity of types of experience in Second Life. Will what counts as great, differ if the information comes from:

shopping experiences - Torley and his sources refer to some of the details I have witnessed: navigation, interesting and relevant decor, and even packaging (although disappointingly all the links there are deadends [found Suella's tips that he acknowledges; oh and the forum thread) [interestingly there has also been some academic research on positive influencers of SL shopping experiences - particularly spokes-avatar presence]
role play or game experiences?
exploration - (I've enjoyed sims' beauty travelling alone, but I've noticed guided tours available at times I wasn't - would anyone say they'd had a great SL guided tour experience--what made it so?)
interpersonal experiences?
artistic experiences - does the work of artists producing delightful art sims, photography, machinima and webcomics from and within Second Life suggest ideas? Could a visit to SL libraries become a more photogenic experience?

Second Life of My Dreams via kwout

For thoroughness (but without sacrificing the excuse of value in my personal observations) I will look for more published views on Hunts***; however I will rely even more on others' views about what makes great in RP/gaming and social events - and how those might be applied to SL libraries.

Mundanely, I've frequently observed that maintenance is a massive issue for any set-up that expects their sim to support self-service. In what ways are great experiences set up to minimise failures of maintenance? Does the lack of Creation and modification dates in objects (and lack of distinction between creation and spawn in landmarks) bother anyone else?

The personal touch seems to be revealed as significant (Jin & Bolebruch, 2009), but people can't be there all the time - and I've found some avatars' profiles enhance my experience while others grate - do you agree? I haven't analysed the source of the difference yet - are there details for using profiles to help make a great experience? [Wow, Treacle Darlandes shared a great story which included the contribution of a profile to a great experience]

Is all this pondering - at least for the perspective of libraries in SL - a waste of time? Sometimes, like this moment, I lose sight (did I ever have one, I thought I did the other day) of what point a library really serves in Second Life (except as point of connection for librarians) -- tell me?

* * *

footnotes
*librarian = person who runs a library (YMMV)
**while the arguments on investigative negligence, and contribution of the importance of customer service to my own question, may be valid, the motivation for defense is naturally biased by Pooky's investment in Second Life as a medium for her services.
***For example, but not linked above for unreliability (the author (unnamed) claims three years SL business (unnamed) success (unevidenced)) though the information on optimising business with hunts sounds sane.

+Photo Credit:
Nevery Lorakeet *LpD*'s Futura artistic outfit for Second Life Birthday 8! CC2.0:BY-NC-ND

Reference (I'll be interested to see how this appears, as dragged from Zotero):

Jin, S.-A. A., & Bolebruch, J. (2009). Avatar-based advertising in Second Life: The role of presence and attractiveness of virtual spokespersons. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 10(1). Retrieved from http://jiad.org/article124

SLExperience management: The Renaissance Hunt

2011-12-19T05:56:00.002+11:00

--rambling, amateur & preliminary observations--

--actually, while I began with wanting to connect my experiences through TRH1 to ideas for libraries in SL... I realise I don't have enough knowledge at all, so if you've been tempted to visit expecting to learn something useful I apologise, though you might skip the following blather if you're willing to answer some questions--

Today visited the penultimate merchant in The Renaissance Hunt. As some were not ready when I began, I cannot claim to be "finished", but I have at least sorted through *all* of the gifts collected so far (and good heavens that is an undertaking for over 135 gifts!).

Early on we were asked through the in-world group to vote via notecard on a FAVE FIVE of locations (no mention of this in the blog that I can see) when we finish. Yay: an additional validation for my new (since The Sinister Steampunk Hunt) practice of keeping a Hunt Journal. I figured a Hunt Journal would help me recall what I liked (or not) in case I'm ever asked for recommendations; it could support recall to help others on the hunt; it would help me keep track of where I'm at as a Hunt can be very long; but most importantly I'm under the impression that jotting notes helps me think straight - and wherever I go and whatever I do in Second Life I wonder "what if SL-libraries did things this way"?

Do any Hunts offer prizes for the first to finish? I can't imagine so, because a race would compete with the value for merchants of having hunters take time to browse the stores. Even so, I did want to FINISH the Hunt (I didn't finish SSH) (greed:pretties:free) and so I felt a self-imposed time pressure because time spent on hunt was time away from my projects; and guilt-time at the downloads it consumes.

On the other hand: this Hunt experience provoked thoughts about quality experience management that could give points of comparison to my analyses of SL Libraries, and yet I'm not sure I captured those thoughts adequately. Notecard journalling saves switching in and out of Evernote - however it lacks images because my frugality will not let me upload my snips* as images to inventory. So, I'm going back to the start to see whether, with greed out of the way, I can concentrate on a reasonable analysis.

With snips I tend to focus on things that could be better - but as I can't snip past instants, nor my passing psychological dispositions, nor the things I did not realise I was seeing, identifying the things that made the experience so positive will be harder. Particularly when returning just distracts me with beauty I didn't see first time around (the landscaping, Mike, is ... is ... "perfick" (thank you Pop Larkin)), and the postponed acorn-greed.

Actually I guess the acorn-hunt will be an aspect to consider, but I believe I will try not to take photos of the merchants at the Faire because, although Perryn's careful selection of them (as webspelunker Ghostraven mentioned) is an important contributor to the Hunt experience (and care in setting selection criteria is an important librarian consideration), it will just be too diverting.

OMG it is dawn already, the rest will have to wait

...

This is one of those posts I will probably edit over time.

*snip refers to my use of Windows Snipping Tool rather than the SL snapshot because even though I can send a snapshot direct from Second Life to Flickr, with Snipping Tool I can be more selective in what I capture, and because I am not an artist I don't need dramatic Meghogging resolution.

However, for the sake of comparison, the first picture above was Snipped, and this one Snapped:

They make me Happy tonight!

2011-12-18T00:01:00.001+11:00

ABC Television | Going Postal via kwout

and then mad... to be continued? aaargh

A day later: I didn't comment right away, partly because I was miffed to have the rest postponed (but which I now find great because it means more happy next Saturday, and I can think slowly about the first part); and partly because my nephew was visiting and we found Star Trek Voyager (which he hadn't yet seen) on another channel.

So: Characters convincing? Yes. Although Vetinari is physically darker in my imagination, his character was well done. Mr Groat's odour and self-medication didn't seem to be conveyed. Plot faithful? yes. Does the essence of Ankh Morpork transmit to non-AM-readers? Now how could I possibly know that?

Need clarification on steampunk?

2011-12-13T20:31:00.000+11:00

Apparently its *not* just gears glued on:

(I hadn't thought it was, but then again some designs in Second Life labelled Steampunk do give that impression)

Continuing... Caledon Librarianship research: Reference collection

2011-11-29T01:25:00.073+11:00

Can Google help me discover *why* this is the "Colonel Exrex Somme" reference collection? It appears that the compliment was presented, with dramatic timing and visual presentation at the second Compliments Duel on May 11, 2008.

[15:29] JJ Drinkwater takes a deep breath
[15:29]-[15:37] JJ Drinkwater:
I am so stunned by the Colonel's politesse, as well as by his hats, that I am, for the moment, at a loss for words
pretends to think
It is true, sir, that in a land of magnanimous spirit, as this, our Caledon, we rise as we are able
And yet, it is not only those who are poor who are honest, nor yet only those of humble origins who exemplify Nature's Nobility
And, as I have repeatedly said, here today and on many another ocassion
Your love of learning do you the most irreproachable credit
As I am at a loss for words, I think I must let pictures tell, in the main, my story....
As you know, it is the custom of the Caledon library to name its brances and, when possible, its collections, after persons of note
viz the Marie Curie and HG Wells memroial branches
And the Ellen Throckmorton Etiquette collection
Now, the glory of the Caledon library (second only to its patrons and supporters) is its collections
And when we went to name our Reference Collection
We felt that we must name it for someone of suitably compendious learning, and widespread intellectual curiosity
Which is why, sir, we could do no better that to create....
The Colonel Exrex Somme Reference Collection

However, the decision won't have been made on the spot, so I wonder whether the whole compliment was planned long ahead... or ?

I love that the Colonel Exrex Somme Reference Collection is searchable with a Custom Google Search (sorry: Caledon Library Aetheric Search Gizmo).

The Library Militant: Caledon Library News: Colonel Exrex Somme Reference Collection via kwout

As to browsing the collection (be careful this could take hours... I was drawn in to Roger Vaughan's Victorian & Edwardian Photography Collection, fascinated by the compilation and the sharing of information to trace old photos). But back to the Col. Exrex Somme collection, it is built within a blog with each category in a blog "post", and each resource is annotated. There are not too many categories -- what is "too many"? -- the compact presentation may avoid the appearance of "too many". Perception of "too many" often prevents me browsing reference collections. At each category, breadcrumb trail would be preferable (more easily recognised) for navigation over the "Click back" to main at the bottom of the category.

Of course I'm dreadfully curious whether the library uses aetheric means to track/quantify usage of those links; and whether Google feeds them an account of searches conducted?

Maintenance must be a nuisance, how big is the team maintaining it (and TheLibraryMilitant)? Among the browsables Caledon,

"SL Steampunk Blogs - Zoe Connolly's links and reviews of blogs covering Caledon..." no longer exists.

Cleverly, expansion of the collection is socially-enabled using WuFoo

All of this discovery followed from one sign amongst the Steampunk Collection up on the Dirigible. So what does it mean to my research into Second Life-ly librarianship? It interestingly demonstrates:

collection development focussed on the sim's theme - a well-recognised point
and admirable use of collaborative/interactive tools.

and I still need to contemplate the in-world presentation.

Citing Web2.0 electronic references in APA style index

2011-11-28T01:00:00.001+11:00

I'm having a ball considering how to cite references from new web media... but the posts are so long (sorry) its a pain to scroll through my APA style citing label, so this post will help me get straight to the one I want.

Citation issues that arise if you assign students online writing tasks:

expectations for academic referencing styles when writing online;
APA's hanging indents with HTML

Please note that better answers than mine below may be available at APA's referencing blog - more on that lower.

Blog post
Blog post comment
How APA's 2007 "Weblog post" example was a fail
Games
Google+ posts or comments
Photos and images from Flickr or similar online sources
Slideshare presentation (Powerpoint online?)
Songs
Twitter tweet
Twitter tweet span
YouTube video
Vimeo video, includes citing narrator; citing interviewee

Is there some other kind of online source you've wondered how to cite?
If so, Please tell me about it so I can have fun with it too.

1-06-10:
Indeed, APA's blogging about referencing is immensely helpful. The referencing gurus at APA's blog are guiding wonderfully not just through their posts, but in their ongoing responses and explanations through comments. The first bits I'd recommend woud be:

Chuck's guide to the Generic Reference and the subsequent:
Who. (When). What. Where.
Timothy's Frankenreference
and [Supplementary];

I'll be back to add links to more specific clarifications of citing electronic sources but one I haven't even considered and now don't need to is:

Citing Facebook

---
Photo credit: Piggyback ;-) by tony_s2008, on Flickr (CC2.0:BY-NC-ND)

Academic social media - citing and referencing expectations

2011-11-27T21:57:00.036+11:00

Students: check what the teacher expects.
Teachers: are your expectations reasonable for the online publishing environment and spelled out?
Me: Try for a *brief* post for once.

Today I was browsing through the assignments and marking criteria in a friend's subject on social networking for information professionals.

YAY: Students would receive marks for their use of one of the social media tools, as an online journal. Excellent, if students are to use social web tools, their use of tools and their capacity to use such tools with increasing professionalism, should count (IMO).

SLIGHTLY ASIDE BUT IT WILL TIE BACK IN
Teachers ought to consider the best ways for students to learn about online publishing (it should be fun, step up gradually over time, and have clear signposts)... and very carefully how to enable that (in a pedagogically sound way) within a subject which requires online posting. One little point in passing: If the course is an introduction to social networking, expectations and marking criteria for a first post should *not* be the same as for final posts.

AND back on topic
Citation and referencing methods are different in online publishing. Teachers of courses that intend to incorporate online publishing should know very well the differences for different types of online tools, should teach them, adapt expectations of assignment content to suit the medium and teach how the students can meet those expectations within assignments in the new medium.

As Wilson [aka morgan] (2007) pointed out, in response to my ponderings (prior to the 6th edition) on how to cite new media in student papers, "All of these citation methods are optimized for printed media - how they spell out the URLs, which is cumbersome and unnecessary in an electronic publication." I agree, in the main, although the degree of truth to that depends what *kind* of electronic publication. (Although, even when submitting to academic publications who will both hyperlink and spell out references to enable printed versions, writers don't have to do the coding themselves).

At an undergraduate level, students are expected to have read widely in scholarly or industry literature and to cite suitable content using an institutionally selected Style. In my LIS courses it has always been with APA style. Yet APA style references should appear with hanging indents. How many novice bloggers have sufficient knowledge of html to produce hanging indents--and are they relevant?

Let's go back to the purposes of initiating students into writing using social media: is one of those purposes to encourage familiarity (and hopefully expertise) that will prepare them for professional applications? For the kinds of use to which your students should be able to put social media after graduation, is academic referencing appropriate, particularly APA? On the one hand academic references are rarely used in blogs for patron audiences; but might be in blogs for inter-professional communication if usually only when cited sources are not online. On the other hand even wikipedia requires references and teaches its users how to enter references appropriately, and you'll note it uses a discrete footnoting system.

ALMOST DONE, but first
The particular online journalling assignment I mentioned above? It could be produced in any of the social media tools. Can you imagine academic referencing in posts to Facebook?

SUMMING UP MY OPINION

Don't set the bar too high on first posts ... encourage multiple familiarity posts with each showing a new desired attribute to gain comfort with the tool ... prior to the first basic assessable post. Make its assessable criteria much simpler than final posts.
Don't ask boring questions.
If you want to see academic citations:

give an amount (why should they have to guess?);
provide information about and discuss how they are used differently online;
choose an online-suitable style;
if you're going to insist on APA, consider explicitly waiving the hanging indent;
*first* show how you expect to see it--in your own post to each of the tools at which you are accepting assessable posts (not in the closed learning system).

Oops distracted, just before the end: imagining how one might keep and share a learning journal within Second Life which would not be the net taken in or SL stuff sent out--can't do hanging indents in notecards. And then, what about Twitter, if people can write novels with Twitter, why not a reflective learning journal?

---
Photo credit:
Blogging Street Cred by Gideon Burton, via Flickr CC:BY-SA-2.0
---

and, just because I can:

REFERENCES

Wilson, M. (2007, June 1). [comment to blogpost: How does one cite a blog post in APA style?]. Retrieved 27 November, 2011 from http://moonflowerdragon.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-does-one-cite-blog-post-or-blogpost.html

Goodbye Anne McCaffrey

2011-11-24T04:18:00.002+11:00

Dragon flaming by Joshua ©

The reason that I saw a dragon in my son's painting is Anne McCaffrey. Or it would be the years I spent reading every dragon fantasy novel upon which I could lay hands after being stimulated by the Dragonriders of Pern. To be more precise it would probably be the influence of the particular artists that decorated the copies of the Dragonriders of Pern that were out when I began reading and buying them.

Tonight I heard that Anne McCaffrey has died.

Over the years I have read and reread so many of Anne McCaffrey's novels. Not just the dragonriders, but the brainships, the crystal singers, the Talents and the Catteni sequence. Her collaborations led me to other great writers. Her recommendation of a story would convince me to give it a try when the blurb had not.

This dragon keens.

photo: Anne McCaffrey Books ~ Explored by Theen Moy,
via Flickr with CC:by-nc-sa/2.0

-----
I own the original and digital photograph of Dragon Flaming by Joshua. All rights reserved.

Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference #lib2011

2011-11-23T22:20:00.003+11:00

Library 2.0 - the future of libraries in the digital age via kwout

Prelude
It can be hard to keep up with the multitude of industry journals. Today I was considering just deleting Kevin Dudeney's aliaLIBTEC announcement that the latest Associates was up. I knew if I went to have a look at the contents I might be tempted to read a few articles and that would eat up my evening--as it is doing.

Still... to the reasons for my post:

Julanna Hennessy found it odd that there was a lack of involvement by Australians and other countries in our time zones. I want to assure her that I was registered and although a family crisis prevented my real-time attendance I've been catching up since. The conference website is still in my open tabs, I've viewed two sessions (both of which have added to my professional knowledge) and I just need to find the spare hour each to view more. Sometimes more than an hour because I like to take notes too. It is not easy to "rewind" the Blackboard Collaborate sessions - sometimes they would completely restart.
I'm super-impressed that the Library 2.011 conference is free. Therefore, though this post may remain obscure, I wish to publish my thanks to the founding conference sponsor: School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University; the co-chairs Sandra Hirsch and Steve Hargadon, and to all of the presenters.

About the individual sessions, so far, I can recommend:

Melanie Metzger's session I've noted as "Treasure Hunt Training for Library Staff" although its title is Training Core Knowledge Skills by Finding Treasure [the recorded session]
Reina Williams' session: Virtual Reference and Instruction: What is it really like? -- might be useful if you're new to the topic, or are still considering it [recorded session]

I concur with Julanna's conclusion:

"I got a lot out of the conference, some new sites to explore, a stronger understanding of how changes in technology is affecting our industry and how our industry is rising to the occasion, and the fun of playing with technology I hadn’t used before. If anyone gets the chance to attend one of these in the future jump at it."

Aiming to interview JJ Drinkwater: 1st day of research

2011-11-20T03:00:00.284+11:00

So, yesterday I dreamed of eventually (after background research) interviewing JJ Drinkwater (who I've repeatedly over time noticed doing terrific things in librarianship in Second Life). Today serendipity set me out on the journey:

Once-upon-a-time, I had subscribed to the AlexLib Subscribe-O-Matic Gizmo. It sends notifications (which SL can send to email) of events such as today's:

Join us Wednesday at 4pm SLT for "Voices from the Civil War" and a discussion of Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound Dresser"

What a good time to progress this research ... let's see ... if I log in there will be a notecard and/or a landmark and I can begin my inspections ...

Indeed, while I began jotting notes in a draft blog post, it seems I wanted an image for everything, even wished I had videographic skills.

OOPS
During my first round of camming I was Distracted by the profile of Eleanor Anderton (picked up from her creation of a sign [a help sign - one worth discussing, I'll link it in later] on the skyboat display of resources [that to me seem should be IN the library?]) which I followed to her blog where she wrote about BareRose's Antonia

Bare@Rose Search Database via kwout

Back from that distraction, I began capturing photos of the meeting room's exterior signs and interior exhibit, uploading to Flickr, linking images, discussing notecard contents. A slideshow only shows the photos, it doesn't capture my annotations, so if you're curious, you can see my notes over at Flickr beginning with Once-upon-a-time, if I continue this method of note-taking it will all be in a collection I'll call Caledon Librarianship.

OOPS again

Currently interrupted because: while photographing the Discussion Display Wall (Whitman discussions) to identify the variety of content I realised that the train passes by the door and the photo would be improved by having the train in it!

But when is the train?

See Steampunk Wiki for Caledon National Rail and I notice that this (wonderful) wiki could do with some data linking; but back to the train time ... this meeting room is close to Victoria Station (which is just North/left from this door)... four different routes (are they the same train?), 3 stop at Victoria ... Northbound might be best angle on the engine, so before 04, 15, 26, 56 of the hour, while southbound is 20, 44, 52, 55 of the hour. Of course I missed two trains while I was trying to work that out, and I've noticed that there have been some dramatic lighting changes so I've been wondering how that will affect the shot.

Eating cold tea I missed two more passes, but now two scheduled trains haven't passed at all. So even in the virtual world, when one is waiting for a train--it will be late?

Back on track, I have dozens more photos, and still need to upload describe and link them. I'm going to have to become a little more efficient, take fewer photos, or forget about using Flickr for note-taking. It seems my inner researcher and inner tourist compete for function time.

What have I achieved so far?

I've admired the meeting room - not sure if it is considered one of the branches of the Caledon Libraries; discovered through in-world exploration that just across the park from the meeting room are at least two library facilities and behind/above the meeting room is a special collection. I could probably investigate such details faster by perusing wikis/websites. While googling a suitable link to acknowledge Eleanor above I discovered the Caledon Library Volunteer HQ which (at least historically, it was last updated in 2009) in addition to the site for visitors: The Library Militant will probably answer all the little questions I have.
I've seen:
- evidence of a current discussion series; and past discussions (social activities are a fundamental attribute of virtual world experience I think, although I also believe we seek meaningful social activity);
- begun identifying qualitative distinctions between objects for display, information storage and access, and preferences;
- continued reflecting on the importance of consistency with a well-defined environmental theme (ie: I believe that my enjoyment of Caledon Library for its thematic consistency as well as its quality library functions would be typical for anyone in-world). I think that although we like a pretty library in the real world, its prettiness is way less important than its services. But then longevity of the Second Life library might also rest in how well services meet users' needs/desires -- unless the Second Life library is content to exist as an art exhibit.
Not found a relevant group - one day in.
Oh yes, documenting instances of advertisement - that was about discovering the nature and extent of Caledon's liaison.
Looking forward to exploring the Caledon catalogue/database, but want to see what is what in-world first.
I believe that my download limits, and/or needing to avoid excess distractions, and/or the fact that even if I could concentrate in-world the Flickr note-taking method is so time-consuming -- could sooner rather than later send me to read Drinkwater's pages.
I think my original questions are so far still good, but it is only one day in. I am noticing the uber-importance of a team of volunteers, remembering the joys and challenges of managing volunteers, and wondering how Drinkwater's experiences of volunteer management would compare.
So much for being the final step - testing out that phone for the sake of an imaginary newbie audience to my photoset - I leaped into making a tentative first contact.

Contact point: Drinkwater's private line | Flickr - Photo Sharing! via kwout

Hoping to interview JJ Drinkwater: Planning preliminary research

2011-11-19T00:18:00.069+11:00

I'm a dreamer. 2-365 by Chelseaography. CC: BY-NC 2.0

Today, I finally tagged as questions I would ask a page that has been hanging around in my open tabs for goodness knows how long:

So, its 2.5 years since EppieBlack interviewed JJ Drinkwater and I'm wondering whether any of JJ's views have changed since (at the time he had been through 3years conversation about libraries roles in SL)? For example: Does he still think that SL is a good environment for making collections accesible - interest-wise and creating inspiration? How does he evaluate the success of an event and/or an exhibit? On what does he currently invest his time in SL now? They touched on qualitative measures ("use a lot" - which?) and what is not possible to count/track - has any of that changed? He mentioned building the online catalogue (and I recall being impressed recently, must look again) - has that been worthwhile, what was most important with it and what would he recommend for others? How did he land the director's role at Caledon libraries? He managed volunteers, orchestrated exhibit schedule, ran events -- what kind of learning did that involve? what mistakes?

While I do search my tags, I don't tend to find time to check it for things to do, but I do see my blogger drafts.

So, to be sure my questions would be the best I can ask, if I find an opportunity, I figure:

First I would want to run around and check the Caledon Libraries,
see and analyse current exhibits.
Join the group/s perhaps - and from now I should
document all instances where I see adverts of Caledon Library events.
Definitely explore the online catalogue and
read more of what Drinkwater has written.
Then refine my questions and
seek an interview

We have a Plan!

by lucyb_22. CC:BY-NC-SA-2.0

Second Life Bookstacks, LibraryThing and SLISonline

2011-11-12T04:42:00.000+11:00

Thinking about CVL's catalogue, I wondered whether Library Thing might be useful. At LibraryThing's dormant Second Life group, Athanasius Skytower offered copies of his LTcatalogue-displaying bookshelf. Given that other LibraryThingers are also Second Life residents, next was to discover the Library Thing group in SL - I wonder if it is active?

A 2009 message about events at a place called Bookstacks (SLURL) made me curious, and in-world I discovered that it is a Pub apparently popular with writers.

Back at LT, there were many current talk results in the search for "Second Life" and of those there were many labelled with the curious codes "SLIS-Indy" and "Fiesta". As SLIS is a typical acronym for schools of library and information science, I was pleased to find the Indy part falling into place with Indy referring to Indiana or Indianapolis (or both). Bravo SLIS-Indy for learning and sharing publicly. From them I've now learned more than a thing or two. Thanks to Sara PorterI now have two new SLURLs to check out. Sean Robinson's comments about his library's patrons writing reviews with Library Thing for Libraries was a pleasure to read, I hope to one day work in a library that socialises their catalogue.

(in a gesture of reciprocation I ask: how strongly do other forum/discussion_board users feel about such matters as "subject-ness" of subject lines for posts; and one-topic-per-post-liness?)

Do I need THIS device?

2011-10-30T22:24:00.000+11:00

Ceccy once explained the "plot device" to me. I didn't imagine anything like this. (Discovered via Storm Bear, and his comment "Kids these days and their digital gear…")

Plot Device from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Community Virtual Library in Second Life

2011-10-22T23:11:00.196+11:00

Facing off the library pigeon by moonflowerdragon, on Flickr

Since my last assignment for the year was submitted, I've had more time for Second Life. Over the years I've regularly checked LIS literature and the biblioblogosphere to keep up with LIS and educational activity in Second Life, and observed broader opinions expressed through twitter. While I have not tallied or coded the variety of articles (and only recently began collecting some with Zotero), my general impression was that many, while positively justifying their experiments, appeared to conclude that technical barriers and initial learning curve limited its overall usefulness for ongoing purposes. However some reports within the last couple of years claimed to be continuing and abundant higher education sims still exist so I intend to discover, if possible, what kinds of programs continue.

Naturally I checked out the changes at Community Virtual Library. It was looking strong and healthy, but I was curious how librarians were thinking about the future of CVL and coincidentally a meeting was planned to discuss where CVL would go from here. Abbey Zenith's prelude to the meeting, published in the aforelinked Rez Libris, included comments that have me curious:

"Perhaps we have not yet realized the potential we envisioned" I can't remember how the original vision was framed.

Abbey reports that reference, exhibits, collections, programs all continue to be successful as services to Second Life residents - so I was curious about statistics, how it is determined who is using CVL and what counts as successful. Abbey's concern was for a loss of "momentum we had in providing professional development opportunities to librarians, library staff, and students". What does Second Life, let alone CVL, offer librarians, library staff and students? Has it changed since Kathryn Greenhill's (2007) 10 reasons? Have librarians moved to other virtual worlds or is the role of information professionals in virtual worlds not so much of the 'librari'ness? Are libraries in virtual worlds role play sims? If so, I don't mind the RP.

Unfortunately the meeting was on at 4am Eastern Daylight Time, and it was one of my late nights so when my alarm rang I was asleep again a few minutes later. Thankfully the meeting was logged so I could catch up the next day.

It appears that aside from the normal imperative to look forward and continuously evaluate, part of the reason to ponder the future is that in 15 (or now 14.5) months the tier fee payments will see a dramatic increase because the initial non-profit arrangement no longer exists. Ah, fundraising discussions :-) that brings back memories from my days in the Australian Breastfeeding Association. So I need to keep my eyes and ears open for: grants, donations, visitor-attraction (no-one mentioned Hunts - they don't *all* focus on shops - I've been on two that didn't - and I'm not a shopper) and the visitor attraction thread raised some interesting ideas - sounds like fun ahead.

It is really hard to glean the key points of meetings from a conversation log - I wonder whether anyone has used an interactive web screen at such a meeting to track brainstorming and keep agenda/minutes?

The University-feel when studying online

2011-07-22T21:55:00.000+10:00

Information Commons - The University of Sheffield via kwout

Online study lacks the community-feeling one might experience in tutorials or group study sessions. Efforts to replicate that through discussion forums and group assignments are unlikely to completely succeed until technologies get a whole lot smoother for more people. Even when they do (get smoother) the asynchronous advantage of online study can still lack the belonging feeling of synchronous interaction.

So, today while I learned from something Sheila Webber was sharing, I clicked over to a view of Sheffield University's Information Commons. The images sent me on a tangent of wondering whether a background image of a University space or group scene would enhance feelings of belonging and participation when in a forum screen?

Perhaps a warmer image from Wake Forest University:

new study space | by Lauren Pressley @ Flickr via kwout

Or to emphasise the study feel too perhaps a lecture theatre?

That Huge Lecture Theatre! | teddy rised @ Flickr via kwout

Hm, I'd like to lay a forum screen over such images to give an idea of what I'm thinking, but it would take too much time to desensitise personal details when I should be studying. If someone else gets what I mean and has the time to sketch something up, could you link it in comments?

In some software (Interact?) there is a separate issue of dissociation presented by separation of study discussion forum from the LMS unit module, but that is enough complaining for now.

When Google+ is open for organisations...

2011-07-18T14:04:00.002+10:00

Are libraries geared to leap in?

So many lessons have been learned through experimentation with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc - are we ready to roll out our circles when the big one is opened for organisations?

David Lee King asked two questions in one: "Google Plus - Should you and your Library be there?" Separate feedback was received at his blog and his pluspost.

Google+ David Lee King via kwout

Whether "you" should be there is a personal and professional decision - a separate question. Although, if your job at all involves for the library: marketing, community outreach, public relations, then I'm guessing it would make sense to be exploring Google+ right along with all of the other top social media. Even if your job is technology or reference services.

As to the Library: Well, the circle is not yet open. But when it is, will your library be ready? I must get back to study, so I'm going to jot down a few guesses about things I'd have to consider if it were my job; and then wait to see the advice roll in on the next question. David, *how* should your library be there (when Google+ lets it in)? Actually, I think the answers are in DLK's blog posts of the last few years, but I'll be interested to see whether any of the suggestions he has made over the years would be varied for Google+).

People - the library will need people who've been playing and working with social media for a while, and preferably have been playing with Google+ personally (to be able to implement the features productively and the relationships positively).
Culture - Now, guessing from the word on the blogs, those people will need a library culture that supports experimentation with social media. This includes things like:

mistake tolerance - being able to respond (not react) constructively and humanly when mistakes happen;
playtime
transparency - being willing for procedures and disputes to be aired publicly.

Audience - DLK identified one of the mistakes libraries made in the early days, of "friending" other libraries and librarians rather than their target audience; and then he gave solutions - examples of the "friends" that the library needs. (He referred then to Facebook, but I'll bet the same applies to Google+)
Conversation - now this one is a big challenge. There is a theme amongst many opinions (links later perhaps) that the important thing in social media is connections, and conversations, which takes time (although time might be inversely proportional to skill/talent) and therefore money. The assumed promise is that open conversation increases familiarity, trust, positive feelings and attention, which is hoped to translate into word-of-mouth marketing.

There is sometimes a disdain for "Push" uses of social media technology. I can see the latter applying in Google+. Will libraries post everything publicly and risk losing listeners for whom most of the push is not relevant, or selectively disseminate through circles and risk missing others who might like to hear but wouldn't.

Hangouts - focus groups? library-sponsored clubs? community outreach meetings? reference? I haven't tried a hangout yet.
Appearance - Sean Percival has shared an idea of how google+ business profiles *might* look, and features businesses might find useful.

Amazing serendipity (and decision to catch up on Twitter before studying (thanks flexnib, sallyheroes)):

Schrier, R. A. (2011). Digital librarianship @ social media: the digital library as conversation facilitator. D-Lib Magazine, 17(7/8). doi:10.1045/july2011-schrier

Under five principles (listening, participation, transparency, policy, and strategy), Schrier gives "concrete strategies for successfully integrating social media into a digital library's overall strategic plan", including Google Alerts, social media searching, interaction advice.

The rest of my thoughts have faded away, could you add your thoughts?

How to cite a Google Plus post or comment in APA style - a guess

2011-07-13T15:53:00.000+10:00

Mind this is a guess, I'm sure APA will come out with guidance if it becomes a big issue, as they've touched on Twitter and Facebook already, and this follows the same principles.

Cirque Dreams Holidaze (U.S. Air Force photo by/ Senior Airman Jonathon Steffen)| CC/BY-NC from Flickr via kwout

At the time of writing it will have to work differently for a google+ post than a comment to a g+ post because only the time of a post provides a permalink.

For a google+ post:

Author, I. (year, Month, day). [Constructed title, perhaps "Google+ post about..." or the first few words of the post...]. Retrieved day month year from >permalink from timecode<

Meerbach, M. (2011, July 13). [Google+ post: "Uses for empty circles. 1. Bookmarks. / {kwout in google+ test}..."]. Retrieved 13 July 2011 from https://plus.google.com/107965671267142239949/posts/TSP196dhgmi

Challenges to citing a comment to a google+ post are: the comment doesn't have a permalink (yet?); that neither have titles; no globally reliable way to easily locate one comment if it is amongst potentially hundreds/thousands. I'm guessing that the "time" google shows me for any post or comment will be different to the time it shows someone in a different timezone.

Still, perhaps this would work:

Baltzell, J. (2011, July 12). [Comment: "You're a member of every circle you create..."]. To [Google+ post by Jenniffer Baltzell: "Using the bejeebers out of my "Read Later" circle"]. Retrieved 13 July 2011 from https://plus.google.com/103854478178815355356/posts/BxpnMgu9WUN

Which is the closest I can get to this particular comment:

"Reader Later" circle from +Jenniffer Baltzell via kwout

And that is a title composed completely by the kwout tool - I wonder where they got the "Reader Later" bit?

Caveats:

This would only work with public posts

As posts can be deleted, if continued access to the material you cite is important, it might be worth taking a screenshot and archiving the image.

Dates will be relative to the viewer, but as the variance will only be within a day it is still more useful than not giving a day at all.
If those permalinks get really long, perhaps your readers would appreciate a shortened link

In-text citation issues:

location:

not necessary in short posts?
use para or ¶ in longer posts

Pseudonyms:

Use the name as given.

Quite early on disputes have arisen about the use of pseudonyms with Google+ with at least one account (that to me appears to have been for a valid online identity) suspended. While I hope that the policy is changed, not all such accounts have been removed, and the author would be however they identify themselves.

Zotero does more than I thought...

2011-06-30T05:09:00.000+10:00

What have I been missing?

I've used Zotero for several assignments so far, gathering citations into sub-collections and creating bibliographies (grumbling at how many times I have to fix the title field).
! But fancy, I had not picked up that I could Shift+drag to create an intext-citation!

I've even created notes, although I don't remember whether I've looked back at them. It just occurred to me: if I could somehow Show in the middle ONLY my notes - that might help somehow, but AFAIK not yet possible.

But notes! there's more:
Standalone notes - I guess I could create some for questions, keywords yet to search, passing thoughts to pursue later ... How do YOU use them?

Annotating

When I heard "annotation" before I assumed this meant either editing the Abstract field or creating notes - but no, those snapshots I've been ignoring can be highlighted and sticky-noted. Now this might be useful IF I can export such annotations for mixing, how?

Hm, for a sub-collection I think I might like to export reference + abstract + my Notes + sticky notes + "highlighted bits". Why? Well, until I get a super large monitor or interactive projection or interactive table display upon which I can spread my individual notes to physically shift and shuffle, probably to print for that process.

What about reports? No, neither highlights nor annotations appear in reports.

Please tell me: How / does Zotero's highlighting and sticky notes work into your study process?

But ... reports with the excess stuff excluded by Jason Priem's fix; offers a way for me to gather notes to print and shuffle perhaps. Unfortunately, I can't work out why the author sorting wouldn't work.

Other filetypes like images

getting_stuff_into_your_library [Zotero Documentation] via kwout

Aside from snapshots and pdfs that don't come with good metadata (I really want to learn more precisely how metadata storage and grabbing works with pdfs) - I haven't stored anything in Zotero. The above makes me wonder whether the option has productive value? For example, I'm thinking IF my research involved obtaining/using images + IF I attached it to metadata = could I then drag both image and metadata over to my document with Zotero styling the metadata as caption the way APA likes?

If nothing so fancy, it doesn't seem worthwhile, afterall Dropbox offers more storage for free. It now occurs to me that this "automatic snapshot" is what has filled my free Zotero storage - even while I haven't been using the darn things. If I switch that off, would I remember to take a snapshot when it would be useful to do so?

Tags?

I'm finding the automatic tags a real nuisance. They can be hidden. Even so, I haven't been using tags ... @Zotero users: how do tags help with your study processes?

Sorting! Ta Da: Research Diary!

Wow, Finally I discovered what I can do with

finding_and_sorting [Zotero Documentation] via kwout

Sort by Date Added and include Standalone Notes and we could have something on the road to a research diary.

Saved Searches

Thanks to people sharing their libraries like Paolo Cardullo, I got the word from Lincoln Mullin on how Saved Searches (and Tags) in Zotero can help with research workflow. (He also mentioned the value of Collections, but I thought that'd be obvious).

Maybe research diary online

2011-06-28T15:53:00.039+10:00

Jacqueline Taylor: Reflections and (re)reflections, with permission, via kwout

What online tool, or easy ways to combine tools might optimise my study?

I've enjoyed keeping a notebook before - particularly using marginalia that help remind, reflect, review, rediscover, save time.

But these days when I use so many digital (on and off line) tools for study I can't help feeling that the old pen and notebook might not "sync" very well.

So I've begun exploring what others do with online research diaries (other keywords: learning, study, search, log, journal, notebook, scrapbook...?). So far, I haven't seen anyone using a tool or combination of tools in ways that would achieve all I would desire from a digital system for tracking my [research, learning, study, thinking, notes].

As I couldn't work out where to begin my jumble of thoughts I tried a new (to me) online mind mapping tool that I heard offered embed-ability. Unfortunately Mindomo took a long time to load, so I'm guessing its embeds would too. It doesn't contain all the notes I have in my diary yet, perhaps I'll add them later - but I'm curious how it will look, so:

Right, so I'd have to edit the width parameters to get the vertical scroll bar perhaps? I tried fiddling with the html for that, but couldn't work it out - any suggestions?

(Dan Stillman reported progress on "formatted references" from the API (of which I have a bare glimmer of comprehension) but which I guess is approaching embeddability?, if not yet for me. If embeddability ever arrives I hope it will let abstracts be used so I can embed an annotated bibliography)

Update: I've since discovered that Zotero could serve, with standalone notes, although it would not offer the potential for direct feedback that a blog would.

Crocodoc - could be useful?

2011-06-21T15:18:00.000+10:00

Comment on, edit, and fill PDF files, Word documents, images and more | Crocodoc via kwout

Crocodoc looks like it could be useful for collaborative editing? I wonder if hyperlinks are possible in comments or annotations? In any case, with thanks to Creative Commons Australia and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation for making the following material available (CC BY 2.5), this is how embedding a crocodoc looks:

So, I got to play with highlighting, drawing, text and commenting; and discovered that the decision whether to include annotation options in an embed happens at the point of getting embed code.

Does my library need mobility yet?

2011-05-18T00:53:00.000+10:00

I don't have a smartphone or an ereader. Too expensive yet. However, the potential impact of such devices on library services may lead to me making the work/study-related expense eventually.

In the meantime I'm curious. How will mobile/smart phones influence academic libraries? Formal and informal industry literature has plenty to say (just tonight I stumbled upon Daviess Menefee's recap of Elsevier's 2011 Digital Libraries Symposium / Mobile technologies: Issues for libraries), but as to day-to-day experiences, I haven't seen a demand locally, yet.

I thought I had an opportunity recently: A young man looking for a play showed me call number on the screen of his phone rather than a scrap of paper - but it was a photo of the catalogue screen.

Then again yesterday: a young lady looking for theatre books had a list on her phone - but it was a list of notes she had entered into her phone rather than write on paper. This young lady was very kind, answering questions about her iphone and its apps, and we looked together to see whether our catalogue was configured for mobile - not. I also quizzed her opinion on whether it would be handy. She thought she'd be unlikely to want to use her phone to check the catalogue - she'd use her PC or come into the library.

Which reminds me of the lass for whom I found a free online version of a play (because our only copy was out) and when she took the URL mentioning that she could call it up in the session. Did she mean phone, tablet or laptop I asked? Laptop - she can't afford a mobile internet plan either.

As to that symposium (back in January): Menefee reported that Joseph Murphy said "Don’t look at these applications [social recommendations, mobile photo sharing, social check-ins] in terms of enhancing library services... look at how they will influence people’s expectations for engaging with social or physical data". Rundblad (according to Menefee) spoke about understanding the user and their context (sure and I'd love to speak to more of our patrons who use mobiles) - a vital point taking into account limited budgets, a point that Schottlaender apparently made.

I can't help remembering my cousin and his daughter showing me how they use the internet with their mobiles. It is easy to imagine a group of students, or even one pondering his study in some queue or otherwise out somewhere, and on the spot pulling out the mobile to follow up a thread of an idea... assuming the library even figures into their sourcepool what might they find? I want to know.

Scribd as repository?

2011-04-28T03:06:00.001+10:00

Oh my, I began exploring whether mobile access is a significant issue for academic collections, and ended up in a side road exploring Scribd... I need to set aside that sideline, but I want to track some of it before I get back:

It is too late for a chronology of what turned up when, so maybe by age of article, and in reverse:

In January this year Kathryn Greenhill reiterated a recognition that Scribd-like services have got so much right, while specifying why Scribd (and one guesses any for-profit cloud system) ought not be relied upon - this warning was in reply to Brian Kelly's enthusiasm for how Scribd has enhanced access to papers.

No, if I try to make coherence it is going to take too long. So, a list of items that contain points of interest I'll just have to get back to, unless someone else can point me to a summary of all issues?

In July 2009 Kerim Friedman asked whether Scribd would serve as an Edupunk repository.

Scribd: EduPunk repository? - Open Access Anthropology | Google Groups via kwout

Christopher Kelty weighed in there with:

"archival persistence? How would these tools allow for permanent findability and a certain sense that one can be sure it will stay available for a long time? DOI numbers require an institutional home... COiNs data are easy to add to a blog post... Zotero can find things with this data... so maybe part of the blog post should be best practices for eduPunk future-proofing... "

Archival persistence and ownership issues seemed to be the major argument of commenters against Joseph Esposito's June 2009 proposition that libraries "should begin to close their IRs" to save money, in favour of Scribd served repository.

Also in June 2009, and same venue, Michael Clarke described the profit-potential of Scribd for publishers - might it also serve institutions in the same way?

Interesting that many articles about Institutional Repositories are shared by writers through Scribd.

Before I leave this sidepath, I must also keep this link to all of Brian Kelly's interesting discussions of Institutional Repositories, top of which (at present) is an article about measuring the effectiveness of institutional repositories.

Academic Collection mobility?

2011-04-28T03:03:00.001+10:00

Is the content of academic libraries accessible by mobile device?

I fear this is barely (or maybe not) related to the report I ought to be preparing for my INF210 class. My library-twitter-verse keeps mentioning that the mobile trend is important - and as the INF210 task is focussed on collections, I wonder what implication the mobile trend has, if any, on future developments of an academic library collection.

Without trying to answer that question just yet, I am going to try to gather some of the material I've been scanning:

First, for chronological location 'twas this John Dupuis' retweet of Sarah Houghton-Jan's mention of Aaron Tay's musings about mobile options for libraries and thoughts on usability which provided the last straw. My desire for a tablet (sons don't want me to get an ipad) that could somehow ease my research efforts is pricked with every tweet about ereaders, ipads, ebook lending - so while I'm feeling the pressure to get started shifting my research into writing a report, my procrastinators asks whether this mobile device thing is something worth exploring for my collection report.

I know libraries are optimising their websites and catalogues for mobiles, but the important question (for whether this distraction is useful to INF210) is whether this makes a difference to the Collection. So I ask (doubting it is the question I should be asking) whether mobiles can access full-text content - not just records of the content. Had I a mobile could I easily read full text articles, books, repository contents?

Okay, I've begun finding answers to my own question, with help from University of Sydney's list of library resources for mobile devices, Dartmouth College Library's description of mobile access to digital resources, and Richard Bernier's slideshow:

Research on the Go: Accessing Library Databases via Mobile Devices

Presentation by Richard Bernier

So some database content (eg EBSCOhost) can apparently be found and read by mobile - can anyone tell me how well? / how much?

Michelle McLean shared notes she took at CIL 2007 that mentioned Overdrive and Netlibrary had mobile accessible ebooks - but Josh Hadro says it is still too complicated to actually get those ebooks onto mobile devices. Oh of course Meredith Farkas listed some vendors who have mobile interfaces (slide 60) and I see EBL Ebook Library in there - that's one of UB's suppliers (I want to see how well mobile access works :-S).

The Library in Your Pocket: Mobile Trends for Libraries

Presentation by Meredith Farkas

Oh and slide 61 Meredith mentions the Duke Mobile Digital collections, I remember viewing that Youtube video in 2009: excellent. In Slide 62 Meredith shows how Flickr can make photo collections mobile accessible - although how reliable this strategy would be in the long term is questionable unless I missed a change in attitude from Yahoo over Flickr. Hmm and NCSU have mobile devices in their collection to loan (slide 63).

So, considering a growing academic collection area: repositories? Apparently Adewumi and Omoregbe (2011) found that only Greenstone supports access via mobile devices (p.31 [p.4 in Scribd]) although they did not identify which versions of the platforms they were reviewing. Without a device I'm left wondering what level of access that is - oooh if only I had a device I could use to check all the repositories I've been looking at lately.

Interestingly, the Journal of Computing in which I found Adewumi and Omoregbe's article is available via Scribd -

Institutional Repositories: Features, Architecture, Design and Implementation Technologies

I'm going to want to read that article in more detail: how does Scribd compare to IR platforms? One advantage: from how many IR's can one EMBED items? One limitation in Scribd (which doesn't differ greatly from many of the repositories I've viewed) is that it did not give Zotero suitable metadata beyond title for citation.

Oh my, another distraction (Scribd as repository?) - but I've set that path aside to consider later. What is relevant is that Scribd viewer is mobile (with HTML5).

Leads to explore:

A 2009 annual report from an IFLA committee in acquisitions and collection development mentioned plans to convene a programme at Gothenburg in 2010 entitled "Opening Doors to Spectacular Collections: Access to Multi-sensory, Multimedia, and Mobile Materials" ... okay, one of the sessions was:

"A collaborative study: on the demands of mobile technology on virtual collection development" by Mari Aaltonen, Petri Mannonen, Saija Nieminen and Marja Hjelt. Quite irritatingly the pdf appeared to lack metadata for Zotero to grab, however the content is worth the bother.

Among the researchers' conclusions: "readers are not good enough in functionality to warrant materials being chosen purely on the basis of compatibility with these devices"; functionalities they mention as necessary (and lacking) for academic reading in readers (and I would guess in mobiles) are: easy browsing, navigating, searching and zooming, handling of colour graphics, tables, pictures and equations, ability to jump easily between multiple documents and to annotate.

Oh my oh my oh my: just when I thought I might be able to stop and go to bed echofon tells me that Dan Cohen thinks this worth mentioning:

neat right? but that's not all. While I sniff out the second article (Reinventing research? Information practices in the humanities), RIN go ahead and show me their recent tweets

Reinventing research? Information practices in the humanities | Research Information Network via kwout

Did you see? "Mobile use of repositories". MMhm, so Leslie Carr tells me that access of output at University of Southampton ECS repository is "less than 1/4 of the general use of mobile Internet" and he believes this is because pdf doesn't suit small devices. But he mentions "Mekentoshj's Papers and Mendeley for iPhone seem to indicate that an attractive mobile experience should be possible." Ack, and then Richard M Davis replies mentioning his "Download to my Kindle" idea for repositories, and a comment about pre/post publication versions being in "less intricately formatted PDFs" - which makes me wonder, but only a little as I'm more curious about his reference to "Scholarly HTML" which I think might be related to TEI? (Text Encoding Initiative?) but not directly, if I read petermr's hopes for Scholarly HTML correctly.

A question librarians, archivists, repository builders are concerned with is format durability.

That's all very interesting, but I'm guessing it is not one of the biggest issues to anticipate in the near future of collection development at a regional university library?

Modern Romance and the Malcontent: Survey for my sister.

2011-04-03T19:31:00.000+10:00

For a project at TAFE my sister is focussing on modern romance (not the genre - the real life thing), the history of romance (chivalry), what do women and men want in their romantic relationships and a section of how to's or suggestions.

She asks if we will be so kind as to fill out a survey for her.

Modern Romance and the Malcontent
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NDQFLT2

Unfortunately, due to the limitations of survey monkey she can't ask more than 10 questions, so if there is something more you'd like to say on the subject - any opinions you have - then please email her [waterspiritdragon |at| hotmail \dot/ com] with your thoughts; or comment here and I'll pass it on. Hopefully, this survey will give her an idea if her thoughts and feelings in this area are expressed by a wider audience or if she's standing on an opinionated island waving her own little flag.

This survey is for MEN and WOMEN. She needs an equal number of both.

For this survey to be useful - she needs as many responses as possible. She's hoping for 1,000+, so please feel free to disseminate the link:

Modern Romance and the Malcontent
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NDQFLT2

The ultimate romantic gesture | by sandyfeet at Flickr

Projected, recorded, uploaded, embedded

2011-04-03T04:45:00.000+10:00

Enjoy the music with me? thanks to Alex Ross and others (see below)?

"The first part of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture, as played by the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, at the New World Center on Jan. 28, 2011. The image is being projected on a seven-thousand-square-foot wall; the sound is heard over a network of 167 speakers." [Youtube video description]

Or wonder at technology with me?

Miami's New World Centre's Wallcast projects concert hall performances outside. (Frank Gehry designed the center, who can we thank for the sound and simulcast tech?)
[?unidentified device] captures the cast in excellent quality.
YouTube lets Alex Ross upload the recording and me embed it here.
Blogging programs like WordPress helps people share stuff online
Extra-blogging stuff like tracking back builds conversation
Repository software like dSpace helps institutions collect and preserve scholarly writing.
Online courses with course managment software... hm, can't really promote the one used for current course as I'm not fond, tend to prefer Moodle.

Or delight in social factors?

What explains the expensive projection of performances outside the hall, to the public for free? I can guess why people would use the Soundscape - I want to go!
Alex was so impressed (?) he recorded, uploaded, blogged and wrote. AH! to "invite people in" - Alex answers my first question.
The beauty of connections: dkl, a scholar interested in "combination of sight and sound in musical experience, and the use of technology to alter their combination", gets caught by Alex's article and later blogs about it. (And dkl "gets" linking in his first post!)
Everyone is sharing all this stuff online.

So maybe it is just one factor in different dimensions: People love to share what makes them zing.

Or my story:

In which Charles Sturt University School of Information Studies offer a course by distance (that (if I finish) would qualify me to be a reference librarian), in which John Kennedy, Bob Pymm and Sue Terry authored the Collections subject asking students to explore repository software designer DSpace, who share use case examples including George Mason University's MARS, who preserve blog posts of at least one of their associate professors, Dan Cohen who (among many wonderful contributions to online scholarship) writes and talks inspiringly about the value of the blogging genre for scholarly communication (see why I listened for an hour!?). Dan uses WordPress and his team designed Zotero and and where was I? ... oh yes, Dan's blog captures trackbacks so I noticed dkl's first post at Spooky and the Metronome, where he grabs my attention: music+image, a mix of styles in one post, his personal story, scholarly meditations, and darn him for linking instead of embedding the above video himself. Because on seeing Alex Ross' uploaded video of the projected performance - musing at the capacity to see and hear without being there or then, I needed to see it all shifted that extra step in time and virtual space, and now I've added the dimension of posting from Australia.

thinking about patron-driven acquisition

2011-03-23T02:10:00.002+11:00

Line of duty | by Patrik Jones

Course material points to Barbara Fister's "Puzzled by patron-driven acquisition" and then asks what we think.

I think Barbara was having a vent in good blogger style. Being a vent, some of her points get a bit mingled.

The clearest and most important point she made was

Used as a supplement to traditional collection development (which is already patron-driven, in that we have always tried to match choices to expressed or even inarticulate needs) it makes a certain amount of sense--provided your patrons will use e-books

[my italics]
In fact, what else is there to say? I'd say that sums up a reasonable point-of-view.

Barbara was concerned about some speakers' enthusiasm for the method of acquisition, although she didn't identify anyone who is using it as their *sole* method of collection building. I can see how people can get enthusiastic - being able to put titles before our patrons before we buy them, being able to offer a loan (at a loan price) and only choose to buy if an item is borrowed a few times and we think it might have continuing value - this sounds wonderful. Of course how wonderful depends how much it costs us simply for access to the database of ebooks (which I'm not in postion to know), and how well suited the database is to our likely needs (which I'm guessing is tailored to the library's profile) - but the principle is promising.

Books and friends should be few and well chosen. by studioapril. 1982

More frustrating in my course is that the next question presents false dichotomy and does not even follow from the above reading or any prior in the unit: "should librarians choose what they think people should be reading (or viewing or listening to) rather than what they want" as if the answer is not obviously NO in response to the "should" in most cases but also "it depends" because of course it is possible that there is a library somewhere whose collection development is based solely upon a specific curriculum of readings for a specified purpose in a narrowly focussed organisation, and in that unlikely library "what they want" simply wouldn't arise.

Seriously?
"should"? - is this deception, obfuscation or muddy communication? does the question mean obliged, duty-bound, propriety-bound, expected, could, would or something else?
"rather than"? is such an either/or likely to arise?
"what they want"? a want articulated? like a request?

It is not a real question. When, if the budget has not run out and the "want" is within the parameters of collection development for the library and patrons are permitted to make a request, would a librarian ever be forced to choose between a valid request and some other collection appropriate item?

Power of social search + Google Image + fortuitous error?

2011-03-19T04:03:00.000+11:00

echofon displayed for me a puzzle [RT] from toddtyrtle:

Anyone know what kind of plant/tree has this type of seed pod? - tweeted by andycaster via kwout

Curious whether I could track it down I wasn't having any luck with a variety of descriptive words, so I skipped to a guess and google image search. My guess was wrong, but luckily it caught an equally half-wrong? description at istockphoto.

BTW do *any* maples have similar seeds?

or is this a case of fortuitous error?
I'd say serendipitous if not for discovering Walpole's original meaning?

After Maple the description included "London plane tree". On adding that to the search google brought up a similar query at arboristsite to which Sylvia had suggested a sycamore and linked Virginia Tech's Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation VTreeID Factsheet of American Sycamore. Great database, with pictures of tree, leaf and seed. In this case, although it is difficult to tell because in andy's pic the seed is exploded, it still looks fluffier than the American, and more like the Arizona Sycamore I think. Sadly the database itself doesn't seem to include description of seeds, so from it I can't learn how to describe seeds.

Back at Google Image Search I checked other images of London Plane and Sycamore seed photos - and I'm leaning towards Sycamore.

I was impressed with the power of social answer finding (?social search engine) allowed me by Flickr a few years ago, when I uploaded a photo called "what flower is this" and 17 months later (possibly after I added it to a group) was surprised to find an answer but andycaster had his answer in ... 35 minutes?

What kind of Embodied Cognition can help me produce an essay?

2011-03-13T00:45:00.000+11:00

Can someone own up to tweeting about this blogpost by Stephanie Willen Brown: CogSci Librarian: Embodied Cognition?

I read:

"Embodied Cognition...[see Stephanie's post for an explanation if you need it]...article in the January/February issue of Scientific American Mind: Body of Thought by Siri Carpenter...[a couple of examples]:
Just in the past few years studies have shown that holding a hot cup of coffee or being in a comfortably heated room warms a person's feelings toward strangers ...
[T]hat sitting on a hard chair turns mild-mannered undergraduates into hard-headed negotiators"

and have been wondering ever since how essay writing powers might be embodied (so I can switch them on).

"When Books Talk Back" by Vaun Raymond (2007), licensed for re-use under this (by-nc-sa) Creative Commons License. via kwout

Blogging towards an essay?

I do find blogpost writing conducive to thinking - although it is frustrating because it takes so long, so maybe there is something in the idea in my last post to work on ideas here - I don't even have to post them, just being in the frame might help.

Downside to that idea is that part of my focus at the Blogger Edit Post screen is to try for a writing style that suits blog-reading (yeah ok I'm not great at that)... whereas my goal for school is an essay. Some parts of this are a positive. From what I understand (in theory if not my own practice):

In neither case is a long sentence desirable.
In both a logical flow of argument is desirable.
I'm remembering phrases that probably apply to both, like

"show, don't tell" and in both cases link it (though the citation method differs)
and "Trim the fat"

.... anything else?

Aside from citation methods, and blog=personal .v. essay=impersonal, what distinctions between essays and blogposts should I keep in mind if I work up my essay in a blogpost?

Restraints when blogging

2011-03-11T03:29:00.000+11:00

restraint | one of the Horses of Marly in the Louvre's Cour Marly, made by Guillame Coustou in 1745. | Uploaded by pb-n-james via kwout

How does blogging fit with your career?

Back in June last year, SueLibrarian mentioned the topic of blogging personally on professional topics and asked whether others feel restrained from doing so for any reason. Plenty of comments from fellow librarians shared how to manage, or avoid the risks. (And while I'm acknowledging the long-ago stimuli: @flexnib's self-questions... just "ditto") Sue had been stimulated by Dorothea Salo's experience with conflict between her blogging and colleagues. Dorothea (whose Book of Trogool is now hosted at Scientopia) pointed to Jenica Rogers' 2009 opinion that librarianship was not yet ready for online identities - although the other 18 points Jenica made in that post were positive about managing and understanding online identity.

This is an issue I've pondered much to myself but haven't been game to record where I sit. My situation is slightly different: I'm working (part-time) in the profession but I'm also still studying. (And therein lies a tickly topic with other unfinished posts relating to "profession" / qualification levels / exclusion and stratification.) But for now I'll focus on risks or rewards, if any, to a later career by blogging while a student.

"What if a prospective employer takes exception to something I've written?"
"What if I'm wrong, or sound stupid, or ...(yes thank you Ceccy) condescending, or long-winded or..."
"What about all the non-professional posts I make too, should I have separate blogs, but then they'd both have fewer posts"

So, "to blog or not to blog" as one might google - and find oneself not alone in pondering. Charlsie pointed out that in an age when future prospective employers will google us there is as much risk of being under- as over-exposed. Eliminated from consideration for having nothing to say or for having said something unpleasant?

For a more positive perspective I looked for people who believe it was their blogging that got them their job. It turns out (as ever) that there is more to it, such as the skills that we learn and demonstrate writing for a blog as Cameron Plommer showed. Or, as Tyler Durbin discussed, the self we reveal and develop while becoming part of a community. Tyler's opinion spoke to one of my concerns: when one of his commenters suggested that to be helpful towards a career one's blog writing must be "polished, professional and focused on topics relevant to its purpose" (eek, my blog is a wandering), Tyler argued instead for "real, honest and candid".

Like Tyler, "I'm the person that is directly related to the content" of my own blog - so now I have to wonder what my blog reveals about me. Rational? Compassionate? Tech-savvy? Analyser? Synthesiser? I could also consider for future writing what I *want* it to show about me. Tyler links his blog-revelation directly to the type of place at which he now works. Perhaps my blog will not fetch me the few extra hours a fortnight my budget needs now, but over the next few years will it connect me with a team to help a wide variety of people find the weird, wonderful, where-oh-where information they need? Or with experiences I cannot even imagine yet?

Ryan Healy's fifth reason for college students to blog addressed another of my concerns: being wrong. If I can be brave enough to post even when I might be wrong, I can be told (or discover), listen, re-evaluate, compose myself and reveal growth. Con (aka flexnib, mentioned above) was even more forgiving: "ah well, it’s a blog post. It’s not meant to be perfect."

So why am I writing about this now?

Let me catch you up as it has been *cough* a while since I last wrote: I am studying at Charles Sturt University for the Bachelor of Information Studies (Librarianship). Okay so there has been more happening too but that will do to lead into:

Last night my search for an elusive article (abstracts without access to full-text are so frustrating) drifted a delightful blog into my view: At "Old Things with Stories": Lisa Schell brings things, ideas, images, together - in ways and style that connects for me - her choice of images, the blending of professional thinking and personal experience, and it appears the blog was inspired by her graduate LIS studies. (side note for fellow students at CSU: she specialises in Archival Administration and Records Management) You'll understand it was so charming I emailed her to ask for her to open the blog to comments.

Right so, you can imagine my joy to receive a reply this morning. And my gulp when she asked whether I have a blog and I remember that it has been *ahem* since I last posted.

The course at CSU involves reading and posting on our reading to internal CSU forums. Sometimes the requested contributions to forums are not outlet enough for my reactions to my excessive reading but I don't want to burden the students who are finding the work as it is more than enough to keep up with. I've considered channelling some of the overflow here, and then I have to remind myself how long I spend preparing a blogpost and thus how it diverts me from the dreaded essay tasks.

Hmmm, might blogging help me process ideas towards my essays? I'm recalling John Dupuis recently posted on a topic that he had merely touched on in earlier posts - does anyone else explore incomplete notions piecemeal through their blog?

Can you stand a diversion? Son#2's latest interruption in Boolean:
"World of Warcraft" AND "Abbott and Costello"

Playing partners too busy? :( Take out the bank alt!

2010-11-21T00:20:00.001+11:00

So, sometime back I chose mage for a bank alt so I wouldn't be tempted to play it. Only now, my mains' companion is away, my uncle too, and my son too busy. I've limited myself to playing solo only when a toon has rest xp.

So my bank alt gets to play after all. But which spec? Darn, I can't find my source now... who was it that laid out the playing style for the different specs? Whatever, Arcane sounded simplest (dullest?) to play. While I'm tempted by the mage pet of Frost, my uncle is playing Fire and I feel like something different. As it happens, simple suits me well for a 9th toon, so Arcane it is. Now HOW to spec it? I've begun by choosing which seems most useful, but then I'm only level 15.

In future, I might look to advice from:

What the? DDC class note confusion

2010-11-15T12:11:00.000+11:00

Could someone make sense of this for me:

Class works of more than one sculptor in the same geographic area, region, place in general (not limited by continent, country, locality) in 730.91

I'm puzzled, how can the same geographic area not be limited by at least continent?

Do I really need or want a start page? Do you?

2010-11-11T13:46:00.000+11:00

I first experimented with start pages because I use a variety of computers and I was hoping there would be a way for me to access my most regular sites just as quickly from another computer as I would from home. Not a realistic hope I guessed, because any such service I would have to still have to sign in to at any computer I cannot customise for myself, and surely it would be quicker just to use the browser’s search box. Still, what is life without experiment?

I tried igoogle: mmf, (yes I love you google, but you don’t need that much space on my start page. I won’t forget you. Yes rooly truly I begin and usually end any search with you… you’re my default – and at computers not my own I even check and switch the engine in the browser’s search box to google). I tried protopage – great but then came ads. I tried delicious (not suited as a startpage). I tried pageflakes – and for some reason the location of ads in pageflakes didn’t bug me the way the top banner ad did in protopage.

Each time I set one up with my quick links I also spent time exploring a few of the other things that the “start page” could do – because I wondered whether such tools might prove useful to my volunteer organisation or workplace or study group or homeschool. However none of my other hats really needed what start pages offer, and while I did use my quick links regularly I would rarely touch a game unless I was procrastinating.

But for the past week pageflakes has refused to load. So now I’m looking back and beyond – do I gather up my frequent links and set up another start page? If I do, will I try iGoogle again, or netvibes, start.io or something else? Don’t bother suggesting zenstart: it doesn’t have the links I need.

Perhaps in the meantime I might just start using the browser’s Bookmarks again.

I am still curious and love to hear how such tools are used by libraries (like when Eddie Byrne wrote how Dublin City Public Libraries use Netvibes) OR volunteer groups, homeschoolers and when I find examples I tag them (although how did I tag those others – did I?)

Software License Agreements... sigh

2010-10-28T11:20:00.000+11:00

I'll have to see whether someone has been collecting odd things about Software License Agreements. I'm sure there must be sites for us to grumble about them. My grumble today relates to Adobe's for Flash Player 10.1. Is there another Flash player out there, that is safe and reliable? Not that I've not found Adobe's Flash player to be either unsafe or unreliable yet, but when the SLA reads as follows I have to wonder:

7.1 Use of PDF Files. When you Use the Software to open a PDF file that has been enabled to display ads, your Computer may connect to a website operated by Adobe, an advertiser, or other third party. Your Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”) is sent when this happens. The party hosting the site may use technology to send (or “serve”) advertising or other electronic content that appears in or near the opened PDF file. The website operator may also use JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to increase and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize advertising content. Your communication with Adobe websites is governed by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy found at http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy (“Adobe Online Privacy Policy”). Adobe may not have access to or control over features that a third party may use, and the information practices of third party websites are not covered by the Adobe Online Privacy Policy.

For a start: Why would I use Flash Player to open PDF Files? I hate pdfs. Oh, is this something that whoever coded some Flash movie I've clicked to view might have included in its instructions? BTW - Please don't. Is there really no way to configure Flash Player so that it simply will not open pdfs, or not without an option to cancel the play before it opens?

I guess I'm glad Adobe are so open about how security can (I'm guessing) be breached with Flash. See more:

7.3 Local Storage. Flash Player and Adobe AIR may allow third parties to store certain information on your Computer in a local data file known as a local shared object. The type and amount of information that the third party application requests to be stored in a local shared object can vary by application and such requests are solely controlled by the third party. You can find more information on local shared objects at http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer_security. For more information on how to limit or control the storage of local shared objects on your Computer, please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/settmgr_storage_en.

Now, what is with the incredibly long document with no language menu so one has to scroll through searching for your own language?

Pondering Primary Paladin

2010-10-24T00:13:00.006+11:00

Moontulip (59), Aman'thul

What do you do when you can't sleep?

Munch through a movie? Attack an assignment? Conquer countless Kakuro?

Why not Patch your Paladin? I'd have been way more alliterative if only I'd gone protection. And with Dungeon Finder levelling appears to be more popular through dungeons than questing. But this first pally of mine harvests skins and ore so she needs to be out so I quest and harvest at the same time to prevent monotony from either.

I didn't look very far but three of the top results I glanced at shared the same recommendation for build, so I began along that line with the points I have so far at 59... Then I discovered Caer Morrighan's action plan and I'll be considering the allocation suggested there.

My next challenge (at some point, though the game may change all over again before I get around to it) is to rediscover how to play pally, what attacks and controls to use.

For rotation I could start with advice from Dan Wolfe at Gameolosophy:

Aoe:

CS-Judge-Holy Wrath-DS-Conc now you can wait until your holy power is at 3 for more powerful divine storms.

Single Target:

CS-Judge-TV-Exorcism on proc once again you can wait until you have 3 holy power for max Templar’s Verdict hits.

Is that significantly different from Caer Morrighan? I don't know, I've finally begun to tire, so before I lose that I'm going to try again to sleep... ~~Caer's plan~~ [update 14 November...after some playtime... Caer's plan changed]. Ignoring for now the comments on Zealotry and Avenging Wrath that I just don't have to worry about for several more levels:

Single target

* Crusader Strike (CS) - Filler - CS - Filler + Use Templar’s Verdict (TV) whenever its
a) free or b) you have 3 Holy Power (HP) overriding the normal rotation.
Filler Priority: Hammer of Wrath > Exorcism with Art of War only > Judgement > Holy Wrath > Consecration

Multiple targets

* As above with Divine Storm replacing TV

Oh dear, before I play I'll also need to re-gear... Caer tells me "Agility is now bad." :( Apparently I need to look to:

Cap hit and expertise. After this, ... Strength. And Haste/crit.

Unholy ?fun with WoW 4.0.1 patch Death Knight

2010-10-23T22:02:00.000+11:00

Missing dancing tonight after a cold hit my chest so that breathing hurts... I decided to spend the pre-sleep evening choosing a talent build for my death knight. While exploring the advice out there I had to battle my aversion to the whole persona of a death knight.

The talent tree summaries only helped by [probably] eliminating Blood, because I'm not really comfortable with a tanking role. Still left Frost and Unholy. I would avoid Unholy because it just sounds icky, but I felt I needed a more thoughtful reason.

Guide4wow helped me out by identifying, in their opinion, Unholy as the faster levelling build... and I'm still levelling.

I still needed advice with a rotation. Many months ago when I last played the dk, I never did gain any certainty over which spells/attacks to use. In this I've taken initial advice from Vraagar's lens: Unholy Death Knight DPS Guide and Death Knight Builds.

For my own future reference because who knows when I'll actually play this toon, and by then I'll have lost the links to the above advisers, and will have forgotten what their abbreviations mean, the plan is:

For solo targets/victims (check in Unholy Presence):

(I won't always start with this, but then 1 is never in my typical rotation) Neither adviser mentioned Death Grip but I have it at 1 on my action bar just because it was there before and I think I had a good reason for it, but I'm open to advice against that.
"Diseases Up" apparently means attack with Icy Touch (for the disease Frost Fever) ...
...and Plague Strike (for disease Blood Plague)
Dark Transformation [?if] Active
Scourge Strike (U F) [I guess that means it needs an Unholy and a Frost Rune although the game says just an Unholy]
Festering Strike (B F) [needs Blood & Frost Rune]
Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc [Sudden Doom is an unholy talent, maxed at 15% chance to occur from auto attacks - making Death Coil not cost runic power]
Mr 12 uses Obliterate after diseases, but he is a Frost Death Knight.
Mr 12 doesn't advise using Rune Strike

AoE Rotation (switch to Frost Presence)

Mouse click Horn of Winter [ DKB advised this at end of rotation, but as it lasts 2 minutes I don't really understand why not to start as strong as possible]

No Death Grip in this case
Diseases ...
...up and spread to everything with

Pestilence

Dark Transformation [?if] Active

Death and Decay

Scourge Strike

Blood Boil

Festering Strike if BB and FF runes up.
Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc

All that other fun stuff I have no idea - use the anti-magic, anti-spellcaster stuff if fighting a spellcaster I guess, but when to use Blood Strike or Death Strike, or Gargoyle - {shrugs}

Trip notes going up at family blog

2010-10-20T02:06:00.000+11:00

For anyone who might be interested, I've finally got back to actually publishing some of the notes I had jotted on our trip (to Canada and the US back in June/July), over at the family blog Counting Everything. Only four days in so far, the rest will have to wait till assignments are finished for the year.

EBLIP online journal... sigh

2010-06-24T09:52:00.000+10:00

Loving the online journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice because: Interesting, Chock-full of interesting; Free. Makes me want an e-reader of some sort so I can more easily take it somewhere more comfortable for reading.

Really annoyed by the journal because: For *&^%$#@! - it is freely available online - why on earth is it being published with those -------! columns? In fact, wouldn't those columns be even more of a nuisance on an e-reader?

I guess I'd understand if the journal was being issued principally as a print journal and the online version is merely for accessibility - is it? This journal is so interesting I'd consider paying a fair amount for a print subscription just so I can read it somewhere comfortable, but I can't find any information pointing to that as an option.

Thinking happy

2010-06-21T01:43:00.000+10:00

At first, I ignored the topic because it was a meme, but then of course it appeared again, and by then I was feeling a little frustrated that I've been so busy I've not kept on target for 30 posts in 30 days.

Not that I shall let such a minor issue bother me... at least that is something I have learned over the years: a little cognitive control of my emotions, and thanks to neuroplasticity (and making sure my son saw a documentary about it on SBS) I needn't worry if the relevant parts of my brain (the full-text of that article in pdf) are damaged.

And that is what makes me happy: my thoughts. When I remember - I choose to be happy: I think through the current situation until I find a perspective that feels positive - and it is rarely difficult. After all, I'm fortunate that much of the time a good proportion of my needs are easily met. If there are any not being met I can enjoy the process of planning, imagining, pondering how to meet them - or I can focus on the joys of one of the many that are already.

Fly a Kite! by SlinkyDragon via kwout

More on citing board games: Scruples

2010-06-19T11:20:00.000+10:00

How delightful: Having decided that a comment I was writing had developed beyond a simple example to append to my post about citing board games in APA style: as I entered a title for this new post it occurred to me that the theme of Scruples is what earned this blather its own space.

MyBlogLog shared another curiosity when I scanned its statistics for me today... Someone searched my blog for cite the board game scruples.

Unless the querant was pondering the ethics of citing board games, I'm guessing the curiosity was how to cite that particular game Scruples. I do have a copy of the game, and this is how I would cite the copy I have. As the game is revised and updated every five years (High Game Enterprises, 2008), you might have a different copy.

Depending whether my text refers to the game as a whole or a specific part of it, in-text citations might be:
(A Question of Scruples, 1986)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, q178)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, rules p.6)
(A Question of Scruples, 1986, base of box)

A Question of Scruples [Board game]. (1986). Sydney, N.S.W. : Milton Bradley

So, why would I not cite the publisher as corporate author? Because I am not sure that Milton Bradley are responsible for the design of the game. Although I would not rely* on the source regarding this particular information (Wikipedia and BoardGameGeek) to insert [Surname, I. (Designer)] in author place, it may be the game was designed by an individual who sold it to a game company who may have shared rights to publish it with companies in other countries.

*The claim of designership maybe false. Or overstated, perhaps the claimant merely created and sold the concept of the game.

It is sad for historians, and board game appreciators, that game publishers have not been in the habit of acknowledging the provenance of the games they publish.

Considering the claim (unverified, but uncontested) of a designer outside the publishing company, the claim on my box of copyright by MB "under Berne and Universal copyright conventions" and the absence of any information acknowledging designers or design teams (would that be too hard?), seems they may simply have bought the right to publish, and that the designer did not retain any right to acknowledgement for design.

I have seen a game in which the publisher did acknowledge the source of the concept, and the company personnel who then developed it into a game. I'd like to see more of that. Just like my uncle likes to read the credits rolling at the end of a film.

HTML code for hanging indents for APA style reference list

2010-06-16T23:53:00.006+10:00

REFERENCES
<div style="padding-left: 4em; text-indent: -4em;">

<p>...first reference...</p>
<p>...second reference...</p>
<p>...etc...</p>
</div>

(Thank you The Real Blogger Status)

Note: don't rely on your blogging tool to use paragraph codes automatically, Blogger doesn't.

I've written from time to time about how to cite electronic sources for APA style reference lists, yet it took me a while to discover a way to achieve online the appearance of hanging indents required in APA style for papers in print.

Students. BEFORE you freak - you might not need to use that code at all.

I think educators who are encouraging students to write online, if they require students to include proper APA style in-text citations and reference lists at all, possibly wouldn't be insisting on the hanging indents. This could be because many such educators (who may be but a few online experiments ahead of their students) may not yet themselves have discovered html code that will work. Or more likely because the priority reasons that educators want their students writing online do not (and shouldn't necessarily) include in-depth familiarity with html code.

So, if you are really required to be writing academically in a blog or otherwise online, and are required to include references in APA style, you might like to check first whether your assessor wants the references hanging.

Graffiti illiteracy

2010-06-14T23:42:00.001+10:00

Mindless
Originally uploaded by Constance Wiebrands

As a post that began as a very simple idea has become mired in associated discoveries of others' interesting perspectives, I went looking for a quicker topic.

How quick can I make this yet still be rational and constructive?

(and will this attempt to post from Flickr succeed considering my supposedly 80G (35G peak) has been throttled?)

Constance described graffiti on a tree in Hyde Park as "mindless, stupid behaviour". Those are strong words, so I'm guessing that she felt angry because the graffiti interfered with her enjoyment of the natural beauty of the tree/park/day.

Quite aside from the opportunity the post presented for me to practice empathy, the photo and the blogger's emotional reaction to the graffiti got me thinking about:

Literacy: The ability to read and write - a term which has been modified to encompass a broad range of communication and thinking skills in multiple media. I not only can't read that tag (and I'm diverted by the fact that it is a tag and a photo of that tag gets tagged at Flickr), I have no understanding of its subcultural context - but I'm sure that it is an expression with meaning amongst graffitists and possibly a wider subculture.

Illiteracy: How it feels. In this case I am the illiterate one and the fact that right there is an expression I do not understand frustrates me. Also, because of the circumstance in which I am illiterate in such forms of expression, I have limited knowledge of the people who do understand it - and when one has limited knowledge, self-protection endeavours to make do, at the risk of prejudice.

Mindlessness, Minding, Mind: There a number of things one might mean by "mindless":
# lacking conscious thought, intelligence or reason;
# requiring little mental effort;
# unattentive
# Heedless, imprudent, rash, showing no regard for meaning or consequence
In relation to the practice of tagging (from a mere distant awareness that there is a range of expression in the form of graffiti beyond the smallest (but even in itself not meaningless) "I was here") - the only way I could label it as mindless would be if it had become habitual for the tagger and I just cannot imagine that to be the case. Disregard for the preference of others for natural beauty is not necessarily mindless. Rebellion against social mores or law is not necessarily mindless.

And I'm going to stop myself before I contemplate "notart" or begin to research graffiti and its cultures.

About webbing: hyperlinking in blogs etcetera

2010-06-12T16:57:00.418+10:00

At work this afternoon I overheard Haze chatting with a patron about the library course, and when it seemed they were chatting about web2.0 technologies I looked up.

It was Di-Dee! Naturally I had to pin her, to personally introduce some of my favourite web2.0 technologies.

But at this early stage in explorations, the most immediate item I hope Di-Dee took away was how to enhance her posts with hyperlinks. If possible, I will insert a quick little video on creating hyperlinks in Blogger, for the students and colleagues newly lured into web2.0

Over a week later, after CaptureFox shut down Firefox dozens of times, and after I couldn't access any video I created with CamStudio, I've finally tried Jing to get the above, please tell me if it doesn't work for you.

Before I could make the video, I was distracted by pondering the thought that once one knows HOW to, there is still the questions of why: whether, when, where.

Immediately I began pondering that question I remembered a book I enjoyed recently. Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters - it took me ages to rediscover the title of that book as it was not in my reading history at CHRLC or UB, because I had borrowed it through BONUS from UTS or Massey (interesting aside, I will be wanting to look up Dewey again because these libraries chose slightly different numbers: 303.4833 .v. 302.231). Say Everything... was immensely readable. Maybe because the interesting societal perspective was balanced with personal, intimate stories of some of the people who are the history of blogging.

Just because hyperlinks = the web and blogging began as regular sharing of hyperlinks, doesn't mean that every blogging purpose is served by hyperlinks. There are plenty of writers about the value of hyperlinks to blogs whose goal is moneymaking and that's why I'm not linking to them. Others like Julie Schopick express their value to expertise sharing, and reputation building. One might see few to no hyperlinks in news blogs (as long as they are truly first with the news) or maybe opinion blogs (although we still expect to see links to online sources that trigger the development of opinion, and the quality of the opinion might be enhanced by quality hyperlinks) or even fiction writers' blogs.

One purpose that probably applies to most blogs is Conversation - and that *is* served by hyperlinks - at least ... oops, I have absorbed that as a fact, without this moment being able to explain just how... can someone help me out with that? Good, yes thanks Julien Frisch:

"If their only function would be to be the glue between those who are writing, a system of reference and reverence, they would already fulfil an important function, one that I consider to be one of the main elements of blogging.

But in fact, the use of hyperlinks is not only a way to create connections to others. Hyperlinking allows completely new forms of writing about ... [fill in your sphere here]...

If hyperlinks become an active part of the language we speak when we write online, we can help to build bridges between those who are already inside the debate and those who want to join. ...

Links are used both as reverence mechanism between peers but also as cognitive bridges for those who would not understand the full extend of an article without this relational guidance by the author, without forcing the latter to (re)write what has already been written before." (Frisch, 2009, ¶8)

Do read Julien's whole article, his example is excellent and the comments interesting.

Darn it, this is turning into another long post I shouldn't be spending time on with all the shopping, booking and packing I still need to do... but having found such interesting articles I do want to share them....

Julien's inspiration: Venkatesh Rao's The Rhetoric of The Hyperlink is another must-read and I recommend it also to my writer friends. I will only quote one of his interesting comments, which happens to sum up the point of hyperlinking shared by for-money, for-giving-expertise, for-conversation and for-the-writing blogs: becoming reliable:

"Real hyperlink artists know that paradoxically, the more people are tempted to click away from your content, the more they want to keep coming back. There is a set of tradeoffs involving compactness, temptation to click, foreshadowing to eliminate surprise (and retain the reader), and altruism in passing on the reader. But the medium is friendlier to generosity in yielding the stage." (Rao, 2009, ¶8)

Actually that conversation probably gives me a partial answer to my question: when?

I had sought to find ready-made advice on when and when not to hyperlink...unsuccessfully.

However I did find: Penny Coutas with the same question amongst others in her mind when puzzling over a style for hyperlinking in her online academic writing. In fact, fellow CULLB602C students may find it useful to consider Penny's thoughts when preparing their own assignments online.

Wikipedia as style guide? by Penny Coutas in Exploring the Hype(r) of Languages Learning and Teaching via kwout

I am glad Penny mentioned her discovery that online academic journals do not optimise the use of hyperlinks but rather use print-based referencing styles. I have found the same. Penny also has an answer (no) for morgan who once asked if I knew whether APA allow a different rule for online publications.

Personally I recommend when writing for academic purpose online, do both. As Felix Salmon (2010) concluded in his opinion piece Why links belong in text "Someone writing online should no more put their links at the end of their essay than a university professor should first give the lecture and then run through the slides." When the medium is online, optimise for online reading. If the purpose is academic and if there is either academic requirement or the possibility of print publication, then use print referencing style too. (If you're writing in html spaces rather than pdf or other web-accessible docs you might seek clarification on whether you need hanging indented paragraphs in the reference list.).

Felix wrote Why links belong in text in response to Nicholas Carr's complaints about how distracting hyperlinks can be. Felix dismisses nick's point about the big distraction - being drawn away from the original article: "In these days of tabbed browsing, there’s a difference between clicking and clicking away: most of us, I’m sure, control-click many times per day while reading something interesting, letting tabs accumulate in the background as we find interesting citations we want to read later." (Salmon, 2010, ¶6) That's certainly how I avoid losing my place.

However I would sometimes (particularly when there are 'too many' links) relate to nick's second point: "Other times, they're tiny distractions, little textual gnats buzzing around your head. Even if you don't click on a link, your eyes notice it, and your frontal cortex has to fire up a bunch of neurons to decide whether to click or not. You may not notice the little extra cognitive load placed on your brain, but it's there and it matters." (Carr, 2010, 2010, ¶3). I also relate completely to Felix's response that in certain situations (particularly when author's cite someone else) " I expect a link and there’s much more cognitive load placed on my brain — there’s much more buzzing in my frontal cortex — if there isn’t a link there than if there is." (Salmon, 2010, ¶1)

Pursuing the notion of "too many hyperlinks" for advice from a different perspective. I found that Torley (yes of Second Life video tutorial fame) advises to hyperlink sparingly, and shares his approach (2008, ¶7) "I'll hyperlink to shed light on inspirations + influences behind a post. I'll hyperlink to provide contact info, and "further details" too onerous, too rich to cram onto a single page."

To other bloggers: how do you decide what to hyperlink?

For me, the hyperlinks I create are for a reader like me, they offer links I think I'd find potentially useful:

explaining an idea better than I have
providing a reference or credit for material I quote (or further reading)
backtracing my stimuli

To avoid an excess of hyperlinks:

If you're using Zemanta don't link every word in your post for which Wikipedia has an article.
Remember that readers can select words or phrases we need clarified and right click for a google search. (for that fact I appreciate the reminder from Jack, one of Venkat's readers).

That last point is also advice to readers... for whom I have more:

To online readers who may be stressed by "too many" hyperlinks - adapt the rules for crossing a road safely: Before you click: Stop Look Listen Think.

Stop: Don't click, just hover and;
Look: read the URL "where it goes" displayed in browser footer
Listen: listen to the article you're already reading
Think: do you really need or want to explore that link?
Then if you still want to check it out, use Right-Click, Open in New Tab

I will also be looking into the Readability plugin that apparently helps readers by removing all the extraneous stuff around the article we want to read. It has recently been updated with an optional feature so that (if I understand it correctly) hyperlinks are made less visible (can still be seen on hover) but listed completely as footnotes.

And just for the practice...

References

Carr, N. (2010, May 31). Experiments in delinkification [Web log post]. Rough Type. Retrieved from http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/05/experiments_in.php

Coutas, P. (2010, June 7). Wikipedia as style guide? [Web log post]. Exploring the Hype(r) of Languages Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.exploringthehyper.net/blog/2010/06/wikipedia-as-style-guide/

Frisch, J. (2009, July 7). Creating a European public sphere: the hyperlink story [Web log post]. Julien Frisch. Retrieved from http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/2009/07/creating-european-public-sphere.html

Rao, V. (2009, July 1). The rhetoric of the hyperlink [Web log post]. ribbonfarm.com Retrieved from http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/07/01/the-rhetoric-of-the-hyperlink/

Salmon, F. (2010, June 2). Why links belong in text [Web log post]. Reuters. Retrieved from http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/06/02/why-links-belong-in-text/

Torley. (2008, April 21). Hyperlink sparingly [Web log post]. Musical dream journal. Retrieved from http://torley.com/hyperlink-sparingly

Could Flickr's "Blog This" feature be improved?

2010-06-11T22:29:00.122+10:00

Reflecting on signs of decay?
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon

Absolutely!

Where to start?

Save to draft. I appreciate that Flickr might need to keep it simple so it remains cross-platform. We can style our post up according to our own blogging platform's editing methods. BUT, the way it is at the moment, blogging a photo directly from Flickr means a Publish without any polish, and that means autofeeds like Twitterfeed let people see a post in a state that we would probably *not* prefer, like this one was before I began this post-publication editing.
ALL proper attribution data. As well as the image's title and uploader (which is all I get now) I need the date the image was published at Flickr and the licence by which I may publish it. The description might also contain important information - unfortunately it might also contain too much information, so I'd at least like the option to include the description.
Show me what will be sent. When we set up our blog for Flickr we can choose a layout template for our posts - but unless we're blogging from Flickr often, who remembers how they chose? And who remembers how to find the page that enables us to change the template, not that that page shows what our current choice is. So, while composing my post (that I want to be able to send as draft) I want to see all the proper attribution (and optional) data laid out according to the Flickr-template I've chosen. Unfortunately this is what I was shown while composing, but not what was sent:

So are there alternatives?

AddThis enables save to draft, but doesn't grab code accessing the image - Perhaps there are other browser add-ons, or platform plug-ins & if so please tell me about them.

ImageCodr endeavours to provide what Flickr should in terms of proper attribution for Creative Commons licenses but doesn't, although as Flickr has not updated CC licences to 3.0, even ImageCodr cannot fix that fault with Flickr.

by moonflowerdragon

Unfortunately, for some reason the generated code only includes the image title on hover, not with the photo. And I still don't have the upload date or any relevant information that might have been provided in the description.

Use Embed code available from All sizes screen

Unfortunately this is what we get from that embed code:

Just the photo and link, no attribution data at all.

kwout
If I kwout (with an image map) from the photostream I can select to show Title, licence, and date, and you can deduce uploader from automated title. However, description is missing, it is small, and it doesn't quite meet Flickr's terms because it doesn't directly to the photo's own page:

Flickr: moonflowerdragon's Photostream via kwout

Alternatively, if I kwout (with image map) from the photo's page: the date, uploader and licence data are not within range of the image for kwout to grab, although you can see amongst the miscellanea in the description there is other relevant attribution information:

Cardboard cuppa with Troy Aristocarnas on Flickr - Photo Sharing! via kwout

- = + = -

And because it was fun... the stimulus for this contemplation of problems blogging from Flickr ... was a post I created at Tumblr solving a puzzle for The Clueless Librarian:

moonflowerdragon, I believe I have an answer for the: ... via kwout

Add form (or link) for your readers to get your blog updates by email

2010-06-10T23:59:00.000+10:00

Thanks to my sister getting her wiggle on and not only posting to her new blog (Caterpillar Contemplations), but also thinking of her likely readers who may want to get her updates by email...

I googled, and now know how to add a widget to a blog that enables readers to subscribe via email. It can be a link, or a form in your sidebar. And it is done via GoogleFeedburner.

But I'm not going to describe how because all the (very simple) instructions are at Blogger Tricks. I do suggest you read all the instructions - I read the first and then raced in to my sister to tell her it goes through Feedburner and we basically puzzled the rest of it through. Only when I came back here to tell you (fellow library students at UB) about it did I notice the rest of the instructions that would have saved us so much time!

Blogger or Posterous or Tumblr for library students’ first blog?

2010-06-09T00:32:00.000+10:00

Something somewhere commented on the simplicity of getting started blogging with Posterous. Lately I’ve been watching fellow students start an exploration of web2.0 technologies in relation to libraries and information literacy – with a first blog at Blogger.

Blogger is very easy to get started with. But I wonder if it is easy enough for people who are not already motivated … I mean for those who wouldn’t have been looking to blog at all if not for the subject in their course?

Via their default methods, Tumblr is even simpler than Posterous for getting started, although Posterous also have a simple online sign up page. Their default methods:

Tumblr via kwout

Posterous - The place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email. via kwout

Naturally I had a go at setting up blogs at both. I did try to capture the process, but unfortunately CaptureFox didn't seem to like my setting preferences and shut down Firefox on me. I give up on that particular idea for now. In fact, considering I have so much to do to prepare for the family trip to US/Canada I must not let myself be diverted into trying out these services thoroughly.

Instead, I perused reviews:

Chris Foresman concludes in favour of Tumblr, citing its "myriad options for posting"; "design flair"; variety of themes; "separation of content types" and options for text editing. Chris acknowledged Posterous' "ease of posting via e-mail"; "clever auto-uploading and auto-formatting of attached media"; that some might prefer its "spartan design aesthetic".
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry believes the chief difference (demonstrated in their default sign up methods) is that Tumblr's apparent focus on design gives it an edge over Posterous' engineering focus.
Anna Frenkel's very thorough comparison was more thorough in detailing the advantages of each over the other, and I ended up with the impression that the choice will depend on the potential blogger's purpose and preferred way to post.

Perhaps for ?mature? students who are very comfortable with email and aren't interested in fussing with the appearance of their blog Posterous might be the way to go. For first time bloggers who don't feel attached to email or perhaps want more appearance options Tumblr could be preferred.

I will note that a (?second) step in the setup process for Posterous (I think) was an offer to look for my "friends" through other services and then suggested I set up my friends with a daily posting from my Posterous. I don't like either option. I particularly don't like them being offered in the setup stages.

Something I have not discovered is how each handles comments - which for social web students is an important element to explore. Can someone clarify for me whether either of them simply feature commenting without any special addons or plugins?

As the students I’m thinking of are library students I went looking to see whether any libraries or librarians use either service:

I have now subscribed to Julie Cornett's adventures as a Frontier Librarian via Posterous - after her post on Information Competency using Interactive Television caught my eye, I found interesting library stuff (and/or beautiful photos) in all her posts. And she has comments that don't appear to have required any plugins.

And to The Clueless Librarian who Tumbles. What can I say?

The Chicago Public Library uses Tumblr. But I couldn't find any libraries using Posterous.

Donating Blood

2010-06-08T11:20:00.001+10:00

‘Tis my day for donating blood: must drink plenty of water, and eat proper meals.

Also I don’t want to run late again so I may not get time to finish last night’s posts. Downside: Writing a post still taking a little too long; Upside: That is two more drafts of ideas in my stockpile so I don’t resort to memes just to keep posting. Just as well I was two posts up for #30postsin30days (an alternative interpretation to #blogeverydayofjune).

Do you donate blood?

If not, do you know whether you’re eligible? The Red Cross Blood Bank’s website has a quiz to help you discover that.

Oh, and brilliant, they have Information for Travellers, so I was able to discover which diseases are present/prevalent in USA & Canada and how they would affect my blood donations when I return.

Australian Red Cross Blood Service via kwout

Surfing serendipity: Austenology & Me, me

2010-06-06T19:39:00.000+10:00

Thanks to flexnib's tweeted meme for Day 6 of #blogeverydayofjune I surfed the backtrail (< normblog < Harriet < cornflower < callmemadam < Bookish NYC ) to discover new input for my Fun First subscriptions:

A blog collecting, explaining and discussing "Jane Austen's life, times and works": Austenonly

About and Contents « austenonly via kwout

and its sister site A Jane Austen Gazetteer from where I can "virtually visit the real places that Jane Austen and her family inhabited in reality".

A Jane Austen Gazetteer via kwout

Along the way I found someone else who had seen the "me" "me" in "meme", Harriet Devine:

Harriet Devine's Blog: A Reading Meme via kwout

Before answering this meme's questions I have my own to ask:

How often do you even open a meme post by someone else?
About how much of that post would you really READ rather than scan?

Image via Wikipedia

Do you snack while reading?

Not since I reduced my carb intake. But before that quite often, unless it was a meal or there were no snacks available.

What is your favourite drink while reading?

Tea: Daintree if available; white; no sugar

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I have not discovered a way to be certain to retain the material I want from a book, but marking a note *in* the book definitely does not seem the way to get the point *out* of it.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?

Bookmark of some sort, if I can't get at the supply (which are in a magazine box on the non-fiction shelves which are in mum's room which has been converted from a sitting room).

Fiction, non-fiction or both?

Both, although I'm less likely to be spell-bound by non-fiction.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?

Wherever I am not in the grip of the author's words.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

Although I couldn't say for absolute certain not, but I don't think so: I might growl and close the book with a snap but place it down with exceptional restraint.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

If I absolutely cannot make sense of the point without doing so, or if it seems like it might be an interesting word. Though I do remember when I was a teen, reading Leslie Charteris' Saint books I kept notepaper and pen as bookmark and jotted down every unfamiliar word to look up when I got out of bed the next day. I am sure he made some words up.

What are you currently reading?

Davies, C. (2005). Finding and Knowing: Psychology, Information and Computers. London: Routledge.

Parker, R. S. (1977). Effective Decisions and Emotional Fulfillment. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

White, H. S. (1992). Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries: A Collection of Case Studies. New York: G.K. Hall.

What is the last book you bought?

A pile of weeded books on librarianship

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?

When I'm awake.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?

Neither/both. I like the story to be told well, without waffle, whether it takes one book or more or less.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

People I know are too different, they all relate to different things. But my catalogue can be sorted to show those I give highest rating, though they're not otherwise sorted by genre.

How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?

It depends on the space available. Non-fiction (and some fiction and games) by Dewey; Children's separate and then by size/shape/reading-age; General fiction alphabetical by title; My fiction roughly by author's last name but less favoured works are relegated floorwards regardless. And then there are the piles of recently obtained books as yet uncatalogued.

Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?

As my sons would report, it doesn't really matter once I'm reading.

Just in case anyone from CULLB602C wants to pick up the meme, here are those questions sans answers:
Do you snack while reading?
What is your favourite drink while reading?
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
Fiction, non-fiction or both?
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
What are you currently reading?
What is the last book you bought?
Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?

About judging ideas & opinions

2010-06-05T23:03:00.001+10:00

Scott Adams riffed on the notion that it is absurd to have an opinion on whether it was a good idea to create a certain movie (or other things for that matter).

Scott Adams Blog: The Value of Ideas 06/04/2010 via kwout

I wonder whether opinions say more about the opinionator than the content of the expressed opinion? e.g., one who says "that's a bad idea" is revealing that they simply cannot imagine an expression / execution of the idea that they would enjoy. Which might lead their listener to wonder about the quality of the opinionator's imagination, or preferences.

Which reminds me about another opinion on opinion:

That, in many situations, while everyone is entitled to their own opinion (supported by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

)... "not all opinions are equal". While I'm sure she's not the only one to express that truth, 'tis Sandra Dodd of unschooling fame, whose expression of it I always remember... vaguely....

Image by moonflowerdragon via Flickr

Of course, one of the reasons this comes up in relation to Sandra is in the matter of freedom of expression of opinion. If I recall correctly, and I hope someone will point out if I misrepresent it, Sandra expresses the opinion that place may limit freedom of expression. For example, in a Yahoogroup or mailing list, made or owned by an individual - the rules for expression in that place may be declared by the owner and maintained through eviction from the group if necessary. Similarly for private homes, or other privately-owned buildings. I have not investigated whether the law supports private-space-right-to-suppress-speech.

OOOh, but that reminds me of a recent post by Kathryn Greenhill, about the library's role (as a public institution) in the provision of information when there are many opinions on a topic: that of not censoring, no matter whether the available information is, in the librarian's opinion, bad in some way.

I think the following of Kathryn's comments sum her overall view, though I recommend the lively presentation in her whole article:

A library’s role is not to supress ideas – not matter how dangerous or loony I may believe those ideas to be, nor how wrong I think they are. ... A library’s role is to provide access to information and connect people to that information. We seek to provide a balanced and varied collection, but not to judge the information we are providing, nor the people who are seeking it. ... I am not arguing that ideas should be heard without rebuttal, argument, critical thought or judgment. I am arguing that they should be heard and that libraries exist as a vital institution to protect the right for that to happen...

I think an important point to remember is the breadth of material that comes under the label "information". "Information" is not only facts, but also theories with or without reasonable support, opinions of varying quality and fictional representations.

Something students in CULLB602C@UB will be exploring is the library's role in teaching Informacy, ie: educating its patrons in evaluating the sources of information they peruse.

Just a quick mention in relation to Zemanta: I chose (as somewhat related in area of interest) the above articles from those suggested by Zemanta. As I scrolled through the list of suggestions again after my second selection I was disturbed to note that an article was marked "Clicked" (ie selected) that I had *not* chosen. It is possible that I may have mis-moused or mis-clicked in making my selection; and I have no way to be sure - but as the "clicked" item I did not choose was a PROMOTED article, I intend to carefully double-check my selections in future.

Zemanta, easier / better blogging?

2010-06-04T15:14:00.000+10:00

Image via CrunchBase

I've noticed Zemanta at other sites once or twice before, particularly with related article recommendations at the bottom of posts, but being busy with other things didn't explore it. With this 30 posts in 30 days effort, and my personal ambition to not spend so long (hours/days/unending) creating a post... I wonder whether Zemanta will prove useful. Students in CULLB602C@UB might like to take a look too.

It came back to my attention via Blogger Buzz, although I'm not sure how I landed there (and I do hate not remembering my backtrail). The following quote came from Zemanta's reblog feature that you can now see bottom right of this post. Options with reblog are to publish or copy code, I'd prefer a save as draft option. In the quote Rick is talking about how the add-on works:

Here's how it works: while you write your blog post in Blogger, Zemanta opens up a sidebar next to the Blogger post editor. After you've written a few sentences, Zemanta analyzes the words in your post and suggests images and video that are relevant to your post; with one click, it inserts them into your post. Rick Klau, Blogger Buzz: Zemanta helps you "blog smarter", Jun 2009

The whole article is worth a read.

It was very quick to get started, takes a little longer to optimise - at least optimising is what I was trying to do by adding my blog and rss feeds with preferences, only now I'm not receiving any content recommendations. Oh well, must go shopping for gear for the trip so will look again next time.

Eggs Florentine and Bacon

2010-06-04T02:19:00.002+10:00

Eggs Florentine and Bacon
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon

I'm testing the "extra bits you can add to your blog" via Flickr, some of which were standard a couple of years ago but seem to have changed since.

So, I'm not posting this for any particular reason except that I think I might look for some spinach to make this lovely breakfast again.

Sulking... come back later #blogeverydayofjune

2010-06-04T01:47:00.000+10:00

Am grumbling... blogger templates... and my lack of sufficient expertise.

Amelia's beautiful Ink Stain blog theme from Deluxe Templates: ...

Information Literacy with Amelia: Joy! Joy! Joy! via kwout

...motivated me to look for a template for my blog that would suit me better. I found one that looked perfect.

Unfortunately it wouldn't work for me. :-( Sigh

After uploading the new template file, I would have lost a bundle of widgets and so had the option to keep them. Unfortunately the choice was to keep them all, or none. And for some reason the old header and posts sections were considered widgets. I did keep all widgets but I cringed in wonder at what would result.

The posts in the main content didn't have my AddThis button or edit pencil or the date and each post's "Links to this post" appeared closer to the next post than the one it related to. But there was a second set of posts in the side bar where all those features were. The other widgets in the side bar were all mixed up - now they were easy to reorder but for some reason their spacing did not match the display template's spacing and I noticed that the template sourced a spacer gif from photobucket I think so I guess that blogger wasn't able to retrieve that gif for my blog.

I fiddled and fiddled for hours trying to sort it all out, but I clearly just do not know enough to fix it.

Now I must hie to bed, still so many things to organise for our trip.

Blogging with Addthis (etc)

2010-06-02T20:26:00.001+10:00

My first screencast. Remembering some of the ways I first began posting to a blog, I made this little video for the new bibliobloggers @UB.

For those who might be curious, I used CaptureFox thanks to instructions from youcanmakevideo

Reading critically

2010-06-02T15:26:00.000+10:00

The effing.librarian provides an entertaining example of informacy at work as he criticises an article's absurd predictions of 100% of the world's population authoring (via Twitter!) & thus presumably wiping out illiteracy by 2013. I note that the article he criticises is by a couple of professors, but after his analysis of their study I have to wonder at the quality of the journal.

Go see how he picks apart the premises and arguments - or just enjoy his ire - in:

The Analysis of Bullshit.

Blogging challenge to CULLB602C@UB

2010-06-01T15:30:00.000+10:00

30 posts in 30 days

You're all in the blogger water now... so let's do as Dory says in Finding Nemo and "just keep swimming"

iPhone Wallpaper: Finding Nemo on Flickr - Photo Sharing! via kwout

Via Twitter I heard Kathryn Greenhill, famous in the Australian library blogosphere share the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

Now while Kathryn's personal goal after years of blogging already is to keep up her think posts; Mine will be to not be too focussed on think posts: to stop gabbing, stop over-thinking, stop reading even more related stuff, and actually finish and publish a post even if it means it doesn't go out perfect.

SO how about it? Make your own rules or variations for yourselves - but your first one could be accepting the challenge.

Revisiting SomeThings with CULLB602C@UB

2010-06-01T12:18:00.002+10:00

Although, technically, I guess I'm not really IN the cohort, because I was granted RPL (see my echo still clapping)... I'll be cheering on the 2010 batch of CULLB602C@UB students with their remarkable and daring new unit structure. Kudos to Loretta Kelly for braving the waters and plotting an interesting course.

Course... of course - when I first began imagining a melding of web2.0 with LearningLibrarianship (even before it received a boost of inspiration from 23 Things) I knew it would be most effective beyond one unit. Our course coordinators have made efforts here and there: this unit or that used a wiki or an eportfolio or the CMS discussion board or online documents. But I felt many students who didn't have a big picture of how libraries are developing an interactive online presence missed appreciating the opportunity they had in those tools, AND that there were so many tools of which they were unaware that could enhance their research, their informational input, and their sharing - throughout the course.

So I envisaged a unit that would be a first unit. But with such a huge learning curve - and a goal of it making sense and fitting together with a wide range of web2.0 tools and aspects of librarianship - it really needs to span the whole course (at least 2.5 years full time). How can that be done? TAFE courses are usually run in discrete, short-time-frame units. How might it be possible for this kind of activity to span the whole course, not just as a side issue, but for engagement in the activity to contribute to assessment for other units? Am I dreaming too wildly?

Citing a song in APA style

2010-05-30T16:00:00.006+10:00

.... particularly if APA's example reference to the writer is not accurately crediting the idea you cite?

Lyrics

Quite possibly the googlers who landed somewhere in my blog (and would have left dissatisfied because I hadn't yet decided to play with this puzzle) may have been wanting a simple answer for quoting song lyrics. Cool, can (maybe) do from APA's (2010, p. 209) example for a music recording (if a recording is your source).

Writer, A. (~~Copyright~~ year*). Title of song [Recorded by B. B. Artist if different from writer]. On Title of album [Medium of recording: CD, record, cassette, etc.]. Location: Label. (Date of recording if different from song copyright date)

*Copyright date? Aren't we supposed to cite our Source..."Give in parentheses the year the work was published" (APA, 2010, p. 185)? And seriously how often do you see the lyrics' own copyright date provided even when the records, cassettes or CDs includes a print of the lyrics? But I'm not going to explore the complexities of music/lyrics copyright: Circle C and Circle P (© and ℗) just now.

Time for examples?
I don't listen to enough music to identify any with academic relevance, so let's just pretend these do:

"...I'm feeling you, you're on my mind
I wanna be with you
'Cause when you're standing next to me
It's like wow..."
(Harry & St. Victor, 2001, Track 3)

Harry, J. & St. Victor, S. (2001). Like Wow! [Performed by Leslie Carter]. On Shrek: music from the original motion picture [CD]. Dreamworks.

Or:

"I've been alone with you inside my head
And in my dreams I've kissed your lips, a
thousand times..."
(Richie, 1983, Track 2:4)

Richie, L. (1983). Hello. On Can't slow down [Record]. Los Angeles, CA : Motown.

And, because I began exploring APA citation in more detail for electronic sources, 2 more examples:

Say I quote lines of a song relying on text version of the lyrics?:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?"
(Burns, 2010)

Burns, R. (2010). Auld Lang Syne (contemporary version) [song lyrics]. In Cantaria folk song archive. Retrieved from http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/auldlang.html

OR, say I referred to OK Go's (2009, 1:17) advice to "Don't go blaming the kids again", "if your mind don't move and your knees don't bend" or in some other way to their song This too shall pass and if my source were their marching band version video which they are now (but were not previously) permitted to embed and allow others to embed.

Then my reference list might appear:

OK Go. (2009). This too shall pass [music video]. Capitol Records. Retrieved 30 May 2010 from http://www.okgo.net/2010/05/28/the-little-things/

Even if I had viewed the video at YouTube where OkGo mention the album in which the song appears: "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky", my own source was not the album.

Performance

But, what if we write about the ideas performed rather than the lyrics? What do I mean by that... could you writers about song performances help me out here? In the meantime, as one example, tvtropes refer to when the cover changes the meaning, (although some of their many examples merely demonstrate a variation of tone), still that sort of instance might dramatise that there are times when we might need to cite someone other than the song-writer.

Perhaps the dramatic difference between Greg Laswell's and Cyndi Lauper's covers of lyrics originally by Robert Hazard. Might one cite Lauper's (1983) feminist declaration of girl's wanting to have fun on the one hand, or Laswell's (2007) lament that girls just want to have fun, and perhaps credit Hazard for lyrics in additional information in the reference list?

Lauper, C. (1983). Girls just want to have fun [adapted from lyrics by Robert Hazard]. On She's so unusual [CD]. CBS.

Laswell, G. (2007). Girls just want to have fun [adapted from lyrics by Robert Hazard]. Vanguard Records. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5VjtJyoqJQ

And another possibility: as you may have noticed there is sometimes more meaning given to a song by its video than its lyrics or the singing of them, so a reference to a song might actually want to cite the specific video context. I've mentioned this before in my post on citing from Youtube. But for another example, let's imagine I've cited some significant aspect particularly of the video elements of OK Go's video above and not just because its here and I know because they mention it at the YouTube site that they share credit for the video direction with Brian Perkins:

We might perhaps list it then as:

Perkins, B. L. & OK Go (Directors). (2009). This too shall pass [Performed by OK Go and featuring the Notre Dame marching band] [music video]. Capitol Records. Retrieved 30 May 2010 from http://www.okgo.net/2010/05/28/the-little-things/

Yale discusses the ambiguity in citing conventions for Television, Radio Program or Music Videos, because they're created by groups, but they suggest that as long as the basic elements are present, one might (as I suggest) if focussing on a particular contribution, cite and list by that contributor.

Facebook Privacy Setting Scanner

2010-05-29T19:37:00.012+10:00

Some people (like David Lee King) aren't concerned about how Facebook handles the personal information we share there.

Those of us who have reason (or delusion) to prefer a little more privacy, might be interested in a tool provided by ReclaimPrivacy.org that scans and tells you the effects of your privacy settings. Thanks Paul Pival, Distant Librarian, for mentioning it.

As I have previously taken a radical approach to improve my Facebook privacy settings my results on using the scanner were not so colourful as Paul's, so I'm kwouting his image:

The Distant Librarian via kwout

If you'd like this kind of perspective on your Facebook privacy settings, see how at:

ReclaimPrivacy.org | Facebook Privacy Scanner via kwout

Hm, and this is still good knowledge for librarians who don't intend to use Facebook, like... ever: This adds to our Informacy 2.0 (oh ick I know, but its the shortest way to refer to informacy in the context of a social networking environment).

Usually when thinking about informacy (a.k.a. "Information literacy") we focus on finding, evaluating, using information. However, Beth Kraemer (2009) (a.k.a Alice Burgess in Second Life) of University of Kentucky referred to libraries who include in their "information literacy" classes instructing students in being responsible producers of information. Particularly protecting their reputation and privacy through responsible Facebook use but also googling themselves and being aware what others put out about them.

"That embarrassing picture you posted on Facebook" Slide 9 Web 2.0 & Information Literacy by Alice Burgess / Beth Kraemer
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

Non-linkable references

Kraemer, B. (2009, November). Web2.0 & Information Literacy. Presented at Web2.0 Approaches to Information Literacy Panel, ACRL, ALA Island, http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/56/191/29/

CULLB602C Greetings & Invitation

2010-05-29T15:47:00.004+10:00

Today at work students of "CULLB602C Use, evaluate and extend own information literacy skills" @UB explored the library. Some have already visited my blog, and I wonder if they will wander back?

If so:..... HI guys :D

You're so lucky that Loretta completely restructured this unit after I applied for RPL - it looks so exciting and fun now.

You'll be setting up your own blogs: merveilleux, fantastique!

Please, tell me where your blog is when you have it set up, it will be fun to see you play with blogging. It would be exciting to see you use your blogs to explore your sources and thoughts as you research for your essays.

Or if blogging is a little unnerving for you and you'd like to shoot the breeze about it feel free to contact me through comments, gmail, twitter or even Moodle.

I'm also challenging Hazel, who completed this unit in the old format, to take on her own 23 Things.

See you 2.0 :D

Hello from our new laptop

2010-05-21T22:09:00.001+10:00

How exciting: for our trip we’ve bought a new laptop :-D

Why? We want to be able to:

keep in touch with people back home
go online wherever we happen to be to research the next stage
watch movies or shows we’ve bought specially to view on the trip (could you recommend some good “travel” movies?)
play a game or two in down-time
transfer, sort and store our photos as we go.

Please give your tips/advice for travelling with a laptop.

So, Cricket researched options and required specifications and finally recommended the:

Toshiba Satellite A500/031

Sure go ahead, if you’ve had trouble with one, do send warnings.

But so far (4 hours in to familiarisation, only Firefox installed) I’m enjoying it – except that the desktop icons are a lot larger than I would like and there are no options to make them smaller (resolution is as high as it will go; and Control Panel options to change desktop icon & text size is only available to go larger).

Just like when I found delightful features of Windows 7, I have been delighted to discover Toshiba Bulletin Board. The boys and I will be sharing the laptop and I don’t think we need to have different user settings because we use the same programs, and anything we want to keep private we can save to our memory sticks – BUT I like to use stickies and to do lists – but the boys don’t need to see my notes to myself on the desktop. With Toshiba Bulletin Board we can make our own boards – to pin up our own lists, photos, notes etc.

Naturally one of the first things I did when I finally started familiarisation procedures (ie mucking about in there) was to begin a todo list, and documenting what I’ve done and learned so far :P

Removed battery
Connected to secure home network
Windows 7 offered to set up a homegroup and this time I went with that and received a password
I can access some stuff on other home computers - but it looks limited to docs, pics, vids, music; couldn't see how to access program files - would be convenient not to have to redownload stuff.
Created personal Bulletin Board - boys can have their own
Listed things to install in Board’s ToDo List
Installed Firefox
Learned a tiny bit about homegroups – but still confused about Windows 7 file management.
Tried to find a way to shrink the icons on desktop – couldn't
Changed basic computer's Windows7 user name from New User, although that is still showing as its name from my PC.
Wondered what option we will use for office software on this machine.
Removed Wild Tangent
Looked for that Windows 7 writing tool I liked so much for blogging, ah yes Windows Live Writer, so it is in the Windows Live folder.
Changed desktop background theme.
Binned Adobe shortcuts - won't need those
Pinned tools I use (Paint, Writer, calculator) to Taskbar, unpinning the unnecessaries.
Played some more with the Board (added a pic of Xin and Me in Second Life)

And now the laptop and I need to get back to work…. that to do list calls…particularly the firefox addons: delicious, kwout and zotero.

Creating a Reading List with Zotero

2010-05-19T13:47:00.004+10:00

Working in a library I tend to discover way more books I'd like to read than time allows.

So I have a few challenges:

How do I track titles of books I'd like to read when I get the chance?
Considering I may never get back to anything on that list, how do I choose what to borrow Right Now?
What is the most efficient and effective way for me to track the ideas I discover while reading?

My lunch is cooking right now, giving me a deadline for completing a post, which some of you may have discovered is another one of my challenges.

SO: today I'm only going to touch on the first one - because I've recently found an idea for that purpose.

I've been using Zotero to capture works I use for study - and now I've created a folder called: Reading List :D how clever is that?

Okay, for you to appreciate how it is that Zotero is so helpful in this respect, you need to understand what Zotero can do. It grabs and keeps citation data from library and other catalogues, or websites that provide such data, allowing us to make notes, tag, sort etcetera, and Share too I think.

Last night at work I found a few books on the shelf I really want to read, but too many books at home unfinished, so I found the titles in the catalogue, and had Zotero grab the information.

In a way, I used to prefer to be able to create my reading list more directly in conjunction with the library catalogue, much as it now allows me to keep a Reading History (which should probably more accurately be called a Borrowing History). Of course the catalogue allows me to mark records and email myself a list, and I guess I could then maintain a folder for such emails over time.

But maybe using Zotero for my Reading List is even better because the data is then in the same place that when I have read it, I can make notes, and later access the citation data if I use it. And when I work out to use the collaboration feature, I could share my Reading List... which is an intriguing thought for if/when I get into teaching.

Are any teachers in library science using Zotero this way?

I've used a toread tag with delicious for collecting online matertial to read later; however today I discovered the firefox extension Read It Later which would allow me to download pages for offline reading - particularly useful when I'm using a laptop I think.

Four sentences for your cover letter (from creamcitian at The Scott Adams blog)

2010-05-19T13:18:00.003+10:00

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Next time I need to write a cover letter for a resume I believe I will remember those four sentences from The Princess Bride - thanks to creamcitian's concise explanation of how they represent the four key messages one needs to convey.

I want to link you directly to the comment in which creamcitian offers this striking cue, but it seems Dilbert.com doesn't assign permalinks to comments. The link I have provided is to a display of most popular comments first (creamcitian's topping the votes at this time).

Will visit Canada & USA in July

2010-05-17T03:03:00.001+10:00

Dartril, Shortiye and I are excited about a new adventure. From 25 June – 23 July we will be visiting friends and family and then meeting people we’ve met through World of Warcraft throughout Canada and USA.

Our journey will take us through: Portland & Corvallis OR, Puyallup WA, Vancouver BC, Toronto & Hamilton ON, New York, Dallas TX and Los Angeles CA.

I’ve had moments of anxiety over the details that were not yet sorted, but as they have gradually ironed out (except for precise dates, accommodation and travel for the last half, and how lightly can we travel?) I’m somewhat calmer.

I keep thinking it would be ever so interesting to meet other unschoolers or library bloggers (are there other sorts who read here?) along our journey. If you live in one of the above areas and might be classified in one or more of those broad descriptions and might like to meet us, you could send a message to my gmail (yup my blogger name) or twitter account (at Twitter: my blog’s name without the e, because when I began we were limited to 15 characters :( ).

Oh do feel free to share your travel advice/recommendations.

A webcomic I read: Freefall

2010-05-16T22:35:00.008+10:00

Do you enjoy comics? Do you read any on the web?

I've mentioned Ask Dr Eldritch before, and I still visit there regularly to keep up. I keep up with Unshelved in Bloglines. But I haven't described them, perhaps I will soon as I heartily recommend both.

Lately I've discovered others that have been around for years. As I've got more posts in the works than published lately, and I'm feeling low and not up to much at all today, I'm going to tell you about Freefall, and maybe this will start a series, or you can peruse my collection.

Kitty introduced me to Freefall by Mark Stanley. Naturally I like to begin at the beginning, so I'm still trying to catch up because the series began in 1998. The adventures of a peculiarly criminal invertebrate alien Sam, his simple robot sidekick Helix and their illegally obtained exceptionally honest and upright Bowman wolf engineer Florence are, so far (I'm up to April 2002), quite diverting and addictive.

The roster of delightful additional characters (Savage Chicken, the ship who would happily kill the captain (Sam); Sawtooth, the enormous beetle shaped construction bot who is [at least in 2003] considering motherhood; and Winston, Florence's veterinarian & romantic interest to name just a few) are all way more endearing than, but probably because of the foil provided by, Sam.

Freefall via kwout

And that's about wiped my energy levels. Perhaps I'll share some of my favourite moments in the series later.

Perhaps I won't need to, there are some excellent reviews of this cartoon by Brian Roney, Ankur Gupta, Absolute Astronomy (sourced from but apparently since deleted from Wikipedia) and someone at Nationmaster/Statemaster.

Freefall is apparently ranked #80 at the webcomic list which also provides a "people who liked this also liked" list of suggestions:

Freefall profile at the webcomic list via kwout

I must tag Mark Stanley's list of other online comics for later perusal too.

Go ahead tell me about the webcomics you read.

I control what I share

2010-04-28T01:18:00.000+10:00

Thanks for sharing Michael and cogdogblog.

i control what I share « Tame The Web via kwout

How is it done? Library Tech research

2010-03-22T22:54:00.005+11:00

But how? ... Is it simpler than I imagine?

Jason Griffey (back in September 2009) advised three strategies for researching library tech decisions. If/when I get a turn at bat, will these ideas be useful to me?

Listen to patrons (ie pay attention to the technologies they are using).
At a combined University/TAFE library, we hear and see that patron technology use is extremely diverse. We have the spectrum from both higher ed and TAFE students who have never used a computer or mobile phone, through to the highly technology savvy. It is to detect the former as they're asking for help.
But how do we "pay attention" to the technologies the savvy are using, without spying?
Random chance observations in passing to open/close curtains or provide assistance is surely not reliable as representative data? Perhaps it could be more so if observations could be accumulated from all library staff who pass through the computer commons - but that would require those staff to be able to recognise the variety of web2.0 services that might be used, else the observation data will be skewed.
Is it possible or appropriate for tech services to tally which internet services are most popular, or is this something that ought to be asked instead?
I also wonder whether there is an association between extent and type of technology use and the student's (or teacher's) course?
Find out which technologies are most popular in general public.
Or, at the TAFE, continuing the theme from above: At the same time there may be a difference between courses as to which technologies would be most relevant both during the course and later vocationally. Effective subject liaison may be useful to determine this, and not just with teachers as some students are in advance of teaching staff in uptake of both socially and industry relevant technologies.
Try radical ideas and winnow the ones that fail.
Sure, this could be useful at the very least for librarians' professional development, although in a TAFE/Higher Ed context I'm guessing that it might be useful to first target the radical ideas which are being tested (if any) by technologically radical teachers, associates or technology personnel.

This was a "just wondering" post in what may become an occasional series of "just in case I get a chance at bat when the children are all grown".

How to cite a game in APA style

2010-03-12T03:06:00.007+11:00

edited 1 April 2010

Until now the answer to that question was not here; until now my presence in search results on that question would have stemmed from the fact that I have written in separate posts about both citing and games. And I don't like people to leave with their questions unanswered.

Now, below, I have an answer. BUT: before you use it, check the requirements of the professor or publication for whom you are writing. Please, if you've come here for an answer to the question, please comment with the game you are considering citing and perhaps in what context so I can check my suggestions, and improve them.

While the Publication Manual (APA, 2010) does not give a specific example for citing games, it outlines principles and the basic components. Chuck at APA's blog outlined these entertainingly as Who When What Where in The Generic Reference. The manual also advises us to adapt the examples that are provided as we need. This point is repeated by Timothy McAdoo in The Frankenreference, also at APA's blog.

Jump to:
Suggested format & examples
In-game quotes
Game manual

Electronic games are a form of software, so the example and guidelines (APA, 2010, p. 210) for citing software might seem the place to start. However the first games I wanted to cite were board games, so the software example was not where I went first, and when it came time to cite an electronic game I adapted from my board game guesses.

Even if one were to start at the software example, I think we'd end with the same format (jump to example) because we are permitted to adapt as needed... and we would want to for:

Author: the guidelines for software seem to indicate that unless an individual has proprietary rights to the software the reference would be cited as an unauthored work, ie, by the title of the game, however isn't it first preferred to credit a corporate author (ie the game developer), than to assume none? There are also cases where developer and publisher are separate entities. I note that WorldCat's citation export tool generally compiles all reference styles for games using corporate authors.
Date: Unfortunately the example for software (APA, 2010, p. 211) does not use a date, and offers no explanation for this divergence from normal practice: I considered it an error and that the date of publication (or copyright) is appropriate to include. But then again some online games are continually updated so sometimes, depending on the nature of the information being cited, a date might not be as relevant.
Place of Publication? This information is not usually provided with game software, is the place important in this case?

Therefore:
In general, unless required otherwise by the university or publication, I would probably cite the developer, with the reference appearing:

Developer unless principal author is acknowledged. (year). Title (version #, if relevant) [gameformat]. Place of publication: Publisher.

in text: (Developer, Year)

Apparently this works out to be very similar to the style for game citations (based on APA) required by the publication Game Studies.

Examples:

Board Game:

Darrow, C. D. (2006). Monopoly: the property trading board game. Eastwood, N.S.W. : Hasbro / Parker.
Drennan, D. (1986). Zamitar: a battle for survival in space, employing strategy and skill [Board game]. Australia: Author.

Offline Electronic Game:

Firaxis Games Inc. (2005). Sid Meier's Civilization IV [PC game]. New York, NY: Take-Two Interactive Software.
Acclaim Entertainment. (2002). Turok Evolution [Playstation2 game]. Glen Cover, NY: Acclaim Entertainment.

Online game:

Honeyslug. (2009). Ric Rococo: International Art Thief [Flash game]. Honeyslug. Retrieved 28 February 2010 from http://www.miniclip.com/games/art-thief/en/
Three Rings Design. (2001-2009). Puzzle Pirates. [Java-based game]. San Francisco, CA:Three Rings Design. Retrieved 28 February 2010 from http://www.puzzlepirates.com

However, the title-based style is advised by some universities (eg Murdoch). So: do check the requirements of the professor or publication for whom you are writing.

--In-Game quotes

We are usually required to define as close a location as possible within the material. For a book this is by page, on the web by paragraph, from a play by division (Act, Scene, etc and Line).
How can we locate a quote within a game? Perhaps by Level or inter-level; or stage of scenario. I'd like to explore a variety of examples, but will have to get help from my gamer sons and friends.

*****
Please send me examples of interesting or fun quotes from your favourite games - with the most concise but accurate location information for the quote
****

example quote from within a levelled online game?
example quote from within World of Warcraft or similar quest-based roaming game?
example quote from acted character in film supporting game storyline?
example quote from another player in an online role playing game - only if the transcript of game play is archived?

---Update 24 March 2010:

Game Manual

Yesterday someone stopped by having sought how to cite a game manual. It isn't the first time, and I've had a look at a few game manuals over time, trying to see if there are significant points about game manuals that are different from other books. There isn't really.

Key point: Check the details for the manual - whether they are different from the game, that is:

Manual author / developer - I did once see a board game's manual whose authorship was credited to an individual, so if citing that manual I'd use the individual's name; however whenever as usual there is no individual author, I consider the developer to be the manual's author.
Manual date - again is it different from publication date of the game?
Manual title - the manual son #1 just handed me is titled Ashes: Cricket 2009 which is the same as the game's title so I might add [game manual] to more specifically locate my source. I've also seen untitled... well it was more an instruction sheet than a manual, but the point being... if it doesn't have a title make one, enclosed in [ ]. (Just whipped over to APA's blog to check that, thanks Chuck)
Publisher place & name - I've been assuming that the game manuals that people came here curious to cite would have been published with the game, so this would be same as game publisher. Are there game manuals that were not published with the game?

----------
Interestingly (thanks Alison Faix) there are some online games for practicing APA style citations (though not for games):
APA Psych Out by Williams College Libraries focusses on citation of books, chapters and articles but the basic principles of these extend to newer online sources.
APA and MLA Citation Games (jigsaw puzzles really) by University of Washington Trio Training Drag and drop the citation pieces in the correct order for that type, and includes puzzles for music recordings and televised broadcasts.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Teaching humans how to learn !?!

2010-03-11T22:08:00.020+11:00

So, I've been griping, about this topic for a while.

As part of my "fun" I looked at "The Big 6", and included this as one part of my application:
"

It is amusing and confusing to see what I consider to be a perfectly natural (untrained) process labeled, copyrighted and marketed with apparent success. When researching for and writing my April 2007 post “How does one cite a blog post in APA style?” I used the same natural mental processes I recall my school mates and I used in our teens (1981-1986), and that I see my unschooled children using today. My own teen years were before Eisenberg & Berkowitz began touting this “model and curriculum” (copyrighted variously 1987 (Eisenberg, 2004) and 1988 (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1997)).

Details of the Big 6 steps to problem solving / information literacy are spelled out when hovering over the numbers in the header of the website http://big6.com/. For the fun of it, see how my process could be hung on the hangers of “the Big 6”:

Task Definition

I wanted to cite blog posts appropriately for my assignments; (define task)
I needed to find instructions, suggestions or examples on how to do so. (identify information needed)

Information seeking strategies

I could look in the official APA guide; ask teachers or colleagues; search with Google (to start).(Determine all possible sources)
I would search those sources in that order. (Select the best)

Location and Access

I know the Dewey Decimal number for citation guides; talk to teachers in class and colleagues at work and Google is in my browser window. (Locate sources)
APA Guide had principles I could use but no specific example, teachers and colleagues refer to the guide, but Google produced results. (Find information within sources)

Use of information

I read and evaluated a variety of pages from the Google results. (Engage)
I kept pages with likely examples open in tabs. (Extract relevant information)

Synthesis

I tagged (with delicious) the pages that had examples even though they didn’t seem right enough to me, and quoted those examples … (Organise information from multiple sources)
In a contemplative blog post of my own in which I compared the examples against the APA referencing style principles.(Present the information)

Evaluation

Finding and extracting information was very fast, my comparison and making decision took a bit longer. Writing took the longest. My natural thinking processes worked. (Judge the process)
I am satisfied with my conclusion and no teachers have quibbled with the way I reference blogs. My writing was not the most fluent, but it was for me as a student, not an audience. Had I been an educator or librarian I would have written more briefly and obtained or hedged against an institutional decision. Even so, at first around 80-90 people a day, and more recently 30-40 people a day visit that blog post from Google or other searches on the topic (statistics obtained from MyBlogLog) so I appear to have created new knowledge. Unfortunately although I asked for comments, few people leave any so I could not tell whether people agreed with my conclusion or not. However I recently discovered that my conclusion matches a style later advised by Judi DeLisle (2007) of Valencia Community College who also cites my post "How does one cite a blog post comment in APA style?”. MyBlogLog also revealed that people arrived at my blog wanting to know how to cite YouTube and Flickr, so I went on to research those problems too. (Judge the product)

"

Sigh. How ever did anyone manage to solve problems before 1987?

Literacy & Informacy: Problems with the term "information literacy skills"

2010-03-10T19:37:00.011+11:00

Previously, I explained why I applied for RPL in
CULLB602C Use, evaluate and extend
own information literacy skills.

YAY I have been granted recognition of prior learning :D

I never did get around to publishing the progress of my thoughts while examining conceptions of “information literacy” - probably because I never really resolved the issues to my own satisfaction.

Perhaps instead I will just post a scattering of thoughts without aiming for a conclusion.

First I needed to understand my base point. So I looked at definitions:

From memory: A skill is an ability; but then so is literacy. So "literacy skills" is tautological (ability to read and write abilities).

I checked a dictionary:

From the Concise Oxford Dictionary (Sykes, 1976):

information n. Informing, telling; thing told, knowledge, (desired items of knowledge, news.

literacy n. Ability to read and write.

skill1 n Expertness, practiced ability, facility in an action or in doing or to do something; dexterity, tact.

However: I have observed over the years that the term ‘literacy’ has been used to express a variety of notions beyond that simplest definition, to include whole spans of thinking and communication skills (Callison & Lamb, 2005-2009). Sometimes to the point where reading and writing may be completely irrelevant: “making meaning in a two way flow of communications” (Boyce, 1999, p. 57). In fact Callison & Lamb (2005-2009), among many, declare that “the definition of literacy has evolved” (¶1).

Oh I'd agree that the term has been malleably defined to suit the goals of its users, but considering the breadth encapsulated in its Latin root, evolution is not what has happened.

Online Etymology Dictionary via kwout

I guess I struggle with phrases compounded as "xxxx literacy" because of the way "literacy" itself is loaded.

Comprehension and communication skills seem to me to be independent of the ability to read and write; and need to have been present in order for a person to learn to read and write. Refinement of comprehension (higher order thinking skills) and communication also develop outside a text environment, although most of us don't get to see that as we live and learn within one.

It is easy to see how, in a society in which text is a dominant communication device; people can conflate natural development of human capacity to comprehend and communicate with increasing competence and fluency with text. Could such conflation create an assumption that to learn and function depend particularly on the ability to read and write; then explaining why quite beside the overall education system, literacy programs particularly attract funding? Might this factor into a willingness to wrap up anything at all as literacy?

Back to "xxxx literacy": These days one can find “literacy” being appended to almost any other word to convey something about skills which are required to make sense within context of the first word. Often, these skills do not require literacy at all except when they are to be applied in a text environment. For example:

“Scientific Literacy, Economic Literacy, Technological Literacy, Visual Literacy, Information Literacy, Multicultural Literacy.... communication literacy, productivity literacy, content literacy, critical literacy” (Callison & Lamb, 2005-2009, ¶4,5).

Even the competence to pursue, evaluate and use information does not require literacy (the ability to read and write). Campbell (2008 p. 19, citing Aporta, 2002) describes how the Inuit people in Canada’s High Arctic, when planning a journey across the sea ice which reforms over time with ocean currents and underwater landforms:

know they need information on the current “ice marks” by which to navigate,
know whom to approach to get information (the experts with the traditional, oral knowledge on the codes that make such marks predictable),
evaluate who has the most experience or is the best navigator, and
use that information to travel through the sea ice territory safely

Campbell (2008) declares this pattern of information seeking, evaluating and using is consistent with the American Library Association (1989, ¶3) definition of being information literate: to recognise when information is needed, to locate, evaluate and use appropriate information effectively.

Such an example demonstrates that the capacity humans have for acquiring and using information does not require literacy (ability to read and write). So to label such capability as "information literacy" perpetuates confusion where there should be distinction between literacy and thinking or whatever skills are of practical interest.

Precise skills which fall under the label ‘information literacy’ are remarkably diverse depending on the educator and his/her program, and can include:

Basic computer and internet access skills (Millen & Roberts, 2007) through to information technology fluency (Bundy, 2004 as cited in Andretta 2005, p. 44; Shapiro & Hughes, 1996),
Library orientation (Slusarczyk, 1996; Gavin, 2008),
Search engine savvy, or searching the web (Boyce, 1999, ¶2; Gavin, 2008) ,
Searching OPACs, databases (Gavin, 2008; Andretta, 2005),
Selecting a research/essay topic and developing a thesis statement (Gavin, 2008),
Writing skills (Andretta, 2005, p. 176),
Referencing skills (Andretta, 2005, p. 175; Slusarczyk, 1996 p. 62),
Evaluating web sources (Gavin, 2008; Andretta, 2005, p. 174),
Standards and formulae for cognitive skills and metacognitive processes including problem solving and critical thinking (Boyce, 1999, ¶2; Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 2009; Shapiro & Hughes, 1996, Bundy (2004) and Hepworth (2000) as cited in Andretta, 2005, p. 44 and p. 16)
“Social-structural literacy, or knowing that and how information is socially situated and produced” (Shapiro & Hughes, 1996),
The ability to self-publish electronically in text or multimedia (Shapiro & Hughes, 1996),
Values and beliefs about wise, ethical and socially responsible use of information (Bundy (2004) as cited in Andretta, 2005)
“right through to philosophy of learning how to learn, personal mastery and leadership” (Boyce, 1999, ¶2)

Once again one wonders whether the umbrella use of a term like “information literacy” is motivated by the appeal of the words to garner financial support. Boyce (1999) opines:

“The social and cultural values we associate with each word mediate their connection so that coupled together in a special communications context, at a time of educational and curriculum reform, they are endowed with urgency and extra significance”

I'm tempted, if an umbrella term is needed (for the capabilities to identify a need for, seek, find, evaluate and ethically use information) to use Informacy. Although I imagined the term for myself following the pattern set by literacy and numeracy, I have discovered I am not the first:

Informacy term first used - Google Search via kwout

Not having access to Emerald's holding of Aslib Proceedings from 1984, I cannot check who (if anyone) R Lester appears to have been citing in that article. Nor could I check whether the term was defined as I would use it. (Update 11 April 2011, I've somehow gained access and it appears Lester was citing a "LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES COUNCIL. Working Party on Manpower Education and Training. Discussion Paper on User Education. June 1983" and from his quotes (because I can't find the original) believe they did use the term as I would. Interestingly, Mr Lester argued against public funding of "user education" programs, and felt the appropriate place for informacy education was in primary schools.)

In one case:

eInclusion@EU : Section 2.2 via kwout

Is there any way of easily discovering whether the term was ever proposed outside of the context of modern technology? In some cases Informacy appears to be used as a compound of information handling and technolacy (another term I'm not the first to conceive):

The Digitisation of Our World - The Digitisation of Our World via kwout

Rise of the knowledge worker - Google Books via kwout

Media access: social and ... - Google Books via kwout

Considering that information is available both outside text and technology, I'd prefer that the term Informacy not automatically incorporate Technolacy:

reinventing-IT: Literacy, Numeracy, and Technolacy? via kwout

But that's enough for today.

References (only those which could not be hyperlinked):

Andretta, S. (2005). Information literacy: a practitioner's guide. Oxford, UK: Chandos.
Boyce, S. (1999). Second thoughts about information literacy. Concept, challenge, conundrum: from library skills to information literacy (pp. 57-65). Adelaide, SA: University of South Australia Library.
Gavin, C. (2008). Teaching information literacy: a conceptual approach. Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press.
Millen, D., & Roberts, H. (2007). Healthy mind, healthy body: digital literacy in the NHS. In J. Secker, D. Boden, & G. Price, The information literacy cookbook: ingredients, recipes and tips for success (pp. 27-43). Oxford, England: Chandos.
Slusarczyk, L. (1996). Finding business information in Curtin University Library: information literacy skills for life-long learning. [Bentley], Western Australia: Glenn Pass.
Sykes, J. B. (Ed.). (1976). The concise Oxford dictionary of current English (6^th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Why am I blogging? Playing with myself?

2010-02-16T23:54:00.004+11:00

Blogging is playing with yourself... in public... in a good way.

Now that is not what I had planned to write. I had planned to explore why I am having trouble eking out a particular set of posts that have been in draft for more than four weeks. Becoming bored with my blathering about that I edited and edited until that (the above) slipped out. Maybe I will still get to my problem, but first...

Blogging is playing with yourself?

Its not a new notion, nor is it particularly accurate, but I do want to play with it. :-D

Quickly and briefly garnering others' thoughts via google:

Tim Bull asked in the title of a post of Digital Narcissism: Is blogging playing with yourself? He did not actually go on to answer at all, unless you count his excusing "the best of bloggers" who he says are referred to as "citizen journalists".
Sara Dickerson's teacher friend said "blogging is like playing with yourself in public". But Sara still went on to do so, and quite attractively too.
Drew Richardson encourages playing with yourself in the nature of self-competition to develop creative problem solving.
Of course aside from a few results relating specifically or euphemistically to masturbation there are also many results relating to computer/video games one plays solo.

So is it (blogging) playing with oneself?

[please do give your opinion, or share a link to an interesting opinion on that question]

Well... in a way it is self-pleasuring: Exploring one's ideas, stroking them, usually or occasionally getting to the point, massaging one's words until finally perhaps reaching a satisfying conclusion.

Undeniably it is public. And by that very fact it means bloggers are not (just) playing with ourselves. Even those of us who do not aim for a large audience are still sharing our thoughts, offering them for others to discover, observe and possibly comment on.

I still don't know why I dally so over the posts I have in draft, but I clearly remember why I am blogging:

to play
to gather some of my independent learning
to ask others to contribute to my learning
to participate in global communication and sharing
to share a little of myself with friends I cannot see very often

How does web2.0 build better business?

2010-01-30T14:35:00.003+11:00

In a sec I'll tell how I came to read the abstract by Megan Mulherin, then a MLIS student, that made me ask myself to little avail and now you, the following questions:

*Which daily management challenges can be better faced & overcome with web2.0 technologies?
*How does web2.0 help a company better position themselves against competitors? and
*How does web 2.0 help a company create and sustain a more robust form of management?

The only daily management challenges I can guess that web2.0 would contribute to are those of self-promotion or positioning and perhaps (the 2.0 aspect) communication with consumers. I wish the abstract had been more specific. I'm still stumped though how this creates "more robust form of management". Unless she means that for a business to be managing their public (web2.0) dialogue with customers *well* the company will have to be responsive to customers, quick to fix problems and are there other qualities?

Has that actually happened? That a company did not have a robust form of management prior to the introduction of web2.0?

...
Once again it was my Bloglines that led me.
I absolutely love that Michael Stephens uses web2.0 for his LIS course, and has his students use blogs and research web2.0 tools. Naturally Michael was proud when a student blog was highlighted by ... hm... "BestBizWeb Enewsletter" I say "hm" because the highlights iterate "our view" but who 'they' are is not indicated. This enewsletter appears to be an offshoot of a publication "Information Advisor" declared to be edited by Robert Berkman, which also uses "we" and "our" throughout, but which does not (in the sample issue) contain the names of any other contributors. That seems shonky to me.

Still, I'm glad the blog was highlighted because I've learned some of the interesting activities Michael's students get to do, like Brand Monitoring.

RPL for CULLB602C & Library2.0

2010-01-27T16:46:00.024+11:00

Have you ever applied for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)... would you describe it as Fun Fun Fun? Hm, not sure I would either :D

Still, that's what I've been doing for the past few months...and much of the process has been Fun.

Since I began studying for an Advanced Diploma in Library and Information Services I have been avoiding one particular subject: "CULLB602C Use, evaluate and extend own information literacy skills". Why?

Because the major assessment task for the unit appeared to be even worse than the nature of assessment I detested in undergraduate degree courses: not just a trivial essay but a completely irrelevant (to the industry) trivial essay. To be produced just for the sake of demonstrating "conducting research", "communication skill" and "appropriate referencing" - as if none of these attributes have been demonstrated in any of our other unit assessments. Only this was the longest individual piece of writing required in the course. (Other units' assessment tasks often had no number-of-words constraints and depending on the student's extent of research may (in fact for me did) produce longer pieces of writing.)

All this time I have wondered in what way that kind of assessment related to the title & purpose of the unit. So in 2009, facing the prospect of having to do the unit in 2010, I asked a current student of the unit for the elements of competence. The elements and criteria of competence (pdf) of this unit are interesting - they are relevant to the industry and competence in them is I believe important for performance as librarians. (By librarian I mean the Cambridge and Oxford definition not the more recent and questionably-motivated redefinition). Unfortunately I did not and do not believe that the assessment tasks used in recent years appropriately challenged students or allowed them to develop and substantiate even half of the criteria of competence that the unit appeared designed to achieve and which would be valuable for their careers.

Also while I read it occurred to me that as a result of my work and play I could already demonstrate competence in all of those elements and their criteria: I would apply for RPL.

Along the way I would wrestle with a term I have long detested: "information literacy" - I refuse to append the third word often thrown on the end as it is in the name of the unit, because the effect makes me shudder. Naturally it is a fight I am in no position to win, but the attempt involved research, reflection and writing. All of which I felt would be constructive: personally, professionally, and for my application for RPL.

Do you think a series of posts could be good evidence? I wasn't brave enough. Not that I have an audience of whom to be shy, after all I write randomly, and for myself mainly. I did not know who would assess my application so I could not check whether they would be comfortable with that sort of evidence, although I did eventually refer to some of my posts (particularly those on citing online sources). Although it wasn't just the assessor's comfort... the thought of having what I hoped would demonstrate my competence available for anyone to view (and potentially question) was a little too scarey. Now I wish I had tried it because I have come to feel that blogging would be an excellent medium through which students could explore, develop and demonstrate the competencies of the unit.

I'd still like to post some of the thoughts I had during my application, and the assessor has since given approval, but I'm not sure how to or even whether it is worth doing so retrospectively.

Amongst other evidence, I referred to my explorations and subsequent use of web2.0 tools. I kept fantasising how a program somewhat like 23 Things could might help library students to "use, evaluate and extend" their "information literacy".

Excitingly, during my interview, the assessor indicated that my application for RPL and its reasons (ie the poor relevance of the assessment task) had contributed to a review of how the unit is presented at UB. Apparently it will now be restructured and among other changes will involve aspects of ... oh let's call it "Library 2.0 stuff" for want of a better phrase. I hope I get to see how it changes.

Around about a LIS Curriculum

2010-01-27T16:32:00.000+11:00

Post begun April 2009:
Strolling through the months' old Bloglines that accumulated while the boys and I were busy moving last year, I try not to stop for long on every interesting post... and that is difficult, particularly when people are kindly sharing their notes from conference sessions and I want to absorb the details. Sigh.

Still, I had to stop when I reached the following slide from Meredith Farkas' presentation at The future is here, library conference in Iceland. (I'd link to that but it was a pdf and it seized for me so I shan't).

Aren't these all subjects that can be learned through professional development, self-education and a capacity to read, experiment, reflect and apply critical thinking?... aside from Management (and possibly not even that), none of these require "higher" education, merely a capacity for informacy, action, reflection and critical thinking.

Today:
I've delayed posting this for almost a year. Each time I've begun to contemplate how much of these topics have been addressed throughout my Advanced Diploma course, and independent study I've been distracted. It seems absurd to me that our industry requires a library-degree (or worse a Masters!) for qualification to work as an entry-level librarian, when the job description could be filled by intelligent people with demonstrable knowledge and skills obtained through other means.

So there are a few themes I'd like to explore at some point, though not yet:

The actual skills and knowledge required in the most fundamental librarian positions - (the variety of ways such skills might be obtained and demonstrated/outcomes of LIS program) = should a degree (or whatever) be essential for a librarian position?
If there are certain topics desired to be learned prior to employment as a librarian which aren't in a LIS program does this necessarily mean the subjects should be in a LIS program? Might it be more logical to reconsider the required qualifications for librarianship?
In what ways are LIS Advanced Diploma and Degree programs significantly different and what difference, if any, does this make in job-performance-capacity?

Considering a discussion with my son today about "Don't sweat the small stuff" and "it's all small stuff", I might leave those ideas in the air. Feel free to comment.

BBQ like you've never BBQ'd before

2010-01-20T22:36:00.003+11:00

Update Feb 2010: I've been informed that George Patterson Y&R were the agency who created this year's poster series for AustraliaDay.org. Hooray :-D I love their VB and LG ads.

BBQ like you've never BBQ'd before
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

Over the weekend, The Courier (Ballarat) displayed an impressive, amusing ad from australiaday.org.au that almost has me planning a BBQ. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good copy of the image anywhere on the Australia Day website, and elsewhere only a scan Viktor Blanke recorded, so my lovely sister scanned the newspaper ad for me.

[Update Australia Day: We did have a BBQ and the boys re-enacted the patriotic advertisement for me]

BBQ for Australia
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

I've been trying to identify the patriotic propaganda image upon which I believe this is based. Something from the Second World War? At first I thought... the image asking women to take up jobs to support Australia's war effort? But then I found that floating image:

Australian Women in War - Logo via kwout

and realised it is not quite the one this is probably inspired by. Can anyone help?

Ah, I searched again and Paul D Wade felt it was "reminiscent of the communist worker posters".

Perhaps like this before it became a mousepad

Or

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Pop and Propaganda – Chinese posters and Wang Guangyi via kwout

No I'm almost sure I've seen one of a very similar structure, perhaps American?

Can you identify the image this harkens to?

Here is one:

although I'm still sure there are others.

Wondering about Second Life Photography Ethics

2010-01-19T15:55:00.002+11:00

Update: 1 April 2010:

Thanks to Ordinal Malaprop, I am now informed that Linden Labs has decreed a Snapshot and Machinima Policy.

Thus if I read it correctly we (although the preamble refers to artists, that term is not defined and the policy itself grants permission to "You", defined as residents who receive permission, so I guess that means anyone with a camera button) are permitted (so long as we first check in land covenant that it does not prohibit snapshots) to capture and use snapshots of anything displayed in-world.

I had to work out how to do that in the new viewer:

In January 2010 I wrote:

Since returning to Second Life I've been searching for whether there are any particular rules or ethical considerations for publishing snapshots taken within SecondLife?

Would Second Life photographers, bloggers, creators, artists who might happen this way leave a comment with their opinions?

Some of my thoughts at this point:

Places: there are so many beautiful places, but they are someone's intellectual property... is it permissible to go snapping shots and sending them to Flickr in admiration? Is it actually comparable to taking photos of RL private land and buildings?
- Assuming this is the case, I've begun posting snapshots of my Second Life travels to Flickr.
- Today I chatted with Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks whose elegant creativity (her own and her choice and placement of others') at College of DuPage I have recently discovered and admired. I asked, in relation to SL landscape photography: whether the fact that objects are created puts any object in SL in the same category as artworks, which I believe require (or should require) permission before and attribution with publication of snapshots.
  We briefly notioned a scale of the nature of works: from art at one end to journalism at another. Pipsqueak said: "does a painter give credit to the company who made her paint" and "did Ansell Adams credit the creator of mountains?" We agreed though, that even in landscape photography there are times when acknowledging an object creator is courteous: such as if an object (say: a tree) is the focal point of the snapshot.
People: my personal ethics require permission to publish from anyone of whom I take a photo or who may appear in a photo. I know the world at large does not agree, but I wish it would :D --- however this will present a challenge if/when I want to blog about an event with a photo. I spent some time pondering how to achieve getting permission from a group of people. No tidy solutions yet.
- So far no groups, but in 3/4 situations where I wanted other people in my photos I have obtained their permission both for the photo and for the right to post the photo to Flickr. For example:
  
  Cardboard cuppa with Troy Aristocarnas Flickrd with permission.
- I admit that I do not recall obtaining permission from Clarissima and Kahuna Schumann to Flickr an image of them giving a concert at Music Island. While I believe it was right to not IM them mid-performance, and probably not right to ask mid-performance? I could have asked the event organiser in IM and if I did do so I have forgotten. Another aspect involved was that I wanted to email to Flickr and didn't want to risk losing the snapshot if I was disconnected while trying to gain permission. I could have saved to disk until I had permission.
Things: I was viewing some wonderful sculptures the other ~~day~~ month... If I were in a RL museum or gallery I believe photos are a no-no. Does that apply in SL? Unresolved at that point I opted not to snap.
- So far I am assuming obtaining permission is the ethical approach. Before taking photos of Ritchey's Sealey's works at his gallery in Second Life I obtained his permission to snap and display at Flickr.
- Flickr description: "If you've walked through the Australian bush - Ritchey Sealy's works bring back all the sensations and memories: the heat, the dry dusty air, the prickly scratch of dry grass through sandal or socks, the smell of eucalypt, the bullants. If you're more familiar with our beaches, rocky coast, rivers or hills, Ritchey has captured those sensations too. I am very happy to have discovered Ritchey Sealy's main gallery in Second Life. I've been back a few times, and anticipate repeated visits. Ex-pats: stop by for a touch of home."
- Interestingly, in the discussion mentioned below, Lem Skall suggested that the limitations on photography in museums may be less about copyright and more about paranoia (effect of light on exhibits, and examination of security measures).

Next I'll try to remember to check whether the other person prefers to limit my usual CC attrib-noncommercial-sharealike licence. Indeed I should check that with artists who give permission too.

I really ought to have read more before posting. In relation to contents 1 and 3, there was excellent discussion a couple of years ago stimulated by Bettina Tizzy in her post Proper attribution of images taken in virtual worlds at Not Possible in Real Life. Bettina asked "Where do we draw the line? What is the correct (and legal) way to attribute photography and video shot in virtual worlds?"

In the first few days of that discussion, aspects included:

who is the artist? - with related issues of copying or the work/skill/talent involved in obtaining a good photograph of another's creation (Zha Ewry) and inspiration (Venk)
who owns the image?
what are the obligations for attribution?
what are the limits of copyright (Ordinal Malaprop's opinion {expressed before Benjamin had his say} was interesting; as was Solo Mornington's on the rights obtained by purchase, although I don't agree that "come see my land" inherently includes "and take footage of it that you can use for whatever you like")
is it simply a matter of politeness?
does it ultimately all go to intention and context? (Alpha Auer)
for example, is it really only an issue if you have a commercial objective (Lem Skall), or hope to make any sort of gain (Alpha Auer and again)? Princess Ivory, referring to the first point above about how with work and modification a piece of art becomes hers, claims commercial gain is irrelevant - ignoring the issue of whether she first had responsibility to obtain permission to make use of someone else's work to make her art.
can we take guidance from the crediting practice in films: credit only those who create specifically for this film? (Zinc)
similar notions of the scale from journalism to art that Pipsqueak and I touched on (theresecarfagno)
methods of attribution (Alpha Auer recommends for using tags at Flickr)
permission is separate to attribution, but here rose the issue of how onerous it would be to gain permission (Lem Skall) although neither law nor ethics read obey unless it is too hard, and as Alpha Auer pointed, if a real life photographer can do it.
Does the different physics/realities between RL photography and SLcomputergraphicdisplay make a difference beyond semantics (A. Hosho thinks so, though his only point about ethics is in relation to "found art" & modification in relation to which Alpha Auer points out that SL prims are not in the public domain.)
The Linden Labs Terms of Service (TOS) was quoted at length by A.Hosho; although it did not seem to me to support his? point of view: it gave creators intellectual property rights (but not data ownership) limited only by licence to Linden Labs to use creations at their discretion in or out-world and to other users of Second Life "to use your Content for all purposes within the Service". Within, not outside the service.

However, eventually a "legal mind" Benjamin Duranske took the legal thread over to his blog suggesting that attribution is irrelevant, and that copyright includes rights over derivative works and thus requires permission. Lem Skall suggested there that when SL photography is transformative (a term that I gather from his quote of wikipedia arose in a decision not in the Act, and which might be a fair use) rather than derivative then copyright is not breached. A word Lem did not highlight from that quote is aims - with which the wikipedia article identifies the purpose (particularly commercial) as a key issue. That article also suggests that if claiming fair use in this way the onus is on the creator of secondary work to "demonstrate how it either advances knowledge or the progress of the arts through the addition of something new".

Although Kean Kelly at Dreambits: claimed the discussion was about greed & profits I disagree - it was intended and remained mostly about acknowledgement, credit, recognition.

Please readers: help guide my ethical conduct :-D

Articulate: Magellan Strait

2010-01-11T00:28:00.002+11:00

Alex and I trounced Div and Luke at Articulate twice last night.

And yet there were many things (particularly world and people) that none of us could describe well enough for others to recognise. So now I (and future team members) have a new curriculum!

Study for today is the Strait of Magellan:

Rounding Cape Horn via kwout

Wikipedia mentions that "it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the unpredictable winds and currents and the narrowness of the passage."

Did you notice the mention of Francis Drake in the kwout above? He was one of the people the boys could not describe, I'll be checking my own possible memories about him another time. For now, an image of the Portuguese explorer after whom the strait is named:

Ferdinand Magellan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

Blogging from Windows 7

2009-12-26T13:45:00.001+11:00

Test post: How will Blogging with Windows Live Writer work?

Having recently upgraded computer components to enable faster graphics processing for Second Life, Div also recommended I upgrade to Windows 7.

Aside from the rather pretty default desktop view, two nifty features caught my immediate attention:

Sticky notes. I’ve been using these constantly for a variety of to-do lists. I wish I had tried to blog sooner about this because today (as I research to minimise my ignorance) I find that grooveDexter has described how to do the things I’ve wanted to and thought I couldn’t (like strikethrough) and more (creating a shortcut via which one can access a list of ones sticky notes).
Snipping tool. Previously I was in love with Sprint32 and was afraid it might not work in Windows 7… but Windows 7 has its own! Super duper :D

Of course I didn’t think to investigate the features of Windows 7 before now, so I didn’t have any idea about some of the nifty features shown in Getting Started videos (like shaking a window to dislodge other open windows; dragging windows to side of screen to view side by side with other windows).

And it seems there is a lot more I haven’t discovered. Like Windows Easy Transfer that might have done a neater job of importing files from my old hard drive. Ah well. Today at least I learned about Windows Live Writer, which was super-easy to install, and so far is very simple to use – but the ultimate test will be whether it talks to Blogger smoothly. I’m not hopeful: in the past I’ve found Microsoft uses a bundle of such unpleasant html that editing was nasty work.

Waking, walking and wondering

2009-12-25T23:24:00.007+11:00

Woken at 1:21 by Margie's SMS festive greeting; then around 4am worrying until a friend's text around 6am meant I could sleep again. And such a lovely sleep I could then enjoy for three hours until time to help the boys prepare for a seasonal visit with their father's family.

After lunch, GUF and I walked up to Black Hill. I didn't take the camera, but this is an older photo of a path we didn't take today :D It was a lovely walk in the sun, with enough breeze to keep us mostly cool enough. I enjoyed the wind in the trees, feeling the age of the eroding rocks and the passing of time shown in the shrubs crossing paths that were clear last time I was there.

Then this evening I pondered some of the puzzles GUF has been solving in The Eleventh Hour. Codes and puzzles are entertaining though I don't have nearly the gift or penchant for them that GUF has. We discovered that my sight (even requiring glasses) beats his magnifying glasses for finding the hidden mice.

So far with the help of a huge variety of proteins and salted pumpkin seeds, I've managed to get through the day without eating any traditional festive treats. Although once or twice as GUF prepared his sandwiches with Chocka Vlokken, or when I glanced at the tin holding Dutch rusks, or saw the Chocolate Hagel in the cupboard, it was a teensy bit tempting.

Tonight, a subscriber gift from Enniv Zarf in Second Life sent me to his Youtube Channel, and I introduced GUF to the joy of Paul Kwo's piano improvisations. I cannot choose a favourite, but of those I enjoyed tonight, this was the most mellow:

Educators & terminology

2009-12-08T13:49:00.002+11:00

Has your research ever got hung up on pointless clarifications of terminology ... so much that you wonder whether the labels serve any function other than justifying a rehash (or mashup, or "recontextualisation" :D ) of old ideas by giving them new labels?

Today I'm browsing in Second Life letting my recent readings and contemplations on "Information Literacy" (aargh: that terminology is another example giving me grief) moosh themselves around in the back of my head. Having rezzed at the Movie Theatre where I quit at 6am this morning: I was tossing up my somewhat infinite options feeling for a purpose/preference. That is: do I go somewhere to sort my inventory, review my "to do" list, pick an unfinished study topic to pursue, head back to one of the places I've slooged to explore in more detail, explore one of the interesting-sounding places or groups I've noted...etc.

Thankfully, and coincidentally, the Information Literacy Group cut off that random mental browsing with a notice for an upcoming session. Entering the event "From Library 2.0 to Library 3D – Participatory Libraries of Today" into my Magic Compass made me realise I haven't yet visited Infolit iSchool (which belongs to the University of Sheffield). Decision made.

After a broom tour which ended head first in the wall of a hut :D I flew around exploring. I happened upon a structure created during a discussion on the nature of Inquiry Based Learning at the LTEA2008 conference...

The sign offered a webpage (about the LTEA2008 session) that I viewed, and investigated the chat logs of discussion at the session.

Unfortunately I didn't come away with any better understanding of what was supposed to be significant about "Inquiry Based Learning" from any other instructional approach that aims to get students to develop their own questions, explore, discover, synthesise and develop their own answers, or new questions. Considering my own family unschools I was amused to see this comment:

What is Inquiry Based Learning? via kwout

Some glancing mention of assessment was made, but I didn't notice any discussion of whether the programs in which they use any of these "student-centered" approaches experience conflict with expectations in terms of assessment, or consequences or changes in the nature of assessment.

So, I googled elsewhere...

In the process of defining Problem based learning Savery (2006) distinguished it from inquiry-based learning and other experiential approaches to teaching. As he tells it:

In an inquiry-based approach the
tutor is both a facilitator of learning (encouraging/expecting higher-order thinking) and a provider of information. In a PBL approach the tutor supports the process and expects learners to make their thinking clear, but the tutor does not provide information related to the problem—that is the responsibility of the learners (p.16)

Which is not quite the sense I received from the session discussers at LTEA although it may be true. It seems like a rather odd distinction.

I *was* interested to discover a paper arguing "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching [pdf]" by Kirschner, Sweller & Clark (2006).

but as the whole thing has begun to feel like a pointless diversion of my time (except to have developed an inkling that if I ever become involved in instruction I believe I will want to avoid using approach-labels; and I guess that could dry up funding opportunities) - I've decided to leave it there.