Dolphin Story

Dolphins are truly wonderful. They are man's "friends in need". There have been several occasions when dolphins have come to the rescue of drowning children or adults or swimmers who had been nearly attacked by one of the most dangerous sharks--the Great White. Listen to

Anderson

Can Libraries as a whole effectively utilize long tail of our collection?

A long standing problem with the libraries has been that they were not particularly sensitive to the needs of individuals, as a consequence, they ended up catering to the demands of masses. There are two reasons why this happened - mechanisms for finding out what a large number of people want, on individual level, that is, were not in place. Secondly, in a scenario where the resources and choices are limited, it is most efficacious to include items with most mass appeal in the library's collection.

Is it worth it?

It most certainly is worth it. Libraries couldn't attempt to cater to all the literary and and recreational needs because they lacked resources and means for accurately assessing needs of their patrons.

What would we have to do?

We will have to device means to find out what our patrons really want. This can be accomplished by means of opinion polls, suggestion boxes or surveys. Once we know what is wanted, we can gather these materials and make them available to library patrons.

Text based Blogging vs. Podcasting

Text based blogging and Podcasting both have their pluses and minuses. Text based blogging may be the choice of those who prefer writing to speaking/making oral presentations. Similarly those who are comfortable speaking and finding writing tedious, would opt for podcasting.

Text-based blogging gives the individual a certain degree of flexibility: She/he can read blogs at her/his pace. Text-based blogging is as useful to the hearing-impaired as podcasting is to the visually imapaired. An important advantage of podcasting over text based blogging is that it permits multi-tasking: an individual can listen to a podcast while driving or while having breakfast.

scils598f08-edexperience

link to scils598f08-edexperience

link to my scils598f08-edexperience set

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Librarians as New Producers, New Markets and New Tastemakers

Chris Anderson reflects on how the culture and economy are responding to changing environment. This is essentially an extension of his long tail argument. He suggests that economy is shifting from a limited number of mainstream products to a large number of “designer” products, sought by a relatively small group of people. He specifically identifies three processes:

• Democratization of products (as opposed to manufacture of products mandated by someone)
• Democratization of distribution (as opposed to a centralized distribution)
• Connection of Demand and Supply

This argument essentially shifts the focus of product design and specification from the manufacturer to the consumer. For example, in the old days, having an article published entailed a multi-stage process, requiring co-operation of many entities (publisher, printer, proof-reader etc.). Now, technological advances have empowered individuals to undertake such a task on their own. An individual can publish his thoughts using desk top publishing, a website or a wiki.

Librarians can further the cause of the democratization of distribution by helping to share resources like encyclopedias, DVDs and other materials.

Librarians are in the best position to judge the demands of their patrons and thus, they can let them dictate the materials that are acquired by the library.

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Educational Expericence at SCILS

My educational experience at SCILS is perfect! Initially, I was a little worried because I had never taken an online course. I am an independent learner and the MLIS online program suits me well. It is simply wonderful and at times, incredible to imagine that a person can receive superior quality education from the comfort of her/his home. I love every aspect of the SCILS program--the flexibility, the instruction and the course material. Although I am not technically savvy, I am enjoying the Social software course very much and I find this week's Flickr assignment particularly delightful. All in all, online MLIS at SCILS has been a very exciting experience.

Long Tail and Library World

I find the Long Tail argument about libraries fascinating. Because of internet, it is no longer necessary to visit a library to read a book; it can be read on a laptop with a wireless connection, right in your home. This kind of an omnipresent library, addresses two somewhat unrelated issues pertaining to libraries in the internet age - firstly, the local book store or public library is just not big enough to carry all the books which patrons/buyers are likely to find interesting. A digital library doesn't have any such physical constraints. Secondly, in a situation where paper-and-ink books can exist only at one place at one time, all the people who are waiting for a book to become available have to wait patiently for their turn. Digital books don't have any such constraint. Thus, digital books can be at several places at same time. This characteristic of digital libraries removes the demand-and-supply restriction and books are able to reach the "long tail" of demand. These observations together, pretty much assure digital libraries' position as the killer-app of the library universe.

del.icio.us bookmarks

I think that using del.icio.us bookmarks for 'virtual introduction' is a great idea, especially for an online course. Looking at these bookmarks would help us get better acquainted and find out about the interests and hobbies of our classmates.

Wikispaces and PBwiki

Both Wikispaces and PBwikis are free for basic services. There are different plans available over and above. The charges for additional plans vary according to the features that have beeen selected. Wikispaces has ads on free wikis. PBwikis have no ads for educational/instructional wikis. PBwikis offer five presentation styles. Wikispaces offers some fixed themes that can be customized. In order to customize themes, some knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. There really is very little difference between PBwikis and Wikispaces as far as the editing features are concerned. Both the services offer text formatting, bullets, links and tables.

Google docs

Google Docs is a free, Web-based combination of a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation application offered by Google. Google Docs combines the features of several services, typically offered by several applications.

GoogleDoc seems like a very interesting tool. However, it smacks of being too "Techie" and as a result, it may not be acceptable by everyone. Furthermore, it looks rather functional (read not sleek), which may very well raise some eyebrows. Since this type of a document does not look very scholarly, it may not be acceptable to some members of an online/ on-campus faculty.

GoogleDocs is a bona fide web application - it allows you to create presentation within the application itself. Moreover, it allows you to import documents created in variety of formats. By default, all the documents are saved on Google servers. GoogleDoc automatically saves open documents to prevent data loss. GoogleDocs also maintains revision history and allows the documents to be tagged and organized.

GoogleDoc allows users to collaborate on the creation and modification of a document. Documents can be opend and edited at the same time. As a result, GoogleDocs is useful in making presentations.

Documents and presentations can be created within the application itself, imported through the web interface, or sent via email. They can also be saved to the user's computer in a variety of formats. . Open documents are automatically saved to prevent data loss, and a revision history is automatically saved.

However, a major drawback of GoogleDoc is that it does not offer sophisticated security. Since multiple users are logged on to their Google Accounts and can access Google Docs without restriction (there is no password check), there is a threat to the privacy of important documents.

Brown and Duguid and Education

One of Brown and Duguid's principal observations is that technological advances will not create the revolution than so many information technologists have envisaged. In their perspective, information is meaningful only in a social context. For instance, in an internet chat-room, information exchanges are artificial since they are largely stripped of the social context. Distance learning may be a valid choice for the adult, independent learner. On the other hand, devoid of the social component, distance learning does not always make sense, especially for children. Developing interpersonal skills and becoming aware of their environment are part and parcel of the educational process of children.

Brown and Duguid do not suggest replacing the traditional educational system with a digital learning system, but rather, they visualize a hybrid system which is partially dependent on technology. The changes in education will be evolutionary rather than being revolutionary.

The book does not end with any definite answers or solutions. Instead, Brown and Duguid raise questions that pertain to the future world. In conclusion, the work leaves the reader to ponder over the question of how technological growth will be woven into the educational fabric.

ma.gnolia vs. del.icio.us

1. Ma.gnolia is visually more appealing (to me ) than Del.icio.us However, some people would prefer the simple,functional layout of Del.cio.us.

2. Ma.gnolia has advertisements (which might be distracting). There are no ads on Del.icio.us.

3. Unlike Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia saves a snapshot of your web page. I don't know how useful this feature is.

librarything

LibraryThing is a social web catalog for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists. LibraryThing was developed by Tim Spalding in 2005. LibraryThings has attracted thousands of users from all over the world who have cataloged millions of books on different subjects: cook books, classics, science etc. The sign-up is free and a user can register upto 200 books. LibraryThing allows its users to catalog personal books, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have similar tastes in books.

Bookstores such as Amazon as well as some individual libraries volunteer cataloging infomation ( MARC and Dublin core records) for some of the books that are to be included in LibraryThing.

Tracking code

RSS and Information Overload

RSS is a remarkable tool that creats some semblance of order in what internet has to offer. Rather than asking Google (or any other search engine, for that matter) an unstructured query, RSS allows you to tap into a feed focused on or around something that you find interesting. My expericence has been that it is easier to select interesting articles from RSS feed than to wade through several million web pages Google typically finds for any query.

Final Comments on "Feed"

"Feed" is a caricature of today's information driven society. The world depicted in "Feed" has some resemblence to today's world but IMHO, it is limited in extent to the semblence a political cartoon has to the real world. They both make the point by overblowing anamolies. I would conclude that the world depicted in "Feed" is "close" to real world and at the same time it is not.

It is hard to think of Google as The Big Brother. It is merely a commercial enterprise very sensitive to what people might find useful. Products like AdWords and AdSense parlay some sensible insights into what people may find useful into viable commercial products.

The most striking aspect of the society depicted in "Feed" is the dumbing down of masses caused by exposure to what media has to offer. "Feed" is a cautionary tale against falling in love with new media. Like all innovations from spinning jenny to atom bomb, innovations by themselves are neither good or bad, it is what people do with them makes them good or bad.

'New to me' social software site

Club Penguin is a social networking site for kids between the ages of 8 and 14 years.It was created in 2005 by two fathers in Canada.
One of biggest pluses of this site is its focus on safety. Whereas other social software sites for teens, encourage the sharing of personal inforamtion, Club Penguin forbids it. Many parents consider it as a safe place for their children.

Another interesting aspect of Club Penguin is that it generates its revenue exclusively from subscriptions. This means that there is no advertising on Club Penguin.