RSS

RSS - Really Simple Syndication as I understand it is the ability to get a list of the new information posted to any website that interests a person. In order to get an RSS feed from a website first the website needs to offer RSS and second the user needs to have an aggregator that will receive these updates. These aggregators can be gotten easily, and free versions are available. Once you have an aggregator and have chosen which website(s) you want feeds from you will get a list of new information. You can then follow the link to anything that strikes your interest. This saves the user the time it takes to visit every single website that is interesting to them and search through the new information for something interesting.

From what I've read libraries like RSS because it allows them to communicate with users in a direct way. They can make updates to their webpages and the user who has subscribed to an RSS feed of their site will find out about it in a timely fashion, not just if they happen to visit the site. Information that may be hidden in an unusual place, such as new materials, may now become more visible. The disadvantage/advantage is that only people that subscri be get the info. This is good because people don't feel like they're being spammed, but not great because not everyone gets the message. But, it is another way of getting the message out, especially to the tech savy user. RSS may, in part, be attractive to libraries because of the "cool" factor. It shows that libraries know what is going on in the tech world and are keeping up with it.

Listserv vs. Blog

What is the difference between a listserv & a blog?

I think the main difference is that a blog is more passive and dictator driven, and a listserv is more active and democratic. What I mean by that is that with a blog one person creates it and controlls the content. In general a user needs to make an effort to visit the site to see what is being discussed and participate in the discussion (if that is permitted on the particular site), they may not be quite as passive if an RSS feed is available. In a listserv you sign up to be a part of it and you get every message sent straight to your e-mail account. You can decide to post a question / comment and anyone can respond.

The advantages and disadvantages of both really depend on what your goals are.
If you are looking for a platform that people can consistently check for information from a particular person/organization then a blog is the tool for you. It allows you the freedom to decide whether people get to comment on what you've posted. You have control. You will also find more blogs that are personal in nature than you will with listservs, which tend to be very topic or institution driven.

If you are looking for a more open forum that is more collaborative a listserv is the tool for you. With a listserv you get immediate participation, which can be great. I belong to several listservs because their topics interest me, but I also belong to several for work. They are great tools for posting questions and getting immediate feedback from a community of interested users. If you want a tool that is open to anyone in a community and want the messages sent directly to you then this is a great tool.

A great thing about both blogs and listservs is that they can be about any topic, you can generally find one about anything that you choose. You get feedback from people with varied experience, from a variety of places.

WEB 4 LIB LISTSERV

I have been watching this listserv for most of the semester and the one thread that seems to have generated the most comment is the one about Google & the Library Catalog. The original post was submitted on 4-10-06 and began with a person asking whether or not other libraries had allowed Google to crawl their library catalog and if so what was the impact on the catalog performance. In addition what were the policies about crawlers and the factors influencing the decision.

Many people had very strong opinions about this topic. While most seemed to agree that allwoing the crawlers access to the catalog was not helpful for the performance of the catalog and the results weren't helpful to the users there was not total agreement. One woman posted a link to her new wordpress version of her library catalog, the results of which could be picked up in Google. I didn't fully understand what she was doing, but it was an interesting idea.

The consensus seemed to be that while Google and similar search engines seem to be the first choice of many for finding information and thus desirable as a finding aid for library results it would be a mess if every library did the same thing. In addition how frustrating for potential library users if they find the record for a book that would be perfect, but it is in a library completely inaccessible to them by distance, etc.

Many people seemed to want to use what works in Google and use it in the library catalog, things such as tagging and the spelling forgiveness found in Google. I think this is a great idea. Everyone is prone to misspell things, and often a person has no idea how to begin, let alone correct a misspelling. Add to that the fact that when you do misspell something in an opac all you get is "no results" and you have to wonder, is there nothing there or did I misspell it. Do I really need to pull out a dictionary to find the correct spelling? Yuck, how time consuming, and today's user does not have time for that kind of hassel.

I'm not convinced that letting Google loose in our catalog is the answer. If people want to use Google for library books they can use open World Cat, which was actually suggested by other people on the listserv. The only problem with this is that it is not widely advertised and so most people do not know about it. I find that like Google Scholar, only librarians and some academics know about it. Making our library catalogs more user-friendly (Googlized) is probably our best option. If people realize our catalog isn't impossible to search they will be more likely to use it and more likely to use our resources.

Mozilla Firefox

The article from Wired Magazine about Firefox was interesting to me because I know so little about firfox. I have used it at work, but it is not my default browser. Prior to this article I have heard that firefox is better, but was never clear about why.

My sense, from this article, is that firefox is better because of it's security and speed. The security may be better in part (as this article mentions) becuase it is new and hackers haven't had as much time to work on it. It also get the impression that the speed is in part due to a simpler design.

I get the sense that annother part of the appeal of firefox is that it isn't from Microsoft. There is something more noble about software that is free and not controlled by the one corporation that rules the software market today.

Site Development Process

I found the Lynch & Horton article to be a nice overview of the process of creating a website. They seem to emphasize planning at the beginning. It makes sense that you would want to know the purpose of your site and who will design and maintain the site before you begin designing, but it would be really easy to get caught up in the design first. That is the fun part. Choosing pictures and colors, etc. Their suggestions about creating a template for future development was also interesting. It indicates the importance of consistency throughout the site. They also mention tracking the traffic on the site. From a library standpoint you would want to be careful of the type of information collected. A simple count of the number of visitors to the site would seem to be find, but anything more detailed is bordering on invasion of privacy. Their article ends with good advice about keeping a site updated, don't forget about it; and backing it up frequently in case there is some error and information is lost. This is an article to file away for any future web design projects.

Information Architecture

The title information architecture was a new one for me. As I read the Morrogh article I realized that it is a concept that I should have heard of. As he mentions Library Science is one of the disciplines that this new profession draws from. I notice that he mentions several disciplines that information architecture draws from, including visual design, information design, engineering, and psychology in addition to LIS. There are many different skills necessary in this field, which are laid out in the Kimen article. As I read these two articles I wonder if this is the type of work catalogers will begin to do more and more over the years.

Introduction

It looks like I forgot to put an introduction up. I was too focused on the reaction to a reading.

I currently work at the library at Concordia University in St. Paul. I am the Circulation Coordinator and also work in ILL and the Reference desk. I really enjoy working in an academic library and intend to continue is that branch of librarians. It is not surprising that the academic library is a comfortable and rewarding environment for me as my background is in education. I received my BS in education from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska in 2000. I taught 3rd and 4th grad for three years before deciding to pursue librarianship.

I am taking this class in web design because it seems that working with web pages is more and more important in reference work, especially in a library with a small staff such as Concordia. At this point I have only worked with front page. I am frequently annoyed by it because it will not do what I want it to. I hope to be able to do what I envision with html.

DNS: Take the magic out of maping

One of the articles that I read was of the above title. It explained the process behind the scenes for getting to the correct web page. I already had a vague idea that each computer had an IP address, but did not realize that there were numerical addresses attached to page names. It was interesting that the packets of information get routed first to a server that is connected to the domain it comes from, I would have assumed that it first went to the server that hosts the actual page. It makes me realize how little I think about the behind the scenes stuff let alone how little I know.

Test Post

This is a test post. I will post more later once I have had time to complete some of the readings.