David's Random Stuff

Sunday Morning at Computers in Libraries 2009

2009-03-29T11:22:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

Why we are here at Computers in Libraries 2009 featuring Nina and Matthew.

Class Practice IL 2008

2008-10-19T14:30:00.001-04:00

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Why we're here at the conference.

Isaac Hayes Was A Bad Mother...

2008-08-11T10:41:00.003-04:00

As you've probably heard, soul legend Isaac Hayes passed away yesterday. I got to see him live once in Memphis and it was a badasssss show. It's kind of a shame that he is probably most well known now for being a voice on South Park, because as funny as Chef is, Hayes was an incredible songwriter, piano player, producer and performer.

I couldn't find any live clips from Hot Buttered Soul quickly, so here's a nice version of "Shaft." But make sure to track down HBS for probably the best example of his talent. His 18 minute cover of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" is amazing and "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" may be the funkiest song ever. Just ask Chuck D. or the Bomb Squad or whoever had the idea to sample the piano riff for "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos."

RIP.

Happy Birthday Joe Tex

2008-08-09T17:29:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of 60s/ 70s soul singer Joe Tex. He is somewhat underrated, but lays down a mean groove. Check out this video of his hit "Show Me" for evidence.

Somebody show Joe. If you're a fan of fairly down home soul, he is definitely worth seeking out.

2008 West Coast Tour

2008-08-09T17:13:00.003-04:00

Here's a full list of my upcoming presentations for the Fall. They're all in California, but West Coast Tour sounds more impressive than California Tour. Anyone want to make t-shirts?

September 25, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). Alameda County Library, Fremont, CA.

October 19, 2008: Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp (Preconference Workshop w/ David Lee King). Internet Librarian 2008.

October 24, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). California State Library, Sacramento, CA.

November 6, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). Buena Park Library District, Buena Park, CA.

November 7, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). San Diego County Library Headquarters, San Diego, CA.

December 3, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). Mountain View Public Library, Mountain View, CA

December 5, 2008: Practical Podcasting and Videocasting (Infopeople Workshop). Monterey Park Brugemeister Library, Monterey Park, CA.

I'm pretty excited about the Infopeople podcasting workshops. They'll be very hands-on, all day affairs. So if you are in any of the above areas of California and would like to learn about podcasting and videocasting, head over to the Infopeople website and register. They're remarkably affordable as well.

Also, if you have any tips for food/ drink in any of the above areas, please let me know.

New Lessig Book!

2008-08-05T17:49:00.000-04:00

Sweet! Lawrence Lessig has a new book called Remix coming out on October 16 (according to Amazon). Just in time for the IL+ leg of my Fall West Coast Tour. Description from the man:

Dedicated to Lyman Ray Patterson and Jack Valenti, it pushes three ideas -- (1) that this war on our kids has got to stop, (2) that we need to celebrate (and support) the rebirth of a remix culture, and (3) that a new form of business (what I call the "hybrid") will flourish as we better enable this remix creativity.

Lessig is one of my heroes and probably the best speaker I've ever had the honor of seeing.

Internet Librarian Props

2008-08-04T13:02:00.001-04:00

Hello again. I've been meaning to kick the proverbial blog tires lately and see if it'll still start. I was incredibly overwhelmed by work in the time leading up to Annual and it has taken me a little bit of time (and a few well earned vacation days) to get back to semi-normal. And honestly, my interest in blogging, and most online social activity really, has waned in the past few months. Although it is starting to return. But more on that another time.

I do have another round of presentations coming up, including another edition of the Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp that Mr. David Lee King and I have done for the last few Internet Librarian and Computers in Libraries conferences. Sam over at infodoodads talked about our session at the last IL the other day, saying it was the inspiration for his One Minute Critic videoblog. Very cool! I'm always excited to hear about new podcasts and videocasts that come out of our sessions. The post also gives some great reasons to use blip.tv, aside from it being Dave and Dave Show approved. Thanks very much for the nice words, Sam, and great job on the videoblog!

I'll have several more West Coast Fall Tour dates available in the near future when they are officially online.

SSP2008 – New Content and Business Models in the New Publishing World Order

2008-05-29T21:49:00.001-04:00

1. Online Communities: A World of Opportunity (Sharon Mombru – BlueInsights)

Online community functions: networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)/ info sharing (YouTube, Limewire)/ info organizing (Connotea)/ social discovery (Twine, Plum, BlueInsights) – people prefer to get info from someone they trust or know, networks filter and distribute info

Benefits of sharing: visibility for brand/ content, drives traffic back to site, alternative sources of revenue

Business models should shift to article based search/ recommendations instead of journal based. Free promotion for content owners through sharing.

2. AACR Publishing: Portals as Products (Mike Beveridge – Am Assoc for Cancer Research)

Market journals to institutions as package covering breadth/ depth of cancer research. Add value to existing subscribers and try to find new customers – trying to do this through portals.

Portals: aggregate content of all types/ enable production of meta-content

Cancer Reviews Online – pulls review content from original journal sites, free access for subscribers to at least 1 journal, showcase reviews from all journals, expand audience for all reviews

Cancer Prevention Journals Portal – aggregates prevention articles, based on article topic not type, free to all currently – will move to sep product in 2009

Portals position publishers for article economy.

3. iTunes for Scholarly Publishing? Debate
Geoffery Bilder (Cross Ref) + David Durand (Tizra)

Bilder:
Development of iTunes by Apple was very disruptive to music industry. What would happen if someone did the same for publishing industry, especially someone other than publishers?

Assumptions about publishing: “Publishers and librarians are conspiring to annoy researchers.” – our interfaces are terrible.

Have to break out of publisher/ institutional silos. Only place that orgs content by publisher is Frankfort Book Fair. Researchers collaborate w/ others outside institutions and geographic area.

We don’t know who our audience is.

PPV pricing model is mental. iTunes model might help with pricing and distribution of topic specific content like disaster relief articles – stuff in one place/ pricing simple and cheap/ interface easy to use. Simple and cheap pricing harder in iPub, but content aggregation is possible.

“We have the equivalent of the iPod – it’s called paper.”

Publishers should move into this area before someone else (Microsoft/ Google) does.

Durand:
{This guy is like 8 feet tall!}
{I saw him later and he isn't 8 feet tall.}

“Books are not sausages.” – different points of view,

Sales doesn’t have to be tacky. Figure out what people want and give it to them.

Customer relationships are changing.

Work with competitors to find customers - likely to buy things on specific topics regardless of publisher.

You can organize and make content attractive to your audience better than someone larger like Google can. Work in smaller groups to be more nimble and respond better to market.

SSP2008 – The Deep History of the Information Age

2008-05-29T20:40:00.003-04:00

Alex Wright - New York Times

{From his website I learned that Alex Wright is speaking at Tilburg University in the Netherlands this August. I spoke there last year! Cool. This talk was quite good. I'm going to have to pick up his book Glut soon.}

Old habits from old technology often get transferred to new technology. Library online catalogs are based on same principles as old card catalog.

People tend to think in hierarchies like folk taxonomy from oral traditions of past. Top down, nested systems as opposed to networks/ lateral associations. People also think in and create networks, New tech makes tensions bet hierarchy and networks – Internet creates tension/disruption to hierarchies.

Ice Age Info Explosion – mythic systems from hierarchies/ symbols beget wider networks/ release from social proximity

Age of Alphabets – writing began for accounting purposes and developed into other uses/ institutions developed around lists of stuff (laws, rituals etc)/ schism between oral and literate cultures

The Codex – networked book/ random access, pagination, index/ early mass production

Gutenberg – proliferation of books/ rise of secular literacy/ schism between “book” and “work”/ disruption of old institutional hierarchies/ period of drastic change

Industrial Info Explosion – development of what we think of as libraries (volume of books led to new framework of organization)/ mass literacy

Post-Industrial Web – look further back in history than last 15-20 years to understand development of web
*Cutter article in LJ from 1883 – describes something like Internet
*World Brain (HG Wells)
*Teilhard de Chardin – described info sharing membrane that would cover earth, work banned as being heretical (he was Jesuit), big influence on McLuhan
*Paul Otlet – universal decimal classification, Monde: Traite de documentation, Mundaneum (1934 installation in Belgium meant to be new library type, tried to make world depository of all human knowledge available to all, destroyed by Nazis and replaced by exhibit of 3rd Reich art). {He showed a clip from a video about the Mundaneum. The whole video seems to be available on the Internet Archive.}
*Vannevar Bush – “As We May Think” (1945 article in Atlantic) – Memex=desktop system that allowed associations between documents, blur distinction between reader and writer, election by association, two way links, visible pathways {There's an open source Memex simulation program available on Source Forge.}
*Eugene Garfield – citation ranking, SCI
*Doug Englebart – oNLine System (NLS), “Augmenting Human Intelligence”, tools for small group collaboration
*Xerox PARC
*Ted Nelson – inspiration for Berners-Lee, coined “hypertext” (1965), “Literary Machines,” today’s web=”vacuous victory of typesetters over authors” (he’s not a fan)

Today’s web has lots of rhythms/ patterns of oral cultures (additive, aggregative, participatory, situational).Wikipedia is literate object (encyclopedia) edited in oral way w/ discussions over edits etc. Same with online newspaper sites like nyt.com (readers have voice) and Amazon (editorial and user reviews).

SSP 2008 - Digital Preservation Parts 4-5

2008-05-28T22:27:00.003-04:00

4. Victoria Reich – LOCKSS/ Stanford Univ. Libraries

Libraries are memory organizations.

Questions: What should be preserved? Who do I want in charge? What does the archive cost? What am I preserving against?

Digital preservation is a continuous process and has to be dirt cheap. Key reason stuff is lost is economic.

LOCKSS: empowers libraries to build and preserve collections – keeps libraries viable. Heterogenous, decentralized system designed to fail slowly.

LOCKSS doesn’t: redistribute or republish content, get between publisher and reader, take hits away from publisher website. Content delivered to readers when your site is unavailable AND content is preserved in LOCKSS box. Content only available to authorized users of a particular library in same format as publisher website. {Why use this if using something like HighWire to deliver e-content?}

Web formats become obsolete when the majority of browsers no longer render that format. LOCKSS reader sees is result of best technology at the time of access – preserves context/reduces costs by migrating & processing content when needed by the reader.

No publisher costs, libraries pay on sliding scale (not subscription – helps libraries provide info w/o building new infrastructure).

CLOCKSS: Community of libraries and publishers working towards global archive. Community governed comprehensive archive (CrossRef). Keep preservation in expensive. Don’t charge for access.

Trigger=content not available from any publisher for sustained period of time with little chance it will become available again. Available content is open access.

Q&A Comments:
LOCKSS designed from a user perspective to deliver content at same URL they are used to. Branding very important.

5. Carol Richman – Sage

How repositories differ: stated purpose/ dark v light/complete backfile v current/ deposits (who? what? why?)/ rights transfer/ access control/ costs.

Graft: ceased publication 3 yrs ago, kept hosting on web but eventually allowed to be trigger event for LOCKSS/ Portico/KB – needed approval from all kinds of areas that it was good idea to release.
*discontinued due to lack of subscribers, archive released through Portico first and handles DOIs

Reactions: positive – system works/content available/DOIs will remain active/ Sage acted responsibly; negative – why did you cease journal?

Auto/Biography – purchased by Sage and discontinued, never existed in online version but being digitized and will be release through CLOCKSS/ Portico

Q&A comments:
Publishers should have at least 3 archival arrangements with different places around the world.

SSP 2008 - Digital Preservation Part 3

2008-05-28T22:24:00.000-04:00

Radhika Nurati – Apex CoVantage

{Digitizing backfiles}

Business objectives: preservation/genealogy (Mormons etc)/research/access/revenue generation

Issues with semantics – digitization can bring together similar content called different things (India/ Britain conflict in 1800s called different things in literature of each country)

Image quality/ source pages (varying quality of filming for fiche etc)/ OCR quality are big issues.

Index images when digitizing.

Break projects into pieces: do things when you have money – think about future up front, mark things to come back to later like cleaning captions.

DTD/ Specifications:
*NLM DTD is standard
*Match publishing DTD and archival DTD to make things easier
*Item boundaries – what do you consider an item? Harder to tell in older journals – not broken up as well, more like paragraphs/mishmash of formats. Decide on boundaries and give guidance to digitizer.
*Item categorization: decide on article types – 50 types in NLM DTD, consistency and ease of use by users

Digitization phases: pilot – range of types of pubs and different time periods (variations of content)/ system test – let users see if content is usable, user analysis is good/ stead-state production

SSP 2008 - Digital Preservation Part 2

2008-05-28T22:21:00.002-04:00

Eileen Fenton – Portico

Why worry about digital preservation? E-resources can and do disappear! (about 13% of linked content in articles can’t be found in 27 months, obsolescence due to format/ devices, loss – NASA lost the original moon landing recordings, funding, orphans)

Digital preservation is NOT: reformatting from print to digital for access (digitization doesn’t result in preservation – creates digital object that can be preserved)/ back-up or byte storage on various media/ mirror sites or networks designed for delivery/ carried out within delivery systems

Digital preservation IS: active content management designed to ensure enduring usability, authenticity and accessibility over the very long term – active and ongoing activity, not passive (have to remain actively engaged in object over time, not just scan once and leave alone)

Core requirements for preservation: 3rd party w/ mission to carry out preservation (outside environment object created in)/ sustainable economic model/ technological infrastructure/ clear legal rights with current providers/ compliance with digital standards and best practices

Emerging models: national libraries (should national libs collect e-journals produced outside their countries?) – Natl Lib of Netherlands, British Library/ community supported 3rd party preservation/ networked library efforts

Portico: preserves scholarly literature published in electronic form (born digital and digitized versions) and ensures that materials remain available to future generations – intellectual content (text/tables/images/supplements) available over long term – access to archive kicks in when content isn’t available from any other source (only libs and publishers who participate), publishers can choose to allow post-cancellation access through Portico

Insights: publishers are developing strategies to manage risk and meet lib requirements/ working with multiple partners/cooperative interaction with archival partners//libs actively evaluation preservation options/multilayered strategies//archives must be flexible

Q&A comments:
Digital publishing blurs the lines of what constitutes an “item” – not just what’s between the covers anymore. Includes audio, video, user comments etc now.

Different preservers are taking different approaches, which is good. Helps build more robust collective network for future.

Portico is non-profit with a board from lib/publisher/academic community.

SSP 2008: Digital Preservation - Part 1

2008-05-28T22:14:00.004-04:00

Daniel Dollar – Yale University Medical Library

shifting formats: content (online journal version of record/ digital backfiles)/ scholarly sharing/licensing/usage (COUNTER compliant)/accessibility (easy/clear path to content, no passwords, open url)/ownership(purchase content not lease, archival access rights, post cancellation access to content you subscribed to)/preservation (trusted 3rd party)

CLIR study – E-Journal Archiving Metes and Bounds (2006): archiving programs of non-profits working w/ peer reviewed lit published in digital form, international scope
*7 indicators of viability: explicit mission/negotiate rights/identify titles/ minimum defined services (receive store, guard)/ preserved into available/ organizationally sound/work as part of network (sharing, coordinating)
*Conclusion: current license terms for libs mostly inadequate, viable options emerging, no single program will meet all needs, coverage uneven, libs should influence developments, programs need greater support transparency

Digital repository certification: Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC): Criteria and Checklist – Center for Research Libraries doing in US

Section 108 Study Group Report {woohoo!} – libs/museums have clear rights to make preservation copies in print, not so clear in digital

{Yale Medical Historical Library has a steak that Pavlov autographed preserved in formaldehyde! Coolest thing ever.}

Conclusions: online journals are version of record (Yale Medical only collects e-versions, don’t subscribe to print-only journals)/ issues are complex (technical/risks/costs/trust)/ submit content to certified and trusted 3rd party preservation archives (submit to more than one – Yale uses LOCKSS and Portico)

{Sounds like Yale Medical does lots of cool, comfortable stuff with space and electronic environment. Get out of the library and into residency spaces etc. Responding to needs of students.}

Q&A comments:
Multiple partners hedges on making the wrong decision at the present. Not good to depend on one system.

Mr. Eddy Arnold Came From Tennessee

2008-05-08T21:27:00.002-04:00

Smooth as butter countrypolitan superstar Eddy Arnold passed away today at age 89.

Let's give old Tennessee credit for music indeed.

NJLA2008: Practical Podcasting Preconference

2008-04-29T21:48:00.002-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the "Practical Podcasting" preconference session at the New Jersey Library Association conference today. There were a couple of technical issues, but hopefully everyone learned a little about podcasting and videocasting in libraries. Here are my slides, complete with the images that freaked out as a result of the PowerPoint crash. Additional information, including links to podcasts we discussed, is available on my wiki.

| View | Upload your own

The audio recording part went great. All of the "talent" and technical folks did a great job. I'll get the video finished and online tomorrow. Sorry again for the technical problems!

I had a blast talking to everyone today and I hope all the attendees had fun as well.

Library Podcast Podcast

2008-04-29T15:37:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

An NJLA preconference special!

Greetings From New Jersey

2008-04-29T09:59:00.002-04:00

I'm currently in chilly and damp Long Branch, New Jersey for the New Jersey Library Association Conference. I'm doing a preconference workshop on podcasting and videocasting this afternoon and a brief intro to said topics on a panel tomorrow. Watch the blog for slides, audio, and video from today's session.

Despite the nasty weather Jersey has been fun so far. I can see the ocean from my room and had a great dinner with Amy Kearns and a couple of her Jersey library friends last night. And I'm looking forward to the conference as well. Sarah Vowell is doing a keynote tomorrow!

CIL2008: The Dave and Dave Show - Results!

2008-04-16T17:36:00.004-04:00

Today I had a nice Facebook message from Elizabeth Davis of the Lackawanna County (PA) Children's Library, one the CIL2008 graduates of the Dave and Dave Show. Otherwise known as Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp. She made this short video of a puppet show from her library as a test of videocasting to show her colleagues.

Elizabeth said they are going to hopefully be doing more with audio and video, so keep an eye out on their library blog.

If you are a past attendee and are also making audio and/or video content at your library now, let us know!

Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter - New York Times

2008-04-16T13:04:00.000-04:00

Just saw this article from the New York Times. Apparently Georgia State University, a former employer and alma mater, is being sued by publishers for alleged copyright violations related to digital course packs. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

CIL 2008: Podcasting CyberTour

2008-04-11T12:01:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the ridiculously large crowd that came out for the podcasting cybertour at CIL on Tuesday. I'm amazed and glad that so many folks took time out of their lunch to listen to me speak. I hope you all learned some useful information. Links to all of the resources, including featured audio and video podcasts, are available on the wiki page for the talk. And, as always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Here is the presentation, complete with a couple of additions we talked about but weren't included visually.

| View | Upload your own

Thanks again for coming, and I'm sorry for the delay in getting the slides online.

CIL 2008: When Web Calling, Video, and Libraries Collide

2008-04-08T13:25:00.006-04:00

Char Booth, Ohio University. Article in upcoming Internet Reference Services Quarterly (13.2).

scalable web video/ calling library services are possible = point of talk. just because you can do it doesn't mean you have to. see if right for your community. informed experimentation is key.

evolution of electronic reference: email - chat - IM - web based IM - voice/video over IP/IM (iChat/Skype most popular)

what to use web calling for? video kiosks/ standalone reference/ distance ed/ professional activity

Some professors use Skype recording of classes etc as videocasts. {Pretty cool.} Very good and cheap for distance ed. Char uses in ed tech MA program for interaction w/ students in Ghana.

Started Skype kiosk to provide reference services to remote "scary" floors of library. Ended up moving it. Been in 2 locations and 3 different designs. Originally used Windows Live Messenger but switched to Skype. Skype is more stable for constantly open call, free, saves history, multiplatform, add extras, can text as well. Librarian on video all the time. People can walk by and see librarian. Pretty much the same thing as being on physical reference desk. Librarians had to get used to being on camera when working in office. Eventually changed to call-in model.

New version isn't live open call. Has links for floor plan, directory, hours, and ask a question. Disembodied head version got the most usage for some reason. Also have Skype as part of ask a lib service. Have to look at stats in relation to how many people use the technology says Jenny Levine.

No way to make eye contact Makes ref interaction weird. People don't move the camera in relation to their height. Tours gathered around the kiosk and were startled by librarians moving. "Librarian freaks in a box." Students would occasionally make out in front of camera. {Oh yeah. Exhibitionist paradise for 3-13 minutes.}

San Francisco State using similar tech to replace some service points. Good for providing services during renovation etc. Toledo Public Lib, U of Canterbury both using as well.

Don't use wireless connection for kiosk. Will crash and have to go fix often. Staff/ patron buy-in is essential to success. Make it voluntary perhaps.

DimDim lets you show slides and chat and such. Yugma is another screen push plug-in for presentations. Also has whiteboard and other features. Web calling build into Facebook - more students may be using in the future. How can libs use if they are using to talk to each other?

VoIP continues to improve and get more popular. Trend towards web calling over landline. Does take time to maintain and staff so have concrete purpose if you decide to use.

CIL 2008: Learning From Newspaper Publishing

2008-04-07T10:20:00.003-04:00

Brian Kroski, New York Observer

{I'm going to try to go to a couple of the talks in the Beyond Libraries track today to hopefully get some good ideas for work. This talk and the Learning From Non-Profits talk this afternoon look particularly promising from the program. Never mind the non-profits. Canceled.}

Web presence of Observer a year ago was pretty basic. Not many visits, not many ad options. Just text of paper online. Now 1.5 million visits/ month and a lot more ads. Using lots of social tools (tags, RSS, etc) now. Better search (SEO, analytics). Providing online archives back to 1997, looking to do more.

Tech: Online pub system made up of core publishing system (open source, handles articles, blogs etc), 3rd party aps, external data feeds. Hosting LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, SQL). Use Drupal for CMS - articles, blogs, embedded media, taxonomy, feeds, publishing scheduling, content promotion. Ajax to pull latest headlines from blogs to display on homepage.

3rd party aps: google/ analytics, advert, blip.tv, brightcove (slideshows), kaango (classifieds).

They pull in externals feeds on movie box office in NYC, top B&N books in NYC by zipcode, Publishers Weekly feeds. Lots of social bookmarking and commenting to bring in "accidental readers" who get to site from recs from friends. Dynamic homepage for "loyal readers" - content changes 4 times per day. "seeker" somewhat regular readers, know what they want to find when come to site, interested in a couple of topics (need robust search, channels, multimedia). "Opportunist" are infrequent but regular readers who get 3 views (recent news, what editors think important (chosen by EIC), what other readers think important - most read/ commented etc).

Advertisers want targeted marketing, rich media, skins for ads, roadblocks. Very aggressive marketing of site - get word out as many was as possible, allow others to resuse content, not worried about making money off syndication.

Socialite Slapdown - March Madness for socialites, runs on Drupal. Green Channel is partnership w/ Columbia U to cover "green" issues in NYC. Lots of reporter. contributor created video (fashion advice show "Simon Says" syndicated on Blip/ YouTube).

Q&A stuff:
Don't require login to do anything on site including comment. Making people login to comment meant no comments. Struggle w/ spam, but better interaction. Use spam filters to try to handle - filter out URLs but don't filter "naughty" words.

Rich web didn't hurt print subscriptions at all, actually grown print subs after web development. At minimum didn't hurt print, greatly improved paper all the way around.

Move towards more community based online presence instead of traditional publishing. Publisher as community builder in 2.0 world.

CIL 2008: Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp

2008-04-06T14:39:00.005-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp program this AM. David Lee King and I had a blast. I didn't take any still pictures, but here is it in brief video form.

Make sure to check out the audio podcast as well. Sorry for the lack of paper handouts for my part. I promise I really did send them in. Really. I did. But here is the presentation and you can download it from SlideShare.

| View | Upload your own

4/7 Update: The URL for the Princeton Poetry Podcasts in the slide show is incorrect. It should be http://pplpoetpodcast2008.wordpress.com/. My humbly apologies to the super cool folks at the Princeton PL.

Additional info, including linkage is on my wiki. Thank again for coming. I'm doing a podcasting cybertour at 12:30 (I think) on Tuesday and then the awesome Pecha Kucha later that day. Come say howdy.

CIL 2008 PODCAST

2008-04-06T11:30:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

PODCAST @ CIL PRE-CONFERENCE

Happy (Late) Blogoversary To Me

2008-04-03T15:49:00.004-04:00

In the midst of prepping for CIL and working on a bunch of projects at work I completely missed my 2nd blogoversary, which was March 28. Yeah, there are a few posts from 2004, but I don't really count those. My actually involvement in blogging starting at CIL 2006 when I was semi-peer pressured into it by Meredith Farkas and Greg Schwartz. Well, it wasn't really peer pressure as much as pointing out that my excuses for not doing so were pretty lame.

And it has been really fun! I've been pretty erratic in posting over the past 6 to 8 months due to relocating and new job and such. And figuring out how I was going to approach maintaining something that is nominally a library-related blog when I'm not working in a library anymore. But what I'm doing now works for me, although I am going to try to write more about publishing type issues. I'm not really sure that my blog is even semi-useful anymore to anyone in libraryland who doesn't know me personally, but it is still a fun exercise.

Speaking of Greg Schwartz, I'm pretty excited that he is blogging regularly again and back on the speaking circuit and has Unvocab going strong. I can pretty much trace all of my involvement in conference speaking, and things that have resulted from it including my current job, to him. And honestly, I've felt like the stand-in or D-List Greg the whole time. I get really uncomfortable when anyone implies that I'm some sort of podcasting expert because, as LiB pointed out recently, he is The Man when it comes to library podcasting.

So thanks for reading, and I hope to catch up with old friends (and make some new ones) at CIL.

Princeton PL Poerty Podcasts

2008-04-02T20:28:00.002-04:00

Just in time for National Poetry Month (and CIL presentations), I had an email from Janie Hermann of Library Garden fame today letting me know that the Princeton N.J. Public Library is reprising their most excellent Poetry Podcast Blog. The content will be 60% poems from poets who didn't get a change to participate last year and 40% returning poets with new readings.

There were some great readings last year, so this is definitely worth adding to your podcatcher as new podcasts are released everyday. And a great use of podcasting in general.

Lets Play Two

2008-04-02T00:13:00.006-04:00

Yes, let's do that. So on Monday a statue honoring Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, was unveiled on the corner of Clark and Addison here in still remarkably frigid Chicago, Illinois. You would think someone would have proofread the freaking thing.

From the artist comes the best quote ever - "I'm the sculptor, I'm not a writer." Indeed. This one goes out to all the grammar/ punctuation snobs. You know who you are.

It's OK To Like Nick Lowe

2008-03-24T17:57:00.002-04:00

Especially since today is his birthday. Nick Lowe is The Man. Check out this live video of his song "So It Goes" (with Rockpile) if you need proof.

Gentleman Jesse and his Men from the ATL appropriated the guitar riff to amazing results. Check them out if they ever come to your town.

A View to Hugh

2008-03-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things about my current job is getting to pick cover images for C&RL News. While I have broken the usual trend and commissioned original artwork, most of the covers are from archives and exhibits that are sent in from various libraries. Today I received some pictures and a link to an online collection of excellent photographs from a North Carolina photographer named Hugh Morton. The UNC Chapel Hill Libraries acquired his archives and are documenting the collection on a blog called A View to Hugh. In addition to posting selected images and commentary, the blog includes some behind the scenes looks at the processing of the collection. And it won a 2008 Best Archives on the Web award. Very cool!

Funky, Funky Birthday

2008-03-18T10:45:00.003-04:00

This morning my handy Life In Hell calendar and Facebook informed me that my friend Griffey shares a birthday w/ soul legend Wilson Pickett. I couldn't find video of Griffey singing karaoke or anything, so please enjoy this ferocious live version of "Mustang Sally." I dare you to not shake what the good Lord gave ya in your cube/ office.

Right on.

A Perfect Day To Chase Tornadoes

2008-03-17T13:35:00.002-04:00

As you probably heard, there were some crazy bad tornadoes over the weekend in Atlanta. There was a lot of destruction in downtown and the path moved very close or through several areas of town where I used to live or spend a lot of time or had friends live. Scary!

Today one ATL friend send me a couple of interesting tornado-related links:

1. Google Map tracking the path of the storms. It has notes about various damaged locations and everything.

2. Flickr set of damage in East Atlanta, the last neighborhood I lived in before moving.

Very cool use of technology to document a disaster in an immediate way. As far as I know, all of my ATL peeps are fine, and perhaps even have power now.

I usually don't document the obscure song references, but the title of this post is a song by an amazing Florida singer/songwriter named Jim White. Here's a video of him singing it on Swedish television.

And for some ATL flavor, here's Jim performing his song "Alabama Chrome" at Criminal Records. I used to spend too much money there. A prize to the first commenter who correctly identifies what "Alabama chrome" refers to.

Unfortunately, I think it is going to take more than Alabama chrome to fix the damage in Atlanta. Take care down there, everyone.

Experimental Jetset, Trash and Sushi

2008-03-16T22:56:00.003-04:00

Oh hi, you're still here? Don't you have anything better to do? No? Ok, I'll try to start posting regularly again.

I've been getting more and more interested in graphic design since I started working in publishing. I've always been fascinated by signage and things like that, but I've really started becoming more actively interested in the theory behind design from a marketing and aesthetic perspective. So much so that I've started seeking out books by Edward Tufte, despite his hated of PowerPoint. Which is not inherently evil.

As part of this newfound interest, I recently Netflixed a great movie called "Helvetica." I meant to check it out when it screened a couple of times in Chicago, but never got around to it. Yeah, yeah. A movie about a font. But it really is an interesting overview of modern and postmodern graphic design. And how both designers and consumers, for lack of a better word, react to visuals, especially the presentation of the written word.

I'm a pretty huge fan of helvetica the font. Despite it's ubiquity, I'm a big fan ofthe modern look and the clean lines, and use it as my standard presentation font. The film does a great job of outlining the history and development of helvetica from the Swiss school of design to becoming a major corporate style in U.S. advertising and marketing. The anti-corporate reactions to helvetica are pretty interesting, with one designer semi-jokingly saying that it was responsible for the Vietnam War. These reactions, along with the influence of drug and music culture on the design world, influenced a move to more freeform, hand drawn typeface and design. And eventually to so-called "grunge" design, typified by Raygun Magazine.

I always had a love/ hate relationship with Raygun. Copies would show up in the mail when I worked in a library periodicals department, despite us not having a subscription, and would usually find its way home with me. The unreadability sometimes drove me nuts, even if it did look cool. In "Helvetica," the editor of Raygun tells a hilarious story about receiving a very cliche, and not very good, article about Brian Ferry (which probably mentioned repeatedly how suave he is and that "Avalon" is a great album), and running it completely in wingdings to make a point about the disposable quality of the writing.

{pretentious attempt to write in wingdings thwarted by Blogger}

But since all things are cyclical, reaction to the over-the-top nature of the more cluttered style led to a return to the helvetica-based, cleaner design done best by the super cool Dutch firm Experimental Jetset. Anyway, check out "Helvetica" the film if you are remotely interested in graphic design or good documentary film making in general.

There are some bands I like to name check, and one of them is Pavement. But I've never been a huge fan of Stephen Malkmus solo for some reason. So I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm digging his new album "Real Emotional Trash." Nice random lyrics and delivery backed by some interesting languid, jazzy stoner rock. Good guitar solos too. And one section of the title track has a definite "LA Woman" vibe. Not too shabby.

This week's consumable is sushi. Tasty, tasty sushi. On Saturday evening I went to a great sushi place called Tank in Lincoln Square. They do sushi the arty way, with interesting ingredients, flavor combinations, and presentation (follow the Flickr link for specifics). I think I still enjoy Tanoshii better for high end sushi goodness, but Tank is worth trip. And the perfect start to a square dance evening in excellent company.

Wired Campus: Abilene Christian U. to Give iPhones or iPods to All Freshmen - Chronicle.com

2008-02-28T10:45:00.000-05:00

The Chronicle Wired Campus blog had a post today about Abilene Christian University giving iPhones (or an iPod Touch - but really who is going to turn down the phone?) to students. They also have a video (part 1/ part 2) about how the phones/ iPods could be used on campus.

'll be interested to see what comes of this in reality other than lots of free publicity for the school. Intriguing concept with the iPhone though instead of just MP3 players.

Wired Campus: Lawrence Lessig for Congress? - Chronicle.com

2008-02-15T15:07:00.001-05:00

Interesting bit of gossip from the Chronicle Wired Campus blog. Would be cool I guess. But honestly, I think Lessig does more to raise awareness on intellectual property issues from outside the political world. In Congress he would be one of many backbenchers trying to be heard. Although that is fairly cynical for the Friday before a long weekend. So Lessig For Congress!

Smash Your Head On The Mashup

2008-02-10T20:59:00.000-05:00

Sound Opinions on Chicago Public Radio (and syndicated elsewhere and available as a podcast) is becoming one of my favorite things on the "radio". This week featured a very interesting interview with mashup (for lack of a better word) artist Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk. Gillis uses a laptop to create musical collages from loops of various popular and obscure songs. I'd heard his stuff before and it really is some of the most innovative mashup/ dj type things out there. But maybe the most interesting thing about Girl Talk is his live shows, which are total punk rock dance party insanity. The Sound Opinions guys called him the Iggy Pop of djs or something like that. Take a look at this video to get an idea what he does and see some live clips.

If you dig it, check out this cool movie of him taking a show out on the street in Montreal. And his show at Pitchfork last year got shut down due to crowd control issues. Remember, he is actually playing music live on a laptop by adding and subtracting various loops during all this.

Oh yeah, all of this music is totally illegal. In fact, Gillis records for a label called Illegal Art which is run by someone using the name Philo T. Farnsworth as a protest of copyright law. There is a very thoughtful discussion of the implications of sampling/ mashups/ whatever near the end of the Sound Opinions piece. This undated interview gives some details about the philosophy behind Illegal Art too. Interesting stuff! I'm personally all in favor of this sort of flaunting of our outdated copyright laws. And I have no problem saying that Gillis is as much of a musician as someone who plays guitar or drums or sings. What do you think?

And just to make you hungry, I had an awesome brunch of Huevos Diablos and a bloody mary at the Handlebar in Wicker Park today. Handlebar probably has my favorite brunch and bloody mary in Chicago right now. Sorry Silver Cloud fans (you know who you are). I left my phone in the car, so no documentation. But here is a picture of a spicy alligator sausage from Hot Doug's.

Hot Doug is as much of punk rock mashup artiste as Girl Talk. He just works in encased meats.

Facebook and Islam

2008-02-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune about the use of Facebook as a communication tool among young Muslims, especially in Great Britain. Muslim students tend to use the site to connect and discuss Islam with peers. This quote from a student is especially heartening:

If I want to learn something about Islam, I go to a book. I don't derive my knowledge from Facebook, but I do like to discuss things, and that's why I like Facebook.

Perfect!

2008 U.S. Tour: East Coast Leg

2008-02-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

Here are my Spring 2008 presentation dates. It is a brief tour of the East Coast. Not many cities, but multiple shows in each.

* Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp (Preconference Workshop w/ David Lee King). Computers In Libraries 2008. April 6, 2008.

* 2.0 Pecha Kucha - Conversation Face-Off (w/ multiple people who are smarter than me). Computers In Libraries 2008. April 8, 2008.

* Practical Podcasting (Preconference workshop). New Jersey Library Association Conference. April 29, 2008.

* We're Down with OPP (Other People's Podcasts) (Panel w/ multiple podcasters). New Jersey Library Association Conference. April 30, 2008.

Lebanon, Mississippi

2008-01-31T13:53:00.000-05:00

Nothing to do with libraries, but there was a fascinating story on Morning Edition this am about Lebanese food culture in the Mississippi Delta. A lot of the story took place in Clarksdale, which I visited several times when I lived in Georgia and made semi-regular trips to the Memphis area. Apparently there is a decent sized population of people of Lebanese heritage in the area. I've actually visited at least one of the BBQ places in the story that serves kibbe every Sunday. It is definitely worth a listen, and the text on the Morning Edition page is pretty comprehensive too. And now I am hungry for some Taste of Lebanon.

Thanks to a conversation on Twitter, I am now listening to the first album by Chicago (or Chicago Transit Authority, as they were called then)on Rhapsody. I actually like the first 3 or so Chicago albums. They have a pretty interesting mix of heavy guitars, vocal harmony, horns, and not much Peter Cetera sappiness. The guitars on CTA are especially nice and psych-ish. Worth a listen for free at least.

I'm going to try to return to the regular weekly publishing schedule this weekend. And am still going to write about the Midwinter experience from the staff side as well. I promise.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2008-01-09T16:37:00.000-05:00

Or is it? We shall soon see. After a week of craziness in the office, I am off to Philly tomorrow late morning for Midwinter. This is the first conference I have worked since coming to ACRL/ ALA and I am interested to see how the experience differs from previous conferences where I have either been an attendee or speaker. Perhaps I will blog about it.

My schedule is fairly full with meetings and such, but I am planning on going to the first hour or so the OCLC blog salon on Sunday. So stop by and say hi. Or I will be around the exhibit hall a good bit as well. I do have plans to see a couple of friends from the tubes, so it won't be a total work*a*thon.

I may blog a bit if I get a chance (but nothing juicy, sorry!) and will definitely post pics on flickr. And maybe even Twitter a bit.

Hope to see at least some of you in Philadelphia.

Seriously??

2007-12-26T14:38:00.000-05:00

wOOt? Word of the year? Give me "quixotic" any day. But at least it made me think of Tag Team.

I'm Waiting for The Day

2007-12-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

Are you waiting for the day when I blog again? Then you are in luck.

A couple of TV ads grabbed my attention in the past day or two, one I like OK and the other really bugs me. The OK one is the Burger King campaign where they take away the Whopper for a day and film customer's reactions hidden camera style. People get pretty worked up! About a burger. I like that BK does interesting, kinda edgy campaigns like the weird plastic King and the Subvervient Chicken. But as a former BK employee, I feel bad for the folks working in the restaurants that had to take the abuse. Maybe they were actors. It also got me thinking about a library version, like take away the Internet for a day. Or make people pay to check out books. Or have their questions answered. Might be a good awareness tool. Or just a train wreck.

The one that really bugs me is the US Celluar ad with the young woman who has just gone off to college and is all happy that the employee at the cell phone store is nice enough to help her Dad with the bills. I didn't catch it the first couple of times, but the implication is that Dad is functionally illiterate. And daughter's solution is to rely on a semi-off-brand cell phone store employee to read his mail to him! There are adult literacy classes @ your library(r) you could point Dad to. Or some other positive community-based individual improvement resource. Anything other than just letting Dad stay illiterate and taking his bills to a cell phone store! While he is sending her off to college. Geez. Bring back Joan Cusak, I beg of you.

This week's consumable is Glenmorangie Ten Year. I'm not a big Scotch (or whiskey in general) drinker, but I had a glass when I was hanging out with my friend John the other night at my current favorite bar in the universe, the Duke of Perth. It was the perfect mix of smooth and warm and tasty. If you're looking for a non-beer compliment to an evening of excellent, wide ranging conversation, you could certainly do a lot worse.

Speaking of perfect compliments to a time or mood, a couple of weeks ago I was in a semi-bad mood so I broke down an ordered a 180 gram vinyl copy of Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. As far as I know it's not available on vinyl domestically, and is always quite pricey when I see it in stores. But I didn't pay toooo much on ebay for it. And I'm glad I did because it was waiting for me last Friday at the end of another semi-bad day, or a day I wasn't 100% satisfied with. I can't quite put my finger on why (or maybe I'm just not going to tell you, gentle reader) but listening to that music was exactly the right thing at the right time. And made everything alright. It really is one of the best collections of songs ever. Great lyrics, amazing orchestration. Sunny and moody at the same time. But also smooth and tasty, like a good Scotch with a good friend in the best bar in Chicago.

Surly Bender Phonebooth

2007-12-09T19:18:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't forget your weekly consumables post. Just didn't want to include it in the Twitter Is Like... post.

This week I went on a Surly Bender. Literally and figuratively. There's a ton of new stuff on the menu at my local Belgian beer watering hole. One of which is called Surly Bender. Or the brewery is Surly, from Minnesota, and the beer is Bender. It is a brown ale/ porter/ APA hybrid with a tons of malty flavor. And is yummy. Very, very drinkable and has a low ABV even. Nice. And if you drink it when you're still somewhat sick and in a terrible mood you can text your friends that you are on a surly bender and convince them come hang out with you.

Fortunately for my week of being sick, I received a nice order of records from Goner. Including the new album my ATL acquaintances The Carbonas. It is the best thing they've recorded yet, and that includes some pretty monster 7 inches. Great songs, nice recording by Dave, short, sweet, and excellent. I'd heard all of the songs many times at their live shows when I lived in Atlanta, but I'm psyched to have "Phonebooth" an "Didn't Tell You A Lie" on the vinyl. Very nice melodic punk to play too loud when you come home from a surly bender.

Twitter Is Like...

2007-12-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, December 4 a little meme broke out on Twitter where people posted "Twitter is like..." thoughts. Here are as many of them as I could find. Names have been removed to protect the innocent. Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been sick with The Plague. Or whatever most cases of the plague actually were. I can't remember if that was a real conversation or an episode of House. But I have the real convo option narrowed to two parties. Anyway...

Twitter is like drunk sex w/ a friend: not nearly as intimate as you expected it to be, but still sexy & satisfying.

Twitter is likie drinks with @dwfree - makes you feel all nice and warm inside. {Awwww!}

Twitter is like sucking out my braaains...

Twitter is like an inside joke: no one gets why you do it unless they do it.

Twitter is like compressed infobursts, effin ay!

Twitter is like.... so. y'know. ... What was I doing?

Twitter is like sex without a condom. Sure it's fun, but you will probably regret it later.

Twitter is like crack for procrastinators.

Twitter is like cheating on your blog.

Twitter is like John Blyberg - You don't like it until you try it.

Twitter is like your drunk uncle at Christmas, sometimes you want the madness to stop, but you still wanna see where it's going.

Twitter is also like Paris Hilton: slutty and unfortunate.

Twitter is like a crack addiction without all the mugging, prostitution, and running from the cops.

Twitter is like a celestial bulletin board.

Twitter is like whippits.

Twitter is like ADD without the Ritalin.

Twitter is like drunk sex with @Joshuaneff.

Twitter is like being stuck in a massive kaleidoscope- ooh something shiny!

Twitter is like being in a room with your "friends", saying something really loud, and hoping that someone hears you.

twitter is, today at least, like my own personal weather forecaster!

Twitter is like having 10 IM windows open at once.

OMG! Twitter is like, totally bitchin', ya know?

Twitter is like english101 gone bad

Twitter is, like, another reason I, like, totally, looove innovation

Twitter is like a party in my phone!

Twitter is, like, totally awesome. (ok really i'm done. lunch over)

Twitter is quotidian packet hops.

Twitter is like being griefed in Second Life, but with fewer flying penises

(Twitter is instant gratification.)

France unveils anti-piracy plan (BBS News)

2007-12-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

I missed this last week, but the French government has stepped into the music "piracy" fracas by creating an agency to monitor file sharing.

Net firms will monitor what their customers are doing and pass on information about persistent pirates to the new independent body. Those identified will get a warning and then be threatened with either being cut off or suspended if they do not stop illegal file-sharing. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the deal was a "decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet".

Um, OK, French president. Whatever you say. Sure, it's just France, but any government stepping into the "piracy" monitoring business is disturbing. On a few levels.

There was an interesting new piece on France and the RIAA on this week's Sound Opinions on Chicago Public Radio today.

Oink If You Love Community

2007-11-26T16:20:00.000-05:00

Holiday shopping time is upon us. Which brings up the question of what presents to buy folks. Or what, if anything, to ask for. I was talking to a friend the other day about updating our Amazon wish lists and we were both having trouble coming up with present suggestions. One option is to look at the automated "people like you like" suggestions on Amazon. But do you really ever use those? They often make me scratch my head and wonder why some algorithm thinks I would like band x or movie y. I'm way more likely to find stuff I like through various online boards, blogs, and forums where actually, real, like minded humans are talking about what they are into.

This was the point of an article in last week's Chicago Reader about the now-defunct bit torrent site Oink. I wasn't all that familiar with Oink, but it was an invitation only site for hardcore music snobs, for lack of a better word. And that community aspect, along with consistent tagging and file quality, was what drove people to use the service. The article argues that there is a lesson to be learned by major online music retailers from the community model of Oink:

"Microsoft has recently started hiring experts to help round out the Zune Marketplace’s low-traffic departments, like folk music. It would’ve been more cost-effective for the company to take a hint from Oink—if it could connect a bunch of brilliant music freaks with an appreciative audience for their comprehensive knowledge of vintage Turkish psychedelia or obscure Japanese noise or insane Bollywood soundtracks, the Zune Marketplace might start looking more like Amoeba Music and less like Borders."

Right on! That lesson can be applied across online retailers, and really to any 2.0 type service. Its all about community.

And speaking of Amoeba Music and Zune, when I was in San Francisco I picked up the latest album by the Oakland band Rogue Wave at the Haight Street Amoeba. And then discovered that one of the songs, called "Lake Michigan" for some reason, is in a Zune ad. The Zune ad that doesn't feature the female singer who sounds like Cat Power but isn't. The album is relatively hit and miss, like their past two releases, but is worth checking out for some fairly solid, interesting indie pop stuff. And not one, but two, songs that reference Chicago.

In fact, I listened to Rogue Wave on the bus from Lincoln Square back to the 40 last Sunday. And then proceeded to enjoy a yummy Gouden Carolus D'Or - Cuvée Van De Keizer* at the Hopleaf while reading about Oink in the Reader. The D'Or is a very nice, sipable wintery beer with mild spice and fruit undertones. Only about half the people I've recommended it to like it, kind of like Houblon Chouffe, but those that do love it. So give it a try.

*Beer Advocate requires registration to search beers but it's free, so go ahead and register now. We'll wait.

The iPod lecture circuit

2007-11-24T10:13:00.000-05:00

Take a look at this very nice, lengthy article on coursecasting from the LA Times that was reprinted on the Tribune website this morning. And I'm guessing in print as well, for some reason the Trib doesn't have a weekend only print subscription option. Not very customer friendly!

"Something revolutionary is happening," said UC Berkeley professor Richard Muller, whose Physics for Future Presidents class airs on iTunes. "A large number of people around the world want more education. They thirst for understanding and knowledge."

The article mainly focuses on iTunes U but does give a good overview of the impact of freely available lectures to those outside academia.

It's Fun To Stay At The...

2007-11-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

For your Thanksgiving reading pleasure, here is an article from today's Sun-Times website about a gentleman who has worked and lived at the Irving Park YMCA for 58 years. He sounds like a nice man. He does seem to really dislike one particular song though, for good reason.

"Whenever I hear it at the Cubs ballpark, I get so aggravated."

In blog news, I'm going to try an experiment where once a week I post something that covers one topic in the library/publishing/social computing world, one food/ drink topic, and one music topic. Look for the first in what will most likely be a one part series tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving. Or Thursday to my Canadian friends.

I Am The Annoyed Librarian

2007-11-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

Ok, I confess. In the most clever ruse in the history of Internet ruses, I, David Free, am the Annoyed Librarian. I know I work for ALA (kinda), am male (definitely), and more likely to drink Belgian beer than martinis. But, gentle reader, that was just to throw you off. Have you ever seen AL and I in the same room together? Of course you have. Because she is me. It's been a good run of riling people up, but there is too much pressure. Too many people on my tail. So I confess. I will continue to post my annoyance at all things library, but now you know.

I am also Lonelygirl15 and that Britney Spears guy. And Bigfoot.

And really, isn't there a bit of the Annoyed Librarian in all of us??

Internet Librarian 2007 Preconference Podcast

2007-10-30T17:54:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

Slightly edited podast from the Podcasting and Videocasting Preconference at Internet Librarian 2007.

Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp: IL2007 Version

2007-10-29T16:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who attended the Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp session at Internet Librarian on Sunday. I hope everyone learned something in the session and had a good time as well.

The music before the session was by Beulah.

Here are the links to podcasts that I talked about:

Other information from the session, including links to creation tools, slides, and additional readings is available on my wiki.

Thanks again for coming! I had a blast working with you all. Feel free to email me with any questions.

When I Get To California, I'm Gonna Write My Name In The Sand

2007-10-26T13:03:00.000-04:00

In the morning I'm heading out to Monterey for Internet Librarian. David Lee King and I are doing our preconference on Sunday. After that, I have no presentations or anything the rest of the conference. So it will be cool to just relax and go to sessions. And then have a couple of days of vacation time.

I'm especially looking forward to seeing many of my conference/ Internet friends again. And meeting new ones. So if you see me, say hello. And watch this space for blog-style updates.

Done Got Old

2007-10-26T08:29:00.000-04:00

Whew, I survived another birthday. And it wasn't painful at all. Thanks to everyone who sent e-cards or social networking greetings or had a beer with me. You folks are awesome. I'm really lucky to have such amazing friends.

Microsoft Buys Facebook Stake for $240M -- chicagotribune.com

2007-10-24T21:52:00.000-04:00

I ran across this very interesting news on the Chicago Tribune site tonight. Facebook seems to have sold a pretty small stake to Microsoft, but it is pretty huge in terms its potential growth. It is also interesting that FB partnered with Microsoft over Google or Yahoo! I wonder if long time users are going to rebel or are too committed to online Scrabble and sending fake drinks to care? I come down firmly on the side of Scrabble and drinks.

Return of the Twitter

2007-10-23T11:19:00.000-04:00

Working on my presentation for IL, working on my schedule, and talking to friends about meet-ups for dinner and drinks and general catching up, is getting me back into the library world groove quite nicely after a little absence. In fact, I visited Twitter today for the first time in a long time. They've made a few cosmetic changes that look pretty nifty. I'll most likely be tweeting in Monterey, and who knows, maybe I'll keep going after that. Add me if you're going to IL. Or care about what I'm doing there.

I plan on blogging from Monterey as well. And posting pics on Flickr. I honestly haven't been very excited about any of this since I moved to Chicago, so I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

Don't Call It A Comeback

2007-10-13T12:26:00.001-04:00

I know. I know. I said I wasn't going to blog anymore. But I miss typing my random observations into this little box. Ha.

But seriously, I was talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about why I quit blogging and realized that I, um, still need a place to post stuff from presentations and such. And I can't face not having a Blogger ribbon at Internet Librarian. So I am going to perhaps not retire totally from the blog world.

And speaking of Internet Librarian, I'm doing the Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp preconference workshop with my man David Lee King on Sunday, October 28. Come join us if you want to learn about podcasting and videocasting. We'll make some fun stuff as well! There are a ton of great preconference sessions at the same time, so I'm glad I am teaching one and don't have to choose what to attend!

See you in Monterey, or on the Internets!

Fin

2007-09-24T11:20:00.000-04:00

Greetings readers. I was looking over my blog over the weekend and realized that I've posted a whopping three times in September. One was a left over from the Ticer Institute in August, and only one of the other two was of any substance. I keep meaning to get back in the groove and post, but the new job and life in general keep getting in the way. I don't find myself motivated to post or go back to ideas I have and actually write about them. And I don't see that changing much in the next little while.

So I think it is time to pull the plug on the random stuff, at least temporarily. I'm obviously not going to contribute anything else of meaning to the library blog world anytime soon, if I ever did to start with, and there is no point in pretending that I'll get around to blogging more. Being out of the loop of the day to day library world has changed the things that I think about, both work- and library-wise. And the desire to write about them isn't there anymore. This is all my personal decision, so please don't read any more into it than that. There is absolutely no outside influence on my stopping blogging.

And shrinking my online presence really isn't necessarily a bad thing right now. I'll still be on Facebook if you want to play Scrabble, and will definitely keep posting pics on Flickr. And maybe writing more blog-like descriptions of photos.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to try blogging. And to all of you who have been reading. Or at least keeping me in your aggregator. If you see me at any of the myriad of ALA/ ACRL events, please come up and say hello.

Bye.

Yarr

2007-09-19T09:07:00.000-04:00

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! If you happen to be in the SF Bay area, it would be a good day to go to the McSweeney's store. They have tons of cool pirate stuff. But stay away from Captain Rick.

Free The New York Times!

2007-09-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

I had this press release from the New York Times in my email this morning. Starting tomorrow, all of the content that was previously a part of the TimesSelect area of NYTimes.com will be freely available. This includes "23 news and opinion columnists, personalization tools, access to the Times archives back to 1987 and more". More!

This is a nice development that will perhaps inspire other online papers to open their subscription content.

Ticer Video

2007-09-09T17:35:00.000-04:00

During my talk at the 2007 Ticer Institute a week or so ago I planned to record and edit a video during the session. Of course technical difficulties and time ruined that plan. Ah well. But one of the participants - I'm forgot to get his name during the insanity - shot some footage of people working on the audio podcast part of the session. I edited it and here it is:

Click To Play

Again, I apologize to the people who attended the session for not getting through all of the objectives.

TIcer 2007 Podcasting / Videocasting Talk

2007-08-30T11:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who attended my talk on podcasting and videocasting at the 2007 Ticer Institute today. I hope everyone learned something in the session and had a good time as well. Here are the links to podcasts and videocasts that I talked about.

RSS In Plain English (1)

Claude Moore Health Sciences Library (UVA)

The L-Team (Williams College)

GPC Decatur Campus Library

Dowling College Library Omnibus

University of North Carolina, Pembroke Library Minute

Arizona State University Library Channel

Purdue University Boilercast

Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour

Information and Circulation (Cal State Long Beach)

WPI Library Audio To Go

Fairfield University Library Podcasts

ENGnetBASE (Georgia Tech)

UCOL Library Podcasts

Library Guide For Nursing (California State University , Fullerton)

Moraine Valley Community College Library

We also created a few of our own podcasts during the hands-on part of the session. They are available on the blip.tv site for the class. I will edit the video footage and get it online as soon as I can. I am sorry again for the technical difficulties that caused us to not get finished with the video in class.

Other information from the session, including links to creation tools and additional readings is available on my wiki.

Thanks again for coming. And inviting me to come to the Netherlands.

Groeten van Holland

2007-08-29T04:04:00.000-04:00

Hello. I am currently in Tilburg, Netherlands getting ready for my podcasting and videocasting talk tomorrow. Everyone has been super nice so far, and the computer lab and classroom rock. They have a great setup.

The trip has been fun. I hung out in Brussels and Ghent for a couple of days before arriving in Tilburg yesterday. An obscene number of photos are available on Flickr. I have decided I take way too many photos when I travel.

A couple of things I've learned:

1. Musuems are closed on Monday in Belgium. This is not good if you are planning on visiting them on a Monday. If I had bothered to read the guidebooks I bought, this problem could have been averted.

2. Bring a clock. None of my hotel rooms have had clocks. I use my cell phone for a watch, and it doesn't work in Europe so I have no idea what time it is most of the time. Which isn't a bad thing, except when I wake up in the middle of the night.

3. I've used Blogger so much that I can navigate it with no problem in Dutch.

I'm heading to Amsterdam sometime on Friday and then back to Chicago on Sunday.

Vaarwel voor nu.

Rhapsody DRM Free

2007-08-25T13:36:00.000-04:00

In loading up my digital music devices for my trip, I noticed that Rhapsody now has DRM-free MP3s available for purchase instead of DRM laden Real/ WMA format tracks. Costs are .89 cents per track and $8.99 per album, generally. And not everything is available as MP3s.

I mostly use Rhapsody for the subscription streaming/ download service which is, of course, going to use DRM as it is essentially a music rental service. But adding open MP3 downloads, makes the service much more appealing. There are tracks that I would sometimes be willing to purchase, and now I most likely will.

And now back syncing Common and My Bloody Valentine.

Keep Your Eyes On The Road

2007-08-25T10:35:00.000-04:00

This evening I'm heading out to Brussels, via a 4 hour layover in London (think there's Old Speckled Hen in the airport?), for the 2007 Ticer Institute. I'm talking on Thursday morning about podcasting and videocasting in academic libraries. There will be a pretty large hands on component to the session, so perhaps look for some audio and video online. I'm excited, and slightly nervous, about talking to a group of librarians whose native language is something other than English, but I'm sure it'll go well.

I'm spending a day and a half in Belgium and a couple of days in Amsterdam after, so look for pics on Flickr. I'll definitely have Internet access in Tilburg and looks pretty plentiful in Amsterdam.

Guest Post: Podcast Usage At The Dowling College Library

2007-08-24T13:24:00.000-04:00

{Here is another guess post, this time authored by Chris Kretz of the Dowling College Library.}

First off, thanks to Dave for the opportunity to share some podcasting thoughts here on his blog. My name is Chris Kretz and I'm the digital resources librarian at Dowling College on the south shore of Long Island. I also podcast for the library, an interview show called Omnibus. It tends to be about people's research interests and creative pursuits (whether they be faculty, students, community members or alumni) with a few forays into literary and dramatic presentations. I've been looking over our usage statistics for the last twelve months and wanted to informally share what I'm seeing in terms of the number of downloads of MP3 files, with an eye towards the question: are we attracting an audience?

When we started using WebTrends to track downloads of our MP3 files in July 2006, we had nine episodes already online. Over the next year we released 22 more. Those 31 episodes combined were downloaded a total of 17,970 times in twelve months. Here's how the top five episodes break down, with the interview topic and # of downloads for the year (our early shows often contained multiple interviews): a collector of Long Island ephemera and memorabilia (1700), a class on genealogical research (1611), computer safety and the history of a curious traffic intersection on campus (1598), a local historical society and the Drama Club (1494), a local historian and the Drama Club (1439). The local history focus grew out of our special collections . More work needs to be done to identify who our listeners are and this is by no means a full-blown analysis.

Am I satisfied with how we’re doing? My goal with Omnibus was to develop an alternative to onsite programming, something less formal yet with a coherent and continuing format. If we divvied up our downloads into attendance at 31 library programs for the year - well, for one thing, we don't have a room that will seat 580 people. Virtually speaking, however, people are still coming. So far we’re averaging 75 downloads a month per episode. That pace hasn’t slacked yet and since we have no foreseeable bandwidth issues, I see reason to continue and let the long tail continue to attract listeners.

Of course, there are lies, damned lies, and podcast statistics. Each download does not necessarily represent one listener. There’s no way to say if each download actually gets listened to. And we’ll have to do some surveying to get a better idea of who our listeners are. Beyond that, I see it as a positive that 17 faculty, 14 students, 5 administrators, 4 alumni, 6 poets, 4 professional actors, 13 community members and 1 NYCLU lawyer who may never have had occasion to meet or talk to a Dowling College librarian, have done so on our podcast and shared it with their friends and family. That, ultimately, will be how our core audience grows.

Mindset List (is a registered trademark of Beloit College)

2007-08-21T11:04:00.000-04:00

Just in case any of you who are still following my feed live in a cave or something, the Beloit College Mindset List came out today. I stand by my assertion that it exists for the sole purpose of making me feel old. Highlights:

"They never “rolled down” a car window." {They have never ridden in my car}
"They were too young to understand Judas Priest’s subliminal messages."
"The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born." {And now I am old}

But seriously, that last one is something to think about. Kids entering college this fall have ALWAYS HAD THE INTERNET.

We now return to our regularly scheduled silence. I really am going to start blogging regularly again soon. I promise.

GLLS2007 Audio

2007-08-08T17:45:00.000-04:00

If you attended the recent Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium, you probably saw someone running around between sessions starting and stopping recordings. That was me. Almost all of the sessions were recorded and will eventually be available online for your listening pleasure.

The first recording, Henry Jenkins' excellent keynote talk "What Librarians Need To Know About Games, Media Literacy and Participatory Culture", is now online. His slides are available on the wiki page as well. Follow along at home!

The recordings were done through the PA system for each room with iPods and Belkin TuneTalk. Jenny Levine is editing them, most likely with Audacity. The first one came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I read the little tag at the end too.

Keep an eye (or an ear) out for more session recordings in the future.

Wordie

2007-08-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

I was just perusing a copy of Copy Editor (really, I was) and ran across a mention of Wordie. Wordie is a social bookmarking site for words. The tag says it all "Like Flickr, but without the photos." You add and make lists of words you love or hate. Each word listed has links to several online reference sites for defining. You can also comment on words and provide citations. There are lists of top words, just like Netflix. "Schadenfreude" is #1 on the Wordie Hot 100. I created a profile and added "hemidemisemiquaver". Wordie is fun.

SlideCasts

2007-08-07T13:27:00.000-04:00

The Chronicle Wired Campus blog had a post yesterday about a cool new feature from Slideshare called Slidecasts that allows you to easily add audio narration to PowerPoint presentations. It sounds like you just upload a PPT to Slideshare, point to an online mp3 file and sync them. This could be a pretty good solution for folks who don't have access to screencasting software like Camtasia to produce narrated presentations.

8/8 Update:
Jeff Scott has a post on his blog Gather No Dust that details using Slidecast to make a screencast for his library. He posted a comment but I wanted to bring the link up top. Very cool!

GLLS2007: Gaming In Academic Libraries

2007-07-23T11:36:00.000-04:00

Lynn Sutton, Giz Womack - Wake Forest University
Lori Critz - Georgia Tech

Sutton:

most attendees haven't done gaming events {using clicker for audience response. cool!}
61% want invisibility as their super power
wake forest: gaming done for marketing purposes - way to reach out to students
gaming as complex learning theory - problem solving, media literacy, different paths to success in learning
want to incorporate into library instruction

Womack: {eeek, he's a wanderer! must levelate}

get game @ zsr - name of game nights {zsr is name of library}
3 open nights/ one tournament {tournament tires giz out]
advance registration
needed: staff (lib staff and resident technology team staff (live in dorms and help students w/ tech)/ equipment/ supplies (food, cords, prize)
stuff you need aren't insurmountable barriers to success
had students bring their own consoles - giz was "freaking out!"made plan of what went where in room (immediately "went to heck") {this guy is awesome!}
marketing - word of mouth (giz likes to talk), have to sell in library as well, student newspaper, gave away candy, made a youtube video
costs leveled out around $175 per event after initial costs
audience costs of folks doing it mostly 0-100 bucks
student surveys: like events, not huge # response but give info, wii was huge hit
how to keep people to stay after they lose in tournament?
giz loves the wii
network guys let them plug into network for xbox live {cool}

Critz:

spent her whole $2,000 budget for events
why? orientation, staff insight into student culture, branding, humanize the library, strengthen ties with IT people
"unreal tournament" - gory 1st person shooter LAN game, went along with playing it since students wanted
vendors very willing to give them copies of LAN games in exchange for promo opportunities
rented GIANT projection screen (don't do this anymore)
not many females playing {perhaps due to all the killing} - changed way things are done
out of 100 people playing in tourny, about 8 were left when ended at 2am!
grand prize= 20 g ipawd
takes a long time to clean up when over!
gains? increase coolness, face recognition, lasting goodwill, subtle indoctrination of freshmen to library (signage advertising classes/ databases/ VR help), clubs see library as partner for activities, great image boost for staff
learned: killing has limited appeal for females and non-gamers, need better tech, way too much staff time!, people like food, need more marketing, expensive!, need volunteer help
current game night=retro games {coolness!},board games, poker {cool!}, speed dating, ninja tag, DDR - do it during week before school starts to avoid competition w/ frat parties - had 700 freshmen last year

GLLS2007: The Payoff - Up Close and Personal

2007-07-22T16:54:00.000-04:00

Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District Library

presentation

average gamer isn't "smelly boy in the basement" - average gamer is 33 years old and female
our kids will be appalled at our lack of gaming skills
many lib services for teens are pedantic
"why does everything have to have dave eggers involved in it?"
eli's sons first camping trip was outside an electronics store the day wii was released!
seniors wii bowling! activity for seniors is good
ddr event: had a 78-year old man who got lost on his way to VA ("polock dick") who danced
gaming is same sort of social interaction in libs that has been going on before - taking personal thing like gaming and making it social
snork=smurf spinoff
game tournaments show that "there is still life left in the library"
big payoff=positive interactions with library staff - have presuppositions about lib staff when they come in, you don't wanna prove them right
gaming can bring people together across all sorts of groups, including language
Tournaments not about haves and have nots, breaks across socioeconomic demographics
library as source of cred
aadl gaming video rough cut: " i expect the library to have books, a poor selection of cds...", there are kids coming from kalamazoo to ann arbor for gaming {that's 98.6 miles}
payoff=proving relevance to audience that would never have thought of library in that way
gtsystem - opening up the AADL online scoring/ blogs/ registration etc for libraries nationwide, in future there will be national and regional tournaments, possibility of synchronized tournament days w/ finals taking place online over the net - potential marketing opportunity nationwide {this will potentially be HUGE!}, will start in july 2008

{aadl is doing some AWESOME stuff. and eli is a great speaker}

GLLS2007: Role of Gaming in Libraries

2007-07-22T15:34:00.000-04:00

Scott Nicholson, Syracuse University SIS

2nd part of "bearded white guy trilogy"
lack of basic research in gaming and libraries
study #1: "role of gaming in libraries: taking the pulse"
study #2: "gaming census" - not out yet
{i lost the game. but everyone wins one!}
supporting gaming in library isn't anything new - had chess club etc back in the day
almost half of libs surveyed supported board games
about 75% support gaming/ about 80% let people play online on lib computers
44% of libs in survey 2 that supported gaming programs circulated games
gaming in libs isn't just DDR, it is board games etc too
2,473 gaming programs in 2006 described/ 179 unique programs - lots of repeats because popular
half of gaming competitive, more in academic libraries
most programs console games: half of all programs DDR!
why? mostly to provide some sort of entertainment, also support current users and attract underserved users/ increase role as community hub
#1 single goal = bring in new users, entertainment is way down list of single most impt goals
77% of game program attendees came back for non-game related library services (more than used other services at time of game program)
73% improved social connections w/ friends
65% improved social connection w/ strangers
entertainment not main goal, focus was on patrons

{he would ROCK as a teacher!}

GLLS2007: What Librarians Need To Know About Games, Media Literacy and Participatory Culture

2007-07-22T14:22:00.000-04:00

Henry Jenkins

{ } = DWF

let's take a break from reading Harry Potter - why do people want to ruin the ending of the book? people afraid to go to HP parties fri night cuz they might find out how it ends
iCue - news archives to connect kids to american history {cool new learning project}
mcarthur study: 83% kids listen to music/ read/ play games 2 hours per day each
pew study: more than half american teens are media creators, 33% share beyond friends/ family - mostly urban kids doing this, not much race gap, girls more likely than boys to do by hi school (not suburban white boys mainly like stereotype)
participatory culture: strong support for sharing, more experienced help less experienced (informal mentorship - cross generational) {interesting breaking down of lines}
not just culture created by kids, adults and kids learn from each other
members feel their connections matter
participation gap: not just digital divide - most kids have network access either at home or thru school or library, what new cultural skills are needed in this environment? kids w/ broadband at home ALWAYS online, kids getting access thru school/ library may be limited in time and what they are "allowed" to access (filtering etc), kids w/ constant access have better skills and comfort level than kids who don't - kids who don't need different kinds of guidance from librarians
have to open up generation to thinking about how media shapes lives
ethics problem: more kids involved in live journaling than hi school newspapers - but no adult "oversight" to guide them in how to use ethically/ safely
students need to know: traditional print literacy (readin n writin, son has tons of online girlfriends because he is good writer)/ research skills (collect and process info, more info in unknown spaces now, need to teach how to read)/ technical skills (code/ compute - beyond keyboarding skills)/ media literacy (how is media created and circulated)
play: capacity to experiment w/ surroundings are form of problem solving - jump right in and figure out how world of game works, trial and error
simulation: interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes
performance: adopt alternative identities for improv and discovery - role play as way to develop skills through character, game as provocation to bring in info from other sources (like school etc)
appropriation: ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content - remixing has gone on for all time (homer, sistine chapel, shakespeare, melville - took content from other sources and made better thru abilities) {blues artists too} - kids can learn by taking elements of culture and remixing (someplace is using melville in classes a example of remix culture)
multitasking: scan environment and shift focus on salient details on ad hoc basis - ability to make quick decisions v important, shift in skills that is valuable and impt to understand
distributed cognition: ability to interact w/ tools that expand mental capacity (MIT well drilling game) {saw that one at ELI2007 i think, was neat example}
collective intelligence: ability to pool knowledge and compare notes w/ other toward common goal, real world GPS based games {i'm fascinated by real world live games}
judgment: evaluate reliability and credibility of info sources
transmedia navigation: ability to deal with flow of stories and info across muiltiple modalities - pokomon etc, complex systems in games
networking: ability to search for, synthesize and disseminate info - proposed gvt limits to social networking at libraries bad, is it better for kids to do myspace alone or have guidance from teachers and librarians? {amen!}{much clapping}
negotiation: ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning multiple perspectives and grapsing and following alternate sets of norms - not just minority/ racial, have to value all kinds of diversity in communities
project nml: whitepaper talk is based on and online documentaries for helping think about learning issues {cool video about big gaming}
librarians need to think of roles in new ways to help kids not just navigate library, but network too
facilitate learning thru games, dont shut games out, help and play with them - showcase work that kids have created {Maybe feature lib users' youtube videos on website if appropriate}
libraries are part of social network, help kids develop collaborative proejcts with others around country, speakers in second life etc

{wow, i took lots of notes! very interesting talk. bad font color choice on contact slide tho!}

The Classroom Will Now Be Podcast (Again) Web Links

2007-07-10T18:15:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who attended the ACRL "The Classroom Will Now Be Podcast" webcast today. I had fun talking to you over the internets and hope everyone learned something. Here are the links to podcasts I talked about.

Links to podcasting resources and tools are available on my wiki, as are links to articles and white papers on podcasting in higher education.

Look for posts responding to some questions and comments I didn't get to during the session in the next week after I get a copy of the chat transcript. There were some interesting links floating around in the chat window and I'll post those as well.

Guest Post: Fairfield University Library Podcasts by Leslie Porter

2007-07-09T15:04:00.001-04:00

Podcasters Rock!
Originally uploaded by dwfree1967

{As I promised last week, here is a guest post from Leslie Porter of Fairfield University talking about their library podcasts. Leslie was in the RUSA Pre-Conference I participated in at ALA Annual and thus got picked on. She is a good sport. If you would like to contribute something similar about your library podcasts, just write it up and send it to me.}

We created these podcasts for students in English 11 after consulting with English professor Richard Regan, who is very active with iTunesU. We knew he was going to be teaching his section of EN 11 as an iTunesU class, so we approached him and asked him if the library could offer any podcasts for integration into his class. He asked us to cover the databases that students would use for his class: LION, JSTOR, Google Scholar, and Project Muse. Instead of doing a straightlaced description of the databases, we decided to personify each database based upon its characteristics and then interview it in a short one to two-minute podcast.

We played at least one of the podcasts during the information literacy sessions for EN 11. Students usually laughed - and sometimes even applauded after listening to the podcasts - and it worked out well as a break in the session for students as well as the instructor. It was clear to me that many of the students enjoyed the podcasts and were surprised that the library would be doing something so "different." I think this is a good thing, because it helps humanize the library (and librarians) and perhaps affects in some way students' overall perceptions of the library.

Some of the students' comments can shed light on the effectiveness of the podcasts as an instructional tool. After each class, we ask the students to fill out evaluation forms. We never specifically asked about the podcasts, but students often commented about them in response to the question: "What about the session surprised you most?"

Here are a few sample responses:

1. That the web database could speak, and was a man!
2. The sound bites that introduced LION and Google Scholar and how hard the library is trying to be accessible and relate to students.
3. The LION database interview. It was different.
4. That databases can talk.
5. The audio, I thought it was really funny and will stick with me.
6. The LION talking.

-- Leslie Porter

Farewell Transmission

2007-07-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

"I will be gone, but not forever." - Magnolia Electric Co.

Wednesday I'm heading out to Chicago, so this will most likely be my last post of any substance for a little while. Although who knows, the Chicago Public Library seems to have free wifi in all branches, so I might be back sooner. But I will return in at least the next few weeks with the usual mix of random stuff that you have grown accustomed to over the past year or so. With probably a little more publishing and marketing type content thrown into the podcasting and library mix. So don't unsubscribe! But you're gonna have to look elsewhere for your ALA gossip. :)

I have one guest post lined up from a bibliopodcaster, so be on the lookout for that next week. And if you are podcasting at your library and would like to contribute a blog-post-length overview or insight or whatever about what your library is doing, I'll be glad to post it as well. Just send it to dwfree(at)gmail(dot)com.

Happy trails.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary Lives!

2007-06-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

Last night marked the debut of Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a new online library-esque talk show put together by my man Greg Schwartz. Greg and other awesome folks discussed some happening library issues and cracked a few jokes too. Check out this post for a recap of the first episode. And the show notes are available as well.

I was on of the folks listening in and participating via Twitter since I got in late and realized I didn't have the TalkShoe software installed on my laptop. It was crazy fun though and I hope to join in at some point once I get settled in Chicago.

I know Greg has had this idea percolating for a while and it was great to hear it come to life. And see him back online contributing to the library world. Excellent job.

BIGWIG Audience

2007-06-28T12:25:00.001-04:00

Yesterday David King proposed that the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase was the most attended program at ALA 2007, counting both the in person groups of 30 or so and the online audience. Cuz you didn't have to be physically there. As I'm not really doing anything but mapping directions to Target and IKEA in Chicago, I decided to add up all of the presentation page views from the wiki, plus the number of folks who watched the Twitter screencasts. I don't have the numbers for any of the other interactive content.

The unofficial audience for the showcase as of 12:30 EDT today is:

6,714

I haven't seen actual numbers of physical attendees for ALA, but let's assume that it is around 20,000. So that's about a THIRD of the people who came to DC. Of course people probably watched multiple presentations, but still. That's pretty awesome. And since the material is available online the number is only going to go up.

Indie Publishing & Distribution

2007-06-27T15:41:00.000-04:00

With my new job started paying a little more attention to publishing issues, especially related to magazine publishing. A couple of related recent stories caught my attention and bring up some interesting financial issues in small press or indie publishing. McSweeney's, one of my favorite publishers, is having financial difficulties due to a bankruptcy filing by their distributor. The are (or were in early June) auctioning off some rarities and inventory and giving subscription discounts to try to raise a big enough chunk of cash to keep operating. They've lost around $130,000 in earnings due to the bankruptcy.

Financial problems with a distributor also caused long running zine Punk Planet to stop publishing in the last week or so. It is pretty much the same story, they signed with a distributor who ended up not paying them and is now (I think) in bankruptcy. There was a great interview with Punk Planet founder Dan Sinker in Chicago Public Radio when I was there last week. Aside from a few ego moments (I can think of several people who would argue that Punk Planet wasn't THE arbiter of indie/ punk culture over the past decade or so), the interview gives a fascinating look at the work of economics of indie and small press publishing and distribution. Other publications, including Utne Reader, apparently worked with the same distributor and are fighting as well.

Both of these cases illustrate the tightrope walk that has to take place for many small publishers, especially literary mags and zines in general. It looks like there is a point when success can cause a need for outside, or more mainstream, distribution which takes some parts of the process out of the hands of the folks who are involved with the publication on a daily basis. And have to handle business issues for multiple publications. The same sort of growing pains that can effect indie record labels that have one or two break out acts. In the words of a great philosopher: mo' money, mo' problems.

Apple's New iPhone | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

2007-06-25T22:52:00.000-04:00

Here's a funny Onion Infographic on the iPhone. Should I buy an iPhone? Treo? Regular cell phone? Tin can w/ string?

BIGWIG Social Software Showcase

2007-06-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Twitter Table
Originally uploaded by dwfree1967

Thanks to everyone who came to the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase roundtable on Saturday. The organizers went out on a huge limb to put together the program and I'm sure appreciate you too. We had a great conversation at the Twitter Table. The session went much longer than the scheduled hour and there was great conversation and debate at other tables too. And there was much live tweeting going on.

The music before the session was by Jorge Ben Jor.

Make sure to take a look at the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase wiki and check out all the great presentations. That's the great thing about an online conference. You don't have to be there to learn something.

RUSA Preconference Slides Etc.

2007-06-24T13:58:00.001-04:00

RUSA Preconference Stage Left
Originally uploaded by dwfree1967

Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA/ MARS Reinvented Reference Pre-Conference on Friday. I had a blast talking to you. And listening to all the other awesome speakers. It was a great day.

The music I played before my talk was by Pink Floyd. You may have heard of them.

Links to my slides, podcasts I talked about, info on how to create podcasts, and more are available on my presentation wiki.

Let me know if you have any questions.

ALA2007: Question of the Day

2007-06-23T13:14:00.001-04:00

Will I have to spend extra time in purgatory for buying a Starbucks while listening to Fugazi on my mp3 player? Leave a comment!

The Wide World of Podcasting

2007-06-23T13:13:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA Reinvented Reference III preconference at ALA Annual 2007.

Here are links to the library podcasts I featured in my talk. I'll post my slides and some other information a bit later today.

Lansing (IL) Public Library

Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour

Pierce County (WA) Library System

Orange County (FL) Library System

Wadsworth (OH) Public Library

WPI Audio To Go

Fairfield University Library

UCOL Library

Library Guide for Nursing (Cal State, Fullerton)

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for coming!

ALA2007 - The Hyperlinked Library

2007-06-22T09:13:00.001-04:00

Michael Stephens - Dominican University

Librarian 2.0 is a trendspotter.

Have to market what the library can do. People don't know what we can do, esp online. Go to wikipedia instead of lib resources. (OCLC perceptions report)

Libs should: Evolve/ let go of control/ be visible in person and online.

Rethink physical reference space. Go beyond ref bunker.

Don't ban technology because it is technology. Have sane policies.

Have open/ honest conversations.

Be transparent. Open human conversation.

Speak in a human voice.

CPL patron blog

Catalog as blog - Plymouth State University: patron comments, let's patrons become engaged.

{I can now cut my Ohio University audio tour slide! Thanks Michael. ha}

Plan with your users. Listen to your users.

UIUC Facebook ap

Hennepin County hacked catalog to allow comments. Bookspace.

Go where the users are.

It looks like fun!

Have presence in the lives of your users.

Text/ SMS notifications in future. Good option for reference.

Give staff a sandbox to play with new tools before launching. Make it fun! Post cool pics etc. Doesn't have to be work related to learn.

Blog your library meetings. McMaster emerging technologies group.

Thrown out the culture of perfect. {/blogging}

{blogging}

Learn from gamers. It's OK to make mistakes and back up if you need to and regroup.

Second Life reference questions are growing. 200/ week!

Build library renovation projects in Second Life first and let users take a look and comment.

Create a culture of trust. Trust staff. Trust users.

Library 2.0 Squidoo and Ning sites.

1. Be a trendspotter
2. Form emerging tech committee
3. Try Learning 2.0 programs
4. Create a "What's New" blog
5. Explore presence

learn to learn/ adapt to change/ scan the horizon

Spring Tour 2007

2007-06-15T09:07:00.000-04:00

Let the travelling begin! On Sunday I'm heading up to Chicago for four days to look for a place to live. I've got some good leads thanks to the Chicago Reader and excellent assistance from friends and aquaintances. But wish me luck.

Then on Thursday I fly to DC for ALA Annual. My schedule mainly consists of my participation in the RUSA Reinvented Reference preconference, BIGWIG Social Software Showcase roundtable (Saturday from 1:30-2:30, Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room) and lots of ACRL job related meetings. With some social opportunities and a couple of actual sessions thrown in. I am free pretty much all Monday morning before I fly back to Atlanta at 4pm, so drop me a line if you want to get coffee or lunch or can recommend a good session.

I'm skeptical of my Internet access in Chicago hotel, but will be online daily from someplace with free wifi. So keep the Twitter comments coming. I'm going to try to blog from Annual as well if I can get online. I again can't figure out access possibilities at hotel, so posts might be pretty few and far between.

Questions, comments, and apartment leads are still being accepted at dwfree(at)gmail(dot)com. Hope to run into some of you in DC. If you see me, say hello.

Welcome To The Twitterverse

2007-06-14T09:38:00.000-04:00

Back in April at Computers In Libraries I was asked by my friends Michelle, Karen and Jason to participate in something they were planning for ALA Annual through the LITA BIGWIG group called Super Secret Project #2. SSP #2 is now known as the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. It is an online "unconference" happening at the same time as Annual with 11 presentations on up to the minute, cutting edge technology topics. The kinds of things that the realities of planning a huge, major conference like Annual make very difficult to cover. I was glad to contribute as all three of them are good friends and very, very innovative and cool librarians. I knew a couple of the people who were doing talks, but had no idea I would end up on a program with Michael Casey, Karen Schneider, Jessamyn West, Tim Spalding and all the other amazing folks.

My talk is a screencast called "Welcome To The Twitterverse". It is an introduction to Twitter and how libraries and librarians are using the service. My PIC David Lee King contributed the second part of our Twit-O-Rama called "i r fluffin yr twitterz", which covers cool Twitter applications and mash-ups like Twitbin.

I think my screencast turned out pretty well, although I wish I had scripted the audio a little more. Here's a comment from Josh Neff on Twitter about it:

I'm not 100% sure that's a compliment, but I'll take it as Peter Buck was my hero when I was in high school in Athens in the mid-80s. Visit the BIGWIG wiki site and see for yourself. And make sure to watch all of the other presentations as they come online over the next week.

Both David King and myself should be at the Social Software Showcase roundtable discussion at Annual to talk Twitter. It is being held on Saturday, June 23 from 1:30-2:30pm in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room. Come by and chat with us.

6/14 Update:
What do you think? Is Twitter a good tool for libraries and librarians? Watch the presentation and leave a comment on this post. Or just leave a comment and discuss all matters Twit.

The Classroom Will Now Be Podcast (Again)

2007-06-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

Due to good response and registration last time, I'll be presenting the ACRL e-learning webcast "The Classroom Will Now Be Podcast" again on July 10th. The webcast will start at 2pm EDT, 1pm CDT (my new timezone) or 11am PDT depending on where you live. I thought the session went really well last time and I'm going to incorporate a few of the questions into this version. Here's the description from the ACRL website:

Podcasting is an emerging technology that allows for the easy online distribution of media files. The use of podcasts for both personal broadcasting and as a media tool has grown greatly in the past couple of years. Many institutions of higher education are now utilizing this technology as a method of distributing promotional and educational content. This webcast explores the growing usage of podcasting in higher education and examines how academic libraries fit into the educasting environment. The session focuses attention on examples of podcasts as classroom and library instruction tools and examines how academic libraries can become more integrally involved in podcasting efforts on their campuses.

This Webcast will last approximately an hour and a half.

You can register on the ACRL site. And yes, there is a reasonable registration fee for the session. Again, please don't yell at me for doing something not free.

You may be thinking "Isn't he moving to Chicago around then? Is this guy crazy?" And the answer would be yes. And yes. The presenter bio is slightly misleading as I will technically be unemployed at the time. But the webcast will be fun and informative. And I promise there will be clips this time.

I (Heart) blip.tv

2007-06-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

I'm currently working on moving my work podcasts to a free hosting site for archiving before I leave at the end of the month. I again really wanted to support OurMedia and Internet Archive by using them for hosting. It's been months and months since I tried to upload to OurMedia and figured that the upload times might be better now. Not the case.

After fighting through several attempts to upload a file and getting either impossibly slow response times or my login not recognized, I gave up and went back to my old friend blip.tv. I've already gotten several files uploaded in a fraction of the time it took me to fight with OurMedia. So hats off to blip.tv for making one small part of my current insanity easier. And for easy video hosting too.

Old Presentation Materials

2007-06-10T18:02:00.001-04:00

If you happen to be using any of the presentation materials located on my GPC website (as opposed to my wiki), download what you are using or may want to use in the future prior to June 29th. That web space is going to disappear when I leave GPC. I am going to transfer materials from conference presentations to my wiki and SlideShare at some point, but it will most likely be after I get to Chicago.

Thanks!

SirsiDynix Institute Archive

2007-06-07T17:34:00.000-04:00

The archive from my SirsiDynix Institute presentation on Tuesday is now available. I would watch the two presentation Greg Schwartz did last year first and then mine to get a pretty up to date picture of the podcasting world. Greg gives a bunch of great technical information in his talks.

A Beginners Guide To Podcasting: Part 1 - A Consumer's Guide
A Beginners Guide To Podcasting: Part 2 - A Producer's Guide
What's New In Podcasting

As always, let me know if there are any questions.

Gotta Move On

2007-06-06T09:52:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of non-presentation related blogging lately. I have been incredibly busy with said presentations and work. Another reason for lack of said blogging is that I've been involved in interviewing for a new job. I'm leaving my current position here at Georgia Perimeter at the end of June, moving to Chicago, and starting work at ACRL as editor of College and Research Libraries News (along with some marketing and PR work) in the middle of July.

Moving from the academic world to the association and publishing setting is going to be pretty huge, but also exciting. I have a graduate degree in English along with my MLIS and had considered working in editing/ publishing in the past. So now I'm going to get to combine both areas of interest in one position. I also hope to be able to do some new things with the online version of C&RL News. I'm not sure what or how quickly anything will change, but I think it is on the radar.

I'm going to also use the move and new job to greatly reduce the amount of speaking I've been doing. I'm getting somewhat burned out on talking about podcasting and really think the topic, or at least me talking about it, is reaching saturation. I'm sure I'll do a few talks here and there, maybe about other things, but after fulfilling the commitments I have the rest of the year it will greatly diminish.

I don't foresee much changing with my blog though. I don't really talk about my work much outside of specific projects, so I expect that to continue. And do more writing about general library topics and other random things. The podcasting content will continue too as I'm still very interested in creating podcasts and keeping up with the technology. Although posts may be pretty spotty and involve ALA Annual and complaining about travelling for the next month or so!

Thanks for reading!

Places To Learn About Podcasting

2007-06-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Here are the links to the podcasting news and information sites I mentioned during my SDI talk today.

Podcasters Wiki
Podcasting News
Podcast User Magazine
Blogger and Podcaster Magazine

They all have great information about producing and comsuming podcasts.

SirsiDynix Institute Webcast Links

2007-06-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

Here are links to podcasts I talked about during my SirsiDynix Institute webcast on June 5th. Links to podcasting tools and library podcasting resources are available on my wiki.

Ask A Ninja: What Is Podcasting video

Podcasts To Consume:
Talking With Talis
Palinet Podcasts
LibVibe
District Dispatch
Grammar Girl
Battlestar Galactica Podcasts

Blog post with more podcasts consumed by real, live librarians!

Library Created Podcasts:
Sunnyvale (CA) Public Library
Pierce County (WA) Library System
Orange County (FL) Library System
Princeton (NJ) Public Library
Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour
Fairfield University Library
WPI Audio To Go

SirsiDynix Institute Webcast

2007-05-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

Would you like to hear me talk about podcasting? For free? Excellent. I'm doing a webcast for the SirsiDynix Institute called "What's New In Podcasting?" on Tuesday, June 5 at 11:00am EDT. The webcast is an update of the awesome two part podcasting series Greg Schwartz presented for SDI last year. In fact, Greg's presentations are so good that I really had trouble coming up with things to talk about.

But we'll take a look at some professional development podcasts (and fun ones too) along with some new library produced podcasts and a few tools that Greg didn't cover in his talks. I'll also give some tips for planning, implementing and sustaining podcasting at your library.

You can register at the SirsiDynix Institute website. Did I mention it is free?

Podcast Listening?

2007-05-23T17:09:00.000-04:00

Hello blog readers! I have a question for you: what (if any) podcasts do you listen to for professional development purposes? They can be library specific or not, it doesn't matter. Or really even just for fun.

Leave a comment. You can do so anonymously and it won't hurt a bit!

lolcats!

2007-05-22T22:19:00.000-04:00

There's a good photo essay on the lolcat phenomenon on Slate today. It even mentions lolbrarians. All i have to say is...lol.

Till Death Do Us Part - And Then Some

2007-05-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

If I ever get around to blogging again I was going to blog a recent New York Times column on copyright by Mark Helprin. He basically equates copyright with physical property rights. But just check it out through ACRLog. The post also links to a great Harper's article by Jonathan Lethem, whose newest book I've been told is a bit of a let down.

May 22 Update:
Anonymous commenter pointed out Against Perpetual Copyright on the Lessig wiki. This is a great response to Helprin that I completely forgot about in the original post. Well worth a look.

GUGM 2007 Presentation Links

2007-05-17T22:33:00.000-04:00

Here are links to things that I talked about/ played/ showed during my talk "The World of Social Software" at GUGM 2007 in Fort Valley, GA. Take a look at my presentation page for more information including the PPT from the session.

The music I played before the session was by Hermon Hitson.

The Machine Is Us/ing Us

RSS In Plain English

Blogs:
North Metro Tech View From The Library
George Mason University Law Library Circulation Blog
Circ And Serve

Flickr:
Libraries and Librarians Group
Georgia State University Library Transformation
Flickr As A Training Tool (scroll down to section for presentation)

Podcasts:
Georgia Perimeter Decatur Campus Library
Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour
WPI Audio To Go
Library Guide For Nursing (Cal State Fullerton)

YouTube:
The L-Team (Williams College)
Information and Circulation (Cal State Long Beach)
ENGbaseNET (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Playlist (Includes sleepy kitty and other videos I didn't show during the session)

Two For Fun:
Twitter
Pandora(Information about the fight over new royalty rates for online streaming radio is available on SaveNetRadio.org)

Try Me, I'm New:
Meebo Rooms

Thanks so much for coming to the session. I had a blast and hope you had fun and learned something as well.

GUGM 2007: Lies, D@#n Lies, and Missing Teeth

2007-05-17T14:49:00.000-04:00

UGA folks

pay stats/ free stats:
fedstats
first search
google gvt search
umich gov docs

ad driven metasearch:
nationmaster -mashup w/ wikipedia (content from wikipedia), limited search
statemaster - state version, comments under each page of stats, related sites links weird

open bible - bible/ google earth mashup, cool use of free info

impt to evaluate info from pay/ ad driven sites: purpose/sources/geography/years/content/viability/functionality

dataplace.org - good site, housing stuff, nice run down of contents of sources, data from other sources in new interface

social networking + online stats:
swivel- shows source for stats, comments etc, see what other people are doing, can upload your own spreadsheet info or type in yr own data, very current

GUGM 2007 Social Software Talk

2007-05-15T20:53:00.000-04:00

If you happen to find yourself in Fort Valley, GA on Thursday, come listen to me talk about social software at the 2007 GIL User Group Meeting. We will watch videos, listen to podcasts, post pictures to Flickr and maybe even Twitter a bit. It'll be a blast.

My talk is from 1:15 until 2:30 in an as yet to be determined location. Or go listen to Sarah Steiner talk about wikis at the same time. She rocks waaay more than I do.