• Janeway boldly goes forth

#23 Finis

I chose the fool card from the Tarot as a symbol with the label "future librarians" because like the fool I see the future librarian in real danger of losing their identities falling over the cliff of change and not using the skills they have to save themselves. (curiosity,organisation, a drive to guide and honour the individuals pursuit of an idea, and to respect individuals privacy in that pursuit) Libraries like the fool are moving forward into a world of infinite possibilities. They have all they need to do or be anything they want, they only need to stop and unpack. Like the fool we are on the way to a brand new beginning.
But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop look down, unpack.

Perhaps this is what we have been doing here with this web2.0 play, looking around before striding forward, just changing our names (not a fan of information commons, and knowledge managers) will not be enough in fact it could be a foolish move in re branding(yuck term) Most of the web 2.0 tools are already commonplace in this mobile phone souped up present. Internets have moved into libraries in a serious way we need to free up the controls and trust our users. (get up off the floor) If we strive to bring back respect for the institution of the library as a place of open learning and pleasure. The great unwashed will defend it for us as one of the last free,egalitarian,silent(why not, I think it needs to come back they will see it as a novelty)havens available in frenetic world.

So how do we market ourselves? We need to be aware of the new tools of communication certainly and use them ourselves but I believe symbols are powerful and if things continue the way they have libraries will cease to be a physical entity maybe there will be somewhere online a customer relations person? (cybot) Multi skilling has led to a watering down of the role and an inability to define just who we are and what we do.

(phew just got a load off my chest)
Bye all

#22 To Audio or not to audio,

Wandering around the world book fair I find a section in the internet archive oh my!! heaven is up there. 220,000 ebooks internet sites and cultural artifacts available to researchers and the general public now this is really talking. (pun intended) Google books cannot compete on the quality of the scanned works some are just beautiful to be hold. Curious isn't it that it is new technology that saves the beauty of the old letter press images. The open content philosopy and Googles "don't be evil" seem to be on a similar track but the tools used by Google namely their own search engine and locking people in to viewing sponsered advertising seem contrary. The internet archive provides the option to "flip view" a version of a book that flips over to turn pages to give the feel of a real book. The claim that the internet archive makes key word searching difficult was not found to be true. In fact the way it is done (in the flip view )with a little search box unobstrusively to the side in similar colour tones and pacing tabs on the pages where the term is used is more in tune with the way that researchers study a book. I liked the flipper book viewing options because it retained all the best qualities of a books beauty,and the sense of a solid treasure of ideas in front of you. The options available were to read it yourself or hear it read to you. You could also magnify sections, great if you are studying illustrations. At last I can have my cake and eat it too.
See A short relation of the symptoms of the plague of Marsaiiles

#21poddling

Pod casting as a tool in libraries,well I suppose it works, people are time poor and multitasking seems to be the order of the day. Talking books are racing out the door and not just for the vision impaired. A quick teaching tool at the Opac or podcast from the website may just fit in to a persons lifestyle. Virtual Dave's pod casts (found via Yahoo's podcast search and added bloglines) touch on the concept of the library as a conversation and that the podcast is an important part of the development of that conversation.

#20 Down the tubes

What to do about future libraries? The video below is from Denmark it shows an attempt to completely change what a physical library is. To use the narrators words .."to dismantle the book as a library brand"...They received some irate comments .One person felt the whole approach was contrary to the original mission of libraries .."to encourage reading and good citizenship"... It certainly seems to be taking the library in a new direction . But hasn't this approach been taken already by science works and the museums in general . They do say its just a physical change but difficult to see where the librarians are or where the in depth knowledge access is stored.

#19 So many tools so little time

There seems a definite trend toward saving out in the ether. Security problems may dictate that only shallow tools that focus on narrow projects or at least ones that are not particularly sensitive or of any interest to any one else would be used by a work place. I can see the social aspects could be useful and even fun for some of them, but I can't see the office type tools even though they can be restricted being taken up for sensitive things. The concept of collaborative tools are clearly useful for an organization if they stored on their own server. Knowledge management and group knowledge and information could use prescribed tags (Melville would approve) Important information that cannot be lost or accessed by others will probably not make it out to wide blue yonder. However now that many Libraries have many branches the day to day projects between teams could utilise tools such as Google Doc s and spread sheets just as we are doing in this training and of course we can restrict users to a chosen team.

Frankly only work of no real interest to others except those in the same field is likely to remain open. You can sex it all up with bells an whistles but only key hole peepers are likely to ever see or comment apon it.

Explored wufoo a form building tool that creates its own database it is partially free (different levels ) it could be a useful tool for the many functions ,book talks, training sessions etc that require people to book in it could be online and stats could be used from it for later planning. Feed back forms could also be created with little fuss and bother.

Having said that let me say this (now who does that remind you of) I just discovered ZOTERO and I am in love. This could be the tool that sends me over to to the dark side (dark blue ) it is a research tool that only works on firefox and flock because firefox allows access to more of the background code. It combine all the research tools that you would use in one space and even allows for note taking on a text ,tagging,citation management the works, love it . Problem though my workplace will not allow the use of firefox browser.

#18 ZOHO wandering

Whilst wandering around ZOHO I can see how it could be useful for collaborative work similar to google docs. The need for these may grow with the limitations often placed by IT departments on what one can create and save in the system, these tools by pass this problem by saving out in the ether.

Managed successfully to create the above in ZOHO and publish through to here, it was very fast .The option to email to specific others enabling them to read/ write could be useful it limits collaborative work to a specific document and would not require giving out passwords etc. I like the option of embedding training shows into a staff or public blog.

The wiki option was tempting so I have created a collaborative tale in wiki format. the tale of Janeway 21st librarian Feel free to add to the tale.