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Google and Your Patrons

When: Friday, November 18 2005 11:00 AM
Where: Calhoun Community College, Huntsville AL
More Information: http://www.dupagepress.com/COD/index.php?id=981
My Role: Attendee
Today I attended a teleconference put on as part of the “Soaring to Excellence” series of talks. “Google and Your Patrons” featured Steven Bell, with a brief phone appearance by Mary Ellen Bates.

I’ve done a bit of poking around Google on my own, and honestly didn’t expect to pick up much from the talk. Thankfully, I was proven wrong! Bell hammered on the point that while Google isn’t everything, if we dismiss it out of hand then we also dismiss our patrons who have come to depend on it.

Instead, why not show them how to use Google more effectively? I’ll take any teachable moment I can get. Make it clear that Google has limitations. As the patron (or student) gets to know Google better, point out features of library databases and other resources that will enhance and extend their search.

Beyond the central themes, I also picked up on a number of smaller items.
–Google Ride Finder points out where taxis currently are in selected cities
–Thumbshots and Dogpile have great visual methods of comparing what multiple search engines return.
-I’d forgotten the syntax for Open Worldcat results in Google: search for “Find in a library” as a phrase, along with what you’re looking for.

In the end, Bates and Bell both emphasized the need for balance. Show patrons that while there is Google, there is also more. Let them make their own conclusions.

Big Blog Brother

Cnet talks about high schools and universities using students’ blog contents against them.

Everything old is new again, eh?

I was a Junior in high school during Columbine (1999) and the aftermath thereof. The security crackdown was borderline obscene. One of my friends was nearly suspended for some fairly innocuous comments on his web page.

I’m sure the term ‘blog’ wasn’t in the popular lexicon yet back then, but the only real difference here is scale. I’ve heard current high school students describe their administration’s efforts to sneakily obtain invites to students’ social networking sites, with the sole objective of monitoring what is going on.

During my turn in the cycle, administrative types eventually got bored with the idea when there simply weren’t enough students’ web pages to warrant monitoring. Now that everyone and their goldfish has a blog, the supposed “threat” posed by kids fooling around is going to be massive and harder to ignore.

Now more than ever, students need to be educated about managing their online presence.

Gorman Redux

Over at the Librarian in Black, we have an account of Michael Gorman’s address to the California Library Association.

I don’t quite know how to react to Mr. Gorman anymore. Statements like “any idiot can design a web page” (in questioning why library schools teach tech classes) are just so blatantly incomplete and distressing. ‘Any idiot’ can also paint a painting, write a book, or do any number of other creative tasks. That doesn’t mean the end result is of high standards, or even legible. Shouldn’t that be obvious? Maybe someday these tech skills will be covered in everybody’s undergrad or high school classes, and Library Science degrees can drop the tech a bit. But we’re a long way from that point.

I suppose we should all just give up on technology, go back to the card catalog, and wait for the asteroid to wipe us out. Every time I read something about Gorman, I’m reminded of the professors at work who tell their students they “are not allowed to use any internet resources”. This despite the fact that we offer over two hundred and fifty legitimate, academic online databases. But, a rant for another time.

Unfortunately, Gorman didn’t stay to take any questions. As one of the commenters asked on LiB, I’d love to know how the audience as a whole reacted.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Now this is interesting.

This morning Amazon launched their “Mechanical Turk” service.

Essentially, they’ll pay you a few cents at a time to do menial tasks. Example tasks include picking the best picture of a business out of a list (I’d guess this is for the A9 yellow pages listings) for 3 cents, or writing an auto part description for $.75.

I did six tasks in a few minutes just now. Each task has to be approved by a mysterious process before you actually see payment. I’m interested in how long the process will take.

Nobody is going to get rich off of these tasks, but do a few at a time and you will eventually build up a nice chunk of Amazon change.

This could also be a boon for the businesses who need menial tasks done.

Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium

I’m all signed up for the Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium in Chicago next month!

Jenny first mentioned it here, and there’s an official registration site . GamingInLibraries.com is also related, and has more information on each speaker.

I’m really excited for a number of reasons. First, gaming is an area I’m interested in even in my personal life. Learning how to apply the concepts and lessons learned to library work will no doubt be fascinating. Second, we’re in the process of working up a similar small scale symposium at work – I’ll be keeping an eye on how this one is run for ideas. Third, its my first business trip! And lastly, I’m excited about returning to Chicago. My brief exposure to it last June at ALA was a lot of fun.

And you know, maybe by December 5th I’ll be missing cold winters 🙂

Anyone else planning on attending?

Bowker Books in Print

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a few weeks now, but we somewhat recently had a demo at work from Bowker, focusing on their Books in Print product.

A lot of the features were a bit over my head, as I’m not directly involved with collection development or purchasing. But there was one idea that struck me as particularly cool:

Bowker maintains a list of all the books mentioned in the national media. Oprah’s book club, NPR, and a lengthy list of others. Cover images of the books are even available!

So if your library is a BiP subscriber, it is now possible to answer “What was that book on Oprah last year with the red cover?” at a glance.

Xbox 360 – First Impressions

10/30/05While running some errands at WalMart today, I noticed that they have an Xbox 360 out to play! Amazingly nobody was playing as I passed by, so I stepped up.

To be clear, my impressions of the system are based on a mere twenty minutes of play time on one demo. In addition, these kiosks are the most uncomfortable things ever to play. The widescreen monitor is directly above your head, with the result that playing is like sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

I played through the demo of Call of Duty 2, a World War 2 first person shooter. In this level you’re a British trooper assaulting a German artillery position. There are other demos on the kiosk too, but by the time I finished this one there were people waiting so I stepped aside.

My first thought: “Ooh, pretty!”

And I continued thinking that throughout my playtime. Unfortunately, the gameplay didn’t rise to the same levels. Oh its capable, worth playing, but we’ve seen it all before. There’s been a glut of World War II shooters recently (Call of Duty, the Medal of Honor series, Brothers in Arms, etc.), and the market is pretty saturated. Other than the graphics and slightly rearranged buttons on the controller, which is an improvement, there’s just nothing to write home about in CoD2. Certainly not $400+ worth.

The Xbox 360 will sell well at first no matter what the games are like. I just hope the quality of available titles can step up as much as the graphics have. In the meantime, I’m feeling better about my decision to wait on getting one.

Flickr Printing – Free sample review

10/27/05

I used my free ten prints from Flickr today. It went OK, but not without a couple of hitches.

I selected ten photos to pick up at Target on my way home from work. I cropped them a bit through Flickr’s printing page, since digital photos don’t quite line up with the standard 4″x6″ ratio of prints. Sent the package off, and went on my merry way.

I hit Target about two hours later, and my envelope was waiting for me. First problem: Target wanted to charge me for the prints. This despite the fact that Flickr clearly states the first ten will be free. Thankfully, I had my confirmation printed out and with me, clearly showing $0.00 (plus tax). Be sure you do the same, at least until kinks are worked out.

The print quality is as good as I expected. I purposely selected a couple of my older, lower-res pictures as part of the ten. They’re no better or worse than they should be. Some higher quality examples, like my close-up of a grasshopper, are jaw-droppingly awesome (if I do say so myself). However, in one case the cropping of my print is completely different than I selected online. Not sure what happened there. It isn’t to the point where its unviewable, but it certainly looks unprofessional.

All in all, a positive experience. Not perfect, but pretty decent for the first 24 hours of operation. And the convenience of being able to do all this natively in Flickr’s interface is what ultimately will win me over.

I’m gonna have to start buying picture frames again, aren’t I?

Flickr Printing

Today Flickr added the ability to print photos! They can either be mailed to you, or picked up at any Target store. Prices start at $.15 for a 4″x6″ print, and go all the way up to $19.95 for a 20″x30″.

And starting out, everybody gets ten free prints! I’ve been interested in getting some of my photos printed recently, but frankly just haven’t gotten around to it. This convenience might push me over the edge.

There’s a couple of new Flickr partnerships too: Make photo books at QOOP, stamps at Zazzle, and backup DVDs with Englaze.

The photo book idea particularly intrigues me. Once I finish my year in photos project, I’d love to have it all bound together.