Holiday Dinner

End of year get-together. It was nice to see everyone. Alas, being the cook, I was cooped up in the kitchen for way too much of it. Next year, I'm ordering out!

P.S. Managed to do all the dishes within 24 hours of the event. Yes, I know, a miracle.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Compile a Top 10 List

1. Everyone's doing it.
   
2. What about 'Top 3' or 'Top 12'? What's with '10' all the time?
   
3. I'd feel better about this if it didn't happen in December. Who's got the time? Better in August.
   
4. Sorry, I'm not going to bring up the iPhone or the Kindle again under any circumstances.
   
5. I'm still waiting for my Avatar to arrive from Second Life.
   
6. I'm thinking of doing a 'Top 3,000' over the course of the next 10 years and don't want to commit myself to a measly 'Top 10' this early in the process.
   
7. Got no time: My new book, Everything As Conversation, either goes to the publisher this month or my goose is cooked.
   
8. In a year where Vladimir Putin and 'woot' are top picks, maybe the less said the better.
   
9. It's not my problem if you're the last person on earth to hear about '2.0'.
   
10. 2007? Wake me up when it's over.

Current Cites for December 2007

 

Current Cites for December 2007 is out!  I even managed to put something in myself this month -- an interesting article by Ben Shneiderman on the promise of "creativity support tools". You can find the issue here...

A Modest Suggestion : LibrarySandbox.org

I got an interesting request a little while ago. A librarian wanted to know if she could get administrative access to a website I was running so she could see how Drupal works.

Naturally I had to say no, but it got me thinking that a "sandbox" version of Drupal -- based on a library website -- might be useful to people who wanted an idea of the "look and feel" of the thing.

Drupal has a module called "Demo" that makes sandboxes possible. So now I'm thinking this might form the basis of an interesting collaborative project.

The goal would be to create a model library website (representing a fictitious institution) that people would have administrative access to.

The website would have events, a list of resources, plus all the other accouterments a modern day fictitious institution would have.

If you'd like to help out or have any advice, feel free to leave a comment here. Or just email me.

I've already registered the domain, www.LibrarySandbox.org, though there's not much up there at the moment. 

eReader of the Future

Repeat after me:

• The eReader of the Future will play popular formats without the need for conversion.
• The eReader of the Future will be in color.
• The eReader of the Future will be an "open" networked device.
• The eReader of the Future will allow the user to download and install applications.
• The eReader of the Future will allow the user to mix and match information any way the user pleases.
• The eReader of the Future will not come from a company heavily invested in media ownership or sales.
• The eReader of the Future will boast access not simply to tens of thousands of works but to millions on the internet.
• The eReader of the Future will look a lot like the UMPC of the present.

DRUPAL4LIB Tops 200 Subscribers

Announced less than two days ago, I'm happy to see that we now have more than 200 subscribers!

What better indication of the need for a Library ListServ on Drupal than this?

DRUPAL4LIB, a ListServ for Librarians Interested in Drupal

I just sent out the following announcement to various library-related email lists:

Hi All,

I'm pleased to announce a new ListServ for librarians called 'DRUPAL4LIB'.

As the name implies, 'DRUPAL4LIB' is for those interested in Drupal, a popular open-source CMS, as it relates to libraries and librarians.

The idea is to have a forum to exchange ideas and advice, share experiences, and maybe even collaborate on a couple of projects that highlight the use of Drupal in a library context.

TO SUBSCRIBE

Send the command 'SUBSCRIBE DRUPAL4LIB First_name Last_name' in the body of an email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU.

Alternatively you can subscribe by selecting 'Join or Leave the DRUPAL4LIB List' from the DRUPAL4LIB Archives Page:

http://listserv.uic.edu/archives/drupal4lib.html

Everyone is welcome, whether beginner or pro!

LEO

UPDATE: Six hours later and we already have over a hundred subscribers.

Silly Security Questions on Online Forms

People who don't drive might have a problem with the "security" question I came across while applying for a subscription to "Streaming Media": "What was the color of your first car?"

Messing with Leopard

I upgraded my computer to Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) over Thanksgiving. I'm now getting used to some of the "over 300" improvements in the system.

I think the absolutely best new feature -- in fact the feature that sold me on Leopard -- is Time Machine where back-ups are built into the operating system. For years we've gone around telling people, "Always back up your computer" -- with the likelihood of anyone actually doing it around nil.

Here comes Apple and they make it part of the operating system! Really I think this is the most remarkable thing I've seen since they incorporated iLife into the OS. Amazing stuff.

Current Cites for November 2007

  

Current Cites for November 2007 is out!  Again I wimped out due to all my time being monopolized by Project X. That said, you can find the issue here...

Happy Blue Beanie Day

 

I support web standards and accessibility -- and so can you!

Kindle Swindle

 Please stop talking about the demise of the traditional book! To do so in the same breath as the Amazon Kindle gives this contraption way more credibility than it’s due.

The defenders of this device say we shouldn’t rush to judgment while at the same time they make such extraordinary associations.

It’s marketing. That’s all.

UPDATE: Ultimately, we're going to describe all the hype surrounding the Amazon Kindle as "The Little Bandwagon Effect That Couldn't".

I mean, Amazon said to the media, 'jump', and the media responded, 'how high'? (Here's a particularly embarrassing example from Businessweek.)

But the public won't have any of this. The level of resistance is due in large part to how far the claims for this device simply defy common sense.

Kindle Schmindle

So every time some new 'ebook' device is announced, we're 'sposed to drop everything and proclaim it a paradigm shift? At least that's the routine.

This week's candidate is the Amazon Kindle -- at least as presented in an article in Newsweek extolling its virtues titled "The Future of Reading" by Steven Levy.

The article is nothing but an uncritical paean to Amazon. The thinking behind it literally is: because Amazon has released the device, ipso facto we're entering "an exciting -- and jarring -- post-Gutenberg era". "The e-book reader," he declares, "is coming of age".

On the other hand, there's no serious analysis of why similar devices have failed in the past or why alternatives such as smartphones and laptops continue to prove more successful.

Instead what we get is a mis-mash of every technical buzzword and concept in the book. Words like "milestone" and "revolution" are mentioned. There's the obligatory iPod analogy. The device is possessed of a "disruptive" nature (well, what isn't these days?) and there's even talk of "Book 2.0".

From there, the author gets totally lost in a discussion of paper vs. electronic and the joys of hypertext (the "always-on book") that could have been written by Vannevar Bush.

All you have to know about the author is that he plunked down $1.99 for an electronic copy of Dickens' "Bleak House" -- a work long out of copyright and available for free at close to a million other sites -- and thinks he got a bargain ("You can also get classics for a song.")

This is gonzo tech journalism at its worst -- repeated for a day only to be replaced by the next new (under-preforming) device that some media giant wants to shove down our throats.

Update: Here's another example of uncritical stenography -- this time from CNET ...

TECH cocktail 6 (Chicago)

Thursday (11/15) was Tech cocktail 6. It's always great to see so many geeks located in one place. This like earlier Tech cocktails was at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville.

LISNews Now All Drupal

Blake Carter completed the (momentous) transfer of LISNews from Slashcode to Drupal a while back but I just noticed that he was kind enough to put in a special thank-you to me.

All I did was send him a comment every once in a while. Every system has a specific learning curve. Drupal is no exception. So what I added was easy stuff that by now, he'll have gotten on his own.

The truly herculean task was what he did. Still, it was nice to get a mention.

Um, Welcome to Chicago?

I know the Metra Station at Roosevelt is under construction but can't we do better than this ramshackle shack? You literally have to walk through this structure, hoping it won't tumble over, in order to get from the train platform to Downtown Chicago.

Three Days Till Doomsday (Mass Transit in Chicago)

Love the subtle messaging of the Chicago Sun-Times. This graphic greeted commuters somewhere halfway in Thursday's paper. The headline read, "3 Days Until Another 'Doomsday".

UPDATE: Doomsday averted. Praise the Lord!

Daddy Was a DJ to the Germans in WWII

Family History note: my father, William L. Klein, had a very popular German-language radio show in Chicago called the "Germania Broadcast". He had been doing it in one form or another since the 1930's and it consisted mainly of music with the occasional skit, etc.

Anyway, once WWII came along, he shifted gears, going to London and doing essentially for the Allies what he had been doing so well in Chicago -- namely producing German-language radio shows -- only now beamed into the homes and barracks of enemy Germany.

So I knew all this. What I didn't know was the extent of his activity. In a letter written by his superior, George M. Hanfmann, that I just came across while looking for something else, it states that "[h]e organized the entire production of our radio programs...".

This would make sense. George M Hanfmann, my father's superior, was chief of the German Section of 'ABSIE' (American Broadcasting Station in Europe). He was a Harvard Don with no experience in radio (see 'George Maxim Anossov Hanfmann, 1911-1986').

The letter states that my father produced over 1,000 broadcasts in between V-bombs and the London Blitz. Among the most popular was a "half-hour musical program" beamed to German forces. It featured major American talent like Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and Glen Miller along with commentary in German.

Hanfmann calls it the "most effective program".

Time Magazine in a contemporary account of both the program and ABSIE's efforts in general had this to say:

ABSIE's pride & joy were its musical programs, as American as pie à la mode. According to captured Germans, the favorite Allied program heard in Germany was Music for the Wehrmacht, which featured songs by topnotch performers like Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore. Beaming almost a third of its air time to Germany, ABSIE had solid assurance that its efforts were not wasted. The Nazis tried jamming ABSIE broadcasts, answered ABSIE's news comments on their own stations. ["OWI's ABSIE", Time Magazine, 7/16/1945.]

The article goes on to say that over 80% of Occupied Europe tuned into ABSIE in the months leading to the end of the War.

My father quickly returned to civilian life. He led a successful career in film and recording as well continuing his first love which was broadcasting. He passed away in 1986.

See below for full text of the letter.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

American Embassy, London

June 18, 1945

To Whom It May Concern,

This is to certify that William L. Klein has rendered magnificent service to the cause of American psychological warfare against Germany during the decisive period of military operations in Europe. Entering on duty with the American Broadcasting Station in Europe on March 16, 1944, Mr. Klein served with this station as Chief Producer of the German language section until the final defeat of Germany and beyond, staying on even after his release on June 3rd, 1945. His period of service was one of the longest in our station and included the most intensive time of German V-bomb air attacks against London. In 1944, during the summer months of most intensive alerts he unflaggingly fulfilled his duties, never leaving the studio during the air-attacks.

William L. Klein held the position of Chief Producer for all German language broadcasts, but by virtue of his long professional experience, his influence and his advice were of greatest value to the entire production division of ABSIE.

The services which he rendered to the German language output of our station are unsurpassed. He organized the entire production of our radio programs, bringing it to the most exacting standards of professional excellence. He trained producers and announcers, bringing out their best potentialities; and many observers, both within the Allied information services and outside have complimented ABSIE on the excellent performance of our announcers who were made available to Radio Luxembourg and to other American and Allied radio stations in liberated countries and in Germany. Thus William Klein has contributed to the general improvement and expansion of the American radio in Europe.

Beginning, as it were, from scratch, Klein trained the entire production staff, has immeasurably enriched and diversified the programs offered by our section and has attained and maintained the highest traditions of American broadcasting during the months of his service. He produced and supervised during this period more than one thousand broadcasts and is thus entitled to a considerable share of credit for the success of such psychological warfare campaigns as the campaign to promote surrender of the German forces, to instruct the German population about the true facts of the war, and to support the measures of the Allied Military Government.

I should like to emphasize that only a producer of his caliber could have achieved such feats of speed and complete program revision as those which enabled ABSIE to be continuously abreast of even the most unexpected and sudden developments especially during the invasion period, and during the last weeks of the war in Europe. To give just one example: on the evening when Hitler's death was announce, Klein cancelled a complete half-hour program which had been prepared and recorded and went on the air with a completely new half-hour program, while Doenitz was still making the announcement; starting with material for exactly three minutes, and putting on the air one item after another in the smoothest fashion, as they came off the ticker.

[page 2]

It would be impossible for me to enumerate the variety of new ventures in radio technique which Klein introduced into our programs. But I should like at least to mention the program which was acknowledged to be the most effective program by a test made with German prisoners of war -- our half-hour musical program for the German forces. Initiated by Klein in October, 1944, this program primarily presented American music with German-language continuity in lively and attractive form. Many topnotch American performers made special recordings for this series, including 13 special broadcasts by the Allied Expeditionary Forces Band under the late Major Glen Miller, programs with Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and the American Army Air Forces Band. These broadcasts also included a series of special programs on American composers. A number of German language entertainers made special recordings of American music with German language text for this program; over 300 recordings were made, all under the direction and supervision of Klein. These recordings, for which the exclusive rights belong to the American Broadcasting Station in Europe, have been requested by and sent to many outposts. We have also been informed that in certain cases they were used in the teaching of German by Allied military authorities.

Another series of weekly features, written and produced under Klein's supervision which has been most popular with our audience, according to unsolicited testimony received from Switzerland, was the feature "Herr und Frau Adabei", a dialogue skit with music which appeared on our weekly programs on Austria via BBC. This series ran for 57 weeks and presented the directive points in the guise of a humorous dialogue with songs and music. It may be mentioned that one of the episodes of this program was used and illustrated by the Russian army paper "Red Star" with full attribution to ABSIE.

There are many other features, the direction of which we owed to William Klein, such as our series on "Words and Facts" and "What the German Should Do", both of which were pronounced most effective propaganda by our listening outposts in Sweden and Switzerland. A number of special features, reporting the events of world history and presenting the best of American radio reporting and production were planned and executed by Klein. I mention, at random, such features as "Christmas with the American forces in Europe", features on Stalingrad, on the fall of Vienna, on the fall of Berlin, on the death of President Roosevelt, on American Memorial Day, on the American-Russian link-up, on VE-Day in London, on the German U-Boat at Westminster, all of which went on the air immediately after the news broke. A monumental series of nine dramatized broadcasts depicting the history of the war in Europe formed the crowning achievement of Klein in this field.

To sum up: during his activity at the American Broadcasting Station in Europe, William L. Klein has rendered distinguished patriotic service to the cause of the United Stated in the decisive period of the war in Europe.

George M. Hanfmann
Chief, German Radio Section
American Broadcasting Station in Europe

Library Websites by Google Map on LibSite.org

Social Mapping has come to LibSite.org! All library websites listed on LibSite.org will be laid out according to location using a modified version of Google Maps.

You can see the map by going here...

Not all sites have been converted and the mapping still needs a bit of work, but the basic function is up and running.

The addition of social mapping reflects one of the primary goals of LibSite which is not simply to list library websites but to organized them in multiple ways as far as our current technology will allow. More info here...

AL Direct Trinket Watch for 6/6/2007

This week's edition of AL Direct was surprisingly free of trinket and bauble recommendations. Is this a sign of the Editors getting serious or did no one have time to scan Engadget and Gizmodo this week?

'Maiden' Post on LISNews.org

 I managed to put up my 'maiden' post for LISNews without too much difficulty.

The headline is "Vote for Video That Best Expresses 'Love of Libraries'" and it's about the contest by Gale called "I Love My Library" where they got 177 original video submissions on their YouTube Group "Librareo".

With this post, I guess I'm an official "author" at LISNews. That together with my monthly contribution to CurrentCites ought to keep me out of trouble.

Berlin 1987: Summer of Hönkel

With all the talk of anniversaries, I thought I'd mention the "Summer of Hönkel" which happened in West Berlin twenty years ago.

It was a hectic period of cultural ferment and turmoil. "Hönkel" -- which I think was a beer -- was supposed to represent this vast chaotic mix.

I was reminded of it most recently by this picture in Flickr. The picture is of a supermarket that went up in flames in the course of a riot on May 1 1987. My house was across the street from the supermarket.

The turmoil on that day would be repeated annually every May 1 for years to come. But equally as intense as the conflicts in the street was the vibrancy and creativity of every other aspect of life in Berlin.

That's why people -- particularly young people -- moved there. It was a wild and crazy place to live. It was also a huge amount of fun. You had squats and clubs and a lifestyle that went 24 hours a day.

Some of this existed elsewhere but in Berlin you had the added context of being an island of exuberant freedom completely surrounded by a communist dictatorship.

Just about the best description of it I ever read was spray-painted appropriately enough on the Wall. It read:
"Berlin Ost : KZ;
 Berlin West : Bonnie's Ranch"

In other words: 'East Berlin - Concentration Camp; West Berlin - Nut House'.

Update:  Thanks to 'Ruebenkraut' for giving me permission to post his image. You can see a larger version by going to his Flickr Page.

He mentions in a note to me that "Hönkel" wasn't a beer but rather a reference to the sound of rocks hitting a metal surface.

Zeldman Turns 12

Jeffery Zeldman celebrates 12 years of blogging on the Web.

My earliest introduction to him and other "web" people was through the ur-important Web List WebDesign-L run by Steven Champeon since 1997.

I did an interview with Jeffrey and NYPL's Carrie Bickner for LJ a couple years back.

All I can say is, Congratulations on the 12th! And here's looking forward to the 25th!

American Libraries Direct: Getting Carried Away?

 

It's nice getting the American Libraries Direct newsletter but I have to wonder if they're not getting a bit too carried away with things.

This week under the heading "Tech Talk" (of all things), they've got a post on a laptop from Dell, a cell-phone for "Boomers" and a link to a review of "point-and-shoot cameras". The question is, do we need a discussion of consumer products coming from a publication of the American Library Association to its members? Would this be any more appropriate in American Libraries (i.e. the monthly print issue) -- and if not there, why here?

Editorial restraint should be observed whether online or in print. Publication of something like this shouldn't be the moment that you lose it all -- just because the thing's going out via email.

Current Cites for May 2007

Current Cites for May 2007 is out! You can find the issue here...

NY Times: "Web logs"?

Time to update the NY Style Guide? From the today's paper:

"In February, a story and accompanying video by The New York Times reporter Damien Cave — and a photo taken by Robert Nickelsberg — that depicted the grievous wounding and eventual death of a soldier on Haifa Street, drew both praise and condemnation on Web logs and in the military about what constitutes appropriate imagery for the breakfast table." [Emphasis mine]

Diversey Harbor

I had lunch at my house with a couple of old friends. Afterwards we went out to Diversey Harbor. It truly was a beautify spring day.

My Gift to UMICH Libraries

I happened upon the University of Michigan Libraries Website today and the icons it uses for RSS Feeds made me wince.

I mean I'm not a purist or anything but you'd figure an institution with those kind of resources ought to be sporting something finer -- especially for a link to something that's increasingly as important as RSS.

So out of the generosity of my heart, I spent all of five minutes (or roughly 1 sec./pixel) to put together the following kickaZZ 24x12 icon to be shared by the entire University of Michigan community.

Yes, I know, generosity abounding.

Current Cites for April 2007

Roy has just posted Current Cites for April 2007!

Our ranks have been swelled with such luminaries as Keri Cascio, Frank Cervone, Susan Gibbons, Brian Rosenblum, and Karen Schneider.

I had three cites (as usual) with one on Erik Arfeuille that's worth quoting here:

"Anyone interested in digital libraries over the past 10 years is sure to recognize the name of Erik Arfeuille. His regular compendium of articles on library-related topics, New Technologies in Libraries, was a welcome source of current awareness. It certainly gave me pointers on what to read (and recommend). Alas in a farewell message dated 4/5/07, he announces that his "workload" no longer allows him to produce the lists. While this is a shame, the nature of his contribution for so many years is appreciated."

You can find the issue here...

All-Time Favorite UIC Announcement

 Aaaaaaaiiiiiieeeee:

"Human Cadaver Workshop for Massage Therapists"

Don't they have rubber dummies? My student-dentist had three rubber dummies for patients before he got me. What's wrong with that?

SaveNetRadio.org

SaveNetRadio.org is where you ought to go if you've ever listened to Internet Radio and thought it was a welcomed contrast to all the crap (pardon my French) on Broadcast radio.

Unfortunately this nascent medium is about to be wiped off the face of the earth -- at least in the U.S. -- thanks to an extremely punitive and destructive increase in royalty fees approved by the Copyright Royalty Board.

Richard MacManus from Read/Write Web who has a post on the subject, quotes from Pandora Radio:

"The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora."

In other words, those who can least afford it are being forced to pay the most. This is nothing but an attempt to stamp out innovation and choice in the one medium, namely the Internet, that we have left.

Happy Birthday: SaveTheInternet.com

SavetheInternet.com celebrates its first birthday:

"Backed by growing support on Capitol Hill and at the grassroots, the SavetheInternet.com Coalition marked its first anniversary today by renewing its call to make Net Neutrality the law of the land. The campaign was praised by leaders in Washington, who pledged to carry on the fight for Internet freedom in the halls of Congress."

Survey for Web Designers

Jeffrey Zeldman's got a Survey for Web Designers over at Alistapart.

As he explains:

The information it collects will help us form a long overdue picture of the ways web design is really practiced around the globe.

The thing is pretty much a breeze to get through. You can take it by going here...

Bad Design, Thy Name is Haworth

Can anyone tell me where the Table of Contents is located on this page? Is it that they just don't want anyone to find out?

'Disruptive Innovation' About to Edge Out 'Conversation' in Platitude Sweepstakes

It had to happen. The long-reigning champ of "Uber Platitude" may be about to cede its title to a brawney new upstart.

Long a favorite on the Sincerity Circuit, the "Conversation Schtick" received a blow to its mid-drifts after trend-setting "The Onion" declared: "Let the conversation end".

This set the stage for a possible upset in the "Platitude Sweepstakes" with new-comer "Disruptive innovation" (child of plain old Innovation) about to gain the upper-hand.

Its use among geek commentators to indicate innovation that changes everything (as opposed to innovation that leaves everything exactly the same), is growing so disruptively that it looks set to overtake rival "Conversation" in no time.

Springtime in Chicago

Belmont Harbor Looking South: Belmont Harbor looking south
with the skyscrapers of downtown in the distance.

Wrigley Field: Wrigley Field from Clark & Addison.
The Score is 0 & 4 - Top of the 7th (against the Cards).

Happy Illinois Library Day!

 A couple of interesting links:

• http://www.illinoislibraryday.info/
• https://www.ila.org/events/reg_ild.htm

Totally Cool : LibSite Image Gallery!

With all the sites coming in on LibSite, I thought it'd be nice to set up some kind of image gallery. People could see thumbnails of the sites they're sending in grouped together like on Google Images or some image database.

Well, as it turns out, it was easier putting it together than I thought.

So check it out: "LibSite Image Gallery..."

TECH cocktail 4 (Chicago)

TECH cocktail 4 (Chicago): Free drinks and a bar full of geeks. What better recipe than that? This time round it was at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville. 

LibSite Officially Launched!

 

As of Tuesday, April 10, 2007, LibSite.org is official launched! I just sent out notices to the four corners of the world.

Go Cubs!

 

Once a Cub's fan, always a Cub's fan. It's a fact of life on the North Side of Chicago.

(Today's Opening Day at Wrigley Field.)

LibSite.org : Sneak Peek

LibSite.org : A Recommendation Service for Library-related Websites:  Just a sneak peek of LibSite.org -- a recommendation service for library related websites. I've been working on it for a while and will probably be announcing it "officially" at some point early next week.

It's built around the premise that library-related projects need and deserve a higher profile, that the technology allows us to engage this material in any number of ways.

So of course, the site features a blog, a wiki, RSS feeds and email alerts (the last two being configurable down to the individual tag). Users can rate sites and add them to a "favorites" page. There's even a LibSite Widget that people can put on their own sites (see the side navigation here for an example).

Of course, the key is user-involvement. It's not going to be much of a site if I'm the only one contributing to it. Everyone can recommend sites and even when people don't feel like doing that, they can leave constructive comments or otherwise take advantage of libSite's features.

So have a look and tell me what you think: http://libSite.org [Wayback Machine]

C&RL : The Missing Pages?

Anyone else notice this? I was in the midst of reading "The Evolution of the Academic Research Library During the 1960's" in the latest issue of College & Research Libraries, when the article suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.

The words on the following page didn't make sense. Then I looked at the page numbers: '104' on the page I was reading and '121' on the new page.

Opps, looks like they let something slip.

Current Cites for March 2007

 

Current Cites for March 2007 is out! I've got three bambinos this month including one on institutional repositories. You can find the issue here...

Telephone Book Delivery : Day 2

Telephone Book Delivery : Day 2: Well, that didn't last long. The maintenance people threw them directly in the trash.

Telephone Book Delivery

 

Telephone Book Delivery: Waiting for me right outside my door. How much longer is this going to last?

Getting Started in Social Networking Doesn't Require Selling Your First Born

One of the librarians on the Usability4lib List was concerned about the amount of investment -- particularly in time -- that embarking on a social networking strategy might require for her library.

Here's what I wrote in reply:

Well, for starters I wouldn't do it simply for the hell of it -- i.e. simply to say you're doing it.

On the other hand, I don't see why it should require an inordinate amount of time, especially if you approach it in small steps.

You say your library is going to do user surveys, and also that your ultimate product will be a CMS-based website.

You could survey the users as to what they use (IM? Facebook, etc.). You could then follow this up by examining a few individuals and their use of these services.

(Personal note: IM's been around for years but it was only when I started looking at how the student workers were using it that I finally got religion.)

On the CMS side, you could use the properties of a CMS system to churn out RSS feeds (such as news, events, classes, etc.). These could be added auto-magically to your Facebook or MySpace Page -- thus lessening potential overhead while still maintaining currency (it's the Web 2.0 way!)

A great first step is just making sure everyone's comfortable with IM'ing and that they all have screen-names. You might also want to get your own Facebook account to test out the waters.

One way or another, this isn't an 'all or nothing' proposition.

PodCasts from SXSW Interactive

If you couldn't make it to the annual get-together of the "interactive" world in Austin, this is just about the next best thing. Here's what's up so far...

Do You 'Twitter'? (And If Not, Why Not?)

It doesn't get any more ephemeral than this: you pop a sentence about what you're doing at the moment in a box and then go back to whatever you were doing.

Who'd bother, you ask? Even more, who'd bother to read it all?

Well, apparently quite a few people. It's called 'Twitter' and it's really taking off. Ev Williams, original creator of Blogger.com, dumped Odeo just to concentrate on this. Now it seems everyone's doing it. Here's the Twitter account of John Edwards, Democratic Candidate for President.

Over the weekend a guide came out called, "The Several Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users".

If being a "wildly successful twitter user" matters to you, I recommend you read the piece. Then get yourself an account and tell us what you're doing in 140 characters or less. Here's my own modest attempt...

Gored For Women Dot Org?

Probably not the intended message but we put spaces in between words for a reason. 'CamelCase' might have helped.

In any case, as seen on the Marquee of the now closed Esquire Theater on Oak St. in Chicago.

Props to the Chicago Public Schools

 From the Chicago Tribune:

After-school tutoring, better-trained teachers and new classroom assessments in Chicago public schools helped drive an "extraordinary" increase in state scores that improved the fortunes of nearly every city elementary school last year, district officials said.

This is just one year's results and from year to year there are enough changes in the way the test is given to make drawing longer-term conclusions problematic. That said, anyone familiar with our school system knows how hard everyone works -- particularly the teachers!

These results are a great credit to their efforts.

Bill in U.S. Congress on Fair Use Called "Watered-Down"

Ken Fisher of Ars Technica isn't impressed by a Bill on Fair Use that was recently introduced by Congressmen Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA).

Calling it "watered down", Fisher comments:

Yet again, the bill does not appear to deliver on what most observers want: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials. There is no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA made illegal in one fell swoop."

Ape with a Termite Stick': Jon Udell on Screencasts

Learn by seeing other people doing things. We used to call it 'monkey see, monkey do'. Jon Udell calls it "ape with a termite stick".

In any case, that's what a screencast does and Udell, who's done a number of them, has a nice write-up, "Screencasting Tips" that's full of observations like the following:

Given all the network connectivity that we have nowadays, it’s perhaps surprising — but nevertheless true — that we have few opportunities to directly observe how other people, who are proficient users of software tools, do what they do. Screencasts are the best way I've found to make such tool use observable, and thus learnable.

I'd only add that as the variety and importance of these software tools grow, so too does the need for good examples.

84 Steps to Getting Square Corners in CSS

This one was funny. It comes from a spoof site called 'Drivl.com' which accepts user-submitted posts.

Step 4 for Getting Square Corners in CSS:

Squeeze the drippings from an uncooked 12 oz porterhouse steak onto the butcher paper, smear the steak around until a greasy sheen is clearly visible.

My Talk on Web 2.0 to Librarians from National Louis, Benedictine & the College of Dupage

Leo Klein at Benedictine University: I'd like to thank all of the librarians who came to my talk on Web 2.0 at Benedictine University yesterday.

We had a good group with representation from National Louis, Benedictine and the College of DuPage. Everyone was completely engaged and asked great questions -- even though I ran half an hour longer than scheduled (sorry).

I'd like to thank all of the participants. I'd also like to thank hosts Jack Fritts and Kent Carrico from Benedictine and Kathryn Miller from National Louis who did the original scheduling.

A copy of my presentation can be found here...

UPDATE: See the version on SlideShare.net here...

Captcha for Humanists

Submission for the redesign of 'captcha' according to humanistic principles (patent pending):

Enough with Overweight Podcasts!

I love podcasts. For me, podcasts are the New Radio. They're a welcomed and increasingly critical source of information.

But please -- please! -- I'd love them even more if the person putting them together respected bandwidth constraints.

I'm ready to admit that I grew up in the days of 14.4 modems. My first attempt at dealing with media was trying to make pictures look good using only 256 colors. "Crackly" doesn't begin to describe the quality of audio I had to churn out due to low bandwidth.

But even in this great age of DSL, there still are a couple of conventions that content providers need to observe. One of them is never, ever use more bandwidth than you actually need.

Now I've just downloaded two podcasts from institutions that ought to know better, each of which was close to an hour long and each of which weighed in at close to 60 megs!

Let me tell you, Ladies and Gentlemen, 60megs for an hour's worth of audio is way overweight. If what you're dealing with is 'talk', you ought to be able to get it down to half that size without much difficulty.

Mono for Voice

The first thing you can do is output the file as mono. Stereo has two channels, mono one. 'Voice' doesn't need stereo so you'll be saving space by eliminating the extra track.

Lower the Bit Rate

Media files have a "bit rate". Basically it's how much information, measured in kilobits that goes through the pipe per second -- hence 'kbps'. Many of the encoding applications default, it seems, to 128kbps. This is way more than you need. All you have to do is take it down to 56kbps, 48kbps or even 32kbps and you'll still have perfectly good audio. It won't sound like a concert performance but then again it's not a concert performance that you're serving up.

Getting files down to the lowest size possible is the digital equivalent of dotting your 'i's and crossing your 't's. It's what a responsible content provider does to ensure the widest possible audience. For all we know, it's someone on a cellphone who's trying to access that material. The file size ought to work for all users.

Tim O'Reilly on Various Library Standards & Applications

(Okay, so he's not directly addressing things like Z39.50, OpenURL or ILS's, but you'd think the same rules apply.)

Under the heading "Lightweight Programming Models", he lists the following "significant lessons" (in abbreviated form):

1. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems. [...]
2. Think syndication, not coordination. [...]
3. Design for "hackability" and remixability. [...]

Go ahead and read the whole thing...

User-Centered Design Requires Actual Users

I've been going through a lot of material in anticipation of my talk at National Louis-Benedictine next week.

USER-CENTERED APPROACH

It's amazing how many people say their approach is "User-centered". They talk about it as if it were something new. "Our innovation," they proudly declare, "is that we're finally making users the center of our design".

I'm happy to hear it! On the other hand, I can't really imagine a person or institution ever claiming NOT to be user-centered. Why hell, even the Library at Alexandria probably thought it was user-centered.

And who wouldn't? As an institution, you just don't go around saying, 'our new policy is to completely neglect the needs of our users (and oh, BTW, would you like to help contribute either financially or otherwise to this worthy goal)'.

It just doesn't happen.

BOTHERING TO ASK

But the other thought that grips me when I hear how user-focused everything has become, is: well, have you asked any actual users?

And I'm not talking of the theoretical kind.

Every day we're got users in the tens, hundreds or even thousands -- depending on the institution -- literally cramming through our doors. Each one of them is a potential gold mine of information on just how user-centered our services are.

That's why I'm always confused by the level of theory in library discussions; Especially when there are so many opportunities to actually test out our assumptions.

ADVANCE IN OUR UNDERSTANDING

The greatest advance in web technology came -- not with any particular technological innovation -- but when we realized that developing systems isn't an armchair operation and that the smartest thing to do -- the safest thing to do -- is to actually go out and grab one of those people we spend so much time talking about.

It's keeps us anchored on Planet Earth -- and the results are so much more satisfying.

Snowy Chicago

Snowy Chicago. UIC looking west at around 4:30pm. Classes for the afternoon were canceled.

It's Curtains for Clippy

Few animated characters have raised the ire of so many as Clippy, the erstwhile tech assistant for MS Office starting in 1997. Literally at the drop of a hat, and for no apparent reason, Clippy would jump out and offer his unwanted services.

For ten long years, we have had to live with Clippy. Now he is no more. Read the details of his demise here...  (h/t Slashdot)

At the Dental Clinic with a New Friend

I had an appointment at the UIC Dental Clinic today. Apparently before the students get to work on real-live patients, they practice on a bunch of rubber dummies -- rubber heads to be precise -- that conveniently fit into the neck-rest of the chair. I kind of like this guy -- with his mustache and beard, he looks kind of Beatnik. 

Video: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Excellent video by Michael Wesch of KSU demonstrating some characteristics of online digital culture. I always get nervous when we get to lines like "we are the machine and the machine is us" but other points such as the role of content and its fungibility are dead on. (h/t Somewhat Frank)

Addendum: Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/6gmP4nk0EOE

On the Misuse of the Word, 'Conversation'

Is it me or does the use of the word, 'conversation' for just about any communication between human beings cause others to cringe as well?

First, the guy on our local NPR Station talked of having some politician in for a "conversation" back in March; then Hillary Clinton runs on a platform called "Let the Conversation Begin". Now, a report just out on social networks in libraries is called, "Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation". It concludes (not surprisingly): "...[T]here is now a need to broaden both the scope and scale of the conversation."

Is there no end to this? It's like using 'luxury' to describe condo units. The word begins to lose all meaning -- or even worse begins to take on the opposite of what's intended -- simply because it's used so much.

When I hear 'conversation', increasingly I think: 'insincere attempt to get my attention for trivial, banal or commercial purposes'. Sorry, but I'm just conversation'ed out.

CTA EL Train Crash : Feb. 4, 1977

Thirty years ago, I had a part-time job at Carson, Pirie, Scott in Chicago. It was a Friday night and I had just gotten off of work, walking down Michigan Avenue to catch the 151 Bus.

When I got to the corner of Lake & Michigan, I looked west and saw the most incredible thing: a CTA EL train dangling from the overhead tracks all the way to the ground. There were police cars, fire trucks and ambulances all over the place. Huge spotlights shone on the train.

It was an incredible sight -- something you'd see in a Hollywood disaster movie but it was all too real. One of the great people working at Carson, Pirie Scott was in that train and while she survived, she was unable to ever come back to work.

I was reminded of that scene by a report on WBBM Radio. They have an article about it on their site. Chicago-l.org also had an informative page on the accident.

It's something I'll never forget.

Famous Last Words in IT

1. What do you mean we need a paper record for our Electronic Voting Machine System?
2. Sure, it only works on Windows. What's the problem?
3. Let's just use Mr. Sid!
4. Trashbin to delete files?  Typing 'DEL' plus the file name is so much better!
5. But it breaks the 'back' button!!!
6. People don't want all that eye-candy on the Web, they just want information.
7. Welcome to our Scholars' Workstation Gateway Portal Social Network!
8. Does anyone ever read the manual?
9. Dear User: Your password is required to be at least eight characters long and contain at least one small letter, one large letter, a number and a punctuation mark. You are required to change your password every six months. (This last is dedicated to the IT people at NYU.)

Go Bears! (CTA Bus Edition)

Go Bears! Next Stop, Miami. (CTA Bus Edition)

Current Cites for January 2007

Current Cites for January 2007 is out. I've got three citations again -- and I might've done more, had I been able to get my hands on Electronic Library in time. In any case, you can find the issue here...

End-User Manifesto

gapingvoid posts an interesting list called the "End-User Manifesto". It's billed as "things that need to be in the mind of anyone building software, particularly for the Web." Here are the first four items:

1. Don't waste my time.

2. Help me do the right thing.

3. Respect my decisions.

4. Design well, and guide me to make the right decisions by that design.

They're all really quite good. To see the rest go here... (h/t User Centered)

Form of the Week: Registration at Odeo.com

Props to Odeo.com for making our lives a little bit easier:

Mayor Daley at UIC

 

Chicago's Mayor Daley came to speak at UIC today. While some of his talk seemed to ramble on and was, to be honest, less than inspiring, it was clear that Education is a big deal for him. He literally said it came after God and Family.

A funny moment came (at least for me) when he was talking about how even prison inmates needed vocational training and then as an aside, said something along the lines of:

"The unions used to be against it [work done by inmates] but that's when we made everything here. Now you've got things made in China so why not in our jails?"

I'm sure the mayor wasn't advocating prison labor and maybe China wasn't the best example to pick for comparison but it sure had me tittering in the back row.

Metrics of Success for Library 2.0?

When I read posts like this, I really have to ask myself what is the measure of success for incorporating new technology: the fact that it's been incorporated at all (nice) or that it's actually being used (even better).

"[S]ocial software, Weblogs, linklogs, folksonomies, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, and Web services" are definitely advances in the Web as we know it. I routinely use many if not all of these myself. But their simple inclusion (whether real or imaginary) into a library's website doesn't by itself constitute a "success".

It's important when trying to incorporate the tools of Web 2.0 that we don't forget the lessons of Web 1.0: you don't shove technology down the throats of your users simply because you've become enamored by it. Rather it's your users who define what your priorities are and whatever they want, you'd better be in a position to deliver on -- big time! That's the measure of success that counts.

Everything else is bupkis.

UPDATE: Apparently this has been on the minds of a couple of people. Have a look at Sarah Clark's "Dark Side of Library 2.0"

Washington Post Issues Correction on Fairfax County Library Story

The original story that appeared in the Washington Post about Fairfax County's weeding of classics from its collection raised a nationwide "firestorm of outrage".

Now WaPo Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, reports that the weeding wasn't perhaps as sweeping as orginally suggested:

The story said that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are among the titles that hadn't been checked out in two years and that could be eliminated. Those books have been checked out; it would have been better to say that some copies of those books may not have been checked out in two years at some branches and could be weeded out. Kirkpatrick and Clay say there was never any intention of weeding out all copies.

Complete article here...