Current Cites for Apr. 2017 is out! You can find the issue here...
The article I recommended almost seemed like an April Fool's joke when I first saw the title, "The Rewards of Predatory Publications at a Small Business School". But nope, it was serious -- the argument being, if you don't understand the 'incentives', you won't know how to counter them. Um, okay.
Snider, Mike: "ISPs Can Now Collect and Sell Your Data: What to Know About Internet Privacy Rules", USA Today (4/4/2017).
So here's an analogy: if 50 years ago AT&T (or whatever they called themselves back then) had kept records of all your phone calls and then started selling that information to the highest bidder -- would they have gotten away with it? I don't think so. (In fact, interesting research topic.)
ISPs are not websites. They're governed by different rules, regulated by different agencies and golly-molly, ya just can't get on the internet without them. That makes them a utility and frankly, there's no similarity to Facebook, Google, etc.
But, hey, we're living in a free country! There's nothing keeping those ISPs from setting up their own groovy websites so they can take advantage of the same benefits. Problem solved!
MPOW: I set up shop at the computer lab in the Student Center and then hustled out to the hallway to ask students if they had time to test out a page. Some had to go to class. Others said yes (8 in total).
Results went on the writing pad and my cellphone served as a stopwatch.
Funniest moment: Someone who does webwork for another dept. said, "I wish we did testing too."
Actually I've had the 'Handbook of Usability Testing' for years -- the first edition, that is.
Looking at the 'plain text' behind the WYSIWYG. I'm impressed:
<hr />
<p>
<h3>Alumni Receptions 2017</h3>
</p>
A couple of interesting articles on the law just passed in France regulating (remember that's not outlawing!) emails outside of work.
Deutsche Welle reports:
From today, organizations with more than 50 workers will need to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones and not be forced to check and send emails on weekends and in the evenings.
Engadget comments:
French companies will be more likely to respect your work/life balance -- even if they don't mark certain hours as off-limits, they can't make unexpected requests that force you to drop everything.
Wednesday evening. Seventh game of the 2016 World Series. Audio was off but we could take a peek at the video every once and a while if only to check the score.
Indexing? It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it. That said, I largely agree with the sentiment expressed below. I guess the way I would express it isn't "reflecting how the reader thinks" so much as establishing categories (or stepping stones?) of content that the reader can then plow through.
The role of the index in digital products has become a subject of heated debate when information professionals gather to formalize standards. Some publishers and authors are under the misguided impression that a full-text search can replace the traditional subject index. The American Society for Indexing (ASI) has spent the last few years reminding the world that a good index is not just a concordance; it adds value to a digital object beyond the basic word search. An index created by a good indexer reflects how the reader thinks and offers entry points that may not be written in the text. With increased attention on analytics and search, there is also a strong argument to be made that indexes are more important for digital publications than print ones.
Badgett, Nan. Medford, NJ. "A Review of "The Accidental Indexer", Information Today, 2015, 240 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2016.1229075
Yesterday's stroll through the southwest side of Chicago. Finally found Ogden and Western (though when I got there, I had to ask what way was north).
Current Cites for Sept. 2016 is out! You can find the issue here...
This month I recommended a helpful article from the Journal of Web Librarianship that discussed the use of Google Analytics to improve library website design.
Okay, since everyone's doing it:
*Computer storage 70s style [source]:
Current Cites for July 2016 is out! You can find the issue here...
This month I recommended an article describing an innovative 'beacon-based' navigation system which opened with this excellent piece of advice, "...as with other technologies before it, usefulness does not magically emerge from implementing new technology; rather, it is the culmination of a comprehensive plan for merging technical know-how with business knowledge or user-generated content."
