I am an iTunes App Store junky. I like to keep track of whatever new apps come into the store (this is admittedly a bit difficult to do, but I rely upon an app called PandoraBox for this). Here’s a list of my favorite newer apps. “New” by definition is new to me, not necessarily new to the App Store.
Last night I watched the 20 minute introductory movie for the iPhone. Pretty interesting! (Although the presenter was, to me, a little freaky. Just personal opinion.) The amount of hype and attention given to the iPhone is overwhelming and threatens to actually turn me off of it. Nevertheless I was impressed by what I saw of the iPhone’s capabilities. Things I particularly like are the auto-switching from portrait to landscape mode that it makes when the user simply turns the phone; the YouTube app; cover flow for flipping through iTunes albums; Safari web browsing; Google Maps functionality taken to a whole new level; and the highly intuitive and useful phone capabilities such as the way to set up conference calls. Yes, this thing has many different capabilities but it is a phone, first and foremost. And I think that really, the “killer app” for this phone is its phone capabilities. (Duh.)
When I first heard about the iPhone and blogged about it earlier this year, I wondered mainly about how easy it would be to use it for inputting text. The movie shows more detail about this aspect but frankly, it doesn’t appear to be any easier to input text than I had originally thought. Apple claims that users who stick with the virtual keyboard will be highly proficient in typing with it in about a week, more so than with any other phone/keyboard device. Somehow that seems doubtful to me.
Another interesting aspect to the infomercial was the complete absence of any demo of the phone’s built-in camera. This isn’t a big deal at all for me; I think the marriage of most cell phones with cameras is a bad idea.
Finally, I still have a major concern about the limited built-in memory (max of 8 Gb).
But why am I bothering to write about something that I probably won’t be able to afford for a very long time, and would find hard to justify spending the money on? Well, because I think it is a very cool product and I am really hoping that it lives up to, and exceeds, all of the hype.
These are my links for June 6th through June 11th:
Below is a smattering of additional thoughts and comments from NASIG 2007:
Karen Schneider‘s paranoia and negativity about things like Google, EPA library closings, survival of small press publishers. Her purpose as a vision speaker was to stimulate debate and thought and I think she succeeded in that. I may not agree with her overall philosophy or approach to these issues but I think it is very healthy to step back and question some of the broader trends in librarianship and ask the hard questions about where they are leading us.
Brainstorming session intended to provide a forum for discussing the problem of reluctance on the part of members to run for office. I wish more people other than “old timers” had spoken up and that there had been more focus on concrete answers to the questions raised by the moderator (Katy Ginanni) and less on generalizations about “trust me, it is really, really good to serve on the Board.”
Dan Chudnov‘s emphasis on the need for simplicity in resource access and discovery. His reliance on iTunes as the standard for judging simplicity has many some flaws even if his general point is well taken. I especially liked his point about trying something out and tweaking it a little. That little tweak may pay off in huge dividends in terms of successful adoption of a new technology. I also think he has a great idea by proposing that libraries insert themselves into the realm of what he terms “service links.” These are available in just about every major media outlet on the web and commonly include links to Technorati, del.icio.us, and other social networking services.
Yet more assumptions about fellow librarians having or sharing the same — liberal — political approach and philosophy. E.g. several negative references to the current (Bush) administration, wearing t-shirt supporting a Democrat’s presidential candidacy, etc. Noticed Dan Chudnov’s reference in his speech to “liberal” vs. “right wing” — perhaps an unconscious but notable inflection of wording.
Importance of networking. I am not a social butterfly at all. In fact, lots of social interaction leaves me exhausted. (By contrast, others like my friend Beverley Geer get their energy from social interaction.) In spite of my natural shyness — some people tell me I come across as aloof — I keep trying to hone my skills and break down the barriers that hold me back from meeting new people. At NASIG this is easier for me to do than in some other situations. I enjoyed sitting next to people at the dine-arounds who were total strangers to me, conversing with them about their work, their interests, and issues of mutual concern. In this way I found out some really interesting details, such as the fact that one longtime NASIG member is an accomplished piano (and flute) player, with two Steinway grands. I learned a lot of interesting facts about the city of Houston from someone else, such as the fact that it had no zoning laws of any kind until relatively recently. Yet another conversation filled me in on what it is like as a foreign national to live in Johannesburg, South Africa (like living in a prison).
Discussion with a librarian from a university in the Southwest about what it’s like to have a non-librarian as library director and the drastic — good — changes brought about so that the library is once more popular with students as a destination.
Several mentions of “work / life balance.”
General recognition (I think) that ERMS are not working out well for many, at least not yet. I likened them to a solution in search of a problem in one open mic comment at a session and described my library’s very recent decision to get out of the vendor-supplied ERMS game altogether. There was some interest in open source solutions.
One of the things that came up in conversation a few times when I was at NASIG this past weekend was that last year I made a proposal to UIUC GSLIS for a new, advanced course on electronic resources management. My intent in proposing this new course was that an existing course that I taught, Technical Services Functions, would be a prerequisite as would perhaps one or two other existing courses. More than that, however, my goal with this course is to get GSLIS students some much-needed focused exposure to the increasing dominance of e-resources (especially serial e-resources) in libraries of all types. Such a course is, in my view, long overdue. And the students themselves are clamoring for it.
Several people I spoke with at NASIG showed interest in what I had proposed so I have dug the following draft syllabus outline out of my email (thanks, Gmail, for making it so easy). If you have a moment and are interested in this topic, let me know what you think about it, either by commenting on this post or sending me an email.
Electronic Resources Management: A Suggested Course Outline
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I. Definitions and Distinctions
a. What is an e-resource?
b. How does it differ from and how is it similar to other, more traditional library materials?
b. Overlap with integrated library systems work, serials management, acquisitions, collection development, etc.
II. Conceptual Framework
a. Access vs. ownership for libraries
b. Effect of living in an Amazon/Google/iTunes worlds
c. Relevance and authority issues for e-resources vs. other library material
d. Virtual vs. in-person library service
III. Types of E-Resources
a. E-journals
b. Websites
c. E-books
d. Databases
e. Other
IV. Management Challenges
a. Diversity of selection and workflow processes
b. Explosive growth in availability
c. Preservation issues
d. Issues for intellectual access (e.g. website lists or links vs. traditional cataloging vs. other methods for organization)
e. Licensing and copyright
f. Fiscal resources
g. Balancing “traditional” vs. e-content
h. Rapid change and high user demand
i. Evaluation of use vs. cost and other metrics
V. System Tools for Managing E-Resources
a. Locally developed
b. Commercial tools
c. Classes or categories of tools (e.g. OpenURL resolvers vs. ILSs vs. ERMS vs. Other)
Giving thanks is something I need to do on a regular basis, not just around the Thanksgiving holiday. Let me start, then, with the following list. I am thankful for:
I know, some of these are pretty silly and others are mundane. But there it is: a start.
For the past few days I’ve been on a quick conference trip to a meeting in the Washington, D.C. area. The meeting was organized by NISO and was entitled “From Discovery to Delivery: Solutions to Put Your Content Where the Users Are.”
While there was nothing new or startlingly different about the content of the meeting, for me, at least, I think it was a worthwhile trip overall. The best part of the whole workshop was attending Dan Chudnov’s presentation on “COinS, unAPI, and a Plan for Zero Configuration Service Discovery.” Dan is a great speaker; humorous yet thorough, with an ability to easily explain some pretty technical stuff in a way that most people can understand. I was not surprised to see that he uses a Mac (way to go Mac lovers!) and I liked his use of Keynote for his presentation. The transition theme he used seemed to bother a few people and one person loudly remarked with a sneer, “Looks like a Mac application.” (Get a life, Windows lovers.) What I particularly liked about the approach Dan took with his talk was that he made it Lego-like, that is, piece built upon piece built upon piece, until he reached the (pardon the pun) piece-de-resistance, zero configuration service discovery. His vision for making things completely simple for users, with no configuration necessary for them and no need for them to know about the technical magic that lies behind the user experience, is truly invigorating. The basic focus he had was on using OpenURL and combining it with several other “off-the-shelf” standards to make it dead easy for users to navigate to resources they need. One of the technologies he highlighted was Apple’s excellent Bonjour application for auto-discovery of networked resources such as websites or printers. He also brought up the example of Apple’s iTunes and how it easily allows users on the same network to discover and then play shared music libraries. Overall, this was a great presentation and I am very thankful we have someone of Dan’s caliber to push the technological boundaries in our profession. I wanted to introduce myself to him but didn’t get to do that before the end of the meeting.
Andrew Pace of the Technically Speaking column in American Libraries and author of the Hectic Pace blog, was also in attendance and it was the first time I had seen him in person and heard his by now well-travelled talk about what NCSU has done with its Endeca-powered online catalog. Andrew also is an engaging speaker. I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know about the work he and others have done but it was interesting to have it presented in person anyway. I wish that I could have spoken with him and others there about the work I am involved in regarding integration of my library’s online catalog with another commercial search engine, work that I think might be interesting to others because it makes new uses of library data that are different than what I have heard is being done anywhere else.
A third highlight of the event was a presentation from someone from the National Academies Press who talked about the challenges and changes they have implemented in providing improved resource discovery for materials they publish. Michael Jon Jensen gave the presentation and he is their Director of Web Communications for the National Academies and Director of Publishing Technologies for National Academies Press. Under his direction this entity has done some really interesting experimentation and development of ways to improve access to the 3,600 books they publish, including development of their own clustering results. One of the things he said that most stood out to me was that National Academies Press provides their books for free in HTML form but they charge for PDF versions. The reason for charging for PDF is that, as he put it, our society still values and treasures the framework and “ethos” of the printed book. Those aren’t his exact words but I think it captures the idea he put forward. He said that a printed book is worth more than the individual pieces, it is bigger and better as a whole collection contained in one package. I thought this to be a very interesting perspective that has important ramifications for how we present and deliver information in an increasingly e-only world.
Jane Burke, former CEO at Endeavor and someone with whom I have always gotten along, was also there as a presenter and it was nice to chat with her for a while and to hear how she is doing in her job leading Serials Solutions.
Finally what made the trip special was the chance to catch up with old friends, Janet Lee-Smeltzer and Tom Wilson. Janet works at UMBC and Tom worked until recently at University of Maryland, College Park. Each night they picked me up from my hotel and we had dinner together and talked far into the evening about librarianship, Web/Library 2.0, library politics, and many other topics.
Disaffection with the traditional integrated library system (ILS) is widespread these days. Terms that are frequently bandied about to describe them are “monolithic” “inflexible” “expensive” and “unfriendly”, just to name a few. Many librarians increasingly question the level of investment that purchasing and maintaining ILSs requires, particularly in the face of users’ dramatically changed expectations for information retrieval thanks to Google, Amazon, eBay, iTunes, and other web services. Then, too, technological changes are occuring so rapidly that libraries are requiring greater investment in technology than ever before while at the same time, struggling to hire and keep knowledgeable staff who are capable of sewing disparate technological systems together into a cohesive and sustainable whole. Furthermore, libraries are increasingly emphasizing virtual or digital collections rather than simply acquiring print material, and the needs for effectively managing this new kind of resource are sometimes quite different than is required for more “traditional” material. And then there is a distinct sea change in the broader world of information technology with increasing focus on open systems frameworks and, more specifically, open source applications.
Where have library systems vendors gone astray? Put another way, how can they continue to play a role as partners with libraries to serve library users? Do library systems vendors even have a future? I am not an apologist for ILS vendors, by any means. I have worked extensively in libraries, I have used a wide variety of library systems, I have worked on open source library applications, and I have worked for an ILS vendor in developing new features or products. Here are some of the things that, in my opinion, have led library systems vendors astray. These are my personal views, not those of anyone else, and especially not of the library systems vendor who employs me.
A post from today by Alane Wilson of the excellent It’s All Good blog touches on these same themes. Alane summarizes presentations by two leaders in the library systems marketplace. Among their conclusions:
Read the whole thing; it’s quite interesting.
Well, Christmas is over. I’m tired out and so is Michele. We are still in our PJs and it’s almost noon! The kids are playing with their new toys on the living room floor, recovering from late nights, sugar highs, and excessive excitement. I’m listening to some of the songs I bought with a gift certificate to iTunes. I’ve never bought so many songs before in my life. I’m thrilled with the ability to buy just the songs I like, many of whom have special meaning or move me with their sentiments. Among my purchases are Johnny Cash singing “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire” as well as LeAnn Rimes singing “Unchained Melody” with a voice that gives me goosebumps. Oh yeah, and I’m downloading the rest of the episodes of the tv show “Lost” that I don’t have already.
Keegan is staying at his grandparents’ house for the next few days and will go hunting with his grandpa today for the first time. He is very, very excited about this. Tonight he and his Uncle Bryan and his grandparents are going to see “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
Tomorrow I go back to work and back to the daily grind.
I was excited by the news today that a new video iPod is now available from Apple. I can dream of some day being able to own one of them. I still like the one I’ve got (a 4 Gb iPod Mini), but I’d like to have the battery life and storage capacity in the latest version.
Another part of today’s big news from Apple was the release of iTunes 6.0. This is a major update to the software. The main new feature is the ability to download video. In particular, you can download all of this season’s episodes of ABC’s hit drama, Lost, or some other Disney-owned shows, as well as some short movies from Pixar.
I’ve never seen a whole episode of Lost and it is one of the only shows on TV that I think might be worth watching, so I was intrigued by the possibility of downloading the season premier episode for $1.99, with no commercials. (I think that is a great price, btw, for 40+ minutes of video — remember, with no commercials to disrupt it). So I gave it a whirl. I just finished watching it on my PowerBook G4 using the new iTunes and thoroughly enjoyed it even though the resolution wasn’t that great. I hope this whole concept put forth by Apple today succeeds and that there will be more interesting content made available for download for a reasonable price in the near future. So far, I like what I see. Now, I wonder if I can get away with putting that 60 Gb video iPod on my Christmas list…