Tom Roper's Weblog

Internet Librarian International: Internet Research Intricacies: What's New with Search

Stephen Arnold gave a fascinating presentation, showing some new interfaces for search engines. He described three stages of the evolution of search, the brute force era of 1976-1998, the social+analytics era from 1998-2006, above all the period of Google and measuring inbound clicks, and the future, to 2010, of compound processes, that is to say putting queries in context, using algorithms, knowledge-bases and intelligence He suggested that products like Autonomy which use neural networking will be important . Voice and video (conversations etc) are the richest area of information and are currently not indexed or organised at all.
He expected there to be much more non-objective searching, as people try to "steer" hits. There will be a big period of wheel-reinvention as the new search tools discover the limitations that Dialog and others found in 1980. He mentioned promiscuous searching systems as holding some nasty surprises, but I'm a bit vague as to what a promiscuous searching system might be.
New things for 2006: tag, comment. Microsoft and Yahoo have both "bet the farm" on social software. Words are no longer enough: images, data. Faceted search is becoming more common. Metrics: data analysis and maths will become more important, and librarians need to be able to understand them.
Complexity increases, concurrently with development of Google. Computational cost also increasing (bandwidth, memory disk space, computational time) but precision/recall are increasing much more slowly.
Amazon had to discontinue personalised search as their technology costs go up like a rocket. Search is expensive, so the first to be sacrificed. Yahoo's costs are also out of control.
Then he showed us a series of search services:
Podzinger: indexes spoken podcasts in English, funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, one imagines for surveillance purposes.
Exalead: offers a baby view of screen, and related terms
Mondosoft, who developed a search engine for the Vatican site hard wired to the Catholic catechism.
There's http://rwsm.directtaps.net/ a faceted search tool developed by Microsoft,
He also showed us a new interface to Google, which allowed one to refine searches, which I can't now find, and Windows Live and Alltheweb
His conclusions were that the new search comes with enormous costs, that technology is driving search again, that new systems are considerably more complex, that multiprocessor chips are coming and have many implications for search, that there is huge confusion, hubris and fear uncertainty and doubt in search sales.
When one company controls 65% of search traffic, there is a burning need for objectivity. He called on professional associations (he said the SLA, but it is equally valid for CILIP) to get involved with these issues.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, search

Internet Librarian International: Management Techniques: Auditing Your Intranet and Communications Functions

Ulla de Stricker and Barbie Keiser talked about how to carry out planned and well-executed audits of information services. Audit need not bear the name audit, but at bottom is a process of finding out who is doing what to whom with what, a regular systematic examination of practices and needs .
It helps provide evidence for services, but also builds relationships with clients. It's necessary to understand the client's working life and practices. Cultures may vary: some may be more used to audit questioning.
Ulla and Barbie had independently come to more or less the same conclusions about methodology. Ulla works almost as an anthropologist, watching what people actually do as well as listening to what they say they do.
They took the example of a library intranet: what defects must be addressed? What content and services would be priority for the clients? What functionality is essential and what is nice to have? Are there any sacred cows that could be sacrificed? What good practice is there elsewhere?
Data for these could include activities such as harvesting logs and statistics, face to face interviews, focus groups, Easter Egg hunts (where users are given questions to answer and observed as they try to find the answer), at-the-elbow sense-making (asking client to show the investigator how they carry out a task, slowing them down and ask questions about their behaviour), surveys, and usability-lite testing.
Barbie gave another case example of an audit of a library consortium's communications programme. The stages were:
• an initial orientation meeting
• survey
• focus groups
• usabiiity-lite testing (to determine what people actually do and what they want to do, what drives them to use a service, what incentives might attract them, what barriers there were and what solutions could there be).
• objective website review
• user and usage-centred review

How to conduct successful interviews and focus groups:
• facilitate and listen
• prime the pump (ie "others say" or "your colleagues have been commenting that..."
• people may be driven by culture and politics which may skew answers
• must be short, fast, easy
• open-ended questions

A final audit report then needs to bring all the work together, with findings, conclusions, recommendations. (cf 3-8-25 methodology for business cases: 3 pages for a summary, 8 for a more detailed version and 25 for the full report.

Internet Librarian International: Management Techniques for Internet Librarians: No Boundaries

This session was chaired by Ulla de Stricker, a consultant from Toronto.
Juliet Wragge-Morley of the British Council showed how they use web to build communities worldwide, supporting reader development, creative writing and English language teaching, including moderated areas for children.
http://www.encompassculture.com/ supports reading groups, with a reader in residence who blogs. Users can register for forums and chat. They also have areas supporting literary translation, for example on the problems of translating swearing in Trainspotting, or puns in Asterix.
Other sites she demonstrated were:
http://www.crossingborders-africanwriting.org/
http://newwriting.britishcouncil.org
and http://magicpencil.britishcouncil.org/ which is a site for children's' book illustration, where teachers can share teaching materials.
They also host podcasts and audio files of poetry and are running an African poetry competition.
Jane Macoustra of Tai-Pan Research quoted Michael Moore's famous aperçu on librarians: "They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them. You know, they've had their budgets cut. They're paid nothing. Books are falling apart. The libraries are just like the ass end of everything, right?" [From http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/03/Michael_Moore_031302.html
She discussed various ways in which dispersed communities can use technologies to communicate, including terrorists, counter terrorists (she showed us the Dark Web Terrorism Research site form Arizona) and asked whether librarians had a role in such things. She also cited Chasing the Sun, the international virtual reference service for health, and how the hugely geographically dispersed SLA Asian chapter use wikis chat, and Skype, bravely ending with a live demonstration of Skype, talking to a colleague in Canberra.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational

Internet Librarian International: Keynote speaker, Greg Notess on Reinventing Ourselves as Internet Librarians

Thanks to Southern Railways, I was late for this, and arrived as Greg was talking about search engines, but I don't think I can have missed too much. As I arrived he was using Google to search for the pages of the London Assembly to illustrate some of Google's developing features.
Then he passed on to changes in commercial databases, which he pointed out change their interfaces either too often or not frequently enough, and the shifting sands of linking to e-journals. He described an alphabet soup of standards, formats and schema that we have to keep up with. He alluded to new developments in wearable computing, PDAs and e-book readers.
He proposed that we should think of ourselves as sponges, and that traditional skills remained applicable in a changing environment. He was rather scathing about blogs and RSS feeds. He seemed to think that e-mail isn't broken and that young IM users would grow up into e-mail users. I think this rather misses the point. Discussing wikis he referred to the Internet Librarian Wiki (I think he must have meant for the Monterey event, as I didn't come across one for the London conference), and referred to the problem if empty and unused wikis.
He showed some interesting uses of collaborative spreadsheets though, to log reference enquiries. He questioned whether libraries should really be trying to emulate Google and Amazon, especially since we do not have their resources. He was also sceptical about WorldCat, not least because libraries have to pay to contribute records, but also because the WorldCat reviews feature is so far unimpressive and underused.
So his conclusion was that the Internet librarian uses old skills on new sources, that we should be prepared to experiment and use that which helps users. In the questions, I said that his view of blogs was of course justified, in that they can be trivial and ephemeral, but pointed to that day's One Day in History experiment as something that might appear trivial now, but which historians of the future would find a rich resource.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational

October 17: One Day in History, today

In among the Internet Librarian International posts, I must point out that today is One Day in History, organised by History Matters.
Described as the"biggest blog in history", they say "'One Day in History' is a one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a 'blog' diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life". I shall be describing my day. Log in here to write about yours for future historians

Technorati Tags: historymatters, onedayinhistory

Internet Librarian International 2006: web 2.0 and library 2.0:

The final session of Monday afternoon, chaired by Jenny Levine, gave us four speakers.

Graham Spooner and Gillian Wood told us about the New South Wales Clinical Information Access Project. Librarians worked as back seat drivers of the project launched in 1997. Back then, access to libraries was limited, libraries were open office hours, and there was a very poor service to rural clinicians,
Though CIAP is by clinicians for clinicians, librarians were involved from start, promoting the project and encouraging use, training, purchasing content, dealing with complaints, and building a unified search environment and an interface with Ovid bibliographic databases, adding thesauri and mapping.
They also steered health in New South Wales in a new KM direction.
They mentioned (I think the only time at this conference so far) evidence-based information practice and speculated about whether there was a paucity of evidence on Library 2.0.

Barbara Peacock, from Nedbank, one of the four South African banks, spoke about their Knowledge Centre. I found this presentation more interesting for the context, than the details of her centre itself, as, in the new south Africa, the bank grapples with issues such as micro-lending, Mzansi, the system of bank accounts for people who have never held one before and the problems of training people in information literacy in a country where only 3 million out of a population of 46 million people have internet access.

Andrew Lewis ended this session with Shock Horror! Computer games in public libraries based on his experience in Windsor & Maidenhead.
He showed how his authority had used computer games to build a trailer for their summer reading scheme, a Flash-based comments form for younger users to give feedback on services and an information literacy game, big bad world.
Gaming technologies have the advantages of being multimedia, appealing to young, ubiquitous, high impact applications, collaborative, requiring social interaction and problem-solving and being deliverable on existing channels
There's a report at http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/library_policies.htm

Internet Librarian International 2006: Networking in the new library environment

Terence Huwe, of the Institute of Industrial Relations UC Berkeley spoke on extending library roles with new technologies, describing how IIR used digital media and the links between digital convergence and social networking.
Under Library 1.0, the environment dictated opportunities. Digital media are mutable, reproducible. We collect advise and preserve....no one else does. Need to remember 1.0 messages in Library 2.0. 21st century organisations
What special knowledge do we have that others don't have?
IIR; is multi-disciplinary, far-flung, therefore community building is very important.
For example, e-mail; no one managed digital conversations, so the library stepped in.
Web: in 1994, was student-run, so the library stepped in. Now the site is among the first hits returned in a Google search on labour research. They developed a labour research portal with blogs and wikis for doctoral students, particularly used in the area of immigration research.
They have moved from being webmasters to being publishers, putting the Institute's content online. He cited the example of a report they did into Wal-Mart's poor health benefits for its workers and the consequent impact on public health services

They have also moved from being bloggers to being publicists, offering a syndicated view of all IIR blogs, and from publisher to curator, organising photography exhibits,

They learnt to follow the media design services to bring media together; that the tenets of Library 1.0 still apply, but library 2.0 a social venture (how could it be otherwise?-TR)
He recommended that everyone should do an information audit every three years; discover how people are using (not using) technology, use social software to fill gaps; don't wait for permission.

Katherine Schopflin, chair of AUKML (Association of UK Media Librarians spoke on networking in the new library environment.
Networking part of the professional ethos but can take place in industry, in function, in information sector
Benefits: no advantage to employer for you to develop beyond current role (?cf leadership crisis)
Current awareness
Job opportunities (most jobs not advertised)
Comparing activities
New technology, new products
Morale and confidence (sense of identity)
Where: formal training, tours, visits, informal social events
Virtual communities: discussion lists, chat, blogs, wikis...more examples eg online courses, blogs around conferences etc
Hasn't seen professional association using blog to network

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, library 2.0, networking

Internet Librarian International 2006: Wikis and social software

After lunch, which I spent agreeably at Phil Bradley's table, Marieke Guy and Brian Kelly, both of UKOLN, gave a two-handed session on wikis, Brian stepping in as a Danish speaker, Sara Jorgensen, was indisposed.
Marieke gave a presentation called Wiki or Won't He? the highs and lows of establishing a public sector wiki. After defining wikis, and some of the software that can be used to build them, she discussed the spread of wikis in the UK public sector. She had been unable to find any examples of UK libraries using wikis externally. Indeed, some, for example DEFRA, had established wikis but had later  liquidated them. She advised a "soft policing" approach to the issues of vandalism, spam and wikiquette that cause anxiety and gave a checklist for setting up a wiki (oddly she suggested choosing software as the first point, before identifying the purpose of the wiki). She gave examples of wikis used at the 2006 Institutional Web Management Workshop. She identified the wiki managers role as being part midwife, part champion and part minder and suggested the following uses for wikis in libraries:
• book reviews
• comments and suggestions boxes
• FAQs about library services
• commonly asked enquires
• local history and personal stories
• course collaboration and e-portfolios
• library project work and research

Brian then gave a presentation based on his personal experience of using wikis over two years, chiefly to support the Institutional Web Management Workshops and other UKOLN events.  One of the many advantages of using wikis for events is that ideas and feedback can be recorded and preserved, rather than being scribbled up illegibly on flip-charts and then lost or thrown away. He noted that wiki functionality was starting to be bundled with VLEs, for example Moodle, the open source VLE. The first time he used them, in 2004, delegates used IRC, Skype and Wikalong, an extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. He discussed various types of wiki and asked whether collaborative web-based word-processing and spreadsheet tools such as Writely or Google Spreadsheets could be considered wikis. One of the issues that worried people about wikis is dependence on external services.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, library 2.0, wikis

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, library 2.0, wikis

Internet Librarian International 2006: Putting Library 2.0 into Practice

From theory to practice: Michael Stephens introduced the next session in which we heard Jenny Levine, of the American Library Association and the Shifted Librarian, Thor Bur of Copenhagen Public Library and Fedja Kuelenovic of the Peace Support Operations Training Centre.
Jenny gave an introduction to account of how libraries, principally in the US, are using podcasting for a number of purposes: library audio guides, talks and lectures, book reviews and so on, and also gave a guide to how to start podcasting, not something I have ever done, but perhaps the world is ready for my light bass-baritone. As well as producing podcasts themselves, libraries need to be able to support users' podcasts: how many Peoples' Network computers have microphones and podcasting software installed, I wonder?
Thor showed how Danish public libraries are using tagging (that is physical plastic tags) on book stock, and instant messaging for reference service. Fedja showed how he had used Library 2.0 in developing services to the armed forces in Bosnia.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, library 2.0

Internet Librarian International 2006: Web 2.0 and Library 2.0: setting the stage for 2.0

Michael Stephens of Tame the Web was moderator for the first morning session in the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 track, introducing a panel of Phil Bradley, Paul Miller and Brian Kelly. Phil gave a comprehensive and no-nonsense introduction to Web 2.0 technologies and commented on the extent to which "2.0" has proliferated, mentioning education 2.0 and learning 2.0, Danny Quah having earlier made reference to journalism 2.0 on his keynote speech. If librarians aren't already blogging, they need to, he said, and a running gag in this session were jokes at Brian Kelly's expense on his alleged failure to have a blog. In his defence, Brian pointed out that he did in fact have one, though devoted to rapper sword dancing, rather than information issues. One of the advantages of Web 2.0, Phil pointed out, is that most services can be used by librarians quickly and without the need for intervention by technicians or IT services departments.
Paul Miller, Technology Evangelist at Talis, then spoke on Library 2.0, a concept only a little over year old, the phrase having been coined by Michael Casey in September 2005. He proudly showed us the results of Talis's Mashing up the library competition, including the fascinating Second Life Library. He thought the drivers for Library 2.0 were the falling costs of digital storage and computing power, growing connectivity, camera 2.0, commoditisation and what he described as the three Os: open source, open data and open APIs. Library 2.0 creates an architecture of participation. He referred to a new, open source, library management system, Pines-Evergreen, developed in Georgia in the USA. Why do libraries pay to give their data to someone else? We must liberate data, or users will desert us.
Brian Kelly spoke on overcoming organisational resistance to introducing Web or Library 2.0 services, the excuses people will use to argue against such things, arguments such as the immaturity of the technology, expense, legal risks and fear. He wanted us to be able to take technologies beyond the so-called chasm on the Gartner Hype Cycle, the gap between the use of a technology by enthusiasts and early adopters and its wider deployment. He gave some alarmingly familiar examples of statements made by librarians about IT departments, for example that they don't understand learning and teaching and think students only use the web for messing around. He compared government attempts at social control (ID cards and greater powers of arrest) with IT departments' instincts to manage users' applications and ban some software; both too, he suggested, may exaggerate threats to win their arguments. But he warned us against IT and librarian fundamentalists; the latter think they know better than the user, think users should be forced to learn Boolean searching, don't want them to do their own searching or classifying. Librarians also still want to catalogue the whole Web and want a service to be perfect before being released to users. The Web 2.0 of perpetual beta is alien to them. In the language of Little Britain (a reference that I fear may have been lost on some of his international audience) he suggested that rather than saying "computer says no", we should adopt the Pollardian ambiguities of "yeah, but, no, but, yeah" or, "Yeah, like Wikis are well cool, but OK so I copied my homework but, like I always copy my homework". He concluded by arguing for a risk management approach and gave some examples of experimental uses of Web 2.0 services.

Technorati Tags: ILI2006, internetlibrarianinternational, library 2.0