Kodak has finally made me smile again

I'm from the hometown of Kodak so don't get me started on my opinion of the company (it's not good) but this video, allegedly only for internal use, but released to the public due to popular demand, is the best "marketing" I've seen out of the Kodak in literally decades.

CIL2007: Millennials and the Library

Marshal Breeding, Vanderbilt Library

• Generations
• Silent Gen
• Baby boomers
• Gen X
• Millennials
• Millennial characteristics
• inate ability for tech
• frenetic multitasking
• comfortable w/ diverse types of digital media
• highly interactive style of working
• The Millennials are coming
• creative, organized, independent
• impatient, skeptical, sometime arrogant
• status and authority don't impress them
• Contrast of Generations charts
  
  
• approach to study and learning
• "they do it all while studying"
• 85% also listen to music
• also...
• tv
• movie
• im
• chat
• shaping collections for millennials
• content
• digital/immediate
• discovery
• more like the web
• access
• anytime/anywhere
• consistent with existing trends
• doesn't conflict w/ needs of library users from previous generations
• in tune w/ strategic direction most libraries have
• a matter of degree
• an urgent need
• boomers and genx are happier w/ traditional content & modes of service
• millennials will move on to non-library info if not satisfied
• a lot at stake
• content of collections
• Ms comfortable w/ content in diverse media
• multimedia
• graphics over text
• music & audio
• video
• Ms love to remix
• collection possibilities
• e-journals/e-books
• podcasts of lectures
• video libraries of stock footage
• news archives
• datasets: census/GIS
• access to collections
• best opportunity for impact
• building collections well underway but how best to provide access
• how to respond to their prefs
• immediate
• mobile
• flexible
• intuitive
  
  
• heightened user expectations
• expectations set by web
• sophisticated web skills
• low tolerance for clunky interface
• confident in their abilities
• problems with status quo
• doesn't meet expectations of current generation
• too many interfaces
• overly complex
• not always intuitive
  
  
• different locations for different types of information
• Best library OPAC: A Card Catalog card on the screen?
• Best we can do?
• Finding Time Magazine Video
• common tools for access to local collections
• library opacs
• links to aggregators/publishers
• cross linking via OpenURL
• journal finding aids
• metasearch engines
• all loosely coupled
• Metasearch
• inherently problematic
• not immediate
• relevancy ranking difficult
• lake of deep results
• interim solution
• Change Underway
• widespread dissatisfaction
  
  
• movement to break out of current mold
• decoupling of the front-end from the back-end
• working toward the next generation of interfaces
• redefinition of the library catalog
• more comprehensive information discovery environments
• better info delivery tools
• more powerful search capabilities
  
  
• more elegant presentation
• comprehensive search service
• more like OAI
• problems of scale diminished
• problems of cooperation exist
• web 2.0 a good start
• more social and collaborative
• tools and tech that foster collaboration
• blogs, wiki, tagging, social bookmarking, user rating, user reviews
• Supporting technologies
• web services
• XML APIs
• AJAX
• Microformats
• Opensearch vs SRU/SRW
• replacement OPACs
• endeca guided navigation
• aquabrowser
• common thread
• decoupled interface
• mass export of catalog data
• alternative search engine
• alternative interface
• expanded discovery and delivery tools
• ex libris primo
• encore from III
• common threads
• decoupled interface
• comprehensive indexes that span multiple resources
• alternative interface
• library developed solutions
• extensible catalog
• university of rochester
• http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
• redefinition of library catalogs
• question traditional notions
• no longer enough to provide a catalog of just print
• digital resources can't be an afterthought
• multiple interfaces less tenable
• work toward equal footing for digital and print
• interface expectations
• millennials are used to the Web
• used to relevancy ranking
• must be fast
• rich visual information
• facted browsing
• navigational breadcrumbs
• ratings and rankings
• appropriate organizational structures
• LCSH v FAST
• Full MARC v Dublin Core
• OCLC perceptions: Where do your users start?
• Library Discovery Model
• Library as search destination
• non-library nterfaces
• web services are an essential enabling technology
• libraries lag behind in implementation of service oriented architecture
• global arena
• google, yahoo
• google scholar
• ask worldcat
• wikipedia
• google library print
• local v global
  
  
• how to lib collections relate to global realm
• will mass digitization replace local collections
• global arena excels at discovery
• local arena focuses on delivery
• multi-layered information discovery
• google v libraries
• unfounded concern
• google based on discovery
• libraries specialize in delivery

More on porn in Rochester libraries

The Democrat & Chronicle is reporting that the library board as appointed a joint commission to reconsider the policy. Video from the borad meeting is available through the link.

Porn at my hometown library

Yes, folks, it's happening again. Another local TV station has done an "undercover investigation" (video available through the link) to catch people looking at porn in the library. (I grew up in a Rochester suburb and used the library in question regularly so that's why I'm posting this story.) What makes this story extra interesting is that County Executive Maggie Brooks is now threatening to cut $7.5M in funding unless the library changes its policy. The policy is the one that was upheld by the Supreme Court under CIPA in which filters are installed but are turned off for anyone 17 and older without being asked why. (It is not clear whether the library is required to follow CIPA or is just doing it anyway.) Because of this the ACLU has criticized Ms. Brooks stating “What real significant difference is there between denying an adult patron access to these sites and denying patrons access to Catcher in the Rye?” The most interesting part of all this, which isn't mentioned in any of the articles: Ms. Brooks used to be a reporter (even an anchor if I recall correctly) for the TV station that started all this. I smell a setup.

Christmas 2006

Since several people have asked me, I realized that I've not yet blogged about my experience getting home for Christmas. Well, I ended up originally getting a flight that got me into Rochester, via Washington Dullas, at 11:00pm on Christmas night. On Saturday I went to look at my updated schedule online and didn't find it. So, I called United back (was on hold for only an hour this time) and confirmed my Monday flight. During that call the agent asked me if there was a different city I could fly in to. I mentioned Buffalo and she found me a flight that got me into Buffalo at 6:15pm Christmas Eve. I snagged that one fast. The only hitch was that it took me through Kansas City (which finally has facilities inside security!) and Washington Dullas. On Sunday I ended up getting up at 4:30am, getting to the gate at 6:30am, and leaving Denver at 8:30am. I ended up getting to Buffalo roughly on time, but for some unexplained reason my luggage stayed behind at Dullas.

The baggage clerk "found" my bag at Dullas ans said that it would be arriving in buffalo at bout 11pm. Unfortunately, I needed to get to Rochester and didn't want to impose on my parents any more than I'd already done by making them pick me up about 70 miles from home. The clerk told me he had no more drivers for the night but that he'd have my bag delivered to me in Rochester the next day, Christmas.

Christmas day was fun as the photos can attest. We were able to keep my earlier arrival from my brother and his family so that was a nice surprise for them. Around noon I started wondering where my bag was so I tried calling the automated baggage claim phone system. I wouldn't accept my claim number nor would it recognize "sauers" as a last name. I tried transferring to a human but every time I tried that I was told that the "transfer had failed" and that I could try the automated system or "call back later". It's interesting that instead of being put on hold, I was, in essence, being hung up on by the system.

About 2pm Christmas day I got the call from United confirming the delivery address for my bag and informing me that it would be on the 6pm run. Finally my bag showed up at five to midnight.

Now I'm hoping I don't get stuck in Chicago on the way back home on Saturday as I hear the snow is starting again in Denver and they're expecting another two feet of the stuff.

Flight update

Two hours on hold and I'm now getting to Rochester at 11:00pm on Christmas day.

Snowed In

Well, I went to check in for my flight to Rochester, NY at 11:30am tomorrow and found that it's already been canceled. I've been on hold with United for the past 1.5 hours with no human in sight. Updates as warranted.

IL2006: Closing Keynote

Social Computing and the Information Professional Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Rochester Institute of Technology, Lab for Social Computing

• New title: Girls Just Want to Have Fun!
• New New Title: All work and no play makes jack a dull boy
• Final Title: All the world's a game... and all the men and women are marely players
• my blogs
• mamamusings
• many2many
• misbehaving.net
• terra nova (blog on virtual worlds)
• all blog posts from the week got deleted by hosting provider
• rescued them via bloglines
• Gaming is shaping an entire generation of computer users and communicators
• ulatmac.wordpress.com/2006/09/18/8/
• World of Warcraft for use in libraries?
• Galataea, Level 60 Troll Priestess (Ms. Lawley)
• Played WoW with real-world collegues
• Then moved to playing with a group that researches virtual worlds
• "It's all about play, as well. Learn from the gamers." -Michael Stephens
• Gaming isn't always computer games
• OOF!
• O'Reiley FOO camp
• Reverse scavenger hunt
• got gather 10 items
• then get list of things you're supposed to find
• justify how thier items match what's on the list
• search flickr for "OOF"
• Villager or Werewolf?
• each person has a card: villager, seer, wherewolf
• one ww, one seer, reat villagers
• close eyes & hum
• go to sleep
• werewolves open eyes so get to see who they are
• werewolves pick someone to kill
• (can't speak)
• werewolves close eyes
• seer open eyes
• who's the werewolf
• wake up & see who dies
• discussion
• figure out who's the werewolf
• what is a game?
• a form of play with goals and structure
• players make decisissions in order to manage resources
• an activity with some rules engaged in for an outcome
• it takes so little to motivate people
• What are the incentives for people? What makes it fun?
• "I love bees" game
• "Cruel 2 B Kind" game
• helps to reclaim public spaces that aren't being used
• "All in"
• toombstone hold'em poker
• summer reading programs are games
• Stephen Abram
• context is king, not content
• it's about unfettered experience
• what's the immersive experience we're creating in public libraries?
• www.42entertainment.com/see.html
• Levels of participation
• casual (level 1)
• active (level 2)
• enthusiastic (level 3)
• gaming blogs & Web sites
• fletcher library game project
• bibliographic gaming
• game on: gaming in libraries
• gaming in libraries
• Macarthur Foundation
• Digital Media, Learning & Education

An interesting view of home

The space shuttle took a picture of the International Space Station recently and at that time it happened to be orbiting above both Rochester (my home town) and Buffalo, NY.
Thanks Matt!

Uh... Duh!

Uh... Duh!
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

This is an actual construction sign located on West Ridge Road in Rochester, NY.

Thanks dad

Ramp garage collapse back home

On Friday my dad let me know that a ramp garage in downtown Rochester, NY (one I've use many times over the years) had one of its ramps collapse. Luckily no one was hurt but many cars were left stranded. Earlier today he was able to get close enough to get some pictures of the repairs going on.

Lawrence Lessig at RIT

Lawrence Lessig recently spoke at the Rochester Institute of Technology (back in my home town) and Jill Hurst-Wahl has provided a link to the video of the talk on her Digitization 101 blog. Thanks Jill!

The "four things" meme

I've been tagged...

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Internet Trainer
2. Writer
3. Bookseller
4. Clerk @ a Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Labyrinth
2. Brotherhood of the Wolf
3. Chasing Amy
4. High Fedelity

Four places you have lived:
1. Rochester, NY
2. Albany, NY
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Aurora, CO

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. 24
2. Bones
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Doctor Who

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. London, England
2. San Francisco, CA
3. St. Louis, MO
4. Phoenix, AZ

Four websites I visit daily
1. Bloglines
2. Blogger
3. del.icio.us
4. flickr

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Sushi
2. Cheesecake
3. Pizza
4. Garlic Nan

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
2. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
3. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
4. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn

Four people I will tag thinking they will respond.....
1. I do these but I don’t pass them along…
2.
3.
4.

Four things I always carry with me
1. Pen
2. Treo 600
3. Wallet
4. Keys

Pine Brook Kinderblog

From the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle on this Christmas morning comes the Pine Brook Kinderblog in here in Greece, NY through which the parents and children of Ms. Unterborn's kindergarten class are sharing their favorite bedtime stories.

IL05: Tuesday Keynote

Social Computing & the Info Pro Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Rochester Institute of Technology

• About a ½ dozen folks in the audience are blogging this, two years ago, there wasn’t anyone blogging her presentation
• It’s significant that social software is becoming part of the hallway conversation, not just the presentation
• Technorati indexed their 20 millionth blog yesterday. It was from an elementary class in France.
• Search for “liz” on Google and her blog is the third hit. That’s the power of blogs. Regularly updated relevant content that people link to
• She’ll be blogging her own talk. A first for her. (Not live though, “I’m not that good at multitasking.”)
• “The Long Tail”, Chris Anderson article in Wired magazine
• A few with a lot, most have a few
• The bulk of the content is in the most that have a few
• “I want to read the stuff that not everybody else already knows.”
• Librarians are good at knowing what’s in the long tail
• “if you liked that, you’ll like this”
• Social software is trying to create the computer equivalent of a good librarian. We won’t be there for quite a while.
• These tools augment, not replace
• “we need a human component. We need a social component” in these tools
• Blog: Creating Passionate Users (writer of the “head first” series of computer books)
• “we make the tools dumber because we think the users are dumber”
• You can’t change your users. You can educate them, but not change them
• Let’s make the tools foster better use.
• Make search better
• You go to friends before the web to find something to do @ conference
• That’s your social network
• How do you fin a good blog? Ask someone who’s also interested in that topic.
• Yahoo!’s My Web – bases results on list of trusted information sources (2 degrees – my friends and their friends)
• There are no bad links. Everything’s picked by my trusted resources
• Sent URLs by friends via e-mail, never going to get to it
• Now, put it into del.icio.us and then have your friends subscribe to it.
• “Information Network Discovery” – who are the experts in the field?
• See the resources. Also see the people who use those resources.
• Not all social networks are equal. They may be my friend and I’ll accept an IM form them but they may not be good at picking out good information
• del.icio.us – LaGrangeParkLibrary (username)
• Don’t bookmark at the desk, use del.icio.us instead
• Get to from any computer
• Patrons can get to from outside the library
• Social information filter for those that don’t want to save bookmarks
• [M: Note for my next reference book: USE THIS!]
• Link on library page: ad me to del.icio.us bookmarks (make me a trusted information resource)
• Wouldn’t it be great if your doctor would do this to point you to good resources? Or maybe the local health sciences organization?
• Warning: all this could focus you too much and remove outside, unexpected sources
• That’s where librarians come in.
• 1200 items in her del.icio.us account because she wants to share
• If you rely on tagging to find things, you loose the long tail
• Good folksonomy relies on critical mass
• Web design: what are people in del.icio.us calling it, this is what they’ll respond to, then call it that.
• If there isn’t a critical mass, it’s not tagged, and that’s what you’re relying on, you won’t find it
• Do I want a majority rules approach to naming things
• The ESP Game (Carnegie Mellon)
• Assign meaningful keywords to a random image
• Play against someone else
• When both of you pick the same word, you move to the next level
• When a word match happens several times, that word becomes taboo
• Lowest common denominator approach
• Shows interesting biases
• Pic of woman, typical response is “girl”
• Pic of man, “boy” almost never comes up
• Pic of black girl, racial slur comes up
• 43 Folders
• Lifehacker
• Continuous computing: just because it’s bad for you doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone.
• Attention if a form of capital. I can’t demand your attention without giving you something in exchange. If I demand your attention, you’re going to find a way around it.
• Why do we want to control attention?
• The technology doesn’t let us do that any more!
• Negatives
• We all feel overwhelmed
• Everything’s competing for our attention
• Person on stage vs ceiling tiles vs email on smartphone
• NYT Article: “Meet the Lifehackers”
• People @ Microsoft who research how we deal with interruptions
• Bigger screens make you more productive
• The tools are out there but you still need to take control of what you need to do.
• Who better to control and influence tagging than the people who know classification (librarians)

When News Breaks, We Bust It.

Newsbreakers looks like a fun group. They infiltrate local on-the-scene reports and generally make fools of themselves on camera to make some sort of political statement. (The one at the bottom of the homepage is from my hometown of Rochester, NY.)

Merry Christmas

Well, it's Christmas morning and I'm sitting in my folks' living room waiting for my brother and the girls to show up so we can open up the pile of presents under the tree. (I'm also surfing using the neighbor's open WiFi signal. My parents had no idea they had 11mbps available in their living room. If I'm feeling nice I'll go let the neighbors know about the open connection on the fourth. (I'm heading back home on the fifth...)) Anyway, to kill some time I figured I'd post an update on what I've been up to as I've not been blogging for the most of the past week.

On Monday I took the train from Rochester to New York City to visit Amy. The train was only 3.5 hours late by the time I arrived and damn, was it cold.

Tuesday we wandered around lower Manhattan visiting Ground Zero, J&R Music World, Katz's Deli (home of the famous lunch scene in When Harry Met Sally,) and saw the Neil Labute play Fat Pig starring Jeremy Piven, Andrew Macarthy, the woman from Felicity and one other actress who's name escaped me right now. It was off-Broadway ("in the Village") and afterward there was a 30 minute with the actors and another Broadway director.

Wednesday we got to see Avenue Q from the front row for only $21.25. How? Well, there was a lottery at the theater for 12 last-minute tickets and Amy's name was drawn. I can't say enough about how funny this play is. If you're not familiar with it picture the Muppets, post college, broke and living in New York City. This play is not for children. The only other thing I'll say is that I never expected to ever see "full frontal puppet nudity". We also stopped by the 42nd Street branch of NYPL (The one with the lions out front), Lincoln center, and spotted both the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. (All of this is in the photos in my previous post.)

Thursday we spent the morning through a local part with a fort and hiding in the neighborhood Starbucks (thanks Mary!) trying to stay out of the rain. I was then back on the train to head back to Rochester. By the time the train reached Albany it was only an hour late. When we got to Fairport (about 15 minutes by train East of Rochester) we were at a dead stop. It seems that a couple of guys, after being kicked out of a bar for fighting, took it out to the tracks and managed to get creamed by a freight train. Since we weren't allowed through the scene we ended up sitting on the tracks for another two hours. I finally ended up home at something just short of 2am.

Well, the rest of the family are due any minute so I'm off to open gifts.

Four days in the city

I just bought my train ticket from Rochester to NYC to spend the better part of four days with Amy, whom I've not seen since library school. (Ten years!) This should be fun. She's got us some "show tickets" but I've lost the e-mail with the name of the show in it. I do recall that Jeremy Piven is in it so it should be fun.

Update: After a quick search I found it. We'll be seeing Fat Pig starring Ashlie Atkinson, Andrew McCarthy, Jeremy Piven, and Keri Russell.

What would michael do?

I'm in the KC airport and I head that they need one passenger to give up their seat. So I decided to spend two additional hours in the airport from Hell. In exchange I got a first class seat on the next flight home (my first after seven years of traveling so I was overdue,) and a free round-trip ticket (which is going to get me back to Rochester for Christmas/New Years.) This was just a deal I couldn't pass up. Unfortunately the flight did lead me to discover that while in first class I am able to sleep on the plane.

A sad day for rochester radio

It seems that due to the recent FCC overreaction to everything, University of Rochester radio station WRUR is no longer broadcasting live radio. Everything will now be pre-recorded.

I knew it

I finally paid enough attention this time to catch the airline in the act. My flight from Rochester to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 9:54 and land at 11:58, a total flight time of two hours and four minutes. Once on the plane the pilot came on, gave the obligatory welcome aboard, and then informed us of the "one hour and 42 minute flight time" to Atlanta. No wonder flights are now consistantly on time and many times "early". Lying on the schedule allows you to pull off the trick of no longer being constantly late.

Heading home, eventually

The Rochester International Airport once again. Heading back to Denver (via Atlanta once again, go figure) but not quite heading home. I get to go straight fron DIA to the new branch of APL out int the Eastern boonies for the annual jonit dinner of the APL & FAPL boards. (Since I'm on both boards I have to be there twice.) Unfortunately, even though there's more than two hours between landing and the dinner, the branch is far enough away in the opposite direction from home that there's not enough time to stop home first. Of course, this will get me to the dinner about an hour early.

Another delay

I now might get to Rochester by Midnight...

Just pick a gate, any gate

Came in at gate C12. Leaving out of C18. Get to C18 and they tell us we need to go to C4. (At the far end of the concourse.) We all get there and then they send us all to C14. We're here now but we've just been told that they need to swap out planes. That'll take another 20 minutes. I'm now landing in Rochester at 11:30. Then I get to drive to Buffalo. All this just days after telling someone how smooth flying is these days.

Ask michael why he's cranky

Laura asked me to send her a copy of my schedule for the next few weeks. Here's what I camw up with...

03.22 Drive to Salina, KS
03.23 Teach in Salina, drive to Hays
03.24 Teach in Hays, drive to Colby
03.25 Teach in Colby
03.26 Teach in Colby, drive home
03.27 Home
03.28 Fly to Rochester, drive to Buffalo
03.29 Teach in Buffalo, drive to St. Bonaventure
03.30 Teach in St. Bonaventure, drive to Buffalo
03.31 Teach in Buffalo, drive to Rochester
04.01 Fly home
04.02-04.10 Home
04.11 Drive to Manhattan, KS
04.12 Teach in Manhattan
04.13 Teach in Manhattan
04.14 Drive to Hutchinson, KS
04.15 Teach in Hutchinson
04.16 Teach in Hutchinson, drive home
04.17 Home
04.18 Home
04.19 Drive to Cheyenne, WY
04.20 Teach in Cheyenne
04.21 Teach in Cheyenne
04.22 Teach in Cheyenne
04.23 Teach in Cheyenne, drive home
04.24 Home
04.25 Drive to Dodge City, KS
04.26 Teach in Dodge City
04.27 Teach in Dodge City
04.28 Drive to Lawrence, KS
04.29 Teach in Lawrence, Drive to Kansas City
04.30 Teach in Kansas City
05.01 Drive home

DC, again

In the past 12 days I've now been in three DC airports. First Regan National, flying in for CIL, then Baltimore leaving CIL, now Dullas on my way home from Rochester. I think I've entered the Twilight Zone.