Overview Technology - Bringing Power to the Information Pipeline October 23, 2004 Darlene Fichter Data Library Coordinator University of Saskatchewan Library

Overview  What technologies have a “ sweet spot ” for libraries? 1.New (free or almost free) tools  Weblogs, RSS, Instant Messaging 2.Key components  Metasearch and link resolvers 3.Digital projects and local communities  Small-scale digital projects

Take a Moment  Think about family & friends  What technologies are they using now that they didn’t 2 years ago or 6 months ago  Jot down three

Now, Consider  Have libraries made use of these new tools?  How could we make use of them?

William Gibson’s Observation “the future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed”

Technology

Tip: Where is the new technology on the hype cycle?

What do I Think is Waxing?

Broadband Home: Armchair Revolution  Ultimate jukebox has every –song ever recorded –movie ever made –game ever created –Every book ???  Infinite television  Early adopters: 12,500 songs,125 hours of video (300 gigabytes) on tap Welcome to the Broadband Home of the Future

Broadband Library?  My “personal” library  What will be our role? –Digital library for the “have nots”?  Or full circle? –Institutions of learning  Media literacy  Trusted advisors (reputation managers)

Broadband Library Challenges  How will we facilitate moving information in and out of the content repositories that we license?  How will “ The Library’s Collection ” be part of a “ personal library ”  How will we handle authentication and rights?

WiFi revolution  Always on  Always connected  Always part of the “infosphere” –Like air around us

WiFi Phones/Devices  People will snap up one device that offers –telephone, web and access, –unified address book, –a calendar for meetings.  Plus –Camera, portable music player

End of Browser Domination  There are 1.5 billion mobile phones in the world today. Already you can use them to browse the Web, take pictures, send , and play games. Soon they could make your PC obsolete.* *Brad Stone, Your Next Computer.

WiFi and Libraries  Is the library a “hot spot”?  Are we ready to deliver our services and content to range of devices?  What changes if our users are “always on”?

Infosphere “Today’s digital kids think of information and communications technology (ICT) as something akin to oxygen: they expect it, it’s what they breathe and it’s how they live. They use ICT to meet, play, date and learn. It’s an integral part of their social life; it’s how they acknowledge each other and form their personal identities.”* *John Seely Brown, “Learning in the Digital Age,” The Internet and the University: 2001 Forum

How We Might See the Infosphere Adapted from Cathy DeRosa, OCLC Presentation on the Environmental Scan Web/Internet Databases/ Publications Library Collections Intranets & Institutional Content

How Our Customers See It Databases/ Publications

Expectations & Learned Behaviors  Infosphere is continuous  Our users are used to the “AmaZooglePedia” phenomena –Simplicity –Seamless

Major Challenge: Break Down Silos  Information silos or "stovepipes" result when information storehouses are created at different times or by disparate applications or groups –Databases from different vendors –Catalogue –Library site search

Photo Credit: Aaron’s Photos Creative Commons – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Result  User is left to cope with the fragmentation  Frustrated users  Time wasted  Lost opportunities

Libraries are Responding  Metasearch or federated search –allow users to search heterogeneous resources including licensed databases from a single search interface

Metasearch Engines Break Silos By  Reducing the cognitive burden choosing databases  Minimizing time needed to learn a dozen different search interfaces  Increasing productivity by saving time repeating the same search and manually deduplicating result lists

Library Crosswalks –Link Resolvers Photo Credit: Constructed converging lines - walkways of the Otway Fly by thppt

Link Resolvers  Based on the OpenURL Framework  Transmit bibliographic information via hypertext links in order to connect users to the full text content

Extra Option

The article Full text in Science Direct

Focus is Shifting

Connecting the Dots: Information to People  Collaboration and social software  Use of the internet is shifting –Online world has moved from reading web pages as solo activity to one of social interaction with chatting, commenting, and sharing information

The Hype about “Social Software”  What is it?  “Social software can be defined as whatever supports our actual human interaction as we colonize the virtual realm”* * Jon Udell, The Social Enterprise, March 26, 2004, InfoWorld,

Some Types of Social Software  Weblogs  Friends of friends sites  Wikis  Instant Messaging  Social bookmarking sites

Libraries and Weblogs

“Push Button Publishing” for the Web  No need to know HTML  No need to know about FTP and servers  Sign up for an account at a free service like –  Have a web page in 3-5 minutes!

Some Ways Libraries Use Weblogs  New Resources  Library Construction News  Teen Blogs  Book discussion blogs

RSS & Libraries – Spread the News

What is RSS?  R ich S ite S ummary  R eally S imple S yndication  Think of it as a machine readable file (XML) that includes headlines of new content on your web site and links back to your site

Why have an RSS Feed?  Free publicity!  Who –Individuals will subscribe –Other web site publishers will list your “headlines” –Content is searchable in RSS search engines  News is free  Comes free with weblog or can easily be created by hand or with a script

Instant Messaging and Libraries  Some libraries are using it for “low cost” reference or in the library  Pluses –Familiar to many of the library’s younger users –Natural fit for them  Things to consider –Keeping a copy of the transcript –Not as private as it’s hosted off site –Not all the bells and whistles of some packages

Data Library and Instant Messaging  Are you there?  Quick answers  Cut down glut –Can you meet Tuesday? –How about Wednesday? –10 s later …

Libraries and Social Software  Are we prepared to help our organizations make use of social software applications? –Initiators and leaders –Supporters –Participating  Are we ready to make internal and external content available as RSS feeds and to authors of Weblogs and Wikis?

Small Scale Digital Projects with a Big Impact  Most libraries have unique collections –Photographs –Local history –Unusual or rare materials  Specialized indexes or finding aids –All the songs that mention “Saskatoon” –All the hockey stars from “Saskatoon”

Libraries as Content Creators/Curators  Tour a few projects  Typical staffing requirements –Part-time one staff member –Teams of 4 students for 4 months

Native Law Cases (1800’s to present)  All case law related to aboriginal people of Canada from courts in Canada and England  Start in 1994 –

Canadian Native Law Cases

Northwest Resistance Materials about battle between the Métis people & the Government of Canada: biographies, maps, broadsides,

Special Exhibits

Directory Site with Two Partners

First Nations Index Built with Partnerships

Today: Building an Aboriginal Scholarly Portal  One place to look  Community (social software)  More than scholarly resources –Events –People –News –Special Tools

Development Site:

Digital Library Projects  Many opportunities  Can be very inexpensive –Part-time, students, volunteers, or staff –Provide guidance and direction  Take time to learn about metadata standards –Dublin core, MODS, TEI, EAD –Standards provide the means for interoperable digital libraries

Our Challenge  Make time to plan for the future  Be savvy about technology change  Be strategic –Discover the “sweet spot” for libraries and users –Participate, experiment, learn together

“Never Doubt that We Are Needed”  We need to seize the opportunities to deliver content in context to a new generation of collaborative and social software tools  Our skills and expertise can help increase productivity and tailor information to support business processes  Librarians bring a unique perspective and set of skills to the interplay between people, information, and work processes

Questions