BiblioTech Web

Next week is the annual ILF (Indiana Library Federation) Conference. I get to present TWICE at the conference. My Wednesday presentation is called “Losing the Clipboard: A Hands-On Workshop on Using Excel for Tracking Reference Statistics” and my Thursday one is called “Staying in Touch: Using RSS Feeds to Keep your Finger on the Pulse of Libraries and Technology.”

Nice use of subtitles, eh?

Should be a lot of fun, and hopefully useful to people who attend. There are supposed to be over 1,200 librarians attending and there are a good dozen presentations going on at any one time, so I hope there’s a decent turnout.

For what it’s worth, I’m doing a little presentation today at the IOLUG (Indiana Online Users Group) Fall Program called “Reaching Digital Natives and Immigrants: Library 2.0.” They’re having a Science-Fair-style session where different people are “exhibiting” different programs and I get to do LibraryThing! Below is most of what I’ve got in a handout (and will also be in the Proceedings booklets):

What can I do with LibraryThing?

• Catalog your books online
• Find other people who own the same books you do
• Check out what other people have in their libraries
• Get recommendations for new books to read
• Social Networking in all its forms
• Discuss books in online groups
• Display my library in customizable sort views including a Virtual Bookshelf, which displays the covers
• Access my virtual library from my cell phone while standing in a bookshop (point cell phone’s browser to http://www.librarything.com/m)

Why should I use LibraryThing?

• It uses the Z39.50 protocol to standardize information.
• Fully web based
• You can search Amazon, the Library of Congress, and almost 100 other collections to add the exact volume you own.
• Who better to recommend a new book to you than someone who owns a similar collection to yours?

Cool Features

• Zeitgeist
• Groups
• RSS feeds for recent books added by your friends or groups
• Tag clouds, author clouds, widgets

How Libraries can use LibraryThing

• Collection Development
  • “People who own this book also own…”
  • Search or browse tags
  • Find foreign-language books
• Book Reviews
• Zeitgeist - http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist
• LibraryThing For Libraries - add tag-based browsing, book recommendations, ratings, reviews and more to your OPAC - http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/
• Widgets to display new or featured books on your library website

Presented at the “Blinded Me with Library Science” Fair by Scott Pfitzinger
My LibraryThing profile: http://www.librarything.com/profile/spfitzinger

LibraryThing has now gone the next step and allowed integration between its now-massive database of information and your library’s OPAC (that’s Online Public Access Catalog for those who haven’t been through Library School–what people nowadays simply call the online catalog or just “catalog”). Imagine your library patrons being able to add tags and recommendations to the entries for your books, and without you needing to struggle to program it all. LibraryThing’s done the work for you, so you just need to add a few lines of HTML code and that’s it!

http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/ gives you all the information you need, including a handy “Take the Tour” link.

Yesterday Michael Stephens linked to a very thought-provoking video about students today and how they relate with technology. The main emphasis is on how that relates to how they’re being taught in school. Much of the content in the video is students communicating their answers (or parts of their answers) to the question “What is it like being a student today?” This question was asked on a Google Doc and 200 students collaborated in creating the document that led to this video.

I found out about another online cartoon series today that I’ve really enjoyed. It’s called bLaugh and it’s a comic strip that is specifically for bloggers. In fact, the cartoon’s subtitle is “The (Un)Official Comic of the Blogosphere!”

Here are a couple samples. If you like them, here’s a link to their RSS feed. (Thanks to Stephen Abram for recommending bLaugh.)

There’s a really good article by Steven on the ACRLog called “What Happened to the Personal Web Site” which discusses the impact that the personal blog has had on academic librarianship. Here is a snippet:

In the pre-blog days if an academic librarian wanted to achieve some of those things for which a blog now serves, a personal web site was the best available option. It could provide a personal profile, access to a CV, a listing of articles and presentations, resources that the site owner wanted to share with colleagues, and specialized resource pages designed to enlighten colleagues, promote new ideas, and create a name for oneself. Perhaps the blog’s ability to accomplish the latter is the primary reason why the personal web site is no longer the first choice - or a choice at all - for many academic librarians who want to establish themselves as thought leaders in the profession and influence their colleagues.

Please click the link above and read the whole thing. It’s a reasonable length and is well worth the read.