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Pew Research Center: Tagging Play February 28, 2007

Posted by Rachel in 2.0, In The News.
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“Just as the internet allows users to create and share their own media, it is also enabling them to organize digital material their own way, rather than relying on pre-existing formats for classifying information.

A December 2006 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 28% of internet users – and 7% on any typical day – have tagged or categorized online content such as photos, news stories or blog posts.”

Tagging is something I have talked to a few WML staff about and how it’s really changing the way we organize and find information online.  I don’t see major library databases departing from their internal thesari or subject headings, but I think I remember hearing that Primo has the potential for tagging to be used at some point.  I think non-librarian users would enjoy tagging a book or journal in Primo.  But when we get to the time when Primo is ready for it, we may not take advantage of it.

Anyway, for the complete article, go here: Pew Research Center: Tagging Play

Heard Library’s Portable Classroom February 27, 2007

Posted by Rachel in Announcements, Computers.
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Check out 20 laptops and a projector, all stored in a rolling cart

The laptop cart’s home is the Science & Engineering Library.

Library staff members may reserve the cart using the reservation calendar.  Reservations are made without any mediation or administrative approval, and your reservation will immediately appear on the calendar.

The cart will be checked out to the library staff member’s card or an appropriate surrogate card. The default check-out time is three hours, but if you have reserved the cart for more time, please inform the circulation staff of the Science & Engineering Library that you require additional time.

The library staff member who checks out the cart should review the cart’s inventory before checking it out and before returning the cart. The inventory is affixed to the inside of the cart. Please actively participate in inventory control.

Lastly, make sure you check-out with the key to the padlock and please return the key with the cart.

Pew Research Center: Americans and Social Trust: Who, Where and Why February 25, 2007

Posted by Rachel in In The News.
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“Social trust is a belief in the honesty, integrity and reliability of others – a “faith in people.” It’s a simple enough concept to describe. But it’s never been easy to figure out who trusts, or why.”

I always find reports and survey results that come out of the Pew Research Center fascinating, and this report is no exception. This new Pew Social Trends Survey examines social trust. In the world of Web 2.0, social trust seems to be inevitable and intrinsicly tied to all the various social networking tools being used. We put stuff out there for people to see – our resumes, IM chat names, email addresses, personal and preofessional websites, our thoughts on almost anything (since we are all citizen journalists now). And we trust our “friends” and library colleagues. But what about the rest of the world?

User 2.0: Innovative Academic Library Sites February 25, 2007

Posted by Rachel in 2.0.
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Here are a few libraries that are listed on Library Garden’s blog as being some of the most “innovative” in terms of integrating Web 2.0 / social software applications. Although the full post and its comments list some additional institutions, here is Marie L. Radford’s list.

Innovative Academic Library Websites

Outlook Calendar may be flakey this weekend February 23, 2007

Posted by Rachel in Microsoft Outlook.
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Because of daylight saings and other technical complications, using Microsoft Outlook’s calendar will be a bit flakey this weekend.  Owen IT will be updating their servers soon, and until they do, future calendar times may not be entirely accurate.  Their patching will happen automatically and should require no action on our part.

HOWEVER, it’s recommended that you:

  • Do not make new calendar appointments this weekend (starting Saturday morning at 2am) in Outlook.
  • If you do make appointments, they may end up being at the wrong time, or if you invite people to an appointment, they may get multiple invites.
  • If you do make appointments, double-check them next week to make sure they are at the right times.

Things should be back to normal by Monday.

_____

The actual announcement:

ITS will be applying patches to the VUExchange servers on Saturday,
2/24 between the hours of 12:01 AM and 2:00 AM. During this time the VUExchange service will be briefly unavailable. This change was originally scheduled for 2/25.

Beginning Saturday, 2/24 at 2:00 AM, ITS will run a Microsoft tool to correct Outlook calendar entries for daylight saving time on the VUExchange servers. This tool should complete its run Saturday afternoon and will require a server reboot. During this time, a brief outage of the VUExchange service will occur. Users should expect to see new email notification of the changes generated in their Outlook Calendar. ITS strongly recommends that no new calendar appointments be created during this weekend. As of this time, there is no tool for public folder calendar entries and owners of these folders will need to make changes manually.

1. Meeting notices will be resent to meeting attendees.
2. Users need to verify their calendar entries after all changes are done.
3. If calendar entries are not correct, verify that the client OS patches are up to date.

If you have any questions please contact ITS Partner Support at its-partner@vanderbilt.edu or call 3-9999.

For information about upcoming and recent outages, see:
http://its.vanderbilt.edu/outage.php

Information Technology Services
Vanderbilt University
http://its.vanderbilt.edu
ITS Helpdesk: 615-343-9999

College bans Wikipedia February 21, 2007

Posted by Rachel in In The News, Wikis.
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From Campus Technology:

Middlebury Bans Wikipedia as Academic Source

Vermont’s Middlebury College has banned the use of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as an acceptable source of academic information for students at Vermont’s Middlebury College, United Press International reported.

The open-source, free encyclopedia lets anyone create and edit citations, which has resulted in the publication of incorrect information. Because of the errors, Middlebury’s history department recently instituted the ban. Because of errors, Middlebury’s history department instituted a policy that says, “Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source,” according to Vermont-based Burlington Free Press.

But writing in the Middlebury Campus student newspaper, undergrad Chandler Koglmeier said, “are you really arrogant enough to say that the opinions of the general public, albeit a general public who cares enough to get on Wikipedia and post about a specific topic, don’t matter? To me, this stinks of the beginnings of censorship.”

The Wikipedia Foundation supports the new policy, the Free Press said. In an e-mail to the newspaper, the foundation said it is an “ideal place to start” for students; “however, it is not an authoritative source.”

For more information, click here.

Updates to the WML site February 20, 2007

Posted by Rachel in WML Website.
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WML website

I’ve recently made the following changes to the WML website:

  • Updated the Google Scholar page, which is in the section on “How do I begin my research?”
  • Added a few new images for the rotation at the top of the homepage
  • Changed the font and added mention of the Jean & Alexander Heard Library at the top of every page
  • Added new database information: SOCRATES (Coming soon: Plunkett Research info and updated descriptions for Business Insights and MarketResearch.com)
  • Removed canceled databases: Thomson One Banker, Thomson One Analytics, D&B Key Business Ratios
  • Updated the Databases by Subject page and several Research Guides
  • Fixed many descriptions that needed an entity instead of a particular character
  • Turned many images from pngs to jpgs for quicker page load
  • Incorporated the many changes Flo suggested

Things I am still working on for the WML site:

  • Redoing the login pages for proxy access
  • Fixing the “page not found page” – I’ve asked Suellen if I can use their perl script
  • Fixing many pictures
  • Imroving search engine results
  • Improving the “database of databases” to better manage subject categories of databases and research guide categories (This one is time intensive.)
  • Creating a web-based interface for librarians to interact with the database easier, for updating/changing and viewing information
  • Improving SQL query statements
  • Impriving the CSS for print format
  • Creating a BIS form
  • Imrpoving functionality of existing forms
  • Improving the findability of heavily used pages
  • Improving the Contact Us page and make phone numbers more prominent
  • Working on adding additional links for the blog page on how to subscribe to various aggregators
  • Waiting for BIS PDFs and other information
  • Waiting for additional content from people for 2nd level priority items (Due Friday, March 16th)
  • Much, much more (but at the time of writing this, I can’t think of what those things are)

A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto February 17, 2007

Posted by Rachel in 2.0.
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A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto

This is a tastefully done video that has a lot of powerful statements about choosing to adopt a “Library 2.0″ mentality personally and in one’s library. The pictures are a little odd, but the content of the manifesto itself is what impresses me.