Friday, March 30, 2007

IT Conversations :: Karen Coyle on Libraries and Web Standards

Originally posted by IT Conversations on March 12, 2007.

Libraries don't always get the credit due them for setting information technology standards. This work continues as the emerging semantic Web allowing easier integration of information. Digital library consultant Karen Coyle describes the benefits of this work to all Web users, such as plug-ins for Firefox, and a common standardized layer of metadata across the Web, such as the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Meanwhile, in an age of Google and Microsoft digitizing books for their own businesses, libraries are trying to figure out the tradeoff between such ease of access and librarians' need for control over the data in an authoritative way. The standards process is also in flux, trending away from formal standards towards more ad hoc, user-generated standards. What role does the Open Content Alliance play? How does today's library decide what to throw away and what to keep?

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Learning Times :: "Blended Librarians" in the LT Green Room

Originally posted in the LearningTimes Green Room on November 10, 2006.

In this episode, Susan Manning and Dan Balzer are joined by John Shank and Steven Bell, co-founders of http://www.blendedlibrarian.org, a community of librarians who blend instructional design, technology, and librarianship. John is Instruction Design Librarian and Head of Instructional Design Services at Penn State University - Berks Campus and Steven is Director of the Library at Philadelphia University. The interview was conducted with Skype.

The definition of the blended librarian is an academic librarian who combines the traditional skill set of librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware and software skills and adds to that the instructional or educational designer’s ability to apply technology appropriately in the teaching and learning process. Librarians integrating themselves into the teaching/learning process.

They do it all! Is it all about multi-tasking? It’s not just about wearing lots of hats but branching professionally into new areas.

Will multi-tasking make librarians relevant? John says no, but a librarian who has a deeper understanding and can apply these technologies to meet service needs will have lasting power. It’s all about partnerships.

Information literacy skills development is part of the blended librarian’s work. This led to a discussion of whose job it is and some about faculty resistance. John has solutions! Context specific information fluency building.

Goal for community is to develop tools and models. You can find them at http://www.blendedlibrarian.org and then join the blended librarians online learning community for interactive discussion, lists, resources, and webcasts.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Google's Vint Cerf

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz on September 25, 2006.

This 25 minute recording provides coverage of an interview with Google's Vint Cerf. In a couple of weeks, Dr. Cerf will be speaking at our Annual Conference, and we hope to see you then. For now, let's listen in as we cover a range of topics including Google Video, digital preservation, intellectual property, net neutrality and high performance computing.

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: An Interview with MIT's Phil Long

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on October 17, 2006.

The attached MP3 provides continuing coverage of a series of interviews conducted at the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. Listen as Marilu Goodyear hosts a 30 minute interview with Phil Long, Senior Strategist for the Academic Computing Enterprise at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among other things, they take on the issue of patents, discuss Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns, and tackle the prospects for continued research on learning space design.

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: An Interview with Rachel Edwards

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on November 3, 2006.

In this 16 minute recording, we'll hear from Rachael Edwards, Learning Grid Manager at the University of Warwick. Listen in as she shares a bit about their innovative library and learning space.

See also:

the University of Warwick's Learning Grid
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/grid/

Society of College, National and University Libraries
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/

Higher Education Academy
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/

Learning Spaces Resources
http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=696

JISC: Designing spaces for effective learning
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/eli_learningspaces.html

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: An Interview with Susan Perry

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on November 3, 2006.

In this 13 minute recording, Bill Hogue sits down down with CLIR's (Council on Library & Information Resources) Interim President, Susan Perry, for a discussion about digtial preservation, IT/Library collaboration, and much more.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Casey Bisson

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 13 minute recording, we'll hear from Plymouth State University Library Information Technologist, Casey Bisson. Listen in as he discusses a range of topics, including social software, open source, and his new WPOPAC software.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Jeremy Frumkin

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 18 minute recording, we'll hear from Oregon State's Gray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services, Jeremy Frumkin. Listen in as he discusses federated search, open source, and the upcoming Code4Lib conference.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Janet McCue

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 22 minute recording, we'll hear from Director of the Mann Library & Associate University Librarian for Life Sciences at Cornell University, Janet McCue. Listen in as she touches on topics like research computing, social software and much, much more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Christopher Blackall

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 19 minute recording, we'll hear from the National Portfolio Coordinator of the Australian National University, Christopher Blackall. Listen in as he shares thoughts on institutional repositories, standards, and more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: An Interview with Bruce Taggart

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on December 18, 2006.

In this 17 minute recording, Marliu Goodyear sits down with Lehigh University Vice Provost of Library and Technology Services, Bruce Taggart, to cover a range of topics including professional development, accessibility and portals.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Brad Wheeler

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 15 minute recording, we'll sit down with Indiana University CIO, Brad Wheeler. Listen in as he takes on the issue of patents, cyberinfrastructure, open source as a professional development exercise and the role of librarians in research.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Lisa Hinchliffe

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 15 minute recording, Lisa Hinchliffe, Head of the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shares some thoughts on, among other things, the role of librarians in the social computing sphere and shares some thoughts on her experiences there.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Geneva Henry

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 15 minute recording, we'll hear from Rice University's Digital Library Initiative Executive Director, Geneva Henry, about a range of topics including open source, connexions, intellectual property and more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Glenda Morgan

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 17 minute recording, we'll hear from Cal State's Director of Academic Technology Research, Glenda Morgan. Listen in as she shares some thoughts about her research into faculty use of technology, intellectual property, and a range of other topics.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Diane Harley

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 16 minute recording, we'll hear from Diane Harley, a Senior Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Listen in as she covers a range of topics, including her research of faculty use of digital materials, open access, scholarly communication and more..

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Eileen Fenton

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 16 minute recording, we'll hear from Portico's Executive Director, Eileen Fenton. Listen in as she shares some background on Portico their digital preservation work.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Chuck Henry

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 21 minute recording, we'll hear from incoming CLIR president, Chuck Henry. Listen in as he shares some thoughts on the involvement of libraries in scholarly publishing, cyberinfrastructure and much more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Bill Arms

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 13 minute recording, we'll hear from Cornell's Bill Arms. Listen in as he shares some thoughts on the evolving landscape of digital libraries.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Herbert van de Sompel

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 20 minute recording, we'll hear sit down with the Team Lead for Digital Library Research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Herbert van de Sompel. Listen in as he discusses a range of topics including institutional repositories, scholarly communications and more.

See also:
http://www.mesur.org
http://www.projectcounter.org
http://www.openarchives.org/ore/
http://public.lanl.gov/herbertv/

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview about Zotero

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

n this 15 minute recording, we'll hear from GMU's Roy Rosenzweig and Josh Greenberg. Listen in has they cover a range of topics including the very interesting Zotero Firefox Extension.

Also of interest:
http://h2obeta.law.harvard.edu/

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with MacKenzie Smith

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 19 minute recording, we'll hear from MIT's MacKenzie Smith about a range of interesting work evolving out of SIMILE, D-Space and more..

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: Creating and Using Social Bookmarking in a University Library

Originally posted by Carrie Windham reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on January 24, 2007.

In this 45 minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session, we’ll hear from Laurie Allen and Michael Winkler in a session entitled, “Penntags: Creating and Using Social Bookmarking in a University Library.” We’ll learn how librarians at the Penn Library created a social bookmarking system that allows librarians, faculty, and students to tag, create, and share content and how that system has expanded library services and resources.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Paul Gandel

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on October 19, 2006. Partially transcribed by Tom Keays.

The attached 14 minute recording provides coverage of an interview with Syracuse CIO, Paul Gandel with EDUCAUSE's Gene Spencer. About 10 minutes into a wide-ranging discussion covering topics such as strategies for talking with the press, data visualization, and scholarly communication, there was a section on the ideas of the library information commons and embedded librarianship.

See also:

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with James Michalko

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 14 minute recording, we'll get an update from OCLC's Jim Michalko. Listen in as he shares thoughts about a range of developments including the combination of RLG and OCLC..

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with David Rosenthal

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 22 minute recording, we'll hear from Stanford University's David Rosenthal. Listen in as he shares some thoughts on the evolution of LOCKSS, the viral properties of commercial licenses and much more.

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

EDUCAUSE CONNECT :: An Interview with Cliff Lynch

Originally posted by Matt Pasiewicz (EDUCAUSE) on December 18, 2006.

In this 51 minute recording, we'll hear from CNI's Cliff Lynch. Listen in has he shares some thoughts on cyberinfrastructure, patents, and much more..

This interview is provided courtesy of CNI and was recorded at their 2006 Fall Task Force Meeting. The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

ELI2007 Podcast :: The 2007 Horizon Report

Originally posted by Carrie Windham at EDUCAUSE on February 4, 2007.

In this 34-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Laurence Johnson, Rachel Smith, Cyprien Lomas, and Diana Oblinger in a session entitled The 2007 Horizon Report: Six Technologies to Watch. Learn the results of the annual Horizon Report, a joint publication of the New Media Consortium (NMC) and ELI, which highlights new technologies for teaching, learning, and creative expression.

EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast :: The Embedded Librarian Program: Librarians and Faculty Partnering to Serve Online Students

Originally posted by Carrie Windham reporting for the EDUCAUSE 2006 Podcast on February 7, 2007.

In this 34-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Victoria Matthew, Director of Winter & Summer Sessions, University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a session entitled The Embedded Librarian Program: Librarians and Faculty Partnering to Serve Online Students. Matthew will share how faculty members at the Community College of Vermont are partnering with librarians to provide personalized, meaningful library assistance to online classes.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

OPAL Podcast :: Academic Libraries in Second Life

Originally posted by OPAL Podcast on September 19, 2006.

"Opportunities for Worthwhile Collaboration Among Academic Libraries in Second Life," a discussion held on September 19, 2006, facilitated by Lori Bell and Tom Peters.

OPAL Podcast :: A Chat with Tim Spalding from LibraryThing.com

Originally posted by OPAL Podcast on September 26, 2006.

A Conversation with Tim Spalding, the founder of LibraryThing.com.

Talking With Talis :: The Library 2.0 Gang on Open Access and Web 3.0

Originally posted by Talking With Talis on November 15, 2006.

In this Library 2.0 Gang discussion, Gang members discuss a number of Open Access-related topics from recent conferences around the world, including South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The discussion concludes with some thoughts on the recent arrival of 'Web 3.0' as a term.

Programme participants were drawn, as usual, from the full list of Gang members, and a forum is available for discussion of issues raised during the recording.

Participants in this edition of the Library 2.0 Gang were;

During the conversation, the following sites and resources were cited;

Talking With Talis :: The Library 2.0 Gang on Open Data and conferences

Originally posted by Talking With Talis on November 1, 2006.

In this Library 2.0 Gang discussion, Gang members select some key points from the recent round of conferences, and explore the increasingly significant notion of 'open data' in the library domain.

Programme participants were drawn, as usual, from the full list of Gang members, and a forum is available for discussion of issues raised during the recording.

Participants in this edition of the Library 2.0 Gang were;

During the conversation, the following sites and resources were cited;

Talking With Talis :: The Library 2.0 Gang talk about changing library buildings

Originally posted by Talking With Talis on January 10, 2007.

In this Library 2.0 Gang discussion, we talk about the changing role of the library building in delivering a range of services. As more material moves online, and as a growing number of those using library services are remote from their physical library, how do we adapt the services that are offered, and how do we transform the buildings for the 21st century?

Participants in this edition of the Library 2.0 Gang were;

During the conversation, the following sites and resources were cited;

Talking With Talis :: The Mellon rewards WPOpac... and opens an Open Data door?

Originally posted by Talking With Talis on December 13, 2006.


In this Library 2.0 Gang discussion, we talk about Casey Bisson's recent well-deserved recognition by the Mellon Foundation for his work on WPOpac. We go on to explore perhaps the most significant aspect of the award; the fact that Casey intends to spend the money on buying and openly sharing bibliographic data from the Library of Congress, and probe the antiquated business models that make it necessary for him to even consider spending money in this way.

Participants in this edition of the Library 2.0 Gang were;

A forum is available for discussion of issues raised during the recording.

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 009 - eIFL-FOSS

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on December 10, 2006.

Bess Sadler, Erik Hatcher, and Art Rhyno joined me to discuss the recent eIFL-FOSS meeting they attended in Cupramontana, Italy. Bess, Erik, and Art have each done fascinating work in the past and are involved in many exciting projects today. We discussed many of these and how they led to their respective involvement in eIFL, and what the goals and next projects for eIFL-FOSS will be.

Bess also interviewed many other meeting attendees, and those interviews are included as well. I hope you'll agree that hearing straight from this diverse, dispersed community of library supporters is a unique opportunity to get a sense of both the scale of work that needs to be done to improve libraries everywhere, and of the enormous opportunities available to us now.

Show notes include:

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 008 - FRBR and OpenFRBR

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on November 3, 2006.

William Denton of the FRBR blog and the new OpenFRBR project and I had a great time chatting in the winebar at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa last month during the Access conference.

We covered a lot of ground, focusing on FRBR and his new project but also dipping into aspects of Canadian history and hard-boiled slang along the way, to mention just a few.

Notes from the show:

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 007 - Bruce D'Arcus

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on October 27, 2006.

The seemingly ubiquitous Bruce D'Arcus joined Ed, Ross, and me to discuss his many efforts to improve bibliographic management for scholars. Bruce is involved in and tracks so many different initiatives, it's hard to believe this isn't actually his day job. We were particularly happy that Bruce could share some of his time with us during the busy school semester.

Among the projects noted during discussion:

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 006 - Access Hackfest

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on October 17, 2006. Read also Dan's "Quick Notes from Access 2006".

Last week's Access conference provided many opportunities for an eager 'caster. If I'd slept at all I would have taken advantage of more of them. Still, I managed to turn the mic on a few times, and today's episode is the first of those.

Ross and I introduce the annual Access Hackfest preconference, and discuss some of the details of how it works. Following this are a series of Hackfesters discussing the projects they've chosen and the progress they've made, including advice to future Hackfest hosts from the current hosts and reflections from a first-time 'fester. (Hmm... maybe "'fester" isn't the best term.)

I've tried for years to communicate how well the Hackfest encapsulates everything great about the Access conference - that it's a chance to engage in a kind of librarianship we don't often get to engage in, without long-term commitments, politics, departmental rivalries. Unless you're actually there it's hard to see just how much fun it is, how much you can learn, and how refreshing (and tiring!) it can be to work so hard on something somebody else suggested and even pay for the privilege. Since you can't all be there, maybe listening to Hackfest participants tell you about it will be the next best thing to being there.

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 005 - Zotero

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on October 3, 2006.

Dan Cohen, Josh Greenberg, and Dan Stillman of the Center for History and New Media at GMU joined me to discuss their work on Zotero, their about-to-be-released Firefox 2 based citation manager-cum-bibliographic everything keeper. "Z-Day", as they call the upcoming public release day, is scheduled for this Thursday, October 5, 2006.

There's a lot to be excited about in Zotero, as I wrote recently. Listen in and learn all about it straight from the source through the local podcast feed, iTunes, or straight to the mp3 file.

Show notes:

  • To use Zotero, you'll need Firefox 2.
  • Zotero uses the Citation Style Language, or CSL, by Bruce D'Arcus.
  • Zotero can recognize, parse, and collect bibliographic information found in COinS.
  • Support is planned in Zotero for unAPI.

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 004 - Intro Geek

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on September 16, 2006.

Ed Summers joined Ross and me this time around to talk about how we all got our start on the coding side of libraries. It's another long, but fun, one.

Ed mentions the ongoing books4code initiative to start a distributed book group for hacker-types; they're already a few chapters into the current title, but there should be plenty of time to catch up.

Later Ed mentions his perl "backpan" history, where you can find prehistoric MARC modules.

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 003 - That Thing You Do

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on August 31, 2006.

Abby Blachly and Tim Spalding of LibraryThing joined me last week for Library Geeks episode 003 - The Thing You Do. The goal was to have it posted in time to sync with LibraryThing's first birthday, but, better late than never. Happy birthday LibraryThing!

Our conversation covered a lot of ground, from privacy, tagging, and bookkeeping to Cutter codes and, yes, even marshmallows. Even edited down some, it's well over an hour, but I hope you'll agree that their project and what they have to say about it is so compelling that it's worth the extra time.

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 002b - Post-Social

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on August 16, 2006. (part 2 of 2)

Jessamyn West joins Ross and me to discuss communities virtual and real, and how her work as a librarian intersects with each; Ross also provides an update on the umlaut.

Quick notes from the show:

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 002a - Post-Social

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on August 16, 2006. (part 1 of 2)

Jessamyn West joins Ross and me to discuss communities virtual and real, and how her work as a librarian intersects with each; Ross also provides an update on the umlaut.

Quick notes from the show:

Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 001 - Fun with OpenURL

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on August 7, 2006.

Hear ye, hear ye, we have met the Library Geeks and we are us: Listen to Library Geeks 001 - Fun with OpenURL.

Ross Singer joins me for the first episode, wherein we discuss OpenURL, the state of the OpenURL resolver marketplace, and the innovative work Ross is leading at the Georgia Tech library to implement a next-generation resolver.

Notes:

Jon Udell :: A conversation with Lou Rosenfeld about search analytics, information architecture, and designing for usability

Originally posted by Jon Udell on June 30, 2006.

Lou Rosenfeld is my guest for this week's podcast. Fellow superpatron Edward Vielmetti put me in touch with Lou, with whom I share an affection not only for Ann Arbor, Michigan, but also for a cluster of topics including information architecture, search analytics, print and online publishing, designing for usability, tagging, and microformats. We had a great conversation!

Jon Udell :: A conversation with Peter Suber about open access

Originally posted by Jon Udell on August 18, 2006.

Peter Suber, the leading chronicler of the open access movement, joins me for this week's podcast. Since the dawn of the blog era, it's been obvious to me that the modes of knowledge exchange we bloggers take for granted are also a natural fit for scientific and academic publishing. That idea has matured more slowly than some of us had hoped. But as you know if you follow Peter's blog, Open Access News, it has now taken root and is growing at a healthy rate.

In this conversation Peter defines open access repositories and open access journals, and he discusses the history, economics, and cultural practices driving the open access movement. We also discuss the ways in which scholarly open access is both like and unlike blogging, in terms of technologies and methods.

Jon Udell :: A conversation with John Wilkin about the Michigan/Google digitization project

Originally posted by Jon Udell on December 1, 2006.

My guest for this week's podcast is John Wilkin. He's the director of the University of Michigan Library's technology department, and coordinator of the library's joint digitization project with Google. It's been two years since Google began partnering with the University of Michigan and with other libraries, including Harvard and the New York Public Library. In this conversation we talk about the UM's earlier (and still-ongoing) efforts to digitize its 7-million-volume library, about how the partnership with Google has radically accelerated that process, and about what this is all going to mean for libraries, for publishers, for Google, and for all of us.

Web resources mentioned in the podcast include:

  • JSTOR, a Mellon Foundation project chartered to "build a reliable and comprehensive digital archive of important scholarly journal literature"
  • Making of America, "a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction"
  • The Michigan Digitization Project, and in particular the contract between UM and Google
  • Distributed Proofreaders, which "provides a web-based method of easing the proofreading work associated with the digitization of Public Domain books into Project Gutenberg e-books"

Jon Udell :: A conversation with Ed Vielmetti and John Blyberg about superpatrons and superlibrarians

Originally posted by Jon Udell on February 2, 2007.

Last fall, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I gave a talk entitled Superpatrons and Superlibrarians. Joining me for this week’s podcast are the two guys who inspired that talk. The superpatron is Ed Vielmetti, an old Internet hand who likes to mash up the services proviced by the Ann Arbor District Library. That’s possible because superlibrarian John Blyberg, who works at the AADL, has reconfigured his library’s online catalog system, adding RSS feeds and a full-blown API he calls PatREST.

I’ve written from time to time about Eric von Hippel’s notion of user innovation toolkits and the synergistic relationship between users and developers that can develop around such toolkits. What Ed Vielmetti and John Blyberg are doing with Ann Arbor District Library is a great example of how that relationship can work.

Update: I meant to call out some of the excellent work that John’s been doing lately. This catalog record is an example of an Amazon-like recommendation feature: “Users who checked out this item also checked out these library items…” Nice!

You’ve also gotta love the experimental card catalog images.


Monday, March 12, 2007

Jon Udell :: A conversation with Tony Hammond about digital object identifiers

Originally published by Jon Udell on January 26, 2007. Jon posted a follow-up to this podcast on his blog.

Tony Hammond works with the new technology team at Nature Publishing Group. His company publishes a flock of scientific journals in print and online including, most prominently, Nature. It also operates Connotea, a social bookmarking service for scientists. In this week’s podcast we talk about digital object identifiers which are, in effect, super-URLs designed to survive commercial churn and to work reliably for hundreds of years.

Many of us are becoming publishers nowadays, and we’d like to imagine that all our stuff could enjoy that level of consistency and durability. Few of us are prepared to make the necessary investment, but it’s interesting to hear from someone who has.

Jon Udell :: A conversation with Dan Chudnov about OpenURL, context-sensitive linking, and digital archiving

Originally posted by Jon Udell on February 16, 2007. Ryan Eby has made a transcript of the conversation available on his blog.


Today's podcast with Dan Chudnov is a sequel to my earlier podcast with Tony Hammond about the Nature Publishing Group's use of digital object identifiers. I invited Dan to discuss related topics including the OpenURL standard for context-sensitive linking.

I'm not the only one who's had a hard time understanding how these technologies relate to one another and to the web. See, for example, Dorothea Salo's rant I hate library standards, also Dan's own recent essay Rethinking OpenURL.

I have ventured into this confusing landscape because I think that the issues that libraries and academic publishers are wrestling with -- persistent long-term storage, permanent URLs, reliable citation indexing and analysis -- are ones that will matter to many businesses and individuals. As we project our corporate, professional, and personal identities onto the web, we'll start to see that the long-term stability of those projections is valuable and worth paying for.

Recently, for example, Dave Winer -- who's been exploring Amazon's S3 -- wrote:

I have an idea of making a proposal to Amazon to pay it a onetime fee for hosting the content for perpetuity, that way I can remove a concern for my heirs, and feel that my writing may survive me, something I'd like to assure.

Beyond long-term storage of bits, there's a whole cluster of related services that we're coming to depend on, but that flow from relationships that are transient. When I moved this blog from infoworld.com to wordpress.com, for example, InfoWorld very graciously redirected the RSS feed, but another organization might not have done so. I could have finessed that issue by using FeedBurner, but I wasn't -- and honestly, still am not -- ready to make a long-term bet on that service.

For most people today, digital archiving and web publishing services are provided to you by your school, by your employer, or -- increasingly -- by some entity on the web. When your life circumstances change, it's often necessary or desirable to change your provider, but it's rarely easy to do that, and almost never possible to do it without loss of continuity.

There are no absolute guarantees, of course, but a relatively strong assurance of continuity is something that more and more folks will be ready to pay for. Amazon is on the short list of organizations in a position to make such assurances. So, obviously, is Microsoft. Will Microsoft's existing and future online services move in that direction? I hope so. Among other things, it's a business model that doesn't depend on advertising, and that would be a refreshing change.