The Ubiquitous Librarian

Back In My Day: Emory Professor Complains

We have a speaker scheduled this afternoon who exuberates elitism-- an English professor from Emory hyping his new book that complains about the kids today. You know the story, they don’t read books, texting has killed grammar, facebook has replaced real conversations, video games and TV are bad, and so forth.

I’m all for the open exchange of ideas and I think it fits with our desire to be a public forum, but I worry about the message. I think he is off-brand. Our goal is to empower students, not insult them. I mean, The Dumbest Generation, seriously? Looking at his work, he seems like a character out of conservative talk radio, or one of those traveling campus preachers crying out about how sex is sin. I actually feel sorry for the guy.

I thought about organizing a public response, something flash mob style where you fill the room with students and then ten minutes into his talk they all pull out their cell phones and start texting each other, but it takes a lot of energy and effort to pull off something like that; maybe I’m getting too old for such shenanigans? Besides it’s summer and there is no one here.

I can’t speak for Emory, but Georgia Tech students are wicked smart and wicked industrious. Dr. Bauerlein, don’t worry man, the kids are alright.

A side note:
Personally, I don’t see the library as being in the information business. In fact, I don’t see us in the service business anymore either. We’re in the inspiration business, and everything that we do should drive their success.

Playing with Thunder

 Today I got a peek at Thunder from Polyvision (Steel Case) – they spin it as a “real time global collaboration system” – it’s an interesting way to share and create information. It pushes the boundaries of the desktop and/or wall space.

Their brochure will probably explain it better than I can, but a few highlights:

• It’s like having multiple whiteboard/flipcharts -- except digital.
• It displays anything you have on a computer: web, video, software, etc — as well external devices, such as DVDs, cell phone or on a document camera.
• It removes the barrier of space—people can connect, share, and control remotely.
• It support voice—via phone, Skype, microphone
• It looks cool!

I saw a demo at their headquarters, but Miami University (in Ohio, not the Hurricanes) offers Thunder in their library: read about it here.

While it might be a bit much for a group study room setting, it definitely has potential for the distance learning marketplace. And if you opt out of the projection system, it could be an interesting (but pricey) collaboration tool for library staff or campus wide. Add it to the wish list.

  

The anatomy of an all-nighter

The transparent technologies of flickr and twitter offer tremendous assessment possibilities. We hear about students pulling all-nighters, but this is documented evidence.

4:56 PM
paper + pres due in 22 hours. tick tock. group members unite

6:51 PM
if I have to pull an allnighter to finish this proj I'll likely have to skip the gatech awards banquet luncheon thing and get my award later

7:55 PM
I just talked about epistemological connections in this CS paper. Do I get my cookie now or later?

09:23 PM
trying to explain color wars in this paper as a way of community-driven convention for subgroups. prof is going to think twitter is crazy.

10:17 PM
GT Parking is heartless.. giving parking tickets to students parked at the library this late. @flashmob needs to do something about it

11:15 PM
cramped between @jarryd and @hd_phones in the library near the collaborative computing section.

12:24 AM
@vending_machine: let me start a tab! you know I'm good for it. i need this caffeine. don't make @jarryd and i tilt you. you know we can.

2:10 AM
paper update: 7,400 words and probably 5 pages or so left. then lots of proof reading, bibliography, and then making a presentation. x_x

3:28 AM
just got a call from my connect. coffee is on the way. @ 8,100 words

5:30 AM
now at 8,700 words. just me and @jarryd in the library.

6:11 AM
~9,100 words and we haven't started on the presentation yet =/

3:04 PM
just got done presenting my twitter research paper. relaxing would be nice but alas i have more projects to do.

5:12 PM
back from rocky mtn pizza with @jarryd and @gomeler. now to regain the sleep I didn't get from crashing on the library floor this morning

A few thoughts about NCSU’s Website: icons & waitlists

The last two posts have been kind of ranty – so here is something positive.

I really like a subtle change that NCSU made yesterday by adding icons to their Learning Commons page. Earlier in the week I spoke with a web design class and we reviewed 5 websites. (I’ll post more on that later when I get copies of their assignments.) One of the themes that the class mentioned was that instead of just a list of products/services, to add small graphics/icons. An image makes a faster impression than text-- it is also more intuitive and attractive.

I received an email from someone in the class who mentioned that NCSU had added icons the following day and he felt as if his class had something to do with it. I didn’t tell him it was a coincidence because he seemed proud and inspired.

Additionally, we also talked a bit about ideal interactions and functionally of a library website. To use NCSU again, they loved the “availability of computers” feature, but wanted to see that concept embedded throughout the page. For example, on the pages describing the equipment (cameras, calculators, gps, etc) they wanted to know how many were available.

I know that we run into this problem from time to time in which all of our “gadgets” are checked out. This functionality would let students know that 2 cameras are available right now… or if they were all checked out, they wanted an online waitlist feature so that they could place a hold, just as they could with a book.

Most librarians only think of entering the classroom to teach information literacy, but going in as a guest lecturer can lead to real insights.

Incentive-based Answers

Google tried to get into the Reference game and pretty much failed. Their approach was to let users submit a question along with a price, $1, $20, $100—whatever amount they were willing to pay. And an expert would then respond and collect the money.

Yahoo is using a different approach—opening it up the users. Instead of money or goodwill, people are awarded points for their actions. Users can gain levels which I guess are a badge of pride—you also gain more access to the service.

From Yahoo:
“As you attain higher levels, you'll also be able to contribute more to Yahoo! Answers - you can ask, answer, vote and rate more frequently.”

I am a level 1 which means I can ask up to 5 questions per day. I can also only answer 20 other people’s questions per day. As you ascend levels you have greater power, for example, the top level (7)  can ask/answer unlimited questions. There are also stars, rating, and voting. They’ve essentially turned reference into a social game.

What’s really interesting is that every question you ask costs you 5 points. That's right, asking questions is a negative action. How’s that for customer service?
Yahoo Answers point scale.

IMDB (Internet Movie Database) has a very active message board system—basically people talk about actors and movies—it’s very conversational. They have installed a time quota for postings to ensure that people aren’t just spamming or write quick/short answers. So every time you post you have to wait 60 seconds before you can post again.

They also state that by participating “over time, you will also gain access to additional features on the site.”

It’s interesting, in a very Web 2.0 kind of way, how users are rewarded for their participation with greater access to the product/website. You give everyone equal rights to the core and then those who use the service most frequently (and properly) gain VIP status or bonus material.

(Oh and I’m definitely not top 20—I should be around number 40 or thereabouts. There are so many more influential librarian blogs than this one, but thanks for noticing OEDb. And thanks to you for reading and linking.)