Even if some heat has gone out of the library blogosphere, there is still a fair amount of reading and writing going on. I was asked recently what I tended to look at, going beyond the well-known bigger names. Here are some of the blogs that came to mind - some others also come to mind, but they don't sustain the reasonable amount of output that these do.
Go to Hellman Personanondata eFoundations The Book of Trogool Overdue ideas Synthesize, specialize, mobilize Martin Hamilton's Blog HangingTogether Bibliographic wilderness The Arcadia Project blog
Many of these are written from within a library perspective. Some dip into libraries from other perspectives. Personanondata, by Michael Cairns, covers the book industry more generally. Martin Hamilton, who is responsible for Internet Services in the IT services division at Loughborough University, is a recent blogger with a nicely reflective style. My former colleague Eric Hellman pulls together his science, business and technical experiences to provide some of the most interesting commentary on our changing environment. And Andy Powell and Pete Johnston at eFoundations combine technical pieces about metadata with more general discussion of education/information in a networked environment.
And then there's ......
Susan Rector from NCSU Libraries left a nice note on my entry about library websites. She pointed at some discussion of the redesign on their libraries blog. I was particularly interested to read about their objectives with the new site:
- Streamline access to search functions and core user tasks
- Provide ways to contact librarians throughout the user experience
- Highlight core tools and provide paths to top tasks
- Promote the library through news & events messaging
- Promote new innovations in library technology and learning spaces
[Give us your feedback]
A nice list. I was interested that I had picked up on various of these things in my few remarks. This is more a sign that they have achieved quite a bit of what they wanted to than it is that I was being very perceptive ;-) I was particularly interested in the equal focus across all the elements of the library: the collections, the space, the services and the staff. Sometimes there is a tendency to be collections focused.
Somebody asked me why I used the expression 'demand-influenced' rather than something perhaps more immediately digestible like 'user centered'. Several reasons. The first is that since talking about 'Sorting out demand' at the Lita Top Tech Trends event the balance between 'sorting out supply' and 'sorting out demand' has been on my mind, and seems like an important distinction. The second is that we tend to use 'user' rather lightly and assume that everything is done in service of the user. And the third is that 'demand' suggests something a little more dynamic, and measurable, than 'user'. To me, anyway.
While writing about subject pages and library websites the other day, it occurred to me that we might think of library websites in three stages - which emerged successively and continue to exist together. Always mindful of the rule of three ;-)
We might clumsily call these stages: [1] fragmentary, [2] integrated supply, and [3] demand-influenced.
Fragmentary. Libraries have to manage a variety of resources which are outside their control and present them to their users as best they can. This has meant that the library website has often been a thin wrapper around two sets of heterogeneous resources.
One is the set of legacy and emerging systems, developed independently rather than as part of an overall library experience, with different fulfillment options, different metadata models, and so on (integrated library system, resolver, knowledge base, repositories, ...). Another is the set of legacy database and repository boundaries that map more to historically evolved publisher configurations and business decisions than to user needs or behaviors (for example, metadata, e-Journals, eBooks, books, A&I databases, and other types of content, which may be difficult to slice and dice in useful ways). [Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog - Stitching costs]
Integrated supply. Recently, libraries have been focusing on the website in a more holistic way, as a unified service. There are several developments which have supported this. One is the move to the single, or tabbed, search box as a focal point of the website. This may sit over a metasearch product, or, more recently, over a discovery layer product. Another is the adoption of a consistent content management framework which gives a similar look and feel across the website, extending to linked services (the catalog for example) where possible (I was interested to note that SOPAC and Ting both advertise the integration between the catalog and the rest of the website). Others include the integration of staff interaction capabilities (making relevent staff visible in appropriate places, including various ways of contacting staff or asking questions, ...), and a consistent approach to developing subject or course pages. I discussed some examples of unified service provision in this post a while ago.
Given the fragmentation they face it is easy for libraries to see integration - the consolidation of supply - as an end in itself. However the real end is less the integration of information resources with each other than the integration of relevant information resources with the working patterns of their users. For this reason, we will begin to see more emphasis on sorting out demand as well as sorting out supply.
Demand influenced. I gave some examples recently of how sorting out demand is becoming more important. This of course touches on core library values, connecting users to appropriate resources in convenient ways. A specific example might be the Bookspace section of the Hennepin County Library website.
Looking at the North Caroline State University Libraries website the other day it also seemed to me that it provided a nice example of a site trying better to predict, meet and guide demand. As well as continuing to integrate the various sources of information supply. Here are a few things that occurred to me. As always, it is sensible to note that my impressions are those of an interested tourist rather than somebody who regularly uses the site ....
- Legible. The tabbed search box is centrally visible. Underneath this are three labels: Computing, Learning, and Courses. The first and second provide access to computing resources and learning spaces, respectively. The third provides information resources specialised to individual courses. The site is not cluttered with uncontextualised information resources, library administrivia, or brochureware.
- Relation of virtual to physical. This is an interesting emphasis. It is possible to book a room, to borrow computing equipment, to find out how many computers are in use. There is a service, Groupfinder, which allows you to alert others to your physical location in the library. Another is called, nicely, Tripsaver, and offers requesting/delivery options while allowing you to check status of request. There is a clock icon which links to a page of library opening times. A calendar of events is also published.
- Library staff and expertise are very visible and users are encouraged to make contact. Get Help and Ask Us links are visible at the top of the page. Alongside 'help' there is a link to an 'expert' in your area of study. Chat options are very visible. And users can offer Feedback on the site in general. Help with creating digital media is offered. There are links to the relevant library experts on course and resource pages.
- The website is not the only destination. There is a row of familiar icons at the foot of the page: Twitter, Facebook, RSS, YouTube, and Flickr. And there is a stream of news and tweets on the page. Of course, NCSU has also been a leader in mobile apps and there are several available.
I have mentioned Libguides a couple of times, which seem to be quite widely used. I have been interested recently to come across some other initiatives which aim to organize subject- or course-based library resources within a consistent content management environment which reduces custom effort.
- I enjoyed listening to Allie Flanary present about students and search strategies at the Orbis Cascade Alliance Worldcat Discovery Day. Allie works at the Portland Community College, where the event was held. The course guides she was using caught my eye and I went back later to see how they were put together. Here is the one for Fashion design, for example. I discovered that they use Library à la Carte, developed at Oregon State University:
The Library à la Carte Content Management System (CMS) enables librarians to easily and quickly create dynamic web pages that integrate Web 2.0 features, such as chat and RSS feeds, with traditional library content, such as catalogs and article databases. Library à la Carte is a free open-source solution for libraries by libraries.
- A redesign of the NCSU Library website highlights course-related services. Among these are course pages (see one below) which include some general resources, some course-specific resources, and a link to a librarian. I was interested to discover that these were based on a home-grown framework, Course Views, which is described in an article in the Code4Lib Journal:
The NCSU Libraries' Course Views project, along with a locally developed widget web service, improves course-based access to library collections and services by dynamically generating library course pages for all 6000+ courses at NCSU. By automatically generating custom content when possible and showcasing authored content when available, Course Views is able to achieve full course coverage without significantly increasing staff time to create and manage content. This paper will describe the system and the use of web services to achieve scalable and sustainable delivery of course-related library content.
- I have noted in these pages that I think that The University of Michigan Libraries website does a nice job of projecting the library as a unified service rather than as a group of disjoint opportunities. In the search and browse sections they return a variety of resources organized by type as well as links to relevant librarians (as I said then, they try, literally, to put a 'human face' on search results). Here is the browse page for Biological chemistry for example. Now, there appears to be quite a lot going on under the surface here, and Ken Varnum provides a high level view of design decisions. Interestingly, these pages include Research Guides as one category, which are based on Libguides; here is the guide for Biological Chemistry for example.
'Information environment' is a vague term, vague enough to be usable in a variety of contexts. For me, as I worked for JISC before coming to OCLC, it will always be associated with the JISC agenda to advance an integrated network of information resources in support of UK research and learning.
I was very interested to come across the Information Environment Research Unit at the London University of the Arts earlier. The description of its scope is tantalisingly suggestive ...
The Research Unit for Information Environments proposes to be at the forefront of research about and for the information industry. 'Information Environments' are defined as any physical or virtual spaces where information is generated, received and experienced. The Unit is particularly interested in spaces which are populated by communities such as those found in common areas of urban spaces, museums, the Internet and learning environments, and where the exchange of ideas. Concepts and knowledge is communicated.
This is potentially very broad but it is interesting to see mention of museums and learning environments (although I didn't see the library explicitly discussed). They suggest that this marks a new field of enquiry. Unfortunately, the Unit does not make a lot of published material available on the website and I have not yet tracked it down elsewhere. Certainly something to keep an eye on though.
Recently Posted:
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August 15, 2010 – A couple of recent events interestingly relate ... First, I read in Search Engine Land of the resignation from Yahoo of Srinija Srinivasan. Srinavasan was once arguably "the most powerful person in search" writes Danny Sullivan. This was when "humans edited the web" and Yahoo emerged as its central directory....
- QR Codes and exhibitions
August 15, 2010 – We spend some time in the very congenial Dayton Art Institute this afternoon. We wandered around the Modern Masters exhibition (from the Smithsonian American Art Museum). I was interested to see the QR codes by the pictures. Here is a somewhat fuzzy picture taken by my son on his phone:...
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August 08, 2010 – [This is 3. Here is 1 and 2.] I was pleased to participate in LITA's Top Tech Trends panel at ALA this year (see the video and live coverage). We were each asked to talk about three trends: current, a bit further out, and a bit further out again. In...
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August 08, 2010 – [I have been quoting the distinction made by Gavin Potter, a participant in the Netflix competition, about how our emphasis is shifting from sorting out supply to sorting out demand. I thought it might be useful to re-present this entry, the one where I first noted the distinction. I could...
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August 08, 2010 – In an interesting blog post on the changing nature of the book cover in a digital environment, James Bridle compares the covers of the much-discussed Odyssey Editions with the famous Ways of Seeing cover. The covers are typographic, and hark back in particular to the famous Pelican cover for John...
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August 03, 2010 – The following graphic was noted in a variety of places recently. It clearly struck a chord! My own bugbear on library websites is physical address (I sometimes want to know where the library is) and director or staff contacts (which are sometimes really quite hard to find!). This reminded me...
- Bookstores, curation and managing demand/consumption ...
July 25, 2010 – I have just returned to the US from a couple of weeks vacation in Ireland and England. I was more than usually struck by my bookstore (aka book shop) experiences, and this prompted the curation entry I have just written. First of all, an interesting note that I have quoted...
- On the discrimination of curators and curations ....
July 25, 2010 – As existing practices evolve and new ones emerge it often takes time for the way in which we talk about them to settle down. There may be some interim terminological confusion. This has happened in our world with 'archive' for example. We can also see this happen with curation/curation/curator. In...
- Stitching costs - retread
July 18, 2010 – I am on vacation and traveling this week, and so am taking the opportunity to air again an entry of a couple of years ago on what I called 'stitching costs' .... We are familiar with switching costs, the costs of changing a supplier. I may decide not to change...
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July 17, 2010 – One of the recurrent themes of this blog has been the work done by libraries to put more of their services in the flow of their users' working, learning and research behaviors. In this context, I was pleased to see the work by my colleagues on implementing Worldcat searches in...
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July 04, 2010 – [No 2 of 3. No 1 here.] I was pleased to participate in LITA's Top Tech Trends panel at ALA this year (see the video and live coverage). We were each asked to talk about three trends: current, a bit further out, and a bit further out again. In thinking...
- Mobile .. Top Tech Trends 1
June 29, 2010 – I was pleased to participate in LITA's Top Tech Trends panel at ALA this year (see the video and live coverage). We were each asked to talk about three trends: current, a bit further out, and a bit further out again. In thinking about the exercise, it seemed to me...
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June 26, 2010 – We tend to have a very record-based view of bibliographic systems. Searches in a resource result in lists of record-based displays for items. All fields may not be indexed. This means that the data works less hard than it might, given the variety of ways in which it could be...
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June 23, 2010 – I will be on the LITA Top Technology Trends panel on Sunday. I have yet to finalize my thoughts, but I am sure that mobile and cloud will figure. We are increasingly familiar with the twin discussions about mobilization and the cloud, and about how each trend supports the other....
- More reading ...
June 21, 2010 – Here are some recent reports/papers produced by OCLC Research or in which we have been involved ... Kroll, Susan, and Rick Forsman. 2010. A Slice of Research Life: Information Support for Research in the United States. Report commissioned by OCLC Research in support of the RLG Partnership. Published online at:...
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