My library buddy Heather Kline is leaving tomorrow to find her fortune in New Mexico. I went with Heather to the Mountain Plains Library Association conference in Albuquerque this past March, and we had a lot of fun (though that’s a LOT of driving to do in 4 days.) I have been constantly impressed by Heather’s writing and grasp of metadata concepts. I think she’ll be a valuable asset wherever she lands- it sounds like she’s looking into a few potentially great possibilities - I have no doubt that she will find a great job somewhere.
I’m also so impressed with her attitude about the whole process- she’s moving to New Mexico by herself, without a job lined up, because it’s what’s best for her. I really admire that. I’m not so sure I could do the same.
Heather and I have had some great talks about library (and other) issues- we agree on many points, but disagree on others, and she’s made me rethink my stance a few times. It’s been great to have a fellow library student to discuss things with.
Anyway, this hasn’t been the most poetic post, but I wish Heather the best. I look forward to reading more of her blog once she gets settled in.
I have my mom (or maybe a slightly nutty Uncle) to thank for my name- Karin as opposed to Karen Dalziel. It’s nice, because if you look up my name in Google, the entire first page of results is me! “Karen Dalziel” brings up a librarian which is not me.
Microsoft Surface just looks cool (if somewhat limited at this point). People have been waiting for this since Jeff Han’s TED talk began circulating around the web. And to think I was impressed by the touchscreen computer at Best Buy.
So one thing about the replanting in the front is that now anyone can walk up to our front windows. I had not anticipated how much this would bother me. This is the front before and after:
It looks much nicer (it’ll look even better when we get an actual lawn to grow), but you can now see right into the living room on nice nights, when the window is open and the fan is on. I do not like that. It’s compounded by the fact that my neighbors put a camera on their roof that moves. I don’t know that it can look in our window, but the thought of it creeps me out. Maybe I’m just paranoid.
So what to do? We’re thinking of trying to grow some kind of climbing vine plant (something not too aggressive) on a trellis outside the window. This way, we can pull it out later if we want to without too much trouble, and if we keep it trimmed it should not be too much of a problem. If we make it, say, half the height of the window we can still get plenty of light during the day. I wonder if it will look funny, though. Once it’s warm out, we’ll have the AC on and the windows shut.
After our presentation, someone (I can’t remember who!) asked the question “I’m starting a project, which should I use: A blog or a wiki?”
The questions kind of took me aback, and I’m afraid I answered rather ineptly. To me, the difference are pretty clear, but I couldn’t, on the spur of the moment, articulate that into a soundbite. After thinking about it for several weeks, I think I have a bit of an answer:
Use a wiki if you need to create information collaboratively. Use a blog if you only need to disseminate it.
This question is something I am considering doing a poster presentation on- mostly because I think I can come up with some nice visuals to go with it. I was thinking a mindmap looking thing that shows the structure of a blog opposed to the amorphous quality of a wiki.
Dorothea at Caveat Lector pointed out an article I never would have read otherwise in “OCLC Systems & Services” 23:2 by Paul Royster, who works at UNL right down the hall from me. The article contains the following quote, which I love: “It has been found that teen-age undergraduates can quickly become capable of performing these tasks that many tenured faculty found too daunting.” Another somewhat depressing quote: “Librarians are no more interested in IRs than the faculty at large. Although the UNL Libraries faculty has been exposed to multiple presentations and appeals, their rate of participation (about 10 percent) is roughly the same as the faculty at large.”
I had a previous aside post about the fact that ABC.com and Yahoo mail don’t work on Linux anymore, but I forgot to mention one of my biggest pet peeves- Educause.edu (In particular the conference videos). It’s not just Educause- any educational site that excludes Linux users (SCOLA does it too) is doing a disservice to education, because some schools are moving to Linux as a way to cut costs. I understand that some of the things that they present using these nice tools wouldn’t currently be possible on Linux- but they could at least provide an alternative, like a downloadable file or an alternate, flash embedded file. Love it or hate it, Flash is pretty much the only cross platform media option out there.
I honestly don’t think that this will be an issue much longer. Linux use is steadily increasing, and while it probably won’t ever dominate the market, it will probably have a large chunk of it before too long. I think this for several reasons- Windows is getting overly bloated, and people are not going to want to upgrade their computer JUST to run their operating system. Plus, as more and more applications move to the web, it will become increasingly unimportant what operating system you use. That second point is a bit of a catch 22, because people won’t want to switch to Linux if their web “applications” won’t run. I think that us geeks will be enough of a force to drive the first wave of Linux friendly web development, by refusing to use applications that don’t run on Linux. (I’ll be emailing Yahoo to ask for a refund on my premium service, since I can’t access it on Linux anymore.)
According to my web stats, 2.7% of my users use Linux- that’s small but not insignificant. (OK, that might be skewed due to the fact that I use Linux to look at my own site sometimes.) I remember, several years ago that less than 10% of users used any browser other than IE. Now, only about 45% use IE. I fully expect to see the same thing happen with Linux.
Anyway, all that is not really what I wanted to talk about. There are some things that DO still work on Linux, and work really well. TED.com, for instance, changed their interface, and it is very nice. It uses Flash and something like lightbox to display the videos on a shaded background. They also let you embed videos in your blog from their website, which is a nice touch.
TED.com video interface.
The fact that TED has kept their site pretty accessible makes me happy- because the content there is great, and makes me think, and is presented nice. They also have downloadable MP3’s and videos of most talks. It’s (almost) everything I hope the web will become.
More than anything, I am optimistic about the future. Open source and open access will continue to grow in demand and popularity. We will be able to find more and more good information free on the internet- and I hope I have a job someday that facilitates that. We will build new economic models to support a society that accepts open access and open source as the norm. And I’ll help. It makes me so happy.
What do people have against sweaters/cardigans? I have heard several people express the opinion that a sweater is not appropriate professional attire. I think it depends on the sweater. I have many sweaters- it’s a necessity when you’re never quite sure what the temperature at work will be.
I just read about Flickr user Lara Jade’s self portrait being stolen. That’s bad enough, but it was used for the cover of a porn movie! She took the self portrait when she was 14. (She’s now 17)
If this happened to me, I would feel violated and disgusted. I would expect that SOMEONE would help sort it out, but she’s not having any luck getting help- mostly because she’s in England and the photo stealer is in the US. Ugh.
