nirak.net - Musings of an LIS Student

This is also my last assignment of the semester. Woo!

The following is a post I made for class (on blackboard, of course, so I can’t link to it here). We were assigned to watch and post about V for Vendetta. I wish I could link to other student’s great posts.

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Every time I watch V for Vendetta, I can’t help but think about Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four. All three envision a future where information has been distorted and suppressed. In V for Vendetta and Nineteen eighty-four the Government distorts the past and filters information, in a Brave New World the government simply obliterates information, providing entertainment instead. All these tales include people who would rather not know, who are quite happy staying clueless. All governments are bolstered by the threat of war or came into power because of it- in the case of V for Vendetta, the threat was government created.The thread among the three stories that I find the most fascinating is that of willful ignorance. In V for Vendetta, Evey is not sure in the beginning she wants to participate- by not participating, she is safe. V has to stage rather large events to shock people into coming forward, and even then, they do so masked initially. Nineteen eighty-four is very similar- the main character works as a fabricator of history, and in the end happily accepts the government. Brave New World contains people that live in blissful ignorance- the government rules by making them happy. Brave New World is, in a way, the scariest to me, because I can see it happening. If people are happy, well fed, entertained, and can indulge in anything they want, they may be less likely to rise up in the face of an unjust government.

In Neil Postman’s book “Amusing ourselves to Death” he quotes Huxley: “the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions” (1985, forward, pp. vii-viii). The challenge of information literacy isn’t to make people understand the information- I think most can understand it easily enough. I’m always amazed at how good people are at finding information when it interest them. The really hard part is getting people to care about information literacy. It is here where I run into a roadblock- how can I make people care? I can make all the tutorials in the world, but if no one wants to watch them, it’s useless.

I don’t believe hope is lost. I think the emerging culture- one that involves creating, not passively consuming, material is key to avoiding the kind of future described in these utopian/dystopian stories. People today create more content than ever before. They broadcast their likes and dislikes, and they speak up and act out when they see something wrong. This is why I think information literacy is as much about teaching people how to create content as teaching them how to consume information. Content creation is essential to democracy, and it should not be in the hands of a few elite. Joan K. Lippincott (2007) “suggest[s] using a framework that focuses on higher education’s need to prepare students to be content creators within their disciplinary or professional specialties” (para. 2). The author also points out that such content creation necessitates the skills to legally use and remix material. Built into this education is a conversation on responsibly using information. Over a year ago, I posted an entry about an old idea of mine- a community content creation center. I said:

“I guess what I would love to see is a more information literate community, and also one that encourages more people to share their knowledge and thoughts online. I personally would love to see more blogs by, say, WW II vets, retired schoolteachers, grandparents. There’s a huge number of people out there with interesting stories to tell, whose stories I would love to read, but who have no clue where to start. I would like to help with that” (2006, Dalziel, para. 12).

I keep coming back to this idea of libraries as a place for communication, a place for community, a place to say what you think. It is a bit off from the library’s traditional role as passive deliverer of information, but not by much.

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It took me longer to format this post than to write it. I much prefer the blogger/journalistic style citation method of internally citing and linking to content.Cited:

Dalziel, K. (2006, August 29). Creating work. Retrieved November 30, 2007 from “nirak.net - Musings of an LIS Student” http://www.nirak.net/2006/08/29/creating-work/

Lippincott, J.K. (2007). Student content creators: Convergence of literacies. EDUCAUSE Review, 42(6), 16–17. Retrieved November 30, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm07610.asp?bhcp=1

Postman, N. (1985). Amusing ourselves to death public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Viking.

Consulted:

Huxley, A. (1946). Brave new world. New York: Harper & Bros

Orwell, G. (1992). Nineteen eighty-four. New York: Knopf.

Portman, N., Weaving, H., Rea, S., Hurt, J., Hill, G., Silver, J., et al. (2006). V for vendetta. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video.

karin :: Nov.30.2007 :: Information Literacy, School Stuff :: No Comments »

Why is everyone so down on Anaheim? When I think of Anaheim I think of the L.A. County Museum of Art (oh, how I miss my LACMA pass), Corona Del Mar, Hollywood Blvd. (best place for people watching EVER- plus fun costume shops), Laguna Beach, Mulholland Drive, the farmers market in L.A., the Huntington Library, the Huntington Beach Public Library (beautiful library and home of my first job), the piers, the ocean, yes, Disneyland (oh, how I miss my Disneyland pass) and all the other places I have not been able to see in almost 10 years. I guess Southern California was always like one big city to me- the city names nothing more than neighborhoods. I’m really looking forward to heading back and re-seeing all these places through adult eyes, and with my husband. The only danger is, I may not come back.

And I guess there’s a conference thingie there too. Nifty.

karin :: Nov.28.2007 :: Conferences :: 2 Comments »

Dan Greenburg, co-founder of a viral video marketing company, shared “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos” on TechCrunch. His post stirred a lot of controversy and hatred in the comments because of his techniques- he clarified later, saying that he doesn’t use all the techniques, but some do. Whether you believe Dan or not, the truth is, people do use techniques like pay per post (and not are ethical enough to clearly mark a sponsored post), creating multiple accounts to rate and comment on things, etc. (one more example of the need for information literacy…)

In the Common Craft blog, leelefever posts about “A Sickening Review of Viral Video Tactics.” He does a good job of pulling out some of the more insidious techniques. I can’t seem to get myself too worked up about Greenburg’s post or his techniques, because I already assumed that’s the way things are. Take a look at the del.icio.us page for the post- the first posters have notes like “Another great example of why advertising is a dark filthy art” but later on, notes like these start to appear: “some of these ideas can be applied to music marketing” and “How to get your video into YouTube’s most viewed videos ;)”

Whatever you think of the original post, there are some useful gems of advice in there, especially considering putting videos on YouTube, so I thought I’d pull them out here.

Content of videos

I thought some of the advice for videos was rather good (I left out the pieces that obviously weren’t, especially for library purposes, like “appeal to sex.”)

• Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips
• Design for remixing: create a video that is simple enough to be remixed over and over again by others. Ex: “Dramatic Hamster”
• Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing. Ex: Sony Bravia

I especially agree with “don’t make it an outright ad.” I’ve seen lots of library promotional videos that look like ads. That’s fine for a first attempt (learning to use the equipment) but why not try getting a little creative with the next clip?

Thumbnail Optimization

Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube and hated the still they chose for the video? (I know I have!) Greenburg shared this little tip:

YouTube provides three choices for a video’s thumbnail, one of which is grabbed from the exact middle of the video. As we edit our videos, we make sure that the frame at the very middle is interesting.

This isn’t new (see a couple of older videos about it here) but it’s a good thing to keep in mind.

If you want even more control, especially for the version you embed in your own webpage, try using Vimeo instead of YouTube. Not only do they give you more thumbnails to choose from, they let you upload your own. Plus the quality is higher.

Releasing all [content] simultaneously

Let’s say you make a few videos, and a new webpage, and some other new content. You should hold back and only release a few things at a time, right? According to Greenfield, that may not be the best tactic.

If we have multiple videos, we post all of them at once. If someone sees our first video and is so intrigued that they want to watch more, why would we make them wait until we post the next one? We give them everything up front. If a user wants to watch all five of our videos right now, there’s a much better chance that we’ll be able to persuade them to click through to our website. We don’t make them wait after seeing the first video, because they’re never going to see the next four.

If people like what they see, they’re going to want more- so give it to them!

Think about tagging

The tags you choose for your video in YouTube determine the videos that are shown in the “related videos” section. So, if you have a video about a tea party the library (it could happen), it could be linked to this video. The point is, you want to think about what your keywords might link you to. Maybe do a few sample searches to make sure your keywords aren’t bringing up anything disturbing. If you want to be safe, use Vimeo or another service that doesn’t link to related content. (I don’t work for Vimeo, I just like the service.)

A technique Greenburg describes is using unique keywords to link his content together. So, you might tag all your videos with unique tags like “yourlibraryname” “libraryvideosrock” and “ilovethelibray” (I didn’t check these, they may not be unique) which will increase the probability that they are linked together in the related videos category. You should include other meaningful tags for findability, too.

I, personally, don’t see this as dishonest. Part of the beauty of tagging is that it can be used to bridge content. I’m willing to hear arguments otherwise, though.

Conclusion

When participating online, it’s good to know a few of the little tricks that marketers do. They’ll help people find you, they’ll help you get your message out, and they’ll help you avoid linking to objectionable material.

An aside: There seems to be a general consensus lately that advertising is evil. I don’t believe that’s the case. Most advertisers subscribe to particular ethics, just like librarians do. There are a few dumb people out there that ignore these ethics, but they usually come out looking stupid in the end, anyway.

karin :: Nov.25.2007 :: Information Literacy, Library :: No Comments »

I watched the first episode of the Librarians on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website, but since then, I can’t get the videos to stream. To bad for me.

But today, I came across another show about librarians. Joy! And it’s an anime! Bonus!

If you’re thinking an anime about librarians is bound to be boring, you’re right. But,for those of us that work in a library, it’s sort of funny.

Kokoro is excited for her first day as a librarian in a library on a deserted mountain (?) with the same name as her. Joy of joy’s, they get a user (not a customer, a user) the first day! But after a week (!) passes, and the book is not returned, Kokoro gets concerned. She decides to track down the library user and get the book back (she takes her job VERY seriously.) Well, I won’t give away the ending, but it’s very exciting (yawn) indeed. Also, apparently librarians in japan wear maid outfits.

You can watch the first episode here. And while we’re at it, here’s a nice video of 70s librarians (and bad customer service). No guarantees on how long these links will be good for.

If nothing else, Kokoro Toshokan would make a great drinking game- just take a drink every time they say the word “librarian.”

karin :: Nov.23.2007 :: Humor, Library :: 3 Comments »

Stephen Abram posted about the Kindle, noting that most of the people writing about the Kindle (in the library world, mostly negatively) have not held the thing. It’s a fair point. After all, we wouldn’t want people criticizing the library without actually trying it out.

But.

I still think there’s good reason to criticize, and I don’t think it’s necessary to spend $400 for the right to criticize when Amazon makes it very plain what you can’t do. (OK, not very plain, you have to find the right links, but it is on their website.)

In other news, Abram bought an OLPC! Yay! I hope all the librarians who bought one bring them to ALA so we can dork out and connect on the mesh network.

karin :: Nov.21.2007 :: Library, Sites and Stories :: 3 Comments »

I apologize once more for the cruddy title. I don’t usually do memes, but the release of the Kindle from Amazon.com and the subsequent discussion are just too much to resist.

Design

Once upon a time, design wasn’t important for electronic devices. Makers were much more concerned with what the device did. The Kindle reminds me of this era- functionality first, design second. Which is fine, but if that’s the case, be honest. Jeff Bezos said on an interview on NPR “this device is beautiful” … “this device is gorgeous” but immediately after he says “if you look at the device, it has long buttons that go up and down the length of the device on both the right hand side and the left hand side. And that’s because people like to shift their hand posture when they read it avoids fatigue.” Bezos confuses design and functionality. A device can be perfectly functional and usable without being beautiful, but the current trend is to make beautiful AND usable objects. (I should mention, I do like the lovely design on the back.)

The ad copy on the Amazon Kindle page is more practical - it does not mention design, instead focusing on features and usability. Compare this to the description of the iPod, which mentions “good looks” “Beautifully redesigned” and “sleek all-metal enclosure.”

Looks are not everything- but don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

Audience

The video on the Kindle page shows a young, 20 something that alternately looks like a business man and student. (He also looks smug to me, but maybe I’m imagining things.) For the on the go young professional who loves to read for leisure and has money to burn, this may very well be the thing.

But, when Michele Norris asks Bezos about the Kindle and its possible effect on late teens’ reading habits (which I admit is a loaded question) Bezos says “it makes reading easier for people so Kindle is going to be one of those things that causes people to read more and especially that demographic that you’re talking about [late teens] there will be a certain amount of glamor associated with this way of reading.”

There seems to be confusion about who the audience is. A co-worker played the NPR interview with Jeff Bezos to his undergrad class, and the agreement was that no, this is not going to be a new, glamorous way of reading. I doubt late teens are that different from college students, and I doubt they would want a $400 e-reader instead of, or even in addition to, a laptop. If you’ve read much about kids and their laptops (or cellphones, for that matter), you know that most of them already have a device for reading. (And, you can find a decent laptop that will do much more than read e-books for $400.)

I don’t know if anyone has considered that teens don’t read novels because they’re freaking BUSY. Have you seen the schedule of a teenager lately? Most work, go to class, participate in clubs, hang out with friends, volunteer (especially if required by school) and spend a lot of time creating and sharing content. Who has time to sit around and read a novel? I digress though.

I think the main audience for the Kindle will be middle to older aged mid to upper class suburbanites. The audience will have enough money to not be particularly bothered that they’ll be buying books that can only be read on one device - they’ll be more concerned with convenience. Again, not a bad thing, but why try to be young and hip when you’re not?

DRM

Of course, the Kindle takes a new, giant step… backwards when it comes to DRM. Wanna transfer your Kindle books to your computer so you can read them? Too bad. (at least, not yet) What if you lose your Kindle? Well, Amazon will back up your books for you, so that’s good, but you can’t see them again until you buy a new device. Wanna sell off that book you already read? No way. Want to print out a hard copy of a passage to share with your poor, deprived, Kindleless friends? Silly you. You don’t own the book you bought, you just licensed it. So, unless you’re willing to lend out the whole $400 device, no sharing. Makes me winder if the high price is to discourage people from doing just that. Want to get your PDF documents on the kindle? You can mail them to yourself for $.10 apiece, and it will be converted into the proprietary format. So you can’t, say, annotate a word document and then transfer it back to your computer. You MIGHT be able to forward it onto a friend, provided he or she has a Kindle, too.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m not a big fan of this DRM’d all to hell policy. It’s still unclear exactly how strict the DRM is, but that will become clear in the coming weeks. In any case, it sounds icky. Plus, I can’t buy manga for it, so what’s the point, really?

The future of the book

In all this talk about the Kindle, it is inevitable that people will use phrases like “this is the future of reading.” I just don’t think that is the case. This is a device to enable the way we read in the recent past and some still do in the present. Cory Doctrow notes that “You Do Like Reading Off a Computer Screen,” you just don’t like reading novels there. The nature of the internet changed what we choose to read. Doctrow compares novels to Opera, and notes “Opera survives, but it is a tiny sliver of a much bigger, looser music market.” The sky will not fall if novels cease to be the main literary form. They’ll still be around, and people will make devices to read them, but an increasing number of people will find their entertainment on the unsanitized web, and for that, they’ll need a computer. Hopefully one with a better screen and battery life than we currently have.

Why now?

It seems like these conversations converged for me recently. I bought an OLPC partly because I want to use it as an e-book reader. I know the screen won’t be as nice as e-ink, but I’ll be able to get my reading material from lots of different places, not just Amazon.com.

We just finished our discussion on e-books in my “Intro to Information Technology Class.” Not surprisingly, most of my classmates thought that e-books would be predominantly for educational material, because, of course,  no one wants to curl up with a computer.

Except for me, of course, I wuv my cuddly computer. Or, at least, I will wuv my cuddly computer once I get my OLPC XO machine. If I want, I can curl up on the couch and read on the TV. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading actual paper books- that I’ve checked out from the library. My last move was enough to convince me to stop buying so many books.  I don’t read much in the way of novels these days, but between blogs, web pages, research, emails, and school reading, I probably go through the equivalent of one or two novels a week. Of course, that doesn’t count, now does it?

karin :: Nov.20.2007 :: Library, Sites and Stories :: No Comments »

I couldn’t help it.

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(citation generated with Zotero, using the new ability to capture citation information from Flickr.)

karin :: Nov.16.2007 :: Linux, Open access/Open source, Sites and Stories :: No Comments »

I want to do some presentations, and I have some ideas. I’m going to work on them over Christmas break, so that I have something I can pull out at the last minute if needed.

Here are a few ideas- I would love some co-presenters, so if anyone wants to team up, let me know. Also let me know if you have any creative title ideas- I’m horrible at titles.

• Zotero and RefWorks- similarities and differences - I’ll be doing this as a brown bag for my library in January.
• Zotero - I’d like to put something together just on Zotero, but I envision this could be done with a few other people, where they present on open source software they like, too.
• Networking/Blogging - This is only a very general idea. I want to talk about blogging and other social activities as a professional networking tool. This might be a good one for fellow library students.
• Linux for non-techies - Possible title “I am Linux, and you can too!” - might be too obscure,. I want to just show off Linux (particularly Ubuntu), tell some of the advantages and disadvantages, show some easy ways to get started, and list some situations for which Linux might be a good possibility.
• OLPC - I would REALLY like to do a presentation on the One Laptop Per Child project, computing in the developing world and children and technology. However, I would need to actually buy an OLPC, and I’m short on cash right now. The OLPC is saying this is the only time they will make them available, too. I still have a few days to Give One Get One. Erg. I suppose I can do a presentation even if I don’t have one, but having one would really give the presentation some snap.
• Open Access for Librarians - I’d like to rework my previous presentation and give it again. I think bringing up the OLPC project in this context leads even more credence to the argument- if kids in developing nations have access to the internet, free and open access to information is even more important.
• Open Source for Librarians - in the same vein, I’d like to create an “Open Source for Librarians” presentation that details the concepts behind open source and applications in the library.

That’s a start for now, I suppose. I’m sure I’ll have more ideas later.

I’ve been inspired by Jessamyn West’s beautiful and playful “What Works: More My Library, Less MySpace” presentation slides:

Seriously, go look at them all (pdf). We need more presentations like this! It’s made me want to run out and buy a Mac with Keynote, though I know I don’t NEED that to get good results.

karin :: Nov.15.2007 :: Library :: No Comments »

I wrote previously about Zotero proselytizing, and I think my choice of words was somewhat unfortunate. Some have seemed to take the term “proselytizing” in a negative light, while I didn’t mean it negatively. I also said that I feel like a traitor for mentioning Zotero, which has been quoted a couple of places. I’ll clarify on that below.

What’s been said

It started with Scott McLemee’s “Mark of Zotero” review in Inside Higher Ed. Stephen Bell commented, saying “Don’t Overlook Refworks.” On darcusblog, Bruce D’Arcus talks about librarian resistance to Zotero. Dan Cohen followed up with The Strange Dynamics of Technology Adoption and Promotion in Academia and Steve Lawson gave some good reasons for not promoting Zotero- including investment (monetary and human) in RefWorks, ease of use of RefWorks (since it’s web based there are fewer compatibility issues), and the fact that RefWorks allows easy export. (Whew! That’s a lot of links.)

My quote

Bruce D’Arcus quoted me in his post:

“I don’t talk about Zotero too much at work because we subscribe to, and are busy promoting- RefWorks. I feel sorta like a traitor”

and he replied:

“It’s really a shame, since it seems that the only thing this student is betraying in promoting Zotero is a rather narrow-minded organizational group think; not their end users.”

I agree it is a shame, but it’s really all on me, not on my organization. It’s not like I’ve met with resistance, it’s all in my head. For one thing, I’m not really in a position to promote Zotero to users. I mention it whenever I can, to fellow students, co-workers, etc., but my position doesn’t involve contact with patrons. Mostly, I’m met with blank stares, not resistance.

What can I do?

The conversation taking place has made me realize that I really want to do more to raise awareness at my library. So, I proposed a brown bag for next semester in which I will talk about Zotero and RefWorks and the differences between them. I don’t intend the presentation to be Zotero proselytizing. I just want to inform what Zotero is, how it is similar and how it is different from RefWorks, and how I use Zotero in my own research.

Expect more posts from me (probably in December, when I’m done with homework for the semester) on differences between Zotero and Refworks and how I use Zotero. In the meantime, the folks at Zotero have created a very nice screencast of using Word and Zotero (I finally tried this and it’s great!) Oh, and if you want to use the Zotero plugin in Open Office Portable, check out this page.

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Photo Zotero Plate from flickr user smleon.

karin :: Nov.14.2007 :: Library, Open access/Open source :: 3 Comments »

Just a note to those of you in Nebraska who like Anime and have $35 to spend on a conference:

My husband and I will be attending some of the festivities of Anime NebrasKon 2007 this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 16, 17 & 18) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It should be a good time- there are two dances, so with any luck Geoff and I will be able to practice the mad lindy hop skills we picked up at our first class this Tuesday. (3 whole moves!)

karin :: Nov.14.2007 :: Asides, Sites and Stories :: No Comments »