Web 2.0 for my friends or, a Facebook Frenzy!

In thinking back over 2008, one of the best things about the year was the proliferation of friends, buddies, and acquaintances I met. For the most part, this meeting took place online, through various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed.  Many of my library colleagues have written about how they use these tools for professional tasks, such as staying connected with distant colleagues, getting ideas, answering professional questions, and even keeping up with their patrons (for a great treatise on using Twitter in a library setting, see Brian Mathews' article "Social Eyes").  I've found these social networking sites to be a great addition to my professional life.

But I realize that my face-to-face (f2f), non-librarian friends are not quite as tech-savvy as my f2f library friends are.  I find that I keep up with my real life friends less now that I spend so much time online - my spouse and I even stay connected on Facebook!  He and I have talked about this, and we decided to hold a Facebook Frenzy.

This weekend, we've invited some of our f2f friends who are not as tech-savvy (or "tech-addicted") as we are over to our house for an afternoon of Facebook, Skype, and hulu.  We have wireless, and we've encouraged our buddies to bring laptops if they have them, and we also have some laptops of our own people can use if they don't have a traveling computer.  It's going to be informal, with us showing the three sites, answering tech questions (two friends have just gotten MacBooks, so I anticipate some questions there), and talking about privacy settings in Facebook.

From my own experience, I know I learn best when a friend shows me something - it happened with Facebook and with Twitter; if I hadn't had friends there, I probably wouldn't have explored them.  I want to take my teaching expertise out of the academy and into my personal life -- and I have an ulterior motive:  I want to hang out with my f2f friends online in addition to, well, face to face. 

LIS Books

Over on facebook, some librarians are having a discussion of favorite LIS books. I can't think of a dedicated LIS book that I like, but here are two that have shaped my view of design and users:

* Krug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think! : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. 2d ed. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que, 2006.
Explains in very clear language how to design for users in a way that they will understand. Emphasizes the value of simplicity. My favorite graphic is in the chapter "Street Signs and Breadcrumbs", in which he shows a street sign in Los Angeles and another in Boston. The LA street sign spans the entire street and is easy to read while you're driving around, possibly lost. The Boston street sign, when it exists (speaking as an infrequent Boston driver), is tiny and very difficult to read. Essential, and easy, reading for any web designer.


* Norman, Donald A. The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Norman's classic is not specifically written for web site design, but it can easily be applied to web design, and Norman's engaging style makes for another easy read. I think about this book EVERY TIME I open a door that is not clearly marked. Essentially, he says "if I have to think when I open a door, the door is badly designed." (I'm looking at you, entrance to Hampshire College Library Center). I also think of this book when I try to turn off my iHome radio in the morning; Norman talks about how difficult it is to design something complex and keep it simple. Highly recommended.

Helping Scholars find Material (rant)

John Dupuis, who writes the blog Confessions of a Science Librarian refers us to an interesting series of posts called "Finding Scientific Papers for Free."

Written by biologist Sandra Porter on her blog Discovering Biology in a Digital World, they are in three parts, covering different aspects of the problem of finding scientific articles online. See Part 1 ... Part 2 ... Part 3. The series was useful, as the post and the commenters offered interesting strategies to find full-text scientific articles online.

It was also a fascinating look into how users think about the library -- which is to say: mostly they don't -- and how they manage to find their own material. I wrote a very long post in response to Part 3 in the hopes of helping them increase their use of their institutional library facilities. I've reproduced my comments over at my Libraries For My Friends blog.

If our patrons are going to such lengths to find scholarly articles -- and virtually no one mentions the library -- doesn't that mean we're doing something wrong in our library communities? How can we better promote our resources to these scholars?

New on Libraries 4 Friends

More Reading Ideas in which I tell Friend about Literature Resource Center and Books in Print's *awesome* Fiction Connection readers advisory tool. Friend is a big library user -- for taking out books 'n stuff.

He asked me if there was a web resource like allmusic does for music?

"Of course there is!" I replied.

After I emailed him my thoughts on finding authors to read in a certain genre, he wrote back and said that he'd seen that page but never imagined the riches that lay beneath.

Come on library people, what are we going to do about that?!

PubMed

See some notes about using PubMed at my Libraries For My Friends blog.

Bloglines info.

See my very brief, quick tutorial about using Bloglines at my Libraries For My Friends blog.


Blog on!

Libraries 4 My Friends

Coupla posts going up at my sister blog, Libraries 4 My Friends.

Today's is about using worldcat.org / Find in a Library. You've used it, right? If not, search for a book -- any book (cd, dvd, manuscript, anything!!) in the box to the left of this post -- you'll see who in the world owns it.

Soon I will post something about using bloglines to keep up with all your blogs.

Just a little treat for my friends who aren't librarians - but like what libraries have to offer.

Library Systems Too Complex!

Argh.

A few months ago, I started the Libraries for My Friends blog, in which I try to help my friends use their local library. I'd send this to some non-library friends, and one of them just asked if I could help her brother find audio books in his library.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Especially for a super-librarian such as myself? (modesty mode OFF). You'd be wrong if you thought that.

First, I found the list of Oklahoma's libraries. Not intuitive for someone not from OK. I browsed around to see if I could find a list of databases available statewide; preferably something that included Overdrive or maybe even an Audible account.

Nope; had to do an reference interview with my friend to find out where in OK her brother lives. Answer: Oklahoma City. Back to the list of OK libraries to find the Oklahoma City Library page. Since it's called the "Metropolitan Library System", I am not positive I'm on the right page, but I'll take it on faith.

Poke around to see if I can find a list of databases, preferably something that lists audio books. No such luck. Go to their catalog link. Wha ... ??

Gamely click on "logon anonymously". Again I said "wha ..." ? Clicked on "catalog" at the top and said the now-familiar "wha ...", sighed, and went back to he Metropolitan Library System home page. Searched for "audio" and found some tips for finding audio items in the catalog (under resources for the visually impaired).

You can read the uncensored version of the instructions at the L4MF blog.

But really: why does it have to be so darn hard? Libraries I actually work in are not much better; I really don't mean to pick on OK City. It's no wonder our patrons don't come to us for help -- it's so much easier to go to Google, buy from Amazon (if we're lucky to have $$) or do without.

Evaluating Health Information

I’m going to post this on my other blog, Libraries For My Friends, but I thought some of you might like it too:

MedlinePlus offers a great set of material on how to evaluate health information online. It includes links to …

• a flash tutorial called Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine


• 10 Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web (also available in Spanish) from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine


• An article from the Harvard School of Public Health on Interpreting News on Diet: Research and the Mass Media


• Tips for the Savvy Supplement User: Making Informed Decisions and Evaluating Information from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

A votre sante!