Mary Ellen Bates gives phenomenal search tips for the various search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, Bing)! Rather than trying to give you notes, go and get her presentation which will be available at http://www.batesinfo.com/extras/. You also may be interested in some of her past presentations.
What strikes me is how the Internet search engines continue to add features that help people do better searches, yet most people don't know about them (or use them). Which is why people should take a class or workshop on effective search techniques (hint...I'm teaching a class on this at SU in the fall). The other things that strikes me is that some of these features are what we (librarians) use in fee-based services...especially those services that have not dumbed down their search interface.
BTW have you heard of DuckDuckGo.com or Blekko? Yeah...this is why Mary Ellen rocks.
Monday, March 21, 2011
CIL2011: Monday mornings keynote (not!)
1992 participants in CIL this year including exhibits, speakers, etc. Will go over 2000 with onsite registrations. People from:
First question – What are some of the implications they see with the new players in the ebook environment?
Marshall – Wasn’t long ago that digitizing the world books was inconceivable. But you can’t count on Google for everything! Google has the resources to go into the world’s best libraries and digitize them. A world changing phenomenon. He looks at it from the aspects of discovery. You can now search across books. Search for and search inside. The challenge is this search aspect. The discoverability is more exciting.
Stephen – What are the unintended consequences? Is this really about books? What are the consequences of putting all of these books online? Immersive entertainment experience versus the information finding experience. Disaggregation of books. What is the difference between chapters, books, articles? The books are discoverable, but it is the ability to search in that will change things.
Dick – Analogies to the journal digitization that occurred. There was a controversy when the first libraries signed with Google. Remember that Google is a vendor. Interested in the impact of digitization on what libraries do. With this content outside of the library catalogues, what is left for the library catalogue to do?
Libraries can digitize materials from their community and from their online collection – data, archival records. National Archives received money from Ancestry.com…so getting money from companies is not out of the question.
Roy – Years ago, he argued that the Library of Congress would not be fully digitized. He is now willing to eat his hat!
Stephen – Why do you digitize books? Demand Media has said (1) To put advertising within reading. (2) Use the books to control search engine results. In an advertising-based company (Google), why digitize books?
Marshall – Libraries have more books due to the books that are digitixzed. Enticing for smaller libraries. Have to do a “deal with the devil” in order to do it. Thinking of the Google Book Settlement, do libraries get what they want and need?
Internet Archive approaches digitization in a more library friendly way. Yes, libraries have to pay for part of the digitization that the Internet Archive does. However, the results are more frienedly. WE need to find the right deals that benefit libraries and library users the most.
Dick – What is the sttus of the books being digitized by Google? Can we really see the content from all of the books? Are some books still under copyright protection?
The publishers are digitizing books very rapidly. There is a vast rush to digitize books and make them available to ereaders. There is an ebook standard. Also HMTL5 – more flexibility.
Stephen – Sometimes in 2011 the Supreme Court will make a decision about the in-copyright books being digitized by the Google Books Project. The Google Books Project will limit access to the content at the libraries who have access to it. Libraries will need to pay for additional access –printing/saving. This is a major disruption in the force.
Roy – Harper Collins – the ramifications of leasing access to content.
Dick – IN the Netherlands the 26 loans is seen as fair. (odd) Lending ebooks scares publishers.
Marshall – Libraries are based on legal models that apply only to books. What is the library’s role when things are streamed? What is the library’s role with things are published digitally? There is a real struggle between what the publishers are worried about and what the libraries understand how to do. Most books will soon be in digital form.
Dick – ebooks are in place in many research centers. Lack of DRM.
Stephen – The Harper Collins solutions is a version of whack-a-mole. The two biggest publishers won’t let libraries have their ebooks at all (i.e., Simon Schuster). Why are we upset with Harper Collins? There are others that we need to be concerned with.
Obama Administration announced that it is going to refocus on copyright.
Roy – What kind of impact of having these massive collections of ebooks will have on our print collections? Can we ship more books to storage? Can we get rid of a few?
Marshall – A shift in how we handle backfiles. Put things in remote storage. The working collections will become smaller. The vast amounts of materials, if discoverable, will be available in some way. Long form readng is different than reading articles.
Stephen – Do I want Amazon to control what goes on an ereader? Do we want Apple to control how we read/comment on books? Do we want someone to have that type of power? How many libraries would allow one person to ban a book? Yet we allow Jeff Bezos to ban books. Why is the library profession silent on this issue?
- 44 states plus DC
- 14 countries outside the US
First question – What are some of the implications they see with the new players in the ebook environment?
Marshall – Wasn’t long ago that digitizing the world books was inconceivable. But you can’t count on Google for everything! Google has the resources to go into the world’s best libraries and digitize them. A world changing phenomenon. He looks at it from the aspects of discovery. You can now search across books. Search for and search inside. The challenge is this search aspect. The discoverability is more exciting.
Stephen – What are the unintended consequences? Is this really about books? What are the consequences of putting all of these books online? Immersive entertainment experience versus the information finding experience. Disaggregation of books. What is the difference between chapters, books, articles? The books are discoverable, but it is the ability to search in that will change things.
Dick – Analogies to the journal digitization that occurred. There was a controversy when the first libraries signed with Google. Remember that Google is a vendor. Interested in the impact of digitization on what libraries do. With this content outside of the library catalogues, what is left for the library catalogue to do?
Libraries can digitize materials from their community and from their online collection – data, archival records. National Archives received money from Ancestry.com…so getting money from companies is not out of the question.
Roy – Years ago, he argued that the Library of Congress would not be fully digitized. He is now willing to eat his hat!
Stephen – Why do you digitize books? Demand Media has said (1) To put advertising within reading. (2) Use the books to control search engine results. In an advertising-based company (Google), why digitize books?
Marshall – Libraries have more books due to the books that are digitixzed. Enticing for smaller libraries. Have to do a “deal with the devil” in order to do it. Thinking of the Google Book Settlement, do libraries get what they want and need?
Internet Archive approaches digitization in a more library friendly way. Yes, libraries have to pay for part of the digitization that the Internet Archive does. However, the results are more frienedly. WE need to find the right deals that benefit libraries and library users the most.
Dick – What is the sttus of the books being digitized by Google? Can we really see the content from all of the books? Are some books still under copyright protection?
The publishers are digitizing books very rapidly. There is a vast rush to digitize books and make them available to ereaders. There is an ebook standard. Also HMTL5 – more flexibility.
Stephen – Sometimes in 2011 the Supreme Court will make a decision about the in-copyright books being digitized by the Google Books Project. The Google Books Project will limit access to the content at the libraries who have access to it. Libraries will need to pay for additional access –printing/saving. This is a major disruption in the force.
Roy – Harper Collins – the ramifications of leasing access to content.
Dick – IN the Netherlands the 26 loans is seen as fair. (odd) Lending ebooks scares publishers.
Marshall – Libraries are based on legal models that apply only to books. What is the library’s role when things are streamed? What is the library’s role with things are published digitally? There is a real struggle between what the publishers are worried about and what the libraries understand how to do. Most books will soon be in digital form.
Dick – ebooks are in place in many research centers. Lack of DRM.
Stephen – The Harper Collins solutions is a version of whack-a-mole. The two biggest publishers won’t let libraries have their ebooks at all (i.e., Simon Schuster). Why are we upset with Harper Collins? There are others that we need to be concerned with.
Obama Administration announced that it is going to refocus on copyright.
Roy – What kind of impact of having these massive collections of ebooks will have on our print collections? Can we ship more books to storage? Can we get rid of a few?
Marshall – A shift in how we handle backfiles. Put things in remote storage. The working collections will become smaller. The vast amounts of materials, if discoverable, will be available in some way. Long form readng is different than reading articles.
Stephen – Do I want Amazon to control what goes on an ereader? Do we want Apple to control how we read/comment on books? Do we want someone to have that type of power? How many libraries would allow one person to ban a book? Yet we allow Jeff Bezos to ban books. Why is the library profession silent on this issue?
Sunday, March 20, 2011
CIL2011: Different models of learning spaces
During the Computers in Libraries Conference (CIL), I'll be speaking on Wednesday on "Planning & Realizing the Fourth Place. What is a fourth place? It is a re-imagining of the spaces we use for learning activities. The session description says:With the rise of learning commons and collaboration laboratories (COLABs), people are using space differently in order to engage in learning. Rather than a third place as defined by Ray Oldenburg, these fourth places are becoming where people go to participate in specific learning activities. Paul Signorelli discusses the difference between third and fourth places, and how this learning fourth place is different than the library settings we’re used to creating. Maurice Coleman and Jill Hurst-Wahl outline how a library can create a fourth place using existing or recycled space (e.g., shipping containers) as well as the library services and resources that would support fourth place activities. Included is an interaction brainstorm about partnerships the libraries can pursue in order to bring this vision to reality.The fact is, this is not something futuristic; we're already doing it. Our goal then is to get people to think more creatively and to let go of some of the stereotypes of what a learning space is.
With that in mind, I want to share a story of one recent learning activity. On March 9, there was a brown bag session at Syracuse University on scholarly impact. (The term "brown bag" infers that people should bring their own lunch or snack to eat while listening to the speaker.) The group that put together the session wanted the session to have a different level of impact than a normal in-person brown bag session. A Twitter hashtag was created and used prior to the session to promote it. A video camera was used to stream the session live on Ustream. A person (me) in the room was designated to follow the chat conversation in Ustream and to tweet updates during the session, as well as monitor the Twitter hashtag for comments. A Twitter-fall was projected behind the speakers, so that people in the room could see the tweets. The result was that the packed room (30+ people) were joined by 16+ people in Ustream and an unknown number of people following in Twitter. Questions were asked via Twitter and Ustream from North Carolina and Illinois.
You may consider that example to be fairly normal. In fact, there are learning sessions happening all the time that are similar to that. At CIL, Maurice, Paul and I are going to push the envelope further - blow the wall off of normal! - especially in regards to how libraries can think about creating learning "spaces". We've even thought differently about how we're giving the presentation, since Paul will be giving his portion live from California. Our session is Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. (session A304). If you're at CIL, please stop by.
Videos from the Personal Archiving Conference 2011
45 videos from the Personal Archiving Conference are available through the Internet Archive. This blog post contains links to additional content (blogs, photos, etc.) from the event. This is definitely a well documented conference!
Looking through the conference schedule, I see many interesting sessions that consider the mountains of content that we are creating and the problems (or opportunities) it is creating. I'm glad that a group is thinking about this. (Of course, everyone should be thinking about this!)
Looking through the conference schedule, I see many interesting sessions that consider the mountains of content that we are creating and the problems (or opportunities) it is creating. I'm glad that a group is thinking about this. (Of course, everyone should be thinking about this!)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Digitization at the New-York Historical Society: Manuscript Collections Related to Slavery
Since my students are profiling digitization programs, I thought I'd do one too. Most digitization programs introduce use to content that causes us to go "oh...wow!" So it is with this collection from the New-York Historical Society.
Founded in 1804, the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) library has a tremendous collection of archival material.
Digital Collection Management Software: Delving into the collection, you can tell that N-YHS is using CoNTENTdm. Not quite as obvious - unless you look at the title bar in your browser - is that N-YHS is part of Digital Metro New York, though the METRO New York Library Council. Hence, even though this is a standalone program, N-YHS cooperated with METRO when it came to digital asset management.
N-YHS, like many other CONTENTdm users, has added functionality and pages "outside" of CONTENTdm. The one feature that catches my eye is the way you can view a collection's description by clicking on a photo. It is "below the fold" on the collection's homepage, so you need to scroll down to use it.
Copyright: The N-YHS digitized materials that are believed to have no known copyright restrictions. I suspect that they have been careful to not digitize materials that might have privacy concerns. What occurred during and after slavery was legal in the U.S. is not always a story that people want told and I can imagine that there are situations that are might be deemed private.
Terms of Use: The Historical Society has a Conditions of Use Statement for the entire collection. In addition, each individual metadata record contains a rights management statement. You do have to view the page description for the item that you are viewing in order to see the individual rights statement, which is not the default view.
The Look: As you go through the N-YHS web site, you will notes that there is not one consistent look (design) across the site. In addition, N-YHS is using several pieces of software for its digital assets. Hopefully, the organization will be able to standardize its look in the future, so that the brand has a consistent image. Placing the digital collections, if possible, in the same digital asset management software will also give them the same look and feel, the same functionality, etc. Users would then be able to search easily across collections.
The Collection is Always Open: The New-York Historical Society has been renovating its building. At the moment, the galleries are closed (February 1 - November 10, 2011), however the library is remaining open during most of the renovation. In addition, those that do not want to travel to New York City's Upper West Side can access this collection and other online. In addition, 60,000 of its museum objects are in an online emuseum. But that brings me to...
Discover Happens Elsewhere: If you search for for "new york" slavery in your favorite search engine, other sites and collections will appear in the first 10 hits, but likely not this manuscript collection. Therefore, another area I would suggest N-YHS improve in is discovery. Look at what sites, etc., a found first in a search, then contact those sites and ask them to link to the manuscript collection. Even if a few of those sites add links, a searcher's ability to find the Manuscript Collections Related to Slavery increases.
Finally, this is a collection that deserves to be explored. I hope you'll take a moment and take a look.
Collection strengths include local history of New York City and State; colonial history; the Revolutionary War; American military and naval history; religions and religious movements, 18th and 19th century; the Anglo-American slave trade and conditions of slavery in the United States; the Civil War; American biography and genealogy; American art and art patronage; the development of American architecture from the late 18th to the present; and 19th and 20th century portraiture and documentary photographs of New York City.
The collections include 2 million manuscripts, 500,000 photographs, 400,000 prints, 350,000 books and pamphlets, 150,000 architectural drawings, 20,000 broadsides, 15,000 printed maps, 10,000 newspapers and 10,000 dining menus. Among the historic icons are manuscript maps drawn by George Washington’s cartographers in the field, Robert Erskine and Simeon DeWitt (1778-1783); Napoleon’s authorization for the Louisiana Purchase (1803); and Grant’s handwritten terms of surrender to Lee (1865). (Library intro)One of its collection strengths - in the N-YHS museum and library - is material related to slavery. The N-YHS has had museums exhibits on slavery using material from its collection. It has also had an exhibit of modern art create in response to slavery. In 2010, the New-York Historical Society library released a new digital collection, Manuscript Collections Related to Slavery. This online collection offers...
...access to fourteen of the most important collections in the library’s Manuscript Department relating to the institution of slavery in the United States and the Atlantic slave trade. They include account books and ship manifests documenting the financial aspects of the slave trade, legal documents such as birth certificates and deeds of manumission, and political as well as polemical works. They range from writings by the abolitionists Granville Sharp, Lysander Spooner, and Charles Sumner, to the diary of a plantation manager and overseer of slaves in Cuba, Joseph Goodwin, and that of a former slave in Fishkill, N.Y., James F. Brown. Other personal papers include two works by John Clarkson concerning his involvement in the settlement of Sierra Leone by free blacks, and a journal describing the travels of two Quakers in the West Indies, Mahlon Day and John Gurney. The site also provides access to the archives of abolitionist organizations such as the New-York Manumission Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, as well as the records of the African Free School, documenting the education of free blacks in early nineteenth-century New York.
Copyright: The N-YHS digitized materials that are believed to have no known copyright restrictions. I suspect that they have been careful to not digitize materials that might have privacy concerns. What occurred during and after slavery was legal in the U.S. is not always a story that people want told and I can imagine that there are situations that are might be deemed private.
Terms of Use: The Historical Society has a Conditions of Use Statement for the entire collection. In addition, each individual metadata record contains a rights management statement. You do have to view the page description for the item that you are viewing in order to see the individual rights statement, which is not the default view.
The Look: As you go through the N-YHS web site, you will notes that there is not one consistent look (design) across the site. In addition, N-YHS is using several pieces of software for its digital assets. Hopefully, the organization will be able to standardize its look in the future, so that the brand has a consistent image. Placing the digital collections, if possible, in the same digital asset management software will also give them the same look and feel, the same functionality, etc. Users would then be able to search easily across collections.
The Collection is Always Open: The New-York Historical Society has been renovating its building. At the moment, the galleries are closed (February 1 - November 10, 2011), however the library is remaining open during most of the renovation. In addition, those that do not want to travel to New York City's Upper West Side can access this collection and other online. In addition, 60,000 of its museum objects are in an online emuseum. But that brings me to...
Discover Happens Elsewhere: If you search for for "new york" slavery in your favorite search engine, other sites and collections will appear in the first 10 hits, but likely not this manuscript collection. Therefore, another area I would suggest N-YHS improve in is discovery. Look at what sites, etc., a found first in a search, then contact those sites and ask them to link to the manuscript collection. Even if a few of those sites add links, a searcher's ability to find the Manuscript Collections Related to Slavery increases.
Finally, this is a collection that deserves to be explored. I hope you'll take a moment and take a look.
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