Newman Library Idea Lab

I’m not sure sure if there’s a name for these homegrown federated search services that let a library offer a single search box that serves up search results bento-box style from the catalog, a discovery tool, the library website, etc. The libraries at the University of Michigan and North Carolina State University have had such search tools for a while; now it looks like Columbia University is testing one out, too: CLIO Beta.

Announcing CLIO Beta  (video intro)

• sample search for “turtles”
• info about CLIO Beta (overview, FAQs, news, etc.)

For the “Articles” search piece, it looks like Columbia is using the API from their Summon subscription. For the “Catalog” search and the “Academic Commons” (the institutional repository) search pieces, they seem to be using Blacklight, an open source discovery layer developed by the University of Virginia.

Related posts

• A Search Box to End All Search Boxes
• Tech Sharecase, 30 June 2011

There is an interesting column by Meredith Farkas in American Libraries about the approach that the University of Arizona is taking with database tutorials, which they call “Guide on the Side.” Basically, you get a slick looking tutorial right next to the database interface. This approach has been tried in the past at other colleges using frames to put the tutorial and database next to each other, but the design constraints of the past meant wonky vertical and horizontal scroll bars across the page. The U of AZ solution looks better.

It’s my understanding that the University of Arizona be releasing the software this summer that will enable libraries to make their own local versions of these tutorials. I was thinking these might be useful for us if we are trying to create some online instructional content that we might otherwise try to do in the classroom. I realize that these tutorials only hit the traditional, tool-based kind of instruction (click here, type that there, etc.), but it’s worth thinking about whether these play help a supporting role in our online instructional efforts.

Food & Technology

In celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Oreo®, we enjoyed Oreos with our brown bag lunches. This lead to a discussion about the
technology used in manufacturing products like Oreos. The Food Network show Unwrapped was mentioned as they explore “the test kitchens and the secrets behind lunch box treats, soda pop, movie candy, and more.” We also searched the website of the reference publication How Products are Made for Oreos, to no avail. However, M&Ms®  are included in the publication.

The conversation steered toward different technologies and a UPS documentary about the company workings in Louisville, KY.  The NYPL conveyor belt system was mentioned. The following NYTimes article has a write up and includes video: “That Mighty Sorting Machine Is Certainly One for the Books.”

Coutts Oasis

We also discussed eBooks and Coutts Oasis incluidng searching publications, picking edition preference by cloth, paper and myilibrary Coutts. We also discussed the capability to add slip and e-slip plans to your Coutts profile by defning your subject area.  Users who set up this option will recieve notifications for new titles in the defined subject area.

Lastly, we named the other resources we use for making title selections including  Amazon, WorldCat, book reviews, faculty suggestions et cetera.

PC Build

Discussed a PC I built from scratch this past Fall. Based the build on the book, Building the Perfect PC. Several types of PC builds are presented by budget and purpose including:

• Ultra Budget PC,
• Budget PC,
• Gaming PC,
• Mainstream PC,
• and Media Center PC.

I choose to build a Mainstream PC, balancing affordability, space, expandability and performance for the tasks I require.  The book was written in 2010, so I updated some of the components from the book by referencing the message board the authors maintain at HardwareGuys. I used a few others sources as well.

I used the Logical Increments PC Buying Guide to compare my components to this guide. The guide is updated monthly and floats around several PC build forums. I used it to benchmark against a slightly different component lists and to compare their bottom line to mine. My PC would be categorized in “Great” with similar components and price range. The actual components I used are in the table below.

In addition, I referenced LifeHacker’s The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch for larger images and additional explanations for the installation process.

Building a PC, according to some sources, should only take a couple of hours, but it took me most of the day with just being careful and triple-checking each step, every component and every detail. When it came time to turn it on, to my surprise it worked perfectly.

After letting the PC run a recommended twenty-four hours to make sure none of the hardware components malfunctioned, I updated the BIOS, installed the operating systems and all the software. Viola! I had a new PC.

I was motivated to build my own PC in order to learn about about computer components, maybe save money in the long-run and, hopefully, make a better machine that will last longer than a pre-fabricated unit from a manufacturer. Overall I did learn quite a bit. Performance is everything I had hoped for.  My collective components cost more than buying a similar machine off the shelf so whether or not I save money depends on the life-span of this computer. Certainly with the knowledge I gained I’ll have an easier time upgrading components if I so desire.

Social Media & Privacy

Next, Rita shared the following link from the Sage website from the Addthis platform, for connecting website content to social networking sites for the pupose of sharing that content. There are 316 different applications listed here. It was remarked that this is an impressive list when you consider how many of these applications we were unfamiliar with.

Eventually this lead the conversation to a piece in the NYTimes Magazine about how companies are tracking our shopping habits. One of the most startling examples was noted in a Forbes post about the article about how Target analyzed the buying patterns of a certain teenager and determined she was pregnant. They proceeded to send her advertisements pertaining to an expecting mother. The problem was the girl had not told her parents she was pregnant and still lived under their roof. To figure out how Target was able to determine this girl was expecting, read the NYTimes Magazine or summarized Forbes post. Or, read the small excerpt below:

“Lotions, for example. Lots of people buy lotion, but one of Pole’s colleagues noticed that women on the baby registry were buying larger quantities of unscented lotion around the beginning of their second trimester. Another analyst noted that sometime in the first 20 weeks, pregnant women loaded up on supplements like calcium, magnesium and zinc. Many shoppers purchase soap and cotton balls, but when someone suddenly starts buying lots of scent-free soap and extra-big bags of cotton balls, in addition to hand sanitizers and washcloths, it signals they could be getting close to their delivery date.”

This week’s On the Media reported on the Elsevier Boycott that was initiated in December by Cambridge University mathethematics professor Timothy Gowers. The boycott seeks commitments from academics to refrain from participating in publishing, refereeing and editorial work for Elsevier publications.  New Scientist has dubbed this movement, now with 7,000 petition signees,  the “Academic Spring.”

The Boycott singles out Elsevier’s business practices as being counterproductive to the spirit and goals of academic publishing–disseminating academic research and knowledge. The boycott’s Statement of Purpose  portrays Elsevier as, ”a publisher motivated purely by profit, with no genuine interest in or commitment to mathematical knowledge and the community of academic mathematicians that generates it.” As it goes on to explain, there are many publishers that could have been targeted, but Elsevier was chosen as a eggregious example of a publishing company that acts in opposition to the  exchange of information in academia.

Below are the three objections to Elsevier’s business practices spelled out at the petititon website thecostofknowledge.com:

1. They charge exorbitantly high prices for subscriptions to individual journals.
2. In the light of these high prices, the only realistic option for many libraries is to agree to buy very large “bundles”, which will include many journals that those libraries do not actually want. Elsevier thus makes huge profits by exploiting the fact that some of their journals are essential.
3. They support measures such as SOPA, PIPA and the Research Works Act, that aim to restrict the free exchange of information.

For their part, Elsevier has issued their own statement claiming the boycott is based on erroneous information and dispute the assertion that the price increases are unjustified. I’ve gleaned the following points from their press releases and whilst listening to interviews with company spokespersons:

• Per article cost of scholarly publication hasactually fallen in past years,
• Rising costs are associated with the company’s efforts in quality control and for tasks associated with:
  -      Finding and staffing full-time scientific editors
  -      Finding reviewers for articles
  -      Ensuring article integrity
• Elsevier costs are also rising  because of the proliferation of research from China and India
• The digitization process is also costly

The petition, signees and statement of pupose can be found at Cost of Knowledge.

Facebook
In light of the rumored Facbook IPO we began by discussing the information Facebook keeps about its users and their activities. We watched a video posted on Information Aesthetics  regarding an Austrian Law student named Max who issued a request to Facebook  for his personal data and received a CD containing a 1,222 page document detailing his online activities. EU privacy law compels companies to respond to such information requests from citizens within 40 days.

Apropos this conversation, this past weekend On the Media reported on this very case as well as other stories during this weekend’s episode: “The Facebook Show”.  The recent  publication of “Web of Deceit: Misinformation and Manipulation in the Age of Social Media” by Anne P. Mintz was also noted during the discussion.

This lead to a review of the recent addition of  U.S. Consumer/Lifestyle information to the ReferenceUSA database and the sources for the info contained in this dataset.

Qualtics
We also discussed various  forms librarians have built with Qualtrics and the challenges in creating them. Below is one such form for library book purchasing which can be shared with faculty and departments:

http://bit.ly/baruchlibrarypurchases

Other topics
Lastly, we discussed Clicker registration for Fall semester as well as scanning and printing policies and procedures.

I love the “Have an Idea?” feature linked to throughout the website for the library at Cal State San Marcos. Clicking the link (which features a lightbulb icon) takes you to this “Have an Idea” page where you can submit your idea and view and vote on the ideas of others.

The libraries at the University of Houston and Carleton College have some interesting signage to help users recognize what level of noise is acceptable in different parts of the library:

• University of Houston
• Carleton College

Attendance

Janey Chao, Arthur Downing, Stephen Francoeur, Jin Ma, Rita Ormsby, Linda Rath, Mike Waldman

ooVo

Arthur led a demo of ooVoo, which is web conferencing software that the college has a campus-wide subscription to. You can use it for web-based:

• one-to-one phone calls
• one-to-many phone calls (conference calls)
• one-to-one video chats
• one-to-many video conference calls

The software includes screen sharing, which lets you show live what is on your screen with anyone you are having a video chat or video conference call with.

Another great feature is that you can initiate a phone call or a video chat with people who don’t have even have an ooVoo account. Instead, you send them a special URL that invites them to call/chat with you via the web. Once that other person clicks that link, they are asked to type in their name, and then click a button that will notify you via ooVoo desktop software that someone’s trying to reach you.

This software might be useful for:

• faculty office hours
• distance/online education
• meetings with other librarians in CUNY and beyond

To get the ooVoo software installed on your work computer, you’ll need to contact the BCTC Help Desk.

QR Codes

Linda mentioned her use of QR codes on her profile page in the LibGuides system. When scanned with a smartphone, the code will send Linda’s contact information into the user’s address book. She used the i-nigma service to create the original QR code. Stephen talked about his use of bit.ly to create a short URL for the library’s customized Google Scholar link:

http://bit.ly/baruchgooglescholar

In bit.ly, each short URL that you create gets its own tracking page in your bit.ly account that gives you stats on the use of that short URL and also gives you a QR code for the URL in case you wanted to share that as well.

Usability Testing on on the New Library Site

Stephen described the first round of usability testing that was recently completed on the new library site (10 students performing three, pre-defined tasks each). We watched a video from one of the tests to get a sense of what usability tests look like and to see how one student reacted to the new site. Changes will be made to the redesigned site based on this round of tests and will lead to a second round of testing.

We talked about a model of testing that web design expert Steve Krug recommends in his 2010 book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems. Krug suggests doing monthly tests with just three test participants. Instead of having a single observer watching and taking notes of what transpires between the test participant and test moderator, he argues for setting up a conference room filled with interested parties (web developers, etc. for that site being tested) who watch the tests live, take their own notes, and then convene after the testing session to come up with a list of top things to fix. According to a recent blog post by Matthew Reidsma, a web services librarian at Grand Valley State University, he’s started doing testing in this very manner and recommends it.

The Education Advisory Board recently released an insightful and provocative slide deck from a presentation that looked at the issues academic libraries are dealing with as they work through the process of moving deeper into digital collections: Redefining the Academic Library: Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services.