2010 Year End Mashup

A lot of great posts have been written in the last week of 2010. From devil’s advocates to looking ahead, esteemed library and information pros have been busy with reflection.

Taking inspiration from many posts including but not limited to the following, I am attempting to put together a list of my own LIS related resolutions for 2011. Nothing ends the year better than a list, right?

Here are fabulous posts for you to ponder while reflecting and resolving:

*Infonista: Kim Dority gives us this uplifting post called For 2011: Say Yes

*Meredith Farkas summarizes all the devil discussion in On Devil’s Advocates and Sausage Making

*The blog that spawned the discussion: K.G. Schneider’s The Devil Needs No Advocate

*Phrase and words that need to go on The ‘M’ Word

Now, without further ado, the Mod Librarian’s LIS Related 2011 Resolutions:

1. Be fearless, but prudent when proposing change.

2. Welcome opportunity and say yes to as much as possible while still retaining balance.

3. Read or write (or both) one LIS related resource per day.

4. Forge alliances with like minded LIS folks.

5. Stop using filler phrases like ‘At the end of the day,’ ‘That said,’ and ‘Net net.’

6. Be imaginative, innovative and enthusiastic.

7. Be discerning in weeding out techno-lust crushes from sustainable solutions.

8. Don’t let the pervasive doom and gloom of professionals like the Annoyed Librarian dampen your zeal for this profession.

9. Try things and if they don’t work, try other things.

10. Get that first post-MLIS job and get out there and make a difference!

Happy new year!

5 LIS Things to Discuss While Toasting

Well, the New York Times upstaged me by offering 110 things discussed in 2010. Once you are finished reading about bedbugs, Larry King, the iPad and Patti Smith’s National Book Award, check out these five fabulous topics designed to amaze your library and information sciences pals at parties.

1. Awesome tips for creating an editorial calendar to manage digital content.

2. What happens when fine art meets tag clouds, RFID chips, tweeting and personalized recommendations?

3. How not to do a screencast.

4. How having a smartphone changed the way Aaron Tay does his work.

5. Which twenty five classic films have been added to the National Film Registry?

Happy 2011!

History for Sale

Deaccessioning is a polarizing issue for archivists and special collections departments. Making a decision to sell part of an institution’s history is a sensitive topic. Now in Little Falls, New York the issue has caused a rift between the library board and the director who resigned over some perceived mishandling of collection items.

Especially vexing is the fact that the rare items in the Little Falls collection were sold to raise money for the library. Coupled with some possible mishandling of items, some of which may have ended up in a board member’s home, the deaccessioning situation spawned a great article in the New York Times on December 28, 2010.

To me, the most interesting quote in the article is that “We don’t have the space to take care of some of these items,” said Chester P. Szymanski III, the library’s president. “We’re not a museum. We’re a library.”

In my opinion, any collection whether in a library, archive, or museum should be handled with care and every organization should set up ground rules for collection management specific to deaccessioning before it happens. Also, the lines between museums, archives and library special collections are blurry, but the processes should be similar. After all, historical significance remains no matter who owns the items.

The Art History Kit: Scholars Resource

Remember sitting in a dark lecture hall with the sound of the slide projector advancing from art of the ancient near east through the renaissance? Well, I do and I know this is not how art history is taught presently. The resource of resources seems to be Scholars Resource “the only marketplace where educational institutions can license digital images in perpetuity from multiple sources.”

This resource is remarkable for a number of reasons. Users can search by textbook, time period, artist or museum. Anyone can view the vast selection, but you need an account to download images or order products.

Since the works of art feature many searchable attributes, this site seems to provide a fine starting point for anyone interested in art history research, scholar or otherwise. And, if you do need a nice selection of “slides” this is the place to find it all.

War Posters: Design and Propaganda

San Jose State University’s Charles B. Burdick (1927-1998) War Poster Collection contains over 1400 posters created by the United States and other nations to promote the message of war as good versus evil.A broad range of topics are represented in the collection, including war bonds, civilian employment, women’s service in the military, food rationing, and fire prevention. The collection also includes posters documenting political subject matter from the 1930s-1970s. About 50 of the most iconic posters are available online in the SJSU digital collection.

Burdick was a San Jose resident, WWII soldier, scholar and ultimately SJSU’s history department chair.

Here is an example of one iconic image:

Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography

This bibliography compiled by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. presents selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. This is quite a comprehensive resource and definitely a perfect starting point for any related research endeavor.

From file format to copyright to preservation metadata, this collection covers a full gamut of topics and then some. Also included are some fascinating case studies like “Curating the CIA World Factbook” and “Selecting Research Collections for Digitization: Applying the Harvard Model.”

So, thank you Charles W. Bailey, Jr. I will refer to this bibliography often.

Happy Holidays from 1909!

 

Recycling Content

I prefer to think of it as recycling or cross-promoting, but Eureka Janet (Alexander) calls it “scraping.” This is the act of taking someone else’s awesome blog post, adding your own spin and using their ideas as your own instant content creator. Look, I just did it…

A couple months ago, I unofficially committed to posting interesting content everyday. Naturally, some days I merely link readers to useful resources. Other days I actually delve deeper, adding insight and raising issues. Most of the time, I am commenting on someone else’s content.

I think the key to doing this gracefully, embracing the true spirit of collegial discourse is to be respectful, give proper credit to the thought-originator, and to take care to not utterly mangle the core message.

I hope I recycle content well. I truly admire all the tech savvy, trend spotting information junkies participating in these virtual conversations. I feel inspired!

The 5 Things to Talk About This Weekend

On Thursdays, the New York Times has a regular feature called “The 10 Things to Talk About This Weekend.” As a homage, I am going to start the tradition here on ModLibrarian with my 5 things to talk about in the library and information science realm. Here is the first installment.

1. Will color e-readers like the Nook Color and iPad prolong the life of book cover art?

2. Will the lecture series featuring celebs like wannabe librarian Keith Richards shine a new light on the New York Public Library?

3. Will secrets of blog SEO really help drive traffic to your blog?

4. Aren’t these content curation examples cool conversation starters?

5. Now that Delicious will survive last week’s hoopla, isn’t this article on semantically analyzing web content interesting?

Digital Imaging Explained

This tutorial from Cornell University touches on just about every issue you will encounter in implementing a digital preservation project. The explanations of image quality issues including file size, resolution, color, and file type are the clearest and most thorough I have ever encountered even after working with images daily during my years in advertising.

The section on metadata is easy to understand and integrates tools like this lovely metadata table. The entire tutorial features periodic questions to test your understanding of complex concepts as well as resources for additional reading.

The management section discusses pros and cons of outsourcing versus in house management of digital projects. Finally, the continuing education resources are phenomenal. I could spend the rest of my winter break just delving into these resources if I didn’t have to work on job applications instead.

Finally, here is an example of a real live project based on these tenets. I worked on this at The Seattle Public Library this fall and the planning really does take into consideration all the points raised by the Cornell tutorial.

Are Book Covers Dead Now Too?

Remember the movie Xanadu? Well, unfortunately, I do and the main character was an album cover artist. Changes in music delivery from the smaller format CD cover to electronic delivery greatly diminished the need for this particular niche of design.

Now an article on the CBS website “Judging Books by Their Covers” debates whether book cover art will suffer a similar demise given the sharp increase in the use of e-books.

Ultimately, the future of the book cover is as uncertain as the future of anything. However, this article covers (no pun intended) several interesting points such as the “subway factor” - whether someone wants to be seen on the subway reading a book based on its cover art and the fact that an actual book cover acts as a billboard advertising the book to other potential readers. Unless you are very cozy on public transportation, you may not be able to spy on your neighbor’s reading material as readily on an e-reader.

How to be a Digital Curator

I have always wanted to be a curator. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary definition is too broad and lacks nuance: one who has the care and superintendence of something; especially : one in charge of a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit.

A curator is more of a trend spotter or arbiter of style responsible for presenting a unified content front for an organization - museum, retail establishment or otherwise. The hottest new buzzwords bandied about in advertising, content management, and information science are digital curation and content curation.

There are two really helpful articles on this topic that arrived via RSS this week. Let me summarize and curate them for you now. First, Scott Abel, the Content Wrangler, writes about a streamlined process for content curation. This article contains many fine insights, but the best thing is the process itself. A simplified “how to curate your content” complete with diagram.

The second resource is by Erin Scime on the blog A List Apart on “The Content Strategist as Content Curator.” This article goes into much more detail on the process of content curation and is very helpful especially as the lines blur between strategists and other folks being asked to assume curation duties. Especially in the world of libraries, web masters and digital librarians will likely curate content.

The most salient point in each article is that analytics should be used to inform future curation. At the most basic, I have been tracking analytics with this very blog for a month or so now and I notice that I have a higher readership with articles like this one than I do when I get on a soapbox about various library topics.

Wordle This.

Something a little fun today - make your own tag cloud. On Wordle, you can enter a block of text, the URL of a blog with RSS feed or a Delicious. You remember Delicious, the cyber-panic inducing social bookmarking tool that makes everyone a little nervous now that we’ve all explored Pinboard, Diigo and Trunk.ly.

In any event, the nicest thing about Wordle is the ability to customize font, color and layout of your tag cloud resulting in a pretty nifty looking cloud.

History of the French Poster

 Museum of the Decorative Arts, Paris

The Unappetizing Demise of Delicious

By now, everyone that was a loyal user of the social bookmarking site Delicious knows, Yahoo is allegedly shutting it down. I feel lucky in that I only recently started using Delicious in a somewhat obsessive manner, but many information professionals have been using it for years for personal use, professional research and to automatically populate any manner of subject guides and web resources.

For now, my bookmarks are all safely moved to Diigo and that is the service I will use moving forward. I have been interested in exploring the additional features, like web page highlighting and the import process is nice and easy. Here’s a useful step by step guide.

This situation does raise a number of interesting concerns about entrusting information of any kind to hosted or cloud vendors. One of the criteria people consider when vetting social software is whether a service has a longstanding and positive reputation. While the term “longstanding” as applied to technology is relative, Delicious did have a positive reputation.

This makes me think twice about using collaborative tools, putting too much credence in the storage capabilities of bookmarking services, and even on advising clients to store assets in a cloud based DAM solution. I have been working on another project designing a workflow system relying on a central file sharing service and I am now reconsidering.

Naturally, working some type of backup into your personal workflow is prudent in any case. However, the unsavory Delicious situation does raise some red flags about our increasing devotion to virtual products and services that were not even a glimmer in someone’s eye five years ago.

Search Results, Relevance, and Overload

If you’ve ever used library databases to do research or stock photo sites to search for images, you know the feeling. Overwhelmed by too many search results or underwhelmed by zero search results or just a couple options.

Part of the challenge, of course, is constructing an effective search query. But honestly, sometimes too many results is as much an issue as too few.

Add to the mix one interesting point raised by Meredith Farkas in this wonderful post “What do they really need?” talking about WorldCat Local. If students are searching for scholarly sources when writing research papers and the search results include everything plus the kitchen sink, this can add more confusion by presenting too many options of varying quality and relevance.

If art directors are looking for an image of a palm tree wrapped in holiday lights and they find every kind of tree in the world, their patience will be tested. No one has time for too many choices.

Students and researchers need the ability to limit searches to scholarly sources and creative professionals often need to sort by licensing models like royalty free versus rights managed.

I know that whether I am searching for research sources or for images, I am not as picky about the results as long as I have an appropriate amount from which to generate an idea, address a research question or satisfy a creative brief. I don’t care which article about image retrieval or which palm tree, as long as a few are suitable.

This is exactly the point. Search, no matter the system, needs to account for not only relevance, but managing the types of returns and the amount as well as offering sensible options for aggregating and discriminating. People don’t need 87 flavors of Cheerios nor do they need 87 palm trees or scholarly articles. They need about 23 of the correct type of asset.

The American Package Museum

Are you interested in package design? Well, this website for The American Package Museum features many beautifully shot photos of vintage packaging, a nice index, and not much else.

It is as if someone designed a lovely site and stopped in the middle. There are no notes or finding aids or catalog records with each package. I, for one, would love a year and name of designer. I am tempted to track down the curator, Ian House, for more information. I really love the look of this site.

Another Book Tree

Do you believe this is another book tree? Gleeson Library, San Francisco.

What is a MOHAI?

The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle has a great collection of local history artifacts. As per the website,  “The museum’s Sophie Frye Bass Library preserves and provides access to over 3 million historic photographs, as well as manuscripts and archival holdings, maps, books, posters, motion pictures and printed ephemera.”

I personally love the online photo archive. And did I mention there is an exhibit of purses called Clutch It! going on now?

I am so lucky that I am on my way to visit the MOHAI librarians this morning. I’ll leave you with this fine photo from the archive:

Another Fashionable Resource

FIDM, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in LA, has some interesting online collections. Eschewing the usual collection style presentation, FIDM has some slide shows, like this one on the Art of Television Costume Design. A helpful grid imbues the images with the correct credits instead of the usual finding aid-ish metadata that usually appears.

Rumor has it that FIDM has also created their own version of the VRA Core metadata schema to tag their blog posts complete with fashion specific values like fabric.

Fonts Matter

Designers have always believed in the power of typography. Libraries should pay attention to fonts as well when designing signage, wayfinding tools and websites. This recent article about the Silver Springs Library caught my eye and offers an exploration of how certain fonts can effectively evoke a feeling.

Another article by George Oates talks about building the wildly popular online community Flickr. One of the initial design concerns was regarding font. With descriptions like “clean” and “unobtrusive,” I think you will agree that the sans serif selection serves its purpose.

And, no comic sans please!

The Library is Cool!

In the land of celebrities, nestled a block away from the uber hip hotel The Standard, the Los Angeles Central library is trying to revitalize interest by hosting events targeting a different audience - influential scene makers.

This library is already in a to-die-for historic building and was one of the first to incorporate things like branded merchandise, a gift store and art exhibits. It is an amazing location and resource.

I am a little taken aback at this reference to the event in The Huffington Post. Why is it any different to have an event at the library than at say the Metropolitan Museum of Art or other prestigious institutions that have been hosting swanky events for eons?

Untitled

A tree of books - happy holidays! (courtesy of Jane Dougherty, HAPL)

Book Scanning: Scan Tailor is Awesome

Ever scan a book and then have to go back and split and straighten the pages before uploading to your collection management tool of choice? While this can be automated a bit in programs like Adobe Photoshop, did you ever wonder why you couldn’t have just one intuitive, wonderful tool for page processing.

Enter Scan Tailor…

Scan Tailor “performs operations such as page splitting, deskewing, adding/removing borders, and others.” It is free and open source (though it would be nice to donate to the clever developer). Available for Windows with the source code as well. Try it. You’ll like it.

Volunteer Voices: Hatch Show Print

Volunteer Voices is Tennessee’s statewide digital archive. This site has resources for digital archivists and researchers as well as a fantastic collection of collections.

My favorite is Hatch Show Print. I was quite the letterpress and printing buff and I have long been a fan of Hatch. Part of their historical music poster collection is featured on Volunteer Voices along with wonderful and detailed information.

The Hatch section of the Country Music Hall of Fame website is informative too.

Google eBooks Part 2: Panic now!

I just received an answer to a question posted on the Google eReader/eBook support site this morning. When asking if Google eBooks can be lent by libraries, the reply was “Lending isn’t supported as part of the current Google eBooks product.”

Here are the two links provided in the response:

- Verbiage on gifting eBooks

- Answer to another query on library lending

Google eBooks: Don't Freak Out...

As everyone with an interest in the written word likely knows by now, Google announced the launch of their own eBook reader and bookstore yesterday. From a user perspective, it seems pretty awesome to be able to read your books from anywhere on various devices with no hassle. Since the content lives in the cloud, you can access it from anywhere just like your handy Google docs and gmail and calendar and so on.

Initially, I was concerned about the implication for libraries specifically, but since I have had a chance to peruse the fine print of the terms of use, it seems that Google leaves the restrictions up to the publishers. So, the same publishers that restrict library lending of current eBook titles will likely be the same ones that will be restricted on this platform. Public domain is public domain. Rights are managed via DRM.

And, this endeavor seems to do a lot for independent bookstores like the fantastic Powell’s in Portland. So I am not freaking out. I am still not an eBook convert personally, but I can see how this type of digital progression will provide benefits not only for independent bookstores, but also academic and other small publishers. This could get interesting.

What is Digital Curation?

According to the DCC website, “digital curation involves maintaining, preserving and adding value to digital research data throughout its lifecycle.”

I also love the tagline “because good research needs good data.”

To me, digital curation seems like the research related arm of digital preservation or even digitization. In all cases, the goal is to not only preserve the digital artifact or surrogate in a stable form, but to add data in order to refind it later.

This site is the go to resource. Now research and data can get married.

Crush of the Day: Powerhouse Museum Online

From the clean, clear website design to the variety of materials, the Powerhouse Museum of Science and Design in Sydney, Australia has got it covered. Since many of us will never make it down under, it is fantastic to have access to at least some of the incredible collections online.

I am especially beholden to the Object Name Thesaurus, the Thingalyzer and the Electronic Swatchbook. You will find many treasures in the content heavy yet light and airy landing page for online resources. From blogs to educational resources to kids games and podcasts, the Powerhouse Museum has done a top notch job of communicating via its virtual presence.

Preserving and Cataloging Moving Images

Moving images, also known as film or movies, have unique preservation and cataloging requirements. Well, there are some great resources if you are interested in this fascinating topic.

Moving Image Archive News is a blog that is “a clearinghouse of information on film archiving and related endeavors.” With topics ranging from home movies to jazz greats unearthed from TV archives to Rick Prelinger’s archive of old San Francisco films, there is a lot of material for those interested in media.

Another great article on cataloging moving images and the challenges of subjectivity and the dynamic aspect of film is in the Summer 2009 issue of PNLA Quarterly. Here’s the citation and a link to the journal.

Sam, H. (2009). Cataloging and Preservation of Moving Images: A Survey of Organizations and Initiatives. PNLA Quarterly, 73(4), 62-8.

Open Source DAM Solutions

It must be open source week here at ModLibrarian. Today, I would like to share an awesome resource highlighting the merits of a variety of open source digital asset management systems, courtesy of Naresh Sarwan. Coincidentally, I just started research yesterday to determine whether Razuna is really appropriate for the in-house corporate marketing department I am assisting or whether I should kick the tires on ResourceSpace, Gallery and Notre DAM.

Opinions and experiences would be welcome! I will let you all know where I net out as well.

Scanning is not Magic

Don’t get me wrong. Improved technology, lower costs on higher end scanning equipment and special cradles that aid in scanning of delicate archival books are fantastic innovations opening unprecedented digitization doors for libraries, archives and museums. Here’s an article in the LA Times that highlights that fact.

However, an astute SLA member, Boston’s Mary Beth Dunhouse, posted a comment on LinkedIn yesterday that really made me think. Scanning is  just one step in a much more complex process.

Metadata planning, metadata collection, resizing images,enabling OCR if applicable, and uploading to a collection management system are all part of making materials available online. In one recent project, our team at The Seattle Public Library spent a long time deliberating over which Dublin Core elements would best capture our unique collection information.

And, please do not forget assigning subject headings to improve findability. Compound objects like books and brochures require a directory structure. Have you thought about storage and is your server backed up? Do you need to do additional research to fill out any of your metadata fields?

A lot of the material in archives and special collections is being digitized and has not yet been cataloged or processed. Just something to consider.

Open Source Collection Software

Have you heard of Greenstone Digital Library Software? Well, thanks to Micah Vandegrift’s excellent presentation on Floridian subcultures I now know more about what Greenstone can do.

Did I mention this is multi-lingual, open source software designed to empower users in a wide variety of locals and situations to display online artifacts? The site is replete with tutorials and information. I cannot wait to download the Mac copy and start a collection over winter break.

Have you used Greenstone? Let me know what you think. I am excited about the possibilities.

Why is DAM so DAM Confusing?

Another great resource for you - this time on Digital Asset Management. This is something that many businesses want and need, but have no idea where to start and how to prioritize the implementation, education and use of systems.

This article specifically is about why it is such a confusing subject for multi-disciplinary organizations. This blog by Henrik de Gyor offers some superb jumping off points for those interested in DAM or saddled with that responsibility anyway.

I have a particular interest in all of this as I consider myself the translator between the technical folks, the creatives and the business stakeholders. As an LIS professional with a sordid past as an advertising producer and asset manager, I like to identify common concerns for all parties and simplify the solutions. I think that is the key to any successful DAM system. At least one that people will find useful in their daily work…

Finally, here’s another of my favorite posts on this DAM blog - “Why do I need a Digital Asset Manager?”

LAPD Stolen Art Database

Did you know that the LAPD maintains a database of stolen art? I didn’t either until my friend Jeff Friederichsen pointed it out. Anyway, it includes everything from animation cels to Oscar statues, paintings and sculptures.

I was curious about the level of detail provided in the metadata. Beyond the title and artist if available, there are measurements and medium as well as the LAPD identifier and case numbers.

Book ‘em, Danno!

Buchstabenmuseum: The Museum of Letters

Here is a beautifully designed website for an interesting collection in Berlin, Germany. The Museum of Letters “is devoted to preserving and documenting letterforms.” This appeals to typography and letterpress buffs, museum folks and librarians and lovers of letters alike.

The site has a nice clean aesthetic, copy in German and English and my favorite part - a place to click through part of the collection. Yummy!

VRA Core, Luna Insights and Cornell University

Are you contemplating the VRA Core 4.0 metadata standard for processing a collection? In performing research for the Century 21 Exposition collection at The Seattle Public Library, I ran across some useful and informative resources by Margaret Webster of Cornell University on that very subject.

In 2007, Webster wrote an article and presented on Cornell’s experience using Luna Insights collection management software and employing VRA Core 4.0 elements to process some really unique faculty collections. Here are some links to resources and the citation to the article that piqued my interest:

* Collection ‘Beyond the Taj’ on Luna Commons

* Presentation by Webster ‘The metadata landscape: Cataloging Cultural Objects, VRA Core and our visual collections

* Article citation: Webster, M. (2007). E-grants + VRA Core 4.0 + XML = collaboration: Implementing VRA Core 4.0 in metadata workflows. Visual Resources Association Bulletin, 34(1), 111-119.

Social Media Friday

Do you care about your Klout score? Touted as the “standard for influence,” Klout offers a measurement of your online influence. So if you are an avid blogger and Tweeter, you may want to employ this measure in addition to using analytics tools like Google Analytics to explore and track the impact of your posts.

My Klout score has risen dramatically in the past few weeks which demonstrates a pretty typical trend. When you begin any social media campaign, it takes a while to attract followers, develop a voice and expand reach.

Now, let’s talk about Twitter. There was a fantastic post by the Travelin’ Librarian Michael Sauers recently about how to “Pimp Your Twitter.” This post offers some cool suggestions on ancillary resources like Hootsuite for organizing multiple Tweeters, Flickr2Twitter to aid in your instant photo posting quest, and the ARCHIVISt for archiving and tracking your Tweets.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the NYPL Digital Gallery

Yoo Hoo, eBooks, Where Are You?

While librarians are immersed in the importance of quality metadata, publishers are beginning to realize the significance of metadata for eBooks. According to a post by Eric Rumsey, “with eBooks, the process of discovery is more difficult, since browsing of physical books on the shelf is not possible.”

Seems we have heard that one before in the development of OPAC’s that allow shelf-like browsing due in large part to metadata.

Let’s hope that this shift opens up some opportunities in LIS. eBooks are a force to be reckoned with. In fact, I noticed quite a few positions at Amazon recently incorporating metadata and discovery.

Make Yourself Findable

In the information profession, we talk a lot about findability (thanks Peter Morville!). Creating metadata and cataloging items so that users can easily locate relevant information is the central core of library and information science.

Take a moment and think instead about making yourself findable. If you are undertaking a job search, especially for your first post MLIS professional job, you need to ensure that prospective employers can find you online and that your reputation would make your mom proud.

One of the most excellent resources I have run across appeared today on a fantastic blog - Digitization 101 written by Jill Hurst-Wahl at Syracuse University. This post is encouraging and offers practical advice. In addition, a handy attached PDF guide goes into more details on subjects like “what is the difference between a CV and a resume?”

I need to build my own website in December to begin the job search. I have pulled together some resources (check out this LibGuide on Personal Branding), but I am seeking all the help I can get. Jill’s post made me exceedingly happy and I now have some tangible, actionable steps to follow in planning my LIS job search process. Thank you!

Hugh Dean East Asian Pamphlet Collection

Lewis & Clark College Digital Collections

Fashion is Always in Style

Naturally, FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) is at the forefront when it comes to featuring fashion collections and resources online. From the FIT Museum online galleries with such diverse offerings as the “1980’s Gallery” to one titled “She’s Like a Rainbow,” FIT collections are well organized and interesting.

The FIT Library features many useful resources for fashion research as well including information on trends, publications and even a collection of catalogs.

And, if you’d like to create your own online fashion boutique, Google launched a tool so you can do just that - Boutiques.com. This site aids user discovery by providing boutiques curated by taste-makers like designers, stylists and celebrities. You can create a personal profile and your own boutique. This can likely take the place of all the clippings I used to save from Lucky and the Nordstrom catalog.

I'll Never be an Action Figure

While library and information people probably don’t think a lot about fame and most will never be immortalized in molded plastic like Nancy Pearl of librarian action figure notoriety, a little bit of self promotion never hurt.

I read an interesting article recently by Roy Tennant on LibraryJournal.com about becoming famous in the library world. Let’s face it - having an MLIS and hoping to snag a primo position is a bit competitive. If having a niche, doing speaking engagements, having a blog, using other social media outlets strategically and setting yourself up as a resource or dare I say, expert can lead in a positive direction, why not?

The one bit of advice from Tennant that I need to work on is finding a mentor. I will be graduating in the Spring and although I am undaunted by the competitiveness having spent over a decade in advertising, I would like some advice on practical matters such as how to submit papers for publication and why academic job searches seem to take months upon months. Anyone interested?

Pulp Fiction Collection

This is the way to display a collection! The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection at the University at Buffalo: The State University of New York is not only aesthetically pleasing, but well organized and easy to navigate. Somehow, an incredibly dense amount of information is presented in a graceful design that successfully enables user discovery for browsing or targeted searching. There is even a section on cover art that features clear guidelines on copyright. I think I need to ask about their collection management platform and I will report back once I discover the secret. Amazing resource!

Digital Images: JISC Resources

Where has JISC Digital Media been all my life? This link alone allows access to more information on best practices for creating and organizing digital images than I can shake a stick at. These resources include amazing amounts of information on metadata and DAMS. There is even advice on managing your images on Flickr. Let’s just say that I now have a sensible starting point for an idea for a presentation at the upcoming Personal Digital Archiving conference in San Francisco in 2011.

LibGuides are Fun!

I had an opportunity to create my first LibGuide recently. For those not in the know, LibGuides are essentially subject guides - ideally a well designed, curated and organized group of electronic resources on a subject.

Anyway, I used Springshare (Springy Library) to create this guide to personal branding using social media.

Try it out! I also saw a great example of a Tumblr LibGuide template this week from Tiffani Travis a.k.a. Mojo_Girl.

Hey, I can do that...

Apparently the new world of library and information sciences needs project management skills. Well, finally the sensible nexus of my years in advertising and my library education coalesces into a valuable skill set.

Here is a excerpt from an interesting article/interview with Brian Matthews in ALA Editions:

“I really want to see project management skills. That’s what I’ll be looking for in the next librarian I hire. I want to see that they can develop their own ideas and/or build upon other’s and carry a project through to the end.”

Retro Library Step Stool

A library-style step stool in virtually every color!

Perpetual Reinvention

There is yet another article about libraries and the perpetual pursuit of reinvention. While this LA Times piece features one of my faves, the Anythink libraries (Rangeview) in Colorado, it makes me wonder why there are not more articles about banks reinventing themselves. Or universities. Or grocery stores. Or bookstores, department stores, and insurance companies.

Nearly every profession, with the possible exceptions of Jiffy Lube and hair salons, have been affected by the digital age. You can do almost everything online, but still people choose to leave their houses.

Admittedly, the e-book issue is a sticky one for libraries, but ultimately people like libraries for the community aspect and as a place to go when they need some help. This same premise may just keep academic and public libraries alike humming along - whether virtually or actually.

I am a Screencasting Star

I’m ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille. This week I discovered screencasting. Yes, I know I am a little late to the party, but let me take a moment to revel in the simplicity and grace of this fine educational tool.

Here are five things I love about screencasts/screencasting and a link to a fabulous article if you’d like to try it yourself.

*Excellent for explaining briefly how to do something (use software, make a paper airplane, search the card catalog, tie your shoes…).

*You don’t have to be in a screencast - just the screen action and your melodic voice as narration.

*Production can be very simple or you can edit for a more polished finished product.

*Easy to share.

*Variety of software and lots of it is free!

Here is an article on how to make a screencast. Although I wonder why it is not a screencast on how to make a screencast, I do appreciate the tips offered here on WebDesignerDepot. Enjoy!

AdViews Collection: Classic Honeycombs

Courtesy of the digital collections available through Duke University - introducing AdViews - thousands of television commercials created or collected by the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency, dated 1950s - 1980s.

Check out these classic Honeycombs cereal TV commercials that might even make Don Draper jealous. Play them in iTunes. Are you impressed with the collection and the delivery?

The Elephant in the Room

Anyone pursuing an MLIS or working in a library setting currently knows that the search for that first library related job is rumored to be long and arduous. Luckily, there are many fine resources available online to help you through the process.

Sometimes I get paranoid about my lack of recent public facing library experience. Although I have staffed circulation and in fact, supervised students in document delivery at a busy academic library in the past, more recently I have been focusing on my interests - metadata, taxonomy, visual resources and digitization.

This blog post made me feel okay about my focus. To quote LibraryHat “Just as important as getting library work experience is doing the kind of work that one “wants to pursue” after the MLS.”

Here is a list of some other good posts or resources on the subject of the MLIS job hunt:

• Essential Advice for New Professionals (thewikiman blog)

• Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

• Librarian by Day: So You Want to be a Librarian

Metadata, Baby!

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am glad I have such an interest in exploring the metadata schemes that work best for digital collections and visual resources. In a recent survey of special collections by OCLC Research, this comment rose to the top for me:

“Half of respondents reported a need for education or training in cataloging and metadata.  It may be that figuring out appropriate metadata approaches for digital collections is the stumbling block.”

There are many interesting results from this study including an increase in digitization, productivity, and outsourcing (ouch) and a decrease in much needed staff even as usage increases. And here is the full report on iTunes.

Hollywood Librarian Review

Remember I mentioned the documentary Hollywood Librarian? While it did feature all the best snippets of librarians in the movies (Desk Set, Party Girl, Music Man) and a lot of great stuff about why people become librarians, there was a strong focus on the current budget crises facing almost every library, type of library, and, frankly every other business or organization in this country right now.

If you become a librarian because you think it will be easy, think again. You will need to learn new technology almost daily, you will have to fight for funding for your organization and demonstrate your relevance constantly. I am new to all this having worked in libraries in the 80’s and 90’s, segued into over a decade in advertising and now returning to the field.

I decided that if I am going to work hard (like in advertising) I want to do it for something I personally believe in - like libraries. I want to use my powers for good. So please stop whining and start doing something!

Perhaps you can’t change the world or even the entire fate of your organization. What can you do? Can you make a few changes that make the website better? Can you hold a bake sale? Can you organize an event to attract a different user group? Can you think of a different way to display your materials?

Well, I think you can. Librarians and information professionals are adaptable, resourceful and smart. But whining is not appealing, nor does it accomplish a darn thing.

Not Conjunction Junction - WebJunction!

Library and information careers attract people who actively engage in lifelong learning. Technological changes coupled with the evolving face of information related professions require new skills all the time.

Do you know about WebJunction? WebJunction is an online community dedicated to providing access to courses and information for developing LIS skills in an affordable manner.

Courses include web design, user experience, social media, Web 2.0 and a wide variety of management classes. All are available via online delivery for $40.

What a fantastic idea! Let’s go learn something!

Best Image Database Ever!

This image is by Roy Lichtenstein and can be found in the best image database ever, the Collection Database of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This database is well organized and easy to search and careful attention has been paid to the information that accompanies each piece. To top it off, there are explanations of how to search, use keywords and interpret captions.

In addition, there is a huge list of other image databases available online so if you are like me and particularly entranced by the handling of visual resources in digital collections you have a lot to consider.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has always made me very happy. Go art!

Librarians Like Conferences

Hot on the heels of Internet Librarian, the Charleston Conference was held in South Carolina from November 3rd through today. This conference is billed as more of an informal gathering of librarians, publishers and vendors meeting to discuss timely topics mostly pertaining to acquisition and information delivery. After reading all the Tweets and some other posts from the conference, these are the topics discussed that seem most interesting to me:

• There is a big need for library school graduates with knowledge of data archiving and data curation.

• There was a session devoted to a face off between Serials Solutions Summons and EBSCO Discovery. Unifying theme - library users prefer a single Google-like search box.

• Social media use [for scholarly research] seems to be focused on the beginning and end of the research cycle.

• Researchers want libraries to index full text library holdings and socially tag library catalogs.

• Google Books metadata: Google collects metadata from over 100 sources, creates a “best of” record in an internal format and displays on books.google.com.

These are mere tidbits. Much more information can be found at Erin Dorney’s fabulous blog Library Scenester and at the conference site. Great stuff! Isn’t it cool that social media allows for virtual conference attendance?

Holy Smokes! Instant Search...

Imagine a world with Google-like search for library catalogs. Wait a second - it’s already arrived in the form of Summon(TM). Another product from Serials Solutions, the company that brings us the engaging yet polarizing AquaBrowser interface.

Well, I was admittedly skeptical when reading the testimonials on the Summon site. I decided to read the case study for the Summon implementation at Dartmouth College. I clicked on the link and experimented with a search I have been laboring over for a few weeks while preparing a paper on image retrieval.

I am amazed and delighted. It makes the interface I have been working with look like a looming wooden card catalog. I located ten resources that were available in full text with handy citations nearly immediately. I am beholden.

Did I mention Serials Solution has an office right down the street from my home? I want to shake someone’s hand. Another company bringing the future of libraries right here and now. Thank you!

Fashion at the Library

Well, the creative folks at the Denver Public Library have done it again with an event evocative of Project Runway. The Frock Out Exhibit and Independent Designers Challenge incorporates a dress display at the central library, online voting for each of the twelve designers, and a splashy event with music, lighting and performers happening at the library.

No one will SHHHH you and everyone will look chic and stylish. Despite the snow, I think I wish I lived in Denver…

What Would Keith Richards Do?

Being a librarian is so cool, even Keith Richards wanted to do it, according to The Times. Although this is old news by now, I think it speaks volumes (no pun intended) about the esteemed position of libraries and librarians in providing positive influence to many people at any stage of life and income level.

Sadly, when organizing his own book collection, Keith eventually decided that the Dewey Decimal system was “too much hassle.” But he holds a special place in his grizzled heart for libraries.

Metadata is Fun!

Just another example of the fun that can be had with metadata schemes. Get a load of this giant crosswalk chart on the Getty site. This helpful tool makes creating crosswalks and mapping like a walk in the park. If your park is filled with element sets with some controlled values and differing semantics…

Personally, I find it fascinating that there are so many metadata schemes and that each nuance creates a separate usefulness in a particular domain. Then again, I also like nothing more than creating enormous Excel spreadsheets.

http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/intrometadata/crosswalks.html

San Diego State University WPA Murals

Great article on the project is Art Documentation, volume 29.

Anythink is Possible

There is a public library system in Colorado that represents the future. The Rangeview libraries, known as the Anythink (TM) Libraries, have not only created a resonant brand personality, but also embody every aspect of their core philosophy of innovation, technological savvy and experimenting with new models for architecture and library spaces.

From the simple, usable website to cleanly designed staff t-shirts to the Anythink Tank, this library system which takes obvious cues from retail, is well poised for the future - in fact, they are the future. Emerging trends have emerged. And it all seems so effortless when executed so well.

DPI: Replacing Confusion with Clarity

I ran across a marvelous blog on digitization projects called No More Outsourcing by Misty De Meo, a digitization archivist from Ontario. This blog is chock full of useful information and I applaud Misty’s philosophy about archives embracing digitization projects and the technical responsibilities that go along with these projects, retaining control of the projects and thinking creatively about accomplishing digital projects with limited resources.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to highlight the simple and elegant guidelines presented for figuring out DPI (dots per inch) when using a camera to capture art and objects versus a flatbed scanner. I have never read such an easy to understand explanation. Check it out!

October

October’s “bright blue weather” : A good time to read!.

Hollywood Librarian

There is a new documentary about one of my favorite subjects - librarians in film. Hollywood Librarian is a documentary that debuted during Banned Books week featuring depictions of librarians in films like Desk Set and Party Girl.

Interspersed with the film clips, real librarians talk about a variety of issues including freedom of speech, intellectual freedom,the explosion of technology and the survival of civilization. There is a free screening in Seattle next week too. I will be there!

Do You Know the Way to Monterey?

I am envious of the attendees of Internet Librarian 2010. Not only is this conference small, intimate and targeted, but it is held in idyllic Monterey, California. Fingers crossed that I am actually an “internet librarian” by next autumn.

In any event, looks like there was some fantastic thinking and sharing going on at this year’s conference. Here is a link to an amazing slide show by Bobbi Newman “Libraries in a Transliterate, Technology Fluent World.” One of the key points is that transliteracy involves not only being able to read and write, but to also evaluate and synthesize information. People must develop the skill of flexibility to learn new things and then, as technology inevitably changes, to relearn newer things.

Who better to help people with information related transitions? Librarians. It’s not about the content. It’s a bit about the delivery. It is all about what we do with information and how we interpret, analyze and understand it. The future has been here. Go!

Welcome to the Book Hut!

Remember the little kiosks in the middle of parking lots in the 1970’s? Fotomat? Well, perhaps libraries can start renting those huts that have not been appropriated by espresso stands for Library Express book and media materials dispensers.

This troubling trend will not even require a person to say clever things like, “Would you like fries with that?” Patrons order online and then pick up at a nearby location at an attractive and welcoming metal locker.

I really try to remain neutral in writing this blog, but please. If library professionals think we can be neatly replaced by a metal locker…then we probably could be. It is up to libraries to establish and prove community relevance.

Containerless Content

It’s no secret that traditional libraries are having trouble competing with the vast glut of containerless content available freely to all that have access to the magical Internet. Sure, people can use iTunes, Hulu, and the Kindle book store for a price and from the comfort of the sacred couch.

What libraries need to do to remain relevant and move forward is to stop whining and start actively pursuing those pursuits that cement their intrinsic value as places for community, creation, collaboration, learning and - dare I say it? Entertainment.

Libraries like the Seattle Public Library and the Denver Public Library are doing a good job by integrating movie nights, free concerts, author readings, gaming events for teens, computer literacy courses, archives day and all manner of kids activities. Libraries have always hosted events, but the real challenge now is to step away from the obsession with content.

Aaron Schmidt, super user experience librarian, re-posted a great post on this very subject. I will link to it now as it offers more insight than I regarding some creative innovation in Scandinavian libraries and is full of food for thought.

Team Digital Preservation

 

Team Digital Preservation - if only they would stop saying ‘dater’ instead of ‘data’…

Underground Library Speakeasy

You have to know it’s there. There is a branch of the New York Public Library nestled down a flight of stairs next to a subway turnstile on Lexington and 50th. I read about it in the New York Times. Commuters in the know use this branch frequently, stopping in for novels to read on the train. Befuddled tourists wander in, often asking about the location of a Barnes and Noble.

This branch is a great example of library services evolving to serve its particular niche of the community - in this case, the commuters. The collection is focused on business books, novels, leisure reads and some children’s books. One plus - it is easy to remember to return a book since it is conveniently located en route to the daily train. And the secret password is “read.”

Pick a Card, Any Card

Today’s topic is technical, but handy - how to perform card sorting exercises to assist with categorizing topics for web usability. Card sorting at the most basic employs simple index cards that potential users sort into piles that make the most sense to them. Ideally, the users should be selected because they represent the population that is the user group identified for the site. There are also high tech ways to card sort remotely, but I am a lifelong fan of index cards (I still use them when writing research papers).

In any event, here are some marvelous resources:

• Information and Design Card Sorting Page
• Boxes and Arrows Card Sorting: a Definitive Guide
• Jakob Nielon on Card Sorting Technique
• WebSort Remote Card Sorting
• YouTube Video on How to Card Sort

In addition, consider using card sorting for projects beyond just web design. For arranging materials in your library in a user friendly manner or for classifying information of any kind. Index cards are not the only medium either. A magnetic board might be helpful or even a traditional story hour style felt board. Have fun!

Cape Fear Library

Every time I read an ad for a librarian job in a prison library, I think about Robert DeNiro’s character in Cape Fear or Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs. Would I really want to form a reading group with those guys?

There is a new memoir style book by an actual prison librarian. Notice I said memoir style - ever since Oprah lambasted James Frey, I am loathe to refer to anything as a memoir.

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Librarian by Avi Steinberg sounds like a really interesting read. I will be adding it to my Seattle Public Library hold list post haste. For a taste, listen to this piece on NPR.

Library Anywhere

LibraryThing has launched the mobile app Library Anywhere. This is a super way for libraries to enable their mobile catalog without having to invent their own wheel. The app is free for users, works with most OPAC systems and features a simple interface. Libraries can instantly create a mobile presence (for a subscription fee) and users can enjoy the benefits of placing holds and searching for materials from anywhere. Truly amazing. Thanks LibraryThing!

Tag Clouds

Clusters of keywords. Seemingly random bunches of floating words. A tag cloud is a visual depiction of user-generated tags. Here are some interesting related sites. The first, TagCrowd, lets you make your own “tag cloud” from whatever words you enter. If you enter words more than once, the higher frequency is reflected in the larger size of the font.

Posts on Cloudalicious are a little infrequent, but paint a vivid picture of the evolution of the tag cloud concept. Interesting reading indeed!

Sidney D. Gamble Photographs

Approximately 5000 photographs, primarily of China, 1917-1932 from our friends at Duke University Special Collections. This buddha is in Japan.

Let's Play Library Tag...You're It!

Any kind of user-generated tags can suffer from a severe case of selfishness and lack of self-control. User tags are the ultimate in uncontrolled vocabulary. Ever notice how a search for the word ‘dog’ in Flickr retrieves some cute, furry dogs, but also hot dogs and some guys with the nickname Dog? People tend to apply tags that are very personal.

Someone who owns a dog named Blueberry might tag all photos with the word blueberry despite the fact that the canine in question is not blue, round nor a fruit. In this way, user generated tags are also fairly ambiguous.

That said, there are many advantages to allowing user tags in library catalogs. With some guidelines, tags can contribute greatly to personal rediscovery of items, a sense of community building, the tracking and displaying of item popularity, and if employed correctly, a potential reduction in cataloging costs coupled with enhanced metadata.

Libraries enabling user tagging should follow a few steps to ensure success.

• Policy: Prior to enabling user tagging, develop and post a policy on tagging similar to a policy on blog comments. Simple guidelines like no profanity, limit of number of tags, or formats will help users focus their efforts.
• Moderation: In conjunction with a clear user tagging policy, libraries should develop a plan to monitor tags periodically to ensure compliance.
• The Look of Tags: Tags should look different from the catalog record. Tag clouds, lists in the sidebar, or a different font or colors can help users distinguish the user-generated tags from the formal library generated subject headings.
• Keep It Simple: Users won’t tag if it is not easy, fun and beneficial to their use of the catalog. Too many steps, a complex interface and too many rules will be off putting. 
• “Tag-gregate” Content: Does your library have eight copies of The DaVinci Code – four regular books, one e-book, an audio book, a large print book and a movie? Find a way to cross-pollinate the relevant user tags on all related records.

 User-tags can complement and add value to library records and to the user experience of searching the online catalog. People like to contribute, which is one of the brilliant things about harnessing the power of collective intelligence. While it may be a while before the entire library collection is crowd sourced, the strategic integration of user content is here now. Let’s use it.

SPL: The Donation Link

As mentioned, the Seattle Public Library Foundation has been offered $500K by a donor if the community can match. Here is the link to donate. I do apologize for leaving this out of the earlier post today.

http://www.foundation.spl.org/home.htm

The Saga of the Seattle Public Library

Vanity Fair called the Seattle Public Library’s Rem Koolhaas designed Central library one of architecture’s modern marvels. For 2011, however, the challenge will be effectively running this remarkable library along with all the branches on an extremely tight budget.

A feature article in the Seattle Times details the challenges and explains how a community that loves its libraries plans to deal with the budget shortfall. One generous donor introduced a matching challenge offering $500K if the community can come up with another $500K for a cool million. Makes you think twice about that NPR pledge drive, doesn’t it Seattle?

Zombie Survival

What do you do if zombies attack your college campus? Well, the University of Florida librarians are always prepared. UF has a LibGuide to help you plan a survival strategy in the event of a zombie attack.

LibGuides are the handy subject guides on library websites that help with research of all kinds. From anthropology to tobacco advertising to music, academic and public libraries and some archival repositories provide subject guides and pathfinders for a wide variety of research topics. Available online from the convenience of your comfy, zombie-free couch, these guides are yet another valuable service provided by librarians to make research exciting and fun.

Madison Avenue on Social Media

Finally, the advertising industry has mastered the use of social media. Libraries that aren’t already on the “2.0” bandwagon should glean a few insights from this article in the New York Times.

There is a compelling case study of a campaign by Proctor and Gamble that seeped so far into the collective pop culture consciousness that Sesame Street did a spoof of the P&G Old Spice commercials.

Wouldn’t you rather see Grover talking about how much he loves his local library?

Social media - it’s cheap, it’s easy and it can generate buzz.

HELLO, My Name is Steve

What do you get when you combine museum collections and social tagging? The Steve Museum Project researches social tagging and museum collections; develops open source software tools for tagging collections and managing tags; and engages in discussion and outreach with members of the community who are interested in implementing social tagging for their own collections. An awesomely timely project with far reaching implications indeed…

1970's East Village Style National Book Award

Evocative of a gritty time when New York City was not just one big Starbucks, Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” is a finalist for a National Book Award. This was one of my favorites from this year not only because I have been accused of being an aging hipster. For the record, I am too young to have participated in late 1970’s early 80’s CBGB crowd antics. I do, however, love a book that not only recounts experiences of a personal nature, but captures a moment in time, good or bad.

Pondering Taxonomy

Thank goodness there’s a blog on taxonomy with a lot of cool topics. I am about to start a project redesigning an e-commerce site that is sorely in need of some care (and facets). Before you think I have gone and turned into a supernerd, this is interesting stuff. All online shopping operates on some level using taxonomy. Taxonomy for e-commerce merges two things I love - words and products. Check it out!

Fight for Your Rights!

Everyone loves copyright. It protects the creators and helps keep us all warm and cozy in this brisk fall weather. Here are some super copyright resources for visual resources and libraries alike.

• Copyright Registry
• WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry
• Best Practices on Copyright from ASPP

Halloween

New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Vintage Holiday Postcards

History in Pictures

Here’s a cool idea for your community library, archive, or special collections department: create a history of the community by asking people to bring in their photos. A rural Washington community did just that by hosting “History in Pictures” day and digitizing community photographs documenting life in the area over the years. With about 250 photos covering a variety of events, this idea created a digital collection of unique content and lasting value.

SPL: New Catalog

My very own Seattle Public Library has a nifty new catalog. Bibliocommons is behind it - a clean three column layout with options to add your own tag, connect with other users reading the book as well as icons allowing easy sharing via the usual suspects of Twitter, FB and email. All in all, a more social experience complete with a nice little thumbnail of the item itself. So you can judge a book by its cover virtually.

People Use Computers at Libraries

Shocking revelation, isn’t it? This article about the new president of the New York Public Library talks a lot about the continued relevance of the library in the communities it serves as a place for people to use computers. Also mentioned is a study conducted by the iSchool at the University of Washington that found that people actually prefer to visit the library to use the computer in many cases because they like the assistance they receive from library employees. Kind of makes you think that the public library still has a place in the world and perhaps reducing staff drastically may not be a viable idea.

Social Tagging Museum Style

Here is a great application of social tagging for a museum collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Users can add their own tags to the online collection. Each item has a base record of necessary information like the title, artist, date, collection, etc. However, by allowing users to add tags, the museum can find out how people really search for these items, encourage interaction with the collection, and make the whole experience a little social. The museum also has a nice FB page. Rocky Balboa would be proud.

Vintage Menus

I love the University of Washington Special Collections vintage menus.

Autumn Reading Club

Everyone loves summer reading club, but a new Seattle Public Library promotion offers kids the chance to enter a drawing to win a new bike when they read books. It’s a shame that getting kids to read more is like getting them to eat their veggies, but good books have a way of hooking people for life. Just don’t read and bike ride.

Garden Variety Library

Well, some libraries offer really interesting alternative services. Librarians lending their favorite recipes to a cross promotion with a local grocer, libraries in Baltimore helping customers in fast food wastelands partake of healthy organic produce delivery and now - heirloom seeds to grow beans like grandma used to make.

More on Aqua Browser

Turns out, the AquaBrowser interface is a Serials Solutions product. Coincidentally, their offices in Seattle are quite close to my house and to my internship location at Getty Images. I want to talk to someone about how extremely cool this tool is especially the “tag cloud” search and discovery feature.

Untitled

Findability is the degree to which a particular object is easy to discover or locate

Peter Morville, 2005, Ambient Findability

DPL: Tag Cloud Catalog Madness

I love the Denver Public Library. Hands down, coolest and cleanest library website. Check out the catalog - dreamy! AquaBrowser seems to play nicely and allow customization. The tag cloud on the left is stellar.

Everything else is spot on. This is a perfect example of creating a destination website that provides users with an optimal experience. Aesthetics matter, but so does simplicity and intuitive navigation. So many libraries blindly accept the alleged limitations of systems that are no longer working in their favor.

Denver has seized the bull by the very minimalist horns. Why have they figured it out so effortlessly?

And, don’t even get me started on the sheer brilliance of their photo collection. Charging licensing fees like the stock photo industry to support library services. Let the revolution begin!