Canine Transmigration

April 10th, 2012 by admin

Dogs of Wisconsin LibrariesWhen it comes to migrating a CONTENTdm collection of 330 digital items to a new location, Milwaukee Public Library staff are the champions. Senior Network Analyst Kevin Cingatura recently transferred all of the photographs and data in the Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries collection to the MPL’s CONTENTdm server without any major glitches and gave WiLS staff support and encouragement during the process.

The move enabled WiLS to revamp the look and feel of the site. It was an opportunity to create a new photomontage banner (above) and incorporate a more doggy friendly palette for navigation bars and fonts.

The work on WiLS’s end included updating our website “front end”—making certain that all of the links within the image carousel, the Your WiLS ”Dog of the Month” articles (these started in November 2009), and the featured searches were converted to access the new location of the CONTENTdm database.

Hotel Rubie MarieWe are delighted with the outcome and very grateful to Milwaukee Public Library for preserving this collection!  And, to celebrate, for the months of April and May, we’ll be entering those who update a current entry or add a new entry to the collection, into a drawing for prizes, including a one-night stay at  Madison’s own Hotel Ruby Marie. Other prizes include gift certificates from locally owned pet stores—Bad Dog Frida and Nutzy Mutz & Crazy Catz in Madison, and Bark N’ Scratch Outpost in Wauwatosa and Hounds around Town in Whitefish Bay.

To see the Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries, please go here. For instructions on adding or updating your dog, please go here.  For more about the collection, go here.

Written by Emily Pfotenhauer, Kirsten Houtman and Sheila Zillner.

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Two Cutting-Edge Library Services

December 21st, 2011 by mbeatty

I recently had the pleasure of serving on the ALA-Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) 2012 Cutting-Edge Library Service Subcommittee.  Since 2009, OITP’s America’s Libraries for the 21st Century program has looked for the best library practices involving cutting-edge technology. OITP seeks to showcase libraries serving their communities with novel and innovative methods, as well as to provide inspiration to the wider library community.  The lively and diverse sub-committee has now completed it’s task for making the 2012 awards and four library projects were selected. You’ll no doubt hear about them in ALA press releases and web sites soon.

For now, I’d like to tell you about two of the projects that caught my attention.  Both projects struck me as being immediately doable, useful, and really quite simple.  Neither require vast organizational dedication to achieve.  Both reflect just a slight tilting of the head in order to see a bit differently and thereby discover a better approach.  I’ve included links with very brief descriptions.  Check them out and maybe experience a little tilt of the head for yourself, too.

Gimme Engine, Scottsdale Public Library
http://gimme.scottsdalelibrary.org

Gimme integrates three separate technologies being used by Scottsdale Public Library into a single easily supported mobile interface:  MARC data RSS feeds from the library’s Millennium Integrated Library System, Syndetics content enrichment service, and the GoodReads (an online website that allows users share book reviews) API. Gimme is a mobile web site rather than an app so that one installation will work on all mobile devices.

Scottsdale Public Library learned through surveys that the services they offered, like the browse collection, reserving a book, and the calendar of events, were of high interest.  Patrons were also looking for book recommendations. Gimme succeeds because it addresses a customer need in a fun and innovative manner. Additionally, the categories and books in the recommendation engine never get ‘stale’.  As a mobile application, patrons can receive library-vetted recommendations wherever and whenever they carry their device.

Online Newsstand, Portsmouth Public Library
http://theonlinenewsstand.org

The Online Newsstand creates a virtual online magazine browsing room.  Patrons see the magazine cover, click on it, and have immediate access to all the articles in each issue, after logging in with their library account or student ID. No database search skills are necessary. Each member library is responsible for creating the links for one of the magazines when a new edition is available.

This service creates a method to conveniently and easily expose the rich holdings available from the libraries’ database subscriptions.  This kind of simple collaborative effort could dramatically increase usage of a service like BadgerLink.


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Prioritized Collections Care Improvements for the State of Wisconsin

December 20th, 2011 by Sheila Zillner

Earlier this year, WiLS collaborated with DPI’s Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning, the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Federation of Museums on a Connecting to Collections planning grant supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The partners worked with the Midwest Art Conservation Center to develop and conduct a study to assess the current conservation and preservation needs of Wisconsin museums, historical societies, libraries and other collecting cultural institutions.

The findings from that survey helped establish the following low-cost, practical steps to set a foundation for improved collections care:

-Advocacy to institutions’ Boards of Directors/Trustees and Administrations to include the words/concept of preservation within their organization’s mission statements – to begin governance engagement and dialogue on conservation/preservation issues.

-Encourage institutions to purchase low-cost water detector alarms ($7-$10) and place them in and around collection storage, exhibition and any known leakage locations – to immediately and inexpensively reduce one of the most common risks to collections.

-Encourage regular visits and inspections by institution staff/volunteers of their storage rooms/locations – to immediately and inexpensively reduce risk to collections from their highest reported cause of damage.

-Promote this short, simple list of good preservation/conservation information locations – to expand the knowledge base of collegial networks with quality, vetted information without confusion:

* Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) Notes
* Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC)
* Wisconsin Historical Society
* National Park Service (NPS) Conserve-O-Grams
* Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)

-Encourage institutions to do a self assessment of their past, current and on-going preservation activities. (i.e. emptying closets for more storage, conversion of an unused bedroom in a historic house to collections’ storage, annual spring cleanings, regular maintenance work, weekly dusting of vitrines/cases, changing burnt out light bulbs, etc.) – to set a context for future preservation projects, demonstrating that preservation is ongoing by action (which can be translated into budget line items), and to give context for preservation grant applications.

The final report submitted to IMLS summarizes the findings of the study and recommends a practical, prioritized plan of action to protect the cultural patrimony of Wisconsin. For more information on the survey, including results from focus groups conducted around the state, visit the planning grant website.

The national Connecting to Collections initiative seeks to aid libraries and museums in their efforts to provide the best possible care for their collections. A new online community, created by IMLS and Heritage Preservation, features resources, a discussion board, and access to webinars and other opportunities for discussion that is continuing the community of practice forged by the initiative.

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Fun with Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS)

December 8th, 2011 by Sheila Zillner

Background: At the 2011 WiLSWorld David Gagnon, John Martin and Christopher Blakesley introduced participants to ARIS (based at UW-Madison) and game development over the course of two sessions. ARIS games incorporate Google maps (to supply coordinates for game plaques), QR coding and Flash to create virtual scavenger hunts that take place in the physical world.* A number of educational games have been created using these applications, and there is a robust gaming community that is generous with support to other game developers. (see create games)

Applications: WiLS staff was excited by the potential of mobile learning. We began to consider ARIS for training students to retrieve articles and books from campus libraries. A brainstorming session helped to storyboard and to reduce the steps in training to basic finding skills, e.g. find the library, find the collection, find the journal, find the article, find the scanner, then return to base. The game cues the student to the next steps; all the steps are coded in some way, either as game plaques or QR codes. WiLS will be working on the game more in the summer.

WLA People Finder Game: Our experience with the student library retrieval game led to the development of a library promotional game for the WLA conference. There were five vendors and five WLA participants who were assigned QR coded numbers, displayed either on plaques or buttons. There were also five multiple choice questions to answer to complete the game for the chance to win prizes.

There were a few wrinkles in the implementation of the game at the conference site, e.g., exhibit hall did not have adequate smart phone reception and many people did not have i-devices (owning Android devices instead). Fortunately, there was a paper format of the game available. Also, there was a problem publishing the game, but the ARIS team was very responsive and helpful in getting the game up-and-running.

Future Applications: Games could be developed to learn about Wisconsin history or explore historical collections. ARIS could be used as an educational and promotional device for historical landmarks. It could also be used to develop games with students, perhaps by having them develop and create and  their own games.

* A minor drawback is the need for an iPhone, iPod, or iPad. The ARIS team would welcome with open arms anyone who would be able to adapt code for Android or Blackberry!!

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Tagxedo

November 13th, 2011 by Sheila Zillner

Some months ago a colleague pointed me to www.tagxedo.com, which is a great online application for creating graphic images from word tag clouds.

There are a number of palettes, fonts, shapes, themes and layouts to combine distinctive shapes into tag clouds graphics. You can begin by experimenting with URLs, as I did, or be inspired by the possibilities shown in tagxedo 101 or the tagxedo slideshow.

Before you start, you might be prompted to revise your browser to 32 bit.
I have only used URLs, which render very well. There are five other options for harvesting words on the start now menu. Choose any shape, orientation, font or theme then submit; these options can all be revised after the initial tagxedo shape is rendered.

The shapes and word orientation can be changed, as well as colors and fonts, by using the tools provided in this menu.

You can experiment with the color, font, theme palette, word tag orientation until the combination is just what is needed.

The shape can also be replaced. Word and layout options give more advanced methods to finesse the graphic, including adding punctuation, numbers or emphasizing or adding words.

These shapes are both rendered from the URL for the November Your WiLS.

These are among the generic shapes that can be found in the tagxedo shape menu; the star and cat tag clouds have horizontal/vertical word layout.

The same cat shaped cloud was altered by selecting random word layout and then altering the colors.

There is a way to import your own shapes to outline within a tag cloud frame; as was done with  the state of Wisconsin.

After a graphic is uploaded there are more options for editing the graphic. This is where the shape can become word cloud or a shape framed by a word cloud.

There are also screen display options in a bottom menu bar that are helpful when doing screen captures. It is also a good idea to do screen captures as you alter fonts and layouts, then later, you can choose which is the best design for your purpose.

This is really more like play than work. Have fun tagxedoing!

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Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO

August 27th, 2011 by Tom Zillner

Steve Jobs has stepped down as chief executive of Apple.  There has been a huge amount of press coverage about this move; much of it centers on the future for Apple given the lack of Jobs’ leadership. Jobs was a visionary leader, the primary force behind such design milestones as the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

By all accounts, Apple’s product designs have been driven by Jobs’ own aesthetics.  No product is ever subjected to testing with members of the public; they are simply designed to Jobs’ specifications and refined in the same way.  There are no focus groups, at least not external to the company.

Take a single example of a product, the latest big thing from Apple—the iPad.  It mirrors the usual Jobs philosophy of spare and sparse tools.  For example, in terms of instructions for users it ships with a single postcard-size piece of paper that shows where the on/off button is located.  The rest is supposed to be completely intuitive, and for the most part it is.  Tablet computers had been languishing for years, stuck in research and development, with no clear picture of what applications could be run on them.  Suddenly, tablets are in.  It took Steve Jobs to legitimize the tablet.  The real strength of the iPad rests on its thousands of apps. There is also the user interface. It is gestural, with all of the functions performed by doing things with your fingers on the touch screen. You can sweep through pages, expand and contract articles, select apps and other items through touching icons, and copy and paste easily and seamlessly.  Although also found in the iPod and iPhone, the user interface for the iPad is more dramatic because of the larger screen real estate.  Of course, there’s the downside that Flash applications won’t run, which I think is a rare instance of shortsightedness on Jobs’ part. Still, the iPad seems to me to be the best overall of the tablets available.

The current design ideas of Jobs generally go to a team of industrial designers headed by Jonathan Ive, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design.  Without such a team of talented designers Jobs’ visions would never have been realized.  Ive has been instrumental in design of multiple models of the Macs as well as the iPod, iPhone and iPad.  Potentially, he could assume the role of product visionary, although it’s unclear whether he has had any ideas for products that didn’t originate with Jobs.

What of the future? Tim Cook, formerly Chief Operating Officer, assumes the CEO position. By at least one account, Apple can coast for the next couple of years, making incremental improvements to the current product line.  At some time, something new has to emerge or there is the danger that Apple will become a marginal player.

Cook has a big leg up because he has stood in for Jobs before, and worked closely with him.  As I mentioned, he also has the crack industrial design team led by Jonathan Ive.

Whether Apple will continue to produce revolutionary, cutting-edge products remains to be seen.  It will be more difficult without the Jobs magic touch.

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Google to Make Smartphones?

August 16th, 2011 by Tom Zillner

In a surprising move Google announced it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  A Tech Chronicles article points to a Google press release by Larry Page, Google CEO, attributing the motivation for the acquisition to strengthening of its patent portfolio.  (One of the strategies by competing companies is to sue each other for patent infringement.  By acquiring the Motorola patents Google is in a better position to counter-sue if they’re sued.)  Motorola has some 16,000 patents.  Apple and Microsoft are Google’s major competitors and they both have deep patent portfolios.

Google’s Android operating system has become a major force in the smartphone industry.  By some measurements, Android-based phones are selling better than the iPhone.  The platform, launched in 2007, is now used in more than 150 million devices, with 39 manufacturers, according to a Times article.

Most accounts of the acquisition have highlighted the patents aspect of the deal.  However, there is an interesting question lurking just below the surface:  Will Google itself produce smartphones?  The answer is “Yes”, although the phones will come out under the Motorola brand.  Larry Page weighed in on just this matter in a blog post: “This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business.”  Well, maybe. Although Android will continue to be available to all comers, there is some possibility that there will be special links between Google Android tech staff and Motorola.  Although that will court antitrust action, it may be inevitable.

What does all this mean for the average person? Overall, there will be even more smartphone choices, with more features. Competition will continue to be good for the smartphone consumer.

Posted in Business, Hardware, Operating Systems | Comments Off

QR (Quick Response) Codes

August 1st, 2011 by Sheila Zillner

The cognoscenti (those who own smart phones) have probably been aware of these coded digital patches for some time, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to see their usefulness.

When I first noticed the printed square, I thought maybe if I squinted the pixels would resolve into an image…alas, no. What was this thing? After this first sighting, they seemed to proliferate. They appeared on catalog covers, in magazine ads, and on book jackets. Why? It seemed like the graffiti artist Space Invaders had infiltrated the publishing business.

The Light Dawns
Often there are instructions adjacent to the QR code that direct one to scan the image or to go to a QR site to download an app for a smart phone. The realization dawned that this is another means to direct a potential customer to a web address or a promotional message. Of course the customer must own a smart phone with a camera and a QR code reader application. This would seem to limit the market, but these must work commercially because QR codes are in print everywhere.

Exploring Possible Uses
I began to realize that QR codes have merit for reaching people with mobile devices. This can be useful in terms of libraries reaching out to their mobile patrons; or say, for student assistants connecting to WiLS ILL remotely.

There are a number of QR code generators that are free. Code can be generated for URLs, text messages, phone numbers, SMS in small, medium, large, and  x-large scale.

Some (and there seem to be many) QR generator sites are:
qrcode.kaywa.com
beetagg.com/en/beetagg-qr-generator
zxing.appspot.com/generator
www.qrstuff.com

I really like the ease of use of qrcode.kaywa.com and beetagg.com.  A good starting point for locating a compatible QR reader for your smart phone is mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software.

One stumbling block that I encountered was (and still Is) the lack of a device for scanning and testing the QR codes, but that is when friends and colleagues who own smart phones can assist; this not only breeds enthusiasm for the dingus, but generates more ideas for its application.

Happy coding!

QR codes don’t need to be indecipherable, black, pixelated squares.  Some designers have found clever ways to incorporate graphics. As can be seen from these examples that Angela Milock discovered at mashable.com.

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Goodbye, Borders

July 22nd, 2011 by Tom Zillner

It’s official: the ailing Borders chain will be closed and liquidated. The up side: all items are 40% off. The downside: one fewer competitor for the Amazon juggernaut. It’s been said by many people many times before: it’s nice to browse physical books. Of course, one can do so at any library, but at a bookstore you can emerge with a book all your own. The problem is that many people go to the physical bookstore to browse and then head home and buy online from Amazon.

What happened to Borders? There were several problems in addition to the competition from Amazon. One of the more amazing mistakes made was that for several years anyone wanting to buy a book from Borders online was actually buying it from Amazon, which maintained the Borders storefront. Another factor in their demise was their lack of a coherent strategy for marketing e-books and readers. Barnes & Noble has the Nook and lots of e-books to go with it. There was nothing comparable from Borders.

The last time Borders made a profit was 2006. It’s been all downhill since. Although in a much stronger position, it will be interesting to see whether Barnes & Noble can make it now that it remains the only remaining book selling chain.

Posted in Books, Business, e-books | Comments Off

Google+

July 11th, 2011 by Tom Zillner

Google recently announced its latest foray into social networking, Google+.  Having made a previous effort with its semi-defunct service, Buzz, Google is getting back on the horse with a better product.  Google+ is obviously an answer to the immensely popular Facebook, which has some 750 million users worldwide.  That’s a lot of advertising revenue, with many people on Facebook never seeing Google search and its advertising.  So it’s a very attractive potential market for Google.

I can’t speak about Google+ features from personal experience, since signup is currently by invitation only, but the outline of what Google+ offers is captured in the announcement itself and a few articles I’ve read.

The most prominent feature, played up in Google’s narrative of the service, is Circles.  Circles allow users to place people in separate groups, and then share with them.  This allows finer-grained control over sharing than Facebook offers.  You might not want to share with your mom what you’re willing to share with a group of friends or acquaintances.

Sparks offers the ability to obtain content based on your interests and then share that content with people within a circle.  Google claims your feed will feature “highly contagious content” available in 40 languages.  The content can be in any medium (text, photos, videos).

Hangouts allows you to, well, hang out.  You click a button to indicate you’re hanging out or join a hangout that already exists and then interact through text and video.  In its announcement, Google says that tools like instant messaging and video calling don’t work for just hanging out, an apparent slam at Facebook and the innumerable providers of chat.

Mobile includes two features.  First of all, Google+ allows you to add your location to every post if you want to.  Instant upload, with your permission, automatically collects the photos you take from your smart phone and places them in a “private cloud”.  They become available across devices, and can be shared if desired.

Huddle allows group texting, sending messages to multiple people simultaneously.

All of these features of Google+ can be seen as challenges to existing social networking services, particularly Facebook.  Google has stumbled in the past with social media, most recently with Buzz.  Part of the reason for Buzz’s current comatose state was a bug that allowed others to view a user’s address book.  But that wasn’t the whole story.  Facebook is dominant for a reason–it plays to people’s innate desire to socialize and it’s fairly easy to use.  It remains to be seen whether Google+ can capture a critical mass of Facebook users and others.

Posted in Cloudy, Services, Social | Comments Off

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