Friday, 24 August 2007
Freebase: Wikipedia to the power of Wikipedia?
Freebase - wow. If I may brag for a moment - I was in on Freebase very early on, although I don't fully understand it - all's I know is that it looks POWERFUL . Commensurate with its enormous information-organising potential, Freebase appears to require a bit more technical knowledge than wikipedia. I hope librarianship students are getting stuck into it though.
Monday, 16 July 2007
Becoming indispensable infrastructure: the Collections Sector
How are libraries to become prominent, well-used, indispensable, a network of functional conduits in the information life of the nation? By offering outstanding functionality and design, trustworthiness, value, and by deploying "Web 2.0/Library 2.0" principles such as reciprocity and interactivity.
But to become this network of 'conduits' (the term I use in opposition to 'repositories') there is no silver bullet solution, no 'information superhighway'. Such a network will accrue if libraries at different levels (local, state and national) can organise and commit themselves to multiple forward-thinking electronic projects - for example, the Digital Heritage Collections Plan, and Electronic Resources Australia. But library managers need to take seriously their membership of the 'Collections Sector '. My impression is that the UK has been very successful with its Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; I've not heard very much about our own Collections Australia Network, which has a much lower profile than NSLA.
In any case, by asigning real priority to their cooperative commitments to the collections sector, public libraries can assist in providing diverse, smoothly-connected information services. Smaller libraries face hurdles in participating - but they will be essential in implementing and delivering the projects that are thought up, developed by larger collecting institutions. Participation by public libraries will require the emerging generation of management staff to develop skills for inter-organisational cooperation and integration. They will need advocacy skills for lobbying, justifying, obtaining and keeping funding; the capacity to negotiate, delegate and be delegated to; and professional trust and good faith.
There is enormous potential for local libraries to act as community-anchored nodes in a distributed network of electronic resources. However, this raises a further question: do libraries face a hurdle in rejuvenating their 'brand'? How can we promote public libraries so that the term 'library' refers to both a (public) physical space and an integrated set of electronic services? Alternatives previously explored, such as the name 'Cybraries', are too cute, and quickly outdated. Many argue that the label can stay the same, and people can attach new meanings to it, as long as libraries offer innovative, rich, rewarding experiences. Perhaps this question of labels merely reflects my own doubts about whether libraries really can achieve the kind of transformation to prominence and indispensability in the public eye that I believe they need.
But to become this network of 'conduits' (the term I use in opposition to 'repositories') there is no silver bullet solution, no 'information superhighway'. Such a network will accrue if libraries at different levels (local, state and national) can organise and commit themselves to multiple forward-thinking electronic projects - for example, the Digital Heritage Collections Plan, and Electronic Resources Australia. But library managers need to take seriously their membership of the 'Collections Sector '. My impression is that the UK has been very successful with its Museums, Libraries and Archives Council; I've not heard very much about our own Collections Australia Network, which has a much lower profile than NSLA.
In any case, by asigning real priority to their cooperative commitments to the collections sector, public libraries can assist in providing diverse, smoothly-connected information services. Smaller libraries face hurdles in participating - but they will be essential in implementing and delivering the projects that are thought up, developed by larger collecting institutions. Participation by public libraries will require the emerging generation of management staff to develop skills for inter-organisational cooperation and integration. They will need advocacy skills for lobbying, justifying, obtaining and keeping funding; the capacity to negotiate, delegate and be delegated to; and professional trust and good faith.
There is enormous potential for local libraries to act as community-anchored nodes in a distributed network of electronic resources. However, this raises a further question: do libraries face a hurdle in rejuvenating their 'brand'? How can we promote public libraries so that the term 'library' refers to both a (public) physical space and an integrated set of electronic services? Alternatives previously explored, such as the name 'Cybraries', are too cute, and quickly outdated. Many argue that the label can stay the same, and people can attach new meanings to it, as long as libraries offer innovative, rich, rewarding experiences. Perhaps this question of labels merely reflects my own doubts about whether libraries really can achieve the kind of transformation to prominence and indispensability in the public eye that I believe they need.
Friday, 29 June 2007
Zotero: learning from RefWorks' flaws
Just stumbled on Zotero, a Firefox plug-in for citation management, and it looks fantastic. I've been an avid RefWorks user throughout my postgraduate studies, but only because I was fortunate to attend a course in it. Even with this foundation I found it very poorly-designed though useful. Connotea should have been a big heads-up to RefWorks' owners that commercial software would have to offer something special to compete with free applications.
Very interesting to observe how established companies respond to new, specialised, free or very low cost ITC alternatives. There are examples in every service industry, from postal services to news media. I wonder what the alternatives are to simply buying up the emergent technologies to maintain strength - is this the only way for capital to preserve itself?
Very interesting to observe how established companies respond to new, specialised, free or very low cost ITC alternatives. There are examples in every service industry, from postal services to news media. I wonder what the alternatives are to simply buying up the emergent technologies to maintain strength - is this the only way for capital to preserve itself?
Monday, 30 April 2007
Moving to citeulike
Blogging has dropped off my radar lately as the last semester of my Masters (woohoo!) moves into assessment gear. I'm still reading others' blogs, but am exploring citeulike right now since my focus is more on academic reading. I hope some of you avid readers will take the occasional look at my references over the next few weeks. Leave a comment here if you are interested in an article but don't have access.
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Social bookmarking attempt by CASL
Having created a prototype del.icio.us account for my public library, with minimal staff interest, I discovered what looks like a similar effort by the Council of Australian State Libraries (now National and State Libraries Australasia) on Looksmart's FURL. They've labelled it 'casltest', presumably a prototype also. I wonder what context of its creation was, and what conclusions weredrawn. The awesome Yarra Plenty Online Learning site has a pretty handy del.icio.us account too. I was recently told by a librarian that del.icio.us wouldn't catch on because it 'sounds trashy'. Ummm, "Google"? Which is not to say that del.icio.us is going to take the world by storm, but it's the ilk that's important.
There are plenty of exciting things happening at a higher level of library policy, particularly relating to streamlining national IT architecture and infrastructure (available via staff papers and policies from the NLA, NSLA). Most of this is oriented towards academic, research and specialised collecting institutions (museums, galleries etc.) I suppose this is where the government money is. Public librarianship isn't on the radar at that level of forecasting and policymaking. Two reasons for this might be the lack of funds for new initiatives at a municipal level, and the difficulty of achieving the necessary organisational coordination.
Having seen a little of what's going on at the top level of planning, I am wondering whether:
"The issue of the future of libraries as social, cultural and community institutions, along with the related questions about the character and treatment of what we have come to call “intellectual property” in our society, form perhaps the most central of the core questions within the discipline of digital libraries – and that these questions are too important to be left to libraries, who should be see as nothing more than one group among a broad array of stakeholders." (my italics).
Any comments? Do public libraries need to be so dramatically recreated that public librarians and administrators should lose their control strategic change processes? The urgency
Note to self: read more publications by public library peak bodies.
There are plenty of exciting things happening at a higher level of library policy, particularly relating to streamlining national IT architecture and infrastructure (available via staff papers and policies from the NLA, NSLA). Most of this is oriented towards academic, research and specialised collecting institutions (museums, galleries etc.) I suppose this is where the government money is. Public librarianship isn't on the radar at that level of forecasting and policymaking. Two reasons for this might be the lack of funds for new initiatives at a municipal level, and the difficulty of achieving the necessary organisational coordination.
Having seen a little of what's going on at the top level of planning, I am wondering whether:
- public libraries are meant to be what I want them to be
- the strategic leap required to creat 'library 2.0' at a municipal level is too great.
"The issue of the future of libraries as social, cultural and community institutions, along with the related questions about the character and treatment of what we have come to call “intellectual property” in our society, form perhaps the most central of the core questions within the discipline of digital libraries – and that these questions are too important to be left to libraries, who should be see as nothing more than one group among a broad array of stakeholders." (my italics).
Any comments? Do public libraries need to be so dramatically recreated that public librarians and administrators should lose their control strategic change processes? The urgency
Note to self: read more publications by public library peak bodies.
Thursday, 5 April 2007
NLA tidying up and moving on towards Library 2.0
The NLA's recent IT Architecture Project report contains some exciting ideas for its next phase of digital library services with a strong Library 2.0 orientation.
Key aspects:
Key aspects:
- service-oriented architecture
- single business
- open-source development model
The NLA staff are heightening the library's emphasis on making the collection available, based on their learning from the past decade or so, and knowledge of trends in information-seeking behaviour and networked information architecture. The mooted changes would create more porous , trust-oriented organisational boundaries, and are explicitly designed to cope with service proliferation under tighter budgets.
The basics:
- single business, single data corpus,
- using a single servioce-oriented architecture
- use of more open source software, without retaining IP for in-house developments
It seems like the success of recent online projects has influenced this shift. The library is looking for solutions that will not only be scaleable and extensible (data, interface, brand), but will encourage inter-disciplinary work within the library. In affirming the appropriateness of open source software for the NLA, they are acknowledging its potential for lightweight implementation and low cost, 'prototype solutions that enhance user experience regardless of the point of access'. This is great stuff - I'm keen for the NLA to go further in the direction of being a nationally-networked public library as well as being a peak national research and preservation institute.
The report also indicates a shift in thinking towards trust rather than control, possibly learnt from the experiments with Flickr and wikis. It discusses transferring to the public domain intellectual property for open source developments, and experimenting with crowdsourced metadata enrichment. This reflects laudable confidence in the NLA's role status in the online information landscape. The library doesn't need to control and protect impulsively and jealously. Rather, it is a key contributor and trusted source that attracts public contributions of an appropriately high calibre. It can build permeability into the boundaries of its information architecture, and consequently of its services and identity. This may have implocations for public library partnerships
Some further implications of these proposals are elaborated in an interesting appendix, 'Single Business Musings', which discusses:
- a shift to new search paradigms (clustered results, relevance ranking) learnt from Music Australia and People Australia, moving away from reliance on authority files.
- further user participation
- emphasis on partnerships with major external web nodes such as Wikipedia and Google Scholar
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Viral recruitment at Novartis
In my MPA course on leadership, I encountered a case study in the course textbook on Novartis, a global pharmaceuticals giant. Attempting to respond to the case, I was finding the text absolutely impenetrable for critical analysis. It gave no context or basis for comparison, and its glassy, managerial jargon-plated prose seemed blandly positive. For example: Novartis apparently has core people values of ‘fostering respect, leadership, teamwork and trust’; ‘challenge, innovation, collaboration and learning are valued in the culture’.. and so it goes unexceptionally. There seemed to be a remarkable resemblance between the tone of my textbook ($70AU) and that of Novartis' website.
Then came the 'ah-ha!' moment... the case study had to be approved, edited, doctored, or even written entirely by Novartis’s PR department, who probably paid the author and/or publisher of this standard MBA text to print it! It is little other than a tailored and poorly-disguised self-spruiking recruitment pamphlet. Take, for example, these gems about Novartis' recruitment of MBAs:
‘As an innovation-focused company, Novartis’ success depends heavily on the creativity and performance of its employees at all levels… Continuous learning is regarded as crucial to the success of the company… an arrangement with Harvard Business School provides customized courses for high-potential managers. Novartis’ executive education develops management and leadership skills…’ (my italics)
This was followed by such stimulating case questions such as:
What is the organization doing that would be attractive or unattractive to the self-managing professionals they are seeking to employ?
How would you describe Novartis’ culture? What are the vision and values of the organisation? What would it be like to work there?
Oh please! Every one of the 40-odd 'references' in the case was to a Novartis document or interviewee. The author thoughtfully thanked the good people of Novartis for their assistance.
If nothing else, this provides a fascinating insight into the workings of a global corporation. Clearly one of Novartis' products is pharmaceuticals; another is their image and political influence. This fairly sophisticated viral recruitment technique disemminates a carefully-controlled picture of the company. Given the public relations problems of 'big pharma' (e.g. HIV-AIDS medication patents), it is entirely in line with their need to influence political and media discourse in order to remain successful.
I'm trying to compose an appropriately scathing response to this blatant bullshit. I wonder what my lecturer will say (I'm guessing he's not read the case study yet).
Then came the 'ah-ha!' moment... the case study had to be approved, edited, doctored, or even written entirely by Novartis’s PR department, who probably paid the author and/or publisher of this standard MBA text to print it! It is little other than a tailored and poorly-disguised self-spruiking recruitment pamphlet. Take, for example, these gems about Novartis' recruitment of MBAs:
‘As an innovation-focused company, Novartis’ success depends heavily on the creativity and performance of its employees at all levels… Continuous learning is regarded as crucial to the success of the company… an arrangement with Harvard Business School provides customized courses for high-potential managers. Novartis’ executive education develops management and leadership skills…’ (my italics)
This was followed by such stimulating case questions such as:
What is the organization doing that would be attractive or unattractive to the self-managing professionals they are seeking to employ?
How would you describe Novartis’ culture? What are the vision and values of the organisation? What would it be like to work there?
Oh please! Every one of the 40-odd 'references' in the case was to a Novartis document or interviewee. The author thoughtfully thanked the good people of Novartis for their assistance.
If nothing else, this provides a fascinating insight into the workings of a global corporation. Clearly one of Novartis' products is pharmaceuticals; another is their image and political influence. This fairly sophisticated viral recruitment technique disemminates a carefully-controlled picture of the company. Given the public relations problems of 'big pharma' (e.g. HIV-AIDS medication patents), it is entirely in line with their need to influence political and media discourse in order to remain successful.
I'm trying to compose an appropriately scathing response to this blatant bullshit. I wonder what my lecturer will say (I'm guessing he's not read the case study yet).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
