Librarian by Day

Mobuis is a consortium of Missouri Libraries, predominately universities and colleges, with a few public libraries, like MRRL. It’s a relatively small conference aimed at academics, but so many things translate across the board – podcasting, social networking, improving your OPAC, etc.  I was able to attend some great sessions, and like always I’m returning to work with Plans.  Nothing gets me revved up to try new things like connecting with other librarians.   Stay tuned!

The presentation went great.  The photo at right shows the right half of the room, there was a large pillar in the middle that really limited how much I could move around while talking and still stay in sight for everyone.  I also had to use a mic, the room was too big and too crowded for even me to be able to talk loud enough in.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it but it really made me feel disconnected from the audience and that connection is one of my favorite things about giving talks like this. 

Reviving the OPAC: an overview of catalog overlay software products by Mary Aycock & Jee Davis University of Missouri-Columbia

Link:
http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/staff/catalogdept/presentations/mobius2008.ppt

• Aquabrowser
• Encore
• Endeca
• Primo

 Next gen catalogs

Catalog overlay

Catalog search overlay

 Facets

From metadata sources

Authority control

 Possible facets:

·         Author

·         Format

·         Online resources

·         Topic

·         Pub date

·         Geographic region

·         Genre

·         Time period

·         Language

·         Series

·         Locatioan

·         New book

·         Availability

·         Source

·         Lc class #

Other expected features

• Relevancy ranking
• Spelling alternatives
• Tag clouds
• Rss feeds
• Federated searching ability to contribute user generated content
• Integration of vendor generated enriched content

 Aquabrowser

• Word discovery panel – visual cues with color
• University of Chicago example

Encore

• Works with development partners including Springfield Greene

 Endeca

• McMaster University

Primo

• Boston College
• Emory University

 Similar products

Blacklight

eXtensible

Scriblio

Solrpac

Vufind

worldCat Local

proprietary software vs open source

users needs?

What’s wrong with you current catalog?

How flexible is the product in choosing facets?

What are the features that the product offers

How/where are the data for the facets coming from?

Questions –

• Where would overlay happen since we’re a consortium? 
• Audience comment – Mobius looked at it, but it’s too expensive and changing too fast
• Open source tools?  – excited about eXtensible  

Free and open source software = Benefits and hidden costs

Stephen Pryor Tech mngr St. Louis University

Free software – can do what you what – think free speech not free beer 

Open source software

Who uses it? Approximately 87% of US organizations – Linux

Why would you use free and open source software?

• No cost
• Security – peer review of code allows it to get better
• Reliability – more sets of eyes looking over code
• Affordability – free of charge, may be charge for installiation and maintenance

Licensing –

General public

Linux

MySQL

Apache

PHP

Firefox

Thunderbird

OpenOffice.org

Koha

Evergreen

VuFind – Web 2.0 OPAC

LibraryFind – Web 2.0 OPAC

Moodle

So what’s the catch?

• Staff time
• Learning curve
• Updates – often manual
• Bugs, erros, crashes,
• End of life, obsolescence, decay

 WordPress

Mediawiki

Webcalendar

Rakim – chat

Sourceforge.net

Freshmeat.net

www.fsf.org

oss4lib.org

koha.org

vufind.org

libraryfind.org

Pryorsw@slue.edu

Pius1.slu.edu/oss

Questions

Asked about Drupal  – Mobius Consortium Office uses

camtasia

Podcasting 101, Using Podcasting in an Academic setting by  Jodie Borgerding & Martha Allen

Piux XII Memorial Library

St Louis University

Definition of podcasting

Definition of vodcasting

What’s the buzz? Stats about tech savvy users, 1^st qrtr of 2007 iPod sales reached 100 millionth rank

Oct 2007 14% of adults age 18-29 have downloaded a podcast

35% of 677 profs say podcasts are an important communication tool

Rise in pop of online videos  hula.com

Uses of podcasting at other libs:

Bellevue community college life science center

Valdosta University Library – Plagiarism video

Moaine Valley Community College Library – promote lib events, record speakers

Morton College Library – national library week – blip.tv

March of the Librarians – ALA Midwinter 2007

Duke University Medical Center – orientation, tour

Winona State University Library – Orientation

Sheridan Libraries – John Hopkins University – promote services

Fairfield Uni – promotion of services, Laguna Beach type of video

Planning your first project

Choose theme – think small, choose a purpose

Write script and/or storyboard

Check for copyright issues

Recording – record audio in one take, remember for every 5 min of video you’ll need 30 min of footage, you can edit out mistakes

Be aware of time issues, patrons get bored fast, break longer projects in to sections

Find people that share your excitement

Be flexible or creative

Issues to consider

Impact on visually and hearing impaired users – transcript for audio files, video should have subtitles or post script

Intellectual property – check with institution

Copyright issues with music

Very complicated

Mozart might be in public domain, but performer and producer might not be in public domain

Ascap – can buy license from them

Magnatune.com – free creative commons license

Ccmixter.org

Space is the biggest issue

Server space

Storage space

Mental space

Time – so much time to edit, much more than recording

Examples of podcasts and videos

They do podcasts and videos under 4 minutes

Questions –

Do they keep stats? – yes

Do students have issues with streaming? – embedded require adobe flash

What editing software are they using? Adobe premiere elements $125, adobe premiere, can also use windows movie maker, iMovies,

Do you know how many hits you get on the old style tutorials?

How many hits are the director’s talks getting?

Libraries.slu.edu/podcasts/presentations/transcripts/podcasting101.pdf 

I’m giving this presentation at the Mobius conference today, I wish I could say it’s somewhere exotic, but it’s just in at the Lake.  Which means a lot of driving but no overnight stay for me.

I’ll also be attending some sessions, I’m not sure what the wifi situation is but look for notes soon!