fiberbrarian

Ravelry at ALISE

2009-01-06T09:33:00.003-06:00

I've just posted a note to JESSE, the listserv for library/info science educators, hoping to get a Ravelry meet up at this year's ALISE. There is at least one paper on the Ravelry community being presented at this year's conference, which sounds like a perfect reason for a meet up!

Ravelry is a wonderfully rich community of knitters/crocheters/spinners/weavers. The software allows stunning integration of conversation and old-fashioned hypertext! Why describe a project when you can show it and indicate the pattern, yarn, needles, and general enjoyment of making it? Others can comment on it, 'fav' it, add it to their project queue. There's a library of books and patterns. Stashes of yarn are shown - making them available for oohing/aahing as well as swapping.

And did I mention the groups? There's a group for everyone! Communities know no bounds.

But ...

But Ravelry is a gated community. Free admission. Very little delay. But it is not out in the open Web for everyone to read. I admit that my Web blogs are suffering due to my Ravelry involvement.

Are there other communities like Ravelry? I haven't heard of any. Ravelry answered a need, and I think has been a major force in getting this niche community online and connected.

testing - Blog feed from Engineering Village

2007-10-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

FORWARD DIFFRACTION OF STOKES WAVES BY A THIN WEDGE.

Let's try one with a full-text link (resolved by SFX):
Effect of the trimethylsilyl substituent on the reactivity of permethyltitanocene

FT for UND (here):
(NOT a persistent URL - and no proxy server prefix (link to the article ) . don't know if this will work.)

AquaBrowser

2007-04-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

AquaBrowser, a VISUAL library catalog, offers a semantic link among books. (I think I only saw books over here at Sno-Isle Libraries' Visual Catalog). I'm still playing with it - typed "knitting" - played there and went to "yarn" and to "fiber" and to "pattern" and to .... You get the idea. This is how I used to play in the old library catalogs (lots of running between file drawers) and now in the online catalogs. But this MOVES and has color. I would like an indication of volume of content - so if there are LOTS of pattern books, make "pattern" darker or bigger...more like a tag cloud.

365 Days - Pix of Libraries

2007-04-17T08:33:00.000-05:00

Libraryman has started something. As a meta-community effort, he has created a flickr picture group (365libs) , featuring photos from people who have committed to upload 365 images of their libraries in the next year. Doesn't have to be one image per day, just 365 total for the year.

The meta-community (my coinage) is formed by seeing everyone else's library throughout the year. What a great storehouse of images, the everyday as well as the special events. He suggests that the individual library let the community and local newspaper know at the end of the year what has been taking place. A fun event might be a photo gallery of prints, complete with an opening night!

I once heard that part of the problem of the library is that we make it look too simple. Much of our work is out of sight; most patrons only see the public side of the library. Unless something goes wrong, the public is seldom aware of the complexity of the interactions that are necessary to make a seamless 'front end'. The library is a complex organism. Perhaps the 365days project will help us document that complexity.

ps - See the pool of photos here. At 9:00am central, there are 368 photos and 224 members.

testing - Technorati

2007-04-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

Testing a Technorati install - please stand by.

LRTS - new issue received

2007-04-13T08:32:00.000-05:00

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services has issued a reprint of their (1957) vol1 1, no. 1 Library Resources & Technical Services bundled in with the current (April 2007). The size, the type, the graphics - all different. On quick read, though, I agree with Peggy Johnson's editorial preface to the reprint: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

In a continuing note - one thing that never changes is the need to keep up!

Want to learn more about all the "something 2.0" that's going around? Learning 2.0 is a site to help you learn by doing and trying and, well, involving yourself in a little constructivist education. A nine-week course of explorations is part of their 23 Things contest. The contest itself is over, but the blog and activities remain as a fun way to get up to speed on the 2.0 technologies.

On a totally fun but sort of work related tangent: MOO. A business card printer like not too many others. Import your artwork to their site and they'll print it on your business (and personal exchange) cards. You'll learn how to upload and use Flick'r in the 2.0 exercises above - import them into MOO!

Have a great Friday the 13th!

Read on -

Tech Trends (2005) - still current!

2007-04-12T14:41:00.000-05:00

Learning how to use Track Back -

Here's an article that is well worth the time to read - although it focuses on new technology and is two years old, it is still very up-to-date.

Top 10 Technology Trends (2005) from Free Range Librarian

Okay. The track back url = http://freerangelibrarian.com/mt33/mt-tb.cgi/1564

Now, where do I put it? hmmm.

p.s. - From what I've read, there is a patch to make a trackback url for Blogger because one is not in the current configuration.

What is a track back? From what I understand, this allows the original writer (the source of my link above) to find out that someone has linked to his/her blog. From my informal blog, this is not a big deal especially, but if you were a business, you would want to know who and where your material is being used. This sound like a citation tracker to my researcher's mind.

Zoomclouds

2007-04-10T09:38:00.000-05:00

I'm playing again - today I added Zoomclouds down in the right hand corner. I obviously need to post something beyond the audio and wiki logs from last fall's MLA conference! After the initial set up, Zoomclouds is supposed to routinely monitor my site for new content and will add those words to the cloud. And it must be words from the posts rather than tags because I am still learning to tag everything.

Technorati is the place to check for tags. And to search blogs! I have seen blogs that indicated technorati tags and I thought I knew what that meant. I didn't! More on Technorati as I explore further.

Discover the Magic of Audiobook Making

2006-10-04T17:53:00.000-05:00

Discover the Magic of Audiobook Making
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian.

Dan Musselman and Scott Brick, Books-on-Tape, Random House.

As soon as they opened their mouths -- you knew what business they are in. YOWZA! In a tag-team format, they shared their experiences with choosing books, actors (voices), preparing for the reading, and the actual how-to of the recording session.

Casting of the narrator sound like what I would imagine of any theatrical endeavor. What does the work need? Who can best meet those needs? Musselman has a database of authors and their strengths; apparently, in Scott Brick's words, his strength is 'wise ass.'

Should author's read their own books? Yes, if it's non-fiction, the author can add a note of integrity and authority to the work. Maybe not if the work is fiction. This is something the executive producer (Musselman) and the author work out.

Production things we learned: Can you hear the narrator breathing? pages turning? Does the voice change between the beginning of the project and its end? Are the 'he said' and 'she said' lines delivered in the character's voice or the narrator's? Little things that mark a professional from an amateur.

I can't wait to go play with more audio books!

Books on Tape

(Scott Brick has 181 titles listed!)

Blogs, Wikis & Other Emerging Trends

2006-10-04T17:43:00.000-05:00

Blogs, Wikis & Other Emerging Trends
Originally uploaded by fiberbrarian.

This was a preconference to the Missouri Library Association annual conference in Columbia, MO. RSS, Blogs, Wikis, MyFace, MySpace, del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, last.FM, LibraryThing, and more.
David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.

Along with Stephen Abram's "Finding the Future: Library 2.0" - Pew2020 Predictions, refuseteks, PIG, Pimp Your MySpace, "The Internet is like herpes -- it'll always be there." Cartoon caption: "If TV is a babysitter, then the Internet's a drunken librarian that won't shut up." Facebook - a sustainable social network for life. Librarians: Do what we do best. Don't focus on patron transactions but on their transformations! Stephen Abram, VP of Innovation, SirsiDynix.

These are my interpretations of the presentations at this point. I'll think more on them tonight and tomorrow and ....

Makes me realize how lucky and happy I am to be a librarian today!