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.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
testing - Blog feed from Engineering Village
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
(NOT a persistent URL - and no proxy server prefix (link to the article ) . don't know if this will work.) |
Monday, April 23, 2007
AquaBrowser
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.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
365 Days - Pix of Libraries
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.
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.
Friday, April 13, 2007
LRTS - new issue received
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 -
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 -
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Tech Trends (2005) - still current!
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Zoomclouds
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.
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.
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