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Category: Random Thoughts

The Catalog, The User Experience, and Discovery

Published by Iris on Saturday, May 20th, 2006

I’m still working to figure out what the future of the catalog looks like (in preparation for a short presentation in 10 days), and I’m beginning to realize that I’m doing this at precisely the best time. Nothing’s really been figured out already, so there’s still room for imagination. And yet, it’s becoming a major topic of discussion, so people can learn from each other’s imagination and leapfrog to new possibilities.

I’m particularly interested in a couple of themes that keep cropping up.

  • Allowing user commenting and tagging (the Hennepin County Library’s already doing this – via Library Stuff and TTW).
  • Separating the inventory mechanisms from the end user searching mechanisms.
  • Giving users choices rather than deciding for them what display options are best for them, or what delivery options will fit their needs.
  • Integrating information discovery into the user’s workflow (like Amazon is, via Dempsey).
  • Creating visual representations (such as tag, Dewey, or subject clouds like this one).
  • Leveraging metadata from multiple sources to improve services (metadata from Amazon, WorldCat, and in an academic environment things like class enrollment or year in school might also be useful).
  • Using RSS and other Web 2.0 features to push information out to the user’s environment (such as classes, clubs, etc)

Lorcan Dempsey has a rich set of posts on these and related issues. If you start here he leads you to related posts.

There are some more extreme ideas that may or may not come to fruition (such as eliminating LCSH or eliminating subject classification, as Calhoun mentions as an option and many, many people have critiqued).

There’s also the related issue of what happens when we scan all the books, as Google’s trying to do. There’s been a lot of talk of the NTY Magazine article called “Scan This Book” (Sunday, May 14th, 2006). The Gypsy Librarian, the O’Reilly Radar, and the Library Garden have all written very interesting responses to that article. What would discovery look like if this vision of the future came true? I don’t have answers…just questions.

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A Less Modest Proposal: DUCAS

Published by Iris on Sunday, May 14th, 2006

I’ve been inspired by Congress’ care for school children. The idea that they’re willing to take radical and questionably popular steps to safeguard these developing minds really gives me the warm-fuzzies. So, in the spirit of safeguarding school children from influences that could harm them, I propose my own bill: DUCAS. DUCAS has the potential to save children from a leading cause of death. Yes, that’s right, I will save these children from obesity. I will Delete Unhealthy Calories At School.

Here’s my thought process. Calories cause us to be fat. Not all of them, I know. But you never know which calorie will glom on to your ribs or stomach. In fact, I would argue that while children are unlikely to meet an online predator very often, they are quite likely to ingest one of these fat-causing calories fairly frequently if not every day (thinking of the kind of food they serve in schools). In order to save children from these potential killers, I propose that we shield students from all calories at school. Who’s with me?

Are you ready to stop obesity and all the negative health and social effects associated with that condition? Do you love this nation’s children? Then join me in proposing legislation that will radically change our nation’s future; join me in proposing DUCAS.

In conclusion, I would like to thank Congress for drafting DOPA (PDF), which continues to inspire me. I would also like to thank Jonathan Swift for keeping imagination alive and for not being afraid to take radical measures to solve national problems.

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What I’ve Been Pondering Lately

Published by Iris on Saturday, May 13th, 2006

Well, this week was – um – difficult. Last night at work we were all so tired at work that we couldn’t even leave! We just stood around and said things like, “Well… I guess I should get going,” and then continued to stand, staring blankly at the walls, not moving. In the midst of this, a desperate student came up to us in danger of not being able to turn in her writing portfolio (required of all sophomores and due last night) because her file was corrupted and she’d lost her bibliography. She had the parenthetical citations, but not the bibliography… That was fun. Oh, and that day had started with the most tense and uncomfortable meeting I’ve ever attended. (Yes, the CMS evaluation committee strikes again.)

Anyway, we’re still trying to figure out how to revamp our research guides, and we’re not alone. My vision is that we’ll end up with a system that not only helps us to store and organize stuff we find online and elsewhere in a “librarian’s view,” but that also allows for a combination of carefully crafted “static” pages and dynamically generated pages of research resources and tips. I want to be able to leverage all sorts of metadata, allow tagging, allow for controlled vocabulary, deploy RSS, and basically do everything possible to help users discover research help as easily as possible. I guess I’m envisioning Pathfinder 4.0.

Also, as some of you know I’ve been roped into my first conference presentation ever (granted, it’s just a 15-minute segment of a larger presentation, and it’s at a small, mostly informal regional conference, but still…). I’m supposed to present on the future of the catalog. (They asked me to present on the future of the OPAC, but there’s no way I’ll be using that term.) So I’ve been gobbling up anything I can find on this topic and was thrilled to run across Meredith’s interview with Casey Bisson over on Information Wants to be Free. And the comments are great, too. Thanks Meredith!

BTW, if anyone knows of things I absolutely must know, read, or mention I’m begging you, please let me know. (I’ll be presenting right after Dinah Sanders, project manager at Innovative Interfaces. Yikes! Why oh why did I say I’d do this?)

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