June 2009 Archives

This short YouTube video asks What is the future of the library? and offers a vision of what libraries should offer in the networked age.  Some of their suggestions include:

• providing awareness of new information technology
  
• materials available at no cost
• accessibility of interfaces both virtual and real

How does your vision of the future library compare to the urban information bar and how does that impact our current virtual spaces?

On Thursday, July 2, Encore may be unavailable for brief periods of time.  You will be able to use the  Library Catalog to search for materials. 

Interested in learning more about current technologies, but don't want to travel?  Consider the Handheld Librarian Online Conference. 

Description of the conference from their conference page:

The Handheld Librarian 2009 - An online conference about Mobile Library Services

More people than ever are using mobile devices for a wide variety of purposes including communication, internet access, text messaging, and entertainment. It is important that libraries provide services on these devices as use increases.

The first ever Handheld Librarian Online on July 30, 2009 is the place to learn about these and other topics related to using wireless and hand held devices in your library.  The program, sponsored by Alliance Library System, LearningTimes and Infoquest, will include a variety of ways to collaborate, network and learn from a great group of experts in the field.  In addition to live interactive webcasts, we will have a collection of available resources, discussions boards, and access to the recording  of all live events for one year after the conference.

The WebOPAC Committee has been working on ways to improve the WebOPAC.  One of the areas we have been considering concerns improving MARC tag labels and terminology for bibliographic records.

Proposed WebOPAC label change.xls

Some labels represent a fuller version of the term we already use. 

For example:  

• ALT TITLE would change to ALTERNATE TITLE
• PUBL INFO would change to PUBLICATION INFO
• ADDED AUTH would change to ADDED AUTHOR

Some labels will be more descriptive than the current label. For example, instead of just NOTES, there would now be labels for CREDITS, PERFORMER, CAST, and AWARDS

Sheet 1 includes the following columns:  MARC tag, Current WebOPAC label, Proposed WebOPAC label, MARC label definition, # of records in PAC with that label (all institutions) as of April 2009,  and a place for comments.  

Sheet 2 includes record examples with specific MARC tags listed.

The proposed WebOPAC label changes have been updated on the staging server.  The easiest way to find a record is to copy the b# from the spreadsheet into the following URL:  http://innopac.library.unlv.edu:2082/record=b3214391a

If you want to see the MARC tags, click on the MARC display button.  Once you bring up your first record you can then use the drop down menu under Record Number

If you want to compare how the record currently looks to the proposed changed record, copy the b# from the spreadsheet into the following URL for the current WebOPAC display:  http://innopac.library.unlv.edu/record=b3214391a

If you want to see the MARC tags, click on the MARC display button.  Once you bring up your first record you can then use the drop down menu under Record Number.

Also note that the author entry has been moved above the uniform title/title entry and examples of this are indicated on the spreadsheet under: Author.  You must be in the Entire Collection scope for author to display above the uniform title/title entry.  The staging server URL listed above takes you to this scope.

For those of you using Millennium, the display labels will not change.  

Once we have received your comments we will be sharing these proposed changes with our III shared member institutions.

WebOPAC labels do not automatically get updated in Encore.  We will need to let III know what changes to make once we have decided to change labels.

After the label change project is complete, the WebOPAC Committee will be addressing the current list of material types used when modifying a search.  While we are aware that the meaning the "AV Materials" is confusing to many, we will be evaluating all the material types.

We would like to implement these label/terminology changes before the fall semester.  Please post your comments, suggestions, etc. on this blog post by June 30. 

Microsoft has come out with a new search engine, replacing Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.  Instead of going for breadth, they are aiming for relevancy and calling their product a "decision engine".  You can check it out at http://www.bing.com.  If nothing else, they have come up with a great marketing campaign (and pretty much anything would be an improvement over Live Search). 


Bing Commercial - Search Overload - Vignettes

Content is one of the most important pieces to the web site, but there is a tendency to create it and forget it.  It is important to continuously review your content and make sure it is meeting your goals and your users needs.

Rajesh Setty blogs about the nine levels at which users connect to your online content and explains how these levels can provide insight into if your content is effective or not.  He pushes authors to, "Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way," and provides suggestions to consider before creating content.  What can you learn from your users to enhance the content you are providing, whether its via your blog or on a static web page?

In Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant? Ostrow looks at how some companies have shifted to favor social networking over the traditional web site.  Although there are drawbacks to social media (most of the time your users have to have accounts), marketers are finding value in using social networking to connect with customers.  Some have even dropped mention of the corporate web site on their business cards and replaced them with the URL for their Twitter accounts.  Ostrow goes on to review a current marketing campaign of Vitamin Water in Facebook and how it has been successful. 

With this trend more prevalent in the corporate world, how does it impact the expectations of Library users?  Do they see the benefits of a main libary site or would they rather be able to integrate the pieces of the site they use most into the social spaces that they already belong to?  Some Libraries have tried to connect to users in these spaces (see University of Texas Libraries), but  so far the trend is not nearly as widespread as is seen in the corporate world.