Knol: possible reference resource?

Came across this new Google product called Knol (http://knol.google.com/k#).

It's a Wikipedia-like product, except the articles are written by subject experts or groups of experts (contributors establish their credentials). It's limited in scope at present, but has real potential to grow into a good reference resource. Let the group know what you think.

Dana

option for the future?: lib website optimized for mobile devices?

Came across a web service, Google Mobilizer: http://www.google.com/gwt/n) that allows you to link to a mobile-optimized version of any web page

Here is one for our web page: http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.esc.edu%2Flibrary

Does it male sense to put a link to this somewhere on our home page? This version has the added option of being more usable to those using screen readers.

Dana

Marketing idea: intro letter to just accepted students

The idea is this: we work with admissions (or whatever office would have the appropriate information) to send a brief (printed) form letter to newly accepted/starting students. The letter would be a welcome from the librarians along with a very brief description of our most relevant services (like our virtual workshops and Ask a Librarian) with a couple links and our pledge to help them as best we can as they pursue their academic career at the college. Perhaps also include a library bookmark with the letter.

Ideally, the letter content would be very, very brief, but also personalized based on the AOS of the student, if that's possible.

This letter would have the double advantage of making the student feel welcome at the college and putting our services right in front of them as they start their academic work. As a recent Limnal Librarian post states (and was the inspiration for this idea): "Small gestures can create enormous goodwill."

Dana

Useful video resource for policy issues: UChannel

Description: A collection of 1000+ public affairs lectures, panels and events from academic institutions all over the world

It's especially useful because it only includes materials from academic institutions, each tagged and browsable via tag cloud.

UChannel

PMOG as Info Lit Tool?

PMOG (The Passively Multiplayer Online Game) as a tool for information literacy? It seems to have some good potential to merge gaming and info lit from what I can tell so far, but would be very interested in hearing others thoughts on this.

I've created a very basic proof-of-concept PMOG "mission" based around finding e-books on our site here (you need to have registered for PMOG and installed the Firefox plug-in to take part): http://pmog.com/missions/find_books_in_empire_state_college_library

We could potentially integrate such missions into the Info Lit study, Angel courses, and elsewhere.

There is a good article on this tool and it's potential in libraries here:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555546.htm.html

Dana

How Wikipedia stacked up against subscription databases

Article, with methodology and results, here:
http://www.teachinglibrarian.org/weblog/2008/05/how-wikipedia-stacked-up-against.html

Conclusion: Wikipedia and Gale Virtual Reference Library both do pretty well, Oxford Ref was in the middle and Encyclopedia Britannica fared the worst.

Useful Links

GOOGLE:
Firefox Extension:
http://www.customizegoogle.com/
(Let's you use Google Suggest (suggest words while you're typing), rewrite links to point straight to the images in Google Images and more)

Google Suggest:
http://www.google.com/webhp?q=&esrch=GoogleSuggestBeta
(suggest words while you're typing)

Google News Archive:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch
(shows timeline for relevant time periods)

TouchGraph Google Browser:
http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html
(yet another visual search tool)
==============================
Not the norm:
http://altsearchengines.com/

Exalead:
http://www.exalead.com/search
(Customizable search engine home page with images of shortcuts (favs, bookmarks))

Factbites:
http://www.factbites.com/
(not just search results, bullets of facts regarding search)

Keyword Mutation Detection:
http://adlab.msn.com/keymut/
(see how many ways you can find Britney Spears spelled (please don't!))

Loki:
http://loki.com/
(great for finding ATM's, coffee shops, etc. in a place you've never been)

NationMaster:
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
(compare countries on nearly any statistic you can think of)

Ian

Ideas for Librarian Course Dev Consultations Checklist

Please add other ideas to this list (there are a couple from our meeting that I couldn't remember) for a checklist for the course dev consultations:

• Link to a section of the Writer's Complex or other tutorial that discusses the assignment type and samples of that type of assignment (examples: Types of Papers and Sample Papers via File Cabinet)
  
• For starting research paper assignments, link to Developing a Research Question page.
• For business courses, look at Conference Board Business Knowledge Powerpoints and Webcasts as possible multimedia resources.
• For policy/social issue course/topics: look at CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints
• Construct an RSS feed to embed in course (e.g., can use Feedo to combine multiple feeds into one)
  
• Link to existing Subject Guide or suggest creating a new one (via LibGuides?) to embed into course
• IH: Embed search widget into appropriate place in course. For example, a discussion topic is brought up about a new term yet to be defined in course. Search widget could be placed in discussion and contain search box with:
  dictionary AND
  or
  encyclopedia AND
  already filled in for student. It could link to credo, for example.

Exalead and Custom Home Pages

Please take a look at:
http://www.exalead.com/search

This is a search engine with a customizable interface, where you can place shortcuts to other pages on the web in a visual format. What do we think of creating a custom library version for users? It may look more visually pleasing than just links. Can we place what we create on our library home page (as something other than a link)? Can we be so bold to change our home page to this other version or offer this as an alternative? Maybe we can call it Visual Library Home Page.

Signed (finally)
Ian

Subject Guide Feedback

I realize we have a feedback link on the home page. I'm not sure we are getting much feedback. This is probably mostly due to the format of our site (not set up for Web 2.0). I was wondering if we can have this feedback link in more places. For example, if we had a feedback link on each subject guide page, a patron may suggest a specific online resource they use and we can then vet it for inclusion in the guide. Please submit feedback.

Ian

Polls

I'd like to incorporate polls into the library home page. These polls can change once a week or once a month. Polls can ask multiple choice questions, like:

• which db do you use most often?
• which reference do you use most often?
• which tutorials have you used?
• what improvements would you like to see?
• what order to you search? (google 1st, library db 1st, etc.)

I'm not sure if there are policy or privacy issues but I think this is another good way to get a feel of who is visiting and get feedback. They can be incorporated by use of widget or some other mechanism that Notes can deal with. Please let me know what all of you think.

Ian

Library Blog Article

I'd like to post a new blog to our research blog re:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch

This is a great tool to use for news as it gives a visual timelime that can narrow a search. Try it and let me know what you think. I'll be sure to include a snag of the features.

Ian

idea: update and split Create Article Web Links page

The idea is this: we split the Creating an Article Web Link into 2 pages: one for students and one for faculty. That way we can dumb down the student one and make it more readible/scannable and we can then make the faculty one more geared to their needs of putting links into Angel.

Dana

Custom Google Search Engine for Library Web Site?

What does everyone think of the idea of using a custom Google search engine to just search the library site (and our associated learning resource and blog sites)?

I've set up such a search engine here (it took about 15 min) and if we want to use it for real, I can easily embed the search widget into the home page and or site nav bar, or, we can simply put a link on the home page to the search function:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=011520625995792447741%3Ajksksi-r1gy

This only searches our own library site, our blog, and the learning resources pages. And a great thing about it is that you can view stats on what people are searching on.

Let the group know what you think. Thanks,

Dana

more reasons for getting on Facebook?

This is pretty good blog article on why libraries should be considering getting onto Facebook-like social networks:
http://www.librarian.net/stax/2266/why-should-libraries-be-socially-networking/

Dana

useful tool for reference? Awesome Highlighter

Came across this online tool and thought it might be useful in certain reference situations, for example when we want to point a user to a specific part of a web page:
http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/

Example (took about 30 secs to do) highlighting EBSCO links on All Research Dbs page: http://awurl.com/vfluzk24107

Basically allows you to highlight text on a web page and then send someone a link to a page showing the highlighting so they can quickly navigate to the place you want them to...

What does everyone else think?

Dana

Ref questions about SmartThinking (writing tutor)

Folks,

It appears that the number of questions about writing tutor service is increasing (they also offer math and other tutor services). Note that the Tutor's Mailbox in the Writer's Complex is unavailable so please direct such questions to the SmartThinking page here - a button to sign up for the service (free to all ESC students, I think) is at the bottom of that page. Here is some text I have used:

You can find details (and a button to sign up for the service at the bottom) on this page:
http://www.esc.edu/esconline/myesc.nsf/html/Smarthinking.html

Thanks,

Dana

new free EBSCO database: GreenFILE

FYI: EBSCO has made a new, free database available: GreenFILE

GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 records.

This is on the EBSCOHost list of databases and I will add it to the EBSCO table on the All Dbs page.

It should also probably be added to the Physical Sciences Subject Guide?

URL to link: http://library.esc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=8gh

more for subject guides

Another valuable info source to add to subject guides?

SCOPUS now makes available RSS feeds for the top 20 cited articles by subject.

You can see these here: http://info.scopus.com/topcited/

I added a feed for the nursing subject to the Nursing LibGuides page here (Journal Article tab, below the fold in middle column): http://demo.libguides.com/aecontent.php?pid=5211&sid=32438

Dana

idea: library presence in Facebook?

This idea has been bumping around in my head for a while, but I think it might finally be time to seriously consider it: a library presence in Facebook.

There is a growing ESC network in Facebook (currently has 207 members, mostly students and alumni) that I think we might be able to tap into and help grow. Putting up and maintaining a presence would also be fairly easy.

Ideas off the top of my head:

• Create library Facebook site where students can obtain library news and ref service and get library resource widgets to place on their own profiles:
  
• Make available library widgets for Facebook (i.e., Multi-database, WorldCat, and Book catalog search, the library site, blog, etc.).
• Possibly offer IM ref service (e.g., via Meebo) via Facebook?
• Promote via library web site - this might help to promote library services and the ESC network at the same time and foster a better sense of community within student body
  
• Partner with Alumni office to promote informal academic and or professional/job search mentoring/advising between alumni and current student communities?
• could also eventually advertise library in facebook within the ESC network (I don't know details of this, but I believe it is possible and affordable). Example: http://distlib.blogs.com/distlib/2007/12/some-initial-th.html
  

Might this be worth looking into?

Dana

idea for subject guides: link to subject-specific titles in catalog

Idea: add a link on each subject guide to the most recent ebooks from our collection - the link would automatically do a subject search of the catalog and sort the results by date, showing the most recent first. It's not perfect, but I think it works pretty well.

Here is an example I did for behavioral sciences:
Current Titles from the E-Book Catalog

This would be especially helpful if/when we expand the subject guides to have ones for sub-disciplines such as nursing, computer science, etc.

Here's one I did for nursing:
Nursing E-Books

Let the group know what you think.

Dana

Interesting article: online v offline degree

http://tametheweb.com/2008/02/23/offline-or-online-whos-got-the-better-degree/

LibGuides

Here is a link to a draft, proof-of-concept, subject guide page built with the LibGuides software - check it out and let everyone know what you think, if you think this might be a viable platform to construct and house subject guides:

http://demo.libguides.com/content.php?pid=5211

You can what other colleges are doing with this here:
http://springshare.libguides.com/

Pros:

• allows easy integration of web 2.0 resources (RSS, widgets, IM, tag clouds, polls, etc.)
• can easily format content and divvy resources into tabs and create template for standardized look
  
• pages hosted by LibGuides
• easily share content/widgets between guides
• searchable
• allows user comments
• includes built in usage stats tool
  
• (I think) can brand top nav to mimic MyESC
  

Cons:

• some cost (minimal tho)
  
• limited customization of some look and feel aspects (colors, fonts)
  

Thanks,

Dana

idea: rename feedback link to "suggestion box"

A simple idea to hopefully generate more feedback than we've gotten (one so far): rename our link for feedback on the home page to "Online Suggestion Box" - I think it's more informal and people know what the concept is and it might draw some people in who might not want to provide "feedback".

Whatya think?

Dana

Something to keep in mind when using Google

Google customizes your search results to your search history, click history, web history, location, etc.

The only way to keep this from happening is to log out of Google and all its different utilities.

The effects are usually subtle, but they may come up if you are talking a user through a search. They may also affect your searches. If, for example, you have a longstanding pattern of ignoring a particular search result, it will start migrating further and further down your results list. Later on, when you finally need that result, it may not be where you remembered seeing it.

For an individual search, you can un-customize your results by typing &pws=0 at the end of the URL in the address bar that comes up when you get your search results.

Should we get History Resource Center?

I just investigated Gale's History Resource Center (US and World.) In short, "great interface; redundant content." If the price is right, it could be worth it for the intuitive, convenient person search and subject search.

INTERFACE:
This interface has a lot going for it. It fills a niche that
Person Search - :) :) :)
nationality
occupation
gender
full name or start of last name
birth and death dates (exact or before or after)
Subject Search - :) :)
search by keyword and browse the Topic Tree (subject headings in a hierarchical thesaurus, all hot-linked)
Advanced Search - :)
your standard Advanced Search set-up with 3 boxes and pull-down menus for boolean operators
time period
document type
publication date
Chronology
Not very useful except maybe as a browsing-to-get-ideas tool. Just a bare-bones chronology, with each entry hot-linked to a document
Previous Searches button :)
Revise search button easy to find :)
Search Tips and Help :) :) :)
Can switch easily between searching U.S., World (other than U.S.), and U.S. and World :)

SOURCES:
Full-text content, which is a big improvement over Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. :) :)
Journal articles, primary sources, and reference materials can be searched together or separately.
On the other hand, there is, for all intents and purposes, NO unique content. There are only 3 titles that we don't already have. 2 of them are intended for kids and the third is about Michigan.

Should we get Early English Books Online?

Quick investigation of EEBO, and in short:

I want, I want, I want... but

it's intended for research libraries catering to graduate-level research
11,500 titles are now searchable, but the rest won't be online for another 5-10 years

On the other hand:
Searchable full-text
Author/title/subject/date search. In advanced, also illustration/country of origin/language, etc.
Browse authors
includes periodicals
Scans of the original pages (from microfilm)
1473-1700 (some later)
pretty much the whole English-speaking world in that period (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, North America...)
"virtually every book" within that scope
Recommended titles categorized by subject (quite useful)
box to check for variant spellings while searching (to get around pesky archaic orthography)
Tract supplement is available (ballads, religious stuff, political stuff)
Great for history, English lit, philosophy, fine arts, and to some extent, linguistics, political science, history of science...

If we were one of the University Centers, I think it'd be practically obligatory, especially in 3-5 years when they have all but the last tidbits scanned in. But... we're not by any stretch a University Center.

These materials are in the public domain. While many of them are only available through that one outlet (because there are few copies left) the more popular items in the English canon are more widely available. For locating free versions of them online, I recommend using the Digital Book Index (http://www.digitalbookindex.com). The interface isn't great and the content ranges far and wide and includes pay-to-download e-books, but it should do the trick.

Animated Tutorials Sharing Project

ANTS (http://ants.wetpaint.com/) is an animated tutorial sharing project where librarians take on responsibilities for creating/maintaining one or more database tutorials and in exchange get access to the tutorials created by others, including the underlying code to so it can be modified for local needs.

There are some loose guidelines for creating these tutorials.

I think we should consider joining this - it would allow us, for doing something we are already doing, to gain access to a growing repository of useful tutorials designed specifically for distance learners, so that we wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for our own tutorials.

BTW - there is also a great repository of library instruction documents (mostly word docs) on the LINK Community Portal site here: http://www.eln.bc.ca/irl/

What does everyone else think about ANTS?

ProQuest Search Widget Tool and idea for Angel

ProQuest now has a search widget creator tool - so we could embed a PQ search box anywhere we want, and could even prepopulate the search with search terms and limit to scholarly journals. My guess is that EBSCO won't be far behind creating a similar widget.

My long-term strategy suggestion: we pitch the creation of a separate "library" tab on Angel, which would include by default various search widgets like this, Credo and Multi-Database, as well as the library RSS feed, new e-book additions feed, etc. We could then build on other subject-specific options if we felt there was a need for it.

I think putting direct access to library resources at the place where students are (in Angel) rather than always making them go out of Angel to go find the library is the path to take to improve our services and our visibility to students.

What does everyone think?

Dana

ALA/ACRL Info Lit Standards

With Middle States coming: you can view the ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Ed here:
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm

Dana

longer-term idea: integrate Angel, Wimba and Info Lit Study

The idea here is that we convert/update the Info Lit Study to Angel and then use the available Wimba-Angel integration to deliver live library instruction/workshops which could than also, if appropriate, utilize some of the Angel static content in the live sessions (and students could then also use the Angel course to go back later to reacquaint themselves with the content of the workshop). The Angel course could then be a portal for all students and faculty to access Info Skills/Info Lit info.

Dana

video: Augustana Info Lit Program

interesting video describing the info lit program. It has a small lib staff that offers discipline-specific, for-credit courses in info lit. Personally, I think we should be pushing for the college to go this sort of path (albeit w/ courses delivered online) - the discipline-specific to make the content more relevant and the credits to make the effort on the part of the students more appealing. Anyways, the video (30 min) explains the program from the perspective of the librarian, faculty, admin and student and could be a decent model (and tool to bring the decision makers over to our side) if we decided to undertake pushing for a similar kind of program here.

http://www.augustana.ca/facilities/library/infolit/video.html#Online

What does everyone think?