Blogging Section of SLA-IT

URL Shortening Services

Those of you who use micro-blogging services such as Twitter are probably already familiar with TinyURL, a separate service whose purpose is to take lengthy URLs and shorten them.  I've used TinyURL for several years now in a number of ways and have found it to be an invaluable tool.  I suspect it is the most widely used service of its kind.

One of the ways I make use of TinyURL is that I use a Firefox plugin for TinyURL that will automatically shorten the URL of a page I'm currently on, or a link that my mouse is currently pointing to, with a right-click of my mouse.  This comes in very handy when I want to share links via email.  The shortened URL provided by services like TinyURL helps protect the integrity of the link so that when email recipients click on the URL (assuming they use an email client that supports auto-hypertext linking, which most people do nowadays), it will function properly.

This capability is useful in any number of other ways.  One recent example I encountered is when I was working with a Word document in which I needed to embed hundreds of very lengthy URLs.  I quickly discovered that there appears to be a field length limit for adding hypertext links in the version of Word I have available.  This meant that most of the URLs I used were getting truncated, rendering them useless.  After casting around for solutions to the problem, and finding no easy way to change or expand the field character limit in Word itself, I decided to use a URL shortening service.  TinyURL was my old standby, but I quickly found out that it has its limitations.  I decided to see what other, similar services are out there.  I stumbled across a useful comparison chart of several of these services here.  (And there are more even that what is listed on that site.)

I decided to give SnipURL a try.  I was glad I did.  This service has many more useful features than TinyURL.  I am able to manage multiple SnipURLs in a much more efficient and easy way, including the capability to export all URLs into Excel on-the-fly.  I can readily track statistics for how often each URL is clicked on.  I can search among all of the URLs I've used in a variety of ways, plus I can get a number of different RSS feeds relating to them to help track, for instance, what are my popular snips.  The entire service is free.

One major concern I have about SnipURL, TinyURL, and other such services relates to their stability and longevity.  Many of these services guarantee that shortened URLs will last forever, but that's a tenuous claim at best for any commercially available service.  A few days ago there was an interesting article in Slashdot that asked much the same question but took it even further.  Basically the author pointed out the increasing popularity of such services and asked whether they might someday create a single point of weakness if or when they crash or go out of business altogether.  Food for thought.

Croquet

I've been using Second Life for more than a year and am now getting very curious about other virtual worlds.   Here is information on Croquet, which seems like a cool world!  The video is definitely worth watching.

Croquet is a powerful new open source software development environment for creating and deploying deeply collaborative multi-user online applications and metaverses on and across multiple operating systems and devices. Derived from Squeak, it features a peer-based network architecture that supports communication, collaboration, resource sharing, and synchronous computation between multiple users on multiple devices.

Conversation with Stephen Abram

This is a quick 4 minute video of Stephen talking about how he became attracted to librarianship, about his use of mentors, and how librarians make a difference in people's lives.

Book: Law of the Blog

Law of the Blog is a 72-page guide in PDF format.  Looking at the table of contents, I can see topics that would be useful to read about and discuss (maybe at the bloggers get together at SLA in Seattle?).  Topics include:

• The First Amendment and the Differences Between a Blogger and Media
• Writing, Editing, and Accountability
• Copyright
• Defamation
• Threats From Businesses
• Threats From Government (and Religious Groups)
• Threats From Cults and Non-Profits
• Threats From Individuals

The author, Nicholas Carroll, is not a lawyer, but has done extensive writing and had several lawyers review this book before it was published.  Clearly he addresses issues that many bloggers do not consider. 

Why should we care about the topics covered in this book?  Dick Kaser in his review of this book provides us with the reason:

...as a blogger, you shoulder the full burden for fact-checking and sanity-checking when you speak your own mind in a published piece without the benefit of reviewers. (Information Today, v. 24, n. 10, p. 14)

Wouldn't it be good to know what problems we could encounter if we are not diligent in our work?

Virtual versus physical meetings

I recently attended Internet Librarian and KMWorld & Intranets for the first time, and over on the public/academic side there's been a lot of discussion about the value of physical meetings versus virtual interactions in conferences as well as in library associations.

I've got mixed feelings on the matter: yes, of course we need to realize that work can happen without face-to-face interaction (heck, three of us organized an entire unconference that way), yes of course learning should be something that is ongoing, not limited to reacting to a PowerPoint presentation on a one-time basis. On the other hand, frankly I see a lot more diversity offline than online in the library world, and serendipity has played a larger role for me offline rather than online in terms of useful conversations and meeting people.

How do we embrace the best of both worlds?

Learning how to use LinkedIn

I've written about this book before (The LinkedIn Personal Trainer), but wanted to say that I attended a free telephone seminar about it last night.  A version for replay will be made available on this site and this one.  A few things stood out to me during the hour-long session:

• Like every other social networking tool, one has to use LinkedIn in order to derive benefit from it. Using means checking LinkedIn weekly or several times a week, making new connections, following-up on old ones, updating your information, etc.
• You need to fully develop your profile with lots of information on what you do and what you have done.  This will help people find you and understand your qualifications before talking with you.  Getting your profile fully developed can take a couple of hours, but you do not have to do it all at once.  You may be able to use text from your resume, although eventually you may want the information to sound less resume-like.
• Be sure to make meaningful connections with people.  Don't just accept anyone as a connection, since you may be called upon to introduce them to someone or make a recommendation.  If it is weak connection that you want to keep, take time to make it a stronger connection.  By the way, you can delete someone as a connection and they won't know it.
• Ask for and give recommendations.  Okay...you may feel funny asking for recommendations, but surely you can give some.  Look at your connections and give recommendations to those people whose work you value.  You don't have to do the recommendations all at once, but try to remember to give them when you have time.
• Proof your profile.  If you're like me, typos will creep in, so proof, proof, proof.  And consider having a friend on LinkedIn proof your profile for you or even give you advice on what you could include that you haven't included already.

I have to admit, as I was listening to the teleseminar (over Skype and on my headphones), I was editing my profile and putting their suggestions into practice.  Just a few changes made a big difference in how my profile looks and how I think it will be perceived.

Facebook Pages are Here

In Fall 2006 on this very blog I bemoaned the fact that Facebook began shutting down library profiles.  On Wednesday, Facebook launched Facebook Pages--basically an advertising mechanism that allows organizations, companies, and other entities the ability to create an official presence on Facebook.  Nicole and I both immediately saw the opportunity this might create for libraries.  Delightfully, Facebook seems to recognize the desire of some librarians to use Facebook as one of the Page categories is "Library/Public Building."  How cool.

I created a Facebook group to further discuss the phenomenon and to share Facebook Page urls (you need a Facebook account to view this).  Over 40 libraries have created a presence since Thursday morning.  This is exciting stuff.

Fab Freebies for Productivity

Last night at a meeting of the Princeton Trenton Chapter of SLA, Janie Hermann and Robert Keith (both of the Princeton Public Library) gave a presentations on "Fab Freebies for Productivity."  Make sure you check out the slides available to all via SlideShare.

Amazing idea - Sharing IT Staff

I just have to repeat this post by Joseph Lucia at Villanova on the ngc4lib mailing list:

If we look beyond money to personnel, the option looks even better.  Let me suggest some numbers.  What if, in the U.S., 50 ARL libraries, 20 large public libraries, 20 medium-sized academic libraries, and 20 Oberlin group libraries anted up one full-time technology position for collaborative open source development. That's 110 developers working on library applications with robust, quickly-implemented current Web technology -- not legacy stuff.  There is not a company in the industry that I know of which has put that much technical effort into product development. With such a cohort of developers working in libraries on library technology needs -- and in light of the creativity and thoughtfulness evident on forums like this one -- I think we would quickly see radical change in the library technology arena. Instead of being technology followers, I venture to say that libraries might once again become leaders.  Let's add to the pool some talent from beyond the U.S. -- say ! 20 libraries in Canada, 10 in Australia, and 10 in the U.K. put staff into the pool.  We've now  got 150 developers in this little start-up.  Then we begin pouring our current software support funds into regional collaboratives.  Within a year or two, we could be re-directing 10s of millions of dollars into regional technology development partnerships sponsored by and housed within the regional consortia, supporting and extending the work of libraries.  The potential for innovation and rapid deployment of new tools boggles the mind.  The resources at our disposal in this scenario dwarf what any software vendor in our small application space is ever going to support. And, as is implicit in all I've said, the NGC is just the tip of the iceberg.

While this is does not mention Special Libraries - I think it should!  Special Libraries are more likely to have library-devoted IT staff than an academic library is (at least in my experience).  Also - if you don't include special librarians in the mix, then special libraries are stuck continuing to use the prepackaged products developed by those who don't understand how "special" we really are.

The Big Juicy Twitter Guide

Caroline Middlebrook has created a guide to Twitter including information on how to use Twitter for business.  Twitter is hard to describe and best understood by using (with your friends/colleagues, of course), however, she does a great job of getting you to see Twitter as a legitimate business tool.

By the way, If you'd like to see what I'm twittering (and what my friends are saying), go here. It'll give you a peek into what we really do on Twitter!

And if you're using Jaiku, but want to follow your friends who are on Twitter, remember that Steven Kaye   wrote directions on how to do that.  (BTW Jaiku has been purchased by Google.)

Social networking tools at a conference

I think one of the best ways to demonstrate the power of Internet-based social networking tools is at a conference.  For example:

• Use a wiki to collaborate on information everyone needs to know about the event (all of the "unofficial stuff").
• Use blogs to disseminate notes about sessions and other events. For the blogger, writing about a session can help the person remember what she heard and retain more of the information.  Having it in a blog makes it easier to retrieve.  (And if your handwriting is like mine, the blog post is much easier to read!)  For others, the blog posts may contain information about sessions that could not be attended.
• Short messaging services (e.g., Twitter via an Internet enabled device) allow people to keep in contact with each other.  This allows for people to coordinate activities, know what's hot (and what's not), and share tidbits in real time.
• Photo-sharing services allow for people to communicate in pictures rather than words.  And as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words!  At Internet Librarian, one person took photos of presentations, rather than blogging.  Photos also provide visual documentation that we all can relate to.

Thinking of Internet Librarian, I have two fun stories that will help to illustrate. First...I used Twitter during the conference, although not all the time.  On Sunday afternoon, I twittered that I was at Cafe Noir drinking coffee and using their wifi.  Later that day, someone said she had seen that I was at Cafe Noir and wished she could have been there too.  But I knew where she had been (via Twitter) and countered, "but you were listening to...!"  Okay...that seems frivolous, but we were able to quickly strike up a conversation because we knew what we had both been doing.  Instant rapport.

Second...on Wednesday evening, the flight from Monterey to San Francisco got canceled due to fog.  Although a group of us were able to rent a car and make our connecting flights in San Francisco, one person remarked that he would have "changed his status in Facebook" if we got stranded at the Monterey Airport and waited for someone to come to our rescue.  Go ahead...laugh...however, it would have worked.  And placing something on Twitter would have also ensured all of us warm places to sleep for the night.  Of course, these tools don't work unless someone is "reading" and we knew that people were.

You want a more serious example? There are 197 blog posts indexed in Technorati that relate the conference.  Want to know the good, the bad and the ugly of the conference?  The blog posts will tell you!  There are also more than 2,000 photos in Flickr tagged with "IL2007".  What to see what it all looked like?  The photos tell all.

If you're not using a lot of social networking tools now, consider them for your next conference.  Who knows, you may know more, do more, and be connected more.