Today was Part II of the e-collection conference that inspired me to start this blog. It wasn’t much better. However, it did introduce me to the Internet Scout Project, which I had never heard of. But the Scout Report looks great for my link harvesting; why had I never heard of this before? It kind of illustrates my previous point about how can people be expected to know about (and use) all these mini e-content projects? Did I just define my Librarian role for the 2000s or, more realistically (everything’s on Google, y’know) how can libraries work with all these great projects which analyse the web for us?

Unsurprisingly, the answer was not found in today’s presentation. In fact there were only three bright spots; firstly, it seems that we are not the only library winging it. Secondly, the presenter gave a list of newsgroups/webibliographies that I will take, rip apart and blatantly exploit. Thirdly, el boss was taken by the database idea for internet resources, and has asked me to look into it. Hurrah! Wait till she hears about my Intute inspired plans for the database!

A while back I came across an interesting post at the Intute blog. Intute is a massive database from the UK (Happy St George’s Day for tomorrow everyone) full of catalogued and categorised web resources. It’s pretty neat; the web resources are excellent, the range of categories is very wide and the annotation is an added bonus. And now that I peruse the website a bit more it seems like that they also host web research tutorials. Very cool. But what is even cooler, from an e-content point of view is what they do with all these wonderful resources. Sure, you can do a basic search; ie all the web resources to do with energy. You get a bunch of results, most of the links seem to be updated and there’s usually a wide range of material there. However then, on top of that they use this massive database of links and draw from there to create subject guides, web research tutorials, rss feeds, you name it, they’ve done it! This is very awesomely 2.0.

I haven’t been able to see much documentation how they manage this (though I admit I haven’t looked very hard) but surely libraries could imitate something like this? Hmm, a brief search shows that maybe people have. Note to self; check out My Library. Theoretically speaking though, theorising on the fabness of Intute, materials would just be linked through the course management system (or webpage)- taking a class on history? History resources are dynamically linked through the course management system, almost like an link roll in del.icio.us, thus bringing the material to the patron.

Very, very funky.

My library has recently started talking about implementing new subject guides pages. Stop, Stop! Don’t they realise that I’ve only just started this blog?! I had envisaged that with usual library dalliance I would at least have time to get my thoughts on the matter clear here before weighing in with balanced arguments. Looks like I’m going to be busy for the next few days reading up on all those articles that I had meant to read ages ago…

In fact, I’ve been trying to read round 2 e-content problems that we are experiencing, and that I decided to try and resolve (because they’re quite cool!)

• We run an SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information Service) where basically I have subscribed to as many RSS feeds that I can find and every time I see something useful I send it to the patrons who have registered their profiles in the Outlook distribution lists. Complicated, yes. Efficient, no. I’ve been trying to work my way round this to make it far far more automatic, as although we have received some good comments, we have a long way to go. It’s kind of web 0.5 with a jus de 2.0. It hasn’t won a Michelin star yet.
• We have a bunch of internet resources and a bunch of subject guides that I update on dreamweaver. They are in three languages and are very unwieldy. They need to be updated. The Head of Reference is obsessed by blogs. I’m not so sure they’re the best idea. I just found out that the Head of the Library scheduled a meeting tomorrow about subject guides with one of the area groups of the place of work of joy. Ekk. I just invited myself to that meeting…

So these are my e-content problems that I am trying to resolve. As my time seems to be a little less limited the blog may not quite be so orderly as I hoped now as I try and jot down random scribblings in an attempt to clear my mind. But hopefully this won’t matter overly…

Enough preamble- this blog really is about e-content after all, not Phil McGlass the barman and Carmen Stay, the hotel keeper…

There are just SO much fascinating angles that I could try and explore- so here is my storm de brain:

Presentation, Collection, Syndication, Copyright, Open Access, Interoperability, Development, Storage, Cataloguing, Maintenance, 2.0 world, Search,

to name but a few. It’s kind of baffling really- there are so many areas to cover and despite e collections being around for well, at least 1/3rd of my life, sometimes it seems that we’re not much further on. I mean we can’t even decide on a name- e-content, econtent, virtual content, digital content. It’s a hard paradox- in a way, the material looks like material libraries are used to (type, purpose, access etc) but on so many levels it’s not in the slightest bit similar. I think almost by trying to adapt existing rules to fit the new materials, we’re digging ourselves into a hole/tying ourselves into knots/insert cliché of choice when maybe we should let go and start again, harnessing the many wonderful, new aspects of e-collections (full text search, I love you.) But at the same time no-one else is going to do the work libraries do, so where do we draw the line between old and new? What would Dewey do?

Possible solutions include: Dublin Core, 2.0, mirror servers, digitization, XML, RSS, Wikis/Blogs/Social tagging, tetrabytes, digital libraries, custom search, whatever- but I’m not sure how far on we are. They seem to be more the sticking plaster holding the wound together rather than the plaster of Paris. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe these ideas are the gypsum and the calcium sulfate and over time, we find we’ve laid the framework for the Sistine Chapel frescoes… I don’t know- I think these metaphors are kind of overdone for a start, and I know I need to read more about the topic, but this is a start anyway. Hopefully by spelling this out it will help me clarify things and identify which areas I need to study more. (I’m having a 2-1 guess that it’ll be cataloguing. The thought does not fill me with excitement…)

But, I have to say that it is exciting. E-content rocks and don’t you forget it…

So, April 2008 is hardly the cutting edge of library blog frenzy… In fact the world, wife and dog started and got bored of blogging before I had even thought about signing up for my wordpress account. It was just one of those things that I never felt any urgency to start although I really enjoyed reading other blogs and am, in fact, the self professed Queen of RSS and my best friend is Señor Bloglines. (though our relationship has cooled slightly. More later.) The urge to write just didn’t hit me till I sat in that conference room and realised that no, no-one there had much more of an idea about e-collections than I did. Not that I have much more of an idea.

However, in my current job, in a small special library of 8 or so, by virtue of my relative youth and recent education experiences, (as well as obvious interest), I started gaining more and more of a carte blanche to “electronically” modernise the very tired and late 90s workplace. In my previous job as part of a HUGE library, work was much more strictly delineated into departments (reference does not mix with the web team etc.) However, in the communal atmosphere of the special library I realised that I would have a lot of flexibility to introduce new ideas- and so my blog reading really started to ramp up as I began to become more interested in how I could contribute to the mini library revolution… As I read more and more of the minor techy blogs and started to see what other people were up to, I realised that the blog was probably an ideal way to record the progress of musings, experimentations and thoughts about a subject, to throw a different perspective on the issue and finally, to become part of the community of like minded people. Everyone in my place of work (apart from the Systems Librarian) grew up with card indexes… I have never even opened a drawer of a card index except when I interned at the Library of Congress, and even then I shut it quickly, and hoped that the tour librarian wouldn’t see me pull a face. Yes, I understand the great part that it played in the History of the Library, blah, blah, but this is a practical blog, remember So, yes, when I started reading all these inspirational library blogs, I realised that yes, there is a new library generation, and hey, I like! The jury is still out on whether I will ever contribute anything useful to the new generation- but maybe if I ever stop talking about myself, I will have a better shot.

Upward and Onward!

I suddenly came up with the idea for the blog after sitting through yet another seminar full of questions about the future of e-collections and very few answers. Why is it that Librarians are very good at asking questions and not so good with practical, meaty answers? Is it because we help people start their research and do very little of our own? Whatever the reason, I want to explore practical answers. Cogitating and ruminating is all very well, but “ya basta”, “sí se puede” and all that!

I am also kind of inspired by Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers. So, yes, M&S is hardly up there with the Nobel Prize or Gore Vidal’s Greek Cultural Association Cultural Prize, but, it’s kind of cool to see people addressing everyday issues with practical ideas, instead of questions. Don’t get me wrong, questions are important, BUT, I don’t always have the patience to sit back and listen to yet more soul searching…

I’d like to use this a a place to explore practical problems with e-content that I encounter in my everyday job- and possible answers too. Although I don’t have a background in computer science, I enjoy playing with new or not so new applications. (hurrah 2.0, your major contribution so far) Even though I don’t see the point of applying 2.0 for the sake of it, I’m not quite a “don’t fix it till it’s broke” person and I think it’s very cool to play with new applications and try to approach problems from different directions if only to throw a different point of view on things.

Onward and Upward!