Notes from One Big Library Unconference. With Comments. Part Two.

Cataloguing/Semantic Web/Folsonomies [sic] etc.

openlibrary.org
-like a wiki-version of OCLC?
-will have more records than OCLC in 18-24 months
→who owns the metadata?

OCLC has more restrictions?

social tagging
vs.
controlled vocabulary

Controlled vocabs can be inadequate
Tagging can be helpful statistically
(e.g. in large numbers)

Why do we want to professionalize social tagging? Doesn't that miss the point?

cold rigid authorities
vs.
wild wooly tagging

→Does this constitute a threat or an opportunity for cataloguers?

COMMENTS
By far my favourite session. I've been interested in the idea of the semantic web ever since it was introduced to me. Admittedly that was just a few months ago, but still, the idea of so many interlocking parts, and of such a grand communal effort, is so satisfying. In my thinking, the One Big Library would be a part of the greater semantic web, and I would have liked some talk about where the borders would be drawn. I disliked some of the talk about social tagging. One of the session moderators was talking about what he saw as the importance of teaching people to tag so that others could find what they had tagged. I don't think librarians need to try to control and formalize tagging, which I see as wild and untamable. I would almost guarantee that if people are taught how to tag, they'll either stop using tags or tags will stop being effective for them. Tags do not belong to just us; they belong to everyone and we should leave them alone. (I mean, we should still use them ourselves, but you get my drift.) There is no need to confuse them with controlled vocabularies; social tagging is something new and different. Moderator and organizer Stacy was talking about it almost as though it was a resource for cataloguers to mine; I like this. The Zotero guy, Trevor Owens, mentioned that it would be useful to have the two "pools" -- traditional vocabularies and social tags -- to draw on, to improve library catalogues. I like this too. There was much talk about allowing users to tag records in OPACs, which I think is a fabulous idea.



One Big Library on One Little Device.

Mobile interfaces
-for OPACs, dbs, etc.?

Isolation of iPod
vs.
Connectivity of iTouch?

Issues of privacy + access

Texting call numbers!

Who uses what devices?
→user profiles
→what are they trying to do?

Splashtop.

COMMENTS
Apparently the Ryerson library catalogue has a feature whereby, after finding the book you want, you can text the call number to yourself. I think this is nothing short of brilliant; in all seriousness, I would use this all the time. This session made me realize that the reason I'm not more "up" on certain social technologies is that I want to leave the house sometimes, and all I have is a desktop. Who knows, if I were more mobile I might even Tweet. I like dichotomies and so am quite proud of the iPod/iTouch one I have up there.




Look into: aggregators w RSS

COMMENTS
I heard an unconferencegoer talk about how she was so behind on her aggregators. What is this? I asked myself. I got home and looked it up on Wikipedia and found that My Yahoo is one. I started using that three years ago.

Ha.

Notes from One Big Library Unconference. With Comments. Part One.

tag onebiglibrary (photos, blogging)

ZOTERO
Center for History and new Media chnm.gmu.ca
→one of their projects like Wordpress for museums?

-instead of having a "my backpack" (e.g.) thing specific to each provider (e.g. Proquest) -- have it in the browser.

(Zotero blog)

• it's kind of like del.icio.us with citation capabilities

-you can also search your comments (can you tag?) Amy says yes.

• Timeline feature is cool.

-drag & drop citations into a text document.

• So far, no web app.
• New syncing feature now available.
  

COMMENTS
I had never heard of Zotero before, and I seemed to be alone in that. It seems like a neat and fairly intuitive tool that's like a cross between del.icio.us (save stuff you find on the web, while you're on the web) and something like EndNote or Reference Manager (saves it in your chosen citation format). Cool if I'm doing research, but it's not something I'd play around with on my own time. I might download it just to check it out, though.




-EDUCATING FOR THE ONE BIG LIBRARY-
(apparently I am moderating?)


OBL -- set of trends
local → agglomeration
-bringing people into your system
-interaction of libraries with social web
-glue

• what is and isn't the library?
• access issues
• →users don't always distinguish.
  

COMMENTS
The Unconference organizers' cute trick was informing all recent graduates or current library school students that we would be moderating this session. Amy and Jan quickly opted out since a session on Drupal was happening at the same time, but I headed up there and moderated with two lovely women named Aliki and Marian, both from U of T. I'm glad it happened, in the end, as it obliged me to speak up in a session. I think it went well, and I don't think I made a fool of myself, except at the end of the day when I was asked to wrap things up. I get a free pass since this was my first conference, un- or otherwise.





EVERGREEN
John Fink

Laurentian
Windsor
McMaster

Declining importance of ILS
-one part of an enormous whole
-other info. sources

Open-source ILS
-price
*ownership. →it's yours.

Not necessarily supported. Some orgs. are rising now that do support for Evergreen. e.g. LibLine.
→parallels with Linux?

Evergreen was designed for public libraries.
Evergreen is not "feature-rich". Interest from aca. lbraries is changing this somewhat.

"Non-trivial install process"
-lots of options
-lots of dependencies
-you must instal certain things before installing Evergreen.

Issue: Portability of information.

Project Conifer
Goal: Have a central ILS + have data visible to all 3 uni's (L, McM, W) and be able to share
↓
The machines that support this are at Guelph.

conifer.mcmaster.ca

open-ils.org

COMMENTS
I was woefully unprepared for this session, since it assumed some background knowledge of Evergreen. John, the presenter, tried to do a short introduction to the idea but to be honest, I was struggling for the first little while since I didn't even know what an ILS was (it's an integrated library system, but I think I got the gist of it from context). I always like to hear about open-source technology; I'm not anything approaching a programmer, but I appreciate the ethos behind it.

the Library of Congress Strives for Accuracy in All Things

The correct LC subject heading for the homes of ministers of the church, when those homes have been provided by the church, is "Parsonages" and not "Rectories".

The correct LC subject heading for gardens attached to the homes of ministers of the church, when those homes have been provided by the church, is "Rectory gardens" and not "Parsonage gardens".

I think "Parsonage gardens" sounds like a very expensive, very tasteful, very exclusive housing development.

This is likely the reason for LC's inconsistency. Thank you, LC, for keeping your subject headings both accurate and evocative! Keep up the good work.