Web Site Post

A short post. Class is over and you all may read it at http://domin.dom.edu/students/shefamy/LIS753/homepage.html .

Have a Happy Holiday !!

POST #5 PHOTO BLOGS

About 10 years ago, I became interested in art classes. Thinking that I had neither the time or the talent for drawing or painting, I took a photography class. I enjoyed walking around the city with my camera captuing images. I then took them to the darkroom for development and (later) to share with family and fellow students. I used a SLR camera and black and white film.

Then came digital photography and I RESENTED IT. I had no love for this new way of photography and I thought it was a degredation of my beloved art form. Photography was film. Black and white film was the purest of the art form. Life as i knew it was ending. What was next ... the end of days?? Stagnation in terms of my own work set in.

Fast forward to Amy 2.0 . In my new reincarnation as a MLIS student, I am looking at photography differently. Not only can digital cameras take photos but those photos can be shared quickly and to many more people. I have an outlet for my artwork at http://www.flickr.com . I have renewed interest in photography.

What does this have to do with libraries? Well, I can tell you what it has to do with information sharing and communities - which is what the library's all about. On fliker a group of like- minded folks can post pictures and can tag them so that they are available to others who may be interested. You can share your art, your experiences, and so forth. This is better than laboring in a darkroom. It is the polar opposite.

POST #4 Thoughts Related to Wired Mag Article

While at work, I take the opportunity to talk with people (mainly younger patients or visitors) about technology. I spoke to a patient who was entertaining herself by watching DVDs while recuperating. She was happy to tell me about her experiences with her laptop such as battery life, mouse use, portability and theft deterrence . One of the interesting things she told me was that she did not pay for internet access..ever. She simply made use of other people's wireless nodes... and not always the free access at coffee shops.

I thought no more about it until the following day, when I started to read my first issue of Wired magazine dated November, 2006. On page 60, there is a column called "Mr. know-it-all". Readers submit questions to the columnist, Clive Thompson. A reader asks about the legality of tapping into WI-FI nodes as he travels. It seems the law is not too specific in its language related to this topic, says a computer privacy lawyer consulted by the article's author. It seems to be a question of what the intent of the perpetrator is. Or, whether the computer software itself is to blame because it is programmed to pick up upon the strongest signal. Even when people are charged with this violation,' "none have made it to trial" ' . The author considers it an ethical issue. Should you do it even if you can get away with it? And if it is done what are the limits of bandwith sharing?
Certainly, he argues, you should never use another's signal to do anything illegal such as violate copyright.

So, what does this have to do with libraries? Well, the thing that comes to mind is that sharing information should not be limited to those with the wherewithall to afford access. My first thought about this young lady was that she was probably not in the habit of stealing, and would be insulted by the accusation. She probably viewed it like a person reading a magazine in doctor's office waiting room. It is there, so why not use it? Or like a person reading a book or magazine in a library. Several United States cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, are exploring making WI-FI available to the entire city. I think that would be a wonderful and forward thinking accomplishment to provide "ambient findability" (to borrow from Peter Morville) to everyone.

POST #3 Amy in Grayslake

I was thinking during class about how much this class experience has enriched me as a person, and as a future librarian. These experiences are under the general heading of collaborative, community relationships.

As a class, I think that we feel relatively comfortable voicing our opinions. I felt safe expressing my misgivings about putting content on the Web. Others felt the same way, so we discussed those concerns. I started to mentally explore ways in which I could express myself on the Web without divulging too much personal information. I haven't talked with other group project members, but Nick, Lyndy and I are able to both divide the labor and work to create a final project that will be good. We make use of our individual talents to reach that goal and we share those talents. Our instructor makes sure we are comfortable with the room, the computer hardware and software, and the course content. He acts as the facilitator of the learning process.
If the majority of librarians (>60%) are this easy to work with, I can look forward to a rewarding career experience.

So what does all this have to do with libraries? What am I saying about my enriching experience that I can take with me to my future library employer? I can help to create a supportive and collaborative environment among my fellow librarians. I can share information, suggest ideas for adding services without making it an onerous burden. Heck, it can be a learning experience for us all!

Users will benefit from working with librarians who are both aware of and able to navigate the new technology. We can bring information to them that is reliable and extends outside the bounds of the physical library. Librarians can collaborate with the community in a fuller, richer sense. They will be ever more valuable as a result of their "value added" services. People will say,"I didn't know librarians knew this or could do that!"

Oh, what a happy day that will be!!!

POST#2 Amy Babbles

I am an 80 year old librarian. It is the year 2045. I love to go to work because that is the way I meet people of all ages, especially the young. They have a new and vibrant energy which is transformed into ideas and visions. They are the today and tomorrow. Their energy energizes me. I creates forward thinking at a time when it might be easy for someone my age to get bogged down in a past that cannot now be modified or erased. The future is in the process of creation right now. It is like the expanding universe. It is in the dark matter that the expansion is taking place.
I am here to take care of the information needs of my clientele. They are the sunhttp://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/06/the_user_is_not_broken_a_meme.php , and I love revolving around them. RSS feeds have replaced bibliographies. It is quick and easy to customize lists for patrons of all sorts of resources regardless of media. Yes, we sometimes include a printed book as well, but Internet or stored files of all types are equally available and provided to the user. We avoid the appearance of "source discrimination" based upon type of media. My user can be here at the physical library or at her mobile device at any other location. It doesn't matter.
We also discourage using language the user does not understand. While we are responsible for authority of the data (or metedata), we keep our controlled vocabulary to ourselves. In fact, we have incorporated the language of the user in describing works when they would clearly help the user access data. I think they were called tags. This helps both our affluent, educated user as well as those from less fortunate circumstances. For these and other reasons, libraries are enjoying a great revival in popularity.
Oh yes, soft music is piped into the stacks for a more relaxed atmosphere. Patrons can purchase beverages here and drink them anywhere as long as it is covered. I think people feel comfortable with the library whether here or at a remote location.

POST #1

I was looking for information on the history of the Internet. I first went to Wikipedia for some general encyclopedic information. I ran across a term that I had seen before but didn't really understand. That term was Packet Switching. Three names were associated with this term: Paul Baran, Donald Davies and Leonard Kleinrock. Packet switching is the way information is broken apart and transported on the Internet. It is then reassembled (packet by packet) at the receiving terminal.

Paul Baran, a Polish immigrant and engineer working for the non-profit Rand Corporation in the 1960's developed packet switching to keep communication from being blocked or discovered if there was a nuclear calamity. He called this method distributed communications or "hot potato routing" http://www.rand.org/about/history/baran.html .

While Paul Baran labored at the Rand Corporation, Donald Davies was developing much the same work at The National Physical Laboratory in Great Britian. The Laboratory website gives Davies credit for putting this theory into practical use http://www.npl.co.uk/about/famous_names/donald_davies.html .

Leonard Kleinrock, a current member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences is credited with the development of the ARPANET which was a precursor to the Internet. http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/think/ARPANET/ARPA_People/Kleinrock.htm . Much of his early work was done while in graduate school at MIT in the early 1960's.

It is hard to tell who deserves credit for what at this point in my research. All three men, working separately, developed similar theories at about the same time independent of one another. What is important is that packet switching is partially responsible for the rapid and usually successful downloading of Web pages.

How about those Millennials ?

In class, we read an article from Library Journal about the social and learning styles of people born between 1982 and 2002. The article was callled Born with the Chip

There are "nine aspects of their behavior that differentiate them from previous generations" says the authors Abram and Luther. I recommend anyone working with this population in libraries or education read this article.

Welcome to My Blog !!

Hi Everyone. This is my first entry on this blog. I am doing this as part of my Library class LIS753 at Dominican University. I am expecting an interesting experience. I would be glad to hear responses from you to my posts.