Web based tools for libraries – getting something for nothing

Kerry Webb

ALIAkwebb@alianet.alia.org.au

Along with information on everything under the sun, you can also find plenty of tools and sites on the Web for professional librarians – so many in fact that some managers may question the need for libraries and librarians. Many of these tools can help you do your job better, but despite the hype there is always a cost.

What it’s about …

What you need to do your job now and in the future

Before we get started

I’ve never worked as a librarian I do have my Dip. Lib. though but I have a fair idea of what librarians do, and

therefore what they need Now, if you were expecting screens and

screens of URLs of useful sites, you’ll be disappointed …

Before we get started contd

I’d rather talk in more general terms about the topic But there will be some URLs – I promise

The other thing to note is the old old question: what is a librarian? We do a lot of different things “Traditional Librarianship”, Web publishing …

Before we get started contd

It’s also instructive to think about what the Internet is good at Finding stuff (but can we trust it?) Doing stuff (maybe buying and selling books and

journals) Talking to all sorts of people (communication is

good, but …)

Tools – Finding Stuff

First, some background There are people who know how to get stuff

Story from Wombats

But there are lot of people who don’t Some of the stories from LibraryThing

Result – there’s an ongoing demand for “reference help”

Tools – Finding Stuff contd

Google (as used by experts) How many people (mis)use it Google add-ons – Books, Scholar etc News and Blogs particularly useful

The OCLC kerfuffle

Don’t ignore the other search engines (for completeness)

Tools – Finding Stuff contd

Also, read beyond the first few pages Metasearch engines

Not as popular as they once were Don’t forget – you aren’t typical users

Tools – Finding Stuff contd

And then there are new developments Reference Extract

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081111-using-crowdsourced-librarians-to-out-google-google.html

DeepDyvehttp://www.deepdyve.com/

Carrothttp://demo.carrot2.org/

Tools – Doing Stuff

LibraryThing Flash Mob Cataloguing Parties

http://www.librarything.com/blog/2008/10/flash-mob-cataloging-party.php

Want to buy some books? Addall (http://www.addall.com),

AbeBooks (http://abebooks.com)

Tools - Talking to People

Librarians have been good at this since the start PACS-L (http://epress.lib.uh.edu/pacsl/pacsl.html)

Web4Lib (http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/)

Stumpers-L (http://project-wombat.org/)The things (and resources) that you can learn from these!

Tools - Talking to People contd

And of course, LINK (http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link)Not showing much of its Library background, and the personalities can be exasperating …

Tools - Listening to People

Depending on your area of interest Cheryl Hardy’s eGov Victoria

http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/ Mostly reporting on the use of the Net for Government, but a lot of general stuff on new resources and Web development

Laura Carlson for Web development

http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html The best list of resources for all aspects of Web development

Tools - Listening to People contd

Craig Thomler’s eGovernment bloghttp://egovau.blogspot.com/

Regular editorial posts on EGovernment issues – and a good number of responses

David Goldstein’s auDA Domain Name Newshttp://www.auda.org.au/domain-news/ Factual abstract of news items – no editorialising

Tools - Learning

A taste of Web 2.0http://www.yprlconnect.blogspot.com/

The Informed Librarian

http://www.informedlibrarian.com/

At last, the promised URLs

LibrarySpot’s Librarian’s Shelfhttp://www.libraryspot.com/libshelf/

Lynette Reville’s New Librarians Resource Pagehttp://www.alia.org.au/~lreville/nlrp/

Bruce’s Links for Librarianshttp://www.e-book.com.au/misc.htm

At last, the promised URLs contd

Yarra Plenty’s Web 2.0 Resourceshttp://yprl.wordpress.com/

But what is the cost?

Remember what the introduction said? Mostly, it’s trust Trust that the information is reliable

Wikipedia, as it was

Trust that the host won’t misuse your information Google and searches, and cloud computing

But what is the cost contd

Trust that you won’t be defrauded Trust that the system will be around next week

The Google Page Creator experience In the end, it’s all about them

All of these require risk mitigation strategies (hurrah for buzzwords!)

Finally, my advice

Dive in – you won’t break the Internet or if you do, you’ll be quite famous