Bionics and Nanotechnology for HSC
I know that these are topics that come up each year for the HSC students. Sometimes you get a keen student that wants more than just what the excel guides can give them.Nova Science in the News have just posted this new topic.
"The Australian Academy of Science’s new Nova: Science in the news topic, ‘Rebuilding humans using bionics’.
Scientists are striving to develop better controlled, lighter, smaller, more life-like and affordable bionic options. Some of the body parts being developed include bionic limbs that move via electrical signals from the body’s muscles, bionic eyes, brain implants and bionic spines."
Nova Science in the News is a great place to locate serious research at the interested laypersons level on topics bundled into the following areas of research. Biology, environment, health, mathematics, physical sciences and technology.
Ref Rap: State Library Futures Forum Part One
You’ve probably already seen my blog post about the Futures forum scenario cards at the State Library. Here is a backup post to explain exactly what the Futures Forum was all about and what I found out on the day. Part 1 will cover the Bookends Scenario Report. Part 2 will look at other interesting speakers.The Futures Forum was based on the Bookends Scenario Report. This report presented four different scenarios for the future leading up to 2030. These scenarios present opposite extremes and raised questions of how Libraries would respond to these scenarios in the future. The four scenarios included:
Silent Spring: this is a world where climate change is worse than expected. People withdraw from digital technology and globalisation and instead focus on local issues. Despite this, costs are still rising and much of the withdrawal from technology is due to these costs. Mobile phone use declines as studies show that it is linked to Cancer. Mobile phones soon become the new cigarettes. More people look for jobs that are close to home and take a greater interest in sustainable living. The use of Libraries steadily increases in this world as print books increase (Wikipedia is brought out in print) and the Library is promoted as a community space.
How Buildings Learn: This is a world where the use of digital information and technology has increased and Libraries are more like social hubs and collaborative community spaces. There is a greater need for technological innovation as e-government services go online. Despite this, there is still a need for physical spaces and objects. With so much information being conveyed digitally there is some uncertainty as to what is correct and so there is still a strong call for physical books. Funding is still a major problem in this scenario and the Library Act is amended to allow Libraries to charge for certain services.
Neuromancer: This is a world gone mad. Prices are rising and there is a huge demand for digital technology and the Internet. As a result, there are a lot of problems with Internet connections. More people begin to come to the Library to access more reliable connections and to find a space where they can escape the world gone mad. Information is often created and owned by large corporations and it comes at a price. As a result, many come to the Library as a source of business information. This attracts business funding but, as in all the scenarios, Libraries are still under-funded.
Fahrenheit 451: This is a world that takes digital to a whole new level. Everything is in digital/online format and printed books are a rarity. The biggest problem for Libraries in this world is to try to get people to use them. They try to become more like community spaces and offer digital services but these steps only have a small impact. The other major issue effecting society is a skills shortage. This has resulted in outsourcing, automation or increased immigration for skills. These in turn result in demonstrations and violence (sometimes in the Library).
Many of these scenarios sound far fetched and they are not designed to be a complete prediction of what will happen. The reality will more than likely be a hybrid of these scenarios. What Libraries need to do is prepare for these possible events.
Now over to you. What do you think of these scenarios? Where can you see yourself in these worlds (I see myself riding and crashing a hovercraft) and how do you think Libraries can survive? Furthermore, is there anything we can be doing now to survive in the future?
Karen B.
Sutherland Shire Community Atlas
This is a new resource that you can access from the Council website. Follow the links to:About your shire > Shire statistics > Community Profile Map
The Community Atlas includes key socio-demographic characteristics for Sutherland Shire presented as interactive maps.
The atlas is useful for patron enquiries and also for staff planning services for specific groups or in specific areas of the Shire.
It is fairly intuitive but if you would like a demonstration please ask myself or Kris O.-Julie
E-Books from Gale - Free Trial to June 6th
Gale is providing more and more titles in an e-book format. Here are 3 they are allowing people to use free until June 6th, to trial how it works. Access them through the Resource Shelf site.Did you know we already have 3 such e-titles Biology, Animal Sciences and Encyclopedia of Food & Culture? Has any of you ever used them. I have from home for a 'last minute' assigment or two. Though I do find it hard to remember they are there and it would be almost impossible to stumble over them on the webpage and someone using iPac still has to know what to do once they are taken to the Journal Search page, after clicking on the link provided in the record.
Using electronic versions is away that we could extend our reference collections into homes and make the more specialist encyclopedias etc. available for customers at branches. Do you find that people are using our reference print collections less and less? If so this may be a way of providing quality information in a form customers are willing to use.
The problem is making them easily accessible. The hope is that the new Library Management System will have a federated search cabability and so will provide a one stop search to locate catalogue items, journal articles, chapters from e-books, photos and anything else we have loaded to the system which is relevant to their query.
A trial of the Gale version of this software is soon coming our way so we can see in practice, how it would work for us. But in the meantime try Trove it is an indication of what is possible.
Reference @ the Metcalfe
I know I talked about this before, but I'm sure I gave a totally confused view of some of the presentations.... here is the link to the RISG wiki.It has very conveniently put all the presentations up and so you can get it from the horses mouth this time!
Refresh yourself with anything that 1/2 piqued your interest, and I'm sure you will get a lot more out of it.
Futures Forum Wild Cards
I recently attended a Forum at the State Library on the future of Libraries. This forum covered the Bookends Scenarios ReportThe idea behind it was to examine possible alternative futures up until 2030, evaluate how they might impact Libraries and how we will cope with these changes. I will be posting more information about the forum on the Staff Blog in the next couple of weeks.
At the beginning of the forum they gave us 'Wild Cards'. They look like playing cards with different events and scenarios written on the back e.g. 'World War III breaks out'. The cards are divided into seven categories or suits: ideas, nature, society, politics, economy, culture and technology. They are designed as a fun way to engage in scenario planning.
So we can all get involved I'm going to be circulating the cards through each branch. What I'd like you to do is randomly select a card from each category, describe the future based on these cards, think about how they might impact Libraries and how you would cope with this impact. You can then add your answer to the staff blog so that others can think about the scenario as well and add any relevant comments.
The cards will stay at each branch for 2 weeks - you could leave them in your tea room or have a look at them on night shift when it's a bit quieter. They will start in reference and then get circulated through branches and various departments following Library Week.
I'll send out the cards, a circulation sheet and instructions on adding posts to the blog.
Any questions?
You're welcome to ask me.
Have a great day.
Karen B.
Mosman Library of the Future
Have you seen this interesting idea from Mosman Library? In celebration of Library Week they have set up a web site (essentially a blog) and are encouraging their user community to submit ideas around how they see the Mosman Library of the Future. There are some really interesting things on there, much of which is currently being posted by staff. Everything from building design to video interviews with people in the library to capture their thoughts. It will be interesting to follow how well this initiative engages their users - how much user contribution they get - especially in light of our plans for a Reader's Blog.http://mosmanfuturelibrary.tumblr.com/
Martin
Reference @ The Metcalfe
Hi all,I went to this seminar last Tuesday, I have to say slightly reluctantly, as in other years they have been less than inspiring. I am so glad I went.. The speakers were animated, knowledgeable and inspiring, and the day was strung together well by the MC (Martin!)
What follows are the notes I took. I have tried to make them understandable, but some of the concepts were so new to me that it would take me too long to put them into my own language.
Hopefully these notes give you a taste of the possibilities to come and for any further clarification, talk to me and or watch out for notes on the RISG blog or Wiki.
Semantic web or linked data – thank goodness this one was first when the brain was working at it’s best
Tim Sherritt – National Library
*Exposes the data in web pages by dividing it into simple statements called Triples
RDF (Resource Description Framework) enables computers to understand the structure of sentence statements
Shared vocabularies are necessary
eg FOF (friend of friend) talks about relationships , and biographical info
use RDF triples to create statements about the world
use shared vocabularies to show the relationships in the statements
*Open link data
You are not a webpage – by this he is trying to say that relationships are required to create intelligent links.
http://discontents.com.au/foaf.rdf#me rdf#me is the identifier of a real world object and this can be used in other locations.
DBpedia is a community effort to extract structured information from Wikipedia and to make this information available on the Web
provides links with meaning
*Getting started
LSCH are available as linked data
ISBNs can be used
*Homework (anyone can do this)
RDFa for beginners can be imbedded in normal HTML
Identify is an automatic code generator
This can be done at;
then Bookmarklet
‘identify me’ (or Person-identifierThingy) grab code and dump into Rapid web
Wonders of machine tags = triple tags eg.put a Photo on Flickr go to Person-identifier-thingy use machine tag to get code and paste it into ‘add a tag’
*The future
Absorbed into the mainstream sites
http://www.reffinder.dbpedia.org/reffinder
Reference collections
Pam at Northern Central Cathy from Clarence
Some face out display, subject breakdown based on community interests
Increased loans and visits continuing even 5 years after the “new building” effect.
No problem with attracting men
Not for loan items interfiled with lending
Quick reference shelved separately near Information Desk
All based on creating an easier user experience
High success rate, young adult junior non-fiction all interfiled
Not for loan defined by price, general content, significance
Key issues in ref collection management – making linkages, ease of use
Breaking non-fiction into genres, leads to instinctive use.
Shelves are on wheels so spaces can be rearranged as needed for activities.
Carefully considered what sections to put where eg. Cooking and craft near children’s fiction, business & law, medicine & sport near information desk as more help in use may be needed.
5 minute spots
Corporate Librarian’s
Catherine joss – City of
Very good presentation on what they do
Our Corporate Library blog shown as an example of the possibilities
Games in libraries
Ellen Forsyth – State Library
R u game: games and public libraries seminar at State Library 23 June free
online on 24th June US$35.00
Does your library need a website?
Martin Boyce – Sutherland
81% of website use by customers = accounts, homepage, contacts
Darien Library is his best ever
make your catalogue your main website and put everything else in there
hours, contact account and search all on one page
advertise where the people are
Blog
Council calendar
Local book groups
Public google calendar
Word of mouth
….then suck the data back into the catalog/website.
Cathy – Clarence
Production of artwork and clothing which meets legal and financial obligations
www.redbubble.com/peopel/nswrisg
Ref-Ex Wiki
Gosford Library
Compulsory for all librarians and technicians
Do reading in week prior, then 1 hour per week in groups of 6
One module per week. Final week combined with Reader’s advisory training
compulsory because
Ensures staff are all working to the same standard
All staff are aware of expectations
To ensure as many as possible completed the training
Incorporated face to face for encouragement, share techniques, discuss issues relating to the specific circumstances.
Geoff Potter – creating a module
New Local Studies module available now, Family History and Children’s on the way with Youth planned. Call for authors. Evaluations are acted upon, updates often. Go back and look at the new modules.
Rose Holley – Trove
Why have libraries when you’ve got Google?
She says;
Long term preservation & access
No commercial motives
Universal access
No fees
Always & forever.
Plan is to open the library doors with technology
*They had great fears for the Australian Newspapers project, opening to the public to transcribe the OCR. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
No one will do it
If they do they’ll vandalise it
They decided against moderation, logins and integration. They will never integrate as it may be corrupted so they save it in layers of correction.
*Why do people do the correction? Australian History, family history, it’s a useful cause and they want to do some voluntary work (50%)
*How to maintain motivation for the volunteers?
Provide detailed instructions, did not at first but they asked for it
Have a correctors hall of fame -- leads to team spirit – recognises the achievements – it raises the bar – they say give us more
*User profiles – how they attack it – 4 ways
Topic search – correct as they read – do it in little chunks
Subject – retype all the articles on their area of interest
Genies – fix all the names
All – methodically work through a paper
*Found that giving users a high level of trust results in commitment & loyalty
Call it enhancement instead of text correction as it implies adding layers safely
*It’s had a big social impact. Is called Crowdsourcing = social engagement on the web = many people working together to achieve goals
Encourages a sense of public ownership, trust & loyalty
*Future developments in Trove
- expand content
- add new features eg forum, adding context, RSS feeds, API (to make relationship linking easier- as in first talk)
- site harvesting by Google
*Freedom is a bigger game than power
Power is about what you can control
Freedom is about what you can unleash!
*To use crowdsourcing be clear about what you want them to do and why
Use open standards for data sharing add API
Work out how to make it discoverable in Google
Need to change institutions from positioning for power to freedom
Mal Booth – UTS
*Active content creation and collecting – whilst with the Australian War Memorial
He was working there and thinking libraries should be doing the unexpected, we are too passive. Are we just about technology? or reflecting user created data – no
We can and must create
*Inspiration – it’s about riding our bikes – have fun and play – discover hidden talents of staff – delighting customers
How?? Curating and storytelling – not just about text – collecting – host festivals – photo essays – exhibitions -
See http://accessceramics.org/
*He showed many pictures of his journey as a war archivist ‘Just doing it in Iraq 2008’
there were no rules
involve the community
collecting digital records
asked the soldiers what was important
pics of on the job training
beyond the norm
what about me?
EBSCOHost Marketing
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a session on how to market EBSCOHost databases. I found this training very interesting and thought provoking. It’s great that we have these databases, but it’s important we ensure that library users are aware of their existence and what they are. Many users believe that a Google search is all the Internet has to offer when finding information. Marketing our databases will help our users understand that there is more out there on the Internet. It will also provide Patrons with a wider variety of information in different formats.
Some of the suggested ideas for marketing the databases include:
- Staff Training: We won't be very effective at marketing products if we know nothing about them (unless you're really good at improvisation). Staff training could include formal training, personalised training or online training. EBSCO run monthly online tutorials for these databases. All you need is a PC and headphones or a phone nearby to do them. We could aim to undertake one every month or so. You could also have a search and browse through the databases in quiet times. We could possibly run our own in-house training to help any staff that are really new to databases. Remember, if you’re not sure about anything, chances are that there’ll be a work buddy nearby who is – so feel free to ask them for help. See also the EBSCO Support site for more training and guides on using the different databases.
- User Training: In Seniors Week we held seminars on some of our databases. These seemed to go down really well with many Patrons asking for more sessions on the Computer Training Database. Training and seminars can help people get over some of the confusion they might encounter when they first use a database. They could be tailored towards different user groups, for example, it was suggested that we could run 'Back to School' or 'Starting Uni' seminars. HSC students might be another good target group.
- In print promotion: If you check out the EBSCO Support Site, you'll find all sorts of promotional materials including posters, bookmarks and flyers. Some of these can be downloaded and printed while others can be ordered free from EBSCO. These can act as a visual reminder to our users that there is more out there than Google and Wikipedia.
- Online promotion: There were all sorts of ideas and suggestions about how we could promote our EBSCOHost databases online. There are a few technical ways of doing this. These include adding an EBSCO search box from the Library Home page, creating flashy product buttons for each EBSCO database and adding links to the Help tutorials next to each database name. Another general suggestion was to add YouTube Videos/screencasts to the Library web site that might visually demonstrate the difference between databases and Web searches. We could also review one of the databases or e-journals through the Library blog e.g. database or journal of the month.
- EBSCOHost folders: Has anyone seen the personalised folders in EBSCO?
They allow you to create a personal 'My EBSCO' account and save and organise useful articles into different folders. It was suggested at the EBSCO Training that we could create an account for the Library and save articles into folders corresponding to popular topics or assignments. We could then email Patrons and provide them with access to this folder. This would be a bit like a virtual pamphlet file.
These are just a few ideas as to how we can effectively promote EBSCOHost (or other databases) to our users. If you find the time, see if you can brainstorm any other ideas and post them in the comments box for discussion.
LGA boundaries
'Which LGA is Rocky Point Road Sans Souci in?"
The answer depends on which side of the road you are on. The eastern side is Rockdale, the western side is Kogarah.
To those of us in the clearly defined Shire, the LGA borders of our northern neighbours, Hurstville, Kogarah and Rockdale may seem confusing.
For example, Hurstville Grove is in Kogarah municipality.
But fear not. Help is now at hand.
ABS regional profiles now include detailed Google maps which define LGA borders.
Try it out at http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/nrpmaps.nsf/NEW+GmapPages/national+regional+profile?opendocument
Max
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