Reference @ The Metcalfe

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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.

http://dbpedia.org/

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;

Wragge's Identity browser

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

Tamworth – ‘Living room’ concept interfile all formats!!

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 Sydney

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

Facebook

Blog

Council calendar

Local book groups

Public google calendar

Twitter

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?

The End

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