Week 7 learnings

The widget at LibraryThing for creating a link to this blog was certainly a "thin description" of what to do. I guessed that the (to paraphrase) copy and past this HTML was the clue. Then in the blog I found a place to paste the HTML. Interesting, LibraryThing instructions assume that users would somehow know that copying the HTML would allow users to paste it somewhere on the blog. Even knowing that HTML probably stands for hyper text markup language I was only guessing when creating the link. I also, found LibraryThing not as useful for a DVD collection as I would like (what about e-books on a Sony book reader?). Interesting.

HTML from LibraryThing

Lakeview Madison Community Foundation Grant

The Lakeview branch will have a special collction of DVDs and books devoted to film history and film studies ( in its myriad definitions). LibraryThing offers the possibility of linking a set therein to this blog. I've listed five of the special DVDs ordered for the collection and hope to see how it would work with a LibraryThing file.
Tags chosen so far are: Lakeview, DVD, film studies, and Criterion.
Books will include studies of film (such as books by renowned UW professor David Bordwell); and the special film genre of Bollywood will also be part of the collection.
The goal is to have a special and unique collection for the branch.

Lakeview Madison Community Foundation Grant

Created a five item list at LibraryThing for five of the Criterion DVDs ordered for the new grant at Lakeview. The topic of film studies (including film history [perhaps in all its possible ramifications {i.e. tags}] is the goal of this grant. Along with Bollywood titles, original Criterion editions (all of which are important to film studies) will be added to the collection. The focus is to have a collection at the location that is very, very special. Books on the topic have also been ordered (such as books by UW renowned film scholar David Bordwell).

Perhaps the LibraryThing concept can be used to feature this collection. I need to try to link it now to this blog.

Tags chosen so far are: Lakeview, DVD, film studies, and Criterion

Week6

Learning for week 6 reminded me that ProjectPlay informs us regarding the frustrations that library patrons often encounter in this e-age. It also recalled to me the learning of irregular foreign verb conjugations. This week I had to learn how to register at Yahoo/Flickr in order to post a Flickr photo to my blog. I'm tired of registering, and I'm running out of passwords. (Athough, it was interesting to find photos from my grandfather's "piece of the old sod" to post.) All of which reminds me also of the frustrations with virus protection, spyware software, and firewalls that I've encountered with home computing.

Is this play? Perhaps. But it reminds me of playing with my older brother (an explanation of which I leave to imagination and more personal blogging.)

Tettnang

Tettnang,
originally uploaded by alte_kuh_sjn.

My grandfather was born in this German village in 1865.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

To Emily Scharf

Good to see an optimistic post re RSS feeds within the plethora of the blog universe. I like the idea of "Google blog search" for first order screening of some reference questions. Perhaps similar to using Wikipedia with a large grain of salt. Thanks.

To Jayne

Thanks for the great picture of Nessie at the Lake.

Active v. Passive

It is important to note that passive responses from customers are welcome, and may often highlight an area for library action. However, it is also the case, that such responses are like the proverbial "Ann Landers Survey." This means that it is not statistically valid, for it is not a random sample. Yet, like a suggestion box, libraries should allow such feedback.

Active surveys, on the other hand, can be quite useful. Would it be possible to select samples from the registered library users? If so, a random sample of 400 would yield statistically significant responses. Also, good surveys are not easy to produce. It would be good to do such, but with care, and as part of a learning organization. Learning about valid survey techniques, therefore, is quite important. A cycle of plan (learn how to survey), do (post the survey), check (analyze the survey), and act ( respond to results) could be useful.

Week3/RSS

Ah ha! I recall MIT's Media Lab proferring selected feeds of info as early as the 1970s. Now all can enjoy such. The dilemma in crating 10 for the assignment, is how to select 10 on the nonce. So it goes. Interesting to learn about the myriad ways to limit the infinity of the Web.