Information Archiecture

For years, I've looked at O'Reilly books and have always been interested to read them. I was always put off though; the highly technical titles was something of a turn off, even if I always found the covers to be friendly.

Well, about a week ago, I started to take a course in Information Architecture (IA) where the above is one of two text books (the other is Prioritizing Web Usability) that I'm using. Quite apart from the relatively rosy job prospects that this field offers, I am fascinated by this field. The IA field has been defined in a number of different ways, but there is a common focus on making it easy for users to find what they want. I find the field to be a stimulating mix of applied psychology, usability and librarianship.

Part of the course involves doing a critique of an existing website. I wonder how it would be received if I did a critique of a website of a place I'd like to work at? Would it be perceived as helpful or irritating? I suspect the latter...

On Open Meta-Data & Catalogs: Open Library vs. OCLC

The notion of open source content and data is a no-brainer for me. As far as I'm concerned, public institutions should make their work available to all - such is the mission of most archives and libraries anyhow. Thus, I was happy to learn about The Open Library, which seeks to combine official meta-data (e.g. MARC records) with user-contributed content (seemingly inspired by wiki software, but not as flexible). I'm pleased to see that they're working with the Berkeley iSchool too; three cheers for applied research. I'm proud to note that the Open Library is supported by the Open Content Alliance.

Contrast all of those positive developments to the closed nature of what the OCLC is doing. Essentially, the OCLC (a "non profit" organization based in Ohio, USA) provides much of the machine readable data that powers the world's library catalogues. So good, so far. However, the organization has recently revised its policies to limit the re-use of catalogue records in other non-OCLC contexts. The fantastic website, LibraryThing (very useful! I encourage everybody to have a look at this service), has a line by line comparison showing OCLC's policy changes. The changes have been amusing summarized as: This appears to be an engineered, legal virus for our bibliographic ecosystems.

As I understand it, this policy change lets OCLC claim that all data submitted to it is the property of OCLC rather than the property of the original submitting library. Not good! I gather that the organization has changed the policy a bit this month, but the biblioblogosphere is still not pleased.

Employee Reward Systems

For a paper in grad school, I am looking into the concept of employee reward systems. While that is a bit of awkward way to describe it, I find it interesting to think about. In all the places I've worked in, there does not seem to be much of any employee reward system in place. Sometimes there are annual events of various kinds, sure. Anyway, I find it quite stimulating to think about these kinds of management ideas.

Giving my opinions...

This is an interesting kind of day where I will spend a lot of time sharing my opinions. I just finished an inerview on how I experience the Internet, the role of regulation on the Internet and how I experience the system as a Canadian. I'm presenly researching Internet regulaion so this was interesting to think about... In related news, tonight I will be participating in a focus group to help the SLA.

It feels a bit odd to get paid to offer my opinions, but I find it worthwhile. I like supporting research projects and professional associations.

EDIT: To my disappointment, SLA members (at least ME!) were NOT paid for participating at the 3 hour focus group. I think I was misled in this regard and that's what bothers me. The focus group event involved reacting to videos (mostly or entirely by the leadership of the SLA) and riffing on the meaning of worlds like "librarian" and "information." Still disappointed though.

Some brief notes: Google Copyright Settlement, Wireless Spectrum

I've been following two issues lately with some interest, but have not yet learned enough to comment. I gather that Google has recently come to a legal settlement regarding the books it is scanning for inclusion in its Google Book Search system - I have heard that is mostly a good result, in terms of access but need to read more. I've also heard some interesting things about a recent decision (by the Federal Communications Commission in the US?) on changes to the wireless spectrum which has some potential to substantially increase connectivity.

I know that's not much to say, but I just wanted to note my interest and I shall hopefully return to those topics later in a more substantial way.

New Career Role Model: Michael Stephens & Tame The Web

A few days ago, I discovered Michael Stephens' great blog Tame The Web. He did his doctoral research on, "social software and blogging, including his dissertation “Modeling the Role of Blogging in Librarianship.” Fascinating! I don't know of a single Canadian who has done work on that but maybe I'll be one of the first, a few years from now.

Library and Archives Canada gets on flickr

At long last, Library and Archives Canada has made the leap to use Flickr. I had heard about this project several months ago and I'm happy to see that it has finally launched. The 84 photos available here showing different aspects of Irish-Canadian history. All the content is copied from an earlier online exhibit - the purpose appears to be changing the content to facilitate RW (Read-Write) interaction instead of Read-Only, as Lawrence Lessig would put it.