Moving on...

As many of you will know I've been thinking for some months about moving this blog to another provider.  I've now decided to do just that and have moved my entire blog to tumblr.

beauty_school_dropout and I have had a lot of fun here on blogger, but I've decided to go for a new look.  If you've enjoyed reading me here, then please switch over now for more of the same, but different.

Make sure to update your reader to the new RSS feed!

A Hard Day's Night

I'm sorry.  I've been working like a well trained and unusually obedient dog over the last week or so.  Have you ever stared at your screen so long that your eyes begin to work independently? 

I'll be back blogging again soon, now that my eyeballs are a team again.  In the meantime, enjoy this:

The amazing Fuck Yeah, Typography continues to make me think using words, shapes and fonts.  If this makes me weird- I don't care.

Thing Four- Exploring Blogs

Exploring other blogs or b(l)og wallowing as Marsh calls it, is one of the best aspects of throwing yourself into the action.  Reading other people's blogs can provide you with a good stock of ideas and inspiration when you're just starting out, and the sense of community will keep you motivated as your blog matures.  Everyone has those periods when you don't know what to write and times when they feel disconnected to what's going on.  This is a good time to reach out and see what other people are doing.

I'm going to make this a fairly short post but in it I want to share a few of my favouite places for insipration, news and relaxation:

Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black, who has the enviable job title of Digital Futures Manager at the San José Public Library.
Bobbi L. Newman who is a Librarian by Day
And finally, the amazing Awful Library Books blog; anyone who told you that collection management can't be fun is evidently not a regular visitor!

I've been really impressed with the blog output from Cam 23 participants, so many of them have a great mix  of humour and information.  A special mention must go to the witty Library Wanderer who, despite being a Bolton fan, has me hanging on her every word.

  by  umbrofootball 

Histon Road Top Trumps

Marsh is getting pretty excited about her new twitter account and is tweeting about the folk we see on our journey in each morning:

• Green Goddess
• Pseudo Ange P
• Enthusiastic poodle
• Classic Pram
• Mrs Robin
• Five Star
• Lady in Red
• MiB
• Moonwalker
• Hawaiian Santa
• Crouching Mechanic, Hidden Cuppa
• Vote for Pedro x2
• Pink lady on a Schwinn
• Fat kid on a bike
• Tall Reader
• Bucket o' bairns
• HJ Watch
• Ginger Ninga
• Alternative jogger
• Orange Monk
• Reluctant dog

This is not an exhaustive list, and we probably need some kind of stable scoring system, but there you go: an insight into our weird lives.

Cambridge is full of eccentrics, and it seems that we're two of them!

Thing Three- Designing a Blog: KISS

Not that kind of kiss.  And watch out for the comma- a subtle change of sense. 

KISS- Keep it simple, stupid!  

  by  Jeff Kubina 

KISS is the design principle that says less is more, that sophistication is simplicity, and that something isn't perfect until you've stripped out all the unnecessaries.  Something completely unlike the Rube Goldberg machine above!

There's two aspects to good kiss: aesthetic and practical.  I've been talking a lot this week about simple but stunning webdesign, we've looked at myfav.es, moving on from the basic blogger templates and taken an early peak at Google Reader's possible future.  Adherence to aesthetic principles is what makes Apple products attractive to millions, and commands a premium price for their gadgets. 

KISS- Keep it simple stupid.

Aesthetics aside, with the bonnet up and our hands greasy, it is all about how it works, and you may have noticed that we've dropped the comma.  Wikipedia has a full discussion on whether there ought to be a comma or not, but KISS with a comma signals that if the application or hardware fails then it should 'fail simple'.  This kind of KISS warns against over-engineering a product or piece of software.  The complexity to be avoided would be that which makes something difficult for a new user to understand, something that is counter intuitive, or something that requires a special tool or a Ph.D. in programming to fix.  The chap who coined the phrase was an aircraft engineer- and expensive aircraft are not something you ever want to fail in a complex way- something that's simple stupid is something which ideally can be fixed with basic tools by a general engineer, possibly in the field under enemy fire.  Less extreme examples of this kind of KISS include well-designed furniture which can be assembled using an Allen key, clockwork torches and radios, or this fun mouse experiment- how much instruction is there; how much do you need?

KISS in blogs

According to good KISS principles blogs should fairly easy to use, just like a physical journal.  You pick one that you like, that's the right size and in your favourite colour.  You grab a comfy pen.  Maybe you'll want to plaster the cover with stickers.  You write in it daily and within a week it feels like an extension of your mind.  Why isn't it like that with a blog?  Why do they have to be clunky, idiosyncratic and difficult to use?  I mean, the premise behind it is quite simple: text, pictures, maybe the odd video clip- does it really have to be this hard?

 by  MarcelGermain

I recently created a new blog for my book group books@pub on tumblr.  Now tumblr is where the cool kids hang out, they have a lot of really good themes which look slick on screen, but I did find it very difficult to use.  From the dashboard I didn't find changing the design particularly intuitive, it didn't offer a live snapshot of what your blog would like like with each design, only what a very well executed and trendy blog with chunks of quotations and blurred photographs would look like.  Blogger doesn't always fare much better.  Without the Blogger in Draft Templates blogs can all begin to look the same, sure they're simple, but they can look like the ugly sisters compared to the standard Wordpress and tumblr designs.  books@pub is a group blog which was not as easy to set up on tumblr as I anticipated, Wordpress I think is even worse for this.  When you have multiple contributors it's important that it the registration process is simple for you and even simpler again for the others involved, who may not have the same levels of expertise.

KISS for you

You too can apply these principles to your blog.  Whether it fails simple or complex is fairly out of your hands, but you can make the reading experience better for your readers.  It is worth spending some time to think about design.  If the font is too small or serifed, if the contrast between colours isn't working then people won't enjoy reading it, and you'll enjoy writing it less too: it's worth taking pride in the display as well as the content.  Have a look at other people's blogs for new ideas: is it worth adding a search function to your blog, a tag cloud?  Do you have too many images and applications cluttering up your right and left hand navigation? 

Try and find out who your readers are, what they search for and where they found out about you- this will help you tailor aspects of your blog to them.  I use Feedjit and web analysis from eLogic, that knowlegdge gives me an insight into how my readers keep up to date with me, the kinds of keywords they search with, even their screen resolutions and browser choice- have a look at your site on a different machine, a different browser to make sure you're still gorgeous and easy to use. 

  by  liftarn 

KISS for libraries

Millennials, born digitals and other buzz-worded social groups are used to machines, software and interfaces that have been designed to be both instinctive to use and that you can repair with a wizard or a diagnostic tool.  These people are our readers and customers; the consumers of our data.  I cut my teeth on the Commodore Vic20: this makes me a patient person with low to reasonable expectations; I can wait 30 minutes for something to load from a tape, use a card catalogue and Boolean operators in my search strings.  Good for me: have an 80s childhood sticker!

Our undergraduate users expect instant information, interfaces that are second nature to them and the seamless integration of all available reources.  So they should too, this level of service is something we should all aspire to.  Take a look at these slides from the excellent I've got Google, why do I need you?  They should get you thinking about the disparity of what we expect from our users, what they demand from us and how good design can bridge that gap.

So you need a Typeface?

Needed to share this amazing flow chart from Fuck Yeah, Typography.

Discover it by yourself, but make sure you get to 'are you alone?'

Typography is one of my favourite strange interests, and this is frankly amazing- bravo!

Thing Two- RSS Q&A

Try as I might, I'm struggling to make this as fascinating as my normal output.  So here we go with some Q& A, a couple of sets of slides which you can watch for extra credit and an unexpected bonus for fans of sleek design: something beautiful and new!

What is RSS?

Simply, it's web content in a special form, which is 'read' by a reader.

How do I get it?

You're going to need two things, something to read and something to read it on.  The good news is that there's plenty to read, most newspapers, blogs and even LOLcats are available in RSS format.  Now all you have to do it pick a reader.  Some browsers, Firefox included, can understand RSS, but most people chose to access it through a web-based reader, a downloaded reader or via their email client.  Web-based readers, Google Reader, for example, can be thought of as your inbox on the web.  On the left you can see my a LOLcat RSS feed displayed on Google Reader.

Why do I want it?

In libraries we are in the interesting position of being information producers as well as consumers, so it's not just about keeping yourself up to date!  A common library application for RSS is keeping readers informed about new acquisitions in a given subject area, this means they can browse print and digital titles they may be interested in without specifically searching the catalogue- good example of some of the subject detail on offer here at the Cincinnati Public Library.  In our role as information producers we can 'curate' RSS content from multiple sources and present it for our readers.  The science@cambridge gateway (below) aggregates news, blogs and library generated content for science students at the University.

science@cambridge

This specially constructed page makes use of University branding and allows users to quickly access other University resources, but this can be done more informally.  Good examples include LK's excelled Cam23 bloglist and the Philosophy feeds provided by the Casimir Lewy Library, both using netvibes.

In short, RSS feeds for libraries are like having a constant newsletter that can be discretely tailored to your readers' interests.

Can it do anything slightly more exciting?

No, well maybe.  New from Google Labs is Google Reader Play which uses the same software as the 'Recommended' function in the standard reader.  It visually displays web content you might be interested in based on feeds you currently subscribe to, you can then further refine it by hitting the smiley faced button.  I've only been playing with it for the last 4 minutes, but it is quite fun!

Extra Credit

Google Reader Play makes your RSS feeds exciting - Pocket-lint
Library Garden's Magical Mystery Tour: RSS Demystified (slides)
RSS and Its Use In Libraries- Sukhdev Singh (slides)

Sharing the style secret: Blogger in draft

Ever feel like a makeover?  The Cam23 folk seem to.


I've read lots of comments about how easy Blogger is to use, but none about how damn good-looking the results are.  Despite the fact that I had a little trouble in my tinting class, beauty_school_droput is here to help.  Now you might not like my bare boarded, New York loft style look, you might think it a little gruff and that it could do with a nice rug or a few scatter cushions.  Just add pink:

Wearing Simple, with belknap (food & drink) background

No, I think jelly beans and pink is probably more than I can bear, but I've got a little more up my sleeve.  A beautiful calming sky is much better.  Or how about books, burgers or beer?  All things close to my heart.  Rugby balls, pool balls?  Vintage washing machines or computers?  Vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, rain streaks on a window?  One of these or more must be floating your boat.

Wearing Picture Window, with standard background image

So just how am I doing all this?  Well, I haven't written the style sheets myself, nor have I've forked out on a designer just to create this blog post.  This was all created using Blogger in draft's template designer.  I first heard about this a couple of months ago, it was all still in beta.  Excitedly I changed from my standard template to the pretentious boards you see now, and then promptly forgot about it.

Despite being 'in draft'  the template designer is remarkably easy to use just log in to Blogger in draft as you would normally and look for the template designer sub menu in the Design or Layout tab.  Choose your template and background image:

Wearing picture Window with RBFried (abstract) background image

Adjust the layout to the number of columns you want and then fiddle with the advanced settings to your heart's content.  You can customize just about every line and section of your blog.  

Still need help?  Here's the official walkthrough.

You will be asked if you want Blogger in draft to be your regular login, if you are a confident tweaker this may be worth your while.  Added extras include a couple of extra options during compose, an ability to add images you've previously used and a much improved post preview.

That's all my design secrets gone in one week, but I look forward to seeing changes you make to your blogs, even if you do pick the pink jelly beans!

Extra Credit

Blogger in draft blog

Thing One: an extra helping- FoxTabs and tab management

Lots of people seem to be interested in visual alternatives to iGoogle and netvibes, many mentioning that they used custom start pages from Chrome and Firefox.  I introduced myfav.es yesterday.  The dodgy name aside, the product is incredibly beautiful, providing a designer alternative to those clumps of text we hate to see first thing in the morning.

So we all like the myfav.es look, we have four or five sites on there, it's 9:05 and the browsing experience still bears all the hallmarks of sleek, designer zen.  What happens when we get to mid-morning and we have six to a dozen tabs open?  It's not looking so minimalist now.  That's where tab management comes in.

If you don't want to close or bookmark for later the tabs you are working with, then you need to find a way to stay in control of them.  FoxTab, using a similar design to myfav.es, lets you flick through currently open tabs

Click to make big

store, update and amend your favourite tabs

Click to make big

and see which tabs you've recently closed

Click to make big

There are a selection of views, angles and background colours to play with.  These control screens can be accessed by clicking the FoxTab logo installed next to your address bar, or by hitting Ctrl + Q.  The middle example shows the static 'wall' display mode, but the others can all be spun with Ctrl + Tab or, in either direction, by using your wheel mouse.  These keyboard shortcuts can be amended by users to keys more comfortable for them.

Currently it's only available for Firefox, but it's intuitive to use, easy to install and gives you an instant snapshot of what's going on on your browser.

Thing Five- Supporting each other over tea

Hopelessly distracted by peanuts and crisps at the launch I didn't quite get the chance to form a particularly expansive peer support group.  So I'm going to have a go at creating one now.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

beauty_school_dropout 

Invites you to a West of Cambridge Cam23Up

For Cam23 participants west of the river, and their colleagues brave enough to cross it, an opportunity to get together over a cuppa and talk over our Cam23 triumphs and worries.

Sidgwick Site Buttery, or grass if clement.

RSVP

At the moment I use Doodle quite heavily.  To schedule UL Staff Club meetings and just recently the first meeting and selection for books@pub, the book club I accidentally started.  It's flexible enough to work as both a meeting organiser and a poll, and it archives polls you've created before.  Fab.

Thing One continues: myfav.es: a sleek, alternative start page

I first heard about myfav.es, then called fav4, earlier this year.  Flash games aside, the applications I want to use on sites like iGoogle and netvibes are text heavy, if that doesn't appeal to you then myfav.es may be just what you are looking for.

Lights on, linking to Amazon, twitter, bbc, gmail and reddit.

I like the concept.  It's very visual, it's simple and instinctive to use; it sports a clean, minimalistic design and is easy to customise.  Choose to link to as many or as few sites as you want, decide if you want to arrange them in a grid or as a scrollable/ static row.  Tweak them: that site links to the BBC home page, want to link to BBC sport?  You can amend the URL and still keep the BBC icon.  Want to link to a page not listed? Choose one of the free icons and specify your URL, you can even change the colour of the icon.

Want to see it in black?

Lights off, linking to The Guardian, IMDb, New York Times, Slate magazine and Mashable

My only gripe about myfav.es is that clicking on an icon takes you directly to the site, I rather like my start page to hang around on one tab of my browser.  You can get around this by changing your browser settings so that each link opens in a new tab or window or by clicking the wheel of your mouse rather than the left button.  I'd like to use myfav.es more, it really fits in with how I like my browser to look and function, but I simply can't let go of my iGoogle page and the data it brings to me at a glance, although it is worth mentioning that you can have iGoogle as one of your icons.  I've always thought that its large icons would make it useful to those just beginning surfing or those who just want to browse a handful of sites.

Use it or just admire it, it's up to you.

Banner adding

So I made a banner, it's not great but it ought to distinguish you in the blogosphere.

If you are using blogger simply go to the Layout tab > Add Gadget > Picture > Add an image from the internet

Here you can insert the following URL:

http://i.imgur.com/3AG6N.jpg for the wide banner

http://i.imgur.com/NaL7l.jpg for the imperfect square





Alternatively, right click on the image of your choice and save the image to your computer, you can then upload the image using the same technique  Layout tab > Add Gadget > Picture > Add an image from your computer.

New York Times launches Foursquare friendly city guide

Foursquare is at the top of my current watch list, it seamlessly integrates social interaction with the business community, and builds interesting virtual community groups.  News today is that the New York Times had launched an app for the iPhone (iPod touch and iPad too) which allows you to carry their critics around in your pocket.  At your fingertips will be the best places to eat and drink in Manhattan and Brooklyn- sadly the rest of the city isn't covered.  What makes this particularly interesting is that it also allows Foursquare check-ins, which is where you announce your arrival at a listed location.  I mentioned in my earlier article on the subject about the upcoming Facebook local  and pondered whether or not it would chose to interact with Foursquare or try to rival it; the interactivity between this NYT app and the Foursquare interface suggests that Facebook might just have to bite its tongue.

Image from the New York Times (see below)

Billed as The Scoop, the app is already available in the app store and describes itself as 'the insiders guide'.  Updated with weekly where to eat and drink listings, as well as local events, Mashable reckons it's best suited to locals rather than tourists.  Foursquare users are already taking advange of special offers and discounts form bars and restaurants hungry for their custom and positive instant feedback, perhaps this will pave the way for NYT specific offers and events?

If you're not iFamily equipped but would like a look, a web version is also available.

Extra Credit:


Mashable: New York Times Launches City Guide and Checkin Tool for iPhone
The Scoop - The New York Times
The Scoop NYC for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
Do you, ahem, Foursquare? Perhaps you should

Wordle fun: hamster time?

I've been seeing lots of word art on 23 Things pages.  I've never made one and thought it would be fun to have a go, I've used Wordle to create them.  Here's one inspired by words used on this blog:

Click to make big

I wrote one of my BA dissertations on 1970s and 80s Scots poetry and this rather reminds me of the concrete poetry I studied.  Throughout that time I began to see rhyme and rhythm everywhere, words that just seemed meant for each other.  My favourite was the spines of the Oxford English Dictionary: Luke- Mouke, Unemancipated- Wau-Wau.  Check this article for even more of them.

There's a couple of oddities in here: try happiness, going equal mostly, hamster time, beautiful economy, local olives, in pursuit of infastructure, restrict words else news, click everyone current, actually read, liberty NYPL, morning rights, yet people think.

Shockingly I can't spot Marsh in here, yet hamster used only once is prominent.

This one is from my delicious feed- I look a lot more fun on delicious, but no where near as cryptic!

Click to make big

Thing One: Going all Google

I've been using iGoogle for a while, I'm very happy with it and would recommend it to just about anyone.  The reason that it's so good is because it lets information come to you, and in a job like ours the more useful information that finds its way to your desktop unsought the better.  Let's be a little voyeuristic and see what I look at every morning:

Standard start page: click to make big

Ok, so you can see I'm a news junkie and that I'm a fan of the New York Times crossword, but what does this bring to me that I can't get anywhere else?  Time.  From this page I can quickly scan the news headlines from five UK media outlets, three American ones and keep myself sane with indexed.  These feeds are updated throughout the day: I dread to think how long it would take me to actually search for all this.

When I log on in the morning I can instantly see what's happening, if I need a mini-break to clear my head later in the day or am loading data that I have to keep half an eye on, I can pop back to iGoogle and see what's going on.  Interestingly, I read fewer news articles since I started using these feeds.  When I go to a newspaper's website I have to scroll down the front page to check the headlines, something will invariably catch my eye and I'll hop from one article to the next, perhaps I'll check out a columnist I like.  These days the headline is often sufficient; if it does interest me I'll load it up in a new tab, and if I get 2 minutes later in the day I'll have a look at it, or mark it on delicious for the weekend.

I really like the tab options on the left hand of the screen, this means that I can arrange my feeds by subject.  The perfect dovetail to my home tab is my library tab, temporarily named 23 Things!  This has just about replaced my reader as a way to deal with my RSS feeds and is where I keep myself up to date with what's going on in the field.

Library specific feeds and gadgets: click to make big

Whereas my home tab is mostly text based RSS feeds, here we begin to see the seeds of something a little more interactive.  I'm actually logged into the Cambridge Libraries Widget using Raven authentication, I can check my loans or the catalogue as if I was using the main Newton interface.  Not too far in the future I can imagine that similar technology will let me check my bank balance or my text messages, if I choose to trust Google with that information.

The beta tab is just where I test out new apps; most of them don't make it onto the main screen.  Technews is just that, similar to my library feeds but with a more pronounced computing flavour.  Different strokes for different folks!

The last one I want to show you is my demo tab.  I run a getting to grips with Google course here at the UL and iGoogle is my grand finale.  Of course I could demonstrate it with my home tab, but just because I'm a bit boring doesn't mean that everyone else has to be.  I've peppered this tab with useful, current and interesting apps, many of which show the fun side of iGoogle.  The to do list famously belongs to Madeleine Albright, but I'm in charge of feeding the hamster.

A desperate attempt to be down with the kids: click to make big

Ange's top iGoogle picks:


Awful Library Books blog
Slate magazine
New York Times Crossword
Tube map
Hamster- got to have the hamster
Mashable blog
Slashdot mini-me
They Work For You- all about your MP
Remember the Milk gadget- still in beta with me

Now as a regular iGoogle user I feel like I'm cheating a bit, so stay tuned to see what happens when I try Netvibes next.

Cambridge 23 Things: my own personal launch party

Ok.... peanuts and olives are prepped, the drinks have been chilled; bags of different flavoured crisps have been poured into the same bowl.  I think we're ready to go.

At the official launch party Andy Priestner said a few words giving the back story to 23 Things, and expressed what he hoped we as individuals, and as an institution, with gain from the digital smörgåsbord on offer.

I bring to the table these beautiful Creative Commons olives, and a few words- this isn't a post just about olives after all.

I'm hoping to get three specifics from my 23 Things adventure.  First, I'm going to try something new, specifically Zotero and Mendeley which I know little and nothing about, respectively.  Second, I'm going to reassess how I use the everyday tools I've probably taken for granted, and the ones I'm not using to their full extent.  Perhaps it'll even lead me somewhere new- I've been using Facebook since 2004 and I can assure you that familiarity breeds contempt!  The third, and most important, is that I hope 23 Things will help us to build a network for this summer and beyond. Many of us work in small departments, some of us are actually the whole department, and this can leave us feeling out of touch with the library community out there.  23 Things is a great way for us  to reach out and make some connections.  Enjoy the olives!


Olive picture form pink_fish13 on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciana13/4236386232/ Used under a Creative Commons Licence.

Is high speed broadband a human right?

There's been a lot written about human rights, beautiful in sentiment and often beautiful in prose too.  A particular favourite of mine is the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The fourth article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights:

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

This always conjures up this image for me.  Used extensively as an anti-slavery icon, and referenced in the simple yet powerful 'I am a man' placards worn during the civil rights movement in the US.  When you think of these struggles then idea that a high-speed internet connection could possibly be a human right seems laughable.  Thomas Jefferson admirably covers all bases when he describes the unalienable rights as including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but I think anyone would struggle to convincingly tack on to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and a high speed internet connection. What would be next- a flat screen TV?


Cast against these 'true'  human rights the idea of broadband being a human right seems a fanicful notion, yet France, Greece, Estonia, Spain and Finland believe it is.  These countries may have moral reasons for taking this standpoint, but the most compelling argument for the importance of a dependable high-speed internet connection is that it, as Dr Hamadoun Toure (secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union ) states "the internet [is] basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water."  I think that as we move to  knowledge based economy our digital infrastructure and access to it will become even more important.  


Having an internet connection means that I can participate in digital life, possibly that I can work from home, certainly that I can spend unpalatable chunks of my salary at Amazon.  This connection means that I can scrutinise what politicians say to me, I can get my news from just about anywhere, I can even write the news that you read.  I, or my business, can participate and thrive in the knowledge economy.  I can shrug the restrictions that come with just having a local paper or no access to a supermarket.  It  means I can file my tax return online, I can book a flight with the click of a mouse; I can even compare meerkats quickly and effectively.


The hardware I use is unimportant.  The method I use to connect a little more so: if the government enshrined my right to the internet as a human right, would companies currently unwilling to invest in the rural network change their attitude?  These issues aside what is most important is ensuring my access to the information out there, as Tom Watson MP says:

Human rights develop; I don't think you make a decision to create them one day. But people should have a right to access to knowledge. The internet facilitates that, so if you restrict people's access to the internet you restrict their access to knowledge.  

There is another aspect to this question and that is the principle of fairness.  Jefferson's statement that we were all created equal is perhaps true, but that equality doesn't last for too long.  Hiding behind most of the statements you read about human rights is the idea of a meritocracy, of people getting a shot at success regardless of their background.  This is one of the things people love most about public libraries.


Now I'm not going to get all dewy eyed and rant on about equality and justice for all, but I want you to think for a moment about what you do online that you did on paper or in person 5 or 10 years ago.  Book a flight, order your groceries, renew your passport, even find out what's going on in your local area?  Some of these you can still do in person, but have you ever tried calling Ryanair?  A Canadian colleague of mine in the public sector recently told me that just about all Canadian government services now have to be accessed online, the library service there regularly assists older people, the unemployed, people without computer skills or a machine at home to access key services.  I read only this week about listings and comment for local arts groups moving from the local press and freesheets to the blogosphere.  That's a lot to be excluded from, and we haven't even touched on the healing power of LOLcats yet.


Extra Credit:

Highly recommended: the stimulus for this post:
Offline: The invisible underclass - Features, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent http://bit.ly/dAof15 

Broadband and human rights | AlphaGalileo | http://bit.ly/9P0Vhd

BBC News - Internet access is 'a fundamental right' http://bit.ly/d3uTEm

Case study: Me!

I live this strange double life where during the day I have a constant online presence: I tweet, I FB, I blog; I browse, mostly for political and technical news stories.  When I go home I slip into another world, a world that is not unlike 1998.  In 1998 if I wanted to surf, which I did a lot, I had to pick a quiet time when no one wanted to use the phone and then dangle my extension cord downstairs to the telephone point so I could hook-up to my dial up connection.  Most sites were predominantly text based, with the exception of marching red ants and revolving New! ovals, so my little blue bar loaded up reasonably quickly.  Downloading sound clips or video took too long to be attractive.  I ran Windows 98 on a decent machine, had an AOL browser and my email address was a string of numbers @compuserve.com. Is this sounding like the digital Jurassic to anyone?


Back to 2010.  I live in a rural area out of the reach of normal broadband, we have an imaginative solution to pick up the signal from a nearby village via a system of hubs.  It's alright, and much better than any commercial company would offer us, but the speed for downloading isn't great, especially at busy times, when I'm reluctant to use it for online purchases.  Websites frequently time out and it takes from an hour and a half upwards to down load a one hour programme on iPlayer, we were once quoted an expected download time of 20 hours.


The telephone line down the stairs wasn't so much of a handicap back in my digital dinosaur period: most sites I visited were text based and downloaded at an acceptable speed.  Web design today, with its emphasis on multimedia, means that for people like us browsing is often not worth the bother.  Sure I can check email and draft blog posts from home, but often that's just about it.  The internet is a key part of my infrastructure and important to everyone in rural areas like East Anglia, it was mentioned as an crucial infrastructure improvement, along with road and rail in the Look East election candidates' debate 2010.  It's very important to all of us- hell, my village doesn't have gas either, but I've never been moved to blog about it!

Dinosaur is from nerissa's ring http://www.flickr.com/photos/21524179@N08/2678588264/in/set-72157606229117415/ used under a Creative Commons licence

Save NYPL!

Marsh and I had such a fabulous time In New York last year, the highlight for me was our tour of NYPL, so I was distressed to see that they are facing a pretty big funding cut.  There's a campaign against the cuts, this was my 2 cents:

"I'm a librarian from the UK and visited NYPL last year.  The stunning architecture apart what impressed me most about it was the open and welcoming attitude.  I was amazed to find that anyone could step in to read and to enquire.  It's a kind of openness that one doesn't find everywhere and that makes it even more important to preserve.

In times of economic hardship libraries are often the only places people can go to access current employment publications and access valuable IT resources.  Without these, ordinary people become disenfranchised from  our digital culture.  Tough economic times should prompt us to safeguard library services, not cut them."  

The library is open to anyone who lives, works, studies or pays property taxes in the State of New York, that's 19,541,453 residents alone.  They also make special provision to highlight specific library resources and help for job seekers.  This is just one instance of library cutbacks threatening services, there are many more across the UK and further afield.  I realise that I don't have the unenviable job of balancing the books every year, and that there's a lot to pay for with less and less money, but I believe that cutting funding to public libraries is nothing but a short term solution.

Why blog? From a Next Gen Blogger

A simple question and one I'm surprised not to have tackled yet.  Actually I know why I haven't dealt with this one.  The question is hard and most answers to it are emotionally charged and naff or hopelessly over-optimistic.  The only reason I'm lifting this poisoned chalice is because Andy Priestner's Twitter feed planted the idea in my head and because 23 Things Cambridge is due to start, and I should start writing about a wider range of library issues, rather than just twitter, browsers and beer.

So why do people write blogs?  Let's look at a few of the classic contenders:

The Journal Writer

At worst can be characterised by self-indulgent navel gazing, but at best can be insightful and deeply interesting, if mildly voyeuristic!  The Journal Writer has done this before, has probably kept a diary since childhood.  They have an amazing ability to sketch out thoughts with genuine ease, characterised by their confessional style they put themselves at the centre of the content.  

The Wannabe Journalist

Has a strong sense of brand and image, and is a strong flavour to match.  Love them or hate them, their excellent sense of point and idea provokes debate, and occasionally skirts close to polemic.  Perhaps has a tendency to write self-help guides, articles and reviews, and hopes the blog (usually part of a wider web presence) will lead to future successes.  

And the most unfortunate kind...

The Office Expert

Also known as the poor bugger.  So you can install simple software, fix minor computing problems,  and you don't use CD-ROMs as coasters; this talent, according to your boss, makes you the ideal candidate to write the company/departmental/darts team blog.  Never mind that you don't understand the content you have to write, the market you should aim for and that no one else will contribute in the writing of this dead albatross that is rapidly going mouldy around your neck.

To make matters worse, this kind of lousy experience is likely to put you off trying anything interactive online again.  Hell, you're only here because you can print the right way up on headed notepaper first time.  Take heart in the flowchart!

Don't get me wrong, sometimes a blog is exactly what your organisation needs, but often it is just something that a senior manager heard about at a conference and has decided on one for no better reason than trend, usually an old trend by that point.  Web presence  isn't for everyone, and even if it is for you the type of presence you need isn't necessarily a blog.  Adam Maltpress, my web consultant of choice, has some wise words on his approach to creating a web presence:

"I just listen to what you want, tell you what might be good or bad ideas, then make it work.

That might mean creating you a web strategy which fits with your other communications - you know, "synergistically". It might mean guiding you through the basics of search engines, social networking, blogging and e-commerce. It might mean building you a site. It might mean managing your existing suppliers. Or it might mean telling you that a website's not what you need. Don't worry - I don't charge for that."

The Next Gen Blogger.  Have I've just made that up?  Probably.

The office expert leads me on to a new type of blogger and one the one I hope to be.  When new types of social media become mainstream all sorts of people get on the bandwagon, now that this new innovation has been proven to have a relatively wide appeal and will not negatively impact on your organisation it becomes imperative that you must get one.  Immediately.  Even if you don't know how it works, whether it suits your business or not.  These rushed blogs often become stale when they should be dynamic, are badly structured and don't speak to their audience.  This doesn't just apply to corporate blogs, but to anyone who considers themselves a brand or wants to target a specific audience.

Reacting to this, the next generation blogger uses their blog in a subtly different way.  It's still a web presence, it still represents them, their ideas and thoughts, but rather than just being a place to showcase them it becomes a place to form them.  It sounds pathetic to admit it but I do think of myself as a bit of a brand.  I try to keep my web presences unified: twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. so people can find me and so that a good idea on one site is associated with the others.  I'm not fanatical about attracting followers, but I want my ideas to be heard.  I work in a fairly isolated role, so reaching out to people is very important to me.    Twitter is my main means of communication, but there are things I can't say in 140 characters, and that's where beauty_school_dropout comes in handy.  That's a pretty obvious use, a little less so is that keeping a blog helps me think.

I suppose it depends how your brain works, but I find fleshing out ideas in words helps me make to sense of them and draw my own conclusions.  It's also the case that I tend to forget about things, especially films and books, if I don't go through the intellectual activity of reviewing them.  I'll be sketching a quick pen portrait of a novel I've read and suddenly connections to other works become obvious.  It's not just about the technique of reviewing: this started out as a short post and look where we are!  I've had so many ideas since I started writing, many more than I would have if I'd just linked to the two resources at the bottom of this- both of them are written by men with beards, but that's all they have in common.

So why blog?  To get your message out, or at least off your chest.  To clear up confusion in your own mind and make concepts easier to understand for others.  To form a record of your thougths and experiences, from the software you've toyed with to the beers you've quaffed.  Most importantly for me, as a valuable reflection tool.

Extra Credit:

Why I Blog - Magazine - The Atlantic - Highly Recommended
Top Reasons Why I Blog | Online Social Networking

Minimalist.

So, this week I've been thinking, talking and writing about my secret love affair with Google Chrome.

I have lots of secret love affairs, most of them are bad relationships: trashy adventure novels I stay up until 2 am reading, Twiglets which are antisocial to munch.  Some of them are wrong but good.  I count Stephen King in there no matter how many people pooh-pooh him, chillies too: sometimes I fear what they are doing to my stomach lining, but they have vitamin C in, so they can't be wholly evil.

I think that the 'don't be evil' corporation's Chrome may be another one of those good for me secret affairs.  I have got the hang of the download function, I'm impressed with how easy it is to create and manage bookmarks.  I'm a bit confused that it's built-in spell checker doesn't recognise the word Google, but there you go.  Xmarks aside- I never leave the house without Xmarks- I've held off on fully exploring the extensions, perhaps that would be too much of a betrayal of Firefox.

Aside from what's under the bonnet of Chrome, what I like about it is the sleek minimalism of the design.  I don't like clutter, I don't like lots of buttons, and I want to be able to customise it so that key functions are where I expect them to be, not where the designer thinks they ought to be.  Customizability and a fuss-free interface are some of the reasons I'm such a fan of Firefox, and why I gave Safari a good long go before I gave it up.  It's also what makes Apple products so enviably gorgeous, but the Scot within is not prepared to pay the price premium for that.

The good news is that you can enjoy beautiful, pared down design for almost-free on the web.  I stumbled across this article from Smashing Magazine on minimalist web-design this morning, via the Librarian in Black's twitter feed.  As well as tips on how to strip back on unnecessary content, use white or blank space to your advantage, and hints on image choices it showcases some mouthwatering examples of good design.  The example on the left is from Anothercompany.  The monochrome image in the centre makes a strong statement and it's fabulously clutter-free.  Sadly it is under construction, so not much more than eye candy at present, but I find it an attractive design, and by far my favourite from the examples featured in the article.

beauty_school_dropout used to sport a basic black and grey design; I have missed the simplicity of the layout since my revamp, but I think it was well intentioned but boring.  Perhaps I'll do a bit more research and have a rethink.

Lake District Vignettes: Beer- the main course

Where we venture into comfortable hostelries and sup.

As we are both sad librarian types, Marsh and I planned a pub crawl around Ambleside using the internet.  This research proved invaluable as did the local Camra magazine Lakes and Ale- you know, fail to prepare, prepare to fail, and all that.

So here are our favourites and one to avoid.

Conveniently located at the bottom of our street, and a Good Beer guide regular, we very much enjoyed the time we spent in the Golden Rule.  The Rule is everything a Northern pub should be, right down to the velveteen banquettes and cosy snugs.  No music, no food, but a good variety of ales, all well kept and served.  Marsh opted for Robinson's Dizzy Blonde while I, unsportingly felt drawn to the Grolsch.

First food of the trip was taken in the Unicorn; decent pub grub and particularly good old-school puddings with custard- Marsh was happy!  Impressive selection of Hartley's and Robinson's ales, Hartley's XB and Robinson's Unicorn deserve a mention.

The White Lion really deserved a second visit but time sadly got the better of us, which was a shame as they had beers from the Kewsick Brewing Company on tap, Thirst Fall I think.  Keswick's Thirst Run one of my Desert Island beers: I love the stuff.

Let's get the one to avoid over with before the final flourish.

In 1999 my local brewery paid for me and a bunch of other school-leavers from the North West to experience life in another country; we went to China for the best part of three weeks.  I'd never been on a plane before, never been out of the country, I'd just turned 19 and it was an amazing experience.  I've always been happy to pay them back in pints.  I've drank a lot of Thwaites bitter in Blackburn and Darwen and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Keswick Lodge (predictably, in Keswick) for beer, food or a bed for the night, but all these good experiences made the Sportsman's Arms in Ambleside even more of a let down.  Marsh and I necked the halves I'd fortuitously ordered as quickly as we could.  We were the only souls in there and there was a choice of four draught options, and one of those was Coke.  The barman had indicated that the manager had lost interest, they only money they seemed to be making was from the less than inspiring 'party room' downstairs.  There was plenty of Sambuca on offer, but we'd come in for a pint of Wainwright.  A shame.

Now for some good news.  Despite being an outside runner the Queen's Hotel provided our beer of the week.  True, it wasn't a cosy or snug, and in some ways it was a bit on the posh side- change out of your boots and waterproofs before you go- but they had a very pleasant and knowledgeable barman.  Sporting an excellent range of ales on tap, the highlight had to be the Yates' Bitter: even a dedicated lager drinker like me was itching for a last pint of it before we went.  Luckily for us the Booth's in Bowness had a plentiful supply which we bought most of!

Firefox 4!

Firefox 4 is due for release in November; it can't come too soon because my flirtation with Chrome is looking worryingly like the beginning of a relationship!

Mike Beltzner is promising us a "super-duper fast" browser which will be HTML5 ready, and feature a pared down user interface.  You can find the slides from Mozilla's presentation on Mike's blog.  You'll see that the interface borrows heavily from the sleek simplicity preferred by Chrome, something that gets a big thumbs up from me.  Of course looking good doesn't make it any faster or more effective, but who wants an ugly, clunky browser?  Another attractive point is that user generated add-ons won't loose their functionality just because the browser is overhauled, this is all thanks to Jetpack.

Points mooted at the presentation and ideas in the pipeline include dedicated twitter and Gmail tabs and Chrome-like background updates, saving you precious seconds during the initial boot, or possibly minutes if you live in the sticks like me and like your add-ons!

I don't think this is Chrome with a Firefox skin, although some people will feel that Firefox is leaning in too close to their rival.  As much as I'm enjoying using Chrome at the moment, I still feel that Firefox has more to offer the user.  I prefer their download manager, and the range of add-ons/ extensions is better and broader.

Beta could be out in June, but no plans are finalised, so expect to see some changes.

Further Reading:

Mozilla firms up Firefox 4 plans | News | PC Pro
Mozilla spills plan for, yes, Firefox 4 • The Register 

Picture credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricplan/8539419/ used under a Creative Commons licence

Do you, ahem, Foursquare? Perhaps you should.

I read on Mashable that Foursquare has just clocked its 40 millionth check in.  If you've not heard of Foursquare, it is location specific social networking; its very big in the US where WiFi is better established, but is growing in the UK too- there's  even an entry for Cambridge University Library.

The idea is that you use your mobile device to log your location and interact with others.  In the library setting it might be seeking help or organising visits to the Tea Room; your device scanning the area for your Facebook and twitter friends.  Each location also has a 'mayor', and you can gain prizes and rewards for your social interactions- very clever when you consider the popularity of social networking games of the Farmville ilk.

Where Foursquare is really making an impact is in how it interacts with the commercial sector.  Foursquare users can share short reviews and recommendations on everything from films to cocktails to food in the locations they happen to be.  Eager to be part of the instant buzz this can create, businesses are offering special deals to Foursquare users.

I'm going to leave all the safety concerns about sharing your geographical locations with others aside for the moment, although lots of people have voiced concerns.  What makes Foursquare so interesting fro me is the way that it has successfully blended social and work interaction with the commercial sphere; this is probably what interests Facebook too.

Facebook is about to go local, which may concern Google as Facebook's ability to market targeted ads will now become localized.  McDonald's are going to be first to try it and I predict that the coffee guys, in all their incarnations will not be far behind.  In practice this may mean that as I'm a member of a Facebook group called Burger Thursday, I may need never hunt around for a McDonald's again.  Joy.

Over a year ago I posted an article (initially on Facebook) about how twitter was changing our interactions with each other, the piece was prompted by a Facebook redesign incorporating twitter-style status updates. I said in that article:

"Twitter more than Facebook is becoming the place where business and pleasure and meeting."

Facebook was playing catchup then and I think they still are.  The library fan pages we set up haven't been the dynamic, interactive start pages we hoped they'd be, undergraduates are more likely to listen in to our twitter feeds to find out about events at the library.  I'm not saying Foursquare is the next big thing, but something like it will be: something mobile, which allows users to connect with each other and with business in a way that suits them.  


Further Reading:


Foursquare Seeks to Turn Nightlife Into a Game - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Why Foursquare Drives Business: What You Need to Know | Social Media Examiner