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.