userslib.com

I’ve just updated the MLibrary 2.0 website to include a link to a few podcasts (thanks to Dave!) from the “MLibrary 2.0: The Future is Now” event we had back in June. There are podcasts of the session introduction from our Associate University Librarian Brenda Johnson and presentations from Kristen Antelman from NCSU and Peter Morville. Here’s a link to the feed.

An article I co-authored just came out in D-Lib Magazine. Its mostly technical, but does touch on some interface issues.

Enhancing Search and Browse Using Automated Clustering of Subject Metadata by Kat Hagedorn, Suzanne Chapman, and David Newman. D-Lib Magazine
July/August 2007, Volume 13 Number 7/8.

Abstract:

…The University of Michigan and the University of California Irvine joined forces to test automatically enhancing metadata records using the Topic Modeling algorithm on the varied OAIster corpus. We created labels for the resulting clusters of metadata records, matched the clusters to an in-house classification system, and developed a prototype that would showcase methods for search and retrieval using the enhanced records. Results indicated that while the algorithm was somewhat time-intensive to run and using a local classification scheme had its drawbacks, precise clustering of records was achieved and the prototype interface proved that faceted classification could be powerful in helping end-users find resources.

As a result of this post, Eric Frierson, Donna Hayward and I bought a poll question on facebook to find out how facebook users prefer to contact their librarians.

Here’s how the poll question appeared in the News Feed of selected Facebook users in the Michigan network:

See the results below

The first thing that stands out is that only 1 out of 200 said they’d prefer to get research help from a librarian on facebook. I don’t suppose this is too surprising because I don’t think people quite yet consider social networking a research tool. I hope this isn’t disconcerting to librarians on facebook because I think there’s still potential here… What I do find really encouraging is that only 38 out of 200 said they weren’t at all interested in contacting a librarian - that’s pretty good! And it looks like in-person interactions are still tops. On a side note, I think it’s really unfortunate that the oldest age range option for the survey is 35-49. So there’s no one over 49 on facebook!?

Yesterday during Scott Martin & Eric Frierson’s MLibrary2.0 Social Networking workshop, Eric mentioned that the UM Usability Working Group has used Facebook to find user testing participants. So here’s a little more information on that…

The Usability Working Group is currently preparing to conduct usability tests on various Library services and finding willing participants is always difficult, even when we offer incentives like we are for this test. We decided to advertise 3 different ways: a news item linked to from the main library homepage, a Facebook marketplace ad, and a Facebook Flyer.

The marketplace listing is free and from what I can tell, the ads only appear on the marketplace listings page. The Flyer is not free and the least amount you can spend is $5 for one day and the ad will be shown to 2,500 users (within the network of your choice) and the ad is larger and appears on the left side of various facebook pages.

We only had the flyer for 1 day, but had the marketplace ad and library website ad for a few days. So, in 5 days we have received 22 total responses. Unfortunately, since we put all our ads up at the same time, it’s difficult to tell where the respondents saw the ad. Perhaps as part of the actual usability tests, we’ll ask them how they found out about our call for participants. What I do know from looking at the web stats, is that there were 45 hits from the marketplace ad and 8 from the flyer. Granted, the marketplace ad was up for much longer, but still I think it turned out to be more successful (and you can’t beat free).

Facebook also offers a poll service. For $6 you can ask one question to a target audience of your choice. Hmmm. I wonder if this could also be useful for getting a quick response about some library issue - like “If your librarian was on facebook, would you add her/him as a friend?”

I (with help from some others) am planning on polling University of Michigan Library users about what library resources they use, what web 2.0 resources they use (and how often), and their perception of the library’s online resources. Does anyone have any suggestions for questions they think would be interesting to include?

A recent British Poll asked internet users about their most hated web terms. Unfortunately, the actual survey report is no where to be found but according to the Communication Overtones blog, the top 10 hated words are (in no order): Folksonomy, Blogosphere, Blog, Netiquette, Blook, Webinar, Vlog, Social Networking, Cookie, and Wiki.

Topping the list of words most likely to make web users “wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard” was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system.

Yahoo Article

13 Book Hacks from LifeHacker. I haven’t tried the 3 library integration tools they mention, but I have used the libX firefox extension (click the link “56 academic and public libraries” to see if there is one for your school) and think it’s pretty useful.

OCLC Worldcat just added list-making functionality. You have to create an account to use it - here’s the FAQ. This is great to see - especially since I’m currently working on something similar.

I’m curious how many people would use something like this if their OPAC offered it (I know some OPACs do have a “my shelf” type thing - but I don’t think they typically allow you to share your list with others).

I think this could be great for profs to make reading lists, or more social Amazon-like lists so you can create a recommended reading list on a topic.

Now available online - The MLibrary2.0 uberfeed!
http://www.lib.umich.edu/lib20/uberfeed.html

LexisNexis recently released survey findings concerning use of web 2.0 technologies by Information Professionals.
Survey on Information Professionals Use of Web 2.0 and Knowledge Management to Add Value to Their Organizations

…nearly four in ten access Weblogs at least weekly (39%), and more than a third access wikis (34%) …More than nine in ten surveyed access news Web sites (92%), and company Web sites (93%) at least weekly (or more often). Video or audio podcasts were rarely accessed. Less than two in ten access video podcasts (16%), or audio podcasts (15%).