Mod Librarian

Are you familiar with stemming? In linguistics, stemming is essentially reducing a word to its root. For example, the word ‘fish’ is the stem of fishing, fisher, fisherman and others. “Discuss” is the root of discussion and discussing.

Stemming algorithms have long been used in search and SEO to increase the results associated with any given term. Keyword stemming involves the strategic use of synonyms and alternative keywords. Here is a great list of tips for using this concept in SEO.

Until last week, it did not occur to me to employ this strategy to my advantage in planning the controlled vocabulary behind the DAM system I work with. Our keyword field specifically has been littered with all forms of nouns and verbs increasing the size of the list.

I did some research on the configuration of our DAM and it turns out that one simple line in the search file, Stemming = TRUE (or FALSE), was all that was needed to ensure that if we entered the term baby, the search results would also include babies. If we entered farm, we would also get farms and farmers and farming. It is like magic, our keyword list is more concise and precise as a result and consistency improves as well.

Here are 5 things to talk about with your information fanatic friends:

1. Did you know Duke University’s images appeared on History Detectives?
2. Is digitization different than digital preservation?
3. Want to make your own book? Try Blurb.
4. What is the connection between a social graph, “liking” and library data?
5. Need some more on personal branding?

BONUS: Make your iPhone look like a vintage volume.

Check out this lovely metadata scheme for art and architecture images created by the University of Oregon Libraries Digital Images Initiative. Part crosswalk and part data dictionary, this simple scheme (UO-AAI) combines the best of VRA Core and Dublin Core. Authorities are clearly delineated with the usual suspects of ULAN, TGN and AAT at the forefront and it provides a solid framework for anyone seeking to manage a digital visual resource collection.

Ostensibly, this scheme was created to manage the rich resources available at UO’s Art and Architecture Library. Collections range from those originating from Oregon libraries like Oregon Digital, a joint effort by OSU and UO to the standard issue Artstor or Oxford Art Online.

From historic sheet music to Oregon state baseball, the collections employ the UO-AAI scheme in a CONTENTdm environment which is easy to search and browse.

For years I have been talking about the standardization of stock image rights parameters. As an art buyer/producer and later working in the stock industry, I observed many different models for calculating rights-managed licenses. Add to that original photography and usage stipulations can be wide-ranging and often confusing to end users.

Finally a solution is underway. Meet the PLUS Coalition, a group with the mission “To simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights.” Drawing on the vast expertise of stock industry veterans, visual resource associations, artist representatives, photographers and publishers, PLUS intends to stay away from pricing and focus on standardization of rights parameters.

Here are the main ways that PLUS will improve Rights Management:

• Standardize license data
• Provide machine readable, worldwide standards for communicating an image license
• Create license reference codes that can be embedded in image headers and invisible watermarks on printed images
• Allow for better monitoring and policing of image distribution and use
• Allow customers to easily track image licenses and avoid unintentional infringement
• Discourage claims of innocent infringement

Yes, you’ve got it - 5 things to inspire discourse:

1. Whatever will Google do with facial recognition company PittPatt?
2. What will life be like in the year 2050?
3. Would you like to see some of the best photography from National Geographic?
4. Want to learn about fellow library professionals participating in the Library Day in the Life Project?
5. Have an idea for the AMIA conference on digital audivisual asset management?

Imagine the challenge of indexing interdisciplinary research data on the internet, perhaps research pertaining to endangered Chilean flamencos as relating to the salt flats of Bolivia and the impact of environmental factors resulting from nearby uranium mines on the migration of the species.

Not only is that a lot of information, but to successfully index this material for optimal retrieval, a metadata specialist might have to explore a number of specialized vocabularies to select the correct terms. These challenges are being addressed via the Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Engineering (HIVE) project, led by a research team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Metadata Research Center (MRC), in collaboration with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)  in Durham, N.C.

Essentially, one can search multiple specialized vocabularies simultaneously to choose the best term. In much the same way that PACASEARCH aggregates image search results from multiple stock photo sites, the HIVE project will enable mega search of multiple vocabularies and ultimately supports automatic metadata generation.

Try the HIVE demo here. There are only a few vocabularies in there so far, but it is impressive nonetheless!

How many of you fully explore the pre-installed programs on your computer? Well, thank goodness a recent post by Leala Abbott hipped me to the amazing tool on Mac OS - the Automator.

Like many people working with digital asset management, I often need to create lists of filenames, rename files, document folder contents and a variety of other tedious tasks. Looks like the Automator can help with that and much more. It reminds me of creating an Action in Photoshop - you select the steps you’d like in order and then run the workflow.

You can also use Automator to filter email messages, clean up your iTunes, combine PDF pages, scale images and manage your fonts. It seems the only thing the Automator does not do is make coffee.

Here are five topics to ponder:

1. Want to explore eJournal use by subject? Read this from the eclectic librarian.
2. Interested in ways to use web scale discovery tools without visiting library sites?
3. If you’re a Digital Asset Manager, ever wonder how to describe your job without boring people?
4. Do you ever wonder what it would be like if actual physical books had lending restrictions as complex as ebooks?
5. Are you experiencing information overload? Wait, it will get worse…

BONUS: student research journal from the San Jose State SLIS program

Don’t we all need another standard or schema for web page markup? Fear not, the folks at Google, Bing and Yahoo! have collaborated on Schema.org - “to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines. On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results. A shared markup vocabulary makes easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts.

Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!

You use the schema.org vocabulary, along with the microdata format, to add information to your HTML content. While the long term goal is to support a wider range of formats, the initial focus is on Microdata. This guide will help get you up to speed with microdata and schema.org, so that you can start adding markup to your web pages.”

To me, this schema, based on RDF, is akin in simplicity to Dublin Core and a boon to those wishing to ensure their content is understood by those sometimes obtuse search engines.

Last fall, I had the pleasure of working on an amazing digital project at The Seattle Public Library during my Student Librarianship. The Century 21 Exposition Digital Collection features ephemera and photos from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. From the modern Googie inspired architecture to the pavilions highlighting futuristic innovations, the Century 21 Exposition was a milestone event.

The SPL collection contains many photos by a local photographer, Werner Lenggenhager who captured a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the fair from construction to demolition. I was lucky to be involved in the metadata planning, scanning, and uploading of quite a few of the images in the collection. The final landing page and the search and browse features offer multiple ways to view the collection. Take a look at the photo of a man holding a giant crab in the Alaska Pavilion or the Belgian Waffle House.

Special Collections at SPL has done a marvelous job of curating and displaying these materials. Go back to the future!

Here are five interesting topics for summer discussion:

1. Need to do some research on anthropology? Here is a good starting point.
2. Would you like to find a good book to read? Try Book Crossing.
3. Have fun with translation here.
4. Did you know there is a collection of TV intros?
5. What would Don Draper do?

There is a thought provoking post on the Go to Hellman blog about various metadata topics, library linked data and advances in facial recognition tools for identifying photo content.

Why is this important? The post raises some excellent points about how library data is created, how much data is optimal for optimization, and also why libraries need to think about promoting the findability of collections by employing search engine optimization techniques on existing library data.

As I have said before, any type of automated data - whether OCR text or Facebook photo tagging - requires an actual human to vet accuracy. Imagine the possibilities of image recognition software in an industry focused on visual resources.

Here is a fascinating visual tracking the prevalence of Flickr and Twitter users by photographer Eric Fischer. He employed geotags to map social media use and a couple of things are immediately apparent. For one thing, people in the middle of the US seems largely uninterested in Flickr and Twitter compared to both coasts. Why?

Here are some explosively exciting LIS topics and resources:

1. Want to craft a crafty Tweet?
2. Do you need to know almost everything about e-Books?
3. Would you like a recent update on RDA?
4. Learn about the 3M alternative to Overdrive.
5. Peruse the application guidelines for the Institute for Museum and Library Services Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums project.

The University of Washington recently became the first library in the United States to use RISM metadata for a music manuscript digital collection. RISM or Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is a “multinational, non-profit joint venture which aims for comprehensive documentation of extant musical sources worldwide” The efforts of the RISM community help to make worldwide musical resources more accessible to all.

On a related note, IPTC recently launched the Embedded Metadata Manifesto for digital media content. This manifesto contains many saliant points including the fact that copyright information must never be removed from a media asset and that people working with media need to be aware of the importance of metadata for retrieval.

Go media metadata!

This week’s selections focus on books, libraries, collections and related topics:

1. Would you like The Seattle Public Library to help you find your next five books just in time for summer reading?
2. Did you know the Kansas City Library facade looks like a bookshelf?
3. Want to read more on libraries and e-book ownership?
4. What if the British Library teamed up with Google to digitize 250,000 books?
5. Ever wonder what makes a library school a degree mill?

Like many of you, I am a big fan of a concise, well organized and easy to understand reference guide. Did you know that MIT has one for all things metadata? The MIT Metadata Reference Guide is a wiki with lots of information on standards, mapping, terms and uses of metadata.

There are project examples and reading recommendations and even some nifty crosswalks. While many of the project examples and readings are a little older, the content is both valuable, relavent and remains current. This would be a great starting point for students trying to gain a basic understanding of metadata or for a librarian that needs a refresher.

Here’s a thought provoking idea. Instead of calling yourself a librarian, how about information ninja?

According to a recent presentation at CLA as well as a nice summary on the blog Cataloging Futures, space age librarians can transform into information ninjas by embracing the following skills:

- Information Retrieval - determining the best way to find, manage and access resources regardless of the system, format or location.

- Cataloging - moving away from traditional records and towards metadata and user tagging.

- Classification - establishing common, interoperable practices.

- Tech Savvy - learning about search, structured and unstructured content, digital preservation and retention.

Here are five topics to keep you on your toes this summer.

1. Want to know how to set up a brand page on FB without a personal profile?
2. Need a way to test some fonts?
3. Would you like to know more about digital storytelling?
4. Interested in the 100 best movies of the decade? 
5. Read more about qualities like flexibility and adaptability being keys to future success in LIS.

Here’s another snippet related to Linked Open Data. As you may imagine, one wrinkle in sharing cultural heritage and other materials in digital collections is copyright. To ameliorate some of the concerns surrounding the intellectual property rights, LOD-LAM proposes a 4-star classification scheme for linked open cultural metadata.

While you can read more about this ranking system both here at the LOD-LAM blog and here at the Open Knowledge Foundation Blog, the summary of the rankings is as follows:

**** Public Domain (pre 1923 and other cases)

*** Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY) where the licensor considers linkbacks to meet the attribution requirement

** Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY) with another form of attribution defined by the licensor

* Attribution Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA/ODC-ODbL)

Instead of information architecture, sometimes digital archivists need information about architecture to classify assets and assign subject headings and keywords.

Here are two resources to help in building a solid vocabulary as a foundation for an architecture collection. First and foremost, the Getty Vocabularies are the place to start. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary or authority list that can be used to assign data values or aid users in retrieval. Truly amazing!

Need help learning how to identify architectural types and styles? Check out the Great Buildings Collection site for a list of architecural types linked to tangible examples.

You will feel like Frank Lloyd Wright in no time.

Here are five more things to tantalize your gray matter:

1. Have you seen the Canine Research Collection in the OSU Special Collections?
2. What is the DAM Foundation?
3. Pondering librarian fashion? Check out this piece on the librarian wardrobe and librarian shoes on Flickr.
4. Want to communicate your value with an infographic resume?
5. Why was King County Library System named library of the year by Library Journal?

Would you like to easily create and embed Dublin Core metadata in your digital images? Check out this truly awesome tool by Matt Milller and Chris Mullin at Pratt - Embedded MetaData Explorer. Upload a photo or enter a URL and you will see the metadata that already exists. There is also an option to embed or edit Dublin Core. When selected, a template pops up featuring all the DC elements as fillable fields. As a bonus - up to nine Subject fields.

When you are ready to go, embed the data and download. Boom! Instant metadata.

Visual image search has come a long way indeed. Check out these products by pixolution, including an iPhone app. From sorting images based on their visual similarity to suggesting semantically similar images, pixolution products are like magic. Try the demo for Pixolu image search, for instance. Type in a word like ‘cat,’ behold the massive amount of cute kitty cat faces and then select a couple of your favorites. Choose ‘get similar images’ and the visual search technology locates shots that resemble the original selects.

Another company with a long history in visual image search is Idée. The reverse search engine TinEye can locate an image on the web. Upload a photo or choose the URL for the image in question and uses PixMatch - an API-based, automated image matching solution. Given an image to look for, it locates identical or modified images within or between large scale image collections.

Finally, did you ever wish there was an easier way to tag images? Have trouble with keywording your images to maximize findability? Want more image search and similarity suggestions? Well, a company called imense® makes cutting-edge products which revolutionize the analysis, search and annotation of digital images and video.

Here are five fun topics to discuss in the sun this weekend:

1. Would you work in a small town to get started in the LIS field?
2. Want to read about curation in Fast Company?
3. Should you learn SQL, an oft ignored skill in LIS programs?
4. Are you troubled by the algorithms ruling our web lives?
5. Want to round things out with some thoughts on digital preservation?

The hot topic of library circles in recent weeks appears to be linked data. While I feel like a trendspotter for recognizing this, I would like to say more. One recent blog post on the topic on the SLA Future Ready 365 site called vocabularies the “magic glue” holding data together. Vocabularies promote standardization, establish linkages, and ultimately allow for mapping of search queries to the correct information.

Findability, again? Vocabulary, taxonomy, thesauri and linked data in partnership can indeed lead to increased retrieval of relevant information. The challenge is that many organizations put the cart before the horse and often skip or curtail the valuable planning stages of a digital project where vocabulary creation or selection can be established.

Here are a couple of informative links featured in Alexander Polonsky’s SLA post that demonstrate the importance of vocabulary in the success of linked data:

• Linked Data at the Library of Congress: http://id.loc.gov/authorities/about.html
• Linked Data presentation from National Library of Sweden: http://code4lib.org/files/LIBRIS_code4lib.pdf

Doesn’t text indexing of video assets sound a little like magic? Last year, when YouTube (Google) added auto captioning for videos by employing some of the speech-to-text algorithms found in Google’s Voice Search to automatically generate captions, critics wondered how well it would work.

Another DAM product touting a “meaning-based rich media management platform” is Autonomy’s MediaBin. At the heart of this innovation is “the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) which allows businesses to automate the processing of all rich media assets. IDOL forms a conceptual understanding that allows marketers to automatically tag and classify any rich media asset, regardless of format or language.”

Sounds incredible, right? I would imagine both of these processes works about as well as any automated metadata generation which means it is probably partially amazing and accurate. While I agree that the exponential amount of disparate media information ingested in corporate DAM systems required automation with a minimization of manual intervention, I just do not think an entirely automated solution can really interpret nuances like an actual person with a live brain.

Hence, the need for live people to manage DAM within organizations. Digital asset managers can maintain consistency, spearhead innovation, streamline processes, and ensure asset findability.

Here are five hot topics for rumination this week:

1. Want to read about robots retrieving books in the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library (complete with more ranting about Seth Godin)?
2. What do you get when you combine a recommendation engine with art? Well, Artfinder, of course.
3. Can games inviting users to tag images help with archival findability?
4. Would you like to read more about the role of open data in transforming our bibliographic framework?
5. Check out what librarians said about e-books and the digital divide at BookExpo America.

Did you know that people will be talking about Linked Open Data in San Francisco this week at the International Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives, and Museums Summit (“LOD-LAM”)?

This looks like a fascinating event with leaders in multidisciplinary metadata hashing out policies and pondering answers to questions like whether 25-50% adoption of OAI-MPH by member agencies is really enough to warrant the time and effort required for interoperability and sharing. Can this protocol be simplified to promote consistent use?

The article Beyond OAI-MPH by Richard J. Urban raises some thought provoking points and is the source of some fabulous related resources.

Want to learn more about W3’s Linking Open Data task forces and resources too? Try this site full of information.

Museums and libraries continue to explore new methods of engaging patrons. The Portland Art Museum’s Object Stories project is a fine example.

“The Portland Art Museum offers a unique opportunity to share your story about an object that is meaningful to you. Do you have something you would never give up? Like a favorite childhood toy, a military medal, or a memento? Something that lives on your wall, your mantle, or buried in a corner of your dresser? Something that evokes a time or person in your life, a place you miss, or something you hope for?”

The museum has set up an easy to use interactive booth for recording the stories. Simply bring your object of choice, be prepared to talk about it, and sign a form granting the museum the rights to use your story online, in the museum exhibit and to archive it.

Check out this fascinating collection here. I bet you can’t watch just one. Evocative of StoryCorps, this project is sheer genius.

Like many librarians, I like to visit exotic libraries when I am travelling to different cities. I am in Portland, Oregon for Memorial Day weekend and happy to report that the Central location of the Multnomah County Library is right around the corner from my hotel.

This library is a stately old structure, well kept, and fittingly restored. The layout incorporates modern elements like the ubiquitous computer terminals in an unobtrusive fashion.

The flow of the library is brilliant. My favorite part was the room to the left of the entrance lobby called the Popular Library. This room housed the reference desk, fiction, myteries, large print, sci fi, DVD’s and holds. Everything a patron would want is all in one lovely and intuitively named spot.

The best part was that the library was hopping on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Interestingly enough, so was Powell’s Books. I guess books and libraries are not dead yet…

Here is a list of five things, four of which have nothing to do with Seth Godin’s ideas on the future of libraries:

1. Want to read a fantastic article on institutional repositories and digital preservation?
2. Should robots be lending library books at BART stations in the Bay Area?
3. Do you need a mentor in book form? Read this.
4. Would a wheelbarrow full of cash stop non-librarians from commenting on libraries?
5. Does it seem odd that the Internet Archive is launching a physical archive?

I just researched and implemented a new circulation system for fifteen cruise ship libraries. The collections consist of approximately 2500-3K books and a couple hundred board games on each ship.

After vetting many programs and finding that most were too complex for our minimalist cataloging needs, I found one that offered great ease in importing Excel files to populate library records and more importantly borrower information. In addition, I was limited by the lack of internet access onboard and needed a dedicated solution on each ship.

Simple Library Organizer by PrimaSoft fit the bill and even better, when I started to ask questions about using custom metadata fields for borrower information like Stateroom Number and Departure Date, PrimaSoft simple added the fields and offered me a fully customized solution. This is one of the only library software products specifically for use on a cruise ship.

The lesson here? Why not ask for what you need? It was a similar experience to using an open source solution and custom coding. Now, I have a product that will work even better than the out of the box solution.

I just ran across one of the most succinct and helpful explanations of keywords for stock photography ever written on the Veer site. These guidelines or FAQ’s designed for contributing artists, explain in plain English why keywords are important, how a controlled vocabulary is utilized to map terms, and how ambiguity is the enemy (entering the term chick on an image of a hot babe will map to the term for baby chickens).

Vocabulary and visual resources are two of my main areas of interest and I have done a lot of research on the information available for the users and contributors to stock image sites. The Veer site exceeds any of the other materials I have vetted.

Veer is a division of Corbis and certainly has evolved as a brand that lives up to the promise of an uncomplicated user experience. From the site design and organization to the pricing structure, the content is easy to locate and easy to buy with terms that are easy to understand.

Here are 5 things to inspire your inner LIS enthusiast:

1. Have you heard of the company littleBits?
2. Would you like simpler file upload in Google docs?
3. What happens in a world transcending 26 checkouts?
4. Would your ears like to hear the LOC National Jukebox?
5. What are employers looking for these days? SLA has some insight.

I read a really insightful post about the “minimum viable record” recently on The Open Library Blog. In it, George Oates discusses amongst other things the rational order of library metadata and how much description is enough to enable optimal retrieval.

George posts an amazing presentation he gave in February as well as the exciting results of a survey conducted during that presentation. The data collected is not surprising by any means, but reveals the most popular viable fields selected by the audience.

Here are my minimum viable fields:

- Identifier

- Title

- Creator

- Date

- Subject (repeatable)

My bonus field would be Format.

In case you want to marvel about more metadata than you can shake a stick at, check out this super cool metadata visualization. My head spins when I think about how many metadata standards abound.

Lately I have been reviewing some resumes of library professionals and conducting some phone interviews as part of my job. I have been pondering several things about librarian job search techniques as well as job hunting in general. Here are some observations followed by two really relevant blog posts on the subject.

• When you customize a resume, make sure you attach the right one when applying to a position online. I ran across several cover letters and resumes that were obviously created for other positions.
• Spell check. Proofread. Pay attention to grammar.
• Do some research on the company, university or library.
• Don’t include information that is not required (transcripts, for instance).
• If you have a wide range of experience, address the skills that most apply to the position at hand in the cover letter.

These may seem obvious, but careful attention to detail is paramount when applying for a position that demands attention to detail.

Here are two great resources on library job searching:

• From Hack Lib School ALCTS Job Search Resources
• From SLA Future Ready Applying for a Library Position

On a similar subject, I have been thinking a lot about librarians that end up in positions drastically different from their concentrations in graduate school - metadata geeks and taxonomy nerds selecting book group titles or aspiring reference librarians behind the scenes in technical services. If nothing else, it seems that librarians lucky enough to find library related work in these challenging times should be able to demonstrate versatility and adaptability in spades when it is finally time to refocus.

Here are five amazing topics for discourse:

1. Would you like to track social media referrals in Google Analytics? Here’s how.
2. Is cursive writing dead?
3. Are you ready to explore any library’s digital collection reality?
4. Are you an MLIS student in need of a great future ready toolkit?
5. Ready to ponder this statistic-filled Infographic: Anatomy of a Librarian?

Bonus: 16 drinks named for authors and their books…

Crowdsourcing may seem like a divergence from metadata, however, I recently read an interesting article about the mobile efforts of the Smithsonian and it made me think about how to organize information aggregated from various contributors.

The article contrasts the Smithsonian’s historical information collection methods from telegraph to mobile device. “Today, the Smithsonian has even more powerful social media and mobile platforms that enable it to “recruit the world” to help with its important work.”

Take the Smithsonian Flickr Commons as an example. The list of tags alone conveys the complexity of digitally displaying and organizing even a small subset of Smithsonian collection holdings. Metadata control is one of the only surefire methods of ensuring findability.

The clever curators at the Duke Digital Collections have compiled a humorous look at mothers. Culling from the archives filled with advertising images, Rich Murray fills his blog post with commentary on the somewhat unusual nature of mom imagery used in ads. My favorite is an ad for Postum, a coffee-free beverage designed to prevent anxious ladies from being nervous and irritable.

Perhaps I should drink that by the gallon. Anyway, happy mother’s day, moms!

Grab some guacamole and check out cinco LIS things to nibble.

1. Did you know that designers like books? Here is a site that tells you which books designers covet.
2. Would you like to see some awesomely bad school portraits?
3. Want to read some interesting thoughts on the concept of a universal library?
4. Are you interested in deploying a preservation-compliant media asset system?
5. Do you like DOI’s in your metadata mix?

Bonus: some pretty wallpaper for your iPhone.

Remember liner notes? I really did like reading all about the songs I was listening to and finding out about all the cool musicians on every David Bowie album inspiring me to buy an Adrian Belew album and ultimately learning more about King Crimson.

Nowadays, music is so cold and digital. Then, along comes Decibel who claims to be the answer to music metadata lending context and depth to your modern music experience.

Check out this blog post and video. If this works for music, couldn’t it work for everything? It makes my head spin like a record player.

Back in the days before iPods, there was a program called Desert Island Discs. The concept was that you were stranded on a desert island and had to choose only eight albums or CD’s to listen to forever.

Well, I am working a on a project I call Desert Island Reference. In a world where the Internet is the preferred method of beginning any reference search, followed by databases and then print sources, I am trying to plan a small and useful core print reference collection for cruise ship libraries.

Cruise ships sometimes have slow or limited Internet access. Therefore, it is important to have 25-50 volumes on hand to help Librarians answer a wide range of general reference questions. I know I need an almanac, atlas, biographical dictionary and single volume encyclopedia, regular dictionary, thesaurus and Leonard Maltin’s movie guide.

What would you put in your Desert Island Reference collection?

Want 5 things to talk about this weekend with your nerdy little friends? Try this:

1. How about those Kindles in libraries? Go, Amazon!
2. Want some nifty ideas about how to use QR codes in libraries?
3. Are you open to non traditional career paths for librarians? I was…
4. Is copyright an entertaining subject? YouTube makes it so…
5. Who would win in a library war?

I am proud to be a published author. Behold, my article in the PNLA Quarterly entitled “The Seattle Public Library Century 21 Collection: Balancing Metadata Complexity, Processing Expediency, and User Experience.”

In case this article looks too intimidating and boring for you, here are the finer points related to creating a metadata element set that is customized to your particular project.

• Know your metadata schemes - having an idea of what is available, gives you an idea on elements you can choose from
• Know your audience - how will users search for images? Is the photographer important or the location?
• Know the limitations of your collection management system - does CONTENTdm work better with Dublin Core?
• Know your resources - can I really assign 24 elements/values per image with a staff of one?
• Know what to automate - should I use the same description for all assets in the same collection?

I hope that whatever you are contemplating for your digital collection turns out as amazing as this Century 21 project.

2011 Mover and Shaker Andy at the Agnostic, Maybe blog had a beyond brilliant idea inspired by the new Morgan Spurlock movie POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Why not introduce advertising and product placement into libraries?

Here’s the thing. I worked in libraries and then I worked in advertising for over a decade and now I am a bona fide librarian working in a corporate setting. Corporations have money that they use to buy media or product placement to reach their particular niche target markets.

Libraries - public and academic - draw unique demographics. Libraries tend to have a lot of space that can be utilized for ads as well as opportunities for cross promotion or product placement. How about the Amazon Kindle Best Seller Corner? Neighborhood Movie Night courtesy of Sony Pictures? Apple Music Studio?

I know that librarians have balked in the past about services that are self sustaining (like the Denver Public Library Digital Collections selling prints) and that many stipulations are placed on federal, state and locally funded entities like libraries forbidding certain types of funding sources and behavior. However, when the typical government funding sources are no longer available, can these parameters persist?

This idea would help advertising agencies too. They are struggling to navigate the new economy the same way that libraries are, albeit with flashier cars and better clothes. Let’s get over ourselves already and do something to keep libraries relevant. Thanks Andy!

Would you like to be a shipboard Librarian? I am looking for some current MLS/MLIS students interested in gaining valuable hands on library experience on a cruise ship.

Check out our itineraries at www.hollandamerica.com and then go to the Entertainment website to submit applications at http://entertainment.hollandamerica.com/ under Cruise Staff.

Thanks!

Here are five LIS topics that will leave you hopping with excitement:

1. Do you fear digital corruption?
2. Want to learn how to proofread like a design pro?
3. What happens to posthumous digital data (providing it lasts that long, see #1)?
4. Concerned about eBooks? Now they are number one!
5. Need to track some library stats? Try this.