Sunday, November 30, 2003

Internet Librarian's Conference 2003

This is an outline of the high points. If you want more information or would like to discuss any of these topics let me know. I do have some copies of PowerPoint lectures I can get to you if you are interested. -- Jenny

E-Library

E-books: the Third Generation

  • People love them (engineering library)
  • Powerpoint slides for this presentation are supposedly at: https://webspace.utexas.edu/dillondj/www/ebook.html
  • Discussed costs, programs, delivery mechanisms and other factors to collecting ebooks.
  • Emphasized the need for bibliographers to be involved

New Age Navigation: Innovative e-Journal Interfaces

  • Concept Space
    • D-Lip Magazine
  • Self Organized Map Index
    • Astronomy and Astrophysics Centre de Donnees Astronomiques de Strasbourg
  • Topic Map
    • High Wire Press
  • Some of these reminded me of the fish-eye view in my home library catalog I have a small version of it on my notebook computer if you want to take a look.

Building a Library with Free Web Resources

  • Books
    • Project Gutenberg
    • Alex
    • Bartleby
    • Etc
  • Periodicals
    • Findarticles vs steep document delivery charges
    • Infotrieve
    • Ingenta
    • Find Articles
    • Magportal
    • AJR (newspapers)
  • When one thing dies, another comes along
    • Pubscience – PolySearch (Peter Jasco

Power Tools for Digital Libraries

  • Scout Portal Toolkit (http://scout.wisc.edu/research/SPT)
    • Strengths: opensource code, off the shelf functionality, standards include Dublin core, flexible, easy to use, totally web based, free
    • Weaknesses: initial releases had bugs, no support for windows
    • Other: can be used on Linux or Windows servers
  • Other products were discussed at length and demonstrated. For more information I can photocopy the paper for you.

E-Learning

Outcomes: Adventures in E-learning

  • set of steps for failure and a set of steps for success
  • elearning web resources were also viewed including a survey tool called Zoomerang and a quiz tool called Hot Potatoes

Environment: Impacts and Objects (really this was about electronic learning objects)

  • what are reusable learning objects
    • small interchangeable “programs” of information that can be used in multiple ways for teaching the same concept across learning constructs.
  • How to use RLOs
  • Why use RLOs
    • Reusability
    • Share-ability
    • Personalization

Curriculum Competencies and Challenges

  • integration of technology into classroom
  • challenge of technical knowledge
  • challenge of teacher/professor resistance (It’s harder to teach with technology than without, lecturing is the easiest form of instruction on the teacher)

Tools: Designing & Developing

Web Searching

30 Tips in 40 Minutes (searching the web)

  • My favorites
    • always use more than one search engine
    • use thesauri to come up with more/alternate terms
    • use Google’s “related” operator
    • use reverse link searching
    • use type of document indicators
    • know what you’re looking for
    • complex search statements do not work well on the web – simplify
    • order of search terms matters

Web Design

User Centered Design in the Academic Library: Some Practical Examples

  • Use various methods to gain information about users to inform web design
    • Page use statistics
    • User surveys
    • Usability testing

Tips and Tricks for Usability Studies

  • What to do BEFORE you start
  • Ideas for getting “Buy in”
  • Formal usability
  • Card sorts
  • Focus groups

Palm Pilots

Medicine in Your Palm

  • managing information overload by using the palm.
    • Access patient information
    • Track patient symptoms and signs
    • Access to medical reference info
    • Tracking educational experience
    • Research data entry
    • Scheduling, contacts
  • Usage of PDA’s (at Mount Sinai)
    • 20% of physicians in U.S.
    • 40% of trainees
    • 50% of residents
  • Concerns:
    • Data reliability
    • Data integrity
    • Security
  • Did 4 studies on usage in various situations
    • ICU
    • Paper vs electronic medical databases
    • Surgical procedure logging
    • Pharmacopoeias
    • Ontario critical care information network
  • Overall the PDA’s were a positive addition to the system. For more details I can photocopy the handouts for you