Open URLs

Here is the article I found:
http://sfx.calstate.edu:9003/fullerton?sid=google&auinit=TL&aulast=Root&atitle=Fingerprints%20of%20global%20warming%20on%20wild%20animals%20and%20plants&id=doi%3A10.1038%2Fnature01333&title=Nature&volume=421&issue=6918&date=2003&spage=57&issn=0028-0836

When I used the citation finder, it helped lead me to the article, and the SFX screen that came up was the same as with Google Scholar. When I changed the information, it didn't work. SFX is looking for specific information to help you find what you are looking for, so if you enter the wrong information, it won't find it. I can see how this would be really frustrating for students. Luckily SFX generally populates those fields for you automatically.

I think this activity was a good way to explore one more way that students can access information with Google Scholar and SFX, and create a way for them to return to that information at a later time, with the open URL. I think it is important for students to have multiple sources for citation metadata because it is important for them to understand what they need for proper citation, where they are getting their information and how to get back to it. One way to utilize the open URL creation tool would be to highlight it in our LIs. It might be a bit overwhelming for our students in the drop-in workshops.

Here is an article about Wizard Rock!
http://sfx.calstate.edu:9003/fullerton?sid=google&auinit=J&aulast=Zumbrum&atitle=Wizard%20Rock%20Has%20Fans%20in%20Hogwarts%20Heaven&title=The%20Washington%20post&volume=4&date=2007&issn=0190-8286

Wikis

I think wikis can be successful in any situation where people need to share information (which is pretty much everywhere). During meetings with the library's Student Core Leaders, the topic of creating a wiki has come up many times. In fact, a PB Wiki was started by one of our students a couple of semesters ago: http://pollak.pbworks.com/ . Unfortunately, this wiki never really took off. The wiki that has been discussed in the SCL meetings would be one that has bits of information that would helpful to those who work at public desks and need to find information that might not be readily available on the library's website. For instance, the location of a fax machine on campus. This is a question that comes up a lot at the public service desks during certain times of the year. Not everyone knows that there is a fax machine in the TSU. It had come up at a reference meeting, but students from Circ and Titan Card weren't aware of that. Also, it would be helpful if people could post questions to the wiki, so others could answer them in a forum where everyone could see the answers.

I think that wikis have had positive and negative effects on information seeking. On the positive side, they make it possible for everyone to contribute to information, making it a more democratic process. Some subjects, particularly pop culture things (video games, subcultures, wizard rock) may not be studied and written about by academic "experts", or are but not in a way that their target audience is interested it. Lay people who are experts on these subjects as a user or participant can publish information that is relevant and reliable on a wiki. Also, academics may not use the same terminology that an everyday user uses, so their information might not be as accessible. The negatives are also kind of obvious. There is no standardization of terminology, which can lead to too much "stuff" and can be frustrating. Also, anyone can edit a wiki page, making them a forum for subjective information. The hard part is getting people, particularly students, to understand that they must think critically when taking information from wikis, particularly wikipedia. Some people still believe that if something is on a website, it must be true.

Cloud computing

Here is the link to googledocs with my addition:

http://docs.google.com/ViewDoc?docid=dd7dpj3s_0c5jnbbdf

Cloud computing is cool, and I definitely see the benefits. Google creeps me out sometimes, though.

tagging is delicious!

This tagging stuff is pretty cool! I like the way that certain tags are bolder or have different font size to show their respective "weights" in the list. I think that tagging can be very helpful in the future. Right now, the Find Databases beta is available for students to help them identify which databases are most appropriate to search for information. I think once this becomes more established, the students will use it a lot. The Pollak Library's delicious account is very impressive. I think it would be helpful to have a library information page where students could have a similar way to find information about library services. For visual learners, something like this may be easier to understand than a plain vertical list. Seeing one long list of terms or questions can sometimes be overwhelming. Having a grouping that is alphabetical yet hierarchical in terms of font size and type could be less intimidating for some people.

Here's my delicious account:
http://delicious.com/tags/JoyL

WorldCat Toolbar!

I installed the WorldCat toolbar for Firefox and found it quite useful. I use WorldCat a lot for collection development stuff and having such quick and easy access to WorldCat will be quite useful. I mean, I can always have a window with WorldCat open, but sometimes too many open windows can be distracting. If I just need a quick reference of something in WorldCat, this new toolbar feature will definitely come in handy.

Jing! :P

Here is my screen capture:

http://www.screencast.com/t/d7zBPxICoh2

A picture of Chris from his shop's blog: rocknroadcyclery.blogspot.com

Anyway, I found Jing to be a bit frustrating, but once you get the hang of it, I see how it could be useful. In the library particularly, we could use it to show students how to use databases, Refworks or search the catalog.

"Wizard rock music" LC Subject Heading!!

Finally, after months of planning, retooling our submission and waiting, Annette Anderson-Ma and I found out that our "Wizard rock music" subject heading was approved by the Library of Congress! Yay! This project has been a long time in the making.

When Annette and I went to our first Wizard Rock concert in 2006, we had an awesome time! It was a Harry and the Potters/Draco and the Malfoys show. Afterward we started wondering if there was an LC Subject Heading for Wizard Rock. We're librarians, we wonder about things like that. Especially cataloging librarians like Annette. We did some investigating and realized that there was no LCSH for Wizard Rock. Until now, Wizard Rock cds were assigned subject headings like "Rock music" and "Potter, Harry (ficitious character) -- Songs and music". We really felt that Wizard Rock deserved it's own subject heading. So, finally after some more investigation we figured out how the submission process worked and who to contact.

We also aquired a copy of the Wizard Rockumentary (you should check it out! It's cool!) for the library and cataloging that film was actually tied in to our submission process. Basically, librarians can submit subject heading ideas through SACO if they are cataloging something and don't find an appropriate subject heading in the existing list. Although the Wizard Rockumentary already had an OCLC record, we could still submit the subject heading. We felt that to properly catalog this item, it really needed a subject heading for what it was! Wizard Rock!

As part of the submission process we also had to provide evidence for where the subject term was found and where it was not found. You have to show that it is terminology that is in fact used, but also it is something new that needs to be added to LC Subject Headings.

Only libraries who participate in SACO can submit a subject heading, and our library is not a participating institution. Sylvia Mariscal, a cataloger from UCLA is the SACO representative who helped us. She gave us a lot of guidance and helped us to provide the correct information and format everything properly.

So, if you want to see the official approved list for March 18, 2009, you can go to the lists here.

Or, you can check out the LC Subject Authorities page and search for "Wizard rock music".

I feel really fortunate to have such an awesome friend, colleague and fellow Wizard Rock Librarian in Annette. It was a lot of fun working on this project with her! And the fact that the subject heading was approved makes it a million times sweeter! New I feel that I am a REAL Wizard Rock Librarian!!

photo sharing

I think one way we can use Flickr at the Pollak Library is to highlight cool events we have here like Project Book Truck, gallery openings and other campus events we host like the upcoming Poetry Day. It is important for the community to see that the library offers a lot of different opportunities for fun and learning besides our other awesome information related services. Also, maybe we could use Flickr to highlight items in Special Collections that are unique to our library. Things related to our science fiction collection may be particularly interesting to some people who are searching Flickr.

RSS!

I think RSS feeds could be very useful to the library. We could use a feed to let people know about upcoming programming, events and when policies or services change. It could be particularly helpful during semester breaks when hours change. Also, periodically sending out interesting bits of information can help keep the library visible. I just wonder if people become jaded and/or overwhelmed when they subscribe to too many RSS feeds. If a feed has lots of updates during the day, people might get tired of reading so much. Are there ways to screen RSS feeds?

My first post!

My Blog's name is a reference to a Street Fighter character and one of her attack moves. Look it up!

My initial thoughts about library 2.0 are:

I really liked the video from the Thing #1. I thought it was very well put together. I also liked the blogging video from Thing #2. I thought it explained the blogging phenomenon really well. Blogging is an interesting thing. It is funny to me that people feel compelled to blog about everything they do and think. Anyway, I think blogs are useful in many ways. You can find a lot of good information on blogs, and I also think it is important for libraries to make information available where and how their users seek it.