Gone furling

Furl it is an easy way of storing all you book marks in an organised fashion with the option of allowing others to share or comment. This application specialises in the storage of articles and online documents. This will allow you to save the document as the PDF, Word or HTML, therefore making the document accessible even if the original has been removed from online.

Many of the reviews of this site are from journalists trying to arrange large quantities of varied information, but may prove useful for collaborative research, recommended readings. Here is the view of one library I found.

There are various levels of installation to suit the user starting with from the basic product with optional functions e.g. secure posting, quick linking and pop-up options.

To get started Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) can be imported from your existing favourites list from Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, and from the popular social book marking service Del-icio-us. As date of import is allocated to each link this allows for block deletion when maintaining files.

Exports are possible in various formats including XML, Zip file. It can save lists of links straight to your browser favourites or export in a selection of citation styles including MLA, APA and is compatible with Endnote. I can be noted that both the Vancouver & Harvard systems popular in Health are missing from the selection.

The site will also provide the code for embedding any website or blog with your recent finds. The display can be fully customised using your own cascading style sheets.

Once saved to Furl-It, items can be saved in folders allowing for a more personalised system. Item can also be rated, tagged, marked as read or unread in a similar manner to that of email managers such as Outlook. The benefits of this are that it is very easy to manipulate specific groups of information to share or email to associates.

One of the advantages of Furl-it over many social book marking products links can be stored as private, allowing for the storage of password protected files, with the ability to disable spiders from cataloguing selected items for search engines.

There are many methods of finding similar collections. Clicking on the title of your link will take you through to a list of people who have also linked to this site. A search box is also available for searching your own links, those within Furl-it and linking out to the Web.

From the furl-it homepage there is also the option to link by Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to the top sites of the days and to a selection of recently posted links. Items advertised in this manner will have a Furl-it link for automatic addition to your own list. Each public list also holds its own RSS capability.

Spreading like wildfire?

Has anyone come across this post from the shiftedlibrarian regarding privacy aspects of Web 2.0?

These are issues close to home at the moment through a recent incident at Keele University reported here.

I know of similar incidents happening. Last year a friend of mine posted what he presumed to be an innocent collage of photos taken from university years, which later found it's way to a class of an anthropology friend in the States who studied in the UK for 4 years. It was taken with good humour at the time and subsequent moves were made to lock down further information.

Another person I know believes in the Freedom of Information and a new form of social learning within an online environment. It has taken many painful lessons to learn that such a view point is not necessarily held by all.

The rules of online etiquette is something I find fascinating, there does seem to be an evolution of standards. Should really read up on it at some point. Personally I am in both camps, this journal I am happy to promote discussing and open up to the online community, but I do maintain another that has been removed from search engines, partially locked and limiting tagging to disuade serendipitous searching.

Wiki magic

Just a note on work based wikis.

Claire I like your idea of the research wiki. Playing with wetpaint last night, demonstrated how easy it is to set up and the flexibility of the media. I like the template set up, it is also really easy to move pages once established, to adapt to the database as it grows. Think it is handy that it has a selection of RSS feeds to different aspects of the wiki. I can see it's use in providing links within North Staffs NHS & Keele faculty. Give me a shout if you fancy collaborating into moving this forward.

I know the knowledge worker's wiki is out there, but the other use I can envisage is an interactive library manual with local procedures. Updating the print manual is often something that is easily forgotten about, but online it provides the facility for continuous updating, it will alert subscribers to the RSS to changes in policy and procedures and provides direct links to online resources in question. It is something I will need to think about further.

It's a hobby

Wikis are something that I have been discussing for a while, but with a different hat.

For numerous years now I have been involved in managing a ruined kirk and it's associated graveyard. As an organisation we have a problem - there public speaker moved south (me). As a result the work on the history and genealogy relating to the kirk have been dispersed to committee members and information is not as easy to trace as it once was.

The other aspect is just before heading south of the border I started a project to collect memories, tales and other tacit knowledge connected to the site. Unfortunately this has been put on hold for a number of years.

Tonight I discovered that my planned visit north of the border this bank holiday has now been hi-jacked to work at a local history fair. This is usually a very informative event, which renews old ties with other organisations which help to promote our cause. In prepartion to this, I have set up a quick wiki. It will take a while before I can extensively populate it, but it is aimed at creating a general body of information accessible to the committee, a chance to encourage public participation, increase knowledge of the Kirk's history (many records were lost during a fire at the local castle), revitalising the work of the organisation and to prompt me into getting round to update the website.

Currently it is out to the committee for comment and will not fully be launched until the website has been updated. It will be a good opportunity for me to practise and hone some of the skills learned in the course, before attempting to apply them in a work based scenario.

If my retired mother can get to grips with this, I'm pretty sure anyone can!

Blogging

This is primarily for Group 2 but may be of interest to everyone else who hasn't already found it.

This is the blog of Phil Brady who is the author of How to use Web 2.0 in your Library.

Now where is that tardis?

A toungue and cheek view at the future of libraries..
(taken from http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com)

Nifty tools I may never use

Meet another form 'social commenting' - post-it notes for websites.

This is a little tool for uploading a whole host of formats to blogs - why I want my word documents etc. up there I don't know, but you never know.

Academic vision: work of the UK JISC in promoting the developing e-book usage

Notes on a talk by Caren Milloy of JISC from the E-Books & E-Content 2007 held at University Central London, 8th May 2007

Two year project to explore the feasibility of acquisition of e-books by higher education & further education.

Findings of the initial study:

• Within libraries there is an ignorance of what is an e-book
• Low level of awareness of value & relevance
• Libraries & publishers are unsure of each others needs
• Too few e-book available
• E-books aren't always up to date
• Wrong books have been made available i.e. not textbooks
• Current pricing models are not acceptable
  

JISC plans to:

• Initiate & check the feasibility of creating a catalogue of e-books
• Ensure & monitor standards compliance
• Develop access & licensing models in line with how the books are used
• Look to explore and harness technologies of the future
• Explore new models with publishers and aggregators - create forums for discussion
• Partner e-book industry with the library community to experiment with alternate business models
• Develop flexible models of provision
• Monitor the impact of repositories in conjunction with e-books
• Raise awareness of plagiarism, and as part of the contract, publishers with be encouraged to submit content to be uploaded to Turitin software for detection purposes

The National E-Book Observatory will be a study into the usage of e-books with the aims of proving demand to publishers and promote best practice in marketing and purchase models. It will provide H.E. & F.E. with a collection of e-books for a 2 year period but is restricted to the following subject areas: Business and Management studies, Engineering, Medicine (not mental health or nursing) and Media Studies.

The strategic ACAP project (Automated Content Access Protocol)

Notes on a talk by Mark Bide from the E-Books & E-Content 2007 held at University Central London, 8th May 2007

It is hard to make information available without rules. It is also hard to follow rules if you don't know what they are. No-one tends to read terms and conditions on every website.

Web search technology has had a significant impact society. Partnerships now exist between publishers and search engines, but there are discrepancies in attitude. ACAP aims to help stardardise access.

It is a protocol aimed ar running behind the webpage which will function as bridge in standardising access to e-content.

• For consumer it means more content as publishers are happy with securities
• For publishers it means they can deliver more content online
• Intermediataries - it will do away with different industry hosting platforms

Further information on ACAP

Users and usage

Notes on a talk by Chris Armstrong of Information Automated Ltd from the E-Books & E-Content 2007held at University Central London, 8th May 2007

The JUSTEIS project analysised the promotion & usage of e-books and concluded that at the time, no-one used e-resources and that it was viewed in terms of Google.

Purpose of the e-book is that it is intended to be read on the screen. Technology has been lagging in making this feasible but this year will see new readers hitting the market.

Issues still arise with the range, type, cost and locating existing e-books. Global books in print is currently considered about the best for sourcing e-books. It covers current publications, out-of-print and forth coming titles.

There still exists problems with different suppliers using different interfaces and different software. Locally there is often problems with access & IT support.

Management issues include:

• Selection/ acquisition
• Budget allocation
• New skills required for evaluating e-books
• There is need for approvals and publisher trials
• Cataloguing issues (MARC records)
• Adequacy of collection development policy
• Issues still exist with use on virtual learning platforms

Study shows that e-books are more likely to be used from catalogues. It is also felt that libraries do not promote usage as a whole. Some tried techniques include: staff information sessions, e-book champion, newsletters, posters, current awareness, VLE announcements, orientation of new users.

Other problems are created by hardware or networking:

• LAN / Intranet
• Firewalls
• Compatibility
• Access to work stations & ergonomics
• Liaising with IT support
• Disenfranchised students
• Printer access

Superbook project: e-book usage in practice

Notes on a talk by Dr Ian Rowlands from the E-Books & E-Content 2007
held at University Central London, 8th May 2007

University of Central London (UCL) is working in conjuction with the library, students, faculty and publishers, to use it’s facilities as a laboratory to investigate e-books.It is focusing on different methods of e-book promotion, publishing models and how it is used.

The study is utilising benchmarking techniques to measure awareness & perceptions of e-books at the start and end of the study. Deep log analysis is being applied to gain an insight on how the content is accessed. This collects data on users latitude and longitude, by what route they found it, how long it was accessed for, print outs, number of visits, how deeply was the site explored.

Findings to date:

• Users are typically undergraduate, male and use Google.
• The catalogue is the strongest method of locating the e-book at 38% over Google 21%
• Usage was concentrated on a few high demand titles
• Large difference in take up between the disciplines

Growth points for e-books:

• Unblocks hardcopy bottlenecks
• Reaches out to new library users
• Takes traffic from e-journals
• More searchable than books
• Builds user confidence if 'walled gardens' are used

Further information on the Superbooks Project.

Are you up to date with current awareness?

For busy dietitians it can be hard to find the time to search for the valuable information required in the modern workplace.

Maintaining a blog can help ease the information overload. Select your favourite information sources and have them sent to you on a regular basis, in a simple easy to read format.

Here are some useful links to help get you started.

Food standards agency
The Food Standards Agency is an independent government agency with the remit to “protect the public’s health and consumer’s interest in relation to food.” It is responsible for national dietary surveys and conducts research into food safety and the standards of health in the U.K.

Feed: http://www.food.gov.uk/?view=rss


Nutrition society
Keep up to date with society meetings and conferences, recent research and professional development opportunities.

Feed: http://www.nutritionsociety.org/rss.asp

European journal of clinical nutrition
Feeds can also be used to track your favourite journals. Use the table of contents feed to keep a breast of current research in the field prior to the print publication.

Feed: http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/vaop/ncurrent/rss.rdf

And lastly for a broader view on research

Bad Science
This is the personal blog of Dr Ben Goldacre. The site includes all the articles featured in the Guardian’s Bad Science column along with other commentaries and publications by the author. The site is designed to highlight flaws and question various aspects of modern scientific research. The archive is searchable by subject area, keywords or date. Why not have your say, or post comments regarding similar areas of concern.

Feed: http://www.badscience.net/?feed=rss2

Wiki update

At the start of the course, I started a wiki using WetPaint for a charity I am involved with. I thought I would take the opportunity to update on the progress. The wiki was started simply by cutting and pasting from the original website. The website is about to be redesigned, to modernise and make more interactive. This has been partly driven by recent issues of comment spamming and a recent hack of the site which redirected it to porn prior to returning to the site with the people counter changed to "this site has been hacked: 1."

The wiki took a whole 2 hours to set up and email round the committee. The next day it was launched at a local history fair in Troon, Scotland and copies distributed to local family history socities. I don't really expect much from the committee as they are not IT literate in any way and many of the socities have now had their last meeting before the summer break.

The idea has been very well received and some one did take the opportunity to email everyone that has ever left a comment on the charity website. Again I have had a good response, but mainly in the form of emailed things to add, one person has left a list of local deaths from 1881 in the comments field and we have been contacted by a Professor from Glasgow University who thinks the project has great potential and is keeping a weather eye to see if any pre reformation information will be added.

Summary - lots of interest, very well received but people are not wanting to contribute directly. This may cause me alot of work in the long run trying to sort everything out. I've been experimenting with how to place family histories on the wiki and decided to take the course of a pager per individual to try to add character to the general rote.

Problems I have experienced -

It doesn't particularly like you deleting information i.e. pages or templates.
It stores the pages, in case you want to restore them at a later date. If you create a page in a wrong template, there doesn't appear to be a way to change it without manually deleting the field and retyping what it should be. You can not create a page with a duplicate name (this causes problems with individual names) and means if you delete a page you can not recreate a page with the same title.

This is not an ideal scenario, if someone posts coyrighted material then although it is removed from the site, I can not remove it from WetPaint. This concerns me as there was an issue a few years ago where we were granted permission to use pictures and then the owner recinded due to a new book being published with the material.

Apart form that I must say I like the package, though it can be occasionally slow to run. I just need to promote pages that will encourage people to give it a try.

To blog or not to blog

Hello to all fellow 3CsT2 bloggers.

Thought I would start by introducing an alternative view on web 2.0 to spark some discussion.

Looking forward to working with you on the course.