Archives for posts with tag: reference

On a Simpler Future for Library Websites

April 4, 2011 //

An interesting post from Aaron Schmidt at Walking Paper on the merits of simplified library web sites.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a daring pilot and talented author, also weighed in on user experience:

“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”

In some ways, libraries have been taking the opposite approach. We’ve gotten in the habit of tacking on new services and taking on new responsibilities, and many library websites can be seen as piecemeal collections of patron engagement tactics…

There are two ways to increase the amount of attention the bits of a website receive: either by increasing staffing and funding, or reducing the number of bits. An extreme example: imagine if your web team was only responsible for the page consisting of your library’s contact information, location, and one book recommendation per week. They’d be able to spend plenty of time on this page, testing, experimenting, and revising regularly. It would be a great page.

For years, I’ve heard talk about libraries cutting the cord on irrelevant services. Yet I haven’t heard as much discussion about which sacred web cows we can put out to pasture. This might in part be owing to the perception that a 200-page website isn’t more expensive to manage than a 50-page one. While probably true in terms of hosting fees, it isn’t otherwise true. Good content takes staff time to produce and arrange, and the navigational overhead can be a time expenditure for users.

I’m not suggesting that libraries shouldn’t try new things or add content to their sites. They should. Still, the library world needs to start a dialog about an additional way to prevent stagnation: subtraction.[read the full post]

People following this blog know my affection for minimalism as a creative conceit. Apart from aesthetics, I really believe there’s merit to simplifying library online experiences (something I’ve argued for in the past).

Schmidt takes aim at the current library web-design ethos of trying to stake as much online territory as possible. But, enthusiasm and ambition can be a downfall. There are many library landing pages with so many content and navigation options that it’s difficult to really find specific things. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Academic Libraries, Library Minimalism, Public Libraries, Technology, User experience, web tools

I’m Sure the List is Greater than 50

March 25, 2011 //

From the Independent UK:

Education Secretary Michael Gove says that children aged 11 should be reading 50 books a year to improve literacy standards.

We asked three of Britain’s leading children’s authors and two of our in-house book experts to each pick 10 books, suitable for Year 7 students.

The authors chose books that have brought them huge joy, while expressing their outrage at the “great big contradiction” of Mr Gove’s claim to wish to improve literacy while closing libraries across the country.[check out the list and the full article]

The Independent’s list is heavily weighted towards older books. Is it nostalgia? Likely it’s a nod towards those worn, well loved youth novels that are probably sitting in any (presently threatened) UK  public library.

I can’t say it’s a bad list. I also can’t say, having read constantly my whole childhood, that I’ve read half of what’s on there.

Actually, child of the 80s I am, I think I’ve seen more of them as movies (i.e. the Phantom Tollbooth, which i felt was fairly inscrutable).  I don’t see Watership Down there (another amazing movie and book, by the way). I’m sure there’s a lot that could be added. How would a list like this look in Canada?

That said, spring’s almost here. It’s time to start thinking about  summer reading lists.  I think I’ll slip a few of these classics on mine.

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Categories About Me, Book News, Literacies, Public Libraries, Readers Advisory, Review

Because it’s fun and reasonably priced!

March 24, 2011 //

Reference Tshirt

I had some extra time last week, so I’ve been able to finally roll this out.

Fans of this site and of my Library Minimalism series can get in on the action.

You see, Drop the Reference Bomb’s merch store is now live!

Right now, there are posters, mugs, t-shirts, and totes that feature the best from my Library Minimalism prints. More items and prints will be added as inspiration and time allows, but I think I’m off to a good start.

Circulation Mug

Why Zazzle?

Because it’s customizable!

Don’t like the colour, fit, type of shirt? Want a stainless steel travel mug instead of a ceramic one? There are lots of options to choose from. I’ll start you off, but the final choice is up to you!

There are lots of library themed stuff out there, but I guarantee there’s not much like this! Plus, big spenders ($50 or more and not just at my store) from the US can get free shipping. I’ll also keep everyone posted about sales as they happen.

Cheers!

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Categories About Me, Amazing News!, Library Minimalism, Services, User experience

Library Minimalism! Redux!

March 15, 2011 //

I looked back on my first batch of Library Minimalism posters and wasn’t satisfied. I’ve learned a lot since starting this project and I wanted to go back to tweak my early efforts. In some cases, they became even MORE minimal. Behold.

I’ve got the retro worn look down pretty well. For those who don’t like that look: when I get the store up and running, you’ll be able to buy both distressed and clean prints.


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Categories Library Minimalism

Library Minimalism! Virtual Reference

March 9, 2011 //


Another entry in the Library Minimalism category: Virtual Reference.

Though, I suppose if an actual poster looked this rough and was hanging in your library, you’d want to replace it. Or, more likely you’d want watch out for wandering hordes of mutants.

I swear I’ll get back to regular posts soon, but these minimalist pictures are just so much darn fun.

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Categories Library Minimalism, Technology, User experience, web tools

Reference Bomb! It Really Was a “Great” Vowel Shift (when held in comparison)

February 21, 2011 //

Sometimes you learn something in a random place and when you least expect it. Even better is when it’s off-beat and funny.

For example: this Dinosaur Comic sent to me by an English Professor-type friend (after he used it in a lecture on Chaucer).

Dinosaur Comics

And,  just like the better parts of Jurassic Park: the Lost World, dinosaurs have served to teach us something important… about ourselves.

And that’s a paleo-linguistic… thump… thump… thump… Reference Bomb! Bam!

Read more:
Wiki entry on the Great Vowel Shift.
History of the English language.
NPR Report on a Vowel Shift happening RIGHT NOW!
Freebie: some Jurassic Park dinosaur biological inaccuracies.

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What is a reference bomb? Find out here!

Email me your Reference Bomb experience! info@dropthereferencebomb.com

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Categories Reference Bomb

Crowd Sourcing Maps and Volunteer Geo-Information

February 8, 2011 //

Map of London

Hand-drawn map of London by Stephen Welter

The New York Public Library hosted a neat looking panel today.

Future Library: Socializing History with Maps, Hosted by The New York Public Library

Event Description:

Speakers:

  • Matt Knutzen, Geospatial Librarian at the New York Public Library
  • Alex Rainert, Head of Product at Foursquare
  • Jesse Friedman, Product Marketing Manager at Google Maps and Earth
  • Jack Eichenbaum, Queens Borough Historian[NYPL’s event listing]

It’s a shame when you hear about something interesting, and it’s too late, and it’s in another country. Where are the teleporters, already? Science, I’m looking at you

Moving on, it’s exciting to imagine maps being used like wikis.  It’s a field that has largely been dominated by businesses and advertising, but there is a lot of potential here for less commercial uses. OpenStreetMap is an open source project already doing this.

Other popular free(but not commercial free) resources, like Google Maps or Bing’s equivalent, can be an underused tools for pushing community information out to library users and visitors.

Imagine walkable or bikeable tours you could follow via smart phone, with info links, archival photos galleries, recorded personal testimonials, and other information. Online maps can be turned passing on community knowledge that is often lost or fragmented by .

Or arts walks. Or even digitally augmented literary scavenger hunts combining geo-caching and book releases.

Like most web-based tools, I’m pretty sure the most en-genius ideas haven’t been thought of yet. The opportunity is there for any locally minded persons who want to plant a few flags in the digital world.

Also, how cool would it be to be a Geospatial Librarian. I want one of those business cards!

***Addendum***

Stephen Welter’s portfolio site. Why not promote the analog approach?

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Categories Library Bric-a-brac, Public Libraries, Services, Technology, User experience, web tools

Reference Bomb – Tasty, Ol’Timey Devastation

February 7, 2011 //

Molasses Disaster

At work, some kind coworkers invited me to sit with them (which was nice, because I’m new). The conversation, twisted, turned and landed on disasters. Landslides in Italy. Then floods in Australia.

This lead to a more unbelievable catastrophe: the Boston Molasses Disaster.

Not one of us had all the details, but we worked together and came up with this (without reaching for our smartphones):

It happened back around the 1920s.

It was caused by the brilliant idea of painting a massive molasses tank black. Heat combined with the expansionary properties of such a viscous fluid, and boom, you get an ooey-gooey black flood.

Something like 2 million gallons of the stuff were spilled down the streets of the city, wrecking buildings and causing havoc.

Rumour has it that you can still smell the molasses on hot days.

It was a sticky, tasty, destructive and collaborative reference bomb! Bam!

Molasses! Destroys! Interpretive plaque.

Where's an interpretive plaque when you need it?

Further Reading:
Wiki entry on the disaster.

Boston Public Library’s flickr gallery on the disaster.

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What is a reference bomb? Find out here!

Email me your Reference Bomb experience! info@dropthereferencebomb.com

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Categories Reference Bomb

Reference Bomb – A Poser Borealis

January 18, 2011 //

them northern lights

One of my friends woke up to an odd sight: strange lights in the sky. His early morning twitter noise wanted to know if anyone else was seeing the aurora borealis near Barrie (actually over a place called Utopia).

Well, it’s not impossible.

Experience led me to think it wasn’t the northern lights, but something else. I tweeted back, and sadly I was right.

You see, one morning I too saw lights in the sky over Ottawa. To wax poetic, it was like hundreds of candles stretched up to sky and merged into a greenish-red glow spilt across the horizon.

Unaccustomed to the sight, I declared “Northern Lights” on twitter, facebook, everywhere, to anyone who would listen.

That evening’s weather report gave me a bit of a smack down. Turns out, the kind meteorologist said, it was in fact an instance of what is called light pillars.

light pillars
Light pillars are caused by regular man-made light that is reflected by moisture in the air in odd ways. When a lot of pillars are close together they can look, to a hopeful eye, like the northern lights.

Eerie, true, but, ionosphere fireworks it is not. I was crestfallen when I learned the truth. Plus, I’d left a social media trail that forced me to confess my mistake.

My friend, too, soon tweeted back, his words a little heavy: he was seeing light pillars, too.

That is a mistaken sky phenomenon reference bomb, times two… bam…

Further Reading:

Ottawa Citizen report

Some of the science explained

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What is a reference bomb? Find out here!

Email me your Reference Bomb experience! info@dropthereferencebomb.com

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Categories Reference Bomb

Library Minimalism

January 4, 2011 //

Part of my heart is librarian, but another big part is a driven by design. And, I love to find ways to confine the two.

Inspired by Jamie Bolton‘s Minimalist Movie Posters, I started my own “Library Minimalism Project.” The idea is to take issues and facets of library and information science and reduce it down to it’s brass tacks. And then, express it visually as simply as possible.

These are the first two:

There is something to be said for considering parts of our field at a very distilled level. So far, it has been illuminating to boil down what are essentially complex and sometimes abstract ideas.

Check these out. I’ll be posting more as I finish them!

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Categories Library Minimalism