Publications and Writing Projects
Current Writing Projects
"Drupal and Libraries" (working title) for CyberSkeptic September 2008
“Libraries and the Mobile Web” (working title) for Library Technology Reports July 2008 (44:5)
Daily blogging at iLibrarian
Intermittent research articles published at InfoTangle blog
Past Publications
Widgets to the Rescue
"On a recent visit to the San Jose Zoo, I made a beeline for a family of meerkats. You know, the ever-vigilant and undeniably adorable relatives of the mongoose, title species of the popular Animal Planet television show? I never miss an episode of Meerkat Manor. So, no surprise, I returned from the zoo with a camera-full of snapshots, which I quickly uploaded to Flickr. Within minutes, anyone who visited my Facebook and MySpace profiles could view my pics of the 12-inch cuties, all thanks to a little application called a widget."
The Social Tools of Web 2.0
"The world of the Web has changed as a new breed of software applications makes it easy to accomplish incredibly sophisticated tasks with little technical know-how. The Internet has seen an explosion of social tools that are empowering ordinary people to connect and participate in a global conversation. People who had previously accessed the Web solely for shopping or research purposes now sign on for the experience of creating and sharing information in the public sphere. They are crafting both content and connections with other users in a new Web that links people to people, as well as to information."
Chapter 8: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging
"The wisdom of crowds, the hive mind, and the collective intelligence are doing what heretofore only expert catalogers, information architects and website authors have done. They are categorizing and organizing the Internet and determining the user experience, and it’s working. No longer do the experts have the monopoly on this domain; in this new age users have been empowered to determine their own cataloging needs. Metadata is now in the realm of the Everyman."
Learning in a Virtual World
"I had the privilege recently of overhearing a lively conversation between my two pre-school nieces that took place during the construction of the My Little Pony Butterfly Island. The older one was daydreaming about what she wanted to be when she grows up, and it seemed that she had settled upon becoming a teacher. The younger considered this choice, but wasn't tempted, instead deciding that she wanted to be a butterfly. I sighed and thought, "So do I!""
How to Automate a Small Library
"There are many challenges to overcome when taking on an automation project for a small library. One is simply lack of experience with automation projects. Staff size in such a library is often small and may consist of only a solo librarian. Many times this will be the first and only automation project undertaken by the library staff."
