Computers in Libraries 2006

March 22-24, 2006
Washington, D.C.

Below are notes from some of the sessions I attended. 

30 Search Tips in 45 Minutes

Ann Bates
Trying to cover 30 tips in 45 minutes was hard; trying to take notes on all of them, impossible.  Therefore, a few of the highlights: mystuff.ask.com can create an annotated webliography, so you not only have a list of sites you want to bookmark, but know why they were important.  MyYahoo MyWeb 2.0 can archive your searches and create a customized Ready Reference shelf.  
www.furl.net allows the archiving of pages you bookmark (in case they disappear before the professor gets to check them, etc.) and can be exported into bibliographic utilities.
Yahoo's "Mindset" (mindset.research.yahoo.com) offers a choice between "shopping" and "research," giving a distinction in the results.
She mentioned several "hybrid" search engines that have come up:  scirus.com; zoominfo.com; redlightgreen.com (especially for catalogs.)
Exalead.com (from France) is small but growing.  It is most notable, in its advanced search, for its allowance of proximity searching; it also allows approximate spellings.
Check out dhmo.org for anything about water.
Distinguise between: wto.org to gatt.org; between MyPyramid.gov and MyPyramid.org;
Grokker.com shows visual results of search;
Y!Q from Yahoo (yq.search.yahoo.com) allows contextual searching; requires IE.
widgets.yahoo.com  YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS SITE—with the downloading of their widget engine (Windows and Mac versions), you can create widgets for your desktop, as well as other things like virtual sticky notes, day planner, mail checker, etc.

New Web Site Tools & Technologies

Jason Clark & Karen Coambs
Jason Clark talked about AJAX (Asynchonous JAvascript Xml), which has the advantage that it can refresh just what changes on a page, rather than have to replace the whole page.  Google maps (maps.google.com) is an example of this.   Also searches proceed as the person types and do not wait for the "Return" key to be entered, so it has more of a browsing feel.   Virginia Tech Libraries has used AJAX in its gueststimate system.   AJAX ADVANTAGES:  Open standards; faster, streamlined; efficient use of bandwidth.   PROBLEMS:  the Back button is disabled (because the URL is static); uses Javascript.   It is most useful for seach functions and validating complex forms (as the user inputs information.)
Karen Coambs talked about Open Source Applications Website Management.  Her first emphasis was to clarify:  open source does not equal free.  Recommended sources for content management software can be found on drupal.org and plone.org.   Sources for blogging software include www.wordpress.org (free) and Movabletype (www.sixapart.com/movabletype) which is available at 400 users for $500.   For WIKIs, try Media Wiki (www.mediawiki.org).

Gaming and Libraries

Mike Paterbaugh (sp?)
Eastern University has created a virtual library using gaming software from Active World (www.activeworlds.com).  The virtual library has a Reference Desk (linked to ask-a-librarian service,) but there are also bots (at the desk) to answer basic questions.   However, both the librarian on Ask-a-Librarian duty and the bot are (in the virtual library) humans, and can interact with visitors.   People may enter as tourists (browsers, for using the library) or citizens (who can build or add urls, etc.)   The creation started with a 3-D tour of the library, then developed outward.   As a result, people can enter the world, create a persona, enter various buildings (either by doors or through windows), can walk, run, jump, and fly!   Also, voice over the internet is available, so there can be real reference interactions.   Creating the world occurs in 3 stages:  creating the building's exterior, designing the inside, then adding content, which is where Eastern University is currently working.   This allows CAI with itneractivity as opposed to just words.   Active World provides many useful tools in the creating and populating the virtual reality, including many of the "irrelevant" items, such as flying birds, hidden links, balloons, etc., which give the "real" feel for the virtual world.  

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