tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12182539876291913802024-02-19T03:45:46.017-04:00Observe, Analyze... BlogCreated during my years as a Master's student at Drexel University's iSchool, I now maintain the blog to post reflections on my information seeking and organizing projects as a librarian loose in the world. Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-9024767869052679412018-08-18T10:38:00.000-04:002018-08-18T10:38:37.038-04:00Three Year UpdateIt's been a looooong time! Between 2015 and 2018 I worked for a tourism company and as the increasing responsibilities grew along with my now 9 year old son, I found myself with less time to reflect on the information seeking and organizing aspects of my work and projects. Working for that company gave me loads of opportunities to learn about myself as well as learn how business information is/can be organized. We used a variety of applications for a variety of business operations, such as:<br />
<br />
<b>Reservations:</b><br />
We used Google Calendar to organize the reservations and see what availability we had to meet additional reservation requests. In my 2.5ish years with the company (and the company was 9 years old when I joined), this system gave way to an online reservation system created by <a href="https://www.peek.com/pro/" target="_blank">Peek Pro</a>. (There was another provider that was considered, <a href="https://fareharbor.com/" target="_blank">Fare Harbor</a>, which from my estimation had a really solid database foundation, but the company went with Peek Pro and Peek was very supportive after the category 5 hurricane Maria struck Vieques, so they are good people over there.) Cool things this did was automate email confirmations, create alerts when over booking a specific tour and eventually easing multi tour reservations, making them much faster by capturing the contact and payment information in a cart. Oh, and allowing bookings to be made from home in the comfort of visitors' pajamas while we were asleep.<br />
<br />
<b>Tour Assignments</b> (for the Guides):<br />
At the beginning, this was a spreadsheet and a calendar and a phone. When the company moved to Peek Pro, this quickly morphed to automated text message alerts or app notifications as the manager (me) only had to click a button and the software took care of the rest. For guides with data/wifi capable phones, they only had to open their notifications to receive a link with all the information needed for their assignments.<br />
<br />
<b>Equipment and Fleet Inventory and Assignments</b><br />
For our bicycles, snorkel gear, kayaks, paddleboards, lifevests, scuba gear, paddles, ratchet sets, etc, etc, we used Google Sheets on Google Drive for the longest time. The company was in the process of converting to an online rental procedure after Hurricane Maria, but due to a misunderstanding of how the database worked, it never got off the ground. And then the company sold the business to new owners, so we didn't really get to test the feature prior to the sale. I can say that using Google Sheets served our purpose..., but only if all the staff who processed reservations and checkouts actually used the sheet, so it was good about 75% of the time.<br />
<br />
For our vehicles, we used Google Calendar to inform staff of which vehicle was in maintenance, which vehicle was being used by which activity, etc, until Peek came along and allowed us to include vehicle assignments to the tours. Another useful thing about Peek was that it pushed certain information to our Google Calendar, so for staff who were used to reading the Calendar, they could still get a lot of info there.<br />
<br />
There was the issue of logging vehicle use and maintenance. We used paper forms. Only by "used," I mean to say that we didn't. I was in the process of converting forms to a Google Doc form that could be filled out in the cell phone, but then Maria struck and we didn't have cellular data for 4 months... or internet for 6ish months.<br />
<br />
<b>Communications</b><br />
As with any company (and we, at our peek, were four locations with forty staff), communication was essential and one of our hardest things to do. We used Skype to send messages to retail staff across the stores. We used email for the managers. We used cell phone calls and texting for guides. Towards the end, I was holding monthly staff meetings, but really, we only had one yearly meeting with the owners, though the managers got together about every 2 months.<br />
<br />
<b>Time Sheets</b><br />
I hate paper time sheets! You are gonna write that down, so that I can then collect it (if I can find it and if you actually submitted it) and enter the data into a spreadsheet, so then I can submit that and the man who holds the purse strings can enter it into another spreadsheet? Yeeeeeaaaaaaah... no thanks. I would have liked to have seen this feature become automated.<br />
<br />
<b>Retail</b><br />
We used Microsoft Dynamics POS, which was installed to one computer at our main store. Being limited to one POS is a horrible way to process transactions. One computer for entering incoming inventory. One computer for printing labels. One computer for ringing up customers. One computer for pulling inventory reports. One computer for tracking staff purchases on accounts. You get the picture.<br />
<br />
We were in the process of thinking about converting to another product that was cloud based and allowed a staff member to do inventory on the floor with a hand held device while another staff member was ringing a customer up at the register (and there was an optional register that could move around with a staff member). This service is popping up all over Vieques and I can't for the life of me remember what it is called.<br />
<br />
<b>Social Media / Marketing</b><br />
Facebook, Instagram, Follow Up Emails, TripAdvisor, a website - all the time. YouTube, Yelp - some of the time. Google Ads, Facebook ads - all the time. Print ads in the local Vieques magazine, an airline magazine, the PR Tourism Company magazine, and a monthly newspaper for boaters- all the time.<br />
<br />
<b>Data Backup</b><br />
A structured process for backing up data? Not that I could see.<br />
<br />
<b>Other Systems</b><br />
There were business processes that were above my pay grade.<br />
<br />
And that's what I remember at the moment. I hope to use this knowledge for good in the future. I certainly have a respect for organizational processes and flow of information in a large organization, and for the need for them.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0Vieques, Puerto Rico18.1262854 -65.44009849999997617.8848289 -65.762821999999971 18.367741900000002 -65.117374999999981tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-38837291385395642762015-12-07T18:03:00.000-04:002015-12-07T18:05:35.991-04:00Herons, from your calf to your chestAs an amateur birder and interpretive nature guide, I like to include information about the most common and the special birds we can see on my tours in Vieques. When I started studying the local birds a bit more I was surprised to find out that our group of herons range in size from 12 inches to 45 inches give or take a few.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4sg_I4CAdhqWQ7ioe-PUCvQlU62igbeyz2xcXq8YMnYV0JqIsv2SLYXnnSwm94RpdYiE_TWXazKEt7aFuIktQdbokiZurU2Fv8Oov-CaKopC74wnQUXQW1eLW9hgoNZ0o_y_90S8UV4/s1600/HvH.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4sg_I4CAdhqWQ7ioe-PUCvQlU62igbeyz2xcXq8YMnYV0JqIsv2SLYXnnSwm94RpdYiE_TWXazKEt7aFuIktQdbokiZurU2Fv8Oov-CaKopC74wnQUXQW1eLW9hgoNZ0o_y_90S8UV4/s400/HvH.png" width="400" /></a></div>
It inspired me to create an info graphic comparing those birds to an "average" height person of 5'6" (66 inches). I collected the height information for the birds from the book <i>Aves de Puerto Rico</i> by Biaggi, published in 1970, and from the Cornell Institute's <a href="http://allaboutbirds.org/" target="_blank">All About Birds</a> page.<br />
<br />
I then took some source photographs (off the Internet) and put them into Inkscape (the open source version of Illustrator) and I silhouetted them by drawing an outline, creating a path from the outline and then filling in the path with black. From there I created a chart, first using Open Office's Write program and overlayed the silhouettes on the chart's bars, proportionally re-sizing them by eye to the appropriate dimensions. I did fact check with my local FWS office regarding how the measuring of birds is done in field guides (from their feet to the crown of their head).<br />
<br />
Afterwards I recreated the chart in Inkscape again so that the whole thing could be re-sized to whichever dimensions were needed without the image becoming pixelated (I saved it as a vector file: .SVG-plain so that it could be imported into Illustrator by another graphic designer).<br />
<br />
And there you have it!<br />
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<br />Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-53734827629416431632015-10-18T19:07:00.000-04:002015-10-18T19:07:20.061-04:00Feeling Smug b/c My Database Query WorksI'm feeling pretty smug over here!<br />
<br />
After three days of reading forum posts about the OpenOffice Base program I finally figured out the correct syntax for a query to select and manipulate information based on a specific date range.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html" target="_blank">Base</a> is the free, open source version of MS Office's Access.<br />
<br />
It was the date range syntax that was throwing me off, because it didn't follow exactly the SQL syntax as espoused by the <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp" target="_blank">w3schools tutorials</a>. It didn't follow Access's syntax. The forum post that finally answered my question: <a href="https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=72504">https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=72504</a><br />
<br />
Thank you, bhilton for asking your question and all the volunteers for helping her to reach the answer.<br />
<br />
The code that I was trying to write:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
SELECT "Listing", COUNT("Nights") AS TotalReservation, SUM( "Nights" ) AS TotalNightsSold, AVG( "Nights" ) AS AvgNightsPerRes FROM "Reservations" WHERE "Date" BETWEEN '2014-01-01' AND '2014-12-31' GROUP BY "Listing"</blockquote>
To make a table which grouped info by vacation house rental and showed me the total number of reservations in 2014, the total number of nights booked in 2014, the average number of nights per reservation.<br />
<br />
With more data (and really, who doesn't like data?), I could find out the average number of people per reservation and which geographical locations provide the most/least bookings.<br />
<br />
This sort of info would be handy in creating projections for future reservations, focusing marketing efforts on types of groups (family vs. 20 somethings traveling together), and focusing marketing efforts on locations (such as either marketing heavily on the east coast to tap into existing infrastructure, or moving into new market areas to expand.<br />
<br />
And finally, thank you Drexel professor, whose name I don't remember at this moment, for being such a punk about us perfecting our SQL in the database class. It came in handy.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-12958249089564069602015-10-07T22:55:00.000-04:002015-10-14T08:19:48.767-04:00Distinguishing Fauna by their Sound WaveformBack in July, my son and I saw this really great episode of <a href="http://pbskids.org/scigirls/home" target="_blank">SciGirls</a> called Frog Whisperers (#301) (it's embedded at the bottom) where the girls learned various techniques to recall a frog's song and match it to the species. One technique was to look at a visual representation of the call, or its waveform. I'm a visual learner, so it was cool see that.<br />
<br />
Fast forward to September and the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge gave a talk titled Anfibios y Reptiles, where among other species, they talked about the three species of coquis that we have in Vieques (out of a total of 17 found in Puerto Rico). The biologist presenting the charla was able to whistle the sounds of the frogs and toads, but I wanted something more permanent for recall purposes.<br />
<br />
Below, you'll find my notes for the segment on the coquies in a garbled mix of Spanish and English, along with audio recordings which I found at <a href="http://coquipr.com/">CoquiPR.com</a> and the waveform for each, which I produced from screenshots of the imported audio files using the open source audio editor <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/" target="_blank">Audacity</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Three Species of Coqui in Vieques</b></div>
<br />
1) Coqui Comun- the largest of the three at approximately 1.4", it's named for its call, <i>co-KI</i><br />
<br />
This is what it's call looks like:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5M_hLEY5QRpaQMiq-aMHjrs4D4X4WGLHrXO4SkmIHciXjJo7bhyphenhyphenCvBmxdWIbvAOnm9uNVEg2rXXzsDwxQq_YlVJdC_e4JeH1P__ftlXaiVSnR-tjrOZQlA0eGHttlzd8OIHo1B84Zl40/s1600/Screenshot+Coqui+Comun.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5M_hLEY5QRpaQMiq-aMHjrs4D4X4WGLHrXO4SkmIHciXjJo7bhyphenhyphenCvBmxdWIbvAOnm9uNVEg2rXXzsDwxQq_YlVJdC_e4JeH1P__ftlXaiVSnR-tjrOZQlA0eGHttlzd8OIHo1B84Zl40/s400/Screenshot+Coqui+Comun.png" width="450" /></a><br />
<br />
Here's what the coqui comun sounds like:<br />
<audio controls="controls" height="50px" width="100px">
<source src="http://www.coquipr.com/sound/Ecoqui.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></source>
<embed height="50px" src="http://www.coquipr.com/sound/Ecoqui.mp3" width="100px"></embed>
</audio><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(audio courtesy <a href="http://research.coquipr.com/">LJ Villanueva-Rivera</a> under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-Compartir Igual License. See his <a href="http://coquipr.com/coquies-de-puerto-rico/coqui-comun/">article </a> on the Common Coqui for more information.)
</span><br />
<br />
2) Coqui Churri- almost half the size of the coqui comun at .76" and makes a <i>ki-ki-ki</i> sound as well as a <i>chu-RI</i>, the wave forms of which look like:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuK6hAGfVC3mPFrIFOgoxSBc_a0VNTu5KyPaDt7VBiKUIvBKEt6gc60zLgi5iaAJ_WPwenJw1n4cX95JN_u-JP9Bq1pa6uuo0GYZ9sx3Sy9Iv1t0Kc2fY1DIKUo_mZiTlLE1f27VeDaZU/s1600/Screenshot+Coqui+churri.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuK6hAGfVC3mPFrIFOgoxSBc_a0VNTu5KyPaDt7VBiKUIvBKEt6gc60zLgi5iaAJ_WPwenJw1n4cX95JN_u-JP9Bq1pa6uuo0GYZ9sx3Sy9Iv1t0Kc2fY1DIKUo_mZiTlLE1f27VeDaZU/s400/Screenshot+Coqui+churri.png" width="450" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's what the Churri sounds like (a common coqui can be heard in the back ground):<br />
<audio controls="controls" height="50px" width="100px">
<source src="http://coquipr.com/sound/Eantillensis.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></source>
<embed height="50px" src="http://coquipr.com/sound/Eantillensis.mp3" width="100px"></embed>
</audio><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(audio courtesy <a href="http://research.coquipr.com/">LJ Villanueva-Rivera</a> under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-Compartir Igual License. See his article on the <a href="http://coquipr.com/coquies-de-puerto-rico/coqui-churi/">Churi Coqui</a> for more information.) </span><br />
<br />
3) Coqui Pitito- the smallest of the three found in Vieques. It is .6" and is recognized by two curves on its back that look like a pair of parenthesis.<br />
<br />
It's call is the least punctuated, but the most constant, kind of a <i>p-riiiiiiiiii.</i> No clue if this waveform represents one coqui, or several overlapping calls made by more than one frog:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71AIJfap9VsIN0TzTDVjeJV86m9gvVz1LzHn6GsRiEq5b7sGPKw6jQzyir3yzQPV4BkVsYNCnprjUF5HLrWNhaJNw4SIMFbSJ4sXo2lWMB7G3IhfhAfWLX4-Q08aX_IjnM0HAFCfiVSw/s1600/Screenshot+Coqui+Pitito.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71AIJfap9VsIN0TzTDVjeJV86m9gvVz1LzHn6GsRiEq5b7sGPKw6jQzyir3yzQPV4BkVsYNCnprjUF5HLrWNhaJNw4SIMFbSJ4sXo2lWMB7G3IhfhAfWLX4-Q08aX_IjnM0HAFCfiVSw/s400/Screenshot+Coqui+Pitito.png" width="450" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
And it sounds like:<br />
<audio controls="controls" height="50px" width="100px">
<source src="http://coquipr.com/sound/Ecochranae.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></source>
<embed height="50px" src="http://coquipr.com/sound/Ecochranae.mp3" width="100px"></embed>
</audio>
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(audio courtesy <a href="http://research.coquipr.com/">LJ Villanueva-Rivera</a> under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-Compartir Igual License. See his article on the <a href="http://coquipr.com/coquies-de-puerto-rico/coqui-pitito/">Pitito Coqui</a> for more information.) </span>
<br />
<br />
So there you have it, three ways- verbal description, visual waveform and audio file- to learn how to distinguish a few fauna of Vieques. A good information professional can help you to find and create all three information sources!<br />
<br />
Enjoy the SciGirls video.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r791DcF-zVE" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
(minute 5:32 if you want to jump straight to the part of the sound waves).Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-73635498156241048362015-09-28T16:51:00.000-04:002015-09-28T16:59:32.042-04:00Google Maps to Campsites in Puerto RicoI want to go camping. I do not want to have to figure out where x,y,z campsite is located, as I do not have a mental map as of yet of <i>all</i> of PR. So I created a google map. Blue is beach campsite; green is forest campsite. Click on any marker to get reservation info. Yeah, yeah, some of it is in Spanish and I didn't translate, but you'll need to know Spanish if you contact some of the offices to take out a permit for various campsites (specifically DRNA sites). This does not (as of yet) include private campsites.<br />
<br />
Info came from the following sites:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://puertoricodeaventura.com/index.php/es/aventuras/item/168-acampar-es-toda-una-experiencia" target="_blank">Acampar es toda una experiencia</a> from Puerto Rico de Aventura: the Magazine for the Adventure Traveller</li>
<li><a href="http://www.zeepuertorico.com/categoria/areas-de-acampar-en-puerto-rico.aspx" target="_blank">Areas de Acampar</a> from Zee Magazine (online) - very nice descriptions</li>
<li>and <a href="http://www.conoceapuertorico.com/tag/camping/" target="_blank">Conoce a Puerto Rico Camping Page</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe height="480" src="https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zoPnw5i8keJc.kISO5S-7xrkw" width="530"></iframe>Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-4631780397445217492015-09-21T13:03:00.003-04:002015-09-21T13:16:12.743-04:00Subject: Bomba (dance)doing some personal research on the Bomba de Puerto Rico and trying to track down which libraries on the main island carry these items.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmpPwebLxMkdZs81zizVc2V5eMpbo4J2wGS11PErJeYiUsAMnkHDgguUPSY1qjkLH3ui8An2z9gBHShyphenhyphenz_USLimARpqeay7CE3FaqipalG2Q9Q-kgvYFpFs6MVwlMSQAndHrQqeqY_SA/s1600/2015_04_BombaOasisatCulturalFesitva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmpPwebLxMkdZs81zizVc2V5eMpbo4J2wGS11PErJeYiUsAMnkHDgguUPSY1qjkLH3ui8An2z9gBHShyphenhyphenz_USLimARpqeay7CE3FaqipalG2Q9Q-kgvYFpFs6MVwlMSQAndHrQqeqY_SA/s400/2015_04_BombaOasisatCulturalFesitva.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the local bomba dance group in Vieques</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>DVD</b>:<br />
<i>Puerto Rican Bomba: In Search of Our Roots</i> at la UPR Rio Piedras<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Bomba: Dancing the Drum</i> at the<br />
<br />
<i>Raíces</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Paloma Suau; Angel Peña; Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.; Paradiso Films (Firm)<br />
Publisher:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>San Juan, PR : Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, ©2001<br />
<br />
<b>Audio </b>(CD/MP3)<br />
<i>Dancing the Drum</i> by Luis Cepeda<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Bombazo </i>by Grupo Afro Boriqua<br />
<br />
<b>Books</b>:<br />
<i>Bomba que rumba : memorias del Primer Simposio sobre la Bomba y la Rumba, Sala - Teatro Beckett</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Marlene Duprey Colón<br />
Publisher:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hato Rey, Puerto Rico : Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas, Inc, [2012<br />
Available at Interamerican Metro<br />
<br />
<i>La bomba : la música de Puerto Rico : raíces y evolución</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>William Cepeda<br />
Available at Interamerican Metro (also a DVD, Music CD and book)<br />
<br />
<i>Bomba pa' gozá</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>E C Rojas<br />
Publisher:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Rio Piedras, P.R. : Publicaciones Gaviota, 2013.<br />
<br />
<i>A bailar mi bomba</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Awilda Sterling; Rafael L López Valdés; Paco López; Carlos Díaz, (Artist); Annette Tolentino; All authors<br />
Publisher:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>San Juan, P.R. : Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 2010.<br />
Series:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>ICePé.<b>cómic</b>, no. 11<br />
<br />
<b>El baile de bomba en Guayama y Arroyo</b><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eduardo J Calderón Cordero<br />
Publisher:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2013.<br />
At the Interamericana<br />
<br />
<b>Article</b>:<br />
<i>The bomba and plena : Africa retained in music and dance of Puerto Rico.</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hector Vega<br />
Edition/Format:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Article : EnglishView all editions and formats<br />
Publication:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Caribe. v. 7, no. 1 & 2, 1983, p. 42-43. illus<br />
<div>
<br />
<i>Dance and belonging : transformation of rituals in Puerto Rican music and dance forms.</i><br />
Author:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Alma Concepcion<br />
Edition/Format:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Article : English<br />
Publication:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Journal for the anthropological study of human movement, v. 14, no. 4 (2007)<br />
<br />
<b>Website</b><br />
Puerto Rico Folkloric Dance of Texas http://www.prfdance.org/</div>
Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-34351955412849962282015-08-24T21:23:00.000-04:002015-08-24T21:23:33.749-04:00Games!The great thing about being an information professional is that I can write a post on just about anything and say it is in the realm of what I do. This post is about games and is inspired by the board game Blokus that my six year old and I are playing. The box has all these little labels for winning a ton of awards and so here are the list of resources for people wanting authoritative sources for recommendations on games and toys.<div>
<ul>
<li>Educational Insights: https://www.educationalinsights.com/</li>
<li>ASTRA: American Specialty Toy Retailing Association: http://www.astratoy.org/</li>
<li>Toy of the Year http://www.toyassociation.org/TIA/Events/TOTY/Past_TOTY_Winners/Events2/TOTY_Awards/2015_TOTY_Winners.aspx#.VdvChflViko</li>
<li>Teacher's Choice Awards: https://www.theeducationcenter.com/learning/tca-classroom</li>
</ul>
<div>
By the way, Blokus is a great game that is colorful, strategic, funny and fast play. If your young child must always win, two person play practically guarantees that it will always end in a draw. When your child is ready to handle losing gracefully, add more players for harder play!</div>
</div>
Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-90354371425674418942015-04-04T12:49:00.000-04:002015-04-04T12:49:04.677-04:00Building a Catalog!I got approval to build the catalog for a small non-profit! Yay! The web developer for the non-profit gave me a subdomain to do all my fun, which means that I can install plugins to my heart's content and explore what is best.<br />
<br />
I'm building out a few other pages, such as bibliographies and galleries of their content. Which meant that I needed access to the backend of their main domain to <i>discover </i>their content because the website is an organizational mess.<br />
<br />
I'm using WordPress and the Web Librarian plugin for catalog creation. I'm using WorldCat for the bibliographical information of text items. After I've imported a lot of records, I need to see what the search capabilities are and whether there is an ability to create a thesaurus. At the moment, I'm not sure there is- certainly a list of keywords/subject in alphabetical order, but a thesaurus with <i>relationships</i>, which is key to discovery, that's what I think is missing within the features and so the question will be whether I can create something.<br />
<br />
Maybe create a form using custom post types of:<br />
<br />
Keyword<br />
definition<br />
RT<br />
NT<br />
BT<br />
<br />
and then somehow tie them to the catalog entry form...<br />
<br />
But YAY! having fun, fun, fun!Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-48279839857673514952015-03-06T22:40:00.000-04:002015-03-06T22:42:14.285-04:00Using Maps to Convey InformationI contract with an excursion company that does not have a physical address; Instead, we have a mobile office. But for one of our excursions we do consistently meet in the same spot, however, my boss tells me that guests are always confused by it, so, she asked me to create a map.<br />
<br />
I read this great article on one illustrator's <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/07/15/illustrated-maps-in-era-of-google-earth/" target="_blank">map designing process</a>. Then I searched through quite a few tutorials (ex. http://inkscapetutorials.org/?s=pen) and youtube videos on the <a href="https://inkscape.org/en/" target="_blank">open source alternative</a> to Adobe Illustrator. I also got to learn about the open source map data provider <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/" target="_blank">Open Street Map</a>. All in all this was a fun, simple project to learn how to use the software and build a map that will hopefully help clear our guests doubts about where to go for their tour.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1khZdxr3B36cOlknnuIQnwxwgE-WoGig9ogxXnwlsTNp8k0jKuAMfm6Yk_-TGTFv6gFVMG3XlrdgPin8G-nbF-IlvDdB1bBCI6g3QlW3hUh0tXHH5iaYY-zb7z5KwD00cP4AYpM4ojr8/s1600/JAK_biobay_meet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1khZdxr3B36cOlknnuIQnwxwgE-WoGig9ogxXnwlsTNp8k0jKuAMfm6Yk_-TGTFv6gFVMG3XlrdgPin8G-nbF-IlvDdB1bBCI6g3QlW3hUh0tXHH5iaYY-zb7z5KwD00cP4AYpM4ojr8/s1600/JAK_biobay_meet.png" height="111" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm still awaiting approval, we'll perhaps change some of the colors and text, but this is the general idea.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-37419869212476534852015-02-19T23:08:00.001-04:002015-02-19T23:08:58.668-04:00On Making an InfographicYou never know where inspiration will strike. I wanted to make a sign to alert people about the things they could recycle in the town where I live in Puerto Rico and at first I was just going to make a list. Then I had two thoughts, writing the same information in two languages is tedious; and, what if the person "reading" the sign doesn't read English/Spanish anyway? (We have visitors from all over the world.)<br />
<br />
So I decided to make a sign using pictures. Over five hours later and with the input of a few people, I got this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFU_yLvv51O_NUdd5xvKaUiKdzSFIDolbsLgIaQ_Si9t2IKEY3kAbooH8LsFr8gKchCgVcC2WjnZzANjJqNwEUghOktI9zGMrw0lME7rJTU65YTMNk1NyV48LvmAixORdqSA4SpV6Bq0/s1600/viequesRecyclesSign.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFU_yLvv51O_NUdd5xvKaUiKdzSFIDolbsLgIaQ_Si9t2IKEY3kAbooH8LsFr8gKchCgVcC2WjnZzANjJqNwEUghOktI9zGMrw0lME7rJTU65YTMNk1NyV48LvmAixORdqSA4SpV6Bq0/s1600/viequesRecyclesSign.png" height="195" width="400" /></a></div>
This is with "borrowing" images from the internet. Imagine if I'd had to create the icons from scratch. I'm not a designer and I'm not planning on selling this- just wanted to make a neat and attractive graphic that I could print on a label and slap on a bin.<br />
<br />
I used the GIMP software (open source Photoshop alternative) to create the image file. The project file has 14 layers. Upon reflection, I should have probably made it in Scribus (open source InDesign alternative.) Oh well. I still have the original project file, so I could import the individual images should the desire strike me.<br />
<br />
I consulted several YouTube videos and the online GIMP documentation to do all sorts of things like creating diagonal lines, making vertical text and using keyboard shortcuts. Personally, I think the rinse to avoid bugs instructions is fairly genius.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-61077528419223345642015-01-22T23:05:00.000-04:002015-01-22T23:14:38.934-04:00Six Degrees of Separation for Wikipedia ArticlesDoing some research on the Wikimedia Foundation and I came across this really rad <a href="http://wikigraph.erikaarnold.com/" target="_blank">project</a> called wikiGraph that a student of the <a href="http://www.hackbrightacademy.com/" target="_blank">Hackbright Academy</a> created to visually demonstrate how a person can go from one subject to another, totally seemingly unrelated, subject. Not as unrelated after all.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmWDPqr_2nkUap2jc9TXuIA-eR7dkXu5sTLrO_1U42S123htQvj5cLN_i7_CD-jZFL0hQu3yqKNgK_Lme6HRxLW4UPla-pz3MKfLEJcdVPzWRSn9GskGDvIGFeK_tPrrotZHYmmniR2g/s1600/wikiGraph_Screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screenshot of wikiGraph, demonstrating three links between GU Postcodes and (worker) strike actions " border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmWDPqr_2nkUap2jc9TXuIA-eR7dkXu5sTLrO_1U42S123htQvj5cLN_i7_CD-jZFL0hQu3yqKNgK_Lme6HRxLW4UPla-pz3MKfLEJcdVPzWRSn9GskGDvIGFeK_tPrrotZHYmmniR2g/s1600/wikiGraph_Screenshot.png" height="222" title="wikiGraph visually shows how closely linked are two articles in Wikipedia" width="400" /></a></div>
The about page has links to a detailed discussion of the tech behind the magic. I have some learning to do! But this is kinda like a reading map for encyclopedia articles, though not curated.<br />
<br />
Note: this mashup uses structured information from Wikipedia extracted by the <a href="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/About" target="_blank">DBpedia</a> community.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-52959993874630068552015-01-21T23:51:00.000-04:002015-01-21T23:51:45.581-04:00Creating a Catalog using WordPressI want to create a catalog.<br />
<br />
I want to learn what it takes to be able to search a collection based on things like creator name and format or the language of the resource.<br />
<br />
I want to create a thesaurus of terms with lists of preferred terms and broader terms and I want to see how to bend technology that is accessible to all to create this hierarchical list so that a person can browse through the thesaurus.<br />
<br />
In short, I'd like to see if WordPress can actually make a catalog. There are some hints along the way such as the plugins <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/weblibrarian/" target="_blank">WebLibrarian</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/" target="_blank">Custom Post Type UI</a>. But I'm wondering if I can use the plugin to add the content (in my case, a list of resources with their associated metadata that is searchable) and I'm wondering if I can create the thesaurus, let people search/browse through the thesaurus to find the term they are looking for, or to discover all the terms that could mean more or less the same thing and then find everything in the collection based on that term. How do the two interact with each other technology wise... in WordPress?<br />
<br />
I submitted a proposal... just waiting to hear back if the non-profit I want to do this for will allow me to mad genius up their website.<br />
<br />
wish me luck.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-57109839046387307652015-01-17T15:47:00.000-04:002015-01-21T10:12:13.968-04:00Cataloging vs. IndexingI'm putting together my website (finally!) and there's tons of opportunities to provide more information about some of the things I'm talking about. But rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm going to use all the wonderful content already present out in the world.<br />
<br />
If you are new to the concepts of Cataloging and Indexing and need a quick description in layman's terms, Spencer Jardin, Coordinator of Library Instruction at Eli M. Oboler Library at Idaho State University, put together this simple yet informative slideshare:
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10124731" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/sjardine5/catalog-vs-index" target="_blank" title="Catalog vs Index ">Catalog vs Index </a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/sjardine5" target="_blank">Spencer Jardine</a></strong> </div>
<br />
<br />
If you are further into your information professional role and need reminders of professional points, the American Library Association has a wiki entry titled <a href="http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Cataloging_and_Classification" target="_blank">Cataloging and Classification</a> and a fact sheet on <a href="http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet18" target="_blank">Cataloging Tools</a>.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-91291780801496151112015-01-08T20:51:00.000-04:002015-01-17T15:48:34.334-04:00Making More MapsSo yesterday my boss says to me, "Necesito cuadrar cuantas millas y cuanto tiempo para hacer una excursion en bici:
<br />
<ol>
<li>saliendo de la Ceiba, </li>
<li>para la Laguna Kiani, </li>
<li>dando la vuelta por los bunkers, </li>
<li>bajando a las ruinas del central Playa Grande, </li>
<li>regresando a la costa norte, </li>
<li>pasando por Rompeolas </li>
<li>y terminando en la Ceiba."</li>
</ol>
<div>
So I swapped in my <a href="http://www.pricepoint.com/_productimages/default/960x600/240_weld95_0.jpg" target="_blank">clipless pedals</a>, put fresh batteries in my <a href="https://static.garmincdn.com/en/products/010-00868-00/g/rf-lg.jpg" target="_blank">Garmin GPSmap 62 </a>unit and went for a ride. As it turns out, for a 14 mile ride that was totally fun, hit all the great spots and was fairly moderate with only one toughie hill that was toward the end. Two hours later I plug my Garmin into my computer, spend some time puzzling through the instructions at <a href="http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/" target="_blank">GPSVisualizer</a> (not because they are hard, just because it was my first time and I was learning some new terminology) and at the end of the day, I created this: </div>
<br />
<iframe height="622px" src="http://www.superbrarian.com/JAK_BikeTour_map.html" width="525px" yes=""></iframe>
<br />
After all that work, I deserve a treat. Like chocolate! Next step is to add pictures! But I'm going to do that tomorrow.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-5431598482666192332014-11-12T13:23:00.001-04:002014-11-12T14:13:08.784-04:00The Higüera of Puerto Rico is called "Totumo" in Other CountriesSo I've been doing a personal search of info on how to craft with the higüera, a fruit that looks and behaves kinda like a gourd that grows on trees in Puerto Rico. But all searches for "higüera" online kept bringing me to higuera, which is a fig. (Note the little snake bite above the "u" in higuera.) After some creative word combinations I found a video that referred to the higüera as a totumo in Colombia, and the rest is arts and crafts online searching history. A whole door opened up to videos and images of people making things with the higüera and their final creative projects.<br />
<br />
The first step was to find out how to prep the fruit for crafting. Because it is not technically a gourd, I couldn't follow all the amazing tips by all the gourd crafters out there. In PR, you cut the higüera in half (or in whatever shape you want), scoop out the guts and set it out to dry. But then it ends up drying really dark brown and I've seen samples with a cream base.<br />
<br />
I found one video that followed an artisan through the steps of prepping the totumo and she said that you have to boil it.<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/u6wYpBCW220" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />
But the video continues without an explanation of how long to boil it. I went back to Google and this time typed in "hervir totumo" and found a great Prezi, which I've embedded below for your viewing and instructional pleasure. Spending time on youtube, I've found loads of different ways to prep the higüera. I've also found out that it's also called "jicaro" in Mexico.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://prezi.com/embed/g6kk5_zkn4ke/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=1&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&token=undefined&disabled_features=undefined" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-41005942513055741702014-10-20T12:10:00.003-04:002018-06-28T05:58:44.396-04:00Making MapsA friend of mine owns a water sports <a href="http://www.jakwatersports.com/" target="_blank">business </a>in the Caribbean and I wanted to help her out with creating some maps to show the location of one of her excursions and to display the coral reefs surrounding the island. (Actually, now that I think about it, it would be great to create an interactive map where you can see corals, sea grass beds, limestone cliffs, mangrove ecosystems and so on and so forth with the various coastal and marine habitats of interest. A data manipulation skill to learn for the future.)<br />
<br />
So in pursuit of creating the map, I looked up GIS software and of course the daddy of it all is the US Geological Survey's <a href="http://nationalmap.gov/" target="_blank">The National Map</a> page for downloading pre-existing maps and <a href="http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html" target="_blank">The National Map Viewer</a> for creating custom maps. I'll admit, after taking up 15 of the 30 minutes max I wanted to spend on this little project just exploring the features and lingo of these tools, I decided that the USGS NM and NMV were more high tech and less user friendly than I wanted. So I went looking for an easier user interface (note, I didn't say better)...<br />
<br />
And I found the <a href="https://mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org/" target="_blank">National Geographic MapMaker Interactive</a> tool which allowed me to do everything I wanted, like draw on the map, zoom in, choose a satellite version (vs. topographic or street map) of the island, everything I was looking for initially... except download an image ( you could download a pdf, which I suppose could be converted to an image, etc, etc. but I wanted it now! Thank you, MS Windows, for the PrtSc function but then I needed to crop out the window, so my "workaround" still involved work.)<br />
<br />
Here's the route my friends take for one of their snorkeling trips:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11kWQKv5Bb_7yyfOsJ_YaCXTQtBrkYL9ex6QHuk8cY1MItGt6-DT4bFCHHYM0iYBCbySHK4Fj8eEA6lNS5HD4sLqLb4-KR7d38c7gaFOFJ4YgfLRmttuwDz7jnv7_oqp2lREmNH6s2jY/s1600/route_MotorBoatSnorkelTrip.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Map of Vieques showing where my friends take their motorboat snorkel excursion." border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11kWQKv5Bb_7yyfOsJ_YaCXTQtBrkYL9ex6QHuk8cY1MItGt6-DT4bFCHHYM0iYBCbySHK4Fj8eEA6lNS5HD4sLqLb4-KR7d38c7gaFOFJ4YgfLRmttuwDz7jnv7_oqp2lREmNH6s2jY/s1600/route_MotorBoatSnorkelTrip.png" title="Ensenada Honda Snorkeling Trip" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
After I created that map, I then got all excited to see where <i>all</i> the coral reefs are located around Vieques Island and found the excellent tool <a href="http://reefgis.reefbase.org/" target="_blank">ReefGIS </a>by <a href="http://reefbase.org/main.aspx" target="_blank">ReefBase</a>, which is a database used by several international coral monitoring networks with funding by the United Nations Foundation. Below is a map displaying corals by their depth.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBA1bHrnJP9yluaJkjWC3KgFvTdtUWKoSCo0poSpaSNlWwKQw_isQm5kyNVaO0Ntes9zoIz9R3fjm6ZxOTpB-DmqzzzmQmttImCddm1QSpfAb0Lpk-ROsdygNzOV2pbaSpGnpq_yXSyaA/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBA1bHrnJP9yluaJkjWC3KgFvTdtUWKoSCo0poSpaSNlWwKQw_isQm5kyNVaO0Ntes9zoIz9R3fjm6ZxOTpB-DmqzzzmQmttImCddm1QSpfAb0Lpk-ROsdygNzOV2pbaSpGnpq_yXSyaA/s1600/map.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Light purple is shallow reefs, mid purple is mixed shallow/deep reefs, and dark purple is deep reef. Unfortunately, the actual depths were not included in the map, but from my snorkeling experience, I can say the mixed depth reef ranged from 8 - 20 feet deep. After checking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) <a href="http://coralreef.noaa.gov/" target="_blank">Coral Reef Conservation Program</a> page, I learned that corals may grow to depths of over 200 ft and that shallow reefs may be considered up to 90 feet in depth. Wow! But then that makes me want to question the map's data and what ranges were set. Oh, well, at least it identifies location of corals around Vieques. Enjoy.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-86407819706743526282014-10-02T10:44:00.000-04:002014-10-02T14:23:01.689-04:00The Digital Shift 2014 Online Conference, Twitter Tag #TDS14This online conference was well organized and technologically easy to navigate with a graphically pleasing interface. I'm glad I was able to log in and participate for a one of the sessions and a few of the poster presentations. I just wanted to make a quick note about:<br />
<br />
StatBase, an open source data management software built on Joomla and created by an in house team of librarians and IT/ digital management librarians at the New Port News Public Library. They have basic documentation and information at their <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/statbase/?source=navbar" target="_blank">sourceforge</a> page and at their <a href="http://nnpls.libguides.com/statbase" target="_blank">libguide</a> page. The presentation reminded me of Counting Opinion's LibPass and LibStat browser based distribute-able software for data collection and statistics presentation. I'd love to see what some of the forms pages look like and what the presentation of the data looks like. I guess I'd have to download a copy and mount it to play around.<br />
<br />
I missed the first speaker for the Content Containers and Beyond Session at 12:15pm EST, but wow! the sessions were archived almost immediately and so I was able to review the excellent presentation on the <a href="http://dp.la/" target="_blank">Digital Public Library of America</a>. Emily Gore talked about the Ps of the DPLA which were portal, platform, and partnerships.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>things a good <b>portal </b>can do with an aggregated collection of over 8 million items- create online exhibitions using items from different contributed collections (making use of linked data to form links of unique items that may be spread across the states), use GPS metadata to "place" items on a map for geographic discovery (this is good for people looking at local history) and make use of time/date metadata to "place" items on a timeline (perhaps best when looking a thematically linked items to see their appearance in history and if and how the <i>when </i>of them relates to the <i>when </i>of other items).</li>
<li>by providing an API (application programming interface), the DPLA is a <b>platform </b>for other imaginings of how to use the data, or how to make the data relevant to your local area/ collection/ needs</li>
<li>the DPLA relies on two types of <b>partnerships</b> - content hubs and service hubs, each which contribute digital items and their associated metadata, without which the DPLA would be a seriously unfun place to visit. They also have community advocates in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) "industry" to speak on the DPLA's behalf, like at conventions, local outreach events, etc. Types of partners include (and I list these for when thinking about writing a grant to look at the local level for these types of partners):</li>
<ul>
<li>libraries</li>
<li>gov't agencies ( municipal?)</li>
<li>museums</li>
<li>non-profits (cultural centers, look at those that share your mission area?)</li>
<li>universities</li>
<li>encyclopedias (currently I'm in PR, so the <a href="http://www.enciclopediapr.org/esp/sobrenosotros.cfm" target="_blank">Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico</a> supported by the Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities is an example.)</li>
<li>high schools and local universities with departments or student organizations in your area of interest</li>
<li>historical societies</li>
<li>international partners (continuing the PR example, el <a href="http://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/" target="_blank">Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños</a> at Hunter College, the City University of New York)</li>
</ul>
<li>Upcoming- standardization of vocabulary to describe rights statements from free text to perhaps checkbox able descriptions to allow filters to be applied to digital objects so that users could focus in on items in the public domain, or which allow reuse. a Knight News Challenge (grant?)</li>
</ul>
<div>
And finally, there was mention of Linked Open Data Library Archives Museums #LODLAM from Jon Voss of <a href="https://www.historypin.org/" target="_blank">History Pin</a> (funded by <a href="http://wearewhatwedo.org/" target="_blank">WeAreWhatWeDo</a>) which would allow mashups of digital objects such as overlays of images on maps and overlays of information on images. </div>
<div>
Here's a list of links for me to do further study:</div>
<div>
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web?language=en<br />
http://entopix.com/so-you-need-to-understand-language-data-open-source-nlp-software-can-help/<br />
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/lod/index.html<br />
http://challenge.semanticweb.org/2014/submissions/<br />
http://code4lib.org/<br />
<br /></div>
Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-67445032527725499842014-09-28T12:26:00.002-04:002014-09-28T12:36:30.442-04:00Geocaches in Libraries and creating a Letterbox Maker Space program<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I was doing some reading about <a href="http://geocaching.com/" target="_blank">geocaching</a>, and found that there are some libraries that have allowed cachers to place a cache within the stacks (best place is probably the reference stacks). Laura Goodwin <a href="http://joyofgeocaching.com/contribute/your-most-devious-hides/" target="_blank">describes her experience</a> (in the comments section of the post) of finding a cache at a library, where the coordinates for the cache took her to the front door of her library and then she figured out the name of the cache, given in Dewey decimal "code," would reveal the actual location of the cached item.</div>
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Geocachers searching for the cache hunt through the stacks then sign the log once they find the book, which could be hollowed out to contain additional items. I see a <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/about/cache_types.aspx" target="_blank">letterbox hybrid</a> (scroll down on the linked page for the description) as being especially cool and could even be part of a maker space (individual) program where participants make a stamp to add to the letterbox log. (<a href="http://www.letterboxing.org/" target="_blank">Letterboxing </a>is itself an activity that is similar to geocaching, but rather than use GPS technology to mark the location of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_(hobby)" target="_blank">letterbox</a>, orienteering skills as well as problem solving of hints and clues are required.) The book wouldn't even have to be cataloged! </div>
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A Maker Space Letterbox Activity could be:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">find the letterbox cache, </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">"check out" the book which would really involve getting the maker space tools</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> carve the stamp, then ink and add your personalized stamp to the letterbox's logbook</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">return the tools and letterbox cache/book to the library</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">go home with your new stamp and perhaps take up letterboxing</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Issues with this activity</span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">carving tools are sharp and could cut the person if they don't use them correctly</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">ongoing cost of the stamp material for carving</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">messiness of the inks (which is why it would all be contained in the makerspace!)</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://blog.onwardhealthcare.com/2012/03/the-perfect-spring-hobby-for-travel-nurses/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Letter Box disguised in a pill bottle" border="0" src="http://blog.onwardhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/letterbox-container-lg.jpg" float="left" height="200" title="Letter Box disguised in a pill bottle" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Here's an awesome letterbox found in a pill bottle. A <a href="http://blog.onwardhealthcare.com/2012/03/the-perfect-spring-hobby-for-travel-nurses/" target="_blank">healthcare blog</a> posted it as a thematically related activity they suggest for nurses!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">FreeSpirited1 has created a list of <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=e5379962-1c7a-4502-b74d-1498f34c88a2" target="_blank">geocaches located in libraries</a> on geocaching.com. (You don't have to be a member of the site to see the list, but in order to see the full descriptions of each cache, you'll need a free membership.)</span></span></div>
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Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-46805610999718261702014-08-10T22:28:00.004-04:002014-08-10T22:29:28.754-04:00Storytelling ResourcesIn the pursuit of some online self instruction of storytelling, a (thwarted) attempt to pin an image from a blog post on <a href="http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/how-stories-are-told-in-games/" target="_blank">building stories in video games</a> led to a video (embedded below) which led to the very funny YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qC39KQoTG6LqgL_YnjSSQ" target="_blank">Glove and Boots</a>. The channel per se doesn't have anything to do with storytelling unless I wish to treat G&B as inspiration for how to tell funny stories incorporating popular culture. (Which I do.)<br />
<br />
EMBEDDED!<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/yZxs_jGN7Pg/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/yZxs_jGN7Pg&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/yZxs_jGN7Pg&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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The oh, so fantastic image that I could not pin (read the corresponding content at the above video games stories link):<br />
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<a href="http://blog-assets.bigfishgames.com/uploads/2014/01/storytelling.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog-assets.bigfishgames.com/uploads/2014/01/storytelling.gif" /></a></div>
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<br />
A cool storytelling resource list (I can delete it from my tablet now) maintained by Elizabeth Fig, Ph.D. of the University of North Texas: <a href="http://www.courses.unt.edu/efiga/STORYTELLING/StorytellingWebsites.htm" target="_blank">Storytelling SLIS 5440, </a>with such interesting topics as:<br />
<ul>
<li>Breathing for Public Speaking!</li>
<li>FAQs and Tips</li>
<li>Digital Storytelling</li>
<li>Oral Traditions</li>
<li>Curriculum for Teaching</li>
<li>y mucho más!</li>
</ul>
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A selection from the poem <a href="https://archive.org/details/lordofisles00scotrich" target="_blank">Lord of the Isles</a>. I've been looking for this from when I was a biobay tour guide- a way to begin and capture the imagination when introducing bioluminescence. (Because <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=selling+and+sstorytelling&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#channel=sb&q=selling+storytelling&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official" target="_blank">selling things is actually telling a story</a>. (well duh.))<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Awak’d before the rushing prow,<br />
The mimic fires of ocean glow,<br />
Those lightnings of the wave;<br />
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,<br />
And flashing round, the vessel’s sides<br />
With elfish luster lave;<br />
While far behind, their livid light<br />
To the dark billows of the night<br />
a blooming splendour gave</blockquote>
From Lord of the Isles (1815)<br />
By Sir Walter Scott<br />
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<br />Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-1767035339143563112014-07-18T01:39:00.000-04:002014-07-18T01:39:05.209-04:00Where to Buy Big BooksJust a note to self on some online seller's of "big books," those large display (like 3'x1 1/2 ') picture books for storytime. Probably book vendors have these, but I don't know that I'll have access to them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchCmd?Ntt=&storeId=10751&catalogId=10051&langId=&N=935&allSearchSize=&ins=&NewPageNumber=&ftorp=false&goToView=CategoryDisplayView&homeURL=custom&viewParam=CategoryDisplay&No=0&sortBy=Rank&ItemsPerPage=100" target="_blank">Scholastic Big Books</a><br />
<a href="http://www.booksource.com/departments/leveled-reading/big-books.aspx" target="_blank">BookSource</a> - not very many<br />
<a href="http://www.kaplanco.com/shop/childrens-books/big-books" target="_blank">Kaplan Big Books</a> - bundled sets<br />
<a href="http://products.lakeshorelearning.com/search#w=big%20books" target="_blank">Lakeshore </a>- 3 bundled sets as of 07/2014, or buy individually<br />
a helpful guide to other sources by <a href="http://teacherbigbooks.com/">TeacherBigBooks.com</a>, including amazon and ebay lists.Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-28361931051155514512014-07-18T00:20:00.000-04:002014-07-18T01:45:23.390-04:00Book Trailers[A few weeks ago] on my LinkedIn updates there was a comment in the ALA forum about Cinematic Book Trailers. Having no idea what the commenter was talking about I checked them out and they were awesome! Two of them totally got me interested in looking up the book.<br />
<br />
Many of the book "trailers" I've seen are actually book reviews (guilty here) a la Reading Rainbow. (And who didn't love RR's "but you don't have to take my word for it!" section?) But who says we can't push the envelope a little? I like the idea of snagging a reader through a sort of visual book jacket blurb, especially as the summer reading program is starting up. What better way to market a One Book, One City Reads campaign than a highly visual trailer? This one produced by Red14Films totally made me believe that a movie was due out for the book.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/86669871" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
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Okay, so the envelope is being pushed a lot. This has great production value and after I realized there isn't a movie due out, I said to myself, well, I gotta read the book! Which is the point, right? I was speaking with a co-worker who used to run a GameStop store and he told me he instituted a similar strategy to increase pre-order sales. He loaded the video trailers of the upcoming games on a laptop computer and had it running on loop and bam! Pre-orders rose from nineteen a week to nineteen a day.<br />
<br />
<strike>Now, I've got all kinds of opposing thoughts as well. As much as I enjoy the production quality of the book trailer example above, I wonder to myself about..</strike>. Update: 7/17/2014 I must have forgotten my opposing thoughts because I can't remember one. If you have an opposing thought, please list it in the comments section and we can have a conversation. Oh! Wait, maybe one of the opposing thoughts is that the production quality of these book trailers is so high that it feels impossible to "compete" with them if you are a small community group looking to have some video fun with a group of kids making a scene from a book. But, who cares? Kids aren't in it to compete, just to have some fun expressing their favorite parts of a book and for every book with a professional trailer, there's gotta be awesome books without... right. **end stream of consciousness argument**<br />
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Other book trailers to get ideas on making one.<br />
<a href="http://reederama.blogspot.com/2014/01/award-winning-book-trailers.html">http://reederama.blogspot.com/2014/01/award-winning-book-trailers.html</a><br />
(Check out the Mr. Wuffles trailer)<br />
<br />
A very cool reader's map guide to How to Make a Book Trailer<br />
<a href="http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Prezi+On+How+To+Make+A+Book+Trailer">http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Prezi+On+How+To+Make+A+Book+Trailer</a><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="250" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://prezi.com/embed/9xvvonltejxn/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=1&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="300"></iframe>
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Using a mix of live action and pages from the book. This sample brings up questions about fair use of books when making a trailer.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2gN_8P9yts">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2gN_8P9yts</a>Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-69936770772447086262014-05-17T15:21:00.000-04:002014-05-17T15:21:30.675-04:00Notes from a Wired Magazine<div>
This is more of an observe than an analyze post...<br />
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I'd like to able to say that I get all the information I need to be a good digital librarian from the professional sources. And I do get a fair amount, especially the tech as relates to library policy, or the research into user behavior. However, I love Wired for the trends and new commercial resources.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wEfJ92xf9Pv1r-W6IxgNOUr850s2bCZREGadZ-GDwXnX-SZc_w2kcp7uG8ujKDZcC0ElKEQwsYBjIq4Umep6hEwraYRsZKaemMqi715WL_z2ZGIUUCXsxErD1NMgiwn9MagzqYZzbt4/s1600/phonemenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wEfJ92xf9Pv1r-W6IxgNOUr850s2bCZREGadZ-GDwXnX-SZc_w2kcp7uG8ujKDZcC0ElKEQwsYBjIq4Umep6hEwraYRsZKaemMqi715WL_z2ZGIUUCXsxErD1NMgiwn9MagzqYZzbt4/s1600/phonemenu.png" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
Here's one: Please Press 1. currently a UK based site, but there's to be a US based one. It gives you a visual of the phone tree of customer service lines so you don't waste time sitting and listening. Wonder of wonders; you'd think that the individual companies could post on their websites the phone tree like a site map.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/02/play/styleborg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/s_v/Styleborg_cp.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
Fits.me is a web service that has dress form dummies made out of robots. You enter your personal dimensions and the robot morphs into the appropriate shape. THEN the cool thing, you can overlay any clothes you're shopping for and see what it would like on your shape. Great for clothing designers end producers too b/c they'll build a database of body types and then see which sizes are trending in aggregate and be able to sew clothes appropriately for those types. One of my co-workers says that it'll never work b/c she doesn't want to see what clothes look like on her, it's depressing enough to wear clothes, much less look at a representation of her body type in the clothes.</div>
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There was a question about whether a person has the right to delete offensive posts/comments/replies on their social media accounts. I liked the response:"If someone spray-painted a nasty comment on your house, you would get rid of it. Our virtual space may just be rentals, but that doesn't mean what happens there doesn't matter." Sort of a you are free to speak as you like, and I am free not to listen to it.</div>
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Notes from a review of Google plus's photo organizing service vs. the awesome settings one gets on an Apple camera: Google+ has excellent photo organization, but the quality of Android cameras is poor in comparison to Apple cameras. G+ organizational features use algorithms to compare images to its database of images, selects the best lighting, tags faces, all without the user having to do it. "But who wants a bunch of well organized photos that aren't very pretty?" (I beg to differ, the camera on the iPad that my job gave me isn't good at all (in my kid's school auditorium.) I'm the type that if I had enough time, I'd take the picture via the good camera and then upload to the G+ cataloging service, but who has the time? And no matter the quality of the camera, you can't get a good shot if there's another person in front of you.</div>
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Advertisement: Nextissue.com magazine service like audible.com. Pay one monthly rate, read as much as you want online. "No clutter." I'd be interested to see if the service allows you to bookmark and take notes, like Zenio. (the website doesn't address that issue.) And is the content available offline?</div>
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Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-55273519297245353142014-04-05T15:33:00.000-04:002014-04-05T15:33:44.847-04:00Graphic Novels and Apps<br />
Totally unrelated to each other, I wanted to note that I am working my way through a reader's advisory book and discovered a mobile app creator for non-fiction interactive books.<br />
<br />
<b>GN Scavenger Hunt </b><br />
The reader's advisory book is <i>Read On-- Graphic Novels: Reading Lists for Every Taste</i> by Abby Alpert. I'm having fun identifying books that we don't have in my current institution's collection (hey, the selector said I could make a list!) and books that I want to read (sometimes these lists correspond, sometimes they don't). <a href="http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Swear-God-Archives/dp/1582408815" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"><img alt="cover of Vol 1 Archive of True Story, Swear to God by Beland" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61XW8CpNy9L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="320" title="cover of Vol 1 Archive of True Story, Swear to God by Beland" width="213" /></a>The fun thing about this is the process:<br />
<ol>
<li>I read an entry and identify a title that I think should be in the collection like <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56097-281-5">Chuckling Whatsit </a></li>
<li>then I check the catalog to see if we have or ever had it</li>
<li>I go to our vendor (bibz) and look to see if they have it, </li>
<ul>
<li>if they do, I add it to the recommend list, </li>
<li>if they don't, I look to see if Amazon has it or if it is available as an ebook in Overdrive</li>
</ul>
</ol>
It's like a scavenger hunt. Sometimes the graphic novels in the reader's advisory book are out of print, such as <i>True Story, Swear to God</i> by Tom Beland and I have to track down used copies. (For myself, b/c my system doesn't buy from anyone other than our one vendor and before you get all up in arms, many library systems do it that way b/c they just don't have the man power to catalog and sticker everything. It's a trade off. I.L.L. it, if you want it.) This is the fun part of learning a collection and assisting in collection development, well, I guess if you really like the genre you are researching. <br />
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<b>Book App</b><br />
While reading the Dec 16, 2013 edition of Publisher's Weekly I came across the article "<a href="http://www.mobifusion.com/">Mobifusion</a>: Making Apps Make Money" [article not available online from what I can tell]. The company builds book apps for various publishers, kinda like my favorite app developer for children Loud Crow Interactive, only this one is for adults. I'd love to get more info on what tech they can support. It is just an interactive book, like search, bookmark, highlight, or can it do more, like if they have a cookbook, can I build menus and add up ingredients? I'm excited about this, but I'm wondering also what are the costs and are they on the scale that only established publishers will want to purchase their services?Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-30594554091511017602014-02-27T16:32:00.001-04:002014-02-27T16:32:23.276-04:00Been on Vacation, Checkin' Back in I can't believe it's almost been two months since the last time I posted something. But I went on two trips almost back to back and was jet lagged for two weeks so, oh well.<br />
<br />
After returning to the culture of work, the November 2013 School Library Journal landed in my inbox (hey, it's a fairly numerous department, we only have one copy) and I knew I needed to log the following tools about from the article, "<a href="http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/12/opinion/cool-tools/build-video-course-resources-curating-video-collections-creating-custom-courses-cool-tools/">Build Your Own Video Course</a>." Tools for curating videos, for talking about videos (with an open <i>or</i> select group of people), and for reinforcing learning of video content with supplemental material. And they are:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.opened.io/">OpenEd</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.teachem.com/">Teachem</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.huzzaz.com/">Huzzaz</a></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.glenwoodchamber.com/external/wcpages/wcmedia/images/new%20library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.glenwoodchamber.com/external/wcpages/wcmedia/images/new%20library.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a><br />
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I did want to note that while I was on my snowboarding trip, I did visit the Glenwood Springs, CO library. Very nice space. The community is really proud of it (I spoke with a man who just raved!) and they are open 7 days a week.<br />
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In Japan I visited the Kyoto Prefecture Library (next to the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the Museum of Traditional Hand Crafts) and while I was hoping for a futuristic experience of libraries (and was disappointed), I did get a quiet reading room and a cart with Japanese and English guide books. I discovered the guide to <i>all </i>the museums of Kyoto, which I will be referencing when I return to Japan. I'm done with visiting temples and shrines (in the cold)!<br />
<br />Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1218253987629191380.post-69075011010352896822013-12-30T19:51:00.001-04:002013-12-30T19:56:20.824-04:00Supporting Access through Little Libraries and Library Box<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://littlefreelibrary.org/product-category/library/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://littlefreelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Book-Garden-2-350x350.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Just a quick mention of two services that bring the library out of the walls and into the neighborhoods. One is <a href="http://littlefreelibrary.org/">Little Free Library</a> where you build a little box on a post, put some books in it and then invite people to take a book and leave a book or read and return. <br />
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I read about <a href="http://jasongriffey.net/librarybox/">Library Box</a> in the August 2013 issue of Library Journal. This one is a small router that comes with a USB drive preloaded with free (in the public domain) content. The router allows the patron to download the content of their choice to a wifi accessible device. This is for those areas where people may not have access to wifi, but still want to read a copy of Emma by Jane Austen or the Jungle Book by Kipling. Or maybe the person may not know s/he can visit the <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Gutenberg project </a>and download a book for free, or maybe there's just too many options and this little bad boy makes the choices easier. Check out the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/griffey/librarybox-20">kickstarter campaign</a> for Library Box to see what are the latest developments for the project. Superbrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00689421974901849018noreply@blogger.com0