Circulation

#libday4: Day in the Life… Project

January 25, 2010 – 8:34 pm | by lindybr1

#libday4 has been a very popular tag in the library world today.

Eh?

#libday 4 = A Day in the Life of a Librarian, Round 4.

Ah ha!

I remember when Bobbi Newman first wrote about her day in the life of a librarian, just over a year and a half ago. It has grown exponentially since then. All it took was one blog post about her day… then it quickly grew into a wiki where others shared their stories… and today I noticed a Day-in-the-Life netvibes page filled with all sorts of social-sharing goodness from twitter, delicious, flickr, friendfeed, etc.

I recommend all MLIS/MLS programs incorporate it into their introduction to the information professions classes. Information/Library science students can learn about real people straight from their own writings rather than from static handouts filled with random charts or book chapters dryly explaining librarian-related tasks.

[Think of this vs. this].

I wanted to write more about how grateful I am to everyone who shared information about their day, allowing others to take a peek into their daily professional lives. I had many thoughts in my head about why this project was a brilliant idea, but I can’t say it any better than Erin Dorney (see blog: Library Scenester).

I especially like her idea of some sort of day-in-the-life spinoff of library school students sharing what they’re learning. Just as professional librarians have a lot to share about the practical things that happen daily, MLIS students have a lot to share from what they are learning in the classroom. I’m not saying this because I am one, but MLIS students are great resources of information about new trends, theories, and so on (for a great example, follow the #lis768 tweets from Michael Stephens’s students at Dominican U).

So as a side note for all graduate and doctorate students – I call on you to share what your day is like in the life of being a librarian/information professional-to-be, what-have-you. A few folks have posted already:

Rachel Slough, MLS Candidate, Indiana University SLIS: Lib and Learn
Karen Cawley, MLS Candidate, Syracuse University—School Media: karenthelibrarian
Alison Miller, Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management, Syracuse University School of Information Studies: infolibnow.net
Laura Williams, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University Library Service: Theatre Grad Blog
Sarah Hogg, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University: Library Trainee in Oxford

Tags: information professionals, librariandayinthelife, librarians, library, MLIS, mls

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Dewey Music: search the Internet Archive’s audio

January 22, 2010 – 10:39 pm | by lindybr1

Dewey Music is the interface of the Internet Archive’s fabulous music library. Grateful Dead fans may know the archive.org’s great collection of the band’s live shows throughout the ages, but there are many more vintage (and contemporary) goodies nestled inside the Archive’s library. Search Dewey Music to find old school live jams or newer music such as, shall we say, one of my favorite bands, Guster and artists like, Deb Talan, and Elliot Smith.

Dewey Music basically searches through this entire list from the Archive’s website. You can listen to, download, remix, and share anything you see on this site legally and for free, which is a bonus. Dewey Music allows you to create playlists, share the music with others via Facebook, and music you choose continues to play as you search. In addition to their general search, you can browse by genre, top rated, most played and newest uploads.

So far, I’ve found Dewey Music’s search features a lil’ buggy. Searches were dropped, I had to hit “go” twice in order for results to show, and the search engine didn’t produce recordings that I could find by directly using the Internet Archive’s audio search page. Despite this, Dewey Music offers a lot of promise, however, to unlocking the fabulous goodness of the Archive’s music library.

Tags: archive.org, audio, free, internet archive, music, public domain

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The Intenet Public Library & Librarian’s Internet Index = IPL2

December 16, 2009 – 2:20 pm | by lindybr1

It’s official: the Internet Public Library (IPL) and Librarian’s Internet Index (LII) merged today. Check out the new and improved website, with ever-so-much-more trustworthy, authoritative, librarian-approved resources.

Tags: internet public library, IPL, librarian's internet index, lii, reference, resources

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Clicker – Helping you find free TV shows on the Web

December 12, 2009 – 10:54 pm | by lindybr1

Hulu will soo n require moola in order to access content… What are some other options? Sure, Crackle is definitely one. Clicker, is another.

Clicker is much more than a video search engine. In fact, CEO and co-founder Jim Lanzone describes Clicker as “the first structured, comprehensive and unbiased programming guide for internet television.” Its content includes music, web originals, movies and much, much more.

How’s that? Like Yahoo Directory, Clicker indexes video. It also allows community involvement where users can annotate videos, add comments and point to related videos. Clicker relies on structured data to organize and present content, thus providing a better user experience rather than a search engine that relies on metadata.

You can create an account, create playlists, search, or browse alphabetically by show title, “what’s hot” or recommended by others. Clicker has a “trends” option where you can see what’s most popular by shows and episodes. Not sure what you want, but know you want a certain genre? Check out their categories page — browse by categories such as animation, drama, arts, business/finance, documentary, education, live programming and more. Clicker’s content is impressive — containing more than 450,000 episodes, from over 6,000 shows, from over 1,200 networks, and 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists!

What’s handy about Clicker is the various ways to search and the information provided from each. A search for “Glee” give a snapshot of information about the show, the episodes Clicker found, and then a handy sidebar suggesting similar shows. Having trouble finding what you need? Just start typing out the first few letters and Clicker will intuitively provide suggestions. I tried out a search for “maddow” and it not only suggested the actual show, but episodes of Meet the Press, Charlie Rose and American Microphone where she has made appearances. Clicker’s search is definitely user-friendly!

As more people go to their computers instead of TV, they will find sites such a Clicker (and Hulu and Crackle) as an essential part of their entertainment. The ease at which Clicker helps find, organize and present information make it a strong competitor with its fellow online video sites.

For more information on the subject:

Clicker Blog: Hi, We’re Clicker.

NPR’s all tech CONSIDERED: TV on the Web on the TV

Search Engine Land: Clicker: More Than Just a Video Search Engine

Tags: clicker, directory, free video, hulu, searching, video search, videos

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