Scholar | Speaker | Writer | Teacher | Advocate
A new article “Scholarly productivity of U.S. LIS faculty” by Denice Adkins, John Budd coming out in Library & Information Science Research, lists me as the 12th most productive LIS faculty member in terms of journal publications. Publish or Perish indeed.
The rise of new web applications that both facilitate and depend upon user contributions has exposed a number of serious issues that today’s libraries must face. These web services allow users to easily:
* build digital collections (YouTube, FLIKR);
* join and create social networks (or digital collections of people such as MySPACE, Facebook); and
* self publish (Blogger, LiveJournal).
The advance of these tools have had impacts in multiple areas. One clear example is on software developers (and consumers). Software developers now release early betas of software to a community for testing and refinement…sometimes creating permanent betas that never get officially “finished.” Software developers also often look to a loosely coupled cadre of programmers to create and/or maintain software and standards through open source. These shifts in the Internet software community have already begun to impact libraries. User expectations for the online catalog and the services of a library they can access online have changed, and libraries must keep up.
The American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy has contracted the Information Institute of Syracuse to research and write a detailed technology brief on the topic of participatory networks. The brief will put an emphasis on interactive and social web applications such as blogs, social networks, and include a survey of the general “Web 2.0” and “Library 2.0” development world. The idea is to present a comprehensive document library decision makers can use to understand the new wave of social Internet applications, and devise strategies to respond to potential opportunities and threats. The draft of the document will be shared with ALA as well as experts in the field for initial comments in September and October. A public forum will be incorporated into a final drat document at the 2006 LITA Forum in Nashville.
The lead authors of the brief are R. David Lankes and Joanne Silverstein.
The public draft and web tools for commenting will be available soon.
“The Social Internet: A New Community Role for Libraries?” Lecture, Pratt Institute SILS, New York, NY
Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
Abstract: Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger these web services have begun to redefine how communities form and work on the web. What lessons can libraries learn from these services to improve their own websites? How can libraries extend their efforts to provide community gathering places to the web? This presentation will discuss how libraries can not only improve their own web services, but help shape the whole concept of communities on the web. This presentation will be based on an ALA’s Office of Information and Technology Policy and Syracuse University’s Information Institute of Syracuse project on the social Internet.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2006/PrattSocial.pdf
Slides available at: /rdlankes/Presentations/2006/PrattSocial.pdf
Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger these web services have begun to redefine how communities form and work on the web. What lessons can libraries learn from these services to improve their own websites? How can libraries extend their efforts to provide community gathering places to the web? This presentation will discuss how libraries can not only improve their own web services, but help shape the whole concept of communities on the web. This presentation will be based on an ALA’s Office of Information & Technology Policy and Syracuse University’s Information Institute of Syracuse project on the social Internet.
Lankes has been nominated to the National Academies’ National Research Council policy study â??Transportation Information Manage-
ment: A Strategy for the Future.â?? From the National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s 2007 outlook:
The scope of the current National Research Council study is to â??â?¦provide strategic advice to the federal government and the states regarding a sustainable administrative structure and funding mechanism for meeting the information services needs of the transportation sector. The committee will define the core services that need to be provided, identify how they should be provided, and suggest options for funding.â??
It is clear that a concerted effort will be needed to begin implementing this study. A NCHRP project will serve as an appropriate first step in what will be a long-term effort to capitalize on the benefits to be gainedâ??in terms of increased efficiencies, cost savings and qualityâ??through better management of transportation information.
The objective of the research is to begin immediate implementation of recommendations from the policy study. Likely required tasks might include: (1) Develop a detailed business plan for implementing the administrative structure recommended by the Committee. (2) Establish perform- ance measures for evaluating delivery of the core services recommended by the Committee. (3) Engage key U.S. DOT, state DOT, and University Transportation Center personnel in supporting and facilitating implementation of the Committeeâ??s recommendations. (4) Develop a prototype website to demonstrate integrated information access and retrieval for a key transportation business need.
I have uploaded the lecture slides for the class. Click here to download it.
Lankes has been selected to write a chapter in the new foundation series on the credibility of information. The chapter title and initial abstract to be included on a volume on credibility are:
Trusting the Internet: New Approaches to Credibility Tools
Synopsis: This chapter looks at how new approaches to credibility on the Internet can make information more credible than traditional channels. Examples from online retail to the Katrina catastrophe will be used to illustrate the way in which the Internet has the potential to revolutionize how people judge credibility.
Here is some more on the series:
The New Media Consortium and the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, are soliciting abstracts for chapters to appear in a series of volumes entitled The MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. The MacArthur Foundation Series will explore the intersection of digital media and learning from the perspectives of experts, visionaries, and thought leaders chosen from across the globe. Authors whose chapters are selected for inclusion in these volumes will receive an honorarium for their contribution.
The working hypothesis of the effort is that digital media tools have advanced significantly in recent years, enabling new forms of knowledge production, social networking, communication, and play. People who have grown up with access to these new digital tools are engaged in an unprecedented exploration of language, games, social interaction, and self-directed education that can be used to support learning. They are different as a result of this exposure to and use of digital media and these differences are reflected in their sense of self, and how they express their independence and creativity, and in their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systemically.
Six volumes of such work will be published in the first year of the MacArthur Foundation Series, each with a unifying theme that addresses a critical aspect of this emerging field of study. The themes are Identity and Digital Media, Credibility, Digital Media and Civic Engagement, the Ecology of Games, Incidental Learning and Unexpected Outcomes, and Race and Ethnicity. These volumes are intended for an informed but wide audience. Each volume will include an introductory chapter by the editor, and 7-10 additional chapters that will explore the topics from a variety of perspectives. A summary of each topic is attached.
Authors for the volumes will be chosen in a competitive process, with selections based on a peer review of an abstract of their proposed chapter. Submissions of abstracts are due April 28, 2006. Abstracts will be reviewed by a panel of scholars who will base their selections on the relevance of the content to the planned volume on the topic, the conceptual underpinnings and quality of the ideas represented in the abstract, the publication record or relevant expertise of the author in this area, and other related factors.
Lankes will present at the 2006 Charleston Conference. Here is the title and abstract:
Massive Scale Librarianship
There are two types of discontinuities faced by a field: those you expect, and those that you don’t. The Internet was an unexpected event in librarianship. Few could look at the early days of telnet, gopher, and even the web and truly appreciate its impact on libraries. Yet even so, library science has adapted. Not always elegantly, not always completely, but adapted. Unlike the Internet that had a largely unexpected impact, very large scale computing is an obvious coming challenge. We know computing power, storage and bandwidth are going to increase. Knowing this, it is incumbent upon the library and information science field to consider what is a world like where you can walk around with the entire contents of the Internet in your pocket.
Lankes will present a lecture at Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science September 18th 2006 at 5:30. Here’s the title and Abstract:
The Social Internet: A New Community Role for Libraries?
Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger these web services have begun to redefine how communities form and work on the web. What lessons can libraries learn from these services to improve their own websites? How can libraries extend their efforts to provide community gathering places to the web? This presentation will discuss how libraries can not only improve their own web services, but help shape the whole concept of communities on the web. This presentation will be based on an ALA’s Office of Information & Technology Policy and Syracuse University’s Information Institute of Syracuse project on the social Internet.