Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Monday, August 26, 2013
Post-password future?
Probably the single most frustrating thing in my work with students in the library is seeing them give up trying to use online subscribed resources and ebooks because 'it's all too hard'. This could be in regard to setting up accounts, forgotten passwords, slow or unreliable internet, the perception that it's complicated or too time-consuming, Google search is an easy alternative, uncertainty about how to search within and reference online materials, or a combination of these factors.
This week's ANZ 23 mobile things topic is Adobe ID. Students at the academic library where I work have to create an account with Adobe to access ebooks on the free Adobe Digital Editions software for the desktop or laptop, and also to use an ebook reader app such as Overdrive or Bluefire on a mobile device. The Adobe ID allows them to transfer books protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) on to their computers. Next, students have to create an account with our ebook provider Ebsco, and then they have to sign in with their college password to access our online resources. That's 3 user names and 3 passwords to download their first ebook. Also, every time there is an update for an app that uses Adobe ID for authentification, the ID password needs to be re-entered. It really takes persistence! I've heard this type of cumbersome process described as a 'usability chore'.
There's no way around passwords. They are needed in the academic library context to limit access to subscription resources to enrolled students, and to connect a student with their personal information such as current checkouts. Students also need passwords to login to Mendeley reference manager, software that is installed on the library computers, their cloud-based email, individual databases in order to receive alerts, and so on - it's never-ending. In an average day at work, I login to around 15 password protected sites or programs. My computer has many of them stored, but for students using the library computers there are no stored passwords.
*A scary note on Chrome's password security - did you know that you can see every password that has been saved in the browser in the advanced settings page? And you don't need a password to get access to that! Just don't leave your computer unattended if you use Chrome and value your privacy...
Some questions circling in my mind:
Is it sensible or bad practice to suggest they use the same password for data that is not especially sensitive/confidential? (The more passwords students have to remember, the more likely it is that they will a choose a single simple password, or no password. Do you password protect your laptop/tablet/phone??)
Has my organisation made it easy to use a single login for multiple services / products?
How often does having to sign up and log in dissuade someone from accessing a service or product?
Why haven't we moved into the post-password future that has been hinted at by the likes of Google and Apple? (fingerprint logins, ring logins, etc.)
Are passwords only about security/access or are they just as much about collecting data?
Are password apps as trustworthy as they claim to be?
This week's ANZ 23 mobile things topic is Adobe ID. Students at the academic library where I work have to create an account with Adobe to access ebooks on the free Adobe Digital Editions software for the desktop or laptop, and also to use an ebook reader app such as Overdrive or Bluefire on a mobile device. The Adobe ID allows them to transfer books protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) on to their computers. Next, students have to create an account with our ebook provider Ebsco, and then they have to sign in with their college password to access our online resources. That's 3 user names and 3 passwords to download their first ebook. Also, every time there is an update for an app that uses Adobe ID for authentification, the ID password needs to be re-entered. It really takes persistence! I've heard this type of cumbersome process described as a 'usability chore'.
There's no way around passwords. They are needed in the academic library context to limit access to subscription resources to enrolled students, and to connect a student with their personal information such as current checkouts. Students also need passwords to login to Mendeley reference manager, software that is installed on the library computers, their cloud-based email, individual databases in order to receive alerts, and so on - it's never-ending. In an average day at work, I login to around 15 password protected sites or programs. My computer has many of them stored, but for students using the library computers there are no stored passwords.
*A scary note on Chrome's password security - did you know that you can see every password that has been saved in the browser in the advanced settings page? And you don't need a password to get access to that! Just don't leave your computer unattended if you use Chrome and value your privacy...
Some questions circling in my mind:
Is it sensible or bad practice to suggest they use the same password for data that is not especially sensitive/confidential? (The more passwords students have to remember, the more likely it is that they will a choose a single simple password, or no password. Do you password protect your laptop/tablet/phone??)
Has my organisation made it easy to use a single login for multiple services / products?
How often does having to sign up and log in dissuade someone from accessing a service or product?
Why haven't we moved into the post-password future that has been hinted at by the likes of Google and Apple? (fingerprint logins, ring logins, etc.)
Are passwords only about security/access or are they just as much about collecting data?
Are password apps as trustworthy as they claim to be?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Social Curation
My family and friends think I'm nuts because I don't have a TV and I don't read the paper or magazines (unless they're free!). But I've noticed time and time again that I hear the latest news before they do, and manage to keep hyper-informed about issues that matter to me, be that current news, or things that I'm personally or professionally interested in. I admit I spend a lot of time glued to the screen (either my desktop at work, or my phone or laptop at home) but I'm a very selective consumer of information and I know how to evaluate it. Also I love discovering new sources of information and I'm not overly attached to any one source - if a website that I like starts to fill up with advertising at the expense of content, then they've lost my patronage. To be honest there is another reason why I don't have a TV or pay for content - it's because I can think of a million other things I'd rather spend my (limited!) money on and the internet offers everything I need. I pay for fast and reliable internet and I choose the content. And speaking of choosing content...
Actually, this post was supposed to be about social curation tools because that's the topic for ANZ23mthings for this week - Thing 14: Curating with Pinterest, Tumblr, and Scoop.it and co-incidentally it also happens to be the week that we are launching our PD reading project at work, using the lovely Scoop.it as a platform. As part of the process of choosing which of the many social curation tools to go with, we analysed and compared a whole bunch of them. We rejected Delicious and Diigo as being old school in the way that they displayed content - visually uninteresting - although they did have better group and privacy settings. We rejected Pinterest on the basis that it was more suited to images and browsing rather than deeper reading, and we weren't that impressed with the web interface although it's great on a tablet or smartphone. Everyone was impressed by Flipboard but felt that it was once again more suited to the touch interface rather than the desktop, and didn't have enough scope for commenting on articles on the desktop version. Although I've decided to use it for my personal use and totally loving it.
We ended up being happy with our choice of Scoop.it although we are still in the early stages of our project. The aim is to get the whole team contributing articles of interest to our work, read the one's that spark our interest, and comment on them. The emphasis is on the reading and commenting part rather than merely collecting. We've got a controlled list of tags to make searching by topic easy. For me, the best part of this project is that we are all working in the same context (i.e. we are aware of the current library landscape outside of our immediate work environment) and we are all engaging in PD which is not daunting and hopefully will become a part of our daily or weekly routine.
The page we've created is pretty much just for our group so I'm not going to provide and links or details. We did notice that there wasn't a visually exciting social curation site that offered exactly what we needed - a space for a private group to collaborate. The trend is social, so you have to share! Let's see if what we have suits our needs...
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| Image by Aivar Ruukel on Flickr, creative commons licence |
We ended up being happy with our choice of Scoop.it although we are still in the early stages of our project. The aim is to get the whole team contributing articles of interest to our work, read the one's that spark our interest, and comment on them. The emphasis is on the reading and commenting part rather than merely collecting. We've got a controlled list of tags to make searching by topic easy. For me, the best part of this project is that we are all working in the same context (i.e. we are aware of the current library landscape outside of our immediate work environment) and we are all engaging in PD which is not daunting and hopefully will become a part of our daily or weekly routine.
The page we've created is pretty much just for our group so I'm not going to provide and links or details. We did notice that there wasn't a visually exciting social curation site that offered exactly what we needed - a space for a private group to collaborate. The trend is social, so you have to share! Let's see if what we have suits our needs...
Friday, July 26, 2013
Lara's wondering where my TV is...
ANZ 23 Mobile Things had a fun one for us this week - it's augmented reality!
I think the technology is really awesome, and you will be blown away like I was if you watch this video, but I really can't imagine walking around a city pointing my iPhone at buildings to find out what's inside, or at restaurants to get reviews. Or wearing Google Glass. Yet. A big part of me wants to shout out - we're moving too fast! It's unnatural! I want to go live up a mountain and never look at a screen again! But another part of me says, that's actually pretty cool.
So I haven't been in my apartment that long, and I've been buying one piece of furniture each time I get paid and I haven't got a TV yet. See, here's Lara wondering why the hell a TV wasn't one of the first things I bought.
I'd quite like to know what it would look like in the space though, and I'm also wondering whether I should get a smart TV or just a plain old digital. (Or if I even need one at all...). I got the Augment app free from the Apple app store (must be running IOS6), took the short in-app tutorial and then uploaded a tv into my living room. How does it look?
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My library is also due for a bit of a makeover. With augmented reality I could choose furniture, move it around and see how it looks before purchasing anything. I also love the part in the video about the photocopier maintenance instruction. I could really use that when it comes time to replace the toner cartridge...
Monday, July 22, 2013
Beautiful cartoons
I came across a website with such gorgeous cartoons that I just had to share it here.
It's called Incidental Comics and lots of them are book themed.
This one about the death of books is especially poignant. Enjoy!
It's called Incidental Comics and lots of them are book themed.
This one about the death of books is especially poignant. Enjoy!
What does a librarian do, anyway?
I get the feeling that a lot of people who are not involved with libraries don't really know what librarians do. I mean they know that we work in a library obviously, and they would probably also guess that we spend a lot of time with computers, and help people who come into the library. But actual tasks that we do? To most, it's a mystery. I know, I know, I couldn't really say exactly what tasks an engineer or a public servant in a government department do in their day-to-day work either. But I want to make two points on this topic.
1. It wouldn't hurt to raise awareness amongst library patrons and the public in general of what a librarian does.
2. I often have doubts myself about what the role of a librarian involves, making the first point rather difficult to begin.
Have you ever heard someone say that when X happens, librarians will be freed-up to work on other projects? X being for example
1. It wouldn't hurt to raise awareness amongst library patrons and the public in general of what a librarian does.
2. I often have doubts myself about what the role of a librarian involves, making the first point rather difficult to begin.
Have you ever heard someone say that when X happens, librarians will be freed-up to work on other projects? X being for example
- automation a system (e.g. self check-out stations)
- library technicians or paraprofessionals taking on roles like reference and info literacy
- purchasing a turn-key, time-saving vendor product
- outsourcing work
During the future of the profession workshop the same thing occurred to me when we were discussing shambrarians - people without library qualification being employed in the library, for example people with a background in marketing, communications, web development etc. People with IT degrees can manage data and information better than a librarian. People with web design talent can design website and library pages better than a librarian. Marketers can sell library services better than a librarian. Our job has changed so much and diversified to the extent that we have to wonder what we should be spending our time on...
Is there anything a librarian can do that is unique? Are we losing our footing?
There's a conference coming up in November in Sydney called SWITCH and one of the speakers is Steve Coffman. Here's his topic, from the program. Look interesting, as do his articles.
Can Libraries Compete in a Digital Age?
Over the past few decades the digital library we all dreamed of has been built. Although we librarians helped to make it, it is not ours. Books are provided by Amazon, Apple and Google. Reference is by Google and the Web.Library 2.0 is by Goodreads, Facebook and many others. And the smart phone, Kindle and iPad are providing access to it all. So where does that leave libraries? Is it time we just hung it up and turned our buildings into community centres or ‘makerspaces’? Or are libraries still needed in the world of books, and if so, what roles can we play?
There's quite a lot of insecurity in the industry at the moment, but I for one am not going to give up on this industry that I've so recently become a part of. I suppose what we do is bring it all together in context, and organise everything in a way that make our services and our resources accessible to our library users. And we do it on a scale that is intimate and personal and does not try to be everything to everyone. Are we recognised for this sometimes difficult-to-grasp role?
From now on I'm going to covertly and naturally educate as many people as I can about what librarians do and how we value our profession and our library users. That probably means tomorrow, when someone walks in to a near-empty library (the students are on break) and says, wow it's quiet in here! I'll say Yes, the peace is giving me a chance to prepare information literacy session for the students! or Yes, I've just been creating a new web-tutorial for our bioscience databases!
Wish me luck :)
Here's a nice infographic that has some future roles of a librarian, there at the end.
Here's a nice infographic that has some future roles of a librarian, there at the end.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
I'm changing my topic
I was over on the ANZ 23 Mobile Things blog, the social reading post, and I noticed that Jodie had written in the comment section:
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. If we had just the one account, we could all add content as we wanted, tag it for future reference and ease of searching, comment on articles, interact with comments and with no fear about bothering each other with emails... Perhaps we would need an email once a week to highlight content, direct people to the Delicious site and encourage its use. So this is my new challenge topic.
Hey, just noticed that this is my 50th post!
The way we share knowledge at work could be so much better. Our team of librarians is spread out over 5 states, and if we want to share something interesting that we've seen on the net, we send an email out to everyone about it. Email and picking up the phone are our options. Problem is, I want to share stuff all the time but I'm pretty sure no one wants to get 20 emails a day about things that I've read, no matter how interesting they are. And then there's the duplication issue - chances are that my colleagues have spent time searching for the same things I have and read them. Time could be saved by having a shared platform for reading. I considered Feedly, but what I really want to share is individual pages rather than subscribe to an RSS feed. So perhaps Delicious would be better?Has anyone got a staff, shared RSS aggregation tool at their workplace where you all share the same blogs/news sources? I have regularly thought about setting this up but never seem to get around to it. Would be keen to hear if anyone has done it, and how it’s working. Does it encourage a culture of professional reading and engagement?
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. If we had just the one account, we could all add content as we wanted, tag it for future reference and ease of searching, comment on articles, interact with comments and with no fear about bothering each other with emails... Perhaps we would need an email once a week to highlight content, direct people to the Delicious site and encourage its use. So this is my new challenge topic.
Hey, just noticed that this is my 50th post!
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