Mark Your Calendar For CIL 2010

This might go down in history as the “CIL Twitter Conference” because there were so many tweets that CIL rose to be one of the most popular subjects, especially on Tuesday right after that fabulous keynote interview with Paul Holdengraber.

CIL will be back at the Crystal City Hyatt next year, so mark your calendars NOW.   See you then!

The CIL 2009 Infotoday Blog Team
Don Hawkins
Kathy Dempsey
Marydee Ojala

Steve Cohen

That’s what Steve Abram said when he introduced Steve Cohen’s session, What’s Hot in RSS.  The reason for the title is because Steve Cohen did some cattle ranching at one time.  He did another A to Z roundup of RSS tools (really Z to A this time).  Here’s the list (the URLs are available on Steve’s blog).

Z:  Zoho 
Y: YouTube RSS Search
X:
W:  Wwwhatsnew.com  (it’s in Spanish!)
V: Votes Database (it was created by an intern at the Washington Post for free).  See how legislators voted.
U: JD Supra (there’s a U in it!).  Documents that lawyers put up on the Web
T: Tic Tocs.  Journal Table of Contents service
S: Scribd.  A “YouTube” for PDF documents
R: Ravelry.  Social networking tool for knitters
Q: QuestionPoint.
P: Page 2 RSS.  Creates a feed from a page that doesn’t have one.
O: Open  Congress.  Feed for bills, issues, committees, etc.
N:
M:  Mashable.  Social networking guide
L: LibraryThing
K: KillerStartups
J: Justia Dockets.  Federal District Court filings and dockets
I: I Want To.  I want to do something. What will help me do it?
H: Hunch.  (Not launched yet.) Helps you make decisions.
G: Google Reader
F: Facebook
E: E-Hub.  Web applications, services, sites on Web2.0 and social software
D: Deepest Sender.  Automatic posting to your blog
C: Compfight.  Image search–can use original content, creative commons, etc.
B: Backup URL.  Create a cached copy of a URL in case it goes down
A: Awesome Highlighter.  Lets you highlight text on a web page

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today  and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

Inspired by CIL???

Did our Twitter trending (meaning we were the top Twitterers at one time) tweak the imagination of this cartoonist? Did Bizarro watch our live stream of NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber’s keynote [see earlier story for archive of this feed] or listen into our Dead Tech evening discussion?

Jane Dysart, Conference Program Planning

Mobile Search

Megan Fox continued her coverage of mobile devices in the Searching track.  Mobile searchers have specific information they are looking for,  such as facts or answers. They don’t want to look at lists of hits.  So searches tend to be just one word–very quick and direct.  The major search engines generally present sites like weather, maps, and events first.  Lots of searches are geographically oriented: local sites near you.

Many times, mobile search means turning to the traditional search engines (Google, MSN Live, and Yahoo)  but using them for finding, not searching.  There are 3 types of search tools:  on deck (search button on “desktop”), off deck (open browser, go to search engine), and applications (the device comes preloaded with separate searching software).  Google found that people using a downloaded application, they get results 40% quicker and do 20% more searches.

Yahoo! has developed some advanced mobile search features, such as OnePlace (a shortcut to common search topics) and OneSearch (a special interface designed for the BlackBerry).  Yahoo! is trying to have phone  manufactures pre-download their application into new phones.  Google is counting on its market  leadership and familiarity to searchers and trusting that searchers will access their service, even if Yahoo! was pre-loaded on their phone.

Photo Mobile Search

Mobile Photo Search

Sometimes searches can be done with an image, so you don’t  have to enter the  information with your fingers.  You can even photograph bar codes and receive the product information.  For example, in Japan, MacDonald’s placemats have codes on them, and when you take a picture, you get nutritional information!  If you take a picture of a well known scene, photo recognition can provide you with hyperlinks to information about it.  We already have voice-activated speed dialing, but some search software can be used to input searches.  (See my report on Megan’s talk this morning for more on these technologies.)

Mobile Social Search

Mobile Social Search

Given the emphasis on social networking,  it should be no surprise that social sites especially for mobile phones have been developed.

Searching will never be the same!

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and CIL  2009 Blog Coordinator

There are still issues with assigning authors to particular content, calendar (takes too much staff time) , and migration.

Tao Gao talking about Joomla. Design process uses wireframes, graphic mockups, and template development. Uses Adobe products and FileZilla. There are some security issues but they’re not serious. Look at Joomla in Libraries blog.

Marydee

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals

(L-R) Michael Sauers, Krista Burns, Jim Hahn

Things you may not know that you can do with your mobile device

Many of  these can be done with a simple mobile phone, a sophisticated web browing phone is not required.  (Make sure you have an unlimited data plan or you will get a huge bill!)

• Send a text message to Google (phone 46645 which is GOOGL) and get an answer back.   Good for finding local restaurants, etc.

Examples of Google text message queries

• Send a text message to an e-mail address.  (Good for sending a reference question to libraries)
• Text Amazon to search for books, compare prices with those of a bookstore, and buy them.
• Use LibraryThing Mobile to check if you already own a book.
• Read a Wikipedia article using their special mobile interface.
• Use eBuddy Lite Messanger to get a Web interface to search engines.
• Install Google Maps for Mobiles to get directions, etc.  (If you have a GPS enabled phone, you don’t need to tell it where you are.)  You can even get traffic and street views (don’t use while driving!).
• Photograph barcodes and use them on scanners, library checkouts, etc.

Encyclopodia has developed Sourceforge software for loading Wikipedia on iPods.  How would university students use such a service?  Jim Hahn from the University of Illinois did a research project that surveyed students who used such iPods.  Resuts were:

• Students used the devices mainly for recreational questions.
• Average use of the iPod was once or  twice a month, with heaviest usage in the first month of the term.
• One student used the iPod to do research for a paper.
• Power was drained quickly, and when it ran low, the date and time were automatically reset.

Mobile device services are rapidly advancing;  we can expect to see many similar studies in the future.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information  Today and CIL 2009 Blog Coordinator

Their Legal Blawgs collection is the first one of this type at the Library of Congress.  It is scheduled to become publicly available later this week.

It is live, and here’s the link. By the way, Donna Scheeder (new acting Law Librarian of Congress, long time CIL advisor, and moderator of Monday’s program), thanks for introducing this morning’s keynote!

Jane Dysart, Conference Program Chair