My website is back

I've begun building/updating my website again; this time with an Online Portfolio theme. It will be a place to highlight professional accomplishments etc. Keep in mind that I dislike Flashy, in-your-face, websites, so it's straight HTML all the way baby.

Law and Order: Criminal Intent

I love this show, but it upset me greatly Monday night. During their search for their nemesis, serial killer Nicole, Bobby and Eames visited the library where she worked (as a GSA or similar). The clerk gladly handed over her online usage history and allowed the detectives to search her desk! I believe they were also granted access to her book/checkout history. No court order, no subpeona or search warrant!

Don't television writers do research? It's exactly this kind of behavior that diminishes the public's perceptions of their first ammendment rights. I'm terribly afraid that some American citizen watching that show, and accepting it as mostly truth (because it's on t.v.) would actually think this turn of events would occur in the real world. Granted, another example of poor depiction of a real world event on television is the very court room behavior found on all Law and Order shows, so I'm not terribly surprised. But they grossly misrepresent the court system to make it interesting to watch; misrepresentation of basic constitutional rights for the sake of quick police work gives the public the impression that law enforcement is even more powerful than it's already become.

Show Me the Software!

I've got a healthy interest in virtual reference, or digital reference, or chat reference, or IM in libraries, or whatever other synonym anyone's used for "computer-based library reference services" (yet another synonym!). Over the last few years I've played with Docutek's software, various email reference services, almost all the mainstream instant messengers (AIM, MSN, ICQ, Y!M, etc.), and I've at least glanced at others like Rakim and Trillian and Gaim.So, after all this exposure to these various and sundry "computer-based library reference services", what have I learned? That I could be making a damn sight more cash as a software developer than as a librarian!

Why hasn't anyone combined the functionality of all these different types of VR? Here's my charge to anyone with more software development skills than me. Create the all-inclusive library reference software! It should include:

• All the IM variants in an agregated view like Trillian.
• A Docutek-like feature with full co-browse functionality, page pushing, chat etc.
• Email tracking (like Docutek's)
• Phone reference question tracking (maybe).

• In person reference question tracking (if you're feeling ambitious).

It would also generate meaningful statistics, and save transcripts of all digital interactions. So, library software developers, the proverbial ball is in your court. Serve it back with the ULTIMATE LIBRARY REFERENCE SOFTWARE!

Come on everyone! Jump on the Digitization Wagon!!!

A fabulous article that presents a great idea based on an anecdotal experience. Idea: focused browsing works. Duh! Keyword searching is great for basic info seeking, but in-depth research requires the keyword searcher to be a human thesaurus. That's why focused browsing will (or should) never die.