After observing the technology knowledge gap between undergraduates and librarians at Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library created a self-directed training program for staff, offering incentives and methods for improving technology skills in a flexible manner.

From the article:
The Technology Challenge was implemented from June 2007 to January 2008. HBLL staff included 175 full-time employees, 96 of whom participated in the challenge. (The student employees were not involved.) Participants were asked to spend fifteen minutes each day learning a new technology skill. HBLL leaders used rewards to make the program enjoyable and to motivate participation: For each minute spent learning technology, participants earned one point, and when one thousand points were earned, the participant would receive a gift certificate to the campus bookstore. Staff and faculty participated and tracked their progress through an online board game called “Techopoly.”

Participation was voluntary, and staff and faculty were free to choose which tasks and challenges they would complete. Tasks fell into one of four categories: software, hardware, library technology, and the internet. Participants were required to complete one hundred points in each category, but beyond that, were able to decide how to spend their time. Examples of tasks included attending workshops, exploring online tutorials, and reading books or articles about a relevant topic. For each hundred points earned, participants could complete a mini-challenge, which included reading blogs or e-books, listening to podcasts, or creating a photo CD. Participants who completed fifteen out of twenty possible challenges were entered into a drawing for another gift certificate.

The full article is available through our databases:
Bridging the Gap: Self-Directed Staff Technology Training Quinney, Kayla L; Smith, Sara D; Galbraith, Quinn. Information Technology and Libraries29.4 (Dec 2010): 205-213.

An open demo of Microsoft Surface has been arranged to be held at the Drexel Libraries Hagerty Library 1st floor on Monday, May 17th from 10-3, with demos by Microsoft representatives on the hour.

Surface is a”revolutionary multi-touch computer that responds to natural hand gestures and real-world objects, helping people interact with digital content in a simple and intuitive way” (from the Surface website).

Here’s a still I grabbed from one of the application videos:

A few months ago I watched this TED Talk [thanks John!] on Sixth Sense technology from Pranav Mistry from MIT.  When I first heard about Surface, I immediately thought of this talk.

The possibilities!

Penguin UK is formatting books for the upcoming iPad, from Engadget.

[Thanks Larry!]

Apple iPad

One-and-a-half pounds and one-half inch thick.   Like a big iPod Touch.

This recent article in The Economist has details on the technology behind e-book reader displays.

There’s also mention of PlasticLogic’s QUE proReader, which is set to launch next week.  Here’s a brief article from engadget.

PlasticLogic's QUE proReader

A new article in the Journal of Library Administration talks about the path that library systems have followed, and what we can expect from the future. Written by Andrew Pace at OCLC.

Pace, A. (2009). 21st Century Library Systems. Journal of Library Administration, 49(6), 641-650.

DOI: 10.1080/01930820903238834

Code4Lib has a new article from NC State that discusses the search patterns they’ve discovered using their web stats.  A couple of interesting observations:

Users search text more often than they use facets. This may seem obvious, but could question the importance so many people place on faceted browsing in catalogs.  Further, it could be that when facets are desired, they jump up in importance, enough so that people mark “points off” for not having it.

Text searching tends to decrease over the course of a session. Maybe people start their session with a text query, then adjust using clickable links.

Some facet groups are used significantly more frequently than others. The study shows that Subject/Topic, LC call number and Format account for 67% of all facets selected.

Take a look, it’s a brief and interesting article, especially if you are into stats and methodology. If not, skip to the end and read the discussion/conclusion.  It’s only a few paragraphs.

Several months ago, I wrote about Summon, Serials Solutions “Unified Search Interface”.

Dartmouth College has a beta version that is open to the public.  Try it here.

Let me know what you think.

[Thanks Larry!]

I recently attended a one-hour webinar entitled Innovation starts with I from Project Play. Presented by Helene Blowers, creator of 23 Things, the webinar covered many ideas for inspiring change.

One of the ideas that I have adopted is the idea notebook.  This is basically a commitment to recording your ideas, uncensored, to allow them time and space to grow and take shape.

The recording of the webinar is free for you to watch, below.

Google recently released a preview of their newest application, Google Wave.  By asking “what would email look like if were invented today?”, they’ve created a unique collaborative space for people to communicate in their own browser — no extra software required.

For example, you can reply to parts of emails (you don’t have to copy/past parts of messages) and you can optionally have IM conversations with a live character-by-character view of what the other person is typing (you don’t have to wait for them to finish typing before you start typing a response).

There’s also functionality that allows for collaboration across installations, meaning that we could have one installation with our accounts, and another university could have theirs, and they’d still communicate as if they were the same. (See video minutes 1:05 to 1:10)

It’s open source, with an API, meaning that software developers have the chance to create interoperable services before its release.

There’s a developer preview underway now, but it will be open to the public later in the year.

Here’s a video of Google’s presentation. The whole video is 1 hour 20 minutes, but you get a sense of a few of the basic features (not necessarily the coolest ones, though) between minutes 8 and 15.  Other video features include its interoperability with Twitter around 57:30, and live translation (while typing!) around 1:10..

[Thanks to Peter for the video link]