Friday, November 7, 2008

The 1968 Personal Computing Demo

SRI International Presents:

Engelbart & the Dawn of Interactive Computing, 40th Anniversary

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
1:00 to 5:30 pm
Stanford University Memorial Auditorium

They call it the "mother of all demos". On December 9, 1968, Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart and the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute staged a 90-minute public multimedia demonstration at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. It was the world debut of personal and interactive computing: for the first time, the public saw a computer mouse, which controlled a networked computer system to demonstrate hypertext linking, real-time text editing, multiple windows with flexible view control, cathode display tubes, and shared-screen teleconferencing. It changed what is possible.

The 1968 demo presaged many of the technologies we use today, from personal computing to social networking. The demo embodied Doug Engelbart's vision of solving humanity's most important problems by using computers to improve communication and collaboration.

On December 9, 2008, SRI International will present a commemorative 40th anniversary of this historic event. Join us to hear original participants recount what led up to the 1968 demo, the drama of the demonstration itself, and its impact which no one could have imagined at the time. Learn about Doug Engelbart's vision to use computing to augment society's collective intellect and ability to solve the complex issues of our time.

Featuring: Daniel Borel (Logitech), Christina Engelbart (The Doug Engelbart Institute), Chuck House (Media X at Stanford University), Alan Kay (Viewpoints Research Institute), Bob Sproull (Sun Microsystems), Andy van Dam (Brown University), and 1968 demo participants Don Andrews, Bill English, Bill Paxton, and Jeff Rulifson. Program subject to change.

Tickets: $25 general admission; $10 students Purchase online, or by calling 650-725-2787, or at the Stanford Ticket Office at Tresidder Union.

More information
Email

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Highlights from Mashup the Library

Mashup the Library! Highlights from the CARL IT Interest Group Workshop

The theme for the 4th Annual CARL Information Technology Interest Group Workshop, held on July 25, 2008, was Mashup the Library.

This workshop focused on exploring technology trends that have us remixing library and information resources in new and exciting ways. Drawing over 70 attendees from around the Bay Area, the day offered a full spectrum of speakers and demonstrations, and even a tour of the newly opened and innovative Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center and Orradre Library at Santa Clara University. This year’s workshop was held in their very elegant St. Clare Room.

First up was Rachel Smith, Vice President of NMC Services for the New Media Consortium, who directs the creation of the annual Horizon Report (a collaborative project of the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative). The Horizon Report identifies and describes emerging technologies that are likely to have a large impact on teaching and learning that goes on in higher education. Attendees enjoyed her approachable and energizing introduction to the six emerging technologies that have been identified in the 2008 edition of the report. Using a VUVOX collage, rather than traditional Microsoft PowerPoint, Rachel walked through this year’s forecast which included descriptions and applications of Grassroots Video , Collaborative Web, Data Mashups, Collected Intelligence, and Social Operating Systems.

Rachel also described the process for distilling the viewpoints of over 175 international members of the Horizon Report advisory board . There are no face-to-face meetings, all work is done online and documented in a wiki. View Rachel’s VUVOX collage, including links to examples of technology applications.

Next, Dr. Raymond Yee, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s School of Information where he teaches the course "Mixing and Remixing Information" and author of Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services , focused attendees on what mashup technology is and how it works. Using examples from Google Maps and the Cragislist website, Raymond demonstrated how Housing Maps creates a visual display of current home rental opportunities in various Bay Area locations. Other examples demonstrated were the LibraryLookup Project by John Ludel and Geotagging in Flickr using Google Maps. Additionally, Raymond explained how to create a mashup using Yahoo Pipes. His example used the New York Times World Section and Google Maps. Google Maps is a popular mashup visual resource. In fact, Google embraced this trend and released an API (application programming interface) that formalizes how people can use Google Maps for all sorts of mashups. Learn more about the work of Raymond Yee at his blog Data Unbound.

In the afternoon, attendees immersed themselves into even more examples and demonstrations of mashup technology. Jill Tinsley, a recent MLIS graduate from the University of Arizona, provided a survey of visual searching resources, including oSkope Visual Search, Aquabrowser, WebBrain, Tafiti, Viewzi, and SearchMe, to name a few.

This year’s Cool Tools! demonstrations included three exciting tools that utilized mashups and web 2.0 technologies. Virtual Shelf was demonstrated by UC Berkeley School of Information 2nd year Masters students Devin Blong & Jonathan Breitbart. This student project created for the Open Library Project (Internet Archive) allows users to visually explore online print collections. Harrison Dekker, Data Services Librarian at UC Berkeley’s Doe/Moffitt Library, got playful with Google’s versitile visualization tools for numeric data available in their web-based spreadsheet application. And Laura Moody, Music Librarian and CARL member from San Francisco State University, provided a tour of LibGuides, a new tool from Springshare that helps libraries use web 2.0 technology to organize and distribute subject and research guide resources (example from SFSU).

And if that wasn’t enough of a visual and informative feast, the day was capped off with an introduction and tour of the Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center and Orradre Library. SCU University Librarian Liz Salzer, our workshop host, described the opening of their new facility, and tour guides offered attendees a glimpse of the building, which includes their Automatic Retrieval System (ARS), reconfigurable collaborative spaces, casual lounge seating, video editing suites, educational experimentation rooms, a cafĂ©, and much more.

This year’s workshop attendees carried away ideas and, hopefully, a new understanding of what mashup technology can do, and is already doing, for libraries.

Special thanks goes to the dedicated CARL members who help make these workshops happen:

Mari Miller, the original organizer of this IG who provided leadership for previous workshops of the past 3 years. Mari has finally received a break from being chair of this group, but continues to provide valuable program planning contributions. Thank you Susan Boyd, who was indispensable as our location coordinator in charge of all venue arrangements and making it possible for our being at the beautiful St. Clare Room.

Thanks to our program planners for handling all the details, big and small: Pam Howard, Ya Wang, Carol Pearce, Jackie Siminitus, John Wenzler , Christine Holmes, and Rob Boyd.

Sheila Cunningham
Ann Hubble

Co-Chairs, 2007-2008
CARL North IT Interest Group

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Photos/Highlights from Mash Up the Library workshop



Check out photos taken during the recently held Mashup the Library workshop presented by the CARL North IT Interest Group. The 2CoolTools blog has a few posts about the event as does Paul Signorelli at the InfoPeople Infoblog.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Register for the CARL North IT workshop

CARL North IT Interest Group presents:

Mashup the Library: A Workshop on Mashup Technology and the Art of Remixing Library and Information Resources

When:
July 25, 2008
8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Location:
The NEW Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center and Orradre Library
St. Clare Room, Santa Clara University
Learn more about the center and view some photos taken during opening ceremony.

Tentative Schedule:

8:30-9:00: Morning Refreshments
9:00-10:30: 2008 Horizon Report: Key Emerging Technologies, Rachel Smith
10:30-10:45: Break
10:45-12:00: Web 2.0 Mashups: Making the Web Your Own, Raymond Yee
12:00-1:00: Lunch outside the Adobe Lodge
1:00-2:00 Information Visualization using Mash- ups and Web 2.0 Tools, Jill Tinsley
2:00-2:15: Break
2:15-3:15 "Cool Tools!" Demonstrations
3:15-4:00: Tours

Program:

Join us for a day of engaging speakers and cool demonstrations of mashups and information visualizations.

The 2008 Horizon Report: Key Emerging Technologies
Rachel Smith, New Media Consortium


The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression
within higher education. This session will introduce the six technologies covered in the 2008 Horizon Report, the fifth in the series. Participants will explore examples in each category and
contribute to the ongoing Call to Scholarship with their own ideas and suggestions. The 2008 Horizon Report is available online at no cost.

Rachel Smith is Vice President, NMC Services for the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 250 world-class universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. She is recognized for her work in making new technologies approachable for higher education faculty and staff. She participates in the publication of the annual Horizon Report, which identifies emerging technologies that will have an impact on learning organizations.

Web 2.0 Mashups: Making the Web Your Own
Raymond Yee, Visiting Scholar, School of Information, UC Berkeley


The Web contains thousands of mashups that recombine everything including Google Maps, Flickr, Amazon.com, NASA, the New York Times, and Wikipedia with useful information about travel, finance, real estate, and more. By fusing elements from multiple web sites, mashups are often informative, useful, fun, and even transformative. This talk will show you about how to create and apply mashups to make sense of the web, especially in the context of libraries.

Raymond Yee is a data architect, consultant, trainer, and author of Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services (Apress, 2008). He is currently a visiting scholar at the School of Information, UC Berkeley, where he teaches the course "Mixing and Remixing Information". Yee is also the Integration Advisor for the Zotero Project. While earning a Ph.D. in biophysics, he taught computer science, philosophy, and personal development to K-11 students in the Academic Talent Development Program on the Berkeley campus. As a software architect and developer, he focuses on developing software to support learning, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Information Visualization Using Mashups and Web 2.0 Tools
Jill Tinsley, MLIS candidate, University of Arizona

Visual searching is a new way to search existing databases. A visual search displays the information in a visual format rather than simply text-based results. This presentation will demonstrate many visual search tools available on the Internet, including mashups for
web search engines, databases, news, shopping, music, photos, social networking, and more. Included will be discussion of learning styles relating to visual searching and educational application of visual search methods.

Cool Tools! Demonstrations

Bookshelf Visualization
A mashup student project, from UC Berkeley's School of Information, creates a virtual bookshelf display of the Internet Archive's Open Source Books.
Devin Blong, MS candidate, UC Berkeley School of Information

Google Visualization Tools
New releases from Google Labs include two visualization tools - Google Charts and Spreadsheet Gadgets. Experience some applications and uses of these two new Google releases.
Harrison Dekker, Coordinator of Data Services, Doe/Moffitt
Libraries, UC Berkeley

LibGuides
LibGuides can help share library information and bring together several Web 2.0 applications into the research guide environment. The system helps librarians publish and share information online, while highlighting and promoting library resources and services to the community.
Laura Moody, Librarian, San Francisco State University

Tours!
Take a tour of Santa Clara University's new Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center and Orradre Library. Explore the architecture, furnishings, and state-of-the-art technology this new facility uses to remix the traditional library with a futuristic collaborative learning environment. View some photos taken during opening ceremony.

***

Directions:
Driving directions and a map

Parking:
There is a $6 fee per car.

Enter Santa Clara University via the Palm Drive main entrance. Pick up a visitor parking pass at the attendant station. Be sure to let the attendant know you are coming to the CARLNIT workshop and they will direct to the 3rd floor parking area. More details about parking at SCU.

Cost:
Cost includes all-day workshop, morning refreshments and lunch

CARL Members: $50
Non Members: $65
Students: $30

Registration details:
Advance registration required by July 11, 2008.
Download and print the event flyer and registration form

Registration Questions? Contact Pam Howard, J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State at 415-338-7395 or pjhoward@sfsu.edu.
No refunds after July 14, 2008
In compliance with the ADA/504 please direct your accommodation requests to Terry Hingston at(408) 554-6830, or call TTY-California Relay, at1-800-735-2929 at least 72 hours prior to the

Workshop details also at the CARL North IT Interest Group webpage.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Save the Date: CARL N IT Interest Group workshop

SAVE THE DATE!

The CARL North IT Interest Group presents its 2008 summer workshop

Mashup the Library: An introduction to mashup technology and the art of remixing library and information resources

Join us for a day of engaging speakers and demonstrations of cool library mashups!

Date: July 25th, 9:00 to 4:00
Location: The NEW Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center and Orradre Library, Santa Clara University
Keynote Speaker: Rachel Smith, New Media Consortium

Rachel Smith is Vice President, NMC Services for the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 200 world-class universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. She is recognized for her work in making new technologies approachable for higher education faculty and staff. She participates in the publication of the annual Horizon Report which identifies emerging technologies that will have an impact on learning organizations.

More details about the workshop and additional speakers to follow. Check the CARL North IT website for more information.

Friday, March 14, 2008

ACRL launches Chat Series

Contact: David FreeACRL(312) 280-2517dfree@ala.org
Press Release
March 10, 2008

ACRL launches chat series

CHICAGO - The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce ACRL OnPoint, a new live chat series. Each informal monthly chat session provides the opportunity to connect with colleagues and experts to discuss an issue of the day in academic and research librarianship.

All ACRL OnPoint chats are free and open to the public. Sessions are unmoderated, 30-45 minutes in length and take place in a Meebo chat room. All chat sessions begin at 1 p.m. CDT. While no registration is necessary to participate, ACRL recommends creating a quick and easy Meebo account for the best experience while participating in ACRL OnPoint discussions.

Join us on March 27 for the inaugural ACRL OnPoint chat on the newly mandatory NIH Public Access Policy. Further reading about this available on the ACRL OnPoint page.

The discussion of how libraries are leveraging this new policy on campus will be convened by ACRL Scholarly Communication Committee member Karen Williams and Linda Watson, president of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries. Discuss actions your library is taking or could take, such as educating authors, offering deposit services and partnering with your office of sponsored research.

This first chat session is co-sponsored by the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the Greater Western Library Alliance and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

Future ACRL OnPoint chats include:

April 2008: Section 108 Study Group Report -Discuss the implications of the recommendations and findings of this forthcoming report (expected in mid-March) for academic libraries.
May 2008: Green Libraries - Share ideas about what libraries are, or could be, doing to meet the growing “greening” of college and university campuses.
June 2008: ACRL 101 - Find your path to participation to get the most out of your ACRL membership and discuss ACRL activities at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference with Associate Director Mary Jane Petrowski.

Send ideas for future ACRL OnPoint chat topics to acrl@ala.org with the subject heading ACRL OnPoint.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.

What can Search Engine Designers Learn from the Reference Interview?

Brought to you by SJSU SLIS

Query specifications by typical users are notoriously imprecise. And for many searches it is impossible to expect the user to fully and accurately specify what they are interested in. Because they do not know what is available for the asking, users cannot be expected to specify exactly what they want. Reference librarians have been developing a craft that, among other things, deals with this incomplete specification of desired results. What can search engine designers learn from prior art to improve query results? John Dove, CEO of Credo Reference, will contrast Google's vision of the future with one where reference librarians may be called upon to expertly modify online query systems in order to significantly improve query results for their users.

Video link
Audio link
SJSU SLIS Colloquia Archive
SJSU SLIS Colloquia RSS feed

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Pew Report: Information Searches That Solve Problems

At the CARL North Regional meeting at Santa Clara University on Feb. 11th, Carolyn Schubert shared data from the Dec 2007 Pew Report "Information Searches That Solve Problems : How People Use the Internet, Libraries and Government Agencies When They Need Help.

This report found that while more people still turn to the Internet for help to solve problems, a large percent of younger people are starting to turn to libraries. From the report, "Another key insight is that members of Gen Y are the leading users of libraries for help solving problems and in more general patronage". Are people starting to want more "quality" information that a librarian can provide?

Many other reports on the Pew website would be of interest to Academic Libraries. This post from librarian Mari Miller, Co-Chair, CARL North IT IG.

25 Awesome Beta Research Tools

CollegeDegree.com notes, "Check out this list of tools being used in libraries" -- tools such as Project Blacklight at UVA, LibX, Encore at Michigan State.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Pew Internet - Typology of Information & Communication Technology Users

"Where Do You Fit? - Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? Do you suffer from withdrawal when you can't check your Blackberry? Do you rush to post your vacation video to your Web site? The questions below allow you to place yourself in one of the categories in the Pew Internet Project's Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. " Take the 10 questions quiz to learn which type of user you are.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

AltSearchEngine, part of the ReadWriteWeb network (provides web technology news, reviews and analysis) produces a monthly Top 100 Alternative Search Engine list. Check out February's list.

AltSearchEngine and ReadWriteWeb have feeds if you're interested in adding them to your reader.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

ACRL Virtual Reference Competencies II

Virtual Reference Competencies II: Practice and Expand Communications Skills and Knowledge
An ACRL Online SeminarJanuary 28 -February 16, 2008


Course Description:Virtual reference service requires all of the same professional communications skills and knowledge as face-to-face reference service. The challenge is to apply, practice, imagine, and understand how to communicate professionally within the technology context and using good reference skills and knowledge. In this course participants will engage in learning activities, supported by readings as well as lecture and discussion to practice and expand the communications competencies required by effective virtual reference librarians.

"Virtual Reference Competencies II: Practice and Expand Communications Skills and Knowledge" is a primarily asynchronous seminar, allowing participants to work through course material at times convenient to them throughout the three week scheduled course time. Participants may also choose to schedule online chat time with the teacher, as they feel necessary. Specific material and learning activities will be covered during each week of the course. Threaded discussion forums are available for use in learning activities and other course-related conversations.

Instructor: Diane Kovacs, Kovacs Consulting


Registration:
ACRL member: $135
ALA member: $175
CACUL member: Can$195 (charges will be made in U.S. dollars)
Nonmember: $195
Student: $60

The Virtual Chase

This may have caught your attention or you knew about this resource already. From ResourceShelf:

"Genie Tyburski’s Virtual Chase website is, without a doubt, up there among the creme de la creme of Internet resources. Perhaps you’ve been fortunate enough to hear Genie speak at a conference or, perhaps, read an article she has written. The Virtual Chase, which Genie started as hobby, is now owned by Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll."

This collection is organized into five categories:

Public Records and Public Information
Phone Lookup & Reverse Telephone Directories
Finding E-mail Addresses
White Pages Outside of the U.S.
Disciplinary Actions

Thursday, January 17, 2008

a Wiki capturing ALA Midwinter 2008

From the ALA Marginalia blog:

"Now that we’re all recovering from Midwinter 2008, hopefully we’re also building an archive of materials from the event. We’ve started a page on the wiki for Handouts, Podcasts, and other Post Midwinter Information where you can post handouts, presentations, notes, minutes, and whatever else your committee, unit, group, etc. distributed during your meetings."