The Liblog Landscape: 2007-2008 – Walt Crawford

Boy, how time flies. I’ve had Walt Crawford’s Liblog Landscapesince the day before Thanksgiving – which, coincidentally, is actually when I read the book. I took notes intending to write a blog post. Then, I guess, that life happened, andhere I am over a month later going through my notes to put together a post. It would have been much easier to just do it then. Oh well!

My first reaction to the book was “Wow, there is tons of data here.” Having done a statistical research paper last spring, I was impressed with all of the work that must of gone into analyzing the 607  liblogs that Walt Crawford included in the study. The data is a bit overwhelming, as the author noted. I admit to skimming over some of the more statistical portions of the book, preferring to spendtime reading the analytical sections withmore depth.

Because there is so much data, there is a great deal of explanation of the research, the algorithms used and the research methodology. This information is important in order to understand how the research was done – and what data really means. There is no way that I would have understood the quartiles or the methodology without supporting documentation. So, I understand the importance of the information even if it threatened to give me a headache.

Walt Crawford has explained why there is little in the way of personal commentary and evaluation in The Liblog Landscape. His reasoning makes sense, and the book would have been way too long if such commentary were included. I admit that I was bit disappointed that the commentary was missing. Crawford’s commentary is one of the reasons that I enjoy reading his work. To answer Walt’s question, I would love to see “Walt’s Big Book of Liblogs.”

To me, the most valuable parts of the book were the chapters on “Patterns of Change”, “Subgroups”, “Liblogs and the Larger Blogosphere,” and “Liblog Profiles”. I found these four chapters to the be the heart of the book. I hadn’t expected to read about liblogs in relation to the blogosphere in general, but I think that might be the part that I enjoyed most. I can’t say that I read the “Liblog Profiles” from start to finish. It is definitely more a reference section.

Anyway, I found this book to be a valuable read – and would think this would be the case for anyone interested in the liblog universe. And, now I know how many posts I wrote during the 2007 timeframe as compared to the 2008 one; along with how many words per post I wrote; and how many comments I received. Believe me, there is no way that I was going to count, but I was interested in knowing.

Lastly, I want to note that using Lulu to buy this book was a very easy and quick experience. I ordered the book on November 22nd. In the descriptive information, I read that it could take 3-5 days to actually print and ship the book. I choose to have the book shipped USPS Priority Mail, which might take 2-3 business days. I generally dislike parcel post (which was the least expensive option) and was in no way interested in the faster options. If I remember correctly, the most expensive shipping option brought the total for the book (the book itself was $22.50) to just under $100.00. So, I was rather impressed when I received an email late in the day on November24th indicating that the book had been shipped. It arrived that Wednesday. So, I was impressed with Lulu’s service.

It’s Feeling Like Christmas

The Day After the Snow Storm

Originally uploaded by ScruffyNerf.

Well, the big storm that has been crossing the country finally made its way to Massachusetts yesterday afternoon. We definitely have about a foot of snow – and it is still snowing. I think we were very lucky though. The storm hit us on a Friday afternoon – and everyone knew it was coming. In fact, a couple of people commented that it felt like the end of the world was coming. Many people didn’t come to work; and many businesses had simply closed for the day.

The college where I work closed at noon, even though it didn’t start snowing until about 2PM. I am definitely glad that I was home before it started. It was wonderful to be home, warmly ensconced in my comfortable clothes, curled up on my couch with a book. There hasn’t been any real need to go out – and I’m getting a good handle on trying to get my house clean before I have family over next weekend. One caveat, my husband’s work Christmas party is tonight, at least an hour away (in good driving conditions). I’m not too keen on having to get dressed up and venture out, but we do what we must.

The best part about snow before the holidays is that it definitely helps to put me in the Christmas spirit. All of the holiday decorations look amazing in the snow. The down side, however, is that I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping or errands. Time is growing short, and I won’t be able to do those things that I had planned to do this weekend. I guess I will just have to stop worrying about it – and enjoy the day!

The Cost of Brilliance

As a minor blogger, I do not get many email solicitations for product consideration. I like it this way. When it does happen, I read them and then quickly delete them. They often amuse me, and I guess that is worth something. But yesterday I received an email about the Chapeau Blog Awards that just confuses me. From their home page (can be found by searching for Chapeau Blog Awards):

Blog Brilliance!

To this, we tip our Chapeaus!

Blog Brilliance is, in fact, what Chapeau Blog Awards is exclusively devoted to honoring.

Brilliant Blogs must deliver upon audience expectations. From design and navigation, to business or consumer topics, the most effective blogs cater to how readers absorb and process information.

At the same time really great blogs are true to themselves and their own unique personalities. Some blogs challenge readers. Some invite opinion and other blogs simply share a story or follow a trend.

But which blogs are the best?  And who should decide which blogs are the best?

Chapeau Blog Awards intends to answer this question. And we won’t assemble an antiquated academy of high profile “Noggers” (Non-Bloggers—You first read it here!) to determine which blog is best.

We will do what bloggers do; ask the public sphere of blog readers. You. Us. Blog readers who truly know what a quality blog is.

It all sounds rather innocuous. We live in a society that loves to rank things, so I do find the overall concept all that odd. The bizarre part is that the solicitation is aimed at getting bloggers to nominate themselves for consideration. There are several categories into which one can enter a blog. The first group of categories are for blog audience. You decide what subject best fits your audience. Then you can enter your blog in up to five award areas such as best industry blog, best design and navigation, etc. Ultimately, the Chapeau Blog Awards will choose one blog to be the “Most Brilliant Blog”. The kicker is that there is an entry fee to nominate one’s blog: $195 if you enter before November 14th, $250 if you enter between the 15th of November and the 15th of December, or $275 between December 15th and January 30th. January 30 is the cut of to enter. The official nominees will be announced on February 15th. Blog readers get to vote and the results will be announced on May 5, 2009.

Seriously???? How can a group purport to be choosing the Most Brilliant Blog when it requires payment (and a significant one at that) for consideration? Has anyone actually given money to this organization? There is just so much wrong with this. The good news? I am willing to declare this blog The Most Brilliant Blog Ever for free – and I would be willing to declare your blog The Most Brilliant Blog Right Behind Mine for considerably less that $195. Let me know. I accept PayPal.

I do like the word “Noggers”.  I’ve never heard that before, but I think I will incorporate that into my daily vocabulary. Anyway, thanks for the blog fodder.

An Analysis of My Blog

Helene Blowers, over at LibraryBytes, wrote a post including links to several tools that analyze blogs. I couldn’t resist playing along – and found out some fascinating things about what my blog says about me.

The first tool is Typealyzer, which analyzes one’s writing to make a personality determination. My blog was labeled as INTP – The Thinkers. The website’s description of this label is as follows:

The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.

This INTP result isn’t much of a surprise. I am definitely a thinker type – and I like to use my blog as a place to work through my thoughts about library-related subjects. I’m not sure I’m so keen on the arrogant, impatient and insensitive thing though – that isn’t a message that I would like to send to the world.

The second tool is GenderAnalyzer, a tool which tries to determine if a blog’s writer is male or female. The site determined that my site was gender neutral with a slight preference for a male. These results fascinate me. I am female, but have been told that I often think like a man. I guess I might tend to write like one too?????

The third tool is the Blog Readability Test. This site determines the reading level of one’s blog. I have done this one before, and the results have stayed the same – High School Reading Level. I’m good with that.

The last tool is the site that determines How Much is Your Blog Worth. This doesn’t mean much too me because my blog is worth much more to me than to anyone else. Also, I’m not sure what being worth $19,194.36 means. Actually, I realize one has to compare it to the worth of other blogs. Chances are I am not going to do that. However, if someone offered my $19,000 for this blog, I might just take it.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled Monday!

Amazon Fights Wrap Rage

Amazon.com has an interesting note posted on its home page today about fighting “Wrap Rage” – a phrase which “describes the frustration we humans feel when trying to free a product from a nearly impenetrable package” (from the notice posted on the website today). To eliminate wrap rage, they are introducing “Frustration-Free Packaging (FFP)” which is now available on 19 toy and electronic products. They also offer some customer-provided videos that detail their frustrating package experiences. Amazon also maintains that their new FFP will be more eco-friendly.

Very cool!! The plastic and wire ties used in packaging are beyond frustrating. Memory cards and small electronic devices are nearly impossible to open without tools. I hope that other retailers follow suit. Go FFP!!!!!

A Swift Kick to My Posterior

 

Japanese Maple

 

Originally uploaded by ScruffyNerf.

 

During the summer of 2007, I consciously decided to limit my outside distractions and focus on finishing school. I was emotionally overwhelmed by school issues and felt like everything in my life revolved around libraries. I worked in one all day and then spent an inordinant amount of time studying about them while I was at home. I decided that finishing school was critical – and knew that I had no intention of quitting my job (which I love on most days). I did, however, cut down on blogging-related activities – both writing and reading. This meant that I starting isolating myself from the greater library community. Oddly enough, it did help me get through my last two semesters of school.

However, I have now been out of school for six months and I have not yet re-engaged myself. I am now making a conscious effort – giving myself a swift kick in the posterior – to get out of my funk. I have become involved in two new projects at work (creating accessible library workstations for physically challenged students and taking responsibility for a relatively new digital image application – projects that I care about deeply) and am hoping to start blogging with more regularity. I have found that when I am in a blogging groove I pay greater attention to library news and read more attentively. I think about issues more and thus, am more engaged.

By the way, the picture has no relevance to the post. I took this picture this morning and it made me happy. The bright red of the leaves of this Japanese Maple tree in my front yard is such a beautiful color!

Google to the Rescue

With Mail Goggles! Seriously. Google has launched a new Labs feature for Gmail that will prevent a user from sending an email if they can’t do a couple of simple math problems. The idea being that if you can’t do some simple math problems then you may not be in the right state of mind to send email (too drunk). Once enabled, it defaults to being active only during late evening hours on the weekend. The timing is customizable. I can’t say that I have ever sent an email that I regretted while incapacitated in some way during wee, weekend hours. Nor have I ever received an email that someone probably sent out unwisely in a drunken stupor.

I would turn it on to see how it works, but I am afraid that my simple math skills may cause me frustration even when my mind is in its normal state. That I do not need.

I would be much more interested in some new features that would prevent me from replying to all when not intended, that would prevent the receipt of out of office replies to bulk/listserv emails and that would sense when I too stressed out to deal with certain people or situations and would hold those emails until I’m in a better frame of mind. That would be cool!

My Library School Experience: Distance Education

I have been struggling for a couple of months to actually write this point about distance education, trying to figure out what about my recent school experience has left me unsatisfied. It finally dawned on me that the distance program that I just completed had no soul, no personality and no heart – absolutely nothing to set it apart from any generic online classroom experience. I would like to believe that institutions of higher learning are not implementing distance programs solely as a means to increase revenue. However, it is awfully difficult to avoid this conclusion when faced with accounts of bad experiencesin the online arena.

To me, an education is so much more than just textbooks, reading the literature, writing papers and attending lectures. One can’t in any way discount the important of the academic piece, but neither should anyone rely upon it as the sole component. After much internal debate, I think this is where I see the biggest weakness of distance education programs. They tend to offer little to students outside of the curriculum. Somebody needs to understand that distance students have the same needs and expectations as traditional students, but that those needs have to be filled in different ways.

When one chooses a degree program, they look at many things besides academics. People look for opportunities outside of the classroom, opportunities to develop relationships with faculty and mentors, availability of career counselling, availability to help with academics and research, opportunities to interact with peer and other opportunities that augment and enhance the classroom experiences. These are the types of things that help keep students challenged and engaged. I am certainly not naive enough to expect that a distance education program can fulfill these things in the same manner than a traditional one can. However, it seems as if current programs are doing little to help round out the education experiences of distance students – especially distance students who are not ever able to make it to the physical campus.

This, of course, makes the online environment critical to distance students. Most programs have some type of online course management system to allow students to learn online. At SCSU, they currently use WebCT/Vista. I have to admit that I didn’t experience the level of technical frustrations with Vista as many of my classmates did. However, it is an awful tool – especially considering it is THE primary interface to the school for many distance students. This is THE face of the school. It was clunky, slow, and unattractive. It in no way promoted social interaction. People have commented to me that they do not think that the online course system is the place to encourage social interaction. But, as a student, if this is my primary interface with the college, this is where I want to interact with the school and its people.

Ultimately, I often felt like SCSU did not know what to do with its distance students. There was little infrastructure to support our needs (which I do not think are more important than traditional students – just different). There were several people at SCSU who made an extraordinary effort to help distance students and to make them feel valued. However, as a whole, neither the ILS department nor the school itself made much of an effort to include distance students in events outside of the classroom. Sadly, it seems as if this is a common problem to distance education in general. This is why I do not believe that distance education is quite ready for prime time. It needs to grow significantly – and hopefully mature a lot before it will even come close to offering students the same type of well-rounded education that traditional programs do.

My Library School Experience: The Ugly

• My Library School Experience: A Wrap Up
• My Library School Experience: The Great
• My Library School Experience: The Good
• My Library School Experience: The Bad
• My Library School Experience: The Ugly

Writing these wrap-up posts on my educational experience has been much harder than I anticipated. All in all, I tend to be a person that actively tries to find the best in every situation and tries to forget about anything bad or contentious. A big part of me wanted to stop after I wrote My Library School Experience: The Good. I didn’t want to relive some of the more difficult moments; I didn’t want to get bogged down in the negativity; and I wasn’t sure if I could write about some of these things without being too emotional. Ultimately, I decided that I’d already written about most of the ugly experiences in earlier posts – and that some serious reflection on these experiences could be a good thing. Hopefully, this post doesn’t make me sound whiny, bitter and/or pissy. I’m trying to be fair. However, these Ugly experiences are ones that I found to be truly unacceptable in a graduate program that cost me a significant amount of money - regardless of the mode of instruction.

The Ugly Classes:

I consider 3 out of the 12 classes that I took to be not in any way worth the money that I spent on them. I think it is important to note that 2 of these classes were required or core courses (reference and cataloging). In my second semester, I took the first of the three classes. I was horrified by the class. It seemed to me that the professor was barely present. She did not participate in any discussions (which seems to be somewhat normal in distance education – and I don’t get it). She was slow in responding to emails and even very slower in returning work. I know that professors might not think this way, but it was vitally important to me that my first assignment with a new professor be graded (with helpful feedback) prior to the due date of the second assignment. In a distance class, there is no opportunity to “read” the teacher. There is no way to glean what the professor might be looking for by listening to him/her or by interacting in face-to-face discussions.

When there are only 4 graded assignments which make up one’sfinal grade, I think that students must receive some type of feedback before successive assignments are due. When assignments were returned, there was very little feedback. With no feedback and no teacher participation in discussions, it didn’t seem as if there was any personality in the class. Where was the expertise of the professor? I never saw it. I remember talking to my Mom about this class at one point, and I know that I told her that this was the worst class I had ever had the misfortune to take. I wasn’t kidding. Little did I know that it would get worse.

During the next two semesters, I had two more classes with another professor that seemed as if they were self-taught tutorials. During the summer session class, which began on the Tuesday after Memorial Day Weekend, the professor sent us all an email on the first day of class asking us to let him know that we were able to get into the course site. Each week, lecture notes and assorted information for that unit were made available in the course site. I, personally, did not hear from the again professor until he returned the first graded assignment on July 29th (which as due roughly a month before).

Essentially, there were two months without any type of direct contact from the professor. Several students mentioned that they had sent the professor emails, and did not hear back from him until weeks later. I was blown away by this. I never specifically received a grade on the other three assignments or the final exam – only a final course grade. I didn’t know what to think. I could only hope that no school would think this is acceptable behavior on the part of a faculty member. Certainly when I wrote a letter to the ILS department chair, she seemed to take my complaints seriously. Of course, I’m not sure that there is anything a chairperson can do other than simply talk to a tenured faculty member.

Regardless, I had the same professor for a class that fall. While his grading time frame was a slightly better, he was still a non-existent entity in the class. All three of these classes were a waste of my time and roughly $4000.00 of my money. These are definitely examples of the worst that distance education has to offer.

The ILS Administration:

I hate to taint the entire ILS administration here, but when the dean of the school blatantly ignores a letter that a student sends (twice), it sends a rather negative message. As part of an effort to put together some concerns and problems that were specific to distance students, I worked with a fairly decent size group of students and recent graduates (as many as 60 at one point). As a result, I wrote a letter and emailed it to the professor who was the chair of the ILS department. She was quite receptive to the letter, and it seemed to be a good starting point for a discussion.

Things, however, went quickly downhill and some serious us vs. them vibes sprung up with angry students and some defensive professors. I felt awful about the entire situation. However, I believed (and still do) that there were some serious problems that really needed to be aired. With that in mind, I emailed the dean asking if I could send him a letter with some of my concerns and those from other students. He responded quite quickly in a positive manner. I emailed him the letter that I had written with absolutely no reply, not even an acknowledgement.

With the understanding that people could have busy schedules, vacations, email problems and other freak things happen, I emailed him at least a month later with the same result. I discovered from another source that he had received my email. To me, this was the low point of my entire time at SCSU. Whether this was intentional or not, this experience was the one that truly made me believe that concerns of distance students were not even on the radar screen of the administration. This was a huge blow that made me feel as if I was not even an insignificant part of the SCSU community. This is where I decided that I needed to remove myself from the effort to get the voices of distant students heard. I will admit that this failure to offer any type of response to my letter will always color my view of my time at SCSU in a negative way. Sometimes, I still can’t believe it.

My Library School Experience: The Bad

• My Library School Experience: A Wrap Up
• My Library School Experience: The Great
• My Library School Experience: The Good
• My Library School Experience: The Bad
• My Library School Experience: The Ugly

 

The Distance Education Infrastructure

After having completed a program online, my thoughts about distance education are rather jumbled. Online classes are highly convenient – and I will be the first to admit that this fact can overshadow the many problems that I think plague distance programs. I have to say that I would not have gotten my MLS if it had not been for the availability of an entirely online program. I do not live close enough to Simmons College or the University of Rhode Island to attend face-to-face classes on either campus. (For reference, I live roughly half way between Boston and Providence. Plenty of people that I know do travel to Boston for school. However, it is not something that I was ever willing to do.) As such, I only considered programs that I could complete online without any type of residency requirement.

While I do not regret having attended SCSU, I do consider the distance education component of the program to be one of the bad parts of my experience. I do not think this is solely an issue at SCSU. I have come to suspect that the types of problems that I had may be inherent to the way that most online programs are conducted.

I plan to dissect the issues that I had with the distance education part of the program in a separate post.

Online Information Systems for Students

One critical issue for distance students is finding out what they need to know when they need to know it. I will be the first to admit that I did take my first class before I was accepted into the program. When I made that choice, I did not expect that I would receive any type of orientation or welcome packet. However, I did have some expectation of this once I was formally accepted into the program. Instead, I received a letter of acceptance, information about filling out my planned program and the contact information for my advisor (which was hands down the most valuable piece of information).

Throughout the course of the program, I was often confused about the graduation requirements, the capstone portfolio, the special project and the planned program. It was never clear where to go to get my questions answered. While I was in the program, the graduation requirements changed. I was unaware to this change for quite some time. Fortunately, the change simplified the course requirements which made following the new guidelines desirable. However, these changes were not publicized. If not for the fact that I made and and effort to keep in touch with my advisor, I would not have known about the changes.

It is important to mention that there was some talk from the ILS department chairperson about trying to institute an orientation for new students. I believe that at the time, it was only for people who could come to campus. I hope that somebody is able to push that idea. I could not continue to discuss with the chairperson because of my frustration with the ILS administration (more on this in the ugly post).

Another major issue when I began the program was the Information and Library Science website. The website was difficult to use; it had broken links; and it did not have a section for the distance students. It was not a good resource for students. I expected that the ILS website would be my primary contact point for all school-related concerns – and that I would be able to use it as a resource to answer the majority of the questions that I would have. This was not the case.

Again, I want to note that the ILS website was redesigned during my time at SCSU. The new site was a definite improvment, and it even included a section dedicated to distance learning. There was an effort made to survey students for input – including distance students – for this redesign. This new site was a definite improvement. It had much more information - and I think it would have made a more positive impact on my educational experience had it been implemented sooner.

Lack of Community Feeling

To this day, I don’t feel any sense of belonging to SCSU. There was never any opportunity to bond with the school in any substantial way. Given that this is my only full experience in a graduate program, I don’t really know whether graduate students develop a sense of loyalty to their school. My intuition tells me that they probably do to some degree. However, I feel a large disconnect to SCSU, the ILS department and its community. I often felt as if the school as a whole did not really care about their distance students (certainly there were individuals who cared, but not the school in general). Sometimes, it seemed that online classes were primarily a way to increase revenue rather than extend the educational mission. The bottom line is that I do not feel any sense of loyalty to SCSU like I do my undergraduate institution. I do not know if the Alumni Relations Department cares or not, but I am highly unlikely to make any monetary contributions.

I doubt that it is easy to work at developing a way for all students to develop some sense of community in the virutal world for a large university. However, in this day in age of social software, social networking sites and Web 2.0, it certainly isn’t a unknown concept. I felt as if the program definitely suffered because there was no way for distance students to interact with those at the physical campus except through email. There was something missing from the overall experience. I attended classes; I did my homework; I interacted with a couple faculty and a couple students; and that is about it. I would have liked to have gotten more from my time at SCSU.