Semantic Web

Semantic Web is an extension of the present web, in which information is given well defined meaning that enables people and computers to work together more effevtively.

Sematic Web has the potential to enhance digital libraries enabling interoperability; the ability to access similar types of digital objects and services distributed across a number of repositories.

Semantic Web has potential for improving reference services in that it could:

1. anticipate client needs
2. improve accuracy and breadth of information provided in response to a specific request.
through being able to serach a wide source of information and analyse its relevance.
3. be able to accurately promote and publicize the scope and availablity of library services.
4. survey the information needs of the local community and create appropriate local information products.
5. evaluate the effectiveness of information services offered.

It also has the potential for collection development and building through being able to analyse current and future collection needs and sources of information.

Voyage RSS Feed Reader

This is an attempt at a three dimensional feed reader. Headlines float in space in varying layers of clarity. The ones closest to you are easier to read and are more up to date, the layers behind being older. Up and down arrows on your keyboard will take you back and forward through these layers. The lack of clarity of the distant headings is frustrating.
I personally did not find it very usable or attractive to use, and the navigation is quite difficult. It is necesseary to enter the URL of the feed you wish to access, there is no bulk upload facility, feeds must be entered one at a time, and it is not possible to create an individual account on this site.

Kart00

Kart00 is one of a number of search engines that uses pictures rather than text to display the relationships between retrieved internet sites. The search results are displayed visually using “peaks’- the bolder ones indicating the relative importance of the results retrieved. The mapped sites and topics are also listed in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen. A red triangular marker also appears on the screen allowing you to search on the site or pull up related sites. Contour lines also establish links between topics. The intention of Kart00 is to combine the power of both the logical and creative aspects of the brain. Using this search approach appears to take longer, and tends to bring to prominence unusual and peripheral aspects of a search topic.
Since serious research is approached through rational, logical analysis, a search engine that logically ranks results according to relevance would appear to be more beneficial. Kart00 however offers more entertainment value.

VuFind

VuFind enables users to search and browse through all of a library's resources by replacing the traditional approach of an OPAC. It brings up a multiplicity of materials in different formats.
Features include the ability to refine search results, a tagging system, the ability to add reviews and notes, and a capacity to find similar items. A search of the National Library of Australia suggests that it has a clean inteface and is user friendly.

LinkedIn

I have joined LinkedIn. It is the prefect tool to make business connections, make new professional contacts, share knowledge and hire staff.

Reference Staff 1984

Reference Staff 1984

Back Row: Gordon Turnbull, Helen Hazard, Ian Douglas, Barbara Camfield, Peter Simmenauer, Colin Bates

Middle Row: Lynne Murdoch, Barbara Nichol, Bea Donkin, Julie Ager, Jan Lindner

Reclining: Colleen Skinner

24 Hour Megaswim

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system affecting more young adult Australians than any other neurological condition. Your donation will help to minimise the impact of multiple sclerosis on all individuals affected by the disease by allowing us to offer a wide range of assistance, in the form of Scholarships and Financial assistance for home improvements, vehicle modifications and equipment.
So, here's how we went.
After 24 hours we had swum a total of 83km, soundly beating the other 30 teams (the next closest was 1.1km behind) and guaranteeing we'd require physiotherapy for the next four weeks.
My personal distance was 6.3km.
It was, of course, worth it. Over $160,000 was raised by the teams, a brilliant effort, all very proud. Thanks so much for your contribution.
Now, as for next year...
Your support is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Gordon

Second Life Libraries

Second Life Libraries are Great!!!

Second Life Libraries are a great concept and the sooner we move to them the better. It’s an inevitable consequence of Second Life itself, as after Second Life clubbing, holidaying, boutique shopping and real estate dealing, Second Life education and careers must surely follow.

A Second Life library can offer an extremely attractive Noosa- style resort like ambiance, with the Pacific Ocean crashing on golden sands on three sides of the building, and the subtropical jungle visible on another, quite unlike the grim buildings that we currently occupy in Melbourne. In fact we can eventually abandon brick and concrete buildings altogether, with their tatty collections of printed materials and ugly plastic furniture.

Within our virtual library we can deliver virtual reference, create virtual displays of art and valuable materials, present virtual lectures by famous intellectuals, artists and designers, attach a superb virtual theatre, cinema and restaurant as well as offering virtual child care to the virtual families. We can create virtual relationships with the world’s leading museums, galleries and institutions. The library staff will not be aging, graying and overweight, no, they will be young, athletic and beautiful, just like the clients. I imagine a team of blond dancing queen reference staff wearing pink jumpsuits with sequined belts, dancing from floor to floor, fielding questions with ease.

I am very excited about Second Life libraries, and admire the attempts that have been made to date, but these surely are early Second Life days.

The past catches up with you...

I was quite surprised to find this reference to one of my former lives while browsing on the web...

112. The Tyger.
(Brisbane, Tony Woodyatt, [1976]) 2 nos.
The Tyger was a short-lived Brisbane literary periodical which published poetry and prose and had reviews of art exhibitions as well as essays. Tony Woodyatt was a Brisbane law clerk and Queensland University student who mixed in Brisbane’s avant-garde literary and artistic set of the time. As well as editing The Tyger and arranging exhibitions of artists such as Gordon Turnbull, now at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Tony also made an experimental movie in 1976.

It is from a 1999 catalogue of an exhibition at Monash from their Rare Book Collection "Modern Australian Poetry" curated by Richard Overell.

Tony, who is an old friend, had the radical idea of sending his periodical randomly to people in Brisbane selected from the phone book, which resulted in some indignant and hostile recipients.

Tony is now coordinator of the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House. He has been prominently involved in public policy and legal work in Queensland since 1976 - as a lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service, Executive Director of the Queensland Police Review , Director of the Caxton Legal Service, Director of the Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee which was established after the Fitzgerald Inquiry and has also worked for the Prisoners Legal Service.

e-books

Does anyone else find these extremely irritating and almost useless?I would appreciate some feedback.
I have just been approaced by a memeber of staff in a hurry who wishes to start her class off on Chapter One of a novel. The Chapter is twelve pages, and she does not have a hard copy of the text as yet.
We are permitted to print just four pages!

The End of 23 Things

I have now concluded 23 Things.

My perceptions:

1 Beneficial as it increased communication amongst staff through blogging, especially for those working at remote campuses. It also opened up areas of common interest, and developed new competencies.

2 Creating and managing a blog was a good experience, though the blogs are compromised through being a combination of 23 Things comments and more serious contributions. It leads me to the idea of creating a blog on design related issues for the Faculty of Design.

3 The progress chart is inappropriate and created the impression of a competition, rather than a self regulated learning programme.

4 There was a lack of expertise in offering assistance with some of the tasks, as some of the team leaders are inexperienced in these tasks themselves and are doing them for the first time. This cheap type of "you can work it out for yourself" training has its limitations.

5 Given that in the times in which we find ourselves, we work in a highly structured, authoritarian bureaucracy where communication is strictly monitored to conform to the institution’s ethos, how does the relative freedom and creativity of blogging within an organization fit in? Are blogs going to be monitored or censored, and if they are, how effective can they be?

6 Some of the exercises highlight just how inane and worthless some of the new innovations are. Facebook stands out as one such shallow, vain and inappropriate development. As educators with a social responsibility we should not be endorsing technologies like this just because they are popular with young people.

Podcasts

I have subscribed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Special Exhibition podcast in New York and also to Philip Adams Late Night Live through the Google feed reader.

Libraries and YouTube

Books are not redundant after all. When we are finished with Living Libraries, we could move on to Library Dominoes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwihz7iZlx0

24 Hour Megaswim for MS

As a member of the Glamourhead Sharks gay and lesbian swimming team I am participating in the continuous 24 hour swim to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. I participate in this event each year.

The 2008 Mega Swim will be held from 6:00 P.M. on Friday the 8th of February to 6:00 P.M. Saturday the 9th of February. The 24hr Mega Swim is a fun team event which raises money for Multiple Sclerosis Limited NSW/VIC "Go For Gold" Scholarship program. Each team is made up of no more than 15 swimmers and the team must have one of their team swimmers in the water throughout the entire 24 hours.

I will be swimming a 90 minute shift in the early hours of Saturday morning( like 2 am). Typically I would swim about 80 50 metre lengths in an hour averaging about 4 kilometres an hour, so I expect to cover six kilometres in 90 minutes. If you would like to sponsor me in this event or make a small donation to MS it would be greatly appreciated. I have a receipt book and all donations over $2 are allowable tax deductions.

Here is my page if you would like to sponsor me online:


http://mssociety.org.au/MegaSwim/Page.aspx?pid=238&srcid=239&frsid=317



Some of you may have noticed posters around the place for the Asia Pacific Outgames. This international event is being held in Melbourne at the end of this month for three days. I am part of the organizing committee for the three day swimming competition which is being held at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. I will mostly be on the pool deck organizing the event but hope to compete in a few events if possible.