Information Center Connections

The rise of infographics

Infographics have become ubiquitous, and with good reason.

For one, they are very often pretty to look at. I've seen all sorts of designs...flow charts, circles, rainbows, maps.  Easy on the eyes. (That's the "graphic" part.)

And the information that's presented is in bite-size portions, easy to scan and digest. Concise. A way to combine and display data to show results and/or tell a story. And, importantly, the information is cited.

Have you thought about how your information center could use infographics to present industry or research information? To market to your clients? To explain a new process or service (either for internal use or for clients/students)?

Here are a few that I found particularly striking and relevant:

+ Anatomy of a librarian

+ A librarian's worth

+ The metadata universe (zoom to view the detail)

+ Usability guide

+ The importance of online training

+ Looking forward to Thanksgiving

 

Now, how to create them? Here are a few resource lists to get you started, plus step-by-step guidance:

+ Suggestions from Problogger

+ Suggestions from Social Networking Librarian

+ Suggestions from Stephen Abram

 

If you see interesting infographics during your travels (or search for them; Visual.ly is a good creating and finding tool), file/bookmark/save them. Let them serve as inspiration for your own storytelling and information sharing.

Have you used infographics to tout your services or present information? If so, tell us the results and how you did it.

This and that: some resources to check out

A few items of interest to info pros and friends:

The Webby Awards have been around for 15 years.  Review the latest list of nominees and winners in almost 70 categories.  Any familiar sites on there?  How does your organization's site measure up?

Zanran is a search engine for data and statistics.  Why not try it if you are looking for that type of information...let's broaden our search horizons!  Looks promising with pop-up results and solid sources of data.  Search Engine Land published a review that's worth a look.

Have a topic and need to find a feed?  Take a look at RSS Search Engine.  Use Google search syntax to limit your results.

That Twitter thing

I've avoided it for long enough.  A post about Twitter.

Why have I been avoiding it? 

Well, in the beginning, it was lack of knowledge.  I had an account (@triviachick), had made a post or two, but just didn't get it.  What's retweeting, again?  How is this good for business? 

In the middle, it was realizing that, although I was tweeting (that's the verb form of Twitter), there was much more to learn.  Not only had an account been set up for the SLA 2009 conference (@sla2009, which is still active, by the way), but I created one for SLA HQ (@slahq) for more general posts.  (@sla was taken...I didn't move fast enough!)  Articles and e-mails about Twitter were everywhere (that seemed to happen overnight, and the activity only grew), but was I ready to talk intelligently about Twitter and tweeting and how to do this, that, and the other thing?  Nope...but I collected all those e-mails and articles and put them in a safe place (that is, I shoved them in an e-mail folder).

Today, 116 followers, 191 updates, one staff training, and 117 items in that e-mail folder later, I came to the conclusion that if I don't write this post NOW, it'll never get written.

So, here's the Twitter post.  Rather, *a* Twitter post, since I'll be writing about it periodically...way (way) too much information to share in one post at this point.  And, how could I not start today when I saw this stat, from Nielsen, on Mashable (@mashable):  Twitter has grown 1,928% in one year. 

Whoa.  Are you a part of that?

So, let's begin...

Question:  What is Twitter? (no sense in making assumptions and leaving people behind)

Answer:  Twitter is an easy-to-use online service through which you share short messages with those who "follow" you.  You, in turn, follow them (possibly) and others.  There is a 140-character limit on the messages...which is more than you think, but is sometimes not quite enough.

Question:  Why would I want to tweet (that is, use Twitter)?  What's in it for me, or my library, or my business?

Answer:  People use Twitter for many reasons, from personal to corporate.  You can share what you're doing in a moment, put out a call for assistance or opinions or information, promote a product or service, spread news (yours or someone else's).  It's (another) way to connect with clients/patrons/enter-audience-type-here.  From the other side, it's a way to receive information (news, questions, tips) from those you want to receive it from.

Question:  No, really, why would I use it?  How do I use it?

Answer: Take a look:

LISNews Company introduces new DVD to protect data 1,000+ yrs http://bit.ly/19c26k  [and here it is on Twitter]

resourceshelf Springer Launches Innovative Publisher-Based Image Collection http://tr.im/sGD6  [Twitter version]

SLAAcad Call for editorial board members! http://bit.ly/11nIgo  [Twitter version]

tywebb75 Adding Shirky's "Here comes everybody" to the lo-o-ng list of books I want to read. Think his ideas may backup own thoughts re ass'n future  [Twitter version]

Jill_HW Been reorganizing my RSS feeds in Bloglines. Hope this helps me archieve "reader zero" on a more regular basis.  [Twitter version]

triviachick Just got an extension for my Information Outlook column. The blog post is taking longer than I want it to...but it must be done.  [Twitter version]

What else you'll find:  job postings, links to photographs and research reports, local traffic updates, and a heck of a lot of U.S. government information.

Does it make more sense now?  Is that enough to get you started?  If so, visit Twitter to look around, sign up.  Updates are public (unless they are made private by account holders), so exploring doesn't involve setting an account up.  Not sure where to start?  Take a look at the list of tweets above, my followers and following lists (at @triviachick) and those of your tweeting colleagues.  There's also a directory of SLA Twitterers, both individuals and units, in SLA's wiki space.  Search for topics and read some posts.  Some of it is serendipity.

My next Twitter post will have some information on the mechanics of posting, including some helpful commands and other tips.  Plus, tools (including search) and even more tips.  In the meantime, a fairly comprehensive Twitter resource you may want to look at is Mashable's Twitter Guide Book...lots of answers there.

Worth a click

It's happened to all of us many times...
When Technology Fails, a new Pew Internet report

LIFE + Google = searchable archive of photographs
(millions of them)

PrintWhatYouLike makes web pages print-friendly

Ozmo, a licensing service for user-generated content, from the CCC

Worth a click

The Annoyed Librarian, now at Library Journal's Web site:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/580000658.html

Open source CMS comparison, from InfoWorld:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/08/41TC-open-source-cms_1.html

Website Grader (thanks mamamusings):
http://www.websitegrader.com/

SLA in Second Life:
http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/sla_in_second_life/

Work In Progress, a "daily look at life on the job":
http://workinprogress.blogs.time.com/

From Information to Knowledge to Social Networking

As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries are putting on a series of interesting and provocative lectures through the autumn.  In addition to being face-to-face events, the lectures are available as live and archived webinars (links to the videos are through their blog).

In the most recent webinar, David Weinberger, author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and Everything Is Miscellaneous, spoke about "Knowledge, Noise, and the End of Information." 

Some of the ideas he shared with the audience:

• Knowledge is rare, and orderly.  We attempt to control, classify and organize it.  It's scarce because it has been managed into books, libraries, systems to organize it.

• When you remove restrictions on management of information and knowledge, you have the success of the Internet, which is "non-conforming" and "non-systematic" and expanding in all directions.  It's messy.  It's different for everyone.  It's not uniform.  Everything is not saying the same thing and it's very noisy.  The noise and breadth are what make it useful.

• The interactivity of the Internet reveals culture.  The discussions we have and the comments we make (on sites such as Flickr and on blogs) add depth to information, news, etc.  These conversations have value themselves.

• We cannot anticipate what people will be interested in because perception of value varies with use and audience.  Digitization and the Internet have allowed us to save/"collect" more without physical restriction.  The audience is now the world.  Collective knowledge adds insight to the conversation.  (Weinberger used the example of the Library of Congress using Flickr to post photos from WWII, and the letting the public tag and comment on photos.)

If you have the opportunity, have a listen to one or more of these lectures.  Ideas like these can influence the way we develop services and deliver content.  Upcoming speakers include Roy Tennant on "Libraries in a Networked World" and Clay Shirky on "Finding Content as a Social Problem."

Google's Chrome

If you're frustrated with your current browser (or just bored), there's a new one out there.  Google has released Chrome.  And a comic book to go along with it.

Here's what being said:

"First Test of Google's New Browser" (AllThingsD)
Walt Mossberg calls it "smart" and "innovative."  He also talks about IE8.

"Searching with Google Chrome and Omnibox" (Search Engine Land)
Danny Sullivan shares his step-by-step trial.

"Google Amends Chrome License Following Privacy Objections" (Computerworld)
It's a good thing someone is reading those licensing agreements.  And posting about it.

"Will Its 'Chrome' Web Browser Put a Shine on Google's Long-term Strategy?" (Knowledge@Wharton)
If you care about the business end of things....

"Enable Chrome's Best Features in Firefox" (Lifehacker)
Maybe you *don't* need to switch.

What do YOU think?