Museum mashup

Jason from our IT department showed me an excellent example of a mashup. The Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid Spain is using the Google Earth data and tools to promote its masterpieces.

"The Prado Museum has become the first art gallery in the world to provide access to and navigation of its collection in Google Earth. Using the advanced features of Google Earth art historians, students and tourists everywhere can zoom in on and explore the finer details of the artist's brushwork that can be easily missed at first glance." Quote from the Museo's website.

Jason suggested that we could do this with our own library treasures.

Anticipating the future of libraries

I went to the Online Conference and heard the keynote address by Andy Hines. Here is my report.

Andy Hines is a professional futurist. He is currently an academic at Houston University where he runs a course called Future Studies. Previously he was a consultant and was hired by diverse companies such as Dow Chemical and Kellog. His work with these companies involved identifying trends that might impact on the business and seeking out new business opportunites.

Hines argued convincingly that we live in a time of flux and to survive the changes it is important to understand the trends. His number one rule is not to ignore or under estimate the possible difficulties ahead. He referred to companies that had ignored the early signs of the global financial crisis and then, when it hit, they were unprepared. The implication was that blind optimism is not always the best strategy for long term survival. He recommends that organisations have more than one contingency plan.

Hines believes that the most significant trend currently is the change in people’s values. This is an important trend to watch because values dictate behaviour. He spoke in detail about the shift in values. I’ll just comment on a few things that caught my attention. If you want to read more, Hines has co-written a number of books, which are listed below.

Hines identified three trends that a public library could take advantage of and in doing so, could increase its relevance and profile.
1. The traditional office set up is starting to blur. Thanks to technology more people can work away from the office. The public library is well placed to provide these workers with a pleasant space to work.
2. Lifelong learning is becoming more common with baby boomers not interested in retirement, but looking for new interests. The library can provide resources and a learning space.
3. People are getting tired of materialism and are more interested in connecting with their community and making a difference. The library is an ideal third space, separate from work and home, where people can meet face to face, or online, and work towards a common goal.

Andy Hines was an excellent speaker.

Books by Andy Hines et al
Thinking about the future: Guidelines for strategic foresight (Social Technologies, 2007)
2025: Science and technology reshapes US and global society (Oak Hill, 1997)
Managing your future as an association ( ASAE, 1994)

Solitude and contemplation

This is a found image by lovedaylemon from Flickr. I used the jigsaw tool in Big Huge Labs. Does it qualify as a mashup?

To me it illustrates the value of solitude and contemplation. Energy and teamwork are useful, but I think over emphasised. Good ideas often come from one person who has done some quiet thinking.

Watching Grass Grow

What is interesting about podcasts is that they have put new life into an old technology, that is, radio. I find listening can be very refreshing, a restful change from looking and being bombarded with still and moving pictures. I think that's why people like to stare into space, or watch the grass grow. They need a break from signs, posters, billboards, televisions and computer screens.

By the way there is a group on Flickr called Watching Grass Grow. Here is a lovely photo by dmb272 taken from that group.

Pod to pod

My partner got into podcasts some time ago and now listens to them while travelling on the train rather than reading a book. He is especially fond of anything involving Melvyn Bragg from the BBC.

We now have a new stereo system that has a docking station for an MP3 player. My partner downloads a pod cast from the BBC, puts the MP3 player into the stereo and we listen together. Like an old fashioned family sitting around the wireless (radio).

One of my favourite podcasts is Ramblings with Clare Balding .

Slamming the hoards

I was amazed at the number and range of questions posted on the answer boards. I suppose this is the modern equivalent of hanging over the back fence and asking your neighbour a question.

I took a close look at the questions in the health category on both WikiAnswers and on Yahoo!7Answers. I found that about half the questions actually required the person to see a doctor. What they were after was an interpretation of a set of symptoms, in other words medical advice not plain information.

So if I was slamming the boards as a health librarian, my most frequently used answer would be; "Go see your doctor". That would not make me very popular and would certainly not get me any Best Answer votes. Despite this, I think the slamming the boards campaign is an excellent idea.

Lists vs clouds

I've been looking at the Del.ici.ous site, specifically the 2 options of viewing the tags in a cloud or in a list. The list view is easier to read. The cloud view looks more dynamic and perhaps is good for communicating when it's not necessary to read every word. I noticed in the cloud view you can use the size of letters to give some words more importance than others, while with the list the words you put at the top carry more weight than those lower down the list.