UGLi Blog Update: The Book-mo-boat has not set sail

Dearest readers, for those of you waiting with baited breath to hear of Life Plans A, worry no more! I am happy to report that the Book-mo-boat -- i.e. the world's best Plan B -- is still chillin' in port at Muskegon (pronounced MUSK-uh-john) Lake, Michigan.* World Peace will have to wait because we two are too busy, working as newly minted professional librarian ladies!



Plan A-E
Emily has accepted a job as an Undergraduate Learning Librarian at our very own UGLi! Congratulations to Emily and friend of ugliblog Angie, who has also been named a UGLLLibrarian! MLibrary is so lucky to have you both.

Plan A-K
Katie has started her job as a Reference & Web Services Librarian at Gettysburg College Musselman Library and is settling in at her sublet townhouse in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is blogging her new life at quintessential chronicles of kdt. Feel free to contact her for her Gettysburg address.

Plan A-U
UGLi Blog is in transition, and soon will be sporting a new domain, a new look, and a new identity. Emily and Katie will be having a Blog-In soon to determine how we can continue to nurture our beloved brainchild to 2010 and beyond. (I don't want to get anyone's hopes up too far, but ugliblog's next iteration may be even more podcastic!)

So those are our planz. Thanks for reading, everybody, and as always, our virtual suggestion box is open to comebacks!


Snappy Comebacks from PetaKids

*Our many thanks to those who applied to work on the Book-mo-boat. Captain Emily will keep your information on file and contact you in the event of crew member openings in the future.

This is SO Metadater: the Musical!

Web Site Story. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Oh, 21st century dating -- "I can't wait to read about me later on your blooooog!"

I [heart] the University of Michigan

Guess who just got an email message that her diploma is in the mail? That's right!This girl!

I thought I would share the content of the email with you, since it kind of killed me:
First of all, I'm so impressed that UM sprung for 'First Class US Mail,' especially in these tough times. They couldn't even afford full quotation marks, but that diploma is coming first class, recession be darned! U-M Diploma Status would also like to inform me not to call the University of Michigan to ask when my diploma will arrive. I can just hear the harried bureaucrat on the other end of the line telling me, 'It'll get there when it gets there!' To tide me over (and prevent annoying phone calls), the folks over at U-M Diploma Status were kind enough to provide me with a link to a preview of my diploma -- WOW:

I am now, pretty much officially, a leader and best. Thanks for your message, U-M Diploma Status! I can stop fretting now -- my Master of Science in Information (Information) is in the mail.

Recent SI grads: did you get a diploma preview? If not, you may not have graduated! Just FYI (Information).

METADATER: The Startup Plan! OR My Master's degree in silly things

My last paper at SI (for the course 529: Analysis & Design of Online Communities) required me to create a start-up plan for a new online community. I realized my most entertaining idea for a paper topic had already been discussed on ugliblog: the concept of METADATER, the online dating site for information professionals. As I wrote this paper, I was inspired by Emily's coining of emoticon sign-flirting earlier this year, and an abundance of analytics indicating people in need of romantic advice are ending up here on ugliblog. For those of you who are curious about where my serious discussion of the intentionally silly took me, here are some excerpts from my final paper:

The purpose of Metadater is to provide resources and an online community for the type of people who Google phrases like “facts on flirting,” “dating advice for nerds or geeks,” or “he doesn’t even know I exist.” Metadater aggregates information about dating sites and advice on flirting, dating, and relationships, allows members to share stories, advice, and personal profiles, and lets those Google searchers know they’re not alone – it reminds them that there are like-minded people out there who turn to the internet for help in navigating the complex landscape of romantic relationships. Metadater is an online community dedicated to providing people with lighthearted, fun information, conversation, and activities that encourage them to transform their outlook on dating from clueless or confused to confident and amused.

A valiant purpose, indeed.

Using its member databases and algorithmic matching based on personality, interest, friend suggestions, and geographic criteria, Metadater hopes to playfully employ informatics theory to enable good conversation and promote people’s understanding of romantic relationships and each other. Metadater intends to be a stress-free environment, where there is no pressure to meet your soulmate, and the focus is on open discussion, community, and a shared, humorous take on the trials and tribulations of flirting, dating, and romantic relationships.

To be clear, Metadater does not yet exist, but it really should. Any developers out there willing to take on this challenge? As a Metadater community founder, you'll be doing a service to nerds, geeks, and dorks everywhere. Contact me for more information and eCommunities jargon!

Congratulations Graduates!

We at ugliblog want to salute all 2009 graduates! Congratulations on becoming Masters (or Mistresses) of Information! We're so proud of you!

And, as a special treat, we bobble our heads to you in this world premiere short short film:

All roads lead to ugliblog

Via the awesome power of Google Analytics, we now know that the demand for facks about flirting spiked on March 10, 2009.

Facebook, aka Fort Creepy

The term "creepy treehouse" seems to be a popular topic on various blogs focusing on social computing and education. The term is often connected with facebook interactions. According to Jared Stein of flexknowlogy, a creepy treehouse is:

n. Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards. Such institutional environments are often seen as more artificial in their construction and usage, and typically compete with pre-existing systems, environments, or applications. creepy treehouses also have an aspect of closed-ness, where activity within is hidden from the outside world, and may not be easily transferred from the environment by the participants.

n. Any system or environment that repulses a target user due to it’s closeness to or representation of an oppressive or overbearing institution.

n. A situation in which an authority figure or an institutional power forces those below him/her into social or quasi-social situations.

Popular examples of this defination of a creepy treehouse are professors that make students follow them on twitter, or forced use of the blackboard facebook app. In our own words: would you take your Collection Development textbook to the bar to read while all your friends are there having a lively time? It would take a special person to say "yes" to that.

We think the concept of a creepy treehouse is best described as a social situation online that makes you uncomfortable. The action is invasive, and perceived as inappropriate by one of the parties involved. One element of this may be a social situation that crosses a contextual boundary (educators friending students and vice versa) or a generational gap. There are some people you'd just rather not hang out with online.

In conclusion, stop creepy treehousing. Use privacy settings, friend lists, and exercise your "ignore friend request" right. It's okay to feel strange about the amount of information people can find about you online. Define your personal limits (cough cough myspacers...). Boundaries are something to be thoughtful about, especially on new frontiers.

More info:
Attend our ML2SIG discussion Monday, January 19, 12-1pm, room 806 Hatcher.
Chris Lott: Social Networks vs. Tools
Classroom 2.0: avoiding the "creepy treehouse"
Get out of the creepy treehouse (check out the discussion thread)
for those still interested:
Wikipedia: Social software in education

Punk'd!

Funny thing happened this afternoon while I was working Ask a Librarian, our instant message chat reference service. To give you some context, the most common questions we get on this service are about access problems for our online databases, often a frustrating (and generally boring) topic for both the patron and the librarian. Chat reference is usually a rather proper exchange, as far as text chats go, and often concerns bibliographic information. But not today...

[15:58] meeboguest940311: Hi dude whats up

(I'm used to people being occasionally informal on chat, especially the millennials, but this gave me pause. I considered several lines of attack, including some uptight, librarian-y responses, before settling on a laid-back approach.)

[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: hi
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: not much
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: what's up with you?

[15:59] meeboguest940311: can you tell me who the cool bald guy who does film is?

[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: hmm
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: at Askwith?

(I was thinking "film" as in videos and DVDs, not film studies.)

[15:59] meeboguest940311: No at the grad
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: oh, yes. That's Scott Dennis.

(Scott Dennis is my librarian crush. He knows pretty much everything about electronic resource collection development. He is, in fact, a cool bald guy.)

[16:00] meeboguest940311: Oh yeah, that is his name. Thanks!
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: no problem!

[16:00] meeboguest940311: later dude
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: l8r

(I was particularly proud of my signoff. All in all, a quick, entertaining exchange.)

I emailed Scott to tell him he's famous -- that pretty much everyone on the library website today is looking for him -- and it turns out he was the patron at the other end of my fun chat:

Katie, I cannot tell a lie… That was me, doing a live demo for a Screen Arts class I was teaching. I wasn’t planning on it, but when I showed the Library Help feature in CTools, a student in the class said, someone is there right now waiting to chat? In a tone of disbelief. So I decided to prove it on the spot. I didn’t want to make whoever was on chat duty actually have to do any research work, and I wanted to be funny, so… It worked like a charm. The class roared with laughter (about 50 of them in Angell Hall Auditorium D), and they were very impressed with your hip current texting style! That’s really a librarian? One asked. I’m very lucky you were the one on duty! Thanks. --Scott

It's been a long week, but now I feel great. I'm so hip, a studio audience of 50 millennials can't even tell I'm a librarian.

[Uptight Librarian Note: I received permission from Scott to post this on the blog; I don't go around randomly publishing patrons' private messages to the internet.]

Nerds in possible like

Hey boy, why you didn't call me?
-The Blow

Lately, Katie and I have noticed on our ugliblog analytics that people in need of relationship advice are turning to google and landing on ugliblog. There seem to be a lot of people out there who need advice about flirting, flirt texts, flirting in Grand Rapids, flirting with librarians, good comebacks for flirting with nerds, among many others. Over the past three months, people have landed on ugliblog by searching over 20 different keywords dealing with the subject of flirting. In order to stay relevant to the needs and interests of our readers, I will now provide you with some innovative flirting advice (a special thanks to Katie and Greg who helped me brainstorm this system awhile back).

Scenario: You are at the bar. There is a rather cute person in the corner, reading a book. This person is so perfect that you may try to find them on Craigslist missed connections later. You look up from your crossword puzzle and stout, just as the person looks up from their book and i.p.a. You want to wink, but that's soooo 20th century. So go ahead, take those skills that you learned in the chat room and apply them to the bar. Throw that cutie a sign language winkey emoticon ;).


I hope that this helps those of you that are struggling with this whole flirting thing. Please note that flirting with emoticon sign language has never been tried by those who invented it, so the success rate is still unknown. Please share your success stories with us!

The secret about girls is that they want you to like them.
-The Blow

By Special Request: What is Community Informatics?

Questions abound concerning one of my specializations at the School of Information. Even SI is struggling to come up with some set definition. I think that basically it is about sharing information. How is this different from Library and Information Services? LIS is about the how. Community Informatics is about the what and the why. For me this means seeing libraries as community centers (both public and academic) that serve the needs of their communities. I think that a lot of community informatics involves getting librarians out from behind the desk and into the community, visiting different organizations and groups, finding out what they need the library to be. Information is meant to be shared, and this process won’t work if librarians are confined within the walls of the library. Sometimes this might mean creating unlikely connections.
I worked on a project a year ago that connected a public library and archive with the parks and recreation department, our local neighborhood association, and the city commission of my hometown. We brought an exhibit on a local pool created in the archive to the place in the city where it belonged, at the pool (see http://www.historygrandrapids.org or add to and edit the wiki version http://www.viget.org/Richmond_Park_Pool). This made people in the community aware of the archive and the library, while we all celebrated the rich history of our neighborhood pool. People asked me reference questions at the opening of the exhibit. Reference questions while waiting in line to do cannon balls off the diving board? Yes, please.

Want to know more about Community Informatics at the School of Information?
http://cic.si.umich.edu and
http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/ci.htm

Terrestrial Life in Space!

Following up on my July lit review, I am particularly geeked by this recent bit of news... WATER BEARS IN SPACE, everybody!

Like, OMG, you guys. I could talk about this story in relation to popular/scholarly information and its potential uses for library instruction, but I'm really just too overwhelmingly excited that we (Earthlings) have reached the Final Frontier, surviving the vacuum of space without special equipment. It's a good week for science, y'all.

Tardigrades: so incredibly sci fi.

Millennial Mania

Lately I've been thinking a lot about millennials.* The librarians I know often discuss millennials -- our current generation of younger patrons. How do millennials access and use information and how do they communicate? If librarians can pin down millennials' needs, we can better serve them and we can maintain our relevance in an increasingly decentralized information age.

I realized recently that the youngest of today's library school students are among the first crop of millennial librarians. In this vein, I have a confession to make. I am a millennial (a fact that I hadn't confronted about myself until, fittingly, I read it in black and white on Wikipedia). So what does it mean that we new librarians are in the same generation as the students that more experienced librarians are desperately seeking to understand?

As a millennial (however reluctant I am to admit it because it makes me feel like an awkward middle schooler), I am accustomed to rapidly-evolving information and communication technologies. I remember dial-up, but barely. I may not be a skilled texter, but I could be if I focused more. I rarely have the attention span to read a book cover-to-cover, but I can spend hours following a trail of interesting Facebook updates.

I've been asking around about millennials, and I've heard they expect information resources to be intuitive, to be Google or Wikipedia-esque in their ease of use. I've also heard that millennials are as likely to rely on peers as they are to rely on their superiors for "expert" advice. I’m not sure how true these things are of me, but I think they may be generally true of those youngsters born in the 1990s.

This collaborative way of approaching knowledge (and in a sense determining our truths by the consensus of any given moment) signals a shift in society discussed --and sometimes bemoaned-- by philosophers and pundits alike. But older generations have a history of worrying about what cultural dead-ends those young kids are leading us into. And as of yet, cultural evolution has continued apace both despite and because of the innovations of the young.

Personally, I don’t think we need a revolutionary response to millennials’ supposed information, communication and technology prowess. I don't think we need the brand "Library 2.0" to open ourselves to a paradigm shift. Libraries have always evolved to reflect society’s views of knowledge, and have so far managed to remain relevant and useful. Maybe we respond a little more slowly to the latest technology, perhaps with slightly more deliberation. But we adopt the things that work and we empower our patrons adopt them, too. I value this traditional function of libraries as much as the next librarian, millennial or no.

So, what does it really mean to be a millennial librarian? Is there really a generational gap here, or are the reports of our differences greatly exaggerated?

* Beware that Wikipedia link, the year range listed for the "millennial" or "gen y" generation changes regularly. I guess that's a symptom of society's attempt to describe itself as it evolves. Or the lack of authority and dependability of Wikipedia articles. Take your pick. For more on naming the millennial generation, see this Washington Post article.

METADATER: a long explanation for a short joke

Caution: This post contains a hearty portion of information nerdiness/ geekiness/ dorkiness. I will try to "overexplain" some things a little for the benefit of our average reader (returning readers will notice that "overexplanation" is something I do on the regular, for real).

So, feel free to skip ahead if you already know a thing or two about metadata. Or don't, if you want to see me try to explain it.

Context: What the heck is metadata, anyway? According to wikipedia and SI, metadata is "data about data." Metadata helps us make sense of information by providing us with context. It allows us to better communicate and organize information and thus retrieve information more efficiently.

Titles and formatting are examples of metadata often used to describe text. For instance, the metadata I apply to READ THIS NOW! tells you a lot more than a less invasive "read this now" would have. The metadata (bold, caps and exclamation point) I use to describe the data (three words which represent your imperative) helps me communicate my meaning, draws your attention and hopefully inspires you to continue reading. It also allows me to classify what I say as important, rather than just plain old words like the stuff around it.

Recently, when I asked a fellow information professional if he had any thoughts on metadata, he asked, "Can you be more specific?" I said no. He said, "It's a ... good thing?" Metadata. It's a good thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata

Aaaaanyway...

What's the deal with METADATER? Last semester, I was writing a literature review on Metadata Standards and Interoperability for the Digital Libraries course that Emily and I took together. While this may sound vaguely impressive, I can assure you that I had almost no idea what I was talking about, but I sort of guessed at a string of plausible words and ended up sounding mildly coherent. Professor, if you're reading this... sorry dude. Thanks for the passing grade.

So Emily and I were both typing like mad in the office trying to get these overly technical lit reviews done and submitted on time, and I typoed "metadater" and I sort of cackled and said "METADATER!" in this incredibly nerdy affected voice and we both died a little in a good way. We wrote the term on the office white board and it lasted for a while.

Since then, we've realized what METADATER is really all about. We've learned the true reason I discovered the concept in the first place.

METADATER is an online dating site for information professionals. Or it should be. It doesn't actually exist. But it could.

After all, http://metadater.com/ was recently "registered\purchased." And who knows what it'll be when it finally goes live.

I'll give you a few moments to think about the ramifications.

Seriously?
Yes.

Well... seriously bad/good joke. I mean, word play and information science? It doesn't get any better/worse. I warned you it was nerdy.

UGLi Field Trip

On Friday the staff of the UGLi piled in maize and blue mini vans and traveled to the new Border's. I'm directionally challenged so I couldn't tell you where it is, but it is in Ann Arbor somewhere. Anyway, the store is a test case for their new "concept stores." Basically, the store is just a really big, really technologically advanced bookstore with lots of flashy stuff.

From the moment I walked in, I felt like I was in a computer store, and got overwhelmed. The store manager who gave us a tour must have read my mind when he said, "this space used to be a CompUSA." The store did have some neat shelving and seating, and some clever organizational ideas. But, the big screen t.v.s on the walls made me feel like I was in Best Buy. The store has a technology area that includes a space where customers can make their own CD mixes and download e-books. The thing that really got me was "the Long Pen," which is this teleconferencing device where you can meet an author and they can sign your book. You can see the author over the screen, they can see you, and then you put your book under the machine and the author signs their name on their thinkpad. The "Long Pen" then signs your book, stroke for stroke. It was weird. I have wonderfully awkward memories of meeting authors and basically tripping over myself (not to brag but I ran into David Sedaris in Paris and it was visibly shocking for me). It's refreshingly human to not be able to just turn off a camera and hide sometimes. Plus, if robots start signing our books for us, where will it end? It's so sci-fi.

In the discussion that followed the tour, many of the librarians declared they were uncomfortable with the store. I whole heartedly agreed.

You can see more photos on the UGLi flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uglib/

Sharks Part 2: Told You So...

Internet connectivity has been sporadic for our friends in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, India, and Bangladesh this week due to three broken internet cables in the ocean. Though repairs are being made, the progress may be slow. Sources don't seem to know what caused the break in the cables, and it is suspected that at least two be the cables were possibly cut by a ship anchor. But, the third broken cable, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, has not been explained. The cable was a mere 35 miles from shore. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History most sharks congregate and attack not far from shore and are drawn towards metallic objects, thus leaving my prediction as shark attack. This has been one of the largest outages since an earthquake in Taiwan in 2006. Remember dear readers that we can create things such as the internet, but we pesky humans will never outsmart nature.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Outages.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=internet&st=nyt&oref=slogin">http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Outages.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=internet&st=nyt&oref=slogin
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/31/dubai.outage/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/howwhen.htm">http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/howwhen.htm

Shark Attacks and Internet Connections

Katie and I are in a course on digital libraries this semester. As you know, I have issues with the tangibility of the digital world. We recently read an article for class that attempts to make tangible the intangible nature of networks such as the internet. So, in the article this guy just travels around the world following broadband wires. This "hacker tourist" reveals to his readers all sorts of mind boggling things about broadband wires, the most mind boggling being that the broadband wires in the ocean have a "steel anitshark jacket" around them. I never had given any thought to the fact that a shark attack might tamper with my internet connection. Now I do. I was having trouble signing into facebook earlier today so I could play Scrabulous. I instantly thought "shark attack." (How many times have you thought about a shark attack threatening your Scrabble game?) Printers are slow today at the UGLi-- it's probably just another shark messing with the connection.

The Internet is Magic, or “But the problem is, how am I supposed to believe in miracles anymore now that I know how the internet works?”

Today, Emily and I had an exam on the Internet. And by that I mean, we took an exam on concepts related to the internet for SI 502. The exam made us kind of crazy, and we sat in the office recovering, talking in the sort of manic, stressed-out haze that characterizes a lot of our conversations about the work we do at SI.

Emily said the things we've learned in this class have reduced her sense of wonder about the internet, that learning its basic workings has made the whole thing somehow less awe-inspiring. She compared this to the plight of young children (I'm paraphrasing here): "It's like when you hear rumors at recess that Santa Claus isn't real, and even though you know that Christmas is really about Jesus, some the magic of the holiday is lost."

Many of us on this side of the digital divide use the internet every day, without feeling the need to understand how it works. Some of us might even feel that trying to learn how the internet works is a little like asking to have Santa spoiled for you. The internet is pretty freaking complicated. It's hard to sum up, and it requires time to understand. Some day we beleaguered 502-ers might get there.

Although, we are already miles ahead of some. Consider:


Part I

and


Part II

As Jon Stewart suggests, the internet is not just a series of tubes. Ted Steven's tube analogy (while it sounds half-cocked) is thought-provoking because it reminds us that the internet has physicality – cables, computer hardware, servers, and routers that can "talk" to each other. But the higher-level result of all that underlying architecture – the fact that in less than a second you are able to get a webpage that is stored on a server thousands of miles away to display on the screen in front of you in a format you can comprehend – is mind-blowing when you really think about it. And the layers in between the physical and the conceptual -- they might as well be a series of tubes, for all most internet users care.

My 502 GSI has told us that the core question in this course is "Who's talking to whom?" We perceive with our senses, and communicate in human terms. We've created machines that perceive and communicate in numbers, in bits and code, in simple electronic signals. How do we talk to computers in a language they understand, how do different computers talk to each other, and how do layers of hardware and software work together? The fact that computer systems work, that networks work, is a miracle of communication and coordination.

So as much as I sympathize with Emily and all those little kids (including wee young Katie, circa 1993) who discover their parents lie to them to make life seem cooler, learning some basics about the internet has only increased my wonderment. For me, it's more like discovering Santa isn't real, realizing your parents pulled off a massive, long-term hoax in collaboration with parents all across the Western world, and then settling into an appreciation for the system that could enable the conspiracy to continue from year to year and generation to generation. Well, something like that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the more I learn about the internet, the more I think that the fact that it works at all is truly, fantastically, completely magical. The more I learn about the internet, the more I feel like doing new-agey pagan rituals in its honor.

Not really.

Well, maybe a little.

Better OFF

I recently finished reading Better OFF: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende. Brende was a graduate student in Science, Technology, and Society at M.I.T. when he began to feel overwhelmed by the dependency of society on technology. Brende frames technology in terms of machines, motors, and natural resource guzzlers. Determined to find “how much was too much” technology Brende and his wife move to an Amish community and live without electricity for a year. Brende, describing this lifestyle overly utopian and very unhumble terms at times, does give insight to finding a balance between what machines should and shouldn’t help us to do in our daily lives. A graduate student at the time himself he writes, “In the modern university, with its rapid turnover of assignments and fast-paced technology, the human brain is treated as just another processing device and is expected to keep pace with electronic blips…In the absence of fast-paced gizmos…we can simply take our time…by speeding through life with technology, you reduce what any given moment can hold. By slowing down, you expand it.” He concludes that he does need some technology to get by, and that conveniences like running water aren’t just luxuries. But, he prefers living a slower dearer life without “fast paced gizmos”. Though Brende is a bit condesending at times, his book is worth reading.