LIBRARYCOM
has slipped my radar screen (perhaps because I had it turned off?) and
what Norman has created is a free library automation system. That’s
right, free for the first seat and only $50 per seat for additional
users. It’s been around for a year and somehow I missed it…Maybe I
need to go to this show a little more often.
It’s a full fledged puppy with a decent online web catalog,
circulation functions (including printing overdues and notices) and
allows you to create union catalog by joining together the holdings of
several libraries.
Where this product seems really important to me is all of the very
little libraries, especially local history and genealogy collections
that lack the funds to automate. They might have to spend some time with
a tool like MitinetMarc or anything else that would allow you to create
MARC records, but you cant beat the price and functionality.
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Other
Stuff of Interest
Web Shackles
In some circles, this is also known as "filtering" and
there were several variations on this theme at the show. Schools have to
struggle with this a lot more than public libraries, and it all boils
down to can Johnny go to Whitehouse.com (I didn’t bother with a link
for obvious reasons) from his school computer?
We are evolving from filters, which act like bots and nuke sites by
language criteria. In Ohio, a lot of folks expended a great deal of time
and effort on the Library Channel (which to my understanding is now
toast) and invested a huge number of staff hours identifying and
capturing links.
The next generation is a service – with a review policy and trained
folks picking sites and organizing them.
inetlibrary
Of the ones I viewed at the show the best, in my humble opinion, was inetlibrary.
Here’s the info from their front screen:
Today you get 218,427 searchable, categorized, and safe Internet
sites. Site
Map
Every site has been reviewed for quality, graded, and cross
referenced with the National Standards in Education.
No filter was used, every site has been reviewed by professional
educators under the direction of Dr. Dennis Jensen. Review
Policy
At no additional cost, you get Ask
the Expert. Professionals
such as a School Attorney, School Administrator, several Authors,
Professional Educators in different fields, and a teen/preteen Guidance
Specialist respond to your questions with their opinions.
You have the world's largest collection of personally selected sites.
Taller than the Empire State Building.
We are the experts at reviewing, grading, sorting and selecting
relevant educational sites for teachers and students.
I got to spend some time with Dr. Jenson, and he gets the Wired
Librarian’s Seal of Approval. The review policy seems sensible, and
the large number of reviewed sites indicates to me they didn’t start
this project in time to get the site up for the show.
In playing with the site back here at the ML World headquarters, I
submitted an "Ask an Expert" question, another neat feature of
the site. We’ll see how long it takes to get a response. I was a
little concerned that there weren’t a ton of questions posted (it
works like a FAQ file)
There are some neat categories already built for quick access such as
College
Section, Country
Resources, Current
Events, Educational,
Home
Section, Kids
Zone, Legal
Center, Lesson
Plans, Media
Center, Reference
Section, Religion,
School
Search, State
Resources, Subject
Areas, Teen
Zone . Minimally
surfing through them they are well done, though far from robust. For
example, in the "Ohio General Information" section neither
OPLIN nor the State Library are listed, both containing excellent
resources. I sent them a request to add it in the "Add a Site"
feature and we’ll just have to wait and see.
inetlibrary
can be configured by IP, and they have a neat feature that provides for
home access. The "Plus" feature is where the library can
control the shackles. They include twenty-seven different categories
from "hate speech" to "games and fun" with five
options for customizing your blocking strategy. Reviewed sites from the
categories are in the database, but when someone surfs from within the
shell
Pricing is based on enrollment, and a school district with 499
students gets hit for $999 for the package, $11,99 for the plus version.
They also provide "School and Home Access" at $4.75 each. If
you just want to purchase home access its $49.79 per year. Looks like a
rounding thing from an Excel spreadsheet to me,,,
Tutor.com
Their motto is "teach what you know – learn what you don’t"
and my first vision was of the old concept of a people’s university, a
concept I thought long since dead. These folks have revived it in a web
context.
The metaphor of the site is simple, want to know something find a
tutor; got something to teach then register as a tutor. The site
develops a direct learner to student interface with cash changing hands
with the learner paying the tutor and the site takes 10% off the top
from the tutor. You can do the tutoring online, or face-to-face.
I found the pop-ups really annoying. The online learning interface is
a chat screen and a white board (duh, netmeeting) and I am a little
leery of the bandwidth issues especially since those staffing the booth
indicated 56K was the min (and on a good day I get 26.6).
The poor folks in the booth had to put up with annoying talking fish
next to them for four days, and they should get combat pay. One of the
problems of the show in general is amplified sound from the vendors.
"Fisheads, fisheads,,,eat em up yum.
Interface Software – LPT
One
These folks actually have two little tools that are worth looking at.
LPT One gives you a management tool for handling the chores of managing
public print stations, and PC RESERVATION is a rather elegant tool for
scheduling the workstations in your facility.
Once the net is in your place, you have to develop a printing policy.
Be it free or a dime a page, whatcha gonna do about the kids printing 45
pages from the WWF site? To avoid the pushing and shoving match over who
gets a box, most libraries implement a scheduling system.
Here’s the scoop on LPT One from their website:
Starting at less than $100 per workstation, small libraries
will be able to control workstation printing by displaying the number of
pages, print costs, and printer location. This versatile solution is
easily upgraded with additional components as needs grow. The addition
of a release station enables the circulation desk to control printing.
This release station can share functionality with a circulation PC and
provide the staff with a convenient means of managing patron printing
from a central location. The exclusive cash register built into LPT:One
provides a full-function software-based cash register to manage revenue
from printing, collection of overdue book fines, and other cash
transactions that occur at the circulation desk, even calculating change
and printing receipts.
It includes client, station and reporting modules. What’s funky is
not that nor more than a half-dozen booths down another outfit with a
similar product. They wanted you to buy a server from them, pay $4.5K to
say hello, and lacked many of the features of the
PC
Reservation
Another hassle is monitoring who uses a workstation, when and for how
long. This tool allows you to implement a login screen on the public pc’s
and manage their use.
Here’s their scoop from their website:
A convenient cost-effective method of monitoring and controlling
public PC use time and access - Highly scalable -- software and
optional hardware fits every facility and all budgets -- starting at
under $100 per PC for a Client Module - Schedules available PC resources
for libraries and labs in a self-service or staff-managed mode -
Operates as a software-only solution or integrated with our Silent Pager
System - Vending devices can be integrated for authentication with
student ID or patron library card - Reporting Module provides extensive
statistical information and graphical displays - Manages sign-up for use
of PC's, tracks time used, and expires student/patron sessions based
upon administrator preferences. Patrons are warned of time
expiration with administrator-defined message and warning interval -
Allows continued use of resources when there are no other patrons
waiting - Advises waiting patrons of scheduled and probable wait time
based upon statistical history - Works with any Windows
95/98/NT4/Win2000 station. Does not require a file server -
Integrates seamlessly with Interface's LPT:One
Print Management System.
Licensing aggregates with LPT:One quantities to provide added cost
savings -- LPT:One and PC Reservation share authentication and reporting
systems.
netlibrary
The time spent with netlibrary
was interesting, and they are on the edge of the ebook world. They spent
a lot of advertising bucks, and I really enjoyed the coffee and danish
they provided each morning in the show floor internet café. Living
cheap is definitely living differently for your humble editor.
They have collected 15K plus titles, and make them available. Their
pricing is retail with a discount (not stated) each time a title is
downloaded. You can download it to a drive (but not an ebook or a palm
or any other handheld, netlibrary claims the publishers won’t let them
do it) and each download is timed so the cybercop cleans your drive.
There are some very elegant search features for finding content
within a title, but duh, its hypertext anyway. The free reading room has
4K of titles (duh again, Project Gutenberg).
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TOP
Old
Friends
The greatest satisfaction was running into old buds.
To
see Chuck Follett again was a real hoot, my old HS bud looks great and his
new position at Follett
doesn’t seem to be doing him any harm. And the guy filling his shoes,
Tom Schenck looks like his new responsibilities fit him well. Dan Fuller
has also moved up the Follett feeding chain, and he’s no longer within
striking distance. The disk with his pic crashed so he’s got double
luck.
How
does he do it? When I ran into Glen Granger in the Highsmith
booth, he looked better than he did five years ago. He indicated that
plans were in the works to put their catalog online, and god-speed in that
effort. I didn’t get the chance to see Duncan, but
First I ran into Betsy Thompson, then we ran into George
Scheetz and it was like old days in Sioux City. We made plans to meet for
dinner that fell through, and hence no mug shots. Betsy has been doing
some very interesting stuff with measuring electronic service. It’s been
fourteen years since I have seen either, and I don’t want that kind of
time to elapse before the next encounter.
I hooked up with old compadre Bob Bocher from the
Wisconsin Department of Education and caught up with his activities in
developing technology skills in the cheese state.
TOP
How
Stupid Is This?
Librarians tout themselves as the technology leaders, yet
every year we pick a place, gather 20K and spend all of our time on busses
moving from place to place.
Learning is moving from face to face, and I challenge ALA
to look at the mayhem and develop an alternative plan, at least for part
of the conference. Committee meetings need to be done online, and many of
the content sessions need to become web-based instruction so that even
those unable to afford to attend the conference could be part of the
wisdom.
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Even
More Stupid
On
Friday afternoon, I felt very privileged to be part of the opening
session. ALA gave a lifetime membership to the late Jeanne Hurley Simon,
wife of former Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) and the crowd responded by giving
him a standing ovation.
Just prior to this, the convention was addressed by His
Honor, Richard M. Daley,
Mayor of the Great City of Chicago. I was in tears taking pictures near
the podium because the boy is so much like his dad, Richard J. Every
man has his faults, and his dad had a few, but the second city was clean
and functioned well during his tenure. Sure I protested in the streets
(not that far from where McCormick stands) thirty-one years ago, but my
beef wasn’t about the Boss, it was about the world we were trying to
change.
Needless to say, Cognotes (the daily publication
during the conference) waited until Sunday to run a pic, and then buried
at the bottom of page 6 to boot. This is the guy who arranged the juice to
build something like 28 new branches for CPL.
Librarians wonder why they struggle with the politicos.
His Honor’s picture should have been top and center on the Saturday
edition. Even without the buildings, just gracing us with his presence
deserved more than a day late and a dollar short.
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Notes
on the Journey
There’s nothing more pleasing to your humble old editor
than jumping in the truck and taking a six-hour tour, with or without Mary
Ann or the Professor. I was looking forward to the return bout to my
hometown (well kept secret, so it best be safe with thee) and perhaps the
chance to loop some of the old courses in between the hectic pace of the
show.
Cruising up I-65 through Batesville, IN hearing John
Mellenkamp cranking out "Little Pink Houses" (and Ronnie want
that as a campaign song?) … getting to Indy and hearing a great ad
"Click Click Yum Yum " for indyfood.com
… passing a truck with a concrete saw on the back and the logo
"concrete barbers" … finally getting within range of WXRT
FM 93.1 and hearing "TM on the
FM in the PM" and waiting for Terri Hemmert in the morning … paying
$22 a day to park my car …sitting in the shuttle bus line reading
program announcements about distance learning and wondering why most of
the sessions weren’t being done on the web …watching the jugglers sell
automation systems.
TOP
Special
Thanks To …
 |
Deb Robertson
and her staff in the ALA Press Office |
|
Silver
Platter for the neat little pull
off markers to put in the program book. I wish I had about a thousand
more for daily use. |
|
Gale
for providing the busses. Cuts the expenses tremendously for a guy
without a job. |
|
netlibrary
for the free coffee and bagels, not to mention internet |
