In response to the news that Oprah will be scaling back her book club, Steven over at Library Stuff has this to say:

"Impact on libraries? I think that Oprah turned many ex-readers onto and non-readers back to the printed word. Even though she is not doing her thing anymore, many of her followers will continue to read. They will have to count on librarians more for reader advisory purposes and we should work on provding Oprah-type reading lists for our patrons. Thanks Oprah for what you have done for libraries and readers alike."

He's spot on to advocate that we pick up the slack here. Heck, we're already doing Reader's Advisory work, and this is our chance to enhance and market it. The One City, One Book program is one way to continue book discussions at a regional level, but it doesn't help get quality advice and recommendations to individuals based on their own preferences. Libraians provide quality search, indexing, and cataloging services you just can't get anywhere else. The key word there is quality. The same holds true for Reader's Advisory. The only other people on the planet who can even come close to us are booksellers, and they don't have the same training and support network that we do (although they're close on that second point).

So what can we do to keep ourselves in this loop, even expand it? Well, many librarians already do in-house, face-to-face interactions pretty well, although certainly we need some good PR to boost awareness of it. But we could probably do a better job of providing automatic notifications of new titles (via email), online chatting with readers via IM ("call" us and ask for a good book), better collaborative filtering software as applied by librarians specifically for this purpose ("Emergent Words?"), and better dissemination of our reviews and advice.

For the dissemination angle, as a proof of concept I'd like to see a public library with a healthy RA service use a copy of Radio to start archiving their staff reviews of new titles. Genres could be set up as categories, and anyone on staff could add to the archive by just typing in the box in the browser. It should be pretty easy to add a macro to identify the author and a second one for the reviewer, you've already got the date (modifications could be added manually if need be), if you install the right software it's all searchable, and everything is archived automatically.

Why would I do this with Radio? Because for $40, a library could get this service up and running in a few minutes. The categories would make for easy browsing by date, and the right search engine software could provide for pre-configured searches of works by a specific author.

But the best part is that the service as a whole and each genre separately would have their own RSS feed that patrons could subscribe to with a news aggregator. It wouldn't be the most granular level of RA, but it would take the bibliographies we're already doing and make them available online in a more dynamic and portable way. You could even include links directly into your catalog for immediate status and availability (did somebody say "web service?"). If you set up a category for each reviewer, then patrons could learn which people they trust and subscribe just to those people's feeds.

I know there are other ways to do all of this, but the simplicity of WYSIWYG editing in the browser, plus the easy creation and maintenance of categories, plus the killer app addition of turning your review service into RSS feeds suddenly becomes a very powerful combination. Now you've got quality (librarians aren't just the "ultimate search engine," we're also the ultimate collaborative filtering technology for books) plus quantity (by pooling resources multiple libraries could collaborate on something like this) plus automatic dissemination through channels the reader hand picks.

Granted, we're a few years away from news aggregators going mainstream, but the elevator is on the ground floor right now and the arrow is pointing up. I don't know enough about the languages behind news aggregators to say how, but I know you could use Radio as the backend for this even if you just wanted to display the categories on your web site for now. As Dave says, it's bootstrapping for now, but imagine a book review version of News Is Free with thousands of channels and reviewers, all maintained by the experts - librarians.

Don't get me started on how the reviews should be able to link to ebook and audio ebook versions listed in our catalog that a patron could check out right then and there....

I've already linked to this article, but Plastic wins the award for best re-title hands down: First Rule Of The Patriot Act: You Do Not Talk About The Patriot Act.

The Story Behind Usability.gov

"It’s a story that underscores the critical role that Usability.gov plays in the electronic communication of complex cancer information to very diverse audiences. One minute, a researcher seeking grant information is pulling up an NCI website for details on what grants are available and where to apply. The next minute, an ordinary citizen is frantically searching NCI websites for any informationæany cluesæabout a type of cancer for which the doctor is testing them. Every day, NCI disseminates life and death information. Usability.gov ensures that users and their web behaviors are kept in mind when designing sites....

Given these questions, we began testing the site, an experience that furthered the need to develop a formal way to collect and share our knowledge for future reference. We conducted user tests with doctors, medical librarians, cancer patients, researchers, and others who we expected would be regular visitors. What we learned from testing was as surprising as what we learned from our questionnaire and interviews: some icons were not clearly clickable, many links were confusing, our terminology did not match our users’, and core information appeared to be buried or lost within the site. These were not mere glitches, but conceptual and foundational challenges that needed to be addressed." [Boxes and Arrows, via Tomalak's Realm]

In their Lessons Learned section, they also include what their testing revealed about Instant Messaging, both the usability of the interface and the placement of the logo on web pages. Libraries providing this type of online service should definitely read this over.

Tapping into and Rewarding Communities

"Emergent Music: Uncover the undiscovered in new music is now officially launched.

In my own words I'd describe EM as:

A site with collaborative new music recommendations that the community in turn rates and then our fancy math (based on Bayesian statistics) figures out not only the best recommendations but also the best people at creating and improving them (who we then reward).

Something to think about relative to how to get incentives right in KM systems. Also looks like fun in its own right." [Jim McGee: TEC924]

Jim pushes back on my original pointer to Matt's Emergent Music site, and I agree that the tricky part for KM buy-in is the rewards/incentives. I wanted to post more about this because Eric also added his perspective:

"OK, I guess personally what I'm really after is someting more like MovieLens, not Amazon's "people who bought this, also bought this..." feature.  Yeah, sure they may have bought it, but did they enjoy it.  That's what I'm after....

But can I have the recommendations served up to me....?  Say via RSS?" [useless miscellany]

I sure hope so! Eric must have a very rich media life because he's willing to invest the time to note his preferences for music, books, web sites, and movies. Filtering those lists via collaborative technology or RSS feeds is a killer app for information overload.

The problem with these types of sites is that the information stays on their site - it doesn't travel with me. I visit fewer and fewer sites these days as I channel my news, information, and commentary through the news aggregator in Radio. If I could have a separate page to automatically pull in new music recommendations, movie reviews that match my tastes, etc., I'd be consuming far more products than I do now.

Supposedly, the company that bought Kazaa released a new version this week that includes a new recommendations service based on the tracks the user actually listens to in the program. The best thing the music industry could do right here and now is partner with Kazaa, provide legal downloads at a reasonable cost, push new artists to me via the recommendations, and laugh all the way to the bank. It's the best way for them to turn average people who find no alternatives for online music back into paying customers. And it would work, too, if they would just grow up and treat us with a little respect.

I had forgotten all about this resource until this week's Neat New Stuff on the Net by "librarian without walls" Marylaine Block pointed out the fantastic E-book Library for MS Reader and Palm Devices at the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center. The PDA collection is 1600 strong, all of which are searchable and somewhat browsable by subject. They also list the Top 20 "Bestsellers" and even Staff Picks. Note, too, that Palm users can read these titles using the free Palm Reader or iSilo Free, not just AportisDoc.

I downloaded Stories to Tell to Children: Fifty-One Stories With Some Suggestions for Telling, written in 1907 by Sara Cone Bryant for the next time we're at the doctor's office.

Librarians could easily incorporate links to specific titles into class reading lists, homework help sites, and webliographies. If you're a school librarian, work with your teachers to get their reading lists and then post the links to these on your site. If you're a public librarian, work with the school librarians to point to, mirror, or create these lists on your site. Don't duplicate effort, but do collaborate to make the access as easy as possible for your patrons. If you run out of copies for a class assignment, point the kids to this site (and Project Gutenberg) because they have web-based versions, too.

"Oprah ends book club. According to Publishers Weekly: "Today Oprah Winfrey announced on her program that she is ending Oprah's Book Club as it currently exists." (Sorry - only news so far is in email, no direct link to story yet.)In other news, American publishing collapses...." [MetaFilter]

I don't see anything on Oprah's site or PW about this. Can anyone confirm it?

Addendum: According to CNN, Oprah is "cutting back" and "will only promote a book when it gains heartfelt recommendation." So no monthly book club, but still the occasional book discussion.

"A 'Task Force to Develop a Model Policy on Privacy for Library Provided Digital Services' at the University of California recently completed their work, and some of the materials they developed look to be more generally applicable than just for the UC libraries. For those of you responsible for guarding the privacy of your users (which is just about all of us), you may want to check out the documents at http://www.cdlib.org/libstaff/privacytf/. [Roy, via WEB4LIB]

More proof we just recycle our past. Yes you, too, can have your very own mood rings for the net: imood and MoodStats. I'm sure Kailee will want one for her blog.

"It's a terrific idea in theory but disappoints in real-world tests. It only works with the latest Palm handhelds and the keys are frustratingly small. And it doesn’t solve a vexing problem of all keyboards for handhelds: many programs require switching between stylus and keypad....

Unfolded, the KeyCase is about the size of a laptop keyboard, but the keys are smaller and closer together, particularly in the top two rows of numbers or shortcut keys.

The keyboard’s sensitivity can be adjusted through a Palm program, though this didn’t improve my accuracy. I often launched the Memo program when I meant to hit 'Backspace.' Perhaps smaller hands work better....

The KeyCase’s feel reminded me a lot of the flat, membrane keyboard of my first computer, the Atari 400. In both cases, two-finger typing worked better than using all 10 digits.

The KeyCase seems useful for punching in a quick note or updating a calendar listing, but the coolness of having a cloth keyboard wears off quickly while entering anything longer than a few sentences....

Another bonus is that the fabric repels liquids. I dumped beverages on the keypad (luckily avoiding the Palm) and even tried typing after eating potato chips. It still worked." [MSNBC]

To quote SchoolHouse Rock, DARN!

"Sweden’s Electrolux has introduced a talking washing machine. The 'Washy Talky,' which tells the user how to get the perfect wash, is available in India and can communicate in two languages, English and Hindi....

It is the brain of the machine, the Fuzzy Logic Microcomputer, that senses the weight of the wash load, decides the optimum wash program automatically, the required water level and the wash time etc. There are a host of other features as well, like Delay Start allowing the user to program the wash up to 48 hours in advance and Smart Soak for getting the best out of the detergent action and fabric sensitive wash programs, Electrolux said.

The machine is equipped with a digital load imbalance detection that corrects any problems with unevenly distributed clothes. In addition, 'Washy Talky' is specially designed to absorb sound and keep noise and vibration to a minimum." [MSNBC]

I thought this kind of smart appliance was a stupid idea until I started getting tired of doing laundry. Why isn't it Internet-ready like the Internet LG Turbo Drum washing machine? Then it could download new wash programs, too. I also want a washing machine with a small tank attached into which I can pour the whole bottle of detergent. The "smart" machine would then automatically add the necessary amount of detergent, which I could modify if need be.

Do the 3M and Checkpoint self-checkout systems include voice instructions? They must, although I don't see this feature listed offhand.

Spectacular Planet Show Promised

"The five planets visible to the naked eye will line up in the sky at the end of April.

Astronomers say the rare grouping of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may not be seen again for a century....

The five planets will begin to be visible without a telescope from 20 April." [BBC News Sci/Tech, via Daypop Top 40]

"Vegeta99 writes "An Italian researcher is claiming ground-breaking progress, and has successfully cloned a human, and the mother is now 8 weeks pregnant, according to this article. Now how long until I can buy my own clone?" It's worth noting that the Roman medical associations bioethicists denied Dr. Antinori permission to proceed with these experiments last month. So doing the math, Rome was a little late... If the pregnancy continues without miscarriage, the tyke may share a birthday with Marie Curie." [Slashdot]

Remember where you were when you first heard about this, April 2002.

Moveable Type Flash Interface

"Samuel Wan is experimenting with a Flash front-end for his Moveable Type blog. He's got a bit further than my experiments with Radio Userland - hopefully I can get my project back on track next week." [Flash Blog]

I couldn't get the link to load in my browser, but I'll check again later.

"Predicting how a court will rule is always a dangerous sport, but if the judges' comments are any indication, CIPA's continued existence is as likely as a President Al Gore in 2004.

'We're stuck right in the heart of the First Amendment when we're talking about libraries,' said Third Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edward Becker, who heads the special three-judge panel that a nervous Congress created to hear legal challenges to CIPA.

Whichever way the ruling goes, the case will be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court." [Wired News]

Watch for a decision some time next month.

Can You Stump the Local Librarian?

"Do you think your librarian would know what year the first graphite fly rod was made, and by whom? Or how about details of the first teamster’s strike?

These were among several intricate research questions submitted to Terrebonne Parish librarians last year during the first-ever Stump the Librarian contest, a competition that is not so much concerned with testing trivia as it is challenging a librarian’s knowledge of in-house research tools.

Last year, no parish resident was able to stump the librarians, who even managed to find an answer to this question: How many bricks went into the construction of Fort Livingston on Grand Terre Island?

That would be 973,272 bricks, of course.

The time has come to try again. Parish residents have a week to come up with another challenging question to pose to Terrebonne librarians during the second annual contest, which coincides with National Library Week from April 15 to 20." [Library Stuff]

Do you feel lucky, punk?