Laptops Spread Learning

"Patrons of the Brighton Senior Center call Ray Binkowski a computer nerd.'I learned a lot but it would have been better to have the class in a classroom with a laptop computer,' Binkowski said. 'It's hard to get some seniors to use the computers -- some of them are a little afraid.'

Alleviating that fear of technology is one reason the library applied for a $35,000 state grant to purchase a computer lab in a box.

The portable system includes 10 laptop computers and hardware allowing for wireless access to the Internet. The system can easily be transported to senior centers or local schools.

'We wheel the portable cart into a room, plug it into a data connection, and have 10 laptop computers that are connected to the network without wires,' said Joy Chichewicz, the Brighton electronic services librarian.

'There has always been a big demand for classes but they were hard to hold because we were limited by space. We had to kick people off the computers in the public area. This denies access to the other patrons.'

The 75-year old has earned the name because he is often found hanging out at the senior center's computer center. Binkowski learned about computers from classes offered at the Brighton Library before they got a wireless computer lab." [The Detroit News, thanks to Steven for the link]

My home library wants to do something similar, so I hope they'll pursue a grant in the next round. I still think the potential for a combination of OQO mobile PCs, VKB laser keyboards, and paintable LCD screens could someday hold great promise for libraries. Now that would be a mobile lab!

If they're not already doing it, I hope the Brighton Library considers providing public access to their wireless network.

"MX Executive Presentation is more than just a telling of the expected return-on-investment from MX technologies... it's also a demonstration of the upcoming Flash Communications technology. We're playing this pretty low-key right now, using this presentation in part for load-testing on the servers, but please do take a critical look at it to see the technical problems that are being addressed.

On a related note, I was hunting wristwatches the other day and came across this experimental videoconference wristwatch. It's not in production, but various wristwatch digital cameras are already mass-market items.

I've been trying to think how video communications will change when you can casually broadcast images from your computer's cam. The availability of portable video recorders made everyone a potential reporter, and mass-market TV shows which featured amateur video consequently changed the aesthetics of mainstream video shooting. Low cost and portable digital cameras now let bystanders beam crime-scene details directly to investigators while the trail is hot. There are unintended benefits from making it more economical to connect.

I have a feeling that this Flash Communications technology, when coupled with client-side interactivity and server-side connectivity, and with the prevalence of portable devices, sensors and effectors, may have unintended benefits greater than previous revolutions.

What happens when video changes from a presentation technology, to a communications technology...?" [JD on MX]

An excellent point. If you're hesitant about dipping your foot in the pool of instant messaging, just wait until it includes video.  :-)

Is AOL losing its messaging voice?

"AOL plans to release a corporate version of its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) product, dubbed "Enterprise AIM," by summer. Like Yahoo--one of AOL's chief rivals in the consumer IM market--it will face competitors that have already established beachheads on corporate shores....

Meanwhile, the amount of time people spend chatting on instant messengers at work is ballooning. People in 82 percent of all organizations are using some sort of IM application, with 70 percent of those using AIM, according to a report issued by Osterman Research this year. Microsoft's MSN Messenger is a distant second with 51 percent, and Yahoo Messenger third with 44 percent....

When Enterprise AIM hits the market, it will face scores of competitors, mostly small companies, offering secure instant messaging among an array of other tools. These include e-mail, file transfers, conferences, message broadcasts, and message archiving and security. These last two features are of increasing importance to financial services companies, which are in many cases required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to log all instant messages." [CNET News.com]

Email became popular through the workplace first, then at home. The same thing is happening with instant messaging and adults (kids started out using it at home). As the medium moves into an official form of corporate communication, more and more people will expect to reach library services via this route. Maybe you don't want to use it for asking questions, but there is a definite segment of our audience that already does, and that population is only going to grow.

Also, if you adhere to the principle of privacy of library records, then you need to take security into account when you start investigating IM software. Something to keep in mind....

New Service Allows the Public to Pose Reference Questions Without Visiting the Library

"Starting on Monday [yesterday], members of the public will be able to use the World Wide Web to seek answers to reference questions from librarians around the world, including some at college libraries.

The service, called QuestionPoint, will operate through a Web browser and may make some visits to the library unnecessary. The Library of Congress and the Online Computer Library Center, better known as OCLC, developed it.

A patron will gain access to QuestionPoint through his or her local library's Web site. Questions will be routed to local libraries first. If a user's local library isn't open, the question will be sent to an open library elsewhere -- one that has strengths in disciplines that match the nature of the question. A librarian will pick up the question and help the patron find an answer. QuestionPoint offers a reduced subscription price for any library that agrees to help answer its inquiries....

But some librarians will need more persuasion. Barbara Fister, the librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, was one librarian discussing QuestionPoint on COLLIB. In an interview, she said that QuestionPoint was a product of 'Jeeves envy,' referring to Ask Jeeves, an online search engine. She says librarians and people at OCLC shouldn't try to offer a competitive service, and she predicts that QuestionPoint is going to be 'a major market bomb.'

'It's providing something completely different than what you can get at a reference desk,' she says. "'his sends the message that you can go online and get your reference done and that you don't need a library for that. In a higher-education market, that is so dead wrong. ... I look at the reference desk as a place where teaching happens.' [The Chronicle]

With all due respect to Ms. Fister, this is exactly the kind of "shifted" service that libraries need to be moving towards. How would she feel if banks didn't offer ATMs outside of their physical buildings? Or if Ingram and other suppliers didn't offer online ordering? Or if she couldn't look up an answer in an online database? Those are all services from industries and companies that have shifted their services into their users' worlds to try and reach customers where they are, not where the company thinks they should be. Libraries need to do the same.

Normally I'd be singing the praises at the launch of this system, but I can't because of the name. Why on earth did they pick "QuestionPoint" as the name? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, now does it? While I'm 100% behind the idea, that name has got to go. So on that point, Ms. Fister and I agree that this service isn't going to work. We just disagree about why.

This gives me the chance to finally quote Andrew K. Pace in a completely unrelated post to the WEB4LIB mailing list in response to a thread about Google Answers versus libraries. Keep in mind that Andrew didn't say the following in regards to QuestionPoint, but I think it's a very valid point:

"If people don't know about answers.google, then they most certainly don't know about VRDs...who do you think will ultimately win this marketing race...hmmmm, I wonder, cuz, you know, 'Virtual Reference' is almost as great a branding as 'Google.' Why do we call it 'virtual' anyway? Aren't the questions, the answers and the people on both ends real? What's more, 'ask a librarian' puts the emphasis on the question, not the answer, where it should be. I propose that we change 'Virtual Reference' and 'Ask a Librarian' to simply 'Real Answers.' That's what we're good at, isn't it?"

I hope QuestionPoint is a huge success, but I don't think they'll get the recognition they need to go mainstream unless they change the name, get a better logo, and start marketing in the non-library media (Time, Newsweek, on Yahoo, on Google itself, etc.).