Against the Run of the Mill

I am proud to be within a field which is fundamentally changing not simply the way we communicate, but also the very nature of being.

2011-05-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Edward Nanno

IST 649, Human Computer Interaction

Introduction

My initial reason for taking IST 649 was based on feedback that I had received from colleagues that the Professor was expert in this new area called Human Computer Interaction. I was also told that the course would be engaging as it crosses over interdisciplinary areas while focusing on the utilization of technology to our maximum advantage. Some initial cursory research indicated that both of these statements were true and that I would benefit from taking such a course. In fact, in one of my previous jobs at a large custody bank in New York City (The Bank of New York), process design and reengineering were duties assigned to me. While we were able reengineer specific processes for optimal performance, I lacked the tools to apply these to computing system interfaces. I believe if I had taken this course, my understanding of how to measure performance within the system would have been invaluable. But I digress.

Learnings

Upon opening the course textbook, I was immediately captivated by the story about the NYSE computing upgrades. I was immediately hooked as I could relate to the topic. HCI is focused upon goal orientated, real world contextual solutions. Within this framework creating fundamental matrices, which help guide the development of effective HCI within an organization, is essential. TSSL and ‘Fit’ are two methodologies created to assist the creator of an HCI throughout the life-cycle process.

The TSSL model is an important aspect of the process map. As it breaks down the system into the task, semantic, syntactic and lexical levels, an ontology appears. This is usually a combination of the system designer and the programmer. The relationship because these two parties is unknowable but if the interface is a good one, then the designer and programmer must be using some, if not all, of these principles.

The ‘Fit’ model seems to acknowledge that humans (surprisingly) use computers. This human element seems to have been overlooked in many of the legacy designs that companies created in the past. This oversight has led to many physical problems. Why else is ergonomics necessary? In motion studies done in the industrial age, observations about the movement of workers led to improvements in how the work was done. These improvements led to greater efficiency, a main goal in any organization.

These two models gave me some fundamental tools to work with when creating my first web page (assignment one). Having worked on computers since the early 1980’s in high school, many of these design and format issues never crossed my mind. In fact, in the early evolution of computer software, the human component seems to have been an afterthought. Clearly, such semantical pointers such as a printer icon were not feasible early on, yet one was not really engaged with the system and have a feeling of control over the software as we are now. So as I went about my task of creating the web page, I felt control over the process. I could choose the colors, the amount of scrolling required, and add tabs that I wanted to lead the user to different information. I felt, for the first time, an amount of control over a system, one which I had never experienced before. Not only did I have control, but I knew my decisions were based on actual research so these were sound decisions. This was a great feeling since most people feel powerless in the face of technology.

The second assignment of evaluating two websites using HCI concepts build upon my initial satisfaction. After having creating my own page, I could now look with an educated eye at other designs and formats. What I found is that while there are some websites which seem to cater to the potential user (I chose Aljazeera news), there are a plethora which seem to have never thought about HCI considerations at all! In my analysis of Zynga’s website and their popular social networking game, Mafia Wars, I was shocked to see 19 different colors on the landing page with no obvious ‘correct’ next move.

The third assignment was profound in that Morae gives an objective and subjective analysis of the usability of a web site. Having a tool which records mouse movement, time between click, position of the pointer on the page and time spent on task really objectifies the analysis. It is not debatable whether a person clicked on the wrong link or took twice as long on task as another participant. This gave me a sense that real ‘hard’ science was happening in my evaluation. I wasn’t just saying ‘so and so’ didn’t interact well with the site, I actually had data to confirm the operation. The subjective, video profile, could add some confirmation but really is an ancillary aspect of the system since it really needs interpretation of a frown or puzzled look.

The group project was very successful in that we all came together on task with varying views on how to proceed. It was quite easy to design and create the first ‘bad example’. It was a little harder to create the second ‘bad example’ as we chose a design format similar to the final ‘good example’. Making the decisions as to why this drop down box should go here rather than there, we focused on the TSSL model and on our view of Aesthetics and Fit. This is where the group conversation and interaction became quite interesting. While there are certain ‘fixed’ principles guiding our decisions, often the subjective aesthetic decisions were the most controversial. It didn’t really surprise me, being a philosopher, since Ethics and Aesthetics are the most uncertain topics in philosophy. So discussing ‘how the user should interact’ and ‘what is the best method for obtaining that interaction’ made me conclude that we were, indeed, on the right track.

Turning to the class discussions, these were engaging and clearly handled by an expert. What I found most riveting was the compelling nature of the presentation. Prof. Zhang didn’t just go over the textbook, but actually expanded upon the topics. This led me to believe that her work was ongoing and made me look at some of her recent publications. We were given the framework laid out within the text, but she made the field come alive in the lectures. The additional information given in class, crossing various disciplines, yet ultimately unified in this science known as HCI was truly a pleasurable experience.

Within the class presentations, I learned quite a bit about emerging technologies and how these are affected by HCI. Some of the presentations made it clear that this new field, HCI, is about to burst open with a flood of new ideas. Taking the evoMouse presentation for example, it was clear that the genesis of the project was to make a more ‘human friendly’ mouse interaction. All computer users to some degree, suffer from hand strain from using a mouse. This solution seems to bypasses the damage caused from mouse overuse (carpal tunnel syndrome). In fact, some of my classmates suffer from this condition so the appropriateness of looking at this field was very real.

Objectives

Since I had no prior experience, to my knowledge, of Human Computer Interaction, I had no learning objectives to meet. I am interested in knowledge and how that knowledge can be applied to real world situations. While the coursework helped learn the foundations of this science, the application of the concepts in the individual and group work cemented this knowledge firmly.

The moment that the theory and practice came together for me the first time, was within the computer lab testing exercise. I realized at that point, that the theoretical framework which we were learning at the time, can be applied in some very valuable ways. The use of distracting devices while trying to perform a task led me to an appreciation of why people spend so much time on the internet. While we don’t usually just sit down in front of our computers and say, I want to spend some time reading up on the news, we tacitly think this within our brains. However, the creators of internet content do not want us to efficiently perform the tasks that we intend to perform. They want us ultimately to reach our task goal, but only after giving themselves many chances to generate revenue from our engaging their site(s). Karl Marx said it the best, economics is the simple most important determining factor in history. So our goals and the content provider’s goals are only marginally synchronized. They want us to find the information, but like the rat in the maze, the cheese is only obtained after working through a plethora of possible channels. For some reason, this thought had never occurred to me and thinking of myself as a lab rat chasing cheese, was somewhat distasteful.

So, ultimately, while my main goal in taking any University class is to learn something about the subject, often these learnings are serendipitous.

Final Thoughts

The main take-away from this course is the integral importance of HCI considerations in computer interface and back-end design. This could be summed up by an HCI term, usability. Improving users’ task performance and reduce their effort can be partially accomplished by automating user activity. Striving for a ‘Fit’ between the information represented needed and presented can be achieved through a ‘cognitive fit’. That is, the designer’s conceptual model, the user’s mental model and the actual system display support the efficiency of the system. Providing and constraining affordances help to capture real world knowledge. It is the proper use of affordances which draws the user’s attention to performing one action while de-empasizing other possible actions. The principle, design for error, acknowledges that errors will occur. The designer, while trying to avoid having the user make an error, should create an indicator that tells the user an error has been made. Designing the system for an enjoyable and satisfying interaction is a lofty goal, but is paramount in terms of usability. After all, if the system is not satisfactory, it will go unused.

Often times, computing systems are an amalgamated combination of legacy systems forced to interact with modern software. Making these legacy systems interoperable is one thing (like when one bank buys another and they are running on different platforms). How the user interacts with these various systems is left to corporate trainers. However, there is now a step added within the process of computing, training, using and performing. This is a step where an IT professional, utilizing the principles of HCI, can reengineer process design with the user in mind. This will lead to greater efficiency, greater morale and ultimately, greater profits for the corporation.

There is however, a deeper philosophical concept at play here. It is not simply noble to maximize efficiency, morale and profits but to also utilize technology to our maximum advantage as human beings. In an essay published in 1954 as “The Question Concerning Technology”, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger questions the very ontology of technology, that is, what is its purpose. He proposes that technology at its very ‘essence’ is related to the ancient Greek concept of ‘physis’, a concept meaning to ‘bring forth’. He maintains that there is a teleology inherent in technology and our goal as humans is to bring forth into being, that world which nature has unfolded. Kevin Kelly, in his latest book, What Technology Wants, pushes this concept further and states this is what technology desires.

“In 1949, John von Newmann, the brainy genius behind the first useful computer, realized what computers were teaching us about technology: ‘Technology will in the near and in the farther future increasingly turn from problems of intensity, substance, and energy, to problems of structure, organization, information, and control.’ No longer a noun, technology was becoming a force – a vital spirit that throws us forward or pushes us against us. Not a thing but a verb.” (Kelly 2010, p.41).

I am proud to be within a field which is fundamentally changing not simply the way we communicate, but also the very nature of being.

References

Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology, and other essays. Harper Torchbooks.

Kelly, K. (2010). What technology wants. Viking Adult.

Te'eni, D., Carey, J. M., & Zhang, P. (2006). Human-computer interaction: Developing effective organizational information systems (1st ed.

The Annoyed Librarian?

2011-02-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

In another Syracuse course within the library curriculum, our Professor noted an 'infamous' blog dealing with librarianship.

I have decided to post my thoughts on "The Annoyed Librarian".

http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/2011/02/14/libraries-for-people-who-dont-need-libraries/

This most recent post deals with how to capture the interest of those who are not using libraries. A nice summary statement for the blog entry states:

"Even with childhood literacy, libraries aren’t necessary for a lot of people. Children’s books are cheap, and middle class people concerned with their children’s education often buy lots of them and read to their children themselves. They don’t need public libraries, and the ones who aren’t concerned with their children’s education don’t want libraries."

This is an important point. While the price of 'books' has declined, it is not only the well-heeled who find no use for borrowing from libraries, but now the 'middle class'.

My contention is that this author is missing the point. Libraries are not concerned with social stratification, nor have they ever been. In fact, it is the impoverished who NEED access to information in our society. The initial mandate created by Carnegie when founding the library system was to reach out to those most in need, not the other way around.

Additionally, those who campaign around the non-utility of libraries have little at stake in the equation. This is sad, if not reprehensible, within our communities. Libraries exist to serve the 'public good', regardless of the social standing of the patrons.

I continue to be amazed at the indifference our communities hold towards those who have real and daily needs.

Information scenario game for the Egyptian situation

2011-01-31T15:19:00.000-08:00

In our Information Science class today, we played an information scenario game for the Egyptian situation. In our outcome, the Mubarek government steps down, leaves the country and interim rule by ElBaradei is established. Elections to be held at a future date. My team, representing the U.S. interests via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggested to Mubarek that this was not the preferred outcome.

There were 9 parties; 3 information outlets (twitter, vodaphone, aljerrza), 3 potential governments ( Mubarek, ElBaradei, radical Islamists), 3 voices (Egyptian army, Egyptian young radical movement, US). We were given 10 pages of information sources constituting hundreds of tweets, news articles, photos, etc. from across the internet.

Comments

Jeff March: If the leadership of the country falls into the hands of the muslim brotherhood, then that's bad news for everybody.

Jeff Nason: I agree that Muslim Bro is NOT our friend, but what is the preferred outcome your team argued for?

Ed: Jeff Nason, we talked about 30 yr alliance with Egypt, all Egyptian military is outfitted with US weaponry, and most of all $1.5B in aid yearly to a country with $166B GDP. In our mind, while revolution may be preferred, we would rather deal with the devil we already know. As Jeff March notes, a vacuum potentially filled with a radical extremist group such as the Muslim Brotherhood, is not in the US interests. Maybe the Nobel Prize winner ElBaradei is the answer, but remember, we were assigned the role of Clinton.

Using social media to promote libraries.

2011-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

If there is a catch phrase for our latest decade, it is social media. While we are all familiar with this media and its various forms, the utilization of technology to create interest and mobilize folks is gaining momentum.

The first eye-opener was the election of President Obama. During the Presidential campaign, "Hillary Clinton's camp had about 20,000 volunteers at work in Texas. But in an e-mail, ["Internet impresario"] Trippi learned that 104,000 Texans had joined Obama's social-networking site, www.my.barackobama.com, known as MyBO. MyBO and the main Obama site had already logged their share of achievements, particularly in helping rake in cash. The month before, the freshman senator from Illinois had set a record in American politics by garnering $55 million in donations in a single month. In Texas, MyBO also gave the Obama team the instant capacity to wage fully networked campaign warfare. After seeing the volunteer numbers, Trippi says, "I remember saying, 'Game, match--it's over.'" http://www.technologyreview.com/web/21222/?a=f

The second eye-opener was the price assigned to social networks by Wall Street. Depending on your source, these estimates are staggering; Facebook ($80 Billion), Zynga ($5 Billion), and LinkedIn ($2 Billion) just to name a few. This implies that there is "capital" intrinsic to social networks.

The final eye-opener was this weeks riots in Egypt which promoted the government to shut down access to the Internet and email. This implies that there is "power" intrinsic in online communications, especially in the dissemination of information.

So, when perusing the blogs which I am subscribed to, I was taken aback when reading this very skeptical post regarding mobilization of communities to promote libraries using social media.

Mr Tay writes, "I think he has a point, does 15,000 fans of "save library X" fanpage really help if most just click "like" and forget about it? Does that sway the powers that be? More to the point, in this day and age, does having 15,000 fans of "Save a library" with no other action really make sufficient news for traditional mass media to take notice and help to spread the word out? I don't know. In recent months, I have noticed however a couple of campaigns that seem to have resulted in actions that go beyond the purely online realm." http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2011/01/4-successful-social-media-campaigns-for.html

Social media was instrumental in the election of Barack Obama, it is very valuable as a consumed item and it is clearly feared by those who govern by fiat. In conclusion, when harnessed correctly, social media is precisely the avenue which should be chosen by libraries to plead their case. As a phenomenon, it is clearly the newest incarnation of the old adage, "the pen is mightier than the sword".

DREAM ACT Resolution-ALA MW 2011

2011-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

Background detail

http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=3377

WHEREAS, The American Library Association (ALA) strongly support the protection of each person’s civil liberties, regardless of that individual’s nationality, residency, or status; and that ALA opposes any legislation that infringes on the rights of anyone in the USA or its territories, citizens or otherwise, to use library resources, programs, and services on national, state, and local levels (ALA Policy 52.4.5); and...

My Commentary

I am currently taking a course "New Directions in Public Librarianship". I will be blogging throughout the term on issues "that impact the functioning of the public library".

Our society provides services to those members of our communities who have little access to these services outside of the community. The proper functioning of a community must involve those with no access to basic services without reference to citizenship or otherwise. Indeed, the library provides services to those who are impoverished and susceptible to alienation. This proposal, which was recently resolved at the ALA midwinter meeting, is a strong step forward in providing direction for public policy going forward.

Many of the benefits of our public libraries are instantly noticeable. These include literacy, community, access to technology, reference, and the means to research issues such as citizenship and residency. It is shameful that any person or body would decide to restrict access to these basic needs within our society!

The founding of the public library system was the result of the vision, faith, and philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie. His vision was simple, to offer "surplus wealth ... [to the] industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others and the extension of their opportunities at the hands of the philanthropic rich" (Carnegie, 1889, p. 686). The decision of Carnegie and others to share their "surplus wealth" with those who are not burdened by such issues, was and should be at the forefront of our public library system.

References:
Andrew Carnegie, "The Best Fields for Philanthropy", The North American Review, Volume 149, Issue 397, December, 1889.

Frank Turner- “Libraries have changed more in the last 15 years than they have in the last five centuries.”

2010-12-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

Libraries as "glorified study halls"?

Steward of the Once and Future Book
November/December 2010
by Bruce Fellman

How does it feel to become University Librarian at Yale when all around you are predicting the end of the book as we know it? Intellectual historian Frank M. Turner '71PhD, who became interim University Librarian in January, has now formally assumed the leadership of Yale's vast library system—just as the apocalypse of the printed book is being discussed by his counterparts around the country. There are dark suggestions in journals and at conferences, he says, that "in less than 25 years, libraries will be glorified study halls," each with "one vast computer furnishing electronic materials."

But he's not worried: "The book won't disappear, and, in fact, our circulation remains high." Turner—the John Hay Whitney Professor of History, a former Yale provost, and since 2003 the head of the Beinecke (a post he'll keep until his replacement is hired)—readily acknowledges the reach of the digital revolution. "Libraries have changed more in the last 15 years than they have in the last five centuries," he says. Yale's library system "contains exemplars of everything: from the Beinecke, with its enormous breadth and depth of traditional print materials, to the medical library, which, except for its historical component, is virtually all electronic."

The rise of such virtual collections, along with digital devices and high-speed wireless Internet access, is changing a fundamental aspect of the library. "We've always thought of the library as the heart of the university, as a distinct place," Turner says. But librarians need a new perspective on the Sterling system. By enabling researchers to invent their own fresh ways of using the collections, "the library of the future will have to go into the heart of the user."

Nature study talking about the use of digitized books to uncover language clues

2010-12-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

Cultural goldmine lurks in digitized books

'Culturomics' uncovers fame, fortune and censorship from more than a century of words.

Philip Ball

Analysing decades of books can reveal important cultural trends.FRANCK CAMHI / Alamy

The digitization of books by Google Books has sparked controversy over issues of copyright and book sales, but for linguists and cultural historians this vast project could offer an unprecedented treasure trove. In a paper published today in Science¹, researchers at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Google Books team in Mountain View, California, herald a new discipline called culturomics, which sifts through this literary bounty for insights into trends in what cultures can and will talk about through the written word.

Among the findings described by the collaboration, led by Jean-Baptiste Michel, a Harvard biologist, are the size of the English language (around a million words in 2000), the typical 'fame trajectories' of well-known people, and the literary signatures of censorship such as that imposed by Germany's Nazi government.
"The possibilities with such a new database, and the ability to analyse it in real time, are really exciting," says linguist Sheila Embleton of York University in Toronto, Canada.
"Quantitative analysis of this kind can reveal patterns of language usage and of the salience of a subject matter to a degree that would be impossible by other means," agrees historian Patricia Hudson of Cardiff University, UK.
"The really great aspect of all this is using huge databases, but they will have to be used in careful ways, especially considering alternative explanations and teasing out the differences in alternatives from the database," adds Royal Skousen, a linguist at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. "I do not like the term 'culturomics'," he adds. "It smacks too much of 'freakonomics', and both terms smack of amateur sociology."

Half a trillion words

Using statistical and computational techniques to analyse vast quantities of data in historical and linguistic research is nothing new — the fields known as quantitative history and quantitative linguistics already do this. But it is the sheer volume of the database created by Google Books that sets the new work apart.

So far, Google has digitized more than 15 million books, representing about 12% of all those ever published in all languages. Michel and his colleagues performed their analyses on just a third of this sample, selected for the good quality of the optical character recognition in the digitization and the reliability of information about a book's provenance, such as the date and place of publication.

The resulting data set contained over 500 billion words. This is far more than any single person could read: a fast reader would, without breaks for food and sleep, need 80 years to finish the books for the year 2000 alone.
Not all isolated strings of characters in texts are real words. Some are numbers, abbreviations or typos. In fact, 51% of the character strings in 1900, and 31% in 2000, were 'non-words'. "I really have trouble believing that," admits Embleton. "If it's true, it would really shake some of my foundational thoughts about English."
According to this account, the English language has grown by more than 70% during the past 50 years, and around 8,500 new words are being added each year. Moreover, only about half of the words currently in use are apparently documented in standard dictionaries. "That high amount of lexical 'dark matter' is also very hard to believe, and would also shake some foundations," says Embleton. "I'd love to see the data."

In principle she already can, because the researchers have made their database public at http://www.culturomics.org/. This will allow others to explore the huge number of potential questions it suggests, not just about word use but about cultural history. Michel and colleagues offer two such examples, concerned with fame and censorship.

They say that actors reach their peak of fame, as recorded in references to names, around the age of 30, while writers take a decade longer but achieve a higher peak. "Science is a poor route to fame," they add. Physicists and biologists who achieve fame do so only late in life, and "even at their peak, mathematicians tend not to be appreciated by the public".

Big Brother's fingerprints

Nation-specific subsets of the data can show how references to ideas, events or people can drop out of sight because of state suppression. For example, the Jewish artist Marc Chagall virtually disappears from German writings in 1936-1944 (while remaining prominent in English-language books), and 'Trotsky' and 'Tiananmen Square' similarly vanish at certain sensitive points in time from Russian and Chinese works respectively. The authors also look at trends in references to feminism, God, diet and evolution.
"The ability, via modern technology, to look at just so much at once really opens horizons," says Embleton. However, Hudson cautions that making effective use of such a resource will require skill and judgement, not just number-crunching.
"How this quantitative evidence is generated and how it is interpreted are the most important factors in forming conclusions," she says. "Quantitative evidence of this kind must always address suitably framed general questions, and employed alongside qualitative evidence and reasoning, or it will not be worth a great deal."

References
1. Michel, J.-B. et al. Science advance online publication. doi:10.1126/science.1199644 (2010).

Okay, since class is now officially over, our Professor has requested a final blog ruminating about the semester.

2010-12-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

This semester, I was strangely pleased to note how collaborative the efforts are here within the School of Information Science. I have been used to vehemently defending a point and being graded on my position and the articulation of its defense. Not here. More to follow.

The use of free-text vs controlled vocabularies in searching.

2010-12-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

Landscape Analysis:

In what is described as a period from the mid-sixties until the mid-seventies, “the findings of various experiments in the testing and evaluating of indexing languages … have demonstrated again and again the strength of the natural language, with minimal or no control, as optimally the best indexing language” (Dubois, 63). However, as these studies were examined more closely, it was determined that they were done on special collections and thus could not be applied to large data sets. In the 1980’s, it was determined that the “ideal search capacity should always be both free text and controlled vocabulary” (Dubois, 64).

However, as data and the subsequent databases which housed them grew larger, the process of retrieving information of valuable became more difficult. One issue is that over time, language changes, specifically within scientific areas. The need to formalize a set of controlled vocabularies to assist in the search became increasingly apparent. Through many different studies of databases within different areas of research, tests were done to try and solve the issue of controlled vocabularies vs. free text. These studies employed a variety of methods to search these databases for specific information.

Definitions:

The purpose of a controlled vocabulary is “[t]o ensure as far as possible the consistent representation of the subject matter of documents both in input to and output from the system and [t]o facilitate the conduct of searches in the system especially by bringing together in some way the terms that are most closely related semantically” (Dubois, 64). The purpose of a free-text vocabulary is to allow the user to determine which subjects and terms she would like to search for within the database. The user has control of the search by creating the terminology used within the search. However, the traditional library techniques used for searching within digital databases have been stretched by the sheer size of the data. This is why information science is investigating the utility of ontologies in the drive to design better searching capabilities. “Ontology is a complex multi-disciplinary field that draws upon the knowledge of information organization, natural language processing, information extraction, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation and acquisition” (Ding and Foo, 123).

Two case studies: PsycINFO and genomic information retrieval:

In the case of PsycINFO, an analysis of a database where records were processed more than once. An analysis of the findings included a range of variables at fault. The conclusion was that the methodology of using a controlled vocabulary improved the consistency of the research enormously: uncontrolled vocabulary 27.05% vs controlled vocabulary 44.32% (Leininger, 4).

In the case of the genomic retrieval study, the strategy of “query expansion” was deployed. This strategy of “[q]uery expansion is commonly used to assist consumers in health information seeking by addressing the issue of vocabulary mismatch between lay persons and professionals” (Mu and Lu, 205). In short, a query system was utilized and the researchers concluded, “[t]he results indicate that string index expansion techniques result in better performance than work index expansion techniques and the difference is statistically significant” (Mu and Lu, 205).

Solution:

We should use co-word analysis to increase useful information retrieval and partially nullify the time (as in differences between decades) issue. “However, gaining access to such information is often difficult, as a result of inconsistency involved in the processing of information and the way in which queries are expressed by searchers” (Ding, Chowdhury, and Foo, 429).

In Ding, Chowdhury, and Foo (429), they point to research that indicates that users like to choose a wide variety of terms in the works and that these terms are used infrequently. This leads them to the conclusion that “[i]f inappropriate, incorrect or an an insufficient variety of words are used to form the queries or index the records in the system, the users may not be able to find the objects they desire” (Ding, Chowdhury, and Foo, 430). . Therefore, in using co-word analyses, we need to define and number the terms utilized so that we crate sufficiently usable outputs.

In another study, an ontology was developed using algorithms and statistics. The major drawback of this approach was that only taxonomic relations were learned. “Detecting the non-taxonomic conceptual relationships, for example, the ‘has Part’ relations between concepts, is becoming critical for building good-quality ontologies” (Ding and Foo, 128). Therefore, if we want robust ontologies, we will need to monitor the inputs to adequately perform the relational querying.

Finally, we need to employ string index expansion techniques. It has been shown in the referenced study that they work better and the outcomes are statistically significant.

Conclusion:

“Co-word analysis can play an important role in assisting Traditional Thesauri to provide more search varieties to the end users. However, it is acknowledged that co-word analysis cannot supply semantic relations between words” (Ding, Chowdhury, and Foo, 433). “Ontology promotes standardization and reusability of information representation through identifying common and shared knowledge. Ontology adds value to traditional thesauri through deeper semantics in digital objects, conceptually, relationally, and through machine understandability” (Ding and Foo, 132).

Additionally, ontologies are being touted as a way to utilize an emergent technology to solve the problems inherent in information management. In particular, ontologies are an integral part to the formation of the semantic web. What is the semantic web? “The term ‘Semantic Web’ was coined … to describe [a] vision of the next generation web that provides services that are much more automated based on machine-processable semantics of data and heuristics” (Ding and Foo, 124). Many studies were carried out in the development of an ontology. One main drawback was that “[t]he automatically constructed ontology can be too prolific and deficient at the same time” (Ding and Foo, 127). Therefore, the human component to the development of these ontologies was found to be necessary to either broaden or reign in the scope.

It seems that the utilization of these three tactics, string index expansion, ontologies and co-word analyses combined with an overall strategy of utilizing controlled vocabularies will be the most effective methodology of dealing with the avalanche of data that is being collected today. If the querying systems continue to be refined and overseen by human participants, they ontologies can continue to grow more robust making the semantic web more valuable to researchers.

On a final note, I am concerned about the emergence of artificial intelligence that will dictate the searchable terminology to the humans. I am also very concerned about the inherent compression of the English language that is an inevitable outcome of creating metadata “standardization” of terminology that can be searched. In fairness, technology should be able to help with the aid of human cognition, not the other way around. I also do realize that in order to find the data we are looking for, we must creating a standard to search with. However, when this is applied to research, only a few will determine what “catchwords” will be acceptable. This is truly frightening.

References

Dextre Clarke, S. G. (2008). The last 50 years of knowledge organization: A journey through my personal archives Journal of Information Science, 34(4), 427 <last_page> 437.

Ding, Y., Chowdhury, G. G., & Foo, S. (2000). Incorporating the results of co-word analyses to increase search variety for information retrieval Journal of Information Science, 26(6), 429 <last_page> 451.

Ding, Y., & Foo, S. (2002). Ontology research and development. part 1 - a review of ontology generation Journal of Information Science, 28(2), 123 <last_page> 136.

Dubois, C. P. R. (1984). The use of thesauri in online retrieval Journal of Information Science, 8(2), 63 <last_page> 66.

Leininger, K. (2000). Interindexer consistency in PsycINFO Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 32(1), 4 <last_page> 8.

Mu, X., & Lu, K. (2010). Towards effective genomic information retrieval: The impact of query complexity and expansion strategies Journal of Information Science, 36(2), 194-208. doi:10.1177/0165551509357856

Rowley, J. (1994). The controlled versus natural indexing languages debate revisited: A perspective on information retrieval practice and research Journal of Information Science, 20(2), 108 <last_page> 118.

Library funding increasingly going to online database subscriptions.

2010-11-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

We have spent many hours listening to various librarians (public, school, college and university) talk about an increasing amount of the yearly budget going to pay for online database subcriptions to journals. One new study by Scientific American has shown that requiring a subscription to a journal does NOT increase article citation. That was a shocker and here is the study.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=open-and-shut-case-do-open-access

The relevant bit of the study is here: "Nor is Davis convinced that OA benefits are as significant as some of the recent research has claimed. Davis headed two previous studies, the most recent of which was a randomized control trial for OA research. In 11 different physiology journals Davis's group randomly allocated research articles to be published OA or not, and tracked their usage and citations. The results, published in 2008 in the British Medical Journal, found that although OA articles were downloaded more frequently they were not cited significantly more than non-OA articles."

In Memoriam: Frank Turner

2010-11-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

In Memoriam: Frank Turner

I did wonder why Mr. Turner would not accept my request for an interview. This is truly shocking.

2010-11-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

Librarian Frank Turner dies suddenly

Posted by Mark Alden Branch '86 on November 11, 2010, 3:12 pm

Frank Turner ’71PhD. ©Julie Brown

Frank M. Turner ’71PhD, a long-serving Yale professor and administrator who just two months ago was appointed University Librarian, died suddenly this morning, according to an e-mail from President Richard Levin ’74PhD. He was 66.
Turner was the John Hay Whitney Professor of History and an esteemed scholar of European intellectual history. He was provost of the university from 1988 to 1992, and he had been director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library since 2003. He is survived by his wife, the Reverend Ellen Louise Tillotson.

Extrinsic v. Intrinsic Value

2010-11-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Our 511 class had a really heated discussion over the instrinsic value of a book, which then moved into the realm of GOLD. What I realized within the discussion is that commodities (like gold) do have an intrinsic value that can be estimated by looking at both tangible and intangible factors (see definition below). I am, however, not sure about the intrinsic value of a book. Prof. Lankes was adamant that the book ONLY had value that we attributed to it, there was no intrinsic value whatsoever. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

What Does Intrinsic Value Mean?The actual value of a company or an asset based on an underlying perception of its true value including all aspects of the business, in terms of both tangible and intangible factors. This value may or may not be the same as the current market value. Value investors use a variety of analytical techniques in order to estimate the intrinsic value of securities in hopes of finding investments where the true value of the investment exceeds its current market value.

What Does Extrinsic Value Mean?
The difference between an option's price and the intrinsic value.

Investopedia explains Extrinsic ValueFor example, an option that has a premium price of $10 and an intrinsic value of $5 would have an extrinsic value of $5. Denoting the amount by which the option's price is greater than the intrinsic value, the extrinsic value of the option declines as its expiration date draws closer.

References

Extrinsic value definition Retrieved 11/5/2010, 2010, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/extrinsicvalue.asp

Intrinsic value definition Retrieved 11/5/2010, 2010, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/intrinsicvalue.asp

Library tours

2010-11-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

So, last week we went on an 'in-depth' tour of the Bird library. I was quite interested in knowing more about the man the library was named after, Ernest Bird, but frankly could not find out much about him except that he graduated from Syracuse in 1916. I did find out that this library has 2.3M volumes, not too shabby compared to my 3,000.

We saw many of the services that are performed from book preservation to book wrapping (to care for older books). The most fascinating aspect of the tour was seeing some of the old collections. A book which came from Queen Elizabeth's private library, early stone tablets (no, not the original Ten Commandments), and a very unique diary with notes from the holocaust.

The tour was very interesting, especially seeing how much work goes in to preserving the collection. It made me think about digital libraries and how the future of the printed book is coming to an end. [sigh].

Question of the week: What sorts of classes do you take to become a librarian? (with thanks to Dan)

2010-10-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here at Syracuse, we take core classes and electives in the MSLIS program (Master of Science, Library and Information Studies). The core fall classes are Intro. to the Library and Information Profession, Information and Information Environments, Information Resources:Users and Services, Information Resources:Organization and Access. Additionally, Management Principles for Information Professionals is required but offered both terms (I am taking this in the fall term). I am also part of the Black and Latino Leadership program, this is an uncredited elective class.

In the spring, I will take 2 classes dealing with Telecommunications and Information Policy and Information Resources: Acquisitions. My two electives will be, Creating.Managing.Preserving Digital Assets, Database Administration Concepts and Database Management.

We also have electives which up to 6 credits can be taken in any School at Syracuse. I have chosen to transfer my 6 credits from the MBA progran ( Strategic Management and Managerial Economics).

My final 5 credits will be an internship (hopefully back at Yale) and a 2 credit independent study.

All of these classes have been discussed with my advisor, Prof Lankes, who also happens to be the Director of the Libary and Information Studies Program.

2010-10-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

So, I have been getting a lot of questions about the mission here at the iSchool. One buzzword that is heard consistently in many of my interactions is innovation. I would have to say that Dave Lankes (our instructor who wanted us to create this blog) is an innovator. He spent the first four classes in full deconstruction mode, but then he continued the educational process by beginning to construct what a vision of a librarian might be.

In our latest class, he brought in a guest speaker, Joseph Janes, from the iSchool at the University of Washington. UW is a main competitor for students studying Information Science so I thought the discussion would be thought provoking. It was. We heard a lot about "play" in the discussion which immediately brought me back to Derrida's notion of "jouissance". Ideas should be played with, tossed around and used to stimulate discusssion. This is at the very heart of innovation. Then Prof. Janes told the class that he and Lankes had been separated at birth! That explained a lot as to why they were saying very similar things. Then we find out that they both graduated from Syracuse. Even better, because now I am sure that Syracuse University is the right place to be. It is truly an innovation hub.

One final note, as Camus said in The Fall, "We are all in the soup together"

Question of the week: tell me, why are librarians so technologically oriented these days? what do blogs have to do with that? why do you need to build websites? I have so many questions...

2010-10-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

At the Syracuse iSchool (School of Information Studies), there are three majors: library and information science, information management and telecommunications and network management. Librarians are concerned with the access, retrieval and storage of information. So I am taking classes in digital libraries, database management, open access systems, etc so that I can understand the architecture that we all use. The notion of a librarian standing behind a desk checking out books for you is kind of an idealized notion that really does not correspond to a modern librarian's job.

Interview with Mr. Kendall Crilly: Associate University Librarian, Program Development and Research, Yale University.

2010-09-28T10:36:00.001-07:00

This was a 35 minute interview; I have edited portions for clarity.

What led you to pursue a profession in an academic library and how did you enter the Yale University library system?

Well, as an undergraduate, I never used the library system. In 1985, when I started a Master’s degree in the Yale School of Music, I worked on a project inventorying 150 musical scores. That summer I continued working in the Sterling Library on a project inventorying the old card catalogues. In the spring of 1986, I was taking a class with Harold Samuel called, “Research in Additions” taught at the School of Music. This professor was exciting, leading me to rethink my future career as an organist. So, I took a year off from my studies and worked in the Sterling Library, mostly in clerical functions. I began a MS.LIS. Degree at Southern Connecticut State University, taking courses at night. In 1988, I began working full-time in the Sterling Library at the Circulations Desk.

What are your core responsibilities and how many support staff report to you?

I have direct line reports of 8, with a total of 69 staff. The lines which report directly to me are 1) Access Services, 2) Document Delivery with is an inter-Ivy League direct borrowing program, 3) Half of the technology unit, 4) Director of Research Education, 5) Usability and Assessment, 6) Historical Sound Archives, 7) Oral History of American Music, and 8) Broader circulation and access for other libraries, such as Bass Library (undergraduate library).

Here is the University Library Org Chart:

www.library.yale.edu/lhr/aboutus/orgchart1.doc

President Levin stated "When we did our first-phase renovations of the Payne Whitney Gym and Sterling Library more than a decade ago, it was very important to me [laughs] that the budget for the library be just a little more than the budget for the gym! And today, the library budget remains more than double that of the athletics department." (Lassila, K. D. (2010). q&a: rick levin. Yale Alumni Magazine 74(1), 29.). How do President's Levin's recent comments support the strategic goal of Yale's libraries?

President Levin’s statement confirms that our Libraries are held in high esteem. Our University Librarian, Frank Turner, defines our mission as to be “the #1 service institution to support the teaching and research mission of Yale University”. This places the Library in an enviable position. A breakdown of the library budget shows 47% comes directly from the University, 45% comes from endowments and historical funding, the remainder, 8% comes from grants and contracts.

What are some of the challenges you face at the Sterling Library?

The Sterling Library is a Gothic structure, built in 1931. Our biggest challenge is to get the students back into the library. We have remodeled the main reading room, moved out all of the card catalogues and opened up some really beautiful spaces within the alcoves and reading rooms in the library. We have fashioned a committee to re-purpose the space so that it will be found attractive to our students.

What do you think is the future of digital libraries?

All of our libraries have electronic databases. We are in the process of digitizing the works housed in the Beinecke Library, which houses our rare collections. We have a committee working on integrating the libraries into the broader community. I’ll give you an example. If was teaching a course on 17^th Century Western music and I wanted a real cool audio-visual presentation, I could go to the Beinecke, take some images of old sheet music, then I could go to the Music Library and get some images of old instruments, and then go to the Sterling databases to find collections of different texts used. However, as you know, the campus is so spread out that this would discourage most Professors from engaging in this exhausting activity. So, we are working on integrating our collections to be accessible from disparate locations within the University Library System.

When assessing candidates to join the library system, what skills, capabilities and core competencies do you look for in an individual?

This is a question that if you asked five of our librarians, you would get six different answers (laughs). For me, I look for someone with an MLS degree, understands the technology and would preferably have a second advanced degree. This person must possess excellent interpersonal communication skills, have upside potential, is intellectually curious, is passionate about a subject and has managerial ambition. For a level 3, 4 or 5 librarian, I would need to see managerial experience and excellent writing skills.

Other than having the second largest academic collection of volumes (~12.5M), what do you like most about being a Yale University librarian?

This is easy, my colleagues. When I started in the library, my colleagues were helpful. When I would call them for help, they would say, “I haven’t met you yet, but how can I help you?” This atmosphere is pervasive throughout our library system. If I may add, I love the buildings, the rarity of the collections (sometimes Beinecke houses the only copy of a particular book in existence!), but the colleagues are what I like the most.

After reflecting upon my experience with Mr. Crilly, I saw three opportunities in the interview, one of them being the problem with "re-purposing" the space in the Gothic cathedral and the second being the "interoperability" issue with the digital libraries. The third opportunity, I left out of the transcript because I hope to use it as a carrot for getting an internship.

The ship has left it's moorings...

2010-09-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

In our latest class, Prof. Lankes left the realm of deconstruction and allowed this mangled piece of library science to begin it's maiden voyage into the ports of actual librarianships. He brought in two librarians working in the public school system who shared their experiences with the class: Sue, a Syracuse alumnus and Buffy, a recognized pioneer in the Georgia school system. The overwhelming theme of both presentations was 'collaborative environments'.

Being so far removed from these educational environments, I was surprised to see just how advanced the library has become. I have attached Buffy's blog link so that folks can get a flavour of the potential each librarian possesses!

http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/feed/

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-09-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Librarians as Problem Solvers

2010-09-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Public libraries were founded to support the information needs of the community, they are funded by tax money and owned by the public. Lankes focused on the role of the library in an expanded definition, librarians as probem solvers. That is, if there was an ecological disaster, librarians could be part of the 'first responder team'. This makes perfect sense.

In arguably the greatest Science Fiction trilogy of all time, Issac Asimov's Foundation, the story starts with a prediction that the Galactic Empire would come to an end. To prevent the destruction of the human race, an Encyclopedia is created to capture the knoweldge needed to re-create the Empire. In a very similar fashion, librarians capture and catalogue existing knowledge that could be used in addressing potential human disasters, including the possible extinction of human knowledge.

2010-09-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Enter Ed Nanno, first year LIS student: The first question I was asked while using one of the iSchool's computer labs was, "Why would anyone want to be a librarian?". I thought that this was an odd question considering the amount of time I had spent discussing this new career path with family, friends, and confidants. So I retorted, "why wouldn't someone choose this as a career?" The answer came back as, "it's so boring, just you and all those books!" So, this made me think about what was in fact, attractive, about being a librarian.

Going back through my past education, I choose philosophy as my undergraduate major. I believe that this was due to my "love of wisdom" (the meaning of the Greek words 'philos' and 'sophia'). As I continued to mull over the reasons, I decided that I needed to admit that I was a bibliophile as well as a lover of architecture. The combination of all those books housed in such beautiful buildings was appealing to me both professionally and aesthetically. This seemed to assuage my feelings of anxiety regarding my newly chosen profession.

Enter Dave Lankes, destroyer of worlds (actually of worldviews, but I rather like the Oppenheimer connection): The first impression is of a man wearing jeans and crocs, cracking jokes. As his lecture ensued, we gathered that he would break all "standardized" conventions regarding teaching, lecturing and directing (being the Director of the program, that is). As he engaged the lecture hall, he jokes, used props (a left behind hair extension), and remembered specifics about the students in the room. Then he lowered the boom. In a discussion about the cultural differences in the philosophy of the library, he recounted a visit to Italy for the opening of a library. Libraries in Italy are built as monuments of culture whereas in the United States, they are buildings which provide open access to professionals.

So, I must say that I love this class. It is helping the librarians of the future to focus, not on the next iteration of the 'private language' MARCS system (classification system within libraries which is not compatible with other programming languages), but rather within their roles of shaping and creating the future that we are obligated to build.

Lankes not being Habermas

2010-09-09T13:24:00.001-07:00

Lankes being Kuhn

2010-09-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

So, we have all been asked to post some thougts about our first class. I must say that I was impressed that the first slide mentioned Thomas Kuhn. My pulse quickened, the signal distorted and I knew immediately that this was going to be a transformative class. Kuhn, being the author of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", was interested in how scientific knowledge progressed. He created a model called "paradigm shifts" which describes how science comes to accept new theories.

I realized that this course was going to be a new direction within our epistemological frameworks. Not only was Prof. Lankes interested in advancing the study of library science, but he was advocating a whole new hermeneutical turn for the semantic structures we had grown accustomed to hearing about regarding librarianship.

Blog Title

2010-09-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

So... this being the first post on the blog, any die-hard RUSH fan out there knows that I have nicked a line from the song Grand Designs to be the title. In fact, I am going to my 21st RUSH concert tonight, the second time I have seen them in Syracuse. The first time was back in high school and it was also my first RUSH show.