CPD Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike. I have accounts for both Citeulike and Zotero, but unfortunately have not really used them. This article quickly reviews what they do, what differences their are.
For Zotero, I'm looking to use it longer blog post. With Zotero I could look at say 'librarything'. I could utilise video's from youtube, reviews of librarything and even academic approaches to librarything.
I really need to look at this in more detail though. A really good read though.

Could twitter be used to see positive book reviews?

I've previously discussed social cataloguing sites here before. Therefore, I was quite interested on programmable web to see Fflick, a movie review site, which:-

Fflick is a social movie review site, where the reviews come in bite-sized pieces from Twitter. The way its developers combine the reviews with other APIs and visuals shows how an excellent site can be built by bringing in content from elsewhere.

The most impressive piece is how Fflick mines Twitter to find tweets that include mini movie reviews. It looks for the name of a movie (or sometimes a portion of a movie name). From there, it also attempts to determine the positive or negative sentiment, seemingly by looking for specific words in a tweet.Therefore, I was wonering if this could be done for book? Taking API data from Amazon for book covers and Librarything etc for reviews?

Librarything discussing ebooks

I expect this is too late, but Tim Spalding on his Librarything blog has an interesting article entitled Reading alone: How ebooks will kill the smallest libraries. An interesting argument which concludes with these lines:-

But if something is gained, something will definitely be lost. The list of ebook "externalities" is long: the death of physical bookstores, the wounding or death of traditional public libraries, the concentration of retail power in a few hands, surrendering your reading history to corporations, privacy and censorship issues in undemocratic states, leaving your books to your kids, lending books to friends, showing off, subway voyeurism, etc.

Depressing reading.

Foursquare for libraries.....

I had heard some months ago about Foursquare from an old colleague of mine. Wikipedia describes the service as:-

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and game. Users "check-in" at venues using text messaging or a device specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes "badges."

You earn points for finding new places, tagging them and describing them. And if your the first there you can become mayor and win other titles.

Anyway, I like Helene Blowers feel that :-

It's been awhile since I've seen a new social technology emerge on scene that looked like it had that "explosion potential". The last real time for me was Twitter

David King also has an interesting article on the use of Foursquare for libraries. Below are 5 ingenious idea's he has thought up:-

1.Add your library as a place, or edit the entry if someone else has already added it. You can enter your street address (Google map is included, phone number, and your library’s Twitter name.

2.Add tags relevant to the library. For example, I have added the tags library, books, music, movies, and wifi to my library’s Foursquare entry. If you are in the area (Foursquare is a location-based service, so it knows where you are) and search for wifi – guess who’s at the top of the list? Yep – the library.

3.Add Tips and To Do lists. When you check in to a place, you have the option to add tips of things you can do there, and you can create To-Do lists of things you want to do there. For libraries, both are helpful – it’s a way to broadcast your services to Foursquare players. To Do lists are handy, because you can make the list and other players can add those To Do list items to their lists, too. When they do something on those lists, they gain points. Think of it as a fun way to get people doing stuff at your library! Just think – someone could gain points by getting a library card – how cool is that?

4.Add your big events. Then, you can have an event check-in with prizes for the first person who checks in, etc.

5.Shout outs. These are a type of status update, and can be sent to Twitter and Facebook. So do stuff, then shout out that you’ve done them.

I reckon these are pretty great idea's. I think I might just give them a try for my library.

500 not out and the good, the bad and the ugly

On the 2nd of may, 2006 I started this blog. Today is my 500th entry. Not bad going huh?

Anyway, I'm going to look at the good, bad and ugly of my 500 entries. So this is me being self congratulatory.

THE GOOD.

Well, I suppose my favourite or best entry has to be my article comparing shelfari,librarything and gurulib. This piece was a favourite as a lot of people quoted it, Tim Spalding from librarything. That article stil gets me more hits and it was actually enjoyable.

THE BAD

I suppose it really has to be when my brother passed away. There's not a moment goes by I don't miss him.

THE UGLY

I think for all those that have read (sorry, tried to read) this blog, it must be my grammar. Its enough to send all my readers to despair.

Anyhow, thanks readers. Here's to the next 500.

BBC and book piracy

Over on the BBC website, they have an article entitled Are we due a wave of book piracy? Coming as it does with other discussions on the subject, such As Tim Spalding's article and other bloggers comments, its another interesting look at the problems and advantages of e-books.

On our way to the Mash Oop north

After Setting my alarm for the unearthily hour of 4.30am (that time does exist), I finally got my train from Kings Cross (though I did go to Euston by accident first). I'm really looking forward to this mash up, but coffee is mainly on my mind at the moment. The programme looks especially exciting. I am especially looking forward to the lightning talks, specifically though this one:-

2:30pm - Chris Langham

Drawbacks of using stock recommemdations (i.e borrowers who borrowed this item also borrowed these) in an academic library context.

I've always been interested in whether serendiptous searching. Having written about librarything previously it really is a pet love of mine.

I've started twitter for the conference and set up a Flickr account for the event to. I will keep you updated over the day how it goes. I need caffeine now.

Bookjetty.....oh no, not another one

Phil Bradley pointed me in the direction of Bookjetty, another social cataloguing. Ummmm, I covered this area TWO YEARS AGO, and companies are still trying to beat Librarything. You'll have to do better than that Bookjetty.

The tagging meme

After Tim Spaldings interest view on how Ann Coulters book book was being tagged by Amazon, It was with interest I read Karen Schneider's article entitled Tagging in workflow context. In her article she feels that only the 'most determined cranks and pranksters might actually use' tagging in libraries. Indeed, to get a participation from one's patrions may be difficult.

She points out:-

'If I’m not going to tag when I find a book (why would I, if I haven’t read it, Amazon notwithstanding), and I’m not going to tag when I check out a book (an unrelated physical activity), and I’m not going to tag after I read a book (because that would mean the sole reason I’m returning to the catalog is to tag an item, which feels low-gain), and I’m not going to tag when I return a book (can you see me at the circ desk, reciting tags I want added to an item — or perhaps shouting tags into a book drop? Or I guess I could write them on a p-slip)…

Seems to me that tagging workflow in a catalog should be “gamed” so that the next time I visit the catalog to find something, the catalog entices me to tag.'

I was wondering what would 'entice' users to tag?

Shelfari feel the stress

Having discussed previously Shelfari's bombarding of users and none users with spam, it seems there trying to climb out of a hole. Tim Spalding quotes Book Patrols article, in which they accuse Shelfari of Astroturfing, saying:-

Shelfari has engaged in some pretty dubious behavior including astroturfing (posting on blogs pretending to be users, not employees) and partaking in widespread spamming campaigns.

Shelfari CEO, Josh Hug, has defended himself from the claim of astro-turfing, by saying:-

As for the astroturfing, that was an unintended work of an unexperienced but well-meaning intern who failed to make himself known as he commented on blogs. That was not our intent and we were unaware that was going on. It has stopped.

If it was a rogue intern, why was he needing to do it? With $1million investment did they really require such a transparent way of doing this. I maybe a librarything fan boy, but shelfari have really been very stupid, and allowing an intern to do this (without keeping an eye on them) is dafter still.

Shelfari gets shot down........

Librarything has brought to my attention that its inferior competitor Shelfari has been spamming people. Whom Tim Spalding(the owner of librarything) describes (via another source as this):-

in the words of the well-known blog Gawker, "basically social networking rapists."

I've noted also that Shelfari has been emailing me a lot lately and its very annoying (and something librarything NEVER does).

Hopefully, shelfari will stop it soon.

Google's My library article

I noted from librarystuff article by Phil Bradley about Google mylibrary. Phil feels that :-

My advice - give this a miss entirely and don't waste any of your time on it. Use something like LibraryThing or Shelfari instead.

I think he is correct here as I have said before.

Query......What's the best site for this?

In a previous blog entry I review some social networking sites. A user has asked me in the comments the following question:-
I am looking for a way to catalog and organize my home library of about 1000 books. Not interested at this point for the social interaction. What's the best site for this?
Funnily enough I had been thinking about this when I was around a friends who was showing me Delicious Library. I know this has been reviewed many times, but I do like it. Obviously you need a Apple mac. Delicious Library describes itself as:-
Get your Mac, a webcam, and Delicious Library and rediscover your home library. Just point any FireWire digital video camera, like an Apple iSight®, at the barcode on the back of any book, movie, music, or video game. Delicious Library does the rest. The barcode is scanned and within seconds the item's cover appears on your digital shelves filled with tons of in-depth information downloaded from one of six different web sources from around the world.
I like the idea of doing that so simply of adding your media sources (dvd,cd and books) with a scanner from your i-sight camera. If you want all media try this. It does cost $40, but then thats not too bad is it?
If you want to do just books my preference is with librarything.

Tim Spalding and libraries

Tim Spalding over on librarything has an interesting (and short) article entitled Will libraries die. To summarise he says:-
Let's all stop imagining a library without books, and imagine a library without CDs and DVDs. Let's imagine a library with books, and hope for one with more of them. Maybe it's just me, but I'm jazzed by that prospect.

The week that was.........

Another week and another 3 I missed to blog more fully about.
1. A new book By Walt Crawford called Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change. Available from lulu for £11.85. Looks as thought provoking as his blog is.
2. Tim Spalding's treatise entitled No more User Generated Content on LibraryThing. I think he's sick of the word ;)
3. Following on from my previous blog about the threats Kathy Sierra has faced on the blogosphere, business week has an interesting analysis entitled Dispatches from the Blog Battle Zone. Looking both at the misogyny and anonymity (as some other bloggers have also written about). A worthy article if you have the time.

The week that was.........

Following on from last weeks article of the same title, i'm adding another 3 things I should have blogged more about on this blog. I hope to make this a regular thing. Topping the charts is :-

1. From lisnews comes the New York State Bill S2298- Protecting Children in the Internet Age. Seems very similar to DOPA or do I mean Social Networking Web Site Prohibition Act? Anyway, its another law regarding "requiring filtering software on computers in public libraries and schools to prevent minors from viewing indecent materials." Not again.....
2. Via Lorcan Dempseys blog I came accross David Rothmans blog on Shelfari and librarything. Rothman likes how you can transfer your list via librarything to shelfari, and feels this could be done via e-book downloads. I prefer a library and the physical object, but then I'm not a digital native.
3. Michael Stephens over on library crunch links to his interview with Robert Doyle (Executive Director of the Illinois Library Association) and the impact of American legislation on social networkung sites in the USA.

librarything and Shelfari coverage......take off in social cataloguing?

Librarything had some good coverage in the New York Times called A Cozy Book Club, in a Virtual Reading Room.
And with Shelfari getting $1million dollars investment from amazon. I like the idea of both librarything and shelfari, i'm always worried there business plan may fall down when more people suffer social networking fatigue. I suppose they'll add more features then........

Librarything and tagging

Tim Spalding over on librarything has a great post called Percent who tag, as a follow up to his other post (When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing)
In it,he says:-
'Here's some data on that issue. I compared the number of books a LibraryThing member has with whether they tag or not. The later is defined as having at least one tag, so it over-represents taggers. But the trend is clear. The more you have to keep track of, the more you tag.'
I really like to tag stuff now (I really like the new feature in blogger for tagging).
The other thing I like about the article is it also engages the user with site (librarything I'm talking about). Some social cataloguing sites forget to engage there users, but not on librarything.

Shelfari gets amazon investment

Nice to see the first web 2.0 company, Amazon has invested a minimum of $1 million in the company. I've spoken many times about shelfari (1, 2, 3), so hopefully Jeff Bezos can teach them a thing or to on being a web 2.0 company.

Pet bug......SHELFARI

I wonder if i'll ever stop writting about social cataloguing sites (1, 2, 3). But i've just learnt that shelfari has added groups for its site. Wow. Brilliant. 8 months behind librarything, and they at least created a few groups themselves. Has shelfari done that? Don't be silly, thats what the users are there to do (i there world anyway).......