Friday 14 December 2007

Z3950 and a very English mental picture.

Last Wednesday I attended a cataloguing course which focused on using our software client, creating and remotely searching for bib records. About half way through the day, the talk turned to the Z3950 protocol and its correct use in searching remote databases such as the Library of Congress or CURL.

Apparently, it is vital that one only searches one of these remote database at a time as they all speak in subtly different languages and offer different search options. However, it is fine to search multiple local databases as they all speak the same language and can communicate with each other. Thus, all the libraries in my part of the UK that use the voyager cataloguing client may all be remotely searched at once. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a mental picture sprang up in my head and I started to chuckle.

In my mental picture, all the local databases were politely requesting information from each other in 'eh I say, old chap' voices, as wine glasses are heard twinkling in the distance whilst swan ice sculptures adorn the room. The butler announces that another local database is on the telephone, upon which Sir Pompideou III of Tidinburke shares his recipe for the most divine salmon and cucumber sandwiches.

Suddenly, thunder rolls across a hiterto bright blue Autumnal sky. Each of the local databases present exchange dark looks filled with a scathing sort of hatred and resentment. Suddenly, the door to the country house shakes and is thrown from its hinges to reveal a crazy looking wild Z3950, who shouts "eh eh eh 'ola amigoes" whilst sounding his pistols in celebration. He procedes to break the priceless collection of royal doulton, and nobody likes conversing with him.

As you can see, too much cataloguing does strange things to the brain! I must stop anthropomorphising my cataloguing protocols.....

Monday 3 December 2007

Google: bad for you?

I recently attended a talk on the topic of google, why it is bad for you and how it is systematically wrecking the traditional principle of searching as we know it. As I sped back to Ely through the fens on a train bound for Norwich, I felt compelled to jot down my musings on this subversive topic.

It is true to say that most people are fundamentally lazy. We take the easier path. If you know that every document on your hard drive is easily retrieved through a keyword search function, you’re not really going to bother filing those documents into a myriad of folders in a system of files so complex that even the Inland Revenue would be jealous. No, you would most probably avoid their wrath and just use the search facility. However, imagine conversely that your search retrieval tool was so rubbish, it couldn’t even find its own memory files with its customised search builder. Then, you’d be forced to file. See what I mean? The more that we are treated to quick, easy searching, the quicker we forget how to conduct effective search strategies. We lose the disciplines of search and file. It melts the brain and numbs the senses. Google, it is argued by some, is too quick and too convenient. It is our chocolate milk, our candy floss; it seems good, lulls us into a false sense of security, persuades us that quick results equal good quality relevant results.
That aint necessarily so.

Two of the main problems with google stem from its search organisation. Google only indexes sites based on keywords and page ranking. Consequently, link farms are now polluting the internet due to their continued presence on the top five results returned in many google searches. Keyword searching is dangerous: many relevant results may be lost due to their not mentioning the same word as the one stipulated in the search. For example, I want to search for abba tribute bands. Unfortunately, the plethora of sites describing the plot outlines to Mamma Mia would be lost, unless of course they also contained ‘abba’ ‘tribute’ or ‘bands.’ Without quoting the phrase, I may even end up with pages of sites related to generic bands, although that is less the fault of google and more the fault of poor training and education in search strategies. The other main problem with google is that, as its creators do not wish to raise expectation only to disappoint its customers, it does not search any subscription websites. So, no OED or Encyclopaedia Britannica, no quality databases at all. Yet more quality potentially relevant results are thus not located.

Google leads us into a false sense of security. It leads us to believe that we are searching more sites that we are in reality, it attacks our senses with advertising and sponsored sites which often have little relevance to our search, but most worryingly it encourages the belief that natural language searching on a general purpose search engine will locate relevant results. We type our search into the little box, google searches the universe, and brings the most relevant material to us. This is a myth that desperately needs to be expelled: keyword searching, page ranking, non inclusion of subscription sites are all problems, but the main issue is that there is just too much information out there! If we do manage to find some relevant information, it is relevant in the way that it will do for now; using google to find information is like using a plaster to cure a disease.

Google perpetuates the myth that internet searching is simple. It can be, but not if one really want to find the most relevant, highest quality, highest number of results. People are no longer taught how to construct search strategies, how to research properly, or how to verify conflicting information from differing sources in a google search. Google is all pervading in our society. It has become a verb. I often say ‘Oh, I’ll google that tomorrow.’ It’s too easy. We all know that we shouldn’t use it for the limitations explored above, but we still do because we are human and we are fundamentally lazy. A good analogy to using google would be when you eat a ready meal straight from the black carton. We all know that they contain too much salt, that we should have gone shopping after work and bought all the fresh meat and veg, then gone home and spent hours preparing it. But we didn’t. We left the office, got in, shoved the pie meal into the oven, watched soap operas for half an hour, then consumed the heated pie mess in a vague hope to shut up our hunger till morning. The difference comes when you realise what you’re doing and you understand the pie, or google, for what it really is; you know its true nature. The worry is when young people, only too familiar with the Control V and Control C keys, leave school and arrive at University fervently believing that google hold all the answers and their only job for the next three years is to type stuff into the little box at the top of the white screen. Real research skills are not just being ignored, they are not being taught. Reliance on google as an academic crutch means that the student misses out on all the quality resources out there because they’ve never been taught how to use quality subscribed electronic resources, how to conduct searches or how to evaluate information out there on the net. There is a growing need in our Universities for information literacy skills and I believe that library staff are the ones to plug the gap. After all, despite our closet google love, we conduct search strategies every day, we retrieve information from the darkest corner of cyberspace and the most cobwebbed top shelf of the reference section. Often, all before coffee break. We know how to evaluate what we find, and we can help these misguided google misadventurers to discover some truly wonderful relevant information out there. Is google bad for you? Perhaps, in the same way that turkey twizzlers aren’t great. Moderation is the key. That, and a sense of the limitations. Pass the ketchup then!

Wednesday 7 November 2007

RFID in libraries

I've been thinking recently about RFID in libraries and have had some interesting ideas. Radio frequency chips inserted into books would make life so much easier for library staff charged with the task of yearly summer stock-taking. Inventory would be accomplished more efficiently and effectively.
And yet, as I delved deeper into this mystery, things began to take a more sinister turn. It turns out that anyone can get hold of an RFID scanner, so when you leave the library with all your books in your bag anyone with said scanner can pull up details of your reading habits in seconds. If they felt so inclined. Airports too could use the same method when you travel. The answer is simple according to some: make sure that the RFID chip contains no bibliographic data. Easier said than done when a library catalogue is on open access and is, quite rightly, available to check against scanned barcodes. On their own they would be meaningless, but it is fairly easy to find the bibliographic detail with a little detective work.
So Sherlock, what's the answer? Encryption would be a good start. Perhaps another idea would be to forego the convenience RFID brings in terms of inventory control in order to fully safeguard the privacy rights of our readers.
When one looks at the new technology in the light of passports and even human ingestion of chips, a new picture emerges of people viewed as things and the monitoring and tracking of humans themselves. The old adage goes, if you have nothing to hide then why are you worried?
I would answer that, as I have not acted out of turn, please leave me my thoughts and let me keep my movements to myself. Perhaps 2007 is the new 1984. Let's hope not.

Monday 5 November 2007

Theoretical musings

I have just returned from lunch and feel an inexplicable desire to blog. I’m currently reading a set text about organisational behaviour for my library MSc and found myself on the slightly more familiar territory of postmodernism. I was reading more about the concept that language is used in subtle and powerful ways to construct a supposed ‘reality’ that we then find ourselves subsumed by. I started to deconstruct my personal assumptions, the statements made daily by the press or television news crews, the assumptions presented as hard fact. When we begin to pick away at these assumptions, to challenge their substance, often we are left with a different picture of instability and the feeling that nothing we thought was real actually is.
Perhaps that is why the majority of us are not really comfortable with postmodernism. The concept appears something of a problem child, rearing its head and shouting for us to take notice. It is slippery; ironically, the theory which seeks to undermine reality as it is constructed in doing so leaves us with no reality at all. Maybe that is why deconstruction seems very dark to me, marking the end of the known real-ness of the world and replacing it with a horrific picture of what is really there, chaos and anarchy. Of course, the discipline itself forbids this, arguing that nothing is constant, all is shifting constantly, that even the process of observation changes that which is observed. Indeed, a plethora of different realities could indeed exist simultaneously in the mind of differing individuals,
All this theorizing got me to thinking about Egypt, about the real-ness of our perceptions of the country or otherwise. Postmodernism dictates that, as language constructs our vision of reality, the rise of capitalism has also given meaning to symbols to such an extent that the symbol itself becomes more important than the object itself. Think, for example, about a coca-cola bottle. Is it the drink that’s attractive, or the symbol it holds? Many mineral water drinkers believe in a healthier lifestyle and publicly fund a brand accordingly. This condition is referred to as hyperreality.
When we drove through Cairo, the scenes that I saw reminded me of Channel 4 news. It was only after several days that the aliation wore off and I began to contextualise what I was seeing. The extent to which we are in the West conditioned by the media is extremely worrying.
Lying under a blanket of stars in the white desert, I saw myself from outside and looked at our camp as I would have done a week earlier, and I saw strangers. Four English white strangers and one guide, impossibly colourful rugs and blankets, and a desert that looked more arctic than sandy. I took preconceptions with me into the desert and the desert wiped me clean, like an old blackboard wiped and waiting for more knowledge.
We cannot help it; we are bombarded by media images everywhere we look. Perhaps the key is to remember to always deconstruct, to question, and to ask ourselves whose interests are served by the assumptions being made, even though this may at times be the hardest thing in the world.

Thursday 19 July 2007

If I was a rich girl...

I'd buy one of these:

http://www.nobodyandco.it/
Go to bibliochaise in the products section.

Or perhaps an entire lounge set!

Monday 16 July 2007

Weekend in Suffolk.

Well I have recently experienced one of the best weekends of my life. In Suffolk. There is so much to do there!
On Saturday morning, my first stop was Orford Ness. After getting a boat across to the land, I spent over four hours exploring this truly fascinating place. The flat lands, silt banks and bright blue sky all conjoined to create a very eerie atmosphere as I explored disused navigation towers and labs. I would recommend this National Trust site to anyone with an interest in the bizzare. What was most fascinating of all is that nature is beginning to reclaim the land. Weeds and flowers are shooting up in the unlikliest of places as the site is brought back towards its natural state.

As I was in Orford at the time, it seemed a little silly not to also visit Orford castle. Orford Castle was built in the twelfth century under the orders of Henry II in order to regain some authority over the barons of East Anglia.

I would recommmend asking for a free audio guide, as it provides indispensible information on the function and use of the spaces in the castle. It is mostly narrated by a male voice claiming to be the Chaplain of long ago, a definite treat!
After spending the night at a deliciously good b & b, I headed earnestly over to Halesworth on Sunday morning to visit some llamas, goats, alpacas and camels. To round off the day, I stopped off at an owl sanctuary, where I was lucky enough to see a flight display. Very impressive!
All in all, a great weekend. Suffolk is definitely the place to be for good days out!

Friday 13 July 2007

FYI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat

Current reads.

At the moment I am reading Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters. The novel captures a real sense of period and the tone is perfect throughout. The plot rips through London and the country, encopassing elements so familiar to the gothic genre such as mental institutions and identity theft. I have almost finished and am savouring the last few chapters; I love that feeling just before you finish a novel! Very reminiscent of Wilkie Collins. A definitely good read.