For their September issue, Wired magazine wrote a great piece on the changing dynamics of web traffic. As it turns out, the web really isn’t going away, but Internet use has been shifting from browsers (i.e. Firefox, Internet Explorer) to mobile and specialized applications. This observation is an interesting one, because if it holds true then vendors might be able to monetize content again.

I’m not holding my breath. Still, it could present an opportunity for libraries. Here’s why.

Until recently, net usage implied a web-browser and some sort of computer. Web-applications were sometimes involved, but the common denominator was that everyone used a web-browser for delivery.  Data usually went through this common interface.

Enter mobile computing and a host of special programs.

I-Phones, Blackberrys and other comparable devices are more portable than laptop computers. The catch is they don’t work well for web browsing. To counter this, developers started creating specialized programs for them called “apps.” Moreover, other programs like Skype have taken off over the past few years without relying on the web. They just use the Internet instead of web-pages.

All of this highlights the trend that Wired spoke of earlier – a marketplace moving to local applications which don’t freely share data. And, it gets to the crux of my statement about monetizing content.

If information isn’t shared then it can be controlled.

If information can be controlled then the web will, obviously, become less open.

If the web is less open then that will make libraries more important.

Originally, libraries were formed to serve as single, centralized cost-saving repositories of information. Back in the early 1990′s the web started started supplementing (or supplanting) that role. If it turns out that resources stop being posted to the web in a free and accessible way… the beast will starve. Or at least become a lot weaker. Given this, it seems very feasible that Libraries could work with publishers to fit themselves into a new Internet.

I’m not sure all of this will happen, but I can see that media producers would prefer that Libraries make information available rather than the alternative. When something is posted via a web page that makes it hard to charge for.

My, how the tables turn!

This reminds me of why Internet access (and digital libraries) need to be accessible to lawmakers. And, with information becoming ambiently findable, why they need to be able to fact check one another in real time. The Annenburg Public Policy Center seems to understand this. They host FactCheck.org. So does the St. Petersburg Times which produces the Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact website. Unfortunately, not all of Missouri’s Senators do. Traditional media can’t move at the speed of assertion.

I may have been too hard on Sen. Nodler, especially after I found this site, but given any viewing of “Countdown with Keith Olberman” or “The O’Riley Factor” it’s obvious that political fact checking has it’s own bizarre standard. Interestingly, the media has become segmented in recent years which has allowed political hacks to justify almost anything.

This is a common problem. The internet, radio, and television are all  littered with falsehoods and half-truths, partially because anyone can slap an something together capable of reaching a wide audience. If properly approached, though, this problem can be resolved.

Basically, my argument is this. Given access to quality, agreed upon information sources, and perhaps a revised legislative process, politicians can improve the quality of discourse as debate occurs. If provided the opportunity to call one another out using evidence (the moment something is wrongly asserted), politicians then could, hopefully, improve their bottom line.

Of course they need to have access to the necessary information first, and they need to agree where to get it. The Daily Kos and the Drudge Report obviously should be ruled out.

After reading a colleague’s post at Library Attack I’m convinced that others feel the same way too. In fact, I’m willing to bet that any librarian who dosen’t work in a traditional environment will likely suffer from some form of existential dread. This probably varies in scope, of course, but there are several reasons to believe we’re a Kierkegaardian bunch.

First, as specified in my post on solo librarianship we don’t have co-workers who share our expertise. We’re the only librarian in the library! Without a group to confide in it’s difficult to vent workplace frustrations, explain complex technical problems to others, or seek professional validation. All of these situations can elicit feelings of detachment.

Second, embedded librarians usually blur the lines between job roles to the point that it can become disorienting. One instance was mentioned in another of my posts that patrons assume “because you can find something on a subject and talk about… then it you’re an authority.” Not true! Plus, embedded librarians can always become more interested in the applied side of things too. If you don’t do library work it’s hard to conceive of yourself as a librarian.

Last, technology is bypassing and shaking up traditional duties. Just because someone takes classes to do one thing they won’t necessarily end out doing it. Refer to my point earlier. If you don’t do library work it’s hard to conceive of yourself as a librarian.

From when we grew up, we were taught that librarians are people who check out books. That they tell us to be quiet and ask us to not bring food or drink into the library. Unfortionately, this conception is blantantly at odds with a number of progressive manefestations within the profession. As a young librarian, I wonder what sort of cracks this might produce? Most imporntantly, if we don’t know “who we are” then how can they know what to do for our patrons?

As an embedded librarian, I can say without hesitation that the most difficult aspect of working directly with patrons is facilitating technical discussions. Working with patrons requires that you know something about the nature of their work. But, it doesn’t require you to know everything. Instead, you operate as a middleman. Interestingly, though, people seem to naturally assume that “if you know about it then you can solve it.”

Therein lies the challenge. Embedded Librarians work so closely with their patrons that a clear distinction between roles can disappear. This can happen on both sides too.

Basic Operations:

   boats ~gloassary - Finds glossaries and dictionaries about
   boats.
   cat dog - Finds the words "cat" and "dog."
   cat -siamese - Finds cat but not siamese.
   "I am batman" - Finds the exact phrase "I am batman."
   fortune-telling - Returns all forms hyphenated or otherwise.
   shoes nike OR adidas - Finds "nike shoes" or "adidas shoes."
   define:skeptic - Defines the word skeptic.

Site Restrictions:

   link: - Find pages that link to another site
   (i.e. link:amillion.us).
   site: - Search only one website
   (i.e. Christmas site:www.census.gov).
   [#]..[#] - Search between numbers. (i.e. Scrubs 2003..2007).

Special Queries:

   book - Search a full-text book
   (i.e. book Great Expectations).
   weather - Find the weather somewhere
   (i.e. weather Columbia MO).
   stocks: - Check your stocks (i.e. stocks: goog).
   phonebook: - Show all listings (i.e. phonebook: MoDOT MO).
   rphonebook: - Show residential numbers 
   (i.e. phonebook: AJ Million).
   info: - Find info on a page (i.e. info:weblog.amillion.us).
   related: - Show all listings
   (i.e. related:weblog.amillion.us).

Many of these aren’t that usefull but it’s always handy to know you can do much, much more than conduct a simple search.

Previously, I’ve tried to give a basic overview of Adobe Flash and to explain how it can be useful to librarians. The outline of my argument is pretty simple: Flash can do more than a Powerpoint presentation, it’s interactive, traditional instructional tools are a little dull, and it can be used to spice things up. Fiesta! The question is am I correct in assuming that this translates into a good fit with libraries? Do libraries have the time to create Flash animations? Do librarians have the skills to make em’? Are enough people looking for instructional support online to justify using a web-based tool? Questions abound!

The answer, I would argue with a number of qualifiers, is “yes.”

As I pointed out earlier Flash has a number of significant advantages to Powerpoint. While Powerpoint is easy to use this turns out to be it’s achilles heel. Powerpoint has a number of straightforward tools that can be used to create slides… but little else. The process is static; it is not dynamic. Flash, on the other hand allows the use of dynamic coding (ActionScript) as well as many more complex tools. So, seeing as dynamic usability is necessary for any program to facilitate interaction, and seeing as interactive instruction tools are generally more enthralling than static ones, Flash is the preferable choice. Programs that you can interact with are usually more effective.

Even so there are a few problems. First, Flash movies take significantly longer to create than normal instructional items. They are more complex. That said, the problem can be overcome by a skilled programmer… but even then not many libraries have one on staff. Libraries need employees who can produce prompt work, so if this can’t be done with Flash, then it becomes useless. Anyone taking the time to peruse out-of-field pay scales should realize that techs aren’t cheap. A dilemma arises: should libraries pony up the money to hire someone with a gamut of technical abilities or not? Can a middle ground be reached? Like with all technical skills knowing how to author Flash animations is a skill that should be mastered before applied. Are library staffs up to this task?

At this point a final question remains. Let’s say a library has overcome all previous mentioned problems. Will it’s patrons still utilize interactive instructional tools? Or will they sit idle? Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear cut answer. In instances where patrons expect access to digital content it makes sense to use Flash for on-line instruction. But, otherwise, more traditional and less tech-savy users might disregard them. Patrons are slowly starting to expect things in electronic format and if this trend continues history is on the side of web-based instructional tools. But we haven’t reached this point yet. Anyone deciding to use Flash should approach it cautiously.

Open Source Workarounds

Last time I checked the cost of Adobe CS4 was around $700.00. The reality of the situation is that many libraries don’t have the money to pay this much. I didn’t have the money to pay that much even with a student discount! Moreover, seeing as most libraries are not-for-profit organizations it makes more sense to support Open Source collaborative projects. Three such ones come to mind that can ease the financial “issue:”

Open Office Impress - http://www.osalt.com/openoffice-impress

Open Office, “features 2D and 3D text rendering, special effects and animation support. The user interface is advanced, but yet simple and easily customizable. Impress imports and exports Powerpoint format files – and it is even able to create flash files (.swf) from your presentation.” This means that for basic slide-like presentations Impress can be used as an alternative.

Open Laszlo – http://www.openlaszlo.org/

Open Laszlo, “is an open source development platform for web applications. It’s main target today is generating Flash files (swf)and AJAX/DHTML for use on web pages and sites. OpenLaszlo is script based with it’s own LZX programming language – and even though it does not provide a WYSISYG interface it a still simple to use and applications are easy to build.” I haven’t had a chance to try Open Laszlo but it seems to be promising.

For this part of my series on Flash and library instruction I am  going to briefly walk through the steps to create a Powerpoint-like Flash movie. The reason I do this is twofold: 1) To show that Flash can be used to create any sort of presentation that traditional software can, and 2) Because the steps necessary to create a game, animated movie, etc… are too complex for most beginners. And that’s primarily who I’m dealing with here. That said, the important thing is to remember that it’s possible to do much more than I demonstrate below.

The example I’ve provided is broken into four steps. Step one involves importing multimedia into Flash for easy access. Step two creates the basic movie timeline structure. Step three creates our visuals, and finally step four adds some basic ActionScript and a button that lets us to move through our movie.

Step #1

• Step #1 File

After opening a Flash document you should be staring at a blank document. Really blank. To import all of your multimedia click “File“ » “Import” » “Import to library...” Select the images, video, and other multimedia that you would like to use. Once you do this you should notice that the list to your right becomes populated with the files you imported. For organizational purposes I’ve gone ahead and created a folder to store these files (within Flash), but the entire process isn’t necessary. Next, double-click on the text to “layer1” on the timeline and rename it to “main.” Finally, select the second cell (the one just to the right of the empty circle) and press “F6” until there are seven keyframes. They’ll differentiate your content later on.

Step #2

• Step #2 File

Our next couple of steps are fairly simple. We need to add another layer for our ActionScript and then we need to add some basic code, because it will keep each of our seven frames from playing continuously.  So, click the “insert layer” icon under the timeline and rename it “actions.” Next, add some more keyframes to make our new layer identical to the one underneath it. Once you do this then you can  right click on each of the cells and select “actions.”

Once there all you need to do is add the code that I spoke of earlier. Type in the following and you should be set:

stop();

Simple, eh? This ActionScript lets Flash know that the animation should stop.

Step #3

• Step #3 File

This portion is the most intuitive of them all. We have already imported our artwork, added our keyframes, and the bulk of what is left to do is add our content. At the risk of glossing the process over all that needs to be done is for the presentation to be made as you want. This can be done by dragging the appropriate files from the list to your right and adding text. In my case I used the text from Wikipedia’s article on the Dewey Decimal system to save time. Once everything looks the way you want then we are ready for our next and final step. Just remember… all text and content needs to be placed in the appropriate sequential frame.

Step #4

• Step #4 File

At this point our movie looks good but it doesn’t “work.”  We need to be able to navigate! Setting this up is a twofold process, and can be a little confusing, but if you bear with me everything will work in no time!

First, create some text in the lower right hand corner and type in “next.” Afterward, right click on the new text and click “convert to symbol” and then select “button.” This will transform our text to a button. When you name the button make sure to add “_btn” at the end as well. Once done you should see an icon  in the library to your right and you’ll know that the new item is created.

What needs done now is to go ahead and right click on the new icon to your right and to select “edit.” In the window that pops up you should see a new timeline that reads “up,” “over,” “down,” and “hit.” Add two keyframes to the over and down cells and then select them to change the text color. The color doesn’t matter, but once it is changed the button should be set to where a transformation occures whenever the user clicks or hovers the button. Nifty! All that’s left to do is to go ahead and drag your new button from the library to each frame.

At this point we have two things to do. First, we need to name each instance of the button. I would suggest going to each frame, selecting the button, and then where it says “instance name” under “properties” name it “next_x_btn.” Change “x” to the appropriate frame number. Make sure each button has a unique name as well. Then, as you did with the previous ActionScript add the following code to each frame. Just take care to update the relative information.

next_1_btn.onRelease = function() {
	gotoAndPlay(2);

};

The “next_1_btn” refers directly to the button that is clicked. Remember when we named them? This is why. The “.onRelease = function()” triggers the event after the button is clicked as well, and the “gotoAndPlay(2)” tells Flash to go to and play the numerical frame provided. After adding all of this  then your new Flash movie should flow seamlessly! If not, don’t worry, because I’ve provided an example below to double-check your work. Here’s the final product!

Flash was released in 1996 by Macromedia as a vector animation tool and has since become one of the most used pieces of web-development software in existence. In case you are curious as to it’s potential, thousands of examples are available at Newgrounds.com. Flash contains support for embedded music, videos, dynamic coding using ActionScript (Adobe’s private scripting language), and traditional animation among other things.

For today’s purposes, however all you really need to know is that Flash animations and it’s related code operate on a timeline, Flash files can run independently of a browser, and the program does really well when compressing files. This is why it is so heavily used. That said, the animator tool has several major components worth discussing. I’m not going to over them all (because I’m trying to point out that Flash is a tool that Reference Librarians can use), but I will try to be as comprehensive as possible. If you want to learn anything that I don’t discuss today then I would suggest visiting the W3C School tutorials.

The Timeline:

As mentioned earlier Flash animations aren’t created using text code. Instead, they use the same basic principle that animators do – frames.  Enter the timeline… which organizes all Flash movies. If you look at the image to your left you will see that there are a number of different cells. The two black dots are called “keyframes,” the blank frames are unchanged, and the “a” sign signifies that ActionSctipt is run at that point. Keyframes denote changes in an animation from frame to frame. At first most people see working with frames as time intensive. After all, wouldn’t it take forever to create a keyframe for every change in an animation? The answer is yes but tweening solves the problem. Basically, tweening allows you to automatically render differences between frames thus saving an animator time. I won’t cover tweens in any more detail but you need to know that they’re an integral part to Flash; they make your movies move! Remember them!

Additionally, you don’t have to use one layer on the timeline. Flash allows you to stack layers on top of one another to create the illusion that an object is in front of (or behind) another. Placing objects on different layers is good for visual changes. If you look at the gray box to your left once again (with the pencil) then you see that there is room for multiple layers.

Animation:

When working from the timeline it’s easy to create animations with Flash. First, since it uses vector graphics all material on the desktop are treated as objects. This avoids broken up content and makes it easy to group or manage the timeline. Also, when using keyframes, tweens, and other animation tools it’s easy to deal with this material. You just need to type in text, draw some pictures, import a .jpg (or something else) and use a few tweens to make things move. That’s really it…

ActionScript:

ActionScript, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated and is what makes Flash really useful. It lets you take objects and transform them into buttons, change their color according to user behavior, cause them to appear or disappear, and lots of other cool stuff. ActionScript makes Flash movies interactive instead of linear. And lets face it. Linear can be boring!

To use ActionScript all that you need to do is add code to an individual keyframe. Some examples include:

• stop(); - Stops the movie.
• play(); - Plays the movie.
• gotoAndPlay(33) - Goes to frame 33 and plays the movie.
• function buttonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
gotoAndStop(22);
}
22.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, buttonClick); - Sets an object to
be a button that goes to frame 22 and stops when clicked.

Don’ t worry about everything above not making sense. Just remember that if you enter this code in a certain frame (when the playhead reaches that point) the code will run and you will get a corresponding behavior and/or action.

Multimedia:

Another nice thing about recent versions of Flash is that it supports multiple multimedia formats. If you take the time to visit YouTube you’ll notice that it uses Flash and it’s own video codec to display submitted videos. MP3′s, .wav files, and other sound formats are also supported. Images can be embedded. Interestingly enough any file that Flash can open is also able to be incorporated into an animation. This flexibility turns out to be incredibly useful, and in the case of Libraries Flash offers a way to create instructional programs and animations using topical media; it can embed the content that patrons want.

Publishing:

The final thing to know about working with Flash is that it uses an atypical publishing process. I have already been mentioned that Flash can run in a stand alone player outside of a web browser, but at the the same time the commonly used file isn’t the primary document like you would suspect. As with Adobe Illustrator there is always a master file and and an output file. With Flash the source file is always larger than the published file but and published files can only be created using a source file… so there are two types:  .fla’s (the source) and .swf’s (the published file).

For those of you well versed in web-design there are three “elements” that designers talk about: 1. content (i.e. HTML) 2. design (i.e. CSS) and 3. functionality (i.e. PHP). Libraries have mastered #1 and #2 as evidenced by the fact that almost every major library has a homepage while #3 is slowly gaining acceptance. This is especially the case in instances were Web 2.0 tools have taken off. Ironically, however Adobe Flash is rarely used by libraries while it is common everywhere else.

Part of this has to do with Flash itself. While most interactive websites are server or browser oriented (that is they are part and parcel with the site they enhance) Flash is not. Instead, Flash is a self-contained application that runs in a browser and is not part of the website. Moreover, while Flash offers support for retrieving information from an external database, it’s not well suited to this purpose. Libraries require access to large amounts of information and so do their tools.

Enter what Flash can do: quickly and easily construct interactive animation. Going back to the “old-school” librarian days we’ve always been willing to make lists. Lots and lots of lists. This hasn’t helped our “boring” reputation though, and pointing patrons to our plenitude of them doesn’t necessarily make people think positively about visiting the library. The “wow” factor just isn’t there. Sure, academics and inquisitive individuals are going to be willing to learn about EbsoHost by reading your six-page pathfinder, but the average person is probably going to be bored out of their mind. This is where Flash and it’s emphasis on animation can help our patrons out.

Take this animation that I created as part of a class last semester: The Archive.

Now, compare it to a static or marginally interactive webpage. It’s pretty obvious that the Flash page is just more fun. This doesn’t mean that Flash should always be used to create instructional walk-throughs, but it does provide an engaging component that often libraries lack. Flash can be used to lessen the impersonal feel that a computer – or paper list – creates.

Over the next several weeks I plan on posting a three part series dedicated to Flash and library instruction. In part one I will introduce Flash and it’s basic functions. In part two I will begin to build an instructional animation. Finally, in part three I will compare our finished product to competitors and return to a discussion on Flash’s usefulness.