A few weeks ago my old boss was invited to talk about archives and the public record for a local Rotary Club. She was rewarded with very nice pen. “Reaping the rewards of library school,” she called it.

My friends, lurkers, and net-junkies I too am about to reap the rewards of which she spoke! Beginning March 2nd, 2009 I be a Librarian for the Missouri Department of Transportation. And, with weeks I suspect that my solo Rap career will take off given my newfound street cred. 2Pac! Biggie! 50 Cent! Weird AL! Watch out! I’m about to get bibliographic up in here.

Needless to say I am very excited.

I won’t lie. Since moving to Columbia a little over a year ago my running has suffered. Even at my best I’ve only managed to put in about half of what I was doing in St. Louis and even that was spotty. At first I had three jobs and a full load of graduate classes to blame, but somehow seeing as I’m unemployed that excuse just doesn’t cut it anymore. That past three weeks have been a step up. The deal is even now something feels like it’s missing.

I think it’s structure.

I’m making a deal with myself. The first day of work (wherever and whenever that may be) I’m going to sign up for a marathon and start training. If I can’t get myself in racing shape then father time may have to step in here. Necessity is a powerful motivator. And, given my track record for the past year it might be the only one.

I cleaned out one of my desk drawers today and came across a useful handout for searching with Google. Believe it or not there are numerous operators that can be used to sift through all of the worthless junk out there! For more information check out the Google Guide.

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.

Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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.

I should be able to finish my series on Flash late this week – complete with a discussion of Open Source alternatives – but for the time being I’m focused on something more mainstream – music! Saturday I caught two bands playing on TV: TV On The Radio and The Drive By Truckers. TV On The Radio played on Saturday Night Live and I hadn’t heard any of their music before. What can I say?! They’re like some sort of funky hurricane. So funky, in fact, that I’m having trouble digesting everything that goes on in some of their songs. Either way, seeing them was a friendly reminder of just how much I love finding new music! As for the Drive By Truckers? I happened to catch them play on Austin City Limits and even though I was already familiar with some of their work it was enough to go back and listen through Decoration Day and The Dirty South again.

Too bad I’m not musically inclined.