Seattle Public’s Central Library is more than an architecturally splendid building.  It seems to have achieved the delicate balance that all public libraries must strive for as they serve a diverse clientele and also act as an extension of the street.

Vanessa Ho’s article in yesterday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer is worth a close reading.  Staff, particularly security guards, deal with “dozens of hard-edged, solitary men” through a combination of regularly enforced common sense rules and respectful treatment for those who follow them.

“I think this is one of the places in Seattle where people can come and everybody is the same,” said security officer Christopher Hogan, as he recently made his rounds through the library’s 10 public floors. Hogan said he tries to treat everyone respectfully, no matter what they wear or how they smell.

A follow-up editorial today states, “there are many things that make a city what it is, and that help explain what kind of people live there. One measure of Seattle is in how patrons of all sorts are treated at its glistening new library.

“Most of us know a library as a place to hold meetings, to do research, to take our kids to check out books or attend story hour.  But what of those among us who may know the library first and foremost as a way to get out of the rain and the cold, a clean and civilized refuge from the mean streets, and maybe a place to be treated like everybody else for a change?”

Beautiful photo by tobym, CreativeCommons, some rights reserved. 

Of interest to mobile users from C/Net News.com

Google’s ambitions going mobile

Verizon Wireless revs up mobile video

Nokia rings up more Yahoo services

Mobile e-mail heading for the masses

  Library Suspends Internet Access Due to Increased Interest in Porn
from Wired Blogs, Nov. 27

  Google: ‘iPod will hold all the world’s TV in 12 years’
from Silicon.com, Nov. 27

The Face of Facebook
from Wired Magazine online

There’s Not Enough “Me” In MySpace 
from Business Week Magazine

As reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Google Inc. executive Nikesh Arora speculated Monday at a Confederation of British Industry conference in London that business transactions on the Web will grow by as much as 40 percent in the next ten years.

He noted that although only 16 percent of the world’s population, or about 1 billion people, are online, they represents 85 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.  “There was a time when people were loath to touch the Internet because they were scared of credit-card fraud and misuse of data”, Arora said. “Now what is fascinating is people are beginning to use the Internet when they are looking for convenience. The first port of call happens to be the Web.”

Arora was focusing on business opportunities on the Internet.  I believe it is appropriate to think of libraries as “businesses for the public good” and therefore we need to continue to ask ourselves what the drive for the convenience of Internet access means for our future. 

In general I think librarians have recognized and embraced the idea of library services extending into the ethernet through online access and digitized resources.  In addition, we try to provide a place where people without home access can participate in the online world. 

Compared to some of our lofty goals, the idea of serving up convenience may seem less worthy.  But think about the growing number of people using distance learning and staying away from campuses in droves.  Think about the busy parent needing information and resources without having to appear physically at the library.  Think about the growing number of aging folk who may no longer be able to get around easily.  And think about our solidly supportive tax payers whose busy lives are increasingly driving them to finding convenient ways to meet their needs.

In the midst of a technological revolution of increased online access and web-based services that are often customizable, how do we move beyond the traditional OPAC and vendor-served databases?  What steps can we take to keep libraries relevant and able to serve our patrons/customers as more and more of them expect (and need) online, personalized convenience?  Share, please…

Thomas Chesney, a Lecturer in Information Systems at the Nottingham University Business School conducted an interesting study on the accuracy rating of a Wikipedia article by experts versus non-experts. The experts rated the accuracy higher.

Chesney cautions about generalizing too far. The test group was small and “It may be the case that non-experts are more cynical about information outside of their field and the difference comes from a natural reaction to rate unfamiliar articles as being less credible.”

The study was not intended to settle the debate on the value of Wikipedia. Chesney notes that, whatever Wikipedia’s comparative accuracy, plenty of people — academics included – are using it, and he simply wanted to see whether Wikipedia could be considered accurate enough to be worth using.

[via ars technica]

Create your own Google Maps with YourGMap, a free, web-based application to create maps that mix your own information with Google Maps.

You can have as many maps as you like and either link to them on YourGMap or embed them into your own website.  Although the service is based on Google Maps, it is not provided or endorsed by Google.  It was created by Gabor Cselle, a recent computer science student and now a software engineer for Google in Zurich.
 

I am beginning to see some write-ups about Microsoft Office 2007 which is due to be released to businesses later this week, along with the launch of the new Windows Vista operating system. Curiousity led me to the company’s website where there is a ton of information.

Most intriguing to me was the new user interface.  Menus and toolbars have been replaced by the “Ribbon” (image below from their website) which seems nicely organized and makes commands more accessible, especially helpful for non-power users.  The concept is “results-oriented” — you don’t have to go searching and guessing through drop-down commands, they say – and provides lots of guidance with graphics showing possible options. 

At the website, you can view brief explanations about the user interface along with images that can be enlarged so you can study the interface.  If you are interested, I recommend you also select the user interface demonstration video for an action-oriented look. 

Along with a general thoughtful reorganization, I was especially taken with the concept of Galleries and Live Preview.  Here the idea is “What you see is what you WILL get” if you make the choice.  No more guessing when selecting text and trying out different options again and again – see the potential change “live” by highlighting once and clicking on a variety of possibilities.  Confused?  View the video to see how this works.

You may want to view the Get results with the Ribbon page and also see the features included in the variety of Office packages that will be offered.  Estimated pricing is available.  I found the general Microsoft Office system in action video more showy than useful.  Since I haven’t actually tried the new user interface for myself (I balked at registering for the test drive but may relent) I just hope the promise lives up to the hype.

The company notes that the interface is different enough that there will be a bit of a learning curve.  If/when your organization moves to Office 2007, plan for some training or at least time for users to get accustomed to the differences — which at this point, look to be for the better.

The Webjunction survey 2006 results (1650 responses) indicate that the biggest challenge among library workers reporting includes keeping up with technology, training, and the pace of change, as well as other issues. 

Flickr’s “Triple Treat” of enhancements includes the Guest Pass, an updated mobile site, and a camera guide that shows popular models, allows you to search by model, see trends in usage and find reviews and pricing information. 

Are you using Google Reader for your RSS feeds?  See these seven tips and tricks that allow you to get more out of it.  The “save an item for later blogging” sounds especially interesting.  [via Lifehacker]

Google Book search has announced a major update.  New features incude:

• Zoom in on text and images
• One page or side-by-side mode
• Scrolling choices
• Viewing choices
• “About this book” links to more information
• Citations and references

Two recent reports from Pew/Internet & American Life Project are of interest. 

The Podcasting report shows that some 12% of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time. This finding compares to the 7% of Internet users who reported podcast downloading in the February-April 2006 survey.  However, both studies show that few are downloading podcasts with great frequency. Only 1% report downloading a podcast on a typical day.

The Internet as a Resource for News and Information about Science indicates that fully 87% of online users have at one time used the Internet to carry out research on a scientific topic or concept and 40 million adults use the Internet as their primary source of news and information about science.