Healey Keynotes

Reference tools are hot in Firefox

Firefox smokes all other browsers in reference. Stephen Francoeur, in the Library Journal, describes several Firefox add-ons which facilitate reference services. My favorite is Book Burro. Book Burro links books on a web page to bookstores and libraries. A menu appears whenever Book Burro identifies a book. The menu displays book prices from several online bookstores and 5 of the closest libraries that own the book. The library searches are linked to WorldCat. For more Firefox add-ons, look at the Digital Reference blog or the Firefox website.

Live video of Reference Librarians

The Alden Library Reference Department at Ohio University is piloting a project using video for reference services. The department initially looked into several video IM services but choose to use Skype, an internet calling service. They set up a kiosk in the general stacks on the 6^th floor of the library. The Reference Department is on the 2^nd floor. Cameras were installed at the kiosk and in the reference office and allow patrons to see into the office all day. When a patron uses the kiosk, an audio connection is activated. The patron can then talk to the librarian and view the computer the screen. Char Booth, Reference and Instructional Librarian, sees this service as a virtual reference desk although some librarians were uncomfortable in front of the camera. She thinks video interface allows patrons and librarians to connect in a way they don’t with email or text IM. However, she does admit that it is not the same as face to face contact and found it impossible to maintain eye contact. The project has had mixed reactions and only a small number of users. Booth contends that the more patrons use video in other areas, the more video reference will be used. Read about the project and listen to an interview with Char Booth at http://charbooth.googlepages.com/home.

Read History as it happened

Read about the Wright Brothers flight and other historic events in Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. The Library of Congress (LC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently created a searchable website for Historic American Newspapers.  Chronicling America currently contains newspapers published between 1900-1910 from California, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, and Virginia. According to the press release, this is the beginning of a twenty year project to "create a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 from all U.S. states and territories." NEH Chairman Bruce Cole states, "'Chronicling America' will be available to the American public for free, forever; and I hope Americans will visit the site and try to imagine the emotions and actions of their forebears as those stories went to print." The website also contains an index of newspapers published from 1690 to the present. The index links to information about the newspapers and to libraries that have the papers. This is an invaluable resource.

UMB Professor corrects the Library of Congress

UMB History Professor Spencer Di Scala discovered an error in a Library of Congress subject heading while searching WorldCat. Professor Di Scala was doing research for his book on Filippo Turati, one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party, when he found that Turati was cataloged as a Communist by the Library of Congress. He further discovered that Anna Kuliscioff, another founder of the Italian Socialist Party, and Turati’s lover was cataloged similarly. Professor Di Scala was shocked to find the error because the two Socialists were vehemently anti-Communist. He explains the significance:

They and their allies founded the Italian Socialist Party and faced many crises together.  In 1921, the left wing of the Party broke off and established the Italian Communist Party.  Turati and Kuliscioff had opposed the Communists (and before them, the left wing of the Socialist Party) and Turati consistently denounced them for errors in tactics that he believed would lead to disaster (which, indeed, turned out to be the case).  The two groups were fierce rivals and after Benito Mussolini took power in Italy and the death of Kuliscioff, Turati escaped into exile in France where he was the moral leader of the Socialist opposition to Mussolini—and attacked by the Communists. 

This crucial error led Di Scala to contact WorldCat who checked the records and contacted the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress corrected the subject headings and WorldCat promised to change all the records in their database. This correction affects thousands of libraries because the Library of Congress creates subject headings, which are used in libraries around the world and WorldCat services over 10,000 libraries worldwide.

Virtual Librarians

The Healey Library has a Virtual Catalog and a virtual Reference Library. On the Internet you can find virtual libraries and virtual books. So, what is next? Virtual Librarians? Actually, they already exist. If you haven’t heard of Second Life, then check it out. It is a 3D virtual world that includes its own currency, land, schools, malls and now libraries. There is a group of islands called “Info Islands” which contain libraries and research centers for the community. One of the main islands contains a Genealogy Research Center, Science Center and Science Fiction Library. There is an island devoted to Consumer Health and one for Children’s Literature. Even the American Library Association (ALA) has its own land. And of course, these libraries are staffed by virtual librarians, some with tails or wings and one of whom looks like Yoda. Yoda offered to recommend a good book and when I clicked on his question, a list of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2006 opened.

The libraries have virtual newspapers, magazines and books just like real libraries. The objects have links to online databases and websites. When I clicked on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I was linked to a Wikipedia article about the book. While I admit I had fun exploring Second Life, I found these virtual libraries cumbersome to use. I can search the web and databases much more quickly without going through Second Life. However with ALA and universities like Harvard joining the space, it is hard to ignore.

Healey Library receives generous donation

The Healey Library recently received a generous gift from David Outerbridge, a 1970 graduate of UMass Boston’s College of Liberal Arts. Outerbridge donated $35,000 to create the Outerbridge Endowment for New Books on American History and Politics. This endownment will fund a collection of important titles on American History and American Politics.

Recent polls say...

Do you ever hear that phrase in the news and wonder what the polls actually say? Now you can go to the PollingReport.com, a nonpartisan web site on American public opinion. The polls cover a range of topics from elections to stem-cell research. Here's what the Scout Report says about the site:

There are a number of ways to keep tabs on recent and informative polls, and PollingReport.com is definitely one of the most comprehensive ways to do so online. From the homepage, users can look over the site’s primary thematic areas, which include “Elections”, “National Security”, and “In the News”. Within each thematic area, visitors can look over the results of recent polls, read the questions asked of participants, and learn about each poll’s methodology and sample size.  [KMG]

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If you are looking for more good web sites, be sure to check out the Scout Report which is weekly online publication of excellent Internet resources.