Info Chit Chat

In Pursuit of the Knowledge World

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:57:00 +0000

The World Digital Library (WDL) is still in its nascent stage and attempts to collect and make available material from around the world in multilingual format. To make a complete success of this challenging and huge responsibility, what we really need is a knowledge management program.

By saying that I mean to encourage my fellow librarians to blend LOC’s internal and external information and channelize into knowledge via technology platform. This would imply not shying away from the international librarians who are managing these collections at their local end and then share information globally amongst each other about the existing collection practices, the metadata standards and cataloging rules. This way we will be able to capture the knowledge of these librarians and the WDL project will be a true knowledge sharing project on a global footing. A knowledge management program for the implementation of vast projects such as WDL requires patience and co-operation, but the results far outnumber the hindrances.

Many libraries often maintain database of best practices and lessons learnt on a day to day basis. Integrating this knowledge may be a challenge initially, but by means of proper KM practices, the knowledge sharing is an achievable target. The WDL will benefit tremendously from synthesizing and streamlining the personal and contextual information that the librarians from all over the world who are contributing to this project may have to offer. This kind of attempt may actually become an aggregated KM project. Each library may either need to have a KM program in place, or the LOC may need to run a world wide KM program. Each of the libraries involved will need to make visible its knowledge and its intensity. A knowledge infrastructure then needs to be built upon the existing knowledge cultures. It will be very essential for the LOC to treat these librarians as organizational assets to the LOC even though; they may not be part of the LOC. The communication channels must enhance the transfer of exisitng knowledge of concepts, data, and documentation in a high quality and cost-efficient manner.

The hardest part in the KM implementation may come from librarians who will be required to broaden their vision. Sharing expertise and knowledge that was developed over years during their professional work in their library may be slightly intimidating for the librarians involved. The librarians may need to develop a “big picture” mentality and develop their communication and technology skills. The skills that are critical right now for the sucess of the WDL project are those of webmaster , technical communicator, librarian and business analyst.A single librarian may not have all of these skills.It is only through knowledge sharing, that these skills can be transferred.

It is worth pointing out here that some of these libraries which are a part of the WDL project may belong to cultures which are strongly feudal or anarchist in nature. It is here that the LOC may find it difficult to gain the return of value from investments supporting the knowledge management program. LOC will have to prioritize decisions about the needs of the whole organization, rather than that of its specific parts. Since Information Technology is the tool that facilitates the rapid dissemination of knowledge, the speed and precision of information technology in these countries needs to be evaluated and taken into account. Getting hold of the complete picture of the "information politics" that goes around in these international libraries may be a challenging task for the LOC.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Library of Congress and the ideas expressed here are my own thoughts and they are not meant to endorse The LOC or the WDL. On the other hand, LOC or WDL are not endorsing me either.

Telltale signs of your Website Needing Content Management System

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

Do you need a Webcontent management system for your website? If this is a tough decision,listen to this podcast describing the tell tale signs of a website needing CMS

Tell Tale Signs of a Website needing CMS

Don't miss What Web Content Management can do for You

Wiki to support your CMS

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Wiki allows content to be edited by many people.CMS allows editing your content to keep the content fresh.So basically are these two pitted against each other? People in the wiki camp suggest that Wiki can do at a lower price what a CMS does at a higher price. People in the CMS camp seem to disagree and raise questions over the quality of the finished product.Where is the golden mean? The solution is often discovered when there are a number of pages to be updated and all under different categories.What can be done is to take all of the web content as contained in the CMS into a wiki and allow some of the sections to be edited there.The navigation does not have to be transferred to a wiki(although it could be).This way the CMS takes care of the major updates and wiki allows a segregated updation process.Once the content in wiki is ready, it is taken back to CMS and then published.

Watch a Screencast showing how Wiki and CMS systems can be used together to Update Content

What web content management can do for you?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

In a short phrase, the answer is "relieve you". CMS is not simply a template with generic design.With so many CMS systems flooding the scene, custom made design is pretty much in trend and the interface is user friendly. A CMS system can ensure that the content is updated regularly and is done automatically.With little, or no addition to the cost already being incurred, a CMS system allows features like site search, blogging,discussion forums, password protected content and more. However the greatest benefit of CMS is the navigation.If a new category appears overnight, you dont have to redesign your entire website.A CMS system allows the "expansion" of your website with the new category added to all pages. Web content management can actually take the load off your websmaster's shoulders, and for you it means updated content all the time without sweating it out.A good CMS(content management system) can help you repurpose and channel your content for different audiences - saving time, money, and simplifying the web management process.

Watch a video on Content Management.This video can also be watched on YouTube.

Also listen to the podcast

:Tell Tale Signs of Website Needing CMS

Understanding the meaning of Competitive Intelligence

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:51:00 +0000

Business intelligence (BI) refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. Business intelligence may also refer to the collected information itself.Some people use the terms business intelligence and competitive intelligence synomously whereas some say that competitive intelligence is the language of business intelligence.

In a short phrase, it may be defined as both a product and a process, and in more complex words we may define CI as an ethical and legal business practice. This ethical and legal part is very important as CI professionals emphasize that the discipline is not the same as industrial espionage which is both unethical and usually illegal. In competitve intelligence ,the focus is on the external business environment.There is a process involved in gathering information, converting it into intelligence and then utilizing this in business decision making. CI professionals emphasize that if the intelligence gathered is not usable (or actionable) then it is not intelligence.

A more focused definition of the term is that CI is the organizational function responsible for the early identification of risks and opportunities in the market before they become obvious. This definition focuses attention on the difference between dissemination of widely available factual information (such as market statistics, financial reports, newspaper clippings) performed by libraries and information centers.

CI can be summarized as Finding out information for business planning.
Typically, information must be quantitative, in dollars, not references to documents.
It is usually needed in a huge rush.It’s usually about the future, and thus inherently uncertain.Often a high premium on assertiveness, not accuracy.But it can have high importance and status in a company.

CI is the purposeful and coordinated monitoring of your competitors, wherever and whoever they may be, within a specific marketplace. Your "competitors" are those firms which you consider rivals in business, and with whom you compete for market share. CI also has to do with determining what your business rivals WILL DO before they do it. Strategically, to gain foreknowledge of your competitor's plans and to plan your business strategy to countervail their plans.

Companies and industries prosper through improvements in competitiveness, leveraging core competencies, and competitive intelligence is at the core of the objective of improving competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence is therefore;the core of competitive strategy .

On a lighter note: Here is a strategy game picked by the Editor of Addicting Games.com .This game is called The Balloon Invasion and requires the same caution and strategic mind required while doing Competitive Intelligence.

Play Games at AddictingGames

Screencasting:Best Practices

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Screencasting is fun if you know it well else it can cause some embarassment for creators.

When creatng a screencast, one great tip is to close any other aplications which are running.Presence of browser windows or folders not only cause clutter, but also can release some information about you which you may not want to share.I would also suggest clearing the address bar and not allowing autocomplete to fill in forms.

Another tip I learnt last week is related to script narration. For Jing , since the videos were 5 minutes or less, I narrated my scripts impromptu.However; for another class this week,I tried doing a screencast with camtasia and since it was a long script, I wrote down and read it.The final product was much better than what came out through Jing.

A final tip I would say would be to anticipate actions which seem to be normally paced while working on a screen, but in a screencast, it seems like ages have past by.An example is deciding where to move mouse pointer.Espeically while playing games, i noticed my cursor moving back and forth for no reason.This seemed awkward in a screencast whereas it would look normal in aday to day situation.

Is Bad Really Good?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Is the pop culture sophisticatedly delivering studpidity?Is the bad bad , or is it good? The answer depends on which side of the fence are we talking about. In many situations pop culture has been rightly blamed for loss of actual "culture". In these situations more often than not, the user learnt only the "bad" part from these media which are not intelligent themselves , but are run by intelligenct people.Children and teenagers have been known to lose concentration, increase aggressive and hyperactive beahviour upon too much exposure to these media.Much has been already spoken about the evils of TV and the omnipresent video games which kids cannot forsake even at the Thanksgiving table.

Now jumping to the other side of fence, these very media can be used for educative purposes.We all know, internet and TV have homework hotlines and kid friendly programs run by the board of education.These programs really have a value in them and can be a good and effective substitution for the values that were usually handed over by hoards of family members and relatives(who are now spread across the world and cannot be physically present ).

To summarize, I think the pop culture is delivering sophisticatedly, no doubts.Also, no doubts that they are delivering stupidity, as well as some fine content.Which one do we take? It depends on us and our personal filters.How receptive are we to something which is simply present, and not being imposed on us?We have the choice.Afterall; all TVs come with remotes, video gaames come with buttons and most important of all, we choose to let them influence us the way we want.

Sticky Websites

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0000

How do websites like Facebook and Myspace get the users to stay on their site for a long time? To speak tongue-in-cheek, I think partly due to the very unintuitive interface they have! Do I see many raising eyebrows?Well, these sites are somewhat targeted towards the teenagers and young adults and I am sure they dont have a tough time browsing these sites.

Speaking on a more contemplative note, I think these sites are sticky owing to the very nature of its user base. Teenagers tend to stick to each other even offline.The feeling of belonging to a group and sharing everything with peers is a strong feeling in the teenage-young adult population.The advent of these social networking sites has made it easier for the teenagers/young adults to "share" without actually having to physically transport themselves.Moreover the thrill of using the latest and the "coolest" is so much predominant in the above mentioned population group, that they prefer to send wall-to-wall messages even if they are sitting next to each other in a classroom or a cafetaria.

Facebook & Myspace offer the perfect atmosphere for not only sharing as a group, but also as an individual.Users get to play games and write blogs.Also, I think these portals offer the opportunity to brag about things which are not really considered very important in the mainstream. Say,an announcement is made that a certain user 'A' scored 100% on a movie quiz. Now these things really dont carry too much weight professionally, or in the acadmeic world.However;youngsters derive a sense of achievement and it boosts their self-confidence and self-perception.

Sometimes social networking sites are also used by people who have lost touch with their friends and colleagues, and at a certain stage in life they get a strong feeling to reconnect. The age of these users may not be fitting the teenage/YA population.Infact these users may be in their middle age .Social networking sites allow easy way of communication and such users "stick" to these protals for the sheer fascination of it. When they were teenagers/YA, they perhaps never had the liberty of "hanging around" so much, and now they get an opportunity to fulfill those unfullfilled yearnings.

In any case I believe the "stickiness" has got to do with the internal psychology of users. These sites have very successfully studied human behavior, and the potential it has for their business so they are happily tapping upon it.

Education Vs Entertainment?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Do educational videos have a chance when entertainment videos are flooding the scene?The answer is YES. Actually they gain more importance since they are lesser in number.

I think times have changed and research for homework is no longer confined to the physical libraries. People definitely choose to Google the information from their homes before they go out to look out for information.Educational videos can demonstrate at home what a professor would teach in class, or a scientist would demonstrate in his/her lab.

I think educational videos can also offer the "extra something" for all grade levels which may be stimulating to the minds of the gifted kids and which may not be taught in school.

The information behavior of users finding information on internet has matured.Users have started searching for videos specifically( and not that they encounter these videos by chance).

Educational videos definitely stand apart from the crowd of entertainment videos.

Podcasting or Blogging text?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Podcasting and text blogging are actually mediums very different from each other, and it is not fair to compare them with each other.

Podcasting uses sound files to transmit information and is more suited for people who prefer listening to reading .Podcasting may actually be the first choice when the material being podcasted is about some language training or music lessons.In such scenarios text blogging is often a poor choice.For most other purposes I think text blogging should be chosen. Not only it makes easier for the readers/audience , because they can glimpse at a post and summarize it(which they cant do in a podcast), but also for reasons such as server space. Sound files are usually large and consume considerable disk space. Text on the other hand is extremely light on storage.

Other than this, I think searching for the location of a given information is very easy in a text blog and is very difficult in a podcast .Till the time technology advances so much that audio materials are appropriately tagged and a good search within the audio content is possible, I think text is the way to go.

Information Overload with Rss

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:53:00 +0000

I think Rss and Rss Aggregators actually aggravate the problem of information overload.Rss and Rss Aggregators were created to manage the information overload.Ideally a user would not like to visit the blogs daily and get lost in information .However, in my opinion a person who needs the information so badly will always go and visit the actual site and not trust the aggregator, because aggregators have been known for notorious issues such delay and sometimes marking un read posts marked read etc.

I had tried feedburner for this blog sometime back.Inorder to employ the feedburner, I had to read through a number of articles on feeds and feedburners.Reading so much about feeds and feedburners had really agonized me. Is it not contradictory that something which is supposed to take care of information overload is causing overload itself?

Finally, I also feel that a person who is already bogged down by information will never have the time to read the blog posts which he/she so painstakingly subscribes to. I recall the times when I had to sort through my favorites folder and delete the links which I did not visit more than couple of times. I am sure very soon people will find themselves managing and sorting feed digests.

Personalization-Too much too good?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:04:00 +0000

This is something I love to debate to myself for prolonged hours. What with all those Phishing scams and third party cookie setters who cleverly invite you to their sites, I would always treat my personal 'personal notebook' with the same respect and care that I would give to a public computer. This would translate as not saving my email address for either Yahoo or Hotmail, never allowing broswers to remember passwords and never ever clicking 'remember me' checkboxes.

To contradict myself , I have been doing all of the things mentioned in paragraph above all of the time. I keep myself signed in linked in , Facebook etc , choose to have my email ids remembered. Thankfully I have yet not mustered the courage to save my passwords too! Almost always I get annoyed at myself when I clear my cache or Temp files, because that deletes all my settings.

What is all this about? Personalization- it sums up in one word. Almost every site I visit, I choose to personalize.This is not only, because I have lesser user ids to remember, but sometimes the look and feel of websites makes me feel sick.I mean , they actually do. When I joined Rutgers, and was told about myRutgers.edu, I told the classmate sitting next to me that ,"I have to change this skin and theme else I cant focus on the lecture about navigating the site further".Fortunately the instructor did allow us few minutes to get acquainted with the MyRutgers portal.I made good use of this time, by changing the colors and theme to suit my taste( keep me from getting sick).

How much personalization is good? I usually have my local weather, local news(and yes horoscope too!) .However; am I making it easier for Phishers? Almost always on my Yahoo email I notice an ad banner which reflects very accurately my taste of online shopping and this makes me nail bitingly nervous , but then the debate continues...Yahoo is safe etc etc.. and I continue to personalize...

Blogger Vs LiveJournal

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:02:00 +0000

Before I start comparing Live Journal with Blogger, I have to say a word or two about Wordpress.Initially I was about to compare wordpress with Blogger, but their signup process was so tricky, that I eventually went to Live Journal.I am sure many other bloggers will do the same. Also, wordpress sent out a verification email link which had to be clicked inorder to finish the signup process and this email took so long to come that meanwhile I blissfully started out with Live Journal, signed up, created an account and even wrote a private post!

Now coming back to comparison of Blogger and Live journal.

• As soon as a user hits the Blogger URL in address bar, he/she is taken to a page which prompts the user to log in or signup. Live Journal , on the other hand displays the blogs in spotlight.

• Despite the association of Blogger account with Gmail, it does not display any option to view mail or any incoming messages.. Live Journal shows icons for mail/inbox.

• In LiveJournal, options to allow comments etc appear per post whereas in Blogger it is per blog.

• In Live Journal visibility is again per post and not per blog unlike Blogger

• Blogger does not allow to set the mood of the post in words..

• Live Journal has options for IM posting, mobile posting and voice posting

• Live Journal has the permalink option and also ability to mark a post as "memory"

• Blogger allows 1 picture per profile .LiveJournal allows up to 15.

• LiveJournal allows browsing blogs based on subjects. Blogger allows only serial browsing by clicking the next blog option which may or may not be of our interest..

To summarize, I think LiveJournal has far more features and it can be upgraded too.I did not explore what features are available upon upgradation, but I think even the free version is quite a lot! before this class, I was not aware of Live Journal.Now I am certainly going to make use of it. I find it to be a greater tool than Blogger.

Reasons for explosive evolution of digital libraries

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:46:00 +0000

The main reason for the evolution of digital libraries seems to be the technological advancements combined with the fast paced lifestyles of the users. In the information age, everything has an e-presence to it. It may be the e-mail which is fast replacing the traditional mail or be it the e-tickets and e-itineraries which are now being ubiquitously accepted against the paper-tickets and paper itineraries. Users need speed in all their task accomplishments. Something which can be done electronically implies something which will save time, usually save some form of material (like paper) and will require less storage space. Also, a digital library, like any other thing which is electronic, connects the users over space and time. A user may access an international library from his/her home and a user may access art images of few millenniums ago.

Another strong reason for the explosion of digital libraries is the social factor. Social information processing allows users to collaborate implicitly to solve problems by leveraging the opinions and expertise of others. “At a global level, we can see an information ecosystem arising through the interactions among users, as well as between users and information.”(Social information processing, 2008, para 6).Social informatics has allowed for the creation of user defined metadata such as tags and ratings. In a society which is evolving and giving away itself to technological changes, libraries were not to hold themselves back thus allowing for the creation and explosion of digital libraries.

A third reason for the emergence is the economic factor. All library materials print or digital require preservation which requires money. As technology improves, the cost of technical equipments and preservation items reduces drastically. This calls for an easier low cost, high quality preservation of digital items as opposed to those of print medium .The cost of renting and buying storage spaces and /or cabinets is drastically low for digital media compared to the similar costs of maintaining print mediums owing to their physical size.

A final reason for the digital library expansion is related to the journal and publishing issues. “Electronic journals are often treated as a value-added service, rather than a replacement technology. Thus the library budget appears to be shrinking for the same amount of information resource” (Tanner, 2003, para 7) Also, the pricing structures for digital articles is much balanced than those for print articles. This means even developing countries could easily afford digital libraries with quality content as compared to a physical library with quality print articles.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------References
Social Information Processing (2008).Available at
http://www.isi.edu/~lerman/sss07/

Tanner.S.(2003).Economic factors of managing digital content and establishing digital l
libraries.Journal of Digital information.4(2).Available at
http://jodi.tamu.edu/Articles/v04/i02/editorial/

What exactly are Digital Libraries?

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:29:00 +0000

I think the term is really not defined as of now .However, I would not coin the term ’library’ to anything (digital or not), if it is not organized. A pile of books is not a library. It requires cataloging, classification and other forms of organization for the books to be called a library. Similarly internet or search engines do not find their place into my definition of a digital library. If the internet were to be cataloged some day in future, may be I would accept it as a digital library, but not until then. Another major factor is the browse interface. A search engines is “all search “and “no browse”. This definitely is not how we imagine a library to be. Since a Yahoo directory has more organization to it, it may be considered a digital library of URLs (though it seems better off as an index), but not a Yahoo search engine. To be more specific, I would expect a digital library to contain the full text as documentary units and not simply pointers or URLs as the documentary units. Another major issue while defining would be the technology. If an organization puts up a library accessible only within the organization, it would still fall under my definition of a digital library. This definition has nothing to do with internet. Internet is simply a way to access the digital library. A digital library which is inaccessible via the internet would still qualify to be called as such as long as the contents are in electronic form; the contents are organized and are accessible via some electronic medium.

I think digital libraries have a bright future. Since print mediums often go out of print and become unavailable easily, digital libraries provide an excellent assurance of their availability. In my opinion, digital libraries do save a lot of space and maintenance is easier. They have a flip side too, in terms of digital space and backups, but with the current trends of information technology, this seems do-able.

Currently digital libraries are in their nascent stage and practically the internet is disorganized. If this were to be organized, then we could end up having the biggest digital library ever at our fingertips .Attempts have already begun with taxonomies and tagging etc, but we need to have standard rules like AACR for the internet. Though that kind of ‘strictness’ may wean off the novelty and zeal off from the internet, but with the advent of newer trends everyday, like web2.0 etc we better get the system organized to avoid future chaos.
Digital libraries have also opened up truly interdisciplinary job functions and here I support the concept that researchers from interdisciplinary areas are required to harness the potential of this untamed resource.

Information Seeking In Context

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Information Seeking

The need for information seeking can be attributed not only to human behavior but also values that people attach to their practices and to the means, and technologies available for locating information. Information can be acquired by searching for known objects or by accident or chance. Certain information is often not describable, but can be perceived via other faculties of senses. Kuhlthau(1), regards the information seeking as a sequential set of intellectual stages. According to her, Initiation occurs when one becomes aware of lack of knowledge. Next follows the process of selection in which a general area is identified and there exist initial uncertainties. After this the exploration stage begins when inconsistencies are found and confusion comes into being and doubt increases. Formulation follows as the next stage when the focus of problem is grasped and uncertainty decreases. After this it is the collection phase when pertinent information is gathered and the interest in the subject deepens. A final conclusion is made through presentation when search is completed with new understanding.
Information seeking has been attributed to the macro level trends such as institutional trends and information technology. Sometimes, the very abundance of information makes it crucial for information seekers to decide what information is enough to meet their objectives. The systematic approach to the information seeking process lies in the context based information seeking.

Information Seeking In Context

In practice, one cannot seek information outside reality. There is always a zone of relevance or a context in which it is relevant. The context may be separable scientifically, but not in practice. For example a person calls a bank for information on a loan. The information without any relevance to context could be- “A person with good credit usually gets a loan”. However as we all know, the bank will not give out this answer and will get more information from the caller- about the purpose of the loan, the amount of the loan, his/her credit history and many other things. The information that the bank gives now, will be more specific and context based.
Information seeking is the major means by which an individual is related to the information with the context in which it is often embedded. Context may be better described as the time of information seeking and the place where it occurs.

Time as a variable of information seeking in context.

Savolainen(2) described three major approaches with regards to time. (a) time as a fundamental attribute of situation or context of information seeking, (b) time as qualifier of access to information, and (c) time as an indicator of the information-seeking process.
Savolainen(2) explained that expressions such as “dynamic” and “reiterative” qualify the temporal factor of the context. Time factor also qualifies accessibility when information is accessed in hurry. Temporal issues are also involved when information seeking and judgment changes as time passes. He says that, “Ultimately, temporal factors become real as constitutive elements of contexts only through human practices. Lack of time becomes an important barrier in information seeking. Bates(3) through her berry picking model, indicated that information is picked one bit at a time. Time becomes a limiting factor in information seeking here, as only a bit of information is picked. Temporal factors routinely manifest themselves in the information seeking through media habits. Information-seeking behavior is also affected by future tasks and anticipated needs.

Space as a variable of Information seeking in context.

Savolainen(4) suggested three different approaches for spatial factors (a) physical places such as public libraries where information (sources) are available and accessible,(b) physical distance between information seeker and information sources, and (c)the ways in which information seekers perceive the information sources to be useful in relation to each other. The influence or constraint on information seeking, owing to distance and proximity, has been supported by references to spatial factors of information seeking by referring to the physical environment of information seeking.

The boundary conditions of information seeking.

When spatio-temporal factors are discussed together, it becomes extremely difficult to capture the dynamic nature of information seeking. To understand the process more, the boundary conditions or the end points of the information seeking process need to be understood.
An individual’s “information field” provides the starting point for information seeking. Typically an individual’s local information field consists of an interpersonal communication network and information terminals. Ending an information-seeking episode often involves the act of making sense of the situation or resolving the problem with information gathered for that purpose .Thus; the discussion on context based information seeking may be summarized as follows. The researcher finds himself or herself in a situation, which is a simply a set of circumstances, from which an information need arises. Context based information seeking ends at the crossroads where this researcher and the matching data intersect.
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1.Kuhlthau, C.C. (1991). Inside the search process:
Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science.42, 361-371.

2.Bates, M. J. (1989). The design of browsing and berry-
picking techniques for online search interface. Online Review, 13, 407-424.

3.Savolainen, R.(2006). Time as a context of information
seeking. Library & Information Science Research. 28(1).110-127.

4.Savolainen, R.(2006). Spatial factors as contextual
qualifiers of information seeking. Information Research. 11(4).Retrieved April 6, 2008 from http://informationr.net/ir/11-4/paper261.html

.

Information Challenge : Google Vs. Academic Databases

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:18:00 +0000

Until about a decade back, the academic databases dominated and ruled the information retrieval arena. Upon the advent of the World Wide Web, search engines such as Google have taken over a major chunk of the monopoly represented by the academic databases. However, are the two, really a competition to each other, or are they complimentary? For the benefit of the searchers and the information field;is there a likely point of convergence?

The proponents of the academic databases who are against Google claim that information googled out is similar to junk food and leads to ‘information obesity’. While it may be true that vanity often drives the internet, this argument has been refuted by researchers who have quantitatively demonstrated that Google has a precision which is slightly better than the academic databases and the accessibility is far more superior to the latter(1). The only area where Google seems to suffer is quality of the intellectual content.Only a fraction of all journals exist on web owing to extensive costs of copyrights in an attempt to digitize them.

The greatest strength of the research is that, there is an acceptance of the fact that Google has indeed come so far enough, as to face all the academic databases alone. Documents retrieved form Google have a better relevance of the topic and with the advent of Google Scholar , access to scholarly articles is much more easier as compared to the academic databases.

An attempt needs to be made to understand the psyche of the user, as to why he or she prefers Google to the academic databases, that is if they had any preference. It is perhaps, the user friendly interface of Google that draws users, even though, when they are aware, that higher quality information may be available through the academic databases.

Instead of viewing Google as a threat, an amicable approach can be taken, and a point of convergence can be reached. Some of the Information Stalwarts such as ProQuest, OCLC, and Reed Business Information now have some of their information indexed by Google, although access to full texts still typically requires a license. Nearly 100 percent of the Institute of Physics (IoP) content is indexed by Google as well as 90 percent of Emerald Insight publications. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) took a different route and built a new web site that is web crawler friendly .(2)

Thus convergence has already started taking place. Many prominent databases like Dialog now offer a web version.

There is an invisible web that exists other than the visible world wide web .Further research should be taken up, as to how the information from the invisible web can be ‘googled out’. In other words, to find a solution to make the contents of the invisible web, more accessible, in a user amiable manner.
Another dimension can be added to the research, if the social context of the user is known. Social context can be gathered from the user himself, by allowing personalizing, the academic databases. This personalization, usually draws users to a platform which they feel ‘knows’ them.

Despite academic databases having their own shortcomings, Google is not enough, at least not as of now. The two systems should learn more from each other, and together emerge as an information retrieval system, which is not only of high quality, but also easily accessible and has an ergonomic interface.

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1. Brophy, J. & Bawden, D. (2005). Is Google enough? Comparison of an internet
search engine with academic library resources. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 57(6), 498-512

2. Tenopir, C. (2004).Is Google the competition. Library Journal.129 (6).30-30

Balanced Approach to Push and Pull Web Marketing:When it is Good and When it is Not.

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:49:00 +0000

Businesses need markets and markets thrive on businesses. However, does either of them dominate the equation? Is too much marketing being pushy or is too little of it suicidal for the product?

A very interesting concept has arrived which is the ambient advertising and which has gone mainstream. Some web marketing strategies are more ‘pull’ driven whereas the others present a ‘push' driven marketing approach. Some are of the opinion that there exists a middle path implying that an equal amount of pull and push are necessary for effective marketing. The ‘push and pull are interdependent opposites that cannot exist alone’ .Too much push carries the risk of alienating the user .Too much pull runs the risk, of consumers not knowing the availability of the product, and hence, having a vague idea about product existence.

The weakness of this model lies in the absence of the SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis. A perfect instance, would be when certain terms used to push a certain website A (strength for website A), when entered in a search engine, pulls a competitor’s website B (opportunity for website B and threat for website A).

Another weakness of the model is that it does not consider the product lifecycle stages. A product or a website which has been recently launched may actually need more push than pull. A product which is in its maturity may be better off with a pull strategy. Balance may not always be the key to successful marketing, for certain stages of the product lifecycle.

Although, the model has some flaws from a strategic marketing perspective, it still has relevance to certain contexts. An already established business like Google, may actually benefit from the balanced approach model. Google does not need to push the search engine as it has already created a pull in the market. However, it continues to push its brand name through innovative technologies like Google checkout. A concept such as Google checkout flourishes only, because it has the Google brand name attached to it. If this concept were to be used by a new merchant, balanced push- pull approach would not be successful.

Another application is for organizations, or websites, which have no literally no competition in the market, or is definitely deemed more reliable than others. .An IRS website offering tax advice is a good example. This website does not need to push itself through marketing, as the user is guaranteed to find the most reliable tax advice here, and is automatically pulled to their site. The IRS website simply needs to push itself through search engines .A balance is achieved here, owing to no competition.

Further research in the design of context aware websites would lend support to the balanced approach model. Context-aware websites have already been selected or pulled by their users for different reasons and been personalized or made context aware through a different system.. Thereafter, they can continue to push new concepts, new products and new ideas. Unlike spam, which alienates the user, this kind of context aware design, is of interest to the user. The information systems, which function in various languages could be extended to include colloquial terminologies.

Reducing Spam and Organzing emails

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:27:00 +0000

Do you find yourself overwhelmed by too many emails in your inbox and you are not able to find that one particular email? Or have you lately developed a feeling for dumping that old email address and creating a new account, because the old one is filled with more spam and less content? Try the following for minimizing spam and better e-organization.

1. Always open an account with only trusted internet email providers like Yahoo or Google. Many of the lesser known providers may actually sell your address to spam senders.

2. Organize your email into folders. If possible set up filters. At least the load is organized into sections so that you deal with the emails in their priority.

3. When you open your email, mark all the junk as JUNK and report the spam immediately. If you are using a good email provider, the next time the sender of the email sends another spam; it doesn’t bother you by reaching your inbox and the email lands straight in the spam folder.

4. As you as you read an email, get done with it- reply and then file it, or trash it or block the sender, but take some action.

5. From time to time, clear all your folders and especially your SENT folder. Most of the times, you get a copy of what you sent when the recipient replies.

6. If you get a lot of emails, then you may consider switching the format of your email content from HTML to plain text .This will decrease email download time and also save some space.

7. Whenever you pass your email address to someone, make sure you add the person as a contact in your email contacts ,so that the email sent by this new person doesn’t not land up in spam folder.

8. Whenever you send an eCard or an audio/video clip from a website to someone, always uncheck the box which says that you are willing to accept their promotions, offers etc.

9. Never signup for services which promise to give you the gift cards of prominent stores and in, lieu want you to signup for their partner services. Such services generate more spam and provide very less actual service.

Most important thing is to remember that replying or responding to spam generates more spam so never ever do that.

Knowledge Management in the Organizational Context

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Knowledge management in the Organizational context deals with understanding how information evolves .To understand knowledge management., we need to understand what is knowledge?

What is Knowledge ?
Knowledge is the awareness of what one knows. It is the acquaintance with or understanding a subject. In other words, it is the information acquired through learning.It is the enriched information with insights in context and the dynamic-energy and change inherent in nature. Knowledge is constantly changing through experience and learning .It is a process intertwined with human activity and experience

The characteristic of knowledge is that it is dynamic and intangible. Knowledge comes exclusively from an intellectual activity. It is a sensory experience and physical activity which involves conversations and social exchanges and encompasses the entire consciousness.

What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge itself cannot be managed.-The artifacts which represent knowledge are managed. Representation must reflect the action of knowledge acquisition. Artifact management involves the management of tacit(implicit) knowledge, explicit knowledge and personal knowledge. Without personal involvement, knowledge management has very little value. A big disadvantage is if the knowledge is incorrect or not used properly

Knowledge Management is Difficult owing to the emotions, which are intertwined with information seeking affect the ways in which we think and know. By separating the mind, body, and spirit in defining knowledge and recognizing only the intellectual dimension ignores essential aspects of human nature, presents a fractured picture of knowledge.
Although technology departments may have made many aspects of knowledge sharing possible, it is a mistake to equate Knowledge Management with a technology tool.

The organizational Context

Knowledge artifacts in Organizational Context can involve the following
• Designs
• Meeting minutes
• Records of conversations
• Handbooks/manuals/reports
• Audio/visual content
• Personal lessons learned

Knowledge Management in an organization is based on an understanding of knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. It needs to be understood that
A knowledge artifact (thing) is managed - not knowledge itself. Additionally,
knowledge stored must be current and up-to-date and knowledge managers must rely on human intelligence and energy and not just technology.

Dynamic knowledge creation occurs during socialization when internal (implict/tacit) knowledge is made external (explicit).Organizational knowledge-processes are in place to transform tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, allowing others in the organization to use it for decision making. Tacit knowledge(internal)is implicit unspoken and hidden(personal), explicit knowledge(external)-explained,recorded, or documented.

Strategies to effectively implement knowledge management

Sharing of knowledge representation artifacts and this sharing must be mutual between employee and employer. Mutual trust needs to exist between employee and employer. Organizations can effectively manage knowledge by creating opportunities for knowledge representation. The knowledge stores should have a certain quality.Technology can be helpful to maintain this quality.

If information professionals and others truly see the value in active knowledge sharing and have the desire for knowledge exchange to be a lasting and meaningful way to work, then the management of knowledge will need to be as dynamic and process-oriented as knowledge itself.

If you need help with knowledge management in your business or organization, contact me at infocounselor@gmail.com

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Implicit /Tacit
Subconscious
 Perceived
 Unaware
 Difficult to articulate/unspoken
 Experience based
 Transferred through Conversation
 Embedded in stories/narratives
 Escapes Observation
 Held within self
 Personal
 Insights and understandings
 Judgments
 Assumptions

Explicit

 Formally articulated
 Elucidated
 Aware
 Fixed
 Codified
 Documented (written,taped,recorded, digitized etc)
 Stored in repositories (databases, files etc)
 Can be viewed or heard
 Shared with others
 Organizational
 Pushed or pulled
 Reports, lessons learnt

Building Your Personal Library

suchitrakamath@gmail.com (Info Counselor) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:52:00 +0000

If you are a book lover, you know how difficult it is to resist the temptation of buying new books. Even more difficult is to get rid of the books when you are done reading them. If you are like me, you want to preserve all books in an orderly fashion so that you have easy access to them whenever you (or anybody else) needs to access them. Today’s tips cover the topic on how to make a book library of your own with a call number which is like any other library.

First rule: Your collection should be reasonable and not be as big as a university library. Second rule: Your collection should be wide and not specialized. So what this means that if you’re an IT pro and there are only IT books in your bookshelf, then probably this is not best classification system for you.

Assuming that both the above mentioned rules are followed,we begin with building our library.

What you need is
1. Pair of scissors
2. Adhesive tape
3. White paper

The above materials are needed to create the spine labels which you often find on the spinal column of the books in library. You are welcome to buy ready made spine labels from stationary shops.

Creating the label: Cut out thin strips of rectangular pieces of paper( 1cm width and 4 cm length)

Now write the numbers (see tables below) and write them on the labels and paste them on the spine of the book. Arrange all your books by increasing order of number.

Classification : Now the main classification system, since the books are yours, it is assumed that you have read them and know the subject content. Classify them according to the following table

000 Computers, information & general works
100 Philosophy & psychology
200 Religion & philosophy of religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Arts & recreation
800 Literature
900 History & geography

Within the main classes there will be further smaller divisions which could be looked up clicking on the individual classes. For example a book on World history could be given a number like 909 and a book on costume and personal appearance will find its number in 390. Of course your collection may be a little more specialized and you may have to go further in the numbers. If you need help with that please send me a personal email at infocounselor@gmail.com

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Class 000 is the most general class, and is used for works not limited to any one specific discipline, e.g., encyclopedias, newspapers, general periodicals. This class is also used for certain specialized disciplines that deal with knowledge and information, e.g., computer science, library and information science, journalism. Each of the other main classes (100–900) comprises a major discipline or group of related disciplines.

000 Generalities
001 Knowledge
002 The book
003 Systems
004 Data processing Computer science
005 Computer programming, programs, data
006 Special computer methods
010 – 019 Bibliography
020 – 029 Library & information sciences
030 - 039 General encyclopedic works by language or nationality
040 -- 049 Not assigned or no longer used
050 – 059 General serials & their indexes by language or nationality
060 – 069 General organization & Museology by nationality
070 - 079 News media, journalism, publishing by nationality
080 - 089 General collections
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Class 100 Philosophy & psychology
100 – 109 Philosophy & psychology
110 – 119 Metaphysics, Ontology, Cosmology (Philosophy of nature)
120 – 129 Epistemology, causation, humankind
130 – 139 Paranormal phenomena, Occult, Parapsychology
140 – 149 Specific philosophical schools
150 – 159 Psychology
160 – 169 Logic, Induction, Deduction
170 – 179 Ethics (Moral philosophy)
180 – 189 Ancient, medieval, Oriental philosophy
190 - 199 Modern Western philosophy
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Class 200 Religion and philosophy of religion
Both deal with the ultimate nature of existence and relationships, but religion treats these topics within the context of revelation, deity, and worship.
200 Religion
201 - 209 Christianity
210 - 219 Natural theology, Concepts of God, Creation
220 – 229 Bible
221 Old Testament
230 – 239 Christian theology, God
240 - 249 Christian moral & devotional theology
250 – 259 Christian orders & local church
260 – 269 Christian social theology
270 – 279 Christian church history
280 – 289 Christian denominations & sects
290 Other & comparative religions
291 Comparative religion
292 Classical (Greek & Roman) religion
293 Germanic religion
294 Religions of Indic origin
295 Zoroastrianism (Mazdaism, Parseeism)
296 Judaism
297 Islam & religions originating in it
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Class 300 Social sciences

Includes sociology, anthropology, statistics, political science, economics, law, public administration, social problems and services, education, commerce, communications, transportation, and customs.

300 Social sciences, Sociology & anthropology 310 – 319 General statistics
320 – 329 Political science
330 – 339 Economics
340 – 349 Law
350 – 359 Public administration
360 – 369 Social services; association
370 – 379 Education
380 – 389 Commerce, communications, transport
390 Customs, etiquette, folklore, Costume & personal appearance
392 Customs of life cycle & domestic life
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Class 400 Language, linguistics, and specific languages
Literature, which is arranged by language, is found in 800.

400 – 409 Language, Dictionaries & encyclopedias
410 – 419 Linguistics, Writing systems, Etymology
420 English & Old English
421- 429 English writing system & phonology
430 – 439 Germanic languages German
440 – 449 Romance languages French
450 - 459 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romantic
460 – 469 Spanish & Portugese languages
470 – 479 Italic Latin
480 – 489 Hellenic languages Classical Greek
490 Other languages, Celtic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages Semitic,
Ural-Altaic, Paleosiberian, Dravidian
499 Miscellaneous languages
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Class 500 Natural sciences and mathematics

The natural sciences describe and attempt to explain the world in which we live.

500 Natural sciences & mathematics
501- 509 Philosophy & theory of science
510 Mathematics
520 – 529 Astronomy & allied sciences
530 – 539 Physics, Light, heat, electricity
540 – 549 Chemistry & allied sciences
550 – 559 Earth sciences
560 – 569 Paleontology Paleozoology
570 – 579 Life sciences, anthropology, biology, genetics
580 – 589 Botanical sciences, Botany, Spermatophyta (Seed-bearing plants)
590 – 599 Zoological sciences
591 Zoology
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Class 600 Technology
Technology consists of utilizing the sciences to harness the natural world and its resources for the benefit of humankind.
600 Technology (Applied sciences)
601- 619 Medical sciences Medicine
620 – 629 Engineering & allied operations
630 – 639 Agriculture
640 – 649 Home economics & family living, Food & drink, Child rearing & home care of sick
650 – 659 Management & auxiliary services
660 – 669 Chemical engineering, Explosives, fuels technology, food technology, cleaning technology
670 Manufacturing
671 Metalworking & metal products
672 Iron, steel, other iron alloys
673 Nonferrous metals
674 Lumber processing, wood products, cork
675 Leather & fur processing
676 Pulp & paper technology
677 Textiles
678 Elastomers & elastomer products
679 Other products of specific materials
680 Manufacture for specific uses
681 Precision instruments & other devices
682 Small forge work (Blacksmithing)
683 Hardware & household appliances
684 Furnishings & home workshops
685 Leather, fur, related products
686 Printing & related activities
687 Clothing
690 Buildings
691 Building materials
692 Auxiliary construction practices
693 Specific materials & purposes
694 Wood construction Carpentry
695 Roof covering
696 Utilities
697 Heating, ventilating, air-conditioning
698 Detail finishing
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Class 700 The arts and recreation

701 Philosophy & theory
702 Miscellany
703 Dictionaries & encyclopedias
704 Special topics
705 Serial publications
706 Organizations & management
707 Education, research, related topics
708 Galleries, museums, private collections
709 Historical, areas, persons treatment
710 Civic & landscape art
711 Area planning (Civic art)
712 Landscape architecture
713 Landscape architecture of trafficways
714 Water features
715 Woody plants
716 Herbaceous plants
717 Structures
718 Landscape design of cemeteries
719 Natural landscapes
720-9 Architecture
730-9 Plastic arts Sculpture

739 Art metalwork
740 Drawing & decorative arts
741 Drawing & drawings
742 Perspective
743 Drawing & drawings by subject
745 Decorative arts
746 Textile arts
747 Interior decoration
748 Glass
749 Furniture & accessories
750-9 Painting & paintings
751 Techniques, equipment
760 Graphic arts Printmaking & prints
761 Relief processes (Block printing)
763 Lithographic (Planographic) processes
764 Chromolithography & serigraphy
765 Metal engraving
766 Mezzotinting & related processes
767 Etching & drypoint
768 Not assigned or no longer used
769 Prints
770 Photography & photographs
771 Techniques, equipment, materials
772 Metallic salt processes
773 Pigment processes of printing
774 Holography
778 Fields & kinds of photography
779 Photographs
780 Music
781 General principles & musical forms
782 Vocal music
783 Music for single voices The voice
784 Instruments & Instrumental ensembles
785 Chamber music
786 Keyboard & other instruments
787 Stringed instruments (Chordophones)
788 Wind instruments (Aerophones)
790 Recreational & performing arts
791 Public performances
792 Stage presentations
793 Indoor games & amusements
794 Indoor games of skill
795 Games of chance
796 Athletic & outdoor sports & games
797 Aquatic & air sports
798 Equestrian sports & animal racing
799 Fishing, hunting, shooting
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Class 800 Literature, and Rhetoric
Includes prose, poetry, drama, etc.
Folk literature is classed with customs in 300.
801- 809 Philosophy & theory
810 – 819 American literature in English
820 – 829 English & Old English literatures
830 – 839 Literatures of Germanic languages
840 - 349 Literatures of Romance languages
850 – 859 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic
860 – 869 Spanish & Portuguese literatures
870 – 879 Italic literatures Latin
880 – 889 Hellenic literatures Classical Greek
890 – 899 Literatures of other languages
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Class 900 Geography & History
When a work is a story of events that have transpired or an account of existing conditions in a particular place or region, it is classed in 900. A history of a specific subject is classed with the subject.

901 - 908 Philosophy & theory
909 World history
910 -919 Geography & travel, Historical geography
920 – 929 Biography, genealogy, insignia
930 – 939 History of ancient world
940 - 949 General history of Europe
950 – 950 General history of Asia Far East
960 – 969 General history of Africa
970 – 979 General history of North America
990 - 998 General history of other areas
999 Extraterrestrial worlds
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