LHTN, , vol. 30, n° 3, March 2013

 

Google This!

More related to libraries and librarians is an interesting book written recently by Terry Ballard and published by Chandos Publishing: “Google This!: Putting Google and Other Social Media Sites to Work for Your Library”. Terry Ballard is currently the Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems at the Mendik Library of the New YorkLawSchool in Lower Manhattan. He has been a library professional since 1969. Since receiving his library degree in 1989 Ballard has worked in New York and Connecticut as an academic librarian and adjunct professor in information science. He is the author of INNOPAC: A reference guide to the system, as well as more than 50 articles in library journals. He has also presented at more than a dozen national and international conferences.

He defines himself as “a semi-retired librarian who lives on Long Island. I grew up in Phoenix and the Philippines, and moved to New York in 1990. No matter what job I'm in, I refer to myself as "cursed with creativity." When your job entails designing web programs to get information to people efficiently, being creative isn't a handicap. My biggest contribution has been DRAGNET, an adaptation of Google Custom Search that simultaneously searches the 100 best free legal websites and returns results in less than a second. As for personality, I'm a classic introvert - if I'm at a party and don't know anyone, I'll keep silent unless somebody talks to me first. I'm an active photographer (pbase and flickr) and an active YouTuber. I just wrote a book called "Google this: Putting Google and other social media sites to work for your library," published by Chandos Publishing in Oxfordshire. The book is distributed by ALA Editions in America. More information at www.googlethisforlibraries.com ! »

Apart from the individuals, many libraries, archives, information centers and museums work with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and co to deliver information to their users. Libraries often adopt a Google search field for their catalogue. But many have not. Google This! describes the variety of free - or nearly free options - for social media such as:

-          provides step-by-step instructions for creating iGoogle gadgets in XML, iGoogle themes, Google Maps with community locations, and Google Earth links to archived library data ;

-          describes the full process for creating a Google Custom Search engine.

It shows – and this is particularly appreciated by librarians - how libraries are adapting, from the Library of Congress to university library like Rudgers in New jersey to small public libraries. The author presents conversations with social media innovators to show how their experience can create success for your institution’s library. Chapters cover important aspects of social media for libraries including: how they relate to the internet; web services such as Google Custom Search, Facebook and Twitter, Flickr, iGoogle, and more; electronic books; discovery platforms; and mobile applications.

Loriene Roy (ALA President, 2007-2008) writes :“At last, a book that helps to understand and apply the tools that the techno-savvy are using…This book is your next step in continuing your education and retooling to prepare for the ensuing and unabating information tsunami.“ And Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cyberlibrarians Can Save Us All says : „His sense of adventure, his clarity of thought and expression, and most of all his Chandos Information Professional Series delight in discovering creative solutions to the enduring problems of order and access make Google This! something rare, a useful manual that is also a pleasure to read. This era is made for adventurous librarians, who gather resources from far and wide, take them for test runs, calibrate their accuracy and reliability, and then hand the keys to the rest of us. Lucky us! ».

Terry adds: “As I had envisioned originally, I found dozens of librarians who had done great things with social media and got their stories. Whenever possible, I added cookbook-like instructions for creating things like IGoogle gadgets or captioning videos in YouTube. Being a longtime quote collector, I was able to find an apt quote for every chapter beginning. In the end, I see this as the capstone of a career that has gone on for nearly 50 years.”

According to me, Google this! is of high value for librarians or museum professionals interested in developing a greater web and social media presence for their institution. It will provides them with material to justify these actions to directors and administrative boards.

Competitive Advantage with Social Media

Another good book for libraries and companies in general is Scott Browns’ “Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Advantage using Social Media Tools” (Chandos Publishing Social Media Series N° 1). Sorry for choosing a second book by this publisher, but I must say that what Chandos publishes is very closed to my own interests…and yours if you read this column.

Scott Brown is owner of Social Information Group (http://www.socialinformationgroup.com), an independent consulting and information practice focused on the effective use of social networking tools for finding and sharing information. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, government and non-profit organisations, and individuals to help them understand and effectively use these tools. He has over 20 years experience in public, academic and corporate libraries. Most recently, he was a Senior Information Specialist with Sun Microsystems, providing strategic research services and competitive intelligence information for many groups across the company. He is a founding Board member of the SLA CI Division, and adjunct faculty at San Jose State University in California and University of Denver in Colorado, USA. He received his library degree from San Jose State University in California, USA, in 1999.

What is this book about? Scott Brown has written a book which specifically explores business and competitive information and approaches using social media tools. It is written by a highly knowledgeable and long-time practitioner and researcher in the field and provides both practical and strategic search approaches, so that the skills learned will be readily transferable to other social tools, and to social tools as they evolve.

Information available through ‘traditional’ business and competitive resources can be complimented by information gained through social media tools. Social Information is a must-have book for competitive and business researchers in any discipline including librarians, information professionals, intelligence analysts, students and marketing personnel, and will explore how more ‘traditional’ resources can be complimented by social media tools. The book outlines different categories of social tools, competitive and business applications of these tools, and provides example searches with screenshots.

The book provides concrete search examples, as well as strategies and approaches for searching social tools that may be available today or that may emerge tomorrow. Readers will learn ways to quickly develop new search strategies as new tools and features emerge. The future of social tools and information, and the lasting impact that these tools have had on how information plays a part in our lives, our businesses and our careers is discussed. The title is structured into seven chapters, covering: the impact of social media, and the approach of the book; a brief history of business and competitive information and the rise of social tools; blogs and microblogs; video, audio and images; social search engines; and the future of social information.

Apart from new books, the topic of social media is now taken by the film industry.

The Intership, a movie by Shawn Levy

Internet and more recently social media have influenced Hollywood and the film industry – for the best and the worst…: among some, let’s think to “The Matrix”, “Me and You and Everyone We Know”, “”Hackers”, “The Net”, “You have got mail” and last but least “The Social Network” about the beginning of Facebook and Mark Zuckerbergs’. One of the most recent is “The Internship” a movie by Shawn Levy about Google…

Google is one of the best-known companies in the world. The company has a reputation for having a quite special working atmosphere. The photos on the web and the urban legends feed this fantasy, but you can discover the backstage of Google thanks to the film “The Internship”. Shot within the offices of Google in Mountain View, “The Internship” is a comedy starring two interns overtaken by new technologies and hired the firm. Two salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment. With Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrel, the humor is schoolboy and some situations are quite absurd, that is true.

Therefore, Google gave its agreement for the film, which allows us to explore the backstage of the famous firm… and this aspect is probably the most interesting.

Lets have a look to the trailer and decide yourself if you want to see it or not !

See the trailer: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234155/