Emerald Group Publishing of the United Kingdom has selected Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) Associate Professor R. David Lankes’ paper, “Credibility on the Internet: Shifting from Authority to Reliability,” as a 2009 Outstanding Paper Award Winner. Emerald is the world’s leading scholarly publisher in business and management, publishing more than 190 journals as well [...]

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:42:40 +0000

If the long explanation of Reference Extract is, well, too long, here is some help. The first is a 3 minute video on the basic concept of the project: Reference Extract: Concept from R. David Lankes on Vimeo. The second is a fast overview of the project’s proposed architecture: Reference Extract in 4 Minutes from R. David Lankes [...]

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:55:46 +0000

As we proceed to seek funding for the building of Reference Extract, we are seeking your support. Below is a video overview of Reference Extract (available in high definition too) and the concept of a credibility engine. Below that is a generic template for a letter of support. Reference Extract: Call for Support from R. David [...]

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:00:52 +0000

Here is a screencast on how I do “talking head” screencasts on my Mac. I am just amazed how increasingly easy it is for a person and a computer to make pretty polished productions these days. by the way,someone asked me if I came up with the term (hence my comment in the opening of the [...]

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:10:43 +0000

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 7 November 2008—Researchers and developers from OCLC, the world’s largest library cooperative, and the information schools of Syracuse University and the University of Washington today announced their participation in a new international effort to explore the creation of a more credible Web search experience based on input from librarians around the globe. [...]

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:35:52 +0000

Jeffrey M Stanton, Elizabeth D Liddy, Derrick Cogburn, Megan Oakleaf, and R. David Lankes are co-PI’s on a new NSF grants entitled: CI-Facilitators: Information Architects across the STEM Disciplines. Paul Gandel, SU’s CIO also deserves a large portion of the credit for the grant. What does this have to do with participatory librarianship? Well, read the [...]

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:12:43 +0000

Today someone asked me about how the new LC report (http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/news/draft-report.html) meshed with participatory library concepts. Much of this is very compatible: user create materials, wider cooperation, distribution of tasks, etc. However, a central tenant of participatory is the focus on conversation and how artifacts only make sense in the context of someone’ use. Perhaps it [...]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:04:54 +0000

So things on the blog have been a bit slow because I have been pushing out a raft of articles related to participatory librarianship. Within the next few months the following articles should start changing from “forthcoming” to actual dates and issue numbers: “Virtual Reference to Participatory Librarianship: Expanding the Conversation” Lankes, R. David (forthcoming). ASIS&T [...]

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:07:10 +0000

So, it has been a long summer. Sorry fort he delay in news. I’m just starting my sabbatical, so I had to get a lot of stuff out of the way first. Much more news should now be coming, starting with: We’ve now put up a new participatory version of the technology draft “Participatory Networks: The [...]

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:14:30 +0000

Yesterday (a day late…sue me I got a new iPhone and had to play) we changed the Participatory Networks tech brief page to a participatory librarianship test bed site. It’s not very interactive…yet. Take a look and get involved. Below is the video introduction for the site posted on YouTube.

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:22:12 +0000

I was asked several times at ALA this past week if I had abandoned virtual reference? Was virtual reference passe? Is it dying? Do I think “been there, done that?” In a word — no. I remain an advocate for virtual reference and there are still a few virtual reference related publication in the pipeline. [...]

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:06:36 +0000

I just received official word that I have been granted a sabbatical for the 2007-2008 academic year. The purpose of the sabbatical is to further develop the concept of participatory librarianship and the recommendations that came out of the Participatory Networks technology brief. I’ll have some more details on my planned activities for the year [...]

Tue, 22 May 2007 02:30:18 +0000

Isn’t it amazing how you can run across kindred spirits separated by time. I just ran across an article by Joan Bechtel called “Conversation, a New Paradigm for Librarianship?” written in 1986 (full citation below). It is a great read. I see a lot of crossover ideas here with our paper on Participatory Librarianship. She [...]

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 18:21:12 +0000

I’ve tried Meebo, but wasn’t impressed. Great to IM through a web interface, but you have to be logged onto Meebo. I saw folks talking about Plugoo on Dig_Ref and thought I’d take a look. Seems very cool. It connects a web based IM to my IM client (adium) on my desktop through AIM (or [...]

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:22:23 +0000

The final version of the ALA-OITP/IIS technology brief “Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation” has now been posted online at: http://iis.syr.edu/projects/PNOpen/ The site includes an executive summary, a PDF version of the final paper, and an experimental participatory interface to the document. Comments always welcome. From the document: Knowledge is created through conversation. Conversations can take place between [...]

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:58:30 +0000

The final version of the Participatory Network Technology Brief (http://iis.syr.edu/projects/PNOpen/) developed for the ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy will be releassed at ALA Midwinter. The full brief will be available via the web. Many, many thanks to those who took the time to comment on the first public draft. There was an active period of [...]

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:24:00 +0000

Today the MacArthur Foundation is rolling out a big push into digital media and youth. They are working hard to create a field in the area with researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines. I’ve been a part of this effort as an author for their MacArthur book series devoted to the topic [...]

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 13:19:39 +0000

The public is invited to provide input and feedback on the latest draft of “Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation,” a technology brief being written for the ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. Read the draft, join the online discussion, or even WIKI the draft at: http://iis.syr.edu/projects/PNOpen/ You will also find more information at the site on [...]

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:53:38 +0000

The rise of new web applications that both facilitate and depend upon user contributions has exposed a number of serious issues that today’s libraries must face. These web services allow users to easily: * build digital collections (YouTube, FLIKR); * join and create social networks (or digital collections of [...]

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:07:53 +0000

Lankes has been nominated to the National Academies’ National Research Council policy study “Transportation Information Manage- ment: A Strategy for the Future.â€? From the National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s 2007 outlook: The scope of the current National Research Council study is to “…provide strategic advice to the federal government and the states regarding a sustainable administrative structure [...]

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:35:36 +0000

The new Commons project has started to get some press. There was a nice write up in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s the blog link, but the actual article is behind a password: http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/03/2006032901t.htm Ars Technica also write it up: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060330-6492.html

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:49:27 +0000

No, not that MacArthur grant…this one funds the creation and the “Credibility Commons” which includes Reference Extract. the Credibility Commons is an experimental environment enabling individuals the opportunity to try out different approaches to improving access to credible information on the World Wide Web. Tools will be provided to researchers as well as the public, allowing [...]

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:55:21 +0000

I’ve been playing with inductive clustering of digital reference questions. To this point I’ve been visualizing this in 2D, but I have been keeping track of three dimensions. I’ve discovered a great little development application distributes as part of it’s developer package called Quartz Composer. It uses a visual programming language to directly tap into Apple’s [...]

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:24:09 +0000

A while back I posted on a project called IKE (Inductive Knowledge Engine) that uses complexity theory to inductively organize digital reference knowledge bases. I’ve been back at work with it, doing a substantial rewrite of the underlying system. I’ve also spruced up the look of the IKE output (including a cloud view, but that’s [...]

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:05:25 +0000

First the facts, then the plea, then the larger picture. Facts: I’ve put up a website to allow the VRD community to add events, articles, people and other to an interactive timeline (surrounding the VRD conferences…more on that later). It is anonymous and pretty informal. People go to the timeline at http://askeric.syr.edu/VRDTimeline and they can add (or [...]

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:21:11 +0000

In the spirit of sharing ideas early (even before they are fully developed), I’m posting a prospectus I put together on building an Open Infrastructure for the Greater Good. Maybe it already exists and I just don’t know about it, that’s why I put them into the public realm for comment. I think it is [...]

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 15:04:58 +0000

Cathy has good progress on refining the underlying database code on StoryStarters. We’re hoping to let it out for beta testing very soon (Monday). We’re also meeting on Thursday to talk about how we transform StoryStarters into a targeted digital reference system.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 15:34:43 +0000

Sorry for the long time lag. So as we are continuing our StoryStarter (Kathy is working on cleaning up the data structure, and revising the PHP code for a first public beta) we’ve been percolating an interesting idea. Once we’re done with the first beta of StoryStarters, we’ll take that code base an begin transforming [...]

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:48:46 +0000

We’re in the process of sprucing up the StoryStarters prototype for first beta. Cathy is working on the final database schema. The plan is once the database schema is in place we finish the StoryStarters beta. Then we take this code base and re-task it for OpenQA Builder (shh, but we’re working on a release for distribution [...]

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 01:30:49 +0000

If you were scratching your head over that last post about IKE (the Inductive Knowledge Engine) and that clustering, fear not. Here is an animation showing IKE in action. The dots you see scattered about are each Story Starter responses. They have been randomly scattered around a 100 x 100 graph. Each frame of [...]

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 15:24:51 +0000