Reading Report #5

After reading “The End of Privacy” article, it really made me think twice about the things that I will decide to post or make public on the internet in the future, more specifically on social-networking websites such as Facebook.  In today’s world, it takes no time at all for information to travel from one person to the next, which can be both good and bad.  Although the internet has become a necessity for most people because of its convenience, all it takes is the upload of one video, picture, or post from a person to completely ruin the reputation of another.   As discussed in the article, websites such as YouTube and Juicy Campus have had a detrimental effect on many people’s reputations, costing them job opportunities and even forcing some people into counseling.  The author uses a dramatic tone in convincing the reader that privacy no longer seems to be within our control because of how rapidly information is spread through the internet.

This article is a rude awakening for people that post their every move and thought on the internet for everyone to see, as their past could later come back to haunt them.  Although very true, it is scary to think that something a person did in college could have a huge impact on them getting a job later in life.  So many people view websites such as Facebook and MySpace as a fun way to stay in the know and connected with friends, and even though they were created for that purpose, they can still be harmful.  I do not agree completely with the article in that people’s privacy is no longer controllable, because I am aware that certain social-networking websites do have privacy settings that can make a person’s profile almost completely private if that is what they desire.  Even though compared to years ago, it is much harder to keep information private, there are still ways in which privacy can be achieved, and I just think people need to be more careful about the things they choose to share on the internet. 

Library Mobile Website Extra Credit

Before today, I had never accessed the library’s mobile website nor was I aware that the library offered a mobile website.  The phone I am currently using, and the one that I accessed this mobile website from, is the Apple iPhone 3G.  The first thing I noticed when accessing this website was that it took only a few seconds to load, which was very appealing, as some websites can take absolutely forever to finish loading.  The website comes up with eight different squares that a person is able to click on, each including a caption of what information that button contains.  I really liked this layout of the homepage because the user does not have to search around the website for a long time trying to find something if they are unfamiliar with it, but rather just has to look at the options that it gives a person to find specific information.  It contains almost any information that a person would want about the library, and more, including floor maps, and even directions and parking.  On this website, the user is able to look for articles, eResources, and even search the library catalog for books, videos, music, journals and more, just like on the regular library website.  One of the options that I found to be very helpful was the “computer availability” option because it tells a person how many PCs are available and how many are in use.  This is a great tool because a person would be able to view this information before walking all the way to the library, so if there were not very many computers available and they really needed to use one, they could go to another building instead.  Another great option is available under the help button, where someone is able to text the library and receive an answer to their question, since texting is the way in which so many people communicate today.  Since there are not very many study rooms, I think it would be very beneficial if the library had signup sheets for the study rooms and then on the mobile device had an option for where you could sign up for a time on your phone.  Overall, there was not anything that I did not like about this website, as I found it to be very useful and I was able to access everything that I would pretty much need to. 

News Report #5

“A New Search Engine, Where Less Is More”
Claire Cain Miller, The New York Times
10/31/2010
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/technology/01search.html?_r=1&ref=technology>

It is very often in which the public hears of a new and improved search engine trying to take on the popular and widely used search engine, Google, by offering more efficient ways to search the internet and better search results.  The goal of the most recent search engine named Blekko, co-founded by a man named Rich Skrenta, is to provide search results only from websites that are relevant to the search topic, while also being reliable, as to eliminate viruses and spam.  In doing this, Blekko explores about three billion websites, but only gives the best results, most relatable to the search topic.  When searching one of the topics that are most likely to come up with search results known for containing spam in them, the search engine comes up with an edited list referred to as slashtags.  Even though it is expected that Blekko will have many users after it launches, it is not going to be something that is detrimental to Google.

Although it is hard to imagine using any other search engine besides Google, because my life has become so dependent on it, I really like the concept of Blekko.  I suspect that it will be very popular, as it can be quite a hassle to search through tons of search results to find ones that are even relevant to the topic that was searched.  The fact that Blekko in a way, weeds out the useless web pages, that other search engines may come up with in search results, is very beneficial to the searcher and will save them time by not having to look through irrelevant websites.  Reading this article actually convinced me to give Blekko a try and see if the results given to me from this search engine are more useful than the ones I receive when searching in Google.

News Report #4

“For E-Reader Fans, Competition Is Paying Off”
Nick Bilton, The New York Times
10/29/2010
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/for-e-reader-customers-competition-is-paying-off/?ref=technology>

Hearing a flight attendant’s instructions on an air plane to power off your books is becoming almost as common as being told to turn off your cell phone before the plane takes off.  The e-reader has become increasingly popular throughout the past couple of years, creating many opportunities for competition in this type of market.  The controversy lies in the fact of whether the device would be a better seller if it remained just an e-reader, or also acted as a web device, or whether it should be black and white, or contain color.  The devices this article is referring to are the iPad made my Apple, a black-and-white e-ink reader and a Nook Color sold at Barnes & Noble, the e-reader made by Sony, containing no color, and lastly, the Amazon Kindle.  At this point, not one of the companies seems to know exactly what consumers are looking for, as some are getting worried that the devices able to perform other functions and containing color are going to be used by more people, and that the black-and-white e-readers may become a product geared towards a smaller more specialized market and designed for a more specific function.  The only thing that is for sure is that the high level of uncertainty in this market will lead to the ongoing, fast-paced, development of new devices, making the prices decrease at the same time because of the large amount of competition.

Each and every day I become more amazed at how quickly technology is advancing right before my eyes, as the first sentence of the article made me giggle when it referred to flight attendants telling passengers on the flight to “power down your books,” and everyone acted as if it was a normal statement.  Personally, I would want to invest in the Apple iPad because it is one small device which allows a person to do a variety things, e-reader being just one of them.  Although this device is a lot more expensive than some of the other ones that are solely e-readers, it seems to make more sense to spend the extra money and buy the device that can do several things, rather than the device that only supports the e-reader.  It will be interesting to see which of these devices ends up being the biggest hit with the majority of customers in this market today.

Reading Report #4

The article, “The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google” was quite an enjoyable read, as I could easily relate to many of the points discussed in this work.   Through reading this article, I learned a lot about myself, as many of the reasons mentioned in the article for students choosing search engines like Google over library databases, are many of the same reasons why I also admit to doing this.  As mentioned in the article, the amount of students using library databases over Google is very slim because it is fast, simple to use, and mainly because it entails very little thought or effort in the process.  Although it may be disappointing to witness students taking the easy way out, the reality of the situation is that students are most likely going to choose the method of research that takes less critical thought and gets them the fastest answer.  With this being true, I completely agree with this article in that we should find a good medium between the high quality library databases and the simplicity of search engines so that students can get the best of both worlds.  

I appreciated the author’s humorous use of wordage in this article such as the words infodiet and infobesity and also the way in which he compared Google to the widely known term “supersize it.”  I found it very clever how the author used this comparison to describe to readers that supersizing in reference to food is very similar to the idea of Google being the supersized version of library databases, where it displays an excess amount of results, many times even results that are not relevant to the topic typed in the search bar.  I do agree with the article in that students should use library catalogs much more frequently than they do but many times it is more convenient to use search engines, which I am guilty of.  The suggestion made by the author that teachers should require their students to use a certain amount of databases in research papers for their class is a great idea because that way, students will become more familiar and more comfortable with these library catalogs, and maybe want to use them more often, even when they don’t have to.

Reading Report #3

The articles, “Why the Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries” and “The ‘Library of the Future’ Begins to Emerge, both introduce valid but very different discussions.  While the article about libraries becoming the next pop-culture wave converses about bringing the library back and all the stereotypical thoughts concerning libraries and librarians, the other article talks about the future of libraries and how they are beginning to change, not only physically but rather more deeply than that, including their purpose in the world.  The first article is relatively humorous and critical, as the author attempts to show how libraries in a sense can be what we know as pop-culture.  She compares libraries to everything that people around the world know and love and uses examples such as the “Librarians Do Gaga” video to backup her point that today’s pop-culture is centered on quite silly subjects.  On a completely different note, the “library of the future” article was very informative, as it discussed several innovative ideas to entirely transform libraries from how we know them now.  As I would have imagined, in a few years from now, libraries will be much more virtual and digital, getting rid of many of the books that now fill the shelves.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading both of these articles, as they not only informed me of what to look out for in the upcoming years as far as the changes that will be taking place in libraries, but also made me realize the importance of libraries and how people should be more appreciative of them.  I found the article about pop-culture to be quite amusing, as I viewed a few of the videos that were links in the article.  Although this article was very entertaining, it really made me stop and ponder about the stories the world is concerned with, such as all of the cupcakes and cake television shows that the author mentioned in her article.  In my opinion, the way in which she delivered this story made me think twice about what stories I deem as important and I hope others will too.   The “Library of the Future” interested me because it related to many of the topics we have discussed in class about how we think libraries will have changed in a few years from now.  Our expectations were correct, as this article gives the reader a visual of our future library, containing things such as kiosks replacing information desks, food vendors, musical performances, and Wii stations.  These types of changes that will be taking place in the upcoming years will likely steer people away from their stereotypical thoughts of libraries and in fact be a great tool to draw more people in.