When we’re not doing the coding ourselves, sometimes it’s hard to make sure that a website or technology project goes the way we want it to. Learning to communicate expectations before the project really gets going is much better for everyone than trying to retrofit your desires post-launch. The web4lib list, which has been interesting reading in all sorts of ways the last few weeks, has a short discussion about why web standards are important. Thomas Downling explains the ethical obligations and why standards compliance is not as hard as most people say and Karen Schneider follows up with a warning about holding your ground about standards when talking to vendors. Carrie Bickner Zeldman wrote an article about standards for Library Journal in 2002 but the information is just as important, and I’d argue easier to implement, today.
Category: access
National Library Week in my neighborhood
For National Library Week (or coincidentally) my local library, Bethel Library, got a computer, broadband access, and wireless. I know this because I read about it in the newspaper. This is a nearly linkless post because both the library and the newspaper aren’t quite online yet. I haven’t been there to check it out yet because the library is only open fifteen hours a week. I’m looking forward to it.
understanding what users understand
Library Terms that Users Understand – a big survey of available data to show us that there ARE best practices as far as our users are concerned.
This site is intended to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It serves as a clearinghouse of usability test data evaluating terminology on library websites, listing terms that tests show are effective or ineffective labels. It presents alternatives by documenting terms that are actually used by libraries. It also suggests test methods and best practices for reducing cognitive barriers caused by terminology.
Surprise surprise, the word periodical is confusing. So are words like database, pathfinder and Do-it-Yourself in Unicorn. [web4lib]
promiscuous library [data]
Seeking skunkworks and promiscuous library data is an article I should have linked to a few weeks ago. If you don’t know what a skunkworks is, the article has a helpful link (and now this one does too!). In short, the article posits that it would be easier to hammer out flexible user intercfaces if it were easier to get raw standardized data OUT of ILSes that do the hard work of circulation, patron, and money management, things that don’t need to look pretty, or as pretty. Very long, very well-linked and cited, very worth reading.
three gathering storms that could cause collateral damage to open access
Peter Suber’s Open Access newsletter and related blog should be required reading for librarians who care about free access to information. This month he discusses three large proposed shifts in the way the Internet works that could have long-lasting implications for open access: the webcasting treaty, network neutrality debates and the end of free email. Heavily footnoted and clearly explained, these ideas should be read and understood by people concerned with equality of access.
If companies like AT&T and Verizon have their way, there will be two tiers of internet service: fast and expensive and slow and cheap (or cheaper). We unwealthy users –students, scholars, universities, and small publishers– wouldn’t be forced offline, just forced into the slow lane.