My first day of IFLA was fantastic--attended sessions on statistics & measurement, access to genealogical & archival data, and library partnerships. I think what I'm enjoying most, besides the mostly excellent presentations and good speakers, is that these presentations are giving such a broader world view than a session at TLA or ALA. TLA and ALA are valuable, and certainly relevant in a "close to home" sense, but these sessions keep nudging my brain into those "ah-ha" moments of remembering that no, the entire world does not operate like the United States. It's refreshing and encouraging and exciting and a little wild to wrap the brain around sometimes.
Perhaps as a result of so many cultures and traditions being thrown together, I'm also noticing less library jargon being tossed about--another refreshing aspect of this conference. The only thing that threw me for a minute was the prevalence of the acronym ICT, which I puzzled out is information communication technology.
One interesting tidbit I took from one of the morning speakers... He's from a public library in Norway where they are hand-gathering statistics on how people use the library, whether they are performing activities in groups or alone, and how long they spend on each activity. What really interested me is that they count "computer activities" separately for those on the library computers, and those who bring their own laptops (as well as those who work at each type of computer alone or in groups). I hadn't ever thought of counting laptop vs. library PC use separately before, although it seems obvious now. (Of course, now that we're also checking out laptops, that brings a potential third category for UNT to track.)
All right, I'm off to find a quick dinner and then back to work some more on my presentation for tomorrow morning.
Showing posts with label statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label statistics. Show all posts
8.12.2008
12.10.2007
Comey of Errors
The whole Houston trip was an interesting saga, briefly summarized here:
Do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not get any sleep.
Anyway, this is my week of playing deep catch-up at work, so I'll still be lying low on the blog-radar. I'll try to post more info about the workshop next week.
- nearly missed plane from DFW
- workshop was amazing, met some interesting people
- got four fantastic hardbacks of Tufte's work
- stuck in traffic for an hour and half on the way to Houston Hobby
- missed 6:30 flight--last flight of the day!
- spent 45 minutes trying to find another flight or lodgings
- was picked up by a family member
- back to the airport at 4am, flew to DFW at 6am
- drove directly to Denton for work to meet 2 of the 4 deadlines from last week
Do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not get any sleep.
Anyway, this is my week of playing deep catch-up at work, so I'll still be lying low on the blog-radar. I'll try to post more info about the workshop next week.
11.28.2007
'Tis the Season
Yes, to be jolly, but also to heighten that usual sense of the word "busy." Ah, how well I know it after having spent over two decades enrolled in some form of school.
And I've got a bit of good news to post: I've been accepted into UNT's PhD program in Higher Education! Yes, I'm back for more--but as my husband supportively points out, this degree has that helpful distinction of "terminal," meaning that I could, conceivably, one day be done with school. (No, really.)
Why, you ask, particularly as I've argued in the past that most librarians don't need PhDs, and that often it doesn't seem to be worth the time or money invested in the degree? Well, because much as I currently love my job, I know my ambitions and my dreams, and I'd like to be able to move not only into library administration, but potentially into university-wide administration. And it seems pretty par for the course to have a PhD attached to your name in those positions.
Why in Higher Ed, instead of an Information Sciences doctorate? Well, I'm attracted to that program, it looks quite interesting--but at the end it seems to me that a Library/Info Science PhD is best if 1) you want to teach at a library school (I don't), or 2) you are interested in a highly-focused area of library science research that you'd like to pursue (I'm not). I want to administrate, and I'm going into Higher Ed because that's a good, practical preparation for university administration--lots of helpful courses on academic finances and of course the ever-present statistical information (which, being a documents librarian, I'm actually looking forward to). And I'm interested in researching library support for distance education--support both in terms of library services and library materials--and thus, I've already got a potential dissertation topic.
I embark upon that adventure in January 2008. In the meantime, our emerging technologies group at UNT is more deeply discussing options for standards in technology competencies for library employees... we're trying to see if that's a good road for us to take in the Libraries.
And of course there's a desk full of stacked papers requiring my attention--Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday and it's great to rest, but I'm mighty tired of moving some of my "to-do" items from week to week in my calendar. I'm pondering a work-fest week in the second week of December, to try to wrap up a lot of this end-of-the-year deadline stuff (and then hope to write an article or two in that "spare time" over the Christmas break).
Next week, though, it will be hard to keep up with the normal swing of work--Monday and Tuesday I'll be in Austin for the Texas Library Association's Transforming Texas Libraries Summit, which has a lot of potential to be interesting, and then Thursday I'll be in Houston for a fantastic workshop on the visual presentation of data (no, it's really not boring!!) by Edward Tufte. My father, an optics engineer, attended this presentation a few years back and said it's about the best one-day seminar he's ever been to, and promptly bought me one of Tufte's books that Christmas. I've been fascinated with him ever since, and since my current position deals a lot with both graphics and statistics, this seemed like a good training opportunity.
Also, I'm on the Conference Program Committee for the TLA 2009 conference--we're beginning to brainstorm sessions and speakers. If you know of anyone who would be a good speaker on graphic design and/or library marketing, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in organizing a session on that general topic, as it's something that's quite relevant to work I've been doing for UNT, and I'm sure it's a problem for other libraries as well. Or if you have other session ideas, things you'd like to be educated on, people you'd like to hear speak--please just let me know!
And I've got a bit of good news to post: I've been accepted into UNT's PhD program in Higher Education! Yes, I'm back for more--but as my husband supportively points out, this degree has that helpful distinction of "terminal," meaning that I could, conceivably, one day be done with school. (No, really.)
Why, you ask, particularly as I've argued in the past that most librarians don't need PhDs, and that often it doesn't seem to be worth the time or money invested in the degree? Well, because much as I currently love my job, I know my ambitions and my dreams, and I'd like to be able to move not only into library administration, but potentially into university-wide administration. And it seems pretty par for the course to have a PhD attached to your name in those positions.
Why in Higher Ed, instead of an Information Sciences doctorate? Well, I'm attracted to that program, it looks quite interesting--but at the end it seems to me that a Library/Info Science PhD is best if 1) you want to teach at a library school (I don't), or 2) you are interested in a highly-focused area of library science research that you'd like to pursue (I'm not). I want to administrate, and I'm going into Higher Ed because that's a good, practical preparation for university administration--lots of helpful courses on academic finances and of course the ever-present statistical information (which, being a documents librarian, I'm actually looking forward to). And I'm interested in researching library support for distance education--support both in terms of library services and library materials--and thus, I've already got a potential dissertation topic.
I embark upon that adventure in January 2008. In the meantime, our emerging technologies group at UNT is more deeply discussing options for standards in technology competencies for library employees... we're trying to see if that's a good road for us to take in the Libraries.
And of course there's a desk full of stacked papers requiring my attention--Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday and it's great to rest, but I'm mighty tired of moving some of my "to-do" items from week to week in my calendar. I'm pondering a work-fest week in the second week of December, to try to wrap up a lot of this end-of-the-year deadline stuff (and then hope to write an article or two in that "spare time" over the Christmas break).
Next week, though, it will be hard to keep up with the normal swing of work--Monday and Tuesday I'll be in Austin for the Texas Library Association's Transforming Texas Libraries Summit, which has a lot of potential to be interesting, and then Thursday I'll be in Houston for a fantastic workshop on the visual presentation of data (no, it's really not boring!!) by Edward Tufte. My father, an optics engineer, attended this presentation a few years back and said it's about the best one-day seminar he's ever been to, and promptly bought me one of Tufte's books that Christmas. I've been fascinated with him ever since, and since my current position deals a lot with both graphics and statistics, this seemed like a good training opportunity.
Also, I'm on the Conference Program Committee for the TLA 2009 conference--we're beginning to brainstorm sessions and speakers. If you know of anyone who would be a good speaker on graphic design and/or library marketing, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in organizing a session on that general topic, as it's something that's quite relevant to work I've been doing for UNT, and I'm sure it's a problem for other libraries as well. Or if you have other session ideas, things you'd like to be educated on, people you'd like to hear speak--please just let me know!
6.07.2007
The Growing Web
I started working on notes from the NDIIPP Web at Risk meeting last week, but it will probably be a few days before I finish. I've been distracted by training a student to do some metadata quality-assurance for our A to Z Digitization Project (and isn't that a gorgeous collection?). However, the meeting was great, so rest assured I'll report soon.
Related to the NDIIPP meeting, this morning I pulled some CyberCemetery web stats (to help the NDIIPP team predict collection sizes). It's amazing how the earliest websites in the CyberCemetery take up such little space, and what mammoths the websites I'm archiving now are. Currently, the CyberCemetery consists of 45 websites that take up 27 GB; I'm predicting that by fall this year, the CC will have about 55+ websites taking up closer to 45 GB.
Factors that appear to be playing a part in website growth:
Related to the NDIIPP meeting, this morning I pulled some CyberCemetery web stats (to help the NDIIPP team predict collection sizes). It's amazing how the earliest websites in the CyberCemetery take up such little space, and what mammoths the websites I'm archiving now are. Currently, the CyberCemetery consists of 45 websites that take up 27 GB; I'm predicting that by fall this year, the CC will have about 55+ websites taking up closer to 45 GB.
Factors that appear to be playing a part in website growth:
- content (number of pages/links)
- design (images, CSS files, and other information used for layout/navigation purposes)
- multimedia (larger amounts of images, audio, video in websites)
- I guess you could even narrow this last point further, and say that multimedia files themselves are growing larger as images/videos become more refined in quality (resolution, number of megapixels).
4.24.2007
Philosophical Question of the Day
So, when you get a phone call from a patron, but answer it via email... do you count that statistically as an email or as a phone reference question?
And, no, that's not a rhetorical question. I'm honestly curious--I frequently have to report these, and everytime, it makes my brain break. Please respond in the comments, if you have a method to this madness.
And, no, that's not a rhetorical question. I'm honestly curious--I frequently have to report these, and everytime, it makes my brain break. Please respond in the comments, if you have a method to this madness.
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