Importing to Refworks

I spent a good bit of time today reviewing the Zotero screencasts and forums. The more I learned about it the more I liked it. I imported the Zotero files I tagged as "Digital Libraries" into Refworks using RIS. No trouble. The importing went pretty smoothly. Since it didn't take too long I decided to revist my del.icio.us imports. I was unhappy with the RSS import I did the other day so I looked over the site again but was not enlightened any more than before. Then I looked at the tutorial Dr. Tomer did on "RefGrab-It" and decided to try it with the delicious bookmarks. I liked using RefGrab-It, although it doesn't seem to pick up author information except from Wikipedia!
Anyway I imported all the bookmarks again using RefGrab-It" and was satisfied except for the author omission. Using RSS, it showed my login name as the author for each item and I found that unacceptable.

Apple vs PC

I have been a long time PC user and often wondered why someone would choose a MAC over a PC. After all, PC's dominate corporate America, so what would be the benefit of using a MAC? Last semester, while researching my paper on personal digital libraries, I came across some software made only for a MAC, and I really wanted to try it but couldn't. So for the first time I began to consider buying a MAC, but since I am rather frugal I needed to find some additional virtues for the MAC. After listening to Dr. Tomer's recent podcast, which included a brief overview of Apple's operating virtues, I added another check mark to the pro side of my checklist for Apple. I have been reluctant to upgrade to Vista because I am happy with the stability of XP, but now I know that Apple's operating system is also stable. I have been looking at the Apple website but I just noticed they offer some free 1 hour workshops to introduce users to Apple's system. I believe I'll book a session with them.

del.icio.us and Refworks

Yesterday I exported my del.icio.us list to Refworks using an RSS feed. A process I felt should have taken minutes took hours. At first the feed would only import 24 items, and only the most recent 24! Then I used another feed, don't ask me what I'm talking about because I don't know. I had 2 different feeds from the same source which just added to my confusion and frustration. The second feed address picked up more items (35) but still only the most recent ones, so I ended up deleting and then re-tagging sites I wanted to include in RefWorks. I looked around the del.icio.us site including "properties" but I couldn't find a way to increase the number of items carried by the feed.
I like the ability to "bundle" tags on del.icio.us but I think there should be more advantages to bundling than I currently am aware of.

2004 OCLC report

A new role for libraries? Points to reflect on:

• “Libraries must also manage content that is unbound from any sort of identifiable container.”
• “Research suggests that end users see the most important role for their libraries as making content available in the user’s digital workspace, regardless of what devices are in that space.”
• “This new world is abundant and unstructured, but contextual mechanisms for navigating and synthesizing the information commons are scarce, even in—perhaps especially in—libraries. “We are drowning in information but are starving for knowledge. Information is only useful when it can be located and synthesized into knowledge.”53
• “What is needed is context. We no longer lack content but we do lack context. There are plenty of efforts being made to address this gap by companies that see the need and, quite rightly, we predict, see the context challenge as the next ‘big thing.’ A contextual search tool might work like an invisible librarian, searching the Web and bringing back, in real time, news, book and article links, relevant Web sites, and any documents and e-mails related to the topic on the searcher’s computing devices.”

OCLC. Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers. (2004)

del.icio.us and blogging

del.icio.us has an experimental feature that automatically posts daily entries to your blog. I said to myself “that’s the ticket” to making sure I meet my LIS 2600 blog entry requirements. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a technical glitch. I need the “full URL of the XML-RPC interface”. Huh? Looking in the help section of del.icio.us was no help at all. It seems other bloggers have asked for clarification regarding this feature, and this URL requirement, but there have been no answers.

New to Blogging

This is my first blog, and my first post so I am feeling a little intimidated. I viewed the Blogger.com tour, and then began the process to set up my blog. I was only slightly puzzled by the steps to take. I forgot I had a google account so I had to find my google password, and then when it asked for my address I wasn’t sure if I was to make up my own address (I did). It opened this page for me to post, so I guess I am doing ok.