Library & Information Services » Middlebury Community Interest

Friday links – June 14, 2013

Brenda Ellis — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:00:10 +0000

From Cave Paintings to the Internet: Chronological and Thematic Studies on the History of Information and Media
This interesting website from Jeremy Norman “is designed to help you follow the development of information and media, and attitudes about them, from the beginning of records to the present. Containing annotated references to discoveries, developments of a social, scientific, theoretical or technological nature, as well as references to physical books, documents, artifacts, art works, and to websites and other digital media, it arranges, both chronologically and thematically, selected historical examples and recent developments of the methods used to record, distribute, exchange, organize, store, and search information.” (from About the Database). Images and text (with links to wikipedia) are combined with geographical information to allow mapping of the information.

Tis the season: tornadoes and hurricanes

Hans Raum — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:29:52 +0000

Hurricane season has officially started and the tornado season isn’t over. To stay informed about severe weather conditions the following government websites are worth checking:

Storm Prediction Center

National Hurricane Center

National Weather Service — Type in your ZIP code to get local weather forecasts.

May 2013 Social Media Stats

Ian McBride — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:52:14 +0000

The following stats refer to activity on the Middlebury College Facebook page, the Middlebury College Twitter account, and share buttons on the main Middlebury College website. For trend comparison, the previous month’s statistics are included in parentheses, where appropriate.

Facebook Insights

171 (232) new people liked our Page, while 61 (54) people unliked our Page.
802 (1032) unique people shared stories about our page. These stories include liking our Page, posting to our Page’s Wall, liking, commenting on or sharing one of our Page posts, answering a Question we posted, RSVPing to one of our events, mentioning our Page, phototagging our Page or checking in at our Place. [Daily People Talking About This]
30180 (33979) unique people saw one of the items shared in that way. [Daily Viral Reach]
80169 (74593) unique people saw content associated with our Page. [Daily Total Reach]

Student Panelists Offer Diverse Perspectives on Divestment. Shares: 11, Clicks 174
Middlebury College Statement on Natural Gas Pipeline. Shares: 10, Clicks 54
Jonathan Safran Foer to deliver Middlebury College commencement address. Shares: 7, Clicks 14
Class of 2013 Celebrates Commencement. Shares: 6, Clicks 130
Men’s Lacrosse Knocked Off In NESCAC Tourney. Shares: 6, Clicks 9

Data Sets

May 2013 Web Stats

Ian McBride — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:36:39 +0000

For trend comparison, the previous month’s statistics are included in parentheses.

Traffic

www.middlebury.edu: 419,244 (477,603) visits from 224,678 (262,735) people
sites.middlebury.edu: 49,502 (61,992) visits from 40,886 (50,683) people
menus.middlebury.edu: 31,735 (44,602) visits from 16,354 (23,930) people
mediawiki.middlebury.edu: 19,997 (19,982) visits from 18,693 (18,849) people
portal.middlebury.edu: 13,620 (18,434) visits from 10,243 (13,886) people
courses.middlebury.edu: 12,217 (22,032) visits from 8,727 (16,569) people
web.middlebury.edu: 10,247 (12,910) visits from 9,530 (11,965) people
biblio.middlebury.edu: 10,421 (12,485) visits from 8,640 (10,676) people
eres.middlebury.edu: 6,842 (11,465) visits from 5,261 (9,944) people
catalog.middlebury.edu 5,375 (23,923) visits from 5,145 (21,025) people

Top Pages

www.middlebury.edu: 234,755 (255,909) pageviews
menus.middlebury.edu: 32,427 (45,486) pageviews
www.middlebury.edu/athletics: 23,533 (31,097) pageviews
www.middlebury.edu/academics: 18,381 (25,502) pageviews
portal.middlebury.edu/home: 15,766 (21,443) pageviews
web.middlebury.edu/database/directory/Default.aspx: 14,103 (17,156) pageviews
www.middlebury.edu/admissions: 12,482 (16,541) pageviews
courses.middlebury.edu: 11,569 (18,973) pageviews
www.middlebury.edu/academics/lib: 10,802 (13,458) pageviews
www.middlebury.edu/studentlife/events/commencement: 10,225 (1,422) pageviews

Search Terms

Search Midd: 577 (576)
academic calendar: 166 (255)
graduation: 106 (42)
course hub: 91 (143)
menu: 87 (137)
banner web: 80 (50)
sites.middlebury.edu: 74 (71)
mojo: 68 (106)
moodle: 56 (123)
phi beta kappa: 53 (12)

Browsers

Safari: 36.71% (37.25%)
Chrome: 23.00% (24.30%)
Internet Explorer: 18.91% (16.83%)
- IE8: 9.99% (9.12%)
- IE9: 4.03% (4.18%)
- IE10: 2.72% (1.53%)
- IE7: 2.07% (1.92%)
- IE6: 0.11% (0.09%)
Firefox: 17.67% (17.12%)
Android Browser: 1.19% (1.13%)

Platforms

Macintosh: 42.49% (45.28%)
Windows: 42.35% (39.14%)
iOS: 11.83% (11.15%)
Android: 1.69% (1.51%)
Linux: 0.38% (0.37%)
BlackBerry: 0.12% (0.10%)
Windows Phone: 0.07% (0.07%)

Research Data Managment Implemenation Workshop, March 2013

Wendy Shook — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:09:41 +0000

A Research Data Management Implementation Workshop was held on March 13-14, 2013, with Alison Darrow (SRO) and Wendy Shook (LIS) attending selected webcasts.

SELECT * FROM rdminotes WHERE comment != ‘soapbox’

Take away points:

There is a lot of energy behind data management, and many good standards and tools being developed, but the field is in a constant state of flux.
Despite that energy, there is significant frustration. Funding agencies are providing objective outcomes, but not implementation guidance. They are waiting to see what consensus comes from the field, while users and providers are looking for some kind of direction or expectation from funding agencies to get them started. (I’d like to point out that this is a tremendous opportunity for the data management community to contribute to standards and best practices!)
There is emphasis on big data, in part due to volumes produced and dollars consumed, but that emphasis leaves smaller implementations feeling isolated, even though small data are valuable assets that require as much attention as big data do.
A variety of data management models were discussed, each with staunch proponents, but I expect the reality to be custom approaches taking the most useful element of each model.

An excellent collection of position papers are available at https://rdmi.uchicago.edu/page/submitted-experience-and-position-papers

Last Chance — LIS Open Workshops Wind Down for the Summer

Cynthia Slater — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:57:25 +0000

It’s not too late to join us for a workshop (in English!) before Language Schools begin. Visit go/lisworkshops to view the last of our advertised open sessions. You’ll find a Drupal introduction that covers basic web site maintenance skills, as well as another opportunity to learn how to access and use — Middlebury’s fabulous online learning resource that uses short videos to help you acquire new business and technology skills, including photography finesse.

Lynda’s recently added courses include such varied topics as “Managing Teams,” “Designing a Book,” and “Up and Running with Windows 8.” Watch a single video or work through an entire course, but be warned — it’s addictive.

Please note that we do continue to offer “by request” group training during the summer months, staff and classroom space permitting; kindly send your request with details to helpdesk@middlebury.edu.

ACRL Digital Curation Webinar: Creation of an In-House DMP Tool

Wendy Shook — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:51:52 +0000

ACRL Digital Curation Interest Group Webinar: Creation of an In-House DMP Tool at the University of Houston Libraries, April 18, 2013

Michele Reilly and Anita Dryden from the University of Houston discussed their approach to providing data management planning assistance to their research faculty. Data management is not part of their mission; they focus on providing both general and UH resource specific information via their library web pages and by the creation of a data management planning (DMP) Tool. This tool, created using drupal webforms, is similar to the California Digital Library’s DMPTool and the Digital Curation Centre’s DMPOnline. Although offering fewer features, the UH tool pre-dates the online tools mentioned, has been easy to maintain and customize, and has been sufficient to fulfill the needs of their researchers.

Friday Links – May 17th

Brenda Ellis — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:31:53 +0000

Markham Nolan: How to separate fact and fiction online | Video on TED.com

~13 minute video talk by a journalist showing how news organizations verify information posted by users on the web (tweets, photos, videos) using technology such as Google Earth, etc.

How to Read a Book

Did you find an odd box with pieces of paper inside? It might be a book! Some of them still have real pages—and I’ll show you just how to read one.

The Business Value of Google Glass and Wearable Computing – Wearable computing is an emerging technology that’s affecting both the consumer and enterprise space.

Predatory Publishers Strike Back
Predatory publishing is what happens when open access publishing is subverted by manipulation, exploitation, and spammer mentality. Jeffery Beall is a librarian who uses his blog to expose predatory publishers, and they would rather he didn’t. Beall has written a Nature column piece about predatory publishing, and his blog is Scholarly Open Access.

Problems with wireless?

Michael Lynch — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:40:04 +0000

There are just under 600 wireless access points (WAPs) in buildings across the main Middlebury campus, in college-owned buildings in town (e.g. Marble Works and the old Court House), as well as at the Breadloaf campus and the Snow Bowl. The demands for robust, ubiquitous wireless service have increased dramatically in recent years, and the sheer number and variety of devices accessing our wireless infrastructure can present challenges to both our budget and our Help Desk staff.

As LIS plans to improve and expand wireless coverage to meet these demands, we are seeking help from the community. If you are aware of a particular area where the wireless service seems consistently sub-optimal, please use this form (Login required) to report it to us. (Note: if you experience problems with wireless access in multiple buildings, please see the LIS Wireless Troubleshooting page.)

This new form is not a substitute for the Help Desk; you should continue to report specific problems to them. We may not personally respond to every problem reported via this form, but we will definitely use this information, in conjunction with other tools, to identify under-served areas of the campus as we plan improvements in our wireless services.

A busy lab

Joseph Antonioli — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:10:03 +0000

a busy lab

Students fill the Wilson Media Lab in the Davis Family Library, completing media projects for the end of the semester. A good number of students in this picture are finishing up posters for their theses.