Archive for the ‘LISZEN: Trends’ Category

LISZEN: Top Ten Searches

Published on February 1, 2007 in LISZEN, LISZEN: Social, LISZEN: Trends and Site News. Closed

Here are the top ten searches for January. Since I missed December (sorry) the change in rank is between January and the top ten for November. Those that are unmarked are new to the list.

  1. Library 2.0 (unchanged)
  2. information literacy (+2)
  3. ex libris
  4. reference
  5. librarything
  6. new library design
  7. Google
  8. trustees
  9. data “collection development”
  10. “Google custom search” (-7)

As for the lack of posts on Library Zen- I am blaming it on a LOT of site improvements. Here is just some of them:

  • Library Zen now has archives page (including tag cloud)
  • Library Zen/ LISZEN has new contact page (goodbye spam)
  • LISZEN now searches 600+ blogs
  • Library Zen upgraded to WordPress 2.1
  • LISZEN: Trends upgraded to Pligg .9
  • Work has begun on a new project (codename- LISZEN: Social)

Also, during January I spoke with the Second Life community about virtual libraries. I am currently getting screen-shots, graphs, and comments together for the next post.

In the mean time don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I just did). Amazon has it for $18.89 – whoo-who!

LISZEN: Trends Open (but still beta)

Published on December 5, 2006 in Day to Day and LISZEN: Trends. Closed

The iron curtain has lifted, but that doesn’t mean that LISZEN: Trends is feature complete.  Those that had a sneak peek over the last two weeks will notice the the site is now more visually appealing.

Feed Me

For those that aren’t aware, LISZEN: Trends is a real-time/social library tool, much like Digg (except for librarians).  It allows you to submit news, vote on news, and subscribe to news.  There are currently three choices of RSS feeds:

Queued:

When an article is first submitted it goes into the Q.  Subscribe to this feed if you would prefer to view news before it goes mainstream.  You can, also, view this by clicking on “Discover LIS Trends.”

Published (recommended):

Once a submitted article receives a certain number of votes (currently set at 4) it becomes “published.”  Subscribe to this feed if you prefer news that has been sorted out and reviewed by peers.

All:

This feed contains both “Queued” and “Published”

If you are wondering, “if LISZEN: Trends requires 4 votes to get published, why is there news with 2 votes on the published page,” fear not.  During testing the setting was at 2 votes, but will now require 4 on future posts.  The aim is to have about 35% – 40% of daily submissions make it to “published” status.  This means that the number of required votes will be adjusted periodically to ensure balance, and that your not bombarded with news.

Categories

What I am still looking for is help on finalizing the “categories” within LISZEN: Trends.  Here are the current categories:

  • Academic Libraries
  • Books
  • Cataloging
  • Censorship
  • Children
  • Continuing Education
  • Employment
  • General
  • Humor
  • Programs & Events
  • Public Libraries
  • Special Libraries
  • Technology
  • Video
  • Young Adult

One is still able to tag posts, but broad library topics for categories would help.  QUESTION: If you could categorize the library profession into 15 general areas what would they be?

Since I mentioned tagging, I want to draw everyone attention to the tag cloud for the site (nice, ehh).

… And More

Since I don’t want everyone repeating the same errors to me, here are things I am aware of:

  1. “tell a friend” link does not work (yet)
  2.  Avatars are gone?  (For a bit, but they will be back)

With finals quickly approaching my response time to emails will suffer.  But feel free to post any observations, bugs, compliments, and suggested categories in the comments.

That’s all for now.  In the words of Dylan Baker, a LISZEN: Trends beta tester, Get Trendy!  And get over to LISZEN: Trends…

LISZEN: Trends Beta

Published on November 22, 2006 in LISZEN, LISZEN: Trends, Site News and Technology. 1 Comment

Update: This is now an open beta.  So, what are you waiting for get over to LISZEN: Trends 

The newest tool from Library Zen is here! LISZEN: Trends takes care of everything that LISZEN search lacks. While the LISZEN search is more of an archival tool for finding older information, LISZEN: Trends is meant to be a social tool for sharing new information.

I believe both tools will be equally useful, but want some more input before I mark it ready for everyone. So, starting today you may get a sneak peak of LISZEN: Trends by submitting your email below. You will receive an email within 10 minutes with directions to access the site.

Please note that signing up does have some strings attached. You will be asked to perform a few tasks and provide some feedback. It should only take around 15 – 30 minutes to complete.

A Glimpse of LISZEN: Trends

Published on November 22, 2006 in LISZEN, LISZEN: Trends, Site News and Technology. 3 Comments

The “sneak peak” of LISZEN: Trends will be available at 5:00 p.m. [EST] today. In anticipation of this, here is a little bit of information on the new project.

If you are familiar with Digg then you are already well on your way to understanding what LISZEN: Trends is all about. LISZEN: Trends uses Pligg (a content management system based off of Digg), which allows users to add and vote on content.

Below is a brief rundown of the basics:

Submitting an article is as easy as posting the story link, and adding your own notes to the story. Below is a picture of Step 1:

After submission, the story stays in “Queued News” until enough users vote on the story as being noteworthy.

 

Once enough users vote, the story switches to “Published News” and appears on the home page of LISZEN: Trends.

If you are interested in seeing LISZEN: Trends first hand, be sure to come back at 5 p.m. [EST].  All that is required is a valid email that can be used to send access instruction.  Oh, and before anyone asks… RSS Feeds are included!

Even more exciting than LISZEN: Trends are the possibilities such a content management system has. In the next 2 months I would love to see a library use this technology to announce new books. Where the links would take the patron directly to the book in the library catalog and patrons could vote and/or comment on every title.

So, to all those innovative libraries: on your mark, get set, go…

LISZEN: Top Ten Searches

Published on November 15, 2006 in Day to Day, LISZEN, LISZEN: Trends and Site News. 3 Comments

Thanks to those that submitted a blog last week, I will be adding them to LISZEN tomorrow. While you wait, I thought I would share the top ten searches at LISZEN for the weeks since launch. Enjoy!

  1. library 2.0
  2. rfid
  3. “google custom search”
  4. information literacy
  5. library
  6. liszen
  7. roving
  8. blog
  9. rss
  10. wiki

Also, congrats to librarytwopointzero for pretty much hitting the nail on the head with the post on LISZEN: Trends. Stay tuned as more details on LISZEN: Trends will be released before the “sneak peak” on 11-22-06.

LISZEN: Submission, Recognition & Trends (OH My)

Published on November 7, 2006 in LISZEN, LISZEN: Trends and Site News. Closed

Work on LISZEN caused me to forgo the Purple Library Series post again on Sunday (sorry). I have a draft in progress but I’ve been stretching out my time between the numerous LISZEN submissions, a number of school projects, and work. I want everyone to know that if they have sent in a submission it has been added to the search engine. However, I am running behind on getting them to the LISZEN Wiki. Below are a few other updates I wanted to mention:

New Submission Process

Currently, when submitting a link all one has to do is provide their site information and I do the rest. Soon I will begin asking that others put their site in the LISZEN Site Wiki before submitting. This will allow for quicker turnaround on newly added sites. This is not yet required but if you are reading this consider doing so before submitting a new site.

Collaboration Recognition Project (24/24)

In an effort to rally the troops to tag/delete/edit current sites in LISZEN I want talk about the “what’s in it for you” aspect. LISZEN receives over 400 unique users a day and continues to grow. I am looking for individuals to go over a mere 24 sites. In return your library blog will receive 24 hours of linkage from LISZEN (http://www.liszen.com). If you are a new to the blog sphere and want to gain some traffic be sure to get in on project. I will be giving more information in the coming weeks, but you can email me if you’d like to be notified directly when the time comes.

LISZEN: Trends (The Best for Last)

LISZEN is more of a library community archival tool than a source for new information. So why not create something that allows users to submit and vote on content in order to create a real-time/social library tool? That’s were LISZEN: Trends comes into play. I spent last weekend tweaking LISZEN: Trends and want some user input before it’s released. On November 22nd at 5 p.m. [EST] a form will be posted allowing users to request a sneak peak. You will have until midnight on November 28th to play with the site and follow a small set of testing instructions.

That’s all for now… and as always input rocks my world (so drop me a line).