Richter Library Web Services Dream Design

E-Reference, Virtual Possibilities

Currently, at Richter we are implementing a new e-reference service (Questionpoint) that will allow both e-mail e-reference and a live e-chat service. This gives us the chance to think about the changing notion of 'reference' in an online environment. Is 'reference' online and reference live the same except for the fact that one is live and one is virtual? Are there fundamental differences in the services and expectations because of the different modes of delivery involved? How should an online reference chat service be ideally set up for an academic university research library environment?

The current prototypes for our e-reference service are up at

E-reference: http://www.library.miami.edu/Questionpoint/ereference.htm
E-chat: http://www.library.miami.edu/Questionpoint/patronchat2.htm

What are the differences between online and offline modes of service and how should these online services be implemented and marketed to be used most effectively. In getting Richter's Research and Educational Services librarians up to speed with online chatting, there were fundamental differences in how different generations of reference librarians approached this service, the reference question and the reference interview. What are the wider parameters of how this service should be used? In practicing 'chatting', AOL "IM" instant messenger service was used. Should the grammar, codes and 'emoticons' of 'chat' be adopted to Reference service?

In addition, there are new programs involving 'avatars' and virtual chat in a three d environment. How do these again change the 'interface' of the reference paradigm? What are the advantages of face to face contact and how do these advantages/disadvantages change or morph into something different when the interface becomes simply the 'command line' for typing questions/answers? Similarly, how does this change again with 'avatars' or representations of two people visualized in online space and how can this help or hinder the reference encounter in an academic research university library environment?

SFX, Databases, Simplicity

Currently, we are in the process of implementing 'SFX', a new millenium database linking tool. Simply, through a button and menuscreen SFX connects two or more databases and allows you to find 'information'. More complexly, SFX bills itself as 'a context senisitive reference linking meta database tool'. One of the challenges of SFX is not so much the tool itself but getting larger populations (students/faculty) and even 'subject librarians' - generally information literate staff - to understand what this tool is and how it operates.

The advantage of SFX is that it creates better bridges between databases to yield better networks of information. It uses the OPENURL standard to link say a citational database with a full text database so that subject specific citations can be found in one database and then the full text can be brought up in another. To step back, SFX creates more robust networks, data pathways and knowledge bridges. What we have to investigate further as librarians is how this is aiding/impacting the information seeking process and how the information/research process is enhanced through these extra-neural net online web/database connections.

In Richter library, there is no dearth of information. We have over 410 databases and the full texts of academic e-journals number in the thousands. The question now becomes one of navigation, utility and use. SFX allows an easier connection or bridge between databases of information. How exactly is this impacting information seeking? Is the larger principle simply that by creating a more robust network and network bridges information seeking is advanced? This is the theory. More innovative usability studies though of our various faculty academic departments and graduate/undergraduate student researchers should be conducted as to how these databases are being used and how they are aiding research at both the faculty and student level. Finally, what is the historical connection of applications like 'SFX' with a library 'catalog' and its development and use value.

Jacquard Looms, Ada, Library Information Patterns

(Jacquard Loom Example)

Since last summer I've been haunted by a line by Ada, Lord Byron's daughter, some say inspirational muse for one of the first computers. Ada writes:

the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.

The line comes from Ada's notes for a "Sketch of the Analytical Engine " invented by Charles Babbage, some say one of the first inventors of the computer.

The analogy that Ada is making is between the beauty of the computer's algebraic patterns and the beautiful complicated patterns recently achievable through 'the Jacquard loom'. The Frenchman Jaquard had combined the traditional weavers loom with punch cards so that complicated patterns that could only be accomplished up to that time by master weavers could be mass produced through machine. Also, among computer scientists, the word here is that Ada's notes to the essay were a better guide to Babbages' inspirational ideas about computer's efficacious and aesthetic use than Menabrea's more uninspired mathematical essay.

(Jacquard Loom Example)

To bring Ada's analogy to our own library and information web services, is it now possible to 'weave beautiful and complex information patterns' just as the 'Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves? As Ada originally thought about the computer's mathematical possibilities, can we bring this to our own notions about the library web services weaving complex information patterns with our databases and for our patrons faculty/students pleasure and use?

(Jacquard Loom Example)

Databases and Tupac

Teaching a set of information literacy classes on the U of M's databases, I was struck by various issues. The students for these sessions were children of Florida Migrant workers, exclusively Hispanic/Haitian males on a summer program to open eyes to university. Going through the database exercises, several boys generated various unexpected keywords, used a variety of unexpected language terms for searching (i.e. Creole) and repeatedly left the databases for 'Google'. This led to thoughts about issues regarding cultural specificity, language, audience/usability, wild anarchic Internet information and the nature of proprietary databases.

(Tupac Shakur Fan Memorial Tribute)

The boys were led through a set of database questions: 'find an article mentioning education' on the day you were born, 'who won the April 3, 1974 Oscar for best picture, Who was Linus Pauling and when did he die? After guiding the boys through the databases and leading them through the questions, students' energies were focused on a question closer to their hearts, 'When did Tupac Shakur die?' Most of the students already knew.

In terms of usability and information retrieval what was interesting was that the students' 'search strategy' was to combine methods taught in searching the New York Times Database in symbosis with Google. The boys immediately went to Google, looked up Shakur's death day and then went back to the Times proprietary database to plug this in. This wasn't wrong but instinctively using the vast internet resources in conjunction with proprietary databases.

This leads to a question regarding antinimonies. Perhaps our library interfaces should be designed to better facilitate symbiosis of wild Internet/ordered full text database instead of trying to create bulwarks against the vast Internet resources. How through a visual interface could these sources work better together?

Turkish Carpets, Pattern Languages

(Turkish Carpet Example, click for enlagement)

There is a book by the Berkeley/MIT architect Christopher Alexander on Turkish Carpets (A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art: The Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets) that I think is very important for web design and creating larger 'pattern' languages in a large website such as an academic research university library.

(Ancient Turkish Carpet Example)

Alexander's earlier work on 'pattern languages' 'A Pattern Language : Towns, Buildings, Construction' has found wide use in various areas. There's essays on this that I think are important to read or at least note down for later. With regard to the early Turkish Carpets, Alexander is looking at larger 'symmetries' and patterns of color, form and design and what constitutes aesthetic beauty and unity. Similarly, in evolving or redesigning a larger academic research library site we are dealing with largely 'repetitive iconologies' through 'color', stylesheets, templates and repetative form. These elements aid both in navigation and presenting a unified structure. Are there deeper things to be learned here about the early turkish carpet makers use of symmetries, patterns and how these interrelate with regards to our own information architecture? How can we begin to remap one paradigm onto the other?

(Christopher Alexander Book Cover, Click to Enlarge)

Why doees Alexander call his book 'A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art'. I largely think he is right, prescient and ahead of his time. I also think that what he was struggling for the language to talk about in the nineties in a language that still has not yet fully evolved was the net and specifically 'site architecture'. How can we begin to apply these paradigms in pragmatic ways to our own redesigns?

Euclidean Geometry, Web Architecture, Information

(William Blake, Urizen, Click to Enlarge)

The aesthetic measurement and judgement of space begins with Euclid: "Judex ergo cum sedebit. . .Quid sum miser tunc dicturus. Quem patronom rogaturus, cum vix justus sed sicurus". Descartes gives us the (x,y,z) planes and spatial grids that software uses today for visual mapping and web design. Geometry though moves on. In the twentieth century, Hilbert, following Cantor, gives us multidimensional geometry (a,b,c. . .x,y,z: Hilbert Space) and then Mandelbrot at Bell Labs, now Yale, takes the inverse of the idea giving us fractional (fractal) dimensionality (1/3,x, 1/4y,1/8z) and explaining nature's visual geometry.

Visualized X,Y planes are quite well understood and used in Web architectures, current software applications and library information spaces. The Z plane (three-D space) has not yet really widely appeared in software and we have not yet come to terms with how to use the other dimensions except for using a little of t(time) with Flash to present different information in the same space as a function of time (i.e. http://library.miami.edu, rollover mouse buttons on main page, underlying description captions in the same visual space). The larger question then becomes, in a pragmatic sense and working on the level of implementation, do Hilbert and Mandelbrot's explorations have things to teach us for academic library information spaces, web services and information architectures?

In the Fractal geometry of Nature, Benoit Mandelbrot, http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Mandelbrot.html, http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Mandelbrot.html, originally looked at the jagged Coast of England and noticed that the best way to measure was through not a Euclidean 'straight line marking point a -) b but a little more complicated fractional and recursive geometry. Are there similar pragmatic ways to now visually remap these explorations for Information Architecture and web services of library sites dealing with large amounts of information and people similarly jaggedly traveling from point a -) b. Again, within the library's site, we are dealing with large amounts of information that are perhaps not best explored through a large (x,y) mapping. To get a little technical, our 'page' architecture is currently being mapped through a fairly simple and understood 'branching tree structure, parent/child nodes or network with a root page and branches. Perhaps, this tree structure could somehow be remapped closer to the fractal geometry that Mandelbrot's new geometry suggests. How would we structure this information architecture say with our vast amount of databases to make searching easier? There are examples of remapping information through these newer geometries but they are largely aesthetic and more experimental (http://www.levitated.net/daily/index.html). Could these ideas be subtly remapped to an academic library web services.

Conversely, multidimensional space, Hilbert Space (a,b,c, . . .x,y,z) is entirely overlooked for web services or information architectures. Are there ways that this 'multidimensional architecture could be useful to more cogently and effectively present the now overly huge (x,y) branching tree structure of larger websites such as those used by university academic libraries. To note here, in speaking about dimensionality, we usually think space (x,y,z) and ocassionally (t). Dimensionality though can also be thought of as simply another discreet variable (i.e. Economic Analysis) in statistical analysis. With regards to information architecture, new generation programs like Flash allow one to begin to think of dimensionality in terms of time (t) but also in terms of other less thought of signifying spaces (i.e. sound, tone, scale). There is probably a confusion in my definition of dimensionality here but I'm this should be taken in light of attempting to begin a discussion of the applicability of other 'geometries' with regards to library information spaces.

Information Visualization - High and Low

The March 2003 Journal of the American Society for Information Studies (JASIS) is devoted to Information Visualization of large citational data sets such as those found in library catalogs and database citation environments (ie. Web of Science, ISI). Eugene Garfield even writes an article on visualizing the movement of Scientific Paradigms through citation analysis and historiographs. What I find so interesting about this is the dryness and uninspired nature of the 'network' tree/node graphs for visualization. They are not at all making effective use of 'color', 'movement' or interactivity and this is the high end of things. What is needed here is to combine High Information Science with learning from the Low/Games (Flash interactivity). Web services for libraries could be made 'visionary' but it will only be through the union of robust backend databases of information with front end interface design.

How can web services for library environments benefit from Citation Analysis and creating histories this way? Can we help students/faculty find say the most relevant articles from a specific keyword request through building these graphical single screen visualizations of the most keyword cited article and 'on the fly' diagrams of the larger disciplinary coordinates where these keywords fall in the influence chain. Looking over these 'information visualization' articles, it seems that a lot of important 'history' visualization will be done by studying 'citation' patterns. Could we be doing the same thing with our 'library' and web catalog for someone to trace the larger flow of knowledge through the organic flow of textual data on the library website? These seem like pretty lofty goes. Are there ways in which these goals can be simplified, broken down or made into more pragmatic projects that can be accomplished on a micrological scale

Godel, Incompleteness Theorum, Library Catalogs

In the early thirties, mathematician Kurt Godel, discovered that any mathematical system is necessarily incomplete. This systematic 'incompleteness' heralded a new direction for much of mathematics for the twentieth century and also much of computer science/physics for the twenty first. In library and information science science and with 'web catalogs' we are concerned with 'systems' of completeness', electronically covering all the academic disciplines through subject guides, 'referencing' the spectrum of available materia to aid our patronsl. What if we were to start from the other end, from Godel's mode of 'incompleteness' mathematics and work from the assumption that every system is necessarily and also formally incomplete. What are the implications for building web and information services for library catalogs?

To start from the idea of a 'ruin' rather than solid 'structure seems curious but perhaps a fruitful way to go with regards to building information architectures with regard to academic library sites. That is, we are dealing with lodes and magnitudes of information that have become largely undigestable. In attempting to be 'complete' or 'aid the user' the overwhelming amount of information simply overwhelms and the user is left not with 'information' and a path to follow but rather a overly long scrolling list that purports to be a summary of electronic holdings. Are there other ways of building this information architecture for academic library web services? Are there specific ways to think about 'constructive incompleteness for faculty and students? Can we start with the 'notion' of 'incompleteness' and build a better system from there?

Users = Usability

In the early part of the twentieth century, computers were designed for computer scientists, engineers and physicists and one had to be almost a hardcore mathematician to use one. As we enter the twenty-first century, computers have become somewhat easier to use, but are still not without their previous engineering roots. How can we begin to concentrate on issues of users, usability and human computer interaction?

In Isabel's presentation on users and usability, she outlined two different methodological parameters (i.e. listening to users as they talk through their efforts and adopting a persona faculty/student in a specific information seeking task). To this Holly added the possibility of online user questionnaires. If these are placed online then we can gather these results without regard to space/time constraints. Are there other methodologies that we might want to adopt? Are our usability studies to be constructed from standard 'social research' methodologies or are there other 'non-standard' methodological perspectives that we might want to investigate? What would be the benefits and costs of adopting a hard core scientific approach (experimental interfaces) to usability? Conversely, what can we learn by looking to models of cognitive psychology?

Human/Computer interaction is still a relatively young discipline and its coordinates have not been firmly codified. A recent book, "Leonardo's Laptop" by Ben Shneiderman argues for the necessity of renaissance approaches to interface design. Shneiderman argues that like Leonardo interface designers must adopt a renaissance perspective and symbiotic dialogue between engineering/aesthetics, science/art, looking at the world (observation)/changing the world (invention) in their interfaces. How then can the information architectures of academic library sites benefit from this approach? What do we have to learn from renaissance perspectives with regards to library web services?

Game Theory, Interdisciplinarity, Information Architecture

One of the early important books on computer theory, is John von Neumann's Computer and the Brain. Von Neumann wrote the book shortly before his death in an attempt to bring cognitive neuroscience and mathematics together through the computer in the mid fifties. An earlier interdisciplinary effort with Isaac Morgenstern resulted in the field of Game Theory, a cornerstone of modern day economics. How can we begin to think with regards to interdisciplinarity and Richter's information architecture? Are there other possibilities for fertile remappings?

Perhaps more well known than von Neumann's work in Game theory is the nobel laureate, John Nash's foundational building on von Neumann and Morgenstern. Nash's task in Princeton in the early fifties was to expand on von Neumann's ideas bringing three disciplines together, Mathematics, Economic Theory and the theory of 'cooperative multi-player' Games. In a similar pragmatic way, can we begin to think about the possibilities for Richter's information architectures by cross disciplinary exploration? Do the theory of 'games' have anything to tell us about library 'web services' in an academic setting. Can we remap any of these theories onto our own services in pragmatic and academically useful ways?

Plenty of Room at the Bottom

In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman gave a talk "Plenty of Room at the Bottom" inaugurating the field of nanotechnology but also giving library and information science a lot to think about in 2003. Many of his examples have to do with libraries and bodies of information that we are only now beginning to confront.

Feynmann's talk is archived at http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html and its worth looking at especially with regards to beginning to think about large amounts of information and presenting this information through creative ways. Currently, at Richter we are dealing with large bodies of online information (databases, e-journals, subject guides) and various departments and services. Are there more 'rational' ways of organizing these than long scrolling lists or a branching tree structure? What is interesting about Feynmann's talk, are his unorthodox modes of thinking. He is thinking from the opposite end of conventional wisdom at the time and because of this is able to inaugurate new fields through this mode of thinking that will only be realized later. Can we similarly begin to innovatively think about 'screen spaces' and the way we are 'looking at' problems. What happens when we begin to look at problems from the other end of things and where is this other end with regard to library web site architectures?

Reconceptualizing the Subject Guides

Currently, the library subject guides stand as a list of thirty two dynamically generated subject centered pages dividing say Geography and Regional Studies into various reference work areas(Research Assistance, Encyclopedias, Books, Periodical Articles, Additional Online Resources, Subject Guides and Writers, Other UM Academic Sites). Are there other ways of more effectively reconceptualizing this list. Geography

The metaphors we are using to conceptualize the subject guides currently are a list and a 'guide' stratified by subject areas. Are there otherways to create taxonomies for this set of reference resources? Can we begin to think in other paradigms rather than a longer scrolling list or list of 32 subject areas? Are there other ways to 'envision' this set of data. What other ways are there of visualizing this dataset? UM President Shalala recently gave a talk on the need to move towards 'interdisciplinarity' and convergence of disciplines. Can we aid this 'transdisciplinary' thrust through an innovative reconfiguring of the subject guides from '19th' century stratified box categories to more fluid and inter-permeable boundaries? How and through which models is this to be achieved?

Space, Screen Real Estate, Conceptualization

The unique geographic positioning of Miami gives us a chance to think about space, library science and information design. Space is at a premium in Miami - real estate prices are higher in some areas and lower in others. The whole notions of space having a value is really a metaphor which has both social and formal implications. Can we usefully move this metaphor to think about the notion of screen real estate and library interfaces.

In the image presented here, there are three iconic figures which convey the idea of the larger space through their placement but also 'relationship'. Can we do the same thing through information design using 'iconologies' to convey the larger information relational spaces so that faculty/students can be made more aware of the possibilities say within our the cognitive geographies present within our database collections? How is this to be achieved? The 'most expensive' space or screen real estate for the library is 'the homepage'. How are we dividing up our categories here? Are we currently using the proper names to 'brand our services and would a different 'name' mapping lead to more effective search strategies for our patrons? Could other visual taxonomies be thought up in the naming structures we are using. Are there other orderings or stratifications that we could use for our academic 'subject' by subject category listngs?

Visual Web Catalogs

The next generation of web catalogs will be more visual and use 'visual metaphors'. Its not a hard transition to see but similar to the change from the 'command line interface' to the 'windows' paradigm this is still in its infancy.

Perhaps a good example to look at here is Belmont College
This visualization of a library catalog has been developed by Tim Bray, inventor of XML among other standards. Currently Bray is also playing with 'World Cat' in the realm of visualizing information. How can we at Richter begin to think about web services and visualizing or 'conceptualizing the metaphors that we use to think about libraries and information seeking to make them easier to use. In this example, Bray uses 'the bookshelf' and 'the map'. What other metaphors are we using on a daily basis which have a visual analogue. To build on Bray's visual idea, it is not hard to see that after the 'visual' turn, we will be moving towards 'motion graphics' and information architectures that take advantage of 'movement' and the human capacity to recognize movement to 'make meaning' or signify. Are there ideas we can start to be bringing in from visual paradigms of movement (i.e. film, television) that can be effectively applied to more robust information architectures.

Tim Bray's New Visual Catalog Company http://antarctica.net
Tim Bray's Weblog

Metaphor

The whole area of the 'visual metaphor' and information architecture for a library site is one that is largely unexplored. The word meta+phor comes from the Greek to carry across or bridge. How can we be more effectively thinking about 'metaphors' that we are constantly using and inventing (i.e. Windows, mice, e-mail)

The area of 'visual metaphor' on a library site also hinges on the question of human computer interaction. As computers seek to become more usable, the natural more 'human' way of interaction moves towards the 'visual metaphor' or virtual representation from a more engineering-centric command line. That is, grep"$# has been replaced by the visual metaphor of a wastebasket to which files are dragged and dumped. The visual metaphor of the wastebasket and the Unix command grep accomplish the same thing but one command is understood by a handful of Unix programmers while the other by any child shown a computer. Also, grep is easily forgotten while the wastebasket has a easily recognizable physical correlate that makes it hard to forget on the computer screen. How can we begin to think about the 'visual metaphor' in terms of larger library site wide redesign strategies and 'visual metaphors'. A lot of thinking and redesign is largely done through 'mimesis' or 'imitation' of either 'physical reality' or other models (i.e. Windows is a mimetic imitation of the earlier Mac Visual Interface). Similarly, innovation may come from a certain library site and others may copy, improve, deform and transform a certain innovation until it becomes ubiquitous and common and 'widely accepted' as the norm. How can we at Ricther begin to work on the level of actually 'defining the metaphors' that others will use. As a team, how can we begin to think about the concept of 'visual metaphor', information and faculty/student needs in terms of web services. Can anyone think of basic metaphors such as 'file', 'folder' and 'wastebasket' for a library site?

Color and Design

A subtle employment of color can actually add levels of 'information' to the library website guiding the viewer and adding a level of visual guidance without overwhelming the user with data.

What are the great examples of color and design among academic library sites? Who is using a more sophisticated employment of color? Many of the antecedents that we have for a more sophisticated 'iconological' use of color come from art history/advertising design. Can some of this be brought into library information architectures to more subtly guide faculty/students? Are there any greater examples of Green/Orange (UM Colors) combinatorial pairings in terms of design? There is a certain necessity to be constrained by our 'university' branding colors but how can tone and gradient be brought in to create a more sophisticated color scheme serving the information seeking of our patrons?

Cognitive Geographies

Can academic library web services take a lesson from the cognitive visual geographies of art history? During the Dutch Northern renaissance technologies of vision were built around the new science of cartography (large spaces), the technology facilitated by the development of the lens, microsocope (small spaces) and the artist working as either draftsmen or in the service of science.

(Vermeer, In the Artists Studio, click to enlarge)

In Vermeers "In the Artist Studio" there is an iconographic structure depicting an artist painting a model. Behind the model is a cartographic depiction as tapestry and behind the artist is a tapestry partially bisecting the frame by also drawing our attention to the notion of 'framespace' and the constructed nature of a frame or screen. Vermeer here is very aware of notions of 'frame', 'screen', artists canvas, mapping, painting, 'cognitive geographies', tapestries which weave and design patterns and the artist's unique role. A map is a sophisticated and abstracted representation of a real place that serves a scientific purpose. How can we begin to create more sophisticated metaphors for Richter Library's information mappings? What are the antecedents to study here and has the 'frame' been supplanted/augmented by the computer 'screen'? How can we creatively use this 'screen' space to create a richter information design to aid faculty and students in their information seeking?

Mobile Information and the Library

There is a lot of hype building these days surrounding Personal Digital Assistant's (PDA's) and the next wave or different paradigm of mobile computing. Are there new possibilities for integrating Richter's existing website with mobile PDA's and the stacks. What are the advantages to faculty/students connecting remotely to the library through the PDA? How can we begin to think about this paradigm shift?

What does mobile computing and the handheld have to offer for library and information services in an academic setting? Is this device one that will enable our databases or will other services benefit or come to the foreground that are presently sublimated or supressed? This territory is still largely unexplored though a few conferences and seminars are beginning to be held (SUNY, Albany). Are there advantages to purchasing a hundred PDA's and giving them to students/faculty for use in the library from behind the reference Desk? Could there be some kind of PDA integration with the largely underpopulated stacks? Could library medium specific interfaces be built to create a symbiosis between the 'printed text' and our wealth of purchased databases? Is it useful to think about a library catalog on a PDA or accessing a library database through the PDA? What services could an academic library offer through a PDA? Will e-reference or chat somehow be enabled or disabled by PDA's? Can we build new web services through the PDA and its integration with our academic library catalog?

The Cuban Factor

Is there a way to take advantage of the University of Miami's unique geographical positioning in terms of interface design and the library website's construction? What unique web service possibilities can more subtly arise through a dialogue with Miami's unique multicultural positioning?

Are there more subtle information design methodologies to take advantage of the University of Miami's liminal, trans-cultural positioning. Is there a way to visually encode 'cuban and Miami's multi-cultural heritage' through visual signifiers in the library website's construction that does not play upon the obvious visual metaphors but rather takes advantage of other 'cultural' methodologies and modes. Are there good examples out there of 'Cuban' and 'latin american' inspired web design and information architectures? Are there examples of 'cuban' style that could be subtly incorporated in terms of design.

Toys/Video Games/Information Science

The next generation of library catalog applications are going to start taking advantage of the 'environments' created by online gaming. As a web committee thinking about issues of interface design/web services, we should also be thinking about trying to implement ideas from online gaming. Does anyone on our committee play video games and is anyone willing to present on games, library web services and possibilities for interface design?

Online gaming communities create virtual worlds and multi-user environments where users 'cooperate' to achieve goals. How can we begin thinking about these multi-user environments with regards to the library catalog and interface design? How will web services evolve in the next ten years to take advantage of these environments in a high end 'academic university information environment? How can we at Richter begin to implement these gaming orientations in sophisticated and subtle way and perhaps at first in a micrological implementation that experiments with ideas of the library, academe and information gathering. Online gaming has overtaken Hollywood in terms of revenue per year. Many of our students our of the online gaming generation. What do these paradigms have to teach us? What games should we be playing to open our minds to the next generation of university undergraduates?

Web Services Technology Issues

Getting a group to think about technology is a thorny issue and sometimes it impinges on many factors: technical, social, political, economic etc. Web services in a library are really in their infancy - the first ten years. Developmental cycles necessitate reflection. Is technological growth incremental or organic? How can we as a web team begin to think about larger longer term developmental issues for the Richter library website. What does each committee member have uniquely to offer in terms of their imaginations and dreams with regards to academic library web services?

This question hinges on subjects of technology and the web and the role of a library in extending its services into a new millenia. What does it mean to 'build' or evolve a website and for who? How can we as a group begin to think about larger longer term web issues and concerns so we can build a larger scalable web services structure and infrastructure that takes in constant change. Within our web committee, we are dealing with a lot of very pragmatic and somewhat pedestrian issues with regards to the website (ie. placement of particular buttons, should this go here, should that go there). How can we integrate this necessary month to month decision making process with a focus towards longer term more visionary and forward thinking issues. How can we begin to evolve a more organic, 'collective intelligence' so that we are working together on larger issues that one person cannot handle themselves. Details, policy and committee meetings are extremely important but not at the expense of the bigger picture being lost.

Scholarly Communication

This new blog software has tremendous potential for issues of scholarly communication, publishing, self-publishing, faculty and academic libraries. Can this software allow us to create new bridges within and through the libraries website and web services. How should this blog be used or 'creatively misused' to develop its full communication potential.

In a sense, web publishing presents the next step of self-publishing. This seems to be a qualitative step forward even from e-zines and the online scholarly journal such as the California Digital Library Initiatives. Here, we are trying to convince faculty of the sanity and open source methodologies. What are the benefits of this technology for our own group? How can this technology be used but also, how can it be transgressed? What is the potential for throwing these pages freely onto the web and giving out the address to others? Should this address be limited to our committee or should everyone have access? How do we keep the discussion tight and focused while making it a high necessity that all of us remain creatively free to open ourselves and other to our 'wilder' ideas in the hopes that this can generate innovation through 'dialogue'.

Web Committee Usability Issues

There is a necessity to evolve a larger group collective intelligence with regards to Richter library's webdesign. Currently, we are examining issues of usability by looking at previously published studies.

Are these issues of usability useful to evolving the design? How can we devise our own usability studies? Since usability, studies of human computer interaction seem to be so new, can we start from the ground up and build our usability studies taking in the radical notion that most students today are 'of the internet' generation. That is, those coming to college today were raised with the internet from day one. Are they in a sense 'enhanced' as recent literature suggests from previous generations? Are they more visual? Is literacy here becoming visual literacy?

Richter Library Dream Designs

Hopefully, this weblog will be a community forum for the various Richter committee members and those interested in web activities to post, discuss, argue, confirm, negate, establish, dissolve,elevate, congratulate and generate ideas regarding the future design of the Richter Library website.

The trick here is to hardness everyone's irrationality and vision in a positive way. There is a lot of innovation that can come out of the larger library staff and faculty, the question is how to evolve and bring out this latent creativity.