The Search Principle blog

A while back, I wrote about the top five reasons that building and maintaining a wiki is hard work. Throughout this exploration of web 2.0 tools, I continue to ask myself: what am I trying to accomplish by blogging, podcasting and wiki’ing? Is all of the effort worth much? Are the benefits quantifiable?

I must admit that I enjoy the intellectual ping-pong of Twitter (see left sidebar) – the most visible social media tool for 2008. But, I think blogging is still a vital part of my learning and reflective practice as a health librarian. Again – how can I be more efficient in my use of social technologies? Now that I have experimented with social media for years, where does it end?

For months, Marcus Banks and I have been talking back and forth about evidence-based web 2.0. How might we bring about a more evidence-based approach to using social media? He’s very patient as I have been sidelined all term with all kinds of challenges. But, we’ve been thinking long and hard about next steps.

It’s my new year’s resolution to resolve inefficiencies in my workflow. I have created many for myself by uncritically adopting social media. The big challenge is how do I decide what to stop – what digital spaces do I leave behind without abandoning the best tools in health and medicine. Perhaps this is the challenge for all of us in 2009?

Happy holidays ~Dean

Award-winning blogger, Canadian health librarian, Laurie Blanchard and I are going to be offering a continuing education (CE) course at the 2009 CHLA/ABSC Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba in May 2009 called “Cool tools for busy health librarians“.

*********************

By way of introduction, look at this 1.5 minute video on Google Friend Connect, which gives you some sense of what is possible with cool tools. Keep in mind that Laurie and I will approach this topic broadly from our view as health librarians… ~Dean

I’ve decided I ‘whitter’ on a bit too much all year about learning theories, searching and Google scholar… so throughout December, I’m going on a blog hiatus. I’m on holidays, I’m sorting out a bunch of things, working on a book and some other writing.

But come back regularly and engage me on Twitter. Or, if you want, check out the latest ‘tweet’ or nugget of information on my Twitter widget on the far left… See you in ’09. Happy Holidays ~Dean

Term (and the learning) is over, and so is LIBR534 – our course on ‘Health information sources and services’. In our last class, the student health librarians formed small groups and brainstormed what they will ‘take away’ from the 13-week course on health librarianship. We asked them to consider core issues related to the new pedagogies we used in LIBR534, including what worked well – and what didn’t. What did they found most memorable? How many want to be health librarians?

Now, we are in the throes of assessing term papers, search assignments and participation. To encourage connectedness, we used a blended ‘social learning’ approach of in-class discussions and online sharing of ideas and information via Vista, a Blackboard-like content management system. All of the connections that were made reminded me that the work we do using educational technologies belongs to an emerging pedagogy called connectivism.

This 5-minute video provides a good introduction to George Siemen’s connectivist ideas. Take a good look and let me know your thoughts…~Dean

*****************************

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but a new search engine aimed at students, academics, and knowledge workers has been released in beta this month – just as Google scholar turns four (also still in beta). The new search tool is called DeepDyve.

Its mission is to index the ‘deep web’ (~500 million items?) hidden behind proprietary databases and locked down websites. This is a noble goal – but I’m not convinced the technology is getting at the deep web. (Some of its expert sources are on the open web.)

In any case, DeepDyve‘s focus is on life sciences, physical sciences and even patents – it also alleges to get at some humanities journal content as well. DeepDyve indexes some newspapers and facilitates searching for Wikipedia articles. Interestingly, DeepDyve was called Infovell back in September – when it was behind its own locked-down silo – but it is now free (well, partly).

DeepDyve‘s interface looks sharp, a bit cleaner than it was as Infovell and allows narrowed search results by subject areas. Some cool features on the subscription version include dynamic clustering, visual clustering, and advanced searching.

I think I’d like to test drive the latter. ~Dean

Mike LeBeau of Google mobile gives an overview of the new Google Mobile App for iPhone. The App lets you speak your queries without having to push any keys, and also lets you do local searches without specifying your location. Voice search – how cool is that?

What are the implications of this new search technology for physicians?

*************************************

For an upcoming UBC Library forum, I was asked to present my view of some of the more important developments at Google in 2008. However, I’ll be on a much-needed holiday for the entire month of December – and, I am taking a month-long break from blogging, too. When I reviewed the ten (10) most-popular posts on this blog in 2008, here’s what I came up with:

Top Ten (10) Google Posts – Google Scholar blog, 2008

1. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/08/What-is-Google-doing-in-health-circa-mid-2008?/”>What is Google Doing in Health Mid-2008? (August 2008)

2. Google Gets Its ‘Chrome’ – A New Browser for Googlers (September 2008)

3. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/09/Scholarly-Papers-&-Metadata-Now-in-Mother-Google/”>Scholarly Papers & Metadata Now in Mother Google

4. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/10/Why-Hakia’s-Request-is-a-‘Google-Deja-Vu’/”>Why Hakia’s Request is a ‘Google Deja Vu’

5. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/07/Knol-Will-Be-An-’In-Between-Source’-of-Information/”>[Google's] Knol Will Be An ‘In-Between Source’ of Information (July 2008)

6. Google Crawls One (1) Trillion Pages (What about Google scholar?)

7. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/07/Try-Out-Google’s-’Immersive-World’—Introducing-Lively/”>Try Out Google’s ‘Immersive World’ – Introducing Lively (July 2008)
Update: Google shutting down virtual world ‘Lively’ – by December 2008

8. <a href=”http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/googlescholar/2008/06/Google-Is-‘Rewiring’-Us-Alright/”>Google Is ‘Rewiring’ Us Alright (June 2008)

9. Do (Aussie) Doctors Google? Yes, For Patients Mostly…

10. Libraries Can Beat Google at Its Own Game (March 2008)

***********************

One critical issue I did not blog about is Google’s $125 million dollar agreement to continue its Google Print project. I’ll watch how that issue plays out in 2009. ~Dean

Mothers are so right. My mother’s voice continually rings in my ears and admonishes me to take care of myself. She would have loved this funny even joyful slideshare. You enjoy it too, and have a good weekend. ~Dean

I have been watching the Twitter feeds, reading comments on the blogosphere, but the reports from the web 2.0 summit in Los Angeles have been curiously lacking in any linkage to pressing issues of our time; global warming, the war on terror and the collapsing global economy. What’s the connection between these disparate issues? Does web 2.0 have any role in bringing resources, communities and people together?

In his keynote at the summit, Al Gore said he sees a lot of promise in what he calls “World 2.0″. What is World 2.0? Simply, using the Internet and web 2.0 technologies for social betterment.

Gore said: “.. we have..had great leaps forward [with] new information ecoysystems [making] it possible for individuals who are thinking and processing information and who have aspirations and hopes … to connect easily with voters around core ideas”.

Gore points to the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press five centuries ago and its role in democratization as an example of the pivotal role of technology and information dissemination. I pointed out to my LIBR500 students in my presentation last week the same thing: that the Internet is an important force in globalization and in promoting global collaboration.

Librarians can be a part of that global collaboration.