instaGrok (find out about stuff and pin it down)

…is a discovery tool that explicitly targets the learning and education audience out there. I played around with it and surely feel that it represents a very effective alternative to using well-worn mainstream search engines when it comes to finding out about things and conducting topical research.

instaGrok uses an interactive mind-map that displays concepts based on any given subject you’re interested in. Enter a subject term (keyword or a short phrase) that is of interest to you, and suggested concepts are retrieved that link to related resources.

Say for example you’d like to find out more about Marx, his philosophical roots and ideas about the proletariat, bourgeoisie and the curse of capitalism. Enter Karl Marx into the search and the following result presents itself:

It is possible from the outset to adjust the level of detail when running this (any) search (see slide at the top). Each concept node links to various other nodes and relevant resources (look out for key facts, websites, images and glossary etc. on the right hand side). You can plot a conceptual route by pinning down nodes as part of the discovery process, whilst at the same time removing nodes that you’re not so much interested in. This can be a very useful filter mechanism when conducting research on a narrowly defined topic.

A search history keeps tabs on the subjects of interest that you looked at previously. You can play with instaGrok without creating an account, but you might as well do just that in order to sample its very useful core features, namely the customising of concept maps, keeping a search history and creating a personal journal.

The study journal function is really quite handy as it enables you to document your research results for later use in a new information context (say you're adding stuff from readings that you took off the bookshelf in the library). The journal is quickly populated as you can freely note down ideas around nodes and pin related key facts, videos and images and then email the same to yourself.

What I like most about instaGrok is that it utilises crowd sourcing for the purpose of selecting and rating recommended information resources. To sum it up here, instaGrok is an intuitively to use search engine that lends itself as a good starting point for pulling in Web resources (and conceptually map them), that will enable you to quickly answer more complex questions.

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Career Development #irelibchat Summary - 7th Nov 2012

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this month's #irelibchat, which was the most popular yet. Below is a brief rundown of some of the key ideas and issues discussed on the night.

Sources for finding job vacancies and internship opportunities:
A number of people raised the need for a central LIS jobs hub where all vacancies can be advertised/shared. @JadaJelly, Chair of the new LAI Career Development Group, stated that this is one of the areas that the Group is currently looking at in collaboration with the LAI website taskforce. A number of useful websites were suggested by participants including: The LAICDG mailing list, other LAI mailing lists, the UCD SILS Facebook page, activelink.ie, publicjobs.ie and the EURES website.

How easy is it to change sectors?
There were different perspectives on this issue. Some believe that experience from another sector is just as highly valued as it can bring a new dynamic or a fresh approach to existing teams. However, many described their difficulties in moving to other sectors e.g. from the school library setting to the academic sector due to the differences between roles, especially when there may be other candidates with more relevant experience.

Non-traditional and emerging roles for LIS professionals including freelance opportunities:
All participants believed this is an area which is underdeveloped in Ireland at present with opportunities for co-operative groupings of individuals or for a a new LIS recruitment agency for short-term contracting or freelance opportunities (e.g. cataloguing and records management for commercial firms; project-based research officers; training etc.). More information, advisory services and support regarding tax issues and rights of self-employed workers etc. may help to encourage such roles.

Career Development issues
The lack of employment security was highlighted by several with one participant noting that "3 year contracts are the new permanent". Flexibility was identified as a key attribute in this respect: professionals must be adaptable and create opportunities to learn new skills outside their current role; as one participant stated: "If you are lucky enough to be employed, you have to look for opportunities to gain a variety of experience where you are". Networking and conferences were highlighted as being of particular value in this respect, as well as technical knowledge and understanding: "Networking is key; understanding the sector is key key!". Volunteering was generally seen as a positive opportunity, providing it is not utilised as a means of job replacement by employers.

The full archived spreadsheet of tweets is available online.

Thanks again to all those who participated. #irelibchat will be taking a Christmas break but suggestions for January's topic are welcome!

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RSP webinars on Institutional Repositories

Two free RSP webinars are scheduled for December:

The role of institutional repositories after the Finch report - December 4th, 3pm (GMT)

Three repository administrators, Dr. Miggie Pickton (University of Southampton), Dominic Tate (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Sally Rumsey (Oxford University) will discuss the current role of the institutional repositories, the developments and implications after the Finch report and the necessary actions that each institution needs to take into consideration.

Registration is open at http://www.rsp.ac.uk/events/the-role-of-institutional-repositories-after-the-finch-report/


Impact metrics for repositories - December 12th, 11am (GMT)

In this free RSP webinar, Mark MacGillivray, PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and founder of the Cottage Labs, will present why repositories' metrics are useful and which type of metrics can be collected. Mark will give a brief introduction on the technical developments on repositories' metrics and will present some examples from his current work.

Registration is open at http://www.rsp.ac.uk/events/impact-metrics-for-repositories/

[Reposted from the JISC Repositories Mailing List. I have attended previous webinars from the Repositories Support Project and they are always excellent!]

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Twitter List of Librarians in Ireland

I recently put together a list of librarians in Ireland who are on Twitter. There are currently just over 100 accounts listed, but I am sure I have missed several so just send me a tweet @libfocus or @mishdalton and I will happily add you. Similarly, if anyone wants to be removed for whatever reason just let me know! Just to note, the list is not designed to include Irish libraries but rather those of the individuals working within the profession.

The list is publically available from the @libfocus Twitter account at https://twitter.com/libfocus/librarians-in-ireland. You can subscribe to the entire list in a single click to easily keep track of what librarians are up to or you can browse the members if you want to look at what librarians are currently tweeting.

All feedback and suggestions for improvements are welcome!

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If the management literature tells us one thing, it’s that some business failures, particularly in the wake of the international financial melt-down, have been due in part to lack of ethical decision making and awareness.

Guest post by Stuart Ferguson, Assistant Professor, Knowledge & Information Studies, University of Canberra

I recently returned to Canberra from a study tour of Ireland and Britain, which was part of a project designed to investigate changes in the field of information ethics and the ways in which ethics is taught to information students and novices within the sector. The starting point for the study was library ethics – indeed, one of the main outcomes is expected to be a set of case studies designed to highlight aspects of the Australian Library and Information Association’s statements on values and ethics - but the intention was to expand the study to include the broader field of information ethics and policy, related collecting institutions (e.g. digital libraries, e-repositories and digital archives) and the impact that digitisation and enhanced electronic access have on our information policies and ethical decision-making.

The study tour included conversations with a wide range of information practitioners, academics, professional associations and PhD students and covered the fields of libraries, archives, public records, digital collections, institutional repositories, Freedom of Information (FOI), digital humanities and applied ethics. One of the advantages of interviews over, say, requests to e-lists or surveys is that many interviewees start out believing that they have nothing to tell but in the course of the conversation come up with interesting observations.

These conversations have been a rich source of scenarios for the study, for example: whether professional associations should sanction volunteers staffing core library services if the only alternative is library closure; misuse of web images that are part of personal archives donated for academic use; external funding and donations from dubious political sources; access to material such as emails that refer to third parties; use of internet filters, even on staff PCs; FOI requests to access staff personnel files; pressure from public authorities to put reports on the public record without the material that went into the investigation; police requests for libraries to take bomb-making books off the shelves; agencies trying to join chatrooms, with potential to recruit members.

Professional codes of ethics are often not particularly helpful. These generally fall into at least one of three categories: aspirational/inspirational, regulatory/prescriptive and educational. The first address values and principles; the second contain rules that provide ‘solutions to ethical dilemmas’; while the educational category may include the first two elements but ‘also provide explanations and examples’ (Shachaf, 2005, p.515). Many, including the LAI code (before it disappeared for review) and the ALIA one, are largely inspirational and don’t provide solutions.

The trouble with a prescriptive code is that, even if we were happy to have a detailed set of rules to follow uncritically, we would have problems designing rules in sufficient detail to cover the complex problems we face. What do we do when our principles or our obligations clash? As Robert Hauptman put it, in conversation with Elizabeth Buchanan, ‘we do have extremely complex problems, problems that become dilemmas because they’re basically insoluble’ (Buchanan, 2008, p.254).

Case studies are often employed, particularly in codes designed to be educational, precisely because they can capture that complexity and to some degree the ‘insoluble’ nature of some of our ethical dilemmas. Some professional associations have developed case studies to assist their members, such as the Society of American Archivists and the Australian Computer Society and for the present CILIP in the UK provides links to sets of relevant case studies.

Of course case studies are not enough in themselves because we need some kind of framework with which to analyse each case – hence  the tendency over the years to draw on various philosophical perspectives, most notably the consequentialist approach (what would be the impact of our decision?) and the deontological one (what is the right thing to do?). Again, none of these approaches in itself provides an answer, only a means of analysis and of sharpening our critical reasoning.

Underlying all this of course is the nagging question ‘Do ethics matter?’. In the information sector, our decisions may not have the same impact as those in the upper reaches of business and finance, but we have seen concerns over privacy, for instance, increasing. Jean Preer (2008, p.15) sees  codes of ethics as significant statements of professional identity. My study so far suggests strong links between ethics and information policy and, while I have to acknowledge the impact of self-selection among participants, my conversations have encountered passionate concern over ethical issues far more often than indifference.

If you have stories or ideas that you think might be useful, please post here or, if you prefer not to use an open forum, email me directly (stuart.ferguson at canberra.edu.au). All stories/case studies collected for the research will be de-identified before being published in any way. I’ve gone through rigorous ethics processes!

Ref.
Buchanan, E, 2008. On theory, practice, and responsibilities: A conversation with Robert Hauptman. Library & Information Science Research, 30/4, 250-256.
Preer, J, 2008. Library ethics. 1st ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Shachaf, P, 2005. A global perspective on library association codes of ethics. Library & Information Science Research, [Online]. 27/4, 513-533. Available at: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.canberra.edu.au/10.1016/j.lisr.2005.08.008 [Accessed 22 October 2012].

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Libfocus is 1!

Libfocus is officially one year old today! I am sure I speak for all of us when I say a big thank you to everyone who has read and supported the blog so far, and also to all of our guest bloggers who have contributed some really excellent posts.

If you would like to contribute a guest blog post to libfocus, just get in touch with us via Twitter (@libfocus) or email (libfocusguestpost at gmail.com) or contact any of the regular contributers listed on the right hand side of the blog. Posts about anything library- or information-related are always welcome.

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