The above circulated a while ago, but I post it today to recognize this special ALA Midwinter edition of Casual Fridays. And while I’m not suggesting libraries will or should become 21st century dance halls, Lichen’s title, “1.0 -> 2.0, the video” has some resonance here.

And on the theme of music videos that tell stories comes Miranda’s Yo Te Dire, which I like both because it’s funny and because I’m instantly attracted to foreign pop culture.

miranda, music videos, yo te dire, cascada, every time we touch, music, video, ala midwinter, libraries, lib20, library 2.0

You won’t get your salad dressing on the side in San Antonio. I don’t know what it says about a place, but in New England it’s so common I never learned to ask for it on the side, it just happens. Not so in San Antonio.

You’ll also have trouble finding a place to eat dinner away from the riverwalk, as all the neighborhood places I found are open only for breakfast and lunch. And I can’t say it with authority, but I don’t think there are any bookstores downtown either.

There’s no criticism in the above, just observations. Praise follows.

The city is clearly the most walkable I’ve ever seen. Cars move leisurely through most streets, allowing pedestrians to amble freely. And though there was little traffic noise, a descent to the riverwalk seemed to put one into a different city. Side note: much of the riverwalk has no guard rails to keep teetering tourists out of the drink; as with the salad dressing thing, I don’t know what this means, but I commend the civic leaders for it.

There’s probably a city ordinance that demands that everybody who visits the city is required to get their picture in front of the Alamo, and I complied, though only on the last day, despite being in a hotel abutting it. Indeed, my hotel, The Crocket, was a surprise pleasure. It wasn’t the free WiFi and continental breakfast, it was the Lady Bird Johnson fountain out front and nice architecture. The rooms were basic business class, but the economy price set my expectations too low and set me up for a nice surprise.

The high point of my stay in town? I had my first-ever old-style shave in the barbershop at the Gunter Hotel, which still has their old telephone switchboard from 1909. My feeling is that guys were plumb stupid to let barbers disappear from our lives.

The photo above actually comes from somewhere nearer Georgia than Texas, but I never did capture an iconic picture of San Antonio, so that’s all I’ve got.

ala, ala midwinter, san antonio, san antonio tx, texas, travel, riverwalk, tourist, leisure

ALA Midwinter IUG SIG Presentation: Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0

update: PDF version with space for notes

Web 2.0 and other “2.0” monikers have become loaded terms recently. But as we look back at the world wide web of 1996, there can be little doubt that today’s web is better and more useful. Indeed, that seems to be the conclusion millions of Americans are making, as current estimates show over 200 million users in the US, including 87% of youth 12-17.

Web 2.0 isn’t driven by technology, it’s driven by that critical mass of users. And while social software and AJAX enabled web applications get most of our attention, people are turning to the internet for some very mundane everyday activities that were little more than science fiction in 1996. The commonality of internet banking, for example, reflects the trust users now have in the security and reliability of online services.

But the web has weathered so much hype and hyperbole that it may be difficult to recognize its arrival as a true cultural force. Computing has become so common that children often learn to type before they learn to write. And the instant, self-service access to worlds of information and services is changing industries — a fact we can see clearly in the decline of the role of travel agents, even while air travel continues to grow.

Kevin Kelly, in a Wired Magazine story described this apparent blindness:

The accretion of tiny marvels can numb us to the arrival of the stupendous. [thanks to Josh Porter for alerting me to this]

So the question of how to design a web OPAC for today is a question of how to design an information service in a world rich with information services and filled with users who make information seeking — though not necessarily at libraries — part of their everyday lives.

ala, ala midwinter, ala midwinter 2006, iii, iug, lib 2.0, libraries, library, library 2.0, library catalog, online catalog, opac, opac 2.0, presentation, web 2.0, web opac