Augmented Reality and The Great Doodletown Caper

This Monday, my friend Dimitri and I went on a hike through the woods of the Bear Mountain State Park on a journey to find Doodletown, a mining town abandoned in the mid-sixties which has become a bit of a tourist attraction.

While this is technically a "ghost town," it doesn't quite live up to the implications that that name carries. When I think of a ghost town, I think of rickety old abandoned buildings and the excitement of exploring the ruins of a time gone by. Doodletown, in contrast, consists of some roads, foundations, rock walls and graves. We knew this going in, so we weren't disappointed, but ideally we would have been able to explore the architecture.

Helpfully, signs were posted around the area, many with either drawings or photos of the

destroyed buildings and descriptions of the names and occupations of the inhabitants. We

amused ourselves by making up stories about the citizens of Doodletown and expanding them as we wandered down the streets and through the graveyards ("There are as many graveyards as there are houses!" I mused. There did seem to be quite a lot of graveyards for such a small town!)

The signs were helpful, as I said, but they got me thinking about augmented reality, something we discussed in our "Social Networking in Libraries" class. This was the perfect place to implement something like that. The locations of the houses were relatively free of obstruction and there were photos or drawings, as I said, of nearly all of the buildings. It would have been great if instead of looking at a sign with a picture of the house, you could hold up some sort of device (such as a smart phone) or look through special glasses and see a virtual representation of the house where it stood. According to the 2010 Horizon Report, "An application currently in development by the EU-funded iTacitus project (http://itacitus.org/) will allow visitors to pan across a location — the Coliseum, say — and see what it looked like during an historical event, complete with cheering spectators and competing athletes." Doodletown may not be the Coliseum, but the application of Augmented Reality in any historical location is an exciting prospect.

And all those graveyards? Remember this article? Maybe we could use technology to really make this place a "ghost town."

Schools out for summer, but not for long!

In my second course in the Library Science program at Syracuse (IST511), we were encouraged to start blogs. This is primarily why this one exists. Dave Lankes, our professor, assured us that as soon as the course was over, we could abandon our blogs, no questions asked. "Not everyone is comfortable with their Library Science education being public," Dave said (basically, I'm recalling this from memory.) Not everyone is comfortable with their future employers, colleagues, etc. seeing the ignorance of the early days of their education.

I, on the other hand, am totally fine with making my ignorance public. I've been an avid internet-goer since I was in middle school, and I'm used to living my life publicly. I think this is partially just my personality--I have no secrets--and partially the exposure over the years. I've used Livejournal, Facebook, Myspace, AIM, and back in the day, Prodigy chat for many, many years now. I am, as they say, an open book.

So the reason I haven't updated this is not that I see fit to abandon this blog. It's just that I haven't been in school, so my mind has been on other things.

What have I been up to?

Well, I was hired to work for the Halloween season for a couple friends who own a souvenir photo business, Dead Memories. This is one of those things that in no way relates to my future chosen career, but seemed like such an interesting life experience, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

I celebrated my daughter's fourth birthday with my parents, brother and sister. She received a cute pair of earrings and a necklace from my sister, ensuring that she now has not only more purses than I do, but more jewelry too.

I realized that I like Billy Idol. Who knew? Both Pandora and Last.fm have proven to be fantastic at introducing me to incredible music I wouldn't otherwise have encountered. If it weren't for these sites, I wouldn't be aware of Morphine, Stars, The Knife or Beirut, either.

I did Trivia Night down at the Dubliner for the first time, and was hardly an asset to my team. I got the South Sandwich Islands mixed up with the Sandwich Islands. How embarrassing! I did however know that Reykjavik is located within close proximity to a number of volcanoes. My team still lost, but we had fun.

Mostly my days have been spent watching movies, going for walks, sewing and seeing friends as much as possible. School starts again at the end of the month though, so as we get closer to that, expect my mind to go to library-related topics once again.

How to Find a Good Book

(in response to the chapter "Readers Advisory Services: How to Help Users Find a 'Good Book'" by Mary K. Chelton in The Portable MLIS)

I am one of those people who has never (at least not as an adult) approached a librarian to ask for help in finding something.  I suppose this is kind of funny, given that I am in the process of becoming a librarian.  Then again, I'm also the kind of person who never stops to ask for directions, or for help finding which aisle houses the cereal, so I think this is an overarching element of my personality.  Because of this tendency not to admit I need help, I never really honestly thought about how a librarian would help somebody find a book she might enjoy.  This article made me start considering that.

One thing that stood out for me was the assertion that "reading literature is a means of self-exploration" and "unless the book has meaning for the reader, all the rest is useless."  This is a phenomenon I have observed in movies and TV, so it makes complete sense that it would translate to books.  Kids often enjoy the book Where the Wild Things Are because they feel like they have difficulty conforming to adults' idea of "proper" behavior; They can put themselves in Max's shoes.  Similarly, I like the show "Firefly" not because I am a science fiction buff per se, but more because I can see my own struggles in the struggles of the characters.  

This of course means that at least some of the time, helping a member find the next book to read may be significantly more complicated than saying "Oh, you like Stephen King? Well, here.  Read The Tommyknockers."  I know that one of my favorite books of all time is The Terror by Dan Simmons.  However, I've tried to read other Dan Simmons novels and haven't been able to get through them.  I would love to find another book like that, but I don't know where to look.  (Maybe I should ask a librarian!)  I am interested to delve more into what kinds of resources are available to help with book recommendations.  

The article also mentions placing similar books together on the shelf (an incredibly enticing idea for somebody who loves to organize!) or making online suggestions available via E-mail.  I have also heard of libraries whose websites employ the Amazon-esque "If you enjoy this, you might also like..." model.  I think this is a fantastic idea, especially for people like me who hate asking for help.

 

Evil Librarians League

Last week, as part of my "Intro to the Library and Information Profession" class here at Syracuse University, we went as a group to the library and were able to view (and in some cases, handle) a variety of interesting books in the special collections. We saw some great stuff (a 500 year old atlas comes to mind--I love maps!) but the most memorable item of the day was one we didn't even get to see.

I texted my friend J.P. "They have books bound in human skin here!" His response: "What kind of librarian are you trying to become?" I of course informed him that I was in the process of becoming an evil librarian (insert maniacal laughter.) Our texted conversation continued as I climbed into bed, at which point he asked me what kinds of books would be bound in human skin.

Oh goodness. This, I think, is in part what led me to this profession in the first place. I have to know everything. I couldn't go to sleep now. That was a great question! I climbed out of bed and did some research.

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy. It turns out that many different kinds of books were bound in human skin. A "common" use would be for anatomy textbooks or other books related to the medical profession (and in these cases, the skin was often donated for this purpose.) Sometimes books about the crimes and/or trials of death-row criminals were bound in their own skin. Anthropodermic bibliopegy was also apparently practiced on the victims of the French revolution (and I would be willing to bet that those skins weren't willingly donated...)

Most of this information, by the way, was gleaned from a really great article from the Harvard Law Record, "Books Bound in Human Skin; Lampshade Myth?" by Dan Alban.

This topic is interesting of course because of its macabre nature. I love that stuff (A couple of my more memorable trips were to the Bodies Exhibit in New York City and the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.) It is interesting on a deeper level, though, in that it raises the issue of relative comfort level with regard to death. In the past, when death was something people saw all around them, a book bound in human skin would be a neat curiosity, but not so appalling as to keep people from doing it. These days, when death is tucked neatly away in the halls of antiseptic hospitals, if you wanted to bind a book in human skin you may actually have to be an evil librarian.

Help! The library is poking me!

There is a lot of talk these days about social networking. I will be the first to admit that my usage of facebook borders on pathological (if I disappear one of these days, you'll know I've been sent to social networking detox). However, I was, until very recently, not aware of any sort of "issue" surrounding libraries and social networking. If you had asked me what kinds of challenges librarians faced regarding social networking, the only thing I could have imagined there being was whether to allow people to use social networking tools in libraries.

However, the more I delve into librarianship as a career, the more my view is shifting. Instead of seeing facebook, youtube, twitter and the like as the massive time-suck it is for me, many librarians are looking at how we can use these resources to further the mission of the library.

What I have seen in reference to these websites, for the most part, is suggestions about how they can be used by the library as a new way to communicate with patrons. This is a generally good idea, but I think that these tools can be used for far more. Setting up a presence on facebook is not a pointless endeavor. It is easy and requires only a minor time commitment. However, what I see as the real potential in social networking tools and web 2.0 lies more in how it could be used for library programs.

Given the idea of the library as a place that brings people together in order to share information, ideas and experiences, it makes a lot of sense to use social media. Maybe library patrons could be encouraged to contribute to a library-sponsored blog or message board, writing book reviews or sharing creative writing they have written. Another possibility would be to get people involved in a project that involves recording video and producing shorts to be posted on youtube. There is certainly a lot of potential.

hello, my name is...

Hello, my name is Veronica Stork and I am an information addict.

More specifically, I am a master's degree student in Library and Information Science at Syracuse University in New York.

I always knew that I wanted to do something intellectual. Of course, as a child, this meant that I was going to be an Indiana Jones-style archaeologist. Once I realized that the job description for "archaeologist" didn't actually include fighting Nazis, however, I decided to move on. Eventually my dream evolved into one in which I would be a teacher, but then something happened.

I moved into a house whose previous owner had been a librarian. She had died, leaving her extensive book collection behind. This was one of those houses where every wall was covered in books. I was surprised there weren't books lined up in the bathroom (there were, however, books lining the hallway.) Librarianship wasn't even something I had remotely considered until then, but this woman's life and living space fascinated me. I had just graduated college with a degree in East Asian Studies that I didn't know what to do with. The world was open to me, so to speak.

I spent a few more years debating whether I still wanted to be a teacher or whether I wanted to go into Library Science. Finally, I made my choice. It was kind of late to be applying to schools, but I scrambled around doing like a madwoman taking the GREs, securing letters of recommendation and finally sending out the applications. I applied to three schools, sat back and waited.

When I got the acceptance E-mail from Syracuse, I was shocked. This was by far my first choice school, the school I thought I had no prayer of getting into. Of course I was going to go!

So here I am.

In the interest of avoiding redundancy, I am just going to link to my Syracuse website, which has other fun info about me, like what mountains I like to punish myself by climbing and where my occasionally clever poetry has been published.

That's all for now!