Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld

This book is an introductory text on information architecture for the internet.  The information in this book clarified and defined many ideas from this emerging profession.  It is quite relevant to librarians.  According to this book 40% of information architects come from a library science background.

Many of the concepts that were being described came right out of library school.  I remember reading about search engines, indexes, and classification in my cataloging class.  This book takes it one step further and describes how information on the web is turned into metadata, controlled vocabularies, and labeling systems. It also describes how indexes and search engines are designed.

It is more than just information systems, it is also the language of the nonvisible parts of websites.  It describes things which a chief information officer or a senior developer might talk about; web blueprints, taxonomy, wireframes, and content maps.  This is the planned architecture of enterprise websites.

The reader also learns the vocabulary and professional interests in education, strategy, and selling the profession.  Reading this was eye opening.  It gave me a description of how enterprise websites are created like evolt.org or the MSWeb intranet.

After reading this, I am beginning to get a context of how complex websites are put together.  There is the content strategist who puts in all the different kinds of content in the site, and the information architect who creates the framework on which an enterprise website is built..

This was an incredibly useful book.  It helped me understand the internet in ways which I had not done before.  I would highly recommend this to people who are interested in technology.

Daily Thoughts 1/5/2010 (Information Architecture, Meetup)

Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief agree...these books are too good to miss! / I.K


Daily Thoughts 1/5/2010

Today has been another steady day.  I read some more of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.  The section I was reading was on metadata and classification and schemes.  It was basically about how you used words and their meanings in indexes and search engines.  The authors wrote about synonyms, definitions of terms, and other minutiae.  Much of it concerned thesauri in the context of computers.  I like how computers have changed classification away from old systems like the Dewey Decimal System.

I have been working on a donation form for materials as well as a set of procedures for donations.  It has been interesting doing this.  I also took some time to look at Lexis which is now part of the library systems purchase.  We have a system designed for public libraries called Lexis Nexis Library Express.  It allows people to find basic legal material, company information, and news.

I also spent some time looking at Freegal which is a music download service for libraries.  The question right now, is whether or not it is worth it.  There are a lot of services which are quite expensive which people want.

I am tempted by the New York Tech Meetup.  Not sure if I want to go.  Haven't been to it yet.  There are usually over 700 people at the event.  They pitch five startups at each event.

Daily Thoughts 1/4/2010 (Budgets, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

Franz Volkmar Reinhard in his study, reading, 1811, Oil on Canvas
Daily Thoughts 1/4/2010

Today was a quiet steady day.  I checked the displays and printed some more flyers for the Library Tour.  I also made sure some programs went into the Calendar of Events.  I also checked out some books, I Live In the Future and This is How It Works Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted by Nick Bolton and Running The Books The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg.

We had a session discussing budgets for the collection which I think was productive.  We also discussed book donations.  I pulled together a receipt for material donations and suggested a picture of children reading.  I felt it was quite productive.  I am also thinking about how we might get to help the older people in the Armory who want to get books without a bookmobile.

There was a little bit of discussion of how to handle donations.  I like going through book donations.  I find it enjoyable.  It is like digging for gems in the rough.  It reminds me a bit of when I used to go to flea markets to look for comics and other memorabilia. There is Booksalefinder which lists all the different booksales across the United States.
http://www.booksalefinder.com/

On the way home, I read some more of Information Architecture For The World Wide Web.  The authors are writing about search engines.  They are explaining the differences between precision and recall in search engines.  I am enjoying reading this book.  Many of the concepts read like they came out of my class on cataloging in library school.  I learned that 40% of information architects have a library science background.  The next chapter I am going to read is on Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata.  This is a hot topic in library science. They are often looking for librarians with taxonomy skills.

I started reading I live in the future and here's how it works by Nick Bilton.  Nick Bilton is the Lead Writer and Technology Reporter for the New York Times Bits Blog. He opens the book by describing how he prefers to read the paper in digital form over the print form.

Web Bits

Steve Haber, The Changing Role of Libraries In The Digital Age from The Huffington Post,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-haber/the-changing-role-of-libr_b_803722.html

Daily Thoughts 12/30/2010 (Kickstarter, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

Eigen scan uit Het doel der Vereeniging; afbeelding uit 1892 auteursrechtvrij.  I am not quite sure what it says, but I do like the image.


Daily Thoughts 12/30/2010

I tried to watch the original Planet of the Apes but just could not do it today.  The costumes somehow seemed a little bit dated.  The story is based on the novel, Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle.

I also could not get myself to read The Autiobiography of Mark Twain.  It was a little bit too much.

I also decided to not write any reviews today.  Sometimes, you need to not do things to keep it all in perspective.

Finally, I decided not to go to the final public session about the budget.  I think I will hear about it tomorrow.  I need a break from this stuff.  Hopefully, I'll have one until the new year starts.

I have been fooling a little bit looking on the web.  I rather like http://www.kickstarter.com/ , a lot of the small creative projects which are on it are publishing oriented.

I started reading Information Architecture for the World Wide Web , 3rd Edition by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld tonight.  It is about designing the information framework for large scale websites.  I think I need to learn a little bit more about website design both for content and structure.