Librarian of Fortune

Musings from the weekend's news

The New York Times had an article on Feb 3 about Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. The tragedy (actually, one among many) is that self-immolations, a central part of the Tibetan protest movement, are one of the few ways Tibetans can protest non-violently.

What I find so profoundly sad is that the reason these (mostly) young people choose to kill themselves in such a horrifying way is "that is the only thing we can do without hurting other people", as one Tibetan said. How many other human rights struggles have seen such inward-directed anger and despair?

Google search quirks

In preparation for my Internet Librarian talks, I was playing around with Google, looking for how much my search results varied based on how I constructed my search. I was surprised to see how much they differed. 

First, I tried searching carbon neutral winery and then searching winery carbon neutral. Not only were the results significantly different, the first search retrieved 93,500 results and the latter retrieved 195,000. (My hunch is that since there are plenty of sites that have the exact phrase "carbon neutral winery", Google delivered the results from a "shallower" search than for the less common wording of "winery carbon neutral".) I also found that, among the first 20 results of each search, there were five results that appeared in only one or the other search result. 

My other surprise was the difference in results between standard results and limiting the search results to web sites updated in the last year, a technique I often use to get more relevant results. There was very little overlap between the two search results and, while I still prefer the results with the last-year filter, I am reminded that I could be missing some good material that way.

 

 

Entrepreneurs who get it

I have a standard poodle. (OK, actually a very non-standard poodle, but that's for another post)  So I take Meatballinto a local groomer, who did a great job and didn't yell at me, so I was going to use her regularly. But then I got a call from her this morning, asking how Meatball was and whether I was happy with the cut. I am now not just a regular customer but a groupie; this woman really wants to create loyal customers and knows how to show it.

If you're ever looking for a great dog groomer, check out Puppy Paws Pet Spa in Niwot, Colorado.

Why we can't assess risk

There was a great article in Sunday's New York Times, to the effect that the basic architecture of the brain makes us feel first and think second and explains our notorious risk-perception gap. Long live the amygdla!

My highlights from the article:

• While our choices about risk invariably feel right when we make them, many of these decisions end up putting us in greater peril, because we often cannot correctly evaluate risk.


• Humans subconsciously weigh the risks and benefits of any choice or course of action — and if taking a particular action seems to afford little or no benefit, the risk automatically feels bigger. Conversely, if the benefit is very clear, the risk is seen as less. (See, e.g., difference between parents' enthusiasm for polio vaccine and fear of current childhood vaccinations)


• The part of the brain where the instinctive “fight or flight” signal is first triggered — the amygdala — is situated such that it receives incoming stimuli before the parts of the brain that think things over.


• A societal risk, well off in the future, tends not to trigger alarm — in part, because the hazard isn't singling any one of us out, individually. Hence the lack of response about global environmental threats.


• Risk perception is not so much a process of pure reason, but rather a subjective combination of the facts and how those facts feel to us.

While the article looks at personal decisions such as whether or not to vaccinate one's child, it applies in the rest of the world as well. I'm in the business of providing insights for decision-makers, and I know in my heart that a lot of what goes into a decision is far less tangible than analysis... 

What is the best word ever?

UPDATE to my earlier post with classic diphthongs:

Yes, diphthong actually IS the best word ever.Ted McCagg, blogger at Questionable Skills, crowdsources the definite answer that burning question. His bracket system narrowed down the choices, finally eliminating such worthy contenders as hornswoggle, kerfuffle and gherkin.

{it helps when I spell the best word correctly}

How not to get customers

So, here's the scene. I have yet another swarm of bees making themselves comfortable in my house, this time behind the second story gutter. I call a company to have them removed.

Company: We can send someone out today to give you an estimate.

Me: I'm interested in having them removed humanely. I know it costs a bunch to get inside the walls. I'm not shopping around for cost. Can you just send someone to do the work, or does this require two visits?

Company: Well, you know, this can be very expensive and we want people to know ahead of time and blah blah blah

Me: So there is no way I can get my bees removed without having to meet people here twice?

Company: blah blah blah that's right.

Me: OK. I'm calling someone who is willing to come out and do the job. Buh bye.

A company that doesn't allow its customer-facing employees any leeway in working with customers is a company that (1) never gets feedback from customers and (2) sends the message that their time is more important than the customer's.

 

More fun with language

Today's Argyle Sweater cartoon delights me.

Typeface nerds arise!

Last Thursday, the Wall Street Journal had an article on how the typeface you choose can have unexpected repercussions. Michigan requires that all ballot initiative petitions must have the initiative written in 14-point boldface. But when is 14-font not really 14-font?

Apparently, the same folks who have changed 2"x4" lumber into 1.5"x3.5", and 16-ounce packages down to 14 ounces are messing around with typefaces, too. The font used in a recent petition was 14- point Calibri, a typeface I find easy to read. Unfortunately, its characters are slightly shorter than other 14-point typefaces, such as Ariel Bold and Century Schoolbook Bold. The Michigan Supreme Court is going to resolve the matter.

Who knew typeface designers would have such an impact on politics?

Ready-to-use information graphics

[Guest post from Marcy Phelps, Phelps Research]

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Displaying data in a visual format adds impact and brings clarity where words and spreadsheets often fail. Charts, graphs, and maps make it easy to identify patterns, trends, and clusters and transform the numbers into insights. Rather than create my own graphics for my research reports, I often save time by heading to sources that do the work for me. Here are a few of my favorite sites for data in ready-to-use visual formats:

Eurostat provides options for customizing and downloading European economic, demographic, and other data in graphs and maps. After selecting a data set, follow links at the top of the page for non-tabular formats.

The Data section of The World Bank's website contains global statistics in map and graph formats. The By Country and Indicators sections include the most options for and the easiest route to visual formats.

American FactFinder offers mapped U.S. demographic data from the Decennial Census, American Community Survey, and other Census Bureau products. From the Table Results page, click the Create a Map button.

And keep an eye on The Data Visualization Gallery from the U.S. Census Bureau. Part of an effort to increase the use of visualization in making Census data available to the public, this site will eventually expand their coverage.

You can find more sources of ready-to-use information graphics at MarcyPhelps.com. Do you have any to add to the list?

 

Cloud computing - how 1960!

I had the great good fortune of being on a panel with Roger Summit at the SLA conference, and was struck with how innovative Roger was. When he invented Dialog, the idea of interactive searching and of documents being access remotely was completely new to the info pro industry. So I started thinking of how I would describe the new Dialog of 1966 in 2012 terms.

"Remote terminal access" to electronic resources is the cloud computing of the 1960s. Being able to query a database across the country, and then download the results, was revolutionary. In fact, early "downloading" amounted to issuing a Type command and advancing the teletype machine's paper to a new page.

Roger was asked what he would have developed had he been starting today rather than in the 1960s, and his answer was delightful. "Empathy software" -- a front-end to any search tool that would serve as a good, empathic librarian, ask the user some questions to discern the underlying question, then construct a query that would best extract that information. This seems fitting; he is imagining how to make an interactive search service more meaningfully interactive.

I don't see anything on the horizon that truly addresses the question of how to take a vaguely-formed information gap and find the underlying information need. IBM's Watson is perhaps the closest alternative, although it (he?) has a ways to go before it can be deployed within libraries and information centers.