THE WEB OF INFLUENCE: HOW NEWS SPREADS AMONG LIBRARIANS

a presentation by Marylaine Block for the Internet Librarian Conference, November 4, 2003



In order to determine how librarians get their current news about the profession, I traced the discussion of the new ALA web site in a variety of blogs, newsletters, and listservs from April 4, 2003 through June.


April 3: ALAWON notes that ALA will begin transition to the new web site on April 7. Very chirpy and upbeat. http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/ALA_Washington/News2/20034/31apr03.htm

April 4, 11:08:32 -0800 (PST): Robert Bocher, Web4Lib, mentions that he's been told by ALA staff there won't be redirects from old pages on the forthcoming ALA web site http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0038.html

April 4, 11:14:48(PST): Bill Drew responds to Bocher, doubts the new site will be ADA-compliant http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0039.html

April 7

April 7, 10:26:20 (PDT): Don Wood on PUBLIB-L announces new web site, and URLs for intellectual-free-dom-related offices http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0304/0089.html

April 7 10:52:36: Karen Schneider on Web4Lib forwards the letter she sent to ALA this morning. First statement by a techie that the hideous URLs are not necessary http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0063.html

Fri, 7 Apr 2000 11:48:46 Susan Hill on PUBLIB notes disappearance of PR-Talk from the site http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0004/0112.html

April 7, 11:23:27: Karen Schneider on Web4Lib says at Midwinter they were told they can't do redirects for most sites, says in her view, "can't" means "won't". http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0066.html

April 7: Gary re-posts Karen's letter on Resource Shelf http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2003_04_06_resourceshelfextra_archive.html/#200110315

April 7 17:57:49: Michael McCulley on Web4Lib, says no site management system worth a dime would require the long URLs to be visible and no sysadmin who knew what he was doing would allow a site with this many broken links http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0078.html

April 7: Jessamyn West's letter to ALA and ALA's response http://www.librarian.net/lettertoala.html

April 7: Chris Zammarelli had some R-rated things to say about it at Caterblog. Refers to Karen Schneider's letter and Jessamyn's post and TJ Sondermann's ALA web site t-shirt http://www.lemurlove.com/caterblog/ala.htm

April 7 17:46:19 -0400 (EDT): Richard Harrison notes that it takes 49 screens to get through the web site map http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0074.html

April 7: John Hubbard comments on the web site at LISNews
http://www.lisnews.com/article.pl?sid=04/04/07/084426&mode=thread&tid=1

April 8

April 8 10:00:35: Erin Kinney on Web4Lib notes some search improvement since yesterday but finds search system excessively difficult to use http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0094.html

Apr 8, 2003 10:20: Cheryl Kirkpatrick wrote: Well, they asked for feedback. I am going to send them my comments just in case no one from ALA monitors this list. It would be interesting to know how many comments they get, both positive and negative.

April 8 10:41:46: Tracy Reed on how hard it was to find anything useful with the search engine,http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0087.html

April 8 11:25:28 (PDT): Steve Oberg on Web4Lib complains about the embarrassment to the profession and ALA's lack of responsiveness http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0056.html

April 8 11:26:03: Gary Price on Web4Lib on the effect on library marketing and the violation of Ranganathan's "save the time of the reader." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0091.html

April 8 11:30:30 (PDT): Karen Schneider on Web4Lib has it on good authority that ALA was sold a bill of goods, that the problems were deliberate and wonderful features http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0058.html

April 8 11:46:24: Edward Wigg responds to Erin Kinney, Gary, Cheryl, on Web4Lib suggests everybody should send ALA a list of broken links and demand that ALA tell them the new location -- "You broke it, you fix it" http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0097.html

April 8 12:02:16: Dan Lester, "I've learned that when a programmer (or other) techie says that something is impossible it usually means that s/he doesn't know how to do it or doesn't want to do it. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0107.html

April 8 12:02:25(PDT): Daniel Messer on Web4Lib responds to Karen's 2nd post, says "It looks like the website sacrificed easy content access and workability to the daemon gods of "Boy, doesn't our site look pretty?" http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0080.html

April 8 12:22:14 (PDT): Andrew Mutch, replying to Dan Lester, says it's a mistake to think the people making decisions are librarians http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0118.html

April 8 13:02:36 (PDT): Karen Schneider on Web4Lib posts ALA's responses by Keith Michael Fiels to first criticisms of the site, but doubts that ALA will be responsive to even a concerted demand by librarians for changes http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0124.html

April 8 13:15:29: Charles Gimon says this is why outsourcing should be avoided. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0110.html

April 8 13:16:25: Andrew Mutch says any web site is a combination of technology and politics, and "we need to find a way to communicate our concerns in a way that the powers-that-be can understand and see as worth addressing." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0100.html

April 8 14:01:21 (PDT): Thomas Dowling on Web4Lib says the ALA response on the issue of long URLs makes no sense http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0130.html

April 8 14:08:53 (PDT) : Bernie Sloan on Web4Lib calls the ALA response "IT-Speak", a ""say-something-to-placate-the-masses-but-don't-really-say-anything" memo." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0131.html

April 8 14:10:56 (PDT): Katie Dunneback on Web4Lib asks how to refer people to specific pages if, as the ALA response indicated, the dynamically generated URL keeps changing http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0132.html

April 8 14:20:36 (PDT): Karen Harker on Web4Lib, responding to Charles Gimon, adds that Cold Fusion is not to blame for the mess, and ALA's mistakes include not beta testing, relying too much on search engines, and not being responsive to feedback http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0134.html

April 8 14:40:59(PDT): Karen Harker points out the advantages of a database-driven site, but finds the metatags inadequate for searching http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0136.html

April 8 15:19:25: Daniel Messer, responding to Tracy Reed, complains about forcing people to navigate through the web site http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0090.html

April 8 15:24:17 (PDT): Kevin Broun on Web4Lib analyzes URLs, concludes this is a misuse of cold fusion, and that the long URLs are a choice, not a necessity http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0138.html

April 8 15:53:44 (PDT): Karen Harker adds to Kevin's remarks about misuse of Cold Fusion

April 8 17:59:32 (PDT) : Susan D. Barb on Web4Lib suggests that every time a "sorry" page comes up, we should call the ALA number http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0142.html

April 8 18:30:18(PDT) : E Naeher responding to Karen Harker points out that some information IS static and should therefore live on fixed locations http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0144.html

April 9

April 9 06:27:30 (PDT): Thomas Dowling on Web4Lib points out ownership issues on the site http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0148.html

April 9 13:34:39 (PDT) : MaryBeth Faccioli passes on a note from the besieged site volunteers at ACRL about how little notice they had about the changes affecting their web site and how they can't find anything either http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0155.html

April 10 14:41:29 (PDT) : Michelle Frisque on Web4Lib explains why they had to take down back issues of TER on the LITA web site http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0173.html

April 9 15:48:29 (PDT) : Karen Schneider is hearing about a rush to get the site mounted in time for NLW regardless of how well it worked, and that the ALA member task force was left out of key decisions http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0157.html

April 9 15:56:53 (PDT) : Bill Drew on Web4Lib, first disclosure of the name of the contractor? Active Matter http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0158.html

April 10

April 10: How Not To Redesign a Web Site, drawing on Jessamyn's post and Chris Zammarelli's. http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib174.html

April 10: Robert Carlson of ALA responds to criticisms, says he has been following the Web4Lib discussion all week http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0174.html

April 10 16:03:12 (PDT) Ranti Junus responds to Karen Schneider on long URLs http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0178.html

April 11

April 11 07:56:02 (PDT): Bernie Sloan on Web4Lib notes the inability of the web site to retrieve a site that's there, either by search or index. Notes that ALA has been urged not to give out URLs but urge people to use the search engine. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0186.html

April 11 08:42:04 (PDT): Aaron Dobbs on Web4Lib responds to the ALA response http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0188.html

April 11, 2003 10:50 AM: Bernie Sloan on confusion re e-mail this page

April 11 12:47:15 (PDT): Roy Tennant on Web4Lib explains that the search engine works so poorly because it theoretically searches 4 types of content but can really only search one http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0196.html

April 11 4:19 p.m.: LISNews: Marylaine Block to ALA: 'Two Words:"beta test"!
http://www.lisnews.com/article.php3?sid=20030411161905; 3 comments.

April 11 10:50:07 (PDT): Scott Furciniti on Web4Lib comments on Bernie Sloan's post about "e-mail this page" http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0194.html

April 11: Copyblog quotes LISNews: Marylaine to ALA http://www.yoyology.com/copyblog/archives/000178.html

April 12? Bibliolatry cites my article, and says she can hardly count the number of postings in all the listservs she's on http://www.etches-johnson.com/bibliolatry/2003_04_01_archive.html#200138484

April 13: "How Not To Redesign a Web Site" is the Library Link of the Day http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/2003/04.html

April 13: Waterboro Lib Blog notes the controversy, linking to my article, Karen Schneider's letter to ALA in the Web4Lib discussion, and ALA's original reply. http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blogs/blog4011503.htm

April 14: LJ takes note of the controversy
http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA291946

April 14: Jessamyn cites my article for critiquing the web site without too much vitriol http://www.librarian.net/apr03.shtml

April 14: Waterboro Lib Blog links to the LJ article http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blogs/blog4011503.htm

April 15: American Libraries Online takes note of controversy. Is it deliberate satire that this is the URL?
http://www.ala.org/al_onlineTemplate.cfm?Section=American_Libraries&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=26919

April 15: "Library Man" posts links to my article and Jessamyn's http://www.libraryman.com/blog/archives/2003_04.html

April 15: Steven Cohen posts "Library Geek" TJ Sondermann's ALA web site t-shirt http://www.librarystuff.net/new_archives/000196.html

April 16: Karen Schneider on Web4Lib says ALA has discovered their discussion and is wondering who Web4Lib is. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0249.html

April 17: Gary links to Peter Jacso's article, which has a very thorough dissection complete with screen images of his various searches. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/extra/picks-pans/ALA/aw.htm

April 17: Rory Litwin explains the role of the ALA web site advisory committee: http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol6/LJ_6.9.html#3

April 24: Karen Schneider on Web4Lib reports that the public can't find anything on the web site either: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0305.html

April 24: Louise Alcorn on Web4Lib notes that she didn't dare send a student to the ALA web site to look for the freedom to view statement http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0306.html

April 24: Walt Crawford on Web4Lib says "the responses some of us have received from Karen Muller et al don't suggest to me that the extent of the brokenness is quite apparent at headquarters http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/0304/0307.html

May

May, 2003: Walt Crawford's Cites & Insights reviews the controversy, citing my article, Peter Jacso's, Rory's, and Karen Schneider's posts at Web4Lib http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ3i6.pdf

May 1: School Library Journal article: New ALA Web Site Frustrates Users
http://www.keepmedia.com/IssueHome.do?issueID=8289

May 8: Karen Schneider on PUBLIB, "As a Councilor, I am meditating on whether a resolution creating a Task Force on Web site usability would do any good (a part of me fears ALA would simply blow it off, as it has disregarded or minimized most of the input on its site," http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0305/0061.html

May 8: Sue Kamm responds to Karen, "IMNSHO, we should revise the committee's charge to have them review design and architecture." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0305/0065.html

May 11: Sue Kamm on PUBLIB: "The revamped website doutless cost us beaucoup bucks (and I'd like to know exactly how many bucks). We Councilors should refer the questions about the website to the Web Advisory Commitee, and charge them with reviewing the technical problems raised on this list and others." http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PubLib/archive/0305/0086.html

June

June 6: Jessamyn West's ALA Web Site Impressions http://www.librarian.net/websiteideas.html

June 9: Karen Schneider's report on the meeting of ALA staff with the Web Advisory Committee. (Karen cites Jessamyn's article, my article, the Web4Lib discussion and the PUBLIB discussion, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/searchpublib?query=ALA+web+site&results=0, for further reading] http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol6/LJ_6.13.html#2