The glory of education, the agony of education. New beginnings.

So this is an assignment, but maybe more. We'll see. But I digress already. Allow myself to introduce myself.

My name is Brandon and I'm learning the arts of library science and usability (and more). This difficult process has inspired the title of this blog, in fact. I'd like to think of these two fields as highly compatible, and not just in the "related subject matter" manner. I intend to make it something more. The struggle to organize myriad knowledge, useless without context. The fight to ensure accessibility and usability in the days of Google (*gasp*) and the horror of simple keyword searching.

So rather than wax eloquent about the difficulties of my generation and juggling grad school and married life I'll get right down to business. This Blogger/Blogspot thing is actually quite easy to use, and the templates are quite nice. It's so wonderful what CSS can do in the hands of reasonable craftsmen. OK, so some of the templates lack good color contrast and visual distinction, but you can't win them all and there's no accounting for taste.

What would happen if we used CSS to allow users to template other aspects of their web experience, not just a few sites like Blogger, LiveJournal, and MySpace? What if interaction designers and screen designers got together and designed and tested several different look-&-feels for something like, say, a library catalog portal? Why can't a library patron prefer their default site template and color scheme for when they visit the library's web site and search for something to read? Usability testing would reveal, hopefully, the best of the bunch and that could be the default for most visitors. Let those who care choose to customize their library experience. Maybe someday Netflix will share their less-than-perfect but better-than-nothing recommendation algorithm so library users can rate the items they check out and serve as a social readers advisory service.

Can you see this new on-line library experience in your head? You set your interface for using the catalog. If you are willing to rate your recent returns and un-anonymize your library checkout record you could see reader reviews, ratings, and get recommendations from your peers (and not-so-peers). In catalog search results items would have a star or number rating, and you could begin to search library holdings by such vectors as most popular or highest ranked. Suddenly your library is more like Amazon or Netflix, but still with that personal touch (thanks to involved library staff) and the ability to visit in person. This is Web 2.0 AND digital convergence. So why haven't the OPAC providers and ALA committees jumped all over this? Maybe they have and I've just not been paying enough attention to my ALA membership.

Enough drivel from me for now. In the future perhaps I'll expound on the black sheep element of the blog title.