Archive for March, 2011

Only amateurs…

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

…use a spreadsheet for a database.

As I recall, that was a pretty popular opinion among the digerati a while back (maybe a LONG while back), regarding those who built databases with spreadsheets with the same derision you’d use for someone who uses word processing software to do calculations.

I keep track of Cites & Insights general themes–how recently they’ve appeared–and current segments (how long, status, etc.) with a one-page Word table, which includes a bottom-of-page running total of current wordcount. Why Word, not Excel? Because it’s convenient and it works. And, y’know, I don’t have to leave the program to update an item; just open the document.

Are there still people who believe this–that any proper database is built and maintained using a database program, that only amateurs and other idiots use Excel for databases?

I wonder. If so, they can just call me another technophobic idiot.

I’ve used a number of different databases over the years at home (and, of course, at work–SPIRES was/is one damn powerful database management system, easy to build new databases and with nearly unlimited power for old ones: I was sorry when we made the, I suppose, inevitable switch to a Proper Relational Database.). Hell, I’ve written database management systems using high-level programming tools…

And, well, today I just shut down the last database I was using at home, converting it to an Excel spreadsheet. Partly because I couldn’t seem to do the data validation in the LibreOffice version of the Access database that I wanted (and it was truly trivial to recreate the same validation in Excel–two minutes work at most), partly because, after fighting with LibreOffice’s report writer long enough to get a semi-workable report, I realized that the equivalent report would take, oh, 30 seconds to create in Excel (it’s just a pivot table with a heading).

And, now that it’s in Excel, I don’t have the field length limitations I had in Access (once you’ve defined a field length, that’s pretty much it). Or other limitations.

Oh, sure, at some point I could exceed the limitations of a single spreadsheet. But after my experiences with the massively complex spreadsheets for my liblog projects, I don’t see that point happening any time soon.

This is just a musing, I suppose, having to do with how times change. Yes, there are almost certainly home databases that Excel just can’t handle–but for lots of databases, it now strikes me as the preferable tool. I’m guessing the same is true for LibreOffice Spreadsheet.

This is another random musing of no lasting significance…

Liblog Profiles 29-32

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

An eighth copy sold, so here are profiles 29-32.

A Publik Library Life

“I am the Lizard King, I can do anything.” US. LiveJournal. Began May 2005, lasted 16 months. No posts since 2006. Group 4.

Overall Posts

5

Per Month

0.31

Quintile

5

Quintile

5

A Splash Quite Unnoticed

[Disappeared since study.] US. WordPress. Began August 2007, lasted 23 months. Group 4.

Overall Posts

121

Per Month

5.26

Quintile

3

Quintile

3

2008

2009

Posts

10

6

Quintile

4

4

Comments

7

2

Quintile

3

4

Conv. Intensity

0.70

0.33

Quintile

3

4

 

A Striped Armchair

“Blog of a twenty-something reader and unapologetic book nerd.” By Eva. US. WordPress. Began January 2007, lasted 41 months (so far, as of May 2011). Group 1

Overall Posts

951

Per Month

23.2

Quintile

1

Quintile

1

2007

2008

2009

2010

Posts

38

66

80

42

Quintile

2

1

1

1

Words

15,559

63,489

41,233

46,505

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Post length

409

962

517

1,107

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Comments

99

1,059

1,558

2,984

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Conv. Intensity

2.61

16.05

19.48

71.05

Quintile

1

1

1

1

 

A Wandering Eyre

“traversing life with words.” By Michelle Boule. US. WordPress. Began November 2004, lasted 67 months (as of May 2011). Group 1

Overall Posts

1,317

Per Month

19.66

Quintile

1

Quintile

1

2007

2008

2009

2010

Posts

79

17

15

7

Quintile

1

3

3

4

Words

15,702

3,799

2,840

1,203

Quintile

1

3

3

4

Post length

199

223

189

171

Quintile

4

3

4

4

Comments

228

19

7

5

Quintile

1

2

3

3

Conv. Intensity

2.89

1.12

0.47

0.71

Quintile

1

2

3

3

 

 

 

Two steps forward, one step sideways?

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

I rely on computers. I used to make my living from computers–as a systems analyst/designer/programmer. I still rely on computers for whatever little earned income I do have: Sure, I could write with a pen and notepad, but I wouldn’t even be able to read some of what I’d written, much less make it readily available to others.

That said…

It’s been a more interesting week than I’d really hoped for; I hope it’s settling down. These are all trivial little upsets and very much firstworldissues, but hey, this is a random blog.

Scene 1: The Toshiba comes unhinged

My wife has a Toshiba notebook that’s about 3.5 years old. She likes it just fine. Even when the case stopped closing fully, she lived with it. Until last Thursday, when the left hinge broke–that is, the screen section came out of the hinge. No way to get it back in.

The notebook still worked (and works), but that was clearly not a good sign, and from what little we could figure out, a fix would cost a little more than a new notebook.

So, after a little checking, off we went to Office Depot–not nearly as convenient as OfficeMax, but after my experience with the local OM not living up to its own promises, I’m not shopping there–so my wife could try out various notebooks, keyboard feel & touchpad characteristics being very important to her. Oh, and since the old notebook had a 14″ 4×3 screen, she probably needed a 17″ screen to get the same vertical resolution (since nearly all contemporary notebooks have 16×9 screens).

She found a unit that was to her liking–another Toshiba, as it happens, on sale at a really excellent price. That solved one outstanding issue: When she’d move from Vista to Windows 7. And, since I’d been ready to move to Office2010 soon anyway, it made sense to get Office2010 for both of us at the same time–there’s a new-machine discount, and OD offered to load her copy as a free extra.

Scene 2: I decide to upgrade to Office2010

My wife still hasn’t actually moved to the new notebook–she spends a lot of time on her primary online interest (Unclaimed Persons, a closed volunteer group currently using Facebook that assists coroners in locating next of kin for those who die without someone to claim the body: a great pursuit for a retired librarian!), and the weekend had various other issues. Maybe today; maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I upgraded to Office2010. Which brought me up short on one thing. I was using Office2007, but still using Access2003, since I didn’t lay out the big bucks for the full Professional version of Office2007. (Remember when Office Pro was bundled with computers?) And, unlike Office2007, Office2010 just won’t install when it sees what it considers a damaged version of an earlier Office.

So…

Scene 3: Undoing Access and Finishing the Upgrade

I was really only using Access for two fairly simple little databases and one slightly more complex one–one for a summary budget of household expenses by major categories, one for a list of books & authors to use when getting books at the local PL (so I didn’t get the same title twice), and one–the slightly more complex one–a summary database of wines, helpful when shopping for new vintages.

None of these could possibly justify laying out the money for Access.

I exported the primary tables (two for Books, two for Expenses, three for Wines) as Excel spreadsheets, figuring I could work with those if necessary. And I thought OpenOffice–which I won’t use instead of Word, but which I had–might provide an acceptable substitute.

Then I deleted what was left of Office2003 and installed Office2010. (Unlike earlier versions, there’s no “upgrade version”–and, at some point, I think that’s sensible. When you’re upgrading from an upgraded version of an upgraded version…well, sooner or later, you’re not going to be able to prove you ever owned the original. I think my original was either Office2000 or OfficeXP.)

The install went fine. I haven’t explored the nuances of Word2010 and Excel2010 much yet; I do like the new File/Backstage replacement for the frankly failed “hide print & file options under an Office icon” button, and I’m aware that there are some interesting typographical options in Word if I actually had any OpenType typefaces with suitable extensions. (Oh, and having the Styles list display as a simple list instead of attempting to show the formatting: What a sensible step back!)

All in all, I think I’ll like it just fine. Later this week, maybe, I’ll explore a bit more to see what typefaces besides CalifornianFB have been added, whether I want to use them, and what else is new and interesting. (I accepted a default installation. I’m never sure whether that’s the right choice…)

Step 4: Trying to use OO Base as a Replacement for Access

Actually, that’s not quite right. I did do an initial attempt–creating .ODB files that link to the MSOffice .MDB files–and verified (a) that I could open all three databases, (b) that the reports had either disappeared or turned into tables, (c) that cross-table linkages had disappeared in the process.

Before attempting to resolve those issues, it was suggested that I switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. After discussing the reasoning, I concluded that just having less to do with Larry Ellison was reason enough, so I downloaded LibreOffice 3.3, deleted OpenOffice, and tried again.

Yesterday, despite some frustrations, I managed to build a report for the Expenses database that provides the same summary by category and grand total that’s the whole reason for having the database. It’s not as pretty and it was clunky to build, but it works. What I cannot get to work, so far at least: having the “category” column within the Expenses table limited to, and prompted by, values within the Expense Category table, a linkage that was in the Access database. Maybe it’s because this particular Base database is really acting as a connector to the .MDB database, but there seems to be no way to do this, at least within existing tables.

I can live with that, at least for this table.

Before lunch today, I made a typical every-three-weeks library run to take back three books and get three more–as usual, one non-genre fiction, one genre fiction (mystery this time, since it was SF/fantasy last), one nonfiction. For nonfiction, I’m cheating: the library had a book on OpenOffice 3. Aha! Maybe that will help.

Then came home and, after lunch, sat down to work on this. When I’d gone to put the computer in Sleep mode before running the errands and having lunch, I got a Windows Update, which meant shutting it down entirely. That’s OK.

Step 5: Something goes very wrong–fortunately, temporarily

Turned the computer back on. The background came up, as did all five items in the tray (W7 is much better than Vista in this regard), all six icons on the toolbar (some standard, some I’ve added), all 29 shortcuts and icons on the desktop (which I really should trim some day, but I guess 29 isn’t terrible).

Clicked on FireFox. The little circle spun for a couple of seconds. Then nothing. Did same for Windows2010. Same non-result. Well, let’s open TaskManager…whoops, same result.

Restarted the system. No luck.

Powered down. If it had come up one more time with the same results, I would have hit F10 during startup and gone to the previous restore point. Fortunately, the third time was the charm. Slowly, at first, programs came to life. Everything seems back to normal now. (Well, I haven’t tried *everything*–but if non-MS programs, MS contemporary programs, and 15-year old programs all work, chances are it’s good.)

So, then, taking the book in hand and trying to modify tables to use links…

No luck. Maybe I’m dense, maybe I’ll try again later, but so far, it looks as though compatibility with MSAccess databases is limited. That’s no great surprise.

In one case–the most complex database, probably not for very good reasons–it turned out to be most sensible to combine the exported Excel tables into a new and simpler Excel database, which–among other things–allows me to use typefaces I like while entering and updating data (I can’t see how to change LO Base’s table typography; again, maybe I’m missing something). In the case of the expense database, losing the category prompt list is a nuisance but not fatal. In the case of the books database–well, it never really amounted to anything anyway.

So there’s an afternoon pretty much shot, with no real progress…but hey, I could afford to waste an afternoon.

Step 6: Profit!

I know, that’s supposed to be Step 3 or Step 4, and in this case it’s nonsense–almost. If one proposed project is approved, I’ll need OpenOffice or LibreOffice, and I’m pleased to see that its import of Word files is a whole lot better than it used to be (last time I tried this, OO threw away major portions of style-based formatting).

Otherwise? Back to writing, browsing, being grumpy on FriendFeed, virtual slot poker, all that good stuff. And maybe reading the OO book in more detail and seeing what I’m missing. Which is probably that I can only *add* a new field that’s based on a set of values from another table, not *restore* a table linkage lost in the so-so “compatibility.”

Hmm. My Gateway notebook–my only computer, used as a two-screen setup with my old-but-beautiful Sony 19″ 4×3 LCD display–is probably 2.5 or 3 years old. Hope it holds up a little longer…

50 Movie Pack Comedy Kings Disc 3

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Here Comes Trouble, 1948, b&w. Fred Guiol (dir.), William Tracy, Joe Sawyer, Emory Parnell, Betty Compson, Joan Woodbury, Beverly Lloyd. 0:55 [0:50]

“Filmed in Cinecolor”—but this print’s in black and white, unfortunately. It’s pretty good slapstick in the service of a reasonable plot. We have a crusading newspaper publisher/editor whose police reporters keep getting beaten up and quitting and whose daughter’s in love with a returning serviceman who was a copyboy at the paper. The father isn’t wild about the copyboy marrying his daughter…and figures that promoting him to police reporter might kill two birds with one stone.

That’s the setup. Add a service buddy of the son who’s just joined the police force (and in his case “police farce” might be better), the fact that the criminal mastermind is also the comptroller of the newspaper, a burlesque queen…and you have a very good, almost 20-minute climactic sequence. Color would have been better, and this is a short one, so I’ll say $1.00.

Hollywood and Vine, 1945, b&w. Alexis Thurn-Taxis (dir.), James Ellison, Wanda McKay, June Clyde, Ralph Morgan, Franklin Pangborn, Leon Belasco, Emmett Lynn. 0:58.

A romantic comedy, emphasis on the comedy, with a surround story that makes no sense. It’s told in flashbacks from the office of a tycoon, and is supposed to be the story of how he got started—but there’s not a thing in the picture that suggests the guy (who started as proprietor of Pop’s Burgers) would go anywhere.

The flashback, though, is charming, and that’s 95% of the picture. It’s the old Hollywood story but with several cute twists and relies heavily on a remarkable stunt dog. Cute and well played, albeit short and with an outer plot that doesn’t lead anywhere. All things considered, including its length, I’ll give it $1.00.

Lost Honeymoon, 1947, b&w. Leigh Jason (dir.), Franchot Tone, Ann Richards, Tom Conway, Frances Rafferty, Clarence Kolb. 1:11 [1:09]

Somewhere between a B programmer and a feature, this one’s interesting—part romantic comedy, part identity confusion, with just a little slapstick thrown in. The gist: A young woman returns to the British boarding house she’d formerly stayed in, knowing that a friend of hers died, leaving two very young (twin) children, who the landlady’s taking care of. The woman also knows the friend was a GI bride in WWII—and apparently the husband’s disappeared to America, with known city but not address. She decides to assume the dead mother’s identity (modifying her passport) and take the children to America to confront the husband.

That’s the setup. Now there’s the apparent husband—a young architect, engaged to the somewhat-shrewish social-climbing boss’s daughter. He’s astonished when he gets a cable from the Red Cross informing him that his wife and children are on their way, because he’s not aware that he had a wife and children. But he did have a six-week amnesia episode during the war, a period of which he remembers nothing, so maybe…

Everything follows from that, and it’s actually pretty well done. The ending’s silly, and maybe it had to be. Not great, not bad. Some missing frames and a problematic picture at first, so I won’t give it more than $1.25.

The Animal Kingdom, 1932, b&w. Edward H. Griffith (dir.), Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, Ilka Chase. 1:25.

I guess this is a comedy of manners, and that’s the only basis on which I can call it a comedy at all. The primary character is a small-press publisher, a terrible disappointment to his wealthy father who wants him to be a Proper Person. The publisher’s about to marry a socialite who his father much admires—after having spent a couple of years with an artistic woman who left (but is now returning).

I’m not sure what to say about the rest of the plot, such as it is. I found it dreary, and in fact found the movie tiresome. Myrna Loy as the socialite with a heart of dollar signs certainly makes the most of backless gowns, but I didn’t find any of the acting worth more than a yawn. I’m being very generous in giving this one $1.00.

Behave Yourself, 1951, b&w. George Beck (dir.), Farley Granger, Shelley Winters, William Demarest, Francis L. Sullivan, Margalo Gillmore, Lon Chaney Jr., Hans Conried, Elisha Cook Jr., Glenn Anders, Allen Jenkins, Sheldon Leonard, Marvin Kaplan. 1:21.

Reviewed previously: The plot: A CPA (Granger), somewhat browbeaten by his mother-in-law, realizes almost too late that it’s his 2nd Anniversary. He goes to a store to buy his wife (a svelte and wonderfully funny Shelley Winters) a nightgown. Meanwhile, a dog (trained to go to a certain spot) has come into town as part of some odd scheme—and, somehow, breaks free and starts following the CPA, in the process demolishing enough of the store so that the CPA flees. And, when the dog keeps following him, pretends that the dog is his present for his wife.

Then an ad shows up about the lost dog, with precise physical description. The CPA wants to do the right thing…and that’s just the beginning of a wonderfully funny, fast-moving blend of caper and farce, with lots of mistaken identities, bad guys getting shot (sometimes with the CPA’s business card in hand), mother-in-law stuff, counterfeit money (that wasn’t supposed to be counterfeit), overeager cops…and one charming dog. It’s a 50’s movie: The married couple have twin beds. But never mind…

The cast is remarkable—William Demarest as a cop, Lon Chaney, Hans Conried, Elisha Cook Jr., Glenn Anders, Sheldon Leonard and Marvin Kaplan as gangsters and other criminals, Margalo Gillmore as the mother-in-law. They all do good jobs (Farley Granger, the CPA, is probably my least favorite character of the lot—he’s OK, but so many others are better). Good print, good sound. Thoroughly enjoyable. $2.00.

disContent: One more week (and thanks!)

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Just a quick note:

  • The extremely limited signed hardcover edition of disContent: The Complete Collection will continue to be on sale through March 31, 2011 (barring some astonishing circumstance in which 95 more copies sell before then!). There will not be a paperback edition, a partial collection or the appearance of more than a dozen or so of the 70-odd columns in C&I: It will simply vanish. Right now, the edition size looks to be “10 or fewer”–that’s a truly limited edition!
  • Thanks to the person or persons or library that just (sometime today) purchased a copy of disContent, a copy of But Still They Blog and, possibly for the first time other than my own copy, a print copy of Open Access and Libraries!
  • Still wondering whether there’s any market at all–even two copies each–for hardback/casebound versions of the annual Cites & Insights compilations, probably priced at $50 each.

Liblog Profiles 25-28

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Another copy sold (#7, and a printed book this time), another four blogs…

A Librarian By Any Other Name

“Is Still A Collection of Information.” By VWB. US. Blogger. Began November 2006, lasted 43 months. Group 1.

Overall Posts

291

Per Month

6.77

Quintile

2

Quintile

2

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

28

34

19

7

Quintile

2

2

2

4

Words

6,119

7,776

5,005

1,889

Quintile

3

2

2

4

Post length

219

338

263

270

Quintile

3

2

3

3

Comments

21

51

27

11

Quintile

2

1

2

2

Conv. Intensity

0.75

2.22

1.42

1.57

Quintile

3

1

2

2

A Library Writer’s Blog

“Have writer’s block? Hopefully this resource will help librarians identify publishing and presentation opportunities in library & information science, as well as other related fields. I will include calls for papers, presentations, participation, reviewers, and other notices that I find on the web. If you find anything to be posted, please drop me a note. thanks — Corey Seeman, University of Michigan(cseeman@bus.umich.edu).” By Corey Seeman. US. Blogger. Began February 2004, lasted 76 months (so far). Group 1

Overall Posts

1,389

Per Month

18.28

Quintile

1

Quintile

1

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

21

45

33

83

Quintile

3

1

1

1

Words

5,973

14,609

10,985

25,468

Quintile

3

1

1

1

Post length

284

325

333

307

Quintile

2

2

2

3

A Passion for ‘Puters

“The Intersection Of Libraries, Computers and Web Trivialities.” By Robin Hastings. US. WordPress. Began April 2007, lasted 37 months. Group 2.

Overall Posts

248

Per Month

6.70

Quintile

2

Quintile

2

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

3

20

3

2

Quintile

5

3

5

5

Words

925

10,845

589

454

Quintile

5

2

5

5

Post length

308

374

196

227

Quintile

2

2

4

4

Comments

0

23

0

0

Quintile

5

2

5

5

Conv. Intensity

0

0.79

0

0

Quintile

5

3

5

5

A Patchwork of Books

By Amanda (Snow?). US. Blogger. Began February 2007, lasted 40 months (so far). Group 2 (Google Page Rank).

Overall Posts

1,262

Per Month

31.55

Quintile

1

Quintile

1

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

52

79

178

71

Quintile

2

1

1

1

Words

25,585

32,440

70,435

30,644

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Post length

492

411

396

432

Quintile

1

2

2

2

Comments

323

157

652

269

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Conv. Intensity

6.21

1.99

3.66

3.79

Quintile

1

1

1

1

 

Google Books Unsettled

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

For those of you who don’t already know (which, among my readership, may amount to almost nobody):

  • After a mere three years, Judge Chin reached a decision on the Google Books settlement. He rejected it.
  • Some commentaries are already appearing–here are three for starters. (There are lots more, but those three should all shed more light than heat.

As of now, I have 204 items flagged “gbs” in Diigo–going back two years or more.

And here’s my take on the matter:

If it took Chin three years to reach a decision, I can take three months or more to decide whether I have anything useful to say–whether a historical summary makes sense, whether I can synthesize usefully, or whether I should just delete those 204 items.

I am entirely confident that I have nothing useful to add at this point. Meanwhile, there will surely be steady streams of informed commentary and, well, other sorts of punditry from nearly all the usual suspects.

Gee, and here I was counting on the proceeds from the settlement (for the three or four books of mine that have been scanned) for our retirement. In much the same way I was counting on flying pigs to drop off bags of gold.

Obligations of a failed researcher?

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Another honest question–looking for advice here.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 is about as clear a failure as I’ve ever had (well, other than losing my job, twice). The most ambitious and difficult of any of the research projects I’ve carried out, it’s not only had the lowest sales by far, it’s the only case where people have explicitly told me they don’t even want to see the results if they’re free–that, basically, nobody gives a good, well, I won’t finish that sentence.

(Just read a post by someone who seems to feel that a slender self-published book is a failure because he’s only made $9,000 in net revenue after three months, along with thousands of free downloads. $9,000? It doesn’t look as though I’ll see $90 in revenue from this book, and it sounds like this one was a lot bigger job. For me, as a library writer, $9,000 net revenue for any project, over several years, not three months, is an enormous success!)

I know: I screwed up. Let it go. If you want to be sensible, let more than that go… But:

The person who purchased the sixth copy of the book (as a download–I think maybe two print copies have been purchased) sent me email asking for the complete list of blogs and for lists of blogs in each of the four groups.

I responded that most of the blogs are, in effect, listed in alphabetic order as the index to the book (which is entirely blogs), and that the lists weren’t readily available, as it was difficult to justify putting more effort into such a disastrous failure. (Every time I touch it, I wonder about continuing C&I unless I find sponsorship…although I must admit that there have been donations this year, although not yet reaching a three-digit total.) The purchaser responded with disappointment, said that it would be normal for (all raw data for a project?) to be included as appendices, and…

So here are the questions:

  • Am I being remiss in not going to the extra effort–probably a few hours to clean up the master spreadsheet, maybe a little more if I post it as anything other than an .xlsx file–to make all the data in this failed project freely available?
  • Is there any beneficial outcome to expending that effort, for a project where I’ve been told to go away and stop bothering people?

Advice welcomed.

 

Hardback annual C&I: Any interest?

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

After seeing just how well my wife’s two family histories came out in Lulu’s casebound (hardback) version, and how well the incredibly limited-edition disContent: The Complete Collection came out, I got to wondering:

Are there libraries (presumably library school libraries, possibly others) or, for that matter, individuals who would find it worthwhile to own hardback annual volumes of Cites & Insights?

Paperback versions of Volumes 6 [2006], 7 [2007], 8 [2008], 9 [2009] and 10 [2010] have been available for some time–produced partly so I could have bound backsets that look better and hold up better than what I could do at Kinko’s.  Over the years, a handful of copies have sold to others–seven to date, I believe (that’s across all five volumes).

The paperbacks look great, but they’re certainly not ideal for library use.

If I believed that at least two copies of each volume would be likely to sell, I’d prepare hardback versions–and delete the paperback versions. This wouldn’t be a Big Moneymaking Scheme, since I’d keep the price at $50, which means my net receipts would be $10 less for each volume (hardback adds $10 to production costs).

Actually, it would probably be a money-loser, since I’d be inclined to replace my paperback volumes with casebound versions.

If I thought there was interest, I might even go back and do book versions of volumes 1-5.

Let me know if there is such interest. Otherwise, it’s really not worth the trouble…

 

 

Liblog Profiles 21-24

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

I’m delighted to note another sale of The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 (download version)…and, with it, four more profiles. This time, they’re all active.

A Digital Outrigger

“supporting research in digital libraries & usability.” By Steve McCann. US. WordPress. Began September 2006; lasted 45 months (so far). Group 1.

Overall Posts

115

Per Month

2.56

Quintile

3

Quintile

4

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

13

5

13

6

Quintile

4

4

3

4

Words

2,932

1,116

1,789

616

Quintile

4

5

4

5

Post length

226

223

138

103

Quintile

3

3

5

5

Comments

1

1

1

0

Quintile

4

5

4

5

Conv. Intensity

0.08

0.20

0.08

0

Quintile

5

4

4

5

A Fuse #8 Production

By Elizabeth Bird. US. WordPress. Began February 2006; lasted 52 months (so far). Group 1. Partial metrics thanks to LJ/SLJ platform.

Overall Posts

1,988

Per Month

38.23

Quintile

1

Quintile

1

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

486

176

171

135

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Words

140,425

Quintile

1

Post length

289

Quintile

2

Comments

1,689

1,751

Quintile

1

1

Conv. Intensity

3.48

12.98

Quintile

1

1

A LIBRARIAN AT THE KITCHEN TABLE

“Librarians build community by working as advocates for human rights.” By Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Blogger. Began November 2004; lasted 67 months (so far). Group 1.

Overall Posts

392

Per Month

5.85

Quintile

2

Quintile

2

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

28

11

15

3

Quintile

2

4

3

5

Words

7,116

14,998

3,478

289

Quintile

2

1

3

5

Post length

254

1,363

232

96

Quintile

3

1

3

5

Comments

2

0

0

0

Quintile

4

5

5

5

Conv. Intensity

0.07

0

0

0

Quintile

5

5

5

5

A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette

“A polite librarian is a good librarian.” By J. Blogger. Began January 2005; lasted 65 months (so far). Group 1.

Overall Posts

434

Per Month

6.68

Quintile

2

Quintile

2

2007 2008 2009 2010
Posts

7

13

17

61

Quintile

4

3

2

1

Words

481

1,000

1,028

4,306

Quintile

5

5

4

2

Post length

69

77

60

71

Quintile

5

5

5

5

Comments

202

196

178

410

Quintile

1

1

1

1

Conv. Intensity

28.86

15.08

10.47

6.72

Quintile

1

1

1

1