So who am I?
I am the Associate Foundation Librarian for Technical Services at the Jefferson Library, part of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation or more popularly known in the local neighborhood as Monticello (pronounced “Mon-ti-CHELLO,” rather than “Mon-ti-selluh”). And yes, it is Monticello, the Home of Thomas Jefferson, and not Monticello High School (hey, I’ve had to clarify that enough times over the last 5 years!).
Essentially, I make stuff accessible to people. In library land, I’m the Cataloging Librarian, part Metadata Librarian (whazzdat? I’ll explain one of these days …), and sometimes Systems Librarian.
What is the blog going to be about? A combination of ruminations, brainwaves, ideas, and thoughts about stuff I hear or read about developments on the Web, in the area of digital libraries, as well as new tools and applications that make knowledge and learning accessible to people and that help them make sense of the world around them. I see this as part scratchpad, part soapbox where I get to test some of the ideas and things I’m thinking about or toying with. Occasionally, I might make an observation or two about a totally unrelated area, but hey ! I’m interested in lots of different things …
August 28, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Hi. I was so excited when just now, after hours spent looking for a way to chart who-knows-who-and-what-where-when-and-why for historical research, I spotted your blog on Facebook for historians. Several weeks ago I actually contacted the designer of Facebook’s ‘friendwheel’ for tips, but he could only suggest graphviz, which is not very user friendly and too limited in terms of details. If since writing your blog you’ve learned of applications or even simpler methods, I’d love to know about it. Thanks in advance.
September 1, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Hi, thanks for your interest.
Check out NNDB Mapper. Also the Visual Complexity site. There’s an early site called They Rule. These give you an idea of some of the visualization work that’s been done around this kind of relationship mapping, and possible approaches to database design.
Hope these help.