LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Blogging interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:50:03 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/60271 From the Official PLOS Blog: Today [Wednesday] we are pleased to announce the launch of PLoS Blogs a new network for discussing science in public; covering topics in research, culture, and publishing. PLoS Blogs is different from other blogging networks, because it includes an equal mix of science journalists and scientists. We’re excited to be welcoming our [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:32:12 +0100 868474 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/M_t9w4dEaTQ/ A couple of weeks ago, the amazingly talented Dion Hinchcliffe put together a blog post under the title of “The 2010 Social Business Landscape” that would probably classify as one of the most insightful, resourceful and essential articles published during the course of this year that everyone in the industry should be reading. Yes, in case you may not have seen it, it is that good! Worth while your time, for sure!, specially, if you are into some amazing graphicware like this one. But, there is something missing from that article, don’t you think? Something that, in my opinion, is one of the fundamental pillars from Enterprise 2.0. Have you spotted it yourself already? Indeed, social bookmarking / tagging! Not sure what you would think, but I strongly believe that social bookmarking and social tagging are still an important and rather critical part of a successful Enterprise 2.0 adoption strategy. I would even go one step further and state that social bookmarking / tagging are probably essential key elements behind the social computing philosophy altogether. Yet, it’s interesting to see how they both keep getting neglected time and time again, when they are just so critical. I mean, can you imagine … having your business put together and create a massive index of must-have links with annotations and tags across the board that would help you re-find content much much easier than through just the traditional taxonomies? No, neither could I. My good friend, Harold Jarche, talked about this very same thing as well not long ago on a virtual IBM event for the community of social software evangelists that I co-lead with one other colleague and which I blogged about over at Personal Knowledge Management by Harold Jarche (BlueIQ Ambassadors). ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:24:51 +0100 868507 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryClips/~3/HePMrIYmvBM/johnt Collaborative Thinking: Getting Ready For A Next Generation Collaborative Experience Collaborative Thinking: Micro-blogging: Friend or Foe For Unified Communications Collaborative Thinking: Looking Back - Moving Forward (Source: Library clips) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:00:00 +0100 868586 http://ksulib.typepad.com/talking/2010/09/blogging-the-loc-an-introduction.html The start of the semester always brings at least a couple people to the Library Help Desk expressing frustration with the way our books are organized. Why isn’t all the fiction together? Why couldn’t you just put History in the “H” section? What happened to the number system I used in high school and at the public library? This year, I’d like to explain it to you. I’ll probably get my official librarian card revoked for revealing these arcane secrets, but I think it’s worth the risk. K-State Libraries, along with most other academic libraries, uses the Library of Congress classification system. It’s a method of grouping resources by topic, just like the Dewey Decimal numbers you’ve probably used before. It’s useful, but highly quirky. It’s a product of a particular time (the early 1900s) and a particular collection of books (those in the Library of Congress), but it’s also the best way most academic libraries have for organizing the vast numbers of resources they contain. The Library of Congress.  Image retrieved from Print and Photograph Online Catalog. The system consists of twenty-one basic classes, each with an associated letter of the alphabet. Five letters were left out: I, O, W, X, Y. I’m going to make a librarianly guess that I and O were too easily confused with 1 and 0. W, X and Y were likely left out for normal end-of-the-alphabet discriminatory practices (or maybe to leave room for eventual additions).  Each of the classes can have multiple subclasses, designated by more letters. Then there are numbers and more letters and more numbers, maybe with some punctuation sprinkled in. We’re not going to delve that deep, though, so no worries. We’ll start next week with “A” and see where it takes us. It will be super geeky, and therefore completely awesome. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868722 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/DqI9QttsTdA/e-trade-for-legal-resources-and-research-because-good-enough-isnt-yet-good-enough.html David Curle, Director & Lead Analyst at Outsell, an information industry consulting firm, has been thinking out loud on his blog, Lex Disruptus, and that's what blogging is about. If you don't know who he is, here's a link to... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868563 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html#2451238228104719539 Apparently these UNO students affected by the Governor's budget cuts agree A student demonstration at the University of New Orleans turned rowdy today when protesters scuffled with campus police, who arrested two of them and led them away in handcuffs in a police cruiser. One of the students was sprayed by police with mace. At least no one was tazed. Longtime readers will note that I am no fan of attention-whoring protest events. But, in this case, I will at least give the students credit for storming offices and injuring ankles and stuff. They could have just painted themselves blue, recited some poetry and called it a day. This, I think, at least shows some commitment. Plus UNO Chancellor Tim Ryan is kind of a tool anyway. I hope they broke some of his shit.In all seriousness, though, these kids should head of to Baton Rouge where they could perhaps find their way into the Governor's office. After all, it's Jindal's budget cuts that are bringing all this trauma about in the first place.UNO students and personnel are irate because about $14.5 million in state money already has been sliced from the school's budget since January 2009 and because more cuts may combine academic departments and eliminate majors in fields such as management, marketing, English, science, mathematics and social studies. There would be a sharp reduction in the number of part-time teachers, faculty teaching loads would increase, and class sizes would be larger.Participants in the Rising Tide 5 Politics Panel pulled no punches with Jindal. Jacques Morial and Clancy Dubos repeatedly referred to the Governor as a "hypocrite". Even Jeff Crouere confessed himself "disappointed" and said he suspects the Governor's ambitions and priorities lie outside of the state. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868409 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/aug/31/not-the-booker-prize-nominations-open Fast becoming a pivotal event in the literary calendar, this is the coveted honour decided by readers of the Guardian books blog. It's time to do your jury serviceThis year, the fun of complaining about the Man Booker prize has been rather spoiled by the fact that the judging panel appears to have compiled a pretty strong longlist. Disappointingly, nearly all the books appear to be interesting – and at least two on the list – The Slap and Room – are even proving excitingly divisive and controversial. The talk hasn't been so much about dull worthiness and yet more Irish dolour and north London angst as about abuse, tangled race issues and outrage. Oh, yes – and pleasure that some fine authors are getting recognition. As ever, there's been plenty of comment about notable omissions – but this year, most of it has related to Ian McEwan and Martin Amis, and few are claiming that the current novels from the web's favourite whipping boys have suffered an injustice.At least, that's the consensus as I see it from inside my near-impermeable media bubble. But there's every chance that the refractions and distortions that come from my proximity to other book reviewers, publishers and writers – and particularly their self-aggrandising Twitter feeds – may have given me the wrong impression. The same is true, of course, of the rest of the Guardian's books desk. Which is why, once again, we want to open things up to you, the untainted reader, and ask you which books really deserved to be in contention. Yes, it's Not the Booker prize time again.Does the current longlist really stand up to scrutiny? Have the best books got through? What are we missing? We again want to find out if the blogging crowd will show more wisdom than the Booker's panel of judges. Can you come up with a more interesting shortlist? Can you pick a better winner? Or will you, indeed, choose the same one? Let's find out. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:10:48 +0100 867828 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibrariansMatter/~3/3h7ac1o4YL8/ This week’s list of things to watch out for… 1) IFLA world library report – An interactive map showing all sorts of facts and figures about libraries in different countries. 2) ALIA Access blogging – coming soon to an Australian Library Blog near  you…. the ALIA Access 2010 library conference that is happening in Brisbane right now. You can check out the official conference blog, follow the conference on its own Twitter account @ALIAAccess , or search for the hashtag #aliaaccess . 3) ALIA Access #leftbehind Western Australian tweetup – a bunch of us who are enjoying the Perth rain instead of the Brisbane sunshine are getting together tomorrow night to discuss how we aren’t at ALIA Access and don’t need to be when we have each other’s wonderful company.  All librarianly types are welcome. It’s at 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday)  night at Chocolateria San Churro, Leederville. (This is red so people notice it before the tweetup. I may change it to something more seemly after the event). 4) HTML5 This new standard for HTML will allow web browsers to be told how to do backflips and jump thorough hoops that previously third party browser plug-ins handled. Check out what can be done with HTML5 in “The Wilderness Downtown “, an interactive film starring the streetscape where you grew up (if you put in that address at the start). It does lots of neat video tricks and you can check out the HTML5 canvas element when you get an opportunity to write a postcard to … well, you’ll have to watch the film to find that out… 5)  Positive Tweeting in September .  Kat Clancy, Library Web Developer at Deakin University, who gave a great presentation at last week’s VALA meeting about m-libraries had a bright idea last night. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:07:51 +0100 868473 http://www.lisnews.org/help_build_most_comprehensive_list_library_blogs_ever Walt Crawford is looking for a few more good blogs.... Check this page — Liblogs 2010 (with exclusions) — DRAFT. Use your browser’s Find function to check the name. (The list is in alphabetic order, but it’s idiot alpha order, with a few “A ” entries and a lot of “The ” entries. And, of course, cute punctuation can change sorting.) If You Have Candidates… Add a comment [NOT here at LISNews], with the blog name and URL–but give the URL as text, not as a link (omit the http://), and don’t combine the blog name with a link. (Why not? Because, particularly if you have more than one, it will cause Spam Karma 2 to flag it as spam–and with more than 100 spamments today, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sort through all the spam looking for legit posts.) Or send me email, waltcrawford at gmail dot com, using the same rules. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:34:05 +0100 868604 http://lisnews.org/help_build_most_comprehensive_list_library_blogs_ever Walt Crawford is looking for a few more good blogs.... Check this page — Liblogs 2010 (with exclusions) — DRAFT. Use your browser’s Find function to check the name. (The list is in alphabetic order, but it’s idiot alpha order, with a few “A ” entries and a lot of “The ” entries. And, of course, cute punctuation can change sorting.) If You Have Candidates… Add a comment [NOT here at LISNews], with the blog name and URL–but give the URL as text, not as a link (omit the http://), and don’t combine the blog name with a link. (Why not? Because, particularly if you have more than one, it will cause Spam Karma 2 to flag it as spam–and with more than 100 spamments today, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sort through all the spam looking for legit posts.) Or send me email, waltcrawford at gmail dot com, using the same rules. (Source: LISNews.org) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:34:05 +0100 867823 http://yoyotxt.blogspot.com/2010/08/object-lesson-at-pool-table.html On the second floor of our apartment complex clubhouse is a pool table.  BB and I have gone there about half a dozen times to shoot around.  He's just learning, of course, and I'm rusty as hell, but we have fun.  It's a nice thing that just he and I have.Tonight we headed over, and there were people already playing, a first for us.  As we walked in, one player (I think the others called him "Frank") was finishing up the table at the end of a game.  You know how they tell you never to bet against a guy who brings his own cue?  Frank had two; one for breaking, one for shooting.  In a tooled leather case.I asked if BB and I could have the next game.  Frank, who was probably about mid-fifties, with a squint and a golf cap, gave us a little bit of a hard time, but said sure, we could jump in.  I assured him we wouldn't be long.Frank's opponents were essentially frat boys.  Early twenties, in shorts and big shoes.  One guy had his sleeveless shirt slit down to the hem on both sides.  They ignored BB and I as we set up the rack and made our shots, but still, the kid was nervous with this many people around.  Heck, so was I.  Frank was clearly very good, and I was embarassed at my poor performance.  As the game progressed, though, he started giving BB pointers.  "Make your front hand steady.  Don't be loose."  "Too much stick between you and the ball."  He was gentle with his suggestions, not putting him down or making him feel foolish.  By the end of the game, BB was shooting better, and was more relaxed.  The frat boys mostly ignored us.The last few shots seemed to take forever.  On my final ball, I sank the 11 and then rebounded and put the 8 in.  A loss.  Frank got quite a laugh out of that. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868709 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/yoV2LAmymQc/ Late last week you would remember how I put together a blog post where I started collecting a number of the Daily #iPad Apps that I keep sharing across over in Twitter, for those folks who may be potentially interested. Also as a good reference for myself, i.e. as part of my own personal knowledge sharing experience, so that I can keep going back and forth over time and see what I may have shared and what not, just in case I may need it for a future reference. Then, my good friend Barry Leiba mentioned, in the comments, how he would be “interested in reading more about specifically HOW the iPad fundamentally changes your online interactions and experience“. Thus I thought I would go ahead today and put together a blog entry where I could share with folks my top 10 reasons why the iPad has changed my computing habits and overall Internet experience for good with no looking back! It’s going to be a rather interesting experiment, where I am sure I’m going to fall short on words on what it actually means for me, specially when not paying much attention to the tools and applications themselves, but more how I interact with the device. I know that some of those reasons will also surprise a bunch of folks out there who may have a perceived different persona of me than who I actually am, but I think that overall, it will help set the stage as to why I have finally fallen for the iPad as perhaps one of my last mobile devices I will own for a good while. A long one, actually. Thus without much ado, here are My Top 10 Reasons Why I Bought a 3G 64GB iPad, back while I was in Boston, in June, attending the Enterprise 2.0 conference event (Yes, I couldn’t buy one over here in Spain after having visited 18 shops!). ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:29:36 +0100 867964 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreakonomicsBlog/~3/HgTMGg5fAmo/ Kal Raustiala, a professor at UCLA Law School and the UCLA International Institute, and Chris Sprigman, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, are experts in counterfeiting and intellectual property. They have been guest-blogging for us about copyright issues. Today, they write about new efforts to extend copyright law to the fashion industry. (Source: Freakonomics Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:34:25 +0100 867461 http://yourlibrarycsu.blogspot.com/2010/08/public-library-20-culture-change.html This article from Adriane Web magazine explores UK public libraries' growing participation in social media to reach their audiences online. The author's aim was to provide an overview of current UK public library activity online with a focus on blogging. Text adapted from AustralianPolicyOnline) Read the full text here (Source: Your Library@CSU) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868701 http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/iag-we-hardly-knew-ye.html Today, we bid adieu to "It's All Good." It has been an exhilarating six year run, but now it's time for us to move our blogging focus elsewhere.Alice Sneary, Alane Wilson, and I started "It's All Good" when we hit the road to talk about the OCLC Environmental Scan back in 2004. We used this blog to share ideas we'd heard, interesting articles we'd seen, or soapboxes on which we wished to climb. Alane says IAG was the first corporate blog in the library world, and I have no reason to disagree with her.Alane left OCLC a few years ago to return to Canada (*sniff*), and Chrystie Hill stepped in as our new writer (yay!). Our colleagues Eric Childress and Matt Goldner also did a few cameos here. But now, we're trying to consolidate places where OCLC-related content might appear, and some of the outliers are being brought into the fold.Chrystie manages BlogJunction, part of her WebJunction work, and she'll continue to blog there.Alice contributes to The OCLC Developer Blog and the WorldCat Blog.I'll be contributing to the The OCLC Cooperative Blog, and given my other work role, to the blog Viral Optimism with my consulting partner Joan Frye Williams.Before we sign off, there are two people who need a big thank you, people without whom there would have been no "IAG."First, Alane Wilson gave Alice and me the gumption to move forward on this idea. Someone who never saw an envelope that didn't need pushing, Alane convinced us that there were enough ideas worth sharing that we would never run out of material. She was so right.And a big thank you to OCLC President and CEO Jay Jordan. Jay reads the blog, sends us comments, and has supported us right from day one. In fact he found the blog before I even let him know we were doing it, and even so, he didn't fire my sorry tail.Check us out in our new digs, and we'll see you down the road! (Source: It's all good) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867620 http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002132.html Even if some heat has gone out of the library blogosphere, there is still a fair amount of reading and writing going on. I was asked recently what I tended to look at, going beyond the well-known bigger names. Here are some of the blogs that came to mind - some others also come to mind, but they don't sustain the reasonable amount of output that these do. Go to Hellman Personanondata eFoundations The Book of Trogool Overdue ideas Synthesize, specialize, mobilize Martin Hamilton's Blog HangingTogether Bibliographic wilderness The Arcadia Project blog Many of these are written from within a library perspective. Some dip into libraries from other perspectives. Personanondata, by Michael Cairns, covers the book industry more generally. Martin Hamilton, who is responsible for Internet Services in the IT services division at Loughborough University, is a recent blogger with a nicely reflective style. My former colleague Eric Hellman pulls together his science, business and technical experiences to provide some of the most interesting commentary on our changing environment. And Andy Powell and Pete Johnston at eFoundations combine technical pieces about metadata with more general discussion of education/information in a networked environment. And then there's ...... (Source: Lorcan Dempsey) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:56:00 +0100 867605 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/29/teenagers-language-music-world Writing 11 novels for teenagers gives you a special insight on their world, from their use of language to their taste in fashion1Teen rebellions involving clothes dyed black with Dylon, sausages rejected as "meat is murder" or hair backcombed into a landmass don't shock parents now. The most shocking act of rebellion a little caucasian agnostic girl from Penrith could pull is a flash conversion to Islam, before swishing down to Londis wearing full niqab. Inshallah, you are so grounded.2Scores of inner-city kids live their lives on what must feel like a giant Pac-Man grid, being chased by enemies whenever they leave home. As adults we underestimate how stressful this is. I began writing comedy for teens as there's no bigger demographic who need a laugh. A joke about how many Rimmel nail colours one can fit in a thong and still run from Superdrug security guards goes a long way.3The idea that teens today have a looser sense of morals is rubbish. For every 15-year-old smashing up the swings in the park, there's another sat piously at home writing complaints to the BBC about bad language and posting my novel back to the publishers, incensed over the word "fartface" on page 34.4Teens don't want adults speaking their language, but a basic working knowledge goes a million miles when writing for them. Many adults are pompous, lazy sorts who write teen fiction in which the kids speak like mini-Michael Goves and never MSN or BBM as this would involve the author researching it. Words you should know but never use include: Wa'gwan? Tonk. Choong. Brap. Brare. Slippin. Wack. Bruv. Blad. Emosh. Par. Wasteman. Allow it. Buff. Peng. Owned. Merked. Shottin'. Beef. Giving me jokes. Airing. Bedrin. Blates. Totes. Bless. Diss. Boi. Ufff. KMT. Bustin. Chirps. Va-jay-jay. Cotch. Fam. Crunk. Cuzz. Dark. Deep. Endz and, of course, the delightful Clunge. (Need a translation? See below. ... Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:29:54 +0100 867264 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/but-first-bit-of-blogging.html I admit it. Until the other day, I could not tell you who Ken Mehlman was. Although I am probably more political (being on the progressive left) than many people, I don't keep up with the Republicans as much as I ought, especially the chairs of their national committee. But the other day I subscribe to Joe. My. God. And then Mehlman came out as gay, after denying it for years and working against gays in so many ways for years. And Joe Jervis has been extremely educational. The good news is that, finally having come to terms with himself, apparently, he has come out as an advocate for gay marriage. The bad news, of course, is that given his past, it will be an uphill road in getting gay activists to forgive, and they're certainly not going to forget--nor should they. Here's a quote that Joe put up by Pam Spaulding, as quoted in the New York Times: "While it’s nice that Ken has finally come out of the closet as an advocate, it’s really hard to forgive him for the damage he did to the community by working actively against it for pay for years. That he can coast on the gains for our community by supporting AFER’s stellar work on Prop 8 on the backs of many during his tenure at the RNC who bore the brunt of homophobia, those who died as a result of hate crimes, the activists who were assailed professionally is unbelievable. Yet here we are in 2010 watching it unfold. As a human being Mehlman owes the community a serious apology for fomenting homophobia for political gain.” I wish we lived in a world where gay people would not feel like they had to keep their orientation--a basic aspect of their lives--secret. I also wish that they would not channel their self-loathing--bred by an intolerant society--into activities into hypocrisy and activities that hurt other gay people. ... Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868375 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Main_Articles_39Public_Library_2-0_Culture_Change39_Ariadne_Issue_64 In aiming to discover the level of engagement of UK public libraries with Library 2.0, I specifically concentrated on blogging in order to narrow the (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:00:35 +0100 866150 http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/live-blogging-2nd-library-link.html My session on e-books and e-reading at the 2nd Library Link Conference at the Filipinas Heritage Library commenced at 9:10 AM this morning. Around thirty five participants from various libraries attended the three-day conference. I've presented the roles and functions that libraries and librarians play; shown a video clip on the publishing and its possible demise; and grouped the participants for (Source: School Librarian in Action) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866312 http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/live-blogging-2nd-library-link_27.html The three hour session I conducted earlier has come to a close. We're enjoying lunch now and light conversations fleet from one person to the next. The conference is spearheaded by the Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) focusing on preservation of library resources. Seeing that e-books and e-readers are new formats of library resources, they included these topics for this year's conference. The (Source: School Librarian in Action) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866311 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/sHIKOHRrxjw/ As I mentioned back in July, I’ve posted a couple of stories to Scribd just by way of trying out the service to see how well it worked. I’ve since ended up with a number of Scribd subscribers (including Slate writer Farhad Manjoo; I’m not sure entirely why), and my stories have been read a little over 70 times each. Now I’m wondering whether I should try writing another story—the idea for which came to me in a dream the night before last—and posting it there, for sale for $1. Would anybody buy it? How effective would promotion of it be through social networking and blogging? Would anybody care enough to check it out? It would be an interesting experiment. And to be honest, the idea of making money from it is probably the only way the story would actually end up getting written. At the moment, I have so many demands on my time it is hard to find any excuse for leisure—and certainly writing a story would feel like a leisure activity otherwise. And if Greg Stolze was able to get away with charging $1 for a 3,000 word story, perhaps I could get away with charging that much for one that will almost certainly be longer. (Perhaps I could get fancy and do a Storyteller’s Bowl/Ransom Model sort of thing, and say that if I sold 100 copies I’d make it free to everyone. If only 70-some people read my free stories, it doesn’t seem likely I would make that many sales.) Maybe this weekend I’ll write it down and give it a shot. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:15:00 +0100 865828 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PegasusLibrarian/~3/EUN8L8dVGTI/who-stole-my-summer.html There’s always that one day — the day when you spend most of your day putting appointments into your calendar, the day when email volume doubles, the day when deadline work takes over and project work gets squeezed into a corner. That day was Monday. Fall is coming. Before Fall Term starts, I need to: Read a sample of the sophomore writing portfolio to assess evidence of information literacy. Finish writing up a report evaluating our joint technical and research help service point in the library. Update a few research guides that are now out of date. Create several brand new guides for brand new courses. Plan various orientations and beginning-of-school events (must must must remember to schedule a meeting of that committee I’m chairing…) Distill 2 days of discussion into a couple of action plans for our department Remember to eat, preferably three times a day, though that hasn’t happened yet this week. Considering I have just a couple of weeks to do those things in, and considering that a couple of those things could each take a couple of weeks, and further considering that more and more of my time each day is spent answering email now that everyone’s getting ready for Fall… … But this is normal. This is August. (Also, see what I just did here? This is the blogging equivalent of cleaning my house when I know I should be writing a paper.) Like Unlike (Source: Pegasus Librarian) Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:05:58 +0100 864907 http://circandserve.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/ Every story comes to an end.  I haven’t been posting much at all because life and work have totally trumped blogging. I wish I could have found more time to write about the library-related thoughts that have been swirling around in my head these past few months, but I just didn’t have it in me.  For this reason, and another that I shall reveal in a moment, I have decided to end Circ & Serve.  I really feel strongly about ending something once it feels like it is over, and really with the lack of new content here, this is over. The other reason behind this decision:  I am very pleased to announce that I have accepted the position as Assistant Dean of the University Library at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.  I begin my new position there on October 1st.  My last day at NCSU Libraries is September 3rd. This was a difficult decision to make as I have enjoyed my time at NCSU.  The four years I’ve spent here have been an incredible learning experience.  I learned something every day from every person I had the good fortune to work alongside.  It is an incredible library and I will always be grateful for the opportunities I had while here. I am tremendously excited about joining the library at Pacific.  I loved everything I felt and saw while there.  The campus community is incredible.  The library is doing fantastic work and is committed to providing the best services possible to students, faculty, staff and the community.  My new colleagues have gone out of their way in making me feel welcome and I can’t wait to begin collaborating with them. ... Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:30:53 +0100 865132 http://www.tangognat.com/2010/08/24/library-blog-landscape-with-bonus-naval-gazing/ The new issue of Cites and Insights has an excerpt of the book But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, click on over for the PDF if you enjoy reading some interesting number crunching about library blogs. I find it a little odd to be included in the project, just because I don’t tend [...] (Source: TangognaT) Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:39:28 +0100 865335 http://marklindner.info/blog/2010/08/24/some-things-read-lately-or-new-shit-has-come-to-light/ This blog used to have a “feature” entitled “Some Things Read This Week” but I ended it before my blogging dropped completely from sight. With no promises one way or the other I’d like to start blogging again about some of the things I read. As I said a couple of posts back: I am ramping back up the work on my CAS thesis via several angles of attack. I am working on the paper proper and I am also working on a journal article, which will be highly related (as in with a little reworking can become a chapter), and I am thinking about trying to come up with a presentation for a conference in early December. The conference is “Semantics for Robots: Utopian and Dystopian Visions in the Age of the ‘Language Machine’. ‘The Language Machine’ is one of Roy Harris’ early books, of course. Thus, I am reading and taking notes again. Along with trying to “reconstruct” work I have done previously, I am also continuing to pursue these interests further, along with pursuing other interests. In these areas I am also reading and taking notes. Having not written much of anything in quite a while I need to get assorted writing chops back in order, be it annotated bibliographic entries, blog posts, general and specialized note taking, summarizing, journal article(s), or CAS thesis. So I am going to jump in again. Any feedback is appreciated whether on style, further reading suggestions, etc. The first article I want to discuss is: Dill, E. A., & Janke, K. L. (2010). “New shit has come to light”: Information seeking behavior in The Big Lebowski. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1805/2099 [pre-peer reviewed version of a forthcoming article in The Journal of Popular Culture.] No doubt, many of you saw references to the Dill & Janke article over the last two weeks. Many people, understandably, could not help themselves in mentioning it in one venue or the other. ... Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:25:19 +0100 866005 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/24/el-sacrosanto-pero-olvidado-w3c/ Hubo un tiempo en que era muy importante que el código HTML de un blog estuviese bien escrito. Por ello, organismos con el W3C se encargaban de dictar normas y gente como Diego Martín o Walter Kobylanski dedicaban gran parte de su tiempo a enseñarnos cómo hacer las cosas bien. Les hablo de allá por 2003 y a mi todo aquello se me quedó grabado a fuego. Hoy, existen muchos afamados y exitosos blogs que no validan correctamente, lo que demuestra posiblemente que todo eso no sirve para nada. Que sea un factor a tener en cuenta por parte de los buscadores, al fin y al cabo, es lo de menos. Pero no poner el atributo alt en un img puede impedir a alguien, con visión reducida, el acceso a tu blog, ya que al dispositivo, capaz de interpretar el código y convertirlo en voz, le faltará algo (ver Algunas reglas sencillas para validar tu blog). Tener un blog en una plataforma como WordPress no te garantiza tener un código que valide correctamente. El theme puede estar desarrollado perfectamente pero hay tres vías por donde puedes empezar a hacer aguas. Una son los widgets, sobretodo los que permiten añadir código html. Algunos fallan si están vacios como, por ejemplo, el de comentarios recientes. Otro camino tortuoso es el de los plugins. Hay desarrolladores que no tienen en cuenta la validación XHTML. A continuación, algunos ejemplos que he sufrido recientemente: Facebook Social Plugins. Uno de los plugins más recomendables para añadir el botón “I like”. Sin embargo, se añade el atributo “allowTransparency” que no es correcto. Afortunadamente, se puede eliminar del script y no afecta al funcionamiento. El botón de Twitter. Si quieres incluir un texto personalizado y una url, como puede ser necesario para intergrarlo en WP, se añaden los atributos data-text y data-url que no pasan el test de validación. ... Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:42:38 +0100 866767 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/24/rembrandt-tambien-se-miraba-el-ombligo/ A propósito de la exposición Turner y los maestros, que se puede ver en el Museo Nacional del Prado hasta el próximo 19 de septiembre, el artista inglés bebió de las fuentes de Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, entre otros muchos. A tenor de su afán por autorretratarse, Rembrandt en la actualidad sería bloguer, sin duda. Se dice que es el protagonista de más de 80 de sus cuadros. Puro alma de bloguer. Ya me imagino su carita en el avatar de Twitter o Facebook. Uno de sus autorretratos más conocidos es el que aparece como el filósofo Demócrito (ese que, según la leyenda, se arrancó los ojos para que no le molestaran en sus meditaciones). En ese inquietante cuadro, Rembrandt se muestra riéndose amargamente de la ambición y la codicia humana. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:03:13 +0100 866768 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/zuGWQCcebBw/ Once again, I keep struggling with being connected while travelling on business trips. I guess very little has changed in the last few years … Specially, if it is abroad, outside of the reach from my 3G card(s) which would only work in Spain and for which I wouldn’t want to expose them to massively expensive roaming costs. So, as you can imagine, it’s been a few days, since my last blog post, because, as most of you know already, I just got back, over the weekend, from another one of those biz trips. This time around to Germany. This time around to talk about Enterprise 2.0 and social software adoption, community building, something called “Knowledge Management 2.0” and, of course, living “A World Without Email“. I am now back to the office, business as usual, therefore resuming my regular blogging activities… Now, over the course of the next few blog posts, I will be sharing plenty of insights on the outcome of those various workshops I did with this particular customer, more than anything because most of the conversations we had over the course of three days were just wonderful and worth while sharing across! I do hope as well that I may be capable of sharing some of the slideware and recordings that we managed to put together during the course of those couple of days… But for now I thought I would share with you folks something that, before leaving for Germany, made me remember why, despite the years gone by, I still hate computers. ... Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:47:52 +0100 866208 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/23/los-10-plugins-que-no-pueden-faltar-en-tu-wordpress/ Lo mejor de WordPress, en su versión instalable, es la posibilidad de ampliar la aplicación con plugins. Un plugin es un programa que se puede añadir al paquete original de WordPress, extendiendo sus funcionalidades. Realmente, WordPress es una plataforma que te permite construir cualquier tipo de sitio web, como veíamos en el post Cómo ampliar las posibilidades de tu blog. Sin embargo, los plugins son también el peor enemigo de WordPress. A menudo, son fuente de problemas, por lo que hay que tener cuidado con lo que se instala, leyendo bien las especificaciones, comprobando las incompatibilidades y probando siempre previamente. A continuación, 10 plugins que no pueden faltar en tu instalación de WordPress: 1. Akismet. Un plugin que viene con el paquete de instalación de WordPress para combatir el spam. A veces falla, pero mantiene casi a cero el número de mensajes no deseados en comentarios y trackbacks. 2. All in One SEO Pack. Realiza por tí, automáticamente, todas aquellas labores relacinadas con el SEO (posicionamiento en buscadores). La parametrización no es evidente pero existe mucha información al respecto; como por ejemplo, Guía All in one SEO pack – Configuración o, más general, Guia completa de SEO para WordPress . Más información sobre SEO y/o WordPress en mi cuenta de Delicious y aquí en Blogpocket. 3. Different Post Per Page. Muestra diferente número de posts en el blog, dependiendo de si se está visualizando la home, una página individual, una página de resultados, etc. 4. FeedBurner FeedSmith. Redirige cualquier feed del blog (rss, rss2, atom, etc.) al de FeedBurner. Tener tu feed definido en FeedBurner tiene la ventaja de poder medir tus suscriptores, además de disponer de funcionalidades adicionales como suscripción por e-mail, publicación automática en Twitter, feeds amigables, etc. FeedBurner también falla de vez en cuando y los contadores son aproximados pero, de momento, no hay ninguna aplicación semejante. ... Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:14:45 +0100 866769 http://www.lisnews.org/texas_teen_lit_festival_will_be_minus_several_authors UPDATE According to the Houston Observer, the scheduled festival has BEEN CANCELLED in its entirely, due to the number of participants who have chosen not to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Teen Lit Fest in Humble is a huge deal for renowned writers of young adult fiction and the kids they're writing for. Which is why it's a huge deal that half of the authors have dropped out of the January 2011 festival. It all started when an Humble ISD librarian complained to some influential parents about New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, who was scheduled to appear at the festival. (Hopkins writes about cheery subjects like drug addiction, suicide, and religious intolerance.) Houston Press reports. Those parents then allegedly bent the ear of Superintendent Guy Sconzo, who ordered another librarian to uninvite Hopkins -- even though she had already appeared at two of the festivals Humble-area high schools, without causing any of the teenagers to slit their wrists, become pregnant, or turn to prostitution to subsidize chronic substance-abuse problems. When fellow writer and invitee Pete Hautman heard about it, he decided to drop out of the festival, and, according to his blog three more writers have dropped out -- Melissa de la Cruz, Tara Lynn Childs and Matt de la Pena. More on this story from Galley Cat and entries from author Ellen Hopkins Live Journal. The Lit Festival's Facebook page appears to have been pulled. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:12:44 +0100 865590 http://lisnews.org/texas_teen_lit_festival_will_be_minus_several_authors UPDATE According to the Houston Observer, the scheduled festival has BEEN CANCELLED in its entirely, due to the number of participants who have chosen not to attend. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Teen Lit Fest in Humble is a huge deal for renowned writers of young adult fiction and the kids they're writing for. Which is why it's a huge deal that half of the authors have dropped out of the January 2011 festival. It all started when an Humble ISD librarian complained to some influential parents about New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, who was scheduled to appear at the festival. (Hopkins writes about cheery subjects like drug addiction, suicide, and religious intolerance.) Houston Press reports. Those parents then allegedly bent the ear of Superintendent Guy Sconzo, who ordered another librarian to uninvite Hopkins -- even though she had already appeared at two of the festivals Humble-area high schools, without causing any of the teenagers to slit their wrists, become pregnant, or turn to prostitution to subsidize chronic substance-abuse problems. When fellow writer and invitee Pete Hautman heard about it, he decided to drop out of the festival, and, according to his blog three more writers have dropped out -- Melissa de la Cruz, Tara Lynn Childs and Matt de la Pena. More on this story from Galley Cat and entries from author Ellen Hopkins Live Journal. The Lit Festival's Facebook page appears to have been pulled. (Source: LISNews.org) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:12:44 +0100 865307 http://poesygalore.blogspot.com/2010/08/noise-to-signal-on-blogs.html Rob Cottingham, creator of the webcomic Noise to Signal, has been on a roll lately on the subject of blogging: (Source: poesygalore<IMG SRC=http://www.geocities.com/emilylloyd.geo/glore.jpg>) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866254 http://www.apo.org.au/research/public-library-20-culture-change This article explores UK public libraries' growing participation in social media to reach their audiences online, with a focus on blogging. Creative Economy read more (Source: Yahoo! News Search Results for librarianship) Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:42:45 +0100 867155 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Grumpator/~3/F0iI7AT-Ot4/let-fall-semester-anxiety-begin.html It's been a busy couple of months - we visited the Maughans in Utah, rented a cabin in Greer with the Perrys, Chris decided to start his own business, and now the fall semester is underway. All in all, it was a lovely summer. On the downside, I spent the summer in an unfocused fog at work.  I'm working on a paper that I find really interesting, but feel that I'm a little out of my league.  My abstract was not accepted for a paper proposal at a non-library conference this fall. We got some great feedback, but I can't help but feel that I could have better directed my efforts over the summer, and maybe I need to revise my focus for the paper.  Since the semester has begun, I now find myself a little overwhelmed by my list of things to do this fall.  Of course, that happens every year! Here's my list so far: Set up and administer a survey on the Library Minute in 1 week. Prepare a poster session that includes the survey results for the EDUCAUSE conference in October. Hopefully also turn poster & survey results into a paper I can manage to get published this year. Teach 2 instruction sessions for UNI 110 Serve as a mentor to a freshman, and coordinate about 20 other mentors for the Obama Scholars program Co-chair a new workgroup (I named it TOAD). Plan some activities for Open Access Week (also in October). Plan out and submit a poster proposal for the ACRL conference next spring (due in Nov. 1). Continue writing this other paper Continue planning the AzLA Annual Conference in November, of which I'm a co-chair Continue working on my packet for promotion and continuing appointment, due next summer. It's just the sort of thing you don't want to save for the last minute. All of this is while our reorganization is still vague, uncertain and unannounced, so I'm still trying to feel out where my place is, what my focus should be, and what, exactly, my job really is. ... Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866520 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-will-resist-i-will-resist.html Brandon told me earlier today that I need a dog or cat because I've just been blogging like mad lately; I obviously need something else in my life. Which I laughed at, but I have to admit--it's been three years, almost, since Cerys died. I miss having company at home, after years of pets. I've thought about getting a kitten from time to time. And so tonight, although I shouldn't have, I went to the Lexington Humane Society's website and found: Bobble, a male grey kitten, 2 months old You can also see him on Petfinder. The Humane Society is running a special on cat adoptions through the end of the summer. I've told myself not to get a cat until I can drive myself to Dr Vice's at Gainesway Animal Clinic (an excellent vet office), since LexTran won't let pets other than service animals aboard (although I did once see a woman disembark with two cats in carriers; I've always had cats that howl on the way to the vet, so I don't think that will happen). I do have two vet clinics within walking distance (one without even having to cross a major road, that I've gone to once upon a time and they were fine). But still.... Oh. No. Must. Resist. The. Cuteness. (Source: The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind) Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 865966 http://www.lisnews.org/awful_library_books_can_be_fun You probably have visited Awful Library Books (and if you haven't...do!), but now the word is spreading. Wired's Geek Dad has an article on the website created by two Michigan librarians, Mary Anderson Kelly and Holly Allen Hibner. Among the gems they find while weeding is the 70's title Nomadic Furniture by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek, that features a child car safety seat made of cardboard. And as they promised themselves if the site was still fun after one year, they would be making ch-ch-changes. What started as a lark has taken on a life of its own. Says Mary: I kept thinking surely we will run out of books. Then we open the submission emails and something shows up that absolutely blows us away. Stay tuned and send in those submissions. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:13:47 +0100 865594 http://lisnews.org/awful_library_books_can_be_fun You probably have visited Awful Library Books (and if you haven't...do!), but now the word is spreading. Wired's Geek Dad has an article on the website created by two Michigan librarians, Mary Anderson Kelly and Holly Allen Hibner. Among the gems they find while weeding is the 70's title Nomadic Furniture by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek, that features a child car safety seat made of cardboard. And as they promised themselves if the site was still fun after one year, they would be making ch-ch-changes. What started as a lark has taken on a life of its own. Says Mary: I kept thinking surely we will run out of books. Then we open the submission emails and something shows up that absolutely blows us away. Stay tuned and send in those submissions. (Source: LISNews.org) Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:13:47 +0100 865311 http://splat.lili.org/node/400 Last weekend I returned to the US with an entirely different perspective on my access to information.  I had just spent the week at the PNLA Conference in Victoria, BC where connectivity was a major challenge for me. When I've traveled in the US, Ive always been confident that hotels and convention centers will offer me free, reliable wifi.  I admit now that I was incredibly naive as I crossed the border between 2010 and the 1980s.    I, unfortunately, was so caught up in getting ready for, and getting to, the conference that I forgot to plan ahead--I forgot to arrange for international calling and data transfer for my iphone.  It was quite the shocker to be able to turn on my phone once landing in Canada to be told by my trusted, omnipresent phone, that I have no coverage.  I was then advised that data transfer would by $15+ per certain amount of data transferred if I accessed the web.  Airplane mode went right back on at that point! I stayed at the historic Empress Hotel--which was lovely but did not offer wifi access.  Nor did it readily offer internet access--it was a land line and cost $15.64 Canadian per 24 hours.  I grumbled and bemoaned my fate and ponied up the credit card number.  i needed to access all that information I had so cleverly stored in the "cloud" for portability!  I whined to my fellow board members--who told me that the conference planners had been unable to negotiate internet access for conference attendees at the hotel or at the conference center for anyone except 1 presenter per room.  (I must have missed that vital piece of info during a board meeting.)  On a good note, I could join the hotel's VIP club and then get free internet access.  Well, for some reason I couldn't do it from inside the bubble of what I had paid for so I waited until the conference started and signed up at the internet cafe. ... Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:06:34 +0100 866146 http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/slias-reply-to-public-school-librarian.html Madame Fe Angela Verzosa gave a verbose but inspiring message to our letter sender, Arvin Tejada of Koronadal City. Allow me to say my piece as another Dear Librarian series draws to a close. I'm a believer of sweet and short things, so here goes --Dear Arvin,Thanks for reading my blog. I'm motivated to continue blogging every time I get feedback like yours. It's amazing how this medium can (Source: School Librarian in Action) Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866319 http://librarytwopointzero.blogspot.com/2010/08/sarah-hammond-and-public-libraries-20.html I'm a bit behind, but just seen that Sarah Hammond has article entitled Public Library 2.0: Culture Change?.The main premise of the article being that she wanted :-To discover the level of engagement of UK public libraries with Library 2.0, I specifically concentrated on blogging in order to narrow the focus of the research to a scope that was achievable given the time constraints. I also felt that blogs are perhaps the most versatile Web 2.0 tool at libraries’ disposal, so that taking a snapshot of blog activity would give a pretty good idea of their wider engagement with Web 2.0 tools. Consequently, I tried to find as many UK public library blogs as I could. Further to this end, I wanted to explore the attitudes and behaviours of public librarians towards the use of Library 2.0 in their libraries which I did with an online survey.If you have time and work in public libraries its well worth a read. (Source: librarytwopointzero) Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867795 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TameTheWeb/~3/yoWCTsRUe-I/ What do you think of that face? Blogging here at TTW has been sporadic due to some very unforseen circumstances. I finally buckled down today to get caught up and start thinking about fall. The big news is that on a trail in northern Michigan Mr. Cooper Dog was running with joyous abandon as Labs do a few weeks ago. He plowed right into my right leg and fractured my tibial plateau! The pain is receding but I’m not walking for a few more weeks as I work on healing. The good news: no surgery and no plaster cast! More in a bit as I get a grip. Thanks for all the well wishes online and for the wonderful surprises I’ve received in the mail. (Source: Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:13:16 +0100 864754 http://splat.lili.org/node/399 I'm grateful to Hofstra's "Ernster the Library Cat" blog for this link to a New York Times article about a new hybrid blogging/networking site called tumblr.  It seems to have attracted some major media participants.  May be worth a look. Here's the link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EEDA143CF931A3575BC0A... (Source: SPLAT - Special Projects Library Action Team blogs) Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:12:40 +0100 866147 http://splat.lili.org/node/398 I'm grateful to Hofstra's "Ernster the Library Cat" blog for this link to a New York Times article about a new hybrid blogging/networking site called tumblr.  It seems to have attracted some major media participants.  May be worth a look. Here's the link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EEDA143CF931A3575BC0A... (Source: SPLAT - Special Projects Library Action Team blogs) Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:10:16 +0100 866149 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/17/infografia-tuits-para-novatos/ Una infografía para dummies: Tuits para novatos, donde encontrarás una posible organización de tus mensajes de Twitter. En mi post más reciente de Weblog Magazine. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:22:28 +0100 866772 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/17/building-a-business-case-for-an-external-blog/ In June, Hicks Morley launched its first external blog, “Human Resources Legislative Update”. The blog replaces a monthly newsletter on legislative changes in human resources law that was sent to clients by email and posted on our website. The downside of the newsletter format was that by the time it was published, it was often already out of date due to the frequency of legislative changes and updates. We needed a time-sensitive solution that was accessible 24/7 to our legislative writers, provided a quick and easy publishing solution and gave readers the ability to ask questions or leave comments. The Knowledge Management Group had already successfully launched an internal blog that had similar features, so we proposed an external blog to our Executive. As I was writing this column, a blog entry by Sean D’Souza entitled “5 Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Email Newsletter” appeared on Twitter and LinkedIn. The five reasons included: content which was not useful and involved self promotion; using a voice that is not compelling; lack of structure; lack of communication regarding certain actions; and lack of frequency.   Our blog business case addressed many of the same issues, including the structure and content of blog entries, target audience, frequency of updates, the proposed bloggers, the accessibility of the blog platform and the ability to moderate and respond to readers’ comments. It also included a recommendation to outsource the blog design to a vendor that specializes in developing and hosting legal blogs.    The content was ideal for the firm’s first foray into the blogging sphere because it was factual and authoritative. Each blog entry would be a short, succinct summary of the legal change and its impact on our readers. Blog posts would be targeted to a niche audience interested in specific legislative developments that could also be found through topics and tags. ... Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:41 +0100 867088 http://gnomicutterance.livejournal.com/49031.html I subjected the poor subscribers to the Diana Wynne Jones mailing list to my rant on poor representation of both authors and characters of color in the YA Fantasy Showdown, but I didn't want to subject you all to it. For one thing, it's clear the creator of the showdown tried; I just think she did a fairly poor job.Anyway, in the current round of voting, I noticed several comments that made me exceedingly happy. Right now Ai Ling (Cindy Pon, Silver Phoenix) is up versus Jace (Cassandra Clare, Mortal Instruments trilogy). Jace is predictably if annoyingly beating Ai Ling simply because, as several of the comments say, jace gets my vote because he is hot. But one of the other commenters on this round of voting says, Never heard of Ai Ling but sounds like she's gona win. Also, is she chinese? Because I'm chinese, and you don't get many cool chinese characters so I feel like I need to show her some support...even if Jace is hot! Another says I've never read Silver Pheonix before, but I totally want to now.In other words, Silver Phoenix isn't less popular because it's less good. It's less popular because nobody has heard of it. If readers haven't seen it, they can't make their own judgments about whether it equally good or not. (I acknowledge that even if readers had read it, Mortal Instruments certainly appeals more to contemporary young adult tastes in twisted paranormal romances. But the point is, readers aren't being given the opportunity to make that judgment for themselves. And in the meantime, participants in this showdown, both those who identify as Chinese and those who don't, are really excited by learning about the existence of the book.)This is it is so important for we in the children's and young adult mediating business -- and these days that includes not just booksellers, teachers, librarians, and parents but also bloggers -- to care about representation. ... Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:34:13 +0100 866000 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/16/twitter-en-mi-columna-desde-mi-bolsillo/ Una recopilación de enlaces sobre Twitter en el más reciente post de Desde mi bolsillo, mi columna en Libro de Notas: Twitter, el sancta sanctorum de Internet. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:44:38 +0100 866774 http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/08/temporary-hiatus.html My laptop has failed so I'm writing from a neighbor's home. No more blogging for awhile. But it was a great party Sunday at the pavilion, and all family arrived safely and we're having a great time. (Source: Collecting my Thoughts) Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 865649 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/15/wordpressmania-julio-2010/ Enlaces relacionados con WordPress que se nos quedaron en el tintero en el mes de Julio. Algunos de ellos los pusimos en Twitter pero ahora quedan aquí recogidos para una degustación tranquila. Optimizar WordPress para no sobrecargar el servidor. Dos tips básicos que todo administrador de un blog de WordPress.org debería saber. 10 plugins de seguridad para WordPress. ¿Quieres tener una instalación de WordPress segura?. Entonces instala estos plugins que recomiendan en BdeBloggers. 4 WordPress Tools Every BlogSpot Lover Needs. Cuatro herramientas que tampoco pueden faltar en tu instalación. GetSocial, el plugin que te falta en WordPress. Si quieres que tu blog se integre con las redes sociales, tendrás que instalar un plugin como éste. Optimizar imágenes en WordPress con el Plugin WP Smush.it . Si alojas las imágenes en tu instalación de WP, este plugin te ayudará a optimizar las imágenes. Stupid WordPress Tricks. Una de las listas más completas con los hacks que necesitas. 125 grandiosos themes para wordpress 3.0. Themes compatibles con la última versión de WP. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:42:17 +0100 866776 http://poesygalore.blogspot.com/2010/08/who-are-marketed-to-in-your.html Via Lifehacker, a fascinating tool put out by Nielsen used by marketers to determine what "types" live in your ZIP code and how to market to them. Types are arrived at by, according to Nielsen, "ground-breaking segmentation techniques." You can look up your ZIP code here, and see your area broken into five main types, some with less-than-flattering names. Click on any one type to see more information about it.I currently live in South Minneapolis, at 55407. Types include:American Dreams, who are"a living example of how ethnically diverse the nation has become: just under half the residents are Hispanic, Asian, or African-American. In these multilingual neighborhoods--one in ten speaks a language other than English--middle-aged immigrants and their children live in upper-middle-class comfort." American Dreams folks, we learn, shop at Old Navy, buy motivational tapes, read Black Enterprise, watch TeleFutura, and might drive a Lexus IS;Big City Blues, described this way:"With a population that's almost 40 percent Latino, Big City Blues has one of the highest concentration of Hispanic-Americans in the nation. But it's also the multi-ethnic address for low-income Asian and African-American households occupying older inner-city apartments. Concentrated in a handful of major metros, these younger singles and single-parent families face enormous challenges: low incomes, uncertain jobs, and modest educations. Roughly 25 percent haven't finished high school." Big City Blues families shop at The Gap, go to movies, read Ser Padres, watch Noticiero Telemundo, and drive Volkswagens;Close-In Couples: "a group of predominantly older, ethnically diverse couples living in older homes in the urban neighborhoods of mid-sized metros. High school educated and empty nesting, these mostly older residents typically live in older city neighborhoods, enjoying their retirements. ... Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866257 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/08/13/el-nuevo-boton-de-twitter/ Blogpocket ya luce, exerimentalmente, el nuevo botón de Twitter. ¿Qué es y cómo implementarlo en las diferentes plataformas?. Te lo contamos en nuestro más reciente post de Weblog Magazine: Cómo poner el nuevo botón de Twitter en Blogger (y cualquier plataforma). También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:49:10 +0100 866778 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seealso/~3/eWegI7ecEcU/see_also_is_closed.html We are coming up on the fifth anniversary of the start of See Also. Which seems like a good time to shut things down around here. I’m happy that See Also has been part of the whole wave of library blogs, but like all waves, I think this one has crashed. I don’t have much to say here (the last substantive post was in April) and I think that most people share my wearyness when it comes to reading library blogs, too (only one person read my last post closely enough to get the joke). So for now, all the content will stay up and I’ll just turn off the comments. If I feel the need to share something, I’ll probably do it on the Library Society of the World blog. If I really feel the itch to start blogging again after six months or so, I guess I’ll start a new blog. Because this one is done. (Source: See Also... a library weblog by Steve Lawson) Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:04:55 +0100 866097 http://scribblersdelight.blogspot.com/2010/08/grumpy-old-girl.html that's me. This federal election is getting on my t*ts. If I hear Tony Abbott carry on about a big new tax one more time I'll scream. Funny about Liberals, they are always carrying on about debt. And why, huh? I reckon you can tell a liberal by the way they respond to every social benefit they disagree with, with a "But it's my taxes that are paying for it!" And don't get me started on business welfare.Watched Joseph Stiglitz explain the Financial crisis and why resources booms aren't so great for economies. Doesn't anyone else watch these things?I rang Telstra in an unguarded moment and now I'm getting a post paid HTC Desire Android phone... Why do they like post paid plans so much? Believe me when I say I will be watching the online call meter VERY carefully...I've spent most of the past ten years paying off telecommunications debt of one sort or another. At least I know how to budget for it now. Face it, $100 bucks a month on either phone calls, internet or a blend of both seems to be the default. Throw in the mobile and its a bit more. No way around it. And Tony Abbott, I know you aren't a tech head but if you think paying 80 a month for 4 gig of wireless broadband at 1995 data rates is good enough...now I'm getting grumpy again.I'm too old to be dazzled by a phone as an accessory...they sometimes don't work and you have to trundle off to Safeway to get a budget prepaid as a backup while the expensive new toy is getting fixed or recalibrated or whatever. the Getting off cigarette project is into phase 2...Im on to 1mg cigarettes now, still smoking 12-13 a day but getting less nicotine, that's the theory. But heaps more carbon monoxide. I'm a bit lightheaded, and possibly I have cut down too quickly, but I am determined not to go back to full strength cigarettes.I made an appointment for the dentist, its a 4 month waiting list but there seems no way around it. Can't afford market rates. ... Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:58:00 +0100 865925 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/gNgxccC_vX0/ Today has been one of those days where my social periscope has been down for most of the day. Meetings galore at work, on the one hand, and an intense heat wave hitting the Canary Islands at the moment, on the other hand, haven’t made things too easy for me so far in the external social networking spaces, so I decided that, for today’s blog post, I’m actually going to do a little bit of light blogging and reflect about something that doesn’t have much to do with the usual topics that I get to talk about over here and, instead, I am just going to spend a few minutes remembering and rejoicing around one of those magical moments in someone’s lifetime that one gets to enjoy from something, an unforgettable event, that took place a month and a day ago, exactly, and which still lingers around in our collective memory. At least, that one from a whole bunch of us. Witnessing the historical moment of Spain winning the World Cup Final for the first time! Yes, that’s right! Today is exactly one month and one day since Spain beat The Netherlands in the World Cup Final 1-0 and, when one comes to think about it, it sounds like it all happened a few years back already! And yet, it’s just 4 weeks ago since it happened! So, still we have got another 4 years to enjoy, and savour, these moments of a unique experience that I am sure is going to be quite difficult to repeat. ... Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:40:29 +0100 866211 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/08/ifla-report-questions-after-information.html This is the final post about the panel session organised by the Informtion Literacy Section and Reference Section at the 76th IFLA General Conference . If you are wondering why I have been quite so conscientious about blogging it all, I was asked to take notes, so obviously I am doing that via this blog! This last post covers the questions after the papers from Sheila Corrall, Vicki McDonald, Cathy Palmer, Huy Nghiem,Kaijsa Calkins and Cassandra Kvenild. Once again they are included in the podcast of this talk at this location, courtesy of Niels Damgaard.Question: Librarians feel that there is a difference in reception from students when librarians rather than academics are teaching (i.e. they pay less attention when librarians teach). Any views?Sheila made the point that projects for collaboration bteween academics and staff enable librarians to get credibility with students and staff – based on the notion of PATRNERSHIPS.Caisja said it varies in the USA, also there are status issues in the USA: some librarians are faculty and therefore have greater status. Cathy said that it is important that you are not positioned as an “add on”, but rather that the IL and librarian are seen as an integral part of the class. Being involved in planning is important. She thought that attitudes of academics can transmit to studentsVicki agreed with these points and said that it about relationships with the faculty, and that it works better in some disciplines than others.Question to Vicki: does having research group (i.e. Christine Bruce’s research group) have any impact on what happens in the library?Vicki answered that this had helped profiling IL within Queensland University of Technology, and work that Christine Bruce and others have done provides a foundation, but also support from other faculty in the university had been important. Sheila added something about Sheffield University (i.e. ... Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864983 http://creativelibrarian.com/1/hello-world/ Welcome to Internet Brain Conglomerate. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! (Source: Creative Librarian) Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:25:59 +0100 866615 http://dallnet.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-blog-resource-loc-librarians.html The LOC Librarians have started to blog!The blog, named "In Custodia Legis" can be found at http://blogs.loc.gov/law/.It's only a week old and, IMHO, the law librarians are doing a great job of blogging relevant information.Yesterday's entry gave some wonderful information on how to find UK legal information. (Source: Lex Scripta) Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 865391 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/08/information-literacy-conference-and.html This coming week is the World Library and Information Conference. Firstly, I am conference chair for a pre-conference event on 8-9 August in Gothenburg, Sweden, Information Literacy: Culture, community, context. This is organised by the IFLA Information Literacy Section, of which I am a member. We have an exciting programme, which you can see on the conference blog: http://infolitsatellite.blogspot.com/. The blog will have the extended abstracts and other material from the conference. I will probably do the main blogging about that conference there rather than here, but in that case I will do some linking posts here too. I will blog information literacy matters from the main conference on this blog.Secondly, at the main conference, I am presenting a paper coauthored with Professor Diane Nahl, of the University of Hawai'i, Sustaining learning for LIS [Library and Information Science] through use of a virtual world. The full paper is at http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/123-webber-en.pdf and the powerpoint is on Slidehare: I have embedded it below.Sustaining learning for LIS through use of a virtual worldView more presentations from sheilawebber. (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864990 http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/interview-by-rocket-kapre-part-2.html Rocket Capre unravels my mind scape and process in storytelling, writing and blogging. In the part 2 of the interview, Tales From the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories is mentioned. Dianne de Las Casas, my co-author, friend and a great influence in my storytelling and writing career is featured as well. (Source: School Librarian in Action) Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866332 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Digitization101/~3/r-MASBBv4CE/blog-no-more-outsourcing-digitization.html This morning, Misty contacted me through Meebo for a quick chat and it turns out she is blogging about digitization.  An archivist in Ontario (Canada), her passion is thinking about and creating do-it-yourself (DIY) digitization systems.  Misty has already written very thoughtful (and likely thought-provoking) posts on the subject, even though her blog is just two months old.  If you are interested in DIY as a strategy, you'll want to add her blog to your reading/skimming list.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. (Source: Digitization 101) Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 865701 http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-no-more-outsourcing-digitization.html This morning, Misty contacted me through Meebo for a quick chat and it turns out she is blogging about digitization.  An archivist in Ontario (Canada), her passion is thinking about and creating do-it-yourself (DIY) digitization systems.  Misty has already written very thoughtful (and likely thought-provoking) posts on the subject, even though her blog is just two months old.  If you are interested in DIY as a strategy, you'll want to add her blog to your reading/skimming list.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. (Source: Digitization 101) Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864961 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/08/ifla-papers.html This is another batch of papers online for the World Library and Information Conference (or IFLA conference) which takes place 10-15 August.- Maija Berendtson (Helsinki City Library, Helsinki, Finland) Libraries promoting multimodal literacy in an intercultural societyhttp://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/133-berndtson-en.pdf- There is a session on parliamentary libraries and their role with the public, for example:Abdolreza Noroozi Chakoli (Shahed University, Tehran, Iran) et al. The role of parliamentary libraries in increasing citizens' access to knowledge and its barriers in the developing countrieshttp://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/141-chakoli-en.pdfThere are obviously lots more papers on a huge variety of library and information subjects, so it is well work browsing through the conference programme: as I said before, most of the papers are already online (and they are papers, not powerpoints). Four academics from my Department (including me) are speaking at the main conference (see this post for more information) and I will be talking more about the events I am involved in, in my next post. I will also be blogging the conference as will these people. (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864992 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/02/a-tale-of-two-carnivals/ No, this is not about Caribana taking place in Toronto this Simcoe Day long weekend. Rather, it is about two reciprocal blog carnivals that were posted yesterday. You may recall a blog carnival is a review of recent blog posts on a topic that rotates around, hosted on different blogs. While the subject matter may be serious, blog carnivals have a playful element. You may also recall we hosted Blawg Review (the law blog carnival) #249, here on Slaw.ca in February, written by Omar Ha-Redeye. This time around, Ed, the Editor of Blawg Review, and Charles H. Green, co-author of The Trusted Advisor and editor of the Carnival of Trust, have written reciprocal carnival blog posts. Ed hosted this week’s Carnival of Trust, and in fine Blawg Review tradition, has given it a theme–this time it’s Las Vegas.  And Charles H. Green has hosted Blawg Review 275 on his blog Trust Matters. Each is a fun, quick read, so I encourage you to head over to both. And just as I am discovering the Carnival of Trust, today Green tells us that this is the last Carnival of Trust as he is retiring this format. He says: But at least for TrustMatters readers, things have shifted. We rarely get the kind of commentary we got in the past, and I think that’s for good reason. The role that the Carnival played for us in the past is increasingly being played out on Twitter and LinkedIn, and in community aggregators like the Customer Collective. He has a point. Blog carnivals have been challenging things to maintain in the best of times. If interest of readers wanes, it is difficult to keep up the enthusiasm and good quality. The Carnival of the Infosciences, for example, while successful in its heyday was disbanded a couple of years ago for that very reason. This only helps to highlight how impressive the Blawg Review really is, and how Ed’s commitment and the interest of law bloggers and blog readers has really been unflagging all these years. ... Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:28:06 +0100 864427 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kraftylibrarian/OLay/~3/P4wM9tzW8LY/ I will be taking a vacation from blogging and all other online things. I will be back with the wired world next Monday. Tweet This Post (Source: The Krafty Librarian) Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:02:12 +0100 863917 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/01/social-media-twitter-passes-the-20-billionth-tweet-mark/ REPOST, ERROR Corrected That’s right, 20 billion tweets and counting. If you want to track the the number of tweets going through the system in real time, visit GigaTweet. They’re predicting that Twitter will hit 30 billion tweets in 126 days. From BBC News: The landmark and rather opaque tweet was sent at 1544 GMT Saturday by GGGGGGo_Lets_Go, a Tokyo graphic designer for an advertising agency. [See it Here] It said: “So that means the barrage might come back later all at once.” Twitter took four years to reach its 10 billionth tweet, in March this year, and less than five months to double it. [Snip] The Japanese send nearly 8m tweets a day, about 12% of the global total and second only to the US, according to the San Francisco-based micro-blogging service. Hat Tip: @mwbiz See Also: What Percentage of Users Would Pay for Twitter? + Other Findings from the 2010 Digital Future Report (U.S. Stats) Highlights from 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study (Source: ResourceShelf) Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:51:59 +0100 863900 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/01/emily-gould-meghan-daum-confessional Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City columns inspired some dire chick lit, but also a generation of more serious young writersEmily Gould still finds it irritating when she gets stuck behind a group of women walking four abreast along a New York pavement, intent on imitating the infamous Sex and the City line-up. "Really, two of you should walk behind and allow other people to walk past," Gould says with a groan. "It's one of many things that upsets me about Candace Bushnell."But for all that she might get annoyed by those high-heeled women on the sidewalk, without Sex and the City, there would arguably have been no Emily Gould. The 28-year-old has just published her first confessional memoir, And The Heart Says Whatever. In 11 pithily written essays, Gould, a former co-editor of the Gawker gossip website, charts her experiences as a young adult in New York, working in jobs she loathes, facing up to failed relationships and going to parties attended by people she dislikes. Her debut has already attracted praise from the likes of Jonathan Franzen, while Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of American Wife, has hailed it as a modern-day version of The Bell Jar. Gould is one of a new generation of female confessional writers who, according to Sittenfeld, "speak, in our often phoney and cheesy culture, to the truths of women's lives".Before Candace Bushnell, books like Gould's that sought to capture the dilemmas and dichotomies of modern womanhood with a wry, humorous honesty, were almost unheard of. For decades, the experiences of ordinary women had been largely overlooked by the literary world: either it was recounted in fictional terms (as in Mary McCarthy's The Group) or it was relayed anonymously by feminist polemicists and social historians (Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique). Bushnell changed all that. ... Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:06:04 +0100 863671 http://www.lisnews.org/booksthatchangekidsworlds Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a child respond to a book, and author and New Yorker blogger Susan Orlean takes note of that in her latest twitter inquiry to her readers. She writes about her five year-old son: "I decided it was time for us to refresh his bookshelves. My default in these cases is to find a friendly librarian or a smart bookstore employee, but my boss (me) wouldn’t give me time off from work, so I was stuck at home. Inspired by an earlier experiment with book recommendations on Twitter, I decided to pose the question online (with the slightly cumbersome hashtag #booksthatchangekidsworlds) and sat back while the answers flooded in. What I have loved about reading through them is not just the great suggestions for my son but the shiver of pleasure I get each time I see a title that meant everything to me when I was a kid but that I haven’t thought about in years. " Find the list at New Yorker.com. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:37:28 +0100 863825 http://lisnews.org/booksthatchangekidsworlds Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a child respond to a book, and author and New Yorker blogger Susan Orlean takes note of that in her latest twitter inquiry to her readers. She writes about her five year-old son: "I decided it was time for us to refresh his bookshelves. My default in these cases is to find a friendly librarian or a smart bookstore employee, but my boss (me) wouldn’t give me time off from work, so I was stuck at home. Inspired by an earlier experiment with book recommendations on Twitter, I decided to pose the question online (with the slightly cumbersome hashtag #booksthatchangekidsworlds) and sat back while the answers flooded in. What I have loved about reading through them is not just the great suggestions for my son but the shiver of pleasure I get each time I see a title that meant everything to me when I was a kid but that I haven’t thought about in years. " Find the list at New Yorker.com. (Source: LISNews.org) Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:37:28 +0100 863594 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryGarden/~3/GiZJ1U7Eyl4/ Posted by Peter Bromberg This week I came to the end of two wonderful chapters in my life. First, this was my final week of employment at the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), where I have enjoyed working for the past nine years.  And second, this is my final post at the Library Garden blog, where I have had the pleasure of writing for the past four years.  Both departures are bittersweet, filled with sadness and loss, but also mixed with excitement for the what lies ahead.  On Monday, August 2nd I will begin as Assistant Director at the Princeton Public Library, and at the same time I will launch a new blog at http://blog.peterbromberg.com. I would like use this opportunity, my final post at LG, to do something that I have never done before.  I am going to break my cardinal Library Garden blogging rule and write a post that is intended primarily for the New Jersey library community.  If you are not a member of the NJ library community I encourage and invite you to read on, as the topic I’m about to address has broader implications for librarianship.  But again, I am writing directly to you my NJ colleagues. CONGRATULATIONS, I’M SORRY Those of you in NJ know that we have just emerged from a partially successful four-month advocacy campaign to restore state funding for library services.  In March we received devastating news that the Governor had slashed library funding 74% in his proposed budget, effectively putting an end to vital library services including delivery, interlibrary loan, shared full-text databases, and the New Jersey Library Network including the four Regional Library Cooperatives.  In late June, after an advocacy campaign that generated tens of thousands of letters of support, we learned that much of the funding was restored, and many services would be saved. ... Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:57:39 +0100 867783 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/07/30/qwitter-para-saber-quien-ha-dejado-de-seguirte-en-twitter/ ¿Quieres conocer quién ha dejado de seguirte en Twitter?. En mi más reciente post de Weblog Magazine te lo contamos: Cómo conocer quién ha dejado de seguirte en Twitter. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:00:55 +0100 864289 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Digitization101/~3/FsIdlbNrST0/copyright-fair-use-and-blogging.html Tuesday evening, I spent time with a woman who had copyright concerns about the blogging that she and her colleagues are doing.  While we didn't use the word "myths", clearly there are many myths and urban legends that surround copyright.  Below are links to the resources I gave her.  Obviously, these are a drop in the bucket, but good conversation starters for us over coffee and for her colleagues on Wednesday morning!Fair Use Checklist  10 Big Myths about copyright explained5 Copyright Hazards to AvoidQuestion: Can I copy an entire news article from a commercial news web site and post the article on my web site? Question: I found something interesting on someone else's blog. May I quote it?And since we should not assume that people know what fair use is:U.S. Copyright Law (Titles 17, Section 107): Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair useFair Use Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. (Source: Digitization 101) Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 863213 http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2010/07/copyright-fair-use-and-blogging.html Tuesday evening, I spent time with a woman who had copyright concerns about the blogging that she and her colleagues are doing.  While we didn't use the word "myths", clearly there are many myths and urban legends that surround copyright.  Below are links to the resources I gave her.  Obviously, these are a drop in the bucket, but good conversation starters for us over coffee and for her colleagues on Wednesday morning!Fair Use Checklist  10 Big Myths about copyright explained5 Copyright Hazards to AvoidQuestion: Can I copy an entire news article from a commercial news web site and post the article on my web site? Question: I found something interesting on someone else's blog. May I quote it?And since we should not assume that people know what fair use is:U.S. Copyright Law (Titles 17, Section 107): Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair useFair Use Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. (Source: Digitization 101) Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 863162 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/28/august-2010-issue-of-first-monday-now-available-articles-on-facebook-privacy-scholarly-blogging-open-textbooks-librariesweb-content-management-systems-and-more/ The August 2010 (15.8) issue is now available here. Included are the Following Articles: + Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? by danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai + I am a blogging researcher: Motivations for blogging in a scholarly context by Sara Kjellberg + A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat World Knowledge story by John L. Hilton III, David A. Wiley + Library perspectives on Web content management systems by Camilla Fulton + Interest-oriented versus relationship-oriented social network sites in China by Weiyu Zhang, Rong Wang + Government and e-participation programs: A study of the challenges faced by institutional projects by Francisco Paulo Jamil Almeida Marques You’ll also find an op-ed (Privacy as a luxury commodity by Zizi Papacharissi) and a book review (Scott Rosenberg’s “Say everything: How blogging began, what it’s becoming, and why it matters by Douglas Kocher) Source: First Monday (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:30:54 +0100 863010 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/JlqKvnUe3LE/ With meetings and activities galore happening at work right as we speak, and with the usual catchup of the daily routines in multiple social spaces, I think that today is going to be one of those days where blogging will be rather light, as opposed to keep sharing some additional insights on that topic that keeps coming up over and over again on Social Computing and business processes. So, you will have to excuse me for a minute till I get back into my usual swing of things. Or, alternatively, you could go ahead and join my good friend Mark Masterson and yours truly, later on today, at 3pm EDT – 8pm UK – 9pm CEDT, at the Blog Talk Radio show, with John Moore as our host, talking about the "Business Value of Social Media". Yes, that’s right, later on today, in just a bit over an hour, both Mark and myself will be spending a few minutes with John talking about the business value of Social Software. I know, indeed, one of my favourite topics from all along: the good old ROI of Social Networking. Now, if you have been reading this blog for a while … you will know more or less what we will be talking about, but, in case you may not have, here is the link to the details of the show itself. As you may have noticed already, Blog Talk Radio is one of those shows where folks can participate live and as such you would be able to join us as well by dialling in using this call-in number: (347) 324-3248. We would very much like to have you on today’s show and participate with us in, I am sure, what promises to be some pretty interesting and exciting conversations around business value of social computing, and, perhaps, even a bit of the little movement a bunch of us got started with a few days back: Hippies 2.0. ... Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:33:28 +0100 863448 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryCloud/~3/0eD7JZGPaRk/ala-2010-emerging-technolgies-lita.html With a nod to the old saw "time flies," I am a bit chagrined that I did not post information, thoughts, theories, and possible personal blathering, regarding sessions I attended at ALA Annual last month. The time lag is no reflection on the quality of presentations, but homage to how quickly library day in the life things take precedence; even during lunchtime blogging. LibGuides, blogs, chat, and the library and IRC web sites translate to spending an increasing amount of time with technology in the library. Using a new or emerging technology simply for the sake of using a new or emerging technology does not interest me; successfully incorporating it into the fabric of the library does, hence the LITA session focusing upon emerging technologies and the new role of emerging technology librarians caught my interest.To say the room was full would be a drastic understatement. I arrived early and was lucky to find a seat (belated apologies to the kind people I had to maneuver around). Though somewhat concerned by the sheer number of librarians involved in the panel presentation, I congratulate session moderator Bohyun Kim, who ruthlessly followed the timetable set providing opportunity for each panelist to be heard and still have time for questions and brief audience participation.What is Your Library Doing about Emerging Technologies?My interest was immediately caught during the discussion of context and emerging technology. What is an emerging technology to a librarian may not be to the user, or even another librarian. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Chat, texting, and other social networking resources are no longer emergent, they are generally accepted and often expected. It could be argued some of these things are now thought of as passé by our users (only old people use email) and consideration should be given regarding our need to be in these communities. ... Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:21:00 +0100 864099 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreakonomicsBlog/~3/EDjoGfOrl_c/ Kathryn Schulz, the author of Being Wrong, has been guest-blogging for us about being wrong - and admitting our mistakes. Her latest post examines the historical culture of error in the United States. (Source: Freakonomics Blog) Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:30:11 +0100 862829 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/i7aUIKdv-A0/what-to-search-when-youre-expecting.html This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label Search Stories and subscribe to the series. -Ed.Having been a new dad for six months now, I’ve quickly come to learn two valuable parenting lessons. First, being a father is truly a full-time job—and second, sleep is completely overrated. Whether buying the latest bottles, binkies, blankets and bibs, or just blogging about the whole magical journey, becoming a father has been the most invigorating and moving experience of my lifetime.This week, I’m excited to help introduce our latest search story, New Baby. The video really captures the joys (and costs!) of becoming a new parent. I’d like to share my heart-felt compassion with new dads everywhere (and of course, my wife and the other mothers out there who are the true heroes.) We will all rest when they head off to college—in the meantime, enjoy!Posted by Murali Viswanathan, Product Manager (Source: Official Google Blog) Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 863455 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/TIdl77Kp2F4/ David Carnoy, whose self-publishing advice (and run-ins with Apple) we have covered already, has another CNet column full of helpful advice to the would-be e-book self-publisher. Carnoy starts out with some tips, such as that the book has to be good, with an arresting cover, and priced cheaply—in fact, authors should avoid any self-publishing outfit that does not let them set the price. And to market the book, the author simply has to create awareness of it—and in today’s blogging and social networking world, that is easier than it has ever been. Then Carnoy lists a number of potential self-e-publishing outlets: Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, FastPencil, Scribd, and more, examining the pros and cons of each in detail. This article is a great resource for those looking at self-publishing an e-book, and should immediately be tagged onto any self-respecting self-pub-related blogroll. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:15:00 +0100 862556 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/07/27/10-razones-por-las-que-sigo-blogueando/ Foto extraída de mi fotolog en Posterous Estos días atrás he dedicado algo de tiempo a reflexionar sobre lo que me hace seguir blogueando, casi una década después (Blogpocket cumplirá 10 años el próximo 25 de enero de 2011). Las conclusiones, las resumo a continuación. 1. Aprendo Sin duda, esta es una de las principales razones. Lo que he aprendido en estos diez últimos años no se puede medir ni valorar. Los conocimientos no han sido exclusivamente técnicos, también he adquirido otros, como por ejemplo conocerme un poco más a mi mismo. Aunque falta mucho camino por recorrer. 2. Conozco gente Si tuviese que escoger solo una razón para seguir blogueando, ésta sería mi elección. Una seña de identidad de Blogpocket es el énfasis en los protagonistas de la Blogosfera. He hecho muy buenos amigos gracias al blog y me encanta extender esas relaciones virtuales en el mundo no virtual. 3. Me mantengo al día en temas que me interesan Mantener un ritmo periódico de publicación en Blogpocket me obliga a leer mucho acerca de los asuntos que me interesan. Así que bloguear es una buena forma de mantenerse al día en ellos. 4. Enseño No hay nada más gratificante para mí que recibir un comentario o un e-mail de agradecimiento por uno de mis posts. Siempre me gustó enseñar y Blogpoket ha sido desde el principio un lugar para divulgar herramientas para bloguers e internautas, principalmente principiantes. 5. Comparto ¿De qué sirve encontrar un recurso útil (un enlace, una utilidad, un tutorial, etc.) y guardártelo para tí? Intercambiar conocimientos es la mejor manera de facilitar el progreso de todos. Los blogs se caracterizaron, desde sus inicios, porque sus autores los utilizaban para compartir. Y la Blogosfera sigue siendo ese inmenso repositorio social, potenciado ahora por esa otra herramienta más directa e inmediata llamada Twitter. 6. ... Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:02:23 +0100 862615 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/26/snark-put-downs-online Snark – using put-downs to undermine an adversary – is a great online tool. But don't mistake it for real powerThis Saturday, I appeared on a panel at the Netroots Nation conference, devoted to "Bringing the Snark After Winning Elections". I shared the panel with some amazing people, who were far better at being on panels than I myself was, and I was honoured to be there. But as I sat there, advocating for snark, I'd started to realise that my own uses of it – unlike, I hasten to add, those of the very effective and responsible people I was speaking with – were not always admirable."Snark" is one of those fundamentally goofy internet neologisms that we could try to fight, but are better-off just learning to work with. The word denotes mean humour: sarcasm, venom, the art of the put-down. Mostly, it's an attitude. Snark is the kids at the back of the class, heckling the substitute teacher; it's the voice of people who feel stifled, talked down to, or left out; the tool of people who have discovered that honing in on the weaknesses of those in power, exposing them publicly (if only to their own circle of friends), and reducing them to figures of fun (if only in their own minds), makes them feel a little less helpless.Of course, it's a powerful tool in political writing. But like most sources of political power, it should be regarded with some healthy distrust, especially by those who feel called to use it.It's stupid to condemn "snark" across the board. For one, it's often a genuine pleasure to read. And it has a valuable place within political writing, specifically. It makes people feel better; it renders intimidating issues more approachable and makes bad news seem less overwhelming.Snark, when used correctly, is fantastic. ... Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:00:15 +0100 862345 http://www.blogpocket.com/2010/07/26/comentarios-en-tumblr-con-disqus/ ¿Quieres añadir un sistema de comentarios en tu miniblog de Tumblr? En mi post más reciente de Weblog Magazine te contamos cómo hacerlo: Cómo añadir comentarios a tu tumblr. También puedes leer Weblog Magazine, mi blog en ABC.es Y estoy en Twitter, Facebook y Tumblr. (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:40:03 +0100 862616 http://laurenpressley.com/library/2010/07/a-monday-library-day-in-the-life-re-entry/ As promised, I’m blogging the re-entry process this week. I’m just working half days, so there’s a lot less going on than typically would be the case. You can see, to the left, the piles of mail that awaited me when I returned. Some of those piles came back to work with me. I had taken home my dossier stuff in case I could work on it while away, but as mentioned Leif’s not a big napper, so nothing happened on that front. It’s back at work now until I can find a better time to work on it. This morning was largely spent catching up with people. I found out about what’s happened since I’ve been out, the status of a few projects I was working on before that I’ll start working on again, and about a new thing or two on the horizon. I work with really fun people. It’s good to be back. I also had a new laptop to replace my old one, so I spent time installing dropbox, evernote, and xmarks to make this computer as much like my old one and personal one was possible. I moved around a few things on it and familiarized myself with the OS. (It’s my first time using Windows 7, and I like it!) I did get a little email triaging done, but by noon I hadn’t really made a dent. So, if today was about getting physically back to work and caught up on what’s happening in the building, tomorrow will be about getting digitally back into work and caught up on email. Or at least starting that process. My dropbox, evernote, and remember the milk systems are pretty organized, but it’s going to take a little bit to get refamiliarized with them and caught up on the changes I made during the last few weeks in April. Now, off to see the little one! Related posts:A Wednesday Library Day in the Life: Planning A Monday In My Library Life Today in my library life… (Source: lauren's library blog) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:57:06 +0100 863248 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/07/sometimes-you-can-be-so-intent-on.html that the obvious escapes you. Blogger has a new feature that allows you to share posts through a variety of ways: via e-mail, blogging about it, sharing it on Facebook or Google Buzz, or tweeting about it. This buttons are now located at the end of each post. To get them there, however, I had to reset my blog template and clear my cache, but it didn't appear to work. So I reset the widgets as well, as per the Real Blogger Status blog's directions (a very useful blog, by the way). No dice. Then I went back to the Page Elements settings and found that I'd unchecked the box next to that particular function, since it hadn't been showing up anyway. :| So I checked it again, and everything works. I was half afraid I'd wipe out the whole blog just to get a few buttons on there. Fortunately I backed up the template and the content of the blog is backed up itself at least through May. I probably need to back up June. But all eight-almost-nine years' worth is stored on my computer and on an external hard drive, too. Anyway, enjoy, and share! (Source: The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 863342 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/j8gW6ZB1174/blogging-with-poserous.html I am finding blogging with Posterous is very easy to do.  I am able to use Outlook email to create my posts without any problems.  The autoposting features to Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter work quite well.  I do see some things that need improvement or fine tuning.Autoposting to Facebook does not send the entire post.  It sends the title and a shortened URL.  It looks just like the Twitter post.  I would like to have the option to send the entire post and to post it to the My Notes page.  It is supposed to display in a Posterous tab but I am unable to get that to work.  I have decided to use the blog import feature of Facebook Notes page and import it in.I now have three places people can comment on my posts.  Does anyone have any ideas on how the comments can be brought together automatically within Posterous?  Displaying with the correct posts?http://babyboomerlibrarian.posterous.com/blogging-with-poserous Bill Drew - BabyBoomer Librairian: http://babyboomerlibrarian.posterous.com (Source: Baby Boomer Librarian) Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:06:00 +0100 861690 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lint/~3/J3QxfTi78Qs/ I enjoyed watching everyone flex their bloggy muscles during June, but maybe we need another exercise to keep up the impetus. I’m being selfish here – I want to read more Australian library blog posts… And maybe some people who did not join in in June could test the waters? Bobbi Newman from the Librarian by Day blog has been behind the “Day in the Life of A Librarian” project for the last couple of years. Every six months an ever-growing group of librarians is recording what happens during the same week. Here are the instructions from her blog post, Round 5 of Library Day in the Life!. The only suggestion I would make is that as well as joining the wiki, we could tag all our posts “ozlibdayinthelife5” . So, who’s in? July 26th 2010 will start Round 5 of Library Day in the Life Project. What is the Library Day in the Life Project? well it started with this post suggesting that we blog what we do all day at work.  Libraries are changing so rapidly and we all know no ones is reading books, despite what the public may think  The idea being that you’re sharing an average day, so many of us don’t have an average day though so a lot of people did a week, me included. I maybe just do a day this time though, we’ll see. If you are wondering why you should participate Meredith Farkas offers an excellent explanation of why she did. The Project has turned into a great resource for students, instructors, staff and patrons. So how you particpate? Go to the wiki Create a PB Wiki (pbworks?) account (it’s free)! Add your name, your job title (so we can see what you do at a glance) and a link to your blog. On the 27th start recording your day or week.  It doesn’t have to be a blog post it can be photos, podcasts or videos Tag your posts, pictures, videos, podcasts with librarydayinthelife. ... Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:55:54 +0100 861982 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/ydD8RwZ_lZM/posting-via-posterous-to-blogger.html I am now using Posterous to do my blogging.  I have it set up to post to Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and Picassa.  It allows me to easily post via email and behaves much better than Blogger when taking in Outlook HTML email posts.  I will keep having posts go to Blogger as over 800 people subscribe to my blog via Blogger.  I found Posterous even works very well using ScribeFire extension for Chrome.  It even posts to delicious.     See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Bill Drew - BabyBoomer Librarian (Source: Baby Boomer Librarian) Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:54:00 +0100 861467 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2010/07/22/libraries-in-videos Last week, Huffington Post featured a library-related video round-up entitled Librarians Go Gaga: 9 Of The Funniest Library Videos Ever. Some of them I’d never seen before, but all of them were enjoyable to watch. However, the Library Girl song wasn’t there, and they also left out David Lee King and Michael Porter’s Library 101 project. I guess that one isn’t meant to be funny ha-ha, but I was making a funny face in it. However, my favorite video of this type, which is more Web 2.0 than library, is Are You Blogging This?, which David made in 2006: I still occasionally find that song going through my head, even when I haven’t watched it in awhile. Since libraries have been declared the Next Big Thing (via), we’ll probably see ourselves in much more media - after all, we are pretty hip. (Source: herzogbr.net blog) Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:15:00 +0100 861439 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/if6UjnaCRxc/ Before you say “we/they shouldn’t”: - why do we encourage students to keep a learning journal/diary? - why do we encourage students to participate in online forums, or ask questions if they’re having trouble understanding an issue? - why do we try to get them to reflect on their work in public (which includes the submission of assessment material…?) If we want students to learn, and if we want students to graduate with experience of, and knowledge of how to, learn in a self-directed way, in an environment where information is abundant, we should be showing them how we learn too… which means developing our course materials, and demonstrating how we sometimes struggle with the best way of expressing an idea, or discovering and making sense of third party resources, in an environment where they (and everybody else) can learn from us… like the commons… ’nuff said… Except, see also: Brian Lamb on Modern scholarship is a race against its own obsolescence (Did that make sense? Maybe I shouldn’t have published that thought? Maybe it was only worth tweeting? Maybe it’s not worth sharing any of these ideas in case they’re wrong or make me out to be an idiot…? WHO CARES? First rule of blogging: no-one will ever read it. Second rule of blogging: only people who are likely to be interested in the subject of a post will do more than look at the first few words. Third rule of blogging: anyone who does read on will maybe take something from it, contribute back to it, or build on it. ... Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:28:45 +0100 862468 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html#6230651193219586649 Today, the organizers of the Rising Tide conference (Saturday, August 28 at Howling Wolf) announced that this year's keynote speaker will be Mother Jones Magazine's Human Rights reporter Mac McClelland. McClelland has been reporting, blogging, and tweeting from the Louisiana Gulf Coast since early May on the BP oil disaster and its effect on the communities there. So she should have a lot of fascinating stuff to talk about at the conference. That is, she will if she can stay out of jail until then.McClelland spoke recently with Gambit's Alex Woodward about the difficulties of working around the Coast Guard's infamous "65 foot rule" These safety zones — will it affect the way you report, or has it? Will it limit your coverage?The day they announced that I was on my way to Florida for a couple days, and I’ll tell you what, the difference between Florida and Louisiana is staggering. They’ll let you do whatever the f—k you want in Florida. The beaches are open because they don’t want to discourage tourism, so anybody has total run of anything they want — you can take pictures, talk to cleanup workers, there’s no cops, it’s not like here where there’s a creepy police state feel. The only thing I reported on site in Florida was they apparently don’t care. I haven’t experienced it yet, but I bet I will soon. In the next couple days I’ll be back in Louisiana. To be honest I haven’t decided what my strategy is yet, it seems to be kind of stupid to say I’m just not going to follow that. How could they arrest me? Could they really? Are they really going to arrest anybody? Part of me wants to be a jerk and kind of call their bluff.I was thinking the same thing —Go try and get arrested? And hope to God you can raise enough donations over the Internet to pay your $40,000 fine?So if you're planning to register for this year's Rising Tide, you may think about kicking in a few extra crabs as a donation to a McClelland legal defense fund. ... Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 861946 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/07/21/blogging-is-a-vulnerable-method-of-publication/ Various news outlets picked up the story over the last week that “authorities” had shut down a free blogging site, Blogetery.com, that, according to its owner, was home to 73,000 blogs. (The New York Times blog Bits has a good account.) Two things make this story interesting to me. First, it has a cross-border aspect: Blogetery is — or, rather, was — an outfit run by a Torontonian; and the server on which its blogs were hosted was run by BurstNet Technologies, which seems to be located in Pennsylvania. This might be a lesson for some website owners about the desirability of hosting within Canada, though I’m not sanguine about whether this would in fact protect them better. Second, the blogging enterprises were terminated without legal due process. There is a dispute as to what exactly lay behind the termination by the hosting company. BurstNet released a statement explaining why it acted as it did: On the evening of July 9, 2010, BurstNET® received a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials, and was asked to provide information regarding ownership of the server hosting Blogetry.com. It was revealed that a link to terrorist material, including bomb-making instructions and an al-Qaeda “hit list”, had been posted to the site. Upon review, BurstNET® determined that the posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNET® Acceptable Use Policy. This policy strictly prohibits the posting of “terrorist propaganda, racist material, or bomb/weapon instructions”. Due to this violation and the fact that the site had a history of previous abuse, BurstNET® elected to immediately disable the system. Blogetery’s owner had received a number of take-down notices over the past months, respecting copyright material. ... Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:31:21 +0100 862776 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/zieflibrary/ziefbrief/~3/44yg_rvdYC8/use-of-prison-library-checkout-records-in-criminal-proceedings.html We've taken a bit of a blogging hiatus lately due to my shoulder surgery, vacations, and the law librarians' national meeting.  I've been catching up on my current awareness reading and saw an interesting article in the NY Times (Source: ZiefBrief) Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 862221 http://rochellejustrochelle.typepad.com/copilot/2010/07/so-long-its-been-good-to-know-you.html It's been more than a year since I've posted, so I think it's time to close up shop. I thought that when my health started to improve, I'd be all fired up to dig in again, but now that I'm clear-headed and mostly pain-free, I find that I'm wanting to shed things that aren't useful, don't work for me, weigh me down. This is one of them. I'm not sure if "this" is blogging, writing or thinking about librarianship as much as I used to. What I do know is that I don't feel any obligation to any of it and am just enjoying a life without pain. I'm still around on Facebook and in FriendFeed and I am totally kicking ass and happy at work. I'll keep this up for a few days before it totally goes dark. (Source: Tinfoil + Raccoon) Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 861359 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/21/jim-steranko-comics-jonathan-ross The TV presenter and comic-book obsessive on the extraordinary work of graphic storyteller Jim Steranko• In pictures: Steranko's best workJim Steranko. Many of you will not have heard his name before, a dreadful truth that troubles me every day. If he were French they'd have his statue in parks, Italian he'd be on their stamps, Japanese and he'd be doing commercials for videogames and fermented soya bean soda. But in the English-speaking world, we still woefully undervalue these master storytellers who choose panels and word balloons to work with.To my fellow enthusiasts he is a Genius, a Wizard, a Master, a God. A one-of-a-kind, self-promoting hipster/huckster with the finest hair I've ever seen on a man of his age. He is also one of the handful of pioneers who can be said to have genuinely revolutionised the art of graphic storytelling. Glimpse his work and, before you even know exactly how he's doing it, you instinctively know it is different – better – than the norm. You'll also be hopelessly hooked. For life. Non-comic addicts might think I exaggerate – but step away from my hyperbole, and allow yourself a little time with the examples we have printed here. The work should speak for itself.The story of Steranko's early years – the son of first-generation immigrants who came to America and worked, worked, worked for their family and future, while young Jim studied the funny pages in the Sunday newspapers for escape – is not unusual in the world of first-generation comic-book professionals. But unlike his contemporaries, who headed straight into an art course or an apprenticeship with the older guys in the industry, Steranko went off and learned stage magic, fire eating, the jazzmaster guitar, escapology. He briefly plied a trade in all those fields, before his exceptional eye for design and a desire to tell stories and create whole worlds took over. ... Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:10:07 +0100 861097 http://litablog.org/2010/07/library-journal-reviews-lita-tech-set/ Library Journal has just released a review of The Tech Set, co-published by Neal-Schuman and LITA. The Tech Set consists of ten practical guides to today’s hottest new technologies for information professionals: 1. Next Gen Library Catalogs by Marshall Breeding 2. Mobile Technology and Libraries by Jason Griffey 3. Microblogging and Lifestreaming in Libraries by Robin Hastings 4. Library Videos and Webcasts by Sean Robinson 5. Wikis for Libraries by Lauren Pressley 6. Technology Training in Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan 7. A Social Networking Primer for Libraries by Cliff Landis 8. Library Camps and Unconferences by Steve Lawson 9. Gaming in Libraries by Kelly Czarnecki 10. Effective Blogging for Libraries, by Connie Crosby LITA members receive a discount on The Tech Set and all Neal-Schuman publications. (Source: LITA Blog) Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:41:36 +0100 861059 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/talis/panlibus/~3/C9oFgg97KvU/futures-thinking-for-academic-librarians.php ACRL, I am starting to feel a little bit spoilt. Having only recently praised a recent report of yours, 2010 top ten trends in academic libraries, I am once again blogging effusively about your output. This time it’s Futures thinking for academic librarians: Higher Education in 2025, and it’s very very good – well worth a read. So thank-you very much for another contribution to our collective understanding of the current climate and the options open to us. The shape of things to come The authors aren’t claiming to be able to see into the future – they’ve just worked to a sound methodology (as per the top ten trends) which basically consists of a thorough environment scan in the library domain and beyond, accompanied by a small survey to capture the librarian imagination. Imagination seems to be a key ingredient in this study, and that’s refreshing, and shouldn’t be problematic as long as it’s underpinned by methodological rigour, which it seems to be. But it’s not just an academic exercise. This is fundamentally about giving decision-makers in academic libraries some pointers to help them face the challenges of today and tomorrow. The report backs up this approach with a great quotation from anthropologist Margaret Mead: I use the term ‘open-ended’ to suggest that our future is neither predetermined nor predictable: it is, rather, something which lies in our own hands, to be shaped and moulded by the choices we make in the present time. So what are the findings of this report? The report has identified 26 possible scenarios for academic libraries in the year 2025, the distant horizon being justified by a need to see beyond our current woes. It impressively handles very up-to-date ideas on higher education and ponders their potential impact on academic libraries, and this adds to the value of the report. Then each scenario is positioned on a quadrant that plots impact against probability. ... Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:14:51 +0100 861792 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/6aszhny7x7k/ Since getting into the blogging thing over on the Arcadia Project blog, Huw has been coming up with some really thought provoking posts… In Context and meaning in search, he writes: Libraries have thousands of users and millions of resources crying out to be introduced to each other. But our search mechanisms tend to be context-less. … For users of university libraries, discovery happens in context-heavy environments such as reading lists, citations, seminars, lectures. By the time they get to our interfaces they know exactly what they want. Then they find it (or don’t). Can we start to build some context into our own systems? And what kind of context would be useful? We can say straight off that for students the most useful context is what course they’re doing … . If we also have access to course materials (i.e. reading lists) we can really start to provide useful context for searches. How about if we have access to the content of books and articles – in particular the citations they contain? Could we start to put our searches in the context of a scholarly network based on citation? Being a lazy sort, this brought back to mind a complementary approach I’ve discussed before, specifically the extent to which we might be able to use ad server technology to bring additional, relevant content into a page as if it was an advert (Contextual Content Server, Courtesy of Google?). So let’s have a think again about how this might work, for example in the serving of contextual adverts on the course catalogue part of the OU website. And let’s just treat the OU course catalogue as just another What do we know? Let’s suppose suppose that we don’t necessarily know anything, except that the prospect(?!;-) arrived at the OU website from a Google search. ... Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:01:11 +0100 862472 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/knOCRdK_hu4/posting-etiquette-email-lists-twitter.html I sent the following message to a librarian infamous for posting the same content on many different lists:"I appreciate the information you send out but you are burying me and others under it by sending it out on so many different channels.  I left the XXXX XXXXX group on Facebook because it repeats what you post to various other services and also duplicates many other posts I get from the original sources.  Thanks".I got a one line response:"Thanks for your interest."How does one respond to that?  I have a great deal of respect for this librarian but the quality and value of the posts is lost in all of the duplicates and frustrations the multiple posts cause me and others.  Just because you send your message over multiple lists and other channels does not increase the value of it.  The message gets lost in the discussion and noise caused by the multiple postings.  Be kind to your readers and post in the best places not in all places. If what you have to say is valuable, it will get reposted by others.   Here are several best practices I have learned over the years from trial and error:Do not broadcast to every list you are on.  In some cases 3 or 4 could be acceptable but not anymore than that.Clearly identify the lists and groups where those interested in your post will find your message.  Identify your audience.Posting on multiple types of channels is acceptable (Facebook, Email Lists, Twitter, Blogging).Keep your message focused and brief if possible, especially in email.  Send a link if it is a long post.When posting job announcements, include geographic information in the subject line or tweet.When posting events of a regional focus, make that clear in the subject line or tweet.When posting to email lists and groups, be a member of that group or list. Know the etiquette for that user community and respect it. ... Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:37:00 +0100 860841 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryClips/~3/VI-TT65sWQk/ This is a follow-up to my post Enterprise microblogging needs a facelift to rival email. In that post I talked about adding an item in the stream to your Watchlist This way you can keep in the loop about a conversation without you having to be a poster or a commenter I also talked about communally grouping items via contributors tagging them with a hashtag This way you can keep in the loop about the greater task that is generating all these items Differences You are not being cc:ed, rather you "pull" the content to you (filtering your own information) you can be @mentioned which is like the to: or cc: field but this won’t happen in every post and comment, so it’s up to people to add it to their Watchlist The sender has an understanding of who needs to be involved in a conversation, but this is not always apparent at the start of a task, and there are plenty of people on the edges who need to be consulted that emerge Now anyone can find a conversation, add it to their Watchlist, get involved Deeper than In-the-flow and Above-the-flow A while back a defining post was made on the difference between working Above-the-Flow (volunteering to share information and experiences based on engagement, trust, audience, reciprocity), and In-the-Flow (communicating and asking questions about tasks using social tools rather than email…doing what you are already doing in new tools). Well what I want to describe here is going deeper than In-the-Flow…to the artifacts of the activity itself. Example We have a web conference about a task that involves people across teams. We set up a group space. We use this group space to ask the task team questions. We use this group space to communicate our individual progress to the task members. ... Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:45:23 +0100 860611 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/07/libri-articles.html New issue of Libri includes articles on information behaviour from the i3 conference held in Aberdeen last summer. These include:- Albright, A. (2010) "Multidisciplinarity in Information Behavior: Expanding Boundaries or Fragmentation of the Field?" Libri, 60 (2), 98-106.- Perttila, R. and Ek, S. (2010) "Information Behaviour and Coping Functions of Long-Term Unemployed People in Finland Libri, 60 (2), 107-116.- Hall, H. Widen, G. and Paterson, L. (2010) "Not what you know, nor who you know, but who you know already: Examining Online Information Sharing Behaviours in a Blogging Environment through the Lens of Social Exchange Theory" Libri, 60 (2), 117-128.- Harris, R. Veinot, T. and Bella, L. (2010) "A Relational Perspective on HIV/AIDS Information Behaviour in Rural Canada." Libri, 60 (2), 129-141.- Eriksson-Backa, K. (2010) "Elderly People, Health Information, and Libraries: a Small-scale Study on Seniors in a Language Minority." Libri, 60 (2), 181-194.Table of Contents at http://www.reference-global.com/toc/libr/2010/60/2?ai=w8&ui=20w1&af=T (the most recent year of Libri is subscriber-only)Photo by Sheila Webber: Glasgow Botanic Gardens, July 2010 (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 860270