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 Instant Messaging interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:53:06 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/26/20-things-we-learned-in-2010 Observer writers and experts chart the concepts, trends and buzz words that defined the past year and are likely to shape the next one1 The new politics is, in fact, the old politicsNick Clegg will regret many things about 2010. One will be his decision to produce a Lib Dem election poster warning that the Tories would raise VAT. A few weeks later Clegg, installed as deputy prime minister, was backing coalition plans to – yes – raise VAT.Then there was the pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Six months later Clegg was pushing a policy to triple them.These shifts were damaging not just because they were old-fashioned U-turns but because they fatally undermined the party's raison d'etre – its commitment to deliver a new, honest politics. A vote for the Lib Dems, Clegg had said, would be "a vote that counts".It was all part of his broader attempt to promote the merits of voting reform – the Lib Dems' core policy. Fair votes through proportional representation would mean that everyone's vote would matter and everyone's voice would be heard.Floating the idea of "new politics" and calling for an end to the duopoly of the "old parties" made Clegg more popular than Churchill for a while. But it is dangerous to take the moral high ground in politics.A mid-December poll for the News of the World found 61% of respondents saying that they didn't trust Clegg, compared to 24% in April. In a few months, he had gone from being one of the most trusted politicians to one of the least trusted.To many, the "new politics" had begun to feel very much like old politics – if not rather worse, as angry protests hit the streets and chants rang out about promises broken. Toby Helm2 Kanye West is pop's top innovatorIn 2009, Kanye West had the distinction of being called a "jackass" by the US president, after rudely interrupting an acceptance speech by his fellow performer Taylor Swift at an awards show. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:07:13 +0100 894991 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/26/20-things-we-learned-2010 It was a year in which game-changing developments in social media competed with a new political turf wars over the 'squeezed middle'. Here a team of Observer writers and experts chart the concepts, trends and buzzwords that defined the last year and are likely to shape the next one1 The new politics is, in fact, the old politicsNick Clegg will regret many things about 2010. One will be his decision to produce a Lib Dem election poster warning that the Tories would raise VAT. A few weeks later Clegg, installed as deputy prime minister, was backing coalition plans to – yes – raise VAT.Then there was the pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Six months later Clegg was pushing a policy to triple them.These shifts were damaging not just because they were old-fashioned U-turns but because they fatally undermined the party's raison d'etre – its commitment to deliver a new, honest politics. A vote for the Lib Dems, Clegg had said, would be "a vote that counts".It was all part of his broader attempt to promote the merits of voting reform – the Lib Dems' core policy. Fair votes through proportional representation would mean that everyone's vote would matter and everyone's voice would be heard.Floating the idea of "new politics" and calling for an end to the duopoly of the "old parties" made Clegg more popular than Churchill for a while. But it is dangerous to take the moral high ground in politics.A mid-December poll for the News of the World found 61% of respondents saying that they didn't trust Clegg, compared to 24% in April. In a few months, he had gone from being one of the most trusted politicians to one of the least trusted.To many, the "new politics" had begun to feel very much like old politics – if not rather worse, as angry protests hit the streets and chants rang out about promises broken. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:05:53 +0100 894994 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/gxoLUKFxl2g/ A few minutes or so, @sou_airport tweeted: Welcome to new followers of Southampton Airport. Since the snow, followers have doubled and we will keep you up to date with news and offers With recent news stories deploring the state of information provision, the occasional tweets from @sou_airport regarding the status of the airport have been handy… - “Southampton Airport is to open from 06:30am today- some knock-on delays are expected due to the weather. Pls check with airlines for info.” - “Southampton Airport currently has capacity on Flybe flights to Amsterdam, Paris, Dusseldorf and Brussels up to Christmas.” If they’re just going to start tweeting ads and offers, though, I’m not interested, and will likely unfollow… Just because a company suddenly opens up a comms channel that folk sign up doesn’t mean it needs to be a marketing channel – the payoff is in having fewer disgruntled passengers, and folk turning up to fly to find cancelled flights and adding to the airport’s problems… If they want to consign me to following a backwater channel, such as @sou_airport_status, that’s fine… Just don’t add noise to the signal if all i want is signal… Something that would be quite handy would be an autoresponder. The Southampton website already has live flight arrival/departure info, and a form that lets you enter either a flight number or a departure/destination airport for arrivals and departures respectively. The “accessible” page provides a simpler view of the information, though the URL is not as friendly as it might be…: http://www.southamptonairport.com/portal/controller/dispatcher.jsp?ChPath=Southampton^General^Flight%20information^Live%20flight%20departures The search URL is even more hostile: http://www.southamptonairport.com/portal/site/southampton/template.PAGE/menuitem. ... Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:07:38 +0100 895053 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/uiQejqMreI8/ OK – first for the apology. Some of you have told me I was dismissive in my last three post, especially when I used phrases like “up in your grill.” I apologize for that. I really didn’t mean to sound dismissive – it was an attempt at humor while talking about a difficult subject. Honestly, it usually works – but it’s also not usually about such a sensitive issue. In this case, I failed miserably, and for that, I definitely apologize. Now on to the next part of the post – While my views on names and pics on websites haven’t really changed, it does bring up an interesting issue I’m seeing. With the name/pic thing, some of you have asked for what you would see as a more reasonable “opt in” approach. Here’s where I fall on that – opt in/volunteering usually doesn’t work to it’s full potential. In Topeka, it’s either someone’s job or it isn’t – we’re not fans of the opt-in approach. That said, of course we get staff buy-in for new projects first, which makes the whole “this is now part of your job” thing much easier. But this opt-in idea … in many libraries, it’s not just for whatever personal info goes on the library’s website. It’s also for other job duties, even for services of the library, like programming, teaching classes, or IM reference. I’ve seen volunteering for posting to a blog or for maintaining the library’s Facebook presence. I think a much better way to do things is for the library to set strategic goals, with staff input into those goals. After that, it’s management’s job to change/adapt the work to be done to meet those organizational priorities. There’s really no room for opt-in there. ... Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:03:37 +0100 893947 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/12/library_hours_d.html The Kresge Business Administration Library will close at 5:00pm on Thursday, December 23 for the duration of the winter break. The circulation desk and IM reference services will also close at this time. In addition, Kresge will have abbreviated service hours on the following days: Wednesday, December 22: 7:30am-5:00pm Thursday, December 23: 8:00am-5:00pm Normal service hours will resume at 7:30am on Monday, January 3. Feel free to contact us with your questions during this time; however, a librarian may not respond until January 3. Have a safe and relaxing break! (Source: Kresge Library News) Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 893613 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryClips/~3/EvZAU9yuIEg/ Last post I reflected on why I share and a couple of the items on the list refer to a type of altruistic nature Help Others This is unconditional for me…but it does depend on time availability I co-facilitate the vendor CoP we use at work…I spend some of my time helping others…I do this for free…I’ve experienced many things with the product so for me helping people on the forums is the right thing to do…the by-product of this behaviour is you become known as a subject matter expert whether you like it or not Messenger Noise comes across my radar…the glass half-full is that what was once noise is a new topic I now like to read… a little noise is good…but it also means that when I come across posts about iPad I send them to my friend Gerry…I unconditionally send people links cause I know it’s what they like…I guess this is gifting This sort of thing happens all the time… For example the other day I saw a YouTube interview with Stowe Boyd at the Defrag Conference. Stowe talked about "Social Cognition" which is something he is currently researching, I happened to read a blog post later that morning on this topic and tweeted it to Stowe. Why not, it felt the normal thing to do. Stowe and I don’t know each other, but I respect his thinking as a thought leader. He provides so much insight for me that the respectful thing to do is send a link his way if something comes across my radar. But it wasn’t even about respect, it’s the simple fact that I came across something that I know is helpful for someone else, so I shared it. Not all people practice this, but technology like Twitter emerges new behaviours where this type of interaction and gifting is normal…it brings out this random act of kindness, so much so that the only thing random about it might be the person, but the act becomes the norm. ... Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:59:23 +0100 893113 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogpocket/~3/rcTA2KaJv2A/ Va terminando el año 2010 y como hicimos el año pasado, recogemos aquí las estadísticas de acceso a Blogpocket.com (según Google y FeedBurner), I. Visión general de usuarios II. Los posts más vistos 1. Imagechef, para crear imágenes personalizadas 2. Un vídeo grabado el 11-S a escasos metros de las Torres Gemelas 3. 3000 fondos de pantalla para Blackberry 4. La página de inicio de Google ya se puede cambiar de aspecto 5. Cómo se hace un blog 6. Google Page Creator, crear páginas web fácilmente 7. 20 aplicaciones para la Blackberry de productividad 8. Acceder a Messenger desde la web 9. Cómo instalar un servidor local con PHP 10. Las 500 mejores canciones del Rock and Roll en Rolling Stone Un año más, los posts sobre Imagchef y el 11-S han sido los más visitados. El post de 2010 mejor situado (en el puesto 18) es Cómo instalar UBUNTU en un netbook seguido de Cómo conectar tu módem router inalámbrico a Internet (puesto 29). III. Las principales fuentes de tráfico IV. Suscriptores a la fuente RSS (según FeedBurner) Durante 2010, los suscriptores de FeedBurner (los que nos leen mediante agregadores) crecieron bastante, situándonos en los últimos meses en la franja 4.000-4.500 readers. V. Twitter Es de destacar que este año hemos superado la frontera de los 2.000 followers en Twitter, un medio que ha desplazado a los blogs en la divulgación de enlaces. En Blogpocket.com también utilizamos Twitter para compartir gran cantidad de recursos que antes solo publicábamos en el blog. Ver también: Cómo anunciarse en Blogpocket Blogpocket.com: blog ganador en los Premios Bitacoras.com 2010, en la categoría Premio Especial Honorífico También puedes leerme en Twitter y en Weblog Magazine Y si te gusta la música, no dejes de suscribirte a Acordes Modernos, finalista en los Premios Bitacoras.com 2010, en la categoría Mejor Blog Cultural (Source: blogpocket 6.0) Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:45:06 +0100 893879 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/careers/view_job_specific.php?job_id=8950 State: California Title:    Electronic Resources Librarian Department:    University Library Class:   Full-Time Position Type: Exempt Staff Salary: Commensurate with experience. Upon eligibility, employees may participate in the benefits plans available to employees, such as medical/dental/vision coverage, 403(b) retirement plan, tuition remission, paid holidays, sick leave, and vacation. Post-Date:       2010-12-06 Deadline:         Open until filled. BASIC FUNCTION AND SCOPE OF JOB As a member of the University Library Team, this librarian will: ● Coordinate the selection and acquisition of electronic resources; assist in negotiating cost/funding issues with library selectors and external partners; manage database trials. ● Configure and maintain all library technologies that support e-resource management. ● Solicit, maintain, and disseminate usage statistics for all licensed online resources. ● Track developments of new and changing online services and resources. ● Provide reference and instruction to University students, faculty, staff, corporate members and alumni onsite and those affiliated with the University via Cybercampus. ● Work with other library staff and faculty to evaluate, select, and deselect materials in all media. ● Participate in library planning, assessment, and evaluation. ● Collaborate with other staff in peer training and staff development. ● Serve as the library's subject specialist and liaison for assigned disciplines (to be determined based on candidate's experience and organizational needs) and maintain effective communication with faculty in liaison areas. Schedule includes evening reference shifts, and one or more weekend days per month. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS This librarian oversees all University Library electronic resources. ... Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:00:02 +0100 892585 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/internet-research-leads-to-courtroom-complications/ Even if no e-books are involved, there is a particular kind of “tele-reading” we all do all the time, and have ever since the Internet became something you could put in a pocket: Internet research. Many of us consider the Internet to be our own personal ready reference guide, and consult it as naturally as we might glance at the watch on our wrist to check the time. I’m sure nobody who has ever worn a watch is a stranger to the aggravating sensation of repeatedly glancing at our wrist to check the time only to realize anew that we’ve forgotten our watch this morning—how much worse not being able to look up whatever random fact we’re curious about at the moment! Similarly, we treat instant-messaging and social networking as extensions of the face-to-face conversations we used only to be able to have in close proximity to one another. It can be just as aggravating to think of some zinger and not be able to turn around and share it with a few hundred of our closest friends But this Internet fact-checking and conversing has been causing problems for US courts ever since, A survey has shown that, since 1999, at least 90 verdicts have been challenged because jurors used the Internet in ways they weren’t supposed to. And with the convenience of the iPhone and 3G/4G Internet, the frequency of these results has been increasing: over half of the cases happened in the last two years. And the contested results have not always come about as a result of something obvious, like publicly expressing a preconceived opinion before hearing the whole case or reading news coverage from outside the courtroom. One manslaughter conviction was overturned simply because the jury foreman looked up the definition of the word “prudent” in an online dictionary. ... Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:15:00 +0100 891754 http://www.teleread.com/net-related-tooks-from-search-engines-to-blogware/apache-catches-the-google-wave/ Google Wave, one of Google’s more infamous red-headed stepchildren, has found a home in the Apache Software Foundation’s incubator program. Originally touted as a fantastic new way of revolutionizing the collaborative process, the cross between e-mail, instant messaging, and an outlining tool faltered after its initial start when only a minority of the people who tried it could actually figure out any useful purpose of it. Along the way, Wave imperiled a collaboration tool that I and a number of others found considerably more useful, as Google bought up the company that created the EtherPad collaborative web text editor (so that its coders could be folded into the Wave team). Happily, this proved to be a blessing in disguise as Google allowed EtherPad to be open-sourced, so that even though EtherPad itself is gone, there are now at least dozens of public and private sites running their own EtherPad servers. Subsequently, Google decided to end-of-line Wave as it turned out to be considerably less popular and widely-adopted than the company had hoped. But now history is repeating itself, as Wave itself will be open-sourced under the aegis of Apache. (I wonder what became of the EtherPad coders, and how they feel to keep having their projects open-sourced out from under them?) I was able to make some use of Wave for a couple of TeleRead interviews, but it never really made itself indispensible to me. The interface was just too clunky, and it was a tool for no real overall purpose I could ever figure out. Still, it represented a lot of time and effort on the part of Google coders who worked on it, and there are a number of people who do find Wave extremely useful. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:15:00 +0100 891492 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/FEwIo5Hsh-o/creating-privacy-online.html One of the books I read last year was Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, about a band of high-school hackers who take down the seriously-overstepping, bad-guy Homeland Security Department.   Sound ludicrous?  It’s a compelling, well-written and well-characterized “day-after-tomorrow” sort of science fiction.  Many of the technologies used in the novel exist, and those that may not are completely believable, as are the spooktastic Homeland Security oafs, the determined underdog high school kids, and the heroine journalist. Facebook’s attitude toward privacy and the recent release of Firesheep have led me to take a serious look at the unencrypted traffic I sent over the various networks I use, as well as the data that I put out there for public consumption.  Below are some tools for you to do the same.  They are not infallible; they are not security measures per se, like a firewall or virus scanner would be.  What they do is provide you with the more private space that you might assume when sitting alone pouring your heart out to a friend.Email Use an email system that forces encryption.  An encrypted web page’s URL begins with https:// instead of http://.  To force gmail through encryption, click Settings, then “Always Use https” next to “Browser Connection.”  Many desktop email clients (Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird) also support encryption.  User your Google to figure it out. Take end-to-end encryption one step further with PGP (“Pretty Good Privacy”).  The PGP key exchange party in Little Brother is one of my favorite scenes. Instant Messaging When using Meebo, always use https:// When using a desktop client, use the OTR (“off the record”) encryption plugin. Wifi Unencrypted wireless Internet access is a tough one. Data is sent out over the Internet--wireless or not--in bite-sized chunks called “packets.”  Normally, a wireless network card grabs only the packets specifically addressed to it. ... Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:31:49 +0100 891666 http://joblist.ala.org/modules/jobseeker/controller.cfm?rssjobid=16132 Director, Graduate, Research, and Online Library Services (The National Hispanic University, California) The National Hispanic University offers the following degrees and certificates: Bachelor of Arts in Business, Child Development, Computer Information Systems, and Liberal Studies; Single and Multiple Subject Credentials; Master of Arts in Education, and certificates in Translation and Interpretation. The University is seeking a professional to join our team as a Director, Graduate, Research, and Online Library Services. The Director reports to the Vice Provost. The location of this position is San Jose, CA. ... Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:10:01 +0100 889619 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/WuXe1EWAXAY/continuing-the-conversation-social-software-and-the-library-session-1.html Earlier today, Robin Hastings and David Lee King held the first session of their ALA TechSource Workshop Facebook, Twitter and More: Using Social Software in the Library. The following are some of the questions asked during the session. Robin and David will be chiming in via comments, and you can as well. What kind of training is involved in getting staff to use meebo and other chat-based tools? How much time do you think a library needs to commit? Can you share some samples of policy statements for posting on Facebook, blogs, etc? Can you share some ideas for getting people to participate in, rather than just looking at, your Facebook activity Preliminary Reading Material This was the preliminary reading material for the event, though it will certainly still be helpful after the event as well. Robin Hastings, Collaboration 2.0: Chapters 5 and 6, Library Technology Reports, (45:4) May/June 2009 http://alatechsource.metapress.com/content/q89379687n05 Kate Sheehan, Keeping up with Keeping Up, ALA TechSource Blog, August 3, 2010: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/07/keeping-up-with-keeping-up.html Darlene Fitcher, Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, Marketing Library Services, (21:2) March/April 2007 http://www.infotoday.com/mls/mar07/Fichter.shtml Brian McManus, The Implications of Web 2.0 for Academic Libraries, Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, (10:3) Winter 2009 http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v10n03/mcmanus_b01.html Resources Links to sites mentioned on the slides and in the discussion: http://www.delicious.com/rhastings/alaworkshop   Robin’s Slides are available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ALATechSource/social-software-presentationhastings Her collaboration tools worksheet is available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ALATechSource/collaboration-tools-ala-workshop And her marketing metrics worksheet is available at:http://www.slideshare. ... Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:26:26 +0100 890269 http://mhclibrary.blogspot.com/2010/12/library-user-of-month-december-2010.html Adrienne LatteryInstructor, Division of BusinessAt MHC, we won the library lottery and boy oh boy, we won the jackpot! Our library is #1 in service! Why? One of MANY reasons is that instructors, staff, and most importantly, students, can send a text message, use online messenger, or send an email and staff from the library will actually respond to your message . . . with an answer! If it wasn’t (Source: Medicine Hat College Library Services Blog) Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 890797 http://erikhoy.blogspot.com/2010/11/ili2010-drupal.html Jeg havde meldt mig til et oplæg om Drupal af Susan Senese, University of Toronto Mississauga, På Internet Librarian International 2010 fordi Københavns Biblioteker ligesom et række andre danske biblioteker (og internationale iøvrigt) bruger Drupal. Indlægget beskæftigede sig også mere teoretisk med hvilke tanker de havde gjort sig om hjemmesiden. Det skal lige nævnes at det er en afdeling på et bibliotek udelukkende for studerende. Så deres erfaringer kan ikke umiddelbart overføres til folkebibliotekerne.En af de første opgaver biblioteket havde sat sig for, var at omdanne hjemmesiden fra et referenceværktøj til kommunikationsværktøj. Og at brugerne skulle kunne finde mindst 80 % af det de havde behov for på hovedsiden. Derfor ser siden også ud som den gør. De havde lavet en undersøgelse af hvad brugerne egentlig gik efter og dernæst konsekvent indrettet forsiden efter det.Forsidens udseende kan derfor ikke umiddelbart bare kopieres, hvis man nu skulle få den tanke. Men ideen er da værd at tage med næste gang man plastrer noget ud for forsiden af ens hjemmeside: Viser vi det der er behov for? Som eksempel nævnte Susan at har sat åbningstiden op i højre hjørne med klik for mulighed for at se åbningstider på andre dage.En vigtig pointe er det da at bruge forsiden til det som langt hovedparten af brugerne forventer de vil finde. Dete har fx Bibliotek.dk taget konsekvensen af og ligner nu meget en decideret søgemaskine.Mange danske biblioteker er begyndt at bruge Drupal (Susan kaldte vist systemet bibliotekarernes darling). Der er mig bekendt ikke nogen biblioteker som har gennemført en tilbundsgående undersøgelse af hvad brugerne gerne vil finde på forsiden. Det er måske også så meget mere kompliceret når det gælder folkebiblioteker. Vores brugere er mangfoldige.Til gengæld ved jeg at der er brugt mange personaleår på at udtænke hvad der skal være på forsiden. Og hvordan det skal se ud. ... Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888606 http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2010/11/the-phone-call-is-dead.html The Phone Call Is Dead. This of course isn't true, but as the article points out anything which is isn't stable or growing is in decline. The article makes a statement that the phone call is dead and I can't say that I'm in very much disagreement with the sentiment. I was running a training course the other day and somebody asked how they could get hold of me. I mentioned e-mail, direct messaging on Twitter, Flickr mail, Instant Messenger, the chat box on my website, Facebook chat, text, mobile, and as an afterthought said and of course you could always ring me. The only people I will habitually ring are my father and one of my sisters-in-law who seldom uses the computer. Just about everybody else I will consider texting or using some other form of electronic messaging.Reading through I've just written I've just realised that in the list of ways in which people could contact me I didn't mention actually writing a letter to me. There is now so far outside my sphere of activity that it never even occurred to me. I remember back to when I was young and the downside of birthday and Christmas was the painful process of having to write those handwritten letters to the relatives kind enough to send me presents. How much easier for the young people of today that they are able to pick up their phone and simply text 'tnx 4 prez!" What is the effect of this within the library environment, or indeed a general office environment? As more and more of our work is done in formats that don't require the use of a telephone I wonder how long it is going to be before telephones stop appearing on desks? As we make greater use of resources such as Skype the rise of headsets with attached microphones is going to replace the use of the telephone. Indeed, the model I am now using my dictation software the more I am simply putting on a headphone set as soon as I sit down in front of my computer. ... Sat, 20 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 887344 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/ZLh3juUj95w/ We don’t really have a social media policy for staff (and I hope we never have one). We generally encourage staff to experiment with social media on-the-job, use their personal accounts to share what the library is doing (when appropriate), and “be the library” when they’re out and about – be that physically or digitally. Other libraries do create social media policies. I get that – every library has different needs. But sometimes, weird things pop up in them, usually because the policy was written without thinking through how the technology actually works. For example, take Tulsa City-County Library’s Social media Technology policy for staff (seen via an email): “Social media technology is another mechanism to transact business and provide information/services within the library. The use of social media technology and similar tools (such as, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, instant messaging and wikis) and the posting of electronic content on behalf of the library shall be professional and reflect the appropriate behavior as expected of a library employee. All proposals for library service use of social media technology must be submitted through the library’s New Technology Committee and must be pre-approved by the requestor’s supervisor. Employees must be authorized to create or post content on library social media accounts. Employees may not use their personal social network accounts for library use. Institutional accounts must be created to provide information/services for the organization. Employees may choose to express themselves by posting personal information on Web sites, blogs, other social networking sites or chat rooms on the employee’s own time. The library values creativity and honors personal expression. ... Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:51:20 +0100 887402 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/11/article-note-on-barriers-to-promoting.html Citation for the article:Elliot, Julie, "Barriers to Extracurricular Reading Promotion in Libraries." Reference and User Services Quarterly 48.4 (2009): 340-346.Read in print. Julie Elliot's article now is a follow-up to her 2007 article, which I read as well. If you are interested in the topic of RA and academic libraries, you may also want to read this other 2009 article from JAL. The article looks now at specific barriers that prevent academic libraries from promoting extracurricular reading and RA.For starters, Elliot does go back to her previous article where she noted that "many colleges are finding ways to promote reading to their students, [but] many students are not taking advantage of these services" (340). She cites the work of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in regards to college freshmen spending less time on leisure reading (find a list of NEA research reports here. The one in question is #47. The direct link is a PDF). She argues that colleges should be concerned with the signs of declining literacy, but she also points out that colleges do face barriers as well in promoting reading. Those barriers are the central issues of her article.The article draws on a small survey of library deans and directors that the author conducted using SurveyMonkey. In the end, she got 38 people to answer the survey, and even for that, not all questions were answered fully. A limitation is that this makes a pretty small sample. So, what are some of the issues?First, we have the big issue, that is, the budget. Although this is certainly important, and I can testify to this given that we have a pretty tight collection development budget ("tight" being the polite word), there can also be some attitude issues. For instance, one of the responders pretty much says that he would not buy materials that could be available in a public library (341). I wonder if that is a common academic librarian attitude. ... Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 887439 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/11/17/carrying-a-torch/ ♬ She is the torch and she is the theme She could be a dream but – oh boy – is she real…♬ Lyrics and music by: Marc Almond, David James Ball, recorded by Soft Cell. BlackBerry Torch 9800 I have had my BlackBerry Torch on the Rogers network here in Vancouver, BC now for a few weeks and thought I would share my thoughts on this device. It replaced an older “World” BlackBerry 8800 on the Telus network (that barely worked in the US, much less the world…but I digress…) BlackBerry Torch 9800 Key Features and Tech Specs (courtesy of crackberry.com): Keyboard:  One of the difficulties I had with my older 8800 was the tiny keyboard. I happen to be a big guy at 6′ 2″ (1.88 meters) with hands to match. My thumb easily covers over 1/2 the keyboard on the BlackBerry 8800 which meant that I found it very difficult to type accurately on the 8800. I had hoped that being a ‘slide’ phone, that the physical keyboard on the Torch would be easier and more accurate than on my older Blackberry. Alas, it is not the case. The keyboard on the Torch, while it does slide out of the way (up and down – see the picture above), is about the same size as the one on the older 8800. I guess it was hoping too much that BlackBerry would have made the Torch slide ’ the long way’ - rather than just ‘up and down’ as it does now. Sliding the long way would have allowed a keyboard to be about the same length as the BlackBerry is tall – allowing a much bigger (and hopefully more accurate) physical keyboard. My daughter’s Samsung slider has such a keyboard and she is adept at typing with two thumbs as a result. This means that I am forced to use the on-screen touch keyboard. At least when I flip the phone lengthwise the touch keyboard is much larger than if I use the phone vertically. ... Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:40:14 +0100 887628 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/11/meebo_chat_temp.html The chat box on the library's homepage is currently unavailable. We hope to restore service by Saturday, November 13. In the interim, please contact us by email or phone. (Source: Kresge Library News) Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 885724 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/amazon-redux-uk-retailers-steamed-at-valves-video-game-network/ As the biggest digital outlet for a medium that used to be sold solely physically, Valve’s Steam game distribution, multiplayer-matchmaking, and instant-messaging portal is often useful for drawing parallels to other e-media distribution schemes, such as e-books. But sometimes the differences stand out more. Many games that are integrated with Steam, such as Call of Duty, Fallout, Left 4 Dead, and so on, are still sold in physical disc-in-box form in brick-and-mortar stores. Today MCV reports that two unnamed major British retail outlets are threatening to stop carrying Steam-enabled games unless the publishers remove Steam functionality from them. The retailers are planning their own digital distribution services and fear that Steam, which already has 80% of the PC download market, has an unfair competitive advantage. “If we have a digital service, then I don’t want to start selling a rival in-store,” said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers. “Publishers are creating a monster – we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games.” It’s hard to imagine book and e-book vendors acting the same way. Can you picture Barnes & Noble or Borders deciding to stop carrying any books that were also sold as e-books for Amazon’s Kindle? But then again, the e-book market has experienced competitive pressures focusing on its front-runner, in the form of agency pricing; it’s just that it came from the publishers rather than the retail stores. So maybe the two media are not so dissimilar after all. One of the other distributors quoted in the article says that “the power resides with bricks and mortar retailers, they can refuse to stock these titles. Publishers are hesitant, but retail must put pressure on them.” But I’m really starting to wonder, in this era of broadband, whether that is really quite so true anymore. ... Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:56:29 +0100 885352 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/07/harry-mulisch-obituary Dutch writer whose most famous work is The AssaultThe writer Harry Mulisch, who has died of cancer aged 83, was unsurpassed in 20th-century Dutch literature but missed out on the international recognition that writing in a more widely read language would surely have brought him. He was far from alone in his belief that he should have been awarded the Nobel prize for literature.Modesty was not one of his qualities and Mulisch made no secret of the fact that he was highly intelligent and an exceptional and versatile writer, his arrogance leavened by a strong sense of humour and occasional self-deprecation. One of his most infamous remarks was that he was the second world war – in person. The conflict was the most important event in his life and the driving force behind much of his writing.The son of Karl Mulisch, an Austrian banker who fled to the Netherlands after the first world war, and a Jewish mother, Alice Schwarz, Harry lived through the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands as a teenager in the town of Haarlem, where he was born. Most of his later life was spent in Amsterdam, where he had a canalside mansion, typically Dutch in looking modest on the outside but lavishly appointed inside.Mulisch Sr collaborated with the occupiers, running a formerly Jewish bank to collect the assets of Dutch Jews deported to the death camps. As the son of a Jewish woman, Harry himself was a candidate for deportation, and was forced to leave school early in 1944, but his father used his influence not only to save his son but also to secure the release from a concentration camp of Alice. Her other relatives died in the Holocaust. The couple had divorced before the war and she left for America in 1945. Karl was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by the Dutch after the war for collaboration.Harry had hoped to make a career as a scientist, but was driven to earn his living as a writer. ... Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:21:35 +0100 884569 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/careers/view_job_specific.php?job_id=8197 State: California Location: Palo Alto, CA URL: https://imo.im We are looking for a savvy designer to help us create products that will make our users happy. As our most important (and only) designer, you would be creating a graceful balance between beauty and efficiency. We would like our site to be more aesthetically pleasing and intuitive without sacrificing speed. You will be working closely with our engineers through all stages of our product cycles; you not only need to understand the principles and elements of design, but you should be able to easily communicate these concepts to our team and our users. Requirements: * BS/MS in a HCI related field or at least 3 years of user interface/usability experience * Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite * Strong grasp of HTML/CSS/Javascript/Flash Responsibilities: * Collaborate with engineering team on concepts and designs * Communicate design ideas through pencil sketches, wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes * Design well thought-out solutions for usability challenges across different web and mobile platforms * Create conceptual models, user requirements, and usability objectives aligned with user centered design goals and tasks Compensation: * Competitive salary and stock options * Health, dental, and vision benefits * Snacks and weekly lunches * Gym membership * Conference stipend * $500/month housing stipend for living in close proximity to our office About imo: Based in Palo Alto, CA, imo is a small startup founded and funded by one of the first ten employees at Google. Our current team consists of top TopCoders, ACM ICPC World Finalists, and medalists of the International Olympiads in Informatics. We work on challenging projects that we choose from the ground up that have direct impact on our users. Our web-based service allows users to hold text, voice, and video chats on multiple instant messaging protocols. ... Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:20:01 +0100 883166 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/pre-paid-phones-and-implications-for-e-readers/ Mobile technology is amazing, isn’t it? Various companies and charitable organizations have made a big deal out of the necessity of getting to a $100 netbook or tablet for third-world educational purposes, and for the sake of domestic poor and homeless who might not otherwise be able to afford their own computer. And we’ve been getting there—though netbooks actually of sufficient quality to be useful are still around $130 in refurbished form.But another form of mobile technology has fallen to the point that it’s pretty much already at universal affordability: the prepaid cellular phone. As I was reminded last week, anyone can go into any Wal-Mart, plunk down $10, and get a cheap pre-paid TracFone. Another $20 will get two hours of talk time over 90 days.Considering how much cell phones used to cost, both to buy and to use, it gives one hope that in a few years netbooks and e-book readers will be that cheap, too. And perhaps they will share other similarities with pre-paid phones.If someone with a $10 pre-paid phone with a lot of pre-paid minutes loses the handset, he can simply buy another $10 phone, log into his account, and get the minutes he’s bought moved over to that phone instead. Perhaps e-book readers will go a similar route, keeping all their books in a personal cloud storage locker (be it a corporate one, like Amazon’s Kindle uses, or something personal like Dropbox or Evernote) so that you can just buy a new one if you leave it on the bus or drop it in the ocean.Perhaps really cheap single-use e-book readers will be intentionally flimsy things, made mostly out of cardboard (like the disposable cardboard cell phone someone came up with back in the early ‘00s) and meant to be used for a week or two until the battery runs out, then recycled. ... Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:15:00 +0100 882541 http://erikhoy.blogspot.com/2010/10/phil-bradley-del-2-weblogs-og-twitter.html En af Phil Bradleys pointer var at weblogs er et fortrinligt medie for bibliotekarer. Det fik mig til at tænke på at de fleste af mine kolleger straks tænker at det skal være en statsautoriseret blog. Det mener jeg er forkert.Bibliotekarer er ud over at være, eller i hvert fald: bør være, neutrale formidlere af den enorme vidensbank der kaldes de danske folkebiblioteker, også individder med lidenskaber, specialviden, holdninger osv. Kort sagt, vi er personer.Jeg siger udtrykkeligt: Personer. Ikke privatpersoner. For en af de ting jeg ikke synes man som bibliotekar skal gøre, er at skrive som privatperson. Det er vigtigt at understrege i denne tid hvor fjernsynet flyder over med kendte og ukendte personers privatliv. I sin værste form følelsesporno.Det er ikke sådan noget jeg tænker på. Weblogs er en udmærket medieform til at adskille sig fra de meget formelle og korrekte bibliotekshjemmesider. At give det "kolde" bibliotek et menneskeligt ansigt. Faktisk synes jeg det kunne være en udmærket ide hvis alle biblioteker automatisk havde en sektion på deres hjemmeside hvor deres ansatte - under ansvar for lovgivningen naturligvis - kunne give udtryk for at biblioteket også består af selvstændige personer. Med faglige interesser og evner. Og lyst til også at formidle denne side af sig til andre. Dette sidste er nok også vigtigt. Tvang har altid skabt kedelige og uinteressante weblogs.Twitter mmI forlængelse af det nævnte Phil Bradley også Twitter. Dette et af de mest hurtigtvoksende fænomener på internettet. Og han ser det som et sted hvor bibliotekarer kan inspirere og diskutere med hianden. Han viste og fortalte eksempler på sådanne, og jeg må sige at jeg var imponeret. Jeg bemærkede også at de der var på Twitter, også netværkede meget samme i pauserne. De var ganske enkelt mange skridt foran os andre. ... Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0100 882128 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Librarianinblack/~3/UbFxtJo9EzE/failcamp.html Internet Librarian 2010: Failcamp Amy Buckland, Jan Dawson, Krista Godfrey, and Char Booth Jan Dawson had to stay at her library but offered up a video presentation for us.  AskON CALL VOIP chat software for reference services.  The software they used for the pilot project did not work, but they decided to forge on anyway.  They tried Skype then, and set up best practices for the 18 week pilot project.  The staff forgot to fill out the operator survey, and the users weren’t filling out the exit survey.  So they had to look at actual transcript data directly instead.  Some of the fails: the visitor didn’t want to use/install Skype, the user was somewhere that Skype was not allowed to be installed, or the user didn’t have headphones/speakers available, etc.  100% reported positive feedback, that Skype improved the interaction.  Switching between live chat and Skype was too cumbersome in the end.  Lessons learned: younger generation staff was less comfortable with the immediacy of voice, while the older generation staff were more comfortable (perhaps due to phone interaction familiarity).  For the future they’d like to see voice-to-text translation services to provide valuable transcripts to the user after the session.  They’d also like to provide recording and video capabilities. Krista Godfrey talked about failure in Second Life reference services at McMaster University.  They offered reference in Second Life for about a year, going up as high as six volunteers for staffing the service.  They were offering about 10 hours a week and discovered they didn’t have enough time to do IM reference, email reference, & Second Life reference.  They encountered a number of technical issues with SL — the learning curve when you first start using it is rather high.  They couldn’t update SL themselves, so they had to have IT do that regularly for them (another point of failure). ... Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:57:27 +0100 882832 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Librarianinblack/~3/Ek6cP0dlQG4/brand.html Internet Librarian 2010: Brand Awareness: Lessons for Libraries Michelle Wilde, Cathy Cranston, and Louise Feldman from the Colorado State University Libraries The CSU Libraries decided to specifically use Facebook use for students in universities at the undergraduate level with specific research needs.  Turnbull and Bright published a study in 2008 about using Google AdWords as a way to draw more students in.  Based on that study, the CSU Libraries got funding for both Google AdWords and Facebook ads.  Both Google and Facebook provided statistics on the click-throughs and they set up bit.ly URLs that they could monitor to see how many people were drawn from the ad into their EBSCO article database Academic Search Premier.  Over several months they could see users coming to EBSCO from both Google and Facebook as a result of the campaign.  They used the terms “scholarly” and “peer-reviewed” as those were requirements the students often came to the libraries with.  They used a series of different images, “from cute puppies to rocker dudes” and then changed their image as finals week approached to large yellow warning signs saying things like “Paper Due?”  They ran four campaigns in total, testing out their efficacy.  They tried two methods of paying for it too — cost per click or the impression model.  The impression model worked best for them as it was a predictable cost.  They found that Facebook advertising was not effective because that is not where students are spending their time when they’re in research mode.  They discovered that with Google, they could use terms and phrases in their AdWords that were more lengthy and research-oriented than in Facebook.  They mentioned Google’s keyword locator (great for synonym-finding). ... Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:18:41 +0100 882835 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryClips/~3/djryLLU40Ag/ At work our dormant 3D Animation CoP just got a comment on a past blog post by someone from the Machine Design CoP saying they have also done a bit of 3D work. That’s great; our CoPs are a grounds for discovery, connection, diversity, re-use/remixing..but that’s not what this post is about… On the same day the 3D Animation CoP posted 3 new blog posts… Why is that so? It’s like that commenter came to the table for a feed, and the blogger realised his CoP table was empty so he thought he better put more food on the table, as it’s the right thing a host should do…I mean the more people eat, the more the aim of the CoP becomes fulfilled ie. generates a community spirit. It means so much when you have an audience…when you are being heard…I have impact (made a difference)…people like what I say…hey I know this…glad it helped you…connection is happiness…mutual fulfillment…building something together…personal and group progress. All this motivates you to share. Sure a motivation to share can be "I know this…", but not everyone cares to think out loud and share what they know as it happens. I think a more common motivation can happen in a reactionary way…people like what I wrote, they have used what I said in a positive action, the realisation of wow I know stuff and people are listening to me…maybe I could indeed be DIY subject matter expert. The more people comment on my stuff the more I feel compelled to share, it almost becomes an obligation, but I think it’s just the essence of what it is to be human…having purpose and social connection…engagement. ... Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:50:10 +0100 881725 http://erikhoy.blogspot.com/2010/10/ili-2010-phil-bradley-del-1.html Hele Phil Bradleys powerpoint kan ses på internettet. Bombardementet af fund var i sig selv en pointe: Der er ikke længere grund til at opfinde noget som helst. Det er der allerede og i alle mulige afskygninger og varianter. Kunsten er at vælge det som er godt og som samtidig også er vedholdende, altså ikke lukker ned og destruerer alt det du har sat op på siden. Jeg har da også måttet opdele omtalen af de mest interessante links på flere blogindlæg.Mit eget udgangspunkt er primitivt i forhold til hvad der eksisterer ifølge Phil Bradley. Jeg sværger lidt til iGoogle. Ikke fordi jeg er specielt vild med Google, men fordi det er lidt ligesom at "så behøver du kun handle et sted". Deres produkter er måske ikke lige de mest smarte. Men de bliver udviklet hele tiden, har det mest nødvendige med, og så er det hele så mageligt integreret at du ikke har behov for at logge på i en uendelighed. Til social medier bruger jeg Meebo. Samme begrundelse: Log på et sted, og du er logget på alle dine IM-services. Jeg er slet ikke med på trenden med Twitter, og det er nok lidt af en fejl. Jeg skyndte mig pligtskyldigst at oprette en Twitter-konto da jeg godt kan se det er her der sker noget.Derudover har jeg megen gavn af at have slået Buzz til i min email. Jeg har nogle meget produktive og iderige kontakter som holder mig orienteret om hvad de laver.De samme er gode til at dele deres gode links i Google Læser. Og jeg gør det samme. Det kræver stort set ingen tid. Det foregår helt automatisk hver gang du laver en blogpost, offentliggør et billede eller vil dele et link. Interessante link i Læser foregår blot ved klik på en knap og eventuelt indsætte en lille forklarende note.Første ting som vakte min opmærksomhed er offentlige startsider, altså der hvor du som bibliotekar præsenterer dig selv. Netvibes. Tja. Jeg kan godt se på hvad Phil viste at der var masser af muligheder der i forhold til en offentlig iGoogle. ... Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0100 882129 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/txoqQHADyY0/serials-solutions-libfest-free-webinars.html I am one of the presenters in this webinar series. Serials Solutions LibFest Learn from your peers and industry experts about innovative uses and perspectives on resource discovery and management in today’s library. Topics include best practices, ideas and experiences that are helping libraries just like yours build better collections, enhance discovery, increase staff productivity, control costs and more. These online sessions are free and you can attend as many as you like. Each session is between 30-60 minutes in length, and will also be recorded for future viewing. Please visit www.thetimezoneconverter.com to convert listed times to your local time zone. Discovery Sessions Management Sessions Taking the Library to the Learner Hannah Whaley (University of Dundee) & Dave Pattern (Univeristy of Huddersfield) October 26, 2010 (60 minutes) 11:00 AM ET | 08:00 AM PT Show/hide overview Students today, who are mainly digital natives, bring expectations from their personal interactions with technology to their library experience. They assume easy searching, instant access and diverse content. They expect information on the web, on their mobile, in their virtual learning environment. Hear from two early adopters of the Summon web-scale discovery service, the University of Dundee and the University of Huddersfield, about how they are addressing these issues. What's New and Upcoming with the Summon Service Andrew Nagy (Serials Solutions) October 27, 2010 12:00 PM ET | 9:00 AM PT (30 Minutes) Show/hide overview Summon, the first web-scale discovery service for libraries, is leading the way in discovery for libraries by building new relationships with content providers and providing new innovative features and functionality. Get more details about some of the current developments in the Summon service and get a sneak peak into what is coming, including customization, usage statistics and much more. ... Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:21:00 +0100 880130 http://mblc.state.ma.us/jobs/find_jobs/rss.php?job_id=6436 Specific Duties: Locates, retrieves and re-shelves collection materials from secure stacks. Excellent opportunity to assist with and learn more about the daily public services operations and general administrative support of a special collections department. Performs photocopying, data entry, filing, routine clerical duties and on campus messenger services. Performs other duties as assigned. May occasionally assist with basic collection re-housing and inventorying and other special, short term, collection based projects. May occasionally staff the reading room reference desk for short amounts of time. Overview: Baker Library Historical Collections holds one of the preeminent collections of historical materials on business and economic history and philosophy in the world. Major collections are the Business Manuscripts Collection, which includes approximately 1,400 collections dating from the fifteenth century to the current day; the Kress Collection of Business and Economics, rare books, broadsides and pamphlets from the fifteenth century to 1850; and the extensive holdings of the Harvard Business School Archives. Baker Library Historical Collections provides access to these materials in the de Gaspe Beaubien Reading Room in Baker Library | Bloomberg Center. Available immediately, this is a 15 hour per week, year round position. Hours must be completed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. (Source: MBLC Job Listings) Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:30:02 +0100 879893 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/careers/view_job_specific.php?job_id=7936 State: South Carolina Vacancy #10IS-0930) Schedule: 37.5 hours/week, including one evening per week and every third weekend. Location: General Reference Department, Main Library, 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201. Essential Functions of the Job: Answers reference questions for library patrons in the library, over the telephone, by e-mail, by instant messaging, by videoconferencing, and by other electronic means, utilizing print and online resources in General Reference, as well as in all other Information Services Departments (Business/Science/Technology Reference, Periodicals, and Local History). Provides readers advisory services and bibliographic instruction. Compiles subject listings and usage guidelines for print and non-print sources. Conducts interlibrary loan activities. Assists with training of professional and non-professional staff. Assists Information Services department managers in planning for and operation of the departments. Communicates and interprets general library policies and procedures to patrons. May provide assistance for patrons’ career and workforce skills development via the library’s “Job Center” and other library resources. Other Important Responsibilities: Assists patrons in locating and using materials and in use of a variety of library equipment, e.g. microfilm equipment, assistive technology equipment. Assists with collecting and reporting transaction statistics. May assist with the organization and maintenance of department collections, files and databases. May assist with planning, developing materials for, and conducting library research skills workshops. Serves on departmental and library-wide committees. May represent the library at community group meetings. Keeps informed of professional developments; attends professional meetings and training. May conduct tours of the Departments. May serve as night or weekend supervisor of the department. ... Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:10:02 +0100 879838 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryVoice/~3/G3R6maastrs/text-reference-for-free Texting is a great way to answer reference questions, and it doesn't have to cost you a dime. Many libraries now offer text-a-librarian services to extend reference service to patrons on their mobile phones.  If your library has pondered the idea of implementing a text messaging reference service, but couldn’t quite figure out a way to pay for the service, I hope you find this useful.  Our library has been running a text messaging reference service since September 1st, and it didn’t cost us a dime.  Here’s how we’re doing it, and how you can, too. We have toyed with the idea of having a text message reference service for some time, but only got around to implementing it this summer.  My colleagues and I have attended webinars from companies that that offer a fee-based text-a-librarian service, and have read journal articles about libraries that have set up their own service with just a cell phone.  While I understood the  desire to offer reference services via text, I never quite saw the need.  After all, we already provide services via IM, meebo chat, Skype, email, phone, and in person, and survey results from two years ago suggested that patrons would be unlikely to ask their questions via text message.  I also couldn’t really justify the cost of paying a service or a cell phone bill, especially if we built the service an no one used it.  However, with the development of our mobile information site (to be discussed at another time) we began to see that a texting service was important. We also found a way to provide the service for absolutely free and we set the service up in a day.  If it didn’t cost us anything, why not try it and see what happens?  Here’s a step-by-step guide to the tools we used and how we set up the service. Google Voice The first thing we did was set up a Google Voice account, which is free. ... Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:05:49 +0100 879399 http://www.teleread.com/library/more-digitized-historic-newspapers-available-from-chronicling-america/ From a Newspaper Article:…LSU Libraries recently announced the availability of six historical Louisiana newspapers online through its Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project.The six newspapers – The Carrollton Sun, the Louisiana Democrat, the Ouachita Telegraph, The Morning Star and Catholic Messenger, the West Feliciana Sentinel and the Feliciana Sentinel – are available for searching online at the Chronicling America website.The newspapers are the first installment in a collection that, by September 2011, will include 100,000 pages from more than 50 Louisiana newspapers.Learn More About the Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project and Access a List of PapersSource: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)See Also:Chronicling America Homepage (via LC)Via Resource Shelf[donotprint]Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. [/donotprint] (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:10:07 +0100 878466 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/61178 From a Newspaper Article: ...LSU Libraries recently announced the availability of six historical Louisiana newspapers online through its Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project. The six newspapers – The Carrollton Sun, the Louisiana Democrat, the Ouachita Telegraph, The Morning Star and Catholic Messenger, the West Feliciana Sentinel and the Feliciana Sentinel – are available for searching online at the [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Sun, 10 Oct 2010 20:07:53 +0100 878035 http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/08/digested-opera-handel-radamisto Oh woe is everyone ... John Crace boils down this tangled tale of tyrannical love and incessant death wishesAct 1: The royal pavilionPolissena: Oh woe is me! / Oh woe is me!Tigrane: Far be it from me / To make a bad situation worse, / But your husband / Tiridate / Is in love with Xenobia / The wife of your brother / Radamisto.Polissena: That was all / A bit of a mouthful, / But it's good to fill /In the backstory, / Backstory. / So it's back to / Oh woe is me / Oh woe is me.Tigrane: It's very tiring / When you always / Repeat / Repeat yourself, / But is this a good time / To say I've always / Fancied you.Tiridate: I'm gonna beat the shit / Out of Radamisto, / And give your dad / Farsamane / A right going over too.Polissena: I am such a loyal doormat / I can't believe my husband is a bastard / Because I love him, / But hearing him say / He's going to take out / My dad is a bit much. / So, Tiridate: / Kill me instead.Tiridate: I'm not that interested / In hurting you. / Just mind your own / Business.Polissena: Then I must go away / And say Oh woe is me / Some more.Farasmane: You have stolen my kingdom. / Just don't kill Radamisto. / Kill me instead.Tiridate: Jesus, / What a nightmare. / Everyone wants me to top them, / Rather than the person I want to top. / What's wrong with wanting / To top someone?Xenobia: I still love you / Radamisto. / Why don't you flee / Before Tiridate tries to whack you.Radamisto: I appreciate your loyalty, / But the city is surrounded. / Tiridate has captured my dad / And things are generally looking / Pisspoor.Xenobia: I welcome deathRadamisto: Oh, don't you start. / I'm going to sing / Of Honour.Farsamane: I don't think / That will help. / While we're on about it, / Perhaps I should top myself / Too.Tigrane: Bloody hell, / This death wish / Is catching. / Maybe I should think / About it one day. ... Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:15:54 +0100 877489 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/a8vv-DYmLy8/ I have been working in the areas of Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Online Communities and Social Computing for over a decade and I do still remember the main concerns people had back then when wanting to collaborate with customers and business partners in an effective manner, or other people outside a company’s firewall, for that matter. Back then, in my role as an advocate, and an ambassador, on collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, the main issues we were encountering were, mostly, the lack of new emerging capabilities to help improve an already existing experience that was relying far too much on traditional options like email or Instant Messaging. So that provoked that a whole bunch of interactions with customers were being buried, for good, in email or IM conversations that were rather difficult to track and too cumbersome to engage with at times. 10 years later one keeps hearing that very same inhibitor (Or excuse, who knows), when trying to collaborate and share their knowledge with external parties. Thus both email and IM still remain *the* main collaboration tools suite as back then. But, is that today’s reality really? Do we have choices now? Have we made some progress in this area? Or are we still relying far too much on those traditional tools? Have you, actually, made an effort to look out there for other options? I am sure you folks would have plenty of answers to those questions. ... Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:44:02 +0100 877307 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/QjWTdQcgXkM/ Earlier on today, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate on an IBM internal webcast, and face to face event (For those folks who could make it over live in the US), around the topic of Apple and how its various products (Macbook and MacBook Pro, iPhone & iPad) are continuing to penetrate the enterprise world, specially, IBM’s, as more and more of my fellow colleagues begin to experiment and play around with these devices to see whether they could be up to the job in helping them be as productive, if not more!, as with other gadgets they may have been using in the past, over the course of the years. The event was several hours long and rather interesting as well as enlightening. It gave us all an opportunity to see how these Apple products could certainly help knowledge workers become more efficient, and although I can’t share any of the materials shown during the event externally, I can certainly tell you that they all corroborated something I have known myself for the last 3 years already… and counting … Apple products *are*, eventually, more than ready for the enterprise! Even, the iPad! Yes, that’s right, we talked about MacBooks and MacBook Pros, about the iPhone and its various perks, specially for the mobile workforce, and, of course, about the iPad and how the latter is also helping shape the way we compute through a new mobile experience. So I thought it would be a good opportunity, once again, to drop by over here and continue further with that series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week that I have been collecting through Twitter initially as #elsuapps and share a couple of other interesting links that I have bumped into, since the last blog post, which seem to claim, rather strongly, how the iPad itself is here to stay not only as a superb consumer driven product, but also as a business one. ... Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:52:15 +0100 877308 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Start_a_Digital_Book_Club_on_Your_Blackberry_Kobo_app This week at BlackBerry DEVCON, Borders Kobo unveiled a social reading app for the BlackBerry (with BlackBerry Messenger integrated into the app). Th (Source: pligg - all) Sat, 02 Oct 2010 07:00:14 +0100 875848 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/arlisnap/~3/I7W7HaaWBZg/ Join us for the first Lunchtime Chat of the 2010-11 season, tomorrow, Friday October 1. Chats are free and open to all; to view and participate in upcoming events, visit the ARLIS/NA Lunchtime Chats webpage at http://www.arlisna.org/chats/index.html . Scroll down for instructions and to enter the Meebo chat room. On behalf of the Professional Development/ [...] (Source: [ArLiSNAP]) Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:32:43 +0100 875734 http://www.lisnews.org/quotstart_digital_book_club_your_blackberryquot_kobo_app This week at BlackBerry DEVCON, Borders Kobo unveiled a social reading app for the BlackBerry (with BlackBerry Messenger integrated into the app). The tagline: "With BBM, reading just got social." The app will be available some time in 2011, and "will allow users to do everything from chat with friends while shopping for books to discuss passages in real time." Video demo and details at Mashable. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:55:03 +0100 875484 http://lisnews.org/quotstart_digital_book_club_your_blackberryquot_kobo_app This week at BlackBerry DEVCON, Borders Kobo unveiled a social reading app for the BlackBerry (with BlackBerry Messenger integrated into the app). The tagline: "With BBM, reading just got social." The app will be available some time in 2011, and "will allow users to do everything from chat with friends while shopping for books to discuss passages in real time." Video demo and details at Mashable. (Source: LISNews.org) Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:55:03 +0100 875466 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/VmyQg4U6bQo/ Some time ago you would remember how I put together a post over here, in this blog, on the topic of Multitasking and how bad it is for the brain, eventually. In it, I shared a bunch of links on this very same subject, including a video interview from Gary Small, Professor of Psychiatry and Aging at UCLA’s School of Medicine, which you can watch over here, where he explained a few of the reasons why we should all avoid multitasking at all costs, since it is harming us more than helping out. That blog entry seems to have generated lots of interest and some really good commentary. So I thought I would pick it up again and share with you folks another interesting set of links I bumped into that I think would be worth while mentioning and discussing further, because, after all “Multi-Tasking *is* Bad For Your Brain. Here’s How To Fix It“. That’s actually the title of the article that Chris Albrecht put together just recently over at GigaOM where he is referencing another video interview that I think you would all find rather interesting and very thought-provoking. In it Stanford professor Clifford Nass spends about 8 minutes talking about several things, including team building, human-computer interaction, and the dangers of multitasking, as well as our inability to do it properly, no matter what we would think about it. ... Wed, 29 Sep 2010 11:58:29 +0100 875755 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/ebook-apps-to-launch-on-new-blackberry-playbook-tablet/ Kobo and Amazon will be on the new Blackberry tablet.Kobo, from the Kobo blog:Kobo will be the first eReading service integrating BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) into its app – making eReading social, and real-time! This will also make eReading with Kobo a ton of fun! Below is a video of our app, which will be generally available early next year. Shop with a friend, read with a group, exchange passages, and discuss the book in real-time.From the Amazon press release:Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it will launch a Kindle app for the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer. Customers can already enjoy the free Kindle app on their BlackBerry today. Like all Kindle apps, the Kindle app for the new BlackBerry PlayBook will let customers Buy Once, Read Everywhere—on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Android-based devices, and in the coming months, the new BlackBerry PlayBook. Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off. For more information about the free Kindle apps, go to www.amazon.com/kindleapps.Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:25:29 +0100 874798 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/09/27/wiretapping-the-cloud/ The way we communicate has been steadily shifting away from telephone calls to e-mail, instant messaging, Skype, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, and other Internet-based communication methods. This shift has been bad news for more than just telcos; the difficulty of wiretapping the myriad of cloud-based communication methods has become an increasing cause of frustration for law enforcement agencies around the world. That may be about to change. The New York Times reports that the FBI, NSA, US Justice Department and other agencies are seeking extensive new regulations that will significantly bolster law enforcement’s ability to wiretap Internet-based communications. Internet-based services such as Skype and Facebook would be required to provide plain-text versions of communications to law enforcement. Companies that facilitate encrypted peer-to-peer communications, such as Research in Motion, would be required to retain a copy of decryption keys so that plain-text versions of encrypted communications could be provided to law enforcement officials. The proposed changes have far-reaching implications both for individuals’ privacy and for software companies providing any level of cloud-based peer-to-peer communication capabilities. The Obama administration plans to table the bill with the proposed changes to lawmakers next year. (Source: Slaw) Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:39:06 +0100 876194 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/87m3uztYf6Q/ Earlier on today, and through my Twitter stream, I bumped into a rather interesting blog post put together by Chelsi Nakano under the heading “Enterprise 2.0 Roll-up: Businesses Love Microblogging“, which is pretty close to another one shared by her the previous day under the title “What’s Trending in Enterprise Microblogging?“. Both of them are worth while reading through, as they would help folks out there get some further insights on how microblogging / microsharing is taking the corporate world by storm at the moment, and we are just getting started with it all! Yes, “businesses *love* microblogging“, but just as much as knowledge workers do as well! In fact, enterprise microblogging is helping people fight the good fight with one of the biggest corporate productivity drains in history: corporate email! That’s why, while reading through both articles, where Chelsi states how microblogging is becoming a whole lot more than just sharing / exchanging messages amongst knowledge workers, I couldn’t help thinking about another blog post I put together over here myself a few months back that touched base pretty much on this very same topic. The title of blog entry was “Top 10 Use Cases Enterprise Microsharing Will Help You Get Less Email” and in it I listed 10 reasons as to why people should consider enterprise microblogging / microsharing behind the firewall in order to help accelerate how information and knowledge flows, but, at the same time, how it helps improve the overall efficiency of employees when getting the job done. ... Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:24:24 +0100 875014 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/21/mildred-blaxter-obituary-sociologist Sociologist who shed new light on the causes of deprivationThe sociologist Mildred Blaxter, who has died aged 85, played a major role in establishing the foundations of health research – and particularly medical sociology – internationally. It took Mildred until her 40s to "find" sociology: it was, she said, her second life. However, once she had done so, she remained uncannily ahead of the game.Her first book, The Meaning of Disability (1976), used longitudinal qualitative research – measuring changes over time through in-depth interviews – to explore the experiences of 100 people in the year after discharge from hospital. While American scholars at the time were interested in the interactional strategies disabled people used in gaining social acceptance, Mildred focused instead on the problems created for them by the bureaucratic labyrinth of health and social services and the benefits system. The study was groundbreaking, and its influence was felt well beyond sociology.Perhaps her most influential study, with Liz Patterson, formed part of the cycles of deprivation research initiated by Sir Keith Joseph as social services secretary in Edward Heath's Conservative government. Again using longitudinal qualitative research, Mildred aimed to test the controversial hypothesis that deprivation is transmitted between generations through dysfunctional attitudes. The research explored understandings of health and illness among a sample of women born before the establishment of the NHS in 1948 and their daughters. She had to argue ferociously with a funding committee deeply sceptical about qualitative research, but the resultant book, Mothers and Daughters (1982), became a classic.It demonstrated that while deprivation was shared across the generations, this was not because of attitudes and behaviours transmitted between mothers and daughters, but because of the relentless continuation of poverty and inequality. ... Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:41:35 +0100 873150 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/09/17/firsts/ I read an article earlier this week that referred to Bill James, (a noted baseball writer and statistician) as the first blogger because he mimeographed and distributed his writings back in the day. (Wikipedia link to Mimeograph for those born after a certain date). Which got me to wondering about blogging and how it all started. Slaw’s own Simon C theorized that Samuel Pepys was the first blogger. If we are talking a Blog that occurred in cyberspace, it seems that the title of first blog depends on how you define “blog”. The first site to actually call itself a weblog was Robot Wisdom which seems to have begun in 1997. Having dug as far as I wished into that avenue of thought, I began to wonder about the first Law Blog or Blawg, which has been covered by Legal Blog Watch. According to their research it seems that Overlawyered was the first blawg. Although, as with most things law there is some conjecture, which you can see in the comments on the Legal Blog Watch article. The first Canadian case that I discovered that mentions a blog is an unreported criminal case [2005] OJ No 3057, heard in early 2005, which reads at para 29: “Detective XXXXX did a computer search which led him to a website or blog…”. This case was followed shortly thereafter by an immigration law case in the Federal Court which occurred in July 2005, 2005 FC 1050, at para 10 “… That evidence included a variety of items such as newspaper articles, an e-mail “blog” and a report by a human rights organization…” (e-mail “blog” in quotations in original source). So it seems that the first appearances of Blogs in court cases did not have a full grasp of the concept. The only occurrence of “Blog” in Canadian Legislation has a more firmer grasp of the concept. ... Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:56:16 +0100 872609 http://wlaweb.blogspot.com/2010/09/technology-in-focus-at-wla-conference.html Skype, Tweet, "like," IM chat, geocoding, Web 2.0 and 3.0, socialnetwork, digital this, electronic that, i-everything! New technologycontinues to inform the way we think about library services andresources and, ultimately, how we interact with our public. Each year,new tools are available that inspire change within our work and workenvironment.The Wisconsin Library Association 2010 Conference presents a variety ofsessions that we hope will demystify some of this technology and providesuggestions for incorporating it into your library mission! Below arejust a few events that we hope are of interest to you.WEDNESDAY (11/3)-Can You Hear Me Now? Shhhh!: Mobile Devices in the Library-Digital (and Free!) Tools in Your Library-McGyver Library vs Have You Heard About: Showdown of theLibraryTechnology Titans-Vocera - Instant Voice CommunicationTHURSDAY (11/4)-The Future of Libraries and EBooks-Learning the Latest Technology @ the Library-Skype-Based Reference:  A Study and a Pilot Project-Making the Connection: Online, Email and IM Reference Services inWisconsin Public and Academic LibrariesFRIDAY (11/5)-The Changing Landscapes of Wisconsin: A Digital Archive of HistoricAerial Photographs-Social Tagging in the Library: User-Generated Content, Folksonomies,and the Library Catalog-Managing Your Online IdentityCheck out the WLA 2010 Conference Web site for the full program schedule and registration form.http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/conferences/2010/index.htmThe 2010 Wisconsin Library Association conference will be held November2-5 at the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells. We hope to see you there!--Vicki Tobias, Publicity Chair, WLA Conference Committee (Source: The WLA Blog) Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:11:00 +0100 873478 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/hawking-the-ipad-by-meredith-greene/ My autumn Levenger catalog was received with bright-eyed fanfare this week and borne with anticipation over to ‘the writing couch‘. I reserve a few quiet moments each season to drool over the immaculately-designed, perfectly-balanced pens and muse inwardly on the various notebooks and book bags for which I harbor strong inclinations of purchasing. This particular catalog is always so craftily put together… and so in a way that lifts it out of the ‘everyday’ category into the realm of Elegant Enticement Merchandise. The layout folks garner a good chunk of my respect as I browse the pages for the scenes pictured are not ‘perfect’; the neatly-organized desks therein harbor a bit of scribbled notepaper or a whimsical stack of books in partial disarray, complete with a set of spectacles as if they were just discarded on the way to answering the front door… things which speak to business-folk, writers, readers and casual shoppers alike.However, this issue was distinctly different than those I’ve previously thumbed through, mainly that in among the books, pens, notebooks and leather office accessories I spotted no less than ten iPads. Some of the uber-svelte devices lay on lap-desks, reposed on custom ‘charging stations’ or peered out from the rounded edges of book-bags. I also saw one cell phone, two blackberry-type devices, an unknown eReader and a Palm in a pear tree. Aware already that iPads are top on many folks’ Christmas lists, I still wondered if the sheer number of the devices present in the catalog wasn’t a visual symptom of “If-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em-itis, causing the pen-touting company to attempt to marry ePens and ‘real’ pens into one, solid literary consortium. The Levenger website also has a tote/bag section devoted to the device, titled “iPad-friendly“. ... Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:27:15 +0100 872099 http://www.teleread.com/net-related-tooks-from-search-engines-to-blogware/twitter-becomes-more-news-aggregator-than-social-network/ Adrianne Jeffries at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting piece looking at how the focus of Twitter has shifted over the years. It started out as a way to communicate with friends, sort of instant messaging on a time delay, but its role has changed considerably as more and more people began using it as a way to share links they found interesting—and more and more media sources began making it easy to share links via Twitter. Now, Jeffries writes: Twitter is increasingly about news, content and information in an easily-digestible format. By delivering real-time updates curated by individuals and publishers of your choosing, Twitter ended up in the same space as RSS readers and social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us. And people liked Twitter better. Twitter, Jeffries explains, is a new way to “curate the web”. You can share links to stories you like with short, enticing descriptions. You can share links to your own journal or blog posts, your favorite YouTube videos, and of course the news, And thanks to the web capabilities built into a lot of the new Twitter clients (not to mention the gorgeous-looking link aggregation ability of Flipboard), people can view these stories without ever having to open a web browser directly. Even media outlets are getting in on the act directly. I’ve noticed (and complained) that the #sgf Twitter hashtag, originally meant to for discussion about things local to my hometown of Springfield, Missouri, has almost entirely been hijacked by local newspapers and TV stations posting links to their stories in it. On a related note, Sarah Perez has another ReadWriteWeb piece covering a presentation by Twitter VP Kevin Thau. Thau explains that Twitter is not actually a social network, but rather a distribution system for news, content, and information. "The guy who saw a plane land on the Hudson River right in front of him didn’t think to send an email," says Thau. "He tweeted it. ... Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:15:00 +0100 871659 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/davidleeking/~5/iiYTnTSs6x8/ssplayer2.swf I lead a seminar on collaborative technology in libraries for SEFLIN today – it was a good time, with a TON of information going by pretty fast! Here’s a copy of my slides: Collaborative Technology in Libraries View more presentations from David King. And here’s a list of the websites we looked at: Social networks twitter.com search.twitter.com twitpic.com facebook.com Private Social Networks groups.google.com groups.yahoo.com friendfeed.com yammer.com socialcast.com present.ly Conversation tools blogs – this one is an example coveritlive.com basecamphq.com meebo.com gmail.com – chat feature tinychat.com Mashups pipes.yahoo.com widgetbox.com Multimedia 12seconds.tv skype.com oovoo.com ustream.tv stickam.com youtube.com flickr.com Meetings voice.google.com calendar.google.com doodle.com elluminate.com Adobe Connect dimdim.com zoho freebinar.com slideshare.net present.io Sharing stuff on your PC gotomeeting.com glance.com yugma.com showdocument.com twiddla.com clavardon.com cosketch.com scribblar.com dabbleboard.com Documents docs.google.com scribd.com zoho pbworks.com wetpaint central mediawiki.org wikispaces.com yousendit.com box.net drop.io dropbox.com Share: Related PostsNo Related Post (Source: David Lee King) Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:18:45 +0100 870648 http://blog.njla.org/archives/2010/09/#000957 http://www.nj.com Published: Thursday, September 09, 2010, The Messenger-Gazette By Pete Winter and Rick Epstein SOMERVILLE — Although Borough Council has voted to merge the borough library into the county system, the library’s Board of Trustees is not yet willing to “roll over and play dead.” Those are the words of board president James Loewen. He had served on the task force that unanimously recommended that the borough library should join the county system, but that group also recommended that the question be decided by a referendum. When Borough Council decided on Aug. 16 to make the change by resolution without waiting for a referendum, it parted company with Loewen and board member David Hardgrove. Loewen has refused to serve on the library transition committee, saying in a letter to the mayor dated yesterday, “I am at a loss to see how a governing body, via its own resolution, can usurp the statutory powers of another autonomous governing body.” Hardgrove has resigned from the library board effective yesterday, noting in a letter to the mayor and council that “any future effort taken by the trustees can simply be overridden by the council’s whim. For me to exert any more of my time, talents or expertise in library management would be futile.” Besides Loewen, Mayor Brian Gallagher’s appointees to the transition committee are council members Ken Utter and Jane Kobuta, Borough Administrator Kevin Sluka and the library board’s treasurer Herbert Hall. While the transition committee pursues its mission, the borough library board’s official position remains that a referendum is required to “de-municipalize” the library even though the board generally favors the merger and most of its members seem ready to forgive the lack of a referendum. “I feel like we’re behind the game now,” board member Stephanie Hayes said at the library board meeting last night, a day after Borough Council decided to press on with the merger. ... Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 871714 http://splat.lili.org/node/401 Photo by blakespot   A July 2010 report from The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project had this summary on the state of mobile computing today: Cell phone and wireless laptop internet use have each grown more prevalent over the last year. Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009) while 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009). This means that 59% of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone—that is, they answered “yes” to at least one of these wireless access pathways. That adds up to an increase from the 51% who used a laptop or cell phone wirelessly in April 2009. The proliferation of smaller & more powerful computers...sorry, I meant smartphones, means that more individuals are using highly powerful mobile devices to perform tasks normally done on a static desktop. The wired and connected is now highly portable and connected. However, we haven't reached a saturation point yet--not everyone has a smartphone, nor have they portable devices that can do everything online and on the go...yet. By contrast, given the steady rise of the availability and multifunction applications of these new devices, competitive pricing, and a greater comfort level of "I can do X on the go & online," means that the steady rise in adoption & use of mobile computing will soon be an upward jump towards mobile-friendly everything. Not only day-to-day tasks like e-mail, document editing & dissemination, etc., but fully engaged users who create content (movies, presentations, documents) and disseminate it at the point of production via a wealth of social networks. ... Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:47:44 +0100 870566 http://blog.njla.org/archives/2010/09/#000954 http://www.nj.com September 08, 2010, The Messenger-Gazette RARITAN — Somerville is joining the county library system. So what about Raritan? The idea has been studied and found untempting, says Borough Councilman Greg Lobell, liaison to the borough library. He said when he joined Borough Council last winter, a couple of the county freeholders suggested he look into the idea of joining the county system. He met with the previous county library director, Jim Hecht, and was told Raritan’s library would have to be screened by the county to see if it would be accepted into the county system. That lack of eagerness, plus the fact that Bridgewater and Somerville libraries are larger and nearby, made Lobell believe that in “three or four years down the line,” the Raritan library might be considered expendable. And “Raritan definitely needs a library,” he said, “It’s not something we’d ever give up. It’s vital to have access to a library without crossing major highways.” Although a state law dictates the level at which a municipality must fund its library, Raritan’s library is not so demanding. This year the library board noted the borough’s dire straits and gave back $100,000, Lobell said. If the borough threw in with the county, that kind of budgetary cooperation wouldn’t be possible, he said. He spoke highly of the library’s computer classes and programs for teens and young children and its inviting atmosphere. “A lot of people were surprised I was even looking at” what the county has to offer. Another source of local satisfaction with the borough library, said Lobell, is the staff. “I would put them up against any library around. They are interested in what they do and truly care about the people, and make sure the patrons have all their needs taken care of. I cannot tell you how proud I am of the work and effort they put into making the library a success and an enjoyable place to be. ... Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 871717 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/07419051011083172 Abstract: Purpose – As the usage of virtual reference services continues to increase, libraries must consider ways to remedy the lack of ability to visually demonstrate during teaching moments when conducting reference transactions over e-mail, instant messaging or chat, and text messaging. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a brief overview of a selection of free tools for screencasting and screen sharing, including Jing, Screencast-o-matic, Screencastle, Screenjelly, Dimdim, Yuuguu, and ShowMyPC. Findings – The paper finds that each free tool has its positive and negative features, but with so many accessible options available, most libraries should be able to find a tool that will work for their needs. Originality/value – The paper offers insight into the strong availability of free tools, many web-based, for screencasting and screen sharing, providing an overview of the functionality of each. (Source: Library Hi Tech News : Table of Contents) Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:05:03 +0100 869605 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/AJbJJpmZ7ho/ That’s what the Financial Times is saying. Their Tech Blog has given its first impressions. Clearly the market for this device, which was designed by Samsung’s phone division, not its computer division, is smartphone users, with such user’s interest in portability. Also: Samsung scores easy wins with features Apple left out. Video calling (which I wasn’t able to test in my brief look yesterday) to a tablet fulfils a future-is-now fantasy (although Apple is bringing that to the iPod touch too). The front and back cameras can also work with augmented-reality apps, such as Google’s own Places or Layar, which could be more useable on a bigger screen than a phone. With the latest Android, Froyo, comes Flash, and the Galaxy tab also supports DivX, which when combined with a Micro-SD slot makes transferring anything you’ve downloaded (from, er, anywhere) really easy. Samsung has also pre-loaded its own “hub” software bundles in an attempt to stand ahead of the inevitable flood of Android tablets. Readers’ Hub brings together newspapers (powered by PressDisplay), books (from Kobo) and magazines (courtesy of Zinio) into one app, while Social Hub pulls together Facebook, Twitter et al. There are also Media and Music Hubs, which like Kobo’s bookshelves, take many of their design cues from Apple’s stores. I will be very interested in seeing it at their press event next week. Ever since the new, upgraded iPod Touch has come out it started me thinking about using my iPhone as an iPod Touch and then moving over to an Android phone. (My recent experience in NYC with AT&T’s on-again, off-again, 3G service was maddening.) Perhaps I should consider the Galaxy Tab instead of a Droid or Galaxy S phone. To be honest, I don’t really use the “phone” part of the iPhone that much. I’m mostly a data and media person. ... Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:22:53 +0100 868807 http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/09/speaking-of-obsessions-whats-wrong-with.html Wow. Libs are running scared. Who knew they'd get so spooked by a little preaching and hand holding and praying on the Mall last week. I read Kathleen Parker's piece on Glenn Beck.* I have no idea what her point was--something about it being an AA meeting--but it doesn't sound like she's ever been to an Al-Anon or AA meeting. Liberal twaddle--attack the messenger, ignore the words. Here's what other readers wrote (the link was broken when I tried to leave a comment, so these came from reader's page:bryan37, "I'm no fan of Beck, but this is nothing more than an ad hominem attack. It really borders on being a little sick. Does Parker ever have anything insightful to write? I just never see it" [I wondered the same thing.]Chippewa said, "I've lost count of how many articles and columns the WAPO has run over the past two weeks, almost unanimously bashing Beck. The onslaught continues today. It's become the WAPO's surge. If he's such an idiot, why pay so much attention to him? Could it be because he's viewed as a threat to the Chosen One? Can't have that now, can we???"Jack 83 wrote: The post missed the boat on this one. It was obviously a wonderful experience for the people who enjoy Glenn and his ideas about things. It seemed to me the event was a nice bit of America that people are longing for instead of all the hate. Nice Event/Clueless story.MomDuke5 said: Your mockery of the program and pointing your finger at a man who has succeeded indicates to me if you had to do it you would fail. So what if you can compare his success with a program that has brought many people out of the despair and darkness of alcohol. Three cheers for him and his desire to show America if I can do it so can you! Faith of all kinds is all around you and your faith can set you free. Your reference to Mother Superior as Sarah Palin strikes a mean, nasty, anti Catholic view. ... Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868615 http://blog.skagirlie.net/2010/08/23/over-productive/ I finished my other crafty bit. I really wasn’t intending to make it until next weekend, but a piece here and a piece there and then it was done. Even with a couple of mistakes thrown in, it didn’t take any time at all. Go me and my pattern making! Oh, what’s that? What am I talking about? I made yet another bag! Ok, this one is different because I came up with it night/morning while fighting a bout of insomnia. It started as this: I wanted a “gig bag” for going to shows. Compact, but able to hold the necessities. It also needed to be able to go hands free. The shoulder strap is designed to be removable, but there’s also a tote for when it’s strapless. I also designed in belt loops, so I can attach it to me during shows without having it weigh down on my shoulders and flapping all over the place during the jumpy parts. (‘-^*)/ So that was the initial idea, but it kept changing, and refining, and finally settled, only to demand to be made a.s.a.p. Problem was, I didn’t have all of the scribbles for the front panel. (Did I mention that this is also completely fangirly? ^^;) So it sat as an idea for over a month. When the last batch of scribbles went up, I picked a night and screen shot the heck out of youtube. Then it was time for photoshop fun! 20 layers worth! My head wanted the messenger flap to be red. However, my photoshop skills did not. Still, I was able to tint it, and it looks cool. The finished product looks simple enough, but I really did put a lot of thought into it. The lining is striped, but I deliberately picked a fabric with not exactly straight lines to match the scribble feel. The heart studs on the outside are actually hiding the stitching for the buttons on the inside. I didn’t fuss with a fabric strap, and bought belt strapping instead. Sealing the button holes was a little tricky, but I had the right tool. ... Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:39:50 +0100 867230 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Digitization101/~3/5x6THRRgSDE/experience-before-training-part-2.html My blog post on Aug. 13 has generated several comments, a discussion on the  Archives and Archivists email list, private emails and a Meebo chat session.  I guess it touched a nerve!While several people noted that graduate programs require internships where students receive experience, the heart of the blog post is about having students obtain experience BEFORE they enter grad school.  As Rebecca commented, "experience does help give some perspective prior to school."  Peter noted that "[s]uch work experience would give people a better idea of what the profession is like."  In an email exchange, it was suggested that any type of work experience would serve a student well because it would provide knowledge about organizations, customer services, etc.  Indeed, a hiring manager would want a candidate to have some work experience in order to prove that the candidate can/will work!A few students (or recent graduates) felt that it was difficult to obtain an internship.  The fact that an organization has to create an appropriate internship then supervise the intern can make them a bit harder to find.  It should be noted that some institutions truly rely on interns in order to move new projects forward.  Ben comments that some internships contain more clerical work than they should, but I have to wonder if that could be because students haven't had enough practical experience?However, in obtaining experience before entering a graduate program, a person might volunteer in a cultural heritage organization doing whatever needs to be done.  No matter the job, that person is going to get a "peek behind the curtain" and have a better understanding of what that type of organization does.  Some institutions are also very reliant on volunteers and so a person should be able to find an opportunity. ... Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 865692 http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2010/08/experience-before-training-part-2.html My blog post on Aug. 13 has generated several comments, a discussion on the  Archives and Archivists email list, private emails and a Meebo chat session.  I guess it touched a nerve!While several people noted that graduate programs require internships where students receive experience, the heart of the blog post is about having students obtain experience BEFORE they enter grad school.  As Rebecca commented, "experience does help give some perspective prior to school."  Peter noted that "[s]uch work experience would give people a better idea of what the profession is like."  In an email exchange, it was suggested that any type of work experience would serve a student well because it would provide knowledge about organizations, customer services, etc.  Indeed, a hiring manager would want a candidate to have some work experience in order to prove that the candidate can/will work!A few students (or recent graduates) felt that it was difficult to obtain an internship.  The fact that an organization has to create an appropriate internship then supervise the intern can make them a bit harder to find.  It should be noted that some institutions truly rely on interns in order to move new projects forward.  Ben comments that some internships contain more clerical work than they should, but I have to wonder if that could be because students haven't had enough practical experience?However, in obtaining experience before entering a graduate program, a person might volunteer in a cultural heritage organization doing whatever needs to be done.  No matter the job, that person is going to get a "peek behind the curtain" and have a better understanding of what that type of organization does.  Some institutions are also very reliant on volunteers and so a person should be able to find an opportunity. ... Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864952 http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/earth-and-our-moon-from-114-million.html click to enlargeFrom The Messenger website (Source: The Centered Librarian) Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 866628 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/2LSbHrXKfDQ/using-technology-in-library-training-an-ala-techsource-workshop-with-paul-signorelli.ht Our goal in producing ALA TechSource Workshops is to provide a source of cost-effective, interactive, hands-on training. When it comes to using technology save your library money and increase its efficiency, you want to learn from someone who is part of your profession and has faced the same problems you face. In that spirit, we’re happy to announce our newest TechSource workshop, Using Technology in Library Training with Paul Signorelli. Librarians face the challenge of cross-training their often down-sized staff with lean budgets, as wells as training students and patrons to use library software. Training can be difficult and time-consuming, especially when it must be balanced with the effort to maintain day-to-day library services. Paul Signorelli will explain how to streamline your process with  free and low-cost tools like Skype, instant messaging, online discussion groups, or video in this two-part series:     Session 1: Using Technology to Enhance In-Person Training     Thursday, September 16th, 2:30pm Eastern         Session 2: Using Technology for Remote Training Sessions     Thursday, September 23rd, 2:30pm Eastern With 14 years of experience as  director of staff training and volunteer services at San Francisco Public Library,  Paul speaks not only as a technologist but as a teacher. He blogs for ALA’s Learning Round Table and you can read his posts here. You can register for each workshop separately for only $50, or save 15% by registering for both events for only $85.Sign up for both sessions Register for Session 1: Using Technology to Enhance In-Person Training Thursday, September 16th, 2:30pm Eastern Register for Session 2: Using Technology for Remote Training Sessions Thursday, September 23rd, 2:30pm Eastern (Source: ALA TechSource Blog) Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:58:02 +0100 867916 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6298 BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * Stuart Shieber defends publication-fee OA journals. * Peter Suber intertwines search and open access. * Ethan Zuckerman blogs Kate Crawford's "art of noise" talk. * Radio Berkman 161: "A Brief History of Noise" * David Weinberger, calling all flatfooted programmers! * ProjectVRM previews the upcoming VRM+CRM Workshop. * Doc Searls is not an eyeball. * OpenNet Initiative on UAE vs. BlackBerry. * Jonathan Zittrain puzzles through Blackberry encryption, via Yossarian's tent-mate. * CMLP on warrantless FBI information gathering and ISPs. * Harry Lewis isn't surprised about fully body scanners. * Weekly Global Voices: "Cambodia: Mixed views on Duch Verdict" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The full buzz. "D expects publication fees to hyperinflate, with scholars unhappily having to acquiesce to a kind of extortion. This worry of runaway publication fees leads D to the conclusion that publication fees are an unsustainable business model for open access journals. The problem with the argument becomes transparent when one sees that it applies equally well to subscription journals. Nothing prevents subscription journals from charging publication fees, and many do." From Stuart Shieber's blog post Will open-access publication fees grow out of control? "In 1979, William Garvey made a remarkable claim: " ... in some disciplines, it is easier to repeat an experiment than it is to determine that the experiment has already been done." (See W.D. Garvey, Communication: The essence of science, Pergamon Press, Oxford 1979, p. 8. ... Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0100 865919 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://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/02/report-highlights-what-do-americans-do-online-the-top-10/ From the Nielsen Wire Post: Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase) according to new research released today from The Nielsen Company. The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating A table and two graphs are included. The Top 5 1. Social Networks (Up 43% vs. June 2009) 2. Online Gaming (Up 10% vs. June 2009) 3. E-Mail (Down 28% vs. June 2009) 4. Portals (Down 19% vs. June 2009) 5. Instant Messaging (Down 15% vs. June 2009) 7. Search (Up 1% vs. June 2009) Access the Complete Nielsen Wire Post Source: Nielsen Wire, The Nielsen Company (Source: ResourceShelf) Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:16:08 +0100 864133 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/aug/01/stewart-lee-collecting-comics-stand-up What happens to a man who compulsively collects comics, books, records and CDs? He becomes very good at building shelves… Comedian Stewart Lee on the challenges and hazards of extreme storageWhat are days for?" asks the curmudgeonly poet Philip Larkin in his poem Days, questioning the very point of living. He is unable to offer any real comfort, concluding: "Ah, solving that question/brings the priest and the doctor/in their long coats/running over the fields." For Larkin the idea of days, and what to do with them, represents the problem of existence boiled down to its barest essentials. I have a similar relationship with shelves.I love shelves, and if only I could work out exactly which of the many books, comics, records and compact discs that I own I should fill them with, and how many shelves I require to do this, I have always imagined my life would be complete. At the age of 43, I am finally in a solid-looking house, with my solid-looking family, where I imagine, uncharacteristically, I will stay for some time. I am well on the way, through my own efforts and those of contracted shelving professionals, to having the shelving system I have dreamed of since childhood, most of it concealed in nooks, cellars and the designated shelf room, so as not to destroy the internal integrity of our long-dreamed-of living space. But even as the shelves approach their final configuration, it seems the same doubts and fears about life and its purpose linger on, as if the answer to everything did not lie in the construction of shelving systems after all. I wonder where this profound faith in shelving began.When I was about five years old, I bought a copy of an American comic book called Captain Marvel off the lower rung of a revolving rack of True Detective, soft porn and pulpy thriller magazines, in a newsagent on the A34 just outside Birmingham. I was snagged. ... Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:07:52 +0100 863668 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/31/old-spring-richard-francis-review Maggie Gee finds much to admire in a subtle tale of life in the public barDrinkers queue up here! Richard Francis's The Old Spring is the name of his fictional pub, but the title also tells you a lot about this unusual, sweet-tempered novel. It's about the life-spring bubbling up from the dark in old age, the drive to sex and love and laughter in the public bar where an odd assortment of humans huddles for warmth, swapping amazing facts about, say, dung-beetles or wrens. "One thing foxes are no good at . . . is climbing up a ladder." It's a day in the life, a literal and metaphorical day of reckoning, because the books of the pub are £900 short, and the brewery's creepy rep, Tim, is due to go over them with the landlords, Frank and Dawn. In the basement below, there's endless night, only dispelled when Frank makes his portly way downstairs for a new barrel.In one way, not much happens – the talk simmers on, customers drift in and out, Frank does voices ("Hi thang yow!"). In another way, everything happens, all of it mediated through the rhythms of conversation (for this is that rare and technically demanding thing, a novel of conversation, like Ivy Compton-Burnett's). People evade worse criminals than themselves, perform impromptu sex acts, find ways of being kind, visit the sick and pray for the dead. The moral lessons are bracingly unprudish – sex of all sorts makes people feel better; live before you die; love is heroic, but possible.It's sex and death that frame it all, the fire upstairs and the dark below. Frank must mend the broken grate so the flames will warm his customers, but his guilty secret has made him neglect the nether fires of his lean, tough-talking wife Dawn. Father Thomas, the humane, lonely lay brother who calls himself a priest, broods over the sudden death of his friend Brother Julian, "the loss of [his] whole mortal intricate particularity". ... Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:06:00 +0100 863520 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/27/would-people-pay-to-use-twitter-other-findings-from-the-2010-digital-future-report/ The 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study has been released. The full text report is fee-based (between $500-1500 depending on usage) but highlights are available in this PDF file. Without a doubt making the most news from this report is the finding that people would not pay to use Twitter. The annual study of the impact of the Internet on Americans by the Center for the Digital Future found that 49 percent of Internet users said they have used free micro-blogs such as Twitter. But when asked if they would be willing to pay for Twitter, zero percent said yes. “Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. What’s amazing to us is that it’s zero percent. You would think some (just a few) would find enough value in Twitter to pay for it. The summary does not mention how much money people said no to. Would they not spend $50/year but spend $15/year? That’s an important number to know and we’re going to try and find out. We also wonder if the same question was asked about Google, Bing, Facebook, etc. Again, we’re going to try and find out. While it’s true that once you give it away it’s difficult to get people to pay for it would extra features get people to pay? What could get people to pay? The cable/satellite tv and bottled water industries did it. Starbucks has also done it. ... Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:38:03 +0100 862730 http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/2010/07/cfp-popular-culture-and-classroom.html CFP: Popular Culture and the ClassroomSouthwest/Texas Popular Culture Association & PCA/ACA Joint ConferenceApril 20-23, 2011San Antonio, TXProposal Deadline: December 15, 2010Conference Hotel: Marriott Rivercenter San Antonio101 Bowie StreetSan Antonio, TX 78205Phone 1-210-223-1000Papers (panelists) needed to examine role of popular culture in today’s classrooms (which includes secondary classrooms or college classrooms) at the Southwest and Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference (meeting with the PCA/ACA) April 20-23, 2011 in San Antonio, TX.Here’s a quick test for today’s educators:“Glee,” Facebook, “American Idol.” “Lady Gaga, “Mad Men,” “Lost.” Ipods. Celebrity Weddings and Break-ups. “Twilight,” Twitter, Instant Messaging, Reality Television. Superhero Films. Comic Books and Graphic Novels. X-Box. “LOL and IM Speak” Cell phones. Text messaging. Advertising and Stereotypes.The list may cause some teachers and professors to scratch their heads, but to our students, these entries would be part of the daily vocabulary of being a student today.From instant messages discussing homework to the Ipod Revolution, high school and college students are often the experts when it comes to technological advances and cultural awareness. As educators, it’s increasingly important we embrace popular culture whenever possible to create meaningful lessons that help students link the curriculum we teach with the world they live in and understand.Whether a single lesson idea, a scholarly paper, or a theme for a course, the “Popular Culture and the Classroom” section of this conference seeks teachers with new ideas of how to use popular culture effectively in the classroom. ... Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 864048 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digizen/~3/vKqcKPYDI00/ Hace algún tiempo había explorado la llamada “barra de Meebo”, una herramienta que añade una cinta al final de una página web o blog con varios botones mediante los cuales los visitantes pueden: 1. acceder su sistema preferido de chat y conversar con el autor del blog 2. explorar actividad reciente del autor del blog en Tweeter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, entre otros. 3. Recomendar página de forma automática en Tweeter, Facebook, Yahoo o por email. La instalación es bien sencilla y para los blogs de WordPress existe un plugin que facilita la misma. Puede experimentar con la barra de Meebo al final de esta página. (Source: DigiZen: Un blogfesor aprendiendo) Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:03:03 +0100 862427 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/25/michael-munn-biographer-interview-tim-adams Michael Munn claims to have had astoundingly eventful friendships with Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Steve McQueen and a host of other stars. Those who doubt him include their families – and his ownSitting with Michael Munn, biographer to the stars, in a somewhat bleak pub near his home in Sudbury, Suffolk, I can't get out of my head that classic Pete 'n' Dud sketch in which the flat-capped Peter Cook reveals to Dudley Moore the problems he is having being harassed by the likes of "bloody Greta Garbo". Munn, an affable man of 57, has long been a stalwart of Sudbury amateur dramatics; he still harbours ambitions of moving to Colchester, "just for the buzz". As he sips at a lunchtime half of lager, and tucks into his chicken salad, he is telling me of the time that Ava Gardner wouldn't take no for an answer."Ava was a brief but very intense relationship," he suggests, matter-of-factly. "After the first time, we'd meet in the afternoons at hotels in Knightsbridge or wherever." I try to picture the scene. Gardner would have been 45 and Munn 17. He'd not long left school in London, was living with his parents, and had recently been working for British Railways as a trainee in their health and safety department. Ava had moved to London to star opposite James Mason as the Empress of Austria in the film Mayerling. The unlikely pair had met, Munn explains, when he had delivered a package to her – he was by that time apparently working as a messenger boy for a film company – and asked to use her lavatory. "One thing led to another," he explains, with a shrug.The connection was such that before long Ava had, Munn claims, chosen him as the person to whom she would confide all she knew about her ex-husband, Frank Sinatra, and his vendetta against mafia boss Sam Giancana, which in turn became the inside story of the Kennedys' involvement in the murder of Marilyn Monroe. ... Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:05:59 +0100 862017 http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2550 While most experts agree that a single-minded focus on the short term can cause negative consequences for companies, they also suggest that blaming quarterly earnings reports, and the pressure to meet analysts' targets or company guidance, is like shooting the messenger. Although the system of quarterly earnings might be broken, fixing it is no easy matter and might create even more pressure to produce immediate results. (Source: Knowledge@Wharton) Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:16:28 +0100 862138 http://medinfo.netbib.de/archives/2010/07/16/3753 Jeder, der einige Zeit in einer Bibliothek gearbeitet hat, kennt die Sprüche, Vorurteile oder Regeln, die von Bibliothekarsgeneration zu Generation weitergegeben werden. Einige sind seit grauer Vorzeit unverändert, andere habe eine Anpassung an moderne Kommunikationsmethoden erfahren… 1. Der Bibliothekar muß den Benutzer als dumm betrachten, informationsinkompetent, RSS-unwissend, ein Nichtstuer (andernfalls säße er an der Arbeit) und YouTube-Süchtiger. 2. Es muß sehr viel Sorgfalt darauf verwandt werden, den Online-Katalog der Bücher möglichst schwer benutzbar zu machen, und ihn von Nutzer-Annotationen freizuhalten. Nach Möglichkeit sollte die Oberfläche immer genau dann eine totale Revision erfahren, wenn man sich gerade an die kryptische Bedienung gewöhnt hat. Der Katalog sollte das genaue Gegenteil von Amazon sein und einen Ausdruck oder Download so gut wie unmöglich machen. 3. Die Schlagworte müssen vom Bibliothekar in einer aufwendigen Gremienarbeit bestimmt werden, die alle innovativen Kräfte im Lande bindet. Weder dürfen die Leser Schlagwörter vergeben noch die Bücher einen Hinweis auf die Schlagworte tragen, unter denen sie aufgeführt werden sollen. Die Schlagwortsuche im Online-Katalog muß so versteckt und ineffizient sein, dass keiner sie je benutzen wird. Das System der Schlagwörter sollte alle paar Jahre wechseln, so dass es nicht einen, sondern mehrere Schlagwortkataloge gibt, die man durchsuchen muß. Ein Browsen nach Fachgebieten ist gänzlich zu verhindern. 4. Es sollte möglichst überhaupt nicht möglich sein, Online-Bücher zu lesen, geschweige denn auszudrucken oder zu zitieren. Falls es von Rechts wegen doch eine Download-Option gibt, muß der Weg weit und der Zugang beschwerlich sein, und die Zahl der Kopien begrenzt auf höchstens zwei bis drei Seiten. 5. Das Ausleihverfahren für E-Books muß abschreckend sein. 6. Die Auskunft muß im Web 2.0 unerreichbar sein. ... Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:15:18 +0100 861346 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/XPXcwsbQppA/use-chrome-like-pro.html This week I sent a note to Googlers about some of the Chrome team's favorite extensions. So many of them asked if they could share the list with people outside the company that I thought I would just do it for them. Here it is. We're proud of the Chrome browser and the great extensions that its developer community has created, and we hope you enjoy them! They can all be found at chrome.google.com/extensions.Opinion Cloud: Summarizes comments on YouTube videos and Flickr photos to provide an overview of the crowd’s overall opinion.Google Voice: All sorts of helpful Voice features directly from the browser. See how many messages you have, initiate calls and texts, or call numbers on a site by clicking on them.AutoPager. Automatically loads the next page of a site. You can just scroll down instead of having to click to the next page.Turn Off the Lights: Fades the page to improve the video-watching experience.Google Dictionary: Double-click any word to see its definition, or click on the icon in the address bar to look up any word.After the Deadline: Checks spelling, style, and grammar on your emails, blog, tweets, etc. Invisible Hand: Does a quick price check and lets you know if the product you are looking at is available at a lower price elsewhere.Secbrowsing: Checks that your plug-ins (e.g. Java, Flash) are up to date.Tineye: Image search utility to find exact matches (including cropped, edited, or re-sized images).Slideshow: Turns photo sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, and Google Images into slideshows.Google Docs/PDF Viewer: Automatically previews pdfs, powerpoint presentations, and other documents in Google Docs Viewer.Readability: Reformat the page into a single column of text. Chromed Bird: A nice Twitter viewing extension.Feedsquares: Cool way of viewing your feeds via Google Reader.ScribeFire: Full-featured blog editor that lets you easily post to any of your blogs. ... Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 859947 http://digital-scholarship.com/digitalkoans/2010/07/14/mobile-access-2010/ The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Mobile Access 2010 Here's an excerpt: Six in ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year. As of May 2010, 59% of all adult Americans go online wirelessly. Our definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities: Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009. Use the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two in five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009. Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009. (Source: DigitalKoans) Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 859940 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalKoans/~3/Z6EfpcVpqz0/ The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Mobile Access 2010 Here's an excerpt: Six in ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year. As of May 2010, 59% of all adult Americans go online wirelessly. Our definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities: Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009. Use the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two in five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009. Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009. (Source: DigitalKoans) Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:01:22 +0100 859719 http://www.cla-net.org/weblog/2010/07/david_a_tyckoso.php Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect Associate Dean Henry Madden Library California State University, Fresno davety@csufresno.edu Short Biography I am currently serving as the Associate Dean of the new and award-winning Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno. My primary professional background has been in reference. I have been a reference librarian since 1978 - and still contribute hours each week to in-person and Instant Messenger reference service. I have written many articles on reference service and presented at a number of conferences, including CLA. I teach an online course on the Reference Interview through ALA/RUSA and am currently working on a course on 21st century reference collections for Infopeople, which will be available in November of this year. I first joined the California Library Association shortly after moving to the state in 1997. I served as Chair of the Reference Services Section in 2003-2004 and was a member of the Conference Program Committee in 2004. My activities in CLA declined during subsequent years due to my involvement in the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA. I was elected RUSA President and spent several years involved in RUSA and ALA. Now that my RUSA/ALA commitments have expired, I am ready to use the invaluable connections, perspective, leadership, and organizational management experiences as President of RUSA to succeed as your leader and spokesperson for CLA Vision for CLA It is not news to claim that these are distressing - and at the same time, exciting - times for libraries in California. The economic downturn and the state's legislative dysfunction have left libraries struggling not only to serve their communities, but to survive. Branch closings, reductions in hours, layoffs and furloughs of staff, and reduced buying power for collections have unfortunately become the norm, not the exception. ... Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:09:00 +0100 860155 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/12/a-new-report-from-mcafee-labs-social-networking-apps-pose-surprising-security-challenges/ 3 Paragraphs from the Report: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn—oh my! If we’re not using these services ourselves or hearing about them in the media, our friends, colleagues, and children remind us each day of their existence. Although Web 2.0 may be a buzzword we all love to hate, media-rich web applications that allow information sharing among users are here to stay and growing in popularity. An article written in October 2009 (so it’s clearly out of date) on the size of Facebook’s data center states Facebook stores approximately 80 billion photos and serves up approximately 600,000 photos per second—making it the largest photo archive in the world.1 Social networking web applications such as Facebook are a big deal. As social networking gains users, it will increasingly be targeted by attackers, just as instant messaging and other media have been. For an interesting view on how platform prevalence draws attackers like bees to pollen, see the IEEE article “When Malware Attacks (Anything but Windows).” One popular technology ripe for exploitation in social network applications is the “mashup.” (Wikipedia: “A mashup is a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or many more external sources to create a new service.”) From the perspective of an application provider such as Google, mashups allow their applications—for example, Google Maps—to become more widely used and embedded within other new applications, like Yelp or the iPhone operating system. However, as we’ll soon see, attackers have also been using mashups to their advantage. Summary (via McAfee Research Blog) Access Full Text Report/White Paper: Social Networking Apps Pose Surprising Security Challenges (6 pages; PDF) Source: McAfee Labs (Source: ResourceShelf) Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:11:08 +0100 858978 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TravelinLibrarian/~3/N7eqqqcIs3E/ Here’s a list of the Apps I’ve installed on my Android device. Aldiko http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.aldiko.android Amazon http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.amazon.mShop.android App Referrer http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.drathus.android.appreferer Audible http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.audible.android.app Backgrounds http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.stylem.wallpapers Barcode Scanner http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.google.zxing.client.android Bookmarking for Delicious.com http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:org.peterbaldwin.client.android.delicious Borders Reader http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.kobobooks.bordersus.android Boxee Remote http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.sunilsadasivan.Boxee Bubble Burst Free http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.androgames.BubbleBurst Chess http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.google.android.chess ConnecToo Demo http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:sk.halmi.connectoodemo demoPlayer http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:org.freecoder.android.cmplayer DockRunner http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.activefrequency.android.dockrunner Documents To Go http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.dataviz.docstogo doubleTwist http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer Dropbox http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.dropbox.android eReader http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.ereader.android.fictionwise ES File Explorer http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.estrongs.android.pop ES Task Manager http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.estrongs.android.taskmanager Evernote http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.evernote FCC Speed Test http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.ookla.fccbroadband Foursquare http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com. ... Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:30:46 +0100 858396 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/07/short-notes-on-bob-sutton-webinar.html I registered and listened to the webinar featuring Bob Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No Asshole Rule (which I read. You can find my note on it here). Besides the fact that I happen to find the work interesting, I think that some of what Mr. Sutton writes is very applicable to librarianship. Plus, the webinar was free. These are then my notes from the presentation.From the presentation's opening:"Some things are still a mystery to me, and others are much too clear." --Jimmy Buffett. The quote was used to open the presentation.One mystery to Mr. Sutton is how to do a good performance evaluation. I will say that it is a mystery to me as well. In fact, Sutton has blogged on that very topic. He said during the presentation that, overall, the academic literature on the topic is not very encouraging, but that you can find some stuff on questions to use that may be good.Effective leaders are self-obsessed without being egomaniacs. The effective leaders think about what they do because they have chosen to be concerned with how they come across to others. The problem is that bosses are usually very oblivious to their subordinates. The good bosses are less oblivious. In the meantime, the subordinates are hyper-focused on the boss. Bosses, or those who are promoted to management, often face the problem of power poisoning. The power poisoning is evident in patterns such as the boss only focusing on his own needs and concerns and in acting as if the rules did not apply to him.Bosses who focus on who they lead tend to be better bosses.Some themes: Sutton discussed the following themes:Assertiveness. Good bosses are moderately assertive. They know when to push and when to back off, which is an art. I will say that it can be an art that a good number of library administrators fail to achieve. Sutton suggests that assertiveness is more important than charisma. The best management is sometimes no management at all. ... Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 858151 http://ksulib.typepad.com/genref/2010/07/teaching-through-virtual-reference.html At ALA 2009 I saw Megan Oakleaf talk about a fascinating study in which she and her co-investigators coded IM reference transactions for the presence of 8 different instructional strategies. I am happy to see that she and Amy VanScoy have published this research in RUSAQ.  I highly recommend this article as required reading for everyone who provides virtual reference service. If nothing else, please look at the table of instructional strategies on page 384 and then try incorporating them into your virtual reference interactions (note: Jing is a great way to achieve strategy 3 "show, don't tell."). Oakleaf, Megan, and Amy VanScoy. "Instructional Strategies for Digital Reference: Methods to Facilitate Student Learning." Reference & User Services Quarterly 49.4 (2010): 380-390. If you have other ideas about how to implement the strategies, please share via commenting. (Source: K-State Libraries: General Reference) Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:01:56 +0100 859031 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/07/07/new-report-and-statistics-mobile-internet-2010-overall-usage-up-data-usage-sees-dramatic-growth/ A new report by Aaron Smith, “Mobile Internet, 2010″ from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The numbers show mobile usage (both voice and data) continues to boom in the U.S. From On Overview: Cell phone and wireless laptop internet use have each grown more prevalent over the last year. + Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009) + 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009). + This means that 59% of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone—that is, they answered “yes” to at least one of these wireless access pathways. That adds up to an increase from the 51% who used a laptop or cell phone wirelessly in April 2009. Data Applications The use of non-voice data applications on cell phones has grown dramatically over the last year. Compared with a similar point in 2009, cell phone owners are now more likely to use their mobile phones to: + Take pictures—76% now do this, up from 66% in April 2009 + Send or receive text messages—72% vs. 65% + Access the internet—38% vs. 25% + Play games—34% vs. 27% + Send or receive email—34% vs. 25% + Record a video—34% vs. 19% + Play music—33% vs. 21% + Send or receive instant messages—30% vs. 20% User Groups African-Americans and English-speaking Latinos continue to be among the most active users of the mobile web. Cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87% vs. 80%) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of their phones’ features compared with white mobile phone users. In total, 64% of African-Americans access the internet from a laptop or mobile phone, a seven-point increase from the 57% who did so at a similar point in 2009. ... Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:36:19 +0100 857681 http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/07/disability-sports-showcase-at-public.html Overheard: "Daddy, daddy, these are sports played by the disabled!"More like the 'Abled', I wanted to tell her. Yesterday, on 3 Jul 2010, the Public Libraries held a Disability Sports Showcase at Woodlands Regional Library. The event, organised by my Public Libraries colleagues, was in partnership with by Special Olympics Singapore and Handicaps Welfare Association and a few other sponsors From the NLB Press Release, 3 Jul 2010:Besides enabling library users to browse the wide collection of resources on topics related to disability and sports, the event also provided a platform for the participants to engage in disability sports demonstrations of bocce, floor hockey and other sports competed at the Special Olympics.A sharing session at the Disability Sports Showcase was held with athletes from Special Olympics Singapore, their family members and Ms Hanako Sawayama, an athlete with the Special Olympics for 17 years. Together, they shared their experiences on disability sports as well as the positive impact of reading on their lives. Ms Sawayama is also a Special Olympics' International Global Messenger who travels the world to speak about the Games.In the auditorium, the library's Junior Reading Ambassadors performing a skit, adapted from Robin Pulver's book, "Way to go, Alex!":NLBsearchplus There was also a prize-giving ceremony for the winners of the Design-A-Card Game contest (details of this card game is in the later part of this post):SPECIAL OLYMPICS SPORTS SHOWCASEThis was the highlight of the day; the reason why the event was organised. One of the main aim was to educate the general public that people need not be excluded from sports because of their disabilities The game of Floor Hockey was one of the Special Olympics sport being exhibited: This was Bocce:This was a demonstration of a Badminton training exercise, to develop the player's footwork and psycho-motor skills. ... Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 856947 http://jmrl.blogspot.com/2010/06/book-review_30.html The City of EmberBy Jeanne DuPrauThe year is 241. An underground city, built to ensure the survival of the human race after a great catastrophe on Earth, is slowly disintegrating. The inhabitants of the city cower in fear as the lights above begin to flicker, sometimes going out and plunging the city in complete darkness. The canned food is running low, causing hunger within every home, and the Generator, which keeps every light in the city burning, is slowly beginning to fail. People are afraid to think of what could happen to them if all the lights of the city go out forever.12-year-old Lina, a city messenger, and her determined friend Doon, a Pipeworks laborer, discover an old box with a torn piece of paper within. Together, the two study the piece of paper to find instructions that may lead them out of the underground city, and save them and the rest of the inhabitants of Ember from a dark and dangerous future...I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic book tremendously. The characters and the city in which they lived seemed very real. The book was hard to put down, as there was always a surprise around the corner. I'd recommend this book to anyone!Rating: *****Review by Raven, grade 10 (Source: JMRL Young Adult Services) Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 856661 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoblinCartoons/~3/x8InhreZkLE/ I recently decided to take a hiatus from the Library Society of the World. I’ve got a lot going on in my personal life (that I don’t really feel like talking about here) (but in case anyone’s worried, let me reassure you, it’s good stuff, not bad), plus a lot going on at work, and the LSW was starting to feel like work, not play. So, I decided to step back and take a break. We’ll see how long that break actually lasts, though, because just after I declared my hiatus, the superhuman Laura Crossett took it upon herself to upgrade the LSW site to WordPress 3.0 and install BuddyPress. The LSW site is now a fully-functioning social site! You can create your own profile, send private messages to other members, create groups, post to the forums–it’s really awfully cool! I sincerely hope people take advantage of the site in the same way they’ve taken advantage of FriendFeed, the original LSW wiki, Twitter and Meebo–to make and build professional and personal connections. And since the new site is a lot more fun, I may come back from my hiatus sooner than I’d originally thought. (Source: the goblin in the library) Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:37:08 +0100 855851 http://www.cla-net.org/weblog/2010/06/san_jose_slis_a_2.php Use of text messaging is skyrocketing, and our nation's libraries are starting to explore new ways to tap into this increasingly popular communication platform to connect with their patrons. Dr. Lili Luo, an assistant professor with the San Jose School of Library and Information Science, will conduct the first in-depth research regarding how libraries can meet their patron's information-seeking needs via text messaging. Thanks to a $122,683 grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Luo will conduct a two-year study of how libraries can use text messaging as a platform for providing virtual reference services, as well as how they can collaboratively deliver services and expand their ability to meet patron needs during challenging economic times. . Engaging a New Generation of Library Users: Exploring a Multi-Library Collaborative Model to Deliver Text Reference Service will investigate how text reference service is different from other types of virtual reference services (such as email and instant messaging) and how it can fulfill users' information needs. Luo will also study whether text reference provides an opportunity for libraries to engage new users, including our nation's teens - the fastest growing group of individuals using text messaging. Luo will study the rich pool of data available via InfoQuest, the nation's first large-scale collaboration by numerous libraries to provide text reference services. Launched in July 2009 by Alliance Library System, today more than 60 libraries from multiple states participate in InfoQuest. They include a wide array of library types, including urban, suburban, and rural libraries, small and large libraries, and public, academic, school, and law libraries. ... Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:03:00 +0100 855648 http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/06/if-you-want-to-reach-students-forget-email-better-text.html A new Ball State University study indicates that text messaging has far eclipsed e-mail and instant messaging as college  (Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian) Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 854271 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/20/ronald-neame-obituary Producer, director and cinematographer of many well-loved British film classics, including Oliver Twist, Tunes of Glory and The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieThe producer, director, writer and cinematographer Ronald Neame, who has died aged 99, played an important role in British cinema for more than half a century. The critic Matthew Sweet once called him "a living embodiment of cinema, a sort of one-man world heritage site". Neame was assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie; he was the cinematographer on In Which We Serve (1942), Noël Coward's moving tribute to the Royal Navy during the second world war; he co-produced and co-wrote David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946); and he directed Alec Guinness in two of his best roles, in The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Tunes of Glory (1960). As if this wasn't enough, Neame also conquered Hollywoo d with one of the first and most successful disaster movies, The Poseidon Adventure (1972).Neame came from a film-making family. His father, Elwin, was a well-known photographer who directed four films starring Ronald's mother, Ivy Close. She acted in dozens of silent pictures, including Abel Gance's innovative La Roue (The Wheel, 1923), of which Jean Cocteau pronounced: "There is cinema before and after La Roue, as there is painting before and after Picasso." Although none of Ronald Neame's films could claim as much, cinema was part of his DNA. "You could say I was really born in a film studio," he explained. "My mother was making a film up to six weeks before I was born ... She took me on the set when I was just two or three months old, rather proudly."His father was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1923, and around this time his mother withdrew from acting, so Neame left school aged 15 to find work. His first job was as an office boy with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. ... Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:38:00 +0100 853607 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=ldquoThe_Mask_Messengerrdquo_performance_at_Hilo_Public_Library_Tuesday_--- Faustwork Mask Theatre's "The Mask Messenger" will be a featured performer for the 2010 HSPLS Children's and Teen Summer Reading Programs at six sele (Source: pligg - all) Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:00:21 +0100 852015 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/06/09/e-records-should-be-treated-same-as-paper/ The Law Society of Upper Canada is having a teleseminar at noon today entitled “The New Guide to File Retention and File Destruction.” I’m one of the speakers – talking about issues relating to electronic records. One of the fundamental principles of electronic records from a records retention and destruction perspective, is that electronic records should be retained and destroyed on the same schedule as paper records. As I was thinking about the issues, it occurred to me that if I had to hazard a guess, I suspect many law firms, and many businesses for that matter, have not come to grips with this yet.  The reason is simple.  Take the period of time a file is active, then add to that the time a closed file should be retained. (The LSUC suggests 15 years for typical files.)  Then consider how long electronic records have been around in a significant quantity.   We are just now coming to a time when law firms might have a significant amount of electronic records in addition to paper files.  Certainly word processing and email have been around for more than 15 years, but in the early years the only thing that was kept was the paper.  Personally, my viewpoint is that the electronic versions (word documents, email, images, faxes, collaboration tools, instant messaging, etc.) of documents are the real, original documents. The paper versions are just a physical manifestation of those records. (Source: Slaw) Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:49:56 +0100 852297 http://opaltraining.blogspot.com/2010/06/whats-new-9-june-2010.html Top tools to create digital books Mixbook http://www.mixbook.com  The best site for creating a book to either share with others digitally or order in the form of hard copy. Also, educators can create student accounts for better management.1.      BookRix http://www.bookrix.com/  One of the best sites for advertising your digital book; very user-friendly, and a nice free social environment.2.      Book Builder http://bookbuilder.cast.org/  Use this site to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.3.      PDF Flash http://www.pdfflash.com/  Upload a PDF to create a professional-looking free Flash-based digital book.4.      MyPublisher http://mypublisher.com/products/classic  Free software that allows users to create colourful photo or digital books.5.      Tabblo http://tabblo.com/studio  Create a user account to make digital books with photos.6.      SmileBooks http://www.smilebooks.com/  Create beautiful storybooks online or download their software to store on your hard drive.7.      Blurb http://www.blurb.com/  Site for making photo books to order.  What is Web 3.0? Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.“Burst the bounds of any physical library.”http://vimeo.com/11529540 Overdrive app for iPhoneOverdrive finally launched its app for the iPhone and it‘s free.  Overdrive already has apps for Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. ... Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 851162 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/05/sue-arnold-audiobook-reviews Sue Arnold's audiobook choiceThe Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, written and read by Philip Pullman (3½hrs unabridged, Canongate, £16.99)If you've read His Dark Materials, Pullman's action-packed trilogy about alternate worlds, witchcraft, armoured bears and the powers of darkness (and if you haven't you should, but make sure it's the original unabridged BBC version read by the author), you won't need reminding that he's a brilliant storyteller. True to form, his version of the gospels has credulous Mary being impregnated by a local lad posing as a divine messenger and later giving birth to twins, Jesus and his sickly younger brother, Christ. Jesus is totally straightforward. He knows he's the son of God but he doesn't do celebrity or miracles to make his point. When his disciples tell him that 5,000 people need feeding, he says, don't worry – he's got some bread, and people always have some dried fish or a few raisins in their pockets. And he's right. Christ, on the other hand, is complex, tormented, scheming. While he recognises his brother's divine mission, he knows that without a few flashy crowd-pulling signs and wonders – throwing yourself off a crag in the wilderness, say, on to the rocks below and surviving – the public won't buy it. He's right, too, of course. Ever well-intentioned, Christ assumes the Judas role, betrays his big brother, fixes the resurrection, tweaks the historical record he has been keeping of Jesus's life for a mysterious stranger, and then goes home and settles down to married life. Clever and thought-provoking – but give me Serafina Pekkala every time.Mark's Gospel, read by Peter Wickham (2hrs unabridged, St Mark's Press, £12.99)This is the real thing, untweaked, written circa AD65 by a close friend of St Peter, Jesus's key disciple. ... Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:05:54 +0100 849715 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibrariansMatter/~3/BWaxvXGRQUY/ A library’s role is not to supress ideas – not matter how dangerous or loony I may believe those ideas to be, nor how wrong I think they are. That is why I support the State Library of Western Australia’s decision to provide a venue for a talk from people of the Anti-Vaccination Network on Tuesday 1 June. I do not agree with the claim on the Sceptic’s Book of Pooh Pooh that the State Library CEO, Margaret Allen was putting the health of WA children at further risk.. I think they are shooting the messenger. My tiny, fragile baby boy stopped breathing for over a minute as I was breastfeeding him on the day I took him home from hospital. We had waited for three weeks to take him home after he was born 2 months premature, so it was a huge shock to hear from the doctors that they suspected that he had whooping cough. Tiny babies with whooping cough don’t cough, just turn blue and stop breathing. After a couple more months in hospital we took him home, but that experience clarified for me – vaccinating our children is a community issue. When a parent decides not to vaccinate they are not making a choice just for their own kids, but for mine as well. There is overwhelming good science supporting the health benefits of vaccination and I think it is a selfish and shallow to not vaccinate. I have many other personal beliefs. I choose a mainly vegetarian diet for my own health and the health of the planet. I do not believe in an afterlife. I think depictions of violence that permeate our popular culture desensitizes people and begets more violence. I think that anyone who eats beetroot is slightly addled. When I go to work as a librarian, those beliefs come with me – however a key part of my job is providing access to ideas that are in direct conflict to what I believe is right for myself and for my society. ... Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:00:22 +0100 850242 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/Sts_RfMde10/2929-using-encrypted-google-search.html If you want to test Google’s new encrypted search, go to https://www.google.com instead of the regular http://www.google.com (note the “s” in https). You will see the familiar Google home page logo with SSL at the top. Google notes that SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that helps provide secure Internet communications for services like web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers. When you search over SSL, your search queries and search traffic are encrypted so they can’t be read by employers and internet service providers. Google SSL also turns off the referrer information in your browser, meaning you provide less information to the destination site you visit. The site you go to cannot see the search engine query you used at Google to find them (unless they are using cookies to track this information). Google SSL may be a little slower than the regular search. It does not support map and image search yet. A World of Friends! SMX East: NYC Oct 5-7 Click Here for Agenda! (Source: Pandia Search Engine News) Sun, 30 May 2010 12:59:39 +0100 849060 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/29/iain-sinclair-richard-mabey-rereading In the early 1970s, Richard Mabey walked around London and its suburbs, charting the 'unofficial countryside'. Iain Sinclair salutes a groundbreaking studyThis is a beautiful title, The Unofficial Countryside. And it was timely and pertinent, too, back in 1973. How did I miss, first time around, book that linked, at a single stroke, burgeoning bureaucracy and the threatened pastoral of whatever lay beyond the city's horizon? Richard Mabey identified so neatly the transitional quality of unwritten places where slightly bemused survivors of the 60s, pocketing their battered copies of Food for Free, found themselves labouring at the dawn of a harsher era.Prompted by 8mm film diaries, I remember the bright moments of my rock-bottom employment, loading and unloading containers by the railway yards in Stratford East in the early 70s. The site is presently occupied by the emerging Westfield supermall, the only confirmed legacy of the 2012 Olympics. Leaking warehouses, which had been stacked with the cargoes of the world, in an attempt to circumvent the restrictive practices of the dying docks, the power of the dockers' unions, were known to the workforce as Chobham Farm. Chobham Farm, Angel Lane. When Angel Cottage, a rustic gem festooned in creepers and blooms, disappeared overnight as part of the great redevelopment package, I cried out, in my ignorance, for a small portion of the precision and lightly worn scholarship with which The Unofficial Countryside had been mapped. Without a proper accounting of loss, these acts are final: not a scratch on our consciousness when the listed building is replaced by a loud nothing, protected by a corrugated fence and a battery of surveillance cameras. No record has been left behind of our shame in failing to resist. And no memorial, in Mabey's direct and effective prose, to the processes of weather, the complex entanglements of predatory humans and indifferent nature. ... Fri, 28 May 2010 23:06:33 +0100 847835 http://sites.menashalibrary.org/2010/05/28/library-productivity-with-the-ipad/ Image via Wikipedia I have loved my iPad since it first came out of the intricate Apple box and wrapper.  I use it every day for so many things.  It does a lot very well, including movies through Netflix, games and weather.  But I’d like to focus on what I use it for at work.  First, a caveat.  I am not suggesting that an iPad can replace your desktop or laptop. It can’t.  But it can make things easier at times. I especially like using my iPad at meetings and conferences.  It fits on my lap, doesn’t give off any heat, and lets me sit in a variety of postures unlike my laptop.  I can type with one hand, two hands, two thumbs.  Let’s talk apps.  These are the ones I use for library-related work: WordPress – this blogging app allows me to easily blog directly from a conference.  It does have limitations.  One concern is how limited it is for image integration, but for typing up conference notes, it works just fine.  The keyboard is more easy to use than one might think.  I compare the typing style to high-kicking because you can’t rest your fingers on the keys or it types.  It’s much more about floating above than other keyboards. FeeddlerRSS – I use this app to keep up with my RSS feeds.  It synchs with Google Reader and marks things read there as you read them.  You can share articles via email with one click, making it very functional. AIM – Connect to AOL Instant Messenger via your iPad.  This is the IM client we use at the library, so I just use this one on my iPad.  Other IM clients are available as well.  Strangely, my AIM continues to run in the background after I visit it and will alert me to any messages I receive even when I am in another app.  TweetDeck – I use this client on my desktop already, so it was natural to turn to it as an app. ... Fri, 28 May 2010 04:00:00 +0100 848150 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/bUiPC7OBJYA/ The last few weeks have just seemed crazy to me – lots of events, new folk to meet, some incredibly stimulating conversations and a seemingly incessant flow of announcements that might actually mean something coming in over the interwebs. Picking up email as I was leaving the OU last night, I spotted an invite to today’s launch of a reversioned BBC iPLayer. I couldn’t make it down/up to London today, but the press release, #iplayer twitter coverage, live blogs and BBC blogs [UPDATE: another here], as well as the thing itself – http://beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ (or in mobile form, http://beta.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/) kept me more than entertained. One thing that’s kept coming to mind over this period has been the changing nature of TV viewing. Considering my own TV viewing through the main “living room screen”, it’s now split pretty much into thirds: one third live TV from the four analogue terrestrial channels we can receive (BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel4); one third DVD box sets; one third iPLayer on Nintendo Wii, (which personally is to say: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and BBC Parliament). NB my iPlayer on the Wii viewing tends not to be between 8pm and 9.15pm when for whatever reason buffering and dropouts disrupt viewing to such an extent that programmes are pretty much unwatchable. maybe it’s a local bandwidth problem, or maybe it’s a BBC problem…? [Source: BBC iStats] (Thinking back a couple of years, the split used to be split 2/5 live TV, 2/5 HDD recordings, 1/5 video; but then the HDD broke and I replaced it with a cheap one with such an unusable interface we never bother with it anymore, except as a DVD player.) I think it would be safe to say that if 4oD or the ITV Player were available on the Wii, we’d watch ITV and Channel 4 content on it… Same for Channel 5 (maybe?!). ... Wed, 26 May 2010 11:02:05 +0100 848353 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/_tcssQdXUmA/ While many libraries, both public and academic, have implemented digital resources for their patrons in bits and pieces, I would argue that now is the time for libraries to work on putting together a comprehensive digital branch approach, offering millions of books, millions of newspapers and magazines, and open acess 24/7.   Given the facts of mass digitization of titles, free-to-use API’s,  and social sharing of resources, the digital library branch is a reality that can be implemented.  Here’s how…. Every library needs a place to start, so our digital branch will be created on a branch of the current library web site or freely created with resources such as Google Sites or Weebly.  Using graphics from the main library site or recreating them from open-source, public domain photos and artwork, it would take only a short time to get going. Secondly, we’ll need resources.  Since our branch is geared towards eReaders such as you and I,  let’s incorporate the top three sites to get started on our book resources: Google Books The Internet Archive Hathi Trust Rounding out the top three resources, we could also implement the ManyBooks catalog, Feedbooks catalog and others.  Highlighting these selections, we bring in additional illustrations and book covers through the use of the Google Book Bar and embed options from the Internet Archive.  If our digital collections have a special focus, then inserting the actual titles in our site through Google Books could help bring to attention special collections such as science fair, genealogy and/or gov. document titles. But our library is more than historical fiction and bestsellers, we should also implement newspaper and magazine resources.  First up for this would be the Google News Archive.  While the resources are small, there are lots of ways to incorporate this into our branch. ... Mon, 24 May 2010 16:26:39 +0100 846628