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 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:52:18 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://bibliotequices.blogspot.com/2010/03/cdu-para-oscares-2010.html Ficam aqui as notações base da classificação CDU para as obras nomeadas este ano (embora alguns tenham de ter mais que uma notação).791.221.25 Comédia negraA Serious Man (2009, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)In the Loop (2009, Armando Iannucci)791.221.4 Melodrama/RomancePrecious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)Up in the Air  (2009, Jason Reitman)Crazy Heart (2009, Scott Cooper) A Single Man (2009, Tom Ford)Julie & Julia (2009, Nora Ephron)The Messenger (2009, Oren Moverman)Nine (2009, Rob Marshall)Faubourg 36 (2008,  Christophe Barratier)791.221.5 Thriller. Suspense. CrimeInglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino, Lee Daniels) The Lovely Bones (2009, Peter Jackson) Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009, Michael Haneke) 791.221.5:343.123.12 Filme de detectives Sherlock Holmes (2009, Guy Ritchie)791.221.8  FantasiaThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009, Terry Gilliam)Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009, David Yates)791.221.8-311.9 Ficção CientíficaAvatar (2009): James CameronDistrict 9 (2009, Neill Blomkamp)Star Trek (2009, J.J. Abrams) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009, Michael Bay) 791.222  Filme de guerraThe Hurt Locker (2008, Kathryn Bigelow)791.224 Filme históricoThe Last Station (2009, Michael Hoffman)791.227 Biografias ficcionadasAn Education (2009, Lone Scherfig)The Blind Side (2009, John Lee Hancock)The Young Victoria (2009, Jean-Marc Vallée) Il divo (2008, Paolo Sorrentino)Coco avant Chanel  (2009, Anne Fontaine)Bright Star (2009, Jane Campion) 791.227.1 Baseados em histórias verdadeiras. Filmes inspirados em.Invictus (2009, Clint Eastwood)791.228 Animação. Banda desenhadaUp (2009, Pete Docter)The Princess and the Frog (2009,  Ron Clements, John Musker)Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson) Coraline (2009, Henry Selick)The Secret of Kells (2009, Tomm Moore)791.229. ... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100 825005 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/03/05/milestones-twitter-crosses-50-billion-tweet-mark/ From the Wall Street Journal: …The Journal’s Numbers Guy, Carl Bialik, reminded us recently that these “milestone” numbers don’t mean much. Some might want to believe that the content of the 10 billionth iTunes download last week indicates the enduring power of the classics like Johnny Cash. But that doesn’t change the fact that the top iTunes song of all time is by the Black Eyed Peas. The speed with which the tweet milestone was reached, however, does indicate that Twitter is still growing. The microblogging service said recently that it sees 50 million tweets per day, up from 2.5 million about a year ago. From The Guardian: Sadly, you can’t see the 10 billionth because it was from a user who protects his or her tweets. Twitter’s numbers are, of course, still relatively small compared to the sort of traffic hitting really popular sites such as YouTube and Facebook. Windows Live Messenger runs around 10bn “tweets” per day. See Also: Want to Keep-Up With the Number of Tweets, Up to the Second? Check out GigaTweet. (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:10:12 +0100 823883 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/03/article-note-on-assessing-promotion-of.html Citation for the article:Sobel, Karen, "Promoting Library Reference Services to First-Year Undergraduate Students: What Works?" Reference and User Services Quarterly 48.4 (2009): 362-371.Read via Academic Search Complete (EBSCO).I continue my look at some articles on reference assessment that I started over here and continues here. This one seemed relevant to me given the work I do as an outreach librarian where a good part of my job is promoting the library. When it comes to promotion for undergraduates, it is something I try to do in collaboration with our instruction librarian when it is feasible. Sobel's article explores three things. First, it looks at how aware are undergraduate students when it comes to reference services. Second, it asks what percentage of those students seek help from reference librarians. Third, the author asks about what online media the students find comfortable to use in communicating with the reference librarians. I think that last question could have been explored a bit further. It certainly can be explored further now given the ubiquity of services like Facebook and Twitter. That would be something I would be interested in especially since we do have a Facebook page for the library, and we use Meebo chat widgets in our subject guides. I know the study took place in 2007, according to the article, when things like Facebook (it opened to everyone in 2006) and Twitter (also founded in 2006) were still gaining ground, but I guess the fact I can ask the question just shows how quickly things have changed. By the way, Meebo was launched in 2005, and the widgets we use in 2006. I guess I am just saying if I was expanding this type of assessment, I would want more on how social networking is used by the library to reach students.The article opens with a brief summary of promotional techniques that libraries commonly use such as flyers and online links to chat services, things that I will note we do her as well. ... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:30:00 +0100 824192 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/n_n.html The Library of Congress has the webcast by Michelle Thaller Galileo: 400 Years of the Telescope.In 1609, Galileo constructed the first powerful telescope and started observing the heavens, which led to many monumental discoveries. He published his initial findings on the moon and the stars in 1610 in a brief treatise titled "Sidereus Nuncius" ("Starry Messenger"). An original printing of this publication is held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. NASA scientist Michelle Thaller discusses "Galileo: 400 Years of the Telescope." This illustrated lecture, the first in a series of programs in 2010, is presented through a partnership between the Library's Science, Technology and Business Division and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.It lasts 65 minutes. (Source: New) Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:25:35 +0100 823814 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/careers/view_job_specific.php?job_id=6957 State: South Carolina www.myrcpl.com Vacancy # 10IS-0215 Location: Information Services Department, Main Library, 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201. Schedule: Full-time; 37.5 hours/week, including one evening per week and every third weekend. 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 Business/Science/Technology Reference, as well as in all other Information Services Departments (General 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. ... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:50:02 +0100 822590 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ohiou/dxIf/~3/HlHsc0_smpU/ Yesterday I posted a video that I made for business students. I also tweeted about it, then our library picked it up on Twitter, which was then picked up by the Ohio University Twitter account. This morning, when I opened my instant messaging client, this is what I received: Very, very cool.  To the alum, thanks so much for stopping by and making my morning. Share This (Source: Business Blog) Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:27:56 +0100 822526 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/KHnj/~3/qYlP8ybicqA/ This interview was conducted via email in  Summer, 2009 just  after Jack Matthews’ 84th birthday.  Throughout  the process, Matthews had  a lot of fun with it:  answers were sometimes full of deliberate misspellings and archaic contractions.  After I assembled his answers into a  rough draft (where I replaced  ampersands in his answers  with the spelled out word  “and”),  Matthews protested;  punctuation was for him a religious matter; I later learned he had once published  an essay “Philosophy of the Comma” to explore (among other things) the question of whether the “frequency of semi-colons in a prose text is a clear and accurate measure of the author’s intelligence.”  Sometimes I would be disconcerted by the superficiality  of an  answer   (only to   learn later that he had already  written an essay about the same topic or devoted a chapter to the subject  in his  unpublished 1994 A WORKER’S WRITEBOOK).  This is Part 1 of a 3 part interview. See also: Jack Matthews: An Introduction. The Author and his craft How long does it take a serious writer to learn brevity? Mastery of form? The ability to produce a deep aesthetic enjoyment? This is an interesting question — like the others, indeed, but not as answerable as they. I think one strives to generate meaning as energy; it’s like a demonstration in classical mechanics in physics: we say we are “moved” by a story, for example. So if there is a quantum of meaning expressible in 20 words and you express it in 10, you’ve doubled the power of the sentence. (This quantification is very crude, of course, and doesn’t do justice to the beautiful complexity of a good sentence). You once said, “most stories fail through under-invention. ... Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:52:00 +0100 821798 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/S5FtVgaN-9U/teenage-fiction-death With novels about leukaemia, car crashes and the afterlife topping young adult reading lists, why are teenagers so fascinated by tales of death and dying?An 18-year-old girl who dies in a car crash, only to relive her final day again and again; a 15-year-old who's aging backwards in another dimension after dying in the real world; a dying teenage girl attempting to experience all life has to offer in the months before her death at 16. Undead vampire teenager Edward Cullen – he of the ivory turtleneck sweaters and sparkly skin – might be propelling Stephenie Meyer to the top of the teen reading charts, but a different furrow – in which the teen hero or heroine is actually dead, or dying – is being quietly ploughed by a growing host of young adult writers.Since Susie Salmon, the murdered teenager of Alice Sebold's bestselling novel The Lovely Bones, exploded onto the page in 2002 – "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973" – we've been treated to an abundance of skilfully drawn dead (or dying) teenage protagonists. Jenny Downham wowed critics and readers alike in 2007 with Before I Die, in which 16-year-old Tessa is trying to lose her virginity before she dies of leukaemia. Jay Asher had a word-of-mouth hit the same year with Thirteen Reasons Why, which saw 13 people sent a cassette tape by dead schoolgirl Hannah Baker, detailing the reasons why she committed suicide. Gabrielle Zevin impressed two years earlier with Elsewhere, in which hit-and-run victim Liz Hall, 15, wakes up on a ship to Elsewhere, where inhabitants age in reverse until they return to Earth as babies.And with The Lovely Bones back in the books charts thanks to the release this month of Peter Jackson's film, the trend looks set to continue. ... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:10:12 +0100 821341 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/gALJE4gJLn8/google-apps-highlights-2192010.html This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.Over the last couple of weeks we've been busy adding new functionality to make communicating and sharing with Google Apps easier than ever, whether you use Google Apps for work, for school or at home.Web clipboard for Google DocsAs more and more people are getting work done in the cloud with Google Docs, a common stumbling block has been copying and pasting formatted content between documents, spreadsheets and presentations. On Wednesday we made this a whole lot easier with a web clipboard for Google Docs. Just highlight what you want to copy, select from the web clipboard menu, move to your other Google Docs window and choose what you want to paste from the web clipboard menu. Your pasted content will retain its original formatting so you don't have to spend time reformatting.New saving buttons in Google DocsOne of the most frustrating things about using traditional software is losing your work if something unexpected happens before you remember to save. Google Docs helps solve this problem by frequently saving your latest changes automatically. Still, we've heard from people that they want that extra reassurance that autosave is happening, and to be able to manually save their work more easily. New saving buttons in Google Docs do just that. The buttons let you know when your document is fully saved, in the process of being autosaved or has unsaved changes that haven't been picked up by autosave yet. Now, if there are unsaved changes the "Save now" button is clickable.Google BuzzLast week we launched Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about things you find interesting, like photos, videos, webpages or whatever might be on your mind. Buzz lets you share right from Gmail, or from your mobile phone. ... Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 819993 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryVoice/~3/fiLI-q-n1ks/yes-im-is-still-a-great-way-for-patrons-to-reach-you I work every Monday night. The business students all know that I work every Monday night, as my hours are posted on my Contact Page, and I tell them in every class I teach when I work. So here is what one Monday night looked like a few weeks ago, between 6:00 and 7:30. Busy Night on IM Yep, that’s a lot of IMs. My fingers were going crazy. I was in my office monitoring our general IM/chat reference service, but I also had my own IM open as well. You know what’s funny?  Nearly all of those students were in our group study rooms about 150 feet from my office. They could have just come to my office to ask a question, and actually a few other students did. But these students chose to contact me in a way that worked for them.  Wonder what would happen if I didn’t make myself available via IM?  I would bet that most of those questions would have gone unanswered, and I would have lost a valuable customer.  How are you making yourself available to your patrons? (Source: Library Voice) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:37:39 +0100 819923 http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?p=850 It’s great that the applications we use are so portable.  In fact, some of the apps OPLIN techs use can fit on a thumb drive.  Here are some of their favorites. PortableApps.com Suite™ is a complete collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, anti-virus, audio player, Sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you’re ready to go. Win Patrol allows you to monitor start-up apps and stuff running in the background (such as spyware).  Read more about it and download it here. Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a freeware open source utility that retrieves your Product Key (cd key) used to install Windows from your registry. It allows you to print or save your keys for safekeeping. It works on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007 family of products. It also has a community-updated configuration file that retrieves product keys for many other applications. Another feature is the ability to retrieve product keys from unbootable Windows installations. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to boot from a USB flash drive, but if you can, a great way to get a small, quick Linux install completed is by downloading a Knoppix CD.  The latest version includes recent Linux software and desktop environments. The DVD includes programs such as OpenOffice.org, Abiword, The Gimp, Konqueror, Mozilla, Apache, PHP, MySQL and hundreds of other quality open source programs. Keep those small applications handy for those moments when you least think you’ll need them. Cool fact: There were just too many apps to include in the OPLIN 4Cast. ... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:35:05 +0100 820180 http://www.cla-net.org/weblog/2010/02/triplet_watch_p.php I am the mother of triplets plus one. I am also an attorney who works for the Los Angeles Public Library as a part-time messenger clerk. I have always loved books, music, and other media. The library has always been a favorite place to frequent, and now I get to go there every day, for work. I started with this job so that I could still be available to help my children with homework and pick them up from school. I enjoy working there so much that I decided to apply to library school. I am now in my second semester and wondering "why, oh why, did I think I could so much." What is most interesting is to observe the effect this is having on my children. My four daughters "play" library at home. They even play library when they have their friends over. I have a bookcase filled with books just for them. It is interesting to watch them tell their patron friends how many books they are allowed to check out, or advise which books they might enjoy better, or to tell their friends to use their "library voice" when talking. They even use the dining room as a "community room" and lead art projects. I've also noticed an increase in the amount of books they read, the level of books that they read, and the variety of subjects between them. My oldest triplet enjoys fiction as well as non-fiction books about the weather. My youngest triplet enjoys fiction books about animals as well as non-fiction books about drawing, art, and animals. They are eight years old. My youngest daughter, age six, enjoys reading anything and constantly reads above her grade level, "borrowing" her older sisters' books. My oldest triplet will also grab my graduate books and articles from school and attempt to read those. I must admit, she can pronounce all the words properly, although then we have to grab a dictionary and clear the meanings so she will not go past any misunderstood words. ... Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:37:00 +0100 819525 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/hUw4pXFpEbE/ I can’t remember the exact date when I first took part in a backchannel chat while participating in a virtual event; I guess it must have been a few years back when I first started making use of Lotus Sametime for group chats while at work, back in the early 2000s. The thing is that nowadays (Whether using IM tools, Twitter, Meeting Rooms, whatever) I just can’t live without those backchannel chats, whether I’m attending a team conference call, a virtual event (Seminars, webinars, workshops, presentations, conference events, lectures, etc. etc.) or whatever else. They have remained, over the course of time, an indispensable collaborative tool I just couldn’t do without. Yes, I know, and I fully understand it, since I experienced it myself in the past, I realise that for plenty of folks out there, it may not work out all right altogether, more than anything because of that ever increasing sense of being overwhelmed by the event itself AND the backchannel. Where do you place your attention, right? Can you focus on both tasks at the same time? I mean, paying attention to the event and then the backchannel as well? Quite challenging, indeed! It’s not easy, I agree with that, but in my experience that’s just at the beginning; just till you get the hang out of it; till you have attended a good number of them to make them feel second nature to you. It’s only then when you would be able to see how powerful such backchannel conversations can be to enhance the overall experience of what’s been shared across, and when you are soliciting input with a bunch of team / community members, that’s probably as good as it gets, too! Having everyone on the same page listening to that specific media and giving them an opportunity to expand that user experience by chatting with others is just priceless. ... Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:49:50 +0100 819119 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/TlljuVkWcMk/ Watching the OU/BBC co-produced Virtual Revolution programme over the weekend, with Twitter backchannel enabled around the #bbcrevolution hashtag, I started mulling over the support we give to OU/BBC co-produced broadcast material. Although I went to one of the early planning meetings for the series, where I suggested OU academics participate with elevated rights and credentials on the discussion boards as well as blogging commentary and responses to the production team’s work in progress, I ended up not contributing at all because I took time out for the Arcadia Fellowship; (although I have a scattergun approach to topics I cover, I tend to cover them obsessively – and so didn’t want to risk spending the Arcadia time chasing Virtual Revolution leads!) Anyway, as I watched the broadcast on Saturday, I started wondering about ‘live annotation’ or enrichment of the material as it was broadcast via the backchannel. Although I hadn’t seen a preview of the programme, I have mulled over quite a few of the topics covered by the programme in previous times, so it was easy enough to drop resources in to the twitter feed. So for example, I tweeted a video link to Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, explaining how Google ad auctions work, a tweet that was picked up by one of the production team who was annotating the programme with tweets in real time: I’ve also written a few posts about privacy on this blog (e.g. Why Private Browsing Isn’t… and serendipitously earlier that day Just Because You Don’t Give Your Personal Data to Google Doesn’t Mean They Can’t Acquire It) so I shamelessly plugged those as well. And when mention was made about the AOL release of (anonymised) search data, I dropped in to a post I’d written about that affair at the time, which included links to the original news stories about it (When Your Past Comes to Haunt You). ... Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:23:30 +0100 820021 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infoesfera/~3/KcXlmnMB1sM/ El movimiento ha pasado completamente desapercibido, el mundo estaba demasiado preocupado intentando destripar Google Buzz por esas fechas, o tal vez porque esta opción ya era conocida y estaba disponible desde hacía tiempo, pero desde Facebook se ha realizado un movimiento más para que casi toda la actividad social de los internautas pase por su sitio web (o por sus servicios). El chat de Facebook, un pequeño menú desplegable más molesto que otra cosa que aparecía a pie de página, se ha hecho mayor o al menos va a intentarlo. Desde la semana pasada, es posible acceder a él a través del protocolo Jabber. Es decir, los usuarios pueden utilizarlo de forma abierta como si de un MSN Messenger se tratase, asaltando el escritorio de los internautas. La conversación asíncrona puede llegar a ser síncrona, aunque por supuesto todavía debe pasar un proceso de mejora en el que sea posible filtrar a esos usuarios molestos que aceptamos como integrantes de nuestra red social, pero que realmente tenemos bloqueados y de los que no queremos saber nada. Sin embargo, este servicio es cada vez usado con mayor frecuencia por los usuarios de Facebook, que se detienen a charlar con sus contactos mientras publican y comentan los estados de los mismos. En el mismo momento en que ya no hace falta conocer el correo electrónico concreto de una persona, tan sólo cómo se llama – o se hace llamar – dentro de la Red Social, será posible hablar con ella, socavando los esfuerzos de Microsoft de convertir su Messenger en otra red social. Y es que Facebook y Twitter tienen lo que otros quieren, Google lo sigue intentando tratando de cerrar su asignatura pendiente, mientras Facebook se propone posicionarse también en el escritorio, puede que desarrollando funcionalidades más allá del intercambio de mensajes. ... Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:14:04 +0100 818485 http://vrsig.pbworks.com/IM%20Reference IntroductionUse of instant messaging software for chat reference service. IM software falls into two rough groups: enterprise software and personal software.online home jobs writing site student credit online courses how to write a term paperEnterprise IM SoftwareIBMLotusSametimeFurther ReadingGood, Robin. "Web-Based Instant Messengers: A Mini Guide." Available online. online in in Academic Search Premier)Tucker-Raymond, Caleb. \"Web-BasedChatvs.InstantMessaging\" "Web-BasedChatvs.InstantMessaging" Analyzes an article from Online that weighed in on the software debate in favor of instant messaging (Houghton, Sarah, and Schmidt, Aaron. "Web-Based Chat VS. Instant Messaging." Online, July/Aug 2005, 26-30).Rosenberger, Luke. \"War..WhatIsItGoodFor?\" "War..WhatIsItGoodFor?" Another good blog posting in response to the Houghton/Schmidt article. This one is written by Luke Rosenberger, a librarian who works for Tutor.com.OnlineReference Although this page on the LibSuccess wiki covers more than just IM reference, it is intended to promote it over expensive web contact center software that many libraries are currently using for chat reference services. One notable section of this page is the listoflibrariesusingIMsoftwareforreference.Symantecwhitepaperon\"SecureInstantMessagingSymantecwhitepaperon"SecureInstantMessaging (PDF) (Source: Virtual Reference SIG Wiki) Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:03:41 +0100 818695 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/kHt2jkeX2gs/ One of the topics that I set myself to blog about way back when I first got things started over here a few years ago was surprisingly enough about Work Life Balance (Yes, I know, it doesn’t have much to do with KM, Collaboration, Communities, Learning or Social Computing for that matter… but not to worry, bear with me… ); and that everlasting battle of living both a fruitful and satisfying online and offline life without going crazy along the way. Well, it’s been a long while since I shared a blog post on this topic, so I thought I would spend with you folks today a few minutes talking about it. Because, in my own experience, it’s not about striking a good work life balance, but eventually it’s all about Work Life Integration. This blog entry is inspired by another article that was written a few hours back by my good friend, and former IBM colleague, Alan Lepofsky under the title "Finding The Balance Between Online and Off" and I can certainly recommend it as an interesting and thought-provoking post on what are some of the various different challenges that knowledge workers face today with regards to their own exposure to the online world: The Social Web. Alan questions that, as more and more social networking tools keep flourishing and demanding much more of our attention and that of our various social networks we hang out with online (We can see the latest example with Google Buzz), it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make it work in a balanced way with our offline lives. To the point where, while we may enjoy quite a bit our own online lives, we seem to keep neglecting the offline ones. And that may not be a good thing altogether. Read through his entire post and you will see what I mean… For a good number of years most businesses have been trying to strike that good balance between like and work for each and everyone of their knowledge workers. ... Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:51:37 +0100 818321 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/jT8LVh0EdHc/ After two years, I think that’s probably the first, and last time!, you will see me writing that particular sentence as part of the title of a blog post: "Email Is Dead [...]" or its overall content, for that matter. I know there are some people out there who have been following for a while this initiative of living "A World Without Email" and all along it has looked like as if they would want me to see email go and die a painful death. Well, quite the opposite, I must admit. I have never said that email will die or cease to exist. On the contrary, I think it will be there for many many more moons to come. What I have been postulating all along though is a re-birth of email as a messaging / notification system vs. a content repository of various sorts. And here is the final report for Year 2 of having given up on corporate email. As you may be able to see from the attached weekly progress report, it seems that things have been looking good as well for week #52 with just 19 emails received for that week, thus still right on target for that follow up challenge of 20 emails, or less, received per week that I set at the beginning of the second year: But I guess it’s now a good time to share a couple of thoughts in the shape of a final report on what that second year has been like up to this point and share across as well some statistics that I am sure most of you would find interesting and relevant. The first year of "Thinking Outside the Inbox" I received a total number of 1,647 emails, which is an average of 32 emails per week, with a high peak of 60 emails received in a single week and with the lowest peak being at 3 emails for one week as well. ... Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:24:13 +0100 817018 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.education.web4lib/15754 " *Virtual Reference Competencies: Technical, Communications, and Reference Skills and Knowledge" (6 week course)* An ACRL E-Learning Seminar - February 15 through March 26, 2010 Registration is now open on the ACRL E-Learning site: http://www.acrl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/elearning/courses/virtualref.cfm Course Description: The technical competencies essential or desirable for virtual reference librarians to acquire or to improve on are the foundation of virtual reference service provision. Virtual reference service is built on a technical infrastructure. The Internet, the World Wide Web, e-mail, Web chat, Instant Messaging, and all the associatedsupportive technology and software are the environment in which virtual reference librarians work. In "Virtual Reference Competencies: Acquire and Improve Technical Skills and Knowledge," participants will engage in learning activities, supported by readings as well as lecture and discussion to acquire and improve the technical competencies re (Source: gmane.education.web4lib) Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 816671 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/yIcyOs3yo1k/steven-poole-non-fiction-choice The enlightenment, ethics and 'the flying crapper'In Defence of the Enlightenment, by Tzvetan Todorov, translated by Gila Walker (Atlantic, £16.99)The Enlightenment is a more nuanced set of (unachieved) ideas than is often supposed; as Todorov emphasises here, "the thinking was multiple, not one". Hume and Rousseau did not share Turgot and Lessing's "faith in a mechanical march to perfection"; indeed, the notion that this idea was central is one of many "distortions" of the period. Nor did the Enlightenment engender the industrialised killing of the 20th century; and "scientism" (the idea that the world is completely knowable, and that such knowledge transparently reveals ideal political arrangements) is an "enemy" not an "avatar" of the Enlightenment. Throughout, Todorov employs the very effective device of calling in 18th-century thinkers as critics, implicitly, of our own time; and he offers provocative diagnoses, such as that human-rights discourse is "the excessive domination of the good over truth". The book's villain is De Sade (damned rather weedily for running against "common sense", although of course Hume did so too); its heroes include Kant, Montaigne and Beccaria, and in particular the mathematician and political philosopher Condorcet, who asked readers to imagine "a troop of audacious hypocrites" gaining power and ruling through misinformation, exercising tyranny "under the mask of liberty". Obviously, that would never happen.Conversations on Ethics, by Alex Voorhoeve (Oxford, £18.99)The Enlightenment crops up again here, as the origin of some philosophical confusions Bernard Williams assumes we have about the concept of an individual, as he explains to the author in an Oxonian semi-darkness. ... Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:07:09 +0100 815676 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/02/05/new-from-yahoo-its-the-yahoo-mobile-blog/ You can access the new blog at: http://ymobileblog.com/. The first post, an overview of what’s to come, is by Irv Henderson, VP of Global Mobile Products. From the Blogs First Post: We plan to make this site a resource for those of you interested in staying on top of what’s new with our products, consumer experiences, and the mobile business in general. You can expect to learn about new product launches and enhancements, quick tips and tricks, our take on market trends, and predictions for where we see the market is heading. Yahoo! is a leader in the mobile industry. We’ve developed best-in-class services, such as Search, Mail, and Messenger across thousands of mobile devices, and launched apps on multiple platforms for various phones, including iPhone and BlackBerry. We reach millions of people daily, and our Mobile Homepage is available in more than 30 countries. By designing simple, open, and feature-rich services that harness the unique attributes of mobile devices, we focus on providing better mobile experiences that are engaging and personally relevant to users like you, enabling you to connect to your world at anytime, anywhere. So what’s to come in 2010? Three developments will play a key role in shaping the mobile industry: Powerful browsers, the OS as a launching pad, and local content. Source: Yahoo Mobile Blog, Yahoo Anecdotal (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:39:35 +0100 815541 http://blog.njla.org/archives/2010/02/#000672 nj.com By Amanda Peterka / Messenger-Gazette February 04, 2010, 2:28PM George PaccielloIt's the friendly and helpful staff, including longtime reference librarian Jim Sommerville, that makes Somerville Library special, patrons say. But some look forward to also having access to county library programs and materials.SOMERVILLE — As part of Mayor Brian Gallagher’s plan for leaner government in the borough, Somerville is exploring whether its library should become the ninth branch in the county library system. The idea has been tossed around for years, but this time Gallagher has formed a board to weigh all aspects of the decision and come up with a yes or no answer. The mayor expects the board, made up of what he termed a “good cross-section of folks” — library board members, council members, borough employees and residents — to come up with an analysis of possible savings to the borough and effects on current library employees and services provided. “It’s a hot-button topic,” Gallagher said. “It’s been talked about in the past, but unfortunately it’s been broached as more of a political discussion. The time we’re in now is forcing it to be an economic and service question as opposed to a political question.” If the board decides that becoming a county library branch is a good idea, it will recommend the move to Borough Council. In 2006, Bound Brook became the most recent addition to the county’s library system. “We did a lot of training,” said Somerset County Library System Director Jim Hecht about getting the Bound Brook Library staff familiar with personnel and operating policies. Evelyn Silverstein, head of the commission that oversees the county system, said that sometimes it can be a tedious and costly process to switch over because all of a municipal library’s items need to be added to the central database. Hecht, however, gave an example of long-term cost savings. ... Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 817177 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Online_Roundup_%AB_SLK_News Wednesday's Programs include: WordPress for Library 2.0 and Beyond Implementing Reliable Instant Messaging at Your Library Funding for Broadband: Ind (Source: pligg - all) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:00:34 +0100 814778 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/IsUY1CXK2VQ/ It has been nearly a month since the last time I put together a blog post over here on how I’m doing living "A World Without Email" and, while looking into the last few weeks, I have just realised that I’m almost on the closure of the second year experiment of giving up on corporate email altogether. So I thought I would write down today the one before last blog entry for Year #2 of those weekly (Now probably more monthly) progress reports sharing some further insights on the state of things at this point, as I am about to close the second year of this my new reality. Over at my Flickr account you would be able to see the weekly progress reports for weeks #49 and #50. However, for week #51 I am going to share it over here, so you can get a quick glimpse of what the last three weeks have been like put together in combination. So here you have it: As you would be able to see things are looking amazingly good, since, during the course of those three weeks, I received a total number of 44 emails, with an average of 14 per week! Yes, 14 emails received per week! Not sure what you would think, but I am feeling incredibly excited that what started as 30 to 40 emails a day (Nearly two years ago), it’s now turned to 14 emails a week! Huge achievement, if you ask me, and well on target for that follow up challenge that I set up at the beginning of the year of receiving 20, or less, emails a week. Yes, I know … double w00t!!! If you notice, you will see there has been a steady decrease in the number of emails received over the last few weeks, yet that doesn’t mean that virtual online interactions have not been taking place. Actually, quite the opposite. I can certainly share with you folks how the number of those online interactions through social software tools have tripled during that time. ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:11:48 +0100 814667 http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2010/02/something-is-future.php Wayne Bivens-Tatum, a Princeton librarian and blogger, wrote an excellent post, called "Nothing is the Future." It attacks a certain sort of insipid library futurism—and is going all over the "Twittersphere":The kindest interpretation of statements like "the future is mobile" or "the future of reference is SMS" or "the future is librarians in pods" or whatever is that the librarians are trying to create that future by speaking it. The incantation will somehow make it so.... The less kind interpretation is that the authors of such statements are reductionist promoters, reducing a complex field to whatever marginal utility they're focused on and claiming that this is the future, while simultaneously promoting themselves as seers.The obvious and most likely statement is that nothing is the future, as in no thing is the future, period. Anyone who tells you different is just plain wrong. With technology, it should be clear to anyone who bothers to see past their obsessions that formats and tools die hard. Some people like to imply that if librarians don't take up every new trend they'll become like buggy whip makers. I should point out that there are still people who make buggy whips. Buggy whips aren't as popular as they once were, but they're still around. There are even buggies to accompany them.I started to reply in comments, but my words added up. So here they are:Though a purveyor of "Web 2.0" ideas—I founded LibraryThing, what can I say?—I think it's a great post.The rhetoric you describe rings true. It starts, I think, from the popularizers and enthusiasts who take up new technologies and communicate them to the great mass of librarians whose life revolves around other things. To get through the clutter—to be one of the things you take back from a weekend of ALA or PLA talks—the message is simplified and the rhetoric ratchets up. ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:57:00 +0100 815602 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/s1m6Tao3BcY/anna-karenina-ending Tolstoy is such a staggeringly good novelist that it's a serious shock to find this book ending with such a whimperRegular readers may remember that earlier this year I was seduced by the brilliance of Anna Karenina. However – and shoot me now, aficionados – I have a bone to pick with the great man over the novel's frankly disappointing denouement. Let's face it: this is a book that readers give up weeks, months or, in the case of his original audience, years of their lives to read. So why the letdown? In short, Tolstoy, why have you done this to us?For the vague of memory, a swift recap: at the end of a superb Part Seven, including the desperate showdown between Anna and Vronsky following which she has flung herself under a train in morphine-fuelled despair. We approach Part Eight with trepidation, anticipating lengthy reaction scenes from Anna's estranged husband Karenin (now reduced to making decisions under sway of a French psychic), her mischievous brother Oblonsky, his wife and her best friend Dolly, and, of course, a rich interior monologue from Vronsky. But no. Tolstoy elects instead to follow minor character Koznyshev's support of the Serbs and, most languorously, Levin's final religious rebirth. A handful of pages inform us of Vronsky's decision to die for the Slavic cause, because his life "is of no value" to him, although most of the remaining information relating to Anna's suicide (Karenin and the issue of Anna's child; the chronology of the tragic day itself) is glossed over in a gossipy monologue from Countess Vronksy. ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:00:02 +0100 814321 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/02/lexisnexis_stat.html LexisNexis Statistical has launched a new interface and a new name: Statistical Insight. Statistical Insight features a greatly simplified search interface that searches across abstracts, table text, and datasets. As you type in the search box, a type-ahead feature will provide suggested keywords or related terms to help you improve your search. Additionally, Statistical Insight presents your search results in a format that is easier to interpret. New filtering options let you narrow your results by date, geographic region, or type of data. Heavy users of LexisNexis Statistical may consider participating in an upcoming webinar about the new interface. The next Statistical Insight webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, March 3 at 11:30am. As always, if you have questions or problems with Statistical Insight or any library databases, please contact a librarian or chat with us via the Meebo box on our homepage. (Source: Kresge Library News) Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 816700 http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/2010/02/reference-renaissance-2010-call-for.html A Reference Renaissance 2010: Call for ProposalsAugust 8-10, 2010 in Denver, Coloradohttp://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/index.htmlThe inaugural “Reference Renaissance” conference in 2008 was a truly amazing and inspirational event with over 500 people attending. Building on this success, and the exciting array of new approaches to reference that are emerging, we invite your participation! As we move into a new decade of the 21st century reference services continue to undergo rapid, revolutionary change, as well as facing the challenge of difficult times with human and financial resources becoming scarcer. It is up to each and every one of us to rev up the Renaissance and to Invent the Future. We must choose to be change agents, being proactive rather than reactive. Reference Renaissance 2010 will be a reaffirmation of the importance of reference and information services which encompass not just traditional forms such as in-person point-of-service, telephone, and e-mail, but also chat, Instant Messaging, Text Messaging (SMS), blogs, wikis, Twitter, library pages on MySpace and Facebook, and virtual reference desks in Second Life.Reference Renaissance 2010: Inventing the Future will explore all aspects of reference service in a broad range of contexts, including libraries and information centers, in academic, public, school, corporate, and other special library environments. This two-day conference will incorporate the multitude of established, emerging, and merging types of reference service including both traditional and virtual reference. It presents an opportunity for all reference practitioners and scholars to explore the evolving nature of reference, as an escalating array of information technologies blend with traditional reference service to create vibrant hybrids, new staffing models, and possibilities that allow us to take reference services to the next level. ... Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100 815820 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/USdY4oGUnJY/technology-essentials-2010-webjunction-online-conference.html In the wake of the 2010 Midwinter meeting, there's been a lot of talk about unconferences and online conferences. A rough economy and the inconvenience of long-distance travel, combined with the proliferation of Web 2.0, VoIP and other tools for instantaneous online communication have led to a significant increase in the popularity of online events. Our own Tom Peters has written quite a bit about this topic on the blog and in Smart Libraries Newsletter. WebJunction is right on top of this trend. They have been producing some excellent webinars for some time now, and with their Technology Essentials 2010 Online Conference, (presenter list and program descriptions are here) they've made the leap to hosting a full-fledged, online conference. The focus of this conference, according to WebJunction's page, is "practical and timely strategies for leveraging technology to help you in a wide range of library services and operations". The conference is taking place on February 9th and 10th. I had a chance to talk with WebJunction's Jennifer Peterson and Sharon Streams about how this conference came to be, and what WebJunction is hoping to accomplish. Dan Freeman: WebJunction has been doing Webinars and online learning programs for a while. How did the idea of doing a full-fledged online conference come about? Jennifer Peterson and Sharon Streams: We’ve seen a real spike in webinar attendance over the last year and recognized that in these times of tight budgets, libraries are looking for travel and cost-free ways to connect and to learn with colleagues. We’ve attended some other recent online conferences and decided to pilot the model for ourselves, leveraging our expertise in webinar production and tapping the wealth of experience in our community to gather expert presenters around the theme of Technology Essentials. ... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:25:07 +0100 815988 http://hedgehoglibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-in-life-of-hedgehog-librarian-last.html I'm coming to this party a little late but I'm going to try and keep track today. Times are approximateThursday9 a.m. Desk time for four hours. Log into Horizon, Intranet, Meebo, Email, Google Reader. First patron is in just after doors open, dad looking for Clifford videos.9:30  C brings down holds from Tech Services.  All of them are "mine" (chapter books): a new Tiara Club book (too insipid for words), Powerless by Matthew Cody (great cover, superhero kids losing their powers), and one of the Mother Daughter Book Club Books (sigh). 9:45 : Questions about books on shadows and electricity. Patron decides Margaret Brown's book Shadow is too scary for the three year olds she'll be reading to.10:05 Chinese New Year books.  Chinese New Year is Valentines Day this year.  We have a few picture books and a couple of non fiction books but not enough for a display.  Current displays are Hugs and Kisses and Dental Health. 10:08 Deaf patron looking for coloring books. We don't have those in our collection.10:23 Plot to become next Ron Roy/Vivian French.  Same story over and over and over....and the kids can't get enough of them.10:30 Phonics books with short vowel sounds...wade through shelf of phonics.  Lots of different varieties, but only one set that really has separate vowel sounds that will work.  Checking my own holds--I'd set everything to suspended while I was in Egypt.  Now things are back on and coming in droves. With teen books that I'm getting from other places and other things I'm just interested in seeing at "some point" I'm setting suspension dates on for a week or two out so that I'm not totally overwhelmed. So far five things in for me to pick up and four more on their way between work and personal cards. The pile of children's books on my desk that I want to skim and decide if to order or recommend is getting high. ... Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:59:00 +0100 813575 http://www.librarystuff.net/2010/01/29/state-follows-trend-to-virtual-government/ Michigan Messenger – E-government promises enhanced services often at a lower cost (Source: Library Stuff) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:45:27 +0100 813189 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/6HDPwvE3d4Q/scale-matters.html It’s hard not to make new friends at library conferences. This is doubly true in Boston, a city that redefines the term “lost.” The unofficial activity of ALA Midwinter 2010 seemed to be standing on a corner, smartphone in hand, trying to align the map on the screen with the streets (please note: I used to live in Boston, and think it’s a great place. Still, I accidentally went to the airport one morning on my way to the convention center). Post-conference, lots of folks are blogging about the great people they met, either through serendipity or at meet-ups, and I’m reminded that the power of conferences almost always stems from the people who attend.  I’ve been jokingly referring to my time at Midwinter as “a weekend spent talking to angry librarians,” though I think “angry” is too strong a word. I noticed a pervasive sense of frustration among the people I spoke with, many of whom expressed some professional exasperation with their jobs, the profession as a whole, or both. Everyone I spoke to was passionately committed to their patrons, to librarianship, to libraries, but all felt they were swimming upstream in some way or another. On my most optimistic days, I like to think librarianship is a big pie. While I don’t think a library can be all things to all people, I think it is possible to serve, for example, patrons who want a quiet place to read and patrons who want a community center where they can meet and talk. Likewise, I’d like to think that this is a profession where everyone can have their pie and eat it, too. The consistent thread that wound through all of the conversations I had and stories told at the excellent “Set Sail for Fail” mini unconference (held in ALA’s terrific new conference space, the Networking Uncommons) was agility. The librarians I spoke to felt that they were being held back by outdated bureaucracy designed for the 20th century, not the 21st. ... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:14:13 +0100 814050 http://ksulib.typepad.com/talking/2010/01/short-cuts-tik-tok.html I hate to admit it, but my new ringtone is “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha.  There’s just something about the beat that gets me goin’ in the morning when I hear it. Or maybe it’s that line I relate to so much: “Before I leave, I brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack”. Who knows what the deal is – I just know, I <3 it. What does that have to do with library resources? Well, nothing, really. I just wanted to share my thoughts and bond with you before telling you about the coolest library resource ever:  Ask-a-Librarian IM Reference. Some of you may already know this, but for those of you who do not:  you know how you IM with your friends about random life information and to make plans and stuff? Well, you can do that with a librarian, too! Okay, so we don’t need to know your life plans, but we totally want to help you out with your life (library-related) problems. If you have a reference question, a book question, a question about how to find something or well, just about any question at all, just give us a shout (or, in this case, an IM). We have these little IM “widgets” all over the place on our website that you can use to talk to us. The main one is on our Ask-a-Librarian page. But we also have them on our Catalog page, Databases page, and even on your K-State Online page (check out that class you have listed there – Research Help at K-State Libraries). Anytime that our service desks are open (check out our hours here), we are logged on and ready to answer your IM questions. You don’t have to worry about how quickly you type or spelling all your words correctly – we’re more concerned with helping you than whether or not you’re a grammarian. But we do have a couple of tips for you: Don’t worry about trying to type in a long question with all the details when you first start. You can just write “Hi” or “I need help” and that will work just fine. ... Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 812884 http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/lazyfeed-lazy-and-productive/ I admit to being a web wanderer – lazy random browsing in the topic areas that interest me is wonderful,  and it’s amazing what new things you find, what you can enjoy, and what you can learn. My RSS reader is  ‘chockers’ – so I can’t just keep adding possible feeds for reading. Rather belatedly  I’ve also discovered LazyFeed.  Perfect! If you are more into tracking stories on a particular subject like technology, music etc rather than tracking specific blogs then LazyFeed could be the tool you need. You just need to sign up and add your favourite topic…. via MUO. I’ve been using it for a few months now, and just love the flexible way of trawling on my favourite  topics. OK, it’s not going to aggregate and store the same way as my RSS reader (Google + Feedly) but it’s going to keep sifting and providing an online reading experience for me any day that I want to drop by! According to the founder, LazyFeed is like instant messenger for your topics. It’s a tech tool that suits the slow adopters of technology! Got some nice enhancements in January too! Another recommendation came my way via @RadHertz. NewsCred lets you launch an online newspaper in minutes. Cool!  Read more about this from Louis Gray. Here’s an example from UQ Innovation Times.  Nice . Posted in Communication Tools, Social Media, Social Software, Technology and Software Tagged: lazyfeed, news aggregation, RSS (Source: heyjude) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:14:31 +0100 813632 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=31762 World Report 2010 Source: Human Rights Watch This 20th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question. Every government is at times tempted to violate human rights, but the global human rights movement has made sure that abuse carries a price. Still, some governments cannot resist trying to minimize that price by attacking human rights defenders, organizations, and institutions. The aim is to silence the messenger, to deflect pressure, to lessen the cost of committing human rights violations. These efforts have yet to succeed, but the campaign is dangerous. Human Rights Watch calls on governmental supporters of human rights to help defend the defenders by identifying and countering these reactionary efforts. A strong defense of human rights depends on the vitality of the human rights movement now under assault. + Full Report (PDF; 3.7 MB) (Source: Docuticker) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:08:44 +0100 812074 http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2010/01/human-rights-watch-2010-annual-report.html Human Rights Watch recently released its World Report 2010:"This 20th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.""Every government is at times tempted to violate human rights, but the global human rights movement has made sure that abuse carries a price. Still, some governments cannot resist trying to minimize that price by attacking human rights defenders, organizations, and institutions. The aim is to silence the messenger, to deflect pressure, to lessen the cost of committing human rights violations.""These efforts have yet to succeed, but the campaign is dangerous. Human Rights Watch calls on governmental supporters of human rights to help defend the defenders by identifying and countering these reactionary efforts. A strong defense of human rights depends on the vitality of the human rights movement now under assault. " (Source: Library Boy) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 812335 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.education.web4lib/15594 Thank you very much to everyone who responded! I really appreciate the help... I think we'll be looking into libraryh3lp, as we were thinking about moving away from meebo anyway; but we'll be following up on the other leads too! Thank you all again. (Source: gmane.education.web4lib) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 812147 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Librarianinblack/~3/8D5S9EKuums/tech.html Below you will see my 13 Ways (and 147 Tools) to Help Your Library Save Money on Technology. These are my favorite options for libraries to use as alternatives to the expensive paid services and software that we use now, usually because our parent organizations or IT departments have gone along with the mainstream, bought the expensive stuff from the well-known companies, and never blinked.  But now that we are all facing budget crunches the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades, we have a chance to show these alternatives to the decision-makers, save the organization some money, and support the open source movement at the same time. I have personally used all of these, at least in a demo setting. Most of them I use on a regular basis at work or at home. So trust me — these recommendations do not come lightly!  I think these tools are darn good, otherwise they wouldn’t have made the cut. This list has come out of a few different presentations I’ve given for public libraries recently, from Hawaii to Iowa.  Take a look, see what you want to try, and let me know how it works.  The list is not exhaustive, so I invite all of you to comment on this post and add your own favorite free web tools, software, and open source awesomeness. 1. ... Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:47:16 +0100 813673 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/iRcS/~3/TpFxM_ZrsdU/webjunction-group-google-wave-for.html "Google Wave is a collaborative, instant messaging service which began in a preview (alpha) edition in 2009. Google Wave may change the very face of virtual reference. This group is for libraries/librarians and others who wish to connect with one another outside of Wave and share ideas, projects and tools about and for Wave" RSS Feed (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog) Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:18:51 +0100 811124 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/NOMBGTWjUcI/ Kudos to WebJunction member David Mattison for starting Group: Google Wave for Libraries. David says, “Google Wave is a collaborative, instant messaging service which began in a preview (alpha) edition in 2009. Google Wave may change the very face of virtual reference. This group is for libraries/librarians and others who wish to connect with one another outside of Wave and share ideas, projects and tools about and for Wave”. And he’s already started 3 great discussions: Google Wave Resources, Books about Google Wave, and Are you Waving? Stop on by the new group or browse other WebJunction Groups. (Source: BlogJunction) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:50:13 +0100 811608 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/YWem_6P_5vI/ … And so it came to pass that The Open University announced that it was going to adopt Google Apps for Education, and in one fell swoop sign up over 150,000 students to the platform. And what bounteous riches would those students henceforth be able to benefit from, with “a service level agreement with higher levels of availability than [the OU] could achieve itself”: email: “students will be offered their own Gmail accounts with addresses ending in @my.open.ac.uk” calendar: when the OU’s student calendaring team held a consultation about future plans a couple of years or so ago, I lobbied hard for iCal/ics feed support, as well as tentatively suggesting that we might be use calendar feeds to transport payloads (documents, or audio files for example) either to students or within the context of a feed powered VLE. (I think I also suggested that they just not bother and embed Google calendars instead, and did a working demo to show what it could look like). ... Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:40:57 +0100 811211 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Librarian&diff=339004072&oldid=prev ← Previous revision Revision as of 19:07, 20 January 2010 Line 85: Line 85: The most significant example of how technology has changed the role of librarians in the last 50 years has been the move from traditional card catalogs to online public access catalogs ([[OPAC]]s).{{Fact|date=April 2009}} Librarians had to develop software and the [[MARC standards]] for cataloguing records electronically. They had to purchase and run the computers necessary to use the software. They had to teach the public how to use the new technologies and move to more virtual working environments. The most significant example of how technology has changed the role of librarians in the last 50 years has been the move from traditional card catalogs to online public access catalogs ([[OPAC]]s).{{Fact|date=April 2009}} Librarians had to develop software and the [[MARC standards]] for cataloguing records electronically. They had to purchase and run the computers necessary to use the software. They had to teach the public how to use the new technologies and move to more virtual working environments. - The same could be said of other technology developments, from electronic databases (including the Internet), to logistical functions such as bar codes (or in the near future [[RFID]]). Many librarians provide virtual reference services (via web-based chat, instant messaging, text messaging, and e-mail), work in [[digitization|digitizing]] initiatives for works in the public domain, teach technology classes to their users, and work on the development of information architectures for improving access and search functionality. These examples illustrate some of the ways in which librarians are using technology to fulfill and expand upon their historical roles. ... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:07:59 +0100 811344 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/researchbuzz/main/~3/muTH3lTAa1Q/ If you’re interested in finding employees online, you might want to check out a new magazine that Jim Stroud has launched; it’s called The Searchologist. The first issue is available from http://magcloud.com/browse/Issue/53820 and articles include how to source candidates that do not exist, how to generate leads from instant messenger and Flickr (!) and how to find resumes that other recruiters overlook. The magazine t’ain’t cheap, McGee; it’s $24.95. But there is a 12-page preview that covers a couple of the articles I mentioned (in really small print! You will have to squint!) There are ways to find out more about Jim, though. He has a web site at http://www.jimstroud.com/ which includes pointers to his blog, The Searchologist, and a bunch of recruiters material at The Recruiters Lounge (currently on hiatus but there’s still plenty to see here.) If you’ve ever tried to use the Internet for hiring or finding people, you might have found yourself stumped after thinking about posting an ad on Craigslist or using a job listing site. Jim has helped me think beyond that and realize just how powerful the Internet is for finding hires. I’m glad to see he’s putting together a magazine. (Source: ResearchBuzz) Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:18:48 +0100 810140 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/01/enhancements_to.html Plunkett Research Online has introduced several new features. Users now have the ability to ability to export industry statistics tables directly into Excel for analysis. A new Manufacturing Industry Research Center provides company profiles, statistics, market research, and trend data. In addition, the Archives section now contains all Plunkett books ever published, back to The Almanac of American Employers 1985. Plunkett Research Online is available to current Ross students, faculty, and staff on the library's A-Z database page. If you have problems with Plunkett Research Online or any of the library's resources, please contact a librarian or chat with us via the Meebo box on our homepage. (Source: Kresge Library News) Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 810989 http://www.cathythelibrarian.com/archives/468 Originally submitted at Timbuk2 Customize your own Messenger Custom Messenger Love my bag By Cathy the Librarian from West Henrietta, NY on 1/17/2010   4out of 5 Pros: Comfortable, Rugged Cons: Uncomfortable Strap Best Uses: Baby bag, Commuting Describe Yourself: Office Professional Primary use: Personal I wish that the bags came standard with the compression straps and the strap pad. I had purchased a small bag in the past, which is fine without either, but I also can’t carry as much. This time I got the medium one and I think it could do with some cinching in when I don’t have tons and some padding for my shoulder when I do have tons. It seems that the bigger the bag I carry the more stuff I have.Otherwise I love love love my bag. The colors are nice and vibrant and the quality is outstanding. I use it for an everyday bag and baby bag and I’m pretty hard on everything I have, so this is perfect for me. Yay for Timbuk2! (legalese) (Source: Cathy the Librarian) Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:56:30 +0100 810914 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/01/updates_to_snl.html SNL Interactive has made substantial upgrades to their interface, including an improved search engine and customizable content. To learn more, check out this guided tour, which includes a very helpful "Where is it now?" feature. SNL Interactive is available to current Ross and UM students, faculty, and staff on the library's A-Z database page. If you have problems with SNL or any of the library's resources, please contact a librarian or chat with us via the Meebo box on our homepage. (Source: Kresge Library News) Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 809181 http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2010/01/yesterday-i-visited-morgan-library-in.html Yesterday, I visited the Morgan Library in New York City and spent a couple of pleasant hours viewing the exhibit on Jane Austen, my favorite author. The exhibit contained a number of treasures, such as the letter describing Jane's death written by Cassandra Austen to a niece. On display were a number of Jane's letters, including one written backwards (shades of Leonardo da Vinci) and another written in "cross hatching," a method used to save precious paper. I did not know this, but the Morgan has the world's largest collection of Jane's letters, most of which were destroyed after her death by Cassandra. The exhibit showcased a collection of first editions of the novels, and also displayed contemporary engravings that were in keeping with the themes of the exhibit. I always enjoy going into Mr. Morgan's study and seeing the three stunning paintings by Hans Memling, and into Mr. Morgan's library, with its sixteenth-century lindenwood statue of Saint Elizabeth holding a book and its Gutenberg Bible. The Morgan actually has three Gutenberg Bibles, only one of which, a copy printed on paper, is on display. There is another copy printed on paper, and a third printed on vellum. The legend that accompanied the Gutenberg Bible read that it was the "book that inaugurated a new era in the history of visual communication." This is certainly true, and got me thinking about an article I had read in The New York Times last Sunday. The article, entitled "The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s," starts with a vignette about the author's two-year-old daughter who refers to his Kindle as "Daddy's book." And to her, of course, it is, because she will "know nothing other than a world with digital books, Skype video chats with faraway relatives, and toddler-friendly video games on the iPhone. She'll see the world a lot differently from her parents. ... Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 808504 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/ydY8rxi7kRM/love-anna-karenina It took me a little while to square up to Tolstoy's forbiddingly mighty reputation. I shouldn't have hung backI've owned it for less than two weeks, but I'm already taping up the collapsing spine of Anna Karenina. Unputdownable isn't the word: I can't remember when I last felt like this about a classic author I hadn't previously read. Especially one as forbidding as Tolstoy. And that in itself is a relief.We Tolstoy virgins know that the bearded one justly perches near the top of our lifelong reading list, yet somehow the right time is never quite right to rise to the occasion. (I've felt like that about William Faulkner for ever.) Even my terrifyingly well-read historian father only found time to finish War and Peace when he was 70. Three factors, however, recently edged me towards the giant of Russian literature. The first is the renewed interest in him sparked by the centenary of his death this year; the second, that I've been devouring serial novels (Anna Karenina was published over four years in Russian Messenger magazine) as I'm writing one myself; and the third – the real catalyst – was a terse endorsement in Ernest Hemingway On Writing (edited by Larry Phillips). Tolstoy, declared the Nobel prize winner, was simply the author every writer should read. Without further delay, I visited my nearest secondhand bookshop and dug out a 1969 Penguin Classics edition of Anna Karenin, translated by Rosemary Edmonds (her choice of Karenin naturalised the Russian name into English; more popularly, publishers use Karenina, a direct transliteration of the actual Russian.) With its evergreen themes of jealousy, pity, fidelity, ambition, success, power, lust and society, Anna Karenina – regarded as more human than War and Peace – seems to me the perfect place to have begun my Tolstoy odyssey. ... Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:00:01 +0100 807865 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2010/01/improvements_to.html Frost & Sullivan has rolled out some exciting improvements to their database. Improvements in searching: Improved handling of Boolean logic - which means you can use terms like AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR to refine your search Wild card searching using the asterisk Improvements in search results: Improved relevancy rankings - find more useful materials faster! Brief abstracts displayed on the search results screen. Results can be filtered by industry, geography, or document type A "Search this document" function available on the reports page. Frost & Sullivan is available to current Ross students, faculty, and staff on the library's A-Z database page. For assistance downloading full reports from Frost & Sullivan, please contact a librarian or chat with us via the Meebo box on our homepage. (Source: Kresge Library News) Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100 809182 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryVoice/~3/XzBthcyaKEM/so-maybe-this-is-why-no-one-uses-our-skype-reference-service In his latest column in Time Magazine, Joel Stein writes why people don’t like video phones. Even though Skype is the only one of all the cool gadgets that cartoons promised me would exist by 2010, people don’t seem nearly as excited as they should be. Only 34% of Skype calls even use video. And when Skype announced on Jan. 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show that we’ll soon have videophones on our televisions, everyone went right back to talking about which booths gave out the best key-chain lights. OHIO Libraries Skype Reference We’ve been using Skype as a reference option for quite some time. At one point in time, people in library land were really hot about what we were doing with the service.  It had great potential, was free, and was easy enough for anyone to set up.  Despite the growth of Skype and its popularity on some television shows (Oprah and Who Wants to be a Millionaire) I can count on one hand the number of Skype calls we get each month.  The questions that we do get are almost always text/IM questions, which is something that can be handled by Meebo widgets and other popular IM services.  We almost never got questions with our Skype Kiosk, even after trying several different staffing models and user interfaces.  This past fall, we pulled the plug on our Skype Reference Kiosk, although we still offer Skype as an option for our general Ask-a-Librarian service. In his article, Joel says that he likes to zone out or multitask when talking on the phone.  When you’re on the phone with someone, you can check your email, flip the TV channels, start up a video game, do the dishes, all while “listening” to what the other person has to say.  With video calling applications, you have to actually look at the person talking to you and actually pay attention.  This could be one reason why our Skype video reference service has not been popular. ... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:41:01 +0100 808010 http://futura.edublogs.org/2010/01/09/selling-libraries-short/ I was a little irked and befuddled by Seth Godin’s post about the future of libraries today, to be honest. Like Joyce Valenza, librarian extraordinaire, I admire his work a great deal.  And I don’t want to come across sounding like some “stuck in the mud” or defensive and staid librarian.  Though there is some merit in his point, I think the picture he painted was a bit misleading. I found myself wondering why he didn’t seem to get the vitality of many of our “wired libraries” or understand that libraries are(and have often been) the salvation of the economically/socially underserved/elderly/children, especially in this dicey economy.  And that libraries are not just warehouses for checkout but are still widely used for internet access, guest speakers, tech trainings, job hunting, teen hang-outs, reference support, children’s programming, teen mentorship progams,  parent trainings on computer safety,  community meetings,  book groups, social events, and yes, DVD borrowing.   And that many of our websites are twittering, facebooking, meebo-ing and leading by providing tutorials, widgets and links to help keep our customer’s informed and current? But then I thought if he didn’t understand, then are public libraries, (or school libraries), really telling their stories?   If they were, wouldn’t the average taxpayer know what is amazing about their libraries?  There are libraries that are so clearly vital to their communities like the Seattle Public library or the Charlotte Mecklenberg library that even if you’ve never been there, you are aware of their libraries.  Our local community library is also that way.  I know that because they do a great job of telling their stories. ... Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:33:03 +0100 809058 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/PAghN6XC6zg/ Welcome to 2010 and what’s sure to be the year of online conferencing! WebJunction has been providing online programming in the form of monthly webinars for the past few years and we’re thrilled to be piloting our first-ever online conference filled with presenters from our partner communities and beyond! Join us on February 9–10 for this free online conference, Technology Essentials 2010, focused on practical and timely strategies for leveraging technology in sustaining your library. Conference sessions and presenters include: Sandra Nelson with The Planning Puzzle: Integrating your Strategic Plan and your Technology Plan Stephanie Gerding with Library Grants 101 Joshua Dodson and Laura Slavin with WordPress for Library 2.0 and Beyond Pat Carterette with Learning When There’s No Time (or Money) to Learn Karen McCoy with Implementing Reliable Instant Messaging at Your Library. You won’t want to miss this valuable learning opportunity for you and your staff. Full program and speaker information is now available and registration is free and open to all. (Source: BlogJunction) Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:57:56 +0100 807807 http://mblc.state.ma.us/jobs/find_jobs/rss.php?job_id=5950 General Summary of Duties: The UML Instruction and Outreach Librarian works in collaboration with librarians faculty and University staff to serve the information needs of the UMass Lowell community. We are looking for an energetic, creative, and user-oriented instruction librarian who will work individually and with colleagues to investigate, develop, test, implement, and promote new emerging technologies that could strengthen library instruction efforts and help facilitate the incorporation of Library-developed instructional tools into curricula for online and distant learners. Examples of Duties: Support online learning by: Working with Continuing Studies and Corporate Education to create, coordinate and deliver information programs that facilitate online library-related instruction and increase distant learnersâ awareness of, and access to, library resources. Collaborating with faculty teaching online or hybrid classes via Blackboard or other platform. Working with Librarians on online tutorials in a variety of formats. Investigating new technologies such as social networking and instant messaging tools to serve all Library users. Collaborating on the Librariesâ web site to incorporate information literacy elements throughout. Contributes to Teaching and Learning activities by Coordinating Library instruction program, scheduling and promotion. Working with faculty and librarians participating in Learning Communities to ensure that information literacy goals are achieved. Investigating and developing innovative means of delivering library services that enhance student learning and ensure student success such as drop-in workshops and their online equivalent. Promote the Universityâs commitment to service by: Serve on internal and external committees as appointed by the Director. ... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:25:02 +0100 805604 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/Gy1wx44dxGY/medea-athens-augusta-webster This week, an intense but nuanced dramatic monologueThis week's poem is an extract from "Medea in Athens", one of a number of psychologically complex dramatic monologues by the remarkable Victorian poet, Augusta Webster. The poem is from her 1879 collection, Portraits, and you can read the full text here.Webster was well-qualified to write about Medea. As a girl, she had studied classical Greek, ostensibly to help her brother, but no doubt also driven by her own considerable literary ambitions. Her translation of the Medea of Euripides was published in 1868. (See here for a more recent translation of the play). Medea was the barbarian princess and sorceress from Colchis, who had fallen passionately in love with Jason, and helped him and his fellow Argonauts obtain the Golden Fleece. When Jason abandoned her for a politically expedient marriage to Glauce, daughter of King Creon of Corinth, Medea sent her two young sons to present the bride with a robe and diadem. Smeared with a lethal poison, the gifts killed both Glauce and her father. According to Euripides's version of the story, Medea took further revenge on her unfaithful lover by killing the two boys, after which she escaped in a flying chariot provided by her grandfather, Helios.Webster's monologue begins when Medea has just learnt of Jason's death. She is now married to Aegeus, King of Athens. Her response to the messenger is sarcastic: "Good news for us, but ill news for the dead,/ When the gods sweep a villain down to them." But as she reflects further, she realises that this was a trivial response, and begins to examine her (lack of) feelings more candidly: "… through all the day/ The news seemed neither good nor ill to me."Her denial, as we would now call it, mutates into a nightmarish vision. ... Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:27:07 +0100 805140 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/eNIVVKD3w-0/running-long-distance-global-history As well as being vital to our early survival, running is a universal form of play, as this fascinating study shows. By Christopher McDougallEven though running is the world's most popular hobby, the running bookshelf is curiously empty. Of the few books on the subject in print, nearly all fall into one of two categories: either how-to tips or personal accounts of one man's perseverance against pain. Both share one weird feature: as celebrations of running they make running seem pretty awful. It comes across like performing home surgery – it'll hurt, require expensive equipment and leave scars.The same tired fantasies are endlessly repeated – about the Greek messenger Pheidippides dying after 26 miles (he ran at least 300, in fact, and there's no account of his death), and our feet being so dainty that they require highly engineered trainers (there's actually no scientific evidence – none – that running shoes do anything to prevent injury). Running fares just as poorly in film and fiction. It's always the misery the protagonists have to endure to win the fight, win the girl, or escape diamond-hoarding Nazi dentists who resemble Laurence Olivier.Thor Gotaas, a Norwegian writer who specialises in folklore and cultural history, comes from a different starting point. Recreational running, he points out, has been around since the dawn of recreation time. It's not some modern punishment we invented to burn off excess pints and pizza; it's our most ancient and universal form of play, and has been rhapsodised and dramatised for thousands of years. Gotaas combs the world for true running tales, and comes up with some beauties. ... Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:05:55 +0100 804814 http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-social-media-related-publications-in.html Two of my professional publications, relating to social media, that were accepted and published in 2009.1) Title: Librarians 2.0: sowing padi in (the) SEA.Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited - LINK.This came about from my speaking at the Bridging Worlds conference organised by NLB in 2008. After the conference, my paper was selected by Emerald for consideration. It was accepted and published in their special conference issue.Abstract:Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory survey as part of a presentation for the Bridging Worlds 2008 conference. It seeks to understand how library institutions in the South East Asia (SEA) region have implemented Web 2.0 technologies – blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, or the use of services like Flickr, YouTube, de.lici.ous.Design/methodology/approach – Libraries surveyed were in: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. The survey relied on references in published papers, internet searches and personal contacts.Findings – The survey found that more academic libraries than public libraries were using Web 2.0. technologies. Blogs and RSS feeds were the most common. Blogs were used mainly as web publishing tools rather than as a means to engage library users.Research limitations/implications – The survey is not comprehensive. The search relied mainly on English publications and keywords, while the native language of most countries surveyed was non-English. Future research could comprehensively cover each country, by the type of library or language.Practical implications – The paper contends that Web 2.0 does not rely on technology, but more on practice and participation. The emphasis should be on relationships rather than transactions. Suggestions are offered on how libraries can adopt a Library 2.0 mindset without focusing on technology. A call is made to establish an East Asian Librarians 2.0 directory. ... Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100 804674 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/a-informacao/~3/TOZZeoREyi0/internet-nos-suga-como-uma-esponja.html Fonte: Revista Época. Data: 11/12/2009.Autor: Alexandre Mansur.Um dos maiores palestrantes do mundo empresarial diz que viver conectado é prejudicial a nosso cérebroPara Nicholas Carr, um dos palestrantes mais valorizados do mundo dos negócios, a dependência da troca de informações pela internet está empobrecendo nossa cultura. Mais ainda: nosso intelecto, ao se acostumar aos múltiplos estímulos das redes sociais, aos e-mails e aos comunicadores instantâneos, perde a capacidade de raciocínios elaborados. Autor de um famoso artigo cujo título resume o conteúdo – “O Google está nos tornando mais estúpidos?” – , Carr está preparando um livro de nome igualmente provocativo – numa tradução literal, O raso: o que a internet está fazendo com nosso cérebro. Ele falou a ÉPOCA durante uma visita ao Brasil para uma palestra a 4.500 líderes empresariais, num dos maiores eventos para executivos do país.Nicholas CarrQUEM É Americano, 50 anos, é formado em Harvard e autor de livros de tecnologia e administração, é membro do conselho editorial da Enciclopédia BritânicaO QUE FEZ Ficou famoso pela crítica à qualidade de “obras abertas” da internet, como a Wikipédia, e por artigos em que afirma que as empresas deveriam terceirizar o investimento em tecnologia da informaçãoÉPOCA – A internet afeta a inteligência?Nicholas Carr – Você fica pulando de um site para o outro. Recebe várias mensagens ao mesmo tempo. É chamado pelo Twitter, pelo Facebook ou pelo Messenger. Isso desenvolve um novo tipo de intelecto, mais adaptado a lidar com as múltiplas funções simultâneas, mas que está perdendo a capacidade de se concentrar, ler atentamente ou pensar com profundidade. Isso é um resultado da dependência crescente em relação à internet. Essa forma de pensar vai reduzir nossa habilidade para pensar contemplativamente. Ela prejudica nossa cabeça. ... Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:49:00 +0100 803607 http://www.teachinglibrarian.org/weblog/2009/12/digital-reference-services-in-2009.html 2009 will probably be remembered by those of us who follow digital reference services as the year that mobile reference services really took off. Between Twitter and text message reference services, there were tons of blog posts, articles, presentations, discussion threads on mailing lists and social networking sites, in which library staff explored how they could embrace (or were already embracing) mobile technology for reference services. In an article in Library Journal this October, Ellyssa Kroski noted the same upward trend in activity around text message reference services. From my perspective, the high point of activity was the first Handheld Librarian Online Conference, which was held in July and, according to the home page of the conference, attracted over 2000 attendees. I was able to listen to only a few presentations on the day of the event, but I found myself taking in many more in the following weeks from the archives of the presentations (a hugely helpful resource!)Although libraries have actually been using text messages for reference services since 2004, this was the year that the conversation about it grew dramatically. One of the more interesting discussions about text message reference services was whether it was feasible to offer it within a collaborative service. My InfoQuest, a pilot project of the Alliance Library System that allows a group of public and academic libraries to share an account from Altarama's SMSreference service, was the first example I'd heard of where libraries can band together to share the workload for a text message service. Recently, Tom Peters blogged about the unexpected pleasures he's found as a librarian answering questions on the service. Just this past week, Sarah Houghton-Jan broke the news that Mosio's Text a Librarian service would begin offering a service for library cooperatives, too. ... Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:31:00 +0100 803338 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/kkJF/~3/gxX7aAkIJoU/omdat-delen-leuk-is-addthis.html Een van de leukste dingen van het web zoals we het nu kennen is het gegeven dat je -zonder gehinderd te worden door veel kennis van zaken- in een handomdraai basale websites of weblogs kunt aanmaken. Dit blog (Blogger) en Bibliotheek 2.0 (Ning) zijn daar voorbeelden van. Zodra je echter meer wilt gebruiken dan een standaardsjabloon ontkom je niet aan het lezen van instructies op het gebied van html of css. Een posting van Scoble hield mij zojuist ook twee uur van de straat. Hij verwees naar de Meebo Bar, een balk waarmee bezoekers van weblogs bijdragen kunnen delen op andere netwerken. Na enige twijfel besloot ik die tool te proberen. Het is weliswaar mijn streven ZB Digitaal zo 'clean' mogelijk te houden omdat ik in de loop van de tijd heb geleerd dat toeters en bellen vaak niet gebruikt worden en de laadtijd van een website meestal geen goed doen, maar soms maak ik een uitzondering. Als het maar niet meer zo gek wordt als in, pak 'm beet, april 2006 of september 2007. De Meebo Bar beviel me uiteindelijk toch niet. Het installeren was eenvoudig (op dezelfde wijze als een standaardgadget van Blogger) en de manier waarop je er afbeeldingen en blogposts mee kunt delen is erg fraai, maar in de taakbalk van de browser zag ik het script van Meebo alweer haperen en de paginabrede balk zelf oogde vooral vreemd leeg. Ik verwijderde 'm dus weer. Omdat ik toch bezig was en al geruime tijd aas op zo'n 'tweet this-knopje' onder postings, ging ik op zoek naar een alternatief. Ik probeerde de instructies van Blogger Buster en Solid Blogger uit en rommelde, ondersteund door tweets (dank allen!) met de lay-out maar ook deze twee buttons bevielen me niet. Uiteindelijk viel mijn keuze op AddThis, een relatief subtiel balkje dat naar meer dan 200 sociale netwerken kan verwijzen. Ook deze code wist ik echter niet meteen een mooi plekje te geven. Ik heb voorlopig gekozen voor een positie tussen de reacties en de labels die onder berichten worden weergegeven. ... Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:58:00 +0100 802984 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/cSt9f6V3AOE/silence-from-rim-and-verizon.html Both RIM and Verizon continue to be silent in providing any direct explanation to those of us who own Blackberries.   There are many reports quoting a news release from RIM about the outage.  Here is the statement: RIM Statement - December 23rd A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service. RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this latest version which resolves the issue. RIM continues to monitor its systems to maintain normal service levels and apologizes for any inconvenience to customers. BE SURE TO UPGRADE to the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger. You can grab it by visiting blackberry.com/messenger from your BlackBerry's web browser or from BlackBerry App World.  Verizon is not pushing out the latest version of Blackberry Messenger via the desktop client.  You have to get it yourself.  I do not understand why Blackberry has not sent a message out to Blackberry users.  They have all of our e-mail addresses. Verizon, Blackberry, RIMPowered by ScribeFire. (Source: Baby Boomer Librarian) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:30:00 +0100 802877 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalReference/~3/dfkXczFiHUE/digital-reference-services-in-2009.html 2009 will probably be remembered by those of us who follow digital reference services as the year that mobile reference services really took off. Between Twitter and text message reference services, there were tons of blog posts, articles, presentations, discussion threads on mailing lists and social networking sites, in which library staff explored how they could embrace (or were already embracing) mobile technology for reference services. In an article in Library Journal this October, Ellyssa Kroski noted the same upward trend in activity around text message reference services. From my perspective, the high point of activity was the first Handheld Librarian Online Conference, which was held in July and, according to the home page of the conference, attracted over 2000 attendees. I was able to listen to only a few presentations on the day of the event, but I found myself taking in many more in the following weeks from the archives of the presentations (a hugely helpful resource!)Although libraries have actually been using text messages for reference services since 2004, this was the year that the conversation about it grew dramatically. One of the more interesting discussions about text message reference services was whether it was feasible to offer it within a collaborative service. My InfoQuest, a pilot project of the Alliance Library System that allows a group of public and academic libraries to share an account from Altarama's SMSreference service, was the first example I'd heard of where libraries can band together to share the workload for a text message service. Recently, Tom Peters blogged about the unexpected pleasures he's found as a librarian answering questions on the service. Just this past week, Sarah Houghton-Jan broke the news that Mosio's Text a Librarian service would begin offering a service for library cooperatives, too. ... Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100 804049 http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/kresgenews/archives/2009/12/reminder_kresge.html Kresge Business Administration Library will be closing at noon on Thursday, December 24 for the duration of the winter break. The circulation desk and IM reference services will also close at this time. Normal service hours will resume at 7:30am on Monday, January 4. Question can be sent via email to kresge_library@umich.edu; however, a librarian may not respond until January 4. Enjoy the break! (Source: Kresge Library News) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100 803172 http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2009/12/21/december-21st-stream.html omg- guy on bus is bragging that he deliberately knocked a bike mssenger’s package into the river. says they deserve to die #unreal [shifted] @snicholson wouldn’t it have been a shootout with the gun-toting messenger? [shifted] Posted akearns: Does anyone know how to gift an ebook to someone? #fb. they are to die for – GO. NOW. RT @Eleaven: Today’s specials – Ginger Pancakes w/ a caramel syrup #yummyyumyum [shifted] Posted TextALibrarian: "10 Must-Read eBooks for Social Media Lovers" {Mashable] http://bit.ly/7trQc0. Posted swissmiss: I started a search engine for just my friend’s tweets with http://flocking.me – Today’s trends: @jordanclaire, inter… http://bit.ly/6cwpms. needs an app! RT @JuniorRoom: Star Wars Weather! http://www.tomscott.com/weather/starwars/ The best part is under the forecast in tiny print [shifted] draft of MPOW’s strategic plan has a section under construction called "Draft Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)" http://bit.ly/88bmeW (pdf) <3 [shifted] if anyone going to Midwinter is bringing a portable cone of silence with them, please contact me. thx. #wouldyoubelieve #alamw10 [shifted] @wawoodworth heh – this is actually work-related, although I’m thinking of getting a smartshoe for the event [shifted] Shared 4 photos. got my blog on #mycast (#orb) working so I can embed songs from my home media server. play along at http://bit.ly/tslmusic #mycloud [shifted] Share: (Source: The Shifted Librarian) Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:00:46 +0100 803337 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/kOXt0zTDWH0/ If yesterday I talked about the latest adventures of Molly exploring social software within the enterprise with IBM’s own Lotus Connections, today I thought I would go and check out what "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections" has been up to lately. After all, it has been a few weeks since the last time I talked about him and his discovery of the immense power behind participating actively in online communities in order to reach to fellow knowledge workers to share your own knowledge and collaborate on a common topic. Yes, of course, I am talking about the wonderfully delightful series of video clips that my good friend, and fellow IBM colleague, Jean Francois Chenier, has been putting together over the last few months and whose latest episode (#5 at this point in time) is just as witty and hilariously funny as all the other ones, if not more! But this time around he actually touches base on a use case related to one of my favourite services within Lotus Connections: Activities. And I will explain why shortly … First, go and check out "Innovate or Die". That’s the title of this last episode and although it lasts for a little bit longer than all the others (8′ 19”) it’s just as worth it going through it and learning plenty more how easy it can well be preparing, managing and hosting a conference event using Lotus Connections Activities versus other traditional communication and collaboration tools. Certainly, a lot less painful, I tell you and, if not, hit play, judge for yourself and start enjoying this last episode: Just too funny, eh? I told you. I said you would enjoy it and I bet you did. And quite a bit! I did, too! It’s interesting to notice how from all of the various services that Lotus Connections has got Activities is probably the most unknown of them all. ... Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:54:18 +0100 801321 http://mhclibrary.blogspot.com/2009/12/im-text-services-closures.html The Library Online Agents instant messaging service and the text messaging service will be unavailable from December 24, 2009 until January 3, 2010. Both of these services will return to operation on January 4, 2010 for the Winter Semester.We thank our patrons that have made these online services a success over the past semesters, and we look forward to serving you in the new year. (Source: Medicine Hat College Library Services Blog) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100 801556 http://mblc.state.ma.us/jobs/find_jobs/rss.php?job_id=5935 Part-time faculty position providing research assistance to students and faculty in the Levin Library on Sundays, 5:00 PM - 9:30 PM. Assist patrons with research at the reference desk, via email, via phone and instant messaging. Train students and other patrons in the use of library resources including databases, OPAC, and print materials. Enter reference statistics into the Library database. Supervise student workers. Appointment is for one 15 week semester beginning in January 2010, with possibility of renewal. Deadline: January 8, 2010. Official web post: http://curry.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=16575 (Source: MBLC Job Listings) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:10:02 +0100 800762 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TameTheWeb/~3/7dNqk3BtYdQ/ The New Digital Divide This group explored the New Digital Divide. The New Digital Divide View more presentations from newdigitaldivide. Their project blog: http://classes.tametheweb.com/newdigitaldivide/ Hyperlocal Libraries http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcg5kv2v_11cq59zkcw Mobile Librarianship Presentation at Google Handout Video: (Source: Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:46:01 +0100 800261 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=30444 2008 Service Annual Survey: Truck, Transportation, Messenger Services and Warehousing Source: U.S. Census Bureau This industry series tracks expenses and revenues for firms that haul, warehouse and deliver America’s freight. Establishments include those that use transportation equipment or transportation related facilities as a productive asset. + 2008 Service Annual Survey Data (Source: Docuticker) Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:57:54 +0100 799922 http://futura.edublogs.org/2009/12/12/ideas-for-marketing-your-library-or-the-library-is-up-the-street/ In her recent presentation Be Where Users Are: Online Marketing for Public Libraries the Librarian In Black, Sarah Houghton-Jan, explores some poweful marketing ideas for making your library (or your school for that matter) more visible and accessible to students and parents. We teach students about managing their digital profiles, but are we managing our own?  And are we making ourselves easy to find for both parents, students, and those wanting to connect with us globally?   Creating a more virtual library also means being easily found. How can we apply some of  the Librarian in Black’s  suggestions to school libraries/schools? Get listed in library directories on Google properly.  You can submit your school library site to Google Directory here.  (Google Directory sites come up higher in search results) Make sure you are listed in Google Maps as well. Ensure that your library has a link on local websites (like perhaps your local public library–what about local businesses that support your school, local bookstores, tutoring centers that work with students?) Your school probably has a Wikipedia page.  Why not add resources like your library research page there? Of course, create a presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (Students may not be on Twitter but their parents might be, and both will be on Facebook, as Buffy Hamilton suggests in her excellent post Pivots for Change.)  Sarah also suggests creating Facebook flyers or apps too, that are cheap but very visible. (I’m imagining a catchy Facebook ad promoting excellent qualities of your school or listing your library’s services). What about mailing flyers that can be posted in your local public library or to local nearby businesses serving students with your website and hours listed? Set up a “text a librarian” or “chat with the librarian” (meebo) service. ... Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:26:36 +0100 801825 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/12/09/mls-announces-9-5-million-in-save-america%e2%80%99s-treasures-grants-to-preserve-cultural-and-historic-treasures/ From the Announcement: A memorial to the victims of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the mementos of Civil War officers, and a blockhouse from an 18th-century Russian trading fort in Alaska are among the thousands of historically significant objects that will be conserved with the 2009 Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grants. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in collaboration with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), the National Park Service (NPS), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), awarded $9.5 million in grants to 41 organizations to conserve significant cultural and historic treasures related to American history and culture. [Snip] This year, IMLS will administer grants to six institutions: (Full Descriptions in the Announcement): 1. National September 11 Memorial and Museum, New York ($200,000) 2. Civil War Museum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA ($150,000) 3. Kolmakovsky Redoubt Collection, Fairbanks ($75,000) 4. Denver Museum of Nature & Science Anthropology Collections, Denver ($324,385) 5. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT ($600,000) 6. Chapel Car 5 Messenger of Peace, Snoqualmie, WA ($180,000) Source: The Institute of Museum and Library Services (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:24:13 +0100 798914 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/12/06/yale-university-program-on-mobile-libraries/ Gerry McKiernan alerts us to a program that took place last week at Yale University in New Haven, CT. Several of the presentations are now online. The Yale Handheld Librarian Facebook page lists the speakers. Kelly Barrick – Reference and Instruction Coordinator, Social Science Library: In the spring of 2009, Yale University Library rolled out a new text reference service called Text a Librarian to complement its existing instant messaging service (known as AskLive). Kelly will describe how this service was implemented, demonstrate how it works and share what kinds of results have been achieved. Geoffrey Little – Library Communications Coordinator: Geoffrey will briefly discuss how mobile technologies can compliment and add value to existing library services and work to support the Yale Library’s broader mission to support students and researchers. Joe Murphy – libraryfuture on Twitter – Coordinator for Instruction and Technology, Kline Science Library: Mobile Technologies & Libraries, Text Message Reference & Beyond. Joe (libraryfuture on Twitter) will suggest a strategy for meeting the future of applying library services and collections to mobile technology. Lisa Carlucci Thomas – lisacarlucci on Twitter – former Digital Collections Librarian: Lisa will discuss her research study on mobile access to Yale’s licensed e-book collections and share her findings and recommendations for providing mobile access to e-books at Yale. Presentations Now Available: + Yale Mobile by Joe Murphy (Slides) + One Million Mobile: A Study of Mobile Access e-Books at Yale (Source: ResourceShelf) Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:29:58 +0100 798125 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SellersLibraryTeens/~3/9chsyKiEC90/diy-tie-dye.html Last Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving), 12 teens showed up for our drop-in tie-dye craft. A lot of people did our shoelaces, but we also had people bring shirts, socks, and even a messenger-style bag! I also had some random shirts and baby items that some people made as extra items.I made a few baby items for my cousin that turned out pretty well, but I managed to dye my hands completely blue when rinsing them out at home! I am still blue around the nails, and I will remember to wear gloves next time...If you want to learn more about how to tie-dye, check out this post from the summer. Two girls rubber banding their shirts into different patterns.These girls modeled their trash bag smocks and plastic gloves. One trash bag model and two girls showing off their shoelaces. One person wore her awesome new shirt to the library on Friday! It turned out amazingly well. This is a great baby onesie I made for my cousin. It's probably the most perfect tie-dye I have ever done. I also did a baby burp cloth that turned out really well. Katie's socks came out super-cute! (Source: Sellers Library Teens) Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:35:15 +0100 796927 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AginfoBlogFromIaald/~3/jnzHE_NuZWo/philipines-agricultural-training.html Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap led the unveiling of the hotline numbers of the FCC and delivered a keynote speech during the launching on November 28, 2009 in Tagbilaran, Bohol.The FCC is an alternative delivery channel in providing timely information and extension services. Through the FCC, people can inquire on agri-related concerns via voice (call), short messaging service (SMS or text) as well as emails and other online communication such as instant messaging and fora.Read more ... (Source: AgInfo News from IAALD) Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100 796767 http://yourlibrarycsu.blogspot.com/2009/11/changes-to-chat-service-times.html The Library’s Chat Service will be running on reduced hours from 30 November 2009 until 1 February 2010.The service will be available during these times:Australia11am - 3pm (AEDT), Monday to Friday*Ontario9pm - 1am, Sunday to ThursdayCambodia8am - 12pm, Monday to Friday China (Beijing)9am - 1pm, Monday to Friday Hong Kong9am - 1pm, Monday to Friday Malaysia9am - 1pm, Monday to Friday PNG11am - 3pm, Monday to Friday* Excluding Australian Public HolidaysNew to the Library's Chat Service? Ask A Question: Live Chat is an instant messaging chat service, which will allow you to chat with Library staff in real time. Just click on 'Ask A Question: Live Chat' on the Library website and type in your question - no accounts, downloads or personal information is required. (Source: Your Library@CSU) Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100 796053 http://www.unshelved.com/blog.aspx?post=1557 It has been pointed out to me that our Black Friday sale was so sudden that those Unshelved readers who get our weekly email delivery won't find out there was a sale until tomorrow at the earliest. So, in the interests of fairness, we're running it through midnight, Monday November 30. As a reminder, here is what's on sale: Books each Unshelved collection is $10, normally $14.95-$17.95 Book Bundles all seven volumes for $65 (normally $80), with book bag $80 (normally $90), with messenger bag $90 (normally $100) Prints museum print $20 (normally $29.95), framed print $50 (normally $59.95), and save another $10 on each additional print after the first Shirts selected shirts $10 (normally $18.95) while supplies last As always, shipping is free for orders of $40 or more in the U.S. Posted by Bill on 11/28/2009 5:54:00 PM (Source: Unshelved) Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:40:03 +0100 795769 http://www.unshelved.com/blog.aspx?post=1555 Today we're having a one-day sale ending at Midnight: Books each Unshelved collection is $10, normally $14.95-$17.95 Book Bundles all seven volumes for $65 (normally $80), with book bag $80 (normally $90), with messenger bag $90 (normally $100) Prints museum print $20 (normally $29.95), framed print $50 (normally $59.95), and save another $10 on each additional print after the first Shirts selected shirts $10 (normally $18.95) while supplies last As always, shipping is free for orders of $40 or more in the U.S. Posted by Bill on 11/27/2009 12:00:00 AM (Source: Unshelved) Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:40:02 +0100 795417 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/v8I8Sr1Hyz8/hc-robbins-landon-obituary Distinguished musicologist known for his trailblazing work on Haydn and his books on MozartFew musicologists achieve true celebrity outside their specialist field. But the name of HC Robbins Landon, who has died at the age of 83, was known by many thousands of people beyond the scholarly community. While his reputation was founded on his trailblazing research into Joseph Haydn, which helped to establish the composer's works – largely unknown as late as the 1950s – in the canon, it was his series of books on Mozart, aimed at a wider public and selling in huge numbers in many languages, that brought him global renown.It is no exaggeration to call him a titan, for Robbie, as he was universally known, was a giant in both physical and intellectual terms. And yet his infectious enthusiasm for the subject under discussion, coupled with an encyclopedic memory and almost recklessly fluent delivery, allowed him to engage lay audiences in a way that few scholars are able.Born in Boston and educated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, Landon studied music theory, composition and English literature, the latter under WH Auden. His interest in Haydn had already been piqued as a schoolboy, but an encounter with the scholar Karl Geiringer, his teacher at Boston University (1945-47), helped him on his chosen path. Realising that his future lay in Europe, where all the relevant sources were located, he managed to secure work as a music critic and European correspondent for various US newspapers and journals, including Musical America.Employment by the Times, for which he worked for nearly a decade, was a crucial factor in gaining him admittance to archives behind the iron curtain. The papers of Haydn's employers, the princes of Esterházy, in the National Library in Budapest, had recently been taken over by the state. General access was all but impossible, but the Times connection ensured that he was treated with courtesy and even offered a visa. ... Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:21:10 +0100 794613 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/11/23/mechanical-translation-with-a-human-touch-from-i-b-m-its-n-fluent/ From the Article: At I.B.M., a team of nearly 100, including mathematicians and software developers, is working on a project to create an automatic translation tool, so-called machine translation, that has the speed and accuracy to be used in instant-messaging between speakers of two different languages. The project, called n.Fluent, is intended to teach the computer terminology that is specific to I.B.M.’s businesses, and, more significantly, allow the computer to learn what it has been doing wrong. To that end, the company is extracting and organizing contributions from I.B.M.’s 400,000-member work force spread across more than 170 countries, adding a human touch to the project. Over a two-week period last month, the company issued a “worldwide translation challenge” to its employees, using a points-based system to award the biggest contributors prizes that were converted to charitable donations. About 6,000 I.B.M. employees made improvements in 11 languages to more than two million words of text translated by n.Fluent. Access the n.fluent Web Site Source: NY Times (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:31:25 +0100 794346 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/Dbjx/~3/X4kRzuS9lTk/fair-shake-of-source-bottle-quloc.html The day started out overcast and warm in Brisbane as attendees from Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation members trooped into the Queensland College of Art at South Bank for the seminar on Open Source vs Proprietary sofware for Libraries on Friday. The event was cutely named- Fair Shake of the Source Bottle, borrowing from @KRuddPM's use of the much discussed colloquialism.Andrew Bennett of the University of Queensland set the scene nicely with an opening presentation picking up on the history of the open source software movement. Unfortunately my notes from that session disappeared with one unwise click in Scribefire so I'm not going to elaborate, except to say that, as usual, Andrew pitched his presentation at just the right level for the audience ranging from the extremely tech-headed to the say-that-in-plain-English.The presentations following, were organised to compare experiences with OS and proprietary software in use at QULOC member institutions, in particular, digital repositories and new generation discovery layers, but other software was also showcased. Alan Cockerill from JCU entertained and informed us with an overview of the implementation of OpenFire to provide instant messaging reference services at their two campuses. This software is worth taking a closer inspection of, as it appears to be very easy to manage and support and provides web-chat with client IM software backed with sophisticated queuing and workgroup management. This implementation was a very small budget and is running successfully in a VM environment. With LDAP and AD integration it has possibilities for enterprise-level deployments.More Info on OpenFIreAntoinette Cass from Bond University took up the story of the epublications@Bond repository from where Mark Sutherland and I left off with a conference paper from a couple of years back looking at the choice of repository software. ... Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:30:00 +0100 794338 http://chicagolibrarian.com/node/479 Forget 'eBook' devices, it's mobile Internet that's all the rage. Researchers who put together this year's ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology go so far as to use the 'R' word: "Although a majority of respondents to the ECAR student survey don't identify themselves as what we call early adopters or innovators, it appears that a revolution in undergraduates' use of the mobile Internet has already begun. A quarter of the respondents to this year's study told us they are using handheld devices weekly or more often to access the Internet." (from Key Findings) As usage goes up, the authors warn of institutions being "quickly overwhelmed with demands for technical support and development of new mobile services." Text Messaging Up, IM Down Also, it appears that students are using IM a bit less: "Among the 39 institutions in our longitudinal data set, a 23.2% relative decrease appears in the percentage of respondents who reported using instant messaging weekly or more since 2006, versus a 32.6% relative increase in SNS [i.e. social networking sites] use during the same time frame." At the same time, text messaging is widely popular: "...9 out of 10 student respondents (89.8%) were engaged in text messaging, with a median use of daily." It goes without saying, that trends like these ought to inform our planning for future online virtual library services. read more (Source: Chicago Librarian - Design, Techology & Culture from a Librarian living in Chicago) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:42:29 +0100 793779 http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/books/rss/~3/uq3U2w4IlYk/mavis-gallant-interview 'I felt that the only thing I was on earth to do was to write'A couple of months ago Mavis Gallant had a dream. A messenger came to the door carrying a cardboard box with a lid on it. On top was written "Mavis Gallant" in big letters – and underneath it "Bad Prose". "I was devastated. Devastated for days. I thought, they aren't telling me the truth."In fact, Gallant is often cited as one of the best living short-story writers, inspiring reverence among devotees of the form, such as Jhumpa Lahiri, who credits her as the most significant influence on her own writing. At the age of 15 Gallant told a friend – who reminded her of it many years later – that when she grew up she would live in Paris and be published in the New Yorker. Next year she will have spent 6o years in her adoptive city and has had nearly as many stories in the magazine as John Updike."They were all in a strange land and out of context," one of the characters reflects in Green Water, Green Sky, Gallant's first (of only two) novels, written in 1959. A Canadian in Paris who has devoted her life to writing, she is one of the great chroniclers of exile, her fictional landscapes inhabited by misfits and lost souls, characters far from home, literally or emotionally. Reading too many of her stories at one time leaves the reader feeling strangely adrift, the world slightly askance. She has travelled extensively, usually alone, across Europe. "Only personal independence matters," she once wrote, quoting Boris Pasternak, and this might well be her motto.We meet in Le Dôme, a notorious hangout for writers and artists in bohemian Montparnasse and long a favourite with Gallant, who lives what used to be for her just a nip around the corner, but is now – due to increasing frailty – a short taxi ride away. She first came to the restaurant when she arrived from Montreal in 1950. ... Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:07:15 +0100 793484 http://www.unshelved.com/blog.aspx?post=1543 We're getting lots of great questions and answers on our new Unshelved® Answers site. Here are just a few: Can we have two people answering questions on Meebo? I'm looking for a children's book with a dragon named Mahogany How do I weed nonfiction? Does your library use LibraryThing and, if so, how? Come answer these questions and ask your own! P.S. Want to understand how to using voting on Unshelved® Answers? This question has the answer! Posted by Bill on 11/19/2009 11:27:00 AM (Source: Unshelved) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:40:02 +0100 793177 http://news-libraries.mit.edu/blog/final-journey-hubble/2220/ “Riding the space shuttle is like strapping yourself to a gigantic beast….you go from 0 to 17,500 miles per hour in eight and a half minutes,” MIT alumnus, Astronaut Mike Massimino said in a talk at MIT last month. After nearly 3 years of training, in May 2009 Massimino rocketed 5.3 million miles into space on a mission to repair NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.  The veteran astronaut spoke about the extensive preparation for the journey, as well as the risks and thrills that were a part of the historic final trip to Hubble. He also returned an item to MIT that he took into space with him—a book loaned from the MIT Libraries’ collections.  The book, a limited edition facsimile of Galileo’s landmark publication Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), was chosen to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s astronomical research, the first recorded planetary observations using a telescope.  It is on display through December 2009 in the Science Library (14S-134). Astronaut Massimino’s talk was sponsored by the MIT Libraries, the Technology and Policy Program (TPP)/ Engineering Systems Division (ESD), and Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. (Source: MIT Libraries News) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:06:05 +0100 793292 http://otherlibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/a-kick-in-the-h1n1-hiney-or-how-social-media-can-help-you-when-the-message-changes/ The communications on the H1N1 (aka Hiney) vaccine in Canada has been a mess.    At first the message was ‘everyone should get the vaccine.’   Then it turned into ‘wait we don’t have enough vaccines for everyone, so it’s only young children and people with chronic illnesses.’   Doctors offices are getting calls all over the place.   H1N1 is over-publicized.   H1N1 is a real threat. And, there is actual evidence that Canada may be doing a better job than other countries at getting the vaccines out. Some will argue that the problem is poor communication planning.   These problems  are no different from any communication problems.   Key messages change all the time.   Being prepared to change direction is all part of the PR game.   But I bet the people responsible here planned the heck out of this program.   I bet they had a communications plan that could make even the best firms blush at their prowess.   What they did not expect – and should have – is that the public expects faster, more personal and transparent responses to important public messages.   The public expects social media. Here’s how an advanced social media plan would have benefitted the H1N1 campaign, even after all the messages changed. Social Media is Fast Twitter, Facebook, a blog, YouTube and other things like it bring out a message very quickly and easily.    That means the H1N1 message could have gotten out sooner, and offered an open and honest dialogue with the public about the risks, benefits and requirements for citizens to get the vaccine.   All of this could have happened *before* the big marketing push went out and got people all excited, and it could have switched gears as soon as people knew there were going to be problems with the supply. Social Media Won’t Play “GOTCHA!” People online like to bitch and complain. ... Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:17:31 +0100 793652 http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=2892 Below are some posts relating to the NMRT survey from the SRRT Listerv. A polarizing “them versus us”  “old guard versus young librarians” perspective has been introduced into the SRRT discussion which is destructive, in my opinion.Nobody is preventing other issues from being raised, new task forces from being formed in SRRT. The fact is, that task-forces have formed on various issues over the years and quickly disappeared for lack of significant activity. Those task forces which persist are those where people are active and committed. There is no conspiracy to impose one agenda over another in SRRT. Suggestions that there are, including suggestions which try to create artificial generational divides are highly divisive and I strenuously object to them.–Mark Rosenzweig The SRRT discussion list on SRRT issues and the connection of PLG mission is of interest to the future of librarianship, socialresponsibilities, social justice and human rights. ============= Mark Rosenzweig: The fact that SRRT hasn’t dealt with many of the issues listed by Rory as his favored “targets” for our work  has nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with SRRT’s advocacy on the issues it has pressed, like opposition to war. There is literally no evidence or argument that shows that advocacy of the one excluded or precluded the others. And as Al Kagan has shown previously in a recent posting, SRRT’s resolutions over the years have covered many issues of social responsibility in librarianship other than war. But I know that opposition to war is indeed disruptive of the neat order of things in ALA as it is everywhere in public life where people have the temerity to insist upon it. ... Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:30:23 +0100 793577 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/11/17/recently-updated-crs-report-text-and-multimedia-messaging-emerging-issues-for-congress/ From the Summary: The first text messages were sent during 1992 and 1993, although commercially, text messaging was not widely offered or used until 2000. Even then, messages could only be sent between users subscribed to the same wireless carrier, e.g., Sprint customers could only exchange messages with other Sprint customers. In November 2001, however, wireless service providers began to connect their networks for text messaging, allowing subscribers on different networks to exchange text messages. Since then, the number of text messages in the United States has grown to over 48 billion messages every month. Additionally, text messages are no longer only sent as “point-to- point” communications between two mobile device users. More specifically, messages are also commonly sent from Web-based applications within a Web browser (e.g., from an Internet e-mail address) and from instant messaging clients like AIM or MSN. For Congressional policymakers, two major categories of issues have arisen: (1) “same problem, different platform” and (2) issues stemming from the difficulty in applying existing technical definitions to a new service, such as whether a text message is sent “phone-to-phone” or using the phone’s associated email address. There are numerous examples of each. An example of the first category would be consumer fraud and children’s accessing inappropriate content, which have existed previously in the “wired world,” but have now found their way to the “wireless world.” An example of the second category would be that spam sent between two phones or from one phone to many phones does not fall under the definition of spam in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, P.L. ... Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:25:23 +0100 792240 http://blog.nekls.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/techplanning.mp3 Brenda organized a series of online training sessions for everyone needing to update their Technology Plan, needed for e-rate funding purposes.  In the first session, we discussed what needs to be included ina tech plan, sample technology plans that meet e-rate requirements, tips and advice from a technology planning expert (Kendra) and TechAtlas as a possible tool for writing your tech plan.  Brenda recorded this first OPAL session and you can listen to it here: sound file (.mp3) She also shared some valuable links and follow-up information that I wanted to share: Thank you to everyone who attended today’s NEKLS technology planning session. I hope it was useful to you as you write your new plan. Here are some resources that may be helpful. State Library of Kansas e-rate information http://www.kslib.info/erate/ Great resources from the state library. Mail new plans to (keep a copy for your files) : Jeff Hixon State Library of Kansas 300 SW Tenth Avenue-Rm 343N Topeka, KS 66612-1593 Jeff’s email address is: jeffh@kslib.info TechAtlas Information http://ks.webjunction.org/techatlas If you are thinking about using TechAtlas, there are a number of useful things here (including links to informational webinars about TechAtlas) (see also recent NEKLS blog post: http://blog.nekls.org/index.php/archives/452) Not sure if you have a TechAtlas acct? Have other questions about TechAtlas? Email Kendra techatlas@webjunction.org I am attaching several sample technology plans: Osawatomie (used TechAtlas) Richmond (I would add a cover page and more specific dates to this one - like the style though) McLouth Holton Linwood (used TechAtlas) Williamsburg If you want the sound file (.mp3) from today’s session, let me know (it’s big and I don’t want to clog your in-box unnecessarily). Join us again next week (Wednesday, Nov 11 at 1 PM in OPAL) if you would like to follow-up. ... Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:13:14 +0100 791954 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/11/09/where-do-people-spend-their-time-online/ From the Announcement: The study found that Microsoft Sites captured nearly 15 percent of time spent online worldwide in September, making it the most engaging global property, followed by Google Sites and Yahoo! Sites. Facebook.com, which continues to see significant growth on a worldwide basis, was the fourth most engaging destination with visitors spending 1.4 billion hours on the site in September, up 193 percent from the previous year. In September 2009, nearly 27 billion hours were spent on the Internet globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion Internet users age 15 and older. Microsoft Sites accounted for 14.5 percent of total minutes spent online in September, making it the most engaging global property, with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger representing nearly 70 percent of time spent on the property during the month. Google Sites captured 9.3 percent of total minutes (2.5 billion hours), with YouTube accounting for nearly half of total time spent (1.2 billion hours) at the property. Yahoo! Sites ranked as the third most engaging Web property at 1.7 billion hours, followed by Facebook.com at 1.4 billion hours. Facebook’s share of attention reached 5.1 percent in September, an increase of 2.9 percentage points from the previous year, as its continued growth in popularity precipitated this surge in share. Source: comScore See Also: Microsoft whips Google to be number one online — or does it? (via Computerworld) Preston Gralla writes: But those numbers are potentially very misleading. They include Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger, which comScore said represents “nearly 70 percent of time spent on the property during the month.” Take away Windows Live Messenger, in other words, and Google crushes Microsoft. The problem for Microsoft is that it’s not at all clear how many people who run Messenger actually use it. And even those who do use it, use it very little time out of the day. ... Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:30:24 +0100 789986 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digizen/~3/9ixlWJcSYqs/ Carl Jung, en armonía con su naturaleza por inclinarse hacia lo transpersonal, se adentró en el estudio de las profundidades que puede llegar a tener aquello que denominamos "inconsciente". Contrario a los demás teóricos de la personalidad, Jung hace la distinción entre un inconsciente personal y uno de carácter colectivo. El inconsciente personal constituye una capa superficial del inconsciente en los seres humanos y se deriva de la experiencia del individuo. Por lo tanto, en algún momento el contenido de este inconsciente personal ha sido conciente. Por el contrario, el inconsciente colectivo, no se deriva de la experiencia personal y su contenido nunca ha sido consciente. Nace con nosotros, no de nosotros. Es universal, como asegura Jung : "it has contents and modes of behavior that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals" (Jung, 1954). La importancia de esta estructura psíquica se puede percibir mediante las siguientes expresiones: "It is an inner correspondence to the world as a whole." "The collective unconscious as suprapersonal matrix, as the unlimited sum of fundamental psychic conditions accumulated over millions of years, is a realm of immeasurable breadth and depth. . ." (Jung, 1954). La existencia psíquica se puede reconocer sólo mediante la presencia de contenidos que sean capaces de hacerse conscientes; sólo podemos hablar de un inconsciente si somos capaces de demostrar sus contenidos. El contenido del inconsciente colectivo son los arquetipos. Los arquetipos son patrones de percepción psíquica y entendimiento comunes a todos los seres humanos. Jung los define como : "archaic or primordial types, universal images that have existed since the remotest times . . ." (Jung, 1954). Los arquetipos son posibilidades heredadas de representación pero no son imágenes heredadas. ... Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:16:53 +0100 789815 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/42eLmngns3g/google-apps-highlights-1162009.html This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed. Individuals, businesses and schools are switching to Google Apps to communicate more efficiently from anywhere, collaborate without the hassle of attachments, save money, and get continuous innovation. Because you use Google Apps in your browser, improvements like new features in Google forms show up automatically. Starting today, we'll post a recap every couple of weeks highlighting significant improvements we've made in Google Apps, and major milestones in this area, similar to our weekly series on Search. We hope this helps you experience what's new for yourself! More interface consistency across Google Docs We heard your feedback about design inconsistencies in the user interfaces for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and we agree; having a more consistent user interface is a better experience. Last week we rolled out a batch of changes making the links, title area, menus, menu terminology and toolbar more uniform. We think this will make it easier to find commonly used functions, speed up your experience with Google Docs and make you more productive in these browser-based applications. Customizable options for Gmail offline Gmail offline lets you work with your email from the browser even when you don't have an internet connection, but until now, you couldn't specify how much old mail you wanted to cache for offline access. On Wednesday we launched new options for Gmail offline, and now you can configure how much of your old email is available when you don't have a connection. Once you enable Offline Gmail from the Labs tab in Settings, go to the Offline settings tab to customize which labels are synchronized, how far back messages are included, and which attachments you'll be able to access offline in your browser. ... Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100 790210 http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2009/11/social_isolatio.html Lee Rainie sent me the latest Pew Internet and American Life press release which outlines research that blows holes in the proposition that people in social networks are socially isolated and geeky: Social Isolation and New Technology Nov 4, 2009 (Washington) People who use modern information and communication technologies have larger and more diverse social networks, according to new national survey findings that for the first time explore how people use the internet and mobile phones to interact with key family and friends. These new finding challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States. The new findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, on average, the size of people’s discussion networks – those with whom people discuss important matters– is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks – their closest and most significant confidants – tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online. The survey was conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, led by Keith N. Hampton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication and the Pew Internet Project. The survey also probed larger issues related to the extent of social isolation in America: At one level, the results challenge previous work. The Pew Internet survey found that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported and social isolation has hardly changed since 1985. Only 6% of the adult population has no one with whom they can discuss important matters or who they consider to be “especially significant” in their life. ... Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100 788766 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/11/04/new-report-from-pew-internet-american-life-project-social-isolation-and-new-technology/ Here’s info and links to a new report released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Access the Complete Report ||| PDF Version From the News Release/Summary: People who use modern information and communication technologies have larger and more diverse social networks, according to new national survey findings that for the first time explore how people use the internet and mobile phones to interact with key family and friends. These new finding challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States. The new findings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, on average, the size of people’s discussion networks – those with whom people discuss important matters– is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks – their closest and most significant confidants – tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online. [Snip] Key Findings + Some have worried that internet use limits people’s participation in their local communities, but the Pew Internet report finds that most internet activities have little or a positive relationship to local activity. For instance, internet users are as likely as anyone else to visit with their neighbors in person. Cell phone users, those who use the internet frequently at work, and bloggers are more likely to belong to a local voluntary association, such as a youth group or a charitable organization. However, we find some evidence that use of social networking services (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) substitutes for some neighborhood involvement. ... Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:09:19 +0100 788459 http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?p=581 Mixed reality seeks to smoothly link physical and digital environments. Using special hardware and software, it’s becoming more and more mainstream. An environment that combines elements of both virtual reality and the real world could lead to never having to leave the library to attend a meeting.  It could mean a whole new way to give presentations.  It could be a whole new way to interact with patrons. Check out this book…coming soon to your collection? Mixed Reality Book: Earth Structure This “Moblie Mixed Reality” article gives some great examples of mixed reality and some suggestions for further reading. Video:  Is Mixed Reality The Next Step For Instant Messaging? So how can you use this in your library?  Check this out: Mirrored Message Wall Cool fact from this 4Cast: A practical example of mixed reality is the yellow down marker you’ve seen during football games since about 1998.  That yellow line helps us follow the game and has won several Emmy Awards for technical achievement. (Source: The OPLIN 4cast) Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:35:51 +0100 789320 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/yTm7gGFzt9o/the-sacred-cows-of-library-technologists.html Hearing Rick Anderson's recent KLA talk, titled "The Five Sacred Cows of Librarianship: Why They No Longer Matter, and Why Two of Them Never Did,"  made me wonder what "sacred cows" exist in the field of library technology.  I posed the question, "What are the sacred cows of library technology?" in Google Wave.  What followed was a discussion about digital technology among library technologists that generated many ideas and was a great way to try out this new communication tool.  Some of the ideas offered up were "sacred cows" to those in the field, but others challenged ideas held more widely in librarianship. "Our users haven't asked for that."  Some libraries do not experiment with offering services and resources digitally because the patrons in the building say that they do not want them.  Matt Hamilton writes, "When I asked our Reference staff if they'd consider IM reference I was told 'Well, our patrons haven't asked for that.' However the university up the hill actually tried it--and it was so popular they had to readjust staffing for it." A good way to estimate whether a digital service will be successful is to ask users of your website, though even users of your digital spaces may not know right away whether they would use a service if offered digitally.  For example, users might tell you now that they are not interested in asking information questions via Twitter or SMS, but when those same people get into Twitter because their friends do, your library will be there to met their needs.  "A question is a question is a question," writes David Lee King, "in-person services should not be weighted as more important than using a similar service digitally." "Library technology=Windows or Mac." While the majority of the use of digital library services and resources takes place via desktop or laptop computers, mobile use is rapidly increasing. ... Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:22:06 +0100 788354 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryGarden/~3/wKg6Sxo_2UI/ There is no shortage of continuing education opportunities for librarians. I think we naturally tend toward collaboration and harmony. Earlier this week, while many librarians were in Monterey, CA for Internet Librarian, I attended NJLA’s first Adult Services Forum. On the same day, David Lee King and Michael Porter launched their new video and multimedia collaboration project, Library 101. All three of these focus on something that I have been pondering a lot lately: how, why and in what format we provide services (to all our patrons). Those thoughts cannot be separated from my concern over the division that is created by the acceptance of technology in library service. Let me start by saying that I suffer from a serious case of technolust. I really love having new technology at my fingertips! But I also have a fair amount of restraint and often will wait to purchase something until (almost) all the kinks are worked out. However, I know that, just from my family and friends, most people are not yet comfortable with a wide range of technologies. As a librarian, I feel that it is important for the library to be a safe and comfortable place to expose people to web 2.0 (and beyond) and new ways of doing things. John Porcaro (JP) said during his presentation at the Adult Services Forum that he finds librarians are often ahead of the curve compared with other departments and professions when it comes to new technology. This is not the stereotype that people have of libraries and librarians. Just do a Google search on “libraries are dead”: 79,000 results! Not all these websites actually support that idea but some clearly do. The common thread is that unless we do something about the PERCEPTION of libraries, they will die. And isn’t that what we are ultimately fighting against? Both internal and external stereotypes of what libraries and librarians were, are and are going to be. ... Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:31:59 +0100 787862 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ConversationalReading/~3/837_M98ok8w/the-tyranny-of-email.html Surprisingly enough, Andrew Keen has written a lucid and engaging review of John Freeman's new book, The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox. Ironically, then, the most troubling of Freeman’s numbers are not our collective annual 35 trillion emails, but rather the 200 e-mails which, on average, we each receive every day. Therein lies the cause of what he calls “e-mail bankruptcy” -- “the communication subprime mortgage crisis of our era.” Instead of it being a help, these 200 daily e-mails have become a massive hindrance to both our productivity and happiness, eating up our mental attention, stealing our leisure time, wasting our intellectual focus. So what to do? Freeman’s answer is “a manifesto for a slow communication movement” built around a very simple principle: “DON’T SEND.” Instead of mindlessly e-mailing all day, he says, we should only check our e-mail a couple of times a day; we should give what he calls “good e-mail,” which is both thoughtful and brief; we should try to replace e-mail with face-to-face meetings; and we should organize our days to include a substantial portion of “media-free time.” Not so sure I believe that 200/day number, unless we're counting spam, which most of us never see anyway. I do get what Freeman says about emails piling up and turning into a big energy drain, but email can be (and has been, for me anyway) a big time-saver. Just like with Facebook, Twitter, what have you . . . they're all tools that can be a big waste if you do it wrong, but if you know how to use them you should get a lot out of it. Later on in the review, this is intriguing: Google, for example, is now working on a revolutionary new service called Wave which will collapse micro-blogging, e-mail, and collective instant-messaging into a powerfully seductive real-time messaging platform. ... Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100 787751 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/10/article-note-on-academic-library-20-and.html Citation for the article:Xu, Chen, Fenfei Ouyang, and Heting Chu, "The Academic Library Meets Web 2.0: Applications and Implications." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 35.4 (July 2009): 324-331.Read via Science Direct.The article looks at a sampling of 81 academic libraries in New York State to see what Web 2.0 applications they have chosen to use and how they have applied them. On the basis, the authors then propose their conceptual model that revolves around the concepts of Librarian 2.0, User 2.0, and Information 2.0. I did not find this to be a ground-breaking article, but it does confirm some of what I have seen already or read out there in other librarian blogs.Some small notes from the article I found interesting:"Although Habib's Academic Library 2.0 model goes beyond the boundary of a library by including the social dimension of students' campus life, it does not cover research activities academic libraries strive to support" (325). The reference goes to Michael Habib's thesis from UNC-Chapel Hill, which you can find here. I may have to go and read the work itself, but this quote made me ponder a bit because I am indeed not seeing much on use of 2.0 in relation to an academic library's research activities, or, to better say it, the research activities an academic library is supposed to support. There is some work out there being done, but a lot of the coverage seems to be around the fun and games.The survey revealed that the libraries sampled implemented 2.0 tools in a limited scale. I think this is fairly consistent with how most libraries probably do it. Contrary to what we see a lot in the librarian blogger sphere, which tends to be celebratory every time some library jumps on another 2.0 application, I tend to wonder about the ones that are doing things but are not writing about it. Or the ones who try things out, find out they do not work for them, but again, do not write about them. ... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:26:00 +0100 786849 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Librarianinblack/~3/Q_hz-EFyQTQ/il2009experiencedesign.html IL2009: Experience Design Makeover Speaker: David Lee King The good experience designer plans and builds deliberate experiences into the website, not just hoping for the best.  No one wants to interact with “a website.”  People want to interact with each other. The Topeka and Shanee County Public Library had a library website since 2004.  Stephen Abram spoke to the staff at a staff day, and they decided as a result to experiment with a blog.  They had a MySpace page but didn’t know what to do with it.  When David arrived, he did an inventory of the web presence.  They did not have a content management system – no real back-end governing the website.  It was a .ASP program that did their events, bookmobile schedule, and more.  David personally hates ASP.  They got a blog, but it was 2 or 3 clicks in.  The IM Ask a Librarian Meebo widget was added after David arrived.  As David puts it, they were tacking things on to an already bad website.  A lot of the space in the middle of the page was dedicated to advertising – they were using valuable real estate for that.  The catalog was hard to find – 2 or 3 clicks down.  David suggests doing a web search for “public library” and then your state’s name, to see a variety of library websites, which he says are generally not up to snuff (Sarah’s note: Abso-freaking-lutely.) Their current website has a modern CMS.  They also offer comments on nearly every page on their website.  They offer lots of RSS feeds.  Staff writes content for news blogs, subject guides, and genre-specific recommended materials blogs.  That content is remixed.  David notes that the web is once again becoming decentralized.  They have a Facebook page for the library, one for their art gallery, and one for their teen customers. ... Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:30:19 +0100 787030 http://futura.edublogs.org/2009/10/27/and-so-the-library-evolves/ What does this photograph and this beach at Asilomar have to do with libraries, you might ask?  It’s from a place that I find irresistible.  Taken during a conference I find irresistible–a conference that keeps me coming back for more. Ever since Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson wrote their intriguing article in School Library Journal, I’ve been pondering what the 21st century school library can or does look like. In listening from afar in to the keynote address at Internet Librarian West (brilliantly entitled “Libraries of the Future: Places of Desire”) by NYPL librarian Paul Holdengraber  I heard him give the key answer to my question–that he wants libraries to be irresistible. And that’s all you could want for a school library–for it to be irresistible to the students and teachers you have at your campus–whether that means read-alouds, book groups, online presence, twittering, facebooking, gaming events, a beautiful space, etc.–whatever the means, the end goal is making the library an irresistible learning hub. And it’s not just because that will help us be more viable, or help us “survive” budget cuts–or any of those fear-based things.  It’s because it’s what we are here for.  We’re here to offer services in the best way we can that invite our customers/students in and engage them in learning and creating. Rereading Chris Brogan’s much commented upon post about services public libraries offer, he pushes the envelope for public library services, like offering geotagging of sites outside the library, for example.  Many readers chimed in with their ideas, praise, kudos, or wishes for their libraries. At Internet Librarian West today, I followed tweets discussing ways to take libraries mobile. ... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:16:33 +0100 786863 http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/10/article-note-on-collaboration-between.html Citation for the article:Duke, Lynda M., Jean B. MacDonald, and Carrie S. Trimble. "Collaboration Between Marketing Students and the Library: An Experiential Learning Project to Promote Reference Services." College and Research Libraries 70.2 (March 2009): 109-121.Read via WilsonWeb.One of my long term goals, assuming I can find the time between the various small interruptions, is to develop a marketing plan for our library here. I have been doing some reading on the topic here and there, and I came across this article. One of the ideas I had suggested early on was trying to get some of our business or marketing students involved to help us with our marketing efforts. So this article came at a very good moment for me. It made for some good reading, and it gave me some good ideas.The authors provide an account of their collaboration with a marketing class on their campus. The idea was to get student input for the library's marketing efforts, specifically to market the library's reference services. The project started on the Spring of 2007. The benefit for the marketing students was gaining real world experience where they could apply the marketing principles they were learning in their class. The students were allowed to develop survey questions for marketing studies as part of their tasks; the advantage of this is that students have intimate knowledge of their peers and their habits.Note that the surveys implemented were convenience surveys. Participants were drawn mostly from peers and acquaintances of the marketing students. However, the survey does confirm much of what the library literature says about the decline of desk reference services; also note the authors do review some of this literature in their literature review.Among the findings, the survey found that campus students had a lack of knowledge of the services available, which is something we struggle with as well here. ... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0100 786136