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 Wifi interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:53:25 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/holiday-travel-update-gadgets-gadgets-everywhere/ I am on my way home from ten days in sunny Florida visiting my parents, and it was a gadget-rific Christmas. I saw my first Nook and Nook Colour, my first Kindle 3 (alas, out of stock, but I did play with a dummy model) and got stepdad’s iPad set up for him. More on that later—we had a few days alone thanks to a family emergency that had Mom flying home for a few days, so the iPad became our little All by Ourselves project—but I have some general comments on my gadget-rific holiday to tide you over in the meantime! 1) IT’S A GADGET WORLD The first thing that struck me about this holiday season was just how many gadgets there really are out there. I don’t travel much, so I was unprepared for the sheer proliferation of gadgetalia out there in the wild. I think every single person on my whole flight had a gadget of some kind, ranging from iPod Touches (most in the hands of children) to iPads, at least two Kindles besides my own, numerous fully loaded smartphones, a Sony and a few Chinese devices I could not identify. Two people in the seats beside me were even watching video on iPod Nanos! And I was not the only person who had more than one device with me, either! Of course, not all of these people were reading on them. But still, the potential is there. I spent an enjoyable afternoon playing iToys with my nephew, who is not much of a reader, and while we were evenly matched on the arcade stuff and perhaps spent more time than we had to playing with the talking cat, I have to admit that he held his own against me in even ‘intellectual’ games like Jeopardy and Family Feud. And I was happy to have something to do with him that bonded us a little. Small boys are a bit of a cipher for me, since his only interests seem to be hockey and baseball, so gadgetry is perhaps a welcome way into his world for people like me and his gadget-savvy parents. ... Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:08:51 +0100 895608 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/for-new-and-old-kindlers-wanting-to-do-more-with-their-kindles/ CREATIVE USES OF THE KINDLE Well, pleasurable reading is good enough for most, but there is a lot more that can be done with the Kindle, as shown in the short list just below. (I recommend bookmarking this for quick access later.) 1. an old, continuing favorite forum thread about the more unique uses of the Kindle’s capabilitiesthought up by members of the Amazon Kindle Community, and I saw another idea added today. 2. a newer forum thread of favorite tips for new Kindle owners from Kindle oldtimers. NOTE: If your web browser (especially Firefox) drops you onto the Amazon forum list of topics instead of bringing you to the forum thread, click onRefresh or Reload to get the message thread itself — or click on the link again.  I don’t know why a ‘retry’ is often needed, but it is. 3. The Kindle Chronicles This is a very informative, fun resource for Kindlers at http://thekindlechronicles.com, a weekly podcast hosted by Len Edgerly who, each Friday night, brings us a roundup of the latest news (with links), excellent tech tips, an interview with someone from the Kindle world at large and some from just outside it who are of course in the Kindle net then  Len also presents video reviews as well.  At the site are summaries of what is included in the latest podcast report.  Links are given there for items mentioned in the podcast. 4. the new Kindle book by Stephen Windwalker, who has been explaining what can be done on Kindles since the Kindle 1, and this just-released book that includes info for the Latest Generation Kindles is only $0.99, which is more than a bargain. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:45:17 +0100 895349 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/the-conundrum-of-the-user-unfriendly-appliance-interface/ At TechCrunch, Alexia Tsotsis posts an interesting meditation on how tricky most household appliance interfaces have become. Coffee makers, microwave ovens, even pepper grinders have become much more complex than they used to be—sometimes hilariously so: Many people received iPads and iPhones this Christmas, and because of Apple’s legendary intuitive and straightforward design, could pull them right out of the box and commence using. Not the case with a battery powered pepper grinder one of my relatives received at our gift exchange. It took three people to put together and when we did get it to work, we hilariously realized that it had a flashlight at the bottom, for no reason. Novel? yes. Productive? No. But far more often frustratingly so. She uses the examples of a coffee maker that she couldn’t figure out how to put the water in, and how much more complicated microwaves are than they used to be. Microwaves of old had approximately one control: a knob that controlled how long the device nuked the food for. (We still have some of those in the cafeteria/lounge at my work.) And to this I would add some of my own experiences doing tech support for ordinary, average people who call in with questions about their computers. Even the interfaces that designers think are simple and easy to understand are going to give somebody trouble. (The other day, I had to explain to someone how to open a Gmail message. Really.) And sometimes a lot of somebodies. Some of the biggest offenders are printers (how I shudder when the opening words of any call are, “I just got this printer, and…”) and wi-fi routers, but laptops are problematic, too—and one of the biggest problems is figuring out how to turn wifi on, something that should be dead simple but is not because no computer manufacturer ever makes the switch easy to find. (Easy to bump by accident, on the other hand, is another matter. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:15:00 +0100 895350 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/web2learning/YOVk/~3/wUD9ApnvecM/4468 This Christmas I got a Nook Color from my hubby and mother. I’ve been using it for a few days and I think it’s time to share my opinions. First things first, if you have an ebook reader you must download Calibre. Calibre is an open source ebook management application that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux (a flavor for everyone). It’s a great way to convert files from one format to another, to manage all of your books and to download news from the web to your reader. I have started with a bunch of free and public domain materials (nothing purchased yet). I chose the Nook over other alternatives because it could open so many formats of ebook and it runs on the Android operating system so that gives me some options for openness should I decide to root the device (a practice that has recently been declared legal). However I have found some downsides to the supposed openness of the Nook. While I can read materials purchased or downloaded from other sites, these materials are treated like second class citizens on the Nook. What do I mean? Well my EPubs and PDFs can’t be mounted on the home screen. I can only access these materials by browsing my shelves or files. I also can’t use the built in social networking functionality on materials that are not from Barnes & Noble. Basically I can read these materials, but they’re harder to get to and not as functional. I’m reading The Art of Community right now and have just figured out how to highlight passages (a big plus). I can also access all of my highlights and notes in one menu. Now for the minus – I can’t find a way to download or share these quotes. If this were a Barnes and Noble publication I could share the quotes one by one with the ‘share’ function, but because this is a PDF (converted to Epub in Calibre) I can just highlight and that’s the end of it. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:21:38 +0100 895489 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-didnt-post-how-christmas-went.html Christmas Eve I went to stay overnight at my grandmother's. She's doing rather poorly and I fixed something for us to eat and helped her get back and forth from the couch to the bathroom and bedroom. I did some laundry and my mother visited with us. We exchanged gifts. I gave my mom a candle and a gift certificate to Amazon and she's thinking of applying it to a wi-fi Kindle. She likes how big you can make the print (she's having some trouble reading now that she's older.) I got a nice pair of pants and jacket from my grandmother and a personal-sized blender/chopper from my mom and stepdad that looks really cool. I gave my grandmother some photo frames (she has five grandchildren, three of whom have reproduced, so she has plenty of pictures of the great-grandchildren). My stepfather, who's a computer geek, got a card to Best Buy. I think I killed my grandmother's dryer, because after two loads it wouldn't go anymore. My mom took the last load home and dried it. (It smells vaguely of cigarette smoke, but is mostly underwear). After Ma went to bed I read the rest of 'A Christmas Carol' on my Kindle. I went onto the wireless on the Kindle and found an application for Monopoly and played that for awhile. Then I went to bed myself. On Christmas Day, I came out and my grandmother was on the couch. We visited for awhile. I made some oatmeal for breakfast, but I couldn't get her to eat any. We were going over to my mother's for lunch, though. Ma was saying she really didn't feel like going, and seemed a little confused in general, but when my stepfather arrived, she decided to go, and I helped her get dressed. You know those walkers that roll with little seats on them? She has one, so we put her on the seat and rolled her to the car, with me lifting her over the small steps. Their car's a little hard to get in for anyone, but we finally got her in. We also had his mother, who's a couple of years older than my grandmother in the car. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895445 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/helpful-advice-for-new-kindle-owners/ Here are some handy tips from actual Kindle owners to newcomers who just got one in the past few days. I cribbed most of these from this Amazon Discussion Forum thread, and although I’ve edited it down to the ones I personally vouch for, the whole thread is worth a look if you’re just getting started. Shopping Don’t feel compelled to grab every free book offer just because it’s free. At the same time, don’t hesitate on free offers that interest you, because a lot of deals are time-sensitive. Pressing Alt+Home will take you straight to the Kindle store on your device. Take advantage of samples to help curb your impulse buys. Use eReaderIQ.com to keep an eye on expensive Kindle titles, so you can be alerted if the price drops. If you share your Kindle account with others, or if you like to maintain a gift card balance just for books, consider setting up a second account on Amazon that’s reserved solely for the Kindle. The Device Learn which Kindle model you own, so you can troubleshoot it or look for accessories for it without confusion.Here’s a chart to help you out. If you only occasionally deal with damp places when reading your Kindle, try a Ziploc-style plastic bag that seals. However, don’t rely on it for higher-risk areas like pools or boats–invest in a waterproof case or bag. Instead of turning it off, put your Kindle in sleep mode when you’re not reading it, by sliding and releasing the power button. Only turn off your Kindle completely (by holding the power switch for 5-7 seconds) if you’re not going to use it for a week or more. To save battery life, turn off the wireless function if you don’t need it. You can turn this on/off under the main menu. Download Calibre and use it on your PC the way you would use iTunes–that is, to organize all of your ebooks. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:36:34 +0100 895261 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/kobo-shows-record-growth-over-christmas-holidays/ From the press release: Kobo, the only pure-play global eReading service built on an open platform, today revealed its Holiday 2010 momentum. This Christmas, readers around the world received new eReaders and iPads and other eReading devices under their tree. Over a million people connected to Kobo, and hundreds of thousands of devices were activated each day since Christmas Eve, fuelling the highest eBook download rate in the company’s history. People around the world chose Kobo this Christmas, with the popular easy-to-use Kobo Wireless eReader, dozens of compatible eReaders, top-rated applications for iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and one of the largest catalogues in the world with over 2.2 million eBooks, newspapers and magazines. “Earlier this month we predicted that Christmas would be a record breaker for Kobo, and we have exceeded our expectations driving several ebook downloads per second since Christmas Eve, or an equivalent number hardcover books stacked as high as 50 Empire State Buildings ” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “I would like to thank our customers for choosing Kobo to start building their digital library this Christmas. Our success this holiday season is a pre-cursor to a New Year with people reading more than ever thanks to eBooks and Kobo. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:14:46 +0100 895263 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html#7695153278623484195 For your reading pleasure, the FCC's severely flawed "net neutrality" order (PDF) which basically kills net neutrality by exempting wireless service from the rules.And here's yet another quick and easy graphic explaining why this is bad. (Source: Library Chronicles) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895475 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.education.web4lib/17243 Morning All, Anyone have any information on open access wireless and wireless access at univerisites? thank you in advance and have a safe and fun holiday season janette (Source: gmane.education.web4lib) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894577 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62800 Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January - June 2010 Preliminary results from the January-June 2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes with only wireless telephones continues to grow. More than one of every four American homes (26.6%) had only [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:26:00 +0100 894427 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/wifi-kindles-back-in-stock-at-amazon/ A lot of sites have been reporting that WiFi Kindles are out of stock. However, I just saw a tweet from Amazon posted at 4:26 PM EST saying: Attention last minute shoppers: We just received more of our $139 Kindles and can deliver them in time for Christmas! I checked on Amazon and, indeed, they are back in stock at $139. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:08:50 +0100 894290 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/goodreader-for-iphone-updated-includes-ipad-features/ Here’s the update description from their site: new PDF displaying engine – zooming/panning is a lot smoother now. However, if for some reason the new engine doesn’t work for you, you can always switch back to the original engine with the switch in Settings. Higher quality images switch in Settings for PDF files. This switch produces higher quality scanned images, but impacts rendering performance noticeably. So try this switch to see which option suits your needs better. wireless printing: AirPrint support (iOS 4.2 or later) actions available without closing a file – “Open In…”, E-Mail, Print Repair a PDF File feature. Some damaged files that previously caused GoodReader to display an “Unknown PDF Error” message (and could not be annotated for that matter), can now be automatically repaired. support for 256-bit AES encryption in PDF files (iOS 4.2 or later) PDF Night Mode brightness slider is now available directly in a viewer, no need to adjust it in Settings any more PDF Annotations: adjustable line thickness for drawings PDF Annotations: adjustable opacity for drawings Redo button in freehand drawing mode freehand drawing tool now allows to zoom and pan a page with two fingers, useful for long handwritten notes that do not fit on one screen freehand drawing mode now recognizes single taps as dots – no more circles when drawing the “i” letter freehand drawing tool now works much faster on pages containing a large number of annotations images can now be deleted without closing the image viewer fixed the issue with accessing some WebDAV servers based on Microsoft IIS engine fixed the issue when annotations created in GoodReader were missing when printing files later from a computer (you’ll need to somehow modify old annotations to fix them, any modification – placement, color, etc. ... Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:31:46 +0100 894292 http://www.cilip.org.uk/membership/benefits/informed/information-centre/Pages/default.aspx The Information Centre is open to CILIP Members and bona fide researchers (the latter by appointment only). Whether you work or study locally, or are in London for a meeting or training course, please pay us a visit. You can conduct research, check your emails or catch up with the latest issues of key LIS journals. If you can’t visit, then contact the team by filling in the enquiry form.  We can search the Information Centre’s resources on your behalf. We are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm* and are situated on the 2nd floor of 7 Ridgmount Street.  *CHRISTMAS OPENING The Information Centre will close at 12pm on 24th December and re-open on 4th January at 9am. View map The centre contains a current awareness collection focusing on the LIS sector and the needs of the LIS professional, and includes: Books on a wide range of LIS related subjects (reference only) Branch and group journals CILIP publications Directories and Yearbooks Professional journals - many available electronically (including 17 from Emerald) 4 computer terminals are provided with access to: Internet MS Office packages Online databases and journals The Centre is WiFi enabled - ask reception or the Information and Advice Team for a password. A photocopier and printer is provided (10p per sheet).   (Source: CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:20:55 +0100 894317 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/bde8T5lePws/some-cool-android-tips-and-tricks.html Last week, I sent a note to my team with some of my favorite tips and apps for Nexus S, which features Android 2.3, Gingerbread. A lot of Googlers liked it, so we thought some of you might enjoy it as well. (Note: Many of the tips are specific to Android 2.3.)TipsVisual cue for scrolling: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can’t scroll anymore.Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.): Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don't. Hint: if you're in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won't turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.Voice actions: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message (“send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7”), call someone ("call mom"), navigate somewhere (“navigate to pizza”), or listen to music ("listen to Mamma Mia").Find things you’ve downloaded from your browser: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.Walk, don’t drive: Once you’ve gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.Easy text copy/paste from a webpage: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. ... Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894543 http://www.cla-net.org/weblog/2010/12/2010_california_1.php by Natalie Cole, Program Director for CLA On a typical day, more people visit a California library than live in the city of San Francisco. In October 2010, Californians showed how valuable and important their library is to them and their community, when over ONE MILLION people visited a public, academic, school or special library on California Library Snapshot Day. Library usage on Snapshot Day clearly showed that Californians need their libraries for information, education, entertainment, and enrichment. Libraries provide free access to timely, unbiased, accurate, information every day. This information helps people find jobs, study for a degree, navigate their way through school, become citizens, buy a home, set up a business and so much more. On Snapshot Day, library staff answered over 109,000 reference questions either in person, by phone, email, text, instant message or via their web page. Patrons shared their appreciation of their libraries: "The staff is incredibly helpful and friendly. I feel welcomed and comfortable asking for help. Thanks a lot!" "I do all of my homework in the library! Plenty of reference books, wifi access for D2L, and if I need it, the tutoring center is right up the hall. Full-text databases makes grade-A essays (almost) easy! Library staff is friendly and helpful...and it's QUIET! Yeay!" "This library is essential for people to discover the law, to help file suits [...]that take advantage of the laymen. I could not afford an attorney; I'm in pro per. I need this library to do research and defend my rights." "Without a school library, how would 6th graders figure out middle school?" Libraries provide free access to literature, music, and art that broadens our world view, expands our minds, and makes us laugh, cry, and think. Patrons borrowed over 770,000 items on Snapshot Day. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:46:29 +0100 894336 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/wiley-blackwell-begins-roll-out-of-mobile-apps-for-selected-health-publications/ From a Wiley-Blackwell News Release: Wiley-Blackwell is launching new mobile applications for selected health science journals, accessible via iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian, PalmOS, and WAP devices. The applications, which will be freely available, will allow for the mobile delivery of title and abstract listings of articles with a feature that will enable users to create a “reading list” of desired full-text articles, available from the user’s desktop computer through Wiley Online Library. The apps will provide the full-text of a selection of articles, and mobile content will be pushed to the mobile application as it is added to Wiley Online Library. Additional features include listings of upcoming events, society news, and publication information. Easily navigable, the applications present an optimized reading experience from various mobile devices. [Clip] The first application to be launched is for the American Journal of Transplantation (AJT), delivering fast, high quality content in organ and tissue transplantation and the related sciences. In this AJT app, users have real-time access to article abstracts, The AJT Report, and the latest news and information from the field. With access to a range of topics including thoracic transplantation (heart, lung), abdominal transplantation (kidney, liver, pancreas, islets) and transplantation of tissues, users can create reading lists tailored to their own interests and customize the app through “My Feeds” with other relevant information. This content can then be shared via email or through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Download the app for any mobile device by visting http://amjtrans.mwap.at + Screenshots From the iPhone Version of the App Via Resource Shelf (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:34:32 +0100 894071 http://acrlog.org/2010/12/20/a-day-for-design/ Last week I attended the ACRL/NY Symposium here in New York City. It was the first time I’d been to my local chapter’s annual program and a fun day: great speakers and posters and a nice opportunity to catch up with colleagues from libraries in the NYC metro area. The theme of this year’s program was Innovation by Design: Re-Visioning the Library which, as the day’s first speaker reminded us, could not be more timely. Bill Mayer, University Librarian at American University in DC, started us off with his talk “Redesigning Relevance: Creating New Traditions in Library Design.” He noted that in this economic climate renovation is often the new new construction: many of our institutions won’t have the budget for new buildings, so it’s important to make the most of what we have. Mayer reminded us that the recent Ithaka report reveals that faculty use of our physical spaces is declining. He encouraged us to think about how we can make the library best for students, our primary users. He sees library-as-warehouse as an outdated model, and recommends reducing the collections and materials kept onsite as well as increasing reliance on consortial collections to free up more space for students to use. Mayer shared some of the ways that this kind of redesign has been implemented at American University. After moving many volumes to offsite storage, they discovered that the additional space available for the books that remained made it easier for students to find books. Students wanted more computer workstations and access to wireless, so they added more space for student work too. Mayer cautioned that of course local conditions matter — there’s no one size fits all approach. He suggests making our process inclusive and asking faculty, students, and administrators for input during the process. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894049 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Davidrothmannet/~3/6YXVIrAb6lc/ It is entirely possible that I’m just dense, but everything I’ve read recently about libraries and “transliteracy” seems like nonsense to me. Here’s how I’ve been thinking about it. Literacy Very briefly, the term literacy1 refers to either: 1. The ability to read and write or 2. Knowledge of, skill in, or competence in an specific area or subject. The former is a very real concern if the university professors and academic librarians I know are to be believed.2 Still, I think we’re mostly concerned with the latter. Sorts of Literacies: My wife and I frequently talk about our aspirations for the cultural literacy of our children. We think that they need to hear stories from Mother Goose, the Brothers Grimm, Aesop’s Fables, and (to the surprise of some who know us) both the Hebrew and Christian bibles. We’re atheists, but we know that stories from the bible(s) are frequently referenced in literature and in life- and that knowledge of these stories will enhance their understanding of the world around them. Plenty of people tell me that they need help with something because they are not computer literate. I don’t know that I much like this term (I think that lack of confidence is a more frequent problem than actual incapability), but the popularity of its use can’t be denied. People know that to be “computer illiterate” is to be unskilled in the use of computers. ... Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:47:30 +0100 893912 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.education.web4lib/17224 Why is this any better than QuestionPoint? Wilfred (Bill) Drew, M.S., B.S., Assistant Professor. Librarian. TC3 Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -----Original Message----- From: Lori Bell <lbell927< at >yahoo.com> Sender: "web4lib-bounces< at >webjunction.org" <web4lib-bounces< at >webjunction.org> Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:20:19 To: publib< at >webjunction.org<publib< at >webjunction.org>; web4lib< at >webjunction.org<web4lib< at >webjunction.org> Subject: [Web4lib] Libraries Invited to Join My Info Quest Collaborative SMS Text messaging Project Libraries Invited to Join My Info Quest Collaborative SMS Text Messaging Project   Libraries of all types and sizes are invited to join the My Info Quest(http://www.myinfoquest.info) collaborative SMS text messaging project, which kicked off on July 20, 2009 and continues its growth into 2011.  My Info Quest, the first collaborative text message reference service, will use Mosio’s Text A Librarian (http:/ (Source: gmane.education.web4lib) Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 893680 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62740 From a Wiley-Blackwell News Release: Wiley-Blackwell is launching new mobile applications for selected health science journals, accessible via iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian, PalmOS, and WAP devices. The applications, which will be freely available, will allow for the mobile delivery of title and abstract listings of articles with a feature that will [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:45:00 +0100 893780 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/iRcS/~3/MH-35udLKo4/wiley-blackwell-launches-new-mobile.html Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is launching new mobile applications for selected health science journals, accessible via iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian, PalmOS, and WAP devices. The applications, which will be freely available, will allow for the mobile delivery of title and abstract listings of articles with a feature that will enable users to create a 'reading list' of desired full-text articles, available from the user's desktop computer through Wiley Online Library. The apps will provide the full-text of a selection of articles, and mobile content will be pushed to the mobile application as it is added to Wiley Online Library. Additional features include listings of upcoming events, society news, and publication information. Easily navigable, the applications present an optimized reading experience from various mobile devices. The first application to be launched is for the American Journal of Transplantation (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog) Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:47:28 +0100 893643 http://comunisfera.blogspot.com/2010/12/algunas-ventajas-de-las-redes-sociales.html La mesa redonda de anoche quedó con menos tweets por fallo de wifi y sin streaming por poco ancho de banda. Querría recoger también que alguno de los asistentes se sintió amenazado en su actual utilización de moodle. Defendió que los LMS ya se plantean como redes sociales y que no veía motivos para el cambio hacia "esa moda" de las redes sociales". Del resto quedaron suficientes noticias en la etiqueta de Twitter #rsvigo20.Desde la mesa disfrutamos del diseño de Raúl y Carlos López Ardao @jardao con una misma pregunta a varios de la/los ponentes. El discurso fue bastante constructivista, se notaba sintonía en una misma dirección salvo diferencias de matiz. Preguntado por la educación 2.0 hablé de que la tecnología no es la culpable del cambio cultural que vivimos desde mediados del s.XX, y de cómo esa crisis institucional, en la escuela y la universidad, se está acelerando en la segunda década de internet. Orihuela @jlori, claro y preciso como siempre, caracterizó en cinco pinceladas el giro hacia la web social. Tíscar Lara @tiscar planteo cómo nos cambian las prácticas digitales; haciendo evolucionar nuestras identidades y cambiando las construcciones sociales y las instituciones que animamos.En un tono optimista todos los ponentes subrayamos el valor del aprendizaje informal siguiendo ideas de la presentación de  Ardao al comienzo del coloquio. José Vicente Novegil @vnovegil explicó su experiencia y yo la mía en la Rede Social Uvigo. Desde la camaradería de las redse buscamos el clima más cordial, a pesar de seguir siendo profesores y en aulas, para arrancar con más motivación y para que el aprendizaje formal se abra y continúe, no sólo durante la formación escolar sino el resto de la vida. ... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:16:00 +0100 893942 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/NorTFemt6mo/under-hood-of-google-maps-50-for.html Yesterday we introduced Google Maps 5.0 for Android with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability. In order to create these features, we rebuilt Maps using vector graphics to dynamically draw the map as you use it. Building a vector graphics engine capable of achieving the visual quality and performance level you expect from Google Maps was a major technical challenge and enables all sorts of future possibilities. So we wanted to give you a closer look under the hood at the technology driving the next generation of mobile maps.Vector graphicsBefore diving into how Maps uses vector graphics, it may be helpful to understand how maps were created before. Previously, Google Maps downloaded the map as sets of individual 256x256 pixel “image tiles.” Each pre-rendered image tile was downloaded with its own section of map imagery, roads, labels and other features baked right in. Google Maps would download each tile as you needed it and then stitch sets together to form the map you see. It takes more than 360 billion tiles to cover the whole world at 20 zoom levels!Now, we use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map. Maps will download “vector tiles” that describe the underlying geometry of the map. You can think of them as the blueprints needed to draw a map, instead of static map images. Because you only need to download the blueprints, the amount of data needed to draw maps from vector tiles is drastically less than when downloading pre-rendered image tiles. Google Maps isn’t the first mobile app to use vector graphics—in fact, Google Earth and our Navigation (Beta) feature do already. But a combination of modern device hardware and innovative engineering allow us to stream vector tiles efficiently and render them smoothly, while maintaining the speed and readability we require in Google Maps. ... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 893475 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/review-acase-ipad-case/ While I was engaging in a paroxysm of Amazon ordering activity for holiday presents, I happened to notice one of Amazon’s bargain deals was for an iPad case—the “Acase Premium Series Leather Slimline Carrying Case for Apple iPad 3G tablet/Wifi model 16GB, 32GB, 64GB (Black)”. A few weeks ago, when I met a fellow iPad user in a local coffeehouse and he told me how much of a difference a good iPad case made, I was skeptical. But after having this one for a few days, I am starting to believe him. This case is nothing particularly fancy. It doesn’t turn into a stand, or contain a keyboard, or promise to protect the iPad from dropping it off a roof, or anything like that. It’s just a simple leather folder with a lip on one side and two elastic bands on the other to hold the device in place, a soft leather interior to protect against scratches and make it comfortable on your lap, and an elastic loop that goes around the end to hold it either open or closed. Its greatest defining feature, and the reason I originally bought it, is that it is inexpensive. But it really is amazing how much of a difference it makes. The important thing about having a case, I find, is that it gives you a better grip on the device—suddenly its heavy weight seems less awkward in the hand. The leather interior provides friction that the metal case lacked, and is also a lot more comfortable on bare skin when doing my morning Reeder-in-bed trawl. It also prevents the iPad from sliding about when I have it on my bed next to my pillow for bedtime listening. And it seems reasonably well-made considering the price I paid for it. If you’ve been hesitant about getting an iPad case because you just didn’t want to spend more money after buying a $500 device, perhaps the best thing about this particular case is the price. Amazon lists it as having a $39.99 suggested retail price, but its vendors have it marked down to $11. ... Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:45:07 +0100 893262 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/tL1e-MXg3AA/next-generation-of-mobile-maps.html (Cross-posted on the Google Mobile Blog and Lat Long Blog)I’m excited to announce Google Maps 5.0 for Android, with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability.We launched Google Maps for mobile a little more than five years ago. Since then, we’ve added dozens of features, and we’ve grown from a few thousand to more than 100 million users. Still, a couple of things have remained the same: a flat, north-up map and the need for a strong Internet connection. Today, we’re changing that for the first time.Tilt while zoomed in (left) or use compass mode (right) to orient yourself with 3D buildings.Explore maps in 3DUntil now, Google Maps has always downloaded the map as a set of small, square images that we stitch together to form the map you see. (You’ve probably seen those gray squares getting filled in, block-by-block, as the images load over the network.) Starting today, we’ll use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map on your device as you use it, allowing you to interact with it in new ways:Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.I found 3D buildings especially useful on a recent trip to New York. From my hotel to the Google office in Chelsea and bars on the Lower East Side, this richer representation of the real world made the map much more helpful. ... Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 893482 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/review-the-bn-nookcolor-by-the-editor/ At the outset let me say that I do most of my reading on a 3rd generation Kindle. I also have an iPad, but it is big and heavy and, while I will read on it occasionally, I find that it is just too heavy to use as a reader on a regular basis. I am, however, no stranger to reading on an lcd screen. I started ebook reading on Palms, went to Windows Mobile PDAs, then to smartphones. All of them had lcd screens. On such a small screen I don’t find backlighting to be objectionable. Even on the iPad I find that if I turn the brightness down and change the screen to a black background with white text I can read just fine for long periods. Having seen the Nookcolor at their press event in New York I was quite impressed, and the lcd didn’t put me off. So I was quite excited to receive this loaner from B&N and give it a good workout. Packaging B&N has done what the 1st generation Kindle did: prepare a really high-class package. The bottom of the package splits open and the Nook slides out. On the right you see the box that hold the accessories. Here are the contents of the package: They consist of the unit, a quickstart guide, USB cable and charger. The prongs on the charger fold down to make for easier packing. Setup The quickstart guide says to charge the unit before using and that it takes 3 hours to bring it to a full charge. Unfortunately, the unit will not charge from a USB port and the included charger is the only way to do it. In a clever piece of design the charging indicator is part of the USB connection. Here you see it in its orange “charging” state. It turns green when fully charged. After the unit charged I did the basic setup. This is well documented in the quickstart guide, and there is also a video on the machine which you can play. Very clever. ... Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:04:23 +0100 893001 http://digital-scholarship.com/digitalkoans/2010/12/13/daily-tweets-2010-12-13/ Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online http://bit.ly/hrqWMU # The Other Shoe Drops http://bit.ly/hyiGih # AAP October Sales Report http://bit.ly/fHhcxi # E-book Trends by the Numbers http://bit.ly/fzlNdN # 10 Kindle, eReader Predictions for 2011 http://bit.ly/eRjDOl # New Copyright-Like Rights Considered Harmful http://bit.ly/hpzIzT # Demand Growing for Open Access Science Texts and Tools http://bit.ly/goUL9E # FCC Commissioner: Net Neutrality Rules Should Cover Wireless http://bit.ly/epgcdf # (Source: DigitalKoans) Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 892860 http://splat.lili.org/node/419 On Tuesday, December 7, 2010 Google announced the deployment of its Chrome Opearating System (OS) to a live audience (see above) and streamed the presentation via YouTube. The presenter talked about how Google wants everyone to use the cloud, and what better way to do that than to develop a Google laptop that uses cloud computing and the Chrome OS to do everything. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/cloud-computing-latest-chapter-in... What is cloud computing? It is “Computing in which services and storage are provided over the Internet (or "cloud")” --from en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cloud_computing. You don't store anything in physical devices like your computer, but on powerful servers housed in distant lands. Cloud computing is not really new—Google already stores your e-mail on their servers, along with everything else, readily available on demand over an Internet connection. So now that Google has developed their own OS, it will be delivered in two ways: one is via a new 12.1” netbook called CR-48 (the name will probably change when it's ready for sale), and another through Google's browser, Chrome. The netbooks won't be available until 2011, but if you use Google's browser Chrome, then you're already using Google's OS. The Google's netbook is a cloud computer, and it uses Chrome as its main OS. Think of it as a browser made into a netbook, since the netbook itself doesn't have any other function than to house Chrome, and use the Internet over a wireless connection to do its thing. I was lucky enough to receive a bare bones, beta-tester CR-48 netbook, thanks to the magic of a QR code (I'll tell you that story some other time), and sure enough it is a sleek and spartan netbook. If you already use Google, then your Google login and password are all you need—all the other services you depend on (Google Docs, forms, sites, etc.) are automatically loaded because, well, they're online too, tied to your Google account. ... Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:33:37 +0100 893647 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalKoans/~3/V_rlAqFsS-I/ Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online http://bit.ly/hrqWMU # The Other Shoe Drops http://bit.ly/hyiGih # AAP October Sales Report http://bit.ly/fHhcxi # E-book Trends by the Numbers http://bit.ly/fzlNdN # 10 Kindle, eReader Predictions for 2011 http://bit.ly/eRjDOl # New Copyright-Like Rights Considered Harmful http://bit.ly/hpzIzT # Demand Growing for Open Access Science Texts and Tools http://bit.ly/goUL9E # FCC Commissioner: Net Neutrality Rules Should Cover Wireless http://bit.ly/epgcdf # (Source: DigitalKoans) Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:00:00 +0100 892645 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/nookcolor-kindle-roundup-millions-of-kindles-sold/ KINDLE AND NOOKCOLOR NEWS ROUNDUP Haven’t been around the last two days and now that I’m back, I see that the news seems to be almost entirely about the holiday lists all the newspapers and ‘zines are making.   I drew attention to one very popular list the other day, but on the Amazon review areas and forums, there are still many people wondering which e-reader to buy or whether or not they should upgrade their prior Kindles, so I’ll go again with what’s in the news.  Since I missed a couple of days, this will be extra wordy.  I miss a day and you get punished. That’s A Kindle World. In the hot, color department you have LCD tablets like the Apple iPad ,Samsung Galaxy 7″, Archos 70 at 7″ and Archos 101 at 10″, and now the 7″ Barnes & Noble NookColor (w/Sandisk micro SD card) too.  As I’ve written, I may get a NookColor eventually as a secondary or supplemental e-reader because I would like a color e-reader for SHORT-session reading (magazines, travel, history, and art reference books), and others want color for their children. The trade-offs are battery life, ability to read easily in sunlight or near a window, possible eye fatigue from long-form reading (books) on a backlit screen, weight, and expense.  The iPad starts at $500 w/WiFi Only ($629 w/3G also); the Samsung Galaxy 7″, quite a bit smaller but more portable than the 10″ iPad, is about $600; the Archos 101 10″ tablet is sold out already everywhere at $295, as it has many features the iPad doesn’t, at a considerably lower cost (HDMI connector, USB port, micro SD card slot, webcam), and the NookColor e-reader (which is $250 and wisely being marketed as mainly an e-reader since it’s officially not intended do what a full Android tablet can). ... Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:26:21 +0100 892615 http://vivabibliotecaviva.blogspot.com/2010/12/dispositivos-moveis-nas-bibliotecas.html A sociedade de informação está em constante evolução, os dispositivos móveis estão em força na sociedade e cada vez mais integrados com os produtores de conteúdos, desde os jornais às bibliotecas. Os dispositivos móveis permitem um acesso à informação, metamorfoseando a comunicação.Algumas bibliotecas agarram este novo desafio a apresentam uma série de aplicações possíveis para usufruto dos seus utilizadores, tanto conteúdos como serviços, por exemplo: o portal Web da biblioteca acessível, serviços de alerta por SMS, geo-localização, acesso ao OPAC, (Mobile OPAC) e M-Repositórios, Códigos QR, serviço de recomendações, conteúdos para ebooks, tutoriais vídeo, podcats, etc.Ainda muitos problemas técnicos terão que ser resolvidos e ultrapassados, assim como os profissionais  das bibliotecas terão que demonstrar mais vontade em experimentar estas novas plataformas.Documentos a  consultar:Arroyo, Natalia. Web móvil y bibliotecas. El Profesional de la Información, vol. 18, núm. 2, marzo-abril 2009, pp. 129-136. Disponible en: http://eprints.rclis.org/16063/M-Libraries: Information use on the move : A report from the Arcadia Programme, by Keren Mills (18 Maio 2009) Utilidades de la web móvil para profesionales de la información, Natalia Arroyo In comunidad de prácticas sobre web móvilNatalia Arroyo apresenta-nos duas reflexões introdutórias sobre o tema:Web móvil y bibliotecasView more presentations from natalia.arroyo.Adaptando contenidos para la web móvil: pautas y herramientas para bibliotecas públicasAdaptando contenidos para la web móvil: pautas y herramientas para bibliotecas públicasView more presentations from natalia.arroyo.O nosso colega Pedro Príncipe (rato de biblioteca) apresentou a comunicação "Conteúdos para dispositivos móveis: uma oportunidade para as bibliotecas" nas VI Conferências do Cenáculo: Biblioteca 2. ... Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 893283 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62540 From the Connecticut Attorney General's Office: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today demanded that Google provide access to data its Street View cars improperly collected from unsecured Connecticut personal and business wireless computer networks. Blumenthal issued the demand in the form of a civil investigative demand -- equivalent to a subpoena. He issued [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:56:37 +0100 891934 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digizen/~3/s5EWrI5roy4/ Mediante el servicio de Mobstac puede acceder una versión de Digizen para el iPhone y otros “smart phones”. De  los servicios y  herramientas que he explorado fue uno de los más sencillos y efectivos. Si desea explorar otras alternativas recomendamos este artículo. (Source: DigiZen: Un blogfesor aprendiendo) Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:24:42 +0100 891949 http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2010/dec/09/short-stories-podcasts The Guardian's head of audio looks forward to a new series of podcasts, featuring leading authors reading short stories by other writersSaturday's an exciting day for us in the audio department. We're launching our new series of podcasts, but podcasts with a difference. We've invited some of the country's top authors to read us their favourite short story by another writer. So you'll hear Philip Pullman reading Chekov, Rose Tremain reading Yiyun and William Boyd reading JD Ballard, and then discuss why they chose those particular stories.We're running 12 of these from Saturday every day until Christmas. But it's been a project that we've been working on since the summer, when the Guardian's Review editor Lisa Allardice came up with the idea. She says: "We're familiar with audio books, but with writers choosing their favourite story they bring something of themselves to the reading."Julian Barnes surprised us with his choice of Hemingway's Homage to Switzerland. He's known as a really macho writer but he said he chose this piece to show the other more witty side of Hemingway."Over the last six months we've seen a succession of literary giants passing through the Guardian's multimedia hub, ushered in to our studio by our producers to record, re-record and retake their readings. Producer Tim Maby was surprised at how authors are now so used to reading aloud they even move the microphones to where it best suits them: "Anne Enright, for instance, likes to hug it." Tim says Rose Tremain commented that all writers like showing off, while Philip Pullman revealed he loves talking in to a mic.For me, as head of audio here at the Guardian, it's a particularly exciting series, because these recordings really show why podcasting is so much better than radio: they will remain on our website and on iTunes and be a resource for people forever. You don't have to be sitting next to your wireless at a certain time to catch them. So ... ... Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:52:30 +0100 891566 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/most-of-people-i-know-personally-with-e.html Older readers kindle fondness for e-readers Judy Ellis, 67, got her first cell phone two years ago. So it’s fair to say that like many in her generation, the Minneapolis resident has not been an early adopter of new technology. Then Amazon’s Kindle came along. Advertising “It’s just so easy to use,” she said, “and the adjustable font size makes a big difference in how quickly you can read.” But don’t typecast this as a one-note phenomenon. For Ellis and many of her peers, larger type size is just one reason they have embraced e-readers, the increasingly popular mobile devices for reading electronic versions of books, newspapers and magazines. Portability, accessibility, affordability, readability (beyond the font size) and the availability of thousands of titles have made Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader and other e-readers enormously appealing to seniors and baby boomers. Via LISNews. One of my co-workers has being weighing her options and finally got an iPad, where she can download books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and read the ones on Google's new e-book service. I still love my Kindle, though. Give me free wireless connexion and the ability to download and read a book nearly anywhere I would go, and I'm happy. But I've noticed no matter what e-book reader people choose, they tend to love it, and it really seems to increase the amount and fun they have reading. Which, as a librarian, I'm all for. Plus, I see people using the library who have e-book readers as well. As one person put it, there are books I want to read but not buy, and the library is where I get those. I have 144 books on my Kindle right now, if you don't consider that some of those are actually collections (such as the 15 Wizard of Oz books, the 16 volumes of Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights, the collected works of Dickens, Hawthorne, Lovecraft, Conan Doyle, Plato, Aristotle, and Welles, among others). ... Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 891984 http://blog.case.edu/orgs/ksl/news/2010/12/08/case_has_2_winners_in_national_contest Case has 2 winners in the national Knovel University Challenge! Congratulations to these Case students who entered the online contest and answered 3 contest questions using Knovel Engineering & Scientific Online Reference database. Justin Pruttivarasin (senior, Chemical Engineering) uses Knovel "extensively." Photographed with his new iPod nano®, his answer to the best & most useful feature: "the interactive equations and tables are very helpful. I'm able to find values for different properties of chemicals within a few clicks. Knovel is able to convert units to the ones I want, instantly." Megan WItzke (sophomore, Chemical Engineering) poses with a KSL Knovel bear. She's a national winner of an Amazon® gift card & uses Knovel "to find reference values that were either not listed or out of range of the textbook." Megan uses "Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook most often because it's easy to navigate through the book right to the information and tables that I'm looking for." Knovel has full text of over 2,000 leading reference handbooks, conference proceedings, databases and statistical data for researchers in the applied sciences. Analysis tools and other features & 40 international publishers and professional societies give you cross disciplinary research results from a single page. Enjoy added features like webinars (Engineers' Use of Social Networks), cases, news, tools, MyKnovel for saved searches, and more. The Knovel database is licensed for Case researchers; off campus or wireless access requires an activated VPN session. Find Knovel on the Research Database list. (Source: KSL News Blog) Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:16:04 +0100 891683 http://wlaweb.blogspot.com/2010/12/waal-seeks-posters-for-annual.html The WAAL Conference Planning Committee is accepting proposals for poster sessions until January 28, 2011 for our 2011 Annual Conference: Renew, Energize, Sustain, April 26-29, 2011 at the Ramada Inn in Stevens Point, WI. The poster session reception is scheduled for Thursday, April 28th, 3:30-5:00 PM.To submit a poster session proposal, please forward the following information to Charles Elftmann:1. Abstract of the poster content (150 words or less). This will appear in the conference program.2. Presenter name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and contact information.3. Type of equipment you will be bringing.All poster presenters will be given skirted table space. No other equipment will be provided. If you choose to bring your own laptop, wireless Internet access will be available.Poster session proposals are open to all who have ideas to share with academic librarians.  Note: WAAL welcomes poster session proposals from students in the School of Library and Information Studies at UW-Madison and School of Information Studies at UW-Milwaukee.For more information about Renew, Energize, Sustain, please visit the conference website! (Source: The WLA Blog) Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:31:00 +0100 891529 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/quick-tip-dealing-with-greyed-out-books-on-the-kindle/ Rarely, you’ll buy a book from the Kindle Store and it won’t download immediately to your device. Instead, the title will appear in your archive but it will be greyed out, with no option to complete the download. That’s what happened to a customer in the Amazon Discussion Forum, and there were a couple of bits of advice provided by other customers. The first thing to do is make sure your device’s wireless feature is turned on, and you’re in an area where you’ve got wireless connectivity. If you’re good on both of those, and you have the luxury of time, you might want to wait a half hour or so to see if the bottleneck is somewhere further upstream. Failing that, the next step is to simply restart your Kindle. On a Kindle 3, press the Menu button and go into Settings, then press the Menu button again and select Restart. If nothing works, here’s Amazon’s Kindle Support page. (Photo: Jo Naylor) Via Chris Walters’ Booksprung blog. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:50:13 +0100 891100 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/careers/view_job_specific.php?job_id=8825 State: Virginia Hampden-Sydney College is a selective liberal arts college for men enrolling about 1100 students with the mission of forming “good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.” Its beautiful 1330-acre campus is 60 miles southwest of Richmond. The College’s new library, completed in 2007, contains 83,000 usable square feet, a book capacity of 350,000, multi-media classrooms, group study rooms, media center, coffee shop, and wireless access throughout. The College seeks qualified candidates for the following position: Instructional Technology Librarian Provides leadership, guidance and training to faculty in the development and design of teaching resources using current and emerging technologies. Provides formal and informal, individual and group-based teaching in technologies for students and faculty. The emphasis will be on application of technologies to the enhancement of classroom and out-of-classroom teaching. Collaborates with librarians to provide instruction and information assistance to faculty and students. Serves on faculty and administrative committees and participates in all activities required of librarians with special faculty status. Reports to the Director of the Library. This is a full-time, twelve-month appointment with special faculty status with a start date of July 1, 2011.. Education and experience required: MLS from an ALA-accredited institution or a master’s degree in instructional technology (second master’s or PhD preferred), minimum of five years of professional experience, minimum of two years of experience administering a course management system at a college or university. To apply, please send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references to Director of Human Resources, Box 127, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia 23943. FAX (434) 223-7049; e-mail Barmentrout@hsc.edu. ... Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:30:02 +0100 890878 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/FEwIo5Hsh-o/creating-privacy-online.html One of the books I read last year was Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, about a band of high-school hackers who take down the seriously-overstepping, bad-guy Homeland Security Department.   Sound ludicrous?  It’s a compelling, well-written and well-characterized “day-after-tomorrow” sort of science fiction.  Many of the technologies used in the novel exist, and those that may not are completely believable, as are the spooktastic Homeland Security oafs, the determined underdog high school kids, and the heroine journalist. Facebook’s attitude toward privacy and the recent release of Firesheep have led me to take a serious look at the unencrypted traffic I sent over the various networks I use, as well as the data that I put out there for public consumption.  Below are some tools for you to do the same.  They are not infallible; they are not security measures per se, like a firewall or virus scanner would be.  What they do is provide you with the more private space that you might assume when sitting alone pouring your heart out to a friend.Email Use an email system that forces encryption.  An encrypted web page’s URL begins with https:// instead of http://.  To force gmail through encryption, click Settings, then “Always Use https” next to “Browser Connection.”  Many desktop email clients (Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird) also support encryption.  User your Google to figure it out. Take end-to-end encryption one step further with PGP (“Pretty Good Privacy”).  The PGP key exchange party in Little Brother is one of my favorite scenes. Instant Messaging When using Meebo, always use https:// When using a desktop client, use the OTR (“off the record”) encryption plugin. Wifi Unencrypted wireless Internet access is a tough one. Data is sent out over the Internet--wireless or not--in bite-sized chunks called “packets.”  Normally, a wireless network card grabs only the packets specifically addressed to it. ... Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:31:49 +0100 891666 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/RfK3xjcPX5g/introducing-nexus-s-with-gingerbread.html The very first Android phone hit the market in November 2008. Just over two years later, Android’s vision of openness has spurred the development of more than 100 different Android devices. Today, more than 200,000 Android devices are activated daily worldwide. The volume and variety of Android devices continues to surpass our wildest expectations—but we’re not slowing down.Today, we’re pleased to introduce the latest version of the Android platform, Gingerbread, and unveil the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products—Nexus S. And for developers, the Gingerbread SDK/NDK is now available as well.Nexus S is the lead device for the Gingerbread/Android 2.3 release; it’s the first Android device to ship with the new version of the Android platform. We co-developed this product with Samsung—ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest advancements of the Android platform. As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers what we call a “pure Google” experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates.Take a look at our backstory video for more on the vision behind this product and to understand why we think “a thousand heads are better than one”:Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a 4” Contour Display designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face. It also features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware that lets you read information from NFC tags. NFC is a fast, versatile short-range wireless technology that can be embedded in all kinds of everyday objects like movie posters, stickers and t-shirts. ... Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 891383 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/2LVCXr4QF3s/3293-bad-days-for-google-1.html Google has moved from being considered the innovative underdog to a dominant player. Both the European Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission are looking into its practices. But there is hope for Google yet. Google is no longer everybody’s darling, i.e. the brilliant little creative kid with chubby cheeks who we forgive everything due to his creativity and disarming charm. In fact, Google (GOOG) is starting to look more and more like Microsoft used to 10 years ago, an old and influential uncle who has gotten so much money and power that the other members of the family thinks it is time to cut him down to size. It is time to remind him that he is no longer as captivating as he used to be. In fact, grey-haired Microsoft has just gotten a new kid from his second marriage, Bing, and she actually has some of the curly haired charm the balding Google seems to be missing. “This year is turning into an annus horribilis for Google,” the Economist wrote yesterday, and points to embarrassing gaffes like the Street Car wifi personal data recording and the flop of Google Wave. The European Commission takes a look The British magazine points to one of the really disturbing news of this week, namely the fact that the European Commission has decided to investigate allegations that Google has broken antitrust rules by abusing its dominant position in the online search business to stifle competition. “The European Commission, which announced the investigation on November 30th, says it will look into several issues. One is whether Google has manipulated the algorithms that underpin its search engine in order to penalise links to competitors in search rankings. Another is whether it has tried to impose agreements on websites that prevent them from running ads that compete with those delivered by Google. ... Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:34:12 +0100 891007 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62362 From a Talking Points Memo (TPM) Post: The Library of Congress has blocked access to the Wikileaks site on its staff computers and on the wireless network that visitors use, two sources tell TPM. [Clip] The State and Commerce departments have also reportedly told their employees not to look at the Wikileaks cables, while the Department of [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:03:00 +0100 890244 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/griffey/~3/6ta4v0N6L3w/ This is evidence of the insane world we’re currently living in…the Library of Congress, ostensibly the Library of Record for the United States, is currently blocking access on it’s staff computers as well as it’s guest wireless network to Wikileaks. From the above story, the Library issued a statement, saying: The Library decided to block Wikileaks because applicable law obligates federal agencies to protect classified information. Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents do not alter the documents’ classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents. Oh, really? Is that so? Anyone online realizes this is a senseless act, and that anyone with any knowledge of the Internet will be able to get around this sort of filter trivially…this does absolutely nothing to protect classified information. As far as I can tell, it does nothing except make the Library of Congress look asinine. Perhaps the librarians running the LoC should take another gander at the Library Bill of Rights to remind themselves what exactly it is that they should be doing. I hope that there is serious fallout for those who made this decision. ALA Council…here’s a discussion worth having. (Source: Pattern Recognition) Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:27:44 +0100 891524 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/kobo-comes-to-hong-kong/ From the press release: Kobo, a global eReading service, today announced a strategic new partnership in Hong Kong with Swindon Book Co., Ltd./Kelly & Walsh, bringing the region its first high-quality, affordable and name brand eReader. The Kobo Wireless eReader is now available at Swindon Book Co. Ltd. Retail outlets and online at www.swindonbooks.com. Priced at just $1,550 HKD, the stylized, Kobo Wireless eReader provides value and functionality. Swindon Book Co., Ltd. is HK’s leading English language bookstore. Like Kobo, Swindon is passionate about reading and helping customers explore and embrace their reading preferences. Today Swindon brings its customers the old and the new — hosting the Fourth International Antiquarian Bookfair at Hong Kong’s Pacific Place Conference Center — and embracing digital books with the launch of the new Kobo Wireless eReader. “There is an incredible appetite for eReaders and eBooks in Hong Kong but until today, a limited selection of over priced eReaders has curbed adoption,” said Chris Li of Swindon Book Co., Ltd. “By making the Kobo Wireless eReading easily available to customers at Swindon’s retail and online outlets, we are solving this problem and meeting customer demand.” (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:56:46 +0100 890053 http://joblist.ala.org/modules/jobseeker/controller.cfm?rssjobid=16136 Instructional Technology Librarian (Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia) Hampden-Sydney College is a selective liberal arts college for men enrolling about 1100 students with the mission of forming “good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.” Its beautiful 1330-acre campus is 60 miles southwest of Richmond. The College’s new library, completed in 2007, contains 83,000 usable square feet, a book capacity of 350,000, multi-media classrooms, group study rooms, media center, coffee shop, and wireless access throughout. ... Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:25:01 +0100 890017 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/EHbo7304FnA/on-demand-is-in-demand-weve-agreed-to.html With rapidly improving broadband and wireless speeds, more powerful smartphones, and higher resolution screens on devices of all shapes and sizes, it’s becoming easier than ever to watch video wherever you want, whenever you want. And while it’s still fun to pull an old movie off the shelf and throw it in the DVD player, streaming is rapidly becoming the standard way for you to find the content you want to watch now. We’ve seen this on YouTube—where we get over 2 billion views every day—but it’s much bigger than that, as proven by the increasing popularity of movie subscription services and tablets.Content creators and distributors are making huge strides in bringing us content in this way, but to do so, many require high-quality video and audio, secure delivery, and other content protection and video optimization technologies. With these tools in place they can easily and effectively give you access to the rich library of content you want to watch, with the immediacy you’ve come to expect.So we’re pleased to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Widevine. The Widevine team has worked to provide a better video delivery experience for businesses of all kinds: from the studios that create your favorite shows and movies, to the cable systems and channels that broadcast them online and on TV, to the hardware manufacturers that let you watch that content on a variety of devices. By forging partnerships across the entire ecosystem, Widevine has made on demand services more efficient and secure for media companies, and ultimately more available and convenient for users.We are committed to maintaining Widevine’s agreements and will provide direct, quality support for their existing and future clients—and we plan to build upon Widevine’s technology to enhance both their products and our own. We’re excited to welcome the Widevine team to Google, and together we’ll work to improve access to great video content across the web. ... Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 890665 http://cubgovpubs.blogspot.com/2010/12/gao-reports-and-releases.html The Government Accountability Office (GAO) which is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This set of publications from GAO investigate foreign affairs, government agencies, defense, and other issues. If you would like to know more about GAO, check out the library's guide.ReportsSeptember 11: World Trade Center Health Programs Business Process Center Proposal and Subsequent Data Collection. GAO-11-243R, December 3.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-243RDisplaced Iraqis: Integrated International Strategy Needed to Reintegrate Iraq's Internally Displaced and Returning Refugees. GAO-11-124, December 2.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-124Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d11124high.pdfFEMA Flood Maps: Some Standards and Processes in Place to Promote Map Accuracy and Outreach, but Opportunities Exist to Address Implementation Challenges. GAO-11-17, December 2.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-17Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1117high.pdfPersonnel Security Clearances: Progress Has Been Made to Improve Timeliness but Continued Oversight Is Needed to Sustain Momentum. GAO-11-65, November 19.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-65Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1165high.pdfInformation Technology: Veterans Affairs Can Further Improve Its Development Process for Its New Education Benefits System. GAO-11-115, December 1.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-115Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d11115high.pdfMoving Illegal Proceeds: Challenges Exist in the Federal Government's Effort to Stem Cross-Border Currency Smuggling. GAO-11-73, October 25.http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-73Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d1173high.pdfPodcast - http://www.gao.gov/podcast/watchdog_episode_39.htmlTelecommunications: Improved Management Can Enhance FCC Decision Making for the Universal Service Fund Low-Income Program. GAO-11-11, October 28.http://www.gao. ... Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 890146 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62337 The 5th ed. of the "International Communications Market Report" was released by Ofcom today in the UK. It's free to access. Ofcom is the UK regulator of TV, radio, fixed line telecoms and mobiles, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. The report contains communication and related communication statistics for 17 countries in four sectors [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:56:24 +0100 889957 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/magazine-experiments-on-the-ipad-continue-project-not-so-hot-flipboard-looks-promising/ Sir Richard Branson has launched a magazine called Project for the iPad. It probably won’t be a success if it continues on the present path. According to Paid Content the $2.99 magazine took 14 minutes to download over WiFi and was tricky to navigate. Anything that takes that long to download defeats the very purpose of a machine like the iPad. More details in this Paid Content article which says: As an iPad app, however, it devotes a full-page schematic to explaining “How to use Project”. That’s something which should be so intuitive as to be almost unnecessary, but Project‘s guide is as confusing as a joypad button map in a first-person console shooter… The first Paid Content article discusses something that looks, to me, much more promising. The social media app Flipboard is an aggregator of Facebook and Twitter and presents it all in a beautiful package. It was very well received. The company has now moved beyond the social space and is offering a magazine-like service that will be ad based. That format comes from a series of HTML5 templates the start up calls Flipboard Pages, designed to show content off in a way that varies from the usual browser replica. I haven’t been able to try it yet but based on the example, it adds a magazine look. Flipboard says it will offer the full-page, paginated reading option to “any content creator” sometime in the future. Each publication has its own framework and the pageviews should still count for the publisher. The advertising component is through a partnership with OM centered on high-impact brand advertising with a magazine feel. The clients participating in that trial include major brands (Pepsi, Gatorade, Infiniti, Levi’s, Dockers, Hilton Worldwide, GE); media (The CW Television Network and Showtime); nonprofit/charities (Project (RED), Standup2cancer.org and Charity Water); and even the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. ... Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:42:56 +0100 889947 http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb/2010/12/02/doe-webinars-workforce-guidelines-for-home-energy-upgrades/ The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is conducting a series of Webinars to explain the origin, goals and schedule for the development of the Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades. The guidelines are designed to strengthen the Weatherization Assistance Program and foster the growth of a high-quality home energy retrofit industry and a skilled and credentialed workforce. They can be adopted by the WAP network and retrofit programs nationwide seeking to increase the consistency and effectiveness of the work performed, and utilized by training providers to improve course curriculum and training materials. During the Webinar, you will learn how the draft guidelines were developed, how you can contribute, and what’s in store with respect to implementation. The presentation will take place twice: Thursday, December 9, 3―4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Wednesday, December 15, 2―3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Title: Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades: Update & Opportunities to Engage. Presenter: Benjamin Goldstein, Project Lead, Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Register to attend the Webinar The online seminar is free of charge, but you must register in advance to obtain a URL for the presentation and call-in phone number. For more information, or to read and comment on these materials, please visit the Residential Retrofit Guidelines page of the EERE Web site. (Source: Environmental News Bits) Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:01:48 +0100 889807 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/kkJF/~3/V4iZkSjSjfE/infografiek-de-iphone.html De iPhone is een mobiele telefoon van Apple Inc. Het is een combinatie van een mobiele telefoon, iPod en PDA. Met de iPhone is het onder meer mogelijk te bellen, sms'en, mailen, internetten, muziek te beluisteren, foto's en video's te maken en te bekijken en games te downloaden en te spelen. Het product werd op 9 januari 2007 aangekondigd op Macworld door Steve Jobs en werd voor het eerst verkocht op 29 juni 2007 in de Verenigde Staten. In Europa is de iPhone in november 2007 gelanceerd in Engeland, Frankrijk, Duitsland en Ierland. Een van de dingen die dit apparaat onderscheidt van andere mobiele telefoons is dat het geen aparte toetsen heeft om telefoonnummers of sms-berichten in te tikken. De iPhone gebruikt iOS, een aangepaste versie van Mac OS X, het besturingssysteem voor Macintosh-computers. Deze software creëert onder andere de virtuele toetsen op het touchscreen voor de bediening. De iPhone heeft een multifunctioneel aanraakgevoelig scherm met een resolutie van 480 x 320 pixels (163 ppi). De iPhone 4 heeft echter een 4x zo hoge resolutie van 960x640 (326 ppi)en is daarmee scherper dan het menselijk oog kan waarnemen. Het scherm wordt niet bediend met een stylus, maar met één vinger; met een tweede vinger ontstaan er meer mogelijkheden om via dit scherm het apparaat te besturen. Eén vinger wordt gebruikt bij het bedienen van eenvoudige functies; beide vingers worden gebruikt om bijvoorbeeld in en uit te zoomen op foto's, video's en websites in de webbrowser Safari. De technologie van 'tweevingerbesturing' werd enkele jaren geleden door het bedrijf geïntroduceerd bij de touchpads van notebooks. Bij de iPhone gaat deze techniek een stuk verder. Apple noemt deze technologie Multi Touch. De Safaribrowser van de iPhone ondersteunt Adobe Flash niet. De iPhone speelt alleen filmpjes af in het H.264- en MP4-formaat. Een aparte YouTube-speler speelt een selectie af van YouTube-filmpjes, die in het H. ... Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:18:00 +0100 889681 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html#5689753553026209270 Let's see. It's been such a fun news day so far. What else can the Obama administration royally fuck up today? How about the internet? Internet providers will not be subjected to so-called "Net neutrality" rules and may experiment with tiered, usage-based pricing and "network management" practices, according to new rules being considered by the Federal Communications Commission this month.Advocates of Net neutrality had hoped the regulatory agency would mandate Internet service providers treat all traffic equally: one of the Web's founding principles.Instead, the FCC's Internet regulations adopts many proposals by search and telecom giants Google and Verizon, with the caveat that wireless telephone providers not block competing voice applications. (Source: Library Chronicles) Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 890491 http://opaltraining.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-there-app-for-that.html What is an app?APP is an abbreviation for application. Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. It helps to solve problems in the real world. Application software is contrasted with system software and middleware, which manage and integrate a computer's capabilities, but typically do not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user.  What is Android?Android is a mobile operating system initially developed by Android Inc., a firm purchased by Google in 2005. Android is based upon a modified version of the Linux kernel.  Go to www.android.com/market/   to search for Android apps Go to http://www.itunes.com/ to search for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps The Apps Social NetworkingFacebook – iPhone, Android Twitter - Tweetdeck iPhone and android –        Twitteriffic for iPhone, iPad –        Twidroid – for Android –        Tumblr – Android OfficeDocuments Free – for iPad and iPhoneGDocs – Android. Allows users to edit, view, create, import, export and send documents as well sync documents with their Google Docs account. Listable – iPhone - Allows users to share to-do lists with partners, housemates or colleagues. Once you’ve set up a list, you can share it via an e-mail invite. The new collaborator can then view the list on his or her iPhone, or online if they are iPhone deficient.- lists are simple - you create tasks as text entries and then tick them off or delete them once complete. ... Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 889559 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/ereader-ownership-triples-in-less-than-two-years/ From the press release (blockquotes omitted): Approximately 5.9 million U.S. adults own an eReader according to the latest data from GfK MRI — up from 2.1 million owners in the March-October period of 2009 when GfK MRI first began asking consumers about their usage of devices like the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. During this time period, the skew between male and female eReader ownership has evened out. In the March-October 2009 survey period, 56% of eReader owners were male and 44% were women. The most recent data show that now 49% of eReader owners are male and 51% are women. To avoid confusion with electronic tablets and other devices during its consumer surveys, GfK MRI describes eReaders thusly: “An electronic book reader is a portable, wireless reading device that allows you to download and read electronic books, magazines and newspapers. It is not a laptop, cell phone or PDA.” “While electronic tablets have created lots of buzz amid increased competition in the market, eReaders continue to be very popular items,” said Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing & Strategic Planning at GfK MRI. “A Consumer Reports survey of adults showed that 10 percent of Americans plan to give an eReader this Christmas, up 6 percentage points from last year.” The overwhelming majority of eReader owners interviewed in the 12 months ending October 31, 2010 (74.9%) had read a book on their device in the last six months, compared to newspapers (17.6%) and magazines (15.3%). Men are 43% more likely than women to have read a newspaper or magazine on their eReader in the last six months, while women are 23% more likely than men have read a book on their eReader in the last six months. Currently, 55% of eReader owners have annual household incomes in excess of $100,000. ... Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:31:43 +0100 889426 http://liblogs.albany.edu/librarynews/2010/11/extended_hours_2010.html The University Libraries is excited to continue offering its extended hours for finals week from Tuesday, December 7th – Friday, December 17th. Circulation services will be available ALL hours that the libraries are open, as well as access to our laptops, headphones, and reserve materials.  Coffee will be provided on December 13th at 2:00 PM in the University Library atrium, thanks to a UAS grant.  The Science Library and the University Library combined offer more than 200 PCs and 12 Macs maintained by ITS, quiet study space throughout the buildings, and many Group Study Rooms - all equipped with a PC, table, chairs, a dry erase board, and wireless Internet access. University Library Sunday Noon - 24 Hours Monday --- 24 Hours --- Tuesday --- 24 Hours --- Wednesday --- 24 Hours --- Thursday --- 24 Hours --- Friday* 24 Hours - 1:00 AM (Saturday morning) Saturday 9:00 AM - 1:00 AM Science Library Sunday Noon – 1:00 AM Monday 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM Tuesday 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM Wednesday 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM Thursday 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM Friday* 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM Saturday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM           *The libraries will close at 8:00pm on Friday, December 17th. We welcome any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas for improvement. Please contact me at JGoldstein@uamail.albany.edu or 442-3588. Spread the word! (Source: Library News) Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:19:32 +0100 889373 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/kkJF/~3/qwRlv7aKHkA/lokale-toppers-beoordelen-met-google.html Twee weken geleden lanceerde Google Hotpot. Een samenvatting van Nu.nl: Gebruikers kunnen met Hotpot via de website, of via de Androidapplicatie, zelf plekken als restaurants, musea en andere bezienswaardigheden of centra beoordelen. Aan de hand van de kennis die Google heeft van deze plekken, via Google Places dus, zal Hotpot plekken op andere locaties adviseren die van soortgelijke strekking zijn. Daarnaast kunnen gebruikers aanklikken wie zij als vriend willen toevoegen en vervolgens zullen de aanbevelingen van deze vrienden op bepaalde locaties ook meegenomen worden in het advies. De adviezen kunnen worden geraadpleegd via de applicatie of website, maar ook direct via de zoekmachine zelf door de filter ‘Places’ aan te klikken. Deze functionaliteit werkt ook in Google Maps.De site ziet er best aardig uit en heeft geen gebruiksaanwijzing nodig. Ik durf niet te voorspellen hoe populair Hotspot zal worden maar ik weet wel dat veel mensen het leuk vinden om hun stem uit te brengen door middel van een muisklik. Ik weet ook dat Google er niet voor terugdeinst om succesvolle sociale toepassingen te integreren zoekresultaten. Zorg er als bedrijf dus voor dat er een goede foto van je zaak online staat, en houd een vinger aan de pols als het gaat om online recensies van bezoekers. Dit soort beoordelingen zouden wel eens een grotere rol kunnen gaan spelen dan die van de traditionele reis- en eetgidsen. Het is overigens ook goed om te weten dat de toepassing gekoppeld is aan je webgeschiedenis. Schrik dus niet als je opeens locaties ziet die je in het verleden hebt bezocht. Als je dat niet wilt moet je je webgeschiedenis uitschakelen. @ (Source: Digitaal Inlichtingenwerk Zeeuwse Bibliotheek) Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:15:00 +0100 889440 http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025870.html Information Security: Federal Agencies Have Taken Steps to Secure Wireless Networks, but Further Actions Can Mitigate Risk, GAO-11-43, November 30,... (Source: beSpacific) Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 889518 http://wulibraries.typepad.com/bionews/2010/11/biology-related-ebooks-added-nov-2010.html From Safari Books Online: R for Medicine and Biology Python for Bioinformatics The SPIE Digital Library of ebooks and journals has recently been added. I probably won't be posting new titles in this collection. Subjects are mostly related to engineering, physics, optics and photonics. But a few may be valuable to biology researchers. Titles will be added to the catalog. Examples: Bioluminescence and Fluorescence for In Vivo Imaging Confocal Microscopy and Multiphoton Excitation Microscopy: The Genesis of Live Cell Imaging An Engineering Introduction to Biotechnology Light Propagation through Biological Tissue and Other Diffusive Media: Theory, Solutions, and Software Field Guide to Microscopy From Becker Medical Library, most of these are from several ScienceDirect ebook packages which they purchased: Handbook of cell signaling, 2nd ed Essentials of genomic and personalized medicine Molecular diagnostics, 2nd ed Molecular Diagnostics: Techniques and Applications for the Clinical Laboratory RNA methodologies laboratory guide for isolation and characterization Signal transduction; also available as Knovel library version Heart development and regeneration Enzyme kinetics catalysis & control : a reference of theory and best-practice methods Microbial forensics Nitric oxide biology and pathobiology Calculations for molecular biology and biotechnology a guide to mathematics in the laboratory Bacterial infections of the central nervous system (Handbook of clinical neurology, v.96) Headache (Handbook of clinical neurology, v. ... Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 889464 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/teaching-with-the-ipad-part-2-blowing-the-parents-away/ We had an open house for parents last week where I was asked to present a short lesson, and my iPad was involved in about 70% of it. It fit in naturally with what I was doing—it wasn’t gimmicky at all, and the kids didn’t even notice it was there. I started my lesson with a quick non-iPad calendar and intro routine, then we went straight to the book we’re reading. I’ve saved them all as Powerpoint shows so I can display them, storybook-style, to the kids without needing to carry around the books with me. I teach several grade levels and don’t have my own classroom, so it all goes in my bag! Part 2 involved a game with some language manipulatives. I put the iPad aside and took the kids through their paces, and then we wrapped up the main lesson with a song. Again, out came the iPad, and the kids didn’t even glance its way. A second after it was out of the case, the song was ready to go. Finally, we had a few extra minutes, so I got out a cube I have which has a different iPad game written on every side in erasable marker. The kids rolled the cube, picked the game and away we went. My principal commented to me afterward that she was favourably impressed. I had every eye on me, and the kids hung on my every move. So, what else have I been doing with the iPad since I wrote my first app roundup last year? Here are some apps that are on my must-use list right now. 1) Dropbox. This can’t be beat for an on-the-go app; it lets you add content to your apps without plugging into iTunes, which is great because iTunes-with-stuff is on my home computer and when teaching, I am obviously not always at home. I can send to apps like Keynote, Bookman and Notetaker, depending on what I want to do. 2) Notetaker HD. ... Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:57:33 +0100 889172 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/factors-to-consider-when-deciding-what-ereader-device-to-buy/ I’ve been pretty lax recently about writing articles for this blog. I’ve been busy trying to wrap up end-of-the-year work and deal with the holidays. The next week or two will be devoted to getting my holiday thank-you gifts mailed to clients. However, I have been reading messages and blog posts telling people interested in buying their first ereader device which device to buy. I find most of the advice both wrong and unhelpful, so I thought I would give it a try. First, let’s separate dedicated from multipurpose devices. If you won’t be satisfied with a dedicated device, then don’t consider a Kindle, Sony, Kobo, or nook or any eInk device. Look at an LCD-screened device such as the iPad and Samsung Galaxy or a laptop computer with an application. Essentially these are regular computers with ebook applications. Among the dedicated devices — and there are a lot of them — for United States and Canada buyers, four stand out for consideration: nook, Sony, Kindle, and Kobo. Choosing among these four is a safe way to go; the companies are likely to be around for years to come. The real question is how to choose among the four. Each has its pluses and minuses, and contrary to what some bloggers, commentators, geeks, tech reviewers, and posters (hereinafter collectively referred to as bloggers) think, Kindle is not the outstanding or obvious choice. Rather, it all depends on how you will use the device and what is most important to you. Consequently, the place to begin is by deciding what features are most important to you. Is it price? If price of the device is most important, then none of the Sonys are apt to meet your need because each of the Sonys is more expensive than the nook, Kobo, and Kindle. ... Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:33:08 +0100 889075 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/unlimited-wireless-data-plans-may-not-last-much-longer-researcher-says/ Are the days of unlimited wireless data plans numbered? ReadWriteWeb reports on a speech by a wireless researcher who believes that they are. Dr. Reinaldo Valenzuela, director of wirelss research at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, notes that the more people use smartphones, the more data usage is going to go up. Only 10% of all smartphone users are using the majority of data, and as that usage grows, soon the cost of providing “unlimited” bandwidth data plans will surpass the revenue it brings in. Valenzuela believes that metered pricing is one possible answer, but there are also others. In a note to ReadWriteWeb after the article’s initial publication, he writes: I intended to convey that usage based pricing is one answer. There are many others, like moving away from focusing on higher rate applications and usage based pricing and moving onto content based and new service revenue generation that is not directly tied up with high rate usage. The article focuses on smartphones, which have access to bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications, such as streaming video and—with the launch of the 4th-generation iPhones and iPods Touch—video calling. There isn’t any mention of the less-bandwidth-intensive but still theoretically unlimited-bandwidth e-book readers such as the Kindle and Nook. Of course, e-ink readers can’t do the sort of multimedia available to smartphones and tablets (it is undoubtedly no accident that the NookColor only includes WiFi, not 3G, connectivity), but this is going to change over the next few years as better display technologies such as electrowetting mature. And this could lead to some difficult decisions on the part of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as they may well have to impose new limitations onto their e-book devices’ use of 3G—limitations that could confuse and annoy the consumers that the unlimited 3G previously wooed. ... Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:05:46 +0100 889037 http://www.teleread.com/kindle/ars-technica-review-99-walgreens-android-tablet-is-no-bargain/ If you’re looking for a cheap tablet as an inexpensive e-reading alternative to the iPad, you might want to look a lot further than the Maylong M-150 Android tablet selling for $99 at Walgreens. Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica has a review of the tablet that might better be called a defenestration—for judging by her description, after dealing with this tablet your first impulse might be to throw it out the window. Among her list of reasons are that the construction is flimsy, the touchscreen (which is resistive like the old Palm PDAs, rather than capacitive like the iPhone and its brethren) is very difficult to use, and the most simple tasks such as browsing the “App Market” often take several minutes. Speaking of the App Market, it’s a slimmed-down version of the regular Android Market, though we must say that we never did get any apps to work properly, largely because they wouldn’t connect to the Internet. I was most interested in trying to get the Kindle app to work, since that’s the one task I could imagine being bearable and the Kindle store has the largest selection of all e-book stores. However, no matter how many times I was able to confirm that WiFi was working in the browser, the Kindle app kept kicking me back to say that WiFi wasnot working. The same goes for other apps as well; there was simply no way to get them to use the WiFi, despite the fact that the WiFi was on. Also, battery time is ridiculous (and not in a good way), Cheng points out that if you’re looking for good tablet, you’d be better off saving your money for one a little more costly. As for e-book readers, both the Nook and Kindle have devices in or near that price range. (She also notes that the Best Buy blog has a hilarious set of photos detailing things that the Maylong M-150 would be good for. ... Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:01:49 +0100 888857 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/calibre-0-7-30-released/ New Features Support for Acer Lumiread and PocketBook Pro 602 When importing by ISBN also allow the specification of a file to be imported. E-mail sending: Email sends are now regular jobs that can be accessed from the jobs list. Also when sending using gmail/hotmail send at most one email every five minutes to avoid trigerring their spam controls. Failed sends are now retried one more time, automatically. Content server: When a category contains only one item, go directly to the book list instead of forcing the user to click on that one item E-mail sending: Allow unencrypted connections to SMTP relay Improve startup times for large libraries by caching the has_cover check Update windows binary build to use python 2.7 Metadata and cover download plugins from Nicebooks (disabled by default) Bug Fixes MOBI Input: Fix bug in cleanup regex that broke parsing of escaped XML declarations. Content server: Fix bug when user has custom categories/columns with non ascii names RTF Output: Handle non breaking spaces correctly Conversion pipeline: When rasterizing SVG images workaround incorrect handinlg of percentage height specifications in QSvgRenderer. News download: Update version of feedparser used to parse RSS feeds. Tag Browser: Allow user to restore hidden categories by a right click even is all categories have been hidden TXT/RTF Output: Handle XML processing instructions embedded in content correctly. MOBI Input: Workarounds for lack of nesting rules between block and inline tags E-book viewer: Load all hyphenation patterns to support multi-lingual books E-book viewer: Fix incorrect lang names being used in hyphenation Check to see that the result file from a conversion is not empty before adding it, protects against the case where the conversion process crashes and the GUI adds a zero byte file to the book record E-book viewer: More sophisticated algorithm to resize images to fit viewer window. ... Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:04:03 +0100 888721 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/starbucks-offers-free-greg-bear-e-book-until-december-7th/ We’ve mentioned Starbucks’s web portal, and its plan to offer free e-books through LibreDigital’s SkyShelf reader. GalleyCat is noting that US Starbucks customers can now access a free e-book of Greg Bear’s new SF novel, Hull Zero Three, from the Starbucks wifi network while within the store. Of course, this will only be offered for online reading on “laptops, tablets, and many smart phones.” Much as with Barnes & Noble’s in-store reading program for the Nook, you can’t download and take it with you—though I don’t doubt there will be options available to purchase it if you decide you have to continue reading it after you leave. As book-related marketing goes, this is quite an interesting idea. It could both draw interested readers to Starbucks, and interest Starbucks patrons in a new book. It does seem to run counter to the idea of e-books being location-independent—but on the other hand, location-based Internet services such as FourSquare are pretty hot right now. Given that there’s a Starbucks just up the street from me, I might have to stop in sometime and check it out. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:15:00 +0100 888589 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/apple-announces-black-friday-discounts/ Apple has posted the discount list for its Black Friday sale. As expected, they include $101 off on iMacs and MacBooks (Pro and Air), $41 off on the iPad, $21 off on the iPod Touch, and $11 off on the iPod Nano. There are also minor discounts on a number of accessories including the iPad case, camera connection kit, wireless keyboard, keyboard dock, and so on. These discounts may be had either on-line or in an Apple Store. (Given the Black Friday crowds, on-line is probably where the smart shoppers will go.) Of course, expectations are high that the second generation of iPad will launch within just a few months, so that may be one bargain not worth having. And a $21 dollar discount on the iPod Touch might be worth it for the 8 GB model, but that’s barely 5% off the cost of the 64 GB version. Regardless, those who want to e-read on iPads or iPods Touch might want to consider that tomorrow is one of the best deals they’re likely to find. For some reason, retailers don’t tend to discount Apple products a whole lot. (Found via Engadget.) (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Fri, 26 Nov 2010 01:00:58 +0100 888521 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/wired-posts-tablet-shopping-guide/ And speaking of Christmas gifts, Wired has a guide to what to look for when buying a tablet computer. The article notes that, even though Apple is still the frontrunner, enough tablets have emerged to offer credible alternatives, and offers a number of areas in which to compare each model to decide which one is best for you (or whoever the gift’s recipient will be). One important area of consideration is the type, size, resolution, and dot pitch of screen, which can be important for readability. You should also consider wireless connections, because for media-rich applications it is important to be sure you have 802.11n and some tablets offer 3G connections but others do not. Selection of apps is an area where the advantage is mostly Apple’s, but type of inputs and outputs is an area where it falls behind. Storage, speakers, and cameras round out the list. The article does not directly mention e-book apps, though that could be assumed to fall under the area of OS and apps in general. And with the biggest companies (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.) coming out with reader apps for both platforms, it may be that this is a difference that makes no difference. But it seems to me there are quite a few more iPad-compatible e-reader apps in general than there are for Android yet. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:58:43 +0100 888522 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/my-e-book-thanksgiving-list-2010/ Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans, and happy Thursday to everyone else. It’s that time of year again when we count our blessings and contemplate the things we are thankful for. (It’s also the time when we stuff ourselves into a comatose state on oversized poultry, but those who call it “Turkey Day” run a risk of trivializing the real reason for this holiday.) Reviewing my list for last year, I can’t really find a whole lot that I would change on it. Despite the onset of agency pricing, we’ve still got about a zillion DRM-free free and cheap e-books available from other sources. EPUB is still being widely adopted, even if Barnes & Noble and Apple are fragmenting the DRM on it. E-book readers are exploding more than ever, especially with the iPad and iBooks joining the fray. My iPod Touch is gone, alas, but someday I’ll have another. Google Book Search is still up and coming. Baen’s rescued Meisha Merlin writers are cranking out even more books (including the Liaden novel fans have been awaiting for literally years, and three more following that!). And e-reader prices are falling faster than ever, with multiple readers available this Black Friday or holiday season for under $100. Even the industry leaders are getting in on the act: Amazon is selling its G2, 3G-wireless only reader for $89 tomorrow, and Barnes & Noble has its wi-fi Nook on eBay for $99. That kind of deal has been unheard of until now. There are still a lot of annoyances in the e-book market as a whole—agency pricing, territorial restrictions, obnoxious DRM—but we should probably pause for a moment and give thanks for how good we have it now, compared to, say, five years ago. E-books are on a lot of people’s minds now, and the more people read them the better they’ll get. Sooner or later we’re going to have that dirt-cheap “disposable” e-reader the way we now have dirt-cheap “disposable” cell phones. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:06:20 +0100 888524 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/barnes-noble-lists-refurbished-nooks-for-99-99-119-99-on-ebay-for-rest-of-year/ Nate the Great at The Digital Reader notes that one of his readers reported that Barnes and Noble listed refurbished Wi-Fi Nooks on eBay for $79.99 today; it sold 3,590 of them at that price before the listing ended, but has relisted them for $99.99 (and the 3G + WiFi Nook for $119.99) for the next 26 days (or, presumably, until they run out). The $79.99 price went Amazon’s Black Friday $89.99 2G Kindle refurb deal one better, and the entire-holiday-season length of the deal certainly beats Amazon’s one-day-only offer. Take that, Jeff Bezos! I wonder if Amazon will do anything to retaliate? It might also be that, like the iPad deals we’re seeing everywhere, this might also be designed to clear the inventory of the current-generation model (which, Amazon smirked, featured the same e-ink screen as its old Kindle) to make way for a new one in the coming year. Just because B&N says they’re “refurbished” does not mean it won’t slip excess inventory factory-fresh units in. Regardless, this is shaping up to be the Christmas of the discount e-book reader. I can only imagine how low sale prices (and prices in general) will get by this time next year. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:54:38 +0100 888525 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/speech-therapy-uses-ereaders/ Reading devices help people with strokes, neurological disabilities In the picture are Chrissy Akers (left), a graduate student in speech pathology, and Tina Puglisi-Creegan, a clinical instructor, who are helping Tom Calteux “relearn the reading process with the aid of a Kindle years after having a stroke.  Although he never lost his ability to write, the part of his brain that makes the connection between letters and comprehension was damaged.” Harvey Black, writing for the Journal Sentinel, feels that “The Kindle and the iPad are in many ways the face of today’s communication technology” and that there’s “more to these devices than just making life a bit easier and more entertaining.” Here’s the start of the article, using another photo of the Kindle 2: ‘ Clinicians at Marquette University are using them to help patients overcome neurological disabilities and strokes. The devices “avoid the stigma of disability and bring individuals into the mainstream by using current technology.  It has a real uplifting psychological and emotional contribution to patients,” said Marquette University speech-language pathologist Tina Puglisi-Creegan. For the past two years, Thomas Calteux has been using the Kindle to help him read, under Puglisi-Creegan’s guidance, at the university’s Speech and Hearing Clinic. The lightweight, hand-held wireless device allows users not only to download books, but also to convert text to synthesized speech, change font size and control the rate at which the text is presented. “It’s fun to use,” said Calteux, 61, a former photo editor at the Journal Sentinel. “I sit and read. It’s so much easier than moving pages and stuff like that,” said Calteux, who had a stroke in 1998 that robbed him of his reading ability. ... Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:41:41 +0100 888527 http://invisibleweblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/bis-2011.html The 14th International Conference on Business Information Systems (BIS 2011) will take place in Poznan, Poland, June 15-17, 2011. Topics include:* Business Process Management - Semantic business process management - Adaptive and dynamic processes - Supply chain processes - ERP implementations - Integration of data and processes - Collaborative BPM* Ontologies - Creation, learning, population, evolution and evaluation - Ontologies for enterprise content management - Natural language processing and cognitive science - Semantic integration of heterogeneous semi-structured sources - Interoperability of heterogeneous information systems - Business models for Web information integration and aggregation* Contexts - Location-aware and geography-centric information systems - Wireless and mobile applications - Multi-agent distributed systems - Semantic web personalization - Ambient computing* Content Retrieval and Filtering - Hidden Web search and crawling - Data integration from Web information sources - Modeling and describing evolving data sources - Adaptive integration of evolving data sources - Information gathering for knowledge-intensive enterprises - Search over semi-structural Web sources - Business models for a content* Collaboration - Knowledge-based collaboration - Social networks and social wikis - Enterprise mashups, Enterprise 2.0 - Infrastructures for collaboration (P2P, TSC, etc.) - Semantic grid - Security in distributed systems - Web-based model for discoverability, consumption, and reuse* Web Services - Service oriented computing (SOA) - Semantic web services - Composition, choreography and orchestration - Open, decentralized self-service - Trust and quality of service (QoS) - Service level agreements (Source: The Invisible Web Weblog) Thu, 25 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888842 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/what-ereader-would-i-recommend-for-the-holidays-the-editors-picks/ We certainly have a lot of choices. As Black Friday is approaching, here are my purely personal thoughts on the current crop of ereaders. Established market I look at an ereader as a long term proposition, so I would only choose one that has an established market presence and a well-known brand name. This limits the field to Sony, Amazon, B&N and Kobo. PocketBook is another possibility, as they are pretty big in Europe, but they don’t have their own ebookstore. Stay away from the cheap, Chinese ereader clones that are flooding the market. Their hardware may actually be OK, but you will find that their software is abysmal. Stick to a name brand. For kids If you want an ereader for your kids, then there is only one real choice right now and that is the Nook Color. I’ve seen it and it really is lovely. It’s sharp, bright colors will entrance any of your younger children. For adults To cut to the chase, the Kindle 3, followed by the Sony Daily Edition. The Kindle 3 is a beautifully thought out machine with a long history behind it. Amazon’s customer service is the standard to beat and their ebook selection is first rate. I would plump for the WiFi + 3G model at $189. Once you have 3G you will be surprised at how often you use it. WiFi is not as ubiquitous as you might think. I know that Amazon’s format is proprietary, but, to be honest, Amazon has gotten so big in this market that I don’t think it’s an issue any more. Everyone else is proprietary too, as they all rely on some form of DRM, mostly from Adobe, and I think that if anyone will go bust it will be Adobe, not Amazon. Also consider the Kindle 2, if the rumors are true about Black Friday (see below). The Kindle 2 is an excellent unit and you can’t go wrong with one of them – especially if you can get a deal. I loved mine. ... Wed, 24 Nov 2010 15:15:38 +0100 888288 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ouseful/~3/VRJrOnK-DGc/ I haven’t managed to find an official announcement of this yet, but it seems as if there’s a new addition to the Apple App Store in the form of a “Study at the OU” app: StudyAtOU. So what does it do? Essentially, it seems to provide and app way in to the Open University course catalogue. Here’s the opening screen (Err – wot? No OU logo? Is it not an *official* app then?! Though the iTunes does carry branding… If it is an official app, how well does it sit with OU ice/brand police guidelines, I wonder…?;-) The app provides a convenient way of navigating through the OU’s course catalogue, providing a brief overview of subject areas: qualifications: and research degrees: Clicking through on individual course links also leads through to a description of the corresponding course. Looking through some of the descriptions, it seems as if there isn’t any information about forthcoming presentation dates, course fees, and other ‘administrative’ information (such as level information), nor does there appear to be a ‘click here to register’ option. (Hmm… I don’t think the OU course registration system accepts Paypal yet? If it did, I guess something like the PayPal Mobile Payments library would allow this to be integrated into the StudyAtOU app?) If you want to share a link to a course with other people, there are several ways of doing this: Facebook and Twitter based sharing requires you share access to those services, of course. Here’s the prompt you get when you try to share a link using Facebook: and the corresponding prompt from Twitter: (By the by, seeing this app reminds me of my old, old WAP demo for navigating Relevant Knowledge short course descriptions… TSCP Experimental WAP Service;-) Also in passing, I asked where the data that feeds the app come from. ... Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:47:36 +0100 888878 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/amazon-to-offer-kindle-2-for-89-on-black-friday-yesterday-biggest-kindle-sales-day-ever/ From an email I got from e-reader-info.com: It seems that Amazon will offer the Kindle 2 for only $89 on Black Friday… We couldn’t find official word yet, but that’s the talk on the Kindle fan page on Amazon. The Kindle 2 is still a great e-reader with a 6″ E Ink display, 3G wireless and 2GB of memory. In related news, Amazon says that yesterday was the biggest sales day ever for Kindle devices. Seems that the iPad and other tablets are not hurting e-reader sales after all, at least for now. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:43:16 +0100 888296 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/quick-note-kobo-wireless-reader-available-at-walmart-com/ The Kobo Wireless ereader is now available at Walmart.com in onyx, lilac and silver. It will be selling for $129 and will include free shipping. In addition, the reader is available at 2,500 Walmart stores and all Borders stores. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:12:48 +0100 888075 http://lib1point5.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/first-post-from-galaxy-tab/ We have aquired a Galaxy Tab at work and this is the first blogpost I write on it.  I have paired it with an Apple wireless keyboard via Bluetooth (yes I appreciate the irony ¦-) ) and use the WordPress app for  Android. The Galaxy tab is in itself a really nice piece of hardware. I like the size (7 inch screen)  which makes it a lot more comfortable   to use in sofa and while standing.   I suspect that there will be moments when I would like a larger screen, but so  far that has not been an issue. I have an android phone at work and  one privately, so I am familiar with the Android OS. I really like the multitasking and the range of apps. I have not encountered any problems when using the GT and enjoy the experience. I have both used it as an ebook reader, both the Kindle for Android app and other ebook apps, and  enjoyed the experience so much that I really must admit that I prefer the GT as a reading platform to the Kindle. This came as a total surprise to me as I  have loved my Kindle (and still do). but the reading experience is great and it is nice to have a device that can do other things that display text. All in all I think the GT has a great future as an alternative to the iPad and look forward to seeing what will come in the future. (Source: Librarian 1.5) Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:13:45 +0100 888836 http://acrlog.org/2010/11/23/focus-on-flexibility/ This semester the information literacy course that I’m teaching started off in our main library classroom. It’s a fairly typical instructional space with rows of desks topped with computers, an instructor computer at the front, and a couple of projection screens. It’s a nice room – we got 30 new, faster student computers over the summer, internet connectivity is solid, and we have some nifty classroom management software that allows us to push out content to the student machines as well as project content from student machines onto the big screen. About midway through the semester my class moved into a new workshop space in the library. This room is smaller – we can only fit about 16 students – and has an instructor computer, a lockable laptop cart, and a smartboard on one wall. I absolutely adore this room! Instead of long, hardwired rows of desks we have round tables that seat 4 students each, which makes group work so much easier. The space is so flexible – we can use the computers when we need them, but when we don’t they can be tucked away in the cart (rather than tempting students with Facebook). I do miss the classroom management software, and sometimes the wifi is a bit dodgy, but this room is about as close to my ideal instructional setting as I’ve ever had. This midsemester venue change has me thinking about flexibility: of design, of space, of our library facilities. Like many colleges our enrollment is up and we definitely feel it in the library. Sometimes it seems like we are bursting at the seams, especially as finals week looms ever closer. How can we get the most out of the space we have? Studying is another library use that could benefit from greater flexibility of our physical space. Students work in many different ways: in a group, individually, quietly, and in discussion. When the library gets busy our group study rooms fill up, and other groups studying in the library disturb students who want quiet, individual study space. ... Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888008 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogpocket/~3/mBlGUMnTAxo/ Lo que dio de sí el EBE10 para mí, se puede resumir en 10 tuits y su correspondiente comentario. @fernandot: Evento Blog España: 5 años de comunidad #EBE10: Pues como quien no quiere la cosa, ya han pasado 5 años desde e… http://bit.ly/9z5CXj 5 años no es nada, como cantaba Gardel. Bueno, esos eran 20. Pero en Internet, un lustro es mucho. El Evento Blog España 2010 cumplía 5 años. Comezó siendo una reunión exclusivamente de bloguers, para convertirse -dicen- en un meeting de community managers. No es cierto, la mayoría de los asistentes al ebe vamos porque, entre otras cosas, somos bloguers. Tuitear es bloguear o, mejor dicho, microbloguear. El ebe desaparecería si le quitasen la palabra ‘blog‘. @RafaOsuna: El encuentro de blogueros tecnológicos ha terminado siendo una entrevista a @Drita Este año, las sesiones paralelas fueron la gran novedad del EBE. Aunque en ediciones anteriores ya habían aparecido tímidamente. Asistí a dos (encuentro de bloguers de tecnología y podcasters), en las que había puesto muchas expectativas. La de Alexandra Guerrero, antigua tecnochica, sin defraudar, no dejó de ser, como dice Rafa Osuna, una entrevista. Mucha gente espera, como en la de podcasters, un taller práctico. Encontrar el formato adecuado a gusto de todos es la asignatura pendiente de este tipo de eventos. @labrujulaverde: @dreig fue un placer desvirtualizarte! Enhorabuena otra vez por tu charla, fue de lo mejor del #ebe10 Las charlas predominaron en 2010 sobre las mesas, formato éste absolutamente agotado, cuyo éxito no solo radica en lo interesante del tema (muy difícil dar gusto a 2.000 personas, como mínimo -más las que asisten por streamming-), sino en el carisma de los participantes y las habilidades del moderador. La conferencia es más digerible. A veces mucho más pesada. La de Dolors Reig fue muy buena. ... Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:16:00 +0100 888953 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kraftylibrarian/OLay/~3/Cc95Jw0Vzwk/ The theme for the 2011 Annual Meeting is Rethink and Molly Knapp, 2010 Annual Meeting blog administrator and 2011 member of the National Program Committee, writes in the MLA News about rethinking the Annual Meeting Blog (full text available to MLA members).  The Annual Meeting blog has evolved significantly over the years.  In the beginning it was just a few people who submitted some posts that were aggregated on the blog site.  Now people apply to be bloggers and write on various aspects of the meeting, those who are accepted get AHIP points and possibly free wifi courtesy of MLA.  I managed the 2009 Annual Meeting Blog and I told Molly when she was handed the reigns to the 2010 blog, that we might be growing a little big to be randomly writing on topics and that we may need to think about how we organize things. Well, based off of the 2009 Annual Meeting blog and 2010 Annual Meeting blog, Molly decided to rethink the way the 2011 meeting blog will be handled.  During the last two annual meetings we sometimes had multiple people blog about the same thing, and while it was nice to get two different perspectives on an event, we really didn’t need four posts summarizing the Presidential Address.  I wasn’t just the only one who felt this way, based on the 2009 Annual Meeting blog survey I conducted, members wanted more variety and coverage of different events.  In years past when there was only 4-5 bloggers it was difficult/impossible to cover that much stuff.  But in 2009 we had approximately 20 bloggers and in 2010 there were 17 bloggers.  With that many bloggers, there are certainly opportunity to change things so that the blog can be more relevant to members.  One of the ways is to have a little more structure as to who will be blogging and what they will be blogging about. ... Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:48:09 +0100 887849 http://freegovinfo.info/node/3130 It was twenty years ago (December 1990) when the World Wide Web went live on the desktop of its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. But today, Berners-Lee says that the web is threatened. Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality, By Tim Berners-Lee, Scientific American (November 22, 2010). The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments -- totalitarian and democratic alike -- are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights. If you only read one article this Thanksgiving week, Tim's is the one. Contrast his vision of the web as being essential to democracy with the view from Wired magazine from August: The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet, By Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, Wired, (August 17, 2010). Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services -- think apps -- are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures. ...The story of industrial revolutions, after all, is a story of battles over control. A technology is invented, it spreads, a thousand flowers bloom, and then someone finds a way to own it, locking out others. It happens every time. (Source: Free Government Information (FGI) blogs) Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:15:47 +0100 887766 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/11/19/enforcing-plain-language/ An Ontario private member’s bill, the Cell Phone, Smart Phone and Wireless Technology Transparency Act, 2010, requires among other things that future performance contracts (a term defined in the Consumer Protection Act), “shall be expressed in plain language that is clear and concise.” (s. 3(1)) Are there judicially recognized standards of plain language that would allow this provision to be enforced, and that would allow someone drafting such a contract to know that he or she had met the standards? I know that there are books and articles around about plain language, but does something have force of law? The bill goes on to list eleven specific things that a supplier of the applicable service has to put in the contract, along with the requirements of the Consumer Protection Act and its regulations – so the demand that the contract be ‘concise’ may be a bit difficult to achieve. Are there judicial standards on concision? The bill seems influenced by Quebec’s recent changes to its consumer protection legislation, adopted last year as Bill 60, and in force as of June 2010. That bill called the services to which it applied its similar rules ‘Contracts Involving Sequential Performance for Services Provided at a Distance’, perhaps (as the commentary cited here suggests) to avoid infringing on federal legislative competence over telecommunications. (Source: Slaw) Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:04:19 +0100 887615 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62093 From the Article: The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:56:30 +0100 887258 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/amazon-runs-out-of-kindles-international-version-on-backorder/ Received the following email from Johannes Haupt in Germany: Hi Paul, seems that amazon.com has to manage a serious kindle shortage. International kindle 3g as well as kindle 3g+wifi are ‘expected to ship in 7 to 9 weeks’ (=january 2011) what means that amazon.com misses the complete holiday season outside US + UK. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DZ1Y8Q/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DZ1Y72 http://www.lesen.net/kaufen/kindle-3-int-ausverkauft-bis-januar-2011-4518/ Just a few days ago both devices were ‘in stock’ worldwide, many consumers interested in a kindle as a christmas gift are pretty shocked now. Amazon support just says “due to strong customer demand, Kindle (Latest Generation) is temporarily sold out and we’re unable to ship your Kindle at an earlier date”. US-kindle seems to be still in stock but but there’s a quantity limit of 3 kindles per customer now. Bye Johannes http://www.lesen.net (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:34:03 +0100 887247 http://146.74.224.231/archives/2010/11/a_day_at_your_l_1.html As previously mentioned, we are extremely grateful to the 691 people who gave us feedback about what they loved about their library on October 5th, Library Snapshot Day. Although we serve a diverse population with a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, many of you share similar reflections and joys about our library. Someone writes, "A library is what helps define a civilization." Another sees the library as "vital to a functioning civilization." "Loaded with information," your library helps individuals generate new ideas, knowledge, and innovation. Several appreciate Santa Clara County Library's "excellent" collection of library resources. Our cardholders "love" having "free access" to: books, movies, music, games, Internet, and WiFi. A visit to the library results in a "discovery" of new materials "that they were unaware of," as well as always finding what was needed. One expresses that the library "keeps our imagination and sense of wonder alive." For many of our patrons, the library is a "second home" where they can "relax, read, and get inspired." As a community center, the library is "open to everyone" and is a place to connect with others during programs like the Summer Reading Club, Silicon Valley Reads, author visits, and storytimes. For many families, storytime is the "highlight of the week." "Clean and safe," another individual writes, "It's the best place to spend time in town." Several compliment our staff for being friendly, patient, and knowledgeable. Someone also extends a nod of thanks to the Friends of the Library for their generosity, as we can all be thankful for the wonderful things that our Friends and volunteers do for us. Thank you for sharing such heart-felt and thoughtful comments. Your gratitude is the greatest reward for the services we provide. ... Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:10:04 +0100 887084 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/nov/19/harry-potter-britain-model-vision Warner Bros may have paid for Potter, but it's the comforting, olde-worlde vision of Britain that is the franchise's magic formula. No wonder David Cameron wants other film-makers to follow suitDuring prime minister's questions earlier this week, David Cameron was asked about the government's plans for investment in the future of British film. He responded by discussing Warner Bros' recent investment in Leavesden studios and suggesting that Britain could, and should, be making more movies like the Harry Potter franchise, and, by extension, fewer movies like, say, the recently released Made in Dagenham or Mike Leigh's Another Year both of which were funded by the now disbanded UK Film Council.Cutting the UKFC, and praising the Potter films as a model for UK film-makers seems to constitute a fairly coherent ideological statement about British cinema: make films people will pay to see, or don't make films. But how realistic is this? And how does it reflect the real conditions of the film marketplace in Britain?Well, it is certainly true that the UKFC has traditionally funded low budget, culturally "relevant" films, targeting an audience of middlebrow educated Brits, as well as a few Anglophile Americans and Europeans. Few of these films make any real money, although some break even. So, Made in Dagenham has earned around £4m on European release. Details of the budget have never been revealed, but its unlikely that the film cost less than £4m, although it may break even when revenues from DVD and TV are taken into account. The UKFC has funded more successful films, but Made in Dagenham is probably a fairly typical release in terms of its commercial performance. Quite simply, it is a film that has appealed to a tiny minority of people in Britain, and pretty much no one else. ... Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:01:18 +0100 887198 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechsourceBlog/~3/VNmPLMqOdho/holiday-gadgets-2010.html With the Holiday season quickly approaching, I decided that I should try and condense the last few months of gadget craziness into something like a recommended list for that special someone in your life. Or just for you...eReaderThis particular space is getting really crowded, but there are still a couple of clear standouts. If you want to buy an eInk based eReader, I still like the Amazon Kindle 3rd Gen WiFi in Graphite. It’s the best hardware with the best eInk screen, and it’s backed by the eBook store with the widest selection. And after the recent price drop, it’s only $139. It’s one real shortcoming is the fact that it doesn’t play well with ePub files (ok, it doesn’t play at all with ePub files). This means that while you can get more titles for the Kindle than any other eReader, you still can’t borrow a library book on one. But between the wifi version linked above, and the $189 3G version, and I think that Amazon is gonna sell a million of these things over the holidays. The other choice is the Barnes & Noble Nook...or the Nook’s younger, more colorful cousin, the NookColor. The NookColor I think is especially interesting, as it’s the first dedicated eBook reader to try and take a serious swing at using an LCD screen instead of an eInk screen. While we haven’t actually seen the NookColor in the flesh yet, the assumption is that it will have the same capabilities as the Nook, and will be able to deal with the typical library ePub with DRM solution provided by the likes of Overdrive and others. AudioOf the two suggestions I’ll give for audio players (both play more than just MP3, so I’m sticking with the generic “audio”), the first will come as no surprise. The 4th gen iPod Touch is the best value-per-dollar on the market, even if much of the value no longer comes from the audio part of it’s DNA. ... Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:44:06 +0100 887700 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/tj-maxx-selling-16gb-ipad-for-100-off/ Our sister blog Appletell spotted an Engadget story pointing out that select TJ Maxx stores are carrying the 16 GB wifi iPad for $399—$100 off the list price of $499. That’s not “carrying it on Black Friday,” that’s carrying it now. If you’re interested and want to snag one, probably best get there as soon as you see this story; at a price like that, it’s doubtful they’ll stick around long. Of course, given that it is probably only 4 months or so until the next generation of iPad comes out, it is possible you might rather wait for later. Personally, I’m hoping that some Black Friday deal on a 64GB iPod Touch will materialize. If someone spots one, please let me know? (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:01:11 +0100 887057 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/quick-notes-tablet-subsidies-inspiron-duo-virgin-mobile-mifi/ The Financial Times seems to think the time is now for its employees to be using tablets. PaidContent reports that the company is offering a £300 or $480 rebate to its 1,800 staff against purchase of an iPad or other tablet. Employees who already have a tablet will also receive the rebate. The Dell Inspiron Duo, that 10.1” netbook that has a revolving screen for use as a tablet, will be available for pre-order soon and start shipping in December. The base model will start at $549 (£449). Engadget has a brief review of the specs and a short hands-on video. I’ve mentioned Virgin Mobile’s pay-as-you-go MiFi plan a few times as a way of retrofitting Kindle-style 3G anywhere-downloading capability to any and all of your wireless devices at once. Its plans to date were either $40 for a month of unlimited service or $10 for ten days of 100 megabytes. However, now Virgin has introduced an “in-between” plan: $20 for a 1GB data limit in one month. If you didn’t mess around with bulky multimedia, you could download a lot of e-books in 1 GB. And since it’s month-to-month contract-free, you can raise or lower your commitment at any time, or even skip months altogether. The $20 plan only seems to be available through Wal*Mart or walmart.com for now. (Found via Gadgetell.) (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:37:37 +0100 886947 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/11/17/things-japanese/ I had the pleasure of going to Japan for the last 8 days or so on vacation with my wife. Overall, we had a wonderful trip that included visiting friends and family, eating good food, and trying a few different “onsen” (Japanese spas). And while I had thought about posting from Japan, my schedule and Internet access did not really permit it. As such, I thought I would post a few comments now that I have returned. 1) WiFi Access: In retrospect, I should have likely brought my notepad (which has an ethernet port). My iPad was less useful than I had hoped for short-term online access to the Internet. The Tokyo Prince Park Tower Hotel had no WiFi access and the ubiquity of free WiFi in Starbucks cafes in Canada does not seem to exist in Japan. The Tokyo Park Hyatt – an amazing hotel featured prominently in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (starring Bill Murray) – did have WiFi (and an amazing view of Mt. Fuji from our room and the 45th floor spa). In addition, 3G access on the iPad in Japan did not seem to be a realistic short-term option since 3G on the iPad in Japan appears to require a long-term contract from Softbank, although a young salesman in the LLAOX home electronics store in Akihabara tried to sell me a Pocket WiFi connection which apparently may have given me 3G access for around 6,000 yen for the week that I was there. Ted Tjaden in front of Zojoji Temple in Shiba-Koen, Tokyo 2) Personal versus Group Rights: For Westerners – with our sense of entitlement to privacy and individuality – it always come as a shock to see a culture where group rights often prevail over individual rights. ... Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:41:32 +0100 887627 http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?p=1458 Up until now, many public libraries have not been too concerned with the security of their public wireless networks. Libraries, after all, are open to the public, so why shouldn’t their networks be “open,” too? Does it really matter if a neighbor might “steal” some of the library’s bandwidth? But about a week before Halloween, the Firesheep extension for the Firefox web browser rattled the WiFi world. Suddenly, it became ludicrously easy to use open WiFi library networks to steal patrons’ usernames and passwords to unsecured websites like Facebook and Twitter. Suddenly, there’s a really good reason to lock down the library WiFi. Firesheep in wolves’ clothing: extension lets you hack into Twitter, Facebook accounts easily (TechCrunch/Evelyn Rusli)  ”Developer Eric Butler has exposed the soft underbelly of the web with his new Firefox extension, Firesheep, which will let you essentially eavesdrop on any open Wi-Fi network and capture users’ cookies. As Butler explains in his post, ‘As soon as anyone on the network visits an insecure website known to Firesheep, their name and photo will be displayed’ in the window. All you have to do is double click on their name and open sesame, you will be able to log into that user’s site with their credentials.” Protection from FireSheep (ReadWriteWeb/Audrey Watters)   ”Since Firesheep was released, there have been a number of countermeasures developed, ostensibly to warn if not protect users from potential side-jacking. Blacksheep, released earlier this week by Zscaler, generates ‘fake traffic’ then monitors the network to see if Firesheep is active. ... Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:17:11 +0100 887567 http://www.affordance.info/mon_weblog/2010/11/tweets-de-la-semaine-.html Enfin tweets significatifs de la semaine. Je vous épargne les autres ;-) Chapitre Google ouch. http://bit.ly/cbYsth 1er retournement de veste d'une longue série à venir :-) #google #numerisation #hachette Chapitre e-readers teste 3 liseuses en même temps : cybook opus (pourri) sony PRS 650 (frustrant), Ipad (fermé). Faut un clavier. Livre a de beaux jours devant est désormais convaincu que les e-readers dédiés sont voués à l'échec. Parce que l'hypertexte. Et que l'Ipad est d'abord une console de jeu. Ipad, e-readers et tout ça c'est pas du web. Le livre numérique c'est sur le web. Vive les navigateurs. Vive les browsers. e-readers et autres liseuses : minimum syndical = clavier + wifi + browser. Le reste est promis au même avenir que le minitel. Et encore ... voilà pourquoi liseuses et e-readers ne marcheront pas : elles ont oublié l'importance des marges. Celui de l'appropriation. LIseuses et e-readers (suite) : en plus des marges, z'ont aussi oublié "l'éditing" (mais ça au moins ça devrait s'améliorer bientôt) Chapitre "ego" est cité dans le libé (papier) du jour (mardi). Page 22, article "Facebook-Google : ça va faire mail" Chapitre AERES L'#AERES publie la liste des #revues en info-comm et confirme son amateurisme : un PDF tout pourri ! http://bit.ly/arXfDB  Chapitre divers MAGNIFIQUE. Le son du silence a été désactive pour cause de droit d'auteur. http://youtu.be/nWDsD6Zs_p0 (http://bit.ly/bLgKBA) (Source: affordance.info) Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 888004 http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/11/clickers-are-catching-on-with-faculty-.html Every student in Mr. White’s class has been assigned a palm-size, wireless device that looks like a TV remote but has a far less entertaining purpose. With their clickers in hand, the students in Mr. White’s class automatically clock in as “present” as they walk into class. But the greatest impact of such devices — which more than a half-million students are using this fall on several thousand college campuses — may be cultural: they have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages (Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian) Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 886649 http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-birding-traveling-world-in.html Bonnie brings home great books. The latest is a glossy National Geographic guide titled Global Birding: Traveling the World in Search of Birds by Les Beletsky with birding narratives by David L. Pearson. Bonnie had been looking at it and left it on the coffee table. I am afraid that I snatched it for several days, but I did leave her bookmark in place. It is hers again now.Throughout Global Birding are amazingly beautiful pictures of birds and landscapes from every continent. The colors of some of the bee-eaters, kingfishers, hummingbirds, manakins, tanagers, sunbirds, parrots, berrypeckers, and other exotic birds are brilliant. You don't have to read the text to enjoy the book, but there is much to be learned if you do. I particularly liked the second chapter "The Geography of Birds" about the distribution of birds around the world. The discussions of what the different continents have to attract bird populations explains why North America north of Mexico is relatively bird-poor compared with hotspots, such as Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Indonesia. Ironically, the rain forests that attract these birds also make them hard for birders to spot. In his highlighted narratives, David L. Pearson recounts some of his birding efforts. I laughed at his story of seeking Argentina's Yellow Cardinals unsuccessfully for days and then finding two pairs of them sitting on their car's luggage rack as they prepared to depart a bird preserve.Most of the book is a continent-by-continent assessment of travel destinations. While the author does not recommend actual tour operators or lodges, he points birders to regions and countries and identifies many field guides and websites to help them make arrangements. The text may get a little dry for non-birders, but those working on life lists or just wanting to see the most sought birds will appreciate this handsome book.Beletsky, Les. Global Birding: Traveling the World in Search of Birds. National Geographic, 2010. ... Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0100 886635 http://www.cilip.org.uk/about-us/history/milestones/Pages/ciliphighlights.aspx CILIP milestones since the organisation was created in 20022010 28 October 2010 - CILIP/IFLA Aspire Award launched at an event to celebrate the professional life of CILIP's Chief Executive, Bob McKee. 21 October 2010 - Annie Mauger responds to the government's Comprehensive Spending Review 19 October 2010 - CILIP signs up to joint statement in support of public libraries. 14 October 2010 - The first CILIP Medal, recognising a unique contribution to the library and information profession awarded to Edward Dudley. 05 October 2010 - CILIP stresses that an information revolution in the health sector must be managed by information professionals in its response to the Government White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS 01 October 2010 - Annie Mauger (pronounced 'major') takes up the post of CILIP Chief Executive. 27 September 2010 - CILIP champions the important contribution of prison libraries to offender learning in its response to the Government consultation paper Review of Offender Learning: Call for Evidence 06 September 2010 - CILIP supports the Society of Authors, the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society and the Royal Society of Literature in their campaign to protect the Public Lending Right. 13 August 2010 - CILIP's Chief Executive, Bob McKee, passes away while attending the IFLA Conference in Sweden. Read Bob's biography. 10 August 2010 - CILIP and LIANZA (the Library & Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) sign an agreement to recognise each other's professional qualifications. 29 July 2010 - Defining our professional future report goes live, providing direction about the future of CILIP, and the knowledge and information profession. 27 July 2010 - CILIP warns the coalition government that abolishing the Museums Libraries and Archives Council and the Advisory Council on Libraries leaves libraries dangerously exposed. ... Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:00:15 +0100 886380 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/crunchgear-reviews-the-nookcolor/ CrunchGear gives the NookColor a mixed review. They don’t like the fact that it’s WiFi only and they say that it is not readable in sunlight – even under an overcast sky. Overall, however, they like it: The NookColor is an e-reader. It isn’t a tablet. Once you understand that and once you understand the market for the former and not the latter, the NookColor begins to make more sense. It is an e-reader for people who want small size, a bright color screen, and an usable interface for buying, downloading, and reading books. It won’t run Angry Birds and it won’t let you do your taxes. This is not a back door into the world of tablets. Update: you can find a review from Engadget here. They like the magazine capabilities of the unit. And a Gizmodo review here. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:38:49 +0100 886432 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/voice-calling-declines-but-will-data-access-rise/ Alexia Tsotsis has a post at TechCrunch pointing out that the phone call is “dead” (in the sense in which the term is used in the tech industry these days—meaning “on the decline”). The article itself is interesting enough, though it says much the same things as a piece I covered here already. But it seems to me that the “decline” or, perhaps, transmutation of the mobile industry might have some implications for “telereading”, too. E-books are just one aspect of telereading, after all. Other aspects include magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other textual Internet sources—and getting those in a timely fashion requires mobile data access, such as many cell phone plans provide. But at the moment that data access comes bundled with a requirement to buy hundreds of minutes of voice calling, which many smartphone users may never even dent. The reason that the phone call is “dead”, Tsotsis says, is that people just don’t make phone calls anymore. She uses a TechCrunch inter-office rivalry as an example: Mike Arrington teases MG Siegler that his iPhone can’t make calls due to AT&T’s network problems. MG’s response to Mike, “It doesn’t need to. I use the phone mostly for apps and browsing, not calls.” On background: MG is in his 20s and Mike is around 40. As if we needed more proof, MobileCrunch editor Greg Kumparak’s AT&T usage data is indicative of the voice habits of an entire generation. Kumparak’s usage chart shows only 3 of 450 Anytime Minutes, 2 of 5,000 Night & Weekend minutes, and 0 of 2754 Rollover Minutes used. And s Tsotsis points out, people now have a lot better methods of voice communication (e.g. Skype, Google Voice, FaceTime) than the plain old telephone when they do want to communicate. And then there’s the way that calls on the old telephone system tend to come at the most inconvenient possible times. ... Mon, 15 Nov 2010 03:15:53 +0100 886092 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/61967 This new infographic includes a Kindle history timeline, fast facts about the Kindle device itself (versions 1, 2, 3, and DX), statistics about the Kindle Store, and a worldwide 3G/EDGE/GPRS/coverage map for the wireless service the Kindle needs. Access the Infographic (November 14, 2010) Data from Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and PC World. Source: Website-Monitoring Blog Previously Released* Infographics [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:29:48 +0100 886104 http://www.teleread.com/ereaders/consumer-reports-ratings-on-ereaders-overview-and-analysis/ Consumer Reports has released its latest survey of e-readers, and they have the Kindle at the top again. Click the image at the left to see the video. The video linked to at the left explains that the iPad was not included because they were testing the category of dedicated e-readers and the iPad is essentially a multimedia tablet and computer that also functions as an e-reader. They add that it’s considerably more expensive while having an LCD screen which “is fine, though it is slightly less crisp than that of the best e-book readers” and is also quite a bit heavier than the dedicated readers they test and portability was a feature important to the set.  ”Consumer Reports recommends buying the iPad for e-books only if consumers are willing to compromise to get a multifunction device.”javascript:void(0) Consumer Reports has its full story and ratings behind a paywall, but KABC’s story on the CR report has a few quotes: ‘ “I’d say the color screens are almost impossible to read outdoors,” said Rich Fisco, Consumer Reports.  ”On the other hand the e-ink screens are almost like reading a real book.” In the end, Consumer Reports gave top ratings to the 3G Kindle, which costs $189. “It’s the best reader we’ve ever tested,” said Paul Reynolds, a tester with Consumer Reports. “The type is crisp and easy to read. The battery life is outstanding, as is the speed of the page turns.” But you can save money buying the $139 Kindle, which is identical to the 3G except you can only download content via Wi-Fi. ... Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:40:44 +0100 886097 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/14/best-books-of-year-2010-franzen How many picked Jonathan Franzen? And who's the only one to recommend Tony Blair's autobiography? Writers and public figures tell the Observer about their favourite books of 2010• To buy the books chosen below with a 20% or more discount and free UK p&p, click on the book's title – or, to choose from the full list, click hereSam MendesDirectorJonathan Franzen's Freedom (Fourth Estate) was head and shoulders above any other book this year: moving, funny, and unexpectedly beautiful. I missed it when it was over. Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat (Virgin) was like its author: fascinating, precise, opinionated, brilliant. I loved Stewart Lee's How I Escaped My Certain Fate (Faber). Never has anyone made me feel so close to the terrifying and occasionally exhilarating insanity that is stand-up comedy.Sebastian FaulksNovelistI enjoyed – if that can be the word – The Big Short by Michael Lewis (Allen Lane), an account of how a group of people contrived to bring the banking system to its knees, to take much of your money and many of your jobs, to condemn your children to a life of debt – and got away unpunished, with millions in their own back pockets. It's in the interest of bankers to pretend that their work is too technical for lay people to follow, but in an account such as Michael Lewis's, it's really not that difficult. It's quite clear what they did. Harder to understand is how they got away with it.Rachel JohnsonEditor, the LadyHitch-22 (Atlantic) by Christopher Hitchens is like a tin of Pedigree Chum: solid, meaty nourishment. Hitchens is incapable of writing a boring sentence. When he asks himself what he'd like to be different if he had to be the Hitch all over again, he answers: "more money, an even sturdier penis, slightly different parents, a briefer latency period". I cried several times during Deborah Devonshire's memoir Wait for Me! (John Murray), mainly at deaths: sister Nancy, brother Tom, and her three stillborn children. ... Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:02:03 +0100 885873 http://futura.edublogs.org/2010/11/13/the-nitty-gritty-details-implementing-ipads/ After meeting with my district librarians this week, I realized that perhaps it would be helpful to spell out some details of our iPad implementation (my previous posts about the results of our pilot study and teacher responses are here and here) for both our own staff, but perhaps it will be of interest to others as well. So here’s our story.   We purchased six iPads (16 Gig, no 3G), but if you purchase ten via Apple’s education package, there is a discount of about $50 per iPad.   Our future district orders will be consolidated, but our fundraising funds were more limited for our initial pilot. Other items we purchased were covers; I wanted a foldable cover that would function like a book but also stand up so we purchased the basic Apple cover, though it does show every bit of dust since it’s black, but I liked that it folded up like a book and covered the screen.    We also purchased 1 Apple keyboard (with dock) to try out, which was an excellent addition in terms of making the iPad even more versatile, and we’ll be buying more, but wireless ones this time. Another purchase was a stylus to try out as a writing tool–while it certainly worked better than writing with one’s finger, the keyboard is a better solution for most.   We plan to purchase the camera adapter as well.  Other practicalities include a screen cover (which probably schools will want) and cleaning cloth (sounds silly but student fingerprints add up fast!) Once we received the iPads, my only initial disappointment was that when I opened the new boxes, I somehow had this notion I could just start playing immediately, but of course the device has to be synced to a computer first. I created a generic account on ITunes to use to sync all of the iPads.   Gift cards can be used to fund the iTunes account, which no longer has to be tied to a credit card, or the district credit card could be used(if you have one). ... Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:43:30 +0100 887465