Archive for January, 2005
More Library RSS Feeds
January 22nd, 2005Peter Scott reports on two libraries that are utilizing RSS in special ways.
1) The Charles Darwin University Library is testing out two feeds.. A new titles feed, which seems be a bit lagging (it was last updated on December 17) and an “Items Out” feed which seems to update everytime you check out an [...]
Evaluating LIS Weblogs
January 22nd, 2005Michael Stephens has put up a quick list for Evaluating LIS Weblogs [PDF]. In his post, he makes a good point:
“It’s one thing to say to classes “Look at all the stuff you can get to via RSS!” but we must also remember to give folks tools to choose the LIS weblogs right for [...]
Teaching RSS to Students
January 21st, 2005I love the last sentence in this invite to students at Ohio University who want to learn about RSS:
“In this class, users will get hands-on experience learning how to find and subscribe to RSS feeds, and how to use an RSS aggregator. Additional technical jargon will be demystified.”
Really SIMPLE Syndication! Also, take note that [...]
Law Journal Feeds Galore…And How to Make Them Yourself
January 21st, 2005John Doyle from the Washington and Lee University School of Law library has put together a page on RSS and Law Journals.
First, he has created a list of law journals currently available in RSS (mostly from IngentaConnect). Second, he has created a template for which other law journals can follow to create [...]
The Future of RSS…
January 21st, 2005Richard MacManus of Read/Write/Web writes:
“When RSS hits it big, it’ll be because ‘normal’ people start using it - your Mom and Dad, Frank from Marketing, Jessie from Payroll, Dave from the local dairy. They won’t be bloggers. They won’t be interested in writing or podcasting or anything like that. All they’ll want to do is [...]
Future Tense: Libraries Get Hip To RSS
January 21st, 2005Jon Gordon, reporter for Future Tense has a segment on RSS and libraries. You’ll notice some familiar voices in the segment [real media].
If You Wouldn’t Mind
January 21st, 2005I’m trying to get a sense of who reads my blog. If you wouldn’t mind taking a few seconds to fill out this survey, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Student Blogs
January 21st, 2005I came across the Simmons College Student Blogs last week while in Boston. They asked for volunteers from freshmen to blog their college experiences:
“These blogs are unedited, personal journals. From good times to bad, from blissful independence to homesickness, and from great story telling to spelling errors, Simmons wants you to read the real [...]
Leave it to Jenny
January 21st, 2005The buzz around the blogging world these past few months has been about open tagging systems (folksonomies, if you will) like flickr, del.icio.us, and furl. Librarians are very interested in these tools and how they work with or against the rigid ontological structures that librarians utilize. Jenny thinks that we can both can be [...]
Blogging SLA 2005?!
January 21st, 2005Christina is trying to get together a group blog for SLA in Toronto. I can’t tell whether she’s opening it up to everyone at the conference or if it’s just for the Physics-Astro-Math division. Either way, it’s a phenomenal idea.
Hey Sirsi. You’re So Fine. You’re So Fine You Blow My Mind. Hey Sirsi.
January 20th, 2005January seems to the month for RSS in libraries. Today, a few of us were sent an e-mail from Sirsi stating that they have released RSS capabilities in their new enterprise software. Fatures include:
+ The ability to take any OPAC search strategy and convert it into an RSS feed. Because text search engine [...]
Feedbeep
January 20th, 2005Just released in beta today: Feedbeep:
“FeedBeep is the final link between you and the wealth of information published on the internet. Hundreds of thousands of data feeds are available in RSS format, and now you can receive alerts about events worldwide — as they happen — right on your SMS-capable phone. Alerts can be set [...]
Library Stuff Gone Wild
January 20th, 2005The new site is still making the DNS rounds, but most people who I chatted with tonight see the new interface for LS. Yeah, that’s my site, squished inside that ITI frame. A note about permalinks: you might not want to link to anything for a bit as we’re having issues moving [...]
Feedster Looks for Jobs
January 20th, 2005The guys at Feedster have released a jobs search page. Neat. From the press release:
“Feedster adds over 5,000 job postings to its index daily. This number will increase exponentially as several more significant resources add their feeds to the Feedster index and as RSS feeds become an important publishing media for timely and [...]
Tie a String Around Your Aggregator
January 20th, 2005At ALA Midwinter, I’d forget when and where my meetings/dinners were held. I had many colleagues laughing because I couldn’t remember that the ALA editions soiree was to be held on Saturday Night at the Hasty Pudding Club. I’d ask so many times, I wanted to staple the information to my head.
Today, [...]
PubSub reaches 8 Million
January 19th, 2005PubSub has reached the 8 million mark in terms of weblogs monitored, according to CTO Bob Wyman. Bob says that he believes that PubSub is now “the largest number of blogs being monitored by any of the various search engines, directories, etc. that provide coverage of the blogosphere.”
I’m proud to be a PubSubber. [...]
Robin Good Responds
January 18th, 2005Robin Good responds to my post on why I think RSS Feeds for search engine results are useless.
A few assumptions were made on Good’s part for which I am completely to blame:
1) I monitor more than just the news. I have numerous customized searches in PubSub, Feedster, etc.
2) I reported on something that [...]
Help For Multitasking
January 18th, 2005How many windows (or Firefox tabs) do you usually have open at one time? I average around 4 with my e-mail client kicking (blech!) in the background. Probably less than most of the population. I multitask, but not “that much”. For those that think that they are the king or queen [...]
3 Shots from the Exhibits
January 16th, 2005Me and Bill Barnes from Unshelved.
My sponsor. I lova ya ITI.
Jessamyn doin’ her thing.
8 Steps For Keeping Current
January 16th, 2005My article titled, 8 Steps for Keeping Current [PDF] is online. I found it using the new Google enterprise search on the ALA web site. Note: My e-mail address is not steven@librarystuff.net. It’s better to get me via the contact form or via IM at nylibrarian.
Boolean Operator
January 15th, 2005If you’re thinking about what to get me for my birthday in March, your search ends here.
Why RSS Feeds For Search Engine Results Are Useless
January 14th, 2005Microsoft is supporting RSS in their beta search. I’m not the least bit excited about this. Here’s why:
The top ten results for a general search engine (like G or Y!) rarely change for general keywords. (Who uses more than 2 keywords anyway, right?) I monitor numerous queries in over 16 engines [...]
HTML to RSS
January 14th, 2005Michael Conrad Tadpol Tilstra has created an add-on for NetNewsWire that will create feeds for pages that don’t already have them. I’ve said this before, but no reason not to rant again.
While third party scrapers of content is well understood in this RSS-is not-mainstream-yet world, I can’t help to think that education is key [...]
Monster Fueled by Caffeine
January 14th, 2005There’s a cute story in Wired about Delicious Monster, a tool that I referenced back in October.
“Delicious Monster is the Mac software company behind the hit Delicious Library, a program for cataloging collections of books, movies and games. The software is selling like hotcakes and has garnered rave reviews and awards, yet the company’s [...]
Enterprise Blogging
January 14th, 2005Laurel A. Clyde is a blogging expert. No doubt about it. And I don’t give out titles like that one lightly. She’s written one heck of an article about Enterprise Blogging at Free Pint. One for me to print out an read on the train to work next week.
Best RSS Headline Ever
January 14th, 2005Why abc13.com’s RSS can change your life!.
A great title for my next presentation about RSS.
Technorati’s Got Tags
January 14th, 2005Technorati has just initiated flickr, del.icio.us, and “blogging” tags into their search results, with a neat layout. For those that use Blogger (like me), if you want to tag your items, you have to futz around with your coding, plus you have to ping Technorati manually. Eww.
Now, Blogger does have its shortcomings, [...]
The Sponsorship is Official
January 12th, 2005I received the signed contract in the mail today, so the sponsorship is now official. Starting next week (we hope), Library Stuff will be sponsored and published by Information Today, Inc. Over the course of 3 years, I have formed a productive relationship with ITI (mainly speaking at their conferences, but also writing [...]
Seattle Public Library? You Have Been RSSified!!
January 12th, 2005Fiona from Blisspix sent over this great news from SPL:
“The Seattle Public Library will replace its more than 20-year-old computer catalog with a new system called “Horizon” that will be implemented Wednesday, Feb. 23.”
With the new Horizon system, patrons will notice a number of improvements, including…RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Just as Web sites now offer [...]
BlogBib
January 12th, 2005Neat. Blog Bib is an annotated bibliography blog used for an article about blogging in libraries. Whew. We are so “meta” these days. (via Tame the Web)