Library Stuff

Duplicates in tags frustrates me a little, something that I was just shrugging off. No big deal, right? After seeing the same Harry Potter article in my aggregator 4 times an hour for the past 3 days, I figured the duplicate issue was a lost cause (one anti-Harry note this year – I think it’s a crime to literature to order 5,000 copies of the latest Harry Potter and not have one freakin’ William T. Vollmann book in an entire large chain bookstore. What has the reading world come to? People: start thinking for yourselves!)

Anyway, someone has apparently come up with a way to filter out duplicate items in del.icio.us. I’m not sure if it works yet, but I’m trying it out. We’ll see. (link via, well, of course, del.icio.us)

A colleague at a recent conference told me that he has a PubSub feed for the words libraries or librarian because the content that it brings back is perfect for what he wants. Searching for libraries over librarian displays what people are talking about when they discuss our libraries, not the professionals that work in them (most of the time). I told him that my PubSub query for our profession was for the term librarian (too many hits for the word library) as I was interested in what people were saying about the workers. Different strokes… We compared results and I was convinced to edit my query to include the word libraries as well as librarian. Boy, have I been missing out.

Case in point. This morning my new subscription sent me a post from OH!Libraries, a blog that I had never seen before, (it highlights Ohio library services and is maintained by the staff of the Ohio Public Library Information Network) on their One Book Project. George Needham (of It’s All Good) was there to kick off the event.

Don Yarman, the Interim Executive Director of OPLN blogged the following:

“I love events like this. I love it when libraries come together to imagine their grand futures and the immediate steps they can take to get there. Mark Mabelitini of Westerville Public Library noted that George was preaching to the choir — ‘We should all be wearing robes,’ he said — but don’t we all enjoy a really good choir performing at its best?”

This goes back to what I was saying last week in response to Steven Bell’s commentary on Barack Obama. We go to library events like this to celebrate our profession, show off our accomplishments, and see colleagues. Surely, this event in Ohio was a celebration, not a place for a “mind challenge” (I’m loosely using Bell’s phrase here). Leave the controversy talk for other places (E-lists are perfect for this stuff) and let us celebrate our profession with people who want to conduct, preach, and ally themselves with the choir.

Greg “Gersham” Gershman mentions the Blogdigger store. Greg wants polo shirts, I want some t-shirts in Hallie’s size. There’s nothing like cute kid marketing! I’m going to buy myself a mug.

justcurio.us reminds me of Wondir. It’s an anonymous question and answer service. In order to ask a question, you have to answer one, so if you are a asker and not an answerer, go somewhere else. So, an open, semi-forced participation, Q&A network, with a bunch of rules. One last nugget: You can get any answers to your question sent to you via e-mail. No RSS? (link via del.icio.us)

The ACLU is using a blog to get the word out on their Patriot Act reform efforts. The blog is linked off of their reformthepatriotact.org page. Subscribed! See also: Tools for Patriotic Bloggers. (link via Paul Ruby)

Our colleague Gary Price has a great quote in this article in the Globe and Mail:

“Gary Price, a librarian and editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, says he agrees that people are a necessary part of getting relevant information from the Internet. “There is still absolutely a role for human beings in searching for information.”

“These sites take some of the things that librarians have always used to determine whether to buy a book and apply that to links.”

It looks like the library at Sonoma State is playing around with blogs.

Via Jake Jarvis, I see that Digg has been updated. It’s a bit slow to load, but well worth a revisit. Digg is one of those second generation social bookmarking tools which attempt to bring the ratings of its users into play:

“Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allowing an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.”

This is really interesting stuff that goes beyond just tagging content. It brings the “wisdom of the crowds” into the mix.

Gina, from the Idaho State Library talks about why keeping up with library technology is important and compares it to going to the gym:

“Sometimes I think that keeping up with changes in technology and library services can be like it was when I still had that limp. There are times I feel like we are struggling to keep up with the pace of the library world. We are regularly facing the implementation of new technologies and new ways to provide services. How do we keep up with the pace and NOT fall behind? Someone asked me that question just the other day. My answer? It’s like joining a gym. This time, though, it’s not about my ankle or other physical health, it’s about the health of my career.”

A wonderful comparison, one in which definitely could be developed further. Later on she notes:

“My goal in reading and reviewing the sources outlined above is not to understand every bit of information. It is, instead, to be aware. By keeping aware, I will have a head start later on in case it is something that does require I learn about it in more depth. The advantage is that I am not then starting from scratch; I’ve already had the heads-up on the issue from earlier scanning.”

A wonderful comparison.

Did I mention this yet? The National Academies has 4 RSS feeds including news, new publications, and the current and recent issues of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nice. (links via News Is Free)