Archive for October, 2005
Dowling Library is Podcasting
October 18th, 2005Another local library (local to me that is) has started podcasting. While I’m thrilled that Dowling is getting into this form of content delivery (it’s a no-brainer for those that have the staff and time to do so), I’m a big skeptical about calling their “blog” a blog. A blog without an RSS [...]
Why Syndic8?
October 17th, 2005As many of you who use blog/RSS search engines have seen over the past few days, we’ve been hit by a bunch of blog spam, mostly coming from Blogspot blogs. It’s something that has been an ongoing problem, but have been noticed a lot lately. Take a look at the screenshot below, which shows [...]
ACRL Joins the Party
October 17th, 2005Hip Hip Hooray! The ACRL is blogging, with none other than Steven Bell (among others) as a contributor. They have an exciting “Why an ACRL Blog” page that is worth reading. Does this mean that we will have 4 national library associations blogging at Midwinter? We have AASL, PLA, LITA, and [...]
Strange But True
October 14th, 2005I’m not sure if this is a marketing issue for librarians or the need more education as to what librarians do for a living (or just an ignoramus - I’m not casting judgement, I’m just curious), but the following was posted to a blog hosted at Ohio University at Zanesville:
“This is kind of strange, but [...]
WTV is a Finalist for a National Book Award
October 12th, 2005A big hip hip hooray and suweeeeeeet for William T. Vollmann, who is a finalist for a National Book Award (He’s not listed in the press release, but he’s on the list - his page is returning a 404 at this time). He was nominated for Europe Central, his latest novel.
This is well deserved [...]
Online Books Page Gets RSSified
October 11th, 2005Hip Hip Hooray. Gary Price mentions that the Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania Library now offers an RSS feed for it’s most recent listings.
A Few Tools
October 11th, 2005A few RSS tools that I came across recently:
1) FeedAlley - Basically another “taggregator” along the lines of Feedmarker, the leader of the pack, IMO. I plyed with Feedalley for a bit and only just realized that I can’t a get a feed for tagged items. Huh?
2) Frankenfeed - One of many meta-feed [...]
Informed and Uninformed Librarians
October 11th, 2005If you don’t understand the value of keeping current (or do and want a refresher course), take a look at this article by Peter Jasco on the Informed and Underinformed Librarians. A few great quotes:
“Wherever I travel to when I step out of my ivory tower, I always visit libraries and learn how [...]
Edufeeds.com
October 10th, 2005You have to hand it to the guys over at Thomson Peterson’s. Not only do they have a killer blog on syndication in higher education, but they have put together a College and University Feed Directory. Within the directory, they have a section on libraries and, of course, a feed for newly added [...]
Not a Wiki, But Freakin’ Cool
October 10th, 2005In the biggest step towards community involvement in online catalogs, OCLC has released a commenting system for Open WorldCat records. I signed up for an account and wrote my first review.
I’d love to see which library will be the first to incorporate these reviews into their online catalog (I’m not sure if this can [...]
This Pleasant Slavery
October 10th, 2005Oh, that Michael McGorty. If you don’t subscribe to his weblog, you are missing out on one of the best writer-librarians in the business. I’ve met Michael twice, at the two most recent ALA conferences (Yes, Walt. I know the one in Boston was technically a meeting). He is a humble, [...]
Great Use For a Blog - Idaho Library Futures Conference
October 10th, 2005I stood up and clapped (softly, Hallie just passed out for the evening) when Aggie sent me 2020 Vision - Idaho Library Futures Conference. The blog continues the discussion of Idaho’s Library Future:
“In 1998 the Idaho library community came together and produced “Idaho’s Library Future.” This project outlined a vision and strategies for Idaho [...]
Man Finds Niche - Helps People Find Resources
October 10th, 2005Marylaine wrote about “creating your niche” 2 years ago, an article that I continuously point to when I talk about librarians marketing themselves. This article from the Boston Globe is a perfect example of finding what you’re good at, and making it worthwhile for people:
“The main problem, Bozkurt soon discovered, was the lack of [...]
Lock Up Your Laptop
October 9th, 2005Jessica Baumgart links to an article in Information Today with advice on keeping your laptop from getting lost or damaged at conferences. One scenario:
“You leave the conference room for a break along with everyone else. Some people are still in the room, so you don’t feel a need to lock up your laptop with [...]
Rent Books For College
October 9th, 2005I bought books in college that I knew I didn’t want to keep, but didn’t sell them back because I would get a pittance in return. Now, renting books would have been useful. Rent a math textbook for 120 days for less than half the price, don’t abuse it, and send it back [...]
Stop! Thief! Just Kidding!
October 9th, 2005You can’t make this stuff up. Oh, wait. Yes you can.
Public Library to File Lawsuits Against Copy-Machine Pirates:
“The Comanche County Public Library announced yesterday it will file its first wave of lawsuits later this month against those it alleges are illegally photocopying copyrighted books, joining the music industry in its fight against piracy.”
“The [...]
More Blog Presentations
October 9th, 2005Marianne Lemmox Lenox over at Library Supporter took the reigns and is using a blog for an online course that she is giving…on blogs.
Titled I Am So Gonna Blog This (If I Only Could), it’s filled with screenshots (great idea!) and well thought out content.
This concept is still in its infancy and will [...]
MultiRSS
October 8th, 2005Here’s a neat tool for your blog (or anywhere you publish an RSS Feed). Place the MultiRSS button on your site and when someone wants to subscribe to your feed, it will provide a list of aggregators. Users pick the one they use, and they are subscribed within 2 clicks. Easy. [...]
Could Grassroots Journalism Work for Library Communities?
October 8th, 2005Tom Grubisich reviewed a bunch of citizen journalisms tools and came to a few conclusions:
“The best citizen journalism sites at the community level — iBrattleboro and WestportNow — buzz with activity. That didn’t happen spontaneously. The proprietors of both sites know their communities, are passionately engaged with them and, in their own ways, are not [...]
Do You Meebo?
October 8th, 2005Congrats to Meebo for reaching 150,000 unique users in just 3 weeks. Also, they’ve released a bunch of new features today. I haven’t used Trillian or any other desktop IM client in 3 weeks.
Blogs as Presentation Formats
October 6th, 2005Looks like it’s catching on. Dan Karleen from Syndication for Higher Ed used a blog as his presentation format for a talk titled, “Blogs and RSS in Business and Marketing”. I’d love to know how it was received.
I was in Charlotesville, VA yesterday for a presentation and actually heard a few [...]
Library Journal - RSS Feeds
October 5th, 2005I’m not sure when this happened, but Library Journal now has 4 RSS Feeds for your syndicating pleasure. Congrats LJ!
Libraries and the Communities that Sustain Them
October 4th, 2005I read this article from the NYT about an hour ago on how “folksonomies” are changing the way people connect online, and thought nothing of blogging about it (although I linked to it on the linkblog). That is, until I read this post by Chrystie Hill over at BlogJunction. Chrystie writes:
“I hate to [...]
MPOW?
October 4th, 2005OK, I’ve held out on posting this for too long because I was trying to grasp the concept, staying up at night thinking, “What the heck am I missing here?” So, here I go.
Why do librarian bloggers refer to their place of employment as MPOW? I know what it stands for (no need [...]
Using Blogs for Research
October 4th, 2005An interesting article from Findlaw on using blogs to ask questions and receive answers quickly when doing research. Great concept, one which I’ll have to think about a bit more. From the article:
“I posted an inquiry: “Author In Search Of Info…”. In my posting, I explained what I was looking for, and why. [...]
Blogs in Library Journal
October 4th, 2005Congrats to Michael, Aaron, and friends who adorned the cover of Library Journal this week. I haven’t has time to read the article, but it will make for excellent train/plane reading.
Coming Soon! Educator’s Guide to the Read/Write Web!
October 3rd, 2005My colleague and friend Will Richardson has a book coming out soon called An Educator’s Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Cool Web Tools that are Transforming the Classroom Check out the chapter list. Ordered! (well, not yet, but I will when I can)
Congrats Will.
Robot Dog Reads RSS Feeds to Owner
October 3rd, 2005Ah, man’s best friend. According to Mobile Monday, Sony has come out with new version of a robotic dog that will read RSS feeds aloud:
“With one simple voice command Aibo can read the morning’s headline news while its owner folds the laundry,” said Toshi Kawai, senior manager of Entertainment Robot America (ERA), a division [...]
Banned Books at ManyBooks
October 2nd, 2005A bit too late for Banned Books Week, but I just saw that Many Books has a list of those books that they carry in full-text. Heck, we should be celebrating Banned Books Week every day, right?
Library Thing and Structured Blogging?
October 2nd, 2005Congrats to Tim over at Library Thing for reaching the LibraryThing: 250,000 book mark. It seems like Tim is adding new content everyday and I’m thrilled for him.
I was just thinking…wouldn’t Library Thing and Structured Blogging work very well together? Imagine structured book reviews as part this “thing”? Oooh. [...]