Archive for July, 2006
A Onesie Ari Should Have
July 31st, 2006From CafePress
Thanks Brian!
Topix Rules News Search
July 31st, 2006Topix mentioned today that they now have over “5000 cities and growing and with coverage of 171 countries” in their search database You can browse the channels here. Definitely, one of my favorite news search tools. One of the main reasons?
“In addition to the international news services, which are pretty well covered in [...]
So Close….
July 31st, 2006I think that this article from Mlive.com (a dumb semi-registration splash page is in your future if you click on the link) is the first one I’ve seen on libraries that use Myspace. Some great quotes:
“There is more to the library than books,” said Nicole Rider, 21, a library assistant at the Meijer branch [...]
More on Skokie Public Library
July 31st, 2006Fran, from the library comments on my post from the 20th:
“The READ posters have been very popular here in Skokie. We’re planning a major Skokie READS initiative and will be recruiting other community leaders and residents to appear on posters for display in the library and beyond. I did want you to know that our [...]
Day Off
July 30th, 2006Today, Barbie and I took a day off from parenting and drove out to the North Fork with friends for some wine tasting, cheese eating, and adult conversation. A lovely day. Now, back to real life.
More pictures here.
Do Social Networking Sites Care About Libraries?
July 30th, 2006A very wise colleague once told me (a few years ago) that search engines don’t care about librarians, and I agree with this statement to this day. Google only started to care about librarians when they figured out that if they want to scan all of our books, they had to actually talk to [...]
CNET Link Love
July 29th, 2006I didn’t notice that the CNET blog linked to my latest post on libraries that Flickr. It didn’t come up on Technorati and my PubSub feed….oh yeah. I forgot. The management of my former company ran it into the ground because they had personality issues and couldn’t see the “big picture” beyond [...]
Are You a “Real” Librarian?
July 28th, 2006Jennifer responds to the MLS discussion (Sorry about the long quote, it was just dead on):
“Often times, people who hold an MLS find it very difficult to accept ones without an MLS in professional librarian positions. I can certainly understand - and even sympathize - with their point of view. They worked hard to get [...]
Comments are Funky!
July 27th, 2006My apologies for those who are having difficulty making comments. I’m trying out Haloscan, which I’ve heard is a bit better. Here’s hoping.
Update - OK, it looks like Haloscan comments and trackback are working well. We had some caching issues and some were still seeing YACCS and made comments. Obviously, these [...]
Betas at MIT
July 27th, 2006Lisa Harrington writes about one of the betas that the library at MIT is working on is an LibX toolbar.
“1. Toolbar: LibX is a Firefox toolbar that allows you to quickly search the Barton catalog, Vera, Google Scholar, the SFX FullText Finder and other search tools
2. Right-click menu: when you have installed LibX you can [...]
Librarian - Just a Title
July 27th, 2006I learned a very valuable lesson this week, one that I was on the fence about theoretically. Until this week. Here it is.
You don’t have to have an MLS to be a librarian. The MLS doesn’t teach passion, empathy, user focused skills, or provide experience. Some library science schools don’t even [...]
Library Thing Long Tail?
July 27th, 2006Of the 174 members presently in the Librarians that LibraryThing, the Harry Potter books are in 1/3 of the members’ libraries. But, out of 106,815 total books, the highest shared book is at 56. Interesting stats.
The New York Librarians Meetup Group
July 26th, 2006Ellyssa e-mailed me last night and invited me to the The New York Librarians Meetup Group. The next one is on August 2nd. I think I’ll be there…
LibraryThing adds “Groups”
July 26th, 2006I logged onto LibraryThing today after not reading much of my aggregator during the past 2 days and saw that I had an invite to the Librarians who LibraryThing Group. Huh? So, I looked on the blog and read:
“We see groups being used by:
* Real-world clubs. Groups can unite all the collections of [...]
6 Years of Blogging
July 26th, 2006Next week, on August 4th, Library Stuff will celebrate 6 years of blogging. Wow!
I’ll have a retrospective post on that day, but should we celebrate somehow? How about a party? Everyone come to my house for a barbeque. Heh.
More Train Reading
July 24th, 2006I’m doing a big ol’ file…print on this paper titled, “Collaborative Reference Work in the Blogosphere”:
“Purpose – This paper explores the use of blogs as a platform for providing reference service, and discusses Lyceum, an open source software project from ibiblio.org, for this purpose. Design/methodology/approach – The following topics are explored: the evolution of libraries’ [...]
ALA Flickr Goodness!
July 24th, 2006Unlike Steve Lawson, I was not made a contact by ALA. How sad. Maybe it’s because I let my membership lapse (Woopsy!) or that they are only making libraries contacts right now. Hey guys (K.G. Schneider thinks Jenny Levine is getting things done over there - Ack! I can’t link to [...]
CW Dislikes Email Lists…
July 24th, 2006…because:
“[I]nvariably the deluge of emails would become too overwhelming to even try to keep up with - and the many names attached and all the RE: RE: RE: RE: … too confusing. Who said what, and when, and then I would end up unsubscribing.”
“And where there’s discussion, inevitably one subscriber will take offense at what [...]
How Many Keywords Does It Take…
July 24th, 2006Interesting new statistics from Onestat about the number of keywords searchers use:
“[M]ost people use 2 word phrases in search engines. Of all the search phrases world wide, 28.91 percent of the people use 2 word phrases, 27.85 percent use 3 word phrases and 17.11 percent use 4 word phrases. Less and less people use now [...]
Socialtext Releases First Commercial Open Source Wiki
July 24th, 2006This is great news for all. SocialText has released an open source wiki today. If you are thinking of using wikis in your intitution, try downloading this puppy. Props to Ross Mayfield (He runs SocialText) on this venture. I met Ross last December at Syndicate in San Fransisco and tripped over [...]
Um…
July 24th, 2006How about this for Monday morning?
From the Post-tribune:
“As if its budget problems and travel woes weren’t enough, the Gary Public Library has hired a custodian convicted of federal racketeering charges to oversee inventory.
Perry Gordon, 55, had been a custodian at the library’s Tolleston branch before February, when he was elevated to the new position [...]
When Wikis Get Old: Questions in Verse
July 23rd, 2006From Ricklibrarian.
“What will happen when wikis get old?
Will all their linkers become clinkers?
Will the data that was beta start to fade? ah!
What will happen when wikis get old?…”
I’ve added a few lines. Add yours in Rick’s comments. Fun!
Libraries that Use Flickr
July 23rd, 2006It’s been a month since my last list of libraries that use Flickr, so I’m due. I’ve used the descriptions on the profile page. If you have a Flickr account, it might be useful for your users to edit your profile and add, at least, your library URL.
What else should be added to [...]
When It’s Hot, Robert Scoble…
July 23rd, 2006takes his family to the library:
“After our breakfast we needed to meet up with the people buying our house and Chandu recommended the Redmond Library cause it just was too hot to have a conversation anywhere else. What a wonderful place! Yes, they even have a great place where you can talk. It was pretty [...]
The Kids
July 23rd, 2006Ari at 7 Weeks
Hallie at 3 1/2 Years
Happyville Library
July 22nd, 2006Everytime I begin to read an entry from Happyville Library, I make sure that I have no liquid in my mouth, because it will end up all over my laptop within 5 seconds of reading the entries. The Happy Villian is one of my favorite bloggers for the sheer humor of the work and [...]
IMLS RSS Feed
July 22nd, 2006I didn’t realize (David Mattison did!) that the Institute of Museum and Library Services jumped on the RSS bandwagon. When did that happen? Subscribed!!
Library Thing 3.0
July 22nd, 2006Peeking at a few of the bookswapping sites as mentioned in this little piece at CNET, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if users at Library Thing could swap books. How yummy that would be, eh?
Help Out Lethal
July 22nd, 2006Laura Harris has a question about a very good cause.
“AASFA [Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association] would like to use the money earned from this convention to donate science fiction and fantasy literature to local school libraries.
I’ve been asked to do a bit of research on the logistics of this, and I’m hoping that the Librarian [...]
You’re Going Down E-mail!
July 22nd, 2006From AP:
“Increasingly, e-mail, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant messaging and text messaging and to the chatter generated in blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace. The shift is creeping into workplace communication, too.
‘In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new ’snail mail,’ ‘ said [...]