Library Stuff

I just plaved Wikinomics on teh top of my “to read” list:

“Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success. A brilliant primer on one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand the key forces driving competitiveness in the twenty-first century.”

I can’t wait to get my hands on it. (via)

Get Mugged at the Library
Originally uploaded by mquest foto.

I’m not sure if this is funny. It’s definitely not very good marketing. I wonder what the story behind it is…

Here’s a cool idea for a library blog. Travels With MEL is all about the bookmobile from the Henderson District Public Libraries in Nevada.

Loads of pictures, lots of comments. Beautiful!

Via the law-lib e-list, I read that today, Justia released Blawg Search. It looks great, but I probably won’t be using it to keep up. No RSS Feeds for any searches. Now, why would they do that?

Via CNET:

10 best extensions for Firefox 2 – Some really neat ones there.

If you haven’t gotten wiki fever yet, you will. When you do, and want to start playing with Wikis, but can’t figure out which ones suit your needs the best, take a look at WikiMatrix.

The site allows you to put wikis against each other and get side by side comparisons. Plus, there are forums and articles that will help in the decision making process as well as assistance throughout the early stages of your “wiki-ing”. Very useful.

tagedu is interesting. Pronounced “taggy-doo” (how unfortunate – “tag ee dee you” would have been better), it strives to be a place where research is done by tags, not search. From the about page:

“tagedu is a new generation of research using tags instead of site-text as a basis for search. Results are displayed in real-time and sites are ranked by users on their usability and content. What this allows is more relevant sites with more relevant information.”

Also, sites are submitted by users like you, and approved by our staff to screen for inappropiate sites. The result is a search engine that is safe, easy to use, relevant and promotes educational growth.”

Not much content and not much to say about the background of the administrators or who the people are who approve and reject content. So, great idea, but needs more information. (see LII for a “How to do this right” example) (via)

I love Digg clones, especially if they have a niche topic.

Quotiki.com is exactly why I love the 2.0 world. The “crowds” building a quote database and rating them. Lovely.

From an an article on CNET:

“Call it a sign of the times. Most teens are like a duck to water when it comes to instant messaging and mobile text messaging, where acronyms and slang can be used to keep outsiders guessing. But for parents who likely aren’t as comfortable with IM slang: PAW means ‘parents are watching’; MOS is ‘mom over shoulder’; and CD9 means ‘Code 9′ for when parents are around. Research shows that one in four kids use such lingo daily to warn their chat friends of prying eyes.”

I’ve bookmarked it to use in 4-6 years when Hallie starts text messaging her friends. She turns 4 years old in 5 days!!

The piece also seems to be part of a series on Digital Kids.

This seems a bit counter 2.0, but there are two tools that you can use to download vidoes from the major video social software tools to your desktop

VideoDL.org – “VideoDL is a quick AJAX application that allows you to download online video into your computer. It supports top 3 video sites – YouTube, Google Video, and Break.com. Simply copy the link of the page with video and paste it into the textbox. Click “Get It!” and follow the instruction.”

KeepVid – “Download videos DIRECT from most video sites Copy the link of the page with the video on it and paste it here”

Interesting.