Congrats to Denise Howell on the birth of Tyler Declan.
Speaking of babies, we had Hallie's first birthday party yesterday. I can't believe that I've only known her for a year!! I can't even remember my life without Hallie.
Thank goodness for babies.
Martha at Libraries & Learning:
"I wonder if anyone in information studies is looking at citation patterns in the RSS world. Speed expectations alone might change the way we make use of colleagues' work."
Sounds like an interesting project. Maybe a library science student would want to take on this research. I just wonder if there is enough out there to come up with any specific conclusions.
"While RSS allows information consumers to efficiently cover large number of information sources, the efficiency is subjective and there are wastes that we should be more concerned about and continue to strive against before it can sink us all." (link via Lockergnome's RSS Resources)
All the more reason for customization and personalization to be the future of content delivery of RSS. Less feeds can be subscribed to and more content can be useful and relevant to the user. This is going to be the focus of one of my presentations at Computers in Libraries in March. Hope to see you guys there.
"Combine librarians and the net, and in no time they will rule the world."
This is a very well written pro-librarian column with links to some of our friends and colleagues in the library weblog world. One last quote:
"A quick click through these websites proves that librarians are a mixed - often funny, sometimes scary - bunch. What they have in common is a passion for information, and the know-how to sort and find it."
Nice!!
Library of the ages "is a puzzle game of sorting ancient books into runs and sets before time runs out.". (link via DIY Games via Feedster)
Dave is talking about reciprocation in the weblog world (or what we call in librarianship, "proper citation"). With weblogs its all about giving credit where it is due. I've mentioned this before, but Dave's post brings up the situation again.
Probably half of the stuff that I find for publishing on LS is found without reading it from another weblog. It might have been from a search result or just something that I have found when browsing around. But for those resources that I get by reading weblogs, I always mention where I found it. The people behind Radio truly understand this as they have a built in feature in their weblog software that will automatically cite to the source (because it's connected to the aggregator), which is great.
It doesn't take but a minute (less, even) to include the permalink where you found your information. Weblogs are all about community, so lets make it a community. Don't be one of those neighbors that steals cable while we all pay for it (I think that analogy works).
Free Range Librarian reports that OCLC now has an RSS Feed for its announcements page. Its a start and the next logical step is to RSSify their news page. C'mon OCLC, you're getting there.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is a great newspaper that always offers interesting articles (and many about libraries). They now have 15 RSS Feeds for their content. Great news. Of those 15, 6 are for their sports teams. RSS isn't just for geeks anymore. (link via Lockergnome's RSS Resource)
First: Posting may be less frequent than normal over the next few days. Tonight, I had to get some written work over to Computers in Libraries magazine (you'll see) and I have a few consulting reports due by the end of the month. Plus, I am absolutely swamped at work. Which all leads to one thing. Not much time in front of my aggregator. Last, I'm still trying to read offline (novels, short stories, etc) as much as possible as well.
Second: I rarely look at my stats, but tonight I accessed them and was floored when I saw that LS gets more than 2,200 visitors per day. Thanks again for visiting on a daily basis (or for subscribing to my RSS feed)
Frequency is another tool that sits on your desktop and allows for easy publication to your weblog. Its similar to W.Bloggar and supports Blogger, Radio, Movable Type, or other Blogger API or metaWeblog API system. The cost is $9, but may be worth it. W.bloggar is freeware but may not be worked on for a while.
I never got into these tools 9due to lack of time), but maybe I should. Oh, Frequency is compatible with Mac as well.
Reading this article (which has some interesting quotes by Dave Winer), I visited Watching Google Like a Hawk to see if it was worth syndicating and read this:
"Aggregated, edited and posted by real, live humans and hawks. No bots or RSS feeds were used and no hawks were harmed."
Obviously a jab at Google News (even though GN doesn't use RSS at all). Oh well, into Watch That Page it goes.
For those sports fans out there who use aggregators, you can now get the latest ESPN news in RSS format. They even syndicate their photo gallery. Neat. (Link via NewsIsFree)
The gals at Foreword took the quiz and found out that the answer is yes. I scored a 8 out of 12 (and I never take these quizzes), just to check to see if I was in the right profession. Hee..
New Scientist - "A news-gathering web site that tailors the stories selected to individual users is being tested by Microsoft. Once MSN Newsbot is fully functional, Microsoft says the site will personalise results within 10 minutes of a user starting to browse."
This sounds like a great idea, if it works. Goodness, I hope it does... (link via Internet News)
Reading this article, I came across this quote:
"Wouldn't it be cool if I was looking at someone's blog, and I could see if the author was online at that moment and was able to initiate an instant messaging conversation?"
Call me naive, but can't we do this already? I have a link on by weblog that will bring up IM with my screen name and we can chat. I also know that I have seen a plugin that has the feature like the one mentioned above...just can't find it right now.
Andrea is thrilled about her first article, which was published in the new issue of Public Libraries. Yay!!
As I have mentioned in the past, if you have an idea for the Internet Spotlight column, then let me know and we'll chat about it. Publishing in any format (weblogs, trade publications, etc) is a great way to boost your resume as well as set yourself apart from others in the field.
Dana VanDen Heuvel responds to my comments about his article about RSS (got that?)
In his response he mentions, "if RSS is to truly be part of the desktop, like email, it will be most likely embedded into one of the tools that we already use to communicate, like our email client. Also, many corporations block websites that they deem to be inappropriate or a productivity drain. Couple that with the fact that many corporate desktops are “locked down” and people can’t install their own software (at least in our company), RSS/Atom will need to be more “integrated” into the pre-existing or pre-approved corporate standards."
Why can't the future of RSS be the other way around? Why not have all of our content applications become part of an aggregator and not an e-mail client? For example, I have wished for the past year or two (and they are close to becoming a reality, I feel it) for the ability to get my e-mail (spam free) in my aggregator. Why do we have to live with an outdated communication system? Maybe we need to think how we retrieve information and how RSS can make that better and more efficient...without having to resort back to e-mail.
E-mail is so 1995...
Jenny's got the rest of the presentations from Internet Librarian. Thanks Jenny.
Alot has been said about the Librarian action figure (maybe too much) and the new Tori Amos album ("tales of a librarian"), but did you know that the two are now related? Tori is giving away signed action figures as part of a contest? Neat!! (link via Tapestry)
Gary reports that Rocket News will enhancing their service over the next few weeks. I for one am thrilled with this news as I use 4 news engines on a daily basis at work and Rocket News always brings up different articles than the others. Thanks Gary.
Both BYU NewsNet and The New Bern Sun Journal now provide RSS Feeds for their content. The New Bern feed seems to be broken now but I'm sure they'll get it working soon.
This all leads me to wonder why more newspapers haven't syndicated their content. I would love to get Newsday via RSS (well, I do that now - thanks to Stapler - but I would love an official feed)...in due time I suppose.
I'm a hippie at heart. I listen to the The Grateful Dead, Phish, etc. There is something about each show being different that appeals to my musical senses. I also collect shows (have done so since 1994) put on by these two bands (and a few others). Lately, I have become addicted to bt.etree.org which allows anyone to upload a show and share it with everybody for free (which is the way GD and Phish want it done) via BitTorrent, which is a neat way to share files.
So, I was poking around the site last weekend and saw on the bottom that they have an RSS Feed for new shows that are added. I did my patented "SUWEEEEEEEET!!!!" and subscribed right away. Now, whenever someone adds a show to the site, I get the setlist in my aggregator. Very very very cool!! One feature that I would love to see would be to customize it for each band (so I can just get Phish and GD and not the others), but I'm not complaining, really.
Dave links to IntraVnews, which is another aggregator that fits right into Outlook. Has anyone seen one that fits into Lotus Notes? Not that I would use it. I'm just curious.
Jenny IM'd me this afternoon with a reminder that we had yet to upload our presentations for Internet Librarian. Oops. (actually, she tried to get the preconference one uploaded, but it didn't happen for some reason).
Anyway, here ya go [.ppt file]. Sorry about that.
Dave is going to love this one (I think)
GoogleRace, which uses Google API to "rank candidates based on their association with particular keywords. GoogleRace measures each candidate's total web presence, for example, the total results for a search on "Howard Dean." When a user runs a specific search like, "sexy" the GoogleRace engine searches google for the term "Howard Dean" + "Sexy", and divides the results by the candidate's total web presence results. This formula shows the perception of the character of candidates."
While this is fun, relying on a search engine alone for presidential issues is, to put it gracefully, icky. How about a news engine or two? Also, I wonder if all of the candidates sites/weblogs are indexed daily by Google...
The National Library of Scotland has an RSS Feed for its news page. Neat!! (Hello, Library of Congress, anybody home?) - (link via Syndic8)
An interesting article on RSS that came over my aggregator via my customized Google News search feed. A few good quotes:
"RSS is the hottest thing in Web communication, and the beauty of it is that it really is simple. Just like that first cell phone."
"There is no such thing as “SPAM RSS.” Your RSS feed is an intravenous link into a user’s news aggregator, and nothing can come between the two."
I'm glad that Heuvel mentions the No Spam issue. I always compare RSS to e-mail in my talks and thats the first difference I discuss. Its the biggest difference (and the most damaging to e-mail).
A few random thoughts about the article. Huevel mentions a few disadvantages with RSS that, in my opinion, in due time, will be quickly overcome. She also mentions that RSS is just text and not images, which is incorrect. Its easy to syndicate images in your RSS Feed. Last, she mentions that companies should allow employees to download aggregators to their desktop. What she fails to mention is that web-based aggregators like Bloglines and Feed-Me are available. No need to download anything.
Oh, and a big Hip Hip Hooray for the Michael Fagan quote at the top.
"The government of Canada is using RSS to deliver information. The have an intro page, links to readers and more info and provide links to government feeds."
They have 35 Feeds!! Thats 35 more than the US. Free health care, legalized gay marriages, and RSS in the government. Such a forward thinking country.
Jane Dysart, half of Dysart & Jones Associates has started a weblog (I think - only one post so far). (link via Tame the Web)
Michael also patched me over to this page, which lists some of the blog posts (con-grunts) from Internet Librarian. Good catch Michael.
For stories like this:
"In this cart was typical homeless accoutrements. In this cart was also a large box of Quaker Oatmeal. So he came out and said, "What's that?"
And she said, "I put that on there. You can't bring carts into the library."
He replies, "But it's Quaker Oatmeal."
"I see that, but you can't have carts in the library."
"It's Quaker Oatmeal!"
So CA M. said he said "It's Quaker Oatmeal!" about 5 times before she gave up.
My new buddy Karen Schneider is a candidate for ALA Executive Board. Good luck!!
SearchGuild is reporting that MSN seems to be beta-testing some sort of newsbot, with the Moreover database built in. The links that were provided were not working this evening...looking forward to seeing it though.
I'm sure its still in the initial phases, but it looks like ResearchBuzz is migrating over to MovableType. I was curious because I was getting MT-like RSS Feeds in my aggregator. Good luck Tara.
I had to leave Internet Librarian a day early, so I missed Michael's endnote. Shucky Darn!!
The good news is that he IM'd me the link to his presentation [13MB file - lots of pics]. Probably not as good as being there, but I got the gist of what he was talking about. Thanks Michael.
Amanda has a nice list going of articles dealing with libraries and weblogs, with some RSS stuff thrown in as well. If you know of an article that you think should be in there, give her a buzz.
In what can only be construed as a philosophical essay written by any one of the Osbornes, here is Why I F&#@ing hate weblogs. The chapter on Acceptable Uses of Weblogs is worth a look as some interesting points are made. (link via The Naughty Librarian)
I can't say for sure whether this is new or not, but I have a feeling it is.
I retreived my RSS Feed for the keyword 'librarian' in Moreover tonight and I was shown some ALA press releases, which I hadn't seen before. Hmm...
Leave it to Scott and the crew at Feedster to come up with yet another impressive tool. If you have a site that doesn't have automatic RSS feed generation (like Blogger), you can use the Feedster Builder to create one. Very very very useful. Now there is no excuse to not have an RSS Feed. If anyone is using this, I would be curious to see it in action. (via RSS Weblog)
Tonight, I did a presentation at the Simmons College Library School (which went well, BTW - lots of great discussion about librarians/libraries utilizing weblog technology) and someone from the Harvard Thursday evening meetings showed up (sorry, I am so bad at remembering names) and gave it a plug. I thought this was great!! I mentioned to the audience, "See, a weblog support group right in your own backyard".
Tangognat has a review of The Dewey Decimal System of Love and its not favorable:
"I did not like this book. I was holding out hope because the title was a little quirky, I thought it might be fun. But alas! It was not....Oh, well at least the book was short, so I didn't waste too much of my time reading it. I think the best part of the book was the preface, where the author gives mad props to public libraries."
The book is still on my "gonna read" list, however.
Katie has some great ideas. She needs help in putting together a series of articles on "A Day in the Life of a (insert job title here)". Won't you be so kind and help her out?
For those that may want to display RSS feeds on a web site using PHP, this script may help.
EEVL has released two new Web-based aggregators in which the feeds are chosen already (like LISFeeds)
1) One-Step Industry News - "News items from a range of Engineering, Mathematics and Computing Industry News."
2) One-Step Jobs - "Vacancies from a range of Engineering, Mathematics and Computing recruitment/job services."
I love the jobs idea. Why don't we have a centralized portal for library jobs/articles about library jobs etc. in a web-based aggregator format? We need one. Blake? (Thanks Roddy for the links)
Darlene Fichter has written an article about using weblogs to market your library. She mainly discusses Weblogs 101, which is the same old stuff that has been written about many times before. The marketing aspect is at the end.
There hasn't been alot written about librarians using weblogs to market themselves as professionals which, in some aspect, is what my article discusses. I'll try to write about that subject here from time to time. (link via Be Spacific)
As many of you know, I hate e-mail. Trudging through the 95% of information that I don't want to get to the 5% I do want wastes too much time. Since RSS is basically spam free, I was hoping to find a way to get only the messages I want in my aggregator, which will cut down on me having to actually access my e-mail account once or twice per day. So, when I saw Mailbucket a few months ago, I was intrigued, but couldn't get past the fact that if the e-mail addy to send the message to was public, then the RSS Feed for that message would be known as well.. Bad news.
While I was raking the leaves today, however, I had a premonition. What if the e-mail addy that receives the message is behind a form!! So, with the help of one of Blake's scripts, I whipped up this contact form which, when a message is sent, will go right into my aggregator!!
This is not a perfect system, but it is one step further to being e-mail free than I was before...and no spam, which is key. So, for those who have been sending e-mail to me via steven [at] librarystuff [dot] net, I ask that you update your address book with the URL for the form. If you use this form, I guarantee that you will receive some sort of response from me within a few hours (depending on the time of day you send it), because it is going to be sent to a tool that I use more often than my e-mail; my aggregator. Of course, I will respond via e-mail, but at least I won't have to sift through the relentless spam messages to read your initial contact. To be sure, I rarely have more than one e-mail exchange on one topic. Again, this is not a perfect system, but its a first step.
BTW, I am on AOL-IM all day, so that the best way to reach me.
My next column in Public Libraries Magazine is about weblogs written by librarians. I received permission from ALA to print the article in its entirety here. Thank you everyone who agreed to be interviewed.
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When Walt Crawford published his article on librarians who maintain weblogs in his column The Crawford Files in the October 2001 issue of American Libraries, there was only a handful to mention. I was one of the librarians that Crawford interviewed for the column and was proud to be mentioned in such company as LISnews, and Librarian.net, to name a few. Crawford’s column delved into an introduction of weblogs, the making of a weblog, and the reasons behind writing a weblog for the library community, all of which were fine for a piece on weblogs written two years ago. But, there have been changes in the library weblog world. Countless numbers of weblogs have been launched by information professionals, new technology has been utilized to post to and maintain a weblog for our profession, and the types of weblogs that have been started are, in effect, different than those that had been around before Crawford’s column was published.
I spoke at a national conference with Blake Carver in March 2002 on this topic which was entitled, “Weblogs: Their Impact on Delivering Information”. In the beginning of the presentation, I asked the audience, which consisted of at least 300 people, to raise their hand if they knew and understood weblog technology. Only 30 out of the 300 attendees replied that they did. The rest wanted, and received, an explanation, which made the presentation a successful one. The next year, I was doing a presentation entitled, “Keeping Current in 40 Minutes or Less” at the same conference, and I asked the same question to a crowd of the same number, and only 10 or so people didn’t raise their hand.
The fact is, more and more librarians are writing down their ideas in weblog format. The differences that I have seen over the past few years with the new library weblog writers are worthy of discussion in this column, since this “New Breed” will bring much to the fray that is the library weblog world, that its successor generation will sure to forage from as well. Thus, our little “Blogosphere” will continue to expand and grow to limitless possibilities. While it is impossible to discuss all of the New Breeders, I did pick out 7 that I have been fond of throughout the past year that brings different ideas to the library weblog table. Thus, this column will not only display the new library weblog writers that have burst onto the scene, but the reasons why so many have done so.
There are many reasons more librarians have started focusing on weblog technology. Many started to work on the webmaster skills; while other wanted an outlet for their writing and felt that publishing to the Web via weblog technology was the easiest way to do it. Some do it for the fun of it, while others are trying to create a niche for themselves. (For more on these niches, see Marylaine Block’s article, entitled, “Creating Your Niche on the Net”). Jonathan, the writer behind Liberry Blooze laments, “When I started this blog in October of last year, I didn't see much in the way of library blogs that interested me. As with all types of blogs, my awareness of interesting library bloggers (and my own publicity) grew through linking. Word is getting around, more people are doing it, and I think blogging is a great, casual way to stay informed and sane.” Stephanie Wright of Technobiblio had a similar experience as she was “listening to librarians talk about how hard it is to keep track of what's going on with technology and how nice it would be to have info that was specific to what they were interested in.”
One is the differences between the “New Breed” and the “Old School” is that most of the new writers have experience as weblog readers. Anna, writer for Tangognat, relayed, “I'd been reading blogs for around a year before I decided to blog myself.” Some new weblog writers got their ideas via other professional development avenues. Michael Stephens, author of Tame the Web, “I started the Tame the Web Blog after returning from Computers in Libraries 2003 and hearing numerous speakers praise the usefulness of blogging, reading blogs and keeping current”. Those information professionals that started more than 3 years ago to write for the Web in weblog format were able to learn from others types of professionals who were already striving in the field (i.e IT people). The “New Breed” can utilize their own colleagues for this same purpose. Librarians learning from and helping other librarians. What a neat concept!!
Another issue that has come into play with new library weblog writers is that there is only a certain number of topics in librarianship that can be discussed. This has driven librarians to write about the issues that they are faced with on the job each day. Cathy Fahey of the I have always been of the notion that the more library workers (including para-professionals that make our libraries run smoothly) that write about their experiences in their building, the more that workers similar to theirs can learn from them. While the number of weblogs continues to grow, and the time it takes to read them increases, it would be useful to become more focused in our writing as well as in our reading. Subject specific weblogs in the library community are growing at a quick and exponential pace. With Greg Schwartz, I have started LIS Blogsource , a weblog about library weblogs which includes posts of newly created weblogs that are written by librarians. In a span of 2 months, we have had 60 new entries. Some of them are informational (dealing with the librarianship as a theme or sub-theme), and some are personal online journals that wouldn’t normally be noticed by the library community and occasionally dab into librarianship in the writing. They just happen to be written by librarians or library workers. Michael Simanoff mentions, “I've never been able to clearly delineate its focus, but it represents my varied interests, with posts on books, comics, music, librarianship, the Internet, and life in New York City.” Greg Schwartz of Many of the newer library weblog writers find solace in the small but determined library weblog community, which did not exist 3 years ago. Greg Schwartz: “Through blogging, I’ve had the opportunity (and developed the confidence) to discuss issues and exchange ideas with a diverse and active group of LIS professionals. The community that has taken an interest in my writing inspires me to publish in other venues and has produced opportunities that would not have manifested otherwise.” With this sense of community comes a feeling of camaraderie that penetrates the barriers that exist within our physical buildings. Like Usenet and electronic discussion lists, weblogs have become an outlet for the average librarian to connect with others around the world, exchange ideas, and belong to a group. Fredrich Emrich explains, “I am also very pleased with the feeling of community that develops among webloggers. It isn't so much that I get warm and fuzzy feelings about online community when I blog. But because blogs make it very easy to link and refer to other information online, and because of the blog etiquette of telling where you saw something when you write about it in your blog, there is certainly a feeling of developing networks of information.” In addition, Anna writes, “I've met many new (virtual) colleagues, been inspired to learn about new technology, and I feel much more connected to librarianship as a blogger than I ever have before.” Another aspect of the newer library weblog writers is the tendency towards anonymity. Sure, the weblog in its pure form allows that outlet of writing exactly how we feel about certain aspects of our jobs and personal lives and many do not want their identity revealed. Jonathan, the library worker behind Liberry Blooze decided to shut down his weblog in early September due to the breach of his identity. Luckily for me, an avid Liberry Blooze reader, he brought back his witty and intelligent site back online a few weeks later. Tangognat, who gave me the name Anna to use in this article, also does not tell her readers her full name, nor reveal where she works as a librarian. On a last note, one aspect that any weblog writer (whether a “new breed” or not) should concentrate more on is the potential to use the weblog as a marketing tool for their professional career. Sure, many are only using it as a personal diary, but for those that, more often than not, discuss library issues, the potential for growth is enormous. For example, I wouldn’t be writing this column or speaking at national library conferences, if I hadn’t started writing professionally in my weblog 3 years ago. I have been lucky enough to have become well known in the library weblog world due to my constant work in updating my weblog on a daily basis, discussing major issue relevant in our profession, as well as continuously reinventing myself as writer. The newer weblog writers have the opportunity to expand themselves personally and, more importantly professionally by continuing their efforts as library weblog pioneers. Also, for those that haven’t started a weblog, but were pondering doing so, should get started right away. Step right up to the plate. Also, I am always available for any questions regarding any aspect of weblogs.
I hope this isn't old news, but Smartmoney.com is now offering 12 RSS feeds (in 4 different formats). My brother would love this (if he were into RSS).
The lii.org toolbar would be suweeeeeet!! Would be a nice addition to my browser...Go Karen, get busy, its your birthday.
Shortwire is yet another web-based aggregator that does more than just grab feeds. It "is a service that provides tools that allow RSS feeds and Blogs to be viewed, created, hosted and published."
No time to look at it now, buts its been bookmarked and most likely be mentioned in future presentations. (via Lockergnome's RSS Resource)
"While at the library today, I had a woman ask me if I could do a few internet searches for her (she was looking for the lyrics and chords to a few songs to give to her son). I happily obliged and sat down to launch Internet Explorer on the library network. Ever used a copy of Internet Explorer to search the internet without a pop-up blocker in place? It is a nightmare."
While reading this, I was reminded of something Stephen Abram said at Internet Librarian last week during his keynote:
"The library is where you find the stupid computers!!"
Probably the best quote from the conference.
In her rant entitled, "What Has Your Blawg Done For You, Your Clients, Your Profession, Lately?", Denise writes:
"One of the biggest benefits I derive from Bag and Baggage, and people are constantly surprised by this, is the way it keeps me informed as a lawyer. I guess it's non-obvious if you're not doing it. By this I mean, for the last two years I've found blogs to be incomparably more effective at keeping me up to speed on developments (societal, business, and legal) touching on my practice than the combination of newsletters, newspapers, magazines, and CLE events which used to serve this function for me on their own. The benefits of having information filtered by people you trust to recognize what you would probably find important if you read it firsthand are enormous. I used to sift through a mishmash of paper and online resources to make sure I knew quickly about developments that might affect my clients or my practice. I still check those things, but now they take a back seat to reading what some knowledgeable blogger already has written up."
Very nice, Denise. As Jenny would say, you "get it". I have mentioned so often here that it bores me sometimes, weblogs are one of the easiest mechanisms for keeping current. When I preach about weblogs, I ask the audience to try reading 5-7 library related weblogs everyday to see if they are more up-to-date in less than half the time. To me, its a no-brainer.
Karen is Congrunting about Internet Librarian. Neat. (BTW, the term "con-grunting" was coined by Michael Stephens).
I think a congrunt can be defined as a loose spattering of notes published about a conference session to a blog, not necessarily blogging about a session while at a conference. For instance, this is not a congrunt (I don't think), while this is. There is a difference in the way the posts are made. Karen was definitely congrunting...
I've always said thats its important to keep current with the Web, but this guy took it to the extreme.
"Hicks said he had keep abreast of what was on the Internet, including the sex sites. He said if didn't, he wouldn't know if the Internet filters installed on school computers were actually working."
So, the filters didn't work, I assume.
The Breakroom links to a new book entitled, "Dewey Decimal System of Love", by Josephine Carr.
From the excerpt:
"Forget those stereotypes about librarians. With long auburn hair and perfect skin, Ally looks half her age of forty. And even though she’s been celibate for fifteen years, she doesn’t live a monastic life. Ally enjoys the finer things, like her zippy convertible, ice-cold martinis, classical music, and her sensuously appointed apartment.
However, like any good librarian, Ally is discreet in public—and hides her extravagant nature behind a French twist and sensible clothes. But after last night, even her most proper attire can’t hide the signs—the pink cheeks, the extra-poufy hair, the bounce in her step."
"e" from Sex in the Library (one of my new favorite weblogs) is linking to library mascots. Permalink may be off.
We should set up an RSS Feed in Upcoming.org for the next Computers in Libraries conference in March. I bet Liz would love this resource, since she talked about weblogs and communities in her talk yesterday.
From the site:
"Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog." (link via RSS Weblog)
A follow up from the post about free library databases. Denise sent me a note that the article is online [pdf]. I took a quick look and the author mentions that, in most cases, the fee-based databases are for library-card carrying members only, but also discusses a few metro libraries that allow free access. Good.
Looks like there is another weblog dedicated to RSS. There are now a few of those to go around. If I subscribe to all of them, the chances of me missing something RSS-related is pretty slim. They also have a
If you want to use Movabletype and want free web site hosting, then go on over to Weblogs.us and they'll hook you up. (link via Movable Blog)
A great end to a decent conference. Tonight, I had dinner with Karen Schneider, Marylaine Block and the usual crew.
Worth repeating. I had dinner with Karen Schneider!!!! Amazing!!! I will resume regular Library Stuff postings when I return to NY, tomorrow evening.
I decided that I would actually take notes during conference sessions today and blog them. I was sitting at lunch with Michael Stephens and we were talking about Refgrunting. Michael said we needed something called conference-grunting, so Con-Grunting was born!!
Remember, Aaron is photoblogging the conference, so make sure you find him and have him take your picture.
Con-Grunting!! (coined by Michael Stephens)|
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My Con-Grunting on the weblog sessions on Blogging.
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Darlene Fichter
The Blogging Revolution
Libraries and Weblogs
"You should be skeptical"
Emergent Information
"To be the blog content is about 3 things: Frequency, Brevity, Personality" - Ev
"Easy as writing a list on your fridge"
One month without a post- Abandoned?
Blogorrhea - Hundreds of posts per day about anything
Tripod part of Terra Lycos.
"Archives are the self-cleaning ovens of the Web"
Subscribe via e-mail?! - Nope!!
- Why do that if RSS is built in
But, RSS is not just for blogs
"offline editing functions" - which software does this?
How to find the "human filter"
- by who they comment on
- indexes in different theme areas.
- particular perspective
Mac people - Tinderbox (http://www.eastgate.com/tinderbox)
10 ways to use blogs
- News
- Marketing - but how about for the librarian?
- Online books discussion
- Staff Development - Fact Sheets
- Knowledge Sharing - FARQ!!!
- Database for Web Site Resources'
- Solve Back up
- Professional / personal development!!!!
- Resume!!!
- Solve E-mail Overload
- Be a leader!!!
ADA compliance and screenreaders
- accessibility issues
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Marylaine Block
Sabrina Pacifici
Frank Cervone?
Frank Cervone
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Intrablogs - using a blog o support internal processes
- using a blog on an Intranat
Makes it easier to use for capturing/archiving than e-mail
Northwestern has a news feed out to the faculty
-They have an RSS feed for their faculty, but they haven't "caught on" yet.
-like a traditional newsletter
Web Usability Group - Internal work group.
searching all of the entries, not available via e-mail!!
Infoglut
Change in habit as a disadvantage. Why is changing a way of thinking a disadvantage?
Frank is not really concerned about this...good
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Sabrina Pacifici
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Spoke about LLRX and Be Spacific
Send out newsletters
Effective thoughtful way.
Takes alot of time.
Tracking and monitoring content.
Showed a backend of Movabletype
Rocketinfo has an aggregator?! No freaking way!!!!!!!
Be active, participate; communication is key.
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Marylaine Block
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- I regard weblogs as fundamentals tools
- Who does everybody trust?
- How does news spread
RSS doubles the readership!!
http://www.marlaine.com/tracking.html
We are all information overloaded - mention of Library Link of the Day.
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Greg Notess
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Weblogs/RSS is still in its infancy
Hunting and gathering
- with some harvesting
Collection development
- Wander once in awhile
Comment about Lexis Nexis!! Greg Bender from RIT
Didn't find it on the major search engines.
- From people you trust
- Or just visit regularly
- Establish A pattern...
- Keep you eyes out for blogs in SE results. Look for those communities of interest...
- RSS Search engines - Check for Freshness!!
- Someblogs not indexed anywhere.
- Cached content!!
- Waypath - Greg didn't mention that all searched can be gottent in RSS Feeds!!
- Not terribly powerful, but does index other stuff that the others don't get
- Bloogz - Languages!!
- Greg mentioned Blogrunner!! Hip Hip Hooray!!
- He also talks about OPML, a whole different animal, and how to use Feedster to search OPML files. Hip Hip Hooray!!
- To search or not to search
- Be aware of blog movement
- Not always necessary!!!
- Blogs constantly changing
- One of the "hot" technologies
- These engines do not have "business models", except maybe Feedster.
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I didn't stay for Liz's presentation and followed Aaron to "Web Services" - general Concepts and applications for libraries. Not sure why I did that. Maybe because Liz thinks my last name is "Rifkin" and I felt betrayed!! 8-)
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Marshall Breeding
- "Shlep" messages in XMl from one service to another.
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Ok change of plans. I went back up to Liz's talk.
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She's chatting about how she uses weblogs in her classes.
- "weblog is going to become a meaningless term"
Where is aggregation going?
- weblogs aren't really on a topic.
- (I think Jenny is blogging the same stuff I am)
- she is finnaly showing Bloglines...
- She doesn't use aggregation, but reads 150 weblogs.
- She likes the visual experience (understandable)
- maybe she should be using Web Site Watcher, which will notify her of any changes to the interface
- Probably just likes going to weblogs...
- Very few of the weblogs have active comments.
- she mentions trackback, which hasn't been mentioned today.
- I really should find a way to moderate the comments that go into my weblog and then get those back up!!!
-
"How do we create content as a community, collaboratively"
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Done for the day. Going to the speaker reception and then dinner with everyone that I know. I hope.
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Aaron is photoblogging the conference this week, and taking me along for the ride. And yes, this is the first ever library conference to be photoblogged. Hip Hip Hooray!!
The November issue of Computers in Libraries has 3 articles/columns on weblogs. The only one that is available online is Building a Home for Library News with a BLOG, which I haven't had the a chance to read yet, but looks like a nice overview. The column by Terence K. Huwe entitled, "Born to Blog" mentions RSS. Speaking of Computers in Libraries, the preliminary program for the March conference is up. I'll be there, and I hope you will too.
LISNews turned 4 yesterday. Congrats to Blake and the rest of the LISnews crew!! Keep up the great work!!
Aaron and his wife are also at Internet Librarian, and he is posting to his photoblog. I hope he posts from inside the conference. Would that be the first photoblog of a library conference?
I wasn't going to post until Wednesday night until I returned from Internet Librarian, but I have a few minutes before I work out my schedule for tomorrow and go to sleep (the time zone thing is still getting to me), so here goes:
I'm staying at the Sand Dollar Inn, which is about 6 blocks from the conference center, so I get a little exercise and take the walk over every morning. Plus, there is a nice continental breakfast here.
Jenny and I did our preconference presentation this morning. It was the first time that I took part as a presenter in hands-on weblog/RSS session and I thought it went rather well. Every group (there were 4 groups with 3 people to a group) had a chance to post to Library Stuff, create their own weblog using Blogger, and read content via RSS in Newzcrawler.
Afterward, I schmoozed a bit with Greg Notess and Michael Stephens. Then Michael and I went to this fabulous seafood restaurant on the water and engaged in a wonderful conversation about librarianship, weblogs, and writing.
Monterey is absolutely beautiful!! I hope I get a chance to tour a bit before returning to New York. More tomorrow (I hope)
Hey everyone,
We're putting in a test link to the SF Chronicle
Read more excerpts here...