I've been working on the new interface for LS over at the Save Our Libraries domain. I'll be moving it over to the LS domain by the end of the year. I'm going to write an essay on my experience with Radio/MovableType/Blogger around the beginning of the year. But the short of it all is that I'm going to use Blogger.
I'm done posting to LS for 2003. Have a safe and special holiday season. Weblog postings will resume next year with (hopefully) some changes in the weblog interface as well as new weblog software (either Radio or Blogger - depending on if we can get Radio to behave). See ya soon.
"There's something seriously wrong with the world when one innovative, blogging, rarin' librarian can have more links in a web directory than one of the most important theorists on classification and indexing."
That's the power of weblogs, especially in the library world. I'm not sure why this is surprising, however. Who is more likely to have more content on the web, Jessamyn or Ranganathan? You will probably find more information on Ranganathan in books (library science 101, etc), than Jessamyn. Also, as Greg so dutifully points out, most of the links are interviews. When was the last interview you read on Ranganathan?
Lilia's posts are always a pleasure to read. Today she's talking about using weblogs to keep in touch with friends:
"That's why it's more difficult for the people I care about: I'm very selfish constantly suggesting that they should start a weblog."
"Dodgeit allows you to create throw-away email addresses (for crappy registration sites), and then delivers the email that comes into the resulting mailbox as an RSS feed that you and everyone else who can guess at your throwaway email addy can read. That's pretty sweet." (via Boing Boing)
Pretty much the same concept behind Mailbucket, which I have been using sucessfully for my Watch That Page e-mail alerts (now I can get anything I want via RSS) and my contact page. I agree. That is pretty suweeeeeet!!
Its been a great day for library weblogs and RSS (lots of goodies coming down the line that I will share as they become available - I hope). For now, you can grab the RSS Feed for the Internet Resources Newsletter that just became available. If you don't read this monthly publication, do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes with it every time it comes out (now its easier to do it via RSS). I guarantee that you will obtain at least 5-10 new resources.
LII linked to Kee Malesky this morning. Kee is a reference librarian at NPR, a job that I've pined after for years. Last year in December I linked to her colleague's column that I have been reading every month.
Another job that I would die for? Reference librarian at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rats!! My book was not included in the beta version of Google Print. Hopefully, this will be corrected in the future.
Move over Bloglines (just for a little while) as I freak out over My Feedster, a web-based aggregator put out by the indefatigable Scott Johnson. A few neat features.
1) Search the content in your aggregator
2) Decide the time frame display of your feeds
3) Export your feeds via OPML (if you can't do that now)
A few features that I would love to see:
1) The ability to delete feeds and not have them return (there is a check box, but I don't think it does anything yet)
2) I would love the option to read all off my feeds at once, rather than go through each source.
3) How about a feature where I can post to my weblog right from the aggregator?
Great job Scott. Forget about Google going public? When is Feedster's IPO?
Geoff is "collecting examples of corporate intranets or large-scale enterprise projects that use weblogging software. A number of articles have been written in trade publications, but rarely do they show or describe actual examples."
I'm sure someone here can help Geoff out. I've had many conversations with corporate librarians at conferences, but can't remember any names. Sorry Geoff.
I haven't linked to anything 9/11 lately, so I thought I would link to this public service announcement from the LOC.
"In partnership with the September 11 Digital Archive Project, the Library of Congress is launching a new interactive Web site, "Contribute Your Story," accessible through a link on the Library’s “Witness and Response” online exhibition at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/911/. Visitors who visit the site can share their recollections of that day by answering three questions:
1) Where were you on September 11, 2001, when you heard the news?
2) What is your strongest memory of that day?
3) How do you perceive that the events of September 11, 2001, have affected this country and/or you personally?
The interactive site also allows visitors to browse through the submissions of other contributors."
"We'll give an overview of RSS and look at its future. We'll feature case studies that will examine the applications for enterprise content syndication. We'll hear what some of the early adopters have learned about distributing advertising through RSS feeds."
I hope the advertising part doesn't mean what I think it means. I already unsubscribed to the Infoworld feed because of the ad (plus the content didn't suit my needs, but the ad put it over the edge). Speaking of needing editors, someone should tell them that their press release is dated wrong. (link via RSS in Government)
Newswire consists of a set of software components packaged as a single application. The main application functionality allows the user to subscribe to a potentially large number of publishers, and to receive (short) messages from these publishers. The message content may range from complete articles to short descriptions with links, similar to the individual entries in RSS feeds. Currently the only UI is a windows based outlook-style client, but other cross-platform UIs are possible as the core components are portable. See the screenshots for a view of an early alpha client."
"Under the covers Newswire contains a distributed state sharing engine which uses epidemic communication to synchronize with other (local) participations. It maintains information about subscriptions and up-to-date network load information from local participants and aggregates of this information from other nearby zones and some remote zones. The messages are forwarded over a soap based overlay network where the paths are dynamically maintained using the collected network statistics to ensure a reasonable balancing of the forwarding load. The system makes extensive use of public key technology to ensure that only messages are handled from authorized publishers and that the each participant can verify the origin of a message.
Most of this is over my head, but I understand the basic concept. Wow!! I'm going to keep my eye on this one. [link via Hack the Planet]
According to Syndic8, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, now has an RSS Feed for its consumer updates. Great news.
Dorothea has some words about librarians and publishers.
"Librarians trust publishers. They just do. They don’t trust technology (no more they should, either), they don’t trust their patrons, and they don’t trust the society they work in (no more they should, either). But boy howdy, do they trust publishers and the official publishing process. Ask what “authority” means (and it’s a word that comes up a lot) and more often than not you’ll hear about the Sacred Publishing Process and how marvelous it is."
I'm having a hard time disagreeing with Dorothea. We are still taught in library school that we should be wary of online resources, but not print resources (especially new ones) On a similar note, I do think that our relationship to publishers has changed for the better. We no longer want to spend exorbitant amounts of money on periodicals and are fed up with the way that we (to be read: our patrons) are treated by these companies. In fact, the online world has made it easier for us to deal with publishers, in a way. We are finally gaining the upper hand.
A change in plans. I'm actually going to move over to Radio for my weblog software. We dealt with the FTP/SFTP issues. I'm working on the interface at my Radio URL and as soon as I get it working correctly (and Blake is ready), I'll move it over to the Library Stuff domain. The URL for my RSS Feed is going to change as well (sorry about that), but that is going to ne the last thing that gets done. Stay tuned...
If you ever have the need to cite a weblog comment in a paper in MLA style, you may want to consult this post. Can anyone verify this? (link via Waterboro)
Scott Douglas is writing a "semi regular" column over a Mcsweeney's on his observations working at a public library in California. The first dispatch was published yesterday. I love the first item which consists of items in the Lost & Found (L&F Grunting perhaps?)
Over the next few weeks (hopefully by the first of the year), LS will be changing again. Blake has agreed to create a weblog "package" for me, complete with comments, permalinks, and full-text RSS. If you have been a regular reader of LS for the past 3 years, you know that I like to change things around every year or so. Another reason for the move is the spam comments issue that has attacked many MT weblogs over the past few months. While there are a few possible ways to fight it, they are not full proof and I don't want to take the time to upgrade my weblog and install any plugins. Weblogs are supposed to be easy to maintain. I don't want to go back to Blogger (no reason, I just don't want to) and I can't use Radio because it doesn't accept SFTP, which is mandatory if you are on the LIShost server (and I'm not giving that up).
So, I'll be the proud user of a weblog "Powered By Blake". Maybe he'll create a neat button for me to display. Stay tuned.
There are 7 new articles posted at LISCareers:
1) Brookover, Sophie. Mentors: What Are They Good For?
2) Flores, Nadine M. The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Misunderstandings of Commitment and Expectations of Committee Leadership
3) King, Douglas. The Renaissance Librarian: Catalogers Working in Public Services
4) McGuire, Darwin. Librarians in the Information Age: Alternative Uses of MLS Degrees
5) Peters, Chrissie Anderson. Reluctant Leaders: Helping Others Have Confidence in Their Own Leadership Abilities
6) Reprinted from NMRT Footnotes: Roberts, Amanda. Combating Ageism: Lessons Learned by 'Baby' Librarians
7) Revised: Craig, Bryan. My Job as Research Librarian at Monticello
Thanks Priscilla for the links. BTW, LISCareers is crying out for an RSS Feed...
The latest issue of b/ite [12mb pdf file - Yikes!!] has three articles on RSS, one by me on customization and personalization of RSS content. The two other articles are written by Marie C. Kaddell and Greg Kaplan (who I think I met at Internet Librarian - I'm terrible with names and faces). Both encompass introductions to RSS.
BTW, for writing this article, I received a $25 coupon for EBSCO, which I used to purchase "First Have Something To Say", by Walt Crawford. Neat.
Dennis M. Kennedy has written an article on news aggregators and how they reduce information overload. File...print. A quote from the concluding paragraph:
"For years I’d looked for a tool that would keep me better informed and more in control of the tidal wave of information I receive. I knew the world had changed the first morning that I checked my news aggregator before I checked my e-mail box. My news aggregator has dramatically changed the way I deal with information, especially developments that affect my practice, in a manner that is extremely positive and productive. You, too, should seriously consider taking a test drive with these new tools. They will help you where you need it on a daily basis and give you a greater sense of control—and that’s something all of us can use." (link via Virtual Chase)
The Telegraph has joined the RSS world. They are syndicating 28 feeds. In order to use them though, you have to agree to the lenghthy written terms of use. Geez.
The Telegraph is not the only paper doing this. The New Zealand Herald makes you go through two screens, enter information, read the terms of agreement, and then check your e-mail (even then you don't get access to the feeds - they send them to you later).
RSS is supposed to be simple. Who would use it if it weren't?
Ok, I lied. I took an hour this evening to respond to Stephen Bell's comment about my recent post entitled, Why Wait?!.
I'll take this paragraph by paragraph:
"Having looked at Martha's blog post on Libraries & CMS, I think there can be some value to these posts getting information out to the community sooner, but if she leaves it here and never publishes it then it's not likely to reach a wider audience - and as Karen points out - may not improve from the comments and suggestions a good editor can provide."
Why won't Martha's post reach a wider audience? Is technology still so much in its infancy that less people will read it if it were in a trade or scholarly publication? There is no evidence (not any that I have come across although I haven't done any formal investigation) that more people read articles published in print publications than articles that are published exclusively on the web. Also, why would an editor improve more on the article than the audience? The ability to comment on the article directly (as Bell did in this case) allows for more of a discussion about the topic. In my opinion, we can only grow from conversations (be they online or off). Online forums, like the comments section on any weblog post, allows for all to engage in the discussion (plus its easier - try to get all 2,500 readers of this post in a room to talk about it)"
"While getting one's thoughts out there quickly may provide a quick rush of accomplishment, on the other end of process is that little thing we call permanency. Ok, so none of our stuff will matter much a century or two from now, but if it's on the weblog - how will LIS students doing some library research on this topic several years from now find Martha's item. When you consider that many bloggers just abandon their blogs at an astounding rate (a figure I saw recently was along the lines of over 100,000 a month - even though there are still millions of blogs), these sorts of writings are apt to eventually disappear or may become unfindable. The various blog search engines may help, but it's not the same as if Martha's piece was indexed in Library Literature or LISA."
I agree with Stephen about the permanency of weblogs. Most disappear after only a few posts. That doesn't mean, however, that Martha's article will disappear if, well, Martha disappears. Maybe there can be a database of articles that are posted on weblogs that are "worthy" (not sure how to define it) of keeping? That thought leads me to this one. Once vendors understand the power of weblogs (and especially RSS) in the publishing realm, who's to say that this content won't be indexed by Library Literature or other correlated indexing mechanism. The problem exists that those articles that are published in print publications are considered to be more 'legitimate' than those that publish only to the web. Shouldn't the legitimacy of the article be based on the person writing the article, not the form in which it is published? Case in point: Walt Crawford.
"Other sorts of articles involve research that cannot be simply distilled in a couple of hundred words - they need the longer format that a formal publishing provides. For an example, look at Hal Shill's indepth study of library buildings and how they serve users in the latest issue of College and Research Libraries. I couldn't imagine Hal doing justice to all of his findings in a blog piece - at best he could do a bit of shameless self-promotion to point readers to his more detailed article. I could say the same about an article I'll have published (don't know when) about the intersection of library databases, courseware, and e-reserves. It addresses some of the issues Martha raises in her piece, but my co-author and I go into far greater depth with anecdotes and discussion of the issues. We couldn't have done justice to it in a blog environment. However, since this is a Haworth journal (a bad reputation for publishing on a schedule) we'll have to wait. On the other hand, I like to know that I've got an article or two in the bag - and that I'll have something to add to my resume in the next year - even if I don't have a chance to write something formal later on. Yes, you can praise the virtue of publishing immediacy that blogs provide, but I also think there is something good about anticipation. I kind of like not knowing when my article is going to be published - and then all of sudden there it is."
Why can't a weblog post be published as a research article? Why do weblog posts have to be a few hundred words? Why can't they be more? We need to break down the barriers of what is normally considered to be a weblog post (if they were meant to be 100 words or less, the software would be written to prevent me from writing that 101st word). I totally disagree with Stephens "anticipation" theory (and I'll mention later how he contradicts himself there). If you had the choice to see your article published in the May 2004 issue of American Libraries or the next forthcoming issue, which would you choose? My guess is that the former will be more popular. We should reserve our anticipation for other life moments (an upcoming wedding day, a new baby), but not publishing content. In my opinion, content should be released as soon as it is ready, not held back because there wasn't enough room or they are saving it for a "special issue".
"And finally, you will have situations where you have a really good idea for an article - because it is nice to see yourself in print (though I wouldn't get all giddy about it like the blogger Steve pointed us to) - and if you want it to get published - some of the premier publications won't publish something that's already been released in another journal or format - like a weblog. So there are situations where you need to keep the content under wraps until it gets formally published. To my way of thinking, that's what conference presentations are for - to discuss those topics, ideas, etc. that are going to eventually get published - without having them appear formally in some printed or electronic format (that a publisher can point to)."
I'm going to take umbrage with his comment about not getting "giddy" about seeing yourself in print. If I want to get giddy, then gosh-darnit-to-heck, I'm going to get giddy. Writers work very hard on their pieces and if we are excited about having our work published, than so be it (This is where Bell contradicts himself. First he says that he likes getting surprised when he sees his name in print, then he tells us not get giddy about it). There, I took umbrage. Second, I'm not talking about publishing work on a weblog and then submitting it for publication elsewhere. I'm talking about publishing exclusively online. Last, keeping content under wraps sends chills down my spine. I can understand not releasing information (in the form of an article or essay) before it is completely formed (a different story), but once its solid, get it out there. That is why weblogs are so useful. These ideas can always be expanded upon in a conference presentation.
"So there are definitely writers whose comments and ideas I want to follow without waiting for them to publish something formally - but the vast majority of library bloggers don't fall into this category. I'd recommend that they invest the time needed to develop and write a high quality article because going through the effort and editing process could only help their analytical and writing abilities - which in the long run should help them improve the quality of their blogs. Are they will to sacrifice immediate gratification for quality end results? Sounds like the debate we have about our own end users."
In my opinion, there is only one process that helps a writer write more fluently. Reading. The more we read, the better our writing. Try not reading (for pleasure or professional development) for two weeks and then writing a short essay. Not that easy, right? There are parts of our brain that we feed by reading. If it starves, our writing skills suffer. Every great author (most recently Joyce Carol Oates in her latest memoir) has had similar views. As far as being analytical, that comes with time, not from a good editor (although a good one never hurts!!). I always tell attendees in my presentations that if they are serious about writing professionally, they should try to write everyday, to take 10 minutes out of their busy schedule and get some thoughts down on paper. And why not get those ideas out there...try using weblogs.
I'm in the midst of creating a response to the comments left by Stephen Bell from this post, but I thought I'd give readers a crack at it as well. My post should be completed by this weekend. Lately, there have been a lack of comments to LS (probably due to my lack of interesting posts - sorry about that), which is why I am bringing up this topic again...
Pitch Journal - " A peer reviewed online journal in Instructional and Learning Technology. Articles in Pitch focus on pedagogical, technological, sociological, legal, and moral issues related to opening access to educational opportunity. Example topics include reusable media / learning objects, scalability issues, informal social networks for supporting learning, legal schemes for the sharing of open educational materials, and the right to education."
More from the site:
"Pitch uses a democratic method of peer review where all readers participate in the review process. Instead of sending submitted articles away for 12 months of secret review by three individuals, Pitch allows your peers to review your work. In Pitch everyone "pitches in" to rate papers submitted to the journal."
They even have an RSS Feed, in which you will be updated on new articles waiting to be peer reviewed. In reading more about Pitch in the FAQ, if a submitted article is not commented on within 14 days, it is removed and rejected from Pitch. The Pitch concept is interesting, but I don't believe that just because an article doesn't receive comments, it is not an "acceptable" paper. Still, an interesting concept. (link via David Davies)
Dave mentioned this morning that Philly.com now has two RSS Feeds. One for The Inquirer front page and the other for Daily Local News. I'm happy to read that more and more regional newspapers are getting started with RSS. I hope that, in the future, more local papers join in. (Still waiting on Newsday, which touts itself as a local paper - "It's as local as news gets")
Jessamyn was interviewed by Bookslut. She sure does a lot of of them.
"It sounds like the most innocuous site on the web right? Perhaps snatched up by one of the big library supply companies to farm out their products? Not by a long-shot. Librarian.net is run by Jessamyn West, a librarian and library advocate who uses the site to connect library professionals to information all over the internet. West has chronicled issues ranging from the construction of prohibitive library edifices (big beautiful buildings) to the USA Patriot act. West was kind enough to grant Bookslut an interview, which was conducted over e-mail."
I received this e-mail tonight:
"I'm a tech librarian with an interest in blogging. I was hoping to hold a class in my library's computer lab to introduce teens to the fun and freedom a blog can present and was wondering if you knew of any other libraries offering such a program to teens. I've asked a few YA librarians in my area, but no one else seems to have gotten on the blogging bandwagon yet."
If you have any suggestions, please contact me, and I will forward your response. Thanks in advance.
I was brainstorming while digging out of 2 feet of snow today.
I'm thinking about conducting semi-regular interviews with librarians who write on the Web using weblog technology, similar to what Marylaine has done (scroll down), but with a focus only on bloggers. I'm hopefully going to "chat" with those that you may not have noticed otherwise; those librarians who write quirky anecdotes about the happenings in their buildings, the interesting reference questions they get, and their take on librarianship. As I have mentioned in before, I have been enjoying these blogs more and more over the past few years, and would like to share their stories (if they will allow me to). The content on these weblogs are sometimes more interesting than those that are more popularly distributed.
I hope that this will work out and if you would like to be interviewed, give me a buzz. If not, then I'll start contacting people. I have a pretty long list.
LISJobs and Library Job Postings have made it easier to browse and search their job listings. by merging the two. Great news. There is also an RSS Feed for the list as well. (Thanks Rachel for the link)
I've been talking about professional writing a lot lately (No surprise there as this weblog deals with keeping current and professional development), and I would be remiss if I didn't mention a new book coming out next year by Rachel Singer Gordon entitled, The Librarian's Guide to Writing for Publication. Another book to add to my ever growing list.
I doubt it, but I wonder if there is a chapter about writing on the Web using weblog technology...
BTW, after my little rant yesterday, Martha published a paper on her weblog that she had been working on to share with her colleagues entitled, "Connecting Learning Management Systems and Libraries: Issues and Progress". While not an article that I would be particularly interested in, I hope that it is widely read by the library profession (so let's get the word out!!) to prove my point from yesterday. If this article was published in any professional journal, you wouldn't be reading it for another 4-6 months. Yikes.
LISNews is 1,000(ish) stories away from the big 10,000 and Blake wants your help in celebrating. I've got a few ideas that I'll be brainstorming more as the weeks progress. Lets help Blake celebrate this momentous occasion with some submissions to his 10,000 entry extravaganza.
The front page of the RIT Library has an RSS Feed for their library happenings. (Thanks Liz for the link).
My book list is still going strong, and I fully intend to get to all of them...someday. A review of the new Nicholas Basbanes book, A Splendor of Letters : The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World just came over my aggregator (one neat aspect of Newsday is that they publish most of the upcoming Sunday paper throughout the week). A few quotes from the review:
"Never mind the upbeat subtitle, "Splendor" is a tale of woe. It roams human history to chronicle such phenomena as the deliberate destruction of libraries, the myriad ways time crumbles the printed page and the substitution of digital information preservation for books."
"The villains aren't limited to Nazi book burners or the Serb troops that bombed the Bosnian National Library. Acid-laden paper is a culprit, and book lovers themselves are sometimes to blame."
"Contemporary book depositories, from the Library of Congress to your neighborhood public library, face the perennial problem of too many books and too little space. But what seems out of date and dispensable to one generation may be gold to the next. One alternative to indiscriminate discarding is for universities to band together into consortiums to guarantee that key books are saved, if not by every single institution."
I am so excited about getting my hands on this book, I'm actually going to put it towards the top of my list (after the latest Joyce Carol Oates, and before the latest David Foster Wallace). I should get moving on it or my list will becomes as large as Basbanes' collection.
KeepAnEye - "KeepAnEye is a multipurpose monitoring and notification utility which has been designed to help you to stay informed efficiently. It can make you save a considerable amount of time every day, while significantly increasing your overall visibility."
"Do you need to frequently consult some piece of information? KeepAnEye provides visual representations which can be freely organized on the screen. You can watch the evolution of the information in real time."
"Are you waiting for something to happen? KeepAnEye is able to observe the data instead of you in order to notice various events. You can go about your activities with a free mind, you will be notified when something interesting happens."
"KeepAnEye is able to treat various kinds of information: RSS feeds, pictures, web pages, disk usage, software versions, IP addresses. It takes advantage of a flexible architecture where each one of them is handled by a dedicated plug-in. New features can easily be added by installing new plug-ins, and anything can virtually be supported."
I don't use a Mac (its not made for the PC), but I'll try to get my Mac friends to give it a try (its shareware) and report back on their findings. Sounds like an incredible tool that may have the potential (I said potential!!) to one-up the aggregator, although I doubt it. It seems interesting though, enough for me to monitor its progress.
Mike has been doing some searching for ex-librarians. I'm just surprised that someone bought an adword for that phrase...gotta be careful about that library dust.
J writes: - "I spent some time with a business librarian last night talking about blogs. She doesn't understand why blogs could be important to librarians, but she also admitted that most of the blogs she's seen are all online journal types of blogs--the "I hate winter," "here's what I think about x," "while I was looking for something in the supermarket..."--not blogs that she sees much value in or wants to read. I told her that there are other kinds of blogs: blogs about librarianship, resources for current awareness, postings about subjects related to her work, and sites covering corporations and corporate information--maybe a corporation she's researching has a blog. Unfortunately, business information is one of my weak areas, so I couldn't recommend any specific resources. As if on cue, David Wessel's Capital column in today's Wall Street Journal is about online sources for economics, including a few blogs, like that of Brad DeLong, one of America's leading economic historians. Why wait a few months for his next journal article or a year for his next book when you can read his thoughts more frequently? (Unfortunately, Wessel's column is probably restricted to subscribers.)"
Sorry about quoting the entire blog post, but I thought all of it was useful (and not that long). J's mention of the delay in publishing one's thoughts via traditional methods are right on point. With weblog technology, writers need not have to rely on the "big boys" to get their views across. I mentioned this during my presentation at Simmons College (where I met J.) and continue to do it here on LS.
Even in the library world, this is true. Sure, getting published in American Libraries or Public Libraries or the other trade publications is a rush (ie Andrea Mercado), and it is possible that the work gets distributed to more people (the jury is still out on that one), but the fact of the matter is that it gets published immediately when done with weblogs. Not two months from when the piece is written, not two weeks, but immediately. Thats got to count for something, right?
Also, semi-related, if you have a weblog, do you have it listed on your resume? If you do, you may want to include how many visitors you get daily. LS was an interesting conversation piece when I was interviewing for my current position.
Reviews of weblog tools needs to be updated every so often (I would say about once every 6 months), so here is the most recent one, from PC Magazine. There is also a little piece on RSS Tools which includes discussion about the RSS standards debate. Nothing new for many of you, but worth mentioning for those new (Don) to RSS (Don) and want an easy (Don) to read article (Don)... (link via Movable Blog Asides)
I thought it funny that this article touting the State's use of RSS did not have the RSS feed url. I had to go back to the main page and scroll down a bit. They list top news and national news, but the index page has a few more (bad marketing or just testing the waters perhaps?)
I was thinking about a potential project on my way home from work. Would a listing of newpapers that have RSS capabilities be helpful? I couldn't easily find a directory subfolder in NewsIsFree. Would this be useful and/or does such an animal exist? Anyone? Bueller?
One of my new mantras is the use of weblog technology to market ourselves as librarians. I've mentioned it during my latest round of presentations and will do it again next year. I've told Jenny that she needs a page for her presentations and articles and she's finally done one. Go Jenny, get busy, its your birthday!! (And yes, I know its not Jenny's birthday. I'm just a hip librarian who knows the lingo. I guess I'm a bit shifted myself.)
If you write articles and speak at conferences and you blog, do you publicize it? Do you link to the conferences at which you speak? Why not?!
Those who watch the search engine industry know that the latest Google Dance (nicknamed Florida - the metaphor cracks me up) has made a mockery out of the algorithm. Case in point: I did a search for "Tales of a Librarian" and the top 4 hits (and a few others in the top 10) are all shopping sites. Thats not normal, right? Plus, one of my posts is number 7. Yikes...
At least Altavista comes a bit closer. Tori's web site is the number 4 result.
Just when you thought all the posts about Internet Librarian were over, Michael Stephens puts up his pictures. I like this one of me and Greg. Look at the grins on our faces.
Ray Matthews writes:
"Arkansas has joined the growing number of states syndicating agency produced headlines for its citizenry using RSS."
"News can be filtered by categories such as "business" and "natural resources" and then sorted by either by creating agency or date. The most recent headlines are also parsed to the Arkansas.gov homepage (formerly AccessArkansas). Because the service appears to be limited to formal press releases and may not yet have full agency participation, the news is not yet comprehensive nor current. Only three stories were published in the past month and all were from a single agency."
Great job Arkansas!! I hope that more content becomes available to their people. So, that makes Utah and Arkansas. What state is going to be third (or are there more states doing this?)
On a side note, Ray made a comment to one of my posts, mentioning that he changed the URL for his site to RSSGov.com but didn't mention it publicly. Ray does a great job on the site and is, for me, a must to read.
The folks at InfoToday have a weblog for the Online Information conference, going on in London this week. Now all they need is an RSS Feed...c'mon guys, you're almost there... (link via Newsbreaks)
LISJobs job postings now has an RSS Feed. Also, I just posted a neat new weblog over at LIS Blogsource that Rachel and Sarah created (complete with RSS Feed), so go check that out as well. Thanks Rachel for the links.