The Librarian's Nosegay

Overcoming e-book ‘stagnation’ by Åke Nygren

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:21 GMT

Don't miss this article by Åke Nygren at InformationToday Europe:

http://www.InfoToday.eu/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=80411&PageNum=2

Åke explores how Stockholm Libraries are responding to e-book stagnation:

Since 2010 the Stockholm Public Libraries have been working hard at coming to grips with the conflict between a growing public demand for e-books and the devastatingly low percentage of e-books available in their stacks. The overall conclusion: instead of waiting for a print oriented publishing market, paralysed by its anxieties for possible loss of market shares, let's get the job done ourselves!

Later:

The third step will be to explore the potential with EPUB 3, an open format that has the potential to move e-reading from a disclosed and lonely activity towards an open, creative and social experience.

In brief, Stockholm Public Libraries response to e-book stagnation is to:

Cooperate: we can't do it on our own, let's find strategic partnerships, for e-book openness and innovation.
Digitise: let's not just sit and wait. If nobody else seems keen on digitising, well, then we do it ourselves.
Integrate: making literature accessible for everybody in 2012 is not just about digitisation, it's also a question of packaging and integration of the content in user friendly and flexible user interfaces.
Engage: let's explore the potential of co-creating new content together with the users of today: the prosumers.

All About SJSU SLIS Student Research Journal

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:41 GMT

SLIS Student Research Journal is a peer-reviewed publication of San José State University School of Library and Information Science that promotes graduate scholarship and intellectual inquiry in the fields of library and information science, archives and records management, and museum studies.

For more information: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/slissrj/ LIS Educators – please share this info with your students, including the policies for submissions, etc: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/slissrj/policies.html

My essay “Beyond the Walled Garden: LIS Students in an Era of Participatory Culture” is in the newest issue: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1067&context=slissrj Here's a brief excerpt of that article:

Contributions Matter

It makes me happy to see students, especially those who have taken my classes, lauded in the professional networks for their contributions. When an author has commented on a student’s blog post or a notable library figure “retweets” a student’s Twitter post, these actions prove that everyone can be a part of the discussion. Value is present from all who participate. The notion that only professional librarians’ opinions matter, for example, loses strength as everyone contributes. The contributions of original research by graduate students can also be part of the ongoing, scholarly conversation within our field. A strong foundation in research methods prepares students – and not just those interested in academic libraries – for performing user studies, analysis of survey data, and other inquiries. Consider, for example, the wide range of backgrounds LIS students bring to their graduate education. Many who are embarking on second careers may have insights and ideas that might benefit the greater community. Offering a mechanism for sharing and feedback, such as SRJ, gets their voices into the mix as soon as possible.

You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You [Forbes]

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:00 GMT

2lingual Google Search

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:10 GMT

Ever needed to search in a foreign language? If you don't know the language, it can be a bit of a pain to get a translation, then search. Well, 2lingual Google Search takes the pain away. Simply choose the language that you want to search in, and it takes care of the rest. It's not just doing a simple translation job though - having searched for CILIP in English and German it appears to be using the German version of Google to run the search, since the results are very different indeed.

TweetsBetween

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:22 GMT

See recent tweets between twitter users! Welcome to Tweets Between which is a twitter tool that allows you to see the most recent conversations between two users of your choice! How to use: Simply, enter the two twitter usernames of the people who held the conversation that you would like to read in the text boxes below, then press the "GO!" button! Note: You will ONLY see the MOST RECENT tweets between two users!

Handheld Librarian: Keynote Today

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:46 GMT

I am about to present my keynote for the Handheld Librarian Conference. The slides are here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/HandheldLibStephens.pdf

Extra Links:

Pew Tablet & E-Book Reader Ownership: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/E-readers-and-tablets.aspx

Why QR Codes Are Failing: http://www.imediaconnection.com/article_full.aspx?id=30267

Pongr: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/pongr

Creative Commons Search Engine

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:02 GMT

Need CC images, text, audio or sounds? Try the Search.Creativecommons engine It says of itself: "Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't...

Save the Date: Library 2.012 Conference

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:42 GMT

From a press release about this year's free, online Library 2.012 Conference:

As information professionals from all around the world digest the wealth of information shared during the inaugural Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference, a second round of inspiration is underway with the announcement of the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference!

Save the dates of October 3-5, 2012, for an inspiring global conversation about the future of libraries. The fully online Library 2.012 Conference will be held in multiple time zones, available in multiple languages, and feature multiple tracks. The conference is sure to be brimming with knowledge as information professionals worldwide meet online for this free forum. Sign up for conference news and updates at Library2012.com.

In the meantime, if you missed one of the 160 presentations given at the Library 2.011 Conference, don’t worry. We understand that you had to sleep at some point during the 24-hour, two-day conference! All the presentations were recorded and can be accessed on the Library 2.0 website.

The San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science is a founding partner of Library 2.011 and Library 2.012 conferences. The nationally-ranked school offers two fully online master’s degrees, a fully online certificate program, and a doctoral program: Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA), Post-Master’s Certificate in Library and Information Science, and the San José Gateway PhD Program. Learn more at: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu

Call for Speakers: Internet Librarian International

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:56 GMT

ILI 2012 Call for Speakers Open!

If you would like to be considered as a speaker, please

submit your ideas here.

The deadline for submissions is 12 April 2012.

Internet Librarian International is the innovation and technology conference for information professionals. The conference attracts hundreds of library and information professionals from around the world.

Internet Librarian International 2012 will take place at Olympia in London 30-31 October (with pre-event workshops scheduled for 29 October). We invite participation from a wide range of professionals – new and established – from all over the world to share their experiences of developing and delivering innovative information services. We seek dynamic speakers from all types of libraries – public, academic, government, national or commercial – as well as those working outside a ‘traditional’ library setting.

Share your success stories. Tell us what lessons you've learned if things didn't turn out quite as expected. This is your chance to help others to rethink and recharge, and to benefit from the insights of others.

Re-imagine, Renew, Reboot: Innovating for Success

This year the conference will focus on how information and library professionals are successfully delivering innovative products and services to ever more demanding customers in a fast-changing technology landscape. Library patrons, users and customers now expect access to information wherever they are, on a variety of devices. Budgets remain under pressure. Access to information, data and knowledge is becoming more open and transparent, with partnerships and new social media contexts expanding knowledge sharing in new and surprising ways.

With all this going on, librarians need to stay at the leading edge of service provision. What innovative and imaginative solutions can make a real impact on our ability to serve our customers and our institutions? Share your experiences with your peers at Internet Librarian International.

Possible topics fall under the following headings.

Meeting the ‘everything everywhere’ demands of customers
New and innovative uses of technology
Managing and maximising resources
Redesigning services and products
Using the internet for research and reference
Marketing the service and reaching new audiences
Educating and mentoring users
Career opportunities – new skills and new roles
Ideas for full or half day workshops

But don't limit your imagination - click here to see more ideas.

How do I participate?

If you would like to be considered as a speaker, please submit your ideas here. The deadline for submissions is 12 April 2012.

The advisory committee will review all submissions and you will be notified in May 2012. If your proposal is selected, the primary speaker will receive a free registration to the full conference, which includes lunches and a drinks reception.

We're looking forward to receiving your suggestions and ideas.

Val Skelton, Programme Director

Katherine Allen, Conference Director

Please note that the expenses of attending Internet Librarian International (including travel, accommodation, and any other expenses) will be the responsibility of the presenter. By submitting your proposal, you acknowledge that you accept this financial responsibility.

Possible topics include:

21st century collection management
Big data initiatives; open data
Content management
Creating new products
Demonstrating impact; influencing management; working with customers
Development and rollout of library apps
Digital libraries; digitisation projects; digital curation
E-learning, information literacy; training skills
E resources; ebooks; ejournals; creating digital collections; ebook policies; acquisition management; contract negotiation
Financial challenges; new sources of funding; innovative ways to manage costs
Future planning; service redesign; mashups; marketing the service; raising the profile, collaboration and partnering
Gamification initiatives; location awareness
Information legislation; copyright; data protection; managing digital rights
Leading edge technologies
Librarians as agents of social change; community development and cohesion
New ways of skills development; developing unconferences; managing tweetups
New roles for information professionals
Mobile, multiplatform information provision; working with tablet devices
New ways of creating content; crowdsourcing; user generated content
Managing information flows
Open access; open source
Open data; linked data
Outsourcing, offshoring, insourcing
Publishing trends
Redesigning websites; usability; optimisation
Semantic web
Supporting the mobile workforce
Taxonomies; ontologies
Using social media tools to maximum effect; podcasting; Twitter/YouTube techniques
Using the internet for research; search tips and techniques; new search tools
Web publishing; web technology; the cloud
Web scale discovery
Sector specific case studies – we are interested in case studies from a range of settings including academic libraries, public libraries, corporate settings, government libraries, health/medical libraries, law libraries, and non-traditional information settings

Submit your ideas here

“The Hyperlinked Campus” at Dominican University of California

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:21 GMT

I'm very excited to be leading a faculty development workshop at Dominican University of California on February 24th. Here's the draft abstract, based in part on a talk I gave at EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives in 2010:

Creative Collaboration and Immersive Engagement: The Hyperlinked Campus

Emerging technologies for communication and creation of content afford the possibility of the connected, “always on” educational environment. The Hyperlinked Campus is a model of open communication, transparency, social engagement, guided exploration, and creativity. This session will explore how some tools can extend the classroom beyond physical buildings to engage learners with their peers and with the world. The session will focus on open learning systems for courses, Twitter in the classroom and virtual learning space, and the creation of personal learning networks. Moving beyond the walled garden and into participatory networks of learning and engagement can benefit both faculty and students.

DocJax

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:47 GMT

Docjax.com is a file based search engine, covering ebooks, xls, ppt an pdf files. It also proudly says that it provides access to 159,647+ free e-books and documents for downloading. Seemed to be a reasonable search engine when I tried it. It found almost 4,000 references to CILIP for example, but I couldn't tell you how many there were for 'National Libraries Day' as the engine doesn't recognise phrase searching, which is unfortunate. You can however limit to one file type, which is better than nothing. It's a nice idea, but to be honest, I think that I'll be sticking...

Regator

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:30 GMT

Curated Blog Search and Discovery I really do need a category called 'Oh dear, what a pity, never mind', because this blog search engine would fit right into it. I did a couple of searches (National Libraries Day and CILIP) and in both cases the most recent references were a couple of months old. Simply not acceptable when dealing with blogs - anything more than 2 days ago is pretty close to unacceptable in my view. They say of themselves "Regator uses qualified human editors to carefully select only the most relevant, useful, well-written blogs in each of our 500+...

Make Something … at Portland Public Library

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:25 GMT

Don't miss:

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=2045

TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke answers some questions about the library as a creation space for teens:

How do artists use your library?

Every day after school we get anywhere from 30-60 teens using our teen library space. I see the teens making music, art, and videos on their laptops everyday. A lot of them also sit around and doodle, and the almost always give me their finished products. I’ve got quite a compilation of teen artwork created in the library that someday I hope to put together and feature in the library!

This image gallery is a collection of pieces that teens completed in the Portland Public Library as part of the Searching For ME program, where teens designed their own story in their image. The program was a collaboration with The Telling Room and The Maine College of Art. All photos are courtesy of Justin Hoenke.

Kindle for Beginners

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:42 GMT

Kindle for Beginners, a photo by Lester Public Library on Flickr.

Petition for School Libraries

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:49 GMT

Please, TTW Readers, follow this link and sign the petition:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ensure-every-child-america-has-access-effective-school-library-program/tmlbRqfF?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Every child in America deserves access to an effective school library program. We ask that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provide dedicated funding to help support effective school library programs. Such action will ensure more students have access to the resources and tools that constitute a 21st century learning environment. Reductions in school library programs are creating an ‘access gap’ between schools in wealthier communities versus those where there are high levels of poverty. All students should have an equal opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to learn, to participate, and to compete in today’s world.

Hack A Kindle*

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:21 GMT

*sort of

I bought a Kindle for these reasons and for the past few days, I’ve been using it in a few different ways. I bought two books from Amazon totalling $6.99. But most of the space on my Kindle is taken up by a collection of PDF’s. Yes, this is how I’m hacking a Kindle. It’s my PDF collection device.

Does your library subscribe to some databases? Chances are, they do, and this will be where you will start your hacking. My current topics of interest include empowering patrons to create “stuff” in the library, user experience, teens and technology, and The Beach Boys. I dove into these topics pretty deeply one night and searched for PDF’s that interested me.

I was always happy to see this PDF Full Text icon

If I couldn't find an article in PDF form, I turned to Google Chrome extensions to help convert that text into a PDF.

I highly suggest "Save as PDF"

Once I downloaded the articles, I sent them to my Kindle account using my Send to Kindle email address. The next time I turned on my Kindle, I synced the device and viola! My PDF’s showed up, ready to view, highlight, share, and cite.

At first, the process may be a bit cumbersome (and there may even be better ways to do it!), but once I got into the groove of searching/saving/uploading PDF's, I had quite a collection in no time. I highly suggest that if a librarian has a patron that has a Kindle and is interested in collecting their research that they at least think about using this way to aid the patron.

-Post by Justin Hoenke,Tame the Web Contributor

The Machine that is Replacing Me is Getting Cheaper Every Day – A TTW Guest Post by Dr. Troy Swanson

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:45 GMT

Two years ago, I had the painful pleasure of coauthoring a textbook with three other colleagues. This textbook was written for first-year writing students, and I wrote the sections of the book that focused on research and information literacy.

As we wrote the book, my thoughts went back to one of my former high school teachers, Michael McAvoy. This morning I learned through Facebook that he lost his battle with cancer. I have many memories of high school (most of them good), but out of all of them, Mr. McAvoy is the one person who rises above most of the others. As someone who works in education, I hope that I can have the same type of impact in my students.

“Swanson, the machine I am getting to replace you is getting cheaper every day.” Mr. McAvoy would typically say this after I made some sort of smart-ass remark in class. He would smirk, fold his arms, and rock forward on the balls of his feet with an air of mild humor mixed with pretend contempt.

There was a time when I was out sick, and I missed a couple of his classes. When I returned, I saw him in the hallway, and I asked him whether he missed me. He responded, “Well, Swanson, I wasn't shooting. But if I was, I wouldn't miss.” Then he continued on his way down the hall. He said that at a time when this type of remark did not cause alarm. It was a different time and place.

I remember that he was a Packer fan and a Dodger fan, which were always points of debate since we were in Bears and Cubs country. He only had three toes on one foot due to an unfortunate incident with a lawnmower when he was a kid. One time he participated in a fantasy basketball league with his students. His team name was The Seven-Toed Chest Kickers.

When I think of Mr. McAvoy, I know he was one of my best teachers. He was the reason that when I entered college I was a better writer than most of my classmates. But, I liked him for more reasons than the simple transfer of writing skills. I remember him so fondly because of the way he engaged us as students. I can distinctly remember the class discussion we had about Julius Caesar getting stabbed to death in Shakespeare's play, our discussion of the novel Lord of the Flies, and a paper I wrote about Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. I remember being so amazed that these great works of literature could be understood by someone like me, who was just a high school kid. The thing with Mr. McAvoy's classes was that these were not honors or advanced placement classes. They were just regular English classes, and all of us were able to jump into this stuff.

In our public discourse online, on the media, and in debates at dinner parties, it is easy to cast our public schools as places that dampen creativity. Our education system is large and difficult to navigate, and I think that in some instances these systems get in the way of our larger goals. This is because we have an educational system. I would say that any time you have a group of people (so, more than one) who have to do something together you start to have a system. A system is a set of rules, processes, and procedures that explain how people interact with each other. For example, when you drive a car, you are participating in a system. Our society has put together a set of rules that help us work together so that we can efficiently drive at high speeds down our roads. If we had to make up our own rules or if we had to figure out the rules as we drove, then not only would driving be very inefficient, but it would also be very dangerous.

Systems do not really encourage us to be creative. Driving your car is not a time to decide to be creative. In fact, our rules of the road go out of the way to stamp out your creativity. Our police officers regularly give out tickets to “creative” drivers. For me, there are many times we criticize education when we are actually criticizing systems. Their purpose is to allow people to work together by creating solid rules where each person's actions are predictable and standard. I think about all of the standardized tests I have ever taken. Not much room there for creativity, is there?

In the future, our students will spend a great deal of times within large systems. Our corporations, our governments, our charitable organizations, our religious organizations, and many other groups of people are essentially large systems. They all have rules so that people understand how to work together. But, these systems all suffer from the same problems. First, how do you develop a system where everyone knows the rules but is also able to creatively come up with solutions to problems? Second, systems automatically include values and priorities that tend to benefit some groups of people over others. How do we create systems that are equitable and fair to everyone? In high school, some of us found ways to be creative, and I would guess that many times it was our teachers were the ones who inspired us to be creative.

I think that there is a great deal of evidence to say that creativity can exist within systems, especially educational systems. It is my hope that college is a creative place. Yes, we are part of a very large system. Yes, at times, this system can hinder creativity. But, more importantly, for those of us who work in the system, creativity falls on our own shoulders.

I came from a small high school in rural Illinois. The college where I work is many times larger than my entire hometown. I know that many of us that came from there will remember our late teacher Mr. McAvoy. I have always made it my goal to follow his example and never forget that creativity does not come from our educational systems. It comes from educators.

Note: This essay is adapted from an essay in the book DeVillez, Eric, Tom Dow, Mike McGuire, and Troy Swanson (2010). Why White Rice?: Thinking Through Writing. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair & Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.

Context Books for The Hyperlinked Library

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:36 GMT

Hi all – it's that time again. Each semester, I have my students read a current book and apply the topics covered to our work with emerging technologies and my model of “the Hyperlinked Library.” What would you add?

Context Book: Students will read one book selected from a list provided, and write a 300 word reflection or create a media-based presentation relating the topic and focus of the book to libraries, technology and participatory service. 10 points

Checkout a sample book report here.

What can librarians glean from these works? How might the focus of some titles impact library service? Users? The way we exchange and share information. Consider your choice as a way to explore what might be coming for libraries within the framework of participatory service.

The Reading List

(see the list as it was originally posted and what other LIS professionals had to say about it in 2008):

(see more suggestions here!)

Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail
Beck, John C. & Mitchell Wade. Got game
Bernoff, Josh. Groundswell
Bilton, Nick. I Live in the Future And Here’s How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted
Buckingham, David (ed.). Youth,Identity,and Digital Media
Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows
Collins, Jim. Good to Great
Davidson, Cathy. Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
Doctorow, Cory. Content
Frankel, Alex. Punching In
Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat
Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to teach Us about Learning & Literacy
Gilmore, James & B. Joseph Pine II. Authenticity
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink
Gleick, James. The Information
Godin, Seth. Small is the New Big
Godin, Seth. Tribes
Godin, Seth. Linchpin
Harper, Richard. Texture: Human Expression in the Age of Communications Overload
Hayes, Tom. Jump Point:How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business
Ito, Mizuko (ed.). Hanging Out,Messing Around,and Geeking Out:Kids Living and Learning with New Media.
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture
Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers & Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture
Johnson, Marilyn. This Book is Overdue!:How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You
Kelley, Tom with Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation
Kusek, David & Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Revolution.
Lanier, Jaron. You are Not a Gadget
Levine, Rick et al. The Cluetrain Manifesto
Levy, Steven. The Perfect Thing
Martin, Patricia. Ren Gen Renaissance Generation
Meyer, Danny. Setting the Table
Palfrey, John & Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives
Penn, Mark J. Microtrends
Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind
Pink, Daniel. Drive
Powers, William. Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age
Reynolds, Glenn. An Army of Davids
Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs
Rosenbaum, Steven. Curation Nation : How to Win in a World Where Consumers are Creators
Rushkoff, Douglas. Playing the Future
Scoble, Robert & Shel Israel. Naked Conversations
Senge, Peter. The Necessary Revolution
Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody
Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus
Solove, Daniel. The Future of Reputation
Sunstein, Cass. Infotopia
Tapscot, Dan. Grown Up Digital
Tapscott, Don & Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics
Turner, Fred. From Counterculture to Cyberculture
Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous
Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined
Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

StoryTubes 2012

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:40 GMT

Don't miss:

http://www.storytubes.info

StoryTubes 2012, the two-minute or shorter, ”my favorite book” video contest is open as of J

anuary 20, 2012 and accepting English speaking entrants from throughout the world. It is open for kids in grades K – 12.

E-Book vs. Paper Book. “The big book fight.”

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:56 GMT

Sean Robinson writes:

This is a little video I made that pokes fun at the conflict between e-books and paper books. It's not really real, if you love books you don't care what format they come in. This was made to lower the anxiety that we all feel about the changes that are occurring within libraries.
“Music: Kevin MacLeod” and is used under creative common licensing. You can find his site at http://incompetech.com
Thanks for watching

Congrats to Luis Herrera, LJ’s 2012 Librarian of the Year

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:56 GMT

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/01/managing-libraries/luis-herrera-ljs-2012-librarian-of-the-year/

“I have a great team. My mentors all said, ‘Surround yourself with good people,’ and I did,” says Herrera.

Such humility and kindness is key to Herrera’s success in San Francisco and to winning this award. In short, he got voters to extend SFPL support for 15 years. He employed his participatory management style to create a rare alliance between management and union. He invoked an ability to build strong and effective partnerships with other city departments, while his unusual brand of courage let staff teams make major management and organizational changes and decisions. Herrera is LJ’s 2012 Librarian of the Year because of his joyous spirit and infectious optimism about libraries and his willingness to communicate that optimism to all those involved, especially the citizens of San Francisco.

I was very luck to meet Luis at the Salzburg Global Seminar (where we celebrated his birthday!). I am very glad to see him honored for his out standing work.

Why Google Search Plus is a disaster for search

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:21 GMT

By now you have probably seen that Google has introduced something that they call Search, Plus Your World, with the official announcement on their blog page. For ease of use I'll call it Search+. Google explains it like this: "We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships." So the idea here is clear - Google is going to become a search engine that is about social, not about the web. This is an absolute change in the way that Google works; it is going to pay less attention to web pages...

Stealth

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:03 GMT

usestealth.com is a search engine that doesn't store any user identifiable information about the searcher. Consequently you can search for whatever you want and there is no way of tieing that information back to you. It runs searches on web, news, images and multimedia. Unfortunately it's also very basic in the extreme - no advanced search, no help, no indication of the number of hits, and the display of results is limited. It's also shifted way over the right on my screen, which is quite disconcerting. However, if you're after a basic search engine that allows you to search incognito,...

Google Search Results Page: All adverts!

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:12 GMT

If there was any doubt at all that Google is an advertising company, it's completely dispelled now. I ran a search for 'mobile phones' and this is what I got back: It's only just at the very bottom of the screen that you see the first result - from Wikipedia. The rest of the page is adverts top and right, with related searches all either stores or brands, rather than anything to help the searcher narrow their subject focus. Scanning through the results, 9 of them are brand related, while only 2 provide me with actual information about mobile phones....

headslinger

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:55 GMT

A new way to discover and read the day's news This is another news curation system which pulls out major headlines for you from various different resources - think of it as a self selecting collection of RSS feeds and you won't be that far wrong. You can build your own list of favourites, share them with friends and discover new resources. Nothing particularly new here, since News.me, XYDO and a bunch of other resources are doing the same thing, but it's another alternative to add to the list.

Start 2012 by Taking 2 Minutes to Clean Your Apps Permissions

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:39 GMT

Do you know how many applications you have allowed to have access to your Facebook, Twitter, Google account, Yahoo, LinkedIn, DropBox, Flickr or Instagram accounts? Keep meaning to go through and clear them out and get them into good order, but you can't ever quite find the time to locate the right place? There's a great little resource that takes all the hassle away. Simply go to MyPermissions and click on the appropriate icon(s) and it redirects you directly to your own account without any further interaction, so it doesn't know your login details, passwords and so on - so...

What’s happening? The story of my Twitter evolution…

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:41 GMT

by Cynthia Lambert

A funny thing happened on the way to the weekend: I found myself on Twitter looking for stuff to do!

Now don't get me wrong–I have been on Twitter. I signed up about two years ago and have used it sporadically ever since. I like the short bursts, but they often are just links to typical stuff found elsewhere. Plus, my choices of who to follow were often disappointing. Not the real people I actually know! It was the content providers and entertainment choices I made that fell short.

From the input side, I posted some. That was fun, especially the phase where I tried to make every post use as close to the total 140 characters as possible. Still, after posting to Facebook, I didn't find I had anything new to say. Mostly, I glanced and moved on. That began to change when I was planning my vacation.

I was heading to Northern California and some pretty tiny towns. I certainly used Google to plan and prep for the trip. However, I couldn't get any real sense of the towns or what there was to do after hiking all day. At some point, I thought maybe I could follow a local library twitter feed and find out a few things happening while we were going to be in town. I dug about further and found a local paper, the local college, and a few government feeds for my destination. Boom, I finally found my Twitter sweet spot!!

Mentioned in a Tweet about a garden walk in Mendocino!

I found information about food, gardens, and shopping. I even found a yarn shop via a garden walk. Now folks, these are a few of my favorite things! I gleefully watched the feeds for a few weeks before we arrived. It was a great trip.

After vacation, I returned home and reverted back to my Facebook and Google habits. For a few weeks that was just fine. However, one day I glanced at my Twitter feed just as @PrincetonScoop posted about an event for that weekend. The scales fell from my eyes and behold, I became a Twitter convert!

Once again, I dug around for the local newspaper, the local university and colleges, the college radio station, and a few commercial PR providers. I added a few local places I frequent. I was on my way. A treasure trove of information began to flow in: Farm Market Updates; what's blooming in the local gardens; summer theater options at Princeton University, and of course all the great events hosted @mylibrary.

The moral of this story–always look at your resources and tools with fresh eyes.

I thought I knew what Twitter had to offer, but I was wrong. What it is, and what I want from it, have evolved over time. I now visit Twitter before I hit Facebook. I still don't post much, but that is because I am too busy planning what to do this weekend!

Officially Weighing in on QandANJ

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:27 GMT

Posted by: Janie Hermann

Tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm the Reference Section of NJLA will hold a meeting at Princeton Public Library so that the library community can have a dialogue on QandANJ.org and on the state of virtual reference in New Jersey.

I personally hope that the room will be packed to standing room only so that we can get as many opinions and ideas as possible. My fear is that attendance will be much smaller than it should be. I know that some will not be able to attend due to other work commitments, desk schedules, or travel distance (NJ is a pretty big state). If you are in that category, please take the time to share your thoughts with Michael Maziekien, the chair of the NJLA Reference Section, or leave comments in this post.

If you are still hesitating about attending for other reasons — such as apathy or not wanting to “rock the boat”, so to speak — then I encourage you to reconsider and take the time to come tomorrow. The key issue with this entire kerfuffle is not the decision to end funding for QandANJ, but the manner in which it was done. A decision about a statewide initiative that is staffed by librarians from over 50 libraries was made without any input from the stakeholders. This our chance to rectify the situation and have our say.

Until today my involvement with this issue since it surfaced about 5 weeks ago on April 4th has been to make several (some quite lengthy) comments based upon posts by Andy Woodworth and Pete Bromberg and to speak with other in our library community who are feeling the same sense of betrayal and shock over this decision. Pete and Andy have done an excellent job of framing the entire situation so I will not repeat what have they have said, but I did want to go officially on record as supporting their efforts to get the conversation started and not let the closure of a long-standing and beloved service be done without giving it a full and considered examination.

Tomorrow is not a “Save QandANJ” rally. It is a chance for open dialogue in which we can take steps to decide the future of virtual reference service in our state. It may very well be that the time has come to sunset QandANJ and even those of us who have been most vocal about this issue recognize this reality. Or it may simply be time to retoool the service, find new a funding model and/or scale down the service to recognize that many libraries have their own VR service and no longer need to be a member of the project.

The point is that we need to examine figures and facts, collect opinions from all sides both pro and con and then come to a consensus. This process won't happen in one day or one meeting and I am very relieved that QandANJ has been given a reprieve to allow us time to figure this out.

I am also grateful to the NJLA Reference Section for taking the initiative to get the conversation started by calling this meeting and to Pat Tumulty and the NJLA Executive Board for issuing a statement that began with this sentence:

NJLA believes the library community must have a voice in determining the programs and services provided by state and federal dollars to the residents of New Jersey.

I have long been an advocate of the NJ State Library and have served on several committees for them over the years, including the Blue Ribbon Panel on the Future of Libraries. I continue to be proud of the innovation that is sparked in the NJ library community with the leadership of our state library. The NJ State Library has led many successful marketing initiatives that have raised the profiles of libraries and shown our value to our stakeholders. My disagreeing about the manner in which this one decision was made does not mean that I am no longer an advocate for their work or any less proud of the innovative services they provide. It simply means that we do not see eye to eye on one issue.

Some in the library community feel that those who are being vocal in their opinions are “betraying” the NJSL to openly call for a reversal of this decision and to request a meeting to discuss the future of the service. I do not see it as a “betrayal”. I see it as a way for all of us in NJ to grow as a professional community and am hopeful that the outcome will be a new way of doing business, one that is transparent and open and important decisions are given due consideration.

This has been a divisive few weeks for many, of that there is no doubt and it was evident at the NJLA conference last week. I know it has been very upsetting for many people for a variety of reasons. Let's put that all behind before 1 pm tomorrow and work together towards a solution. If you have yet to feel free to speak up about your feelings on this issue, please find your voice and give us your feedback. Your ideas count and can impact the future of service for all New Jersey residents.

National Library Legislative Day 2011 is Here!

Mon, 09 May 2011 10:56 GMT

Posted by Robert J. Lackie

National Library Symbol

Libraries are increasingly essential in these tough economic times. People are flocking to our nation’s libraries for job and career information, small business research and e-government services as well as support for formal and informal education and lifelong learning. Congress made across-the-board cuts to federal programs in its FY2011 budget, and libraries fill the gaps made when other agencies and services. Unfortunately, libraries are also receiving federal budget cuts.

Even if you can’t make it to Washington for National Library Legislative Day on May 9, you can join us by contacting your representatives and senators during Virtual Legislative Day. Please contact your elected officials with the following requests:

APPROPRIATIONS FY2012

Fund the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at $232 million, the level last authorized in December 2010;
Preserve the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program with its own budget line and appropriate the program at its FY2010 level of $19.1 million;
Maintain funding for the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Compendia Branch at $2.9 million in order to preserve publication of “Statistical Abstracts” and other publications;
Fund the Salaries and Expenses work of the Government Printing Office (GPO) at $42,173,000 to preserve public access through the FDLP and FedSYS.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (School Libraries):

Support student performance by including an effective school library program as part of ESEA through the LEARN Act to include:
A school library staffed by a state-certified school librarian;
A school library with up-to-date books, materials, equipment, and technology, including broadband connectivity; and
Instruction by librarians for students and staff on digital and computer literacy skills, including collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians to develop and implement the curriculum and other school reforms.

American Library Association

While these issues are the most urgent at this time, there are many other critical pieces of legislation impacting libraries. For full list of key issues that will be discussed at National Library Legislative Day, click here. ALA has also drafted issue briefs on the following areas: Access, Appropriations for Libraries, Broadband & Telecommunications, Copyright, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Government Services & Information, Surveillance & Privacy and the WILL Act

Visit http://capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=44989511&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id] to learn more and send your congressman and senator a message.

-Robert

Robert J. Lackie

Complimentary Downloads from Salem Press Concerning Osama bin Laden & Terrorism

Tue, 03 May 2011 19:32 GMT

Posted by Robert J. Lackie

Milestone Documents in American History

In an RSS feed I received today, Peter W. Tobey at Salem Press (ptobey@salempress.come) wrote that they were now providing free articles or chapters from published Salem reference books dealing with Osama bin Laden and terrorism. After reviewing them tonight while working the Reference Desk at Rider University Libraries (and missing the awards ceremony at the NJLA 2011 Conference for the first time in years!), I agree that many may find these free, quality resources of interest combined with other current resources within our databases, especially in light of current events. Mr. Tobey writes:

Milestone Documents in World History

“Osama bin Laden's death returns us to the subject of September 11, 2001 in a number of ways. But the events of that day, the personalities, frustrations, and cultural clashes involved are far from straightforward. And the repercussions are, of course, far-reaching. Salem Press has published a great deal on the history, biographies, religious and cultural backgrounds of terrorism. Perhaps most significantly, Salem has brought libraries two critical works by the Schlager Group covering the original source documents (plus analysis) of works by both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. We've selected these and two other articles on this subject (from four different reference works) because we feel your patrons and students may find them informative. You may download them freely, print as many copies of these articles as you need, and distribute them any way you'd like:”

“George W. Bush’s Address to the Nation on September 11, 2001: The Full Text & Analysis” (1,186 and 4,920 words) from Milestone Documents in American History

“Osama bin Laden’s Declaration of Jihad against Americans: The Full Text & Analysis” (2,322 and 5,048 words) from Milestone Documents in World History

Great Lives from History: The 20th Century

Salem also has published a brief, helpful biography of Osama bin Laden and an overview of the war on terrorism. See links to these articles below:

“Osama bin L aden” (1,682 words) from Great Lives from History: The 20th Century

“The War on Terror” (4,656 words) from Weapons & Warfare

Weapons and Warfare

By the way, these four reference book resources (PDFs) from 2008 and 2010, listed above, can also be downloaded from Salem Press' Issues Today site, under the subheading: “May 3, 2011 – Osama bin Laden and the War on Terror” and are part of a new effort Salem is beginning where they will post free, relevant articles from their reference works on current topics in the news. I noticed on their Issues Today site that they also have four resources (PDFs) under the subheading of “March 30, 2011 – Nuclear Power” listed below the above items on their Issues Today site.

I thought this information and Salem Press' new site might also be of use to others, and complete information on the reference books containing the articles above are provided at the end of each PDF. Now, off to the NJLA 2011 Conference tomorrow, one of my favorite conferences of the year!

-Robert

Robert J. Lackie