LibrarianInBlack

AskX--Ask.com's playground

I am having a lot of fun playing with AskX, Ask.com's unofficial beta testing ground for new features for their search engine.  The results display is the best I've seen so far.  I did a search for Mission San Rafael, the mission just down the hill from my house.  See the screenshot below.  Not only do you get main web results in the middle of the screen, but you get image, encyclopedia (Wikipedia), and blog results on the left as well as search term narrowing and expanding options on the left.  Good stuff.   

Searches for bands bring back the above, plus event listings and merchandise links.  Other types of searches bring back videos, fast-facts/answers at the top or on the sides of the results page, dictionary definitions, imported snippets from the All Music Guide, related names, news, and more.  It's a great tool...something I highly recommend librarians take a look at.

You can read more about AskX here.

Librarians and IT collaborating

Sean Robinson from the Allen County Public Library has posted a fun video of a librarian and IT professional talking about their shared values, in the style of the Mac/PC commercials (boy did Apple start a rash on YouTube videos, or what?).  Enjoy it for some midweek fun :)

via John Blyberg

Accessibility mistakes

While we're on the theme of accessibility, let me point you to Seven Accessibility Mistakes You Don't Want To Make (part 1 and part 2).  Not only does the author point out the mistakes, but describes how you can easily avoid making them. 

This article is particularly useful if you're new to thinking about accessible web design, and if you are I won't lie, it's not a good thing.  But it's not unusual for libraries and other government agencies to be a bit slow on the uptake in the accessibility world, even though we're often held to more stringent guidelines than everyone else.  Kind of backward, isn't it? 

via A Passion for 'Puters

Tableless Design

We all know that using tables in our webpages is a big no-no, and frankly, most of us have done it at one time or another--especially when inheriting a new website that has no viable CSS structure and a lot of restrictions.  Karen Coombs has written a wonderful piece about the importance of avoiding tables and pointing to examples of table-less design and tutorials from A List Apart on doing so.

Librariansworld

Has anyone ever seen Librariansworld?   I got an e-mail about the site and looked around.  It appears to be a wiki for librarians with a global focus.  As with any site, I did my usual quality control once-over, and was not enthused to find a number of broken links, misspellings, and typos--including the link to the "Privarcy" policy from the homepage.  I'm not sure what this site's goal really is, but a "reliable librarian resource" it is not.  At least, not yet.

Thoughts on being a manager

I was watching a Stargate SG-1 episode recently, and Colonel Jack O'Neil (Richard Dean Anderson--MacGyver) was asked to take a promotion to management within the Stargate project.  The words that came out of his mouth were much the same as the words that came out of my mouth when I thought about becoming a manager.  He said:

"I've spent my life sticking it to the man.  If I do this I will be the man.  I don't want to be the man."

So, as I have been a manager now for about nine months, I can look back to that moment, to those feelings, that mindset, and say that I don't think I've become "the man" yet.  I can, however, see how it could happen really easily.  Some people become a manager for the power or the money.  That motivation leads down a dark path.  The power goes to people's heads sometimes, usually gradually.  People become paranoid about their workers, and are on the lookout for any sign of disobedience or insubordination.  You enjoy the perks and forget about the responsibilities you have to your employees and you users.  So, how does that happen?

I became a manager so that I could best share my skills, what I had to offer, with the library world.  I needed to be somewhere where my responsibility and control over what I was responsible for were equal.  During time as a manager, though, power has become both useful and dreaded.  Responsibility grew and accountability grew even more.  It's just as "not fun" as I figured it would be.  But the ability to see projects through and to control my own work has been a worthwhile trade-off.

I don't know that anyone out there who has, in fact, become "the man" knows it...or would admit it.  I do hope that I will know, or that someone will tell me.  But I know that if I really do become "the man," people will be too afraid of me to do so, in all likelihood.  And that stinks.  No one wants to become "the man."  So, how does it happen?  And why doesn't anyone stop it?

Using blogs in the library

More and more librarians are reading professional blogs, like this one, to stay up to date on what's going on in the world.  A lot of libraries are using blogs as a way to communicate with their users, or even to build their entire website.  There are two areas of blog-use that I would like to see increase in libraries: using internal blogs to communicate with staff and using blog search engines as research tools for users' questions. 

As if in answer to my thoughts about the first issue, I found this article: How to Use Blogs in the Workplace by Rod Boothby.  He discusses using blogs as a way to communicate within the organization, and gives some excellent tips and tricks for a successful integration and launch.

Using social book sites for readers advisory

The success of the home-book-organization site Library Thing has resulted in a lot of similar sites springing up here and there.  I blogged about one, GuruLib, a while back.  TechCrunch points out a few others:

• Listal
• Delicious Monster
• What Should I Read Next?
• What's On My Bookshelf
• Shelfari

TechCrunch recommends that we keep an eye on the last one, Shelfari, as in their opinion Shelfari is better-designed and has more desired features, like a little widget that lets you show off the books you have.

It's important to me that librarians are aware of these resources as potential sources of information for readers advisory.  Most of these sites have one form or another of a recommendation engine.  Especially if your library doesn't have a for-pay product like NoveList or What Do I Read Next, these resources can be invaluable in helping your users find new books to read.  Explore each of these tools.  Know what's there, and keep an eye on them for future features and developments.  I find that readers advisory is becoming an increasing part of my job when I work with the public.  Knowing your tools makes you a much better librarian--and being able to show these to users, and that they can access them at home, will make you a very popular librarian :)

wee ones left alone in the 'brary

Mary Minow, goddess of all that is law and libraries related, has some excellent thoughts about and samples of libraries policies on unattended children in her LibraryLaw Blog post Unattended Children - Best Policies.  This is an issue that comes up at our library repeatedly, and I'm guessing it does at yours too, especially if you're working for a public library. 

Mary especially likes the policies of the Jacksonville Public Library (my brother's family's library) which are very explicit about what is and isn't acceptable for parent/child supervision both when the parent is there and isn't in the library with his/her child.  She also points to an article she wrote some time ago regarding the law and unattended children for California Libraries, now found on the California Library Association website.

If this is a discussion your library is having right now, or wants to have, these would be some good resources to tap in preparation.

Another book price comparison site

I've been a long-time fan of AddAll.com for comparing prices for new and used books from various online vendors, big and small.  A lot of book price comparison sites have come and gone, and none ever impressed me enough to even blink an eye.  I got an e-mail from BooksPrice.com recently; they cover books, CDs, games, and DVDs.  Nice!  As such, BooksPrice covers some sources that AddAll doesn't (mostly big-name stores), and vice versa, so I think I'll be using both together from now on.  See what you think! 

For straight purchases of CDs and DVDs I recommend Deep Discount CD and Deep Discount DVD, great places for stuff-on-the-cheap if you're willing to wait a little longer for shipping.  They almost always beat Amazon and other stores, plus free shipping, which rocks my world any day.

In full disclosure, BooksPrice offered in their e-mail to send me a free book (whether I blogged about them or not), which I accepted and will be donating the book to my local library.  Watch for a donation soon, David :)

Pimp my Book Cart Contest Winners

Via a grapevine of friends and former colleagues, I was sent the winners for the Unshelved's Pimp My Book Cart contest.   There are a lot of fun entries, which you can see in post 1 and post 2.  I think my favorite is the VW peace bug :) 

New Cites & Insights addresses conference issues

Walt Crawford's latest issue of Cites & Insights discusses a number of topics, as always, but best of all aggregates several essays/posts about conference-speaking and the pros and cons therein.  He offers excellent advice to both speakers and those trying to book speakers. 

Basically, most speakers have terms, and most require a fee of some kind.  If your institution can't meet their terms, fee included, don't be shocked.  You may not be able to get your top preference if you have limited funding or no funding or if you can't cover travel/lodging for out-of-area presenters.

I was one of the people who filled out Rachel Singer Gordon's speaker survey, one of the sources for Walt's article.  I do charge for speaking in most cases, but it all depends on where I have to be, for how long, and what you want me to talk about.  If it's a topic I already have something prepared for, it's a lot cheaper.  If I have to start from scratch, it's more.  If I have to drive 30 minutes to get to your location, great!  If I have to take a 7 hour plane ride, it's more.  I think that I'm probably around the average, based on Walt and Rachel's discussions. 

Are senior web users really that different?

There seems to be an assumption that web users who are over a certain age (50, 55, 60, whatever) have totally different needs than the rest of the web-using public.  Is this really true?  cRANKy, a search engine specifically for people over 50, is a recent example of this.  Other examples include government sites just for seniors and libraries who have sections of their websites devoted to seniors with information about "senior-only" issues, like health care, basic computer skills, finances, grandparent issues, etc.  My own library is an example of this, so I'm aware that I'm throwing stones from a glass house, albeit a glass house I didn't create. 

Are senior web users really that different?  The last Pew study of internet users 65+ was in 2004, and while it highlighted some differences, it really proved that senior users are not so totally different from other web users.  So, why do we assume that these users are really so different?  That all they care about is money and getting sick?  As our baby boomer generation is becoming our "senior" population, they are proving themselves to be a vibrant and active bunch.  We really need to rethink how we address these users and provide services for them.  The best scenario is to actually ask them what they want, and then give it to them.  Revolutionary, eh?

Teenagers happily checking out books

There is a video on YouTube, simply titled In The Library, showing two teen girls checking out books at their local library.  I can make one out as a Meg Cabot title.  They're smiling, holding their books up to the camera, and looking pretty authentically happy to be getting these books.

What also struck me was that the library staff person behind the desk was smiling along, happy to be recorded at work, and no other library staff stepped in to say "Hey, no recording in here--get out!"  Now, I stop and think about how many libraries I know where that is exactly what would have happened, and they would have missed this opportunity to get the word out about their library through their teen users' own viral marketing campaign. 

The moral of the story?  If people are recording themselves in your library, don't automatically tell them to stop.

Consumer Reports on best-buy prescription drugs

From Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff (this week's list had lots of goodies), Consumer Reports has put out a nice long list of recommended best buy drugs (generic and brand name) in a variety of categories, like allergies, menopause, high cholesterol, arthritis/pain, etc.  Upcoming drug reports include drugs to treat severe pain, heart disease, diabetes, and others.  Great medical resource to bookmark.

Library 2.0 no-brainers

Ryan Deschamps, The Other Librarian, has posted his "Top-ten Library 2.0 'No-brainers' for Public Libraries."  He admits to sympathizing with the Library 2.0 skeptics, but also challenges that there are some very simple and worthwhile things we can all do in the vein of Library 2.0 to better our services and resources.  He lists ten easy steps to building a 2.0 Library, as well as details about why it fits into the 2.0 model and why patrons will care about it.  Good stuff!

Library 2.0 survey update from Amanda Etches-Johnson

Amanda Etches-Johnson has posted an update on the results of her Library 2.0 survey, which looks at which 2.0 tools are being used in which types of libraries, implementation barriers, etc.  Worth a read to see where the library world is at with some of these tools.

Two more useful image generators

In the "Sarah likes image generators" category, check these two out:

• Windows Blue Screen Error Generator (aka the blue screen of death): make it say whatever you want, set it as someone's desktop image, and scare the pants off of them
• Ajax Loading Gif Generator: create nifty "page loading progress" animated images

both found via the Image Generator Blog

NJ State Librarian on YouTube

New Jersey State Librarian Norma Blake has posted a video to YouTube of her, sitting at her desk, explaining what she did that day, with inserted clips of her at various meetings and functions.  At a minute and a half, it’s short but sweet, and a great example of outreach efforts from librarians.

Mystery fiction resource

A while back, Marylaine Block linked to The Mystery Reader in her publication Neat New Stuff.  Having taken some time to look through the resource, I can happily recommend it to library staff and users wanting mystery author information and interviews, recommended booklists within the mystery genre, and reviews/summaries of many books.  Add this puppy to your readers advisory tool kit!

Help with RFPs

Rush Brandis posted to the California libraries listserv Calix about this great resource on TechSoup: the RFP Library.  TechSoup is an organization dedicated to non-profits, and their RFP (Request for Proposal) page contains sample RFPs for all sorts of services, explanations of the process, sample timelines and questions, as well as a host of other tips.  A very useful resource for those library staff who are new to writing RFPs. 

Have pity on your IT folks...

Karen Schneider's recent article for ALA TechSource, IT and Sympathy, highlights several important things for non-IT folks to remember when planning work and projects for their IT staff.  The following is quoted from Karen's post...please go read her post for well-written and detailed explanations of each item.

• If they haven't told you what they're up to, sit down with your IT people and ask what their schedule is, and where your needs for new stuff fit in.
• Do some IT planning on your own.
• Remember nothing is “free,” even if it didn't come with a price tag.
• This may not be easy—share your tentative plans with IT.

The basic rule of thumb is to be realistic about the workload you're giving your IT staff and to involve them in the planning stages.  While they don't have to be given absolute "yay or nay" control over every project, letting them know what's going on in your heads is the first step toward building a fruitful and pleasant relationship.

I would add that sometimes this situation is precisely reversed.  The IT staff are happily marching along creating new projects and services without asking the staff (who they are supporting, and in my mind, working for) what they want and need.  It goes both ways.  The important thing is for communication lines to be open and expectations to be realistic.  In the end, everyone wins with that combination.

Tools to make creating video content easy

Helene Blowers at LibraryBytes points to four tools that make creating video content a wee bit easier for we newbies.  It's good to know what tools are out there--may save you some money, and heartache, as you start creating video content for the library.

metasearch engine for webmasters

Phil Bradley points us to Zippy, a metasearch engine for webmasters. This UK-based company has a lot of options for getting information about websites: straight domain name information, a site comparison tool, and a search (that takes a while to run) comparing the top 10 site results for keyword searches.  The results give a lot of information about the domains: site age, IP, backlinks, deeplinks, indexed pages, last updated date, and more.  I was disappointed that they didn't include Ask.com in the list of engines they compare (Google, Yahoo!, Technorati, MSN, Alexa).

What it's most useful for, and Phil and I agree on this, is for webmasters wanting to know more about their own websites.  How do you look to the outside world?  How do your competitors look?   

Wired News article criticizes libraries for using eBooks with DRM

Wired News has published an article by Eliot Van Buskirk and Sean Michaels entitled "Public Libraries, Private DRM."  The poorly-researched article has two main points once you suss them out, neither of which is well explained or supported.  It's a very confused and inflammatory piece.  Their two complaints are:

• Public library eBooks should all works on Macs (which I agree with)
• Public library eBooks shouldn't have any digital rights management on them (which is insane)

There are all sorts of flaws to their arguments, they make false assumptions and statements like: Overdrive is the only vendor, all eBooks at libraries don't work with Macs, libraries' physical materials don't have any copyright restrictions, on and on.  Overdrive is not the only vendor.  Most library eBooks do work with Macs, just not the audio books.  And physical materials do have copyright restrictions.

They're basically complaining that they can't rip the public libraries' digital content like they've been doing with CDs and DVDs.  Apparently they never thought to wonder if what they were doing with the physical items was against the law.  Funny, that. 

I don't often comment on mainstream media posts, but these authors were just begging for a smack upside the head.  In an ideal world, yes, there would be no DRM and we'd all exchange materials and ideas freely.  But libraries are faced with either offering online content with DRM or not offering online content at all.  I would venture a guess that most of our users are glad we chose the former option and not the latter.

Libraries can win thousands of dollars in Amazon products

Amazon.com is running a contest called Wish for Lit.  Three libraries in the U.S. will win, splitting over $20,000 in Amazon.com products.  One K-12 library, one academic library, and one public library will win.  Libraries just have to create a library wish list by February 16th using a special form.  The winners will be chosen by a panel from the ALA Chapter Relations Committee.  You should probably read the terms and conditions to make sure nothing conflicts with your library's policies.

Free is good!  This is one opportunity you can't pass up!

A Portrait of "Generation Next"

The Pew Research Center has released a new report: A Portrait of "Generation Next": How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics.  The report includes a lot of interesting findings about our 18-25 year olds in the U.S. 

• 68% believe their generation is unique and distinct
• 84% believe they have better educational opportunities than were available 20 years ago
• 72% believe they have access to higher paying jobs than were available 20 years ago
• They believe that their generation uses more sex, alcohol, and drugs and is more violent
• 52% believe that immigration strengthens the nation

Read through the findings and then think--how can your library use this data to better target services toward this age group? 

AADL goes social

John Blyberg has launched the Social OPAC for the Ann Arbor District Library.  So, what's so social about it?  You can learn more by watching the screencast on John's post.  Users can "rate, review, comment-on, and tag items" and also see the results of their own work through their account (all their tags, all their comments, etc.). 

John basically built, by hand, what III's new Encore product (tres expensive) does, and then some.  As John says of Encore: "We did not purchase it, nor do we intend to. Instead we’re going to use the money we saved to buy a Lexus. *grin*"  Better yet, John is making the source code for what he created available for free for anyone else to use at: http://www.blyberg.net/files/  So, III's Encore is the cost of a Lexus (and I think John's lowballing a bit there) and John's version is free, and does more.

This is very, very exciting.  If only every library had a John.  Or, better yet, the ILS vendors should have people like John on staff who can build beautiful seamless creations like this, and then not charge an arm and a leg for it.

Library Predict-o-matic 3000

For a giggle (or eight, as it was in my case) check out Dave Pattern's Library Predict-o-matic 3000.  He announced its presence a couple of days ago.  Here's one of the predictions I got:

Future Librarian Shirts

Remember that "Future Librarian" baby shirt I mentioned back in November?  It used to be only available for kids, but now it's available for adults too!  Designer Sarah Utter e-mailed me to point me to the new product--available in both adult standard and girlie tees.  Whoo hoo!  All future librarians can now wear their badges proudly.  Utter has a lot of fun designs, including the always popular Reading is Sexy, which you can get on buttons, bags, stickers, and shirts of all shapes and sizes.

Edit images online for free with PXN8

Here's a useful online photo editing tool: PXN8 (aww, how clever)....

PXN8 lets you upload an image (or choose one from a website somewhere), then edit the ba-jeebers out of it: rotating, cropping, resizing, adjusting color, undoing red eye, and more.  It works quickly and efficiently.  You can then save the finished product or upload it directly to Flickr.

I would recommend this tool to anyone without good photo editing software on their computers (e.g. you only have MS Paint).  This blows Paint out of the water.

Musopen

Musopen is a database of online music--public domain music that is--which has been recorded by individuals or orchestras and stored here online for free access.  It is completely community-driven.  You can browse or search.  Each record includes information about the piece and composer, sometimes images, and always the sound file itself (in MP3 format), which you can download or play on the site itself.  For some samples, see all the works in the database by Chopin.  This is a great place to find some free classical music -- an excellent project!

via The Centered Librarian

Online Historical Population Reports

Ah, historical population questions....my favorite!  (not really)

Histpop.org online access to Brititsh population reports from 1801-1937, covering England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  Information in the reports includes population, economy, societal trends, medical trends, and more.

via Phil Bradley

Diamond Age miniseries

For those Neal Stephenson fans out there, you will be either very happy or quite dismayed (or maybe both) to learn that George Clooney is teaming up with the SciFi Network to create a miniseries based on the book, Diamond Age.  This is one of my favorite books ever, and there is just so much to the universe depicted in this book, so I'm a little bit scared of what Clooney will do to it :/

Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

For the morbid mice among you, the Encyclopedia of Death and Dying will surely bring some joy.  The Encyclopedia includes lengthy articles on various topics surrounding death, from AIDS to Darwin to homicide.  A useful tool for your reference tool belt.  The content all comes from Thomson Gale.

Splashr: create dynamic Flickr slideshows and presentations in seconds

A long time ago, Phil Bradley linked to Splashr, a tool that lets you choose Flickr images with a particular tag and make them into slide shows.  There are a lot of different styles for the slideshows (static pages, dynamic Flash slideshows, etc.), and the site gives you the code to use to insert the presentation right into your website, blog, wiki, etc.  The important thing is to just pick one from the entire page of options (not one from each column, as I initially thought might be the case). 

For example, here's a slideshow I put together in literally 5 seconds for all the photos I have tagged with "library."  This could be very useful for presentations at conferences or meetings where you're showing off images, or hey--take photos of a whole bunch of new books and have it be a slideshow of books people should read at the library!  Lots of opportunities here...

Technology Tutorials from Awakened Voice

The eContent blog (from Rich Hoeg) points us to some useful tutorials from the Awakened Voice Learning Center, a tutorial source for a lot of topics having to do with tech, the web, and RSS.  Here are some of the recent interesting tutorials posted (all in QuickTime):

• Google Reader Tour
• Feed To Go With Feed2JS
• Blogger Beta Tour

Very, very useful stuff!

Scrolling Text LED Sign Generator

I'm so in love with image generators.  This one is particularly fun.  Signbot lets you create your very own LED Scrolling Sign image.

found via The Generator Blog

Are you a taskbar neat freak?

If you're a taskbar neat freak, you might want to try using Taskix.  Taskix lets you sort your Windows XP taskbar items.  You just click and drag to move items around.  If, like me, you have at least 10 windows open at any given time, this might be just the thing you need to make your head happy!

found via Lockergnome Web Goodies

Genealogy Resource

AncestorsOnBoard is "a new database featuring BT27 Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1960 right back to 1890."  You can search by name, destination, and more.  Passenger list images can be downloaded too.

via Peter Scott's Library Blog

Why don't people use your library?

Libraries are often very focused on serving their users, and completely forget about all of the non-library users out there who still pay taxes, live in their areas, and are their patrons.  It's rare to hear about libraries actually polling or talking to their non-users, so I was excited to read that the C.H. Booth Library (Connecticut) is surveying non-users about why they don't use the library and what they would like from the library.

One happy trick for surveying non-users: Stand in a grocery store parking lot and grab people.  Everyone has to eat.

via LISNews

MeasuredUp: customer service rating site

Have patrons who like to vent about companies and service they've received?  Point them to MeasuredUp, a site devoted to users rating customer service they've received from various companies.  There wasn't anything listed for the zipcodes I work or live in, but quite a bit seems to be listed for major cities.  Check it out....might want to see if your library is listed here too!

via Phil Bradley's Weblog

William Blake Resource

Under the Influence, an exhibition devoted to the works of William Blake, appeals to the ex-English-geek in me.  From the press release:

Under the Influence pays tribute to the work of English poet, artist and visionary, William Blake, in the 250th anniversary year of his birth. It reveals the range of Blake's commissioned work, his engagement with contemporary thinkers, and his profound and continuing influence on today's artists and writers. This small display in the British Library's Sir John Ritblat Gallery features unique items lent or donated by writers and artists who have been inspired in some way by Blake's life and work, including Tracy Chevalier, Philip Pullman and Patti Smith.

The centerpiece of the display is William Blake's notebook, which you can view online in the British Library's Turning the Pages online gallery.

via Peter Scott's Library Blog

Inviting Participation in Web 2.0

David Lee King has a number of interesting recent posts about the importance of "inviting participation" in a 2.0 library environment. 

• Inviting Participation in Web 2.0
• Inviting Participation, Part 2: Passive Invitations
• Inviting Participation, Part 3: Active Invitations
• Inviting Participation, Part 4: Specific Tools - Blogs

If you're in any way responsible for creating web content or getting customer feedback or participation in your library (read: outreach), then read these posts for some ideas on how to get your community participating in their library.

Flickr Backup

Do you simply load all your digital images onto Flickr, and then trust that Flickr will always be around and your photos thus always available?  No!  Back it up, man!  Sourceforge.net offers up Flickr Backup, a Java application that lets you download all your Flickr photos and back them up locally.  This is useful for backing up if you do the straight Flickr load, or if your local drive has gone kaput, you can use Flickr to recapture any of the photos you uploaded.  Nice!

Real time stock quotes from Google

Like an octopus with each tentacle trying to run in a different direction, Google seems to be all over the place lately in terms of new announcements and launches.  Some might say "So what else is new?"  From a Google blog post:

[T]he NYSE has moved the issue a great step forward with a proposal to the SEC which if approved, would allow you to see real-time, last-sale prices across all Google properties including Google Finance, Personalized Google, Mobile, and of course, Google.com. It won't matter if you're on Wall Street or Main Street -- you'll have free, easy and fast access to real-time prices from NYSE on Google.

A service to consider adding to your financial and investment pathfinders...

Pulic library usage report

Thanks to Michael Pujalis for e-mailing me about this report from the National Center for Education Statistics.  It's a 2002 report: "Households' Use of Public and Other Types of Libraries."  The entire report is available as a PDF.  It breaks out the public's use of different types of libraries.  It also looks at age, race, proximity to library, and other factors.  This may be very useful for proving the need for outreach efforts and more for your libraries.

Welcome to the new library blogger in the 'hood

Join me in a big welcome to the Google Librarian Center for their new blog: http://librariancentral.blogspot.com.  It will contain all the contents that the GLC has had until now, and will have more frequent updates with new information.  Here's the feed. 

podcast about library buildings

The Library 2.0 Gang talks about library buildings in the new millennium in their latest podcast.

Wikiseek

Wikiseek is a new search tool that searches all of Wikipedia and its outgoing links to other websites.  Think of it as an encyclopedia search that searches all the references and sources, as well as the text itself.  I can think of this being rather useful in research situations in libraries quite frequently.  From their self-description:

The contents of Wikiseek are restricted to Wikipedia pages and only those sites which are referenced within Wikipedia, making it an authoritative source of information less subject to spam and SEO schemes.

Wikiseek utilizes Searchme’s category refinement technology, providing suggested search refinements based on user tagging and categorization within Wikipedia, making results more relevant than conventional search engines.

Building a library website today

Karen Coombs's article, "Building a Library Website on the Pillars of Web 2.0" in this month's Computers in Libraries, features six tenets (pillars) of building a successful library website (or any website, really) incorporating the elements of Web 2.0.  If you're planning a redesign or trying to add new elements to your own website, check this article out as an inspiring primer.

Two awesome author interviews

If you are a science fiction and fantasy nut, then you will want to listen to these two radio interviews:

• A three-year old (but stellar) radio interview with William Gibson, recently replayed on This Week in Science. The Gibson interview starts about 31:49 minutes into the MP3, if you want to fast-forward to that bit. (found via Boing Boing)
• A radio interview with Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean about their work together from Minnesota Public Radio (found via Blog of a Bookslut)

Free web hosting for a year

Is your library website stuck on a totally stinky county/university/city/consortium-run web server with tons of limitations?  And you want to move off of it, but your administrators keep saying "Oh no, we can't--the cost would be too much"?  Then check this action out. 

Globat.com is offering free web hosting for an entire year for either their Terabyte Xtreme or TeraByte XS web hosting plans (regularly $7.95 to $19.95 per month) but totally free after a mail-in coupon (good until March 1st)...for a whole year.  This makes it a $95.40 to $239.40 savings overall.  The web hosting features are somewhat minimal, but include free domain name, unlimited domain email accounts, 1000-5000 GB of storage, and 1000-2000 GB transfer per month. 

So, depending on the size and features of your library website, this just may be that sweet deal you were waiting for.  We all know no library director will say no to "free."

found via FreeAfterRebate

Top Tech Trends from the notorious l.i.b.

I just posted my Top Technology Trends (for the LITA Top Technology Trends panel at ALA Midwinter) on the LITA Blog, a blog worthy of ongoing reading and RSS-subscribing.  The TTTs are predictions from library world techies--where we see things going in the future, be it near or far.  Go there and read them if you're interested...no need to duplicate content here.  Karen Schneider is percolating her own over on Free Range Librarian, and asking for reader input as well.

Horror readers advisory resource

If you've got horror lovers out there, point them to The Monster Librarian.  There's info on horror books for kids, teens, and adults, complete with reviews, upcoming releases, and very nicely annotated book lists by specific horror categories (e.g., vampires).  Sweet, sweet, RA resource!

found via librarian.net long, long ago

FirstGov gets a new name

FirstGov, which you know and love, now has a new name: USA.gov.  An FAQ about the name switch is available, but they say the basic gist of it is this: "We did it because you asked us to. Feedback from the public told us that we need a name that is easier to understand and remember."  Go figure :)  Don't forget to now go and change all the links and bookmarks you had for FirstGov to USA.gov. 

Using MS Live Book Search for genealogy research?

I admit that I haven't used the Book Searches out there (Microsoft, Google, Internet Archive/OCA) very much, nor have I (and shame on me) given them much thought in the way of research possibilities.  Rick Roche, however, has tried out using MS Live Book Search for genealogy research and was not altogether unpleased (though not thrilled) with the results.  This kind of research does seem prime for the mass digitization of book content.

California State offering TV listings to visually impaired

Every now and again California does something cool.  Visually impaired California residents can now access local television listings by calling a telephone service.  This project is sponsored by the California State Library’s Braille and Talking Book Library.  Residents must apply to become part of the BTBR program first, and then can access this and other services for the visually impaired, including downloadable audio books, and books, magazines, and newspapers provided in multiple formats.  Read more in their press release.

Programming Tutorials

Looking for some techie tutorials?  Add tutorial.icio.us to your list of places to check.  There is a huge range of tutorials available--on design, Photoshop and other image editors,