LibrarianInBlack

LiB Webcast on September 4th

I will be giving a webcast presentation about online marketing and outreach for the Canadian Education Institute on Tuesday, September 4th at 10am PST.  It is part of the Tech Tuesday's Series of talks.   You can view a complete list of past and upcoming talks at http://www.lights.ca/  It isn't a free event--it has a small cost attached to it ($54 for members, $74 for non-members--that's Canadian dollars, of course)

A big thanks to Darlene Fichter for hooking me up with this opportunity!

RSS Response AutoResponder

The RSS Response AutoResponder sends out a series of RSS-messages over whatever period of time you specify.  A number of potential uses are listed on the service's website, some of which might be useful for libraries: delivering a training course one chunk at a time, a series of photographs or historical documents, or a series of podcasts.  The service costs $19.95 per month, but you can test it out for free on the feed end with these two feed-driven classes (Learn about RSS and 10 Photoshop tutorials).  You also get usage statistics, which are all important to we user-driven institutions :)

found via A Feed Is Born, who found it on newsniche

Tag your PC files

This was new to me: Tag2Find is a utility for tagging files on your computer.  Vista apparently has a tagging component that isn't that prominent.  Tag2Find is a system-tray living utility (my favorite kind).  You can find files by tag (including by a tag cloud).  As for actually tagging files, you enter tags and drag your files into the window [see demo here].  Nifty, that. 

I found a really old TechCrunch post about it (how'd I miss that one?), which has a much better description than I could ever give of the product.  They're still in "technical preview" mode, which is probably something like Beta, but it seems to be working pretty well from the brief test I gave it.  If you'd like to stay up to date on what Tag2Find is doing, they have a lovely development blog where you can do just that.

Check it out!

Comparison of PowerPoint hosting tools

Paul R. Pival points to a great post from Amit at Digital Inspiration--a comparison of PowerPoint online hosting tools. 

Scribd, SlideAware, SlideShare, Splashcast, and Zoho Show are compared.  Depending on exactly what you're looking for, one will work better for you than the others.  'Tis not for me to tell you which one :)

Some fun online games

Looking for some good online games to point customers to?  Perhaps some to point to from the teen site or even the kids site?  Or, *gasp*, the adult section?  (WOW, HOW REVOLUTIONARY!)  Woeful, the anonymous author of the @ the Library Blog, listed several favorite free online games, some of which I am now tempted by myself, including Escape the Library (a game where you literally move from room to room trying to escape from a library).  The list started from a previous post, where the online game Bookworm was mentioned (a competitive word-search game, very addictive).  Thanks for a great list, oh ye Woeful!

Ooh, it's so pretty-like

I really like The Generator Blog.  You can find all sorts of free and easy ways to alter text and images to make them look all nice and pretty - and fool your viewers into believing you did something really fancy and complicated.  From time to time, I offer up my most recent favorites from that blog.  Hope you enjoy the following :)

I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

• The Word Puzzle Generator: All  Wheel-of-Fortune-esque ('cept they can't actually say that).  Very cool.
• Polaroize: Make your image look like a Polaroid photo (previous generators like this have come and gone, due to Polaroid threats, so grab this one while you can).
• Your Name in Lights Generator: See whatever words you choose as a huge sign with neon lights and fireworks (website was part of a promotional contest in the UK)  [see above for an example].
• Sketch Generator: Turn any image into a pencil-sketch looking thing instead.
• Web 2.0 Button Generator: Create great 3-D looking buttons, with Web 2.0 application icons too.
• Custom Computer Keyboard Generator: Enter whatever text you want on the key, and you're off to the races.
• Back to School Chalkboard Generator: Enter message to show up in chalk on a blackboard.
• Goth Name Generator: No library application, but hey--it's my blog (that's Velvet Kisses's blog to you, buddy) and I can put what I want on here.  :)
• Random Kitten Generator: This has no real application in a library, except to keep staff spirits high I suppose, and perhaps give people something cute to wallpaper their dirt-grey cubicles with.

possible new music search engine

Read this ars technica post, A search engine that "listens" to music to help you find new tunes by John Timmer, that discusses search technology that uses music qualities to recommend other similar music (much like Pandora does now for people, but in a much more specific and granular way).  Very interesting!

Twitter in Libraries

For a good explanation of how Twitter may be applicable in libraries (and I'm not so sure it really is, at least not in a substantive way), check out the iLibrarian's Guide to Twitter in Libraries.  Pretty much everything you want to know is right there.  Kudos to iLibrarian's author, Ellyssa Kroski.

Sorry to be such a sour puss, but I'm still not sure about Twitter.  It's too much for my brain.  Too much to read, too much to remember (updating), and who really cares what I'm doing moment to moment? What I've found is that most of the people in my Twitter-verse use it to share articles and resources, ask for assistance, and very few actually use it to update others on their activities.   But maybe that's just because I know a bunch of nerds (and I don't use that word negatively--calm down Twitter-friends).     I find that RSS, wikis, blogs, email, and IM work pretty well for all of my information and socialization needs, and perhaps for me, Twitter is solving a problem that just isn't there.

Moo expands to sticker books and notecards

So many Flickr users fell in love with moo cards, those little photo cards that can be calling cards, business cards, or whatever you'd like them to be.  I need to get more printed, I'm nearly out of my first 100.  Now there are moo sticker books and moo notecards too!  My pocketbook just got a wee bit lighter.

Blogging about your own library's experience: career suicide or honest sharing?

Hmmm...career suicide or honest sharing.  I'll go with both.

Dorothea Salo blogged recently about her thoughts on being a blogger and working at a library.  Should your manager highlight your blog?  No.  It's done on personal time and has nothing officially to do with your work.  Should you blog about your library's day-to-day activities?  No.  It's done on personal time and has nothing officially to do with your work.

And therein lies what I see as a problem with the biblioblogosphere.  I am by no means the first person to point this out, but it is a shame that those of us working at real life libraries cannot or will not share our work experiences out of fear of reprisals.  Because of this, we do not see  many of the real life problems and opportunities facing our libraries.  We see the happy-ending projects in our libraries reflected in the biblioblogosphere ('cuz we're allowed to blog about smiley face things without getting screamed at).  But anything that would induce a "WTF?" response from the blogger in his/her work environment cannot see the light of day online. 

As Dorothea says:

Don’t you dare write anything personal that someone else might get angry or squicked at. Don’t go too far outside the norm (and lest we forget, the blog-norm is gendered, racially weighted, heteronormative, ableist, fat-hating, class-bound, and a few other ugly things picked up from the society it derives from). And don’t have opinions on matters libraryish that differ too much from your boss’s. Asking for trouble, that.

I have certainly received a bit of squicking and trouble from various bosses  for asserting opinions in this blog about products, vendor practices, and services.  Think of it: your library participates in some project or product -- and you say, in your professional blog that it is total crap.  It then becomes very difficult for your manager, if (s)he reads your blog (which would be advised), to differentiate between your at-work attitude toward that project and your blog attitude, especially if the two differ radically, which they may if you have a hose-beast of a boss.  *tee hee, I said "hose beast*

As a manager and a reporting employee, I too can see both sides of the glass here...  And yet, I still feel that it is a shame that bloggers with so much wonderful at-work experience end up not sharing those things because of this fear.  I do believe that much information is being lost as a result of this disconnect and clash of priorities.   I think we're not seeing as many honest opinions and evaluations of products as we would if we were more open about what we think.  We would be able to use the biblioblogosphere as a Yelp of sorts to help us evaluate potential service and resource purchases.  As it stands though, we don't see as much negative information as I think is out there--the positive is definitely too heavily weighted, because writing a smiley face all over your library's project is much easier on the career-advancement-path than a frowny face.

I don't know that this will ever be solved, but the self-published nature of much of our professional information now has created this clash.  At the very least, we should be aware of it even if we can't come up with a solution.

Technology readiness: how do you think you compare?

Steven Bell blogged on the ACRLog a while back about technology readiness, innovation, and eService quality.  He also mentioned the National Technology Readiness survey, which showed, among other things, that people's perception of their own "tech readiness" (keeping up with tech) has gone down--from 68% in 1999 to 57% in 2006. 

That drop can be attributed to a number of factors, but it's something worth thinking about.  Are people spending less time "keeping up"?  Or are they spending the same or more time, and the number of things to keep up with has increased and/or the complexity of those things has increased?  Or are people simply perceiving that they're less up to date, when they're really fine?  Are things simply moving too fast for that 11% difference? 

I like Steven's assessment of this:

I see it as an indicator that the given amount of time you have to keep up and increase your technology awareness is insufficient. It may be something we need to accept.

This could mean a number of things for public libraries.  You may want to offer more technology classes at the library to help your community keep up with what is being offered in the world around us.  You may want to add this data to your considerations for new tech projects--is it simply too much for your staff and public?  Or, you may want to say--yes, of course that is so, and it will only be more so as time goes on.  If that is the case, so help us all. *wink*

Library gaming success story

If you haven't seen this linked elsewhere yet, a post from late June from Ska Girlie at the St. Joseph County Public Library talks about how their game nights have created a community of their own.  They started team competitions in Super Smash Bros. Melee, a website for the tournaments with closed web forums for each team to strategize, and  one crew created personalized avatars for the GameBoard and their own website (with bios, a forum, videos, and more).  Wow!  And all that came out of library game tournaments.  That is an excellent example of how library activities within our four walls can foster community building online too.  Great work SJCPL!

Gale adds custom search RSS feeds

Databases using the Gale PowerSearch interface now offer custom search RSS feeds.  Paul R. Pival has a good write-up on The Distant Librarian.  This is a great addition :)

Library literature: academic and generally useless?

Lorcan Dempsey wrote the following in a blog post entitled "Communication":

I think we have a very dreary ‘published’ literature. We have a set of niche publications, many of little sustained interest. The literature is a citation farm for those involved in formal research activity, and in the US, a necessary career convenience for those librarians who work within the tenure system.

Dempsey raises a lot of other issues in his post regarding the archiving of grey library literature (including blogs), how more people read the informal literature than the formal, and so on.  Dorothea Salo grabbed the same quote I found grab-worthy, and commented that the literature is not that great and is not read by many, even within our own field. 

I can speak from my own experience.  My blog posts garner me far more email and IM comments, citations, and well, recognition, than most articles I've written.  And my blog is not, by far, the most popular library world blog out there.   I am not in a tenure-track job, so when I have a good idea for a lengthy article, I get to decide: does it go on LibrarianInBlack.net or do I try to get it published in a professional periodical.  Here are the factors I use to decide:

• LiB: quick and timely publication, more readers, guaranteed publication, no editors to deal with who might possibly butcher my work
• Periodical: might get paid for it, LJ or Journal of Web Librarianship holds more cachet, looks good on the resume because it stands out separately from the general one-line mention of my blog, can send to my parents who then get all happy-like that that English degree paid off after all

Admittedly, the quick publication factor is the primary issue almost every time (sorry Mom and Dad).  I think that if print journals, or even our online digital journals, could get their editorial schedule sped up a bit I might be more interested in going with them.  I end up also thinking about how much cachet I need to look good on a resume?  One article per year?  Two?  Five?  I don't know.  Generally, I think the most about how I can get my words out to the most number of people quickly.  And that is definitely not with a print publication any more.

I also agree with Dempsey and Salo that the bulk of the literature being published in our professional journals is academic-library-focused, with a very narrow research-based focus, not useful or applicable in most real libraries, and largely unread.  The funny thing is that when I started library school (coming from an Literature Master's degree), I criticized library professional literature up and down.  Much of the writing was sloppy, there was very little research done to back up points in many of the articles we were given to read, citations were only done sometimes, and flaws in logic (usually over-generalizations) were found in just about everything I read.  Now, I find that all of that literature was coming from more casual publications, not the refereed journals that we're talking about here. 

I hate to say it, but every time I open up Information Technology and Libraries (LITA's publication), I find maybe one article that is of interest and/or useful to me.  That's pretty bad, considering that is my area of interest and focus.  And I'm going to put myself at risk now by admitting that that's the only refereed journal I read, and only because I get it with my membership.  I also get American Libraries because I'm a member, and read my library's copies of Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Computers in Libraries--but often a couple of months late because they make the rounds to others (very slowly) before they get to me.  I am going to go out on a limb and guess that many library workers are in the same boat, particularly in non-academic libraries. 

So...what need do our professional publications fill?  Are they filling supply or demand?  Do we keep these going because the content really is useful for our real live librarians?  Generally, I would say no--at least nobody I know in public libraries.   Because they're useful to library school students researching what libraries are theoretically like?  Meh, probably not.  We don't want to deceive our students that much.  Or because there are hundreds of librarians in academic libraries who need to publish in refereed journals in order to make tenure?  I would guarantee that this is now what's driving our publications. 

I think that this morphing of our professional literature is unfortunate, and something that should be a point of discussion for library world leaders everywhere.  What can we write and publish, and how, that will help the most front-line staff to fulfill our missions?  That would be a round table I would love to be a part of :)

Google Health screen shots!

Remember the rumors buzzing about a new Google Health?  Blogoscoped as posted a long series of screen shots showing  what Google Health (codename: Weaver) looks like in development.  It is very impressive.  As usual, a simple Google layout.  You can create a profile, listing medications, allergies, conditions, symptoms, surgeries, procedures, test results, immunizations, physical traits (age, weight, etc.), and family history.  You can also create a list of medical contacts.  Of course, changes will probably be made to what Blogoscoped is showing, but jeebers...it's nice so far.  As someone with a number of health problems, I've been keeping all of this information in a combination of digital and print documents, cell phone contacts, calendared evens, and more.  I would love a product like this that I could access for free. 

Now, there are a lot of privacy considerations with a product like this.  Any time you put information about yourself online, you're taking a risk.  And medical information is no exception.  Hey, someday I might regret saying what I said above about having medical problems.  But a privacy policy at the bottom of Google health currently states that “Any information you enter will remain private. Google will not share it with anyone without your permission.”

September Cites & Insights

Walt Crawford's latest Cites & Insights has been posted.  This is one of what I call (in my head, anyway) Crawford's Crumb Issues.  Lots of little items, scatter shot intelligence laid out digitally.  I like it :)  Kind of like why I like reading short stories instead of novels.  Short little bits go over in my brain better.  His longer essay covers Wikipedia and other wiki uses, quite usefully, I found, including the discussion about all the different library-themed wikis.

Give feedback on ALA website

This is late news already, but better late than never.  ALA is asking for feedback on its new website wireframes (basic outlines of what the site would be like).  It's time to help ALA's new site become a usable, beautiful, functional destination :)  From their email to me:

ALA is in the process of redesigning ala.org and would like your input on some of the rough preliminary screens that we are referring to as wireframes. If you had the opportunity to view the wireframes during Annual Conference in Washington, we would especially like your input, as we have made several changes to them based on feedback we received during the conference.

While viewing and evaluating the wireframes, please keep the following in mind:

1. The wireframes you will see are rough early sketches that do not represent the visual design of the site, just an idea of the basic layout.

2. The wireframes provide only limited functionality. Links that are active are indicated by an underline & bright blue color. Things that may someday be links but are not active in this demo are underlined but are "grayed out."

3. The wireframes contain very little actual content at this point. Many areas of the site simply provide placeholding text to indicate where content would be.

To start viewing the wireframes, click on this link: http://www.userworks.com/ala/ALA%20Wireframes%20v9-postconference.htm

After you have had a chance to explore the wireframes, please take a moment to fill out our short survey. To complete the survey, click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PESQdPbvg87AzFXlQge4Eg_3d_3d

 

Songs from television shows

Ever hear a song on a TV show and go nuts trying to figure out what it was?  Waiting for the ending credits, only to find that they either didn't bother to list it or it scrolled by so fast in 6 point typeface?  Well, you can check "Teh InterNet" where many wonderful things live, like cat pictures and annoying flash ads.  :/  Well, and good things too. 

Heard on TV tries to collect all of those lovely song credits and mentions into one place.  You can browse by show and you can even listen to little sound clips to make sure that it's the right one.  And if they don't have it, you can request that it be found.  Yippee!  I used to just go to a search engine and randomly search for things like "Coca Cola commercial camping dancing techno" hoping to find the right one.  Mostly I didn't.  Now, at least, I have a new starting point for questions like that.

via Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff

Best time to buy everything

SmartMoney offers advice on the Best Time to Buy Everything, from clothing to gas to groceries.  There are some good ideas there, and some interesting take-away tips.

via Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff

DailyLit

People like things in manageable chunks: food, news, books.  People can now get little chunks of books delivered to them daily by RSS or email via DailyLit.  Just look through their list of books, pick one, and you're off to the races.  You can keep up with what's going on with the service with the DailyLit Blog.  They offer a lot of classics, and the service does actually work, so it gets a thumbs up just for that :)

found via A Feed Is Born

Multimedia Librarian

If you order DVDs, CDs, web-content etc. for your library, then check out the Multimedia Librarian.  This wiki-site is just developing, but already has lists of websites, listservs, and other resources to help with the development of these resources in libraries.  Check it out!

SFPL gets some love from local newspaper

There was a lovely article in the San Francisco Chronicle (available at SFGate.com) entitled "San Francisco libraries have become neighborhood best-sellers."  It talks about how people line up outside the libraries before opening time, come to events in droves, and provide "non-traditional" library services.  If you need a brief lift, this article might do it :)

Survey on library automation services (ILS)

Marshall Breeding, the Director for Innovative Technologies and Research at Vanderbilt University Library and the Editor of Library Technology Guides,is conducting a survey about trends in library automation (e.g. integrated library systems).  His message calling for survey participation is below.

I am conducting a survey on library automation trends. The survey aims to measure how well libraries are satisfied with their automation systems and the companies or other organizations that support them. It also attempts to get some indication of whether libraries are looking favorably on open source software for their automation system.

The survey works through the lib-web-cats directory within the Library Technology Guides web site.  This approach eliminates the need to retype any demographic information regarding your library.

You will just need to navigate to your library in lib-web-cats.

Here are the instructions on how to complete the survey: http://www.librarytechnology.org/lwc-survey-2007.pl

I am hoping to get a very large response to this survey. I will publish the results of the study in an upcoming article, provided I get enough responses to ensure its validity.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to participate in the survey.

My library launches WorldCat Local

Today marks the official launch date of our consortium's beta test of WorldCat Local, the new web catalog option from OCLC.  Here is the simple search box, and here is our altered homepage (that links to the new WorldCat Local interface).

I previously blogged about our initial entry into the beta pilot group.  I also blogged about the University of Washington Libraries installation when it launched, as I was quite intersted to see what they had going on, since we'd be next in line to be up and running.  But now it's up, it's real.  Now there are two beta projects up: both university library system and a public library consortium. 

There are feedback forms for our users, and other behind-the-scenes ways for staff to communicate our own feedback.  After our two-month beta test, we'll discuss all the feedback received and decide if we want to continue with the service.  I'll be back in two months and let you all know what happened...

ChatPatron: IM Security for Windows Environments

If your library:

1. runs Windows
2. wants to do IM reference
3. can't do IM reference because IT and/or the board and/or administration doesn't want you to on the grounds of security issues

...then you might want to check out ChatPatrol, a tool I learned about in Phil Bradley's recent book: How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library.   ChatPatron can ensure message confidentiality by taking the IM and passing it through only their server on its way to the intended recipient, instead of sending it through Google, Yahoo, or other IM servers.  It disinfects messages that have bogus hyperlinks, works with IM, GoogleTalk, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo!.  It is also compatible with IM aggregators like Trillian and GAIM.  You can get a 30-day free trial and licenses cost $10 for personal users and $20 for corporate users.   

It might be worth checking out of IM security is really an extremely horrible potential threat in someone in power's mind.  IM is of course not the boogie-man everyone makes it out to be.  IM is still relatively new, and it's much more secure than email was when it was as new.  It's still more secure than email (that is my personal assessment, anyway, based on everything I have read). 

By a long shot, more threats come in via email than by IM.  More come in via web browsing than via IM.  The threats that come in through web browsing and email are also generally more serious.  And yet, IM security is the #1 reason that libraries have told me they're not "allowed" to use IM.  In truth, in today's environment, that's like saying that a company just can't use email because it's just too dangerous.   I don't think I'll ever understand that mentality...

LibraryThing hearts AquaBrowser

LibraryThing data is going to be found in AquaBrowser's new product, My Discoveries, a product with LibraryThing tags and AquaBrowser recommendations.  Think of it as a beefed-up version of AquaBrowser, with all the LibraryThing functionality (tagging, lists, reviews, ratings) that you've come to love.  And instead of your catalog only showing you the reviews/ratings that your own users have entered, this product combines all of the LibraryThing reviews and ratings with those that any My Discoveries library's users are entering (read: a worldwide review vehicle).  Add user tagging, list-building, excellent search algorithms, visual search capabilities, and browse-ability, and you're in happy-town if you're a librarian.

If your library was thinking about buying AquaBrowser before, you just got one more darn good reason to do so.

Ask.com privacy controls

Ask.com has announced new privacy controls for its users through AskEraser, in which:

[p]eople can ensure that their search history will not be retained by Ask.com. Searchers will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. Once selected, searchers' privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches."

This Ask.com strategy is brilliant!  It gives users the control that many of them want--the ability to keep what they're looking at private, not stored on some company's search logs in order to make them more vulnerable in cases of potential law enforcement interference. 

I can see any number of rights groups protesting this ("Child molesters will of course choose to delete their history and they shouldn't be allowed to!").  It is true that getting more control over search privacy will certainly result in some users, potentially the nasty ones, deleting their histories before law enforcement can use that data to help build a case.  I guess my overall question would be: should law enforcement even have ever had access to that type of data in the first place?

Slam the Boards!

Want to do a little library/librarian publicity touting our question-answering abilities?  Then read on :)

[from a post to the QuestionPoint listserv by Bill Pardue]

Slam the Boards!
Librarians invade the "Answer" sites
Monday, 9/10/07--All Day
Supporting Wiki:  http://answerboards.wetpaint.com

I'd like to invite any and all interested librarians to be a little bold and have a little fun by going to online "Answer" sites, such as:

• Yahoo Answers
• Amazon's Askville
• The WikiPedia Reference Desk
• (see a list of others at http://answerboards.wetpaint.com/page/Registry+of+Answer+Boards?mail=1127)

Once there, let's answer!

I envision a day-long answer fest.  Answer as many questions as you feel you can.  5...10...20...you decide.  Just try to do what we do well--provide answers from authoritative resources.

...and then MARKET!

This means making it clear that this question was answered by a librarian/library professional/etc.  End each answer with the mention your own library, your VR service, etc.  Add the link.  Mention that readers should consider their own libraries, too.  Promote it to local media.  Keep in mind how many people don't even realize that libraries offer reference services.  Let's surprise and delight them with our quality.

I'd like hundreds of librarians to do this.  Thousands?  Why not?

Be clear...you'll almost certainly be helping patrons who aren't yours, but I see this as an opportunity to make the reference librarian community more visible.  I'd like to see a number of us remain engaged in the answer services, on the chance that the users will have us in the backs of their minds when they have questions they don't want everyone to see.  As such, I'm not expecting to see a huge "blip" in our reference/VR stats because of this.  But who knows?

The point is to meet some folks where they otherwise wouldn't expect us.

What to do next?

First of all, pass this message along to anyone who might remotely be interested.

Second, this is a very informal "action," so you can just mark the date and start answering, but you may also want to visit the Wiki and put your name up as a participant:  http://answerboards.wetpaint.com/page/Participating+Librarians.  I'm very lonely there right now!

While you're on the wiki, share.  Think of good marketing "tags," signatures, etc. that we can use.

Most of all, visit the various answer sites, see if you need to set up an account.  Try answering a few questions.  A couple of us have already done this and we've already got a few "Best Answers" under our belts.  See the "Exemplary Answers" section of the Wiki.   Post one if you've got one!

Then, on September 10, get ready to "Slam the Boards!"

BibMe

The new wave hitting the citation nation, BibMe, helps users create bibliographies by searching its own  databases of books, magazines, journals, websites, newspapers, etc.  I didn't find that the articles BibMe is finding are the types of things that student researchers need to find--they're all free articles available in other free online resources like the ever-popular FindArticles.com. 

What would be really nice is if a service like this provided free citation building but incorporated into its search any proprietary databases the student chose to enter (e.g. here's the URL, here's my username and password).  That kind of a tool would allow people to use everything they rightfully have access to on a subscription level, plus all of this freebie content, and create one bibliography to rule them all! 

I worry that students using this service will simply be satisfied with "just enough" in terms of finding relevant articles for their research topics, instead of delving into what their libraries undoubtedly have available for them.  But, what can we do realistically to help students understand the limitations of free services like that?  I think therein lies our real goal and purpose--educating them about why free is not always better.

An Explanation for my Lack of Posts

Hello all.  If you are regular long-time readers of Librarian in Black, you will have gotten used to the 25-30 posts I churn out weekly.  You will have noticed that over the last few weeks, that has tapered off to around 10 posts or less per week.   It's not that any less is going on in the world that I wish to share with you, or that there are any less resources worthy of mention.  In fact, I have over 50 items in the LiB backlog waiting to be written about (do other bloggers suffer this same fate?). 

Instead, life has simply created a number of situations that have put blogging, reading, and even sleep in the backseat.  I do hope that this is only temporary.  My life is currently teaching me a few valuable lessons through this time of numerous setbacks, that trusting the intentions of others implicitly is often a losing proposition, that systems meant to protect people are often ineffectual when actually put into practice, that there is much, much more to life than one's professional identity, and that one's body does not always do what one wants it to...no matter how hard you yell at it.

I tend to create scripts for my life. I have been told by many others that they do the same...I think we, as a species, like predictability.  I mentally plan what will happen in my life, subconsciously usually...planning the characters in advance, what will happen and when, all based on the information to which I currently have access.  That often means trusting in other people as well as oneself.  Sometimes, however, people fail us or we fail ourselves, and then our scripts are useless, and that sense of order and stability that we've become acclimatized to is now gone.  When our scripts find their pages singed or even scorched by reality, we are left stunned, without direction, without purpose, without trust.  I am left still believing in the strength of planning ahead and of trying to trust people in general, but lessons learned have taught me that writing one's story too far in advance is a fool's game.

While I can't make any promises (see above re: scripts), I do hope to be back blogging regularly soon.  I like posting here, saving my thoughts somewhere tangible while also exposing others to the strange and sometimes interesting things in my head :)  It's a fun thing, blogging...  I hope to be back to it soon.   

Future of Libraries mini-conference in San Francisco

This September, you can attend the third annual Future of Libraries conference in San Francisco: Embracing the Invisible Customer. It's being held on September 26th from 8:45am-5:00pm at the San Francisco Public Library's Main Library.  The event is sponsored by the Library Staff Development Committee of the Greater Bay Area. 

I will be giving a keynote speech and co-moderating the day with Anthony Costa and Laura O'Donoghue, and I'm really looking forward to it!  I spoke on one of the panels last year, and blogged the entire conference.  It was a lot of fun.  The auditorium was packed and people were very engaged with the topics presented.  If you're in the area, I highly recommend registering -- and not just because I'm involved ;)  From the description sent out in a recent state listserv posting:

The library's mission is shifting. For years we have served those who came into the library by having materials inside the library, but now we are reaching out to virtual customers using a variety of formats and methods of delivery. Who are these new customers? How can we serve them? How do we account for them to ourselves and our funders?   

Keynote speakers Anthony Costa, Laura O’ Donoghue, and Sarah Houghton-Jan will lead discussions and panel presentations about the following topics:

• Social Software in the Library: MySpace, Wikis, IM, Blogs and Flickr
• Services Without Sites: When Fingertips-to-Fingertips Augments Face-to-Face
• Collection Development/Collection Management, Link+, E-Books and the Proliferation of Formats

There is a $40 registration fee and registrations are due by September 21, 2007. For more information about workshop registration, contact Peninsula Library System staff at 650.349.5538 or krause@plsinfo.org. For more information about the workshop program, contact Paul Signorelli at 415.557.4280 or psignorelli@sfpl.info.

How much attention do you pay to your domains?

How many domain names does your library own?  One?  None?  How much thought has gone in to which domains you own, and want to own?  Is someone responsible?  Do you have a documented renewal process in places (especially in case your tech people leave before the renewal)? 

These are some of the questions you might want to ask yourself if you are a library techie (or even if you're not--ask that techie!).  Steven Bell posted some interesting facts on the ACRL Blog about domains: library.org belongs to one of those nasty portal sites and library.com is owned by The Library corporation.  Why not ALA?  But ALA is not alone here--how many of your potential domains are owned by someone else?  How many of your users trying to find you end up at some horrible site that infects their computers?  OK, OK, maybe I'm being a bit alarmist--but not much.  So, while Steven rightly asserts that ALA should start snatching up library-related domains, the same applies for your own library.  See what's out there and grab it.  For a few bucks a year you can "save the time of your reader(s)."

Add audio to PowerPoints with the flick of your wrist

The Chronicle Wired Campus Blog published an interesting piece about Slidecasts (a new feature from Slideshare, a social sharing site for presentations).  Now, I read this and thought--huh, that's interesting.  Maybe I could add some narration to my PowerPoints and slap 'em up on my blog so people who couldn't attend my live presentation could see it.  Or even better, record myself live--and divvy that audio up into individual MP3 files to match them up to the right slides.  David Free added another idea to my already overloaded brain (darn you David Free, darn you to heck!).  Libraries that do not have software like Camtasia for screencasts (or much control over their websites) could use Slideshare and Slidecasts to create narrated online presentations for their users.  Nice!  Any other ideas on uses for this new free tool?  ***and oh yes, it is all free***

Another rung in the Library 2.0 ladder

David Lee King has presented a thoughtful approach to Library 2.0: "Am I a 2.0 Librarian and the Library 2.0 Spectrum."  King offers up the Library 2.0 Spectrum image and he presents some discussion as well.  I would say that my library is in the light bulb stage, as I think many libraries are.  So...where is your library?  Where do you want to be?  How can you get from here to there and bring the rest of the staff along with you? 

Meeting Tips from Ms. Karen

Karen Schneider, the gallivanting Free Range Librarian, has posted Eight Tips for Healthy Meetings, a well-explained list of things to do when meetings make you blue (hey I rhymed!). 

I particularly liked Karen's third point, which was "The meeting is the meeting." "Meow?" you might say.  "Narf?"  "Huh?"  Well, she's talking about when the decision has already been made by others before the meeting, and the meeting is just a formal rubber stamp mechanism--or post-meeting discussions alter decisions already made.  Not good on either count.  I commented on her post, but I will say it again here:

I think everyone would say they had witnessed such a meeting at least once.  But I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would know (much less, admit) that they had been part of the problem that created such a meeting.  Why is that?  Do we all have a hard time seeing our own control issues?  Our own subversion of the decision-making process that is in place?

It's an interesting conundrum that we each have a hard time seeing our own errors...  To me it is a very complicated question related to the human mindset, and I do believe it goes beyond simple ego (not wanting to admit inferiority).  I just don't know what it is.  Do you?  If you possess the magical answer to this (in which case you probably know where the pot o' gold is buried too), please comment below.  Let's share :) 

Blogging Survey

Meredith Farkas is doing a survey on blogging (read more here in her post) to follow up on her survey from two years ago.  Take the survey here.  Please go put in your $0.02.  Thank you, come again :)

Country Profiles and Information

Gary Price recently linked to the BBC Country Profile list, which is an excellent place to find information about countries' key events as well as current news.  Other great places to look are:

• National Geographic's homework help
• CountryReports.org
• Countries of the World from Infoplease
• Country at a Glance from the United Nations
• 50States.com
• State Reports from Class Brain

Have any others that you like?  Share them in the comments section below!

Rethinking the catalogue

Via ResourceShelf, some librarians in Australia (Alison Dellit and Kent Fitch) have written a 26-page paper titled Rethinking the catalogue which was presented at the Innovative Ideas Forum. The paper discusses "our basic strategies based around re‐imagining library catalogues, the arterial systems of our libraries."  If you are interested in the development of library catalogs, take the time to read this paper.  I feel that it did an excellent job of discussing the true function of the catalog (which is ever-changing) and ways to improve that function by focusing on what our users truly want from our services.

Feedity: create RSS feeds for your website

Reader Nick Rice emailed me to point me to a site called Feedity, something I had heard of before but never taken the time to look at.  Feedity is a service that will create an RSS feed for any webpage--alerting you to changes to that webpage.  I tried it and it worked very, very easily.

There are a number of services like this, another of which I highlighted in this post and there is a long list at FeedReaders.  Each works somewhat differently--parsing different data, requiring different levels of technical expertise, etc. 

Services like this could come in handy if your library has webpages that are frequently updated but you don't have the technical staff or capability to create RSS feeds for each of these sites.  If you are trying to update your library's website to be more "Web 2.0," take a look at Feedity and other services like it and see what you can do with them.