LibrarianInBlack

Meme: Passion Quilt

  Passion Quilt Meme 
  Originally uploaded by Librarian In Black

A sweet meme has started recently called the "Passion Quilt Meme."  I got tagged by Stephen Abram. 

There are 3 rules:
1. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.
2. Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.
3. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce."

I am tagging Aaron Schmidt, Karen Schneider, Michael Stephens, Greg Schwartz, and Nicole Engard.

RSS Awareness Day tomorrow!

Thursday, 1 May 2008 (tomorrow), is RSS Awareness Day.

This new day is an effort to increase the public's awareness of RSS and its related uses and tools.  The website explains what RSS is in layman's terms and includes the most excellent Common Craft video: RSS in Plain English. 

RSS use is still very small, compared to uses of other online services and technologies.  According to Feedburner, they track 60 million RSS users/subscribers.  That is not a lot.   For those of us who use it, it's like a cult...we love it, we talk about it with other users, and we preach its holiness to non-users.  But, the non-users remain non-users until they are really convinced that it's useful to them.  So...tomorrow, go out and convince somebody.  They will thank you later!

found via RSS4Lib

Ban a baby, ban a phone

Aaron Schmidt makes an apt comparison between banning babies and toddlers in the library and banning cellphones.  They're both small, loud, and annoy people trying to concentrate.  Aaron is being facetious, but personally?  I'm so baby-unfriendly that I might actually ban babies if I ran my own library and was beholden to no one.  And it's probably a good thing that that will never happen.

Webcast: Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library

Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County, is giving a webcast for WebJunction: "Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library."  That is a topic we could all use a little bit more knowledge about, right?  The one hour webcast will be held on June 10th at 11amPST/2pmEST.

Topics to be covered include:

• The differences between training and learning
• The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
• The key elements of a learning organization
• Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Don't miss it!

WebTools4u2use (School Library Web 2.0 site)

WebTools4u2use is a wiki-based site about Web 2.0 tools for school library media specialists.  There is a lot of information here that would be useful for school librarians, teachers, parents, and public librarians who work with children.  From the site's self-description:

This wiki was created for school library media specialists by Dr. Donna Baumbach and Dr. Judy Lee, University of Central Florida. The purpose is to provide information about some of the new web-based tools (Web 2.0) and how they can be used and are being used by school library media specialists and their students and teachers. Much of the information--including identifying a need for this kind of information--is the result of a survey conducted in 2008 of over 600 school library media specialists about their knowledge and use of web-based tools in library media programs.

Topics covered so far include:

• Audio & Podcasting
• Blogs
• Calendars, Task Management, & ToDo Lists
• Drawing, Charting, and Mapping Tools
• Photo & Photo Sharing
• Portal & WebPage starting tools
• Presentation tools
• Quiz & Polling tools
• RSS, Newsfeeds, & Aggregators
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Networks
• Video Tools and Video Sharing
• Wikis
• Word Processing and Productivity tools

Since it's a wiki, anyone can add to it.  Take a look and share the resources you have!

found via Stephen's Lighthouse

Sarah's Upcoming Presentations and Classes

Below is my speaking and teaching schedule.  If you happen to attend one of these events, stop by to say hello!

Upcoming Presentations and Classes

• May 8, 2008 - OPAL webcast "Online Marketing for Libraries"
• May 15, 2008 - OPAL webcast "Technology Training and Competencies for Libraries"
• June 4, 2008 - "Staying Current: Methods for Essential Professional Development" for the Arizona Libraries Summer Institute
• June 4, 2008 - "Tools for Staying Current" for the Arizona Libraries Summer Institute
• June 11, 2008 - "Online Outreach Techniques for Academic Libraries" for the University of San Francisco Library
• June 20, 2008 - Keynote for the Mississippi Libraries 2.0 Summit
• July 10, 2008 - "Technology Training and Competencies" for the Ohio Library Council Annual Reference & Adult Services Conference
• July 10, 2008 - "Online Outreach and Marketing" for the Ohio Library Council Annual Reference & Adult Services Conference
• September 19-21, 2008 - " I Wanna Be 2.0 Too!" for the Association of Rural and Small Libraries
• September 19-21, 2008 - "Online Marketing for Small Libraries" for the Association of Rural and Small Libraries
• October 14, 2008 - "Reaching Patrons: Online Outreach for Public Libraries" for the North Suburban Library System Annual Summit
• October 14, 2008 - "Collection Development for eResources" for the North Suburban Library System Annual Summit

Tell me Alice, where is the tea party?

If you haven't heard of Alice, yet, watch out because this is gonna knock your socks off.  Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the Alice project teaches students computer programming through an interactive 3D environment.  It is freely available to anyone as a teaching tool.  Students can create simple video games or animated movies using the virtual world environment by dragging and dropping graphic tiles to create programs.  The project's "About" page explains it better:

In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects. In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.

I love this idea and as someone who finds new coding languages daunting, this would be a great way to get me to learn new concepts.  I also think that this method of teaching would resonate more with visual and verbal learners, leading to higher rates of success. 

You can download the program in Windows, Mac, or Linux.  There is also a lot of support information on the site: instructional materials, tutorials, forums, and more.  You can view a demo at the bottom of this page.  Take a look!

Cue Prompter

Stephen Abram found this gem of a tool for anyone who gives talks in front of an audience: Cue Prompter.  And it's free!  Just plug in your text, and it will scroll along like an expensive teleprompter.  And as Stephen points out: "And you can avoid the issues of too small text, having to look down at notes, memorization, and more."  The page has been up and down of late, so if it's down when you try to access it, try, try again.

Open University's free online courses

Recently, the Open University started providing free public access to all of their course materials on the OpenLearn website.  And you can shape and share them too!  From their site description:

All the OU materials are available to use, take away, amend and reuse for free under a Creative Commons license. Visitors to the website can collaborate to create new 'open access' materials and upload them to share with others.

You can browse topics and see how long the class will take, whether it is introductory or masters level, and then self-pace your way through the class.  In the "IT & Computing" and "Technology" categories I was able to find a few things I am interested in taking myself to better my understanding of certain topics.  I also found a few I think will be useful in libraries for classes for both the public and staff--like "An  Introduction to Information Security," "Information on the Web," and more.

found via Peter Scott's Blog

Free and Open Source Subject Guide software, and a call for subject guide collaboration

Stephen Francoeur linked recently to an article in Code4Lib which reviews open source software options for creating subject guides on your website: "Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides" by Edward M. Corrado and Kathryn A. Frederick. These would be open source alternatives to for-pay services like LibGuides. 

The title of Stephen's post intrigued me though: "Open Source Subject Guides."  I started thinking about all of the time and effort that librarians put in to creating subject guides, all locally, all duplicating much of the work our colleagues around the country (and world) have already done.  And I got to thinking about the the Librarians' Internet Index, and how that gathers librarian website recommendations in one place so that each individual library doesn't have to do it independently. 

And I thought: why can't we have a similar site for subject guides, for subject-specific pathfinders?  The recommended websites (with the exception of local websites), catalog searches, articles, blogs, RSS feeds, video and audio content, and books will be the same for most libraries by type (admittedly, academic & public libraries will have different audiences, and different items selected as a result).  The only real things that would be different would be our databases and any local-specific materials (like a special collection, rare books, etc.).  Does anyone else see value in trying to combine our efforts to create subject guides, or are all of our users really that different from each other that we need to create these individually?  We are all a lot more alike than different, and in times of tough budgets I'd like to think we could help each other here...or perhaps even have a grant-funded project to tackle this issue.

The Recycling Center

In the nature of all things green, check out The Recycling Center: literally anything and everything you could want to know about recycling including green shopping links, home recycling options, nearby recycling centers, and links for a few key recycling web resources.

found via Sites and Soundbytes

PingFM: Microblog Blasting Service

OK, this I like.  PingFM is a service that will microblog a post to all of your social services at once. So far they're supporting sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Pownce, and more.  You can also only send posts to one service using text commands to limit the blast.  The need to post in many places at once is starting to become an annoyance for those of us with many accounts, and therefore, many networks of friends and acquaintances.  There is a big hole opening up here that entrepreneurs can take advantage of: creating services that let you do things in multiple services simultaneously, like adding photos, microblogging text updates, etc.  Those services are starting to arrive and I betcha there will be more.

found via eHub

New question for the annual Public Library Survey: Virtual Visits -- what does that mean?

Last week I gave a webcast for Infopeople, an organization in California dedicated to the training of library staff throughout the state.  The webcast was entitled Effective "Virtual Visits" Statistics for the Annual Public Library Survey (long, I know, but accurate).  I think the content will be helpful to many libraries.

Many library web staff don't know that a new question was added to the Public Library Survey, the annual survey that each library has to fill out every year noting staffing and budget numbers, circulation, and more.  The new question they added this year is as follows:

Virtual visits to the library (website or catalog):
Virtual visits include a user’s request of the library website or catalog from outside the library building regardless of the number of pages or elements viewed.  This statistic is the equivalent of a session for a library's website. Exclude virtual visits from within the library, from robot or spider crawls, and from page reloads.

From the webinar's page, you can listen to the audio of the webinar, get a copy of my PowerPoint slides to follow along with, and get a handout with some resources on website statistics, tools, and more.  I hope that this will be helpful to people working to meet this new statistical requirement.

The long and short of it is as follows:

• Website traffic: Most libraries are measuring website traffic, and can get visits numbers from there.
• Catalog traffic: ILS vendors, with the exception of open source providers, do not provide any way to measure visits so libraries will have to kludge together some page-tagging to measure hits and (if you're lucky in how you can set it up), maybe even visits.  But this will require work, and perhaps a monetary investment, from each library.
• Extended web presence traffic: Most of us have some presence outside their website and catalog (a MySpace page, a Flickr account, something).  Tracking these will require some page-tagging and more likely than not you'll get hits not visits.  This will also require work, and perhaps a monetary investment, from each library.
• Excluding traffic from within the library is easy for the website with most web analytics software, and harder/impossible for the catalog and the extended web presence.
• Excluding robot or spider crawls can be done with most web analytics software.
• Excluding page reloads is virtually impossible without labor-intensive manual analysis of the server logs.
• Tracking between servers to measure the use of one user for one visit from their hits to the catalog, to the website, to a Flickr page, and back to the catalog is impossible.  Can't be done without creating a whole lot of expensive back-end technology for each and every library. Not gonna happen.

My advice is this: do what you can with what's left of this fiscal year (only a couple of months).  Sampling will be required for most libraries for the catalog and extended web presence numbers.  Document what you do and what you are counting.  Tell the IMLS and the State Library in your state (the folks coordinating this) what you can and can't do, what numbers you're actually counting (e.g. hits vs. visits), and the quantity of time and money resources it's taking to get numbers.  Also tell them what numbers would be meaningful to you.  For me, breaking the catalog out from the website and extended web presence is important and documenting hits vs. visits.  That's my two cents...what's yours?

Writing, Technology, and Teens

The Pew Internet & American Life project has released a new study entitled: Writing, Technology, and Teens.  The study examines the way teens think about writing: both in digital and analog formats.  There were questions about why teens write, what they think of as "real" writing, instruction in writing in their schools, and more.  It's not surprising to me that teens don't think of IMing and texting as " real writing."  I don't think adults would think of it as "real writing" either.  Formal writing takes time, you think about what you're going to write, revise it, examine what you've said.  With the live world of IMing and texting, you are pressured by time -- you need to respond.  It's more like a phone call than email.  At any rate, the study was very interesting to me and showed me the real disconnect between digital communication and traditional communication overall, not just with teens.  We write differently.  We think differently.  The technology has created a new way of thinking of communication and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Virtual Reference Survey

Anne-Marie Deitering and Kate Gronemyer from Oregon State University are conducting a brief survey on virtual reference services.  Below is the description and link.

Do you provide reference assistance using instant messaging and/or integrated virtual reference software? If so, please consider completing our survey gathering information for a study on librarians' attitudes towards instruction during virtual reference transactions. This survey is anonymous and should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Results will be used to improve virtual reference services and will be distributed via conference presentations and publication. We will collect responses for 2 weeks, from April 21 through May 5. The survey website can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wjtou978Ke_2fscmtKjUkSfA_3d_3d

Mississippi Library 2.0 Summit

I am proud to be giving the keynote at the Mississippi Library 2.0 Summit in June.  The conference website is quite fun, has a blog with updates, info about the summit, and is even displaying my latest blog posts (including this one).  Amanda Clay Powers has been a pleasure to work with in coordinating my visit, and I look forward to visiting Mississippi (a state I've never been to). I do, however, quake to think that the act I'm following (the keynote from last year) is Michael Stephens.  Big shoes to fill, and darn it if my feet aren't tiny!

BakeSpace

If you're a cooking fiend, check out BakeSpace: a social networking platform aimed at cooks and culinary lovers.  There are so many food and cooking sites on the web (second only to perhaps cat photos), but because of the social nature of the site I think this one will do pretty well.  Share recipes (of course), but also discuss issues related to cooking such as the best appliances or tools, and also get coupons and other nifty things that keep people coming back (we all like to save 40 cents on cookies).

found via Popgadget

Book Lamp

Book Lamp (beta) describes itself as a Pandora for books.  The site requires registration.  It works much like NoveList does (off-topic, but there is a NoveList Plus now that also covers non-fiction).  Choose a book and then by working through what it is you like about the book (pacing, density, action, description, dialog) you get other recommendations.  Something new and different is that you can also see the book itself mapped out visually, over the length of the book, according to the criteria above.  The site also offers forums and a blog (with a feed, of course, to stay up to date on developments). 

Tasha Saecker (Sites and Soundbytes) discusses how matching books to readers is a tricky process, much like music, and may not work as well with an automated system as one might hope.  She also notes (and I agree) that the super-small database that the site is working off of right now is inadequate and can result in some really wacky matches.  For example, for Orwell's 1984, the top recommendation was the USA PATRIOT Act (at 98% relevancy).  I suppose there is some extremely perverse humor in that, but the next two recommendations were only at 58%, which is pretty weak.  It's something to watch, to be interested in, to be aware of -- but I wouldn't be using it as a readers' advisory tool just yet.  After all, it is still in beta ;)

Greener Computing

A day late and a dollar short, check out this article from Computerworld in honor of Earth Day: "5 Habits for Greener Computing."  I got some useful information from it (ink, paper, power, recycling) - hopefully you will too!

Free Koha webinar May 19th

A free webinar is being held on Monday, May 19th from 9am-noon (EST I think?) about the open source ILS Koha.  To learn more about Koha, see the LibLime website.

From the webinar's description on Facebook:

You and your staff are invited to attend a free WALDO/LibLime webinar featuring the Koha Integrated Library Software. As you heard at the Next Generation Academic Library System Symposium sponsored by IMLS, VALEnj and The College of New Jersey, WALDO is partnering with LibLime for its new ILS and is excited about the progress that has already been made.

If you want to attend either session, please contact Becky Bell to register for this event:
Becky Bell, Open Source ILS Consultant: (800) 326-6495 Ext. 6 -or- beckybell@waldolib.org

This webinar is being presented using WebEx. If you have not used WebEx before, please point your browser to http://support.webex.com/support/support-overview.html so you can test your browser and operating system.

The playback of UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files requires appropriate players. To view this type of rich media files in the meeting, please check whether you have the players installed on your computer by going to https://liblime.webex.com/liblime/systemdiagnosis.php

Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday

I'm busy.  So busy that it took me from February 6th until today (April 22nd) to get around to reading the following article, which I found via Michael Stephens's Tame the Web blog: "17 Unbeatable Ways to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday."  I promise, though, it was worth the wait.  I did actually get some tips that I hope to implement soon, such as #15:

Do mini-meditations. This doesn’t require a mat or a temple or soothing tapes or anything. Just sit where you are, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing — on your breath as it comes into your body, and then goes out. This helps me to center myself, no matter what is going on with work.

I would also love to do #10, "Cut out meetings," but I have a feeling that's not as up to me as I'd like it to be :)

Super Screenshot

Here's a neat tool I found via David Lee King's blog: Super Screenshot.  Just enter a URL, choose some options (dimensions, size, and format), and voila!  A screenshot ready for saving, copying, or whatever else you have in store for it.  Fast, easy, and a great tool to share with staff.

Sports Illustrated archives available online

Sports Illustrated has made its archives available online.  You can read through 54+ years of Sports Illustrated content including all of the full text articles, all images (even the covers), and additional "value added" content like videos.  As Gary Price points out on ResourceShelf (where I heard about this lovely news), there is an advanced search interface but you can't limit by date until you run a search and then refine it via an option at the top of all results pages.  Hopefully that's something they'll fix quickly.

Meebo to introduce advertising into IM service

We've been hearing for a while now about how Meebo is doomed to introduce ads.  Well, the future may be sooner than we think.  Meebo has announced that starting next month they will start rolling out ads in their IM service.  For libraries who have used Meebo to provide reference services for users, this may be a problem if the ads infiltrate the MeeboMe widgets.  Otherwise, it will only effect people who are actually using Meebo to access their IM services which, in the case of IM reference, will most likely only be the librarian. 

Where did this come from?  Meebo recently hired Carter Brokaw (formerly of CNet and Warner Music) as their new Chief Revenue Officer.  Meebo conducted six months' worth of focus groups to find out what types of ads IM users would tolerate.  The answer?  "Utility-based ad campaigns" -- non-intrusive, engaging, advertising that involves and is controlled by the user.  It will be interesting to see what Meebo comes up with, and whether users flee or stick with this popular free service as a result.

Read more on ReadWriteWeb's analysis of the situation.

It's raining Flickr, hallelujah

Heard of Flickr Storm?  It's a Flickr search engine that searches Flickr in the standard way for your search term, including very specific Creative Commons license limits (which is my favorite part), and keeps a history of photos you have clicked on.  The kicker is that it also brings up another set of results right under the standard results with what the engine considers to be "related" images.  For example, a search for my name brought back "related" images of other Sarahs (some of whom looked as remarkably pale and pasty as I do).

According to the site's cryptic self-description:

It works by looking for more than what you enter to find related and more relevant images... Be suprised!

Take a look.  See what you think.

Google starts in on the invisible web

From an announcement on the Google Webmaster blog, Google is starting to crawl through HTML forms to get data, which means it is starting (just starting) to harvest some of the wonderful data that is available in database driven applications in what has come to be known as "the invisible web" or "the deep web."  This is a monumental step in my opinion, and means better and more complete search engine results in the future.  The number of comments and trackbacks on Google's post tells me that I'm not the only one who thinks this!

Free Use Photos Flickr group

Tony Tallent, author of the Yes to Know blog, and Lori Reed, author of the Library Trainer blog, (both Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County employees, by the by) have created a new Flickr group: Free Use Photos.  From her announcement of the group:

Inspired by Michael Casey and his 50 Reasons Not to Change post (and the comments that followed), Tony Tallent and I have created a Flickr group called Free Use Photos where all the photos are free and can be used with no restrictions.

We encourage everyone in the library and education communities to join and share photos that can be used for displays, presentations, blogs, or any other imaginable use. Tony has already added some great photos to the group that will give you an idea of what we are looking for.

Add, use, and enjoy Free Use Photos!

ALA Core Competencies of Librarianship

ALA is working on a revised version of its Core Competencies of Librarianship.  Did you know about this project?  I sure as heck didn't, and as one of the foremost experts on technology competencies for library staff one would think I would have at least been notified.  I guess that's too much to expect as technology is so little of what we do in our jobs now, right?  The whole process makes me wonder why the creation of this document has been so closed off, so non-inclusive of its members.

Brian Kenney, in a School Library Journal editorial, who has seen the document, points out that its focus is predominantly on adult services, leaving youth services out in the cold.  Brian's editorial says that the competencies might be findable on ALA's website, but try as I might I was unable to find anything recent.  Different sections of ALA have their own sets of competencies (YALSA, RUSA, etc.), but the general competencies should strive to be more inclusive of all aspects of librarianship, and missing youth services is inexcusable in my mind.  It makes me wonder if it leaves out technology services as well (I'm guessing yes).  Here is more from Brian's editorial:

[R]ecently a document passed my screen that I couldn’t overlook: “ALA’s Core Competences of Librarianship,” prepared by ALA’s Presidential Task Force on Library Education, which is chaired by ALA’s former president Michael Gorman, an infamous blogger basher, and librarianship’s very own Marianne Williamson (see Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for Librarians [ALA, 1997]).

Although the guidelines were presented at a public meeting, I don’t think this document is widely available, but you could try searching ala.org. The document is predictably conservative—in the sense of preserving what exists—and covers what you’d imagine: the foundation of our profession, information resources, organization, technical knowledge, reference and user services, research, continuing education, and administration....

What’s interesting is what’s missing from this definition of a generalist librarian: any mention of school librarianship or youth services. The committee will argue that these are specializations, and, of course, they’re right. But let’s face it, if you don’t actually mention children’s services, then the default in library education will always be adult services. And the “Core Competences” even favors adult services by elevating “the role of the library in lifelong learning… and the use of lifelong learning in the promotion of library services.”

So, what to do, what to do?  I honestly don't know.  I would like to see this draft.  I would like it to be put out to the membership for suggestions and comments.  I would like to see the very definition of our profession be inclusive and actually involve the profession instead of a small room of individuals who may or may not be knowledgeable of what today's librarianship actually entails.  All I'm asking for is inclusion.  I think that we, as members of ALA and/or of the profession, have a right to comment on this important document.  What do you think, readers?

Yahoo to introduce competitor to Google Analytics

In all likelihood, Google Analytics will soon have a competitor.  Yahoo! purchased IndexTools, an enterprise-level web analytics company, and has made it free for current IndexTools customers willing to sign a Yahoo! service agreement.  Expectations are, however, that a free version for everyone will be released soon.  Keep your eyes on that!

Free2 library PR campaign in SF Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area libraries, of which my library is one, have launched a massive PR campaign with the theme "Free2."  The idea is that you build upon the theme: free2create, free2enjoy, free2...you name it.  The campaign has Free2 website  which offers a local library look-up by zipcode, a contest for the best "free2" story with some nifty prizes, and more.  The campaign also involves posters, billboards, and bus signs in the communities as well as a wealth of promotional material in our libraries.  The goal is to get the word out about the library - to re-introduce the idea of the public library into the public's consciousness and update them about what today's library is all about.

Why don't we like self-publishing?

Steve Lawson has an interesting post on libraries' bias against self-published literature, even that which is written by relatively popular authors who have been previously published in the standard way.  He points to another excellent post on the topic by Tim Spalding, Getting Real: Libraries Are Missing Books.  This would make a really interesting topic for discussion by, say, Uncontrolled Vocabulary, a conference talk table, or a lengthy article. 

Why do we not carry self-published works?  "Traditional publishing" elitism, taking the path of least resistance (read: laziness), the fact that they don't fit into our standard ways of ordering items, or a simple lack of awareness?  A combination of these factors and more?  Something to think about for your own library and for the profession in general.

Australian Libraries PSA

This is definitely making the rounds of the biblioblogosphere, but I will continue the meme here: for a good laugh this Friday, watch this "Empty Pockets" PDA video for Australian libraries.

tips from Google for creating crawlable sites

Straight from the horse's mouth (the horse in this case being Google) is this excellent list of webmaster tips for creating accessible, crawlable sites.  If you want search engines to find your site's content and index it accurately, listen to what T.V. Raman (Google Research Scientist) is saying.  Their four basic tips are as follows:

• Ensure that all critical content is reachable
• Ensure that content is readable
• Ensure that content is available in reading order
• Supplement all visual content--don't be afraid of redundancy!

It's amazing what people forget as they get caught up in fancy new designs or features.  Back to basics, baby!  There is a lot to think about when designing a web page, but remember that if that wonderful content isn't found, it won't get used--fancy schmancy or not.

Cinema Treasures

Are you a theater junkie?  Dig all that art nouveau architecture, the eight screen cineplex, or will you only go to theaters that seat 2,000 or more?  Check out Cinema Treasures: a theater-lover's dream.  The site bills itself as "the ultimate guide to classic movie theaters."  Focused on the buildings themselves, you can browse by size, location, architect, number of seats, and more.  The site is user-built, so if you have a favorite theater go grab a few photos, some stats and other information, and post away.  I can imagine how much fun this would be for architecture buffs and old-time-theater lovers.

Skitch screenshot tool

Here is another screenshot editing tool: Skitch (in a public beta).  The tool lets you annotate, drag and drop to email, and more.  I'm currently using Fireshot myself only because I can't get Jing to run without crashing my browser repeatedly.  No idea why.  Anyway, Skitch is another one to try.  I find that screenshot tools are kind of like jeans - everyone has a different style and fit preference.

found via eHub

QuotationsBook

Another quotation site to add to your bookmarked list: QuotationsBook.

Quotations Book is almost certainly the best quotation site in the world. We have 40,000+ quotes by 7,000+ people with hundreds added each day!

While I wouldn't call it the "best" site, it is good and definitely one to check when you're looking for something clever for your husband's birthday card or finding a quote for a user. 

And don't forget that the information contained in sites like these (which often run off of behind-the-scenes databases) don't show up in web search results.  You need to check these sites individually to get at that data.  A pain, yes, but such is the invisible web.

Minutes in a Minute

Hate meetings?  You're not alone.  Maybe this will make you hate them less: Minutes in a Minute.  You can create and store meeting agendas and minutes on the site, as well as membership, attendance, and a calendar of meetings.  It's a free site that does much of what people think SharePoint will do for committees.  And don't worry about privacy.  Their terms and conditions are straight - they won't sell, share, or disclose the information you post with any one else.  Think of trying it out if you're having trouble managing meetings and the documents attached to them.

Improve your web cam image

Ever see the back-lit image of your best friend on a web cam and think "Gee, I wish I could actually see her face!"?  Or are you the type of person who always wants to look your best?  No problem.  Improve your web cam image with these five easy tips from David at Strobist.  He outlines each improvement you can make, showing you before and after photos for each.  I don't think I need the full-on portable background he recommends, but the rest of it was very helpful!

Screencast-o-matic

Always on the lookout for more screencasting tools, I was recently made aware of Screencast-o-matic.  This is a very simple screencast system that requires no downloads whatsoever and instead works right inside you browser window.  It allows for audio and notes and has a limit of 5 minutes per screencast.  Don't look for any of the fancy bells and whistles here, but if you're looking for something quick and easy, this might be just the ticket.

found via an archived post on schwagbag

National Library Week

Ah yes, it's that time of the year again: National Library Week. This year it was made a bit more fun courtesy of an email from Miki Jourdan pointing me to a music playlist of library and literature-themed songs.  **just click on the play button once you get to the webpage**  It made my afternoon a bit more fun, and I discovered some coolio songs I didn't know existed!  Thanks Miki!

List of graphics generators

Always on the lookout for new graphics generators, check out this list of 15 from Mashable.

found via Darlene Fichter's furl feed

Typing Tests Online

A good site to bookmark for those computer-newbies coming into the library looking for typing classes: Learn To Type Online.  Based in the UK, the site offers a number of keyboard lessons, number pad lessons, speed tests, and even safety information on ergonomics.  Nice!

Self Made Scholar

Self Made Scholar is an online learning community for people interested in learning through self-drive, not through classical classroom teaching.  The Getting Started guide explains how the site works, that self-education.  The site offers a directory of a large number of free classes available all over the web on topics of all sorts.   Think of it as a class and tutorial clearinghouse that you can use to find good courses for your staff (or yourself)!  I was impressed with the classes that I found in the directory - a good breadth of topics and classes, but the classes chosen were also high in quality so I know I'm pointing to something good when I've found it here.

FlickrSLiDR

This is something that is new to me, but seems useful, so I share it with you of course!  FlickrSLiDR is a simple web form that turns any Flickr user's, group's or set's of photos (or even photos with specific tags only) into a slideshow to embed on a webpage.  It's easy to use and is a really cute way of getting the specific grouping of photos you want into a slideshow badge.  I see a use for it for our library in taking the branches' specific sets of photos and only displaying those on the branch's webpage.  Check it out!

Increase Your Productivity

Are you trying to work ever faster, ever harder, ever more efficiently?  Try some of the productivity applications listed in Top 20 Free Applications to Increase Your Productivity (lifehacker).  It can also be viewed as a simple list of good, free software for any purpose.  I use most of the things on the list, or a Firefox extension that approximates the same functionality.  Take a look -- you might find something new to try!

Summize: consumer reviews

In today's web world with a lot of consumer review resources, one site you might want to add to your list is Summize (beta).  It takes reviews from blogs and Amazon (and is apparently planning to grab more reviews from vendors) and combines them to formulate an average rating.  It displays a sliding scale of green, yellow, and red bars (which they call a "ship") representing the number of positive, so-so, and negative opinions of the product.  Until they incorporate more retailers' reviews, the usefulness is limited but watch it for future development!

FixYa

Social networking meets technical support with FixYa, a social networking site dedicated to helping people with their computer and gadget problems.  Recent solutions and problems, as well as a plug for the top experts, can be found on the homepage.  You can search for both products and solutions or browse by manufacturer to find the help you need. 

The site also lets you register and store all of your product warranty and support information in one place.  Registering also gets you alerts when warranties are about to expire and direct manufacturer contact information, among other things.  Nice! 

There are thousands upon thousands of problems and solutions in this database - a great place to check when the library (or one of its customers) needs help with a technical problem.

found via eHub

Firefox tricks

Some of these may be old news to Firefox fanatics, but this list of the 15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever highlights a lot of things I didn't know I could do, particularly with keyboard shortcuts.  Check it out to learn at least one new thing, I promise!  Money back guarantee!

Screen sharing tools

Paul Pival of the Distant Librarian always has useful tools and sites for virtual reference purposes.  A while back he posted a few times with links to a few screen sharing tools that I finally got around to testing.  Below are a few of the others he and I have also looked at and vetted:

• Yugma: Screen sharing service with Skype integration and free teleconferencing with archiving and shared file space.  I really like this one, having had experience with it twice (and once in front of an audience of hundreds!).
• LiveLink: Free screen sharing service
• TeamViewer: Windows-only free and for-pay screen sharing services with chat and file transfer
• DimDim: Free online meeting service
• WebHuddle: Free screen sharing service with chat
• Unyte: Free and for-pay screen sharing services (free service is limited to two people per session)

A 2006 list of screen sharing tools on Kolabora offers many more, some of which are defunct but most of which are still around.  A 2007 list of screen sharing tools from MakeUseOf offers another list.  Check them out if you're looking for more options to choose from.

I know there are other screen sharing tools out there, so if you know of some please mention them here, especially if you have had good or bad experiences with them.  Dish the dirt! :)

Loki

Check out Loki, a location-based local search application that is available for both Mac and PC users.  Named for the Norse god of trickery, the application lets your computer fold your location (via GPS) into your Internet experience.  MyLoki lets you share your location with friends, automatically.  LokiMobile lets you take the application with you on your mobile device.  If you routinely want to find close-by restaurants, post offices, or other information dependent on your location, this might be a really useful tool for you. 

The existence of tools like this tells me what many of us already know: the world is going increasingly mobile, and our online services have to be available in that format to remain relevant.

Library anime

Yes, there is another library-themed anime series: Library War.  The Anime News Network links to a commercial and a brief trailer for the series.  I love that the series is focused on libraries battling a government that is trying to censor information...true greatness. The series debuted on Japanese television on April 10th and you can already find versions of it for (illegal) download all over the web.  Not that I encourage that  type of behavior.  Oh no. 

Life Beyond Google

An excellent article in FUMSI by Mary Ellen Bates was published in March: "Life Beyond Google: Some of the Best of the Rest."   I knew about half of the alternative search engines she mentioned, but happily learned about a few new ones, including SearchCrystal.com, a metasearch engine with visual results.  As librarians, we need to know about all of the tools at our disposal for finding information: including non-basic search engines.  Depending on the user's need, some of these tools will work a lot better and a lot faster.  Know your toolbox!

Flickr adding video

Flickr is branching out.  In addition to still images, Flickr is now allow uploads of videos under 90 seconds in length as well.  Are they trying to eek into YouTube's marketshare?  Probably not.  Are they trying to simply add functionality for their loyal Flickr users?  Probably.  The service is only available to premium users (who pay the whopping $25 per year).  The videos show up alongside photos in updates from what your friends have posted and in search results.  Here is the FAQ on Flickr Video.  I think it will be interesting to see how much this feature is used, and if it's used in addition to or instead of posting something to YouTube.  It's one more way to post videos (at least the short ones) online, and to reach out to your users online.  YAY!