Creative Librarian

Web Tools

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Twitter in Plain English

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Captions for Video with Flash CS3: Flash is popular for adding interactive media to websites such as movies and tutorials. Now there’s an easy, built-in way to add captioning for the hearing impaired or sub-titles for other languages. Digital Web Magazine - Captions for Video with Flash CS3 gives and introduction on using this option.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Demofuse.com - Create Interactive Website Tours And Demos: Demofuse.com - Create Interactive Website Tours And Demos
Create a tour of your website that will walk your visitors through it, while it highlights features of the site and tells them what they need to know to get the most out of your site.
No software to download and tours start with a click on a link [...]

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Screencast-O-Matic: Screencast-O-Matic
Screencast-O-Matic is the free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free hosting all from your browser with no install!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

RSS in Plain English

Video: RSS in Plain English | Common Craft - Social Design for the Web

Click To Play
We made this video for our friends (and yours) that haven’t yet felt the power of our friend the RSS reader. We want to convert people… if you know someone who would love RSS and hasn’t yet tried it, [...]

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Complete Color Matching Guide: Complete Color Matching Guide | E Logo Design
We’ve all finally gotten the go ahead for a web site redesign or even a print project. Then been faced with the organizations official color(s) and been stymied. A quick browse of the color guide could give you ideas for something to offset, tone down, or brighten [...]

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Everything You Need to Know About Web 2.0: Everything You Need to Know About Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is a category of new Internet tools and technologies created around the idea that the people who consume media, access the Internet, and use the Web shouldn’t passively absorb what’s available; rather, they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own [...]

Monday, March 19, 2007

More on Twitter

the goblin in the library » Twitter Me This
adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Twitter: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Basically what I had thought, not for me. But who knows when the right situation might pop-up?

Thursday, March 15, 2007

hennepin county library’s bookspace

hennepin county library’s bookspace

The ever resourceful Librarian in Black breaks a huge story about hennepin county library’s bookspace which is an online community based around books. I’m going to copy her list of things readers can do at bookspace:
* create their own account for Book Space
* sign [...]

saving time with social web tools: saving time with social web tools
I hope this mini case study of a time strapped library helps expose the “I don’t have time for social software” excuse to be just that: an excuse for not wanting to expand and learn.
Indeed. Bookmarking for the next argument over new technology versus the way we’ve always done it.

Library Tutorials on Youtube: LibrarianInBlack: NetLibrary tutorial on YouTube
…the North Metro Technical College Library in Acworth, Georgia. They have 9 videos total so far, all nice tutorials on how to find information in various resources.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Is Second Life a brave new world?

Is Second Life a brave new world? - 05 Mar 2007 - IT Week

You may recall the early days of the web: geeks ruled and it was full of nonsense. Anyone trying to engage with that world found it strange and intimidating. It contained a lot of good stuff, but it wasn’t easy to [...]

OpenID, Single Signon and Academia: ebyblog » Blog Archive » OpenID, Single Signon and Academia
OpenID via your local library, be it your university or public. That is community service!

Twitter for Librarians: David Lee King » Blog Archive » Twtter Explained for Librarians, or 10 ways to use Twitter

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Podcasting: Podcasting
Extensive article useful for anyone who hasn’t actually created their own podcast or is trying to explain it to non-tech colleagues.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Identity by URI: ebyblog » Blog Archive » Identity by URI
OpenId really makes the most sense in managing your identity. It’s a lesson we’ve learned on the Internet many times now (and are going to learn many more). In this world, it works better decentralized. It’s an old Internet joke that the ‘Web sees censorship as damage and [...]

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Screencasting

Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » Random and cold medicine-induced thoughts on screencasting
The Distant Librarian: The door is open - share your tutorials! (ANTS)
COPPUL Tutorials - wiki.uwinnipeg.ca

I believe screencasting is a valuable and underused tool on library sites. Unfortunately, as Meredith notes, file size can be a problem, not only for [...]

Monday, October 16, 2006

Library Nerdgasm: Dialog has added an RSS feed for their bluesheets. You guys are the only ones who’ll understand ;->

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Using a wiki as a research guide: a year’s experience: Library Voice » Using a wiki as a research guide: a year’s experience
I have been very pleased with my experience of using a wiki as a research guide, and I can tell you that I have no intentios of returning to my old traditional html guides. Only time will tell how the Biz Wiki will [...]

Monday, June 26, 2006

David’s First Experiment with Screencasting: David Lee King » Blog Archive » David’s First Experiment with Screencasting is a perfect example of how and why screencasting is so useful. I’m subbed to a wonderful daily screencast for photoshop and photography. There are some things on the Internet that just seeing the other guys screen makes so much more sense than [...]

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Beginner’s guide to podcasts and podcasting: Beginner’s guide to podcasts and podcasting (plus: how to create a basic podcast of your own) at Forever Geek
Successful Podcasting at Forever Geek

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Podcasting and the law: Podcasting Legal Guide - CcWiki
I doubt I would ever do a podcast. Trying to talk in online classes was difficult enough when I knew I wasn’t talking to myself.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

drupalib: Drupal is an open-source content management system for managing websites. It is also the basis for the most advanced library websites being published these days (Picture users only logging once and having access to their account and all of the library’s services.). drupalib is a site for the community of those lucky enough to have [...]

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Windows Live Academic Search: Windows Live Academic Search - LJ Tech Blog - Blog on LibraryJournal.com - 670000067
Microsoft launched their Windows Live Academic Search. A competitor to Google Scholar, the site searches academic journal articles.
Have to explore this later.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Wiki Wiki: Wiki | TechEssence.Info
Wikis are the ideal tool for harnessing the collective intelligence [of your staff]. Wiki is Web-based, easy to set up, and allows people with little tech-savvy to add information. If you have a group of people who would benefit from sharing knowledge and ideas online, you may wish to consider a wiki [...]

Friday, December 16, 2005

Folksonomies Revelation: I have had several things in mind to talk about but time and energy have been rare commodities recently.
The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging is an excellent overview of the pros and cons of folksonomy organization. They’ve proven to be useful and popular with communities on the Internet, including the librarian community.
But [...]

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Clam Chowder: Add AIM Presence to your website with a simple IMG tag!: Clam Chowder: Add AIM Presence to your website with a simple IMG tag!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

RSS4Lib:: Making a Feed Where None Exists: RSS4Lib:: Making a Feed Where None Exists
Give it a web page and it will do its best to parse the page into content and fluff and create an RSS feed of the content. In a few trials, it did pretty well, though it erred on the side of omitting good content rather than providing unwanted [...]

Sunday, October 9, 2005

google reader: blogwithoutalibrary.net » Blog Archive » google reader
The review Amanda links to is excellent but leaves out my personal pet peeve. There’s no “Mark all Read” feature. I imported about 200 feeds and every item is showing new. Also, there’s no way to hide “read” items. So I wind up paging through them [...]

Introducing Tagyu :: Adam Kalsey

Introducing Tagyu :: Adam Kalsey
The basic premise of Tagyu is to let other people help you tag your content. Tagyu comapres what you’re writing to what other people around the web are writing. It looks at how they’ve tagged their content and uses that informtion to give you some ideas about how to tag yours.

Emphasis [...]

Friday, September 16, 2005

Meebo: Web based IMing with Meebo
Basically, it’s a webpage where y0u can log into several instant messaging services simultaneously without having to download anything. Good for users and librarians with locked-down computers. Now if they would add Google Talk support.

Friday, September 9, 2005

Wikiphobia: I’m pretty sure I come off as a permanent early adopter, the first to use anything new and shiny. But that’s only true to a point. Blogs? Instant understanding and adoration. (Online, Roll-Playing, MMOR) Games? Didn’t touch one till I was in my 20s and my roomate played them constantly. Wikis. I’ve always understood the [...]

Monday, August 29, 2005

David Walker: RSS Creator: David Walker: RSS Creator
A system that leverages SFX and Metalib to create RSS feeds for any journal or newspaper indexed and abstracted in a library’s subscription databases.
Watch the demo (flash). Only then can you truly understand how cool this is.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Google Talk: Another instant messaging service, great.
Google Talk is actually different from AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! in that since it’s based on Jabber it can be used to communicate with other jabber-based services. Also, it works with your Gmail account (email me if you want an invite) so it’s another service without another username and [...]

Making An RSS Feed: Making An RSS Feed is a set of instructions for hand-coding a feed fir those who don’t have software to do it for them.

Friday, July 29, 2005

walking paper: IM as answering machine or “the not so instant message”

walking paper: IM as answering machine or “the not so instant message”

In the morning there are generally a few messages from younger patrons saying something like, its 10:30 what are you still doing at the library!? and then oh when they get the away message sent to then automatically. But there are a number of [...]

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

LibrarySearch Firefox Extension: Wayne Graham’s Blog: LibrarySearch Firefox Extension
when you select text in the browser and right-click, a new context menu appears (Look up selection) that allows you to select which library/resource you would like to pass your selected text to search. This then opens a new tab with the launched search.

RSS4Lib:: TOCs in the Catalog via RSS

RSS4Lib:: TOCs in the Catalog via RSS

Jim Robertson at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Library is pulling recent journal tables of contents into his catalog using RSS.

Do I have to mention how cool this is. I wonder how difficult it would be to do in PHP…

Friday, July 15, 2005

Baby Boomer Librarian: Disaster Response, via Wikis: Baby Boomer Librarian: Disaster Response, via Wikis
This is a very positive story about the power of Wikis and Wikipedia. It focuses on the entry about the the London bombings. It shows the true power of this media. — Bill Drew

Monday, June 27, 2005

RSS4Lib:: Browser Toolbar with RSS Feeds: RSS4Lib:: Browser Toolbar with RSS Feeds is a great idea. The example only works in IE/win but I’ve heard doing one for Firefox isn’t that difficult. Definately on the “todo” list after I get the new library website up.

Friday, June 10, 2005

New Tools

The Shifted Librarian: Speaking about Blogs….
RSS4Lib:: Have You Heard the News Today?

Speakwire will read the contents of a RSS feed. And Talkr turns it into downloadable audio files for your computer or MP3 player.

Thursday, June 2, 2005

So much to do

In an attempt to get my unread list in mt aggregator down to something managable, I present the inevitable link list (annotated because some librarians are born, not made).

ALA | Patriot Act Extension Debated at Closed Congressional Meeting

In a closed-door meeting May 26, the Senate Intelligence Committee failed to agree on a proposal that would [...]

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Upcoming.org

Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you’re attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.

What a great way of providing a community calendar. You just post to the site and use the RSS feed to pull the info [...]

Friday, April 29, 2005

More Library OPAC Tricks: Library Stuff:More Library OPAC Tricks details another idea I’d love detailed directions on. Particularly I’d love to see Innovative Interfaces hacks.

Library Catalog Results via RSS

Hennepin County Library Catalog Results via RSS
Glenn Peterson at the Hennepin County Library sends word via e-mail that the HCL has added customized feeds to their online catalog. Hip Hip Hooray!

I would love to know how they got this to work.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Nvu: Nvu is an open-source WYSIWYG that works on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. Dreamweaver and Frontpage are not only expensive, they can be too much, particularly if you use templates and all you need is to format a couple of links and a list.
Nvu is free and worth a trial.

Monday, April 4, 2005

Standards for online content authors: Standards for online content authors
The standards on this page include non-technical standards relevant to all web authors and technical standards relevant to some web authors.
I suggest you pick and choose from the long list, adapting it to your needs.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream

Engineering Information - Ei UPDATE Online NewsletterRSS: Moving Into the Mainstream

RSS, or Real Simple Syndication/Rich Site Summary, is rapidly moving into our professional and personal lives as a way to keep track of the ever-increasing flow of new information. As a current awareness service, RSS allows for one-stop shopping. Recently, Ei started testing RSS feeds [...]

Friday, March 18, 2005

Fast Content For Library Web Sites: Always Fresh: Fast Content For Library Web Sites with Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Keeping a library web site up to date with fresh content is a challenge for any webmaster. Learn how to publish, merge and format RSS feeds into instant web content. Discover how libraries have made specialized pages featuring article titles of new journal [...]

Monday, March 7, 2005

Databases Behind Shops: Digital Web Magazine - Databases Behind Shops covers the basics of SQL with examples.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

MP3tunes.com: Just a quick note. MP3tunes.com rocks! I haven’t played with it much but I managed to find 2 albums that I want to buy in 15 minutes.
High quality music with no DRM for less than iTunes. This is going to be a not-so-guilty pleasure.

Monday, January 31, 2005

Making Light: Virtual panel participation: One of the new ways that libraries can serve their communities is by hosting online services such as message boards and email lists. The fact they are library-supported gives them a built-in trust factor and boundaries of interest. Someone in Alaska, say, is unlikely to subscribe to the mailing list of a Tennessee library, which [...]

43 Folders: 43 Folders: RSS of Public Library Check-outs and Requests Available for SF
Just last night, I requested that ELF add San Francisco’s public library to their collection of systems, and, bang, there it is when I wake up this morning: free RSS feeds of (and emails about) checked-out and on-request books with configurable reminders, mobile [...]

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Understanding Faculty to Improve Content Recruitment for Institutional Repositories: Understanding Faculty to Improve Content Recruitment for Institutional Repositories
…the findings of our work-practice study suggest that with a faculty-centric approach to the design and marketing of repositories, IRs could become a compelling and useful tool. If properly aligned with the existing practices of faculty, IRs have the potential to fulfill many of their so far [...]

Thursday, January 6, 2005

Google As Walmart: Google As Walmart fromRetrofitted Librarian has a great explanation of why Internet sources aren’t the best way to find scholarly information.

Monday, January 3, 2005

Blogging the Tsunami: What’s Your Brand Mantra?: Blogging the Tsunami
“(Blogs) are helping us understand the impact of this event in a way that other media just can’t,” with an intimate voice and an unvarnished perspective, with the richness of local context, Ms. Jardin said.
There has been an incredible sense of community and cooporation to assist the victims. It’s [...]

Monday, December 20, 2004

Newspapers with RSS

The Media Drop: Newspapers with RSS: A List
I’ve compiled what I believe to be a solid list of U.S. newspapers that offer RSS feeds. It is sorted alphabetically, and I’m still noting state designations on some of them.

Newspapers are a good place to start when telling someone about syndication. All of the headlines are [...]

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

The Role of RSS in Science Publishing:Syndication and Annotation on the Web

The Role of RSS in Science Publishing:
Syndication and Annotation on the Web
NPG’s interests in RSS extend well beyond the production of RSS feeds. A new server-side application that has been developed by NPG is Urchin [35]—an open-source aggregator designed to aggregate and filter RSS feeds and other data sources.

I find the filtering ability interesting, if [...]

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Making the Most of the Blogosphere: The Shifted Librarian: Making the Most of the Blogosphere is the abbreviated version of Jenny’s talk at the Internet Librarian conference. Instead of just throwing up her slides, she’s written it out like an essay so it makes sense.
Favorite quote:I think we’re ready for library blogging 2.0.
A must-read.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Information Broker

Library Stuff
It’s not such a far fetch then for librarians to be embracing weblogs and RSS technology because it is makes our finding, filtering, and presenting of information better and more efficient.

Absolutely!

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Web Editorial Process: This article describes how anyone, from a florist to an intranet web team, can develop a publishing process that meets their needs.How To Create And Set Up An Editorial Process To Publish Web Content | ReachCustomersOnline.com
Perfect for small institutions. It’s not just about your website giving access to databases and the catalog. It also needs [...]

Thursday, November 25, 2004

RSS Overload: RSS Overload Strategies are being passed along. Once you start using an aggregator, that “XML” link becomes addictive!
Personally, I use a web-based aggregator which lists all of my unread items on a single page. I do a quick first run-through looking at things that won’t take long and marking ones I’m not interested in. [...]

Thursday, November 11, 2004

syndication: Feasibility study: tonneten library :: syndication: Feasibility study: Alternatives for libraries lists several good uses for syndication feeds for both librarians and for library users. I’m trying not to link to everything Drew publishes but it’s hard because they’re all so interesting.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

IT Kitchen

The Kitchen: How to Cook a Weblog is a two-week clinic on weblogging and related topics for webloggers and those who read webloggers and even those who don�t but still manage to use the web without stumbling all over us. The focus of the clinic is on community participation, contribution, and benefit.

Today’s topic is collaboration. [...]

Monday, October 25, 2004

Uses of RSS

Every librarian should read these articles by drew. They offer both reasons to read and reasons to offer syndication(RSS) files.

Uses of RSS
RSS has already been put to a number of fascinating and imaginative uses, which will hopefully continue to grow healthily into the future. What follows is a list of some of the current [...]

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

OPML Starter: walking paper: A Starter OPML File for Librarians*
OPML is a standard format for RSS agregators (think MARC). If you want to try feed reading, just download the file and import it into your aggregator for a ready-made set of feeds of interest to librarians.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Library as Business?

Seven Reasons Why Businesses Should Blog Now
The list could have also been called “Why Your Library Should Blog Now”. Actually, since libraries are businesses too (sometimes we forget that), the list should apply to libraries…
Library Stuff

Read the comments for an interesting point from Walt Crawford. He reminds us that libraries are “commons” organizations. Steven [...]

Friday, October 8, 2004

VR Again: …or why you should look at your referrers once in a while.
I’ve been blogrolled(!) by lbr(a blog about virtual reference for librarians by request) and browsing through the entries I found “To chat or not to chat”.
Anyone who’s participated in an online community for long knows that certain topics tend to come up [...]

Monday, October 4, 2004

Web Feeds for Services: LLRX — Rich Site Services: Web Feeds for Extended Information and Library Services offers a great overview of RSS feeds for information filtering with examples of libraries who have implemented them for news updates.
Gerry also goes into other types of information that could benefit by broadened dissemination like new book/cd/etc. lists, subject-specific information, and general [...]

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Auto Bibliographies: Via Library Stuff, Furl now let’s you export your bookmark list in citation format. Let’s hear it for tools that create bibliographies for us!
For those wondering there’s an about page.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Feed to JavaScript: Feed to JavaScript takes a RSS url and gives you the javascript needed to display the feed on another webpage.

Friday, August 6, 2004

Aggregation for the Masses: zlog: ‘Aggregation for the Masses’ is an excellent introduction to web syndication and why it is so useful.

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Free Advertising: RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites - Robin Good’ Sharewood Tidings, Where To Submit My RSS Feeds And Weblog URLs To Get More Exposure, Visibility And Reach.
The beauty of the Internet is that it allows us to reach people around the world as easily as our own community. The resources listed are [...]

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

7 Things RSS Is Good For: New Media Musings: 7 Things RSS Is Good For is an excellent resource for explaining the usefullness for users. At the end is 5 Reasons Why Companies Should Publish an RSS feed, an equally convincing set of arguments for bosses.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Catalog computers: One of the problems with switching library catalogs to web versions is that the dedicated computers start being used for Internet surfing instead of catalog searching.
Limiting Web Access is a set of instructions on how to keep those computers from being used for general searching while still allowing use of the catalog. It is written [...]

Friday, January 16, 2004

From Chaos to Control: From Chaos to Control relates the value of content management systems (CMSs). It’s a good read if you’re thinking about implementing one.

Monday, December 15, 2003

Santa Claus CMS: Avoid Santa Claus approach to content management: December 15, 2003 issue
of New Thinking by Gerry McGovern
Peter Drucker has written about how we have spent the last fifty years focusing on the ‘T’ in information technology (IT). Drucker believes that we will spend the next fifty years focusing on the ‘I.’
Which is where Information Professionals need [...]

Friday, December 12, 2003

What When?: Drawing clear lines between information systems
In many organisations, the intranet competes with e-mail, file shares, the document management system and records management. Information is scattered between these systems, making it difficult for users to know where to look.
What is needed is a clear [...]

Friday, October 17, 2003

vision-impaired directory: USATODAY.com - Site has the vision-impaired in mind
VisionConnection
A friendly, accessible, interactive global Internet portal for people who are partially sighted or blind, the professionals who work with them, the families and friends who support them — and anyone looking for the latest information on vision impairment, its prevention and vision rehabilitation [...]

Monday, September 22, 2003

Streaming Libraries: The Shifted Librarian: Monday, September 22, 2003- Could the Yale Libraries Stream Music to their Students?
A very cool idea curtesy of The Shifted Librarian

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

RSS uses: RDF Site Summary (RSS) - inSilico- First came the announcement in July that Elsevier would expose their PRISM metadata in an RSS compliant manner. In doing so, libraries and end users could access tables of contents for Elsevier journals in their favorite tools.
…imagine being able to display the current issue’s TOC next to the [...]

Friday, August 1, 2003

TV Viewers and Internet Users,Two Different Animals: TVSPY.com: TV Viewers and Internet Users,Two Different Animals
More on the lines that librarians need to market themselves and their libraries more effectively.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Web Standards in Action: Web Standards in Action describes one developers experience in converting a site to standards-compliant code and the almost immediate benefits. Why are web standards important? Think MARC. Reuable, exchangable, understandable and easily manipulated.

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Forum Moderator’s Guide To Life: The Forum Moderator’s Guide To Life gives some good points on managing online communities. As more people move online it becomes a good idea to start building library communities as well. After all, we can supply many of the things they’re looking for a price they can afford (free).

Thursday, May 22, 2003

RSS Use

An article calledHow can I use RSS started a discussion on the Web4Lib list about how libraries can use RSS feeds.

The Utah State Library offers Utah and National Public Library News.
Hartford Public Library in Connecticut and Hekman Library website of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary in Michigan display the top news stories.

Blackboard Support [...]

Friday, May 9, 2003

Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool: Wikis, like blogs, are an Internet communication tool. They are meant to be created and maintained by more than one person, often as a repository for collected knowledge. In Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool, David Mattison talks about his research on and experience with [...]