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Creative Librarian » 2005 » April

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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.

Web Tools — laura


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.

Web Tools — laura


Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Jakob Nielsen

In librarian.net:serving lower literacy users through effective web design, jessamyn mentions Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox as a great place to find useability information for creating webpages.

Though he is a well-respected advocate, occasionally Nielsen’s advice can border on the excessive. The best design is a balence between useability and the attractiveness associated with a professional and reliable source of information.

Website Design — laura


DRM makes music customers mad

Boing Boing: BBC: DRM makes music customers mad

The BBC reports that the consumer revolt against DRM is underway, with customers for digital music getting caught out by unreasonable restrictions imposed on them by technology.

Copyright — laura


Monday, April 25, 2005

Feeling Much Better

I’m back at work full time and I’ve finally managed to get caught up with work. I’ve reopened comments and hopefully I’ll get something interesting in here soon.

Site — laura


Why govts make stupid copyrights

Boing Boing: Why govts make stupid copyrights

Donna Wentworth sez, James Boyle has just delivered the piece de resistance in his three-part series on copyright for the Financial Times: ‘Deconstructing Stupidity.’ The stupidity in question is the way that governments typically make intellectual property law and policy — that is, without evidence that it will produce the desired social or economic benefit.

Copyright — laura


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.

Web Tools — laura


Building up a marketing resistance?

Building up a marketing resistance?

Absolutely.

Marketing — laura


Thursday, April 21, 2005

Library Journal - Meet the Gamers

Library Journal - Meet the Gamers

Why pay attention to games? For starters, games are the “medium of choice” for many Millennials, with broad participation among the 30 and under population. Although part of a web of new media, technology, and social shifts, games are the quintessential site for examining these changes. Game cultures feature participation in a collective intelligence, blur the distinction between the production and consumption of information, emphasize expertise rather than status, and promote international and cross-cultural media and communities. Most of these characteristics are foreign, or run counter to print-era institutions such as libraries. At the same time, game cultures promote various types of information literacy, develop information seeking habits and production practices (like writing), and require good, old-fashioned research skills, albeit using a wide spectrum of content. In short, librarians can’t afford to ignore gamers.

It’s interesting that the one method of relating to gamers not mentioned is actually playing. It doesn’t require that you devote your life to gaming, just a few hours of going through the motions and observing the interaction of the other players can teach you a lot about the group. And of course a librarian who can speak knowledgably about their favorite subject is someone gamers can more easily relate to and trust.

A few years ago I set up a webpage on the library site for the nursing department. I contacted them for ideas of things they might want to see on it and was overwhelmed by the response I got. The overall reaction seemed to be “Somebody cares!” They were very interested in what I could do for them and were thrilled to tell me in detail what they needed.

If libraries get invilved with gamers and ask what they need, we might get more ideas than we can handle.

Gaming — laura


Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Caveat Lector » More job-search follies

Dorothea has posted a list of places to hunt for library jobs online.

Career Info — laura


LibLime

librarian.net

The folks at LibLime want to help make the move to open source library systems easier and less fraught with peril. They sell and support their own version of Koha

This is exactly what we need. I would love to try it out. I may have to set up a test installation.

Open-Source Software — laura


Peter Scott’s Library Blog

Peter Scott’s Library Blog

Peter Suber, editor of the highly popular Open Access News, has produced an excellent, extensive list of practical steps people can take to move Open Access forward. Whether you are a faculty member, a librarian, student, a society, funder or government body, Suber provides many suggestions for positive contributions you can make to the Open Access movement today

Open Access — laura


Sunday, April 17, 2005

India’s amazing statement on IP and international development

Boing Boing: India’s amazing statement on IP and international development

The primary rationale for Intellectual Property protection is, first and foremost, to promote societal development by encouraging technological innovation. The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best guarantee for securing the interest of society. The rationale for the exception is not that extraction of monopoly profits by the innovator is, of and in itself, good for society and so needs to be promoted. Rather, that properly controlled, such a monopoly, by providing an incentive for innovation, might produce sufficient benefits for society to compensate for the immediate loss to consumers as a result of the existence of a monopoly market instead of a competitive market. Monopoly rights, then, granted to IP holders is a special incentive that needs to be carefully calibrated by each country, in the light of its own circumstances, taking into account the overall costs and benefits of such protection.

Copyright — laura


Monday, April 11, 2005

Library Stickers

Library Marketing-Thinking Outside the Book: Marketing virtual chat reference at UNC-Chapel Hill

These are such a cute idea, I may try to get my library to do something similar.

Marketing — laura


Boing Boing: Canadian music industry’s fake stats shredded

Boing Boing: Canadian music industry’s fake stats shredded

Copyfighting Canadian lawyer Michael Geist has a hell of an article up on First Monday where he dissect the funny arithmetic the music industry has used to justify its calls for restrictive new Canadian copyright laws to “save Canadian aritsts.” This kind of incisive analysis cuts straight through the music-industry BS — it’s a breath of fresh air that is sorely needed.

Copyright — laura


library digital resources 101

PLA Blog - The Official Blog of the Public Library Association

This article is an excellent library digital resources 101 short piece, describing how patrons can access these resources through their local library, as well as an overview of a few select sources.

Library Links — laura


Monday, April 4, 2005

More on Blogging Guidelines

More on Blogging Guidelines

The guidelines posted seem more related to the library environment than the risks.

Blog guidelines and policies are going to become more important for libraries as more jump onto the bandwagon. I hope that these examples help in formulating an official policy for your library.

Blogging — laura


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.

Web Tools — laura


Blogging and RSS

Blogging and RSS — The “What’s It?” and “How To” of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators

The internet has long been valued by teachers and librarians as a powerful research and communications tool, and in the last 10 years, it has brought about a sea change in the way students find, manage, and use information. But the promise of the Web as more than just a readable, searchable resource has been slow to be realized … until now. Two new Internet technologies, Weblogs and RSS (Real Simple Syndication), are redefining the way students and teachers use the Internet, turning them from mere readers into writers to the Web as well, and making it easier to filter and track the ever-growing number of resources coming online each day. In fast-growing numbers, educators across the country and throughout the world are finding just how powerful this new interactive Internet can be.

Weblogs, or “blogs,” as they are called, can best be defined as Web sites that are easily created and updated by those with even a minimum of technology know-how. What used to be a messy process for Internet publishing is now almost as easy as sending e-mail; no code, no file transfer, and in many cases, no hosting setup. Just login to your site from any Internet connection, enter the content in a typical Internet form, press a button, and your Weblog is updated. And it’s not just text. Blogs can display pictures and video, include audio and Flash, and even store other files like PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets for linking.

Blogging — laura


IM

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Simply Audiobooks webstore to carry DRM-free Random House Audio downloads
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