Boing Boing: MPAA exec can’t sell A-hole proposal to tech companies
The final question summed up the problem: “This is a room full of people whose living depends on this working. You’re getting pushback to the point of hostility. If you can’t sell this to us, how are you going to sell it to the [...]

10 Tips for Attracting More Comments | Performancing.com
Setting up all the community stuff on the library’s website won’t be much good if no one uses it.

OA as a campaign issue in a student government election

Gavin Baker is running for the Student Senate at the University of Florida. Baker co-founded the Florida chapter of Free Culture and is making open access a campaign issue.
… His candidacy and position could make a difference: At UF, the Student Senate controls an $11 million [...]

Boing Boing: Copyright office head denounces “big mistake” of extending copyright
The head of the US copyright office has accused Congress of making a mistake by extending the length of copyright in America, calling the term “too long,” and saying that Congress made a “big mistake.”
How’s that for ammo?

Creating Passionate Users: Brain death by dull cubicle
Experiencing and learning new things is literally exercise for the brain!
… dull and/or stressful work environments with low stimulation suppress neurogenesis, which means less or no new brain cells.

As library websites evolve, will parts of them become online applications like Google maps and Flickr? I can almost visualize one for aggregated database and catalog searching that users could personalize to their needs. It could be a solution to the simplicity vs. power debate.
Digital Web Magazine – Usability for Rich Internet Applications
Rich [...]

Christina’s LIS Rant: Everyone wowed about NCSU, how about HCPL’s Aquabrowser implementation?
She’s right that I haven’t seen it anywhere else. She’s also right that it rocks. I was browsing through the alternate terms like I was a tag person . I’d love to sit behind a regular patron and see how it worked for [...]

Library Web Chic » Blog Archive » Lipstick on a Pig: & Ways to Improve the Sex Life of Your OPAC
More great opac ideas.

Boing Boing: RIAA: CD ripping isn’t fair use
The RIAA has filed comments with a federal agency in which they claim that ripping a CD isn’t fair use.
They really are suicidal, aren’t they.

Playlist: Libraries turning to iPods and iTunes
A nice piece about the troubles libraries are having with digital media.

blyberg.net » If you build it…
Our users are smart, clever, interesting, positive, intuitive, and social. They may not know it yet, but they’re waiting for their public libraries to be a catalyst for the community. There is something wonderfully special and intimate about shared experience–that is why Web 2.0 is so successful. When those [...]

Open Access News
Tom Wilson, Open access and Weblogs – working together, Information Research Weblog, February 10, 2006.
We’ve had occasional instances of the value of Weblogs in spreading news about papers in Information Research and we have another at the moment. Nahyun Kwon’s paper on virtual reference service has been noted in a number [...]

Boing Boing: Gamers are as good as bilinguals at solving mental problems
Gamers are as good as bilinguals at solving mental problems Video gamers may have the same mental agility as bilingual people — an ability to swap out one task and bring another online quickly, which is useful in multitasking and is linked to [...]

Boing Boing: Only big companies’ PCs will play high-def DVDs
Only big companies’ PCs will play high-def DVDs PCs with expensive video-cards won’t be able to play high-definition DVDs unless they’re built by big companies like Dell and Sony. PCs you build or upgrade yourself with “HDCP”-compatible high-end video cards will be locked out of [...]

K.I.S.S.
But is simplicity what librarianship is all about? Is our job to present the complex world of information searching as something so simple a baby can do it? And, is doing so ultimately a good marketing strategy? I don’t think so.In fact, marketing in this way could harm the profession. After all, if we strive [...]

The Commons and Commerce in the Pull Economy
It’s not widely appreciated that “Centralized Media” – broadcasting, cable television, films, recorded music – have a serious Achilles’ Heel. They have huge overhead costs. A small number of large companies are able to dominate their respective markets primarily because they control critical “choke points” of product development [...]

New JISC project will feed tables of contents into library catalogues
A new JISC project is developing an RSS news feed service that will automatically feed publisher and e-journal information into library catalogues. 
… The open source software developed by the TOCRoSS project will be freely available to further and higher education establishments, publishers, and library management [...]

COPPUL Animated Tutorials Sharing Project
Recognizing that creating and updating Tutorials for each online resource is a daunting task for any library to undertake on its own, librarians in COPPUL got together to find a way to share in their development. This project is an outgrowth of that initiative and our goal is to create a [...]

Steve Lawson on Library 2.0
Steve and Michael do a great job of getting to the real point of the Library 2.0 ideal. It has nothing to do with the technology (That isn’t going to stop changing for a while.). It’s all about revising our attitudes towards ourselves, our patrons and our jobs.

Evaluating the Usability of Search Forms Using Eyetracking: A Practical Approach :: UXmatters

Clearly label input fields. Doing so won’t bother pro users, but is a great help to your novice users.
Drop-down lists are very eye catching form elements. You should always consider very carefully whether you should include a drop-down list in a search form. [...]

Carnival time! Go check out the great links.

Earlier this week, I was contacted seperately by a faculty member and an IT guy about the same issue. The teacher’s department had bought access to a database. Thus far registration had been complicated for the students and the teacher was anxious to streamline the process. He apparently contacted the IT guy directly and IT [...]