Archives
Saturday, March 31, 2007
NYT changes, back-dates article after Wikipedia fact-checkers find error
Boing Boing: NYT changes, back-dates article after Wikipedia fact-checkers find error
Sometime yesterday, the entire last section of the NYT article, which (according to the NYT website) was NYT’s most emailed article for the last two days, was changed …
No letter or correction has been issued, however, calling attention to this error.
It seems safe to assume that most folks who were going to read the article have already done so, and will never know that the facts have been corrected.
I have no opinion on the the Wikipedia good/evil debate but I find it both funny that they corrected an error in the New York Times and sad that the Times has not admitted to the correction.
Library Links — laura
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Guggenheim Museum goes with Koha
LISNews.org | LibLime Koha is Chosen by the Guggenheim Museum
Tina N. Burger dropped by to spread The Word on The Guggenheim Museum going with Koha. The Guggenheim chose LibLime for its open-source expertise, and is confident that the partnership will better enable the museum to achieve its future library automation goals: “Working with LibLime will greatly reduce the learning curve that presents itself in most new projects. As we are undertaking this project with the intent to adapt the system to our needs, rather than implementing a known system, their knowledge is invaluable.”
How cool. Maybe the next time a library is considering a change they’ll be more open to OSS too.
Open-Source Software — laura
Friday, March 23, 2007
I’ve been meme’d
I can’t help myself. It’s the 5 sites not related to libraries meme.
- I think someone got the Daily Puppy but I don’t remember anyone doing Cute Overload. Because mornings suck less when they start with a smile.
- There has been a lot said about the “mommy-bloggers” but I consider them contemporary diarists whose autobiographies I don’t have to read all at once.
- Boing Boing is kinda like a cross-section of the geek Internet. One site that keeps you amazingly up to date.
- Digital Web is a design magazine and a blog with excellent writing and editing on current issues.
- People send their most private secrets to this guy on homemade postcards and he puts them on Post Secret once a week, he’s also published books of secrets that didn’t get put on the site. It’s kinda mind expanding to see what other people are dealing with and heartening to read the support they get from strangers. My favorite is the person who left a book in their dorm lounge and retrieved it later filled with other people’s secrets on scraps of paper.
Library Links — laura
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Best idea ever…
Boing Boing: U of Nebraska to RIAA: here’s a bill for the time you’re wasting
The University of Nebraska is so pissed off with the RIAA’s outrageous requests to help rat out students who file-share that it has sent the RIAA a bill for the time the University has wasted dealing with the RIAA’s demands. Go Corn Huskers!
heehee
Copyright — laura
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?
Web Tools — laura
Friday, March 16, 2007
Libraries in Second Life Presentation
LibrarianInBlack: Getting staff to understand libraries and Second Life
Kathryn Greenhill has created a fabulous presentation, available on Slideshare, about the role of libraries and librarians in the Second Life online game environment. Greenhill does a great job of explaining what Second Life is and how libraries can choose to fit in to this overall picture of online gaming (or not). She also includes lots of screenshots of Second Life, so people can see what it actually looks like.
If you find yourself struggling to explain why Second Life fits in to your library’s mission, this may be a good place to direct staff.
I second that.
Gaming — laura
Gaming in the Library
Much is happening in the world of gaming right now, and it’s not just a lot of teenage boys sitting in the basement staring at a screen for hours on end. No, gaming has tremendous potential for libraries to reach out to new users, offer new services, and help complement efforts in community-building, information literacy, and other areas. - Don’t know much about gaming but you want to know how it can benefit libraries? - Not sure what kinds of services your library could offer (especially on a limited budget)? - Are you an avid gamer who would like to offer services but you need help convincing others? - Just want to hear what other libraries are doing? We’ll cover all of these topics and more in just one hour. Get the scoop that helps you clarify your thinking about gaming and libraries.
I’m listening to this at work. I look like one of those bobble heads.
Gaming — laura
New Petition
Copyright — laura
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Petition for OA to publicly-funded research in the US
Petition for OA to publicly-funded research in the US
The organizations sponsoring the petition are the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA), American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), American Library Association (ALA), Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), FreeCulture, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Public Knowledge (PK), and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
Open Access — laura
It’s about our jobs too
It’s about trust, reliability, accuracy …
Stacy on Web4Lib found one of her vendors giving her bad usage stats. When she called them on it, she was told it was a “known problem” and they would “hide” the bad data from her. It’s not even the only vendor that’s given her bad stats this year!
As an academic librarian responsible for collecting the electronic resource statistics for my library, this is my own personal nightmare. Our stats are how we prove to the administration we’re worth funding. Not being able to depend on them being accurate cuts the usefulness of the databases or at least the vendors significantly.
Vendor with reliable stats versus unreliable vendor?
We’ve let ourselves be pushed around for a long time but when it comes to survival they might be surprised.
Library Links — laura
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 up for e-mail alerts on new books
* get daily book excerpts via e-mail
* listen to audio eBooks
* create book lists
* browse subjects and genres to find good books
* get e-mail and RSS feed updates on new books
* post comments about what they’re reading
* find book events and book clubs
* sign up for Book Space eNews
The pictures he posts remind me of a bookstore, the real world versions, not Amazon. Browse, pick up, *maybe* put down, it’s very inviting. Maybe it’d the guy in the comfy chair and the cozy sweater. I’d like to live in Hennepin.
Web Tools, Website Design — laura
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.
Web Tools — laura
Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
So what should a marketer do in an era where customers freely discuss your products and services? People post compliments and complaints that can be discovered by thousands of Internet users. Peers listen to and trust these reviews. If you’re in charge of marketing for your library, this should be something that keeps you up at night as you ponder the best approaches to developing and protecting your library’s brand online. You can measure your library’s brand and credibility by reviewing your search results, which are increasingly being populated from information circulated and reposted by consumers. What is the “street value” of your library online?
One of the best ways to shepherd your brand online is to actively listen to and participate in the conversations about your library. You can’t control the message, but you can improve the conversation about your brand online. By actively listening you can learn what your customers care about and get smarter about designing and delivering services that delight your audience.
Marketing — laura
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.
Web Tools — laura
Sunday, March 11, 2007
If you build it, will they come?
If you build it, will they come? (part 2) » “Self-plagiarism is style”
Even with the least used tweaks, there’s more than enough usage to justify the development time, so I’m extremely happy with the graphs.
Usability tweaks are worth implementing.
Library Links — laura
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 find for the average user. Yet as time went by, the web was transformed into a richly informative world offering serious and valuable services. The geeks are still there and the nonsense too, but they’ve been buried under mountains of good stuff.
Second Life is beginning to undergo a similar transformation.
It’s an interesting view. Like the web but more interactive.
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!
Web Tools — laura
Twitter for Librarians
David Lee King » Blog Archive » Twtter Explained for Librarians, or 10 ways to use Twitter
Web Tools — laura
FBI Abused the Patriot Act
Shocking, I know.
- Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law - Yahoo! News And they promise not to do it again
- Boing Boing: DoJ: FBI misused Patriot act in domestic spying activities
- ALA | Statement from ALA President Leslie Burger on Justice Dept. Investigation into FBI, NSLs
These findings confirm many of ALA’s most repeatedly stated concerns about the lack of oversight into the FBI’s surveillance activities, resulting in repeated intrusions into the lives of innocent American citizens.
Patriot Act — laura
Thursday, March 8, 2007
And another thing…
…Librarians need to free themselves from the tyranny of the library. This is hard, I know. All of us in the field, to one degree or another, love libraries and feel emotionally bound to them. But they are only a means. Libraries don’t do anything — librarians do.
heehee
Library Links — laura
You must read Dear Library of Congress…
ALA TechSource | Dear Library of Congress…
It is both ironic and poignant that librarians are still worrying about “bibliographic control,” after ceding so much of the same to the companies that now rent them journal access per annum at usurious rates, digitize their book collections into DRM obscurity, or sell them ponderous, antiquated “management” systems that on close inspection do little more than serve as storehouses for the metadata specific to the formats of bygone eras, bold days when we saw our central roles as defenders and curators of our cultural heritage.
I just realized I feel too old to be a young librarian but can I still have a professional crush?
Library Links — laura
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Ten Tech Trends for Librarians 2007
Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Ten Tech Trends for Librarians 2007
So here’s this year’s list, with a new name: “Trends” instead of “Things.” Sure it puts a finer point on it but it also recognizes the changes in my thinking about the essential duties of librarians:
Learn to Learn
Adapt to Change
Scan the HorizonAs we carry out or essential mission of service, stewardship and access, I really want folks in libraries to be able to watch the horizon for trends — and I told the group that in Toronto: “We can all be trendspotters. We can all watch for trends that impact not only the profession but our specfic communities and user groups.” Please ponder these and let me know what you think.
Library Links — laura
