Emerging trends book discussion group

A new project from the Kansas Library System (and the book discussion group is open to anyone).

——————————
Intersections: A book discussion group for librarians

Intersections is a book discussion group for librarians, focused on emerging trends in the intersection of society, libraries, and technology. “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson is the first book being discussed. NEKLS received an Interlibrary Loan Development Program
(ILDP) grant, which is being used to purchase materials for the group (including multiple copies of the books — in multiple formats… audio
book, KS Audio Books, Music and More…).

The website at http://intersections.nekls.org will host guest commentary about the books and will provide an opportunity for questions and ongoing discussion, too.

Yahoo tests social network

Article about yahoo’s attempt to crack myspace and facebook’s domain; more at techcrunch. Also some brief discussion about whether this is the end of Yahoo 360. I wondered the same thing.

Of course, mash is invitation only and I didn’t receive an invitation (despite the fact that I really have been using yahoo’s services for EVER it feels like…)

I always wonder how they determine who gets invites….
Anyhow, if you have one, would you mind sharing? email me at georgiawebgurl@yahoo.com

del.icio.us testing new features

If you are a del.icio.us user, you may be interested in knowing that del.icio.us is testing some new features. If you didn’t receive an invite (I didn’t, which doesn’t mean much…) then you can request to be added to list.

I do hope that this will also mean more functionality in searching. For example in the Cataloging links page which is populated by del.icio.us links, it would be great if I could include a search box limited to user … Currently, searching by user is limited to being logged in.

http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2007/09/taste-test.html

opensource alternatives to common commercial products

Although the introduction of this article is overly simplified in terms of the changes in library technology (I couldn’t help but laugh a little in a couple of places) , once you’re past that, the rest is a good little overview of some of the more popular opensource products. I’ve hotlinked and listed the products below, the article gives a more indepth overview.

The products are:
ubuntu (ms windows alternative based on linux)
firefox (web browser; ms internet explorer alternative)
openoffice (productivity suite with wordprocessing, presentation, and spreadsheets; ms office alternative)
thunderbird (e-mail + rss reader; ms outlook express alternative)
songbird ( media player; windows media player alternative?)
gimpshop (image editing; adobe photoshop alternative)
pdfcreator (pdf creator; adobe acrobat alternative)
Audacity (audio burning software)
avidemux (video creation)

Other stuff (web publishing, etc.):
wordpress
drupal
mediawiki and also twiki.

As far as libraries go, there is
koha
evergreen
vufind
liblime

I’ve talked a little about evergreen and vufind here. At home, I still run MS for the operating system and commercial stuff for my server; but then everything else is opensource or web based services (Firefox, gimp, ghostwriter+pdf, openoffice, etc.) Setting up these products on a small personal computer is fairly easy (really!). I’m not sure how that would translate to a large network, which could possibly be a hidden cost factor: installing these, configuring them as needed, and upgrading. Of course, admins already have to do that for any programs that they support. Training issues (oh the fun of trying to teach a group of web editors to use Drupal…) as well as potential security risks given the opensource nature would be other potential costs.

http://www.degreetutor.com/library/managing-expenses/open-source-library

Opensource ILS projects and how I learned to love the library catalog

okay, pardon the bad pun on dr. strangelove…

I’ve been following some of the opensource ils projects with interest. evergreen (launched by the Georgia Public Lib System), is still in heavy development. From my understanding it originally launched without acquisitions or serials checkin (eeks!) ; however from an upcoming presentation flyer it appears that acquisitions will launch or has launched very soon.
Anyhow, it’s an interesting project and I finally got around to checking out their wiki.

At one conference I attended, the evergreen presenters (truly it is trotted out at every possible opportunity) was demonstrating its ability to save searches as RSS feeds, which would then be updated.

Another project is scriblio, which is a wordpress installation that works in conjunction with a library catalog. Plymouth State Library is now using scriblio. You can read an article about here and see it in action here.

I couldn’t find an example of a Voyager library using scriblio, but I’m sure someone out there somewhere is using it.

Another interesting project is VUFind, which I’ve read will work with a Voyager library catalog. VUFind is touting itself as having the ability to search (and display) seamless results between the library catalog, digital collections, and institutional repositories. I like a lot about VUFind — very easy to read. I love the ability to pull out citation info (wonder if this works with EndNote?). Other features include faceted search results, citations in MLA or APA (not sure if other choices), tagging, commenting, reviewing, and oia syndication.

I couldn’t find RSS feed/search, but it would seem like that would be a feature (?)

Give the demo a whirl yourself. OR better yet… go see it used with a Voyager catalog.

George Mason University (a Voyager library) has a test installation up at
http://zoombox.gmu.edu/vufind/

Update: 9/12: test installation is not working. ;-(

For those who are interested, the MARC view/technical view is under the tab “Staff View”

To read more about the features of VuFind, check out VuFind’s website:
http://www.vufind.org/features.php

5000 resources to do just about anything online

5000 resources to do just about anything online

I love mashable and I can’t possibly summarize everything in this article, but if you are looking for new things to do with your blog/website, or just to have a little fun on the ‘net, do take a look. You can find things such as 30 widgets for a wordpress blog, 70+ podcasting tools, 12+ twitter tools, etc. Lots and lots of wordpress stuff.

google sky…

This looks so coool. Kind of like google earth but for the sky. very very cool. ;-D

article on google sky

google sky website

Yahoo photos is closing

Well, I guess it’s no surprise to me. Flickr is superior…

——————
We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket). We’re making the transfer real simple, and with a couple clicks we’ll automatically move your photos to Flickr or wherever you want them. You can also download your original-resolution photos back to your computer, or buy an archive CD from our featured partner (for users of the New Yahoo! Photos only). All you need to do is tell us what to do with your photos before we close, after which any photos remaining on Yahoo! Photos will be deleted and no longer accessible.….

….

Google/Youtube takes on piracy at youtube

Google Inc.’s YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.

[snip]
… YouTube was working “very intensely and cooperating” with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses…

complete article at
yahoo news (via AP)

…and an interesting response to the article

How do you afford your biblio 2 lifestyle? (librarian image)

When I first read this article about “hip” librarians, I just thought yuck, not again! At least this article appears in a lifestyle section instead of being presented as serious news. I suppose that it is kind of nice to see that librarians are interesting enough to be included in a lifestyle section.

However, isn’t it all just promoting a new stereotype? Is having a stereotype a requirement of a profession? What about those that don’t fall into either stereotype?

Personally, I hate labels. I hate that I have to be categorized. Don’t you? Can’t librarians just be respected as a profession based upon abilities and expertise? Can’t we keep the important traditional parts of the profession while looking forward and embracing the new (and dropping the parts that are no longer relevant or useful along the way?)

As for taking on the hip librarian stereotype, librarytavern channeling Cake:

NextGen ain’t rebellion.
You’re drinking what they’re selling.
Your ‘information’ doesn’t hurt them.
Your blogging won’t convert them.
You’re so worried about your image.
You don’t want to be a Marian.

More here:

http://librarytavern.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-do-you-afford-your-20-biblio.html