Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Take a Seat!

This is just TOO AMAZING!! Haven't you always wanted to be able to take a seat with you to the stacks? Leave it to a Dutch designer to come up with a solution:

Monday, October 22, 2007

Flip Video - Ultra Series

Flip Video - Ultra Series
You'll "Flip" over this cool new camcorder. It looks like it will be so easy to use. I just ordered a pink ultra. Can't wait to start taking videos of my cats.
I'm suggesting that the library get several for students to use and then have a contest for National Library Week. "How I use the library" would be the theme of videos created by students and uploaded to YouTube. A good way to promote the use of the cameras and the library at the same time!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Friends:Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services: The OneAfter909: Penn State Facebook Library App

Friends:Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services: The OneAfter909: Penn State Facebook Library App

Penn State has released a Facebook OPAC app. This is a great way to get students into the catalog by giving them easy access through Facebook. Screenshots included.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Dictionary of the Future (TED Conference 2007 Video)

Erin McKean an editor of one of the "Big Five" dictionaries talks about the future of dictionaries.

Friday, September 07, 2007

More Thoughts on Wikipedia

I've been thinking about Wikipedia and how publishing is changing. In the past, in order to get published you had to go through a lengthy editorial process. New publishing technologies allow anyone to publish, bypassing the traditional methods. I can't help but wonder, how many qualified experts were put off by the time it would take for them to get published? Has Web 2.0 enabled "invisible experts" to come out of the woodwork? Authorities who were previously silent because of the cost of publishing, can now easily be heard.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Using Tech to "Deselect"

I just finished up a part-time summer job at a local university library. I was involved with a "deselection" or weeding project there. I noticed that books were more popular (had more circulation) there than they are at the tech college.

Reasons for this could be:
  • Tech students get their info electronically
  • Liberal arts classes are more likely to use text resources
Categories that saw high circulation were:

  • Broadcasting & communication
  • Marriage & Family
  • Sex (of course--this is popular in any format it seems)
I compiled lists for purchase from a WorldCat search for these and related topics. I deduced that the best books would be books held by many libraries (over 100). This is sort of like the Googlization of collection development.

While I noticed that majority of newer titles currently on the shelf had good circ (signed out within the last 7 years), I also noticed that those newer titles that had no circulation within that time period seemed to be good purchases, had attractive covers, and were cataloged in an area where they could be easily found. Why didn't they get checked out?

I think it's high time we cut back on our book purchases and start cataloging quality websites in earnest. Can we track usage of these sites once they are cataloged to see if our efforts are working?

Saturday, July 21, 2007

BibMe! Great Citation Tool!

The folks at BibMe have created a great FREE, yes, that's right--FREE online citation tool. It has an autofill feature that imports info from Amazon, Yahoo! News, FindArticles, and CiteULike. Now if they could only add WorldCat, IMBD, and Hollywood.com...

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Got a Wii!!!


Got a Wii a few days ago and have been using it for "working out." I found an article on using the Wii in an academic library during finals. If we could do this, I think I'd call it "Wiilease Your Stress Night."

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

NYT Article on Wikipedia's Editors

All the News that's Fit to Print Out profiles some of the editors of Wikipedia:
  • Antioch grad who works at a library circulation desk
  • junior high student who edits after he finishes his homework
  • Iraq War veteran

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Jay Cross on Informal Learning

What is said here could be used in any workplace setting. We are looking at a revolution in the way we learn AND the way we work together. Great piece!

Trailer for "Hollywood Librarian"

The Washington Post did an article on the premiere of this film at ALA in D.C.
Here's the trailer:

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

C|Net's 100 Best Webware Apps

C|Net just came out with this list of the 100 best webware apps. Some are familiar, like FireFox, Opera, IE, Google's Reader for RSS feeds, Netvibes, Safari, StumbleUpon, MyYahoo, GMail, LiveMessenger, Trillian, Meebo, FaceBook, Friendster, Digg, MySpace, ChaCha, LinkedIn, etc.

But I'm new to: OpenID, DeviantArt (sounds scary!), Me.dium, Pando, AllPeers, Wikia, and many others.

All apps are divided into 10 categories (kind of like the Dewey Decimal system...):

  • Browsing
  • Communications
  • Community
  • Data
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Mobile
  • Productivity & Commerce
  • Publishing
  • Reference

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Proof that More than One Search Engine is a "Good Thing"

"Try more than one search engine for different results." That's the line I give to my Internet searching classes. Here's a study funded by Dogpile.com in collaboration with U of Pitt and Penn State: Different Search Engines, Different Results: A Research Study by Dogpile.com

New Way to Promote Books Using Web 2.0 Technology

TurnHere and Simon & Schuster are teaming up to create a new Website called BookVideos.tv: the Story Behind the Story.

Here's the description from the Website:

"BookVideos.tv offers compelling video stories that give readers insights into some of the world’s best authors. The social media video site offers the back story about the lives, personalities and the inspirations of these engaging writers. We created Bookvideos.tv to give readers the real story behind the story. It is the place where your favorite books and authors come to life, and it’s also where you can engage with the literary community on a whole new level. Using the site’s variety of social media tools, you can embed an author video on your own Web site or blog, email it to a friend, or share with your book club. You can also subscribe to the videos using RSS, add them to del.icio.us, or Digg your favorite new title. Readers are encouraged to come back often as new videos are added on a regular basis."

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A Brain and a Book (Lang article from Chronicle of Higher Ed)

Lang reminds us that we all need to get periodically "unplugged" to reconnect with our "real" environment in this article from Chronicle of Higher Education.

Friday, April 20, 2007

NanoTreking with PBWiki



We had three successful NanoTrek sessions using the free Peanut Butter Wikis.

Students research various nanotechnology topics and posted them to wikis. All the students were new to wikis but PBWiki interface is so easy to use they were quickly adding colors, plugins, and having a great time learning.

The educator's videos and some database research I did on using wikis in classrooms helped me figure out how to incorporate this with our information literacy mission.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Vonnegut, Tech Skeptic, Dies


My favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut died last night. A self-proclaimed secular humanist, Vonnegut questioned everything: war, science & technology, religion, etc. Something he did last year really impressed me--he made a virtual appearance on Second Life where he was interviewed by John Hockenberry of Infinite Mind.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Mashups with Google's MyMaps

Didn't get into the mashups session at ACRL-- it was packed--no standing room! Decided to educate myself on the topic. Found a CNet video on doing mashups with Google's MyMaps. Did a little mashup on Williamsport.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

ACRL Conference Wiki

Joann and I are creating a wiki as a way to share what we learned at the conference. It's a work in progress, but check it out!

Friday, March 30, 2007

ACRL Conference

I'm here in beautiful Baltimore with more than 3,000 other library souls. Most of the sessions I've attended have been packed (had to sit on the floor). Poster sessions were overcrowded. Here I go complaining.

John Waters' keynote was hilarious. Got to remember to watch "Pink Flamingos" again and check out some of the othere films he's made. Wonder if any are on YouTube? Gotta check...

Thursday, March 22, 2007

NanoTrek Camp Wiki

I'm trying to work out how to create a Wiki for a NanoTrek Camp that's to be held here at PCT in April.

My boss and I did some brainstorming and came up with the idea of using the PBWiki and giving peanut butter cups to the students for fun. I've been reading articles about using Wikis in class and found an interesting article in Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki-Based Collaboration

NanoTrek Camp Wiki Ideas:

1. Create a list of research topics for nanotechnology:
      • Careers in nanotech
      • Environmental impact of nanotechnology
      • History of nanotechnology
      • Recent discoveries in the field of nanotech (last 5 years)
      • Medical applications
      • Nanobots
      • What are benefits/dangers of nanotech?
2. Require that they find each of the following kind of resources:
      • Organization’s website (.org)
      • Government website (.gov)
      • Article from a database
      • Educational website (.edu)

3. For each resource listed above summarize your findings and explain why this is a good resource for this information.