2008 August archive at Information Innovation Exchange

Archive for August, 2008

Favorite Fictional Librarians

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in librarians/information professionals. 0 Comments

David Wright writes: “In a recent post, I enthused about a few of my favorite fictional librarians, and invited others to share their favorites. The suggestions that followed were many and varied, ranging from Public Librarian Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl (right), to Henry DeTamble from Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, to Garth Nix’s Lirael, who is given a job as assistant librarian, which turns her whole life around.”

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Q & A: Futurist Ray Kurzweil

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in future and innovation. 0 Comments

The author caught up with the visionary inventor at SpeechTek 2008, where he talked with InformationWeek about speech technology, his new cellphone reading machine, and two new movie projects.

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What the Web Looks Like to the Color Blind

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in web sites and disabilities. 0 Comments

Here is a Web site that shows you what various Web pages look like to people who have different types of color blindness. This is no small issue. Consider how many people are looking at the Web sites you worked so hard to design, and they do not see anything like what you put up there. The site says: In the U.S. 7 percent of the male population — or about 10.5 million men — and 0.4 percent of the female population either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently. Color blindness affects a significant amount of the population, and it is even more prevalent in more isolated populations with a smaller gene pools. It is mostly a genetic condition, though it can be caused by eye, nerve, or brain damage, or due to exposure to certain chemicals.

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State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical & Cultural Materials Collections

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in digital, collections and Library of Congress. 0 Comments

The Library of Congress American Memory project and other digital initiatives provide free access through the Internet to the treasures of the Library’s collections that document America’s history, culture, and creativity. Across the country, the archives, cultural institutions, museums, and libraries of many states are collaborating to create similar projects. They provide unprecedented access to materials that document local and regional growth and development as well as a look at the cultures and traditions that have made individual states and communities unique. The following is a compilation of state and regional digital projects and collaborations identified thus far. For each project, the primary institution or institutions overseeing the project are noted. The list will expand as new projects become available.

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10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in innovation and information. 0 Comments

Sarah Houghton-Jan writes: “What is information overload? 27 instant messages. 4 text messages. 17 phone calls. 98 work emails. 52 personal emails. 76 email listserv messages. 14 social network messages. 127 social network status updates. 825 RSS feed updates. 30 pages from a book. 5 letters. 11 pieces of junk mail. 1 periodical issue. 3 hours of radio. 1 hour of television. That, my friends, is information overload. Here are 10 techniques for managing it, each in a distinct area of information input.”

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NextGen: Moonlighting

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries and librarians/information professionals. 0 Comments

Academic librarian Stacy Russo’s second job as a library school professor has given her the opportunity to sense the flavor of public and children’s librarian work through her students. The experience, she says, has helped her “better understand the profession in its entirety and appreciate the similarities and differences among libraries.”

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Slow Economy Fuels Surge in Library Visits

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries, American Library Association, library services and research. 0 Comments

With the nation facing tough economic times, Americans are visiting their local public libraries more often and checking out items with greater frequency. Libraries across the United States report that more people are turning to libraries in record numbers to take advantage of the free resources available there. According to the ALA’s 2008 State of America’s Libraries Report, Americans visited their libraries nearly 1.3 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, an increase of more than 10% since 2001

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Read the State of America’s Libraries Executive Summary here

Future Proof Your Library

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in future, libraries and library services. 0 Comments

Library Journal tapped its Movers & Shakers for their insights on what libraries can do to better themselves and fortify against future threats. They talk marketing, flexibility, service, expertise, design thinking, openness, public trust, and far more. Their responses may be surprising—but also enlightening and motivating.

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Columbia U Going Live on iTunes U

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in podcasts, education, video and Apple. 0 Comments

Columbia University has been beta testing its content through iTunes U, Apple’s education-focused portal within its popular iTunes digital media player. The New York-based university expects to go live with its release at the start of the fall semester. Columbia on iTunes U will allow students, instructors, and the public to search, download, and play content on computers or iPods. The site, accessible via the Web site, ccnmtl.columbia.edu/itunesu/, contains audio and video podcasts of course lectures, course media and campus events.

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Libraries Shelve Old Ways

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries, library services and collections. 0 Comments

As libraries across the country try to reach out to people more at ease using search engines than hunting along bookshelves, some institutions are choosing to stock some unconventional material. The Greater Victoria Public Library has turned to video games. “Literacy has more than one meaning,” says Kirsten Andersen, who works at the Victoria library. When one 16-year-old boy wrote to the library to complain about its decision to add video games to its inventory of books and DVDs, “I told him what we tell people who challenge our material: That everyone has the right to choose what they want themselves, and we provide a variety of materials and everyone makes their own decisions.”

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BackTalk: The Stat Factor

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries, librarians/information professionals and library services. 0 Comments

Adam Holland feels stuck in the hamster wheel of annual/monthly reports based on user and other stats. Gathering and applying statistics in general has become the bane of many librarians, and he ponders “Is this the nature of the beast, or is there any alternative that would allow librarians to care a little less about statistics while still providing high-quality services in a fiscally responsible manner?”

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World’s Largest Monastery Library Restored to its Baroque Splendor

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries and collections. 0 Comments

The world’s largest monastery library, in the quaint Austrian town of Admont, has re-opened after four years of restoration work that have returned all its rococo splendor to this baroque jewel. Hidden in the Austrian Alps some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Vienna, Admont’s Benedictine monastery, which was founded in 1074 and spreads over 270 square kilometres (66,720 acres), has always striven for opulence. “During expansion work in the 18th century, the monastery wanted to compete with El Escorial,” the sumptuous monastery founded by King Philip II near Madrid in the 16th century, says Gudrun Pacher, spokeswoman for the Admont monastery.

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Woodrow Wilson: A Resource Guide

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in digital, collections and Library of Congress. 0 Comments

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Woodrow Wilson. This resource guide compiles links to digital materials related to Wilson such as manuscripts, broadsides, government documents, images, sheet music, and films that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on Wilson and a bibliography containing selected works for both a general audience and younger readers.

View the Woodrow Wilson site here

Web 2.0’s Most Ridiculous Sites

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in web 2.0 and web sites. 0 Comments

Robert Luhn writes: “Alas, not every Web 2.0 site is a winner. Many are vague, pointless, or just plain silly. As web critic Nicholas Carr notes, ‘If I were called in to rename Web 2.0, I think I’d call it Gilligan’s Web.’ How do you identify a dumb Web 2.0 site? First, the site’s mission statement must be impenetrable. Second, the site must solve a problem that has been solved a million times already. Third, its name must love the letter ‘r’ but eschew vowels.”

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Israel to Display Dead Sea Scrolls Online

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in digital and collections. 0 Comments

In a crowded laboratory painted in gray and cooled like a cave, half-a-dozen specialists embarked this week on a historic undertaking: digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file—among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth—available to all on the internet. Scholars continually ask the Israel Antiquities Authority, the custodian of the scrolls, for access to them. The process will probably take one to two years—more before it is available online—and is being led by former Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Greg Bearman.

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OCLC Pilots WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in OCLC and copyright. 0 Comments

OCLC is piloting a new service for libraries that encourages librarians and other interested parties to discover and share information about the copyright status of books. The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry is a community working together to build a union catalog of copyright evidence based on WorldCat, which contains more than 100 million bibliographic records describing items held in thousands of libraries worldwide. In addition to the WorldCat metadata, the Copyright Evidence Registry uses other data contributed by libraries and other organizations.

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Ask.com Launches All-New Ask Kids Search Engine

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in children, search and Ask. 0 Comments

With school back in session and families gearing up for the nightly homework grind, Ask.com announces the upgrade and expansion of its popular children’s and tweens’ search engine, Ask Kids ( http://www.askkids.com). Built with Ask.com’s proprietary search technology, Ask Kids delivers a search experience unlike anything for kids on the Internet today — including more relevant, kid-friendly search results presented in the most graphically vivid display of any major search engine. The Ask Kids launch advances Ask.com’s strategy of using its core search technology to fuel vertical search properties such as RushmoreDrive.com, the search engine for the Black community, launched in April 2008.

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10 Top Tips for Successful Distance Learning

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in education. 0 Comments

Distance learning offers cost-effective, flexible access to lifelong education. You can now study in your own time, at your own pace. The benefits are clear for all, from University students to working adults or stay-at-home parents wanting to return to a career after having children. With a wealth of supporting resources available online, there has never been a better time to get the degree you always wanted. However, self-study does come with unique challenges. You will probably never see or meet your teacher or classmates. Restrictions like these can make it hard to stay motivated. We have put together 10 top tips on how ensure your course is a success.

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First ‘Robotic Rural Librarian’ Will Dispense Books Anytime

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries, library services and books. 0 Comments

Wheatland, CA library officials say they are introducing the nation’s first “robotic rural librarian,” an automated dispenser that will make books available anytime.The GoLibrary equipment will be unveiled at 10 a.m. today in the park next to Wheatland Community Center, 101 C St. The event will include music, refreshments and a drawing for book-related gift baskets.The book dispenser holds about 500 books. Users will be able to swipe their library cards and use the touch-screen to check out books.

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Teens Gain Guiding Role at Libraries

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries, library services and teens. 0 Comments

Imagine a library designed by teens: Rather than stern warnings to be quiet, there would be cheers in a Nintendo Wii video game competition. The room would feature a few colorful beanbags and funky chairs, thousands of bestsellers, and no time limit on the computers.Thanks to new federal funding, that teen dream is coming true in eight communities across Massachusetts, including at the Marlborough Public Library and Dover Town Library. Awarded last month, the grants will help those facilities - as well as libraries in Braintree, Everett, Ipswich, North Reading, Palmer, and Williamsburg - create or improve facilities and services for, and designed by, teenagers.

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Ithaka Survey Reports Rising “Ambivalence” to Campus Libraries

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries and research. 0 Comments

In a survey report that measures the perceptions of libraries and their value on campus, researchers at Ithaka ay they have found a “growing ambivalence about the campus library” in the digital age. Further, the survey, Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education, also reveals an emerging disconnect between librarians’ perceptions of their roles and the expectations and habits of the faculty they serve. The report—sure to generate significant discussion in the field—is a deep trend analysis, comparing and analyzing survey data collected in the group’s 2006, 2003, and 2000 faculty surveys, and a 2006 survey of academic librarians. The 2006 faculty survey generated 4100 responses, while the librarian study, which targeted collection development directors, generated 350 responses. In addition to its own data analysis, meanwhile, Ithaka has made the raw data available from both the faculty and librarian studies to those wishing to investigate further.

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Read the Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education study here

Bringing Composers into Classrooms through Skype

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in education and VoIP. 0 Comments

Two Pennsylvania teaching colleagues with an interest in music and technology are bringing remote experts into classrooms at almost no cost, using Skype’s free videoconferencing technology. Joseph Pisano, a music professor and conductor at Grove City College, and Travis Weller, a composer, instrumental music instructor, and director of bands for grades 7-12 at Mercer Area Middle School and High School, are working together to explore the teaching potential in Skype, the well known Internet communication tool owned by eBay. Using Skype, both educators have invited experts in the music industry into the classroom for two-way conversations from remote locations.

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Kids’ Book Database Passes Million Hits

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in children and databases. 0 Comments

After years of expanding education, Miami University’s Children’s Picture Book Database has expanded as well, receiving more than 1 million hits. Valerie Ubbes, director of the project, said she created the database in 1995 to expand education for children in preschool through third grade. “The picture books equal life,” Ubbes said. “It’s all about expanding health into wellness.” The database, which holds more than 5,000 children’s picture book abstracts, has partnered with Miami University Libraries, making it more accessible to all 50 states and foreign countries, Ubbes said.

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Study: U.S., Europe Lag in Competitive Intelligence Technology Use

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in corporations and competitive intelligence. 0 Comments

A new survey by advisory firm Fuld & Company finds that companies in Israel, India, Sweden and Brazil are on average using more sophisticated competitive intelligence technology than ones in the United States, Great Britain, France or Germany. In general, competitive intelligence software programs collect analyze and display information around discrete topics, such as monitoring a company’s reputation by gathering message board comments or keeping up-to-date on competitors’ pricing. They are considered a cousin to BI (business intelligence) systems. For its study, Fuld & Company used information from a database it has been building since 2006. It contains responses from more than 480 companies regarding various aspects of their competitive intelligence strategies.

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The Road Ahead Competitive Intelligence

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in corporations and competitive intelligence. 0 Comments

“I don’t meet competition, I crush it” Charles Revlon, founder of Revlon.
In the last century, competition was one of the biggest concerns for businessmen and managers, especially in the private sector where products which provide the best value for money win, or have a competitive advantage for consumers. Other products would have to put up with severe competition. Nevertheless, when competition is excessive, this would result in costly mistakes such as bidding too high for contracts comparing to the competition or price wars in the market, benefiting only the customer at the expense of the industry and its growth. Conversely, A less obvious but increasingly important issue lies in what is the ideal trade-off and cooperation in the competition. This means that players in the market have an understanding of what the competition is doing; their plans, strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and hence the concept of competitive intelligence has emerged.

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One for the Books: Queens Librarian gets Tresses Axed for Two Good Causes

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in librarians/information professionals. 0 Comments

This haircut is one for the books. A Queens librarian chopped off her long hair and donated it to charity after the kids in her summer reading program won a bet. Sueli Zaquem had wagered that the children couldn’t finish twice and many books as they did last year - and said she’d cut off her black tresses if proven wrong. When the youngsters at the Hollis branch read 1,000 books - compared to the 490 they tallied last summer - Zaqem kept her word.

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Queens Library Breaks Record

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in libraries and library services. 0 Comments

Not surprisingly, Queens Library had the highest circulation last year of any public library system in the country. It loaned 21,033,861 items in the 2006-2007 fiscal year — almost 1.5 million more items than the Multnomah County Public Library in Oregon, which had the second highest circulation.The national ranking system, called the Public Library Data Service Statistical Report, is issued annually by the American Library Association. Last week, it released preliminary numbers for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended June 30, naming Queens Library as No. 1. Circulation of more than 22.8 million broke the U.S. record.

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Search Engines Grow In Popularity, Used Daily By 50% of Users

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in Pew Research, demographics and search. 0 Comments

According to a new study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, about 50% of Internet users use search engines every single day, showing a major growth in search engine popularity. Their study looked at the percentage of Internet users who now use search engines. What they found was that 49% of Internet users now use them on a daily basis, showing a major increase in recent years. In 2002, around 30% of Internet users used search engines on a daily basis.

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Scientist Develops Next Gneration Wiki with Better Author Attribution

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in wiki and science. 0 Comments

Dr. Robert Hoffmann, Society in Science fellow, has developed what is claimed to be the first Wiki which ensures due credit for the author and lets users ascertain the source of data. The scientific Wiki project, introduced in the September issue of Nature Genetics and released online, is projected as a milestone in the Mememoir project. Based on an authorship tracking technology, Dr. Hoffmann’s new version of the Wiki links every word to its corresponding author. This way, readers can always know their sources and authors receive due credit.

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Psst! Are You Twittering Yet?

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in microblogging and Twitter. 0 Comments

Michael Sauers, technology innovation librarian at the Nebraska Library Commission, uses Twitter, a free message-routing and social-networking tool, to communicate with colleagues and spread the word about his organization’s reference service. He encourages others to check out Twitter for themselves — but don’t ask him to describe it.“People are always asking me to explain it to them, and there really is no good way to do that,” Sauers said. “My best answer is that it’s a mix between e-mail and chat, where you get the benefits of the group without requiring the group to be there all the time.”

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Metacafe Flavors Video Search with Wikipedia-Type Perk

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in YouTube, video and search. 0 Comments

Erstwhile YouTube alternative Metacafe launches a new Wikipedia-like tool called Wikicafe, which lets users make video search more effective through open metadata tagging. Users can go in and edit information about the videos and add links and other content. The tool typifies Web 2.0 messaging and collaboration. Short-form video site Metacafe, one of a handful of sites looking to offer users a video experience that is not a carbon copy of Google’s YouTube video-sharing site, has opened its metadata for community contributions and editing. This means not only can Metacafe’s 30 million monthly viewers upload videos to the site, but they can edit video titles, tags, descriptions or any relevant notes about the videos. Called Wikicafe, the feature is designed to eliminate so-called tag abuse, where inaccurate or incomplete metadata thwarts users who are trying to find what they want through video search.

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Readin’, Writin’ and Web 2.0

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in web 2.0 and education. 0 Comments

New ways of using the Web mean change is on the horizon for schools, as well as students. Web 2.0 has raised its fair share of security questions. Also, the amount of bandwidth a school needs to support has grown, as teachers use tools like video-sharing and blogging to communicate with students. The enhanced degree of communication that Web 2.0 utilities enable is changing the corporate world, for good or for ill, as enterprises decide whether to reject or embrace concepts like wikis, blogs, social networks and video-sharing. The trend has touched the academic world in similar ways. Web 2.0 utilities have raised concerns about security in nearly all IT fields, and educational institutions are no exception. “The biggest worries schools have are hackers getting into the Web site,” Steve Yin, vice president of global marketing and sales for Web security appliance firm St.
Bernard, told TechNewsWorld.

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Report: Green Efforts Improving on Campuses

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in education, environment and green. 0 Comments

More campuses in the United States have shifted their focus to environmental and sustainability programs, but funding and staffing issues have prevented them from implementing green initiatives on the scale campus administrators would like, according to a new report released recently by the National Wildlife Federation.

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Read the full study Campus Environment 2008: A National Report Card on Sustainability in Higher Education here

10 Reasons Not to Write Off Reading From a Screen

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in digital, Kindle and e-books. 0 Comments

Michael Bhaskar writes: “Over the past few months there has been much discussion of an impending digital revolution in the way we read books. While much of this is hyperbole, there has been incredulity in many quarters that anyone would ever want to read from a screen. We are all attached to books, and the idea seems at first glance anachronistic. However there are some good reasons why it might not go away as quickly as you’d think. Here’s why.”

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Kindle 2.0 in the Works

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in Amazon, Kindle and e-books. 0 Comments

Michael Arrington writes: “More rumors about the new Kindle are emerging. The first device will have a similar-sized screen as the existing model but will have a much enhanced form factor. The second will be a large-screen device aimed at students and will come later. Somewhere around a quarter of a million Kindles have been sold to date and Amazon is clearly pushing out the last of the current units via a credit-card promotion on their site that drops $100 off the $359 device.”

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Is Mickey’s Copyright in Rough Waters?

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in copyright. 0 Comments

As Mickey Mouse turns 80 this fall, the most beloved rodent in show business is widely regarded as a national treasure. Acts of Congress have extended Disney’s copyright so long that they provoked a Supreme Court challenge, making Mickey the ultimate symbol of intellectual property. But then a grumpy former employee looked closely at fine print long forgotten in company archives: Film credits from the 1920s reveal imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s exclusive rights.

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Online News Reader Demographics

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Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in demographics and news. 0 Comments

More than one-third of US adult Internet users read online newspapers, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press’ “Audience Segments in a Changing News Environment” report. The researchers reported that was close to the percentage who said they watch cable news regularly (39%), and more than those who regularly watch the nightly network news (29%).

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