Via LISNews:

Lynne writes: “Greetings to all librarians. I am Lynne Martin Erickson. I have been the fiscal agent for The Hollywood Librarian documentary film since 2004. I post this in the hope that librarians will respond immediately and repost widely.

As many of you know, this wonderful film is the result of the tireless efforts of one person: Ann Seidl. She single-handedly raised $200,000 to make and distribute this movie, worked on it for over 8 years and she is still working to get it seen by as many members of our public as possible. She is traveling throughout the US and the world to promote the film. Thanks to the librarian network, the film is being seen in dozens of locations by hundreds and even thousands of people.

While Ann has devoted her full-time work to this cause, she has been paid very little. She insists she is not in it for the money. I can guarantee that is the case. She wouldn’t say this to you, but I can assure you that Ann is broke.

During the Banned Book Week release, when tickets sold for $8, we took in about $10,000, but less than $400 was profit. These days, she is asking for a small fee to screen the film but that money is to fund the editing and authoring process for the DVD which she wants to make available this fall. But she must have some financial support to go on working on the film. We can’t let her stop working on the film to take other employment when she is so close to finishing.

If you are a fan of The Hollywood Librarian or of Ann, I am asking you to send her your financial encouragement.

Go here now http://www.hollywoodlibrarian.com/involved.html and click on the Paypal link.”

I never got to see the movie and have been looking for the DVD - I’m happy to hear that it’s in production and hope that we can help this movie make it to the masses!!

Tomorrow I head to the NJLA (New Jersey Library Association) Annual Conference. I’ll be presenting all afternoon on 2.0 topics. Should be fun! I wanted to go for the whole conference, but sometimes life takes priority over conferences.

If you’re there, look for me!!

Technorati Tags: njla2008

Computers in Libraries will be returning to the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA from March 30 - April 1, 2009. Stay tuned for more information later on this year!

Well, I have two things to say. #1 - Bah to the Hyatt it’s a terrible place for so many of us! #2 - Yippee for the dates I’ll be there pushing my way through the herds of people.

Technorati Tags: cil2009

This is an interesting interview:

Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s sociology department, has discovered that students aren’t nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume.

Ms. Hargittai studies the technological fluency of college freshmen. She found that they lack a basic understanding of such terms as BCC (blind copy on e-mail), podcasting, and phishing. This spring she will start a national poster-and-video contest to promote Web-related skills.

Eszter goes on to explain her study and its results. I found the comments as interesting as the interview itself. One comment in particular made me laugh:

Finally someone says it. We listen ad nauseam to administrators and journalists blather about tech in the classroom and this generation’s web-and-computer savvy. Bollocks. My students (at an R-1) have had enormous difficulty posting documents to Blackboard and WebCT; don’t know how to use a program’s tutorial; don’t know how to save documents in different file formats than the default; don’t realize they can discover basic information about our university (e.g. a phone directory, a registration calendar) through our webpage. They are as tech savvy as they are anything-else savvy: not so much, unfortunately.

Here’s my question - the first time you tried to use Blackboard or WebCT were you able to post info to it? As a very web-savvy person I have to say that Blackboard at least (since I never had to use WebCT) is one of the most user-unfriendly tools I’ve ever had to use. Do not use Blackboard as a measure of your students web savviness. Also - I’m really glad I didn’t have this person as one of my professors. How can any instructor be so negative about their students? If you think they know nothing then how can you teach them effectively?

All that said - I agree with the studies results. I found it interesting that my sister who recently finished college didn’t know about things that are part of my everyday web life - RSS, Blogs, etc. We should never make assumptions about our students/audience. We should always start at the beginning - as educators it’s our jobs to teach students about these tools and how they can be used in the professional world.

• SoarPort
  Class Diagrams, Organizational Charts, Project Plans, Real Estate Floorplans, Blueprints, Seating Plans, Restaurant Layouts, and much more! SoarPort: Make your big images soar!

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• WebTools4u2use
  A wiki for school library media specialists to learn about cool new web tools, see how they can be used in school library media programs, and share ideas & success stories.
• LISWire - The Librarian’s News Wire
  The plan is to allow member companies and organizations to use LISWire to send their full-text news releases and multimedia content to librarians, journalists, library professionals and the general public.
• Create a Social Software Policy for Your Library
  Drawing from her experiences at Washoe County Library System, Internet Services Librarian Jami Haskell provides information on how to implement social software technologies responsibly, fairly and without legal liability.
• Libraries Unleashed
  Academic libraries are changing faster than at any time in their history.

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New from Blake Carver the man behind LISNews & LISHost:

I started a new site, LISWire - The Librarian’s News Wire (http://liswire.com), and I’m doing my best to spread the word. You can probably guess what the site is all about from the name, but there’s also 2 mailing lists, and a bunch of RSS feeds. Robin Blum and I are running the show and are looking for press releases and other news items of interest to librarians to get things going. You can sign up for an account and submit things you’d like to announce to the library world. I’ll be cross posting most announcements to LISNews for a little while until we see how much traffic we get at LISWire.

I wonder if this means LISNews won’t have press releases anymore - or if this is going to be in addition to that? Either way - I’m subscribed - are you?

A great way for non-profits to get $10,000.

How would you mash up the Network for Good donation processing service with other services to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online?

NetSquared, Network for Good, and the Case Foundation invite you to help them enhance Network for Good’s online donation process.

Winners in each category will receive a $10,000 cash prize by a panel of judges at the NetSquared Conference, as well as a one-year license for the Network for Good donation API.

Learn more.

• Wreck A Movie
  Wreck A Movie, an online collaborative film community by Star Wreck Studios Oy Ltd.

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• Twitter / trackthis
  Track your packages with Twitter

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• UM Library: MTagger
• FOSSwire » Ubuntu Cheat Sheet

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I was working on some Google Docs today and noticed a little New! icon in the top corner. I clicked it only to find this:

Looks like we can now edit our Google Docs offline - I’ll have to play with this before my next Office 2.0 class.

• 7 Things You Need to Know about Zotero
  A white paper from Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State
• Subversion for Writers
  Version control for everything you write.

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• TeachStreet
  Learn How to Do New Things in Seattle, WA | Find Local Teachers, Classes, Tutors and Experts
• Mollom
  Mollom is a web service that helps you identify content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop comment and contact form spam.
• Open Science Directory
  Open access science journals

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• Open - Code - New York Times Blog
  A blog about open source technology at The New York Times, written by and primarily for developers.
• Digital Classics
• FlickrStorm
  Search on Flickr with some Magic
• Category:Open source - PLN
• TeamViewer
  TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.
• LiveLOOK
  Instant Screen Sharing, Co-Browsing, Web Conferencing - Windows, MAC, Linux
• Welcome to Quotations Book! Your Best Source of Famous Quotes
• Free Icons Download
• The Awesome Highlighter - be nice, highlight
  Awesome Highlighter lets you highlight text on web pages and then gives you a small link to the highlighted page.

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I know I’m a bit behind on this, but the Ellen blog has a post about librarians from last month.

Librarians are the opposite of cheerleaders. At the library, if you make any noise, they deal with you immediately. First you get the silent, “How dare you?” look. If that doesn’t work, they give you the universal zip the lip signal. And if that doesn’t work, they do the lock up the lips and throw away the key move. I always trick them. I pretend to throw away the key, but keep it in my hand and slip it in my pocket. I’m sure I’m gonna get some phone calls from angry librarians. Of course, I won’t be able to hear what they are saying.

The 99 (probably more by now) comments that followed vary from the angry to the entertained. I’m on the entertained side of things, but see why some might be upset.

That said, it does make you wonder when the last time Ellen was in a library … is this really a joke post or the way she still sees libraries? I’m going to think it’s a joke.

I also wonder if the mere mention of libraries on a popular site like this is good for library marketing - or if the content is actually damaging?

I’m just sort of babbling now, but it would be interested to hear what some of you think when you read it.

I have written a bunch about this handy tool - most recently I was happy to announce that a version for Mac was released. Now I’ve been pointed to an article about Evernote on Machinist.

Evernote is a forgetter’s dream, but the tool isn’t only for those of us gone mushy in the brain. In the same way that GPS forever changed our relationship to physical spaces, the permanent, constant archiving of both the monumental and the mundane in life will surely alter how each of us navigates the social realm. During a recent interview, I asked Libin whom he considers his target market. In the mode of a TV pitchman, he answered, “Everyone wants a better memory.” And yet this makes sense: Everyone forgets, and Evernote makes it so you never have to.

Read more…

Technorati Tags: evernote

I found this on the VALE Users’ / NJ ACRL / NJLA CUS Conference Blog:

You and your staff are invited to attend a free WALDO/LibLime webinar featuring the Koha Integrated Library Software. As you heard at the Next Generation Academic Library System Symposium sponsored by IMLS, VALEnj and The College of New Jersey, WALDO is partnering with LibLime for its new ILS and is excited about the progress that has already been made.

The webinars are scheduled for:

• (1) Monday, April 21, 2008, 9:00 am EDT
• (2) Monday, May 19, 2008, 9:00 am EDT

If you want to attend either session, please contact Becky Bell to register for this event:

Becky Bell
Open Source ILS Consultant
Phone: (800) 326-6495 Ext. 6
beckybell@waldolib.org

This webinar is being presented using WebEx. If you have not used WebEx before, please point your browser to http://support.webex.com/support/support-overview.html so you can test your browser and operating system.

The playback of UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files requires appropriate players. To view this type of rich media files in the meeting, please check whether you have the players installed on your computer by going to https://liblime.webex.com/liblime/systemdiagnosis.php

Robert Karen
Director of Member Services
Phone: (800) 326-6495 Ext. 1
Fax: (914) 729-1985
rob@waldolib.org
http://www.waldolib.org

• Your free online family tree / genealogy on itsourtree.com
• Mibbit
  Web-based IRC Client
• Jiffle | Scheduling Made Simple
• Keepm.com
  Free Online Contact Manager
• Dimdim
  Dimdim is a free web conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required for attendees.
• Netvibes
  Personalized home page.

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Did you know there was a plugin to do this? I’m a little scared to give it a whirl, but others seem to think it’s a pretty handy tool … have any of you used it?

Technorati Tags: wordpres

• Library Management Systems Study
  An Evaluation and horizon scan of the current library management systems and related systems landscape for UK higher education

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The videos from the Code4Lib 2008 conference are being added to Google video. Some are also on the Internet Archive site. Keep an eye as new ones appear.

Technorati Tags: code4libcon2008, code4lib2008

• Ungava - CISTI-ICIST LAB WIKI
  Project Ungava is a test-bed for innovative search, indexing, navigation and visualization of library catalog and scholarly journal article metadata and full-text
• finetune
  You pick the songs. Put your playlist on your blog with our player widget, it’s the soundtrack for your life and anyone can tune in.

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Amy De Groff, Head of Library Technology Services talked to us about using open source at the Howard County Public Library. Amy started by telling us that she was not going to convince us that open source is a good thing - the other speakers had already done enough of that.

Amy’s library will be entirely open source by September - which is pretty darn awesome!! With open source software there is nothing you can’t do. That said, she reminded us that open source deployment is going to create emotional turmoil - but what change doesn’t?

Before going on, Amy warned us that she was going to talk about dirty underside of our profession and that it may cause discomfort. The truth is that as information professionals we must know it all and that it’s always been this way - and this is the wrong way to think about things.

The library profession can learn from the open source community and the open source community will benefit from the library profession’s commitment and standards of service.

People ask her how she did it - how she changed the library over to open source - her answer of “we just did” didn’t seem like enough for many librarians - but it was good enough for me! The fact is that we spend way too much time debating and meeting and discussing - and not enough time doing! Good job Amy for “just doing!”

Technorati Tags: cil2008, cil08

Kyrille Goldbeck and Dr. Godmar Back of Virginia Tech talked to us about LibX. I (probably like you) have heard of this tool before - but I had no idea how cool and powerful it was!!

LibX was originally developed as a way for patrons to take the library with them on the web as a sort of a “virtual librarian” that guides user to library resources while they use the web. LibX is a Firefox tool and an IE plugin (view screenshots and screencasts via the LibX site).

This handy tool adds a toolbar to your browser where you can search the catalog for your institution. It even lets you add additional lines for advanced searching and choose the fields you’d like to search. When you perform a search, it opens the results in a new tab/window - so that you don’t lose the page you were on. Another (seemingly simple - yet often overlooked) awesome feature is that the search terms you entered in your toolbar come down into the catalog interface so you can alter/re-run the search.

In addition to allowing catalog searches via the toolbar, LibX also integrates itself into various websites. When on Amazon.com each book page has a LibX link to the library catalog (this uses xISBN) that searches for any edition of the book you’re viewing.

You can also highlight the book title or ISBN and right click to see search options in the catalog (and LibX knows which you’re highlighting - title or ISBN and runs the right search).

Next, if you have the tool installed and you visit Barnes & Noble’s site, you’ll see that the ISBN is linked (the dashed underline means that the page has been altered by an external app). If you click that link you’ll be brought into the catalog with results for an ISBN search.

But that’s not all! LibX also searches for articles! You can choose to search Google Scholar and then on the results page the links automatically reformat to go to the library’s databases (if the articles are available) with openresolver links. This works both on and off campus. If you’re off campus, you can reload the page using EZproxy and access the resources from home.

And as if that isn’t enough!! We’re always told to check the references in the articles we’re reading - well LibX makes this super easy! You just open up the PDF file and drag a reference onto the Google Scholar button on the toolbar. A new tab will open with the results!!

How is it that I went through library school without realizing how handy this tool was???

If you’re wondering how you can get this for your institution, it’s actually pretty easy!

Originally, institutions had to contact Virginia Tech to ask them to create the toolbar for them - but now you can use LibX Editions and create your own toolbar in minutes. Keep in mind that some manual customization will be required to make this toolbar meet your library’s needs.

That said, Editions has had a great impact on the usage of LibX. This tool allows anyone to build a LibX edition, share it, copy it, modify it and distribute it. All in the spirit of open source!

Conclusions

I wish I was still in school so I could use this tool all of the time - for now I’ll have to settle for using it when researching blog posts

Technorati Tags: cil2008, cil08, libx