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 [...]

A request for help posted to the Web4Lib List that I think might be of interest to you:
This is an appeal to the readers of Web4Lib to help me collect information regarding automation products used in libraries. I maintain the lib-web-cats database and use it as a tool for analysis of what automation products [...]

Yippeee!! When I first got my Mac I asked you all to point me to a tool that would work like Evernote for my Mac - well, TechCrunch reports that Evernote for Mac is finally here!!
Downloaded!
[update]Oh no! It’s a private beta! Fingers crossed for an invite![/update]
[update2]Yippee - got me an invite - will update you [...]

As you know, I’ve recently gotten my first Mac. I’m still learning. One of the features I like the most is Finder. Last night my husband installed an awesome Windows app that gives Finder functionality to his PC - Launchy.
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about [...]

When we moved to our new house in August we decided that we didn’t want a land line and so we had to (well not really - but financially it made more sense) give up our Verizon DSL and switch to Comcast cable Internet. Since day one I’ve been complainng to my husband that [...]

Did you know that Google had public calendars that you could add to your personal calendar? I didn’t - not until someone in one of the classes I was teaching pointed it out. This is why I love teaching small, hands-on type classes, I always walk away learning something from the students. [...]

There will be an interesting discussion later this week on Blending Libraries and IT Organizations:
As technology and data become increasingly intertwined, many small liberal-arts colleges are combining their IT organizations and libraries to better serve students and faculty members. Xavier University, in Cincinnati, has embraced that model wholeheartedly (The Chronicle, January 18). It is constructing [...]

Today I had my first Skype call/interview. It was an interesting experience. It was for a podcast that will appear on Talking with Talis once I’ve started my new job. One big tip - find a place without distractions or dogs!! My house has an open floor plan and it’s freezing out [...]

This from a post on the NY Times Bits blog:
In less than 14 months, any traditional television set still connected to its antenna will receive nothing but static, as the broadcasting industry cuts over completely to its new digital frequencies.
A recent poll by the marketing arm of the cable industry shows that most people still [...]

The first issue of the Code4Lib Journal has been released and the TOC looks pretty enticing - now I just have to find time to read some of these articles.

Editorial Introduction "” Issue 1
Beyond OPAC 2.0: Library Catalog as Versatile Discovery Platform
Facet-based search and navigation with LCSH: Problems and opportunities
The Rutgers Workflow Management System: Migrating [...]

While Thanksgiving has passed, I can be thankful anytime and I want to repeat Michael’s thanks to LISNews & Blake Carver.
I’m also thankful for LISNews and the hosting services that Blake Carver provides. He puts up with the mountains of spam comments TTW gets as well as all my strange requests. If you [...]

I mentioned when I started my new job that EverNote is an essential tool. Well I just found out via LifeHacker that you can get the $50 version of EverNote for free for today only.
Don’t miss this offer - unless you care about the limitations:
Please note that the software you download and install during
the [...]

This is not a review - so much as it is a review of points that have stuck with me from my reading of Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. I’m not done yet - but I can’t hold it in anymore - and my husband is tired of listening to me rant about [...]

I bookmarked this resource ages ago - but apparently it was only recently released:
The first official alpha version of Google’s OCRopus scanning software for Linux was released yesterday. OCRopus is built on top of HP’s venerable open-source Tesseract optical character recognition (OCR) engine and is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.
OCRopus uses Tesseract for character [...]

Via LibVive:
Public libraries are the natural venue for tech support problems to get fixed. Libraries care about people’s access to information, right? How about if we tack on an extra $1 to the cost of every new computer — and then fund libraries to stay open some extra hours in the evening (or on the [...]

Last night I gave a talk on the value of the content management system (CMS) at the Princeton Public Library. Most of it was live demos of Drupal, Joomla and the Jenkins Law Library intranet (a homegrown CMS), but I also had a few intro slides that are now on my Publications & Presentations [...]

I was having a chat with Chris Schwartz the other day about which technologies we should be looking at for our library. She asked me if I thought we needed to pay attention to Second Life - if this was really where our students were. I don’t know the answer to this without asking [...]

Straight from my inbox:
SHAKE UP YOUR THINKING
WITH THE PHILADELPHIA SLA'S TECH-TOPICS SERIES
The TechTopics Series will be comprised of three evening workshops concentrating on new technologies and tools, and are designed for anyone who is interested in keeping their skill sets up-to-date.
These "hands-on" workshops will provide you with an overview of new technologies such [...]

If you’re in the Princeton area on Sept 4, come hear me chat about the CMS at the Public Library Tech Talks.

I agree with Sarah - I want one of these nifty little things!! In fact - that was just what they were aiming for:
Though designers say the product is unisex, as a fashion accessory it may carry particular appeal to women, a group Intel has long wanted to win over. “Increasingly, women are often [...]

Cliff writes and interesting post about our online identities. The short summary is this - he posted a video for his staff use. He then deleted the account that held the video, only to find out that his video was cited in a paper.
I’ve come across this issue before. I’ve wanted to [...]

To quote Richard Wallis from Talis - “Take yourself to this video of a presentation at the 2007 TED Conference. Don’t argue just take a look!”
WOW! At first it’s just neat … and then it’s gets neater … and then … WOW!!!
Favorite quote (with some editing out of ums):
What the point here really is [...]

PEW has a quick quiz to help you figure out where you fit in with other Internet users. Thanks Steve for pointing it out for me.
My results are not surprising. I’m an Omnivore!
Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.
Basic Description
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do [...]

Today I learned 2 new words: Metatasking & Informavores. I just finished reading Devin Zimmerman’s April 15th Library Journal article titled Metatasking v. Multitasking.
Metatasking is a process that involves undertaking any number of tasks that ultimately accomplish one primary objective.
As many institutions continue to move toward information commons and collaborative learning models, encouraging metatasking"”that [...]

Hmmm - this is very interesting.
This article in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting on research done at The University of NSW suggests the use of Microsoft PowerPoint (and similar products) in lectures and meetings actually makes it harder to absorb facts, rather than being a reinforcement of key points.
Via Slashdot.
Technorati Tags: powerpoint, presentations