Early September Links, volume 2

Well, here is the second part, and my list of unread posts in Google Reader is finally back to zero! Now to tackle the work email in-box, where I keep getting automatically generated "mailbox full" notes!

Iris Jastram always writes thoughtful pieces. (Often they are based in her real-life experiences.) She recently posted about her philosophy of librarianship. It is well worth reading, it notes the important role of librarian (especially reference librarian) as generalist. In fact, it makes me think that once upon a time when I was part of a team doing book selection, we made it a point to include one of the support staff who worked the circulation desk (and handled ILL). She brought some of that real-world grounding to our work.

One of the library humor blogs on my list is obnoxious librarian from hades. Its subtitle is : a satirical look at life in a large bureaucracy. One of the more recent posts, while posted as a satire, really pegs the state of e-books and libraries today.

I mentioned here that Abigail Goden is doing a series of "Data Friday" posts which continue this week. The most recent post talks about a book published in the UK (and soon to be published here) about access to web data.

Letters to a Young Librarian has a recent post by a law firm librarian talking about professional development. (This is also falls into my category of "continuous education.") Here is a key "take-away" quote:

It is true that you get out of professional development what you put into it. Anything that you can use to further your career, enhance your skills, or support learning and progress in librarianship counts as professional development.

There were a couple of posts about mobile apps and libraries. First from Bill Drew who casts his headline as either/or between mobile apps and mobile web sites. It turns out that he refers to two separate articles in Computers in Libraries each of which tackles one of the two topics. Based on his comments, the web sites will be easier to produce in the short run. I wonder how long the "apps" portion will be relevant.

Aaron Tay has a fairly long post about mobile friendly databases being offered by libraries. He notes both of the trends talked about by Bill, but focuses on database access as provided by our vendors (i.e. not library created). Because he is a librarian in Singapore, he takes a (literally) more global view than do many other bloggers I read.

Librarians are on strike at the University of Western Ontario. The author (Mita) blogs library issues at New Jack Librarian. She has an interesting philosophical take on information, copyright, the library's role, and how the university should be treating its librarians. (I will confess, while I have heard about the strike, I am not very well informed on the issues...)

Rory Litwin is continuing Library Juice and Library Juice press, but he has returned to school for a PhD, and has started a new blog, Non-Robots and Their World. One of his recent posts is about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and has the great title
Feeling and not feeling.

Finally, there are a series of four posts from Eric Hellman (I have mentioned him before). I am going to list them and comment in the order of chronological appearance:

1. The first is on the value of a book. The post includes graphs and some sophisticated economic analysis. I'll probably have to read it a couple more times to really understand it.
2. The second is about his new venture which is the process of raising money to make creative-commons licensed ebook editions of the books ... so that everyone, everywhere can read them.
3. The third reflects on the sense of smell. I have often heard that it is the most powerful of the senses in memory recall. I have certainly experienced that in my life, times when just an odor brings back a very strong, vivid memory. One of my favorite quotes is: "When we smell a book all of these feelings resonate across time and they comfort us."
4. Finally, Eric posted about orphan works and finding the true copyright holder. He noted that the Hathi Trust had proposed posting some orphan works. The Authors Guild then sued them. As part of their prep, the Authors Guild used its membership (and blog readership) to identify many of the authors not found by Hathi Trust. Eric's post is full of links.
   

The Web, meida delivery and blogging

There has been a confluence of the above topics in not just the tweets I get, or the blogs I real, or even the email I get.

I am on the routing list for Publishers Weekly, and recently read the May 18, 2009 issue which has the interview with Chris Anderson by Andrew Albanese (who has written for Library Journal). This was to highlight Chris Anderson's new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. It is an interesting interview, and I recommend it. At the same time I have a link to Financial Times piece which says "most news websites will charge within a year." It is my memory that the New York Times tried this in the early days, and it failed big time. I know that I don't even like to register to read news, I think that this is a big old FAIL.

On the other hand, Casey Bisson expresses some interesting thoughts in dissecting the old business model of the newspaper business. It is headlined: "Newspaper Business: News was a loss leader!" He talks about trying to monetize the newspaper business, and goes to argue that the Financial Times editor is probably wrong.

Roy Tenant takes the position that print is not dead, in a (usual for him) well-written piece. [He tweeted the other day that there were no comments, I see that there are now seven (7), but make him happy and comment!]

He earlier had a great post on social media pitfalls, and cites the Clinical Reader incident which Iris Jastram covered very completely (and he did not mention...)

Finally, there has been an interesting conversation started by Meredith Farkas called: "W(h)ither blogging and the library blogosphere?" Meredith has been a blogging hero to me, I started reading her blog quite a long while before I started blogging myself. (And I have even had a chance to meet her in person at ALA Annual!) Her comments are cogent, and as interesting has been the conversation on Friend Feed. [Addition 7/23 8:30 am: I should have also noted Iris Jastram's thoughtful piece about the ebb and flow of online social interaction using various tools.]

WAPL - Have you heard

I came in late, so I missed the introduction. There was a panel whose members took turns showing new items. They used a del.icio.us page (which is linked here).

Good Reads

Geek Brief TV [geekbrief.tv]
This is an occasional podcasts on tech issues

Ad Block
This is an add on for Firefox. It will let you block ads from specific advertisers. It has options and settings, but it will also let you "whitelist" a page so that the ads show up.

Songza
If you are a fan of Pandora, this will let you search for and listen to one specific song (which Pandora does not allow). You do not have to create a playlist because it sets a cookie. It also lets you see the video.

Educause
Has all sorts of info on technology as it relates to higher education.

Web alert
Similar to GeekTV, but more focused on the industry. You can listen to it as a podcast

Friendfeed
Takes everything where there is a feed and puts them in one site. It will keep track of what you do on various social networking sites. You can use it to RSS feed items.

Library Thing Local
A way to promote upcoming local author events. Anyone can add events (if you have a Library Thing account). You can also subscribe as an RSS Feed. It also keeps track of favorite venues and events.

A Place Between Us
Is a way to find a mutually convenient meeting place. You can choose parameters like coffee, need chocolate, at a library.

Widget Box
Lets you create widgets, customize a little, and then you can cut and paste a bit of code to paste on your site/blog/facebook/etc.

Down for everyone or just me?
Will let you check to see if a specific web site is working or if you are having a local problem.

Ript
It is very graphical and lets you drag stuff on to a specfic page to save. It is something which is downloaded on to your machine.

Popurls
Takes every hot site you do not want in your RSS feed reader and lists them on a single page. It gives you an idea of what is going on.

Bloglines Beta
The original Bloglines got "old and tired." The presenter said that it has all the benefits of both Bloglines and Google Reader. [editorial note: I *hate* Google Reader.] She really liked it. I may take a look, but she had disparaging remarks about Bloglines.

Google Docs Bar
It is an easy way to access the Google docs from within your web browser.

Chat Maker
It is a way to create a spontaneous chat session. It is important to choose a name which is unique.

Book Lamp
This is a "sad and pathetic" excuse for readers advisory. It seems to have a science fiction and fantasy bent. Aims to be the Pandora of reading.

LiveMocha
This is similar to Rosetta Stone. It adds a community of learners who can offer tips.

Definr
Quick definitions are listed here.

Go2web20
Includes logos and tags of new items on the web.

TeacherTube
Since YouTube is blocked in most schools, this lets you get info out to teachers.

Awesome Highlighter
Lets you highlight sections on a page, and then send a link to the highlighted page.

Passpack
Let's you store your online accounts and passwords.

Add This
Lets you generate all kinds of buttons for your page.

Google Browser Synch
Lets you keep your history, cookies, bookmarks, and saved passwords across several computers. It does need to be added, and works only with Firefox.

Similicio.us
Finds sites similar to the ones you are on. It is based on tags on tagging sites. It will work not just with web sites, but with articles. They need to have been tagged.

Stock.xchng
This is a site for getting free stock photos. It includes items which cost also.

AccuRadio
It is a radio site. It has any kind of song you want built into a channel. You can even build your own channel (but only if you use IE). High quality music.

Net Vibes
This is a way to make your own page to feed in all of your social networking site. You can arrange the page however you want.

Hasslebot
Lets you send yourself "hassles."

TwitterLit
Twitter is a social networking that uses very short messages. This sends a message twice a day which is the first line from a book, as a teaser.

Net Disaster
Let's you choose a web site and (for fun) put different disasters over a web site.

Cogmap
This site lets you create an organizational chart and print it and save it.

Titlepage.tv
Has authors talking about books. It can easily be embedded in web page.

Jumpcut
Here you can upload photos to make a movie. (It is part of Yahoo!)