Google Reader, Revisited

A recent post on 3 Great Ways To Read Your Google Reader Feeds [via AL Direct] reminded me that I should revisit the topic of Google Reader.

Four years ago (almost exactly) I wrote about my first experiences with Google Reader. I was not a happy camper. I had some colloquy with colleagues about tips and techniques for using Google Reader. I tried a second time, and was still unhappy. I remained a Bloglines user for a long time. Well, Bloglines essentially went away.

I now use Google Reader, pretty exclusively, to follow the 164 blogs that I care about.

I think Google Reader has changed some. What else has changed is that I now use Gmail for most of my personal email. It has the handy little link which will automatically open Google Reader. That makes it incredibly easy to read the blogs. As a result, I am very caught up, and don't mind (as much) the assumption that you want to read the latest posting first. I have set several up (manually) to post with the oldest first, and - for now - I am content.

I ran across my posts, and realized that I should "fess up" to having been converted, later rather than sooner.

Links - Mid February

Here is the scariest news story I have seen lately: FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited

Almost as scary is this one about copyright of photographs in Britain. It is a long article, and I admit to not having either completely read it, or to understanding all the implications.

A friend of mine in Boston sent this link to an article praising librarians as "pioneers" in the digital age. (It even mentions Henriette Harriet Avram!) [Thanks to Sue Kamm for the first name correction! 2/26]

I found this brief article on assessment in academic libraries interesting.

This post from a doctoral student in language and literacy at the University of Georgia talks about the current rage for testing in schools and for tying the results of testing to teacher performance judgments. His/her name does not appear on the blog (even though there is a list of publications).

And now a series of "clipped" notes from my blog reader....

Michael Stephens noted in ALA TechSource that he has found a new "tribe" at Educause. I think it is important to have several different circles of friends. Talking only to the same people all the time creates the opportunity for groupthink, which will not lead to real progress.

The indomintable Dorothea Salvo has written a long-ish post about "pre-prints" and open access. (When I need to learn more about open access, it is to Dorothy to whom I turn.)

Current ALA Executive Board (EB) member Courtney Young posted some EB documents about the potential new ways of communicating within ALA.

Chad Haefele (Hidden Peanuts) has an interesting post about e-books, digital rights managment, and electronic publishing.

Sarah Houghton-Jan has a great post on using technology in your library to save money on technology.

A few years ago, I picked up on a blog dealing with technology and innovation for associations Principled Innovation. There is a great post on their blog with five important thoughts/trends for 2010.

There is a new blog in the library world, Quid est veritas? [I know who the author is, but have temporarily forgotten. However, it is in my blog reader now.] There is a great post on "Inputs and Outputs." The concepts of inputs and outputs, which is what we have traditionally measured, is very important as many organizations (like the Institute of Museum of Library Services [IMLS]) start to request outcomes as the measurement for grant services.

Amanda McNeil is a library school student in Boston. She writes a blog called Opinions of a Wolf which is a mix of thoughts on library school and the profession and book reviews. She wrote an interesting post "What public libraries should be."

Kim Leeder, of In the Library with a Lead Pipe, posted a year starting discussion of Learning Commons activities and rumination about the role of the library (in general). It is long but worth reading.

My final set of links is from Stephen Abram. With his recent change in employment, his blog Stephen's Lighthouse has moved. However there are seven posts to which I wish to point:

1. Social Media for Employees -- Rules? which indirectly follows up on some posts of mine. It consolidates some additional suggestions.
2. How many ways are there to visualize data? Visualization of data is something that Stephen pays attention to. I often get some great ideas thanks to his consolidation and re-posting.
3. Web searching skills recommendation is a longer article with comments from Stephen.
4. Florida Libraries Rock talks about the update to the Florida State Library's update of its ROI (Return on Investment) study. The new study shows that investment in libraries (i.e. tax support) returns $8.32 for every dollar invested.
5. 10 Fool-Proof Predictions for the Internet in 2020 reminds us some of the obvious trends.
6. Social Technology and Libraries includes a great chart showing the technologies, Sescription, stage of development, and impact.
7. 8 Things You Need to Know about Collaboration recaps a post on collaboration.
   

Links, links, links, links....

Happy 10th birthday Blogger!

• For those of us who have trouble on Mondays!
  

• Next Monday, though....
  

• And job seeking advice about Twitter
  

• Some folks just don't get the web, and the Associated Press is one...
  

• More e-book predictions...
  

• And more comments on the digital divide
  

• Dorothea Salvo writes on digital repositories, and is always worth reading.
  

• Good news on e-book formats
  

• You can't blog, flickr, or twitter from college stadia? Can anyone say "First ammendment?" or "Prior restraint"? I am waiting for the first case!

• A great website on getting boys to read -- and you can follow on Twitter, too
  

• A newly named inherent behavior: Seeking [from Slate]

• The danger of the Google settlement for libraries [LibraryLaw Blog]

• Online education beats the classroom?

• More than just death by PowerPoint, this talks about what the errors/problems are

Here is a "two-fer:" first it talks about the positive impact of high-speed [broadband] access on rural areas. But then I looked at the map which shows number of broadband providers. When I look at a map like this, I often focus on the places that I know about (mostly where I have lived). So, for example in both most of northern Maine, and in a tiny swatch of southern Arizona there are no providers. Well, a lot of that northern Maine is woods! I have canoed through some of that territory, there are really no roads, and only the hardiest of people. The southern Arizona piece is more problematic, but it sure looks to me like it is the reservation which is just to the west (and slightly south) of Tucson. When I lived there it was the Papago Reservation, but it is now called Tohono O'odham.

Links from around the web - later in August

First is Louisville: I had forgotten that I know the library director there, Craig Buthold. We served on a PLA Committee many, many years ago. More recently I have been in contact with Greg Schwartz, fellow Brown U alumnus.

Steve Lawson has taken the lead with this well written post and offer of funds.

More random stuff:

• From Stephen Abram -- Personal Branding

• Also from Stephen -- How Peter Drucker' Wisdom can inspire and change your life

• A very long post from one of my new favorite blogs, In the Library with the Lead Pipe, on what exactly open source is.

• From the Electronic Frontier Foundation on locational privacy

• From Seth Godin, a great graphical presentation called "The bandwidth-sync correlation that's worth thinking about."

• There is a very complicated ROI calculator for the value of non-profit activity in the social networking world
  

Library Journal needs to understand

Much more about blogging and their audience.

First of all, the typeface on their web pages is way too small. It looks like about 7 point type, and then, there is no way to enlarge it!

Second, the site is so ad heavy that it takes forever to load.

Third, their linking! If you are on a page where in the right (well, actual, middle because there is the column of ads) and click on one of the "Recent Posts," where do you go? To a whole page of brief announcements of the recent posts, and the one you clicked on may or may not be visible! If you want to read the whole post, you have to click AGAIN!

Then, for the longer blogs (Blatant Berry, Annoyed Librarian) only the first sentence or so will show up in your blog feed reader. (It might even be 140 characters, I have never bothered to count.)

If it weren't so important to my professional life, I would never go there!

[And that loading thing....one page has been loading the whole time I have been typing this!]

Links from around the web

• Here is a thoughtful post from Helene Blowers about books and print, it has a catchy title, too: Future of the book is not a "container question"

• An interesting article from PW about the Google Book Search Settlement and a panel discussion at New York Public Library

• When you "buy" a download, can you keep it forever? Some think not. Here is an article from boingboing on the topic.

Stephen Abram is always thoughtful. I had saved two posts from him:

1. Streaming video is displacing DVDs
   But I wonder where does that leave the majority in Louisiana who do not have Internet at home?
2. He also has some cogent thoughts on Bing and Yahoo (As he suggests, I have started using Bing.)

More posts

• I picked this up off PUBLIB, where the poster noted that this conservative paper generally is against any taxes and increases in public spending, but does support public libraries. It is an interesting article.

• Archiving the transition of power in Alaska This shows the important role we libraries have in conserving today's information for tomorrow's researchers

• I am a little disappointed that I did not make the Top 100 list, and I have some quibbles, like librarian.net not being in the top 5! But there are some other obviously good choices. There were even a few I had not followed/found.

That's it for now!

More Links

I am trying to clean up...and lost stuff...stupid wireless connection. Anyway, this is what you get!

ALA

Five tips for a Better ALA Conference Experience from one of ALA's largest divisions

Getting Virtual: ALA Works to Increase Electronic Member Participation

Broadband, Internet access, etc.

Elderly, poor narrow broadband service gap from the AP

Home Broadband Adoption a Pew Study

Lower Broadband Prices -- but only if there is competition

Stimulus rules are out -- are the easily understood?

Open Access, Copyright, Intellectual Property (IP)

Elsevier is lobbying against Open Access [OK, who is surprised?]

File sharing and Copyright from LIS News -- read the report which is a PDF linked from this

Are Books Dead?

The short answer here is "NO" but you should read the long discussion.

But the Canadian National Archives thinks "MAYBE" since they have stopped buying paper.

Miscellaneous Internet issues

Google antitrust issues

Anonymity on the web -- or not!

Hate speechin the US as opposed to the rest of the world

Don't moon people with cameras (or at least hide your face when you do) -- humor, but with an important point

Search and find magazine articles on Google Book Search (from the source)

Taxes and the Internet: Amazon drops partners to avoid state sales taxes

Truly Miscellaneous

Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

PowerPoint Animations are information killers -- I feel vindicated!

Gender gap continues in the computer world -- even if not in libraries, or is it a reverse gap for us.

Humor, from Robert Benchley -- How to get things done despite procrastination

The BIG picture

Is there a "too big to fail" in the book/library world?

Widening generation gap (from nola.com); original Pew study here

How teens use media is different than how "we" do (Neilsen study)

Links and miscellany

Most recently, I have been collecting interesting links from both Twitter and my Bloglines account. I have gotten into the habit of just leaving the link open in a tab in my browser. Well, it is time to clean up again. Some of the titles are self-evident, but I have added comments to some of them.

And now in categories!

Broadband:

Bringing Broadband to Rural America (the official FCC report)

Broadband Nation. A new blog about broadband issues.

Bringing in Broadband. The issues in one Florida county.

Mapping Broadband. This person/organization may well not be a friend for libraries.

Lobbying the FCC for access and no caps.

New technology and Web 2.0

Paper Highlights Pros and Cons of Twittering at Academic Conferences

"librarians express affection through information"

Resolving the 80/20 dilemma "End users are spending less time on gathering the information they need – but their search failure rate is going up." A great article of importance to all librarians, but this one is focused on special/corporate libraries.

Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment This links to a much longer PDF file on the Cambridge University web site

Search is too important to leave to one company – even Google Cory Doctorow in the Guardian

Study: Unselfish Individuals Benefit in Social Networks

9 simple suggestions for using social media

Twitter in the workplace. This is a presentation for government leaders on the use of Twitter.

Intellectual Property issues (IP)

IP rights and the Blind The US, Canada, and the EU try to limit the rights of blind people to use technology to receive written material -- Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing

IP: File sharing and Copyright. I have not read the full article (a link to the PDF is here), but the summary presents the intellectual property issues in file sharing in a new light. (Hmmm, maybe a full post is coming.)

Publishers are trying to avoid the Music industry's mistakes.

ALA

All Dressed Up with Nowhere to Go: A Survey of ALA Emerging Leaders

General Library stuff:

Mommy haven takes a hit in down economy

How to love your library

The 'M' word always has good stuff about library marketing. Nancy Dowd does a good job, this one is on the future of the media we will need to deal with. {Memo to grammar caucus fans...I did that on purpose.}

Darien Library's new brand image was picked up from John Blyberg. Check out the other clients here.

Job seekers at the library. While this is not new, there are some interesting statistics at the end. I also have to comment that when I first looked at this site, I thought I was at NOLA.com which is the site for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Freemium A new way of thinking about library services and charging for them.

The Big Picture

Google takes on Amazon from the New York Times...and it is only for e-books.

Communicating a message. An interesting re-post from Stephen Abram on the differences that the wording of a message can make.

Personal

Free Range Librarian on where she is in her life and in her blogging life. It is actually a little similar to where I am.

Hot flashes -- a new perspective I found this one absolutely fascinating.

Want. Need I say more?

The rise and fall of LSU. I am not completely sure of the author's credentials, but it certainly is an interesting perspective on the positioning of state universities within the state power structure.

Links and miscellany

Somehow, with keeping up on Twitter and blog reading, I seem to have hit "the motherload" today. So, as I sit and wait for the sleep study to begin, here is today's harvest:

27 things to do before a conference. Stephen Abram pointed to this site, which I thought was going to be from him. Chris Brogan looks like someone I know, but in checking out his site, it is clear that I do not know him.

Leaders make the future. Jeff de Cagna of Principled Innovation (a blog I picked up from Mary Ghikas at ALA), did a podcast with the author of this book. There is some good content on the website without listening to the podcast (which I will admit that I have not done).

Stephen Abram also noted an Emmy winning video. Which he picked up from Nancy Dowd's blog about videos.

Google battles Facebook in search. This is a very interesting piece.

EFF on Google Books settlement. Via LIS news, this reproduces most of the text from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Clive Thompson on the future of electronic reading.

Data from the Feds. This looks like a very interesting site. I have not had time to play around with it. I look forward to that and a further report.

Board games and information literacy. My friend Chris Harris, of the Infomancy blog, has written a great article on the relationship of playing board games to information literacy and the AASL information standards.

Summer of Mobile Library Services. Tom Peters has written a great article for ALA Techsource.

Relevancy of Libraries in the Future. This is a thoughtful article from LIS News (I just wish they would give full names of the authors of these longer articles.)

Fiber-Fed Libraries can serve as an agent of recovery. Non-librarian Douglas Streeks has written a great article for BroadbandCensus.com

Global CEO Survey. This is a link to Stephen Abram's summary of this annual survey of global CEOs.

Wireless Substitution. Another post from Stephen Abram about the fact that few folks are connected by land lines.

Judith Krug: Tribute and Thoughts

Many folks have written about the death of Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) Director Judy Krug. I won't even point to the wonderful articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. There is a somewhat incomplete article in Wikipedia (my recollection is that it used to be fuller, and had a photo!). There are some wonderful quotes in Wikiquotes, though. Most of them I can mentally hear Judy say!

She was a staunch supporter of the first amendment to the US Constitution which includes "free speech" as a core value of life in the United States.

I had heard of Judy for years before I ever met her when I became an ALA Councilor. However, from then on I learned to listen carefully to what she said, and to respect her incredible commitment to a value which is important to me.

I was not going post on this until I read John Berry III's recent Blatant Berry post (which I am expecting to see in the print version of Library Journal. He has followed that up with a shorter post that is pure tribute and expresses the need to have the ALA OIF headed by a librarian. The longer post says some of the things I would have about Judith. However, John (and yes, I know him in person), has lost what made Judy so critically important in defending the First Ammendment. Let me quote the third to last and the penultimate paragraphs:

The new chief of OIF and FTRF must be a consolidator, a diplomat, and a lobbyist of high skill. This IF leader must not only defend ALA’s IF apparatus but manage its continued evolution in an environment of easy technological access to information, where censorship is often practiced not by removal of information but by its online manipulation. Beyond that, innovations like Google Book Search pose new challenges. The new leader must possess the legal, political, and moral fiber to outmaneuver the opponents of free inquiry and individual privacy in the courts, the marketplace, and the civic community.

Just as important, the new leader of OIF must face the longstanding gap between our principles and our practice. This gap comes in part from transposing policies born in the print age, such as providing open access to all library materials for juveniles, and the difficulty of allowing unrestricted use of public access computer terminals.

The first of the two above paragraphs hits the nail on the head. The next leader of the OIF must be incredibly tactful, articulate, visionary, and politically skilled. Where I take issue with John Berry is the second of the two paragraphs above. In a country (and profession) which is as large and diverse as ours, there will always be differences. These will include places where there is a gap between principles and practice. But, just because there are gaps does not mean that on a "core value" issue such as this, we should be any less diligent in expressing our views. Policies (in public libraries) are generally made by appointed or elected boards. In an age of technological change there will be a lag in having the policies (created in an earlier enviornment) matching the new environment.

The next head of the OIF *must* continue to express unqualified support for all that the First Ammendment stands for. To do anything less will allow us to slide down a slippery slope.

Wisconsin Cold

This weekend has been warm -- for this winter. It has actually been double digits (above zero) including almost getting to 40 today.

Earlier in the week was the primary. So many of the national media talked about how Wisconsinites were braving the cold to vote. In Eau Claire, the turn out was almost a record with over 40% coming out to vote. Even my daughter blogged [no link, unless she asks for it] about how ridiculous it was to talk about being surprised at the cold in Wisconsin in the winter.

The locals here are talking about how this is like winters used to be. We have had below average cold and above average snow. Fortunately, here in Eau Claire we have not had the same dumping of snow that the southern part of the state has had. My observation has been that the snow has been pretty dry. The down side is the drifting (look at the first two photos on Flickr). But it is still light. With the cold it has stuck.

More snow is predicted for this week. We'll see!

Library 2.0: A list of sources

Jennifer Macauly over at her blog, Life as I know it, has a great list of blog posts and other information on Library 2.0. She notes that it is a work in progress, but it looks pretty good to me! Thanks Jennifer!

Meanwhile, I can't see my blog because Google is giving me a "403 Forbidden" message with the text:

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

It is happening for every Blogspot/Blogger blog I try to get to. I did go through the Google page to get to Blogger, and then here. Am I going crazy? Not only that, but is doesn't seem like you can talk to anyone (or email and get a response) to a problem like this. I know it is not just my PC since others in my building (i.e. on my network) cannot get to these blogs also. Curious!

Fixed as of 2:30 pm CDT. MAG

What exactly does "Library 2.0" mean?

My friend Karen Schneider posted a comment on my recent ramblings on this topic. In it she says "I've commented on my blog, but basically I've concluded, well, you're wrong and I'm right. ;-)" Well, I went off to look at what she said, because Karen is not only a friend, but a great writer, and often makes me think enough to sometimes change my mind.

First, let me note that she only really comments on the second half of my post, the part about the Annoyed Librarian. I posted to her blog that I think we actually agree. Her comments about the "us/them" language are very compelling, and is a perspective about which I had not thought. She is correct in that using that kind of inflammatory language sets up the kind of false dichotomy that makes it harder to build any kind of team.

She also includes a great quote from a mutual friend, Sara Weissman [Sara and Karen are the co-moderators of the long running PUBLIB electronic discussion list]:

If you want an enterprise-wide initiative, if you want everyone to be involved, at some point, as leader, you have to accept a certain bumpy, uneven quality of work and just lead them through it to comfort and consistency.

I sure have thought about Sara's words, and even acted in that way at times without having had the ability to put the thought into words.

I still maintain, that while some focus the Library 2.0 discussion on "only" the technology aspects, libraries that are genuinely "2.0" libraries will address all of the customer service/user-centered issues. That is among the places where I think that Karen and I agree.

Library 2.0: Different visions

In reading my Bloglines (no, I have not looked at Bloglines Beta yet), I found two interesting and contrasting posts.

David Lee King proposes a revision to his visual presentation of a Library and Library 2.0 ideas. While his first showed a spectrum, and placed people and ideas along that spectrum, the two dimensionality of the line does not reflect what the whole Library 2.0 movement is about.

At the same time, the Annoyed Librarian writes her posts under an anonymous pseudonym. [This bugs John N. Berry III, and I guess that is why I like it!] Some of Annoyed's posts are about the public, and there is more than a little sarcasm thrown in. On the other hand, how many of us, at one time or another, have not had (but not expressed) thoughts just like Annoyed? Not so many hands raised. This time Annoyed hits the mark (or at least a little closer) with "The Cult of the Twopointopia." It is not "either/or," I like to think of it as "both/and." We have new tools, we need to use them.

I will note, that Annoyed does use a healthy (well, maybe even more than a healthy) dose of sarcasm in her writing. But don't let that put you off. I think most folks dealing with Library 2.0 issues are somewhere between the two extremes of feelings on the topic.

Incredibly funny video

Michael Porter (aka Libraryman) posted this incredibly funny video clip under the title: "Disco Dancing for Peace in the Biblioblogosphere."

There is music, and be prepared to laugh!

Addicted to Blogging

I picked this up from Stephen Abram. I am surprised that I am only 1% point lower than he is!

84%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

[I tried to add an tag, unsuccessfully, so....it says "I am 84% addicted to blogging."]

The Open Door Director

I had been very, very far behind in reading blogs....I started falling behind just before ALA Annual, and it got worse as the summer wore on. I have finally caught up.

One post caught my eye, and it is a LJ [that's Library Journal not Live Journal] column by the blogging Michaels (Casey and Stephens). It is called The Open Door Director.

It is so much the truth when they say "It's no longer enough for the library director simply to keep the place running. Today's director is politician and lobbyist, fundraiser and spokesperson, juggling all of these titles while administering a library." And that sure is true.

They cite Jackson County (Oregon) libraries which recently closed down as one example of how public libraries cannot assume that funding will continue. (The last interim director, Ted Stark arrives to start in nearby Menomonie at the beginning of next month.)

What they talk about is what I have always tried to do as a library director. Be out in the community. Make the community feel like they can have a say in the library. By making all parts of the community into "stakeholders." [Interestingly my new library has a recent tradition of doing "Stakeholder Events" to emphasize that feeling.]

I'm still working on getting all aspects of Library 2.0 into my head and heart. But it is reassuring to read that I am doing some of the right things.

Giving up -- No, not that way

One of the non-library specific blogs I read is a Wisconsin-based blog I picked up on before I even moved here. Can't tell you where or when, because I don't remember. I just added it to my Bloglines account. The blog is: 800-CEO-READ.

Monday's post is great and is called "Ending." It quotes that wonderful book Up the Organization by Robert Townsend which was originally published in 1970, and has been recently re-published.

Here is the key quote they excerpted which could apply to almost every library, government, or non-profit organization:

It's about eleven times as easy to start something as it is to stop something. But ideas are good for a limited time--but not forever.

If only we all could learn to LIVE this rule, not just we who are administrators, but our customers (that's what we call them in Eau Claire), or users, or patrons. There *always* seems to be someone (and it is often only ONE) who objects to an organization stopping doing something that is no longer needed or no longer part of the core mission.

WiLS World co-conspiritors

I missed a fellow blogger at WiLS World! Sharyn Heili of Libraries and Librarians Rock was there also. Sorry Sharyn!

Bloggers at WiLS World

I have met some of my blog favorites here at WiLS World. A partial list (with blogs)

Dorothea Salvo - Caveat Lector
Andrew Pace - Hectic Pace
Tom Peters - on ALA Techsource
Barbara Misselt - Multitype Librarian

It is great to have names and faces and physically meet these folks!