Monthly Archives: June 2007

Joy of Computing Cookbook

The Joy of Computing Cookbook (pdf) comes from the excellent MaintainIT Project, and is an excellent resource for smaller, rural libraries who are trying to manage their technology within confined budgets and tightened schedules. Like the MaintainIT project, the project … Continue reading

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The Library Fix

The Library Fix is the title of Garrison Keillor‘s current column, and presents his take on the long-term role that libraries can play in society.  It also appears in today’s Chicago Tribune, though you may need to register for access. … Continue reading

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Google as Publisher?

Google as Publisher : Is Google Poised for a New Push into the Information Industry? is a report for sale ( for $1,295.00!!!) by Outsell Inc. detailing how the world’s largest search company would be able to become one of … Continue reading

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Google Custom Search Engine

The Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) has just been made easier to set up and use. The brief summary: create a page of links to web resources you feel are useful and appropriate for a given topic. Via Google, you … Continue reading

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Bowker buys AquaBrowser

Specifically, Bowker has bought the company that owns AquaBrowser. Bowker, best known for publishing Books In Print, as well as assigning ISBNs, has bought Medialab Solutions, the Amsterdam company that developed the search interface. If you haven’t used AquaBrowser lately, … Continue reading

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Working at Google vs. Working at Microsoft

This isn’t directly related to libraries, and even the indirect aspect only applies to larger libraries, or libraries within larger institutions, but I thought there were some points of interest in this blog post from an anti-Google blog. Of special … Continue reading

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Open Text Book blog

The Open Text Book blog was started a few days ago by the Open Knowledge Foundation. In their first post, they describe the blog as: a place to list and keep track of news about textbooks that are open in … Continue reading

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WebJunction’s Rural Library Sustainability Online Course

WebJunction has launched a Rural Library Sustainability Online Course, and it’s free! Their site has the following synopsis of the course: Visit each of the seven areas of interest critical to sustaining public access computing in your library. View case … Continue reading

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Top Tech Trends 2007

Well, it’s not a list from an official generator of trend lists, but Karen Coombs has posted a Top Tech Trends 2007 list that I think is well thought out and close to the mark. How quickly (and how completely) … Continue reading

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Scitalks

Scitalks is an online collection of science videos, or as they put it, “Smart people on cool topics”. Many of their videos feature notable researchers, and the topics range from experiments, to demonstrations, to lectures.  Don’t miss the classic Protein … Continue reading

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New Digitization Project

The Kirtas–BookSurge book digitization program has arrived, digitizing books from four libraries using Kirtas’ automated book scanning equipment and  BookSurge’s  position as an on-demand publishing subsidiary of Amazon.com. Open Access News has a great overview of it, including why it … Continue reading

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Alphabeticalization

A neat little post on MetaFilter on the history of alphabetization.  We take it for granted, but someone had to develop the system (and I am sure someone else was there to say “what’s wrong with the way we do … Continue reading

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WorldWideScience.org

WorldWideScience.org is a federated search tool for science resources sponsored by The British Library, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, and eight other participating countries.  It searches 15 science portals and combines the results for … Continue reading

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Lawrence Lessig: the next 10 years

Lawrence Lessig, chair of Creative Commons, writer for Wired Magazine, and much much more, has announced that he is changing the course of his life, and will be attempting to champion the cause of a democratic society.  Don’t read my … Continue reading

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Bottle Identification

Need to learn about an old bottle?  Learn about design elements, markings, and other ways to date and learn about that object that has been on that basement shelf since before you moved in. from MetaFilter

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Melissa DATA

They’ve been around for a while, but I haven’t blogged about them yet, and they keep adding great features, so here is another great site for finding info related to location: Melissa DATA has links to resources that give you … Continue reading

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Google Grumbles

It seems that not all is rosy with Google’s recent agreement with the CIC libraries.  There are apparently some fairly restrictive clauses in the contract, some limiting the libraries access to the digitized materials they provide. The project, as well … Continue reading

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LOUISdb

It is called the Library Of Unified Information Sources, a.k.a. LOUIS.  It’s purpose is to make it easier for people to learn about what is happening in the federal government, and is sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation. It currently contains … Continue reading

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Projects and Time Management

No brand new flashy sites in this post; just a small collection of links on how one deals with the demands of time, projects and learning: Big or Small? — Jen Riley at the Indiana University Digital Library Program has … Continue reading

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Library 2.0 : Ken Varnum – RSS Basics and Beyond

Ken Varnum – RSS Basics and Beyond : Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content. (PowerPoint) (Handout) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Data format: RSS, RDF, Atom, etc. data interchange (sharing) : syndication – think of what … Continue reading

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