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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
Author Archives: Rick Mason
WebWISER
WebWISER is an online access point for WISER, which stands for Wireless Information Sytem for Emergency Responders. This database of information on hazardous materials is maintained by the National Library of Medicine, and can be used to both find information … Continue reading
Posted in Government, Libraries, Medical, Online Services, Search, Software, Tutorials
Tagged chemicals, Mobile phones, National Library of Medicine, online access point, Wireless Information Sytem
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Edelfäule (or) Noble Rot
Edelfäule (roughly translatable as “noble rot”) is a video of books being scanned, like those for the Google Book Project or the Open Content Alliance. Except that these books have mold damage. And the result is hypnotic… found on if:book
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library is a project that is quite vast in scope, but is looking ready to take on the challenge of combining primary historical resources from many of the worlds great libraries. This project was started by UNESCO … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Maps, Open Source, Search, Software, Video, Web Design
Tagged Congress, Digital Library The World Digital Library, One Big Library, Open Source Software, search parameters, the Washington Post, U.S. Library of Congress, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Orga, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Orga, Washington Post, World Digital Library
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American FactFinder
American FactFinder is a lookup service from the U.S. Census Bureau that will provide a decent snapshot of statistical information for a given geographical area. Enter your zip code, city or county and there you go! found in the third … Continue reading
Posted in Government, Online Databases, Online Services, Statistics
Tagged U.S. Census Bureau
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Young Librarians
I wasn’t going to post this because you need an account to access the article, but the Chronicle of Higher Education has an article titled “Young Librarians, Talkin’ ‘Bout Their Generation” which is quite an interesting read. I recommend you … Continue reading
Posted in Audio, Libraries
Tagged Jessamyn West, the Chronicle of Higher Education;
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OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a U.K.-based project that fulfills a great need: an open, collaborative mapping project. Ever find an error in MapQuest, Google Maps, or Yahoo Maps? Can’t do much about it, can you? OpenStreetMap will be able to be updated … Continue reading
Posted in Google, Government, Maps, Online Services, Open Access, Web Design
Tagged Google, Linux, U.S. Census Bureau, United States, Yahoo
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Flu Clinic Locator
This online Flu Clinic Locator, provided by the American Lung Association, is an excellent way to find out where and when flu shots will be available in your area. A great health resource for your ready-reference information or even your library … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Medical, Online Services, Search
Tagged American Lung Association, Google, library web site
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OpenOffice.org vs. Microsoft Office 2007
As a longtime user of OpenOffice.org, I pay attention to comparisons between that software and Microsoft Office. The first set of reviews that I have encountered that compares Microsoft’s updated suite with the current version of OpenOffice have just been … Continue reading
Posted in Open Source, Software
Tagged Linux, Microsoft, OpenOffice.org Writer
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The Really Modern Library
The Really Modern Library is a project undertaken by the Institute for the Future of the Book. They are soliciting comments from all quarters, and holding meetings in Los Angeles, London, and New York, in order to define how our … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, ILS, Libraries
Tagged analog, energy, Eric Lease Morgan, Institute for the Future of the Book, London, Los Angeles, New York, online data, Really Modern Library
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Lorem Ipsum Trivium
For many years I thought that the latin-esque text known as “Lorem Ipsum”, commonly used as a placeholder when designing web sites, brochures, etc., was simply meaningless syllables that looked and sounded like latin. It turns out there is more … Continue reading
Posted in Definitions, History, Web Design
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NIH and Public Access
There is a bill being voted upon by the U.S. Senate on October 15th which will potentially open up a great deal of research being done with National Institute of Health (NIH) funding. The bill will mandate that the public … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright, Government, Medical, News, Open Access, Politics, Science
Tagged library staff member, National Institute of Health, Peter Suber, Rick Mason, Senate, Senator, United States, United States Senate
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LibGuides
(Note regarding this post: When you read this post, be sure to read the comments as well. I did not state my case as well as I should, and end up sounding as though I don’t feel that LibGuides has as much value for libraries as … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Libraries, Library 2.0, Online Services, Open Source, Software, Web Design, Wiki
Tagged 2.0 technology, annual web hosting fee, blog
software, consultant, content management system, e-mail management, Facebook, few built-in tools, hosted web server, hosted web service, Instant Messaging, paid solutions, search pages, shared group calendar software, USD, virtual server, web design instructors, web presence, web server, XML
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Open Access Calendar
The 2008 Open Access Calendar (Pdf), created by Alma Swan (her blog is here), is available for download. Although the calendar is not set in the familiar 7×4 (or 5) grid, it looks fantastic. If there is enough interest, they may do a print run of the … Continue reading
isbndb.com
isbndb.com is one of several websites that allow you to search for books by isbn, as well as the usual title/author/keyword searching. Give it a try: grab a nearby book (if you are like me, there are quite a few … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Online Databases, Search
Tagged Author, Dewey, General, Karen Coyle, online retailers
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GRDDL
GRDDL, a new recommendation from the W3C, is short for “Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages”, a means by which software can extract semantic information from a variety of web pages. In other words, rather than having to rely … Continue reading
New York Times free for all
This seems to be fresh news, in that I can only find it on two sites: The New York Times is opening their web content to everyone, eliminating the subscription model that has existed for years. Not a bad piece … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, News, Web Design
Tagged New York Times, The New York Times, web content
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Informal Organization
The Streetwise (pdf) column in the September 2007 issue of Strategic Finance contains a summary of a report titled “The Informal Organization”. The focus of the report is that formal management structures are not how organizations actually work. Informal organization, … Continue reading
Posted in Groups, Periodicals
Tagged Alexandra Corriveau, Informal Organization, The
Streetwise;
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Writing, and finding time
Writing at Five Miles per Hour is a post by the always interesting Karen G. Schneider. Reading it makes me feel as though I have been given a glimpse at a piece of my future. Let me explain: in writing, … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Publishing
Tagged energy, Karen G. Schneider
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OpenOffice.org vs. MS Office 2007
Office Software Shootout is an article/post on Linux.com that compares the latest versions of OpenOffice.org Writer (2.3) and MS Office Word (2007) across several categories. The result? Each program has strengths and weaknesses, but the reviewer concludes that OpenOffice.org comes … Continue reading
Posted in Open Source, Software
Tagged Linux, Linux.com, Linux.com;, Microsoft, Public relations, writer
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Unshelved 2K
Unshelved, the web comic based in the fictional Mallville Public Library, just published its 2,000th comic! By the way, we all know the comic isn’t fiction, don’t we? They have cameras and microphones hidden somewhere in each of our libraries. You just can’t make this … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, Libraries, News
Tagged Mallville Public Library, web comic
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