Author Archives: Rick Mason

World Almanac blog

Yes, the World Almanac has a blog, and it is a neat read for information junkies! from ResourceShelf

Posted in Libraries, Online Services, Web Design | Comments Off on World Almanac blog

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Actually, it is Chapter Five:  The Hyperlinked Organization that I am pointing out, as I haven’t read any other part of the book… yet! This is so much like an explanation of Dilbert’s world, as well of all those things … Continue reading

Posted in Humor, Web Design | Tagged | Comments Off on The Cluetrain Manifesto

Library Student Journal

There is a new publication out there in libraryland, and it is peer-reviewed and open-access (two of my favorite hyphens)! Library Student Journal is being published by the School of Informatics at the University of Buffalo in New York, and … Continue reading

Posted in Copyright, Education, Libraries, Open Access | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Library Student Journal

Dewey the Cat has died

Dewey Readmore Books, the mascot cat for the Spencer Public Library in Iowa, died on November 29th. Dewey was many things to many people, and I like the idea of library mascots.  We had a Jack Dempsey Fish in the … Continue reading

Posted in Libraries, News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Dewey the Cat has died

Print on Demand coming to the NYPL

The New York Public Library will be obtaining a print-on-demand press called the Espresso Book Machine, which can create a paperback from a PDF file in about 5 minutes. The machine, which costs about $100,000, has the potential to change … Continue reading

Posted in ILS, Libraries, Online Services, Software | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Print on Demand coming to the NYPL

Johns Hopkins Open Courseware translated to Chinese

The open coursework offered by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been translated into Chinese and made available for study in China. The effort was headed by Lucifer Chu (perhaps best known for translating The Lord of the … Continue reading

Posted in Copyright, Education, Lecture, Libraries, Medical, Online Services, Open Access, Open Source, Software | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Johns Hopkins Open Courseware translated to Chinese

Internet Archive times 3

All right then, begin the list: 1) An article spotted in this morning’s paper that offers a great summary for those not familiar with the archive: Content of Dead Sites Lives in Archive . 2) They earned a 2006 Education … Continue reading

Posted in Archival, Education, Libraries, Online Databases, Open Access, Search, Video, WebSearch | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Internet Archive times 3

Crime in Libraries

This article, dated a few weeks ago, on a Chicago news radio station’s website makes it sound as though libraries are more dangerous than they are. I suspect that many of the “thousands of files” depicting the crimes were either … Continue reading

Posted in Libraries, News, Politics | Tagged , | Comments Off on Crime in Libraries

New features in Google Book Search

Google has updated their interface for reading the books found using Google Book Search. Here is a sample. And another. from Official Google Blog

Posted in Google, Libraries, Search, Web Design, WebSearch | Tagged , | Comments Off on New features in Google Book Search

Searching while writing

An intriguing idea:  As you write a paper/essay/whatever software would scan your text for search terms and run those searches, giving you additional sources and ideas as you write. Write While You Search: Ambient Searching of a Digital Library in … Continue reading

Posted in Online Services, Search, Software, WebSearch | Tagged , | Comments Off on Searching while writing

College class writing their own textbook

Social and Cultural Foundations of Education will be an interesting course at Old Dominion University, as the coursework will not be taken from the textbook, it will be the textbook. In what may be a first for an undergraduate class, … Continue reading

Posted in Copyright, Education, Open Access, Training | Tagged | Comments Off on College class writing their own textbook

EPA dumping part of its library…

According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the EPA is trashing a significant portion of its library collection. If the article is accurate, then we risk losing a significant amount of environmental information and research. from ResourceShelf

Posted in Libraries, News, Politics | Tagged | Comments Off on EPA dumping part of its library…

Cucumis

Cucumis is an interesting exchange project.  It involves people willing to translate text from one language to another.  A person earns points by providing translations, then “spends” those points by having others translate documents for them. No money, no profit, … Continue reading

Posted in Online Services | Comments Off on Cucumis

Endeavor – Ex Libris merger

Kind of an interesting merger in the library ILS world:  Endeavor and Ex Libris are merging.  Until recently, I worked in a library that used Endeavor’s Voyager ILS, and was impressed with many things that it could do, but also … Continue reading

Posted in ILS, Libraries, Open Source, Software | Comments Off on Endeavor – Ex Libris merger

OttoBib

Another web-based option for automatic generation of bibliographic citations is OttoBib, in which you get a MLA, APA, or Chicago style citation by entering a book’s ISBN. from MetaFilter

Posted in Education, Libraries, Online Databases, Search | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on OttoBib

Koha Zoom

The Nelsonville Public Library in Athens County, Ohio has just gone live with the latest update for Koha, an open source Integrated Library System (ILS). The OPAC is clean, fast, and shares more than a passing similarity to the OPAC … Continue reading

Posted in Google, ILS, Libraries, Open Source, Search, Software, Web Design | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Koha Zoom

Library Hierarchy of Needs

Remember Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs?  Karen Schneider’s take on how that relates to the library universe is an interesting overview of some of the problems with our current automation systems. from ALA TechSource

Posted in ILS, Libraries, Software | Tagged , | Comments Off on Library Hierarchy of Needs

DocMorph

The National Library of Medicine has a unique feature on their online file conversion site, DocMorph:  one of their options is to convert a file to synthesized speech. Think about the option of providing your online materials in an audio … Continue reading

Posted in Libraries, Medical, Software | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on DocMorph

OldVersion

Need to find an earlier version of Adobe’s Acrobat Reader for that 200MHz computer that slows to a crawl when you try to use the current version of the software? Never fear:  previous versions of dozens of software programs, open … Continue reading

Posted in Open Source, Software | Tagged , , | Comments Off on OldVersion

Custom Search of DOAJ

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a terrific resource containing, in their words, access to “free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.” If only they had a full-text search tool (they do have a “Find Article” … Continue reading

Posted in Copyright, Google, Libraries, Online Databases, Open Access, Search, Web Design | Tagged , | Comments Off on Custom Search of DOAJ