Darn that dreamjob search

by Meredith Farkas on 2/5/2005 with 4 comments

I’ve applied and interviewed for jobs that I have not gotten. I’ve gotten used to rejection letters and all that. Usually I don’t get my hopes up, so it’s not so bad when I don’t get it. But for the job I interviewed for in the Chicagoland area two weeks ago, I did get my …

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The cool yellow pagesreference, search

by Meredith Farkas on 2/2/2005 with Comments Off on The cool yellow pages

If you haven’t already, go check out A9.com, a yellow pages for the future. More a reference work than simply a “phone book”, A9 allows users to not only search the yellow pages but it lets you leave notes on the places they find, it shows you what else is in the neighborhood, and sometimes …

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Cool tool for bookmarklet multitaskingGeneral

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on Cool tool for bookmarklet multitasking

Are you torn between using furl, del.icio.us, and the growing number of similar sites? Well worry no longer friends! Steven Cohen just posted about one of the cooler bookmarklet tools I’ve seen. Delicious Furled Tea Bookmarklet Maker allows users to post websites to several bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, furl, Connotea, etc.) at the same time. It …

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Tech support by the bookour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on Tech support by the book

Right now, my hubby, Adam, and I live right near his parents and, like many people in our generation, Adam is their tech-support guy. Since we’re moving to Chicago in two weeks, we’ve both wondered how his parents would fare without his frequent support visits. When I saw a review of Surviving PC Disasters, Mishaps, …

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OSS Patent Searchopen source

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on OSS Patent Search

For those interested in developing open source software based on the patents offered for free by IBM and others, PatentCafe has come out with OSS Patent Search Engine, a natural language patent search. It’s a new search engine and only has the 500 IBM patents in its database so far. It’s free to search the …

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Open source in Brazilopen source

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on Open source in Brazil

NPR this morning had a great story about how Brazil is switching 300,000 government computers from Windows to Linux. Not only are they switching to Linux, but they are dropping all proprietary software. The Brazilian government wants access to the source code of the software they use and control over their information (which includes security …

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Giving the patron what s/he wantslibraries, reference, search

by Meredith Farkas on 1/31/2005 with Comments Off on Giving the patron what s/he wants

Steph at TechnoBiblio wrote about an interesting observation at a recent panel discussion she attended: The final panelist came forth with a statement that seemed to take the audience by surprise, but it really shouldn’t have… “Users don’t care.” They don’t care that the subject specific databases will bring back more relevant hits. They don’t …

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Lots to listen to!our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/30/2005 with Comments Off on Lots to listen to!

So many great library related things to listen to online! Libraries of the Future From WBEZ (soon to be my public radio station — woo hoo!) a fabulous discussion about why people are still visiting libraries in the digital age and what innovative things libraries are doing to keep patrons coming back. [real audio] Greg …

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Folksonomies: Bringing it all togetherour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/30/2005 with Comments Off on Folksonomies: Bringing it all together

TangognaT turned me on to Cheap Eats at the Semantic Web Café from Burningbird. It’s mega meta-post on folksonomies and the Semantic Web. Technorati tags, controlled vocabulary versus folksonomies, the spam and abuse factors, Clay Shirky, Rebecca Blood, Tim Bray, etc. Insanely comprehensive and quite thoughtful insights on the subject. If you’re going to read …

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The future of virtual reference servicesour digital future, reference

by Meredith Farkas on 1/30/2005 with Comments Off on The future of virtual reference services

I’ve been reading a lot of great articles and posts about the viability of virtual reference and how we can make it better for our patrons. The Library Journal article, Virtual Reference: Alive and Well, by Brenda Bailey-Hainer, talks about how virtual reference services will only be cost effective when done as cooperative ventures between …

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The place of the ALA in Salinaslibraries

by Meredith Farkas on 1/28/2005 with 1 comment

Michael McGrorty is an ALA Councilor and a man of conscience. He is one of the few people who has made more than a mention about the Salinas libraries and he pushed the ALA to approve a resolution about the libraries’ closing. He’s also a damn good writer. Please read some of his writings about …

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A day in the life…job search, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 1/28/2005 with Comments Off on A day in the life…

Curious about what a library web manager does in an average day? Dave King offers us a glimpse into his work at the Kansas City Public Library: Checked email, bloglines, news sites (I really need to aggregate some news feeds). I did this constantly throughout the day. Met with supervisor about different projects – once …

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Changing corporate image with open sourceopen source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/27/2005 with Comments Off on Changing corporate image with open source

In light of IBM’s offer to allow use of 500 of their software patents for open source applications, Sun is now freely offering 1600 of its own patents for open source development. This comes on the heels of their announcement that they are open sourcing Solaris’ source code through the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution …

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Networking basicsjob search

by Meredith Farkas on 1/27/2005 with Comments Off on Networking basics

We all know what networking is, but as an MLS student or a new librarian with few connections, it is difficult to know where to begin. It can be particularly difficult for those first-time job seekers who can’t afford to attend conferences and meet fellow librarians in person. Priscilla Shontz has an excellent article on …

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Philadelphia’s library problemsALA, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 1/27/2005 with Comments Off on Philadelphia’s library problems

People have been up in arms about the news that the Philadelphia Free Library system is running 20 of its 49 libraries without professional librarians. I think it’s awful too, but on several levels. Yes, it’s awful that the library system thinks these libraries can be run without a single MLS staffing them. I agree …

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Libraries in the frozen northjob search, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 1/27/2005 with Comments Off on Libraries in the frozen north

I’m back from Chicago with two more interviews under my belt. It’s lovely to see that Illinois really seems to value their libraries — or at the very least, the communities value their libraries. Coming from Florida, a state where the Governor wanted to dismantle the state library and sell it off to a university, …

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