Information Wants To Be Free – Page 40 – A librarian, writer and educator reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons

Library websites that don’t suck

Thank you Librarian Avengers for spelling out what most of us say to ourselves day after day as we navigate library websites and library catalogs: most library websites suck. In…

blogging

Online Social Networks Conference

Michael Stephens and Aaron Schmidt (the Batman and Robin of the library blogging world) will be presenting The Library Blogosphere: Toward a Working Taxonomy at the Online Social Networks Conference,…

blogging

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

I know this article isn't new, but it's new to me and it may be new to you. Jon Udell wrote a concise and tremendously insightful article in InfoWorld entitled…

RSS and Syndication

RSS for lawyers (and us)

Feedmelegal is a blog all about RSS and blogging in the legal field. The author has a great list of links to tools for the growing world of RSS. Included…

job search

Darn that dream

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…

job search libraries

The art of the interview

I've had many interviews, both in the social work and library fields. Some have gone great and some have been disasters. But the disasters haven't always been mine. I've read…

our digital future reference

What a wonderful Wiki world

If 2004 was the year of the blog, I think 2005 will be the year of the Wiki. Wikis first came to my attention in 2003 in the form of…

reference search

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…

General

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…

our digital future

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…

open source

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…

open source

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…

libraries reference search

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…

our digital future

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…

our digital future

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…

our digital future reference

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,…

libraries

The place of the ALA in Salinas

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…

job search libraries

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,…

blogging libraries our digital future RSS and Syndication

Administrative blogs and wikis

During one of my interviews this week, I asked the interviewers what some of their biggest challenges were at their library. One of the challenges they mentioned was keeping all…

open source our digital future

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…