Can’t write a word?our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/19/2005 with 1 comment

Clive Thompson at collision detection posed an interesting question in his blog today: “can you think better when you’re typing?” I’ve found, at least for the past 10 years, that the quality of my writing is far better when I type than when I write. I’m not sure if it’s because I can type very …

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The Max Power wayintellectual freedom, open access, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/18/2005 with Comments Off on The Max Power way

According to Techdirt, a California state senator has introduced a bill that threatens developers of file sharing applications with jail time. John Borland at CNET, writes, “if passed and signed into law, it could expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don’t take …

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Testing information literacylibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/17/2005 with Comments Off on Testing information literacy

According to the New York Times, ETS has developed a test to measure a college student’s level of information literacy in order to determine how well schools are preparing students for a world where IT literacy is increasingly necessary. The test is designed to show how well a student is able to use critical thinking …

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A new corporate approach to intellectual propertyopen access, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/13/2005 with Comments Off on A new corporate approach to intellectual property

IBM is making 500 of its patents available for free to people doing open source projects. Rock on! From the New York Times: I.B.M. executives say the company’s new approach to intellectual property represents more than a rethinking of where the company’s self-interest lies. In recent speeches, for example, Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive, …

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User-centered technology implementationlibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/13/2005 with Comments Off on User-centered technology implementation

David King wrote two responses to Michael Stephen’s 2005 library tech predictions. The first one highlights the importance of user-centered technology planning and implementation. This is something that cannot be stressed enough. There are libraries that are completely adverse to change and to technology, and there are libraries that are so tech-forward that they pass …

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Web design resourcesour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/13/2005 with Comments Off on Web design resources

I just discovered Spectacle today. It is a gorgeous site with lots of links to the coolest web design resources. From there, you can see Forty Media’s web design predictions for 2005, which list the trends they think we will see in web design this year. You can also find the CSS Playground, which shows …

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Michael Stephens’ crystal balllibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/13/2005 with Comments Off on Michael Stephens’ crystal ball

I find myself often linking to Michael’s posts on Tame the Web. So much so that I would urge all of my readers to subscribe to his blog (most of whom already have, I’d bet). Instead of looking back at 2004, like so many others have, Michael listed Twelve Techie Things for Librarians 2005, which …

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Life gets in the wayour digital future, random

by Meredith Farkas on 1/10/2005 with Comments Off on Life gets in the way

I may not be online too much over the next few days. My grandfather is in the hospital, probably with a stroke, though they haven’t figured it out yet. When I visited him on Sunday afternoon, he was almost in a coma, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to talk with him again. …

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The impact of open accessour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/9/2005 with Comments Off on The impact of open access

Peter Suber at Open Access News pointed me to a very interesting pre-print article about the citation impact of open access journal articles. Citation Impact of Open Access Articles vs. Articles available only through subscription (“Toll-Access”) is still in the analysis stages, but they seem to have found that with physics and mathematics journals, those …

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Alternative economic model for online publishingour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/7/2005 with Comments Off on Alternative economic model for online publishing

John Batelle offers up an interesting model for generating revenue with online open access publishing in an article in this month’s MIT Technology Review. Batelle makes the suggestion for “an alternative economy in which the long-standing imbalance between publisher, audience, and advertiser could be corrected.” It’s a short article and definitely worth a read. [via …

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Would you pay to read the New York Times online?our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/7/2005 with Comments Off on Would you pay to read the New York Times online?

Techdirt reported today that the New York Times is considering charging to allow people access to their website. Really really bad idea. It seems that the newspaper, like many others, doesn’t know how to adapt its business model to the current information provision environment. Here’s an excerpt from Techdirt’s coverage. We’ve already explained how the …

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The amazing race?our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/7/2005 with Comments Off on The amazing race?

Steven Cohen commented on my post yesterday about Skype and my husband: I’m just wondering why it matters if librarians hear about new techie devices before or after others do. The point is that we do hear about them and share them with our colleagues. That is what collaboration is all about and is one …

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Skype has entered the library blogosphereour digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/6/2005 with Comments Off on Skype has entered the library blogosphere

Has anyone else just noticed that Skype has been mentioned a whole bunch over the past few days? I’ve now heard about it from Steven Cohen, Library Web Chic, Dave’s Blog, and Tame the Web. However, I’ve been hearing about it for many, many months now as my husband uses it to talk with his …

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Exhuming McCarthyintellectual freedom, open source, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/6/2005 with Comments Off on Exhuming McCarthy

Bill Gates recently sat down with CNET for an interview (which begins with the frightening teaser “Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like it or not”). In it, Gates talks about the current state of intellectual property law and the recent challenges to it from certain “communist elements” in the digital …

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Maslow and library technologylibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/5/2005 with 3 comments

As a former social worker/psychotherapist, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a very familiar concept to me. People must fulfill their basic material needs before they can start thinking about things like self-actualization and intellectual fulfillment. I worked with families who could barely keep their electricity on and get the children to school, and I always …

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Why RSS rockslibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 1/4/2005 with Comments Off on Why RSS rocks

From Extension 337 [via Tame the Web], comes 10 Reasons why Nonprofits Should Use RSS. The post lists some very good reasons why RSS is a much better way to get news and information out and connect with interested users/patrons/clients/etc. than most traditional methods (newsletters, unsolicited or solicited emails, etc.). I’m just reproducing the basic …

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Questions about the Google Library Projectlibraries, our digital future, search

by Meredith Farkas on 1/2/2005 with Comments Off on Questions about the Google Library Project

Barbara Quint has put together a list of questions and answers about the Google Library Project that have been pondered by various people in the library and search worlds. Some questions remain unanswered. Others, like what the Google Library Project means for brick and mortar libraries, involves answers ranging from unconcern to grudging acceptance to …

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