Information Wants To Be Free – Page 45 – A librarian, writer and educator reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons

More on A-list bloggers and why we blog

There has been some blogging about blog popularity this week. Blake of LISNews looked at the popularity of library blogs – within the entire blogosphere and versus other library blogs.…

random

Art by children’s book illustrators for charity

I just found this lovely site with snowflakes created by children's book illustrators. Each snowflake will be auctioned off (on Ebay) to support the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I'm sure…

libraries our digital future

Can’t see the trees for the forest

Chris Jowaisas of TechnoBiblio brought up an important point about implementing Wi-Fi in libraries (or anywhere for that matter): the need for power. Sure, it's great to have Wi-Fi, but…

Words we can’t use anymore: Add “scholar” to the list

According to Slashdot, the American Chemical Society is suing Google over their use of the title Google Scholar. The American Chemical Society has a product called SciFinder Scholar, and they…

libraries random

Denmark

When I looked at my page stats (which this time actually told me that someone other than my husband was reading my blog – woo hoo!) I found that people…

job search libraries library school our digital future

Graduating today, but still have a lot to learn

Wow, so today is the day I graduate. Being that my whole library educational experience was virtual (except for my internship and a trip to the ALA conference in June)…

our digital future random

Do blogs need a code of ethics?

Karen Schneider of Free Range Librarian has written a thought-provoking piece about blogging ethics. She says that librarian bloggers need a code of ethics because “too many of us want…

open source

Linux vulnerabilities? What vulnerabilities?

I know we always hear about how superior Linux is to Windows in terms of security, but most things I read primarily talk about what is wrong with Microsoft and…

open source

Firefox and its way cool extensions

Are you using Firefox yet? Well, why not? It is has so many advantages over Mozilla. Newsforge has an article about many of Firefox's features including, improved speed, improved security…

Good news for bad spellers?

Wow! I can hardly keep up with all of Google's betas and latest acquisitions! Google Suggest seems to be their newest beta (though don't quote me on that). It's looks…

Searching in 2005

Here is an interesting article on the year in review for search engines. 2004 saw many major players (Yahoo, Google, and MSN in particular) kick their competition up a notch…

General

If the NY Times says it…

The New York Times has an article on how libraries are reaching out online and about the resurgence of e-books. It's not exactly earth-shattering, but so nice to see the…

job search

Reflections from the job hunt

I've been applying for jobs now, primarily in academic and public libraries, since late September. I had professors and students alike tell me that if I'm geographically flexible and have…

libraries our digital future

Public library computers for me but not for thee?

I remember years ago, when I would travel and wanted to keep in touch with my friends and family, I would just pop into the local library and use the…

our digital future reference search

Bringing LexisNexis to the masses: LexisNexis Ala Carte

LexisNexis is now offering its articles ala carte, which allows regular folks who are not affiliated with an institution of higher learning to search LexisNexis and buy the full-text if…

our digital future

Why we blog

Steven Cohen has written a concise explanation of why he blogs, which perfectly describes what I hope to get out of blogging: When people ask me why I put so…

our digital future

Making digitization easier

Wow! File this under amazingly cool tools for digitization. Some computer science folks from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have come up with a took that can search handwritten…

General

Holiday gifts for geeks (like me)

Can't think of what to get for the geek on your list? Take a look at some of the holiday product guides and 2004 best of guides from Wired, Ars…

library school our digital future

Library education in the 21st century

I think our ALA president-elect, Michael Gorman, has the right idea on what the ALA should be focusing on. Education. According to the Library Journal, in a meeting entitled "The…

random

The Librarian

Wow, that was a bad movie. Every cheesy action movie and librarian cliche were stunningly in evidence, and I really feel that I should strongly caution Noah Wylie not to…