Library 2.0

What Are Your Librarian Favorite Blogs? Put Them On The Blogs To Read In 2009 List!

Blake — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:32:40 -0500

Walt's Post reminded me it's never too early to start thinking about 10 Blogs To Read in 2009. Well, ok, so maybe there was a time it was too early, but that time has passed. Let's start thinking about our favorite blogs.

What blogs do you read every day? What blogs help you learn? What blogs keep you informed? What blogs make you laugh? Who's the best writer out there?

When building my list, I like to think of it this way: 'I read many others, but these are the LIS blogs that read even when time is short'

Your list doesn't need to be complete or fair. I'm looking for input from as many people as possible so the final list doesn't miss anyone new or overlooked. My goal again this year, 10 blogs that, when followed as a group, paint a complete picture of what's going on in our little world.

Before your nominate, take a look at past winners, they aren't eligible for 2009:

10 Blogs To Read in 2006
http://www.lisnews.org/node/17775

10 Blogs To Read In 2007
http://www.lisnews.org/node/20341

The LISNews 10 Blogs To Read In 2008
http://lisnews.org/node/28830

You can leave a comment below, hit the contact form, or send an email to btcarver at the lisnews.COM domain.

Name That Librarian!

birdie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:34:13 -0400

Last year, Information Today, the organizers of the Internet Librarian conference, held a contest to find a "retronym" for a non-Internet librarian.

Check out the list of finalists in reverse David Letterman style from HULIQ.

New discussion list started: Telecommuting Librarians

zzshupinga — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:41:53 -0400

From Nexgenlib list comes this news:

Good afternoon colleagues,

I recently started a new position as a cataloging librarian for a library services and staffing company headquartered in Wilton, CT -- I am located in lovely Fort Wayne, IN. One of the benefits of the position is my ability to telecommute from home. One of my first actions in my new position was to look for resources for telecommuting librarians and a place to be able to network and have discussions with other telecommuters
on a regular and ongoing basis.

Currently, there is no place for such exchanges to take place. I am pleased to announce the creation of TelecommutingLibrarians, a new electronic list that

I hope will help address this need.

PURPOSE:

This list is intended to provide a forum for discussion of ideas and issues related to telecommuting in libraries and for current or future telecommuters and the challenges faced by working in a non-traditional work environment.

We welcome subscription and participation by all. We believe that this list will be of particular interest to those already telecommuting but everyone is welcome.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE :

If you would like to subscribe to the new list, please visit the list website:
http://groups.google.com/group/telecommutinglibrarians?hl=en
The list is unmoderated.
We hope to see you there soon!

Hope this becomes a good list for all telecommuting librarians!

Librarian's Internet Index merging with IPL

zzshupinga — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:16:45 -0400

The well known Librarian's Internet Index (LII) has merged with IPL at Drexel. As many are aware of, and as mentioned in the notice below, LII has had their funding cut by 50% the last two years. The merger with Drexel allows ILL the opportunity to continue sharing of sites.

This notice appeared in their last weekly e-mail:

LII IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY IPL
This week the editors received a press release announcing LII's merger with the Internet Public Library (IPL). IPL is a huge and wonderful Web portal hosted by Drexel University and maintained by a consortium of colleges and universities with programs in information science. It has solid funding and a paid staff augmented by graduate students in library and information studies programs, allowing it to maintain and improve the database's content and aesthetics with new skills and technical tools.
As you may know, in the last two years LII's funding was cut by 50%. Consequently, we had to reduce the number of sites we add each week, halt improvements to the browsing structure, and generally do less of everything. IPL will give LII's years of work continued life and value and we think they'll do a terrific job. The LII editorial staff and the newsletter will continue through April 30, 2009. We will share news with you as it becomes available; for more information, please contact IPL or Linda Crowe at

This was the e-mail they sent to subscribers:

As announced in our last newsletter, Drexel University is merging LII's database into the IPL database. We understand that this will take long enough that we'll have to skip a newsletter, so when that email doesn't come in, it'll be us taking a break while technology happens. We expect to send the next newsletter out on Thursday, October 16, 2008. There may be some ups and downs while all this is going on, so please bear with us and address any questions to IPL.org or Califa.org.
Thank you,
The Editors

I'm glad that LII will continue as they share great sites each week.

1TB of free online media storage via Oosah

zzshupinga — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:43:40 -0400

Need someplace to store the massive number of pictures, videos, and other media files that have accumulated on your computer? You can always use a service like Flickr or YouTube, but wouldn't it be nice to have it all in one place? A relatively new player in the media storage game, Oosah, offers 1TB for media storage. Yes, 1TB. Here's the limits on what you can upload:

There are some limitations. You can only upload videos that are 200MB or smaller, images that are 50MB or less, and MP3 files that are 9MB or less. And you can't upload executable files, office documents, or other files.

Here is a word of warning from DownloadSquad though (the above limits also came from DownloadSquad):

One word of warning. When I signed up I had to check a box that said I agreed to Oosah's privacy policy. But there was no clear link to said policy. A quick Google search turned up a list of terms and conditions which also makes mention of a separate privacy policy. But it's nowhere to be found.

Jimmy Wales Interview on Open Licenses

zzshupinga — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:16:20 -0400

Ellyssa Kroski, who writes at iLibrarian, also teaches a class at San Jose State University on the Open Movement and Libraries (Fall of 2008). As part of the class shes has done interviews with such notable figures as Stephen Downes of the National Research Council in Canada, and Nicole Engard of LibLime. Her guest a couple weeks ago was Jimmy Wales. You can hear the full 10 minutes interview with Jimmy Wales here.

Learn a language from Busuu

zzshupinga — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:51:08 -0400

There's another new language site out on the web, called Busuu. This one with a little bit of a twist in that it incorporates a social aspect to the site.

Via Lifehacker here's a brief bit of info about it:

Language education site Busuu emphasizes the social side of learning a language. While Busuu has standard components such as vocabulary exercises with audio and writing units to test out your composition, the most interesting aspect is its ability to connect you with both people learning your language and native speakers of your language. You're learning Spanish and someone else is learning English.

A quick look shows it is a relatively simple service and a good way to get an introduction to a new language. By no means is it comprehensive, but with the social aspect theres a chance to connect to others and go beyond the basics.

Best of the best free tools

zzshupinga — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:33:46 -0400

Via Lifehacker:
A few months back Lifehacker started a section titled "Hive Five" that answers the most frequently asked question: "What's the best tool for the job?" The top tools are chosen by the users and here they present the best of the best from 26 different categories. Many, if not all, of the tools are free. Here is their best of the best.

Google Books now embeddable

zzshupinga — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:12:42 -0400

Via Lifehacker Google Books are now embeddable on websites, just like YouTube videos! You can view an example here on Google Operating System posting.

The Back Nine Stacks

Blake — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:32:07 -0400

Jenny Levine takes a look a library fundraiser that raised $10,000 by putting a mini golf course in the stacks. She had the pleasure of talking with Rick Bolton, the guy behind the fundraiser, and learned that he’s taken his original idea and expanded on it to create a 501(c)(3) organization that can work with libraries across the country. The basic idea is that the Library Mini Golf nonprofit group will create a miniature golf course for a library, 80% of which is a standard course. The individual holes are created in such a way that they can be set up and taken down quickly, and they can be folded down for easy storage. LMG plans to work with college design school students to create the other, unique 20% of the course, which might include replicas of local buildings or other items of interest to the community.