Information Science

OCLC Claims Ownership of Data In OPACs

Great Western Dragon — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:59:28 -0500

OCLC may be trying to pull something sneaky with its new policy of claiming contractual rights over the subsequent use of data created by OCLC. In other words, the data in library catalogues couldn't be used to make anything which competes with OCLC in any way.

Needless to say, this would have a hash chilling effect on the creation of open databases of library content.

As you might expect, the library blogosphere is on fire with the news. The podcast presenter at LISNews gave a commentary in the matter during LISTen #47.

Story from Slashdot.

Greenstone 2.81 Released

StephenK — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:26:22 -0500

David Bainbridge from the Greenstone team posted a release noting that a new version of the package was released. Greenstone originates from New Zealand at the University of Waikato. Relative to the changes in the new release, Bainbridge wrote:

The main focus has been on multilingual support. Improvements include handling filenames that include non-ASCII characters, accent folding switched on by default for Lucene, and character based segmentation for CJK languages.

This release also features our new installer, which is 100% open source. Previously we had relied on a commercial program for this, which incurred a significant cost in keeping up to date; consequently we decided to develop our own installer, based on the excellent open source installer toolkits already available.

There are many other significant additions in this release, such as the Fedora Librarian Interface (analogous to GLI, but working with a Fedora repository). See the release notes for the complete details.

The post gives details on downloading the release as well as daily builds.

Holographic News

Great Western Dragon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:21:17 -0500

In a first for the television industry, CNN used a holographic image of a journalist in their election night coverage.

By positioning Jessical Yellin within a ring of high definition cameras, they were able to simultaneously shoot her body from different angles and beam that information into the CNN studios. At that point, other cameras took over and replicated her image and audio in real time.

And she even has that sort of sheen around her you'd expect holograms to have. After all, Star Wars told us they'd be shiny.

The possibilites for such technology are wide open, but think of this. I need to see an object in a museum or library in New York, but I'm in Arizona. So they put that object within a similar set up and beam the information over. Now that's a new and interesting kind of interlibrary loan.

Free Webinars Showcasing the MaintainIT Cookbook

Anonymous Patron — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:56:34 -0400

MaintainIT Cookbook, "Planning for Success" is on the horizon. This free online resource brings together current ideas and best practices for planning, building, and managing your library’s computer technology. Librarians around the country have contributed their knowledge on topics ranging from security solutions and strategic maintenance practices to community experiences involving Web 2.0 tools and vital partnerships.

For the next month they will be hosting a cornucopia of free webinars to showcase the new materials—from 20-minute introductions to one hour topic specific discussions. Join us for these learning experiences:

Tasty Tidbits from the New MaintainIT Cookbook: A Free Introductory Webinar
20 Samples in 20 Minutes:
10/29/2008 9:30am - 9:50am Pacific Register: http://tinyurl.com/5n7llw
10/29/2008 10:00am - 10:20am Pacific Register: http://tinyurl.com/5aboo3

Get Your Game On - Quick Tips to Start a Gaming Program in Your Library
10/29/2008 11:00 am-12:00 Pacific Register: http://tinyurl.com/69an7m

Recycling and Refurbishing Old Computers: A Free Webinar for Libraries
This webinar is being offered twice! Just register for the time that works best for you.
10/30/2008 9:00am - 10:00am Pacific Register: http://tinyurl.com/6duwsw
10/30/2008 1:00pm - 2:00pm Pacific Register: http://tinyurl.com/6okn4w

Web 2.0 Collaboration Tools and Libraries
11/3/2008 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Register: http://tinyurl.com/64b2qs

Discussing Technology with Library Shareholders
11/6/2008 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Register: http://tinyurl.com/5vgmr8

The MaintainIT Project is a three-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We gather stories from public libraries on how they support public computers and publish their tips and techniques in Cookbooks and articles, available for FREE on the project web site. The Project works with libraries throughout the U.S. and Canada, sharing stories from the field so librarians can learn from each other.

DRM In Your Library? Consider This...

Great Western Dragon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:42:59 -0400

Thinking about utilizing a service in your library which uses Digital Rights Management (DRM)?

Consider the wise comic of Randall Munroe:

Invisibility Cloak Metamaterial Could Speed Up The Net

Great Western Dragon — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:55:38 -0400

One of the big stories circulating around the web is that scientists are working on an invisibility cloak that bends light around it kinda like the Predator.

Turns out that the metamaterial used for this cloak might also have implications for the future of the online world. Tonnes of data is transmitted every second by light waves in fibre optic cables. When these light waves get where they're going, they have to be spread out and processed by bulky equipment. In the grand scheme of computing, this is a fairly slow process.

It could be sped up. Now if only there were something capable of spreading large amounts of light around it, kind of like the materials you'd need to make an invisibility cloak.

Cuil: A New Search Engine Launches

StephenK — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:23:27 -0400

While it may seem odd to note today compared to perhaps 1996 or 1997, a new search engine launched today. Cuil is a search engine focusing more on analyzing text relevance over ranking pages as might Google. Reactions seen on Twitter today were mixed such as those heard from Chad Haefele, Karin Dalziel, and Engadget's soon to be Editor-at-Large Ryan Block.

CNET's Rafe Needleman wrote at his WebWare site about the launch and how it was not the best. Needleman's post showed screenshots of strange results returned by Cuil. Dalziel also linked to a screenshot she posted on Flickr.

Have you tried Cuil today? What is your reaction to the launch of this new search engine?

GPS... On The Moon

Great Western Dragon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:26:36 -0400

Locative information is one of the most practical and heavily used aspects of information science. iPhone users are showing up on Twitter with new apps allowing their iPhone to pinpoint where they are and seek out others using the system. Lots of us use GPS to get around and I don't know about you, but the last conference I went to, my GPS was incredibly useful. Not only could I get around, but I could find bars, restaurants, bookstores, and anything else I needed.

The problem is, GPS only works on the Earth... which could be an issue if we're thinking about going back to the moon.

Now granted the moon is only about a quarter of the size of Earth, but you could still get lost pretty easily and it's not like there's anyone about to ask for directions. So NASA needs a plan... and it turns out that they have one.

Discovery skills versus evaluation skills

Blake — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:58:33 -0400

Kathryn Greenhill Wonders Should academic libraries be obsessing so much about teaching the discovery of resources? Should we turn more attention to teaching the evaluation of resources ? Is it encroaching on what academics should be doing as part of their course? Should schools have already taught them this by the time they set foot in our libraries? It’s definitely beyond our traditional brief, but given that we no longer have a monopoly on the best discovery tools, is it time we sold the library as a place that has value because there are smart people who can give you personalised help to evaluate your information needs and the resources you find?

Twitter Scooped NBC on Russert's Death

Great Western Dragon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:23:21 -0400

In the world of broadcast news, it's normally a given courtesy that, when a well known news personality dies, the station they worked for will be the first to break the news after the family has been notified. It's one of the unwritten rules of journalism.

In the case of beloved NBC newsman Tim Russert, Twitter scooped the massive network on the big story.

Turns out that a minor lackey at the station heard the news and, assuming it was public knowledge, edited Russert's Wikipedia page to reflect the death. Someone at the station caught it, which makes me wonder who they pay to watch Wikipedia, and changed it back some eleven minutes later.

Too late.

By the time they made the changes, the story was already out on Twitter.