My former place of work (FPOW) used to have Social Security numbers as college ID numbers, which were written on book checkout cards.  About ten years ago, we switched to an ILS and began generating in-house ID numbers for students.

This transition worked well, and when we conducted our next inventory we removed every checkout card from all of the books.  There had been growing concerns about ID theft, and completing this task eased our minds.

Has your institution used Social Security numbers as library identifiers?  Do you have checkout cards in your books that could lead to ID theft?  If so, do you have a plan to remove them?

It is best to be proactive about  this sort of thing.  You don’t want to wake up to the type of news story that the University of Toledo did this morning.

found via LISNews

Most of us who have used and installed any of the many variants of Linux started off with a live CD.  These allow you to boot your computer up using the CD, and try out the operating system without having to install or configure it.  The CD can have whatever software the creator decides to install, pending available space.

I first used the Knoppix live CD, later Ubuntu, and now many other variants (including my current favorite, LinuxMint).

Mizstik has put together a live CD with Ubuntu server and an installation of the Koha ILS, calling it Koha LiveCD.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and it holds the potential for introducing many people to Koha, and giving them a better understanding of what the software can and cannot do for them.  This understanding will only help the adoption of open source library software.

My next wish at this point would be for a live CD of Evergreen.

found via What I Learned Today

I have always been a fan of the idea of creating a mediated search engine – one in which the results have been reviewed in order to ensure a lean, relevant results list.

The reality of the idea is, shall we say, a different matter.  The process is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and usually falls short in the relevance category.

Springo may be the reality that falls closer to the ideal.  Focusing on topic-based searches, they provide results that reflect sites that people most use when they are seeking solutions to more generalized questions, such as e-mail software, movie reviews, or open source software.

The results aren’t perfect, but they do appear relevant.  Most of what I notice are the sites I would expect to be top-tier, but aren’t.  It is a great resource, especially for those who might otherwise find it challenging to wade through several dozen results to find what they need.

My other observation is that I almost immediately began to use the URL to form my search strings, rather than use the provided interface.  It just seems faster and easier to do so.  Plus, it would be nice to be able to right-click (Windows-centric) in order to open results in a new tab.  Minor quibbles, though, for an effective tool that has been a long time coming.

found via Library Journal (print edition, 1 November 2009)