Tag Archives: United States

The Scope of the Illinois Crisis

Posted on 3 July 2010 by Rick Mason

The New York Times is running an article in today’s edition that highlights just how poorly the state budget in Illinois has been managed: Payback Time : Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole The article doesn’t … Continue reading →

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Google and Microformats

Posted on 14 May 2009 by Rick Mason

Google has made the jump into supporting Microformats as well as RDFa, calling their implementation “Rich Snippets”! This is great news on several different levels. Semantic markup within web pages provides a way to target searches much more effectively.  TechCrunch … Continue reading →

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Posted in Google, Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Web Design, WebSearch, XML | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Swine Flu Resources

Posted on 26 April 2009 by Rick Mason

I suspect that Swine Flu is likely to be a common research question for reference departments around the world during the foreseeable future.  I have had an interest in the 1918 influenza epidemic pandemic for several years, and have spent … Continue reading →

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Posted in Google, History, Libraries, Medical, News, Open Access | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

LibraryThing on the ARL Report

Posted on 23 February 2009 by Rick Mason

Research Libraries Clobber OCLC Policy is a title, and a descriptive one at that, for LibraryThing’s report of the ARL’s report on the OCLC licensing policy kerfluffle (I keep coming back to this word). It is, however, an interesting read, … Continue reading →

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Posted in Copyright, Libraries, Licensing, OCLC | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beautiful Library

Posted on 28 January 2009 by Rick Mason

The Open Library Environment (there will be a post on this project in the near future) recently met at Lehigh University’s Linderman Library in Bethlehem, PA.  Pictures were taken and posted on Flickr. I especially love the stained glass skylight…

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Obama at ALA 2005

Posted on 22 January 2009 by Rick Mason

Many people have a memory of the moment they realized that Barack Obama was likely to become president.  For some, the moment came during the primaries, perhaps when they heard the speech he gave after the New Hampshire primary. Others, … Continue reading →

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Open Source Government

Posted on 21 January 2009 by Rick Mason

Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has been asked to write a paper for the Obama administration on the benefits of the United States government using open source software for improved security and lower cost. Yes.  With the right software, … Continue reading →

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Papers of the War Department 1784-1800

Posted on 14 January 2009 by Rick Mason

Papers of the War Department : 1784 to 1800 is a searchable archive of documents from the early history of the United States that, until recently, were thought to have been irretrievably lost in a fire.  Over the past decade, … Continue reading →

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OCLC License Policy – A Recommendation

Posted on 10 December 2008 by Rick Mason

I wrote a recommendation, on request, about the impact to my workplace of the OCLC license policy changes that are scheduled to start in February.  I am posting an exerpt here, not because I feel it brings anything new to … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search Copyright Settlement

Posted on 28 October 2008 by Rick Mason

Google has reached a settlement with the group of publishers who filed suit in 2005 over the book digitization project.  It is a legal document with many elements, and I cannot hope to make an overall evaluation of the agreement … Continue reading →

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The Great Influenza Pandemic

Posted on 22 August 2008 by Rick Mason

The Great Pandemic : The United States in 1918-1919 is a single resource on a specific topic, but it presents it very well.  Created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it focuses on personal stories from influenza … Continue reading →

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Manual of Traffic Signs

Posted on 11 August 2008 by Rick Mason

One of my lesser known interests is road signs.  I enjoy looking through various Rules of the Road sign pages, odd signs found on various roads, and pictures of road signs in foreign countries.  Making sense of some of the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Online Services | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Free L’Amour

Posted on 7 July 2008 by Rick Mason

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Louis L’Amour, Bantam Books is providing a free copy of “Education of a Wandering Man : The Centennial Hardcover Edition” to any free lending library in the United States. found via the Unshelved blog

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Speed Writing

Posted on 7 February 2008 by Rick Mason

A couple of years ago I encountered some type of advertisement for a particular book. I don’t recall what the exact title was, but it was something along the lines of “The 2004 Outlook for Thingamajiggers in the United States.” … Continue reading →

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Census Atlas of the United States

Posted on 31 January 2008 by Rick Mason

Census Atlas of the United States is the first publication of a “comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s.” The maps are beautiful and easy to use, although I doubt that an atlas … Continue reading →

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Perceptions 2007

Posted on 10 January 2008 by Rick Mason

Perceptions 2007: An International Survey of Library Automation contains the results of a survey conducted by Marshall Breeding.  He explored the relationship between libraries and their Integrated Library Systems (ILS). The results are interesting.  Without going into my own views … Continue reading →

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USA.gov Mobile

Posted on 6 January 2008 by Rick Mason

USA.gov Mobile is a great little search tool for government web pages and toll-free numbers (and it is well designed for your PC, even though it is made for mobile browsers). found via ResourceShelf

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Movers & Shakers 2008

Posted on 25 October 2007 by Rick Mason

Nope, the list hasn’t been announced yet.  In fact, Library Journal is asking for nominations: The editors of Library Journal need your help in identifying the emerging leaders in the library world. Our seventh annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile … Continue reading →

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OpenStreetMap

Posted on 15 October 2007 by Rick Mason

OpenStreetMap is a U.K.-based project that fulfills a great need:  an open, collaborative mapping project.  Ever find an error in MapQuest, Google Maps, or Yahoo Maps?  Can’t do much about it, can you?  OpenStreetMap will be able to be updated … Continue reading →

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NIH and Public Access

Posted on 8 October 2007 by Rick Mason

There is a bill being voted upon by the U.S. Senate on October 15th which will potentially open up a great deal of research being done with National Institute of Health (NIH) funding.  The bill will mandate that the public … Continue reading →

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