Google’s Moon Shot is the title of an article in the current New Yorker magazine. The title refers to a quote that likens the Google Book Project to Nasa’s Project Apollo.
Quite a bit of interest in this article, including the estimated number of books in WorldCat: 32,000,000 (note that the WorldCat site indicates “over 1 billion items”.
posted on Web4Lib
RSS just became a bit more universal with Page2RSS. Simply put, they allow you to enter a URL, and they will generate a feed for your RSS reader whenever the site changes; it doesn’t matter whether or not the site generates its own feed!
from BiblioTech Web
Weed of the Month doesn’t have anything to do with gardening (although that topic is covered) but with weeding library materials. Organized by Dewey Decimal Classification, it is an excellent overview of de-selection issues by topic area.
from Catalogablog
I think we are now in a position where a re-examination of copyright law needs to take place. If the current law cannot allow for orphan works to be used through some process (what we have now is a Catch-22), then these works aren’t benefiting anyone.
Here is a news article on the topic; here is the court opinion (pdf).
side note: I would worry about congress revisiting copyright law, too. I suspect that the major media corporations would make it their top priority to shift the law in their favor, which might do much more harm than good. (My own opinion…).
from ResourceShelf
Libraries facilitate open access to information with open source software is an interesting article posted on Linux.com.
I have opened my Open Source Software and Libraries with the same observation that the open source movement and libraries share many of the same ideals.
from NewsForge
As part of their real estate search area, Yahoo has debuted a School Search feature that provides information and reports on schools throughout the country.
from Search Engine Land
Google Librarian Central is a blog created by the Google team that is meant to be an open, interactive means of providing information to those of us in LibraryLand.
from Search Engine Land
Link Evaluator is a Firefox extension (now being called “add-ons”) provided by OCLC that, as the name suggests, evaluates the links on a web page using a color-coded system.
from Catalogablog
David Oldenkamp of Indiana University has put together a Google Custom Search (see my post here) called International Documents that searches selected Intergovernmental Organization’s (IGO) web sites. Very handy when you need that type of information.
Someone ought to collect a bunch of the Google Custom Search links on a site, so as to make it easier to locate what you need, when you need it.
Hmmmm…. perhaps LibrarySupportStaff.org ought to do this….
from James Jacobs, via Web4Lib
The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2006 (3MB Pdf here), the third annual report, has been released. These have been very informative reports, containing information on a broad range of student/IT interactions.
thanks to Bill Drew for posting this at Web4Lib
A new report by the Urban Institute, Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development (Pdf), details the ways that an active and involved public library benefits local economies.
from ResourceShelf
The purpose of this proposal is to provide the means to differentiate between authors with the same or similar names. One thing I really like about it is that it would be able to be updated and maintained by authors, librarians, and other users.
The Pdf of the proposal is here.
from ResourceShelf
LibraryVideos blog is just what it sounds like: a blog devoted to videos related to libraries.
from BiblioTech Web
Time to change your links… the site formerly known as FirstGov.gov is now USA.gov.
The search page is USASearch.gov.
Easier for people to remember, once they get used to the change!
from ResourceShelf
This article’s abstract:
The Arizona Health Sciences Library has collaborated with clinical faculty to develop a federated search engine that is useful for meeting real-time clinical information needs. This article proposes a technology mediation role for the reference librarian that was inspired by the project, and describes the collaborative model used for developing technology-mediated services for targeted users.
There is as much to be learned, if not more, by how others make decisions, as by the decisions they actually make.
from ResourceShelf
Just in time for my 200th post, Unshelved has created a poster for ALA’s online store based on their (Unshelved’s) “Read Responsibly” theme (I have the shirt, and it is one of my favorites).
from Librarian.net
You see these news stories every once in a while, but you always have the urge to see
I still expect to find a story about someone returning The Red Badge of Courage someday, echoing the Brady Bunch episode “The Private Ear”.
The existence of this web site has been leaked early, so there isn’t much to see (yet), but WikiLeaks is striving to combine the principles of WikiPedia and The Smoking Gun.
Have a document, or other information, that you feel should be public information? Simply post it to their upcoming wiki, if and when they go live, and the world will have access to it. Combined with anonymous browsing, this could prove to be a more direct channel for those unauthorized pieces of government and corporate information than the usual press channels.
from WiredNews
An article on the increasing diversity of people seeking their Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) caught my eye, as it reminds me of something I have encountered over and over again in my library experiences: the wider range of experiences you have among those working in a library (from Directors to Pages to Volunteers) the better.
There is so much more to draw upon from people’s knowledge when you are seeking information, or planning a program, or selecting materials, etc. It sometimes manifests itself in small, quirky ways, but the broader the range of experience, the more likely you are to be a well-rounded organization.
Just my $.02
from ResourceShelf
Here is a good PDF summary of the background and issues involved with the EPA library closings. This is likely to be addressed by the new congress, and there will likely by a fair amount of emotion involved when it does.
from ResourceShelf
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Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
