Another web-based option for automatic generation of bibliographic citations is OttoBib, in which you get a MLA, APA, or Chicago style citation by entering a book’s ISBN.
from MetaFilter
The Nelsonville Public Library in Athens County, Ohio has just gone live with the latest update for Koha, an open source Integrated Library System (ILS). The OPAC is clean, fast, and shares more than a passing similarity to the OPAC for WorldCat.
Will WorldCat be the equivalent to Google in the library OPAC world, in that new designs will incorporate the basic elements of WorldCat? (not to say that WorldCat isn’t derivative of other designs… imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say).
from Catalogablog
Remember Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Karen Schneider’s take on how that relates to the library universe is an interesting overview of some of the problems with our current automation systems.
from ALA TechSource
The National Library of Medicine has a unique feature on their online file conversion site, DocMorph: one of their options is to convert a file to synthesized speech.
Think about the option of providing your online materials in an audio format, without having to take the time to read and record them. Meeting minutes, bulletins, newsletters could all be available as audio files. Not a bad idea!
from ResourceShelf
Need to find an earlier version of Adobe’s Acrobat Reader for that 200MHz computer that slows to a crawl when you try to use the current version of the software?
Never fear: previous versions of dozens of software programs, open source as well as proprietary, are available for download at OldVersion.com.
from ResourceShelf
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a terrific resource containing, in their words, access to “free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.” If only they had a full-text search tool (they do have a “Find Article” search, but it covers less than 1/3 of the journals they list).
Well, now they have a search tool, in a way: LukeTheLibrarian has set up a Google Custom Search tool for DOAJ journals. It seems to work fairly well, based on a couple of test searches. Give it a try: This may be the tool that gives traction to the Open Access Journal movement!
from Open Access News
An interesting site for comparing and contrasting the many various diet offerings exists on the site called Diet Television.
Adjust the sliders along the left side of the screen to show the relative importance of various diet-related issues (speed of weight loss, eating out, feeling hungry, and various food choices), and the ranking of diets changes to reflect the responses of people who have used those diets.
I found it just a tad strange that it popped up with one particular diet plan’s rating at 100%, but it seems to choose the various diets randomly, so you can reload the page to see different diets and how they were ranked.
from TechCrunch
Similar to MediaConvert, Zamzar is an online site that lets you convert a plethora of file types to a bunch of other file types.
They don’t seem to have as many options (or perhaps just different ones… I haven’t done a detailed comparison), but they do accept file sizes up to 100 MB, and they deliver the file as an attachment to an e-mail account of your choice.
from Monkey Bites
… for library school students, that is.
If their form is to be believed, they are asking you to send in your student ID as part of the process. Not sure if they really mean a photocopy or what, but I did send an e-mail asking how quickly they would return one’s ID… 😉
Humor aside, this is a neat offer for those who are in library school.
from Catalogablog
My co-worker Tim just started his new blog, The Reflective Librarian. This would be his second start at blogging (he started one last spring), but I expect that this time around he will have some fantastic things to write about.
He is enthusiastic about what he does, whether it be librarianship, music or simply interacting with another human being. This, I suspect, will be an interesting blog to follow.
With Halloween just around the corner, the best way to set the mood is with a classic scary story. Check out the Google Scary Stories page (a result of the Google Books project) and see the public domain spookiness that awaits you!
from Official Google Blog
… check on the just announced free upgrade to Windows Vista with a new computer purchase that includes Windows XP. This varies by OS version and retailer, so check before you purchase.
from Monkey Bites
Neighboroo is one of the many mashups that exist using the Google Maps as the user interface. What Neighboroo does is give you a visual geographic layout of a variety of statistics, while doing a great job explaining those stats, and highlighting them by specific location.
Go to your chosen location, run through the categories, and see what I mean….
from Monkey Bites
I know, I know… two posts in a row about Google…
But you see, they released this new thingamajig called Google Co-op Custom Search Engine that is essentially a do-it-yourself federated search engine creator. One configures it, then copies the generated code to a web page, and there it is.
Gonna have to play with this one…
from Official Google Blog
In this post I gave my take on the use of Google as a verb.
On the official Google blog, Google’s lawyers give their take.
Fairly close… I still think my suggestion would have some great market appeal.
It is still a bit early (tomorrow is the official release date), but it seems that the folks over at Mozilla have put the final version of Firefox 2.0 on their download site.
This isn’t as dramatic an update as IE7, but it is a steady improvement on an already excellent browser. I recommend it over IE7 for many reasons, which people have probably gotten tired of hearing from me, so I will leave it at that.
from OSDir.com
Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7, and they have paid attention to what works for people when browsing. If you are using IE, I recommend that you upgrade to version 7 now: you will be safer online, websites created to standards will finally be rendered properly, and you will finally see what the big deal is about tabbed browsing.
But wait…
(in addition, the first serious security vulnerability has arisen. This is a new version, so these things can be expected.)
The W3C has launched the Secure Browsing Initiative, an attempt to define standards that will help ensure that the browser, currently the most vulnerable element in web security, will become more secure.
Given the W3C’s history of establishing standards for many, many elements of the internet, not the least being XHTML and CSS, this initiative will likely have benefits to the security of everyone’s experience on the web.
from Monkey Bites
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Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
