September 2006

Lillian, the Virtual Librarian

Kelly writes “Meet Lillian, the Virtual Librarian, online. According to her creator:

She is designed to answer user queries about books, and particularly library holdings. As well as being able to tell a user if a library holds a particular book she can also: Deep link them to the library’s own holdings page for the book, which may have availability and reservation data; direct them to another library that holds the book if the local library doesn’t; direct them to the right page on Amazon if the book is not held; advise them of books by a particular author held; advise them of books on a particular subject held; tell them what the book is about; tell them what other people thought of the book; tell them what books people like who also liked this book.

I was unable to get her to “understand” the name of various major towns in England, or even the suggested town of Bury; perhaps others will have better luck. My exchange fared little better — it reminded me of that old Interview with the Search Engine. We’re a long way from Vox.

This Week in LibraryBlogLand (September 25, 2006)

This Week in LibraryBlogLand
Week ending September 24, 2006

……….

Librarienne on how to make librarians (more) popular: how about a movie? Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) points to a music video created for his library’s Staff Day 2003. More about the video from Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian). Speaking of library-related videos: from the McCracken County Public Library, The Adventures of Super Librarian (via); from SCTV, Bobby Bitman does a PSA for the “public liberry”.

On the photo side, Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) lists 16 Ways To Use flickr @ Your Library.

Jennifer Macaulay (Life as I Know It), Head of Library Systems at her library, was recently interviewed by an MLS student for class. Jennifer has posted a synopsis of the interview. Ellyssa Kroski (TechEssence.Info) lists five reasons not to choose a technology solution. Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian) discusses the change process and I.T.

Rochelle at Tinfoil + Racoon points to a post by digby (Hullabaloo) about how great it is that libraries offer free internet access. Lorcan Dempsey discusses a report about what writers and readers expect of the library. Steven B (ACRLog) says, let’s not overlook the value of quiet study space. Posted on LibrarySupportStaff.org, an opinion about the court ruling re Contra Costa County Library’s public meeting rooms policy.

John Klima (Library Angst) writes about deciding which patron to help when the reference desk is short-staffed.

Foxtrot explains Web 2.0 – More. Michael Golrick (Thoughts from a Library Administrator) wonders why Library 2.0 is so hard. Michelle Boule (A Wandering Eyre) has posted a set of links to/about social software. Kathy and Deborah at LibraryTrax liken “this whole social networking thing” to getting together on a friend’s front porch on a summer evening. David Lee King writes about making time for Web 2.0. Comment from Nicole C. Engard (What I Learned Today). Joyce Valenza (NeverEnding Search) has been posting parts of her chapter, “Web 2.0 meets information fluency.”

Helene Blowers (Library TechBytes) dsicusses leadership vs. management, while Michael McGrorty (Library Dust) writes about good leaders who are respected but aren’t liked. Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian) is “quickly learning that us X-gen folks are going to have to mediate between the boomers and nextGen for alot of things.”

Alane (It’s all good) asks, why are so many library blogs impersonal and dry? Lots more from Michael Stephens (Tame the Web). Mark A. Matienzo (thesecretmirror.com) tries to define what archives blogs are.

Reader’s Advisory: Alane Wilson (It’s all good) wonders how to tap into individual librarians’ subject expertise. Mita Sen-Roy (New Jack Librarian), who wants to know what she should read, would like an application that ranks every university professor’s class readings by popularity.

Overdue Ideas wonders about what is and what should go into the catalogue.

Sarah Houghton (LibrarianInBlack) lists ten reasons librarians should use Ask.com instead of Google.

Copyright: from Mary Minow (LibraryLaw Blog): Preservation versus Access: a very surprising analysis of library copyright law. Related: The U.S. Copyright code, in verse (via into the stacks)

Andrea Mercado (LibraryTechtonics) points to the Me and My Shadow blog, part of a librarian exchange program.

Morgan Wilson (explodedlibrary.info) writes about asymetrical information in libraries.

Follow-up (indirectly) to Rochelle’s “Can you sum up your mission in 17 syllables” query: Laurie (LaurietheLibrarian) found her new personal motto in a discarded Yukon College sign.

Follow-up: Jessamyn West (librarian.net) posts a detailed list of ten tips for [conference, workshop, and program] presenters.

CONFERENCE NOTES AND PRESENTATIONS

Australian Library and Information Association Biennial Conference (September 19-22): Group blogs at blog the conf and click06. More here (all via librariesinteract.info)

………………..
This Week in LibraryBlogLand (TWiL) appears on lisnews.org every Monday before noon (Central time). [Feeds]

This Week in LibraryBlogLand
Week ending September 24, 2006

……….

Librarienne on how to make librarians (more) popular: how about a movie? Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) points to a music video created for his library’s Staff Day 2003. More about the video from Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian). Speaking of library-related videos: from the McCracken County Public Library, The Adventures of Super Librarian (via); from SCTV, Bobby Bitman does a PSA for the “public liberry”.

On the photo side, Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) lists 16 Ways To Use flickr @ Your Library.

Jennifer Macaulay (Life as I Know It), Head of Library Systems at her library, was recently interviewed by an MLS student for class. Jennifer has posted a synopsis of the interview. Ellyssa Kroski (TechEssence.Info) lists five reasons not to choose a technology solution. Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian) discusses the change process and I.T.

Rochelle at Tinfoil + Racoon points to a post by digby (Hullabaloo) about how great it is that libraries offer free internet access. Lorcan Dempsey discusses a report about what writers and readers expect of the library. Steven B (ACRLog) says, let’s not overlook the value of quiet study space. Posted on LibrarySupportStaff.org, an opinion about the court ruling re Contra Costa County Library’s public meeting rooms policy.

John Klima (Library Angst) writes about deciding which patron to help when the reference desk is short-staffed.

Foxtrot explains Web 2.0 – More. Michael Golrick (Thoughts from a Library Administrator) wonders why Library 2.0 is so hard. Michelle Boule (A Wandering Eyre) has posted a set of links to/about social software. Kathy and Deborah at LibraryTrax liken “this whole social networking thing” to getting together on a friend’s front porch on a summer evening. David Lee King writes about making time for Web 2.0. Comment from Nicole C. Engard (What I Learned Today). Joyce Valenza (NeverEnding Search) has been posting parts of her chapter, “Web 2.0 meets information fluency.”

Helene Blowers (Library TechBytes) dsicusses leadership vs. management, while Michael McGrorty (Library Dust) writes about good leaders who are respected but aren’t liked. Ryan Deschamps (The Other Librarian) is “quickly learning that us X-gen folks are going to have to mediate between the boomers and nextGen for alot of things.”

Alane (It’s all good) asks, why are so many library blogs impersonal and dry? Lots more from Michael Stephens (Tame the Web). Mark A. Matienzo (thesecretmirror.com) tries to define what archives blogs are.

Reader’s Advisory: Alane Wilson (It’s all good) wonders how to tap into individual librarians’ subject expertise. Mita Sen-Roy (New Jack Librarian), who wants to know what she should read, would like an application that ranks every university professor’s class readings by popularity.

Overdue Ideas wonders about what is and what should go into the catalogue.

Sarah Houghton (LibrarianInBlack) lists ten reasons librarians should use Ask.com instead of Google.

Copyright: from Mary Minow (LibraryLaw Blog): Preservation versus Access: a very surprising analysis of library copyright law. Related: The U.S. Copyright code, in verse (via into the stacks)

Andrea Mercado (LibraryTechtonics) points to the Me and My Shadow blog, part of a librarian exchange program.

Morgan Wilson (explodedlibrary.info) writes about asymetrical information in libraries.

Follow-up (indirectly) to Rochelle’s “Can you sum up your mission in 17 syllables” query: Laurie (LaurietheLibrarian) found her new personal motto in a discarded Yukon College sign.

Follow-up: Jessamyn West (librarian.net) posts a detailed list of ten tips for [conference, workshop, and program] presenters.

CONFERENCE NOTES AND PRESENTATIONS

Australian Library and Information Association Biennial Conference (September 19-22): Group blogs at blog the conf and click06. More here (all via librariesinteract.info)

………………..
This Week in LibraryBlogLand (TWiL) appears on lisnews.org every Monday before noon (Central time). [Feeds]

September 25, 2006 by bentley Google Internet Legal Issues Librarians Libraries Music

At library, it’s shelter vs. safety

The Wichita Eagle ran a front page story today about the hot-button issue of homeless in the library.

Libraries have to provide services to everyone. It’s part of Americans’ First Amendment right to access information, not to mention that many services the library provides can help people find solutions to their problems.
But librarians also want to make sure they have a safe, comfortable and distraction-free environment for everyone.

Read on for more on the sleeping, smelly, and sometimes violent issues that homeless patrons can raise. Does you library have policies specifically written for the homeless? (some can even be friendly.)

September 25, 2006 by John Librarians Libraries

It’s Not That We’re Cheating…

Students Rebel Against Database Designed to Thwart Plagiarists: A report from the Washington Post says cheaters… er … Members of the new Committee for Students’ Rights said they do not cheat or condone cheating. But they object to Turnitin’s automatically adding their essays to the massive database, calling it an infringement of intellectual property rights. And they contend that the school’s action will tar students at one of Fairfax County’s academic powerhouses.

September 25, 2006 by Blake Legal Issues School Libraries

Bad news for Google in Belgium

Court reaffirms order to post ruling forbidding Belgian Google News from reproducing article summaries; appeal was part of broader attempt to overturn entire case. Reuters Reports Google Inc. has lost a bid to overturn a Belgian court order that requires it to publish an earlier ruling forbidding it from reproducing article snippets on its news amalgamation service.

The world’s most popular Web search engine faces a daily fine of â‚¬ 500,000 euros ($640,900) for not posting the Sept. 5 decision on its Belgian Web site.
TECHNOLOGY

It said on Friday it still refuses to post the ruling.

September 24, 2006 by Blake Google

Students Protest Turnitin.com

A Slashdot discussion points the way to a Washington Post article about the anti-plagairism company Turnitin.

Members of the new Committee for Students’ Rights said they do not cheat or condone cheating. But they object to Turnitin’s automatically adding their essays to the massive database, calling it an infringement of intellectual property rights. And they contend that the school’s action will tar students at one of Fairfax County’s academic powerhouses.

Are schools right to employ anti-cheating software, or is there a problem with funding a business model built around profiting from students’ work?

September 24, 2006 by John Legal Issues School Libraries

Great 1996 Packard Bell Commercial On YouTube

Bibliofuture pointed the way to a fantastic Old Packard Bell Commercial from 1996 that showed libraries as dark dreary places and suggested you access information from home on a Packard Bell computer. Librarians reacted strongly to the commercial and Packard Bell reworked the ad and removed the library scenes.
Karen Coyle doesn’t seem to like it as much as I do. I especially liked the marching-shushing librarians who looked like pro wrestlers in Mountie uniforms.

September 24, 2006 by Blake Libraries

LATimes.com – For Delta Librarian, The End

kctipton writes “Longtime librarian and library director Ronnie Wise is taking early retirement from his 30-year post in the Mississippi Delta and the LATimes is there to report on it (but free registration may be required to read the story, which is apparently a long Page 1 Feature).

How many have learned to read because of Wise? He lost count long ago. Hundreds, maybe thousands. He doesn’t care. As director of libraries for Bolivar County, one of America’s least literate places, where 41% of 40,000 residents can’t read, Wise keeps his mind on what needs doing, not what’s been done, which might be why he looks so cranky.

He glances out his office and spots someone headed toward Fiction, meaning another reader will soon discover the picklock words of Flannery O’Connor or Joseph Conrad, another person will soon escape the Delta, using one of Wise’s libraries as the point of departure. Such is the hope, anyway, that’s given shape to Wise’s last 30 years.

It’s a long time for anybody at one job, 30 years. For Wise it feels like 130, because he’s spent most of it fighting arsonists, bureaucrats, censors, racists, tornadoes, apathy, poverty, thieves — and mold, that insidious green carpetbagger. He used to enjoy a good, clean fight, but less so lately. Lately, the hours have felt like days, the days like compressed eternities.

But eternity ends today. Come 5 o’clock, Wise is taking early retirement.

It’s not a pretty story overall, how he busted his ass for 30 years begging for money and space for expanding the system, and how he used it extraordinarily wisely and effectively.”

September 24, 2006 by Blake Librarians Libraries

Libary Board, residents ask questions on privatization

Anonymous Patron writes “Jackson Sun — Jackson, TN: During a two-hour board meeting Thursday, the Jackson-Madison County Library Board and the community posed questions to a company that wants to provide library management services.
Earlier this month, the board decided to negotiate a contract with Library Systems and Services LLC, a company based in Maryland. Representatives from the company, including president Frank Pezzanite and vice president of sales George Bateman, made a presentation and answered questions at the library on East Lafayette Street.”

September 24, 2006 by Blake Libraries

US university restores 700-yr-old Indian scripture

Sachin Kalbag reports a unique project to digitally archive and preserve 700 year old Indian scriptures in his article in DNAINDIA.
Excerpts: “The project will digitally preserve 13th century scholar Madhavacharyaâ€™s Sarvamoola granthas, a collection of 36 works with commentaries on his Dvaita philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God. PR Mukund, Gleason professor of electrical engineering at RIT, and his colleague Roger Easton, have embarked on this project to restore 340 palm leaves, each of which is 26 inches long and two inches wide, and is bound together with braided cord threaded through two holes. ”

Read the full article at:
US university restores 700-yr-old Indian scriptures

September 24, 2006 by Blake Academic Libraries