Infoblog

Here are more of the pithy prognostications from fortune-teller/library consultant Joan Frye Williams made at CLA 2007. (In case you missed it, here's a link to part 1).

In the future…
*A subscription audio book channel will be added to satellite radio.
*Public libraries will offer summer “reading camp” programs in collaboration with the YMCA.
*The federal Library Services and Technology Act will be reoriented and renewed as the Library Services and Communities Act.
*Effective auto-translation software will truly globalize information access, leading to serious challenges to existing copyright laws.
*Legislation will require that literacy and ESOL services become part of the curriculum in state-funded library schools.
*Interlibrary loan will be replaced by scan-on-demand service.
*OCLC will offer access to WorldCat via LibraryThing, the social cataloging website.
*More than two thirds of library school education will be conducted online.
*Programmable touch screens/touch keyboards will replace traditional keyboards.
*VISA will add a universal library card privilege to its credit cards, effectively preauthorizing users to borrow materials from any participating library.
*Libraries will receive health agency funding to support their role in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
*Infopeople will train its millionth workshop attendee.
*At the 2032 summer Olympics in Dublin, Ohio, book cart drill team competition will debut as a demonstration sport.

Can't wait for that book cart drill team!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:41 AM in Conferences | Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I read the purpose of Truemors, I hoped it had been created by a library related sponsor.

See what you think...

The purpose of Truemors is to democratize and spread information. First, from a “citizen journalist/editor” perspective it enables you to “tell the world”—within the bounds of good taste and the law anyway. Second, from a reader perspective, it puts you “in the know” about the latest news, rumors, and happenings, so that “you know better” without having to spend hours every day searching for information.

As it turns out, Nononina, Inc. created Truemors and one of the founders of Nononina is Guy Kawasaki, a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and the former chief evangelist of Apple. Author of The Art of the Start, Guy is one of my favorite authors. His blog, How to Change the World is also one of my favorites.

Whether you agree with spreading this type of information or not...

You might want to think about offering library users easy ways to communicate with your library as Truemors does for its users:

*Call 1-650-329-2020 and leave a voicemail. SpinVox will translate your voicemail to text and send it to our server. Incidentally, you can speak in English, German, Spanish, and French. Your message, however, will remain in the language you spoke
* Text “2020 ” to 55022
* Enter your message in this online form
* Send an email to post@truemors.com

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:31 PM in Keeping Up | Odds & Ends | Permalink

Kaiser Permanente has designed a FREE online video game you'll want to bookmark on your children's area computers. Titled The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective, this free interactive video game for kids aged 9 to 10 teaches players about healthy eating and activity habits—and it is engaging and fun.

Junior food detectives, in English or Spanish, solve the cases of eight diverse kids who need to learn healthy habits. Kids can also print out fun health information to share, such as games (Whack A Snack, Soccer, and Zap the TV), scavenger hunts, exercises and recipes.

Not only does the game teach kids how to eat healthier foods, but also how to get more active and manage how they spend their time in front of the computer and television.

Kids can print out classified clues on ways to be healthy, and are encouraged to share them with their parents, teachers, and pals.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:28 AM in Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Permalink

Researchers tell us creative expression helps us in a myriad of ways - especially optimizing health and longevity. Here are some resources you can use for ideas.

First, if you missed the Infopeople creativity workshop, download the handouts for Building Leadership Skills: Stimulating Creativity. You also might want to browse the topics in the Infopeople Past Workshop Section.

Then, try these:

Creativity at Work's quiz and articles.

Jeffrey Baumgartner's 10 Steps for Boosting Creativity and Creative Idea Implementation Plan

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:58 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

If you haven't seen Isaak Kwok's blog, Blogging Librarian, take a look.
Isaak works at the National Library Board of Singapore as an Adult and Young People’s librarian.

His entry on interesting libraries in Canada highlights the 103-year-old Haskell Free Library and Opera House. There is a black line running along the floor of the library that signifies the international border between the USA and Canada. Library visitors can enter from the Canadian side and emerge on the American side without going through Customs!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:51 AM in Interesting Libraries | Odds & Ends | Permalink

Four Infopeople staff, fondly referred to as "peeps," (Eileen, Gail, Gini and Linda) have been using a FREE, easy-to-use and very practical Web 2.0 online "to do" shared list service, Ta-da Lists.

You can use the website to:

• make one list to keep track of things you personally need to get done

• make multiple lists you can share with other people (co-workers, friends, family)

• subscribe to your lists in RSS

If you're doing the Infopeople 23 Things Challenge, don't forget to blog about trying this idea!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:56 PM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

Take this survey put together by six Emerging Leaders participants and let the ALA know what you see as perceptions and future trends in libraries in the coming years. It will only take a minute or two so give them your $0.02!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 1:54 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

April 18 is Library Legislative Day here in California. To find out more about the goings-on, check out this CLA web page. To give you tips on how to be a good library lobbyist, we recently went up to Sacramento and recorded a talk by Nancy Amidei, a longtime activist and lobbyist.

Listen to the podcast here.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:51 AM in Odds & Ends | Podcasts | Permalink

Susan Hildreth mentioned the Out-of-School Time program in her latest quarterly update, and I just ran across this in CALIX, so thought I'd share:

Applications are now being accepted to participate in the State Library's 2007/08 Out-of-School-Time Online Homework Help program. The State Librarian's invitation to apply, the conditions of the project, and the application form are all available at the State Library's website under "Targeted Grant Programs/Out-of-School-Time (OST) Online Homework Help Program." Application deadline is May 11, 2007. Libraries already participating in the program do not need to re-apply.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:26 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Check out this website if you want to visit libraries that have cats.

Click on the map location to see the cat's name, year(s) in residence and library location. In California the first cat listed is Lillian Jackson Braun at Contra Costa County Library.

If you want to update or add info, you can send an email to the website creator, Gary Roma, Filmmaker & Comedian.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 11:32 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

There's a new advocacy video out on DVD from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This video could be used with any non-library group for a variety of purposes.

See this page for more information on how your library can obtain the DVD (it's free!). If you'd like to see it online before ordering, Library Journal is making it available here.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:46 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Okay, I'm a little late to the party, but this series of videos on YouTube from Allen County Public Library are a very cute takeoff on Apple's "Get a Mac" TV commercials. This time it's Librarian vs IT Professional. Good stuff!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 3:55 PM in Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Permalink

Well known travel store, Magellan's, offers an online travel article on dealing with airline aggravations; it is worth bookmarking and sharing with library users.

If you and your library users want lots of helpful information in blog format, add the Sacramento-based Holloway Travel Outfitters blog to your RSS feeds.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:24 PM in Odds & Ends | Web Resources | Permalink

This insightful, best practices video titled Introducing the Book, provides tips that will help staff provide great customer service for all ages. It has applications for both computer and print help desk inquiries. The narration is in German with English subtitles.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:57 PM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Training | Permalink

Did you make any 2007 resolutions? If so, how are you doing?

If you need stimulation, check out the wonderful array of manifestos from ChangeThis, which facilitates "the spread of thoughtful arguments…arguments we call manifestos. A manifesto is a five-, ten- or twenty-page PDF file that makes a case. It outlines in careful, thoughtful language why you might want to think about an issue differently. If we strike a chord, the manifesto will spread. You can email the manifesto to anyone you like, you can even post it on your website or print it out. A great manifesto says something youʼve wanted to say for a while, but does it eloquently and simply and saves you the trouble of writing it yourself."

If the idea appeals to you, be sure to look at the archives. I especially recommend Reclaim Your Life: A Two-Week Challenge to Help You Regain Time.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 3:47 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

During the American Library Association (ALA) 2007 Midwinter meeting in Seattle, I was looking for ideas for the 2007 Infopeople Technology Petting Zoo and had a great opportunity to try my fancy foot work out on Dance Dance Revolution dance pads with Jenny Levine. Jenny is an Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide for ALA; she also has her own blog titled, The Shifted Librarian.

You may have read that libraries are using these pads in creative ways such as challenging teen library customers to a contest. If the teens win, their overdue fines are wiped out!

See a movie of us taken with my Canon digital camera at my website.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 3:51 PM in Conferences | Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Permalink

Comet McNaught was visible in the northern hemisphere last week, and this week has been wowing folks in the southern hemispehere. Some amazing photos have been taken, both here on Earth and also in space by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). This one from New Zealand is my fave.

If you're a fan of all things space, check out space.com - they do RSS so you can keep up with all sorts of extraterrestrial goings-on.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:04 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Decide if you need a class in communicating by comparing your communication skills with the best and worst from business, politics, entertainment, and sports.

This List of Top Communicators comes from communications expert Bert Decker.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:55 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

As a part of its The Best & Worst of Everything feature, Parade Magazine asks you "to savor the lighter, zanier news of 2006 that may have slipped your notice." The Year's Quirkiest Stories online version includes reader/viewer comments as well.

My favorite is about Spike, the parakeet named Young Cross-Stitcher of the Year by a British sewing magazine.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 4:05 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

In its LifeEtc. section, the January & February 2007 issue of AARP Magazine featured Who’s Your Elvis?
Take a look and see if you agree with their pick for your age group's musical demigod.

If you are... Your Elvis is...
90+ Rudy Vallee
80-89 Bing Crosby
70-79 Frank Sinatra
60-69 Elvis Presley
50-59 The Beatles
40-49 Led Zeppelin
30-39 Madonna
20-29 Kurt Cobain
10-19 Beyonce

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:06 PM in Friday Funnies | Odds & Ends | Permalink

Even if you aren't a geek, techie or maker, you'll find reading about and viewing photos of the first Ignite Seattle! event fascinating. The idea of combining an event such as a popsicle bridge building contest with talks by techies could be easily adapted for library programs.

From the about page of Ignite Seattle.
Ignite is a series of geek nights in Seattle. It is hosted by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar and Bre Pettis of Make. The nights combine a Make contest (like a popsicle bridge-building contest) and a series of fast-paced, short-form tech talks. The first Ignite was a great success with 17 bridge-building teams, 25 speakers, and 250+ attendees.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 9:25 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

This Sunday marks the premiere of the sequel to TNT's 2004 TV movie The Librarian. It's called The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, and Noah Wylie and Bob Newhart are back, too. if it's like the first one, it'll be two hours of cheese-ball entertainment, so check it out! And if you miss its premiere on Sunday (this being TNT), you can catch it in many reruns.

Say what you will about the stereotypical meek librarian image the original movie reinforced ad nauseam, I still think Noah Wylie is pretty cute which is enough to get me to tune in.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:19 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you would like some tips for when you are called upon to participate on or moderate a panel, take a look Guy Kawasaki's blog entry The Art of Panels.

If you like that one, go back and check out How to Get A Standing Ovation.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 11:15 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

The California Library Association held its annual conference this past weekend in Sacramento. Infopeople, along with the California State Library's other LSTA-funded state projects were there, and we all shared a joint booth area that we called, "A Roaring Collaboration." It was a blast!

One of the new things we did this year was to put on a "Technology Petting Zoo," where we had a lot of devices from MP3 players to ergonomic keyboards on display for people to hold and actually use (you could pet them too, of course). Beth Gallaway, Information Goddess, came (thanks, Beth!) and was an enormous all-around help but most importantly was the resident expert and tour guide of our Second Life demo. Michael Stephens of Tame the Web gave a great, very well-attended talk and mentioned Second Life and Beth which needless to say kept her a very busy person!

This was the first time we've ever done anything like the zoo, and while everyone enjoyed it, we see a lot of room for improvement, and hope to do it again next year with new and different items.

Beth started a Flickr group for CLA 2006 photos, which you can view here. I've posted a bunch of photos (which are also part of the Flickr group) here.

We also managed to capture on film the inimitable Margaret Miles leading a room full of librarians in the "library cheer." Check it out on YouTube here!

Among the photos you will find several labeled "Carole's retirement party." It is with great regret (for us) and great pleasure (for her) that we are announcing Carole Leita's retirement from Infopeople. CLA 2006 marked her last foray as a Peep, and we'll miss her! But she's going to be having a lot of fun golfing, traveling, and just plain living so we can't feel too sorry for her. We love you, Carole! And you can keep editing my typos as long as you want! ;-)

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:08 AM in Infopeople News | Odds & Ends | Technology Updates | Training | Permalink | Comments (0)

This has no importance or value in the larger scheme of things, but it is a lot of fun. Go to http://yahoo.com/ and click on the ! in the Yahoo! logo and listen to the yodel. Keep clicking on it and you can listen over and over again until you and/or all of the people around you go crazy. How great is that?!?

Posted by eileen o'shea at 2:50 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Check it out. Skills for Success. What Canadian librarians consider essential for folks working in libraries. From Info*Nation, the Canadian Library Association's recruitment site for library workers.

Posted by carole leita at 8:53 AM in Odds & Ends | Training | Permalink

David Hitz, Founder and Executive Vice President of Network Appliance, a network storage company, writes about collaboratively creating a new solution in his blog entry titled A Doctor Death Moment.

He explains how due to a flight attendant's confusion over a drink order, he and a colleague ended up inventing a new drink. He considers the story his favorite metaphor for innovation. Check it out to see if you have an aha moment re brainstorming and innovation–as well as if you can answer the question, Who invented the Doctor Death?

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:26 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

The New York Times Book Review published a list of the best American fiction since 1980 recently (May 21, 2006). In his latest podcast, Michael Cart looks at what they chose, how they chose them, what the works have in common - and what they left out.

Can't wait to find out? The big winner was Toni Morrison's Beloved.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:49 AM in Odds & Ends | Podcasts | Permalink

No huge relevance to reference or libraries, but a super-high geewhiz factor! An incredible piece of video fro Google Video: First Main in Space. In 1960 Joe Kittinger jumped from a balloon 30 kilometers up to test the effects of high altitude on humans. And he took a video camera with him!

A tip o' the hat to NPR's Mixed Signals for the link.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:16 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Ever wondered what a $10,000 bill looks like? This Bureau of Engraiving and Priniting page shows you pics of $10,000, $5,000, $1,000 and $500 bills! All of the bills on this page haven't been issued since 1969 (which explans why, in crime shows, they always demand the ransom in $100 bills).

On the same site I found this very interesting page that has interactive Flash explanations of the changes to the $10, $20 and $50 bills. Your tax dollars at work!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:59 AM in Friday Funnies | Odds & Ends | Permalink

I read this today and had to share: a proposed plan to build a library out of discarded 727 and 737 fuselages! The drawings look very far out! The fuselage, it turns out, is the only part of a decommissioned airplane that can't be recycled.

"The fuselage becomes the basic module of this building. It is insulated and furnished according to the program. The internal subdivision generated by the existing floor joists is used to respond to functional needs: the upper section is used for inhabitation while the lower one houses independent and interconnected mechanical systems: HVAC, electrical, cabling, and a conveyor belts network for the mechanical distribution of the books."

Posted by eileen o'shea at 12:39 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

PowerPoint is something of a staple here at Infopeople. We use it in most of our on-ground workshops, and in our webcasts, and even sometimes in our online courses. It's been around a long time, actually. Version 1.0 dates back to 1987 (and was created for the Mac!). Nowadays it has a super slick wizard and a handy library of templates that makes it extremely easy for anybody to build a presentation in no time flat. but let's face it: PowerPoint is called PowerPoint for a reason - it reduces everything to talking points. What this does to language has been wonderfully well satiruzed in the Gettysburg Address PowerPoint Presentation.

The Los Angeles Times ran an article today about a huge shift away from the talking point model of PowerPoint. The new model uses PowerPoint to tell a story. Cliff Atkinson, who published a book last year called Beyond Bullet Points, is the person behind this shift. Basically his premise is, if you can't beat them, join them. Atkinson's theories have been put to the test in several high profile legal cases. In the end though, it all comes down to a pretty simple prescription for success: if you can tell a story well, you're on your way to success, with or without PowerPoint.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 4:50 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

This cute video is, according to rumor, the creation of Microsoft employees. It's pretty cute, but also pretty true - at least when it comes to design by committee!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:21 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

The Puppy Mover Monorail is one of the monorails featured at the Monorail Society site.

Founded in 1989 "to foster more awareness and promote this unique method of transportation," the society has 4,500 members in 80 countries.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:17 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

FC NOW, Fast Company's blog had an interesting entry on Craigslist.

The writer thinks that "Craigslist shows the value of presenting people a free service with wide capabilities (Google also comes to mind)."

Here are a few excerpts:

Last night's episode of Nightline had a segment on Craig Newmark and his Internet-classifieds Website. While the show devoted some time to smiling customers, it mostly focused on the negative aspects of Craigslist. Besides a quick mention of the shady nature of the Casual Encounter section of Craigslist, there was the complaint that the site is hurting the newspaper business, stealing away those who would buy classified ads.

Nightline's criticism felt like a sad defense of old media by old media. Why must Newmark and Craigslist answer for the papers' failings? Craigslist has become one of the top Websites in the world (3 billion page views per month) as new features and additional cities have been added to the line-up.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:58 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Have you discovered the unusual offerings from Make Magazine and blog yet?

MAKE Magazine bills itself as "the first magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology projects." The audience MAKE aims at is "a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements and garages."

Phillip Torrone, Make Blog Dude and Natalie Zee, Crafts Chica, provide "the most up to date happenings in the Maker and Crafts world" at the blog.

The 40" X 80" cross-stitch recreation of the Sistine Chapel fascinated me. It took 10 years for Joanna Lopianowski-Roberts to create. She used 1,809 different color combinations with a total of about 628,296 stitches! Her process is described in her self-published book Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling in Cross-stitch.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:34 AM in Odds & Ends | Web Resources | Permalink

In the "what next" category of unusual art, don't miss Liz Hickok's San Francisco in Jell-O online photo gallery.

Here's her fascinating description of her work... "consists of photographs and video, which depict various San Francisco landscapes. I make the landscapes by constructing scale models of the architectural elements which I use to make molds. I then cast the buildings in Jell-O. Similar to making a movie set, I add backdrops, which I often paint, and elements such as mountains or trees, and then I dramatically light the scenes from the back or underneath. The Jell-O sculptures quickly decay, leaving the photographs and video as the remains."

Posted by gail mcgovern at 4:18 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Take this test and find out how much you know (or don't know, as the case was with me - I scored 44%, so it's back to Library School for me!).

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:44 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent U.S. News & World Report article touts librarianship as an excellent career for 2006.

Librarian. This is an underrated career. Most librarians enjoy helping patrons dig up information. They learn in the process and keep up to date on the latest books and online resources. The need for librarians, unfortunately, may decline because search engines make it easy for patrons to find information without a librarian's help. The job growth for librarians will be in nontraditional settings: corporations, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms.

For more info, see the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook listing.

Employment of librarians is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations over the 2004–14 period. However, job opportunities are expected to be very good because a large number of librarians are expected to retire in the coming decade. More than 3 in 5 librarians are aged 45 or older and will become eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, which will result in many job openings. Also, the number of people going into this profession has fallen in recent years, resulting in more jobs than applicants in some cases.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:01 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Begin the year right, check out Lake Superior State University's 2006 List of Banished Words .

The list was started in 1977 by the university's public relations director. Take a look at The History of Word Banishment —maybe your library can start something as a publicity ploy that goes on forever!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 11:17 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Having trouble writing a mission statement? Try the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 10:45 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

It's New Year's Day 2006! And the Rose Parade isn't on TV! Wonder why? Well, it turns out it's due to a very old tradition that dates back to the early days of the parade, which started in 1890. In 1893, the parade fell on a Sunday and officials decided to move it to Monday January 2 so as not to startle the horses tethered outside local Pasadena churches. You can read all about the history of the Rose Parade here.

New Year's Day and New Year's Eve abound with traditions, it turns out. Here's a biggy: New Year's resolutions! They date back to ancient Babylon. Back in those days it was celebrated not on January 1 but on the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring. Here's one that I hadn't heard of before: Hogmanay. A lot of our more common New Year's Eve traditions seem to stem from this ancient celebration, such as the lighting of fireworks and the singing of Robert Burns' tune Auld Lang Syne. Another tradition is the dropping of the crystal ball in Times Square, which has been happening in some fashion since 1907. Other cities have joined in the tradition of dropping something at midnight on New Year's Eve.

However you celebrate, have a happy and safe New Year!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 12:30 PM in Odds & Ends | Web Resources | Permalink

S.R. Ranganathan's Monologue on Melvil Dewey. Primary source material for the true library history buff.

Posted by carole leita at 9:19 AM in Odds & Ends | People | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google's holidays card.

Posted by carole leita at 5:30 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

At MacDailyNews I found out that podcast is the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word for 2005.

Examples of the runners-up include:
• bird flu (an often fatal flu virus of birds, esp. poultry, that is transmissible from them to humans, in whom it may also prove fatal)
• ICE (an entry stored in one's cellular phone that provides emergency contact information)
• IDP (internally displaced person; someone forced to relocate within a country because of a natural disaster or civil unrest)
• lifehack (a more efficient or effective way of completing an everyday task: "I found a great lifehack for getting a cheap hotel room.")
• reggaeton (a Latin American dance music which combines elements of reggae music with hip-hop and rap.)
• squick (cause immediate and thorough revulsion: "was anyone else squicked by our waiter's piercings?")

Erin McKean, editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, said: "Podcast was considered for inclusion last year, but we found that not enough people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept. This year it's a completely different story. The word has finally caught up with the rest of the iPod phenomenon."

Posted by gail mcgovern at 3:03 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

The BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary have teamed up to appeal for help solving some of the most intriguing recent word mysteries in the language. They invite you to join the BBC Wordhunt.

If you are successful, email your evidence; it might feature in the big series coming to BBC2 next year.

Your task is to find an earlier appearance of the a word on the list in a book or a magazine, in a movie script, a fanzine, or even in unpublished papers or letter or a post-marked postcard. It might appear first online or in a sound recording. The most important thing is that it can be dated.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:45 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

On Saturday I introduced a new Infopeople instructor, Gail Griffith (Tips and Tricks for Effective Library Supervision) to a few of the wonderful experiences you can have in downtown San Francisco.

We decided that our first stop would be the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial at the Yerba Buena Gardens.

Luckily we noticed that we could return to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts later that afternoon for the 20th anniversary production of the 2005 Dance-Along Nutcracker. Presented by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the performance is billed as "the wackiest Nutcracker on earth." To get a feeling of the event, see the video preview.

I highly recommend them all—Gail's class, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Dance-Along Nutcracker.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 5:05 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

Check out the website for THE MOVIE FOR DOGS. You can purchase a video or DVD that provides an hour and 13 minutes of dogs having fun (it has been programmed to repeat itself so it will play as long as you as you are gone). The movie is divided into different sections—e.g. dogs in the water, fly ball and agility competitions and the soundtrack of different audio cues is designed to keep a dog's interest throughout.

Another marketing idea the site emphasizes is leaving the movie on with the volume up when no one is home—of course, to frighten away intruders!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 10:59 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday is Thanksgiving, a time when we all gather with family and friends to celebrate the first known case of indigestion in North America. No wait - that's a different holiday! Anyway, it IS that time when our thoughts turn to turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie, so this seems like a good time to visit the Urban Legends site and see what they say about turkeys. My fave:

Butterball turkey experts still talk about the Kentucky woman who called in 1993 to ask how to get her dog out of her turkey. It seems the woman's Chihuahua had dived into the bird's cavity and become trapped there. The woman tried pulling the pooch and shaking the bird, all to no avail. A Butterball economist finally suggested the woman carefully cut the opening in the turkey wider to release the captive canine.

Now for those who need a little distraction from all the holiday hoopla, try this game on for size. As usual with these things, I was terrible. Maybe you'll have better luck!

Have a great hoilday, everyone! And consider this our Friday Funny for the week, the peeps are taking a bit of time away from computers to celebrate the day with family and friends.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:10 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

i-Dog comes with a cable to connect to an ipod. Listen using i-dog's microphone or attach earphones. i-Dog's flashing lights are keyed to the music. Besides the lights, watch its ears and head move and hear it bark or make whirring sounds depending on its mood!

Available for only $22.99 at Toys "R" Us.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:57 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take a creativity break at the Interactive Collage from MoMA. It is part of Red Studio, a feature developed by MoMA in collaboration with high school students. It explores issues and questions raised by teens about modern art, today's working artists, and what goes on behind the scenes at a museum.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:31 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other day I was looking at some new designs for the Infopeople website (yes, a new design is in the works, no I won't say anymore about it). Anyway, there was some dummy text on the page, the usual "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..." and I started pondering, not for the first time, what the heck that text really means. I took Latin in college for one year but it clearly didn't take. Clearly it was time for a little research. From Lorem Ipsum I learned that the text comes from Cicero's "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum." The text actually comes from more than one section of this book, and even chops some of the words up. So what does it mean? The actual first line is: "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit" and means "Nobody likes pain for its own sake, or looks for it and wants to have it, just because it is pain." It's really all about the letters, which represent a standard distribution of English letters for use in text design layouts. This is known, in the print world, as "greeking," which is kind of odd as the dummy text is Latin. Oh well.

If you're tired of Lorem Ipsum, try this dummy text generator.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:40 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Enter your birthday and find such facts as: astrological sign; birthstone; birth tree; date of conception; birth, death, population, marriage, and divorce statistics. When you're finished looking at this information, click on the moon phase and see what the moon looked like the night you were born.

Posted by carole leita at 8:56 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

       
Hop on over to Salem Press, click on the button and they'll send you one for free.

Posted by carole leita at 7:04 AM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are looking for iPod-related gift ideas, check out the iLounge Best of 2005 Awards. If the awards aren't enough, download the Holiday Buyers’ Guide 2005-2006.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:42 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of my favorite RSS feeds is IT Conversations, "a listener- and underwriter-supported network of high-end tech talk-radio interviews, discussions and presentations from major conferences delivered live and on-demand via the Internet."

Check out the presentation by Gary Flake, Founder of Yahoo! Research Labs from the March 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference March 2005. You can listen at the website, download an MP3 or a PDF.

One of the cool things I found as a result of listening to the presentation is a tutorial on podcasting from Yahoo! Podcasts Beta.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:54 AM in Keeping Up | Odds & Ends | Podcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

Try out a demo of Medical Records from Digital Fried Chicken. It is both inexpensive and simple to use software that is great to compile medical information for individual family members. You can even print out I.D. cards with photos for children. Available for both Macintosh and Windows computers for $9.95.

if you like the format and feel, take a look at the other offerings at the downloads page.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:15 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this PC World blog article, Andrew Brandt tells of his experience at the International Terminal at SFO. Besides the normal snacks, drinks, aspirin, and batteries, the vending machine offered iPods for sale!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 9:06 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've ever said, "interruptions are my work," don't miss this digital culture hot topic NPR audio. The Day to Day October 14 broadcast features Alex Chadwick interviewing New York Times Magazine contributor Clive Thompson about "interruption science," the study of the effect of disruptions on job performance.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:21 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's something for those Friday blahs. Known as Pete's Pond, National Geographic's WildCam Africa requires the latest RealPlayer plugin and a broadband connections. If you meet those requirements you're in for a treat because this live webcam is at a watering hole in Botswana. I have it running as I write this and just saw a troop of baboons playing at the water's edge as I listened to the sounds of the birds, animals, and insects. I heard about this from friends who put this on instead of TV when they go to bed at night. They say the sounds are terrifically soothing. Wow! Here comes an elephant!

Posted by carole leita at 8:42 AM in Friday Funnies | Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

I guess this is sort of a web searching entry, but only in a vague sort of way. Search Engine Watch had an interesting post recently about domain names registered by Google. Here is the list, and amazingly it isn't comprehensive.

A more startling number is yielded if you go to Whois.net and enter "google" in the Search by domain or keyword field. When I did the search, I found more than 2001 registered domains that were variations on the word "google" (the search stops at 2001). That's a lot of domains!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:32 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Discontinueditem.com describes itself as a directory "whose mission is to connect people in search of discontinued and hard to find products, as well as classic and vintage items, with the suppliers who stock them. We list the companies who offer the products; manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. All their contact information, brands and products are conveniently organized in categories."

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:07 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (2)

Discardia is a great new holiday made up by Dinah Sanders, a San Francisco web geek. Her description reads, "It takes place in the time between the Solstices & Equinoxes and their following new moons. Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas and habits you no longer need. On the Discardian new moon you don't buy anything or bring anything into your home and enjoy the fact that you have enough." Check out her recent Discardia blog entry.

Mark these dates on your calendar:
22 Sep 2005 - 3 Oct 2005
21 Dec 2005 - 30 Dec 2005
20 Mar 2006 - 29 Mar 2006
21 Jun 2006 - 25 Jun 2006

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:38 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spam: it's not just a lunch food anymore. It's also not just an annoyance for emailers. it's also a big problem with blogs. A choice many blogs make is to just not accept comments, period. Another way to deal with the problem is to require extra authentication, like that offered by TypeKey. With the old Infopeople blog we chose the first option and completely blocked ALL comments. Pretty extreme, but we never had to deal with comment spam. HOWEVER we had no idea what anybody thought about our postings. So with our new and improved blog we wanted to give comments a shot, especially as Movable Type has vastly improved how their software handles comment spam, and a little feedback and discussion is a nice thing, right?

So as I built InfoBlog, I suffered a small crisis of indecision. First I enabled comments on the blog, then I decided that it needed Typekey authentication. Basically TypeKey stops automated spammers. After doing this, I rethought the matter. If Movable Type has good built-in spam blocking, wasn't Typekey kind of overkill? We really are interested in your comments, so why put up an extra barrier? So that's my final decision - comment away, no extra authentication required!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 12:16 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are great ideas and projects out there in libraryland and this annual listing of the Leadership Grantees from the IMLS is a must read for library directors and others who want to know some of the fascinating resources being developed in the library world.

California was awarded two grants -- The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles will focus on the World War II-era experiences of Japanese Americans in five states and UC Riverside will continue its work with Infomine.

Some other examples:

From George Mason University Libraries a cool tool that "will turn a regular browser into SmartFox: the Scholar's Browser for Digital Collections, which will allow users to capture and organize digital scholarly materials."

Syracuse University to extend its work on teaching information literacy online, the S.O.S. project.

One to watch for results: Florida State University's Information Institute, in partnership with the Omaha Public Library, Baltimore County Public Library, Mid-York Library System, and the American Library Association's Office for Research, will investigate how "best practice" evaluation strategies can demonstrate the value of public libraries to the communities they serve. The project will develop a framework to improve public library evaluation and produce a Web-based Evaluation Decision Management System for public library managers and advocates. Managers and advocates will be able to select, analyze, and present data from various evaluation resources to demonstrate the value of library services to their communities.

  via Resource Shelf

Posted by carole leita at 9:40 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink | Comments (2)

Keep up with the latest trend buzzwords at Trendwatching.com. You can visit the site periodically or subscribe to the free monthly newsletter.
One of the trends featured in the August issue was LIFE CACHING, described as “Consumers are collecting, storing and displaying their entire lives, for personal use, or for friends and family, even the entire world to peruse.” The suppliers, called “necessary enablers” mentioned included Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung.

Posted by at 4:44 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

The Bloggies are publicly chosen annual awards given to weblog writers and those related to weblogs. A weblog is defined as a page with dated entries. The awards were first given in 2001. The award for best overall weblog for 2005 went to Boing Boing.

Posted by at 7:31 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

If you'd like to try getting RSS feeds by email, check out KBCafe Rmail

Posted by at 11:22 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

At Double-Tongued Word Wrester you can find a potpourri of archaic, new, or hybrid words. One of my favorites is rocket surgery, defined as “a task requiring intelligence or higher education” and derived from a blending of rocket science and brain surgery.

Posted by at 9:10 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

An additional cool site for the 4th of July: Lady Liberty Fireworks! If you want a really big finale, just click a bunch of times. Almost as good as a live show! Oh, and be sure to turn your speakers up for the full efffect.

Posted by at 9:00 AM in Odds & Ends | Permalink

As I mentioned him in last Friday's entry, I thought I should post this sad news: Paul Winchell, the voice of Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, died this past weekend. He was 82. You can read more about this remarkable man here.

Posted by at 2:08 PM in Odds & Ends | Permalink