Simply Cool

From the Ubiquitous Librarian, Brian Mathews’ blog:

This post isn’t about libraries, but rather in the realm of social information literacy

I’ve seen a dramatic rise in phishing on MySpace lately. Many people are getting their accounts compromised. What I am most fascinated by is the fake-friend-hacking concept, the idea of “borrowing” someone’s identity with the sole purpose of advertising, and of course also stealing more accounts. It’s a tactic to deliver spam through a thinly disguised cloak of assumed friendship. If a stranger tells me to visit a site, I probably won’t, however if someone I know told me about it, I would. That’s the core of social networking: people influencing people that they know.

The Con
Spammers create bogus accounts and become friends with tons of people. I call these “shell” account because they put just enough info to make them seem like believable people, yet they are simply out to get clicks. Next they will direct their “friends” to a site that essentially looks like MySpace, but appears to log them out. The individual thinks nothing of it (since this happens frequently) and logs into the replicated site and hence gives away their email address and password. There are definitely security concerns but again, I am fascinated by the process. Once they obtain access to these accounts they don’t change passwords or tamper with the profile, they simply use it to invite people’s friends to visit external websites. This is endorsement theft because what they are stealing is trust and authenticity: a person’s character. It is the equivalent of someone sneaking a false article in a peer-reviewed journal. Elsevier tells us it is legit research so we believe them.

This has actually been going on for awhile now on MySpace. It’s creative because they are not only using email messages, but also message boards (individuals), bulletin boards (all friends), and group boards to spread their message; it’s a multiplatform operation. So watch out and don’t trust anyone online!

I remember a college assignment that required the creation of a mind-map. Once students got past worrying about whether they were doing it “right” or “wrong”, it was actually pretty fun to create. Mind-mapping can be a useful tool, because it helps us see the forest - the big picture - the macro-view. It’s about being aware of the connections and the inter-relatedness of things.

I think visualization tools like this can be especially useful when we’re trying to understand things that are really, really big. As many of you know, I have a strong interest in Wikipedia, the user-created online encyclopedia. I came across an amazing Wikipedia visualization this morning. I would love to see the 5′x5′ version and will probably buy the poster when it becomes available (you MUST check out that ‘buy the poster’ link - nerdy nirvana!).

One of my favorite nerd comics, XKCD.com had a hilarious comic today outlining the “map of online communities.”

It’s funny, yes. But so, so true. I like the disclaimer: “Do not use for navigation.”

I personally live somewhere near the Sea of Culture, but roam from the Gulf of YouTube to the Ocean of Subculture. I regularly vacation near the Sea of Memes and work near the Blogipeligo.

Where do you live?

Need a guide to Google? Check out the Google Cheat Sheet, which includes Google services, tools, and background information about the company.

I just found Go2Web20.net, the “complete web 2.0 directory.” There are a lot of sites on there that I have never seen before, and I know I’m going to have to wait to explore them until another day. I do think it might be fun to, as a blog readership, check one out and report back what an entry in the directory is, what it does, if you liked it, and how your library might use it (or a technology like it).

What say you, readers? Anything cool in there?

Cell phones, cell phones, everywhere you look…. People talking in cars, in bars, even while out looking at the stars. And cell phones are not just being used for phone calls anymore. People use them to take pictures, to signal appreciation for a favorite ballad at a rock concert, to surf the web, and more.

I rarely am without my cell phone, but am not a fan of actually talking on it. Instead, my preferred mode of cell phone use is “texting”. Text messaging from your cell phone is a handy way to send brief messages to people. “What are you doing for dinner?” “Do you mind if I eat this last brownie?” “Want to meet up for pizza?” (Hmm… I think 90% of my texts revolve around food.) I send over 200 text messages per month. My friend told me that he sends over 750 each month…. I’m sure there are others who send many more.

Most cell phones can do text messaging. Talk to your cell phone provider to find out what your plan includes and to see if there are extra fees. Typing on the phone is frustrating and slow when you first begin doing it, but as with most technology things, it soon becomes second nature and your thumb will fly!

The Orange County Library System in Florida is using text messaging to communicate with their patrons (thank you Shifted Librarian for sharing that link). It’s a method of communication that is very much a part of people’s lives and this seems like a great example of meeting users “where they are at.”

Here is a very interesting ALA TechSource article on our NExpresss shared automation vendor, Sirsi Dynix, which recently announced it has abandoned plans to release Horizon 8.0, the much-touted makeover of Dynix’s flagship ILS product. Instead, the Unicorn platform will be the basis for a new product called ROME, which will essentially be an enhanced version of Unicorn GL3.2. Read the entire article for an excellent overview of Sirsi Dynix’s past, present and future.

Here’s a follow-up story on the Man Who Had His Laptop Confiscated (see March 2 posting)

 http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/8679625p-8574795c.html

I just found an outstanding tool and tutorial for deleting those undeletable viruses that we all come across now and then (if we use Windows… insert snarky statement about how I use a Mac here).

TechNibble Tutorial on how to delete those undeletable Viruses

Thanks TechNibble!

Headline: Alaskan Library lets down Patron

By john on wifi [John Blyberg]
I’ve been watching this story (article) with a growing level of frustration. Not with the user, nor with the police (who were simply doing their job), but with the Palmer Public Library in Palmer Alaska.

First, can anyone give me a good reason why a library’s wifi service should be only available during business hours? Perhaps we ought to shut off our web servers along with the lights as well.

I’ll admit that this situation brings up some interesting issues. Obviously the Palmer Public Library usage policy forbids after-hours access. They have a plan in place to shut off access at night, though they’re waiting until they find a technician to do it: *hint* maybe your parking-lot superpatron could help you out there, guys. But that is a flawed policy, and is also nowhere to be found on their website. It’s important to remember that Internet usage policies don’t hold business hours, so no matter what time a user hops on, they are still subject to those rules of governance.

This could have been a fabulous public relations opportunity, but the Palmer Library took a big pass. Worse, it didn’t come to the defense of this user who may very well be saddled with some real criminal charges. Yes, he may be arrested for playing Risk in the parking lot of his town’s public library. But, the fact that the user in question was using the service for gaming is completely inconsequential. Since when do libraries pass judgement on our user’s activities and choice of material?

This user has been let down by his library.

So, what should the Palmer Library do if it is so inclined?

First, they should notify the police and the district attorney that a) using wifi after hours is permitted and b) the user’s laptop should be returned immediately and c) charges should not be filed against the user because there was no theft of service involved.

They should then re-evaluate their Internet usage policy and make any changes necessary to remove any ambiguity regarding hours of operation and make sure language is included that allows for after-hour usage.

Then, if it were up to me, I would see what kind of wifi coverage the parking lot was getting, and have additional access points installed if signal strength was spotty. I might even place some signage in the lot to advertise the hot spot.

Finally, I would invite that user to the library to talk about his experience as a moderator on the site, Conquor Club. I don’t know what’s going on in Palmer, Alaska, but I imagine that there might be other library users who’d be interested.

Identifying our most valuable users and taking advantage of their expertise should be ever present in our minds. So when I read a story like this where a library simply stands back, takes the easiest and safest path, I get mightily frustrated.

What a waste of a great opportunity. And what a lack of cojones.

Alaska, Internet, Library, Palmer Alaska, policy, wifi

I’m at a workshop in Manhattan, KS today and the guest speaker is Jessamyn West of librarian.net fame. She’s talking about all kinds of library 2.0 topics and during her presentation she highlighted some Kansas sites and projects — including Tonganoxie Public Library’s website. If you haven’t seen it, take a look! Cool things are happening in this library (in a town with a population of approx 3500) - both in the building and also virtually. Instant messaging with patrons! Regularly updated content! Photos of people (not just buildings)!

Tonganoxie Public Library is one of the libraries participating in the statewide Kansas Libraries on the Web project (which uses Wordpress software, just like this blog). Some of the other sites include: Morrill Public Library in Hiawatha and Atchison Public Library. It’s exciting to see fresh content and connection to community happening in the world of library websites….

Here is the best way to describe Web 2.0 yet. If you think you can’t understand what it is, check out this video. I think it will help you “get it.”

YouTube - Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us

Well we now can get downloadable movies from Wal-Mart and iTunes, and now from… the public library!?!

Yes folks, there’s a new company who, for a fee, allows you to have on demand content available from your public library.

From Slashdot:

The service is just beginning, so selection is pretty mediocre, but the sponsors, Recorded Books and PermissionTV, make some big promises. If your library ponies up the dough for the top service, you will be able to download movies on the same day as their dvd release. All you need is a library card.

One early adopter, the Half Hollow Hills Community Library, has a site already in beta. You can find it at http://mldv.permissiontv.com/channels/halfhollow_ny/.” You can get to it from their blog.

Original article, from Slashdot:
Slashdot | Video on Demand From the Public Library

Well, I guess the bell is tolling for the 3 1/4in floppy drive.

Do you still buy them with new computers in your library?

“Computing superstore PC World said it will no longer sell the storage devices, affectionately known as floppies, once existing stock runs out.

New storage systems, coupled with a need to store more than the 1.44 megabytes of data held by a standard floppy, have led to its demise.

Only a tiny percentage of PCs currently sold still have floppy disk drives.”

PC World says farewell to floppy

A few days ago, I wrote about my love for Meebo. I also quoted the Meebo blog. Today, I was excited to see, the Meebo blog was all about loving librarians!

“librarian love
elaine posted this on December 12, 2006

When we initially launched meebo, we crossed our fingers, gave our two little servers some encouraging pats, and sent out those first emails to friends and family. Words of encouragement started trickling in from students, office workers, soldiers, and travelers. One of our most loyal user groups was completely unexpected… librarians.

Turns out that locked-down computers, reference librarians who always want to be in touch with their patrons, and the desire to make libraries fun and friendly have given meebo and meebo me the perfect opportunity to shine.

Just recently, we smiled when reading Jessamyn’s blog where she helped a librarian post these posters advocating the use of meebo instead of download clients. Also, Aaron has been traipsing around libraries promoting meebo me as well. He explains, meebo me doesn’t require a download and the widget can be placed directly on the library’s website.

Thanks for keeping meebo in mind when you’re visiting your local library and public computer clusters. We’re happy to help out!

Take Care,
- Elaine”

Lots of our time gets spent reacting to here-and-now needs — computers that need troubleshooting, printers that need paper, etc…. I think it’s important to take a bit of time now and then to step back from the moment to reflect upon the bigger picture. It can be a refreshing thing. There are some wonderful events happening in the world of online library presentations and even if you can’t make it to the live, scheduled sessions, many are being archived so you can watch at a time that is convenient for you.

Three places with archived goodies:

1. I have been consistently impressed with the SirsiDynix Institutes.  Some of the best and brightest from libraryland are sharing their ideas in these sessions. Recent sessions of interest include; ‘Engaging Youth on their Own Terms: Instant Messaging and Gaming in Libraries’, ‘Networking and Politics: Influencing Action to Get The Right Things Done’, and ‘Google Inc. and Libraries: Our Common Future‘.

2. Many of you attended the WebJunction Rural Library Sustainability workshops that were held throughout the state earlier this year. The InFocus webinar series exists to complement the work done in those workshops. The emphasis, of course, is on the needs of small libraries. Recent topics include; ‘Tech Support and the Rural Library’, ‘Technology Training for Patrons’,  and ‘Grant Writing and the Rural Library’.

3. And don’t forget about OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries). We have several virtual meeting rooms that are being used in Kansas, but there are also archived presentations that are worth checking out. Recent presentations of note include; ‘Libraries and Flickr‘, ‘Sustaining the Rural Library‘ and ‘Libraries Building Community through Citizen Dialogue‘.

If you attend or view a presentation that you think is particularly useful, please let us know and we’ll help spread the word!

Howdy from Internet Librarian 2006! Things are going well here, the weather is lovely and the sessions are so far ok. Just got out of my first session on emerging technologies… and even though they didn’t say anything about any technologies that I would consider “emerging” (Because, lets face it, blogs/wikis/online user collaboration… this is not emerging technology anymore… this is mainstream technology).

Michael Stevens said the same things he always does, so that was ehh… Jenny Levine was banging her same gong as well, so I was a little underwhelmed but I do appreciate their enthusiasm.

BUT… this lovely trainer from the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County had a GENIUS idea for technology training… make it like summer reading for technology training! Give librarians exercises, links to the tools, not a lot of direction, encourage PLAY with the tools (hey, how do you think I learned how to do this stuff… from the manual? HA!), and dangle a carrot (she gave away MP3 players and is going to have a drawing for a LAPTOP! Way, super, extra cool). She has a 1.0 meeting about the week’s exercises (we could do Opal sessions) and gives people a chance to show off. All of this takes place over an 8 week (!) period, just like summer reading. The idea is to get people into the habit of PLAYING with technology instead of fearing it or thinking that they need someone to “tell them how to do it with a handout.”

NEKLS could SO do this. We SHOULD do this. I’ve been disgruntled lately that traditional training just doesn’t seem to be cutting it for most of our librarians… they keep wanting more but claim that they don’t have time to extend their learning once they get home after the training. Well, I think this might be the answer.

Here’s the link to the blog they are using as the basis for their training. Great, great stuff.
Learning 2.0 - Main

Congratulations to Sarah at Johnson County Public Library for getting something on Tame the Web.

TTW Mailbox: No Extended Web Surfing

Just to give you an idea, I used to read Memepool back in the day, and I remember when muxway still had a link to “Create your own muxway at del.ico.us.” My, how times have changed.

Anyway, read all about the creator of that nemesis to catalogers everywhere, tagging, and that luscious web application we all know and love, del.icio.us.

/salute!

Technology Review: TR35

Technology News: Technology: Kids and Tech: How Much Is Too Much?
“As technology creeps into more and more areas of consumers’ everyday lives, the risk of overexposure to gadgets, content, games and high-tech services rises. How much is too much? This first article in a three-part series on the potential dangers of substantial exposure to technology focuses on the risk to infants and children.

From Baby Einstein tapes for infants to Reader Rabbit software for two-year-olds to Nintendo Latest News about Nintendo consoles given as early as fifth birthdays and beyond, technological advancements designed to stimulate the intellect and entertain the soul are overwhelming many 21st century kids.”

Yep, we got one. Gonna have to figure out why, but stay tuned!

The gist here is that according to recent surveys, people don’t want to work where they can’t have all the access to the internet they want. Security measures at corporations have become so stringent that people are having a hard time getting WORK done, much less having a pleasant and productive work environment (i.e. one where the occasional IM conversation isn’t frowned upon).

Imagine then, how discouraging it might be to your patrons if you have a “secure to the point of useless” computing environment. Or policies that prohibit IM or chat. They can’t do it at work… they can’t do it at the library… suddenly 1000 bucks for a PC and 20 bucks a month for high speed internet access doesn’t look so bad. And hey, why am I paying for the library again?

APC Unlock work internet or risk losing staff: Microsoft

This article relates to World of Warcraft, but could concieveably apply to games like Runescape as well. Organized cyber criminals have their eye on our digital embodiments in games as a way to make money. As always, use firefox, use your antivirus, and do your windows updates.

CNN.com - Microsoft: MMO games face security risk - Aug 15, 2006

Here is a YouTube link to a grumpy old fellow video blogging for the first time.

What better way to prove that this is what people want from the Internet, and who are we to stop them?

What a charming man! I hope he does many, many more video blogs.

Now… imagine if he could have done this from the creation station at your library? How awesome would that be?

A few things that we talked about:

- Flickr - NEKLS Photos
- Digital Creation Stations (give people a place to create digital content)
- iTunes Music Store
- Blogs, Podcasts, Video Blogs, and user created content
- Millennials want to connect– Example: I have a myspace page… yes, that’s my cat.
- IM Reference - screw those big companies, just use the free ones. Really. It’s ok.
- Training is key
- Don’t be afraid to fail. Really.
- Don’t be afraid to dream. Where do you think great ideas come from?
- 43 places Are they talking about your library?
- Force those Automation vendors to give you what you want… or create something that works for you, like Lamson Library
Things we might do at NEKLS (if Liz gets her way)
- A podcasting studio for our librarians
- A Gadget Garage (Oooo!)
- The technology sandbox… both online and at the office
- Revisit the technology wiki.
- You do have Liz, Brenda, and all of the NEKLS staff on your IM, right? Right?

More on this later, but please, feel free to comment and add your impressions… our brain is bigger when we all contribute!

From Metafilter:

“Much like synchronized swimming or a standard drill team, a book cart drill team requires coordination and panache and is complicated enough to warrant its own manual. This year at the 2006 American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, the winners of the “golden cart” in the Second Annual Book Cart Drill Team Competition were the city’s very own Tulane University “Booked on New Orleans”, (YouTube video, no sound) who had only started rehearsing 6 weeks prior and had practiced in the formerly flooded basement of the library.
”

Just a Wednesday funny.

Sweet! I can totally see this having an application in libraries that want to provide wireless. It’s open source (so donation funded), runs on open source operating system, and the hardware required (as I understand it)… well, let me put it to you this way, here’s a use for those retired windows 98 boxes.

NoCatAuth is our original open source “catch and release” captive wireless portal implementation. It provides a simple splash screen web page for wireless clients on your network, as well as a variety of authenticated modes.

NoCatNet

From the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog:

“I wanted to take a moment and mention a couple of things related to security updates and Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME).

First, support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) ends on July 11, 2006, which is the July 2006 Monthly Bulletin Release date. This means Microsoft will end public and technical support on July 11, 2006. This also includes security updates. As an advance reminder, Windows XP SP1 will also reach a similar end of support date on October 10, 2006. There�s more detail about this and other Support Lifecycle dates on the Support Lifecycle Website: http://www.microsoft.com/lifecycle.”\

So what this really means is: Get rid of your Windows 98 machines because they are so broken and vulerable to today’s internet threats that even Microsoft won’t support them. Do your tech folks a favor and either plan to upgrade or replace those old broken computers you’ve got around.

Read more:
Welcome to the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog! : Windows 98, 98SE and ME: Information about Support Lifecycle and MS06-015

We’ve touched on this before… People just don’t read web pages. Maybe there’s too much information within our grasp, but it seems we rarely read a page from top to bottom before we head away by clicking a hyperlink. Here are some good tips from the Idaho State Library on Writing Concisely for the web.

Idaho State Library Blog — Writing (Concisely) for the Web

Popurls.com is a website that collects the most popular link collectors (del.icio.us, news.google.com, news.yahoo.com, fark.com, flickr, youtube.com, video.google.com, and many more) onto one convenient page.

I happen to visit most of these sites daily individually, but I may start just hitting this one alone since I’m not (I know, gasp) a huge fan of RSS readers. I’m a “get it in one spot” kind of girl.

Anyway, just thought I’d toss that one out there for a little Monday sweetness and light.

Cool! Imagine if libraries could do something similar with their historical collections! Surely if they can do it, we can.

�We are pleased to announce that more than 8,000 digital images depicting more than 7,000 objects from the permanent collection at the Spencer Museum of Art are now available to anyone with Internet access. This digital collection currently represents less than 30 percent of the museum’s collection, which numbers more than 26,000 objects. The digital collection will continue to grow over the next year, and information on objects will be regularly updated as new scholarly research is generated. These digital images provide educators, researchers and art enthusiasts worldwide with unprecedented access to the museum’s collection.

The rapidly growing virtual collection is a collaborative project between the Spencer and the University’s Scholarly Digital Initiatives program. The Spencer is digitally documenting its collection with funding from a variety of sources, including a $149,061 grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services, an independent federal agency. Supported by KU’s Information Services, this ongoing project will result in access to digital images and electronic records of the entire collection.

The Spencer Museum of Art’s collection is available online through the KU Libraries’ Image Gateway at http://www.lib.ku.edu/imagegateway . Visitors to the site can search for objects through a variety of data, including artist’s name, material and date of creation. Additional collections of images are also available through the Image Gateway, including art historical images licensed from Saskia and from the National Palace Museum, Taipei; artifacts from the Kansas City Hopewell Archaeological Sites from KU’s Anthropological Research and Teaching Collections; historic photographs from the Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s Kansas Collection; and images of wildflowers from the Kansas Biological Survey.�

University of Kansas Libraries - Image Gateway

Here’s one for the school librarians out there. Do you use Moodle or Blackboard? Wouldn’t it be fabulous to integrate your library catalog into that resource for easy access by students?

The Distant Librarian: An Article on integrating library information into Course Management Systems

Get on board! Podcast!

Beginner’s guide to podcasts and podcasting (plus: how to create a basic podcast of your own) at Forever Geek

If you subscribe to the print version of Newsweek, you may have already scanned the article “The New Wisdom of the Web.” If not, check it out online. MySpace, Flickr, and other social technologies are explored and future possibilities are discussed. A lot of this will be review if you’re a regular reader of this blog, but this might be an interesting article to pass along to board members, patrons, and even staff members who are new to thinking about the implications of social technologies.

Mark your calendars! I’m excited to announce that NEKLS Tech Day 2006 will be held on Thursday, August 10th. Details are still, of course, being worked out, but our keynote speaker will be Michael Stephens, author of the Tame the Web blog. His presentation topic will be: “Toward Library 2.0 — Planning, People, and Participation”.

I alwasy fiind Slashdot to have a wealth of interesting information on technology, and I always appreciate the (mostly) civil discussion of technology topics, especially those related to fair use and copyright concerns.

This particular article covers a proposal in the California Legislature to require teaching of copyright and fair use laws in order to receive state funding for technology education.

An interesting proposition to be sure. We’ve had several libraries asking us about kids using LimeWire in the library (generally considered to not have a lot of legitimate use beyond sharing illegal copies of copyrighted works) and I wonder what tone this required education would take… a very pro-corporate entertainment industry tambre (because I’m sure they’re the ones lobbying for it) or a very “fair use but don’t steal” tambre. I would hope for the latter, but I’m not holding my breath.

Slashdot | Tech-Ed Funding to be Tied to Copyright-Ed?

At NEKLS Tech Day 2005, Shifted Librarian Jenny Levine talked about the popularity of instant messaging (IM) and encouraged libraries to use it to communicate with patrons (especially teen patrons). I know that a lot of you are now doing that, which is awesome!

Another potential way to communicate with teens and other patrons “where they are at” is to sign your library up as a MySpace member. The Hennepin County Library in Minnesota has done this. Others have, too. It’s a fun and free way to get information out about the library and to be a part of a medium that is incredibly popular.

This came up in a meeting this AM, so I thought I would share it here. I like to think that the library world is all about being cooperative. We share books. We share advice and ideas freely with one another. The technology world is not always as cooperative. There have been some interesting partnerships lately, however. For example, Microsoft and Palm are playing nicely together with the new Treo700w smartphone. Apple and Intel surprised many people by working together to make the new iMac pentium powered.

I hope a partnership is in the near future that will make Overdrive audio books and NetLibrary audio books and Apple’s iPods work together. As far as I know, this is not in the works. Too bad….

I know I get a lot of email every day… this blog entry outlines the 12 most important things to remember when crafting an e-mail message to make it more effective at communicating what you want.

A good thing to remember on a Monday.

Let the Good Times Roll–by Guy Kawasaki: The Effective Emailer

Maybe you haven’t heard of MySpace yet, but it’s a hot trend among teens to post their diaries and pictures online on a social networking site.

As more and more places restrict teens from hanging out socially after school, teens are going online to re-create those lost spaces. That is what MySpace is about.

Best quote from the show:
“There have been more articles written about online predators than actual cases of predators online.”

Give it a listen some quiet day, you’ll learn a lot about today’s teens.

NPR : Teens Create their Own Space Online

The Kansas City (MO) Public Library has put together a Gaming Taskforce. Dave King, KCPL acting IT director, posted some guidelines for the taskforce on his blog.

Mike Godwin has written a great primer on DRM for librarians. Librarians are on the front lines of the DRM wars, since DRM so often interferes with lending, archiving and preserving creative works. Librarians are also a technology-savvy bunch. Accordingly, Mike’s paper is thoroughgoing, smart, and highly recommended.

Download the PDF

The San Jose Mercury News recently ran an article predicting the Top Tech Tech Trends for 2006. Wireless tops the list (not surprising)….

The Pew Internet and American Life project has released a new report, which compares internet usage by women to internet usage by men. The study highlights some interesting differences in usage, but in the end, data shows that men and women are more similar than different in their online lives, showing a common appreciation for the internet’s efficiency and for the ability to perform online transactions that simplify their lives by saving time on such mundane tasks as buying tickets or paying bills. Men and women also value the internet for a second strength, as a gateway to limitless vaults of information.

A recent MIT study shows that teens are very optimistic about the future of technology. The study also shows that adult attitudes aren’t quite as optimistic….

We all know that a cloud is a large moving body of water droplets in the sky; the interesting shapes capture our attention and imagination (”I see a bunny!”). Have you heard of a “tag cloud”? Have you seen a tag cloud? This NEKLS technology blog actually has a tag cloud. Notice the category listing on the right-hand side of this page? These are the categories we assign to our NEKLS Technology blog posts. The more frequently a particular category or tag has been used, the larger it will appear in the “cloud”. We obviously think that a lot of our postings are “Simply Cool” — the benefit of a tag cloud is its ability to demonstrate the popularity of a particular topic. Wikipedia has an article on tag clouds if you want to learn more. What do you think? Useful or not?

Don’t know what to do with your old computers? You could bring them to any of these Kansas companies to dispose of them.

Computer Recycling : Lawrence Waste Reduction and Recycling

The beginning of a new year means it’s time to be reviewing all that happened in the previous year. Everywhere you look there are best-of lists and more. Technology Review has published a list of what they consider the top 5 info-tech stories of 2005. They include:

1. Municipal wi-fi
2. Silicon photonics
3. Social machines
4. Search
5. Feeds

They are almost all things we have discussed here on the NEKLS technology blog — except maybe silicon photonics??

The Topeka Shawnee County Public Library (TSCPL) has a new blog called PaperCuts. It includes library news, reviews, and events. They have an RSS feed, so if you use Bloglines, this is a new one to add to your account.

PC World has published a list of the 50 greatest gadgets from the past 50 years. It ranges from 1978’s Speak and Spell and 1970’s Simon toy to the iPod and Treo from more recent years. It’s interesting to consider how many of these gadgets have intersected with or impacted library services… or how many will.

Oh Wordpress… how do I love thee, let me count the ways:

out 4 days, you work flawlessly
you’ve made it easy for the rest of us
to edit our posts thusly
with icons like Word
and I don’t bet you’ve heard
It’s easy to use,
Even if you’re not a nerd!

Wordpress.org

Do you have a lot of really old romance novels cluttering up your shelves? Are you weeding and don’t know what to do with your old books?

Make a million bucks with em… turn em into iPod cases.

Bennie and Olive: Scavengers in Space iPod Case

OPAL stands for “online programming for all libraries”. Some of you may have used it for meetings or for continuing education activities. On Thursday, December 8th, an OPAL session on podcasting was conducted. You can view an archived version of the presentation at the OPAL website: http://www.opal-online.org. You can also see the wiki the presenter created for the session at: http://podcasting101.pbwiki.com. It contains a ton of useful information.

I know there are probably a few unashamed map nerds among the readers of this blog Technology is making all things cartographic especially interesting these days. This article from MIT’s Technology Review demonstrates some of the ways these map developments will benefit all of us.

This article in Business Week suggests that email is on its way out and that more collaborative tools like wikis are on their way in. I agree and already see this change taking place in committee work, etc….

One funny line sparks additional questions: “None of this is to imply, however, that e-mail is on its way to floppy disk-dom.” The author obviously views floppy disks as a dinosaur technology. Are you still buying computer disks with floppy drives? Do your patrons still use floppy disks?

Student blogs are a popular way to share stories of young love, to air your side in a feud with a friend, to gossip, and to be silly. Do student blogs sometimes contain information that they should not? Some high school principals think so and have been cracking down on what they deem inappropriate content. Vauhini Vara discusses the issue in a recent article in the WSJ.

Wow! This is a school that’s right on the money (no wonder it costs so much to go there).

What if libraries could offer something similar, an archive, available through itunes, of the city council meetings or music from the local festival. What about recaps of the High School football game? Or highlights from the visit of that international celebrity (I imagine Centralia here, who had NBA stars in town for a day last year).

Such a great idea, and already in place by Stanford University. So cool.

Stanford iTunes

Wow! Google is not evil!

They say “Librarians and Google share a mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Word. I’m gonna get on their list and I think you should too.

Google Librarian Center