Archive for October 2007

The OEDb has compiled a killer list of over 250 open-access digital libraries and archives available online. This comprehensive resource organizes the archival collections by state with annotated descriptions of materials available. If you’re interested in archival collections ranging from genealogy resources to tourism brochures, you’re sure to find something here.

The latest issue of Library Journal features an article by Brett Bonfield titled Consuming Information: We’re all learning how to create new web content, but what are the best and fastest ways to process it? In his helpful article, the author offers the following tips on how to more efficiently consume online information:

• Get your own domain name
• Check email from Gmail
• Consider feed reading options
• Convert web pages to RSS
• Become a Firefox hacker
• Seek out vetted mailing lists and blogs
• Know thy search engine
• IM saves time
• Leverage your flash drive
• Make friends with your bookmarks
• Collaborate online
• Check out podcasts and vlogs

Steve Lawson the Humanities Liaison Librarian for Tutt Library at Colorado College has created this innovative, albeit slightly creepy Facebook Flyer for his library announcing their new late hours. It won’t be soon forgotten by those who see it, that’s for sure. What a great way to get the word out about library hours, workshops, and events than placing an ad where students are sure to see it on Facebook? Facebook allows you to target who sees your flyer according to network, age, or gender, and they’re pretty affordable at $10 for 5,000. Know of any other libraries using Facebook Flyers? Please share about them in the comments!

A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 32% of online teens have been contacted by strangers, and 7% of them have been made to feel uncomfortable or scared by that contact. Not surprisingly, girls are more likely to report scary contact than boys. Read the whole report here.

Michael Stephens has written an 80-page follow-up to his essential Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software. The new Library Technology Report is titled Web 2.0 & Libraries, Part 2: Trends and Technologies, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Jenny Levine has contributed the foreward “Presence in the 2.0 World” and the topics covered in the report include:

• value-added blogging
• building a community Web site with a blog
• Ten Best Practices for Flickr & Libraries
• libraries and social sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube
• tagging and social bookmarking
• Messaging in a 2.0 World: Twitter & SMS
• podcasting
• The OPAC Rebooted
• how libraries such as the Hennepin County Library and the Arlington Heights Memorial Library are using 2.0 tools

According to TechCrunch, social networking giant MySpace will be launching a developer Platform within the next few weeks. This will allow third-party developers to create applications for the social community in the same way that Facebook now offers applications. It is also rumored that Bebo, a very popular social network especially in Ireland & the UK, is soon to follow with its own platform.

This turn of events is hardly surprising considering that Facebook’s applications, which just launched on May 29th of this year, has accounted for 37% of its growth over the past few months.

Feeling disorganized? Information overload catching up with you? Check out some of these great articles to find out how to get yourself organized again and increase your productivity.

Organization/Info Overload

• 20 Great Tools to Keep Your Life Organized
• Master Your Information Manifesto: 21 Tips to Deal with Info Overload
• Eight steps to thriving on information overload
• Key to Organization: The Habit of Now
• Get your life back: organise your brain
• Get Organized: Keep All Your Information in One Place
• Too Much Information – Take back your attention span

Productivity

• Cut the Fat to Get to Lean Productivity
• Get productive with the best Facebook Apps
• 15 iGoogle Gadgets for Web Worker Productivity
• 25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive

The latest blogging advice article clues us in on 41 Reasons Why Your Blog Probably Sucks. These common mistakes include:

1. No banner/ header graphic.
2. Choosing a poor blogging platform.
3. Poor blending of ads.
4. Poor hosting.
5. Using a really bad theme.
6. Cluttered themes.
7. Not emphasizing your best content.
8. Too personal.
9. Lack of topical focus.
10. Lack of keywords.
11. Not linking out.
12. Not deep-linking.
13. Not posting regularly.
14. Blogging about blogging.
15. Blogging about the money.
16. Recycling content.
17. Weak titles.
18. Ignoring linkbait.
19. Weak linkbait.
20. Weak linkbait, part 2.
21. Ignoring grammar and spelling.
22. Starting too many blogs too soon.
23. Being a know-it-all.
24. Not enough variety.
25. Irrelevant links.
26. No long-term plan.
27. Not getting the proper training.
28. Lacking passion.
29. Thinking that blogging income is passive.
30. Unfriendly URLs.
31. Bad directory structure.
32. Canonicalization problems.
33. Not analyzing visitor behavior.
34. Ignoring outside but important factors.
35. Partial-text RSS feeds.
36. Not pinging blog directories.
37. Pushing one type of feed reader.
38. Not networking.
39. Not using social media.
40. Lack of patience.
41. Openly insulting other bloggers.

You’ll have to read the full article to benefit from the author’s explanations and insight, but in the meantime, what do you do if you’ve made some of these mistakes? Don’t stress – read The Art of Stress-free Blogging from Web Worker Daily.

eBay has launched a new way to connect with others who love to shop with its addition of neighborhoods - subcommunities within eBay dedicated to specific products or product types. Popular neighborhoods include Coffee Lovers, Jewelry, and iPhone communities. Some of the features of these new neighborhoods include:

• photo sharing
• voting on user photos
• invite friends
• join discussions on message boards
• read and write blogs
• write and read product reviews
• view related products
• read or write related buyer’s guides
• visit related neighborhoods
• suggest your own neighborhood
• most fun feature – graphical search results – instead of text links, choose from product photos

A new study of global search activity issued by comScore reports that over 750 million people over the age of 15 conducted 61 billion searches in the month of August. The study provides analysis of the top 50 worldwide Internet search properties with Google sites ranking at number one with over 37 billion of those searches conducted on its properties. Read the full report here.

The Enthusiast Group has issued a new white paper Talk, Why Don’t You: 9(+) Tips for Increasing Online User Engagement. Among their handy tips are the following words of wisdom:

1. Support and encourage user comments
2. Use alerts to keep comment threads going
3. Get your key people involved in comment threads
4. Have a human leader – preferably a celebrity
5. Develop a user points system
6. Cultivate and promote volunteer site editors or moderators
7. Everybody loves contests
8. Showcase the best from your users
9. Produce a newsletter featuring the best from users

Via Social Media.

Nancy Dowd at The “M” Word – Marketing Libraries points us to a New York Times article with 10 things to consider before launching your company, or library, blog:

1. Determine what you have to offer.
2. Decide if your blog will be a marketing tool.
3. Define your editorial vision.
4. Consider the content.
5. Share your thought leadership.
6. Be a credible source.
7. Decide who will be the writer.
8. Choose your partnerships wisely.
9. Learn how to engage your readers.
10. Know what matters to your readers.

Facebook and other popular social networks are constantly in the news. Check out the latest with these articles:

The Facebook revolution – LA Times, October 7, 2007

“The kinds of information one can push through a digital web of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues — properly segmented — is endless and powerful. For instance, because I have a Facebook profile, I already know what books, magazines and newspapers my friends read, what websites they frequently visit, what music they listen to and what TV shows and movies they like. Many executives I know “google” and “facebook” job candidates before they arrive for an interview.”

The Fakebook Generation – The New York Times, October 6, 2007

“Facebook did not become popular because it was a functional tool — after all, most college students live in close quarters with the majority of their Facebook friends and have no need for social networking. Instead, we log into the Web site because it’s entertaining to watch a constantly evolving narrative starring the other people in the library.”

You Are Not My Friend – Time, October 04, 2007

“This is hard to say to a friend, but our relationship is starting to take up too much of my time. It’s weird that I know more about you than I do about actual friends I hang out with in person–whom I propose we distinguish by calling “non-metafriends.” In fact, I know more about you than I know about myself. I have no idea what my favorite movie or song or TV show is.”

via Social Media

The University of California, Berkeley announced yesterday that they will be posting complete course lectures to YouTube. They are the first university to offer full course lectures on the video-sharing website, and have already compiled over 300 hours of video on their channel page in the subjects of biology, physics, and search engine technology.

Via Collaborative Thinking

A recent study by the Yankee Group has indicated that there has been a significant lack of growth in virtual worlds such as Second Life which may be due to their non-mobile nature. According to this study, Second Lifers only average 12 minutes per month in-world, while sites like Facebook entertain visitors for 186 minutes per month.

Via CrunchGear.