Archive for February 2008

Read/Write Web has compiled a mega-list of lifestreaming applications in their 35 Ways to Stream Your Life article. For those of you still unfamiliar with lifestreaming, it simply involves using an application to aggregate all of that content you’ve been creating all over the Web into one blog-like “stream”. You specify which accounts you want drawn in, i.e. your Flickr photos, del.icio.us bookmarks, posts on multiple blogs you author, Facebook posts, etc. and the application does the rest. It would be a useful way for libraries to gather and present all of the social media content they create.

I use Tumblr which was pretty easy to set up, and then I have it embedded in my own website. Check out the article for 34 more suggestions.

Facebook has launched a new Music section allowing bands and musicians to create pages to display their discographies, songs, photos, and videos. Bands can link their songs to iTunes and even sell merchandise and tickets through Music Today. The MySpace-like feature has had over 100 artists set up band profiles since its release yesterday.

Find more coverage here:
Facebook Launches Band Pages

Facebook Music Dances With iTunes

I’ve come across several articles, presentations, and papers lately which offer some very useful tips and insight into how libraries can use some of today’s new Web tools. Here are a few to check out:

• 10 Ways Libraries can Use RSS
• iGoogle Gadgets @ Your Library: How to create a simple iGoogle gadget for your library’s online catalog
• Better Practices From the Field. Micro-Blogging for Science & Technology Libraries
• Screencast – Creating a Library Database Page with Drupal

The JotSpot wiki service which offered spreadsheet functionality, photo pages, calendars, and file storage, within their wikis has been in limbo since Google’s acquisition of the company in late 2006. According to TechCrunch, Google has relaunched the application as Google Sites, a free service with up to 10 GB of storage. Wiki authors can embed Google Docs and Calendars into their wikis as well as YouTube videos, and make their sites public or private. Like the former JotSpot service, Google Sites’ wikis seem easily adaptable as intranets, team websites, virtual classrooms, or family organizers.

Carleton University in Canada has created a video portal for students, according to Campus Technology, which allows them to share, annotate, search, index, and even remix class lecture videos. The full-length video from each class is uploaded to the site after the lecture. Students can add their annotations and metadata which is then searchable by the community and can be complied into “video notebooks” to create study guides on particular topics.

“We believe students will get great value from being able to search the lecture videos to find the precise topic or concept they are interested in reviewing, then see their classmate’s notes and playlists for that topic. VideoNotes is an example of how we continue to integrate technology and expand the educational experience at Carleton.”

A new mashup has been announced on Programmable Web which involves a non-profit service that enables you to select books in the public domain from websites such as Google Books and the Internet Archive and have them printed via Lulu.com, the print-on demand service. The mashup combines APIs from both LuLu and the Internet Archive and appears to be a straightforward way to get printed editions of over 200,000 public domain books from Internet Archive and 1.5 million from Google Books.

Mashable presents a guide to 12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials. If you’ve ever wondered about how to create video tutorials which record your screen actions, you’ll want to check out this list of programs, many which are free, including CamStudio, an open-source video and audio capture software application.

MakeUseof.com has created a guide to some of the lesser-known ways to utilize RSS feeds including SendMeRSS which will forward any RSS feed to your email inbox, TwitterFeed which will forward several RSS feeds to a Twitter account, and Wigitize which will let you add RSS feeds to your website in a customizable widget. Check out the full article for more.

Terry at SEONOOBs comes up with 20 Amazing Firefox Shortcuts to Save You Time and Money. The browsing tips include instructions for how to accomplish each of these tasks in a more efficient manner:

1. Search Sites With Keywords
2. Assign Keywords to Bookmarks
3. Navigate Tabs
4. Type Quicker URLs
5. Quick Word Search
6. Drop-Down Bookmarks
7. Delete Addresses
8. Get Instant Downloads
9. Launch Multiple Homepages
10. Caret Browsing
11. Save Audio and Video Clips
12. Quick Google Search
13. Viewing Images
14. Speed Up Firefox
15. Make a Live Bookmark
16. Stop Animation
17. Open New Tabs
18. Close Tabs
19. Customize Firefox
20. Find Words and Links

Inside Higher Ed reports on a new open source software application for publishing online collections and exhibits called Omeka. The free program was created by George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media, who also developed Zotero, the Firefox extension for citation management. It is currently being used by the April 16 Archive at Virginia Tech to preserve the stories of the tragedy that happened there.

CollegeDegree.com presents an annotated guide to 25 Useful Social Networking Tools for Librarians. The list includes social networks, social bookmarking communities, social news websites, and more in the categories of:

• Communication
• Distribution
• Organization

If you’re still unsure about blogging and new social media, you’ll want to read BusinessWeek’s Social Media Will Change Your Business. The article updates their May 2005 report similarly titled Blogs Will Change Your Business. They decided to revise the popular story because despite the rapid advancements in today’s technology, readers are still downloading the original article.

“Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later.”

Educause has created another of its 7 Things guides, this time on the photo-sharing website Flickr. If you’re looking for a nice overview of the popular website, be sure and check out this document which covers the following points:

1. What is it?
2. Who’s doing it?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

It seems like everyone has a top list this week, so I thought I’d round them up for you in one single post. This is a hodgepodge of resources, some library, some tech.

• Talk Good: Giving Effective Presentations (top eleven list of resources)
• 30 Mobile Trends in Libraries
• 10 Gmail Search Tips, and Then Some
• Top 10 Last.fm Mashups
• 10 Tools for the Social Media Marketer
• Top 10 Free Programs to make the most out of your MP3 Collection
• 10 best CSS hacks
• 9 (More) Useful Websites You Should Know About, But Probably Don’t
• and the previous… Nine Websites You Should Know About, But Probably Don’t
• Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes

Inside Higher Ed talks about open source library initiatives today in their piece titled Open Minds, Open Books, Open Source. The article highlights projects such as:

• Rochester’s eXtensible Catalog (XC) project – a Web 2.0 library catalog interface.
• Villanova’s VuFind - a catalog offering faceted search results.
• Oregon State University’s LibraryFind - a federated search engine.