Archive for December 2009

The Scottish Library and Information Council along with CILIPS (the Chartered Insitute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland) have published A Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Libraries.

“Although Web2.0 services have been integrated within our organisation, feedback from our members within the Scottish library and information
community indicates that considerable barriers to widespread adoption remain. The greatest challenge seems to be access, as many organisations restrict or block the use of Web2.0 or social networking sites, denying staff the opportunity to experiment with these potentially powerful tools.

In response to demand from members, and in order to address this challenge, SLIC and CILIPS have created these guidelines to highlight the potential of social media within library services and to encourage organisations to reassess restrictive practices regarding access.”

They have also published a guide to Improving Libraries for Learners.

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

Olivia Mitchell, presentation trainer and blogger, provides 9 Tips for Enriching Your Presentations With Social Media at Mashable. This helpful article offers tips for encouraging audience participation and feedback via new media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.

1. Build Relationships With Your Audience
2. Recruit a Backchannel Team
3. Create a Separate Hashtag
4. Welcome the Backchannel
5. Reach Out to Your Virtual Audience
6. Make Your Key Points Tweetable
7. Audience Participation Through Social Media
8. Display the Backchannel When You Want to Focus on It
9. Learn From the Backchannel

Nick O’Neill at All Facebook discusses 10 New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. These are essential tips, many of which I use myself. In this article you will learn to:

1. Understand Your Friend Lists
2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results
3. Remove Yourself From Google
4. Avoid The Infamous Photo Tag Mistake
5. Protect Your Albums
6. Avoid The Post-Breakup Facebook Effect
7. Control What Information Applications Can Access
8. Make Contact Information Private
9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts
10. Keep Friendships Private

Karen Coombs writes for Library Journal about libraries using the open source Drupal content management system in Drupal Done Right. In her article Coombs covers the SOPAC extension, the eXtensible Catalog, and initiatives at McMaster and Simon Fraser universities.

“From Arizona State University to Connecticut’s Darien Library, institutions of all shapes, sizes, and types use Drupal to manage their library web sites. However, some librarians have looked to Drupal as more than a tool for creating web sites. Some have attempted to bring more library systems and content to Drupal as a way to integrate library content in a single place. Others have seen Drupal as a flexible framework that can be used to integrate with other systems or create interactive tools for users. These organizations are stretching the bounds of what is possible with this open source tool.”

Chris Brogan, social media guru, writes a guide to how to Write Better Blog Posts Today. If you’re blogging in a professional capacity, this post provides advice for more effective blogging. The post is divided into the following sections:

• Subject Matter
• Goals of the Post
• Titles Matter
• Style and Language
• The Call to Action
• Other Considerations
• Troubleshooting

Sebastian Anthony at Download Squad provides a guide to Ten must-have Google Chrome extensions. If you’re using the open-source Google browser, you may want to check out this article. Here are his top five:

1. WOT (Web Of Trust)
2. Evernote Web Clipper
3. Feedly
4. Google Wave Notifier
5. Shareaholic

Lifehacker has created a list of their Most Popular How-To Features of 2009. Here are just a few of the more than 20 informative articles:

• Google Wave First Look
• Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac
• The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch
• Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code
• Six Ways You Should Be Using Twitter (that Don’t Involve Breakfast)
• The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi
• Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice

Marshall Breeding’s new Library Technology Report takes a look at major library automation systems and what types of APIs and customizability they offer. Packed with case studies and customer responses, Opening up Library Systems through Web Services and SOA: Hype or Reality? provides an in-depth look at what’s being offered in today’s ILS market.

The UK’s Guardian has published their annual list of The 100 essential websites which discusses major trends of this past year such as the rapid growth of Twitter and microblogging in the introductory article. Their hand-picked recommended resources are divided into the following categories:

• Blogging/microblogging
• Browsers
• Cartoons
• Celebrity Gossip
• Create/collaborate
• Film
• Gaming
• Geek Squad
• Government/public services/politics
• Link Economy
• Location, location
• Maps
• Money/finance/consumer fightback
• Music
• Offbeat
• Photography
• Reference
• Search
• Social Software
• Travel
• Twitter, and associated
• Video
• Virtual Worlds
• Visual Arts
• Visualisation

At the culmination of the course I teach on Open movements and libraries at SJSU, I recruit my students to work together to peer review and publish an issue of an open access journal containing their final papers. Here is the table of contents for the second issue of the Open and Libraries Class Journal.

• The Future of Open Libraries: Open Educational Resources and the Universal Library Initiative by Jessica P Pryde
• Lessons from the Bazaar: Open Source Software Use and Development in Libraries by Mary Ellen Petrich
• OpenCourseWare and the Self-learner by Amy Lowman
• The Next Generation Online Public Access Catalog in Academic Libraries by Kim Wallis
• XML: The Open Source Solution to Interoperability by Amy Elizabeth Neeser
• Hybrid OA Journals: A Progression or a Destination? by Dana M Weber
• Scholarly Research Funding, The National Institutes of Health and Mandatory Open Access (OA) by Michael jeung
• Increasing Self-Archiving of Faculty Publications in Institutional Repositories by Amanda Grundmann
• Higher education at the intersection: Open source software and open educational resources by Andrea Bernard
• Open Acces Takes on the Government by Helen S Vozenilek
• Pure Potential: The Impact of Open Educational Resources by Leilani Silver
• “All Rights Reserved” to “No Rights Reserved”: An Overview of Copyright and Other Licenses by Leslie Danhoff
• Natural Partners: Libraries and Open Source Initiatives by Kerri Krist
• Open Source Conversion: Moving from Preaching to Practicing by Melissa Little
• Open Source – History and Development by Adrienne Walker
• Open educational resources: Cost, collaboration and consideration byElizabeth A Hamilton
• Artists’ Opportunities in an Open Environment by Mara C Cota
• The Growth of Open Source: A Look at How Companies Are Utilizing Open Source Software in Their Business Models by David Feare
• HIGHER EDUCATION: THE SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES IN OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER) by Heather Pena
• Open Universities by Alan Barr
• Open Access, Publishing, and the Peer-Review Process: An overview. by quincy dalton mccrary
• Open Access and Developing Countries by Dayna Canada
• Can this economy support library changes to an open source software system? by Ken Yuen
• Current Trends in Open Access Policy by loreli brandt
• The Case for Open Textbooks by gail anne malaspina

Cameron Chapman at Noupe has put together a Usability Testing Toolkit including Resources, Articles, and Techniques. This quick guide provides links and screenshots to nearly 50 resources in the following categories:

• Sites Dedicated to Usability Testing
• Usability Testing Articles and Guides
• Usability Testing Tools and Methods
• Screencasting Software
• Additional Roundups and Resources

Google Labs has developed a mobile search application for Andoid phones which will let users search the Web with their camera phones. By snapping a picture, mobile users can instantly find information on landmarks, books, works of art, wine, and much more through Google Goggles. The application is only available for Android phones currently, however, according to PCWorld, Google will be developing the app for other platforms in the future.

Soren Gordhamer, author of the book Wisdom 2.0, writes for Mashable about The Tao of Tweeting. Drawing on the Tao te Ching, this post offers guidance in the form of four lessons:

1. Show Versus Tell
2. Have a Passion for the Process
3. Find a Balance
4. Focus on What You Can Add, Not on the Technology

Jessica Faye Carter writes for Mashable about 8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group. LinkedIn is the most popular social network for business professionals with over 50 million users. If you’re considering starting a group within this professional community, you may want to check out this post for more on these recommendations:

1. Use a Personal Touch
2. Lay Some Ground Rules
3. Praise the Good, Deal with the Bad
4. Help Your Members Promote Themselves
5. Add Some News Feeds
6. Facilitate Connections Outside of LinkedIn
7. Take a Poll
8. Promote Your Group

It’s always interesting to see the unique ways that researchers and educators find to use new social media tools. Jeff Young at Wired Campus reports on the TwHistory group who are retelling historical events in real-time on Twitter based on journals and histories in What Lincoln Would Have Tweeted.

“A graduate student at Utah State University is a new kind of Civil War re-enactor. Instead of dressing up in period clothes, the student, Tom Caswell, uses Twitter to send short messages in the voice of Abraham Lincoln and other historical figures.

Mr. Caswell is one of the organizers of TwHistory, a Web site devoted to historical re-enactments via Twitter. For their first event, they staged the battle of Gettysburg in the voices of a handful of key characters, including Lincoln (whose famous speech there is, appropriately, famous for its brevity).”