Archive for July 2010

Alex Golub, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, shares his views on The iPad for Academics at Inside Higher Ed.

“Teachers and students have always been an important market for Apple — a fact made clear by the tremendous amount of spit and polish that went into the new education website the company recently unveiled. But honestly: What do Apple’s slickly produced promo videos of adorable multicultural elementary schoolers have to do with us? And just how relevant is their newly-released iPad for what we do? Do academics really need to shell out five hundred bucks for what is essentially a big iPod touch?”

via American Libraries Direct

Andy Burkhardt at Information Tyrannosaur rounds up the Top Ten iPad Apps for Librarians. This excellent lists culls the best of the bookish out of the 13,000 available iPad apps. Here are his top five:

1. iBooks
2. Stanza
3. Evernote
4. Dropbox
5. Twitterific

Dean Holmes offers wise advice about the Top 10 Ways to drive people to your Event using Social Media. Stephen Abram, of Stephen’s Lighthouse, found this excellent article about how to build buzz and draw people to events, each of which could easily be adapted by libraries:

1. Finding the Influencer
2. Connecting with the Influencers
3. Motivating the Influencers
4. Building Buzz and Interest
5. Kodak moments
6. Flip Camera Crazy
7. Tweet and be Tweeted
8. Emails-yeah they still work
9. Survey Says
10. Measure and Refine

The latest issue of Educause Quarterly is dedicated solely to the topic of Cloud Computing. Similarly, the May/June issue of Educause Review covered the cloud as well. Here are just a few of the articles from this excellent issue:

• Cloud Computing Explained
• Universities and Libraries Move to the Mobile Web
• Embracing the Cloud: Six Ways to Look at the Shift to Cloud Computing
• Using Cloud Infrastructure as Part of a Digital Preservation Strategy with DuraCloud

Nilay Patel at Engadget blogs about How-to: Effectively manage your Facebook privacy settings with three simple lists. This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to balance your personal and professional life on Facebook by setting up appropriate Privacy Settings and Friends Lists.

The folks at Technology to Software have created a list of the Top 10 Free Twitter Tools To Manage Your Account. These easy to use third-party apps will help you get a handle on all your Twitter activities.

Matt Silverman at Mashable rounds up 19 Essential Social Media Resources You May Have Missed. Here are just a few of the articles that made the list containing posts in the areas of Social Media, Tech & Mobile, and Business

• 5 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity
• 5 Social Media Trends to Watch Right Now
• The 10 Founding Fathers of the Web

Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove reports on a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study which concludes that Gen Y Will Not Grow Out of Social Networking.

“By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s ‘digital natives’) will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward.”

Amy-Mae Elliott at Mashable blogs about 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks. Take ten quick tutorials for how to accomplish these advanced operations in Facebook:

1. Add a Dislike Option to Your Status Update
2. Hide Status Updates From Certain People
3. Pre-Schedule Status Updates
4. Tag People in Your Status Updates
5. Add Symbols to Your Facebook Status
6. Turn Your Status Updates Into a Word Cloud
7. Have Fun With Facebook’s Humorous Language Options
8. See Status Updates From Around the World
9. See Your Status Update Stats
10. Play a Trick On Your Friends in Your Status Update

Yogesh Mankani at Save Delete rounds up the Top 10 Best And Free E-Book Reader Apps For Your iPhone. If you’re an iPhone owner, you won’t want to miss this list.

Dan Klamm, Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, blogs for Mashable about 5 Rules for Professional Social Networking Success. Anyone interested in using social platforms professionally will want to check out this brief but helpful post. Here are his recommendations:

1. Know Your Platforms
2. Customize Everything
3. Ask for Something Specific
4. Take It Offline Whenever Possible
5. Say “Thank You”

Sue Waters at The Edublogger creates a quick all-in-one Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter for Twitterholics. This is an excellent guide, broken down into the following sections:

• Tips for signing up for your Twitter account
• Tips for before you start following other people
• Tips for who to follow
• Tips for engaging in the conversation
• Getting more out of Twitter by Using a Twitter Client
• Connecting using Hashtags
• How we can use Twitter with our students

Zachary Sniderman at Mashable blogs about 40+ Essential Social Business Resources. If you’re interested in leveraging the social Web for your organization, you’ll want to check out this post. Here are just a few of the recommended resources:

• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Offline Networking Events
• HOW TO: Build A Twitter Strategy for Your Business
• HOW TO: Better Serve the Social Media Customer
• How CEOs are Using Social Media for Real Results
• HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing
• 5 Useful iPhone Apps for Business Networking

My friend Pauline Rothstein has just published a new book titled Boomers and Beyond: Reconsidering the Role of Libraries with Diantha Dow Schull. The book is “A roadmap to the trends and perspectives on the library’s role in meeting the needs of our aging population”, with perspectives from contributors such as Stephen Abram and R. David Lankes. Congrats Pauline!

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

Kristi Hines at the Social Media Examiner discusses the Top 6 Social Media Mistakes And How to Fix Them. There are some great tips here related to these frequently made mistakes:

• Mistake #1: You Have the Wrong Connections
• Mistake #2: You Hide Your Social Media Presence
• Mistake #3: You Send the Wrong Message
• Mistake #4: You use Social Media Profiles for Link-building
• Mistake #5: You Only Do Things that Can be Measured for Return on Investment
• Mistake #6: You Follow Too Many “Rules” of Social Media