Archive for the ‘General’ Category

A new Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen media trends reveals How Teens Use Media. Here are a few of the findings:

• Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more
  TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S.
• Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online—far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
• Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25–34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.

nielsen_howteensusemedia_june09

Jeremiah Owyang blogs about the talk given by Dr. Urs Gasser of Harvard’s Berkman Center at the Corporate Social Networking Conference in Amsterdam earlier today. Dr. Gasser coined the term “Digital Natives”.

“Always online: By age 20, kids will have spent 20,000 hours online –the same amount of time a professional piano player would have spent practicing — Urs Gasser, paraphrased”

Speaking expert Olivia Mitchell guest posts at Pistachio about How to Present While People are Twittering. This timely article discusses how the conference back channel can work for you, and is a must-read for those speakers preparing for conference season. the post is divided into the following sections:

• Benefits of the back channel to the audience
• What about the speaker?
• Managing the back channel

Also, for those still getting up and running on Twitter, Derek Halpern at Prevential has created an Ultimate Twitter resource guide organized into chapters of useful links and articles pertaining to the popular microblogging application.

• Chapter 1: Twitter for Newbies
• Chapter 2: How to Use Twitter Effectively
• Chapter 3: How to Increase Your Twitter Followers
• Chapter 4: Why Twitter Helps Bloggers (and How they Can Use It)
• Chapter 5: The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business
• Chapter 6: Here are the Best Twitter Marketing Resources… Period
• Chapter 7: Does Twitter Provide Any SEO Benefits?
• Chapter 8: Where Else Does Twitter Apply?
• Chapter 9: Twitter Case Studies: What are People and Companies Doing?
• Bonus Chapter: More Twitter Tips

Webdesigner Depot presents a list of 14 Applications for Project Management and Collaboration. Each annotated entry includes a screenshot of the application, description of its functionality, and price.

According to the Official Google Blog, it is now possible to implement multiple inboxes in your default Gmail view, allowing users to categorize their incoming messages, yet see everything at a glance. To enable this feature, click into “Settings”, find the “Labs” tab, and enable “Multiple Inboxes”. If you want labeled emails to show up in a separate pane, go back into Settings, find the new “Multiple Inboxes” tab, and create a new pane by placing “is:” in front of the desired label, for example, is:professional.

Johnny Karp of Freeware Mission posts about the 70-plus free programs he has installed on his PC. He divides the applications, ranging from audio-editing apps to antivirus software, into program-types and suggest alternatives as well. Karp has also put together a mega-pack consisting of all the programs for everyone to download.

I just want to say a quick thanks to all those iLibrarian readers out there. Happy Holidays to everyone and best wishes for the coming year!!!!

The professional social networking community LinkedIn has now added third-party applications which can be incorporated into profiles. If you’re a blogger, you can embed a widget for your blog in your profile along with your resume to show people what you’re capable of. You can also sync your Slideshare account with LinkedIn to display your slideshows, and more.

If you’re the only one in your work environment who is using the Web’s new social tools, you’ll want to take a glance at ReadWriteWeb’s Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media. They offer 5 strategies to use new Web tools to effectively interact with non-users including:

1. Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap Inside Other Organizations
2. Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events
3. Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere
4. Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren’t Aware Of
5. Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life

In case you haven’t been following the news and reviews of Google’s Chrome, an open-source browser released on Tuesday, here are a few news items you may want to check out. I have found it to be quite fast, and appreciate the thumbnails of my most visited sites displayed in each new tab I open.

Giving Google Chrome A Spin. This Thing Moves Fast. - TechCrunch
Speed test: Google Chrome beats Firefox, IE, Safari CNet
So Is Chrome The Fastest Or What? - TechCrunch
Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web - Wired Magazine
Google Redefines Web Browser - Wall Street Journal

Chris Brogan has put together a list of 20 Free eBooks About Social Media, including iCrossing’s What is Social Media and titles such as Google Adwords Secrets, Introduction to Good Usability, We Have a Website. Now What?, and The Zen of Blogging. There are some real gems here that you’ll want to check out, especially since they’re free!

The folks at Educause have put together another of their 7 Things series documents, this time on the topic of geotagging which involves adding location information to an online object such as a photo. The latest brief answers the following questions about geolocation:

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?

Just getting started with screencasting? If you’re thinking about creating instructional videos for your library which will capture your computer’s on-screen movements, you’ll want to check out some of these resources.

Articles on Screencasting

Screencasting: How To Start, Tools and Guidelines - Smashing Magazine

Screen Casts Rock - Here’s Who’s Rocking Them Now - ReadWriteWeb

7 things you should know about…Screencasting - Educause

An Introduction to Screencasting: Why screencasts are useful, how to create them, and software tools that can help - TechSoup

Presentations
Vidcasting: Screencasts for Mobile Video-Enabled Devices - presented at Computers in Libraries 2008

Screencapture, Slidecasting and Sceencasting tools: Jing, SnagIT, Slideshare, Camtasia, Captivate, BB FlashBack - notes from the Library 2.0 and beyond: getting our hands dirty unconference held by the State Library of Western Australia, August 2008

Just Push Play: Screencasting for Your Library - presented at Internet@Schools East at Computers in Libraries 2008

Creation, Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project - presented at the Central Michigan University libraries Off-Campus Library Services Conference 2008

Screencasting & E-Learning on a Shoestring - presented at Internet Librarian Oct. 2007

Podcasts
Paul Pival’s Show and Tell The Easy Way - An Introduction to Screencasting (SirsiDynix Institute podcast)

Blogs & Wikis
LibCasting: Screencasting and libraries - blog maintained by Greg Notess

Screencasting Wiki - library-oriented screencasting wiki

Software
12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials - Mashable

List of Screencasting Software - Wikipedia

5 Free Screencasting Apps for Creating Video Tutorials - makeUseOf.com

Also see Links to Software below

Workshop Handouts/Notes

Just Push Play: Screencasting for Your Library - Steve Garwood presentation at Internet@Schools East at Computers in Libraries 2008

Screencasting video based lectures and demonstrations - Steve Garwood presentation at Association of Library and Information Science Educators 2008

Screencasting for Quick Online Tutorials - Greg R. Notess handout AkLA Annual Conference 2006

Creation, Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project - Paul Betty’s handout for the the Central Michigan University libraries Off-Campus Library Services Conference 2008.

Links to Library Screencasts, Software, and Other Resources
Screencasting section on the Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 Training Sessions Wiki

Online Tutorials section of the Library Success Wiki

Best Practices in Screencasting - Section on the ANTS Wiki

I’m sure there are many other quality resources available out there, please leave further suggestions in the comments.

If you’ve been considering creating a wiki to collaborate with your team, launch a staff intranet, teach a class, or just store your brainstorming ideas, you might want to check out Mashable’s list of over thirty wiki products to get you going. And if you’re having trouble choosing which solution is a best match for your project, head over to WikiMatrix which will compare the front runners side by side.

Have you been spending more and more time “doing” and taking less time to just sit and contemplate? If your thinking time is in short supply, you may want to check out this article from BBC News Magazine which offers some helpful suggestions to effectively create some “oases of thought”:

• CHOOSE YOUR MOMENT: No more lunching “al desko”
• CHOOSE YOUR LOCATION: It doesn’t have to be atop a mountain
• HAVE YOUR PROPS TO HAND: Aristotle or Moyles?
• GIVE YOURSELF LESS TO THINK ABOUT: Your mobile has an “off” switch
• HAVE THE DESIRE TO THINK: You can get it if you really want

And if you think you just don’t have time for this, head over to Zen Habits and check out these helpful articles:

• Reclaim Your Time: 20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time
• How NOT to Multitask - Work Simpler and Saner