Contributors Michael Stephens

4147 posts

See You in London!

The preliminary program for Internet Librarian International is up! http://www.internet-librarian.com/index.php I’m very pleased to be presenting a workshop, session and participating in a panel discussion with my “Transparent Library” writing partner Michael Casey. There are some cool workshops, programs — AND — the Shanachies are keynoting on Friday! This is one of my favorite conferences. If you are attending, please say hello!

ACPL Conversation with Helene Blowers

Don’t miss this conversation with Helene Blowers, part of the Allen County Public Library’s ongoing video series. Her points about unplugging and leadership are spot on. I was lucky to get to do this as well last December: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzBC8q_hTHY, as did Stephen Abram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd_7VZF5kyk.

Students aren’t so web-savvy…

Nicole writes: This is an interesting interview: Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s sociology department, has discovered that students aren’t nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume. Ms. Hargittai studies the technological fluency of college freshmen. She found that they lack a basic understanding of such terms as BCC (blind copy on e-mail), podcasting, and phishing. This spring she will start a national poster-and-video contest to promote Web-related skills. Eszter goes on to explain her study and its results. I found the comments as interesting as the interview itself. One comment in particular made me laugh: Finally someone says […]

Academic Evergreen

Via Lorcan Dempsey: From a news item on the library website at Prince Edward Island University announcing the introduction of the Evergreen library system …. The only permanent change arising from this transition will be a positive one: a brand-new Library catalogue! We’ll be making lots of improvements to the catalogue search and display over the summer, and your feedback will be critical in this process. We are the first academic library anywhere to adopt the Evergreen/IslandPines system, making UPEI a world leader in innovative, open-source technology, and giving us unprecedented flexibility in making repairs and enhancements to our catalogue and other […]

MobileMe & the Cloud

I was a little disappointed with the Apple news today. I was honestly expecting a 32gb iPhone. I like the idea of 3G, but right now Mishawaka and Traverse City are not part of ATT’s 3G areas. I am very interested, however, in the Apps for iPhone and MobileMe. MobileMe is the next incarnation of .Mac, which started as iTools back in the day. I’ve subscribed to .Mac since 2000! MacWorld reports: Thanks to MobilMe’s AJAX-enabled interface, users will have a similar experience using the Web applications as they do with desktop software. For example, you can drag and drop […]

You’ve Got a Friend

David Pogue writes: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/ A few months ago, I blogged about my mixed feelings toward Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. I get about 15 invitations a day, from people I don’t know, asking to be friends. It’s flattering, of course, but there’s an etiquette problem: Do I accept them all, just to be friendly — but thereby defeat the purpose of building a true social network? Or do I reject or ignore them, hurting their feelings and making me seem like an ingrate? Little did I know that I’m not alone — and that my affliction actually has a name. […]

Thanks for the Feedback!

Frank Haulgren commented here and I just had to make it a post: Western Washington Univ.s “14 Days To Have Your Say” project was directly inspired by the Starbuck’s campaign.  I had read a newspaper article (quaint, no?) about this project one day while having lunch and immediately thought to myself, “We can do this!  We should do this!” The 14 Days blog has closed has closed for comment.  A final post has been made by me for the libraries and we are now beginning to analyze the comments and see what we can undertake over the summer. Bu far […]