I made a book in the new version of Apple’s iLife 05 iPhoto app of our October 2004 trip to England for Internet Librarian International. The page pictured above opens the book with a photo by my chum Rob Coers of me and my laptop at the keynote. Take a look… it’s incredible what this software and Apple’s printers/binders can do!
Categories Emerging Technology
353 posts
On my Macs, I use iChat to IM. I just realized when I send IM windows to the dock (the program launcher in Mac Os X), they look like the above. That, I believe, is an example of presence: the virtual person… available and engaged. Thanks Maire for fixing the image!
Aaron, who also made this Winter’s NetConnect with a most cool TOP TEN, posts a most thoughtful bit about his thoughts on the state of VR in libraries. http://www.walkingpaper.org/index.php?id=143 Virtual Reference is not user-centric, he writes. Expecting people to enter into and operate in a little world that vendors have created is a bit naive. VR systems clearly were built with librarian in mind. The benefits awarded librarians vs. patrons illustrates this. Yes. I agree. Who were we planning for when so many libraries jumped on to the RMS Virtual Reference as it sailed toward greatness only to encounter a […]
This weekend the South Bend Tribune reported that my hometown library has jumped into the digital content arena by aligning with Recorded Books in a $10,000 contract. The service, the paper reports, gives patrons access to 500 titles. “Patrons will be able to download the books to their home computers and then load them into any of the small media players that are Windows-based. Patrons also will be able to go to the library and download books onto their MP3’s or similar players.” Here’s their site: http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.downloadable There are choices now for this type of content: Audible, Recorded, OverDrive. My […]
I was waiting for the reports of this session! LITA’s Top Technology Trends always fires me up and gives me food for thought. Read her post here: http://www.plablog.org/2005/01/top-technology-trends.html “…convergence, ubiquitous computing, nomadicity, and what one poster to my blog called “the intermingling of the various pieces of your online life.”)…”
One of our assignments this semester is a weekly post about some type of OSS news or thread. Here’s my first one: Please visit: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/brenda_chawner/biblio.html The page description includes: This bibliography has been compiled by Brenda Chawner, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, as part of her Ph.D. studies. It includes announcements, journal articles, and web documents that are about open source software development in libraries. What a wonderful clearinghouse off all things OSS and libraries. I have just started to go through some of them. There are definetly some articles I would like to track […]
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/index.php?p=118 There are libraries that are completely adverse to change and to technology, and there are libraries that are so tech-forward that they pass their patrons by. Neither of these approaches is a good idea. Ask your patrons what they want; what they?d like to see at the library. Base your decisions about what technologies to implement on where your patrons are (and where your staff is) ? not on what looks cool. Not every library should be implementing the same sort of technologies. It all should be based on your population?s needs. What a concise, eloquent statement. That’s what […]
In lieu of looking back at 2004, I thought I’d look ahead at some things librarians need to be aware of as we move into the middle of the decade. These are the things I would want a knowledgeable, tech savvy staff to be aware of and consider for their libraries. In strategic planning, long range plan meetings and the like I would hope an “in the know” librarian at the table could speak about these things. These are culled from various blogs, presentations, discussions and pondering. For your consideration: User-Centered Technology Planning “Technology is a tool..it is only a […]
Aaron posted this yesterday: http://www.walkingpaper.org/index.php?id=140 What a wonderful concept. I’ve been thinking about it for a bit now: I believe three other facets are present here: 1. The pyramid will be different for every library. Some tech stuff is base (catalog, public access) but some stuff may be different. A library might not have classes in the building but offer online instruction. 2. Project management comes into play as well. How many “technology-based irons” can one library have in the fire at a time and have an effective pyramid. Aaron writes: “In your tech planning, make sure your base needs […]
Neat read at MacWorld. http://www.macworld.com/2004/12/news/2004inreviewmusic/index.php?lsrc=mcrss-1204