Life 2.0

In Life 2.0, people move into a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment, social activities—essentially everything they do. They use digital tools—PDA, MP3, laptop, cell phone, camera, PC—to tell their stories and interact with the world. They are always online, connected to one another and to the Web ... Read more in the latest issue of OCLC newsletter NextSpace

Obama in photos

History is created - Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States

Click on the following video link to relive the moment when Barack Obama rewrote history and was elected as the 44th President of the United States:



Click on the following link to listen to his acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago:

Linkedin- a social network for professionals

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners.

Using Linkedin you can:
•Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who are highly recommended
•Discover business opportunities
•Search for great jobs
•Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
•Post and distribute job listings
•Find high-quality passive candidates
•Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

Visit the website...join today ... click on this link: LinkedIin

Call for IFLA Poster Presentations 2009

The theme of the 75th IFLA General Conference is “Libraries create futures: Building on cultural heritage”. The conference will be held 23-27 August 2009, in Milan, Italy

Here is information on the poster sessions:

An alternative approach for the presentation of projects/new work will be available for conference participants. An area on the conference premises has been designated for the presentation of information regarding projects or activities of interest to librarians. The theme may be presented by a printed poster or by photographs, graphics and texts attached on the given panel. All IFLA official languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish - are welcome. Presenters of a poster session will be expected to be present on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 August 2009 in order to explain their poster and to hand out available leaflets and other information material. Further advice on poster sessions may be obtained from IFLA Headquarters. The Professional Committee of IFLA will review all submissions.

Colleagues interested in presenting a poster session are invited to complete the relevant form and send it together with a brief description of not more than 200 words of the session (we would appreciate receiving a summary in English, with your proposal). The application form can be found at: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla75/call-postersession-en.htm

Zotero - a next generation tool for the academic researcher

Described as a next generation research tool for 'all researchers" Zotero can help you to gather, store, organize and analyze (citations, full texts, web pages, images) information for your next research paper or conference presentation. Available as a free, easy to use Firefox extension, Zotero boasts of the following features:

-Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
-Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
-Flexible notetaking
-Fast, as-you-type search through your materials
-Playlist-like library organization, including saved searches (smart collections) and tags
-Platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services
-Runs right in your web browser
-Formatted citation export (over 1100 styles and growing)
-Free and open source
-Integration with Microsoft Word and Open Office
-Saves records and notes in any language
-Integration with WordPress and other blogging software
-Remote library backup
-Advanced search and data mining tools
-Access your library from anywhere via the web
-Wide variety of import/export options

Click here for a link to the video tutorial

Printing books using an ATM-like machine

Here is a link to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on what I view as a revolutionary idea in the book publishing industry: Printing books on demand using an ATM-like book-printing machine:

University of Michigan Library Installs 'ATM of Books'

Library users at the University of Michigan will soon be able to order print-on-demand copies of books from the university’s collection—and get them in about the time it takes for a barista to whip up a latte. The Espresso Book Machine, a book-printing machine described as “the ATM of books,” goes online at Michigan’s library Oct. 1. Michigan says it’s the first university library to install the machine.
Just about any digitized, out-of-copyright book from Michigan’s collection can be printed and bound on the spot. Printing takes five to seven minutes, and the cost is about $10 per book. Users will also be able to print books from online sources such as the Open Content Alliance. The Espresso’s manufacturer, On Demand Books, wants to create a network of machines in libraries and bookshops around the world, allowing users to print books from collections anywhere.

Click here for a video demo of the Espresso Book machine at work

Barack Obama supports Libraries and Librarians

Reposting blog on Barack Obama ...

Now that Barack Obama has been voted the Democratic party nominee for the US 2008 general elections, I want to take a trip down memory lane and highlight a few points in his keynote speech at the ALA annual conference in Chicago in June 2005. I was very fortunate to be in the audience and left the conference hall thinking "hmm ... Obama supports libraries". Here are 6 poignant points from his speech to ponder on. The full text of the speech Bound to the Word can be read in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries

1. Librarians are guardians of truth and knowledge, librarians must be thanked for their role as champions of privacy, literacy, independent thinking and most of all reading.



2. More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we've always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That's the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books.



3. At a time when book banning is back in vogue, libraries remind us that truth isn't about who yells the loudest, but who has the right information.



4. I believe that if we want to give our children the best possible chance in life, if we want to open the doors of opportunity while they're young and teach them the skills they'll need to succeed later on, then one of our greater responsibilities as citizens, as educators and as parents is to insure that every American child can read and read well. That's because literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy that we're living in today.



5. Right now, children come home from their first doctor's appointment with an extra bottle of formula. They should come home with their first library card or their first copy of Good Night Moon.
   I have memorized Good Nigh! Moon, by the way: "In the great green room there was a telephone . ..." I love that book. It sould be as easy to get a book as it is to rent a DVD or pick up McDonald's. What if instead of a toy in every Happy Meal there was a book?



6. I remember at different junctures in my life feeling lost, feeling adrift, and feeling that somehow walking into a library and seeing those books, seeing human knowledge collected in that fashion, accessible, ready for me, would always lift my spirits. So I am grateful to be able to acknowledge the importance of librarians and the work that you do. 1 want to work with you to ensure that libraries continue to be sanctuaries of learning, where we are free to read and consider what we please without the fear that Big Brother may be peering over our shoulders to find out what we're up to.

Search engines to rival Google - Cuil and Sortfix

Sortfix and Cuil are two search engines created to rival "Google" in its dominance of retrieving exact matches to your search queries.

Here is my review of both:

SortFix on its FAQ page is described as “an intuitive graphical interface that isn’t only cool and fun to use but can also also boosts the users’ search skills and abilities”. I agree. SortFix uses what it calls a simple basket concept i.e. there are four search baskets at the top of the search screen titled Power words, Add to search, Remove and Dictionary. If a Power word is relevant to your search, drag it to the "Add to Search" basket. If a word is not related to your search drag it to the "Remove" basket. The Dictionary basket, as one would expect allows you to drag a word into that box and a short definition of the word is immediately displayed.

Try Sortfix ...


Cuil (pronounced COOL) on its FAQ page, claims to have indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine. IMHO, Cuil offers the following advantages: a richer display of search results (images and texts), results displayed in a friendly, easy to read column layout, and more descriptive metadata added to search queries than Google. Google, however, wins the battle in terms of search relevancy and search results.

Try Cuil …

WebJunction- Free online continuing education web portal

If you are searching for free online continuing education courses on the web, try Web Junction. Described as an online learning community for librarians and library staff, Webjunction provides information, insights, and online learning relevant to libraries and their staff. Supported in part by OCLC and grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this web learning portal has been around since 2003 and recently updated its website.

The new interface makes it easier for librarians and staff to:

• Connect with friends, peers and colleagues from across the library community using powerful new social tools such as friends, public profiles, groups, discussions, tagging and recommendations;
• Create their own content, conversations and spontaneous communities with fast, fun and easy-to-use tools;
• Learn the skills they need to thrive in their careers with new and more flexible online courses covering general business, technical and library skills, complimented by powerful social and learning management tools that add depth to the experience.

Click here to visit WebJunction

Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) UWI Jamaica - electronic newsletter

A colleague recently pointed me to an electronic newsletter produced by my alma mater, the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the UWI campus in Mona, Jamaica. As stated in the premier issue this newsletter is intended to "keep us informed of the activities and developments in the Department while at the same time collecting and disseminating information about matters of interest to members of the wider library and information profession". The newsletter will be issued twice per year, in February and September.

Kudos to the department for producing this publication.

Click here for the February issue which includes a tribute to Professor Emerita Daphne Douglas, lauded as a distinguished librarian and educator, who was honored at the UWI 60th anniversary Commemoration Celebrations.

Continuing Education for Caribbean Librarians- Trainers needed

Colleagues:

I am currently working on a project which involves assessing the training needs of Libraries in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean. The goal of this project is to collaborate with colleagues in the US and the Caribbean to provide training in areas which have been identified as critical.

I sent a short survey to Caribbean Librarians in an attempt to identify their training needs. Now that the survey has been circulated, I am trying to identify trainers in specific subject areas.

If you are interested in being part of this project and volunteering to facilitate a workshop or workshops, please complete the short survey attached and e-mail your responses back to me as soon as possible. If you volunteer as a trainer, I will work closely with host institutions to sponsor your expenses (travel, accommodation, training materials, daily stipend). As soon as I am able to evaluate the results of both surveys I will contact you once again with information on workshops which have been planned.

Link to survey

Thanks for your assistance,

Cheryl

Creating word clouds

I love web 2.0 type technologies!!! I just discovered Wordle, a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

The word cloud above was derived from words in this blog. Thanks to the Liminal Librarian for pointing the way to this gem.

SEFLIN Future of Libraries Conference

Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN) Future Of Libraries Conference held on July 16 in Davie, Florida provided topics of interest for everyone. Here is a summary of two of the sessions I attended:

Keynote speaker Meredith Farkas (author of the blog Information Wants to be Free) focused on Riding the Shift: Organization 2.0 and the Future of Libraries, giving instructional advice to libraries wishing to ride the web 2.0 wave and build a 2.0 organization:

• Know your users


• Develop a learning culture


• Question everything


• Develop a risk-tolerant culture


• Be agile


• Give staff time for creative endeavors


• Collect knowledge internally


• Be transparent


• Build networks


• Acknowledge that good ideas can come from anyone and anywhere


• Involve staff from all levels in planning


• Nurture talent

George Pearson (Librarian, Florida International University) gave an insightful presentation on the future of the OPAC or as he noted in his introduction the alternate title: The OPAC Sucks. In a web 2.0 environment which allows Users Interaction, Collaboration, and Content Creation a revamped OPAC, readily attracting constant usage by a tech savvy clientele should have all of the following elements:

• easy to use


• interactive and fun


• a place for one stop shopping for all of the libraries' resources (print, AV, electronic, digital)

Some ILS vendors have responded positively to the pressure to create these so called next generation OPACs with integrated web 2.0 functionalities. Pearson highlighted the implementation of the Endeca-driven OPAC prototype at the State University Libraries of Florida which has the following features:

• Book Reviews and Summaries


• Advisory pages or Readers also liked


• Spell check


• User Forums


• RSS feeds


• Relevancy ranking of search results


• Faceted browse capability


• Citation (APA, Chicago, MLA Turabian, Harvard) formatting options


• Download title and location of a resource to your mobile phone


• Links to OCLC WorldCat and Google Book Search

All of the conference presentations are available on the conference wiki

OCLC Breakfast Update at ALA 2008

OCLC president Jay Jordan gave an extensive overview of OCLC new products and services at the annual ALA OCLC breakfast update. Here is an overview of his presentation:

A new publication titled From awareness to funding: a study of library support for America is now available for download or ordering www.oclc.org/reports/funding

A new NetLibrary Media Center described as a free enhancement to the NetLibrary eAudiobook platform was recently launched. This Media Center offers enhanced searching, single click checkout and the ability to download to a portable device. http://www.oclc.org/audiobooks/default.htm

A project is underway at OCLC to control all personal name headings (over 26 million) in WorldCat bibliographic records. This project when completed will result in bibliographic records being updated automatically if the heading in the authority record changes. More information available at: http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/2008/04/controlling-nam.html

WorldCat Identities http://orlabs.oclc.org/Identities/ is a recently concluded project where OCLC created a summary/biographical page for every personal name found in bibliographic records in WorldCat in a user friendly interface. Users of this graphical interface can view all the works written by an author , works written about the author, a graphical timeline showing their publication history, list all the languages in which the author’s works were published in, view cross referenced names found in the author’s authority record, and view the associated subject headings of all published works (viewed as a clickable cloud tag)

WorldCat xISSN http://www.oclc.org/xissn/default.htm is a new Web service that supports management of serials information. Users can supply an ISSN to find out about title changes, and find the electronic ISSN for a print title or vice versa. xISSN is available at no charge to OCLC cataloging members.

After success pilot projects at the University of Washington http://www.lib.washington.edu/ and the State Library of Ohio http://winslo.state.oh.us/, OCLC has launched WorldCat Local as a purchased product available to libraries www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal. WorldCat local offers the same features as WorldCat.org but with the added advantage of searching library resources at three tiers locally (all library resources in its collection), through a consortia (e.g. OhioLink Libraries) or globally (all WorldCat Libraries). Some key features include:
--single search box to all local library resources (print, AV, electronic, digital) as well as resources available globally via WorldCat Libraries. This search box is customizable for branding with library’s logo.
-- relevancy ranking of search results
-- results that bring multiple versions of a work together
-- faceted browse capability
-- citation (APA, Chicago, MLA, Turabian, Harvard) formatting options
-- cover art
-- patron added reviews, ratings, and personalized lists
--interoperability with a library’s circulation system to deliver location and availability information compliant with OpenURL resolvers, thus providing access to content available via multiple vendors and fulfilling ILL requests
--Link to Google Book Search. Users can immediately link to Google Book Search http://books.google.com/ and read the full text or snippets of text for the title initially searched in WorldCat Local.

ALA 2008

I have been a member of ALA since 2001 and have attended several ALA conferences since I joined the association. I look forward to attending ALA annual as it has afforded several opportunities to keep current with changes in the cataloging world and network with colleagues. Additionally, there are opportunities to attend sessions devoted to other topics which hold my interest such as digitization emerging technologies, and continuing education opportunities for librarians.

One note to the would be first time conference attendee, planning the sessions you wish to attend weeks in advance is critical to having a rewarding and self paced experience. Fail to plan ahead, and you would, like me during my first ALA conference, be caught frantically trying to decide at the last minute which session would be of most value and wasting valuable time and energy hopping from one conference shuttle bus to another. Also comfortable shoes are a must!

In addition to attending the daily presentations on your choice of topics (there are several tracks to choose from for e.g. Digital information & Technologies, Collection Management and Technical Services, Administration and Leadership, Research, Transformation & Innovation, Issues & Updates) you can attend the exhibits (can you say freebies), vendor sponsored lunches to demonstrate new products and services, nightly receptions, the opening and closing sessions with celebrity keynote speakers (this year Ron Reagan and Jamie Lee Curtis did the honors), a book cart drill competition (only at ALA can you have a competition where the contestants dress in costume and dance and contort with a book truck accompanied by their favorite music selections, this year’s winner -The Well Stacked Sci-Brarians received a DEMCO gold plated book truck as first prize). If you are fortunate to attend ALA the next time it is held in Anaheim you can (like me) support the ProQuest scholarship bash and in return get the chance to spend some time with Mickey and Minnie in Disneyland.

If you wish to view all of the presentations at ALA this year please visit the conference wiki http://wikis.ala.org/annual2008/index.php/Annual_2008

ACURIL's (Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries) 2008 conference held recently in Montego Bay, Jamaica included several presentations on digital libraries.

Here are links to four of the presentations I have been able to find online. E-mail me and let me know if other presentations have been posted online.

Karen Calhoun (OCLC) Digital Library Dreams, Real Progress: Creating Value for Students and Scholars in the Caribbean Region

Marilyn Ochoa and Brooke Wooldridge Usability Testing: A User-Centered Approach to Improve Electronic Resource Design

Mark Sullivan dLOC Toolkit

Mark Sullivan dLOC Technical Overview

Update: Here is a link to all the presentations at the ACURIL 2008 conference

http://www.nlj.org.jm/acuril/conference_papers.htm

Obama for Libraries

Now that Barack Obama has been voted the Democratic party 'presumptive' nominee for the US 2008 general elections, I want to take a trip down memory lane and highlight a few points in his keynote speech at the ALA annual conference in Chicago in June 2005. I was very fortunate to be in the audience and left the conference hall thinking "hmm ... Obama supports libraries". Here are 6 poignant points from his speech to ponder on. The full text of the speech Bound to the Word can be read in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries

1. Librarians are guardians of truth and knowledge, librarians must be thanked for their role as champions of privacy, literacy, independent thinking and most of all reading.



2. More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we've always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That's the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books.



3. At a time when book banning is back in vogue, libraries remind us that truth isn't about who yells the loudest, but who has the right information.



4. I believe that if we want to give our children the best possible chance in life, if we want to open the doors of opportunity while they're young and teach them the skills they'll need to succeed later on, then one of our greater responsibilities as citizens, as educators and as parents is to insure that every American child can read and read well. That's because literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy that we're living in today.



5. Right now, children come home from their first doctor's appointment with an extra bottle of formula. They should come home with their first library card or their first copy of Good Night Moon.
   I have memorized Good Nigh! Moon, by the way: "In the great green room there was a telephone . ..." I love that book. It sould be as easy to get a book as it is to rent a DVD or pick up McDonald's. What if instead of a toy in every Happy Meal there was a book?



6. I remember at different junctures in my life feeling lost, feeling adrift, and feeling that somehow walking into a library and seeing those books, seeing human knowledge collected in that fashion, accessible, ready for me, would always lift my spirits. So I am grateful to be able to acknowledge the importance of librarians and the work that you do. 1 want to work with you to ensure that libraries continue to be sanctuaries of learning, where we are free to read and consider what we please without the fear that Big Brother may be peering over our shoulders to find out what we're up to.

Future of Libraries

Stephen Abram (bookmark his blog Stephen's Lighthouse) looked into his crystal ball and presented his forecast on the Future of Libraries in his recent powerpoint presentation. You can also view his presentation at the ACURIL 2008 conference (held in Montego Bay Jamaica) on Inspiring and Engaging our Communities and Users.

Library 2.0 Webinars and Tutorials

If you, like me, sometimes feel overwhelmed with the 2.0 phenomenon you must read Jessica Merritt's 100 Free Library 2.0 Webinars and Tutorials. This comprehensive guide covers the following topics:

Getting Started
Usefulness
Social libraries
Communication
Data
Online Learning
Specific Tools
Collaborations and Distribution
Improving Appeal and Service
Staff
General

Taste of Trinidad

In a travel feature for the New York Times, writer Sam Sifton and photographer Chris Ramirez created a "tasteful" video of some of the eating choices for visitors to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. As Sam describes it in his opening narrative, Port of Spain is one of the "great eating towns of the Caribbean" and Chris and I sought to "devour it all." The video presents vivid images of unique Trinidad and Tobago delicacies like roti, doubles, bake and shark, jerk pork, and sweet plantains. And for those of us who associate the Caribbean with exotic drinks there is Carib beer, and local rum (dark and light). To end it all there is a beautiful image of the white sandy beaches of Maracas Bay on the north coast.

Kudos to Sam for this unsolicited publicity of my native isle.

Link to video: Taste of Trinidad

New Book - The Successful University Library in a Developing Country.

My colleague and fellow blogger The Caribbean Librarian recently wrote a book titled The Successful University Library in a Developing Country. Congratulations are in order for Jennifer Papin-Ramcharan who works at the Main Library, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. This book is a must read if you want to know about problems associated with managing university libraries in developing countries and practical solutions for solving these problems.

Here is a summary from amazon.com:
This book studies university libraries in developing countries against the backdrop of an increasingly inter-connected and interdependent world. The book suggests that finding solutions to problems of university libraries in developing countries is a matter of ensuring that 'global knowledge' is of the highest quality and is not just for altruistic reasons. It describes the many problems associated with the running of university libraries in developing countries and considers what it takes for these libraries to be successful. The book includes case studies of university libraries in several developing countries in regions including Africa, India and The Caribbean. Presenting the perspectives of practitioners and library users, solutions presented are practical and relevant.It is authored by a librarian and a member of the faculty of a university in a developing country. It gives the perspectives of both librarians and users of university libraries. It includes contributions from librarians in several developing country regions including Africa, India and The Caribbean. It addresses not only the problems of developing country university libraries but also offers practical solutions.

Download Caribbean music at trinidadtunes.com

Kudos to my colleague The Caribbean Librarian for pointing out that there is now a legal source for downloading Caribbean music (specifically Trinidad and Tobago music). The site trinidadtunes.com provides access to all types of genres: calypso, christmas, chutney, gospel, hip-hop, rapso, reggae, soca, spoken word, steelband and world. You can search for your favorite song/s, by artist, song or album, add your selection to your shopping basket, pay by credit card (99 cents per song) and download, all in a matter of seconds.

There are additional features which I like: the ability to listen to snippets of the song you select, a listing of the week top albums and week top songs, biographical information about each singer. Try it!!!

ALA 2008 State of America's Libraries report available online

The full text of the 2008 State of America's Libraries is available for free on the ALA website
One of the major findings of the report is that "Libraries of all kinds continue to be engines of learning, literacy, and economic development in communities nationwide".

Other findings include:

· Ebooks continued to emerge as a regular feature of libraries of all types.
· Library supporters won an important victory in 2007 when the Environmental Protection Agency was ordered to re-open many of the libraries it had closed in the past year.
· College and research libraries continue to find innovative new ways to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the academy.
· Libraries and librarians of all stripes continue to stand up for the First Amendment rights of all Americans, responding in public discourse and in court to unconstitutional snooping and aspiring book-banners. The right to read — freely and in private — remains a core value of the profession

National Library Week April 13-19

At the ALA website you can find all the information you need for promoting National Library week:

-Purchase National Library Week posters, bookmarks, digital art
-Download sample media materials
-Information about National Library Week
-National Library Workers Day
-Share your National Library Week story - win a $25 gift certificate
-National Library Week Events
-What is National Library Week?
-Future National Library Week Dates

Free teleprompter to help with those important speeches

CuePrompter.com - The Online Teleprompter

Try the free teleprompter service CuePrompter. East to use as your browser works like a teleprompter -no extra software needed. Free for any use (both commercial and non-commercial).

Top 25 technologies according to Stephen Abram

Stephen Abram (VP of Innovation, SirsiDynix) has been described as "an inveterate library watcher and strategic technology reviewer". Here is a link to his session on the top 25 technologies that we should think about 'playing' with and finding a way to make our libraries more open to our learning communities and neighborhoods.

Grant to attend IFLA 2008

IFLA 2008 wil be held in Quebec City, Canada, August 10-14. The theme is "Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding". Bursaries to support conference registration fees,travel and accommodation are available for librarians from developing countries. Librarians from South America, Central America and the Caribbean are encouraged to apply. Visit the IFLA website on information on how to apply. Good luck!

ACURIL 2008

ACURIL 2008, the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries annual conference, will be held at the RoseHall Resort and Country Club, Montego Bay, Jamaica from June 1st to June 6th. The theme of the conference is “the e-librarian: ideas, innovation and inspiration!” if you are planning to attend you can find registration information at the Conference website http://www.nlj.org.jm/acuril/ACURIL08.htm