Friday, December 22, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Holidays

Need to work on a last-minute holiday display, bulletin board, bookmark, or press release? Don't forget the Census Bureau's Facts for Features & Special Editions can help. The release for 2006's The Holiday Season has been out for some time now. (Actually, the one for Valentine's Day 2007 is out, for those of you who work on the opposite end of the early/late spectrum!)

Now, I'm off to add my cards and letters to the 20 billion "letters, packages and cards the U.S. Postal Service expects to deliver between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year."

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Harry Potter #7 Title Announced

Friday Fun Thing a little early this week: J. K. Rowling has just announced the title for the last Harry Potter book...sort of. (And no, there's no publication date yet.) See this post for an explanation and link to the game she's created to let you discover it yourself. Or, if you can't stand it, look on Amazon for the announcement or search Google News for dozens of articles.

By the way, be sure to notice that Google is all dressed up for the holidays!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

CFLC Chronicles: Office Closed

The CFLC Office is closing today, December 21, at noon and will remain closed until Wednesday, January 3, 2007.

We wish you all happy holidays!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

CFLC Chronicles: New Direction

"New Direction" is subject line of this note sent by Daniel Wright, Member Services Librarian, on December 14 to his CFLC mailing list:
Today I submitted my resignation to the Central Florida Library Cooperative, closing the cover of a, wonderful, six year book. My last day in the office will be Thursday December 21, 2006.

I shall be assuming the position of Information & Instructional Librarian at the Palmer College of Chiropractic, Florida campus, in Port Orange starting Wednesday, January 3, 2007. http://www.palmer.edu/PCCF/default.htm They have been a CFLC member since they opened.

If you have any service related question for the time being please contact my long suffering Executive Director, Marta Westall.
Today is Daniel's official last day and we wish him the best of luck in his new position at Palmer. We're delighted that his new library is a CFLC member, so we'll still see him around. The office will certainly be a quieter and duller place without him! Farewell, Dan, and fare well, Dan!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Wednesday's Weblogs: Lifehacker

No time to do a long post on a single subject with lots of blogs featured, so instead, today I'm listing one of my favorite blogs around: Lifehacker. The tag line for the blog is:
Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time. Don't live to geek; geek to live.
I follow up and save more posts from this blog than almost any other I read. Very useful, very informative, very fun stuff here. Try it, you'll like it!

SUBJECTS: WEDNESDAY'S WEBLOGS

Monday, December 18, 2006

Workshop Wealth: Collaborative Web

Two objectives here...first, to create something for the Collaborative Web workshop (tomorrow; register here) that would show off Flickr and Bubblr and second, to also share some information about Librarian Trading Cards (mentioned in an earlier Friday Fun Things post here). Okay, it's not great, but it gives you the definite idea that with some creativity and just a small time investment, you could do something clever and a lot better than this. :-)

SUBJECTS: WORKSHOP WEALTH



CFLC Chronicles: Time Person of the Year

Me! Oh, not me...You! Well, yes, me. All of us! Cool.

"Person of the Year: You. Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world."

"...for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."

Here's the whole article, complete with discussion of Web 2.0 and some of its implications. (And if you'd like to learn more, register here for two timely workshops in Volusia tomorrow, Tuesday, December 19, the Collaborative Web and Folksonomies classes.)

Enjoy my your 15 minutes of fame!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Friday, December 15, 2006

Friday Fun Things: Free Stuff

In this season of giving, it seems appropriate to feature a page full of free goodies, courtesy of DK Publishing, Inc. (part of the Penguin Group). Features a number of e-cards, screensavers, wallpapers, and quizzes.

While you're there, check out their outrageous Pop-Up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns! (Doesn't someone on your gift list deserve this?!)

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Blog Business: WriteToMyBlog

These early paragraphs are being edited in Blogger after the rest of the post was posted from WriteToMyBlog (described below), in order to tell you what I found after using it. Skip to below the asterisks if you don't want the postmortem.

Above the asterisks is the Blogger default format; below is WriteToMyBlog's. The program inserted a title, which I chose to edit and it instructs you to turn off automatic line breaks in Blogger, which promptly reformatted the whole blog, much to its detriment. Therefore, I'm having to go in after the fact and take out the double breaks. The one thing I can't seem to quite get right, though, without spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure it out is the spacing before the table. Sorry it looks funny; it looked fine before I published it, but looking at the published table, I see breaks that are inserted as I publish. I can't make them go away if they're not there beforehand and I'm not willing to mess with the formatting of the whole blog for the sake of one experimental table. :-(

*******************************
This is an experimental post written with a relatively new free blogging tool, WriteToMyBlog , which allows creating and posting from their site to multiple blogs simultaneously (if you have more than one). A large number of frmts formats (for example) and symbols (e.g., ♥, £, ¼) are featured (more than I've found on Blogger without having to go into the HTML), and there's a good tour on the site plus an example post that gives you a feel for what is possible. The comments in the example post explain a number of issues.

























Want Tables?

WriteToMyBlog

Also

Allows

Easy

Table Insertion

&
Editing

Without

Having

To Know HTML !

There's a spellchecker... también en otros idiomas (also in other languages) - though it won't correct bad grammar! There is a field for tags (I simply accepted theirs) and it also supports trackback, but be aware that Blogger doesn't support the latter (one of the things explained in the example).

It's easy to post photos from a Flickr account or videos from YouTube, but to post from the C:\ drive, which is normal for me, it's a bit more cumbersome than Blogger, ergo, no photo here.

For those of you who blog, try it out and kick the tires!

SUBJECTS: BLOG BUSINESS


Tags: , ,

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Web Search Stuff: Patents

Google has for some time had the ability to link to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database record for a patent when the search was the word "patent" followed by the patent number. (See here for instructions, see results here, and click on the link by the magnifying glass to link out to the USPTO record.)

Today, however, Google announced the availability of its beta Google Patent Search. This allows searching by much more than the patent number and relies on the same technology it uses for the Google Book Search to display the patent itself, complete with abstract, drawings, description, and claims. Drawing on dim and faraway lessons learned when a former job included workshops on how to search various patent databases, I recalled a couple of truly unusual patents to try to find. To test the system if you can't come up with an example of your own, try searching on the terms "hijacking syringe" (horrifying!) or "centrifugal birth" (a mental image of a breathless nurse running alongside with a catcher's mitt or a fishing net ALWAYS makes me laugh!) .

I should also take the time to remind folks that for most Central Florida libraries, the University of Central Florida Library is the closest patent depository library and they have some excellent search aids, tutorials, and tools for inventors linked on their government documents pages.

SUBJECTS: WEB SEARCH STUFF; REFERENCE RICHES

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wednesday’s Weblogs: Reference

I was recently asked by a CFLC member who has to recapture some e-mail subscriptions if I could recommend some good e-mail lists for reference work. In contemplating it, I felt this might make a useful blog post for others as well.

My first recommendation, having used an RSS aggregator for quite a while now, would be to subscribe to as many lists as you can via a reader rather than via e-mail. (Here and here are good articles on what RSS is all about.) There are a number of good readers/aggregators out there, some requiring downloading software and some available over the Web. There are a couple of good articles comparing readers here and here. My personal favorite (because it was free, easy, and readily available at the time I started reading blogs) is Bloglines. There's a great article by Joy Weese Moll that will walk newbies through how to use it, Bloglines for Librarians in Three (and a half) Easy Steps, and another with a lot of screenshots, Using Bloglines (or How to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday).

Once subscribed to a reader, most of them have lists of popular feeds from which you can select. However, you can also enter the RSS addresses or URLs for specific blogs and lists and subscribe to them that way.

Since the actual question I was asked had to do with reference, here are some excellent choices for staying up-to-date with Web sites useful for reference work:
  • Librarians' Internet Index New This Week (Weekly listing of "between thirty to sixty websites representing the best of the Web" added to LII.): RSS & e-mail
  • ResearchBuzz ("News about search engines, databases, and other information collections."): RSS & e-mail both available here
  • Resource Shelf ("A daily newsletter with resources of interest to information professionals, educators and journalists."): RSS & e-mail
  • DocuTicker (Daily companion to the above, focusing on "new reports from government agencies, ngo's, think tanks, and other groups."): RSS & e-mail (incorporated into the above newsletter)
  • Internet Resources Newsletter (From a British University library, a "free monthly newsletter for academics, students, engineers, scientists and social scientists."): RSS & e-mail
  • Sites and Soundbytes (Blog from the director of a public library in Wisconsin, this also has a great set of similar links under the sideblog header "where i find my sites" [sic].): RSS only
  • CFLC Currents (This blog...sorry, had to add it! "Tuesday's Tools" feature some Web reference tools, databases, etc.): RSS only
  • Library Link of the Day ("[P]rovides you a daily link for keeping up to date with the library profession..."): RSS & e-mail
  • FreePint (Slight British/European and business slant to "a global network of people who find, use, manage and share work-related information."): partial content via RSS & newsletter via e-mail
  • Stumpers-L ("The Stumpers list is a place for librarians (and others) to discuss reference questions which they are unable to answer using available resources..."): e-mail only
  • LIBREF-L ("Discussion of Library Reference Issues."): e-mail only
That probably is enough for an introductory post about reference blogs. I'll take on some other topical blogs in future posts.

What other reference-related blogs or e-mail lists do you read and recommend?

SUBJECTS: WEDNESDAY'S WEBLOGS

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: YouSENDIt

Great new tool that can help libraries with patrons who have no e-mail address, don't want to set up a free account, but still want to send files to someone who does have e-mail: YouSENDIt. Read more about it here at the fairly new Library Zen blog/wiki (LISZEN).

NOTE: Post edited to correct case in title.

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS

Friday, December 08, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: FAME Exhibits

Here are some belatedly posted pictures of the booth sponsored by Florida's Multitype Library Cooperatives at the recent Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME) Conference in Orlando in early November. Pictured here are Daniel Wright of CFLC and Christopher Jones of SWFLN (Southwest Florida Library Network). The real subtitle here should be "With Sponsorship, You Get Eggroll, er, Sombrero!"

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES











Friday Fun Thing: Which Famous Novel Are You?

A very brief, VERY informal survey (complete with some typos, unfortunately) by a teen for teens, but right up the library alley. It could easily be used on a Web page or on a blog to generate some (especially) teen interest and activity...

Which Famous Novel Are You? (Pictures)



Hound of Baskervilles
(BY: Arthur Conan Doyle) You love mystery novels and can't turn down a riddle or a predicament. You are mysterious and interesting.
Take The Quiz Now!Quizzes by myYearbook.com


SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: Historical Maps on Google Earth

For those of you who have downloaded the most recent version of Google Earth (Release 4, Beta), among several new features, there's a cool one there that allows overlaying historical maps onto the satellite imagery.

Announcement of the feature is here; a list of available maps is here; and a review from SearchEngineWatch with a number of screenshots is here.

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS

Monday, November 20, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: SSLLI Kick-Off

From Marta Westall, CFLC Director:

What a privilege!

SSLLI - I attended the first session of the State Library and Archives' Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute in Ocala earlier this month and Suzi was at the first session in Ft. Lauderdale last week. If you are not familiar with this project, the basics are: "The program identifies strategies designed to assist the State Library and Archives of Florida in helping libraries to develop and maintain leadership skill levels in their organizations and to identify and assist individuals in developing and maintaining self leadership skill development. The Program's goals include a focus on succession planning, talent management, and leadership career development." The head of the program is Janine Golden of the State Library of Florida.

Both Suzi and I were mentors to program participants last year and have been asked to mentor again this year. We each had the privilege of being asked to speak to the participants for the 2006/2007 year. Librarians statewide compete for admission to the program and then select mentors for their year-long participation. I am honored to have been asked to mentor Lisa Taylor of the Osceola Library System, while Suzi will be mentoring Bianca Rodriguez from Indian River Community College. I just wish there had been a program like this when I was fumbling along in my career!

If you are interested in more detail about the program see the Web site at http://www.neflin.org/leadership/.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Veterans Day

As with a couple of previous Friday Fun Things, this may stretch the definition of "fun." I couldn't, however, let Veterans Day pass without acknowledgement (and a thank you to my father and brother for their service, as well as to my CFLC colleague Dawn and her husband for theirs) and passing along information about a worthy and not-well-enough-known project.

For teachers, those making exhibits, and others, there is an official Veterans Day site from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that gives curricular ideas, poster galleries, presidential proclamations, regional observances and ceremonies, and more.

As of 2000, the Veterans History Project (part of the American Folklife Project from the Library of Congress) is actively collecting "stories of wartime service." More information can be found on their About page and on their "Participate in the Program" page. Thank a Veteran by helping tell and forever preserve their stories!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Sunday, November 05, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: 2006 National Young Readers Day

National Young Readers Day for 2006 is Tuesday, November 14. The day was originally "created by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in 1989 as a way to celebrate literacy in schools." This is the 16th anniversary of the celebration and this Web site (actually part of the BookIt! program's site) provides Starter Kits and ideas for promoting the day.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

"Globe" Trotting: Indianapolis

Take a look over at the entry "New Main - When?" to see not only the latest CFLC globe trotting pix (it went to Indianapolis), but also the fact that the globe "trotted" to another blog, the VCPLBlog! (That's two globe entries now for them...)

Thanks for the entry and heads-up, Sue!

SUBJECTS: "GLOBE" TROTTING

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Blooper Humor

This Friday Fun Thing is inspired by an e-mail from a colleague who loves editorial gaffes in general and church bulletin humor in particular as much as I do. Noticing that each compilation I've seen forwarded usually has at least one or two unique entries, I went searching to see what I could find and discovered a wealth of slippery-fingered follies. Disclaimer: I did not go beyond the church bulletin pages on any of these sites, so cannot guarantee that the sites themselves are PG or that all the humor therein is appropriate...

For a good time and at least a couple of unique entries per page, see Church Bulletin Bloopers (and its other related blooper sites here), Humorous Church Bulletins, Actual Announcements from Church Bulletins, Bloopers in Church Bulletins, and an article from Christian Century containing bloopers not on any of the above lists, Unconscious pleasures: typographical errors in church bulletins. Finally, if you're still hanging in there, on a not-quite-so-funny note (though referencing some fairly horrifying misquotes) is this editorial from USA Today titled The media, God, and gaffes.

In joy....er, enjoy!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: PLAN Annual Meeting

Spent an enjoyable if rainy Friday in Niceville, FL, last week participating in PLAN's Annual Meeting. One of the coolest things I learned there is that the College of Information at FSU is considering Second Life as a place to hold "virtual graduations" for their globally dispersed distance education students so that they can actually gather in one place (with their friends and relatives) and "walk" across the stage to receive their diplomas. (Second Life is a 3D virtual online world with some 1.1 million "residents" -- and, by the way, it has a real and vibrant library presence. I've been planning to do a blog entry about it; in light of this posting, I'll bump that up on the list from "eventually" to "soon.")

Way to think outside of the box (or would that literally be inside the box?), FSU!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Snakes in a Library

Appropriate to nearly Halloween is this article describing Snake on Lam in Library. (There's a pretty amusing accompanying video on the page, too.)

The (sort of) funny part is the statement "...circulation and visits to the library have been down since [the snake's] escape." Go figure...!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Library Journal Call for Nominations

Sort of on the run today, so this will simply point you to more thorough information in the blog It's All Good, where they explain that Library Journal is calling for nominations for the sixth annual supplement to Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue. Another hurry, hurry, though, as the deadline is November 1. Nominate those dynamic emerging leaders!!

SUBJECTS: ALA ASSORTMENTS

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

ALA Assortments: "Participatory Networks: The Library As Conversation"

Coming exactly one month late to this issue, this post describes an opportunity for feedback that remains good for today only...hurry, hurry!

The American Library Association and the Information Institute of Syracuse have put out a public draft of Participatory Networks: The Library As Conversation (see background information in the Library Journal article '"The Library as Conversation" Moves into 21st Century') and have asked for feedback. Putting their money where their mouths are, so to speak, the opportunity for public comment was opened for a month and includes feedback mechanisms of e-mail, an online discussion forum, and a wiki. A "syndication center" keeps track of all the comments and changes in one place.

Although the comments are open only through today, October 25, you can still get a flavor of some of the debate by reading this blog post and comments at librarian.net. and some more musings from this post at Library 2.0: An Academic's Perspective.

SUBJECTS: ALA ASSORTMENTS

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: Conference Tracking How-To's

This week is the Internet Librarian 2006 (IL2006, usually) in Monterey, CA. Sigh. This is the tenth anniversary of a favorite conference (having attended the very first one, a relatively intimate affair!) and this blogger is currently suffering from conference lust. The attempt to slake it uncovered a good model for real-time conference reporting/investigating.

For anyone who hasn't tried to "virtually" attend a physical conference recently, there are amazing numbers of tools that help you do so. Using the IL2006 example, there's a very (so far) underused reporting page on their conference planning wiki (ALA has better models for this, but most IL2006 attendees have their own blogs and are reporting there) and also an official blog from the conference sponsor, Information Today, Inc. However, for tracking the majority of the reporting and other goings-on in all the various unofficial sources, one must be more creative and far-ranging. There's Technorati, tags IL2006 and IL06; there's flickr, tags IL2006 and IL06; there's del.icio.us, tags IL2006 and IL06. There are definitely many more than this, but time is not an unlimited quantity and for now, mission accomplished; conference lust slaked!

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Halloween

How can Halloween and all its spooky goodness on the Web possibly go unacknowledged as a Friday Fun Thing?

First, a reminder of last year's post on same that refers you to appropriate parts of the CFLC Web page with lots and lots of Halloween sites.

Next, a couple of new things that have been added (or at least found) since. Falling squarely into the "Fun Thing" category, Theoworld's virtual Jack-o-Lantern allows you to carve your own pumpkin online (here's my totally untraditional one - yet another reason not to give up my day job!) for a greeting card you can send your friends. [Warning for those at work, it loads with loud music on.] The Dark Side of the Net: Halloween Food, Recipes and Cooking is the ultimate Halloween food resource, providing a huge collection of links to Halloween food sites of all sorts: lo-cal; diabetic; vegan; traditional; more! Need spooky sounds for your presentations, displays, or parties? Try FindSounds under "holidays" for Halloween creaks, laughs, screams, and, and, and... Finally, for just general all around Halloween games, coloring pages, virtual haunted house, and more, check out the Ben & Jerry's Halloween Fun Stuff site.

Bwahh-ha-ha!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: CFLC "Ask a Librarian" Trifecta

The statewide Ask a Librarian service has just announced the winners of the best transcripts for Summer 2006, viewable here. All three transcripts are from CFLC members! Congratulations to Regina Seguin of Valencia Community College for her detailed chat, to Nicole Heintzelman of Winter Park Public Library for her brief chat, and (I was asked to blog this, honest!) to me for my teaching chat.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

"Globe" Trotting: Paris Redux

Evidently, the globe likes France! This time, it visited the City of Light (or at least some of its eateries and libraries) with Linda Dahlquist from the New Smyrna Beach branch of Volusia County Public Library. It's blogged about at their blog here. Thanks for sharing, VCPL!

SUBJECTS: "GLOBE" TROTTING





Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: Internet Public Library

If you haven't run across the Internet Public Library, or haven't checked it out recently, it deserves a good look or revisit. Aside from being a really good general reference tool, there are several special features that make this even more useful.

Take a look at one of the most comprehensive collections of literary criticism resources (along with an accompanying pathfinder) on the Web. Then there's the Reading Room, with its own magazine and newspaper collections, plus a lengthy list of collections of electronic books. You'll also find Associations on the Net, a categorized list of worthwhile blogs, and a FARQ file, frequently asked reference questions (e.g., what are the "-gry" words and how do you cite electronic sources?).

In the IPL Kidspace, there's not only the excellent Science Fair Project Resource Guide, but there's also the POTUS biographies of the U.S. Presidents.

The IPL TeenSpace has homework help, a poetry wiki, a guide to graphic novels, and much more.

As Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing."

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS

Monday, October 16, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: Public Library Director's Conference

From Marta Westall, CFLC Director:

I just got back from the annual Library Director's Conference which was in Jacksonville this year. Hats off to the State Library of Florida for a very interesting and informative array of programs.

Some of the events are just plain fun, since I see people from around the state that I only see once a year at this conference; sort of a version of Same Time, Next Year.

Programs included: Florida's Future; Future of Libraries; A Vision for Florida's Public Libraries; and Popular Culture, Technology and the Library's Future.

Our sister cooperative NEFLIN did its usual fabulous job on the logistics for the conference.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Sunday, October 15, 2006

FLA Filings: Yet More Belated FLA Annual Conference

Functional Shift: New Library Services in a Changing World was a presentation by Carla J. Stoffle, Dean of Libraries and Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, at the Florida Library Association 2006 Annual Conference. [NOTE: As of this posting, the links for FLA are not working, as the Web site is being moved to another ISP.]

The program description read: "Academic libraries are experiencing a seismic shift in how they are used. There is growing evidence that users are no longer coming into the library or requesting traditional services. Circulation and reference numbers are dropping across the country. The academic community demands distant and 24/7 access to information and other library services. Carla Stoffle, Dean of Libraries and Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, will discuss how libraries are changing to meet this demand."

The program was standing room only; the controversy quota high; the ideas exciting. Having waited too long to really blog from cold notes, this post is possible now exactly because of that delay. It has been a long enough time that a relatively new conference proceedings site has appeared that can give you a real feel for the content and what was discussed. Take a look at the PowerPoint slide show Where Next? Library Transformation, a very similar presentation that Ms. Stoffle gave at Living the Future 6: WOW, Where Next? (April 5-8, 2006), and you'll see what you missed (or get a refresher on what you heard) at FLA.

Enjoy!

SUBJECTS: FLA FILINGS

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Workshop Wealth: Free Workshop Next Week

Do you look forward to coming to work? Do you feel good about what you do? Whether the answer is yes or no, your perspective would be welcomed at this discussion.

Work - It IS All About You!, facilitated by Cynthia Kisby, Personnel Librarian at the University of Central Florida Libraries, is designed to help you explore ways to get more of what you want out of your time at work. Part one starts with the ancient admonition to, "know thyself", so be prepared to do some personal exercises and homework. You will review factors that could affect your work satisfaction and what you can do to increase the satisfiers and decrease the dissatisfiers.

Part two will help you create a framework for situation analysis and improvement. We will look at employee-controlled strategies for specific personal and environmental issues.

Work: It IS All About You! is Wednesday, October 18, 9 a.m. - noon, at CFLC in Maitland. Please click here to register with CFLC.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Breast Cancer Awareness


Okay, this post is definitely pushing the "fun" part of the Friday "Fun" Thing, but it's a post in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There are products galore out there pushing the "think pink" slogan with a portion of purchase price going to research (including M&M's!), but this one isn't going to cost you a cent...just a moment of your time.

Part of the "click to donate" family of sites that many folks know as the Hunger Site, the Breast Cancer Site is one where "[y]our click on the "Fund Free Mammograms" button helps fund free mammograms, paid for by site sponsors whose ads appear after you click and provided to women in need through the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation to low-income, inner-city and minority women, whose awareness of breast cancer and opportunity for help is often limited."

Check out the site and click on the six different funds (including one for literacy) that take your simple daily clicks and turn them into forces for the greater good!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Thursday, October 12, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: LCLS Staff Day

Many thanks to the Lake County Library System for inviting CFLC to participate in their Staff Development Day this past Monday. Their closing session was fascinating. First, there was a behind-the-scenes look at the detailed and painstaking process that Recorded Books goes through from identifying a title to shipping a finished product. That was followed by a most entertaining session wherein Barbara Rosenblat, award-winning audiobook performer extraordinaire and master of amazing dialects, spoke to the attendees and read several excerpts - though "read" is much too mild a term! Had I not already been a major fan of hers, I certainly would have been after that session.

Unfortunately, you can tell below that my new phone has a camera whose intricacies I obviously have NOT mastered (not planning on giving up the day job!), but nonetheless, the fuzzy person below in the white is Barbara Rosenblat enthralling the group. See biographical information here, an interview with her here, and her audiography here.

Thanks for a very entertaining day, LCLS and Ms. Rosenblat!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: CFLC Annual Meeting

From Marta Westall, CFLC Director:

CFLC Annual Meeting
December 1, 2006

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Annual Meeting! We'll have a presentation about the Central Florida Memory Project, as well as greetings from FLA and the Library School Dean of Florida State University. It should be a fun and informative day. During the business meeting, members will be able to discuss and possibly adopt a new CFLC Interlibrary Loan Manual.

Refreshments at 9:30, program starts at 10 am.

Celebration Golf Club
Celebration, Florida

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

"Globe" Trotting: Simmons College

The globe has been trotting again! It accompanied Kathy Turner, Director of Instructional Programs at CFLC-member Evans Library at the Florida Institute of Technololgy, to ACRL's Institute for Information Literacy's Immersion '06 program at Simmons College in Boston this past August. And a shout-out to Kathy both for the picture (thanks!) and for being selected with her colleague Nancy Cook for the very selective Immersion program (congratulations!).

SUBJECTS: "GLOBE" TROTTING

CFLC Chronicles: Library School Scholarship

This is a time-sensitive announcement for CFLC library staffers wanting to attend library school next semester. The College of Information at Florida State University has been partnering with several of the cooperatives in an IMLS grant-funded program titled Librarians Serving the Public.

A recent announcement to the partners included this plea for additional participants:
[W]e still have a bit of money remaining and we'd like to use it to fund a few students to start our MSLIS program in January 2007. The admission deadline for spring admits is November 1, 2006, and we'd love to enroll students recommended by you and your member libraries. But time is short, so we need to know quickly if you'd like to recommend some applicants (or not, so we can recruit using other paths). Our intention is to apply for an extension to our current grant for these students and the current second cohort of students. Our hope is that by choosing students recommended by partners and library directors and managers from the multitype libraries we will improve our retention rate from that of our first cohort.
For further information, contact either Michelle M. Kazmer, Ph.D./Assistant Professor, College of Information, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100, kazmer (at) ci.fsu.edu or Corinne Jörgensen, Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research, College of Information, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 32306-2100, 850.644.8116, FAX 850.644.6253.

Note that very looming deadline!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: Google News Archive

You are likely familiar with the Google News Search and probably have used it at some point to find something in the last 30 days of news. Need something older or want to get a sense of the timeline of how something evolved historically? Then check out the new tool Google unveiled on September 6th, the Google News Archive Search, which searches 200 years of news sources.

Google's official description:
News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people, ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can get an historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically created timeline. Search results include both content that is accessible to all users and content that requires a fee. Articles related to a single story within a given time period are grouped together to allow users to see a broad perspective on the events.
This is certainly not the only tool to search archives, but it is a familiar tool for users. Library staff referring patrons there should know that as of this writing, although results display in a timeline sort of format, there is no straight date narrowing on the results page (though there is a date search feature in advanced search) [see this post from the Tales from the Terminal Room newsletter]. Another important factor is that while not all of the resources returned are available free (and the fees levied are from the information providers and do not go to Google), many libraries will have subscriptions to some of this content already.

For much more information and valuable critiques, this link is to an excellent review of the service by Chris Sherman at Search Engine Watch and this link is to a very lengthy commentary on it by Gary Price at ResourceShelf.

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOL

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Audioblogger Demo

This is a demo of Audioblogger for the same class from this morning in Volusia.

this is an audio post - click to play

Blog Business: Demo in Volusia

Demonstrating the blog to a class in Volusia. Hi, Mom!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Workshop Wealth: Various Fall Offerings

Lots of interesting workshops are coming up in Florida this fall.

It's a new quarter of classes at CFLC - all of them free for members! Check out the new schedule here.

CFLC is also offering a number of videos and DVDs for training. Find the list in PDF format here and send any suggested additions (with bibliographic information) to CFLC's Office Manager using the address ljava (at) cflc.net.

Next, there's Techology Alphabet Soup: XML, RSS, CSS on Friday, October 13, 2006 in Tampa. "Join the Florida and Caribbean Chapter [of the Special Libraries Association] as Dr. Stephen Bajjaly ladles out the secrets of HTML, CSS, XML and more." Program, price, and registration information can be found here. Note: Registration deadline is Tuesday, October 10, 2006.

The Florida Association of College and Research Libraries Annual Fall Workshop, Shifting Functions: Changing Roles and Duties in Academic Libraries Today is being held on Friday, November 3, 2006, in Ft. Lauderdale. Program description, price, and registration information can be found here, while hotel information is here. Registration deadline is October 27, 2006.

The State Library and Archives of Florida is sponsoring a free workshop titled Academic Library Survey Workshop intended to allow participants to "[l]earn from the experts how to prepare your library for the NCES Academic Library Survey (formerly IPEDS)." The workshop will be offered in four different areas of the state during October and November. Further program description, locations, and registration information may be found here.

The Florida Library Association and State Library and Archives of Florida are sponsoring a Friends, Foundations, and Boards Workshop in six different areas of the state during November and December. The FLA Web site is currently moving to a different server, but the schedule and further information should appear here shortly and is available on the State Library & Archives site here now. Registration deadline is November 1, 2006.

The CFLC Annual Meeting will be held on December 1, 2006, at Celebration Golf Club. Details will follow, but mark your calendars, as all members are invited to attend.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; FLA FILINGS; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Friday, September 29, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Diet Coke and Mentos Video

This is a piece you may have seen on the news recently about what happens when Diet Coke and Mentos are combined, but in case you missed it, it's just too amazing to pass up. If it inspires you to go out and do likewise, at the end of the video is information on how you can enter your own video in a contest.

Just don't try this in your stomach!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: Director’s Note

This post is from Marta Westall, CFLC Director:
This is a busy time of year at CFLC; we are ending one fiscal year and beginning another. Many reports and documents spew forth from my keyboard and our preparation for the annual audit is in full swing. Whew!

Please welcome our two new Board Members, Betty Johnson, Director and Professor at Stetson University's duPont-Ball Library and Diana Long, Assistant Director of Altamonte Springs City Library. Thanks are in order for their willingness to take on this assignment and thanks to all of you for participating in the election.

CFLC’s Vendor Discount program is expanding. Watch our Vendor Discount Page for developments. We have established a partnership with our sister cooperative in Jacksonville, NEFLIN, enabling us to contact more vendors as well as offering vendors a larger customer pool.

Some fun news:
Both Suzi Holler and I will be serving as Mentors for librarians accepted by the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute. Since we each served as mentors last year, I guess we did okay given that we've been asked to take on two more participants.

Suzi Holler will be the keynote speaker at the PLAN Annual Meeting and the Library Association of Brevard's Annual Workshop. [PLAN is the library cooperative in the panhandle.]

Two of CFLC's sessions on Ask a Librarian have been nominated in the "Best Transcript Nominations"!!

It’s an exciting time, with new classes being debuted and many of our other classes assisting library staff throughout the region. We are teaching in more locations than ever. If you are interested in bringing us to your library, please contact me. I am currently working on the 2007 schedule. Over the summer we taught classes at:
  • Brevard County Public Library System
  • Florida Institute of Technology
  • Indian River Community College
  • Lake Sumter Community College
  • Lake County Library System
  • Leesburg Public Library
  • Osceola Library System
  • University of Central Florida
  • Volusia County Public Library
We’ve also welcomed two new members, Daytona Beach News Journal and Christ Community Church of Daytona Beach.
SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Happy Birthday, Google!

Google turns 8 today. Check out the celebratory logo!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: WorldCat

As of August, WorldCat, the OCLC database with 1.3 billion items in more than 10,000 libraries worldwide, became available as a standalone site on the Web in beta test mode.

WorldCat has been available in the Open WorldCat project for some time, making it searchable through the Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live search bars using the phrase "find in a library" plus the title.

To look at what each of the versions of WorldCat offers (including via FirstSearch) see this comparison table of the various features. One of the major differences between the two sites is that the standalone version searches the entire WorldCat holdings, where the Open WorldCat participants only access a subset of the data. WorldCat.org also shows an additional screen where users can narrow their search by various fields (e.g., author, format, language).

An additional feature from the new beta site is "a free modularized version of the WorldCat.org search box" that anyone (or any library) can download to place on a Web page or blog. Two other tools, the WorldCat Search Toolbars and the Create a WorldCat Link for an item, have been available for some time.

When you take it for a spin and kick the tires, you may find that some library catalog links work better than others. If you find yours is one that does not connect directly to the item's record and you'd like to see one that does, in the CFLC service area both the Orange County Library System and the Volusia County Public Library catalog links do go directly to the appropriate record.

Try it, you'll like it!

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS; OCLC ODDMENTS

Monday, September 25, 2006

ALA Assortments: Banned Books Week

September 23 to 30, this week, is Banned Books Week. Not only is it Banned Books Week, but this year is also the 25th anniversary of same.

Everything you are likely to want to know about it can be found at the American Library Association site here, including a Kit, text for public service announcements, a history of the week, how to defend against book challenges, lists of challenged books, and much more. The ALA Store also has quite a bit of Banned Books merchandise to sell here.

Also, this year, the public is invited and encouraged to vote for their favorite banned book from a selected list, found here.

Additionally, Celebrate Your Freedom To Read, a blog entry by ALA President Leslie Burger on the Official Google Blog, describes a joint venture where visitors to http://google.com/bannedbooks can use Google Book Search to explore 42 banned or challenged books that appear on the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. Interested readers can search or see basic information about these books and can then check for them in their local library or buy them online.

SUBJECTS: ALA ASSORTMENTS

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Pangrams

From my CFLC colleague Diane comes this great Friday Fun Thing on Pangrams, or "holoalphabetic sentences"- those which use every letter of the alphabet at least once. "Pangrams are used, like lorem ipsum [pretty interesting history there, too!], to display typefaces and test equipment."
Thought this might be a Friday Fun Thing sometime in the future - I was reminded of these in an e-zine and didn't know there were so many examples. Heck with the quick brown fox! My favorite is:

"Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." closely followed by "Two driven jocks help fax my big quiz."
As for me, I'm pretty fond of "How quickly daft jumping zebras vex." Indeed!

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: Wednesday Welcome to the Biblioblogosphere

No, a "Wednesday Welcome" is not going to be added to the regular features; just too much in keeping with the rest of the alliterations to resist...

This post is to welcome to the biblioblogosphere (see here for earlier explanations from this blog) several new CFLC member participants.

An unofficial and inconclusive survey reveals the following new (or relatively new) CFLC member blogs:
  • VCPLBlog - from Volusia County Public Library
  • The Director's Blog - from Jonathan Miller, the newly appointed Director at Olin Library at Rollins College
  • Library Leader - from Mary Anne Hodel, Director and CEO of Orange County Library System (OCLS)
Also from OCLS are two slightly longer-standing blogs:
Here are some RSS News Feeds (meant to be subscribed to using a news reader or aggregator):
Apologies if this post missed any blogs or RSS feeds from member libraries. Let us hear from you if yours isn't here!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: CFLC's Reference Desk

No, this isn't a standard Tuesday's Tool overview, especially since this is a tool that many of you know and already use. It's actually a plea for some feedback.

CFLC is considering a facelift for its Reference Desk page. No content change, just cosmetic surgery to update the look and functionality. (And by the way, there's a workshop centered on that page at CFLC tomorrow morning [description here], if any of you can get there last minute!)

Following is a list of some model virtual reference collections out there, presented in no particular order. (Consider them all Tuesday's Tools and add them to your own collection of bookmarks!) Most of all, however, look at them with an eye toward their structure and organization, and please give us feedback (just click on "Comments" below or e-mail me at the address in the right-hand column header) about what features you would like to see or which model you would prefer as part of the CFLC page. No promises about the whats, wheres, or whens, but we really would like and greatly appreciate the feedback.
And for a completely different take, check these out for structure only, not for content.
Looking forward to your input! Help us make this more useful for you by spreading the request for comments among your colleagues!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; REFERENCE RICHES; TUESDAY'S TOOLS

Monday, September 18, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: Hispanic Heritage Month

¡Bienvenidos! Welcome!

September 15 to October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month/Mes de la Herencia Hispana. The background is explained by the Evergreen State College (WA) Library, "The U.S. Government, in wanting to recognize the accomplishments of Hispanic-American citizens created by [sic] Public Law 90-498 National Hispanic Heritage Week on September 17, 1968. The law was later amended by Public Law 100-402 expanding the event to National Hispanic Heritage Month on August 17, 1988." More background is found in this article from Hispanic Heritage Plaza, more on the legislative history, including excerpts from the relevant legislation, can be found here and this year's Presidential Proclamation here.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Facts for Features, more than 42.7 million people, or 14% of the U.S. population, are now of Hispanic origin. See also some of their related multimedia releases (not all of which are current) and check out the Pew Hispanic Center for some of the latest "research and surveys on the U.S. Hispanic population."

Schools, classrooms, and libraries across the U.S. will be featuring displays, lessons, activities, and more to celebrate this diversity. In investigating how to do so, along with some of the "expected" kinds of lesson planning, game, and reading links (explored below), there are a few surprises, as well. Check out Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with the National Register of Historic Places, a fascinating list of links that provide virtual tours of places "that deal directly with the ingenuity, creativity, cultural, and political experiences of Hispanic Americans." The Smithsonian Institution, with Ford sponsorship, presents OJOS, Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement, a virtual exhibition. For a local (Florida) flavor, see La Florida: Honoring Our State’s Spanish and Latin American Influences.

Also, the History Channel's site, Hispanic Heritage Month (NOTE: from 2005) announced a student photo contest which will be repeated in some form this year, though the rules are not yet posted. Click here and you can sign up for an e-mail to remind you of the contest (and its up-to-$2000 prizes).

Libraries will find the following to be especially useful:
Lesson planning assistance can be found here:
Activities for kids and families can be found here:
¡Que disfruten de estos enlaces! Enjoy these links!

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; REFERENCE RICHES

Saturday, September 16, 2006

FLA Filings: More From Annual Conference

It having been a very busy few months, it's been difficult to keep up and catch up with blogging all the interesting goings-on around libraryland. This post was begun real-time and has been worked on several times since...herewith, then, some very, very belated Florida Library Association program notes and links to materials in no particular order from the 2006 Annual Conference.

In the Technology Training Interest Group program, Carol Bean, Ginny Howerton, and Kate Todd presented Seniors in Cyberspace, a well-attended active learning session with plenty of object lessons about what it's like to have to learn with some of the "nasty aging tricks" that our bodies are wont to play as we grow older. The program included some surprising statistics and numerous suggestions about how to present computer concepts effectively to a senior audience. Click to see the accompanying handouts, bibliography, and PowerPoint slides. Some of you may have gotten to hear Carol Bean present a session with a similar theme (I Feel So Stupid - Old Age Meets New Technology) at the Technology Training To Go conference in Orlando (August 10 and 11).

Yours truly had a scheduling conflict and missed what was purported to be a lively and engaging panel presentation cum discussion for the LINCC User Group, the 3rd Annual Ask a Librarian User Forum. According to an e-mail to the Ask a Librarian (AAL) group from Diana Sachs-Silveira, the Virtual Reference Manager for AAL, "The main themes that emerged at the meeting included: the need for easy to use, reliable software; maybe a new simplified interface that would work with cell phones and PDAs; more marketing to librarians, and prospective users (both in and out of the library); expanding hours of service and a possible academic desk." The detailed discussion questions and meeting notes are available in the public part of the Ask a Librarian site here.

Diana Sachs-Silveira also commented upon a related program saying:
At FLA, the Telephone, Email and Chat Reference Services interest group hosted a session Let's Provide a Chat Service that They Want! A Focus on Teens to Twenty-Something's with Joe Thompson, the project Manager of Maryland's AskNow.

The program was very interesting and focused on chat reference and younger users. I thought the Ask a Librarian Community as well as those in the FLA Interest Group would like to view the presentation. It is now online at: http://askusnow.info/presentations/
There's another program that may or may not eventually get its own entry, but for now, in the interest of actually getting this posted before the next annual conference rolls around, this is a wrap!

SUBJECTS: FLA FILINGS; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Friday, September 15, 2006

Tuesday's Tool: Librarians' Internet Index

Tuesday's Tool is very late this week. Does it count that it really was started on Tuesday?? :-(

In keeping with the 9/11 theme from earlier in the week, the intent was to see what compilations were still out there collecting and keeping up with subsequent activities. That led to one of the great starting points for any research question, Librarians' Internet Index (formerly Librarians' Index to the Internet). The site underwent a name change and facelift in July of 2005, but the content is still the same great carefully selected, annotated, and organized Web information.

With a tagline of "Websites You Can Trust", this site is publicly funded and compiled predominantly by librarians in California, and fueled by the weekly newsletter, New This Week, available as an e-mail subscription or as an RSS feed.

This is an extremely useful, human-compiled project and their September 11 and Beyond collection is still one of the best out there on the subject.

As an aside and finishing the theme, a couple of other excellent pages that lead to 9/11 content include 9/11 Events and Aftermath from ResearchBuzz and Society > Issues > Terrorism > Incidents > September 11, 2001 from Google Directory.

SUBJECTS: TUESDAY'S TOOLS

Friday Fun Things: YouTube

This amazing video, entitled A Beautiful Mind was discovered by CFLC's Director on YouTube. Extraordinary look at a savant they call "the human camera."

Additional Note Added Later: Forgot to mention, there are some audio problems with this clip, so turn your sound up to hear it as well as you can.



SUBEJCTS: FRIDAY FUN THING

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Cuteness...and More

Apologies...life's been busy, so the blog hasn't. Might as well start posting again as it ended last, with a Friday Fun Thing, even though it's a Thursday.

In the news today is a story about the birth of a panda at Zoo Atlanta. The zoo's Panda Cam will have videos of mother and baby starting Friday, Sept. 8, at 10 a.m.

What this news brought to mind was a story from the summer of 2005 that was easy to miss about the baby panda explosion in China. One zoo in Sichuan (southwest China) had 16 pandas born in one season. The pictures (each site a little different) of 16 of the fuzzy adorable little critters are simply too cute not to view and can be seen here, others as a slideshow here and here, and if that weren't enough, video from Reuters of the "panda kindergarten" here. There are numerous other sites, but these were the best of the ones sampled and it's mostly the same pictures repeated elsewhere.

If 16 baby pandas all at once don't peg your cute meter, try PandaFix.com for frequent doses of panda goodness, including links to a number of panda cams.

If pandas aren't your thing and you feel you're missing out on the "awwwwwww" factor here, there's a blog that will help you out of your dilemma and straight into Cute Overload. Check it for regular picture postings of (mostly) baby critters of all sorts.

If, on the other hand, you can do without cute but really like amazing (with occasional cute thrown in), check out the astonishing wildlife photos of Tanja Askani, a German wildlife photographer who specializes in wolves; she lives on a wildlife preserve with them and has captured moments on film that you won't believe. If you have the time and/or interest, this Web site has hundreds of her photos of wolves, wolf cubs, deer, rabbits, owls, birds of prey, funny little bright red squirrels that appear to have been in the henna bottle, and more. If you click on the thumbnail of the deer and sunflower (on the left where it says "andere Tiere"), you'll see a small sample of a number of her brilliant and unusual animal shots. (And good luck tearing yourself away!)

By the way, if you browse her photos long, you'll find yourself wishing for a way to translate German to English...you'll find several language translators linked at the CFLC Reference Desk here (under Translation Tools).

All together now, "awwwwwww!"

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Friday, August 18, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Pop Bubble Wrap

Okay, you know who you are, those of you addicted to popping bubble wrap...this is for you! (And it doesn't even hurt the environment or your fingers when you do too much of it, not that I would know anything about that... It does, however, have the same annoyance factor for anyone in your vicinity while you're doing this.)

This site, which perhaps begs the question of how much time on one's hands is too much time, even has a "manic mode" for folks who don't want to slowly savor the popping. There's also an unexpected laugh--be sure to have your speakers turned up when you ask for a fresh sheet! (Not that I would know anything about that, either...)

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Workshop Wealth: Technology Training To Go

A belated thank you to Stephanie Race et al. from NEFLIN for a fabulous TTTG program last Thursday and Friday! A great time was had by all. Thanks also to the State Library and the Gates Foundation for the funding for same.

The keynote speaker at the conference was Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix's Vice President of Innovation, a man who embodies his title. If you are under the impression that you are keeping up with most of the technology or at least most of the the technology terms, Stephen Abram is the man to disabuse you of that notion! One of his scarier statements is that we are approaching a 15- to 20-year stretch of change that will make the last couple of decades seem that we haven't even been marching in place. (What really happened these decades? We learned to click.) Go read his blog over at Stephen's Lighthouse, (it's well worth it!) and prepare yourselves for the deluge.

For some good real-time blogging about the conference, see John Miller's two posts over at PLAN's blog, Postcards from the Cracker Coast.

SUBJECTS: WORKSHOP WEALTH

Monday, August 07, 2006

Technology Tales: Happy Birthday WWW!

Well, a little belated Happy 15th Birthday to the Web. (HOW is that possible?!) Almost made the birthday greetings on time; the "official" birthday was yesterday, August 6th.

Birthday greetings, a quick poll, and a link to WWW history can be found at this About.com tribute.

SUBJECTS: TECHNOLOGY TALES

Friday, August 04, 2006

Friday Fun Thing: Move Over, MySpace!

Move over, MySpace -- here comes a brand new social networking site for the Boomers!

Eons.com
is the brainchild of Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor and the article linked above tells of the plans to focus on finance, wellness, and love for those approaching retirement or those recently retired (defined as "Fifty plus"). Eons.com has a search engine (cRANKy) and will have ads targeting the "three pillars" on which it focuses.

For those CFLC members who have attended the Boomers and Gamers class, or for those who plan to (ironically, there was one today and there's one coming up August 25 at Indian River Community College), the fact that a site like this exists is important to know in serving the Boomer generation. A comparison of the interfaces makes it clear that the developers of both MySpace and Eons are very aware of what kind of "look" appeals to each audience.

Aside from just knowing of its existence, where Eons becomes interesting for libraries is its plan to "syndicate obituaries and allow users to contribute memorial-style content...People no longer stay in their geographic communities and don't have access to local obituaries. Eons.com plans to work directly with funeral homes to inform clients about the site's obituary feed and services."

Two of the popular features on the site (both require logging in) include the Longevity Calculator and the Brain Builders ("a game a day keeps dementia away"). Now, if you'll pardon me, my daily brain-exercising Sudoku calls...if I can remember that long enough to publish this post and open up the right window...but first...

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS

Thursday, August 03, 2006

CFLC Chronicles: CFLC "Globe" Trotting #9

The globe went trotting again...this time with one of the CFLC trainers to visit the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. For more specifics, click on those photos; for Miss Baker, in addition to the link at the photo itself, read the NY Times official obituary for her here.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES