Finally the gods of the internet heard my plea...A site that doesn't infect my computer with all kinds of ickiness in exchange for looking up song lyrics.
Lyrics Fly
Written by Julie Britten, a Technology Specialist for the John C. Murphy Memorial Library in Grayslake, Illinois. Julie lives in a lovely little apartment in the Chicago suburbs with her two kitties, loves her Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Gummy Bears, and Trillian. Technology and geeks rock her world.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Reader's Advisory
WhatShouldIReadNext.com, the Internet's answer to reader's advisory...
http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/
Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers'favourite books (over 15,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next. It's a bit like browsing the bookshelves of a (very) well read friend!
http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/
Friday, December 16, 2005
Getting them in the door
Why not sign up for an account on Upcoming.org and publish your library event calendar?
Upcoming.org is a collaborative online calendar, completely driven by its users. You can enter events, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.
And guess what? It's free!
Now that's cool.
Upcoming.org is a collaborative online calendar, completely driven by its users. You can enter events, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.
As Upcoming.org learns more about the events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never would have heard about.
And guess what? It's free!
Now that's cool.
Librivox
LibriVox provides totally free audiobooks availble in the public domain.
Check it out http://www.librivox.org/
LibriVox was inspired by Project Gutenberg.
Check it out http://www.librivox.org/
LibriVox was inspired by Project Gutenberg.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Thoughts on Folksonomy
Daniel H. Pink recently wrote a New York Times article on Folksonomy that has many a librarian/cataloger panties in a bind. Instead of seeing it for what it is, a useful way to organize collections of data for personal and public use, they see it as a breakdown of the system they hold so dear.
The most important part of that article is the following:
I say, power to the people.
Its easier than ever for people to share and organize information. I don't think I'm alone in the belief that the way libraries organize their stuff is confusing (Library of Congress classification in particular). I still have no clue why computer books are sprinkled throughout the stacks for no 'apparent' rhyme or reason. I'm not saying there isn't one, I'm sure there are a million rules about what goes where. I'm saying its not clear to a non-librarian/cataloger. I get that its not meant for browsing, but browsing is what most people want to do. Online and off. How many instances have we had recently where the cataloging rules posed an issue? That should tell you something. Libraries, the places that are built on the organization of information, are difficult for the average person to use.
Why not let the people that use the place advise you about the best way to organize it so that they can find what the need? People want easy and convenient. Now, for the first time, they are beginning to have a choice. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be any rules at all. I think you can have the best of both worlds if you just let people organize to suit their needs on the surface and figure out how to keep your rules alive and well behind the scenes.
That's just my two cents.
P.S. Library Thing
The most important part of that article is the following:
"People aren't really categorizing information," Vander Wal says. "They're throwing words out there for their own use." But the cumulative force of all the individual tags can produce a bottom-up, self-organized system for classifying mountains of digital material.
I say, power to the people.
Its easier than ever for people to share and organize information. I don't think I'm alone in the belief that the way libraries organize their stuff is confusing (Library of Congress classification in particular). I still have no clue why computer books are sprinkled throughout the stacks for no 'apparent' rhyme or reason. I'm not saying there isn't one, I'm sure there are a million rules about what goes where. I'm saying its not clear to a non-librarian/cataloger. I get that its not meant for browsing, but browsing is what most people want to do. Online and off. How many instances have we had recently where the cataloging rules posed an issue? That should tell you something. Libraries, the places that are built on the organization of information, are difficult for the average person to use.
Why not let the people that use the place advise you about the best way to organize it so that they can find what the need? People want easy and convenient. Now, for the first time, they are beginning to have a choice. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be any rules at all. I think you can have the best of both worlds if you just let people organize to suit their needs on the surface and figure out how to keep your rules alive and well behind the scenes.
That's just my two cents.
P.S. Library Thing
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
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