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Sunday, January 20, 2002 |
Molly volunteers at the Waterboro Public Library and she claims that her library isn't shifted, but I disagree. I mean, come on - the name of their blog is the h20boro lib blog! Not only do they have a great sense of humor, but they get it! They're delivering current and timely information more than most library Web sites I see.
And looking at their site inspired me, which I always appreciate. Their blog links to a list of new books they've received, and it occurs to me that this would make an excellent blog in and of itself. A library could archive by month or simply start over each month, but either way the staff could edit the main page to add new entries. Excellent! Thanks, h20boro PL!
Does anyone know of a library already doing this? I am also starting a new category and declaring Molly our first Shifted Library Volunteer!
Note to self: actually implement this for the Homer Library when they go blog.
10:37:28 PM Permanent link here
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As a parent, I am increasingly offended by Chrysler's television ads. First the one about the Concorde in which the child asks the mom how her sister got her name, and now the ad for their minivan that plays on wife swapping. Whoever is running their ad campaign should be fired, and I plan to let them know my opinion. Hey, library censors and filter advocates - Harry Potter should be banned and Internet sites are bad, but these TV ads are okay? Talk about misplaced priorities. I'm glad we got rid of our Chrysler last year.
8:41:23 PM Permanent link here
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From drop.org - community plumbing: "Weblog software: pMachine. I just stumbled upon pMachine, a weblog/content management tool written by Rick Ellis.
'pMachine is blogging/news software with a LOT of extra features, like member registration, mailing list manager, random content displayer, public weblogs, search engine, birthday calendar, hit counter.... and well...'"
Anybody have any experience with this software? I think I finally got Radio upstreaming correctly, but I'm still open to other ideas until my trial period is up.
8:21:03 PM Permanent link here
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Blog the Organization is all about using blogs for businesses. John Robb calls this K-logging (knowledge management blogging), and it's a great concept. I can't remember where I read this (probably one of the post's on John's k-log mailing list), but it goes something like this. Organizations tend to be hierarchical, with executives believing in the "trickle-down" theory of information. Alternatively, they just don't care about sharing information because they think it gives them job security or they think that other people just don't need to know.
But the truth is that in today's world, information is power and if you want to be successful, you have to spread the wealth, which is information. If you're not familiar with this idea or you disagree, please go read The Cluetrain Manifesto.
A lot of people tend to think that libraries are different because we traffic in information for a living, but the truth is that we're not. In fact, sometimes the hierarchy and the egos are even worst than in some corporations. Blogging within an organization, and k-logging in particular, levels the field of knowledge, thereby making the organization more of a pancake than a pyramid. Of course, we have to convince our bosses this is a good thing, but I think this concept has a lot of potential both within a library and within the library field. We need to recognize that our internal information is just as valuable as the information we archive and retrieve for the public.
5:02:36 PM Permanent link here
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My mouth is watering just reading through this Food Timeline! Question, though. The first note of combining peanuts and chocolate is in 1500 BC, but when did the first person divine the wonders of chocolate on its own? Doesn't that merit a step of its own on the evolutionary chain?
Note: although the SL blog won't focus on reference sites the way the old Librarians' Site du Jour did, I'll still post links I find interesting.
1:45:16 PM Permanent link here
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Karl Dubost: Because Radio UserLand doesn't create standards-compliant HTML code he decided not to use it. [via Scobleizer]
Hmmm and aarrgghh. The more I worked with Radio, the more convinced I was that it's not standards-compliant, which means it won't meet Web accessibility guidelines. I just hadn't gotten around to actually validating it yet. This puts a serious wrinkle in being able to recommend this software, although I suppose if I send my posts to a standard Web site that I build so I know it is compliant it should be okay. I'd still be able to take advantage of the news aggregator, but I'd lose some of the nifty macro features. However, accessibility and standards are important, so this is a dilemna.
12:01:34 PM Permanent link here
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Life observation: six-year olds actually believe what the Magic 8-ball says. Maybe I should subscribe to this theory in my own life.
11:46:07 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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