The Travelin' Librarian

30 Posts in 30 Days #27: A Day in the Life

Jul 2010

Here’s my post for the Library Day in the Life project.

6:30am Alarm goes off and 6-7 minutes I’m in the shower

6:50am Phone, iPod and lunch packed, I’m in the car and off to work.

7:00am Parked on the street six blocks from the office where the free on-street parking starts. Nice walk to the office. (Which totally sucks in the winter.)

7:15am In the office and turning on at least two of the three computers on my desk. Unpacking various objects from my bag. Logging into e-mail, Google Reader and HootSuite.

7:30am Diving into the e-mail, tweets, and feeds. This can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on what else I need to accomplish in a particular day.

8:00am Checking for any last minute registrations for today’s NCompass Live webinar that I’m hosting. Doesn’t look like anyone registerd after 10:30 last night when a co-worker stopped checking. Also need to go through some last-minute e-mails regarding the afternoon webinar I’ll be hosting for one of our regional library systems. Continue working through blog feeds and bookmarking more items for the morning webinar.

9:00am Starbucks run with co-worker.

9:30am Login to GoToWebinar account and make sure everything’s working. Greet people as they arrive in the session.

10:00am-11:00am Run Webinar which includes a presentation from and interview with Bobbi Newman regarding Transliteracy and The Librarian Day in the Life project.

11:00am Webinar over, check Twitter for #ncomplive hashtag for feedback, bookmark more sites mentioned in the session, start the conversion process of the Webinar recording, catch up with e-mail that came in during the Webinar.

11:30am Lunch in the break room

12:00pm Back to desk, for another e-mail and feed check. Mostly to see if there are any last minute issues regarding the afternoon webinar.

12:15pm Head down to meeting room to login to GoToWebinar again to get the news session started.

12:30pm While waiting for attendees to log in, write this blog post up to this point.

1:00pm Regional System’s Webinar starts. (I’m really just attending this one to run the software (since it’s the commmission’s account) and to deal with any technical issues that may arise.

3:30pm Passed of hosting of the Webinar to a co-worker. Back to desk, e-mail & feeds check. Finished writing this post.

4:00pm Walk back to the car (which also sucks in the heat of the afternoon) and head for home.

Category: 30x30, librarydayinthelife Leave a Comment

You are likely to be eaten by a grue

Jul 2010

By Michael

Category: music, nerdcore, video, youtube Leave a Comment

30 Posts in 30 Days #26: Socially Protected Content

Jul 2010

By Michael

On my way home yesterday afternoon I was listening to episode #176 of the Beyond the Book podcast from the Copyright Clearance Center. The episode featured two speakers on “Interactive Textbooks: Poised for Success?” The episode is only about 30 minutes long and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this that has anything to do with college textbooks.

What prompted this post however is something that presenter Jeff Shelstad of Flat World Knowledge said. His business publishes textbooks which are available in many formats (electronic and print), editable, and CC licensed. The electronic copies are DRM free yet “socially protected". What he means is that every PDF downloaded by a student contains the name of that student on every page. In other words, if that student starts passing it along, you’ll immediately know who did it.

I must say this is an interesting concept. I suppose it would make me think twice before sharing something I’m not supposed to. I’m not sure it would stop me from downloading the material though.

Category: 30x30, copyright, creativecommons Leave a Comment

Darth Vader calls about his iPhone 4

Jul 2010

By Michael

Category: apple, iphone, star wars, video, youtube Leave a Comment

30 Posts in 30 Days #25: The Lost Sales Theory

Jul 2010

By Michael

There are many problems I have with the state of copyright today. One of the central points is the idea that making a copy of something is the exact same thing as theft. I’m not saying there aren’t cases where copying is wrong but I’m not clear that it’s the same as theft. If I steal your bicycle, you no longer have your bicycle. That’s theft. If I make a copy of your bicycle, you still have your bicycle. How is that theft?

Ah, but some say that by making that copy the creator of bicycles has lost a sale, and therefore I have stolen the profit of that sale from him. Well, there’s some logic to that but let’s take that analogy out a few steps. (I’m not going to go into the “but that assumes I would have ever purchased a bicycle” counter argument. I’m taking this elsewhere.)

By this logic the following is also theft:

Borrowing a bicycle from a friend
Borrowing a bicycle from the library
Picking up a bicycle from a trash pile
Buying a used bicycle

In each of these instances the person who originally made the bicycle does not earn any money from my use of their product. Should any of these situations be considered theft?

Now, replace the word bicycle with a digital media of your choice. Is it still theft?

Category: 30x30, copyright, law 4 Comments

30 Posts in 30 Days #24: Books as art

Jul 2010

By Michael

On the off chance you weren’t already aware of this, I’m a book lover. So much so that I do collect limited editions, mostly of horror authors. I have a book bound in tie-dyed denim, one in circus tent cloth, and another bound in lizard skin. My most recent is one of 26 copies of Slither by Edward Lee. Although the binding is very well done, not like the typical hardcover you’d find in a Barnes & Noble, the real uniqueness of this edition if the metal slipcase with a hinged door. Yeah, reading an ePub version of this would be the same experience… Not!

(Click on the image for more photos of this book.)

Category: 30x30, books, horror 3 Comments

30 Posts in 30 Days #23: On Twitter and following

Jul 2010

By Michael

As I write this I have 1501 Twitter followers and 567 people I follow. My account is public and open to anyone who wishes to follow me. Here are some thoughts on my process regarding followers and who I follow:

I only block followers who are obvious spammers.
Just because you’re a business doesn’t mean I’ll automatically thing you’re a spammer. Though I do wonder why a Toyota dealership in Des Moines decided to follow me this week.
If you have no avatar on your account I will not follow you.
If you have no bio on your account I will not follow you.
If you’ve not yet tweeted I will not follow you.
If you’re not a librarian I won’t hold that against you. Conversely, I won’t follow you just because you’re a librarian.

Some of this may seem harsh but I honestly can’t keep up with the 500+ people I follow already so I’ve got to be choosy when adding followers. (Though I am thinking of weeding soon.)

Oh, and one other thing about how I use Twitter. I treat it like a live conversation. If I wasn’t there I didn’t hear what was said. As a result I don’t go back through the Twitterstream and look for what I missed. I figure if it’s important enough someone will mention it to me the next time I’m “in the room”.

Category: 30x30, socialweb, twitter Leave a Comment

Budgeting: A Visual Guide to How Small Cutbacks Lead to Great Savings

Jul 2010

By Michael

Personal Finances from Quicken

Category: data visualization, money Leave a Comment

Shelfcheck on eBooks

Jul 2010

By Michael

By poesygalore | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Category: comic, ebooks, shelfcheck Leave a Comment

30 Posts in 30 Days: You with the large attachment! Put it down slowly and step away!

Jul 2010

By Michael

Ok, new rule: If the file you’re thinking of sending me is larger than 100k, do not put it in an e-mail attachment. Seriously! There are just better options that won’t cram my inbox and slow my Internet connection down to a crawl while it downloads via SMTP.

Here’s what you do instead. Go to Dropbox and sign up for an account. Once you’ve got an account you’ve got a few options. The best one is to install Dropbox onto your computer. This will give you a Dropbox folder into which you can put anything. You’ll find a “Public” sub-folder into which you can put files you want to share. Once your file is there, right-click on it, select the Dropbox item and choose “Copy Public Link”. Paste that link into the e-mail you’re sending me. I’ll be able to download the file at my own convenience and much quicker from your Dropbox account.