Wii Play Family

Wii Play Family
Originally uploaded by Calvert Library

The Calvert Library has recently held some family gaming nights with a Wii. From the flickr photoset it looks like everyone had a great time.

(On a related note, if your library has a flickr account be sure to fill in your profile and include things like where you're located and a link back to the library's Web site. I would have loved to link back to the library's site in this post but I didn't want to guess as to which one Google listed was the right one.)

I'm having way too much fun with those pictures Cindi took of me.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

CIL2008

The invitations have been sent and it looks as if I'll be presenting two sessions at Computers in Libraries 2008. They are:

Track C, Tuesday, April 8: Social Software:  2.0 Tools, Tricks & Tales
11:30-12:15
C202  Libraries a-Twitter & del.icio.us
Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian, Nebraska Library Commission & Christa Burns, OCLC Member Services Coordinator, NEBASE
Aysegul Kapucu, Reference/Instructor Librarian, Athena Hoeppner, Electronic Resources Librarian, &  Doug Dunlop, Cataloger/Metadata Specialist, University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries
In early 2007 librarians discovered the latest in micro-blogging: Twitter. The point of twitter is to answer the question "What are you doing now?" in 140 characters or less via the Web, client software, IM or SMS. The first presentation shares the ups and downs of Twitter along results of several librarian- and library-based Twitter experiments.  The second presentation discusses the use of social bookmarking for library instruction, research consultations, and collaborative resource guides using del.icio.us. They share experiences, address technical issues, barriers to participation, training requirements, and satisfaction.

Track B, Tuesday, April 8 : Content Management
1:30-2:15
B203  Creative Commons (CC): Copyright Alternative?
Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian, Nebraska Library Commission
With the debate over copyright raging, with some calling for the end of the "all rights reserved" regime, and [for] libraries feeling like they're caught in the middle, just what are the alternatives?  CC is the most respected alternative available today with its idea of "some rights reserved" as set by the content creators themselves. Sauers talks about the principles of Creative Commons, shows how you can easily apply it to your intellectual property today, and how you can use CC to find material that you can legally reuse in the creation of new content.

No word yet on a delivering my RSS pre-conference. I'm still waiting to hear back on that one.

Animal vs Buddy Rich

Doctorow on Facebook

Cory Doctorow's latest Information Week column is on Facebook specifically and social networking sites in general. Here's just a taste:

'Facebook has all the social graces of a nose-picking, hyperactive six-year-old, standing at the threshold of your attention and chanting, "I know something, I know something, I know something, won't tell you what it is!"'

Looking for new signs for your library

Someone recently said to me that they wished that in their library they could just put up a sign that said "Go ahead and use your cell phone, just don't be an asshat." Well, these signs from ..@the library.. aren't exactly that but they're close.

24 in 1994

What if CTU agents had to rely on early 90s technology? Find out in this hilarious "unaired pilot".

Forbidden Photography

Sometimes you just need to take a photo where you're not supposed. You pretend not to see the "no photography" sign, look around for guards, slip your cell phone or small camera out of your pocket, make sure the flash is off, and quickly snap the shot. (If only I had that photo I took of Paddington Bear at Paddington station as no photography is allowed in the London Undereground and all the film from the trip was lost.) Well, now there's a site dedicated to such photos. Strictly No Photography is a site that lets you upload, browse and search for just those types of photos. I've uploaded a few to my account and will probably be adding more in the future.

Tear down this bridge

O Street Bridge Replacement 11.18.2007 (20)
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

Those of us that live west of downtown Lincoln, NE have a habit of using the Harris Overpass to get to our homes, literally, the other side of the tracks. Well, about three weeks ago, the road was closed and the several-blocks-long bridge is being completely torn down and replaced. The project is scheduled to take a full year.

Yesterday, I went out and walked around and got some photos of the progress so far. My plan is to go out every few weekends and take some updated photos. You can watch my flickr set of the project if you're interested in following along.

USB outlets in the back?

Many times when I talk about USB technologies, specifically flash drives, I'm asked about "our older computers which only have USB outlets in the back". Short of upgrading or installing an internal hub in an empty bay, the simplest solution is to run a USB extension cable from the back of the computer up to the desk. But then how to secure them. Well, at the lab I was in at the North Platte Community College they've come up with a solution: attach the user's end of the cable to the monitor. You can see how they've done it in the two photos below.  (The cable ties are easy to find. If anyone can supply a link to somewhere that sells the part stuck to the monitor I'd appreciate it.)

Welcome to North Platte

Welcome to North Platte
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

Hello from my Social Web class in North Platte, NE.

Overhead bins

2600 Inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame

When people play today, chances are very good they’re playing a video game. No company did more to make that true than Atari.

Thanks dad

Identity revealed

"Sit down, grab a controller and stare at the screen 'till it hurts"

It's time for some video games!

Thanks Christa

Coffee Shop in the (High School) Library

I've got to say I love this idea!

"Marketing students work as baristas in the Centennial cafe, which brings in about $200 a day. After expenses, the cafe should make about $10,000 during the school year, and that will be turned into scholarships for the 10 to 15 student employees."

Marketing, employment, scholarships, and all in the school library. Now, if they'll just stop tossing out the students for playing D&D (oh, wait, that's my bitter memory...)

Thanks Alanna

Google as source

Unshelved has a great strip regarding using Google as a "source". Consider this a follow-up to my Google is not the Enemy post.

Guitar Hero God

Someday, maybe, but I'm not holding my breath.

Unintended Consequences of The Social Web

At the Nebraska Library Commission we have a flickr account to which we post photos of NE libraries, and NLC-related events. As we don't post daily, or even weekly some times, we're generally happy to find out that someone has added one of our photos to their favorites.

This morning one of our staff noticed that one of our library photos was added as a favorite by another flickr user. She clicked on the link for that user's photos and was presented with the "this account is not within your safe search settings, do you still wish to see the photos" page and she clicked ok. The photos were, as you may guess, rather pornographic. So, technically, there is a link on one of our pages in flickr to a page that would be considered rather inappropriate to many possibly even offensive.

In flickr one user can block another. By doing so, they can still see your photos but they are not allowed to add any of your photos as favorites thereby removing the link. We have since blocked this user but doing this raised some distinct and important issues in my mind. I asked that we discuss this and here's the two original responses I received from coworkers: (quoted with permission)

There is also the issue of people who don't understand the internet and don't understand that things like this can happen purely by accident, and that we (the NLC) did not have any control over this.  Some of these same people will simply see a state agency linking to a full-on porn site, and nothing else.  I'd hate to be the person who has to take that call.  Or who has to justify the expense to the auditors (NLC has paid for a pro account).

We all know that when people use the internet and tools like flickr, there is no guarantee that they won’t stumble on sites/pictures that are offensive.  But why would we leave a link in our NLC account that would directly lead viewers to something that most would probably agree to be inappropriate for a public forum?  If we want libraries to use Flickr and they see something like this and think it might happen to them and think there is no recourse, I am afraid they will be scared off. 
Social networking sites provide users with tools like privacy settings, blocking capabilities, etc.  so that they can use the services in a way that’s comfortable for them.  What’s wrong with using them?  If we don’t think that’s appropriate, why should we leave this link when there is something we can do about it.

Here is a list of my initial concerns and some additional questions that we're raised when we talked about it verbally:

• Since we're a government agency could this be considered censorship?
  
• If we block this one user, what's to stop up from blocking others and who gets to decide who's blocked and who isn't?
  
• Does allowing this link give any sort of validation to the content of the other user's account even if the system created the link and not us?
  
• Would a link to said content in a blog comment post be any different?
  
• In a Social Web world, do we need to allow for links that we wouldn't create ourselves? Should there be more latitude?
  
• Should these sorts of links be removed out of fear of those that control the money might react badly or should we take a chance and use it as a teaching opportunity?
  
• Does the appearance of the click-through warning page remove us from any perceived liability? Is the warning page irrelevant? What if the user following the link has turned off safe search in their account (as one co-worker had)? Does that change the situation?

Debate on my blog has been lively of late and I'd love to keep it going. So, library-land and other readers, what do you think? How would you handle this situation? Should we have handled it differently and not blocked the user. Please, let us know.

Your OS is no longer valid

One of the things I learned at IL2007 (I'll get to that post eventually) was that "all OSes suck" and yesterday morning this was only reinforced. Here's what I saw on my laptop's screen when I woke up Sunday morning and went to watch the latest episode of Bionic Woman:

How's that for a scary error message. Basically, something happened overnight that caused my Vista installation to believe it was no longer a valid installation. So, I went to learn more...

Microsoft's first suggestion was to run the online Genuine something-or-other tool that validates your OS installation. Yep, it failed. I "officially" have an "invalid" (read "illegal") version of Vista on my laptop.

Then they presented me with a list of incompatible software that I should uninstall. I didn't have any of those programs on my laptop so scratch that.

Next it suggested I run CHKDSK to see if there's any problems with the hard drive. (The theory being that if the right OS files get corrupted Vista could invalidate.) Run CHKDSK, no errors. Next.

I found lots of others who have reported this problem but most of those were people who had been playing with beta versions last year. I did however find a link to a Microsoft page in which I could report my error and get a response within 24 hours. I filled out their form, downloaded the diagnostic tool, ran that to collect the relevant data, and sent my report off to Microsoft. (I'm still waiting BTW.)

Not willing to give up I kept searching and found another Microsoft page that suggested it might be my anti virus program and I should uninstall that. (I've been using Avast! on the laptop since I upgraded and I've not liked it, too slow, so that sounded like a good plan regardless.) The trouble was, when you're running an "invalid" copy of Vista it locks you out of certain OS features, most importantly in this instance, the control panel. So, how to uninstall a program without the control panel. (No, there wasn't a standalone uninstaller to be found.)

Ah ha! I remembered MSCONFIG. Launch that and instruct Avast! not to load at startup. Apply the changes, reboot, and my OS is valid again! I quickly uninstalled Avast! and downloaded/installed the latest (now Vista compatible) version of AVG. System running smoothly again.

Granted, it was Vista that was yelling at me and it's Microsoft's "fault" that their DRM is touchy but right now I'm placing the blame at the feet of the makers of Avast! I suspect that it updated itself overnight as it should but that something in the update was incompatible with Vista enough to cause it to invalidate. Well, I won't be recommending that product in class any more.

Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site

And here's the final bit, the slides for my RSS preconference @ Internet Librarian 2007.

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LBI @ IL2007

In case you missed "the Dutch boys'" presentation, here is my 10 edited version of the live portions of their presentation.

Second Life, Second Thoughts

Here's my Second Life presentation from Internet Librarian 2007.

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(I'm having a little trouble uploading my other two presentations to SlideShare at this time. I'll get them up as soon as I can.)

Participating in the Creative Commons

Here's the first of my two Cyber Tours from Internet Librarian 2007.

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