Obama on Countrywide Financial

Only Twhirl annoyance solved

I use Twhirl as my Twitter client. I love it. The only problem I found was it's insistence that links be opened in IE instead of my default Firefox browser. Well, turns out it's not a Twhirl problem it's an obscure Vista setting. (Non-Vista users have not had this problem.) So, if this is happening to you here's the solution with screenshots. (Originally from twhirl's blog.)

First close Twirl if its running and open up the control panel, switch to classic mode if you haven't already and select "Default Programs".

Next, select "Set Program access and computer defaults". (You may need admin access for this.)

Lastly, expand the "Custom" group and under "Choose a default Web browser" select Mozilla Firefox.

Click OK and get yourself back to the desktop. When I started Twhirl my links now opened in Firefox.

We Think

I'm so going to use this the next time I do a Social Web presentation!

Lessig @ UPenn 4 Barack

Of Media Equity & Library Reciprocity

I do believe that this is the first blog post I've ever written on request. However David Rothman and I participated in last night's episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary and during the after show he asked that I funneled some of my "righteous indignation" into a blog post. David is the one who came up with "media equity" and "library reciprocity" which I totally love. So, in exchange for those terms, I write this post. Honestly, I've blogged some of this stuff before (but it's been a few years) and I think it comes across better vocally (listen to the episode, it's story #2 which is about 15 minutes in) than in print but here goes...

Media Equity

Why do so many libraries insist on treating their public-access computers differently from every other type of media in the building. Think about it, anyone can come in off the street, whether they live in your town or not, pay taxes to your library or not, pull any book of the shelf sit down and read it. For audio if they've got a portable player with them they can do the same with CDs and/or tapes. But when it comes to the computers so many libraries require some sort of ID. Maybe a library card, maybe a driver's license.

Why do we have to show ID to get a library card? Well, it's not to track the patron, it's to track the materials that they patron will be removing from the library. If they don't return the item, we want to be able to track it down. Using materials in the library however required no ID, nor should it, ever! But when it comes to those darn computers, we require ID left and right.

Granted, some time management systems require a unique user ID and the library card is a convenient, pre-existing ID that we can reuse. But what about visitors to your town that don't have a local library card? Give them a temp card but don't make proving their ID a requirement for a guest card. What possible purpose could it serve? If you've got a "purpose" for me on this one then my response will be "then why don't you require an ID to use a book in the library?" If a patron isn't removing the resource from the library (wether book, CD, tape, magazine, or computer) what possible legitimate purpose does showing ID serve?

Library Reciprocity

This one is a little harder to explain, especially separately from the media equity issue since that issues typically leads to this one. Anyway... This is the attitude that typically bugs me: "You don't pay taxes here therefore you don't get services." While I understand that in principle, how it's sometimes practiced is what drives me nuts. For example, "if you don't pay taxes here you can't use our computers." But wait, harkening back to media equity, if I don't pay taxes to your library I can still walk in and read a book. Why should I have to pay taxes to your library to check my e-mail on a computer?

Another way to look at it is this: if every single one of your library's tax payers demanded library services tomorrow, your library would collapse. You work off the assumption that not everyone who pays actually receives. Think of me, the outsider, as using the services that one of your tax payers isn't. Ultimately, I'm paying taxes somewhere and maybe one of your locals is currently in my town wanting to use my library's services. Isn't it a wash in the end? (I realize that this is a harder point to agree with from certain points of view.)

I'm not advocating that anyone should be able to check out books from any library anywhere. There's still the traceability of the item to contend with and loaning a book to someone from another state who's just visiting could significantly increase the chance that the book isn't returned. Remember, I'm talking about in-library use.

Lastly, what about tourist meccas that have "so many tourists" that to provide services to all the tourists would "prevent us from providing services to our public"? I've got some trouble with this too. By having this attitude you end up offending the tourists who just want to check their e-mail. Yeah, offend the tourists. Do that enough and they'll stop coming. They stop coming and you loose what they contribute to your local economy, the budget suffers, and the local's taxes go up. (A stretch but I'm trying to make a point here.)

Remember, it's about service. Not service to "your" patrons but to patrons. Firemen and police don't ask for proof of residency and tax payment before offering basic service. Why should libraries?

Thanks for listening. Now all you Uncontrolled Vocabulary people who promised to comment, it's your turn.

Of 2.0 and staff workloads

When I was on the University of Nebraska, Lincoln east campus last week there was one thing I heard that I'd not mentioned in my previous blog post about the day; "re-staffing". Please allow me explain.

Often, especially during my Library 2.0 or Social Web presentations (both of which I was giving that day) I inevitably get the question "but how can I do my job and do all this new stuff too?" It's a legitimate question yet I dread it all the same. You see, it's my job to do all this new stuff. I don't have to pull a reference desk shift or meet with students. I do have to travel, teach, and present, but all the "new fun 2.0 stuff" I do is in complete support of said travel, teaching, and presenting. So, how have I answered the question?

In the past, and on that day, I mumbled my excuse about how my time is spent and then proceeded to mumble a bit more about "working it into your existing workflow" and "letting the decision of which 2.0 things to use/do be an 'organic' process". Both are legitimate answers but aren't very satisfying ones to either me or the audience.

But over lunch, after my social web presentation, one of the campus librarians said to another, "maybe we need to consider some re-staffing" in order to be able to do some of this stuff." At the time I don't recall reacting to the comment that much but it stuck with me enough to blog about it a week later.

Maybe at an institutional level adding the new social tools onto an already overloaded workflow isn't the answer. Granted, I firmly believe that some of the new tools can be integrated successfully and streamline the existing workflow, but what about larger tools like blogging. Instead of expecting staff to blog for the library in addition to their existing workload, how about redistributing the workload so the staff that will be blogging on behalf of the library have a little less of what they did before and now have the time to blog?

I'm not saying this would be easy, nor could I possibly claim to have a "plan" for something like that that you could implement in your library. (How could I, each library's solution would be completely different from every other.) However, maybe we should not look at this as an addition problem, but more of a rearrangement problem.

Your thoughts?

Of houses, taxes and congress

Yesterday I paid my taxes. Paid as in, I owed the feds $3050. This was the first year I've ever owed money. It's my fault, yet I'm not unhappy as it could have been much worse, $51,000 worse. Here's the story including a little bit on my confusion and my thanks to congress and the president. (There's a first!)

There were several significant financial events that occurred in my life in 2007. The first was my acceptance of a new job that involved a 20% reduction in my salary. The second, my decision to pretty much emptied my TIAA-CREF account in order to eliminate 3/4ths of my credit card debt. (Yes, it was high. No, I've not added to it at all in the past two years.) The third was the dumping of my Aurora, CO house in the form of a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" deal with my mortgage lender. It's the disposition of that loan where my confusion sets in.

As a result of giving up the house I was "forgiven" approximately $167,000 of debt. As the law stands, forgiven debt is considered taxable income. It was explained to me this way: If someone loans me a million dollars and two weeks later the loaner decides that I only have to pay half of it it back, I'm left with $500,000 of income which is therefore taxable. This, I understand. I've just made a half a million dollars.

In my case I gave the house back to the bank, they stopped my payments. Please show me what money I've made. I've nothing to show for it. Why should I have to pay taxes on money I don't have? The taxes on $167,000? $51,000! Nice. I couldn't pay my mortgage, how in Hell am I going to pay the taxes on the mortgage I no longer have? (BTW: I bought the house in 1998 for $106,000 and the bank recently resold it for $92,000. Lovely housing market we have here.)

Well, congress (and the president I guess since he would have had to sign the legislation) to the rescue with the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Basically, if you lost a house to foreclosure (mine counts) in 2007 and the forgiven debt was less than $2,000,000 (mine counts again) then you are officially forgiven the owed taxes. YIPPIE! I can't tell you how good it felt to watch that red $54,000 in Turbo Tax shrink to $3050 once I figured out the right box to check in the forms.

At the state level, Colorado is giving me back $49 and Nebraska is giving me back a more than $1800. So, in the end I'm only out about $1200. Considering how bad it could have been, I can't really complain.

Of houses, taxes and congress

Yesterday I paid my taxes. Paid as in, I owed the feds $3050. This was the first year I've ever owed money. It's my fault, yet I'm not unhappy as it could have been much worse, $51,000 worse. Here's the story including a little bit on my confusion and my thanks to congress and the president. (There's a first!)

There were several significant financial events that occurred in my life in 2007. The first was my acceptance of a new job that involved a 20% reduction in my salary. The second, my decision to pretty much emptied my TIAA-CREF account in order to eliminate 3/4ths of my credit card debt. (Yes, it was high. No, I've not added to it at all in the past two years.) The third was the dumping of my Aurora, CO house in the form of a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" deal with my mortgage lender. It's the disposition of that loan where my confusion sets in.

As a result of giving up the house I was "forgiven" approximately $167,000 of debt. As the law stands, forgiven debt is considered taxable income. It was explained to me this way: If someone loans me a million dollars and two weeks later the loaner decides that I only have to pay half of it it back, I'm left with $500,000 of income which is therefore taxable. This, I understand. I've just made a half a million dollars.

In my case I gave the house back to the bank, they stopped my payments. Please show me what money I've made. I've nothing to show for it. Why should I have to pay taxes on money I don't have? The taxes on $167,000? $51,000! Nice. I couldn't pay my mortgage, how in Hell am I going to pay the taxes on the mortgage I no longer have? (BTW: I bought the house in 1998 for $106,000 and the bank recently resold it for $92,000. Lovely housing market we have here.)

Well, congress (and the president I guess since he would have had to sign the legislation) to the rescue with the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Basically, if you lost a house to foreclosure (mine counts) in 2007 and the forgiven debt was less than $2,000,000 (mine counts again) then you are officially forgiven the owed taxes. YIPPIE! I can't tell you how good it felt to watch that red $54,000 in Turbo Tax shrink to $3050 once I figured out the right box to check in the forms.

At the state level, Colorado is giving me back $49 and Nebraska is giving me back a more than $1800. So, in the end I'm only out about $1200. Considering how bad it could have been, I can't really complain.

Library Camp Kansas 2008 video

David Lee King has supplied us with a short video of his experience at Library Campo Kansas 2008. (I even make an appearance or two.) Check it out.

Quite possibly the coolest, minimalist pop-up book ever

Order it from Amazon.com and earn this blogger a few cents.

Doctor Who series 4 starts on 4/4!

I've got mixed feelings about the return of a certain character but
I'm willing to wait and see.

Pingie

I'm testing pingie. If it works, I'll be receiving an SMS message about this post shortly.

Top 10 Reasons to Watch Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica

Academically speaking

Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving two talks at the University of Nebraska Council of Libraries Spring Staff Development Meeting, Let's Get Social and Library 2.0. (The linked Library 2.0 presentation is a slightly older version than the one I gave yesterday but the differences are minor.) My presentations and points were, judging by the lunchtime and end-of-day comments, well received and it sounds like I've given the University of Nebraska librarians a lot to think about and discuss amongst themselves.

One interesting suggestion I heard about over lunch was that they hire a "librarian at large" who would not be tied to working in the library but would make themselves available all over the campus in a roaming manner; today in the student union, tomorrow in a dorm lobby, the next day in a popular eating establishment near campus with free WiFi, etc. I'd say this is a wonderful idea and even know someone locally who I think would be perfect for the position. If you follow through on this idea please let me know.

At one point during my Library 2.0 presentation one librarian who stated that he was a fan of Andrew Keene and was a self-described "elitist" do make the argument that in some cases we're dumbing things down to meet the needs of newer students. (Please keep in mind that I'm paraphrasing here but I believe I've got the gist of his statements right.) I don't want to continue the debate here but I do have two short follow-ups. One, I am rarely in support of bringing things to the lowest common denominator and you can ask several of my co-workers for confirmation of this. However, I don't believe that offering such things as IM-based reference (the topic I was addressing when the issue was raised) would be considered dumbing things down, merely opening an additional access point for a different type of library user. My second follow-up is to point those interested to this blog post in which I respond to the writing of Mr. Keene in some detail. (Also, I just found a blog post by Librarian In Black Sarah Houghton-Jan regarding her attending a recent symposium which included Mr. Keen.)

I'd also like to point out that I attended the other two talks of the day one on Mary Bolin's project with Open-Access Online Peer Reviewed Journal "Library Philosophy and Practice", and Paul Royster's Digital Commons project which is the university's institutional repository. I'd previously not known much about either of these topics but from what I can tell both of these projects should be considered as models for other institutions interested in pursuing either of these types of projects.

Unconferences Rock!

Two days ago I spent an amazing day in Manhattan, KS with about 99 of the most amazing professional colleagues at the Library Camp Kansas unconference. What's an unconference you ask, it's the best parts of the conference and nothing but. There are no presentations, there are no people spending a half-hour just talking about what they do at their library, just conversation, conversation, and more conversation. Topics were suggested by the attendees in advance but the first business of the day was to decide, on the spot, what we wanted to talk about. There were three sessions, morning, lunch, and afternoon and in each case there were 5-7 topics to pick from. As a topic suggester, I got to be the leader of the morning talk about "cheap and inexpensive tools" (unofficially known as "cheap & inexpensive with Michael") and the lunchtime discussion of Creative Commons. In the afternoon I participated in the discussion of "2.0" issues. For those that didn't attend, most of the notes from the sessions have been posted on the unconference's wiki I've already linked to. Photos from the event can be found in flickr of course. If you're looking for other blog posts and media from attendees search your favorite places for the tag "libcampks2008".

There is no real way to express how fun this was and how re-energizing the whole experience was for me. For my readers in Nebraska, keep an eye on the NLC blog as there's already a small group working on bringing such and unconference to the state in the Fall. Once it's announced sign up fast as space will be limited.

Clinton pwned by girl in 3AM ad

South Dakota follow-up

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone that I met (and met again) in South Dakota last week. Despite my health issues at the end of the week I had a great time and every single person made me feel welcome at all times.

As for the current state of my health, the drive home was a very long yet uneventful four hours and I ended up sleeping more than 30 hours of the 48 hour weekend and I'm feeling much better now. There's still a little congestion that won't go away but nothing that'll stop me from attending the Library Camp Kansas unconference tomorrow. Be sure to check out what Kansas is doing and don't let SDLA and your state library forget that they both indicated that it sounded like a good idea for SD too. (Just don't forget to invite me back ;-)

As an example of a suggestion I made during my presentations, watch the Nebraska Library Commission's flickr account for photos of the painting that's being done this week. Many of us are currently in the process of emptying our office of, in some cases, decades of "stuff" so of course, photos must be taken and shared.

I did say that I took a photo of some of the signs at Bookings Public Library and that I'd loved the "Conversations in this area..." sign. Well, it looks like at least one other flickr user loves it to as stated in the photo's comments in flickr. Keep up the great work Brookings!

Lastly, with all those photos of your libraries I took, and others may be taking without you knowing it, you should take a moment and read the article The Transparent Library: Cheers and Jeers by Michael Casey and Michael Stephens. There's many items to think and talk about but there are two that specifically talk about flickr and library signage. You'll know which ones I mean when you see them.

Again, thanks to everyone in South Dakota. I look forward to visiting again in the future.

It's Illegal To Say...

Someone please do this

Here's an idea that I'd love for some forward-thinking library to take advantage of for this one's totally outside of MPOW's collection development policy: Download the CC-licensed Nine Inch Nails album, burn a copy to CD then catalog and circ said CD. Don't forget to get it cataloged into OCLC too!

RCPL: On the right track

I've spent half my day so far presenting to and talking with the staff of the Rapid City Public Library and it's been a blast so far. What can I say, the library seems to be doing everything right as far as I'm concerned. They're making changes but not just for change's sake. Every time someone described a recent change to me it was followed by telling me (directly or indirectly) why the change was made and what went into the decision process. During one of the lunchtime discussions I mentioned that I felt that the staff gave off the impression that they were involved in the decisions being made and felt that their opinions were heard by the powers that be. Turns out that the library just completed an anonymous staff survey in which the staff reported that they indeed felt included in the decision making process. If someone from the outside can figure that out in just a few hours, that just shows how well the staff are exhibiting their happiness to their users, and how much management takes the staff into account. Bravo RCPL!

Oh, and did mention RCPL was recently declared one of the 10 great places to find a nook and read a book by USA Today? Another round of applause please for the staff of RCPL!

Hello from Rapid City, SD

Art Alley (38)
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

Just a quick blog post to say that I made it to Rapid City, SD this afternoon after a nine hour drive. I've been put up at the Hotel Alex Johnson and it's the oldest hotel I've ever been in. (They gave be this oddly shaped piece of metal which allowed me into my room.). Behind the hotel is "Art Alley" which was fun to walk through. An example of the art is attached to this post. Tomorrow I'll be speaking to, and with, the staff of the Rapid City Public Library. Photos of all the mentioned items and everything else from the trip so far can be found in the trip's photoset. (Which BTW, includes my .)

Better YouTube Firefox Extension

Watch YouTube videos more efficiently with Better YouTube, a brand new Firefox extension that compiles our favorite YouTube Greasemonkey scripts into a single convenient package. Better YouTube smartly enlarges videos for better viewing, hides user comments, declutters the page and disables autoplay (great for vids open in a background tab.) Following in the footsteps of Better Gmail and friends, customize your online video-viewing with Better YouTube.

 Exclusive Lifehacker Download: Better YouTube Firefox Extension

Twitter in Plain English

The folks at Common Craft have done it again.

Via Librarians Matter

Well, would you?

Seriously, are you committed to public service enough to demonstrate this for a patron? (Photo: misswired)

Google Calendar Sync totally rocks!

I've got four computers I use regularly, two laptops and two desktops (one each at the office and at home). The desktops don't generally move but one or both laptops go with me on the road depending on the situation. Additionally my Cloudbook will be arriving soon (today hopefully). So, I might be sitting in front of any one of these computers and need to know what my calendar is. The four main machines all run Outlook while the Cloudbook won't. I've got a Google Calendar account but in the past you've not been able to (easily or completely) sync content between Outlook and Google calendars.

I had a partial solution in my Motorola Q smartphone but the Windows software would only let me sync with up to two computers (my office desktop and my home laptop) but that left out the other computers. I also have Web access to our Exchange server via Outlook Web access but to be honest, Outlook just isn't the same as a Web application. (And I'm doubting that it'll work well on the Cloudbook since it doesn't work all that well in Firefox on a Windows machine to begin with.)

So yesterday, I was VERY excited to hear that the folks over at Google had released their first version of Google Calendar Sync. This program is both simple and elegant. Download it from Google, and run the quick install. You'll then get this screen:

Enter your Google Calendar login information, then choose if you want to sync in both directions, just Google to Outlook, or just Outlook to Google. Lastly, set how often you'd like the content to re-sync and click Save.

The program will minimize to your system tray and sync your data. How much more simpler could it be?

I now have four copies of Outlook all with the same calendar along with my phone. Now, no matter which computer I have with me, I can enter a new appointment and shortly all of my other computers will have that same information.

Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice

Here's another article, this time from the UK, which shows that if people had an easy-to-use legal alternative, they'd happily pay for most content.

On top of the availability issue, 68% of the respondents who have downloaded copyrighted content indicate that the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.

Study: Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice | TorrentFreak

IE8 to be standards compliant by default. w00t!

According to IEBlog:

We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously.

The rest of the post explains whys (duh!) and hows.

Thing #9: Searching for feeds

I'm trying to play along, honest, but really, do I need to go looking for feeds to add to my aggregator? That answer is simply no. Not because I feel that I have too many feeds, or even enough feeds, but instead it's because feeds find me not the other way around. Here's an example:

I was just catching up on some of my Library-related blog feeds when I saw a link to a new blog named Photography Friendly. Here's the first post:

Welcome to Photography Friendly

I have heard stories of photographers who have gone to a location, such as a park, to do personal photography. They would end up being told by an employee at that location that photography is not allowed or requires an application and a fee to take photos, even if they are just personal photos. I have also heard that some locations will consider you a professional photographer if you are using a tripod!

Finding information on photography restrictions for various locations can be difficult, if not impossible. I am hoping that this site will become a location for photographers, whether they just take photos for special occasions, as a hobby, or professionally, to look up information on how photography friendly a location is - no restrictions, some restrictions, application and fee required, or no photography allowed at all!

Your participation will help make this site successful. It can just be sharing your experience at a site. Better yet, link to an official policy or extract the text from an email from that location that gives their policy. To do so, leave a comment. All comments go through moderation. Site your source and how you would like to be credited. The more detailed the information, the better.

Well, that sounds interesting so a few clicks later I'm that blog's first subscriber in Bloglines. I don't know how long I'll keep it but I'm interested in photography-related legal issues so I'm giving it a shot. If it becomes not worth my time I can always unsubscribe.

Another Publishers Ditches DRM on Audio Books

According to the  New York Times Penguin Group is the next published (after Random House) to announce the end of DRM on their audio books. "HarperCollins said the publisher was watching these developments closely but was not yet ready to end D.R.M." I'm not holding my breath on HC because of their recent "protected" releases of free e-books.

What if Saul Bass had designed the credits for Star Wars?

Thing #8: RSS, part 1

This week's Things deal with RSS and Thing #8 has us signing up with Bloglines and subscribing to some feeds. Well, no problem for me there as I've already got an account which contains about 500 feeds. So, yep, I'm stuck for something to specifically blog about. Well, the thing's built in questions have come to the rescue!

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

Simple, the fact that they make keeping up simple. If I had to actually bookmark all of these resources and check daily for what's new, at best I'd go insane. With RSS, all I need to do is subscribe and all the information comes to me as soon as it can

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?

My problem is that I use this all the time in both my work AND personal life so much so that sometimes it's hard to differentiate between the two. If I read a feed about cool technology, is that for work or is that personal? The answer is "yes".

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Libraries can use RSS in two ways. First librarians can use it to keep up with news and the opinions of other librarians. The libraries themselves can use it as a great way to distribute information to their users.

More interesting Copyright Statements

In preparation for my upcoming Creative Commons presentation I've found myself reading copyright statements in books. I posted an amusing one last week. Here's a few more which are amusing, but in these cases, are meant to be serious. Italics are emphasis I've added.

Justin Charles & Co - 2003
“All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other that that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.”

Borderlands Press – 2007
“This book is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and all of the countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the countries covered by the International Copyright Union including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and all of the countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical electronic reproductions such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved.” [All that in just two sentences.]

February 2008 – Cemetery Dance
“All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, or his agent, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio or television.”
[According to this quoting in a review on Amazon.com or your blog isn't allowed.]