A few days late but still worth it

Library Slow Jam

Brian Williams FTW!

Thanks cogscilibrarian

Fruitcake Hacks

The folks over at systm this week have decided to hack that dreaded of all holiday "foodstuffs", the fruitcake.

Quotes, illustrated

I'm sure I'll be using both of these in some upcoming presentations.

Validation

Jacasta Nu: Worst librarian in the Galaxy

Posting those Doctor Who clips the other day reminded me of this...

SlideShare Ribbon for PowerPoint 2007

Anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a SlideShare user. Well, as of this morning, SlideShare just got 100x better as it is now fully integrateable with PowerPoint 2007. Just install the SlideShare Ribbon for PowerPoint (don't forget to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 first as instructed) and then you'll have a new SlideShare ribbon right in PowerPoint.

As you can see from the buttons much of what they do is self-explanatory. Simply put you can upload to, search, and download from SlideShare directly in PowerPoint. Here's a screenshot of what the search/preview/download interface looks like.

What I also found surprisingly impressive is the program's ability to give you detailed statistics about your account with just a click of the Presentation Stats button.

There's more I could say but instead I'll leave you with the intro video that the folks at SlideShare put together.

SlideShare Ribbon Demo from slideshare on Vimeo.

Star Wars: The Old Republic game trailer

This game might just get me to play a MMORPG...

How the Obama campaign logo was designed

We're in the process of rebranding some of the output of the NLC (for launch in the new year) and today we're deciding on the new logo. So, these videos were not only interesting but relevant to what we're going through right now.

Part 1:

Part 2:

My two favorite scenes from the current Doctor Who series

Unfortunately, the sound is off on the second one. I'll have to fix that...

Dear C-SPAN

I'm currently enjoying the audio of Emily Sheketoff's (of the ALA Washington office) recent C-SPAN appearance. I stress audio since the audio is very out of sync with the video. Ok, problems occur and I'm willing to over look it. However, why can't I embed the video in my blog?

NBC Nightly News: Libraries offer free relief from tough times

Thanks dad

Help me get a list of magazines included in Google Book Search?

In response to this Google Blog post, and last night's episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary, I'm on a quest to get a list of magazine titles out of Google. Here's my opening salvo sent to gblog@google.com, the feedback address for the Google blog. Please feel free to help me out by sending your own e-mail to Google.

Speaking for myself and many other librarians we love the fact that you’re now including magazines in Google Book Search. However, it would be very useful for us if there was a list of indexed titles available. Does such a list exist online and if so where? If not, to whom would we direct such a request?

Thanks!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian
Nebraska Library Commission
The Atrium, 1200 N Street, Suite 120
Lincoln, NE 68508-2023
402-471-2045
800-307-2665 (NE only)
Fax: 402-471-2083
msauers@nlc.state.ne.us
http://nlc.state.ne.us/
http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

And their automated response:

Re: [#375207463] Google Magazine search

Thank you for writing to us at the Google Blog. We appreciate hearing from you, but can't guarantee responding to each and every message. However, we do read every note, and will take your suggestions and comments into account as we continue to develop the blog. If you have a specific question you'd like answered, please visit Google.com/support to submit your message. If we'd like to include your comments in a future post, we'll be in touch to ask your permission.

Regards,
The Google Blog team

Thing #15: SlideShare

Here's another service that I've been using for a few years and upload most of the presentation I do.  (Including ones you won't find in the nebraskaccess account since I do speaking engagements outside of my official NLC duties.) To follow-up on the Twitter thing, here's the recent presentation that Christa and I did at Internet Librarian 2008.

What Are You Doing Now?: The Twitterfication of the Web

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: il2008 socialweb)

Movie Theatre PSA

Warning, this is funny but quite violent.

RE: Against the Machine by Lee Siegel

Back in June 2007 I wrote a response/review of Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, a book that wasn't exactly pro-Internet/Web 2.0. However, I'm a firm believer that it helps to make your case if you're familiar with the counter arguments. Though it cam out a few months ago, I finally found the time to get through a similar title, Against the Machine by Lee Siegel.

I can say that this book isn't nearly as outrageous and reactionary as Keen's book was. Most of the arguments Siegel presents are rational and make sense even if you don't agree with him. For most of the book I wasn't finding anything that upset me enough to actually write this post. Then I got to page 143:

A twenty-four-year-old names Ryan Jordan was caught masquerading on Wikipedia as a tenured professor of religion. He used the pseudonym Essjay and aroused suspicion when readers began to wonder why a professor of religion was meticulously revision the encyclopedia's article on pop star Justin Timberlake. By then, Jordan has created or edited hundreds of articles. He has even been made an "administrator" and was part of Wikipedia's trusted inner circle of editors.

Wikipedia calls these instances of untruth "vandalism," as if the encyclopedia were experiencing an onslaught of invaders from beyond its boundaries. But the "vandals" are part of the Wikipedia enterprise, just as Jordan was. They've been invited to participate in its creation just like every other "Wikipedian."

Here's my problem with this, and with every other accounting of the events he's talking about: no one has indicated that anything Essjay contributed was actually wrong. I'm not necessarily defending Essjay's misrepresentations of his qualifications but that's not the point. If what he wrote was correct, what's the problem?

As for what Essjay did write, wrong or not, that's not the definition of wiki vandalism. To be considered vandalism, there needs to be intent. If Essjay was intentionally contributing bad/wrong information, the fine. But what he did wasn't vandalism, this is vandalism.

My other major point of disagreement comes when Me. Siegel talkax about the "open secrets" of the new Web. On page 158 lists "Open Secret Number One":

Bloggers' ability to revise or erase their writing without leaving any trace of the original post is the very antithesis of their claims of freedom and access and choice. The freedom and access and choice are theirs, not their readers'.

This is hardly an open secret because it just plain isn't true. Someone has forgotten about the Google and this thing called the cache. Oh, and there's the Wayback Machine too. Every time someone changes their blog significantly, say deleting a post they later regret, someone always seems to find the original and makes a bigger stink over the fact that the change/deletion was made than of the original content itself. (Anyone recall the story of all of Violet Blue's content being deleted from Boing Boing?)

So anyway, that's my two cents on this title.

Photograph of Jesus

Star Wars as a silent film

The best two minute into to CC I've ever seen

We're in The Consumerist

Mary had a run-in with a Circuit City liquidator over the weekend and I sent the story into The Consumerist. They printed it and added some commentary.

The Doghouse

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious! - video powered by Metacafe

Strict constructionalism is "a strange notion"

Travel photography tips

1. Look for “the big picture”.
2. Capture things that are “out of the ordinary”.
3. Find shapes.
4. Seek the light.
5. Look for contrast.
6. Textures, colors, patterns, and content.
7. Photograph that which captures your soul.

Read the full article and see examples on the digital photography school blog.

Meme: How many books are you reading now?

This one is a little bit of a homework assignment. Look through your office and your home and find all the books that have a bookmark in them indicating you're intending to finish that book one day. (If it's just marking a spot you want to reference, that doesn't count.)

My results: Home = 36, Work = 7

(I've been reorganizing my collection and decided to collect all the books I'm in the middle of onto a single shelf. Turns out I needed more than one.)

Thing #14: Delicious

I've been using Delicious for more than five years now (my first bookmarks were added on 20 August 2003!) and I can't live without it. Granted, I still use the bookmarks toolbar in my browsers for the sites I visit constantly, but I consider my Delicious account my archive. I also use my Delicious account in a somewhat unique way in that I use it to organize the links for all my workshops and presentations.

Pre-Delicious when someone attended one of my workshops they would get a floppy disk (yep, remember those) which always contained at least one file, a Web page with links to all the sites I presented in class. Although this worked, there were problems, the main one being that there was no way for me to keep those links up to date for those that had attended a previous class. (This was also back when sharing wasn't considered as important so part of the idea was to only give the links to those that took the class. I'm totally over that now.)

So, with Delicious I can just give attendees a single URL and tell them to go there and get all the links. For example, the links for my XHTML workshop can be found at http://delicious.com/travelinlibrarian/class-xhtml. This way as I change the class, and change the relevant links, the list is always relevant and up-to-date. And, because most of my bookmarks are public the attendees can explore beyond those bookmarks through to related ones via tags and the rest of my account through to the accounts of other Delicious users.

I also encourage the use of the Delicious tag clouds on library sites. So much so that the new version of the RVLS site (which I designed) has a Delicious tag cloud. The forthcoming redesigned Panhandle site will also include a Delicious tag cloud if everything goes to plan.

I could continue on for a whole book chapter on Delicious... wait, I already have! ;-)

(Bonus points for figuring out the relevance of the image in this post.)

Bloglines to be down for 12 hours tomorrow tonight

According to the Bloglines Blog:

During this last part of the data center migration, we will have a planned downtime from 12/05/08 9PM PST to 12/06/08 9AM PST. We will use this time to copy the last few databases to the new data center and do a final check of all services. At the end of the downtime, you’ll be able to access your Bloglines account with updated blogs and articles which were published during the short downtime period. All will be back to normal.

The full story at http://www.bloglines.com/about/news#172

Searching 2.0 is nearing publication

Today I received sample pages from Neal-Schuman to show me the proposed layout for the book. Color me impressed. Feel free to take a look but keep in mind that these sample pages should not be considered final. Searching 2.0 Chapter 2 Sample

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Web 2.0 Technology searching sauers lib

Personalize this book

I was considering ordering one of these then I saw the price. Ignoring what you think of Star Wars novels in general, what do you think of the idea and the price?

Add a photo, create a dedication, and we'll do the rest.
You'll have your own one-of-a-kind personalized edition!

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon

(Hardcover)
Author: James Luceno

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon is an exciting, action-packed adventure that begins shortly after the events of the New York Times bestselling Legacy of the Force series. A secret is uncovered on the Millennium Falconthat dates back to the years before Han won the ship from Lando Calrissian in a game of Sabaac. In an effort to unravel the mystery, Han, Leia, and their young granddaughter, Allan, follow the clues of the Millennium Falcon's history back to its very construction -- and discover an elaborate plot to overthrow the Emperor. The excitement of Star Wars never ends.

340 pages (size: 6" x 9")
$49.99

See a Demonstration

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Nearest Book meme

"Baris clapped the Supervisor on its large, muscular back."
Doctor Who: The Doctor Trap, Simon Messingham

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

Neil Gaiman on a magical and wonderful thing

Change.gov changes to a CC license

I just want to officially state how happy I am that the content of Change.gov has been officially licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license. I also have a response and a concern.

The response is to those that ask "but aren't creations of the federal government automatically in the public domain?" Well, yes, but the content of Change.gov is coming out of the "office of the president-elect" which isn't officially part of the federal government. Additionally, Obama has given up his Senate seat so he's no longer part of the federal government either. That is, not until January 20th. Then, he gets control of Whitehouse.gov and that's in the public domain.

The concern is about the page on Change.gov that has the license: http://change.gov/about/copyright_policy. The CC license is listed under the heading of "Copyright Notice". Trouble is, CC isn't Copyright. Copyright is a law, Creative Commons is a license. A picky detail I'm sure, but an important one.

R.I.P. Pownce

An e-mail from Pownce:

We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15, 2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new
pro accounts.    

To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export.
Please export your content by December 15, 2008, as the site will not be accessible after this date.

Please visit our new home to find out more:
http://www.sixapart.com/pownce

Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,

The Pownce Crew

The Simpsons take on Apple

Control lights with Twitter

This would be handy for while I'm out of town.

Control Lights with Twitter from Justin Wickett on Vimeo.