BCR's new trainer

I've heard that BCR has hired Michelle Drumm as their new Emerging Technology Trainer.

Last day statistics

It's my last day @ BCR and there's not much left for me to do. So, I've pulled together some numbers (thanks Stephanie) that might be on interest. Basically, the numbers say that in the past 9.5 years I've presented 686 live workshops with a attendee total of approximately 7256. That's an average of 69 workshops and 726 students per year. (Of course, this short year is throwing off the averages.) The number of online workshops and presentations is around 100 but considering that we just started doing those about three years ago, that's not too bad. (I don't have attendee numbers available for the online classes.) Add to those numbers a few dozen conference presentations at the local, state, and national level where attendance was not recorded. (I believe my reference presentation at Computers in Libraries 2000 and the Second Life presentation at IL2006 both topped 400 attendees each.) So, I've met a lot of people and unfortunately, don't remember most of your names. (Don't take it personally, I have a problem when it comes to remembering names until after several meetings.)

I'll just throw out a few other numbers just for fun. Number of BCR bosses: 3. Number of BCR directors: 2. Number of computer bags/backpacks I've been through: 6.

Another two lasts

Yesterday was my last board meeting for the Friends of the Aurora Public Library. I'll continue to be the group's Web master since that's something I can do remotely (and since no one else knows how,) but the bookstore manager duties have been handed over to the capeable hands of Jackie. I know she'll do a wonderful job and be an asset to the organization.

This afternoon I did my last (online) presentation for BCR on wikis. (I've read and heard some interesting things about wikis lately that I'll be blogging about (probably) next week when I get a little free time.) Thanks to everyone that attended my workshops over the past 9.5 years. You all made all the hard work worth it.

The first of the lasts

Today I taught my last two live workshops at the BCR offices. The last one was something like live class #650. (I'll have better statistics about my time at BCR sometime next week.) Other upcoming lasts are my last Aurora Public Library Board meeting, Friends of the Aurora Public Library Board meeting, and online presentation.

"The Move" updates

I'm back from a weekend trip to Lincoln to find a place to live and it was, I must say, an unqualified success. Not only did I find a place to live but I'm getting a house, not an apartment. The price was amazing, it's enough space, and it's only 3.1 miles from my new office at the Nebraska Library Commission.

Today I'm home most of the day to deal with canceling services here at the old house (Internet, cable, tv, water/sewer, and trash) and waiting for the buyer's mortgage broker's appraiser to make an appearance. (Though it looks like I won't be home for that but that's not a problem.) It does turn out that I need to replace the roof and the 30 year-old furnace for the buyer so I'll just need to grin and bear it when it comes to that expense.

So, assuming nothing goes wrong here's what's coming up:

• January 26: Close on the selling of the old house and have the movers pack my fragile items. (I'm packing the rest. NO ONE packs my books but me.)
• January 27: Movers pack all my stuff (with a few exceptions) into a semi and drive off.
• January 29: Close on the house in Lincoln. (I'm hoping I don't actually have to be there for that.)
• Feburary 3: Stuff arrives in Lincoln. I will need to be there to receive it.
• February 15: Last day at BCR
• February 16: Drive out to Lincoln. (I think buying a seat on a plane for my car might cost a little more than I can afford.)
• March 1: Start at NLC

Updates as warranted of course...

Want my job?

BCR has posted the position announcement now titled Emergent Technologies Trainer.

House Update

Things are coming together and the plan is to close on the sale of my house on the 26th. The weekend of the 12th I'll be heading out to Lincoln to find an apartment to which all of my stuff can be sent while I finish my work at BCR.

Winter

Yes folks, winter has arrived in Aurora, CO. This is supposed to last through tomorrow. That should make flying out on Friday morning an adventure.

Library Website Hall of Fame

The Library Success Wiki has a Library Website Hall of Fame section. Two BCR region libraries, Denver Public and BYU, have made the list. None from Nebraska though. I'll put that on my to do list.
Thanks Rosario

Technology to Michael: "You're not the boss of me!"

I'm in the Eastern Iowa Airport (Cedar Rapids, IA) using the free WiFi to get caught up from this four day trip to Iowa City, IA for two days of BCR workshops and an afternoon speaking to the staff of the Iowa City Public Library about the Social Web as part of their in-service day. Today went well and everyone enjoyed it including myself. The previous two days however, if it could go wrong it did. Cases in point:

• For the blogs class, Blogger finally decided to send everyone creating a new blog to the beta version. This meant that many of my handouts didn't match what they were looking at on the screen, didn't match the screen I was projecting and there were new/changed features that I wasn't prepared to discuss.
• In the RSS workshop, FeedXS finally convinced me that it's useless for class purposes and I was pretty much forced to just tell everyone to skip it and ignore that part of the handouts.
• I taught my podcasting class for the first time and, instead of ending up with a short list of things to tweak for the next time out, I need to redo about 50% of the workshop and change the focus for the second half of the class. And, the BCR FTP server decided that it kept wanting to drop my connection so I couldn't upload the students' MP3 files to the server to get to work with the software I was trying to teach them.
• During the wiki class I instructed all eleven students on how to create a Wikipedia account, something I've done many other times. This time, six of them were able to create accounts while the other five got error messages informing them that six accounts had already been created from that IP address and no other new accounts would be allowed for 24 hours. Turns out that to the outside world all of ICPL's computers are represented by one IP address. Great for the network architecture and for security reasons but it causes problems with Wikipedia's security. A good portion of the class was from that point on a demo instead of hands on.

Needless to say it's been a long week and I need a few solid nights of sleep before getting back to the office on Monday and updating the material for those classes before teaching them again in January.

And my last day is...

Happy Go Lucky 269
Originally uploaded by Repoort.

BCR and I have worked out that my last day both in the office and on the payroll will be February 15, 2007. This blog and my travelinlibrarian.info e-mail address will continue to work after that date for anyone wishing to contact me.

Special announcement (Yes, read this one.)

As you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much for the past week and what I have posted has been of little consequence. Well, that's because things are changing in my life that are taking up a lot of my time right now...

I am happy to announce that one week ago yesterday, I officially accepted an offer from the Nebraska Library Commission to be their Technology Innovation Librarian starting 1 March 2007. This means that I will be finishing up a 9.5 year run at BCR in mid-February and moving to Lincoln, NE.

This all that The Travelin' Librarian will continue to travel just not as much, not as far, and mostly by state car instead of United Airlines. (So much for earning premier status...) I still plan on presenting at conferences and, as I understand it, will not be prohibited from accepting other speaking requests outside of Nebraska. (Normal scheduling issues still apply.)

I accepted the position for several reasons. First, the lower amount of travel. Yes, I enjoy traveling but after more than nine years it does start to take its toll. Second, I'm feeling a bit stretched thin with having to cover an eleven-state region. Believe me, I love having worked with all of you in the BCR region but focusing on just one state allows me to work more closely with libraries on special projects and to focus my efforts. Third, there's nothing more Library 2.0 than having the title "Technology Innovation Librarian".

So, please bear with me over the next three months as I blog about movers, packing, and getting my house sold. I'll try to keep up the tech and library posts as much as I can but some of that may have to be put on the back-burner for a little while.

CAL2006: "The Long Tail" and the Growing Social Nature of Information

Heather Clark, BCR

• How technology is changing how we understand information and in the economy
• Book by Chris Anderson, Editor in chief of Wired magazine
• How does this apply to the library world
• Web 2.0
• move from retreival to interaction on the Web
• Original article in 2004
• why the futurs of business is selling less of more
• theory of change in economics
• paradigm shift regarding hits and misses
• The Long Tail
• [long tail graphic from www.longtail.com/about.html]
• the low sellers in total outsell the total of big sellers
• brick & mortar, focuses on the head, selling many of a few items
• amazon focuses on the long tail as the space requirements are lower
• Comp tech is causing a move away form hits to niche markets
• counter to the 80/20 principle
• Long Tail Themes
• Niche markets
• Disaggregation of content
• smaller bits
• new revenue streams
• Tyranny of Geography
• marketing
• shelf space
• Long Tail Principles
• Democratize production
• new tools
• new producers
• increases amount of content/product
• motivation is not necesarily monetary
• "exposure culture"
• Democratize distribution
• amatures can produce and distribute
• aggregators as warehouses
• Internet is central distribution center
• examples
• Amazon.com
• eBay
• YouTube
• Tecnorati
• Connect supply and demand
• connect supply and demand
• social sharing of information
• the hyperlink phenomenon
• filters
• search engines
• social services
• Google page rank
• Amazon recommender services
• NetFlix user reviews
• Libraries have lost the battle when it comes to the distribution principle
• Libraries need to be the connectors
• Long Tail Assumptions
• Ubiquitous computing
• not everyone has access
• not everyone knows how to use ths access
• Entertainment-centric model
• people will purchase w/o tactile input
• Low costs of networking
• storage
• intensive bandwidth
• system maintenance
• "infinite shelf space"
• Positives
• richer culture
• "pull together parallel tribes"
• easier for artisan & global producers to market their goods
• Negatives
• eroding local culture
• loss of shared culture
• archive for future
• physical items still need shelf space somewhere
• truly profitable?
• Libraries are the long tail!
• Long Tail & Libraries: Currently
• collections
• robust & rich
• reader's advisory and reference services
• original recommender sevice
• no matter the format
• built-in fodder for filters
• MARC record
• obsolete outside the library world
• physical serendipity
• Long Tail & LIbraries: Needs Improvement
• making discovery happen readily
• improving OPAC search functions
• link to local
• expediting delivery
• NetFlix model?
• rethinking resource sharing group
• Find it / Get it browser plugin
• Reader's advisory
• recommender services to patrons
• blogs
• patron reviews in OPACS
• copyright implications
• Conclusions
• will it change the economic world as we know it?
• not dramatically in her opinion
• what about libraries?
• how well do you know your community?
• what can a small library serving a small population can gain from this?
• put up a wiki for a local group then let them add content
• academic
• get your local info to your students
• blackboard
• MySpace & Facebook
• Your environment should guide your application of these concepts

CAL2006 Conference

Friday and Saturday I'll be attending the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) 2006 conference here in Denver, CO. I'll be of course posting to my blog about it as much as I can. Additionally:

• I will be presenting my Tech Terms session on Saturday @ 2pm. At this point I don't know what room I'll be presenting in. (Heather Clark of BCR and Steve Lawson of Colorado College will be performing a special introduction to my presentation. This is something you're not going to want to miss.)
• My latest book Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide will be available for purchase at the BCR booth at a conference discounted price of only $24.00. (Cash and checks only.)
• At 3pm on Saturday during the ice cream social I will be signing my book at the BCR booth.
• At CAL's request I've set up a conference wiki on which will be posted conference updates and session reviews during the conference. Be sure to check it out if you're not attending the conference.
• Yesterday I worked with the folks running the conference to standardize on the tag "cal2006" when it comes to posting flickr photos and blogging. So, if you're looking for photos or other blog posts just search on that tag.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone at the conference so be sure to find me and say hi.

They're popping up all over

They're popping up all over
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

These just appeared yesterday down the street from the BCR offices.

Idaho Library Association Conference

I'm in Moscow, ID for the 2006 Idaho Library Association Conference. I'm here to present my Firefox Search Plugins and Tech Terms sessions and to man the BCR booth. I'll blog more as things happen but know that you can keep an eye on the flickr set that I'll be adding to over the next two days.

Idaho Library Association Annual Conference

I'll be at the Idaho Library Association Annual Conference next week. Details can be found in the BCReview Newsletter.

Fall speaking schedule

• October 4-8: Idaho Library Association, Moscow, ID
  • Tech Terms
  • Firefox Search Plugins
• October 21-26: Internet Librarian 2006, Monterey, CA
  • 22: Integrating RSS Into Your Web Site (Pre-Conference)
  • 23: The Second Life Library 2.0: Going Where the Users Are
  • 24: Flickr & Libraries
  • 25: Book Signing (Information Today, Inc. booth)
• November 9-12: Colorado Association of Libraries, Denver, CO
  • 11: Tech Terms
• November 13-15: University of Nevada, Las Vegas Law Library, Las Vegas, NV
  • 14: Web Page Creation Basics (XHTML)
  • 15: Introduction to CSS
• November 26-December 1: Nevada State Library Gates Workshops
  • 27: Computer Security (Salt Lake City)
  • 27: Setting up a WiFi Netowrk (Salt Lake City)
  • 28: Technical Support in Your Library (Salt Lake City)
  • 30: Computer Security (Moab)
  • 30: Setting up a WiFi Netowrk (Moab)
  • 01: Technical Support in Your Library (Moab)
• December 5-8: Iowa City Public Library
  • 6: Blogs (BCR Workshop)
  • 6: RSS (BCR Workshop)
  • 7: Podcasting 101 (BCR Workshop)
  • 7: Wikis (BCR Workshop)
  • 8: The Social Web (Staff in-service day)

BCR 2.0

BCR (MPOW) launched its new Web site this morning and the recently launched BCReview is now a blog powered by Blogger. Be sure to check it out and send any comments that you may have on the new look.

My Busy Day

Backroom Disaster (3)
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Yesterday I decided to take a day off from BCR, sleep in, get some stuff done around the house, have lunch with my SO, then head over to the Friends bookstore (which I manage for those of you who don't already know that) and shelve the new paperback Science Fiction and Fantasy books. Instead, I got a call at 8:55am from the board president saying that there was a problem at the store with the new shelving and that I needed to come over right away. What I arrived to find is pictured here.

It seems that we weren't very smart about filling our new 7' double-sided shelving unit. The thing is stable enough assuming you balance the load. We, on the other hand, put too many books on the one side and not enough on the other. Overnight gravity decided to raise its ugly head. Luckily, since it did happen over night, no one was around to be underneath the resulting pile.

All of the shelves survived, but the eight of the end pieces that hold the shelves to the uprights will need to be replaced. (A few close-ups of the damage can be found in my flickr account. Just click on the photo in this post.)

Should we have added additional anchors to the shelving? Of course. We've got more shelving on the way and we've already talked to the plaza's maintenance guy. He's got a plan to run beams from the shelving to the walls to give us the needed stability. Still, we'll not put as many books on the shelves as we have previously.

As far as I could tell, we only had to get rid of one book due to damage from the collapse, and that was a book that wasn't in very good shape to begin with.

Systems/Network Administrator Position

BCR (MPOW) is looking for a Systems/Network Administrator. The pay is good and no travel required that I'm aware of.

What Can U Plug Into a USB?

What Can U Plug Into a USB?
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

This past week in Iowa I presented "What Can U Plug Into a USB" six times in two locations. (PPT available soon, I left it on my laptop at home.) The photo shows all of the items I had with me to pass around. (The version in flickr contains notes naming everything for those interested.) For the attendees of the sessions I ran a contest to guess which of the items presented were fictitious. I don't know who won yet, but I did promise to post the answer here...

There was only one fictitious device in my presentaion and that was the George Foreman iGrill. Yes, everything else I showed was real, believe it or not, including the lava lamp.

As soon as Michelle lets me know who won the copy of XHTML and CSS Essentials for Library Web Design I'll post that information to the blog.

Also, I have scheduled a WebLive version of this presentation through BCR for the morning of Friday, September 29th, 2006. Watch the BCR site for registration information. (Everyone is welcome, but seats are limited so BCR members will receive priority registration.)

One other note for those that were wondering about my trip home: I did make it to the airport on time to check in for my flight but due to the VERY stormy weather, we didn't end up taking off until 8:10pm. Pictures of the storm and all of the other pictures from the trip can be found in my flickr account.

Just call me Sparky

As I write this I'm sitting in seat 10C on a United flight from Reno, NV to Denver, CO after aproximately 24 hours in Nevada. I think Murphy came with me on this one...

It started yesterday morning with my leaving my bag at my house instead of bringing it with me to the office so I could go straight to the airport for my 3pm flight. That created the necessity to go back home to get my bag.

After checking into my hotel in Reno I was off to Sparks, NV (a Reno subburb) to find the Sparks branch of the Washoe County Public Library. This short trip was to make sure where I needed to be the next morning to teach my class. I went in, introduced myself to the librarian at the reference desk and said that I was confirming this was the branch I was looking for. She confirmed as such and even pointed me to their meeting room as that's where training was generally held. I thanked her and headed back to my rental car. A few feet short of the car I reached into my pants pocket for the keys and found only lint. I'd locked the keys in the car.

Luckily I have a AAA membership so I pulled the card out of my wallet, and, since I was in Nevada, and not Colorado, figured it would be better to call the national 800 number instead of the local 303 number. I dialed and was immediately put through to AAA Colorado. It seems that their system is "smart" and figured out that I must be calling from Colorado due to the caller ID on my phone. I informed the person on the phone that I was not in Colorado but in Nevada and his response was to ask me if there was a land line I could call back from as that would be "faster" than him putting me through to AAA Nevada. (Look, I understand how the system works, but in an age of cell phones, what's the point of having both local and "national" numbers when, if you're calling from a cell phone, your actual physical location becomes irrelevant to the system?) I was eventually promised that someone would be around to help me "within the hour" and 1:15 later, someone did arrive. It took the lock guy exactly five seconds (I timed him) to get into the rental car.

That's the end Thursday for me and I ended up having dinner at the hotel as I didn't want anything else to go wrong.

This morning I awake early, find a Starbucks, have some java, and arrive back at the Sparks branch at 7:00 in anticipation of my contact person showing up to let me in at 7:45 for my 8am class. At 8am, I'm starting to get nervous as no one else has shown up yet. The phone calls to both BCR and my contact's office number start at this point. I leave a voicemail for my contact and the folks at BCR confirm that I'm in the right place as far as they know. At 8:30 I get a phone call from one of the students (who got my cell number from BCR) wondering where I am. Well, I'm at the Sparks branch but all the students are at the Spanish Springs branch, which, by the way, is also in Sparks. (At this point, I'm sure the total confusion was my fault.) Off to the right branch I head to start class 45 minutes late. (This is the first time in nine years I've not started a class on time.)

After class, a wonderful lunch with some systems folks, and a much needed bananna frappaccino at the same Starbucks from the morning, then off to the Reno airport for my 4:30 flight home. The flight home by the way, is going through San Francisco (no need to draw you a map I'm sure) and gets me into Denver at 11:50pm. At about 4:00 I head to the mens room and notice that at the next gate over is a direct flight to Denver leaving at 5:00pm, getting me home about 8:00pm. I ask if I can switch flights (I've only got carry-on) and I'm granted not only a seat on the dirct flight but an exit-row seat in economy plus. (Mondo leg room here I come!)

So, I'm in that seat. The seat that doesn't want to stay in it's "full upright and locked position" (real fun during takeoff,) and a reading lamp that won't stay on, or off, for anylength of time.

I need a vacation...

RLG membership approves move to combine with OCLC

On Friday, June 9, OCLC and RLG announced that RLG member institutions have approved a proposal to combine operations with OCLC, clearing the way for two of the world's largest membership-based information organizations to become one beginning July 1.

RLG's online products and services are being integrated with OCLC's, and RLG's program initiatives are being continued as RLG-Programs, a membership-based organization that operates as a new division of OCLC Programs and Research to support architecture, standards development and best practices.

Staff from both organizations have been meeting since the proposal was announced in May to begin planning for the integration of systems, products and services. RLG's online products and services will be integrated with OCLC's as appropriate. For example, RLIN, the RLG Union Catalog, will be integrated into WorldCat, delivering economies of scale and reach that will benefit members of both RLG and OCLC.

An FAQ that includes information on the combined organization as well as updates on some specific products and services is at http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/oclcrlgfaq.htm. The FAQ is updated as information becomes available.

Rosario Garza
Acting Executive Director
BCR / 14394 E. Evans Ave. / Aurora CO 80014-1478

Internet Librarian 2006

The official information about the conference is now available on the InfoToday site. Here's what I'm doing:

Sunday, October 22nd
Workshop 19 — Integrating RSS into Your Web Site
1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Michael Sauers, Internet Trainer, BCR
RSS feeds are an excellent way to receive information from the Internet today. What many people don’t know is that you can receive that information and easily repurpose and republish it on your Web site with little technical know-how. Imagine automatically posting up-to-date local or industry headlines on your library’s home page. This is what you can do in just a few simple steps. Our expert Internet trainer shows you how to do just this. This workshop also covers additional RSS tools and services, including one that will create feeds from content without its own feed and another that will turn your text-based content into a podcast automatically.

Monday, October 23rd
Session C105 — The Second Life Library 2.0: Going to Where the Users Are
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Lori Bell, Director of Innoation, Alliance Library System
Tom Peters, CEO, TAP Information Services
Michael Sauers, Internet Trainer, BCR
In April 2006, the Alliance Library System put out a call for librarians interested in participating in a project to set up a library presence in the virtualreality world of Second Life. By the end of the month, more than two dozen librarians from around the world were meeting at a brand-new virtual library to staff the reference desk and discuss collection development, online programming, and library services. Since then, the response has only grown, and Second Life citizens are taking advantage of all the library has to offer. Our speakers provide an overview of Second Life, the creation of the library, and the services that are now being offered in this completely virtual environment.

Tuesday, Octboer 24th
Session D203 — Flickr & Libraries
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Michael Porter, OCLC Western
Fiona Hooten, National Library of Australia
Lluisa Nunez, Universitat de Barcelona
Michael Sauers, BCR
Flickr is a treasure-trove for library professionals interested in community, connections, innovative software applications, and marketing. With a strong library-centric focus, this session starts with a brief look at libraries and librarians with Flickr accounts and then explores the largest and most active library/librarian photo group on the Internet, the Flickr “Libraries and Librarians” group with more than 550 members on six continents and 2,600 images. Entertaining recorded stories share observations and comments from speakers on other continents, including how participation turned into a partnership that created a mashup between Google maps and images in the Libraries and Librarians Flickr Group. A dynamic demonstration of third-party Flickr applications using Open API/Ajax, as well as tips and tricks, round out the program. This is the ultimate library professional’s Flickr guide.

MPOW Hires New Executive Director

On behalf of the BCR Board of Trustees, I am very pleased to announce Brenda Bailey-Hainer as the new Executive Director of BCR effective July 17, 2006. The Board of Trustees had to choose among several highly qualified candidates for the position. Brenda will bring to her new position an impressive track record of accomplishments working with library networks, nonprofit organizations, state government and library consortia. Brenda has an excellent understanding of the current operating environment for library networks and an appreciation of emerging information technologies. She has successfully secured grant funding for several statewide projects and has marketing, public relations and sales experience. As a current member of the Board of Trustees, Brenda has a good understanding of BCR, its mission and strategic goals.

The Board of Trustees looks forward to working with Brenda Bailey-Hainer and the staff of BCR in building upon BCR's success as a library network.

Steve Rollins
President, BCR Board of Trustees

Found RSS Feeds

I started another series of online RSS workshops today and the first homework assignment is to find five feeds that the student is interested in. Here are the results. (All of the students are in Wyoming so the information might be a bit Wyoming-centric.) I'll post more as the come in.

1. University of Wyoming Headline News
2. NOAA's NWS RSS Library
3. News from www.casperstartribune.net
4. Wyoming State Library
5. President George W. Bush's featured speeches and remarks (Podcast)
6. nHumanities
7. USA Today.com--Top Headlines
8. Library Journal: Features
9. Billings Gazette-Wyoming headlines
10. Librarians Internet Index - New This Week
11. E! Online Latest News
12. NPR Topics: News
13. Wayne Besen - Daily Commentary
14. MSNBC.com: U.S. News
15. Public Relations and Publicity Blog
16. TheDevnerChannel.com - Irresistible Headlines
17. The Weather Channel - Your Local Weather - Laramie, WY
18. Pollstar news
19. American Idol Recaps Feed
20. Library Marketing - Thinking Outside the Book
21. Library Link of the Day
22. Lisjobs.com
23. New York Times Book Review
24. PBS Now
25. ACLU.org Free Speech Action alerts
26. Quote of the Day
27. PC World Latest News
28. NPR Talk of the Nation
29. NPR Books
30. Beyond Best sellers (Madison Public Library)
31. Google Scholar
32. Universe Today
33. Discovery
34. New York Times
35. The Write News
36. Military RSS Feeds (directory)
37. BCR: The Third Indicator
38. BCR: Continuing Education
39. Wyoming State Library News
40. SI.com - NFL
41. SmartMoney Trends in Investing, Saving and Personal Finance
42. Word of Mouth Marketing
43. NYT: Thomas L. Friedman's Column
44. Library Marketing-Thinking Outside the Book
45. Stephen's Lighthouse
46. Salon
47. Texas RV Travel : USAer Blog
48. Tribe.net: Camping
49. Alum Creek
50. Carla Nayland Historical Fiction
51. Yahoo! News: Top Stories
52. NYT > Art and Design
53. News from www.codyenterprise.com
54. washingtonpost.com - Military News
55. RSS Feeds at the Minneapolis Public Library (directory)
56. Buzz Design
57. World Cafe from WXPN
58. Casper Star Tribune: Latest news
59. Science@NASA
60. Cosmetic Surgery
61. New York Review of Books
62. Reader2 - new books
63. Girl Genius Online
64. PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories
65. PC World's Techlog
66. GameSpy PC

Second Life at Internet Librarian

In a last-minute squeak-through I, Lori Bell, and Tom Peters will be presenting on the Second Life Library 2.0 project at Internet Librarian 2006. Probably in the last session of the "Digital Strategies" track on Tuesday. Here is the draft session description. (As soon as a final one is release I'll be sure to post it.)

The Second Life Library 2.0: Going to where the users are
Lori Bell, Director of Innovation, Alliance Library System
Tom Peters, CEO, TAP Information Services
Michael Sauers, Internet Trainer, BCR
In April 2006, the Alliance Library System put out a call for librarians interested in participating in a project to set up a library presence in the virtual reality world of Second Life. By the end of the month more than two dozen librarians from around the world were meeting at a brand new virtual library to staff the reference desk, and discussing collection development, online programming, and library services. Since then the response has only grown and Second Life citizens are taking advantage of all the library has to offer. This session will present an overview of Second Life itself, the creation of the Second Life Library, and the services that it is now offering in this completely virtual environment.

Internet Librarian 2006

Consider this the first official post for the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, CA this October. The e-mails have gone out and it looks like I'll be presenting on flickr on day two. I've got to admit that the others I'll be sharing my time with are a bit intimidating.

D203 Flickr & Libraries
Michael Porter, OCLC Western, Fiona Hooten National Library of Australia, Lluisa Nunez Universitat de Barcelona
Michael Sauers, BCR
Flickr is a treasure trove for library professionals interested in community, connections, innovative software applications and marketing. With a strong library centric focus, this session starts with a brief look at libraries and librarians with Flickr accounts and then explores the largest and most active library/librarian photo group on the internet, the Flickr "Libraries and Librarians" group with over 550 members on six continents and 2600 images. Entertaining recorded stories share observations and comments from speakers on other continents including how participation turned into a partnership that created a mash-up between Google maps and images in the Libraries and Librarians Flickr Group. A dynamic demonstration of third party Flickr applications using Open API/Ajax, as well as tips and tricks, round out the program. This is the ultimate library professionals Flickr guide.

My initial plan is to assume that the others will be all serious when it comes to how libraries use flickr so I'm going to show a lot of the fun stuff you can do. (Trading cards anyone?) Though, before finalizing this plan I'll be sure to contact the others to confirm my assumption.

See you in Monterey!

Job announcement

BCR Executive Director

Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR), located in Aurora, Colorado, seeks a dynamic and experienced executive director to head the library services network and to investigate, develop and coordinate BCR services to meet the needs of library members.

BCR is located in Aurora, Colorado. The position includes a pleasant working environment, excellent benefit package and is available July 1, 2006. The starting salary is negotiable from $102,000.

More information about BCR, including a complete description of this position, its requirements and how to apply is available at http://www.bcr.org/about/recruiting/.

For full consideration apply by March 27. Finalists will be interviewed in Aurora on May 15th and 16th by members of the BCR Board of Trustees and by BCR staff. EOE.

Computers in Libraries 2006

Yes, I will be attending CIL06 this year in Washington, DC (March 22-25). I'm ariving on Wednesday afternoon, attending the sessions on Thursday and Friday, presenting a post-conference workshop on Saturday morning and flying home Saturday evening. Here's the official description of my workshop:

Integrating RSS into Your Web Site
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Michael Sauers, Internet Trainer, BCR
RSS feeds are an excellent way to receive information from the Internet today. What many people don't know is that you can receive that information and easily repurpose and republish it on your Web site with little technical knowhow. Imagine automatically posting up-to-date local or industry headlines on your library’s home page. This is what you can do in just a few simple steps. Our expert Internet trainer shows you how to do just this.

I'll also be covering some RSS basics including using an aggregator and creating RSS feeds using free tools along with other more advanced topics such as FeedBurner and Feed2Podcast.

For more information on what the workshop will cover check out my del.icio.us account under the cil06 tag. (A special thanks to Michael Stephens for helping me wrap my head around the workshop's topic.)

If you'll be attending (or not) be sure to check out Meredith's conference wiki. I'm also assuming the the flickr tag will be CIL2006 since last year it was CIL2005.

Flickr 101 presentation available

BCR’s free webinar “flickr 101” is now available as a recorded session. The recording is one hour long.

To access the recording, do the following:

1) If you have not viewed or attended a BCR webinar, you must run the wizard found at the following url: http://208.185.32.63/wizard/launcher.cgi?wc=qt

This will ensure that your computer is set up for viewing the slides and listening to the audio portion. The audio portion requires that you have speakers or headphones connected to your computer.

2) Once you've run the wizard, follow this link: http://208.185.32.63/launcher.cgi?room=BCR_Training_2006_0203_1201_31

3) Login with the following information: Room ID: BCR_Training Participant: your name (or leave blank)

The recording should start automatically once you click on “enter”.

If you have any questions about the presentation itself and the information in it, contact msauers@bcr.org. Thanks.

Flickr 101 Web Session

My next free, online session from BCR, Flickr 101 will be held on Friday, February 3rd from 10-11am MST. Non-BCR members are welcome to register but BCR members get priority seating. There is a limit of 25 available seats. (Registrations details available via the link.)

Hello from Blogging 101

This post is being entered as an example for my workshop being held now at the BCR offices.

Book appearance

I sent the story in myself so I know this guy is serious. (Despite the colorfullness of his e-mail.)

Congratulations! I have chosen your plate, BCR.ORG, to include in the second edition of “What Does That Mean?” The final deadline for submissions is February 28, 2006. The book will be ready for shipment in June or July.

If you have family or friends that would like to be included in the book, have them go to www.vanity-plates.com to fill out the form. They must respond by February 28^th, 2006.

I can’t guarantee that they will be in the book, but I am very interested in getting as many good stories as I can. Your plate, BCR.ORG, WILL be in the book.

I will keep you posted as things progress. The new book will be bigger and better than the original. We expect to be able to include some color pictures and we will have more license plates than the first edition. I will contact you if we need a picture of your plate.

You can read the original book online at www.vanity-plates.com and you can also see over 1,000 entries that have been submitted so far for the new book there. The first edition is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Thank you for your participation in this exciting project.

Sincerely, Denny Cowhey

Computers In Libaries 2006 discount registration

Please excuse any cross postings.

Once again BCR is sponsoring discounted rates for the upcoming Computers in Libraries conference, March 22-24, 2006, at the Hilton Washington in Washington, D.C. These discounts are being offered in cooperation with Information Today, Inc.

Staff from BCR member libraries may attend using BCR's group registration rate of $185 for the three-day event (regular price is $399). Discount prices of $99 for the Internet@Schools East conference (regularly $199) and $199 for the combo of Internet@Schools East and Computers in Libraries general conferences (actual price is $429) are also available. No discount rates are available for pre- or post-conference events.

More information about the conference is available on Information Today's Web site at http://www.infotoday.com/cil2006/.

For more information about the discounted rates, contact BCR's Stephanie Jauregui at sjauregu@bcr.org, (800) 397-1552 or (303) 751-6277, X127. To receive the discount you must send your registration and payment (please make checks out to Information Today, Inc.) to: BCR, 14394 E. Evans Avenue, Aurora, Colorado 80014-1478, by February 1, 2006.

Firefox Search Plugins presentation

The recording of my Firefox Search Plugins presentation is now avialable for your viewing pleasure. Please be sure to run the participant wizard first if you have not done so previously.

Title:	Firefox Search Plugins 02 December 2005
Archive ID:	BCR_Training_2005_1202_1202_31
Description:	The Firefox browser has a built-in search bar allowing users to search such databases as Google, Amazon.com and Wikipedia. What many don't realize is that you can create customized searches that can be added to Firefox. This F³ session will walk you through the creation of a search plugin that, once installed, will allow your patrons to search your OPAC from within Firefox without having to access the library's site first.
Launcher:	http://208.185.32.63/launcher.cgi?room= BCR_Training_2005_1202_1202_31
Participant Wizard:	http://208.185.32.63/wizard/launcher.cgi?wc=qt
Room ID:	BCR_Training
Archive Length:	44:48 minutes
Media Format:	QuickTime

"Tech Terms" presentation archive available

The very popular free webinar "Tech Terms: What's new, what's hot, and what you've got to know" is now availabe as a one hour recorded session. It will be available until December 31, 2005.

To access the recording, do the following:

• Run the wizard found at the following url: http://208.185.32.63/wizard/launcher.cgi?wc=qt. This will ensure that your computer is set up for viewing the slides and listening to the audio portion.
• Once you've run the wizard, follow this link: http://208.185.32.63/launcher.cgi?room=BCR_Training_2005_1118_1202_34
• Login with the following Room ID: BCR_Training The recording should start automatically once you enter the "classroom."

If you have any questions about the presentation itself and the information in it, contact me. Thanks.

Free Webcast: Firefox Search Plugins

On December 2nd, 2005 at 10am MST I will be presenting a free, one hour webcast on creating Firefox Search Plugins. This session is limited to 25 seats and BCR members are given preference but at the moment there are still 24 seats available. (Feel free to register for one seat and then have as many people in the room as you'd like.) A full description and registration instructions can be found at http://www.bcr.org/training/online/FFF-index.html.

Halloween 2005 @ BCR

Here's the photos. More added as the day goes by.

Free WebLive session

Firefox Search Plugins: Searching Your Library in the Browser

The Firefox browser has a built-in search bar allowing users to search such databases as Google, Amazon.com, and Wikipedia. What many don’t realize is that you can create customized searches that can be added to Firefox. This free WebLive session will walk you through the creation of a search plugin which, once installed, will allow your patrons to search your OPAC from within in Firefox without having to access the library’s site first.

Date & Time: Friday, December 2, 2005 10-11am MST

Limited to 25 seats. Anyone is welcome to register but BCR member libraries get the first seats.

To register go to http://www.bcr.org/training/workshops/register.html

Third session of "Tech Terms" Web session added

The September 23rd and 30th sessions of the Tech Terms Web seminar has filled in less than 48 hours. Due to this overwhelming response, a third session has been scheduled for Friday, November 18th at 10am MDT.

* * *

Do you know what podcasting is? Or phishing and malware? If you want to learn what these and many other tech terms mean, you'll want to sign up for a free BCR Web Conference.

BCR's internet trainer, Michael Sauers, will be doing a one hour presentation on "Tech Terms: What’s Hot, What’s New, and What You’ve Got to Know." If you're not familiar with Wikis, RSS feeds, or BitTorrent, you will soon be hearing about them from your patrons. This presentation will make you more comfortable with these terms.

This free webinar is scheduled for Friday, September 30, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Mountain time. Because a limited number of seats are available, registration is REQUIRED. To register, complete the online form available at http://www.bcr.org/training/workshops/register.html

Free Seminar: "Tech Terms: What’s Hot, What’s New, and What You’ve Got to Know"

The September 23rd session of myTech Terms Web seminar has filled in less than 24 hours. Due to this overwhelming response, a second session has been scheduled for Friday, September 30th at 10am MDT. Those in non-BCR states are welcome to register but preference will be given to registrants from BCR member libraries.

* * *

Do you know what podcasting is? Or phishing and malware? If you want to learn what these and many other tech terms mean, you'll want to sign up for a free BCR Web Conference.

BCR's internet trainer, Michael Sauers, will be doing a one hour presentation on "Tech Terms: What’s Hot, What’s New, and What You’ve Got to Know." If you're not familiar with Wikis, RSS feeds, or BitTorrent, you will soon be hearing about them from your patrons. This presentation will make you more comfortable with these terms.

This free webinar is scheduled for Friday, September 30, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Mountain time. Because a limited number of seats are available, registration is REQUIRED. To register, complete the online form available at http://www.bcr.org/training/workshops/register.html

New RSS feed

BCR has started it's second RSS feed: Continuing Education.

Firefox Search Plugins

I spent some of the afternoon playing around with XML and Javascript to create some new Firefox search plugins. Unless you're a BCR employee and/or are a user of the Aurora (CO) Public Library, they'll only be of accademic interest to you. However, I'm interested enough to be willing to make a few more if you'd like to make a suggestion.

Dual-boot

The trainers at BCR are getting laptops. Since I already have my Tablet and use it to train I figured I'd play with the new company one. I'm planning on making it dual-boot WindowsXP and Fedora. (It'll be my office computer so I'm not yet ready to ditch Windows completely.) If anyone out there has any warnings/suggestions for me I'd be happy to hear them. I'll be doing this the first two weeks of May so I've got prep time.

Another Gig

BCR has graciously given all the trainers 1GB jump drives. I've already got one and the new one is "the company's". ANyone have any ideas what I can do with it?

March schedule

For those playing at home, here's my travel schedule for March:
04-07, Phoenix for a Koko Taylor concert and a B.B. King Concert
15-19, Washington, DC for the Computers in Libraries conference
21-24, Des Moines, IA for BCR
28-01, Ottumwa, IA for BCR

BCR news

Two exciting items from the BCR world today:

• Our first RSS feed it now available.
• We have a Trainer/Librarian position open.

Presentation copies

The PPT files for my IL04 presentaions are now available on BCR's Conference Presentations page.

Presentation copy

For those interested the PPT file for my blog & RSS presentation to the SLA folks last night can now be found on the BCR conference presentations page.

Open access

Right now I'm sitting on a large, decorative rock just outside the front door of the central branch of the Jackson County Library System in Medford, OR. Check out their hours then look at the date and time on this post. This place has been closed for hours and I'm sitting out on the sidewalk using their open linksys Wi-Fi connection. Not only am I writing this post I'm listening to KUVO in Denver via iTunes while writing this...

So, what's the big deal? Well, after Akma's recent experience being harassed by the local cops in Nantucket for doing exactly what I'm doing at this moment I'm trying to make a point; tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be teaching my policy workshop at Rogue Community College next door. One of the issues I'll be discussing is exactly this one. This should be fun especially since a few librarians from the Medford branch will be in attendance.

Heathen

I did this back several months ago as an exercise in CSS and just stumbled over it again today. (Yes, it's supposed to look that way.)

Web design book update

Much to the excitement of my editor at Neal-Schuman, I've taken off today, tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday to finish the first full draft of my Web design book. I'll be then giving myself the next weekend to clean it up a bit and then turning it in on the 17th. (I was going to just take off next week to do all this but I'm teaching @ BCR on Wednesday and have a meeting I couln't reschedule on Thursday.)

Bad timing

L tells me that her company decided to swap out a server this week. Some genius decided this needed to be done at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon. (BCR will be swapping ISPs this week. This is a simple five minute job and we're still doing it after 5pm on Friday, just in case something goes wrong.) Everything was back up sometime mid Wednesday in essescence killing a full day's work for at least one employee, the company accountant and head of HR.

Spam fun

I got some spam today that was addressed to me and two other people that haven't worked at BCR for at least eight years. That's some e-mail list those guys are working off of.

Trēo mail update

Well, I can get both mail accounts via POP3 in one program (Eudora for Palm) but I can't send mail via the BCR account. (Darn that non-relaying server security.) So, I'm guess I'm stuck with two mail programs.

Here comes the mail again

I've successfully set up my Trēo to both send and receive mail for both my BCR and Webpan accounts. Of course, I've had to sue two different programs to do that but that's o.k. (One is POP and one is IMAP.)

I'm having trouble with the browser accepting cookies, and therefore can't get into my bloglines account, but I've found an update on the Handspring site that might solve the problem.

An even more interesting night

I'd just about finished writing my last blog entry when I get a tap on my shoulder and hear "Don't be antisocial Michael. Come join us." It's Darlene Fitcher asking me to join her and a few others at another table. There were a few comings and goings but over the next two and a half hours I ended up talking and joking with Jane Dysart (Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian Conference Program Chair), Roy Tennant (California Digital Library), Greg Schwartz (Louisville Free Public Library), Frank Cervone (Northwestern University), and Stephen Abram (President Elect of the Canadian Librarian Association.) Now there's a crowd you want to be hanging out with in the library technology world. (I was most freaked out when Roy Tennant introduced himself and in response to my introduction replied "From BCR, right?")

By the way, it turns out that it was Darlene that searched for CIL blog entries and brought up this blog. I bet she's starting to think I'm virtually stalking her. (At least I've finally got her name right. I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong. ;-)

Notes from the road

This entry is a long one. Since this date and time is the first I've been online since leaving for the conference I just decided to put up all the posts I've written so far all up at once. So, everything that follows for today includes posts for yesterday and today in chronological order. They are dated and time stamped individually for your convienence.

---

A piece of crap

03.09 10:13am
Last weekend I finally broke down and purchased a rolling computer case. (Maybe I've already mentioned that here but it's key to this story.) Yesterday I took it for a test run to the office and back and decided that I really liked it. Not exactly the right pockets in some places but I was able to quickly adjust. So today I took it with me on my trip to DC. I'm sitting at my gate and I'm now carrying my rolling computer case. I got through security, put all my stuff back into my pockets, put the laptop back into the case, set it on the floor, pulled out the telescoping handle, and one of the two bars, came apart. It looks like I have all the pieces but they do not snap back together. $135 for this damn thing (Eddie Bauer, so it's supposed to be a good bag,) and I've now got to carry it for the next four days. (Unless there just happens to be a store I can exchange it at near my hotel in downtown DC. Yeah, that'll happen.) Luckily I have the shoulder strap but I loaded this thing for bear since I didn't have to carry it. I hope that the rest of this trip goes better than how it's started.

And so it begins...

03.10 7:36am

Well, the high-speed connection in the room Is $9.95/day so but the time I settled in my room last night at 8pm I decided it wasn't worth the cost. I would have been happy to dial in to the BCR AOL account but it seems that I left my phone cord in the old laptop bag. Scratch that idea. So, no connection at the moment I figures I can write all the entries and then upload them this evening.

Flying into DC for the first time since 9.11 was a little bit interesting. It seems that no one is allowed to get up out of their seats for the last 30 minutes of the flight. Now I understand why this rule exists but why treat the capital any different from anywhere else. Yes, I understand that DC is "special" but why just not institute that rule for all flights?

I landed on time at 5pm and had a dinner scheduled for 5:30. These "dine-arounds" were put together by different hosts around a multitude of topics each night at different local restaurants. Since I got into town so late I was considering not going to this one but I figured I had to eat anyway so I got into the hotel, dumped my stuff in my room and hoofed it the mile to the restaurant, getting there at 6.30, only an our late. Turns out that only one other person showed up and after an our waiting for anyone else to show up had finally ordered. The two of us had a great Indian dinner and wonderful conversation. The big surprise was that this dinner's host, who also happened to be the organizer of the conference, never showed. I'm hoping to corner him at some point during the conference to ask what happened.

Anyway, I'm registered and waiting for the morning keynote at 9. I've left the power cord for the laptop in my room so let's see how long this battery actually lasts. (Of course, I don't want to just leave the machine on so the biggest drain on the battery will be turning it on and off whenever I need it.)

Hmmm... Maybe I should take this opportunity to work on the CSS & forms chapter. (Especially since I think my editor is manning the Neal-Schuman booth and will defninitely ask me how the book is coming along.)

Web design book update

03.10 11:22am
I just found out that my editor from Neal-Schuman is not at the conference. Oh well, I Still got 10 new pages written this morning before the keynote. Now I'm only One day behind.

"Didn't you have a tablet?"

03.10 1:40pm
I decided to try out the Windows Journal program on the tables and took notes by pen throughtout the first session. (I'll defnitely be doing that for the rest of the conference. It's really convienent and no tapping of the keyboard or worrying about mistypes. Oh, and I found a outlet that I could sit next too so the battery worries, at least for today, aren't an issue.) When the session was over I switched back to the regular laptop/keyboard to I could get some more done on the book. (I'm so glad I for the version with a full keyboard.) THe next thing I know I've got someone sitting next to me asking "Didn't you have a tablet." One spin of the screen and the tablet was back. At that point I'd drawn a crowd and spent the whole 15 minute break talking about my laptop. And after the next session. And just a miniute ago before this upcoming session. At this point I might as well be a conference presenter. (Hmmm, an idea for next year's conference?)

Advertising vs. entertainment

03.10 1:45pm
In this morning's neynot speech, Clifford Lynch mentioned something about how much entertainment was "sponsored." This immediately reminded me of a blog entry that I wanted to write Sunday night but had forgotten about. In Sunday's episode of Alias, about 10 minutes into the show Sidney and Vaughn are chasing after someone in a parking garage and she yells "The F-150" pointing to a truch they quickly commendeer to chase after the bad guys. Not five minutes later, the car chase through the parking garage over, the opening credits run and then the first commercial appears. That commercial, and one commercial in every other set for the duration of the show, is for "the new Ford F-150." Come on folks. I've heard of product placement but this steps over some sort of line in my opinion. Have them drive an F-150, fine, that's placement. Have them announce they're driving an F-150, that's the sponsor deciding the content of the show. I can't believe that the show's writers put those words into Sidney's mouth without anyinput from the folks at Ford.

Wireless found, but not useable

03.10 3:04pm
Sitting her working on the book, waiting for the next session I suddenly get the message many have been waiting for: "wireless connection found." Woo hoo! Well, I was able to connect to "Chris Home Network" but it's peer-to-peer. No outgoing conenctions. Oh well, it was a few minutes of excitement anyway.

Conferences are dangerous

03.10 3:11pm
I've already got three more ideas on what I could present on next year. Better start planning soon. I'm already booked through December of this year. I'm sure someone will be booking me for March 2005 any day now.

Web design book update

03.10 4:10pm
Five more pages done. That puts me caught up through yesterday. One more session the off to dinner then one more session (the annual fun fest on "dead technologies.") Those three events will put me down for the count so I'm done with this project for the day. However, if I can pull off 15 pages on breaks today one hopes that I can repeat the performance tomorrow. (Hey, that would even put me a day ahead of schedule.)

Conference fun

03.10 9:31pm
I'm back in my room and it's been an interesting evening. Here's the scoop.

Earlier today I figured out that I didn't pack the power plug to recharge my PDA. Walking to dinner I turned it on to check on the battery level to find the startup screen. The damn thing had done a hard reboot and everything, including my calendar for this conference and directions to the dinners was gone. Not a big deal overall but remember, this is the NEW PDA. The one that I just excahnged the old one for two-something weeks ago. I'm starting to think that when I exchange this one (yes, this one goes on Saturday when I get home) I'm going with a different brand or at least a different model. Anyone have any suggestions?

After the last session of the afternoon I doublechecked the location of the dinner I was attending. And, since this particular "topic" dinner didn't have a "host" and since I was the first on the list, the reservation had been made under my name. Luckily I didn't have to do much as everyone seemed to converse well with each other and had no need for me to do anything as the "host". I was the one who talked the waiter into diing the checks for the 13 of us into three and even though that took a bit of schmoosing, it wasn't that much work.

On my way to the last seesion of the night, (I'll get to that in a minute,) I was stopped in the hall by D. Scott Brandt, the "host" who didn't show last night. He apologized profusely. I told him that I was impressed he recognized me without my nametag. He admitted later that he rembered my name but had to look me up on Google for the face.

The last (and only) evening session was titled "Dead and Emerging Technologies." This is an annual pannel discussion that, although on a serious topic, almost anything goes when it comes to what the speakers say. Irreverant is the best way to put it and the laughs hardly stop for the whole hour and a half. At one point, one of the pannelists is declaring that library cards are dead or should be shortly. At that point she brings up her next PowerPoint slide and says "except for this guy." I look up and there's my name along with images from my library card collection. She had no idea I was in the crowd and when she says my name I oblige with "I'm right here." My guess is that when she was looking up "library cards" in Google she found the site. She's promised to send me a copy of her presentation.

After that person's presentation Scott mentioned that I was one of the other people he'd seen with a laptop floating around the conference. (Referring back to something he talked about in his intro. One of the pannelists then spoke up and corrected "Michael has a Tablet." She's the one who asked me about it after the first session.

Last but not least, I'm now sitting in my hotel room waiting for a tech support call. I tried to connect to the high-speed connection in my room to read my e-mail and post all these items but it doesn't want to work. I have a connection but my browser's telling me that it can't find any sites. Sounds like a DNS problem. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar.) I call texh support and after the front line guy had me tru to go to cnn.com he decided that this problem warrented an "escalation" to a real tech support person. Go figure.

Tried a reboot and I'm in...

Computers in libraries

As previously mentioned, I'm off to Washington, DC tomorrow morning for Computers in Libraries 2004. If you're looking to catch up with me check my schedule and drop me a line. I'll try to blog from the conference but no guarantees. As you can see I'm booked solid for three days and sleeping might have priority over blogging.

Creative viri

It seems that the author of this latest virus has decided that I'm dumb enough to not only believe that this is from my server admin sending from a non-existant account on our system, but that I would also want to type in a password sent in clear text to open the attached .zip file.

------------
From: staff@bcr.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 10:09 PM
To: msauers@bcr.org
Subject: E-mail account disabling warning.

Dear user of Bcr.org,

Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions.

For details see the attached file.

For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "04565".

Cheers,
    The Bcr.org team                http://www.bcr.org

Computers in libraries '04

Next week I'll be attending this conference in DC. My schedule is pretty full but if you're looking to meet up with me check my conference calendar then drop me a line with a suggested time.

Outlook = spam (but shouldn't)

Turns out that the version of Spam Assassin we're running at BCR automatically thinks that any e-mail sent from Outlook 2003 (the version on my new laptop) is spam. Basically, since the version of SA we're running was written before Outlook 2003 came out, it thinks that my copy of Outlook is impersonating a "real" version of Outlook (2002 or earlier.) Luckily there's an upgrade to SA available that we'll hopefully install shortly. I'm so glad I figured this out before hitting the road and sending e-mail that no one in the building would get unless they were paying significant attention to their junk mail folders.

Don't waste your money

An article in the most recent issue of 2600 pointed to the program WebLock Pro which claims that this $49.95 piece of software will make your Web site unstealable. If you use it, visitors will not be able to copy, edit, paste or even screenprint your documents. The point of the article was how you could throw some PHP against it and get around its protections.

Well, I went to their homepage and immediately, took screenshots, looked at the source code and used copy/paste to get their content. The funny part was that I didn't follow the article's instructions as theyt were honestly, over my head. I just used a browser other than Internet Explorer. Yes, it was that easy. Funny thing was that nowhere on the products site could I find this little flaw mentioned. So, I went into their "contact me" system and left a note mentioning this problem. Five minutes later I received the following response:

Your ticket concerning 'Your homepage unlocked' has been closed. Please take a moment to complete a short survey that will help us to serve you better in the future.

That's right folks. The product's creater responded to my "concerns" by closing the ticket and completly ignoring me. Looks like I'll be recommending his software to just about nobody that I ever meet.

P.S. Turns out that I'm not the only one who has issues with this software. I did a quick Google search and came up with this page which demonstrates another technical method around the software using JavaScript.

Opening up

Molly.com is a blog I read on a regular basis mainly for Molly's insights on Web design. (She's one of those 'famous' Internet folks.) Well, I suddenly feel odd about labeling her as 'famous' due to one of today's posts the small price of fame. This one really got me thinking about me.

I'm not saying I'm famous in the least but people in the library world, especially in the BCR region, know my name. I've not bothered counting the number of times I've heard "Oh yeah, I've seen your name. Can I ask you a question?" which like Molly's description is followed by something computer related. Now, this hasn't happened in the dentist or doctor office and usually occurs in a library and/or computer related environment but it still gets frustrating.

I was talking to my friend Barbara mid last year commenting on how, even though I meet hundreds of new people a year (maybe even more than a thousand in some cases) I still end up back in a hotel room at the end of the night. While on the road I usually end up having lunch with a new group of interesting individuals each day, but we usually end up talking about libraries and/or computers.

On a trip last Fall I ended up being invited to the house of one of the campus librarians (who was not attending any of my classes) who was a big jazz fan. We ended up having a wonderful meal cooked by his wife and listened to old jazz albums. (Yes, on vinyl!) No shop talk at all. He used to travel a lot himself and remembered how wonderful it was to be invited to someone's house for dinner. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that it was the first time in my more than six years of traveling that it had happened to me but I made it clear that I'd enjoyed myself immensely

I'm not trying to convince you that I'm lonely. I have my friends and they're all very special to me. I keep myself busy and I'm not unhappy living alone. Sometimes it just seems that even if you're surrounded by people you can still feel isolated.

Don saklad haiku

This is what happens when memebers of the Library Undergound mailing list get bored. They take the ravings of a nut and turn them into Haiku. I then take them and post them on a Web page. A little later, the site appears on LIS News and submissions start coming in...

Help the cause

Want to help me earn United frequent flyer miles while you do your online shopping? Just access any of the online stores through Mileage Plus Shopping or Mileage Plus Mall. If asked to sign in just enter msauers@bcr.org as the username and the miles will show up in my account. (At this point I only need 10,000 more miles for a free flight so every little bit helps.) Merchants include Barnes & Noble, Office Max, Best Buy, Target and L.L. Bean. (If needed for some reason, my mileage plus number is 00991074090. Safeway shoppers can just type my phone number in leiu of having a safeway card.)