Short Attention Span

You'd think that this under-employed thing would allow me to accomplish all sorts of stuff. But, um, no - in fact, I find that the more "free" time I have on my hands, the less I get done. I get too distracted by endless blog reading and other shiny objects - and by the time I get my act together to do something that actually needs doing, I'm not in the mood to do it (I am most productive early in the day). When I am working more, I get much more done, because it's necessary for me to be focused.

Anyway, I have finally updated the libraryland pages - I think all of the recently blogged content is accounted for, and I have updated the style to be a bit more readable (black text, more white space, better line height).

Also, I think I am going to try a new approach with the Info Share page. For some reason (and I am starting to take it personally) it's been really tough to get going. Actually, I have info from one person that I haven't added because I have been mulling over ways to make this page work, and get more people involved. Right now I am leaning towards a wiki; it would give people more control over the stuff they submit, the form they would like it presented in, etc, and I haven't done much with wikis yet, so it would be good experience for me as well.

I really hope that people occasionally check out the libraryland pages. Sometimes I don't know what to think - when I was in grad school, my libraryland site was pretty popular with the students, but now I "market" it from time-to-time on the school's listserve, and I don't ever get any feedback/participation. Weird.

libraryland - Become a Fonera!

After reading Erica's wireless post and the resulting comment drama, I was reminded of something I've been meaning to mention here.

As you might imagine, I am a big fan of collaboration. I'm also a big fan of easy-to-locate wireless access - not so much because I travel around with my laptop frequently (I don't, my laptop stinks and I spend most of my time either at home or at work, where I have all the internet I can stand), but because I would like to have such access available to me, when and if I need it. I'm like that.

Enter FON, which I think is a fantabulous concept/service/device.

FON is a wireless router that you can buy and configure to allow other FON owners access to your signal (but not your computer stuff) - for free. So, If I own a FON, and I travel to an area with my laptop (or WiFi phone!) where someone else is a FON user, I can hop on their wireless network (and vice-versa). To me, this is sharing at its best. And, if you would like to offer your signal to those who don't own a FON, or care to open up their signal, you can - and a make a few bucks in the process!

At $40, the FON is priced comparably to other wireless routers (and, as the FON has grown in popularity, the price has increased, just FYI).

Naturally, FON is most popular in places like NYC and parts of California, and it's been a bit slow to catch on here, which I think is due, in part, to that fact that FON, like Skype, is not an American company. But, I am planning on buying a FON as soon as I can so that I can join the 13 other people (really) in RI using it (and I had to laugh - one of them is on Prudence Island - a place with no public restrooms, restaurants, stores, and a one-room school house).

If each of us not only talks this up, but hooks one up, imagine the network we could build!

You in?

libraryland - Desktop on Demand

One of my favorite bloggers, Michael Casey, posted on a new web goodie, Desktop on Demand. It sounded intriguing, so I figured I'd try it out.

I like it. A lot.

In a nutshell, the service provides users with a Linux-based online desktop that features online file storage, email client, browser, multi-platform IM client, GIMP (photo editing), file encryption, and more - and you can access your desktop, securely, from any internet computer. It's really cool. I have not played with all of the options yet, but the free gig of online storage space alone is worth taking a look at.

I think introducing this type of service to our patrons would make life so much easier for some of them. Our computers have a locked CD drive, meaning that they have to save their stuff to either floppies or USB drives. Most of the patrons use floppies, but soon computers - and that includes ours - won't have floppies at all. And while some of us have been using USB drives for years, most of my internet patrons have no idea what a USB drive is, or are unable/unwilling to buy one (I am trying to get small drives donated to us). Also, patrons leave floppies and USB drives behind all the time - floppies get turned in to lost and found - USB drives do not (imagine that). DoD's online storage would make library computing much more manageable.

The potential for patron and staff applications with this program.... I get excited just thinking about it.

DoD is still in BETA at this point, and snooping around in the forum sheds some light on kinks that need to be worked out, but once the program makes its public debut, I am hoping to develop a class on it for our patrons (and staff).

I had to wait a couple of days to get a log-in, but if you are interested in trying it out, I have 25 invites I can hand out - drop me a line.

Can't. Stop. Laughing.

OK, I am posting this on all of my blogs, relevant or not, because I just find it so funny! Christie Brinkley! And, what is up with me looking like Patrick Swayze? And, um, where the Hell is Queen Latifah?

Hey, can I make this a meme? Can I? I am tagging YOU - please do this and post it on your blog (and leave comment here) so that I can have some more joy in my life.

Oh, but wait, this may be related to info stuff after all. The generator of this generator is MyHeritage.com, an up-and-coming genealogy search site that has joined the ranks of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org (and etc.). It's free to search, though the individual databases (about 400 of them) may charge you for access to pertinent results. Here's a decent overview of some of the genealogy sites from the Wall Street Journal.

What is clever about this fun time-waster (and creator of delusional thinking - Christie Brinkley!) is that it is really good at bringing someone into the MyHeritage site. Sure, as a librarian I am familiar with some of the genealogy databases and sites, but because it isn't an area of personal interest to me, this is one I hadn't heard of - until I saw someone else's Celebrity Look-Alike collage posted on their MySpace page (and their's was even more delusional, claiming she looked like Angelina Jolie - not). Great marketing!

Hey, this morphed into a libraryland post - how cool is that?

libraryland - lexisONE

Neither Lexis, nor Nexis, were my favorite databases in library school, simply because I found them overwhelming. But, that tends to happen when you have a database that is crammed full of information!

LexisNexis is the go-to source for legal and news research, but it's crazy expensive and out-of-reach for many institutions and freelancers. Enter lexisONE, LexisNexis' "resource for small law firms." This online community and database access site offers free access to case law, legal forms, and legal headline news, as well as mucho links to online legal resources. Sure, you can find much of this info online yourself, but it's handy to have it all in one place. Best of all, for those libraries and professionals that can't afford traditional subscription prices, lexisONE offers a number of "research value packages" that can make your research more affordable.

I'm also liking the "practice area" which allows you to brush up on search skills, and the a la carte services offered by both Lexis and Nexis.

If you have legal research to do, you might want to check this out.

libraryland - HighBeam Research

HighBeam Research is an article database that I haven't heard much about, but that's been the case with a couple of databases that have turned out to be decent places to look for obscure stuff. I have poked around a bit, and from my limited access it seems that the database is magazine heavy and features international content as well as US sources.

HighBeam isn't a free database, but has marketed itself as a research tool that falls between the free sources and the "high-end" subscriptions - and is priced at $99.95 a year (or 29.95 a month). You can sign-up for a free 7-day trial, but be aware that it is one of those that will start charging you if you fail to cancel before the trila is over (I hate that!).

HighBeam probably falls far short of academic research standards, but for $100, it may be a decent option for schools/libraries/freelancers that can't afford the higher-end goods, or who cater to mainstream research needs. Check out the interesting evolution of the company here.

You will find this resource on the article databases page.

libraryland - Look it up!

NinjaWords is my new favorite online dictionary (seems like a lotta ninjas in the searchosphere lately). It is exactly what it says it is - fast. Can look up many words - at once. No ads. Can be added to your sys tray (windows), dashboard (mac) and Firefox search bar. Check out the about page to see the sources of the definitions (cool!), and read the author's interesting blog post about why he created it. I like it.

You can find this again in libraryland on the search engines page.

Check it!

Ta-da! Here's the new and hopefully improved Cool Librarian Blog!

After a lot of thought, I decided to merge libraryland over here, rather than moving the CL blog archives over to WordPress. Yes, yes, I know that no one understands why I would choose Blogger over WP. Yes, I know that WP is the superior blogging platform. But, you know what? In the end, it was just easier for me to screw with the code and re-create the libraryland content in new pages that match this blog's layout. Moving to my WP blog would have meant: transfering this blogs' archive content into WP; finding a new template that I liked and could use my headline banner with (which would have meant screwing with the WP templates/code to get it the way I want it); and changing the WordPress URL to reflect cool librarian rather than libraryland (and all the BS that goes along with THAT process). Somewhere in all of that it was pretty much guaranteed that something would have gone horribly wrong, and I would have spent days banging my head on the keyboard swearing about my lost and/or messed-up content. And, my readers would have had to update their feeds/links.

So, in the end, it was easier to spend a few hours cutting, pasting, and tweaking some code to get the WP page content over here. And, I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the results (OK, I am shocked that I was able to make the pages match pretty well).

So, at the top of the blog page are the links to the libraryland resource pages. When I add resources that I like, I will blog the addition and then add it to the appropriate "static" content page. That way, readers are free to simply watch their feed for new blog content or browse the content pages.

I've added a search function to each page and the blog since the tagging here is somewhat less than optimal at this point.

Please feel free to suggest content for the "libraryland" pages, and if you find an error/typo/dead link, let me know that as well.

I hope you like it.