Submitted by Tom Peters on September 19, 2006 - 10:52pm
Happy birthday to the ALA TechSource Blog, which turned one-year old today. My great colleague Lori Bell, of the Alliance Library System, commented to me that she thought my dog Max had emerged this year as my bona fide muse. I often think about library and information technology issues as Max and I take our daily, early morning walks through the neighborhood.
 So, to honor my muse, I asked Max which walk was his favorite during the past twelve months. He fondly recalled a May morning when an entire family of raccoons sauntered across the darkened street before our wakening eyes.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on September 13, 2006 - 5:55pm
Despite or because of its runaway success, the iPod/iTunes service from Apple has more than a few critics and enemies. Some musicians and music companies don't like the strategy of ninety-nine-cent pricing. It smacks of the cheesy dollar-store marketing mindset. I agree with the heat-wave gripes about Apple that Karen Schneider posted to this blog in July, and I can add a few more rants of my own.
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Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on September 11, 2006 - 7:16pm
If you've ever visited the user-outreach Mecca that is the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL)—either physically or virtually—then it's likely no surprise to you that the winner of the Talis-sponsored "Mashing Up the Library" competition is none other than AADL's very own John Blyberg (also of blyberg.net). John's entry, the Go-Go-Google Gadget (more information about it on blyberg.net here), "shows how simply library information can be integrated into the personalized home page offered by Google," says Talis's technology evangelist Paul Miller.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on September 8, 2006 - 9:28pm
Every day companies are coming out with new tools to reach their users on the Web. Many companies have learned that rolling out products before they are completely formed—in beta or even in alpha mode—can save them development time and money. By giving their customers an early look at a product, companies are empowering customers to use the tool in new ways and are providing them with an opportunity to ask the company for functionality that product developers may never have considered.
Companies in Beta
Meebo, a robust, widely used instant-messaging (IM) service is still in an alpha phase. Meebo allows users to sign into more than one IM account with more than one IM provider at the same time, so all of a user's accounts appear together on the same screen. For people in restrictive IT environments, there are no downloads when using Meebo.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on August 17, 2006 - 7:43pm
Wowio, an LLC based in York, Pennsylvania, recently launched a free downloadable e-book service. The company's collection at launch is pretty sparse, but it does include both public domain and copyright-protected e-books. During my first use of the collection, I downloaded both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—if for no other reason than to relish Emmeline Grangerford's mournful Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots—and Slaughterhouse Five. 
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Submitted by Michael Stephens on August 15, 2006 - 10:39am
A librarian colleague e-mailed me yesterday and asked about the libraries I'd visited this summer: "Which ones really had some cool things happen? Which ones were innovating?" Truth be told, there were many to choose from, like: Read More »
Submitted by Tom Peters on August 3, 2006 - 11:02pm
 Just when we thought it was safe to return to the snippet-infested digital content pool, HarperCollins came along and launched today its own snippet-dangling service that tries to lure readers, especially "young-adult readers" (is that phrase becoming an oxymoron?) to buy more books (primarily) and read more (coincidentally).
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on August 3, 2006 - 11:42am
We will anticipate and respond to the ways our users find, create, and
share knowledge, and we will be fully integrated into the personalized
library experience for each user and welcoming spaces for collaboration
and discovery.
On campus and online, we will be a valued partner in the academic life of our students, faculty, and community. Read More »
Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on August 1, 2006 - 5:08pm
It's a special day here at ALA TechSource. Not only did Jenny Levine begin at ALA today in her new job as Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, but also today Michelle Boule, of Wandering Eyre Blog fame, officially starts as a contributor to this blog. (Watch your aggregator for her first post about utilizing committees to influence technology-related decisions.)
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