Submitted by Karen G. Schneider on May 20, 2006 - 10:57am
In my two (Part 1 here, Part 2 here) earlier pieces on this topic, I focused very narrowly on some fairly obvious limitations with online catalogs, limiting my discussion to weaknesses in OPAC searching from the user's point of view.
There are other issues with online catalogs much bigger and more problematic than search results—problems that can't be addressed by improving relevance ranking or adding spell-check (however valuable those features are to OPACs).
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Submitted by Tom Peters on May 19, 2006 - 2:49pm
Usually I have a terrible memory. Once, in high school, I forgot the name of the young woman I was dating at the time—in her presence. Oddly, I recall her name very clearly now, thirty-three years later.
 Even my addled pate, however, is capable of creating and maintaining vivid memories. I remember very well the sight of Charles Bailey poking his head into a crowded room just prior to the start of an ALA Annual Conference presentation—probably in June 1989—asking, at the top of his lungs, if people wanted to be able to communicate online with colleagues about professional issues. Like a union organizer, he frantically handed out printed leaflets to the eager, huddled masses describing how to subscribe to PACS-L.
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Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on May 17, 2006 - 11:14pm
When you come here, you're going to find libraries raising themselves up from the dust. We're down, but we're not out. We're working very diligently trying to put our libraries back on the map, back into the situation we were in before—even better than we were before. You're going to find that some of us have made more progress than others, but there will always be the spirit of hope.—Dr. Read More »
Submitted by Michael Stephens on May 15, 2006 - 3:55pm
Digitally re-shifting your school library is about harnessing the power of new ideas like Web 2.0 to help fulfill the mission of school libraries. It does not necessarily mean discarding the old, but rather reconsidering what works best in meeting new challenges in a changing educational world. It's all a part of helping students become literate users of information in order for them to have successful careers in school and beyond. Remember that for some students, a rich school library experience may be their only library experience. Let's use every opportunity to help our students engage the joy of reading and the power of information.—Chris Harris, "School Library 2.0," School Library Journal
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Submitted by Tom Peters on May 2, 2006 - 12:40pm
 Earlier this week, after years of a court-induced coma, the Napster.com Web site became live and free again. This time, the Napster executives claim they are too legit to quit.
Here's the new deal. Napster claims to have two-million songs in its master collection. If an individual fills out a no-cost Web registration form, he or she is then allowed to listen to any and all of the tunes up to five times. You do the math.
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Submitted by Michael Stephens on April 25, 2006 - 1:20pm
 I've just finished my semester at Dominican as an adjunct—the version
of LIS 753 Internet Fundamentals & Design I teach is taught over
three fun-filled and information-packed weekends—and turning the
students in the class on to online social tools and the bigger picture of what's happening online was a
highlight for me. We ended the class with group presentations, a discussion of the Newsweek cover story on the Social Web, and a look at three 2.0 job descriptions as a wrap up.
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Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on April 21, 2006 - 5:30pm
Three new Biblioblogosphere-related blogs (well, actually there are five and counting) to get acquainted with over the weekend... Read More »
Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on April 19, 2006 - 5:26pm
[UPDATE: The title has been corrected from the original publishing of this post.]
Booklist Online, as of the beginning of April, is ready for your library staff members' (and your patrons', if you so desire) perusal. To facilitate the browsing, the newly launched online version of Booklist is available via a free thirty-day trial.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on April 17, 2006 - 10:52am
Avatars need libraries, too, you know. An avatar—in this context—is "an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality." Last Thursday, the Alliance Library System officially announced that this summer it plans to begin offering library services to avatars who live and work in the 3D virtual space Second Life. Second Life has significantly more than 100,000 registered avatars, but at any given time a few thousand are actually online and active, so this global virtual village currently is about the size of Vegetable City, Iowa. You can set up one avatar for free, but the real folks at Second Life do ask for a credit card number or Paypal info. for verification purposes.
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Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on April 13, 2006 - 6:28pm
Can we claim that there's a difference between watching television and playing a video game? or reading a book and surfing the Web? or writing a letter and writing an e-mail? or having a conversation and participating in some form of Instant Messaging? Does the mobility of telecommunications shift our everyday lives? Are we more individualized in contemporary culture than we were when people watched television in the 1960s and `70s?
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