librarian.net

come together @ your library

ADHD Librarian takes the meme and runs with it, with a song for the new National Library Week theme based on a familiar tune we all know.

She reading poster
She’s got reading fiction
She’s got int’net access
She got Porno filter
She say “One and one and one is ontology”
Got to be smart thinking ’cause she’s got library degree
Come together right now @ your library

I’ve been chitchatting with Simon as he’s been compiling and data-cleaning his set of LoC authority records. He’s at ALA now, and the data has been released into the wild. There’s something that warms my little librarian heart getting to read raw MARC on my own little laptop. Try it yourself!

friday night short link list

Posted on 20Jan0720Jan07 by jessamyn

Here in the frozen north Friday nights can often be a time to cook a big meal and curl up with a book and/or laptop while people in more populated areas do whatever people in more populated areas do. Here are a few of the things I have been reading this evening.

Testing the THOMAS Beta by Peggy Garvin – no RSS feeds, but the beta does seem to have some new useful features and an improved search.
Help for Librarians Receiving Law Enforcement Requests Revisited by Don Wood, ALAOIF whose blog is really worth reading
Surveying non-users, Sarah Houghton-Jan points to a library who is trying to figure out who is NOT using their library. I did a little bit of this during National Library week. I set up a library card sign-up table outside of Wal-Mart and met a LOT of non-library users. The main reason people didn’t go back to the library? Fines, especially for younger patrons.
ALA Read Write Connect. Not sure why this is a wiki, exactly, but it’s a great starting point for all of ALA’s newish bloggish and social content. There is a lot more than you would think!
Library Director Quits – Cites WiFi Dangers – I have mixed feelings about this. I’m not sure how you accept a job if you are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic radiation and don’t think to inquire whether there is an active WiFi network. I’m also not convinced by the downloadable Word documents that are provided on the Council on Wireless Technology Impacts’ science page

paradise lost, in the form of an OPAC

Posted on 19Jan07 by jessamyn

“This think piece tells why the online library catalog fell from grace and why new directions pertaining to cataloging simplification and primary sources will not attract people back to the online catalog.”

libraries and DRM

Posted on 19Jan0719Jan07 by jessamyn

The Listening Post blog over at Wired has an interesting little post about libraries that use Overdrive to “check out” digital content. The content only plays on Windows machines and comes with Digital Rights Management that tries to prevent copying and using materials past its built in due date. More interesting is the comments where people debate whether using DRM in cases like this is actually completely appropriate, or a totally unnecessary inconvenience to library patrons. [del.net]