January 2011
32 posts
4 tags
Sharepoint Week
Sharepoint Week Welcome to Sharepoint week! I have a new project that will involve using Sharepoint to manage creative assets, milestones and documents. To prepare for this assignment, I am first reviewing Sharepoint as it has been a while since I used it. My first step was a thorough review of the application made possible by a lovely and concise course on the WebJunction site. I must report...
Jan 31st
6 tags
What a Book List!
What a Book List! I ran across this list the other day when using StumbleUpon - the Best English-Language FIction of the Twentieth Century compiled by Brian Kunde at Stanford. This list is interesting for a number of reasons. First, if you’d like to see how many of these books you’ve read, it is always interesting. Secondly, the ranking system is thoroughly explained and documented...
Jan 30th
2 notes
5 tags
That DAM Identifier
That DAM Identifier Just like many terms associated with technology, the word ‘identifier’ has multiple meanings dependent on the context and application. I have always thought of an identifier akin to a filename - a unique alpha numeric combination attributed to a single asset. Some metadata standards actually have elements called the identifier. Now, this blog discusses an...
Jan 29th
52 notes
3 tags
Superlibrarian to the Rescue!
Superlibrarian to the Rescue! Thank goodness there’s a contest on Facebook to nominate Librarian Superheroes. Surreptitiously sponsored by Gale/Cenage Learning in anticipation of the ALA conference, this contest seeks nominees that embrace emerging technologies, show leadership, exhibit determination and enthusiasm and push the boundaries. Instead of wondering if this describes most of us...
Jan 28th
3 notes
6 tags
5 Very Special LIS Things + 1 Bonus Thing
5 Very Special LIS Things + 1 Bonus Thing Last week, the column in the New York Times that provided inspiration for this one only listed 8 things instead of their usual 10. But I am not going to shortchange you. In fact, I am adding a bonus thing: 1. Is it curation or editing? Discuss after reading this. 2. Ever need a photo editor when you are away from your trusted Photoshop? Try Pixlr. 3....
Jan 27th
3 notes
3 tags
Page Turners Wanted
Page Turners Wanted Take a gander at this device called the Book Saver. With the use of little hanging camera technology, this ingenious tool claims to digitize a 200 page book in about 15 minutes. While not nearly as effortless as a CD ripper, the advent of this technology is worrisome to publishers. It is worth noting that the Book Saver still requires an actual person (or monkey) to turn the...
Jan 25th
2 notes
6 tags
Mobile Library Free for All
Mobile Library Free for All By now, you’ve all been shocked and awed by the sheer numbers of mobile users and are likely suitably impressed by the opportunity this presents for libraries. What is disproportionate is the number of libraries offering mobile services, especially applications for instruction. I recently had the good fortune to speak with a number of Washington library web...
Jan 24th
2 notes
8 tags
CLAROS: Classical Art Research
CLAROS: Classical Art Research Claiming to be the “virtual integration of digital assets on classical art,” the CLAROS site uses Semantic Web data integration technologies and state-of-the art image recognition algorithms to bring classical art to anyone, any time, anywhere. Made possible in part through a grant from the University of Oxford, this site will eventually serve as a...
Jan 23rd
2 notes
9 tags
Twitter Proves Libraries are Important
Twitter Proves Libraries are Important Mar Dixon never expected such a reaction when she tweeted this message: “Libraries are important because … [fill in your answer & RT] #savelibraries.” Even Neil Gaiman weighed in along with more than 5,000 others. This article in the Guardian UK gives the saliant details. Some of the highlights include tweets like this one by...
Jan 22nd
2 notes
3 tags
Daily Color Scheme
Daily Color Scheme Truly this resource falls more into the design world than the library and information world, but it shouldn’t. Think about all those times you tried to think of a pleasing mix of colors for your library website or blog. Consider the importance of fabulous signs and branding. I really like this site for brainstorming colors! Daily Color Scheme
Jan 21st
9 tags
It's Thursday: 5 Things for Scintillating LIS...
It’s that time again. Here are 5 LIS topics to discuss and explore this week. 1. Ever wonder how to effectively audit assets for a digital asset management project? 2. Curious about anti-alcohol posters from Russia? Feast your liver on these selections from the Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters. 3. Want to monitor your personal brand? 4. Wish you were a tween game designer? Look at what...
Jan 20th
1 note
9 tags
Chicago "L" Poster Collection
Chicago “L” Poster Collection This gem of a collection contains advertising posters from the 1920’s produced by the Chicago Rapid Transit Company to promote use of the “L” train. Even before sustainability was a catch phrase, the importance of public transportation in high population areas was paramount. In perusing the selections, you’ll notice location...
Jan 19th
4 tags
On Content, Conciseness and Metadata
On Content, Conciseness and Metadata Accessories are kind of like web content - too much of a good thing, is just too much. As Coco Chanel once said regarding accessories, “always remove one thing before going out the door.” Aaron Schmidt’s new post on Library Journal is built on the same premise. In The Benefits of Less: The User Experience, Schmidt encourages care, precision...
Jan 18th
4 tags
Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? This recent article seems to be inciting a ton of controversy in librarian circles inspiring a Mad Lib and even an interactive version. While I agree that it is ill advised to focus on superficial features attributed to young, hip librarians like their heavy framed architect glasses and wacky shoes, can’t we all just get along? Librarians with...
Jan 17th
1 note
9 tags
UCSC Grateful Dead Archive
UCSC Grateful Dead Archive I’ve never been a deadhead. But, I really appreciate the care and consideration that has gone into creating the online presence for the University of California Santa Cruz’s Grateful Dead archive. In my opinion, this is a superb example of taking a collection with high pop culture value and effectively marketing it in a manner that is appealing and...
Jan 16th
9 notes
4 tags
Bauhaus: Not the Band, the Museum
Bauhaus: Not the Band, the Museum Another incredible find courtesy of my infatuation with StumbleUpon. The Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design in Berlin is concerned with the research and presentation of the history and impact of the Bauhaus (1919-1933), the most important school of architecture, design, and art of the 20th century. It is the most complete existing collection focused on the...
Jan 15th
Museum and Library App Mania!
Museum and Library App Mania! Earlier in the week, I wrote a post about the new mobile app for The British Library. Inspired, I embarked on an iPhone download fiesta. To follow, please find blurbs on the ‘Treasures’ app as well as comparable projects by a variety of institutions. The British Library: Treasures A video is worth a thousand words, so here is a classy little promo...
Jan 14th
6 tags
5 LIS Things to Discuss Amongst Yourselves
5 LIS Things to Discuss Amongst Yourselves Here are five fabulous LIS related topics to talk about over coffee. Should Jerry Brown really restart his California gubernatorial term by cutting public library funding by a fatal amount? Would you like to sing happy birthday to Wikipedia or curse the day it was born ten years ago? Have some time on your hands? Add a book or description to the...
Jan 13th
10 tags
A National Digital Library: Wouldn't It Be Nice?
A National Digital Library: Wouldn’t It Be Nice? The article Playing Catch-Up in a Digital Library Race appeared in the New York Times on January 8, 2011. The topic is how the United States is lagging woefully behind other countries like uber efficient Norway and the Netherlands in efforts to create some kind of unified national digital knowledge repository. Despite Ben Franklin being at...
Jan 12th
1 note
6 tags
Nifty Smartphone App for British Library
Nifty Smartphone App for British Library Now you can explore the world’s knowledge via some nifty smartphone applications for The British Library. In parnership with Toura, a platform for mobile guides, the first offering called ‘Treasures’ includes over 100 images curated as highlights of the collections ranging from illuminate manuscripts to sacred texts. Images are high...
Jan 11th
New Blog Platform for Mod Librarian!
New Blog Platform for Mod Librarian! Because I would like to more easily allow comments and distribute content, I am testing a migration to an entirely new blog platform for the Mod Librarian blog - Posterous. New URL is http://modlibrarian.posterous.com. Daily posts will be automatically pushed to Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and Tumblr. You can set up a new RSS subscription about midway down...
Jan 10th
3 tags
Digital Mortality: Posthumous Social Media
Digital Mortality: Posthumous Social Media What if I post this, walk outside, and get crushed by a giant anvil falling from the sky? My Tumblr account will have automatically pushed content to Twitter and Facebook and there is a possibility that retweeting and comments may continue unmoderated. My face might keep popping up in the sidebars of Facebook and Linked In as a suggested connection for...
Jan 10th
13 notes
2 tags
Do You Miss Mad Men?
Do You Miss Mad Men? Then take a look at the Vintage Ad Browser. With almost 125,000 ads from the 1800’s to the present, this resource was created by Philipp Lensen. Categories range from Animals (lots of pet food ads) to Tobacco to Alcohol, with a few very specific ones thrown in like Coke or Joe Camel. The ads vary in scan quality as the collection was aggregated from a wide variety of...
Jan 9th
8 tags
Want to be in Pictures?
Want to be in Pictures? Ever wonder what a moving image archivist does? Well, Lance Watsky can tell you all about being an audio visual archivist. In this interview, Lance describes his educational and career path leading up to his current jobs - one as the program coordinator for the Moving Image Archive Studies program at the UCLA iSchool and the other as an Audio-Visual Archivist at Point 360,...
Jan 8th
3 notes
7 tags
The Regal Freegal
The Regal Freegal My library, The Seattle Public Library, just introduced the Freegal Music database. As a patron with a valid library card, you can log in to Freegal, search the extensive collection of songs, and then download three songs per week for FREE as the name implies. This is awesome, however, it seems a little like borrowing a book from the library and then never returning it. And,...
Jan 7th
3 notes
2 tags
5 LIS Things to Discuss This Weekend
5 LIS Things to Discuss This Weekend Without further ado, here are 5 things to ruminate whether you’re at ALA Midwinter or relishing the post-holiday post-blizzard winter days. 1. Interested in integrating digital media into teaching? Check out Ethnographic Research and Digital Media. 2. Would you like to obsessively track your everyday data? Well, keep a list of those Starbucks beverages...
Jan 6th
2 notes
4 tags
Better Best Practices for Digitization
Better Best Practices for Digitization Did you know that the Library of Congress hosts a site featuring best practices, guidelines, tutorials and glossaries for still image digitization? The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative and the Still Images Working Group has compiled Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials available as a PDF for download. In...
Jan 6th
1 note
5 tags
Museum Metadata Games
Museum Metadata Games Mia Ridge, the lead developer at the Science Museum in London has teamed up with my favorite Powerhouse Museum for a creative research project - using online games encouraging users to tag museum objects. There is no barrier to playing Dora’s Lost Data or Donald’s Detective Puzzle. Users can register to track their accumulated tagging points, but anyone can...
Jan 5th
1 note
3 tags
Can You Play Stairway to Heaven?
Can You Play Stairway to Heaven? I’m sure you have probably already heard about the East Palo Alto Library’s plan to start lending electric guitars complete with amps and music lessons. To me, this seems a very interesting interpretation of creating a library that fosters community and learning and that is about much more than those seemingly obsolete printed books. Guitar lending,...
Jan 4th
2 tags
Does Your Social Media Lack Strategy?
Does Your Social Media Lack Strategy? Social media without strategy is like peanut butter without jelly - still tasty, but incomplete. Whether your interest and participation in the social media universe is personal or for your library, museum or organization, these words of wisdom from Umair Haque on the Harvard Business Review blog ring true. In From Social Media to Social Strategy, Haque...
Jan 3rd
7 tags
Analog vs. Digital
Analog vs. Digital Leala Abbott wrote a mighty fine blog post recently on analog versus digital assets called The Analog-ists Revenge. She astutely points out that many of the unwieldy processes being applied to managing digital assets stem directly from analog thinking. Here is a great analogy: “To describe how managing digital information differs from the analog world. I often use my...
Jan 2nd
1 note
Jan 1st