Not much into delayed gratification

Okay, so I'm switching to a Mac. I decided originally to go with an iBook but learned I would have to wait two weeks for it. Obviously excited and out shopping I was looking around at a local computer store and spied demo models for both the iBook and PowerBook. You can see where this is heading. A colleague, thanks Bill, mentioned the PowerBook and I thought I would have a closer look at the it and the iBook. Randy, the sales guy, showed the two off very well and made a bunch of valid points in comparing the two computers. You can see where this is heading. As you know if you are a technogeek or even a wanna-be technogeek, you can justify the purchase of almost any new toy. It helps to have an understanding spouse who is as big a technogeek as you are.... you can see where this is heading. [sigh] If you haven't guessed, I am typing this post on my brand-new, super cool Mac PowerBook. I guess I can't wait! Unabashedly a technogeek, who is not into delayed gratification. I'm off to put my entire CD collection into iTunes.

Google scholar

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) was released in beta version in November 2004 and is an effort by Google to create a database of scholarly articles for which citation and abstract information is widely available to all users. Google Scholar is not stating where they are getting the citations from, but PubMed, ACM, and IEEE all appear in the search results. Google Scholar also includes library materials which may or may not be scholarly from a database called WorldCat.

Things to note

• Google Scholar searches a separate database from Google Web;
• We don't know how big Google Scholar is and what it covers;
• Google Scholar provides access to citations and abstracts but not necessarily the full text of articles;
• Google Scholar duplicates information contained in many full-text databases already provided by academic libraries.

Caveats

If you are looking to Google Scholar as a replacement for PubMed/Medline and other health sciences databases, be cautious. Rita Vine, author of SiteLines, has discovered that Google Scholar is a full year late indexing its PubMed content. This raises questions about the currency and accuracy of other Google Scholar content.

Cool tools

Google Scholar @ my library

You can now set preferences in Google Scholar which will allow you to see holdings information from participating libraries. If you are accessing Google Scholar from a campus workstation, you can do your search and the results will display a text link to the library's linking service. Click on this link to view the full text of the item (if it is available).

If you are working from home you must set the Google Scholar Preferences before searching in order to view materials from the Libraries. To set your preferences:

• Navigate to Google Scholar
• Click on the Scholar Preferences link to the right of the search button. Click in the checkbox next to your library of choice.
• Click Save Preferences
• Search as you would normally

If patrons continue to experience problems accessing library materials and the institution has a proxy server, patrons should be encouraged to access Google Scholar through the proxy server. This seems to solve the issue.

Firefox extension shows Libraries holdings

If your library is using an OpenURL product to provide access to e-journals and you use the new Firefox web browser there is an extension available from Openly Informatics that makes it possible to display the library's holdings for each citation.

If you decide to download the OpenURL Referrer, follow these instructions to set up the preferences:

• From the Firefox menu bar click Tools
• Next click Extensions
• Select OpenURL Referrer and click on Options
• Select / Enter the following preferences:
  • Profiles: select OpenResolver
  • Link Server Base URL: (obtain from your library)
  • Image Location: (obtain from your library)
• Click OK
• Using the Firefox web browser go to Google Scholar
• Type in your search
• Click on the Link Resolver Service button as you would normally

Bookmarklet

Paul R. Pival, Distance Education Librarian at the University of Calgary, and author of the blog, The Distant Librarian, has created an easy-to-use bookmarklet to help you search Google Scholar more quickly from your web browser. The bookmarklet and instructions on its use are available from his site.

Articles

Kennedy, Shirl and Gary Price. "Big news: "Google Scholar" is Born" (Nov. 18, 2004) from ResourceShelf

Sullivan, Danny. "Google Scholar offers access to academic information" (Nov. 18, 2004) from SearchEngineWatch

Tenopir, Carol. "Google in the Academic Library" (Feb. 1, 2005) from LibraryJournal

Vine, Rita. "Google Scholar is a Full Year Late Indexing PubMed Content" (Feb. 8,2005) from SiteLines

Blog

On Google Scholar

USB Flash Drives

USB Flash Drives, Memory keys, thumb drives all refer to the same thing. This is a removable storage device that in most cases is about thumb sized or smaller. You plug it into your computer via a USB port and use it like you would your old floppy or zip disk. The difference is the amount of storage that can be squeezed into such a small space. Typically USB Flash Drives come in a variety of memory options 128, 256, 512 MB or 1GB. The more memory the greater the price. Still the same physical size! My USB Flash Drive can hold 256MB in storage which is the rough equivalent of 177 floppy disks in something a little larger than your average quarter! I was going to take a picture of my drive next to 177 floppy disks but I couldn't come up with that many floppy disks in my house! My only complaint with my I-stick is that it is so small that I am absolutely teffified of losing it. I'm also concerned about its fragility. The storage medium itself is very robust. The company that makes this particular flash drive has a manufacturer's warrenty of 3 years. I'm just afraid of sitting on it. Luckily these drives come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

• PocketRocket - more memory than you can shake a stick at.
• Imation's USB 2.0 Swivel flash drive - swiveling cap
• Titanium flash drive - perhaps this is the one for me!
• USB mince pie flash drive
• Stuffed animal flash drive
• Sushi flash drive

In libraries I know this technology isn't new but our library has only had patrons asking to use this technology for about the last year and a half. We liked using them so much that we actually purchased a couple of USB Flash Drives to loan out. It seems an odd thing to do with a storage medium but it has proved to be very useful. Floppies seem to be failing at an alarming rate not to mention older ones getting stuck in computers. It is nice to have a backup storage medium for patrons to use. Students use it to transfer large files for a variety of reasons.

• Their floppy is stuck in the drive with all of their saved assignments. We can't get it out without harming the floppy so we pop in the USB Flash Drive. Save their data to it and transfer it onto another floppy.
• They've just scanned all of their vacation photos at high-resolution on our scanners and want to load them onto their laptop. Sure a CD read-write drive is available but they don't want to use it. Enter the USB Flash drive.
• They're working on a group PowerPoint Presentation and they want to share the finished file.

Any number of reasons. If you don't already have one available for your patrons, I really recommend the purchase of a USB Flash Drive and cable (for those hard to reach USB ports).

I'm almost leaving the Borg Collective

Okay, I've finally done it. I've crossed over to the dark side. I've been a PC user for the majority of my life and today I ordered an iBook. A what? An iBook, I bit the bullet and ordered a Mac laptop. I've been wanting to purchase a Mac computer for years but haven't been able to justify the purchase. I'll get my new techno-gadget in about two weeks. Until then I'll probably post as normal. After then? Well, let's just say I'll be a little pre-occupied for a while! :) Yes, I'll post about my experiences as a die hard PC user slowly morphing into a Mac addict, but I will also continue to post on more neutral technology. Afterall, I'm only almost leaving the Borg Collective. ;) What made me take the plunge? I've been seriously watching Mac products for the last 5 years. My main concern has always been the ability to transfer files from PC to Mac. I do all of my work in the Microsoft Office environment. I'm completely comfortable with WORD, EXCEL, PowerPoint and Access. I like working with these products and they do everything I need them to do and even more. I wanted to be sure that I could transfer my files without a hitch between my PC at work and a Mac. I'm told that this is no longer a problem and hasn't been for some time. One minor problem, I've also been told that Microsoft Access is not available for the Mac. [gasp] I've built a number of databases in Access to help with workflow and statistics at our library. Access works well and is a standard in our institution. So what am I going to do with my iBook? Well, not do Microsoft Access database work apparently. I'll still work in Access at work but not at home. This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I've also been getting tired of dealing with virus', virus protection software, adware, malware and every other kind of nasty computer eating 'ware out there. No, I've never had a PC destroyed by a virus but the little suckers sure have made hard disk cleanup a pain. I know Mac's aren't immune to this but they aren't as big a target as PC technology. I'm a web developer. All the software I am currently using was built originally for the Mac environment and then reworked for the PC. The result is still functional but I'd like to use it in its original manifestation. I needed a laptop. Okay, maybe need isn't entirely the right word. I wanted a laptop computer of my own that I didn't have to checked-out or in through work. A computer that was portable and that I could make my own. I also wanted to be able to learn a different technology and test out some different software. It was time for a change. Hopefully, my library will see some benefit in the long run. I anticipate being asked frequently to check out new databases, e-books, web sites on my new iBook and provide feed back. Until then... is there anyone out there who has made "the switch" and can offer some advice to a newbie?

VoIP in libraries

Using VoIP (Internet telephony) in an academic library setting makes a lot of sense. This is especially the case if you are offering distance education library services. Sherri Vokey of the University of Winnipeg is considering doing just that. I hope she'll post more about this. Most libraries now have access to the Internet but not all are able to afford a toll free line to help patrons living outside their area code. The free or low fee long distance services could be a pretty attractive option for libraries looking to provide this type of service or to expand existing services. I suspect that a large portion of distance learners are now doing their learning via computer and the Internet. While high speed connectivity is not ubiquitous in remote areas, my understanding of the technology is that it will function adequately with a dialup connection. If the patron is on the Internet anyway it seems a natural fit to have a librarian available to them via Internet telephony. Are there any libraries out there providing services this way? What has your experience been like?

VoIP, not the sound your corduroy pants make

VoIP actually stands for "Voice over Internet Protocol" also known as Internet telephony. VoIP turns analog telephone signals into digital signals which can be sent over the Internet. Phone calls using V0IP can be made cheaply or in some cases freely over the Internet with the only charge being the one from your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

• VoIP Wiki - What is VoIP
• How VoIP Works (Howstuffworks)

That last link has a marvelous description of the three different ways to take advantage of this technology. You need either an ATA (analog telephone adapter) which connects your analog phone to your computer, an IP phone (which I saw for the first time yesterday in a local gadget store) or a computer with speakers, a microphone and a sound card. Being the geek that I am, I decided to purchase a PC headset (headphones with a boom microphone) instead of the microphone only. These can be had quite cheaply from most computer stores. My husband, a sound geek, says that you get what you pay for with this technology so spend more if you can afford it. If you're really keen, I'm happy to give you the specs from my headset as an idea of what to look for in the mid-range between super cheap - broadcast quality. I've known about this technology for some time. My mother became interested in it as a cheaper way to place long distance phone calls to family. I was quite skeptical about this technology as something a library might be interested in until I started noticing blogging librarians with posts entitled "Skype Me!". Steven M. Cohen - Librarystuff.net - Skype Me Michael Stevens - Tame the Web - Skype Sherri Vokey - shwagbag - Skype Me (updated links. thanks Sherri) Skype is free Internet Telephony software. It also has a fee-based component which allows you to use this technology to call ordinary telephones. I have been waiting to purchase my headset before joining in! My Skype nickname is cacemlis (click on my nickname to contact me if you are already a Skype user). Caveat Telemarketers and spam will find you where ever you are! Check out these articles before you think all is rosey with this technology. VoIP to Fuel Plague of 'Dialing for Dollars' By Michael Singer of internetnews.com [link via Slashdot] Skam artists usher in Skype spam by Barb Dybwad from engadget

Technogeek speak... do you IM?

I've been blogging a little about doing Instant Messaging (IM) and trying to sort out what what I want to do about it professionally. I've been trying to find other librarians who want to mess around with the software so that I can improve my skills and be able to speak knowledgably about the topic. Okay, I'm playing! :) I've been using Trillian software to manage 5 IM accounts on (Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, mIRC, MSN). This sounds complicated but it's actually very easy. Signup for all these services, setup your profile to let people know you are a librarian, get Trillian to help you manage it all. I remain very impressed with Trillian. But that's not the subject of this post! I date myself online in IM. I always type full sentences with capitals and puctuation in most of the right places. I'm a fast touch typist and am proud of it. BUT this is a brave new world and acroynms abound. Where do you think LOL (laugh out loud) came from? Our patrons are using acroyms as adeptly as if they were fluent in a language. I admit to being able to decipher IMHO (in my humble opinion), L8r (later) and TTFN (ta ta for now ala Tigger from AA Milne fame) but the rest leaves me gaping. BBL, CSG, FOMCL ... augh! Today I saw a post from Ken Leebow of Blogging about Incredible Blogs on Chat Lingo. Finally a primer! Check out this PDF on Chat Abbreviations. I also found:

• High Tech Dictionary Chat Symbols - nicely set up for quick scanning
• netLingo.com: text shorthand - yielded my new favourite acronym AAAAA or American Association Against Acronym Abuse (can you say LOL!). Thanks to Librarians' Index to the Internet for this link, you rock!

So to communicate more quickly and succinctly we have to learn how to use the new language of acronyms. I'm willing to give it a go who knows @TEOTD it might be fun!

L8r

Alternative Browsers: What is your library doing?

In January I posted about some alternative browsers and recently I have come across two more which look interesting. Maxthon browser [via local technoguru] http://www.maxthon.com/ Deepnet Explorer [via Peter Scott on Web4Lib] http://www.deepnetexplorer.com/ Both of these browsers appear to offer as much functionality as Firefox and Netscape. They also say that they are Internet Explorer friendly (I guess they play nice together). Why do I bring these up? I'm not entirely sure. As a reference librarian, I really appreciate the convenience of having a browser in the library that every patron has access to. It makes education easier and answering questions easier. How? Well, a single browser takes the process of accessing the Internet out of the equation. You use the same instructions for each handout, each training session and each question. For several years our institution had two browsers so that patrons could choose to access their favourite flavour. In practice this wasn't as bad as it sounds. Librarians and staff adjusted rather well and the two browsers used similar terminology when doing the same task. Over time it became more and more critical to be able to push software updates from a single location (technoguru's desktop) to a few hundred seperate stations and one software was better able to handle this than the other and so a standard was set. The information literacy initiatives of the library became much easier to plan as two sets of instructions were no longer needed. Some librarians heaved a sigh of relieve and others were not all that pleased. I guess what I am trying to say is that from a library standpoint no matter how large or small standards need to be set for ease of use. I used to always think that a "standard" browser was the better option to give the majority of our users something they are familiar with, but now I'm not so sure. Some of the new functionality in the alternative browsers is pretty compelling. Especially the claims to be better able to deal with security issues (viruses, phishing, spam). Do we teach patrons about the possibilities by exposing them to a "non-standard" standard browser or do we patiently wait for the existing browser developer to "get it"? Is there anyone out there using a "non-standard" browser as their standard? How is it going? Inquiring minds want to know.

Not your regular RSS aggregator

There are three types of RSS aggregator software.

1. Desktop based - software is downloaded to your computer and you run the software from there (e.g. Pluck)
2. Web based - you access and interact with the software housed on someone elses server on the internet (e.g. Bloglines)
3. Web server based - you find a technogeek with the rights and privilages to download and install the software on your web server (e.g. Planet)

I knew this third type existed but I've never seen an example until I learned about Planet Dal CS at Dalhousie University's Computer Science Department. What happens is that RSS feeds from various different blogs can be aggregated under one feed and then displayed on a web site. From the horses mouth James Bowes of Dalhousie University kindly provided this information: "Planet.cs.dal.ca runs planet, which is hosted on the Sun Microsystem servers in the CS department. I found planet very nice to use, particularly because it only does one thing, and does it well. My personal blog uses pyblosxom; I don't think it's user-friendly enough for most people, though. Some other bloggers on Planet Dal CS use accounts from LiveJournal and blogger , which are nice because you don't have to do any of the setup yourself, and they provide web interfaces. " The press from Planet: "Planet is a flexible feed aggregator. It downloads news feeds published by web sites and aggregates their content together into a single combined feed, latest news first." Library application Having just received multiple RSS feeds for our libraries I can see the value of providing a single aggregated feed for our users. Flexibility is good so that patrons can decide which feeds they are interested in, however, simplicity is good as well! One feed displayed on our web site will make it easy to bring all the news together in one location. I love the Dalhousie application. I am certain there are a large number of individual bloggers creating blogs about their work at some departments in our institution and it would be nice to create a community just as the Dalhousie Computer Science department has. Credit Thanks to Richard Akerman for the heads-up and to James Bowes for the information!

Treo 650 Review

So the time came for me to purchase a new phone. At first I was going to just upgrade to a Treo 600. However being on MTS (Bell Mobility) and with MTS using CDMA technology they took a lot longer to receive it. MTS finally released it in November of 2004 after delaying it for months and months. Howver, the week they released it, PalmOne announced the release of the Treo 650 in the states on Sprint. It was a world of a lot better. How? 312Mhz Processor (double the speed of the Treo 600), 320x320 resolution on the screen (double the Treo 600), bluetooth and WiFi capabilities. Howver, little did anybody know, Sprint had actually signed a contract with PalmOne in which Sprint would have the monopoly of the 650 being only available from them for 4 months! I waited and waited. I looked on the forums and PalmOne's website for details on the release of the phone. Then in February in a surprise move, PalmOne released the phone. An unlocked version was available, at a marked up price. What does this mean? Well, it means that if I wanted the phone I would have to switch cell phone carriers, in this case I would have to switch over to the only GSM provider in Canada, Rogers. www.rogers.com Which would mean I would have to dump the number I have had for over 10 years on MTS. This phone was worth it. I switched my numbers. I paid the markup price on it. I would be one of the first in Canada to own it as the phone has only been released in the USA and New Zealand. I got it, and turned it on.......MY PRECIOUS........ My Treo 650 in a side by side comparison with a Treo 600. It's been one month now and I absolutely adore it. I can email, work on power points, databases, documents for work and school, watch full length DVD's, read blogs, check discussion boards, mp3 players, read RSS feeds. This has been just in the first month. It's truly amazing having a cell phone, PDA, game pad, audiobook player, MP3 player, word processor, email reader, web browser, instant messaging client, radio, ebook reader, and camera all rolled into one. Add to all of that a Qwerty keyboard that makes it easy to respond to email, write memos, or IM'ing and you have one incredibly powerful device. I'm sure there are going to be alot more features I'll be sure to find. Actually, judging by the shifted librarian's site, I think I'll be able to find alot of productive programs for it. Storage was of great concern as the unit comes with 24MB, I have since purchased a 1 GB card. The unit can synchronize with MS Outlook or in my case Corporate Time. I used to carry a daytimer, cell phone and digital camera, not anymore. The digital camera is not the greatest being only 0.3 megapixels, but it is nice having everything in one unit for those times you want a quick picture. The Treo 650 also allows for captures of mpegs as well. Here is a shot in an indoor setting, an outdoor setting and an outdoor evening setting respectively: Indoor: Outdoor: Outdoor Evening: In addition when adding my contacts, it allows me to take a quick snapshot of my contact so when they do end up calling me, their number and picture shows up. I have only recently started using the Treo's defualt browser Blazer for my internet access. I have been able to look up movie times and search my library's OPAC. I am currently looking into installing the National Library of Medicine's PubMed on Tap for my Treo so that I can do searches on the fly. Imagine the possibilities in a clinical setting to be able to just whip out your Treo and do a search right then and there. I have limited my data usage thus far as I am only on a voice plan, but I feel that a voice/data package is the way to go for me in order to get full usability of my Precious. Bluetooth. Yes the Treo has bluetooth but I have yet to take advantage of it yet. I am looking into a headset (Motorola HS-850) and a dongle so that I can truly be wireless instead of having to hotsync my Treo via a cable. My productivity with my Treo has increased substantially. When I am anywhere waiting, be it in line or at a restaurant, I have been able to work on powerpoint presentations for my classes, excel spreadsheets and word documents. What's productivity with out some entertainment to balance things out right? I have even been able to read technogeekery for librarians and reply to other blogs that I follow. Just this past weekend, I was in a theater with my friend waiting for the show to start, we turned on the treo and watched the Monte Carlo World Rally Championship. The quality was great and kept us entertained. I have downloaded pocket tunes and with the 1GB SD card my Treo has also become my personal MP3 player. Rogers of Canada has just released the Treo 650 yesterday. Rogers will be launching a new email service called MyMail based on EDGE technology. EDGE technology will offer individuals a wireless real-time, non-browser based, and fully synchronized push email, calendar and contacts experience. The Treo 650 already comes with Versa Mail and this allows for POP3 and IMAP accounts. I myself am an avid text (SMS) messenger. The Treo 650 recognizes when you are texting somebody repeatedly and rather than treat each text message as a seperate incoming message, the Treo organized the messages into a chat window so that you have chronological view of your conversation. The convergence of having an all in one device has been fantastic. Librarian on the move. Because the Treo is a Quad band phone, it is essentially a phone where I can take anywhere in the world and be able to stay in contact. I network, organize, search and entertain all with one device.

iPod (facts and figures)

Thanks to Michael Stevens for posting this link to his Tame the Web blog. This is an excellent overview of the different types of iPods. It discussed all the important stats like number of songs they can hold, number of hours it will play on a single charge, cost and other interesting features. Read more: Playlist: Picking your 'Pod Don't forget to check out the article on the iPod photo in Handheld Computing (April 2005) on iPod Photo: A media revolution.

Parse: to analyze

I subscribe to the Dictionary.com Word of the Day RSS Feed. I did this so that I could challenge my vocabulary and learn something new each day. It's a fun feed and I recommend it to all librarians and budding philologists [:)]. On sunday it sent me the word "parse". I had to smile with pride. This is one technogeekery word that has quickly become a part of my vocabulary. While parse means "to analyze", I always think of this in a computer context. In my favourite dictionary the OED they include this as part of their definition: "In extended use in computational linguistics, to analyse (a string) into syntactic components to test its conformability to a given grammar. " For example, when you have a database (like a library catalogue) filled with data and a patron searches the database the data is then parsed and the database sends out results. In another example, the XML script used in RSS feeds parses the items into a machine readable code which is then parsed by an RSS aggregator for you to read. While these are not textbook examples and definately will not make it into the OED, it's how I think of the word. Why not add parse to your vocabulary?

Firefox extensions for BioMed Central and PubMed!

As if I didn't already like Firefox more than was healthy for me. Now near and dear to this librarian's heart comes two new plugins for the handy search window in Firefox. Firefox background Skip this section if you're familar with Firefox. For those of you not familar with Firefox, read on! One of the nifty features available with Firefox is a built in search box. You can grab plugins to augment this search box from several major web databases. After its installed simply select which search engine you want and do your search. If you've installed the Google Toolbar or the Yahoo toolbar then you are familar with this kind of technology. If you haven't... what are you waiting for? This make web surfing at the Reference desk far easier. My only complaint is the size of the search box in Firefox is small. However, this being said, I haven't tried too hard to figure out a way to expand it! Here are a few of my favourite search plugins:

• Internet Movie Database
• CISTI Catalogue (Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information)
• More are available from Mycroft

A very nice explanation with screen captures is available from Jason Lefkowitz's Weblog - Just Well Mixed entitled "Get the Most Out of Firefox: Adding New Search Engines to the Search Bar". Plugins BioMed Central has created a Firefox plugin to ease searching its growing database of free online biomedical journals. Yes, you heard me. Free peer reviewed journals freely (did I already mention that?) available on the web. Read more: Installing and using the BioMed Central Firefox search plugin The technogeeks at University of Toronto have created search plugins for Firefox what search PubMed! Okay, not so exciting to your average person but a heck of a lot of fun for Health Sciences Librarians. Read more: PubMed Mozilla Firefox Search These two plugins caught my eye in a posting from psih.org. Grow your own Have your favourite database and looking for a search shortcut for it? Why not try growing your own? These instructions from "Geek Notes" look simple enough. Read more: Search shortcuts in Firefox

Convergence

"The process by which originally distinct technologies may become more compatible or integrated as they develop, so that an increasing number of devices (esp. in electronics, computing, and telecommunications) are multifunctional and interoperable." [Oxford English Dictionary Online] The issue of convergence between different technologies has been a hot topic for years. For example, using TV to surf the web, using cell phones to take photographs, using your personal digital assitant to listen to your favourite songs. This issue of convergence has finally had an impact on me personally. Last year, I had to start carrying a purse. [ugh] I found I didn't have enough pocket or belt space for my wallet, PDA, cell phone, mp3 player, flash memory stick etc. As highly portable as all these bits are individually, together they're a logistical nightmare! What all this means is that I have a new appreciation for the concept of convergence. So much so that I am now looking for an alternative to my five year old PDA that will allow me to amalgamate at least some of my gagetry. Just one problem with purchasing a new PDA, I'm picky. There are those of you out there saying "get the Treo 650"! For those of you who aren't aware of the Treo 650 it is a combination cell phone, PDA, mp3 player, digital camera all in one stylish package. Problem solved you say, go get it! What is holding me back is the fact that the Treo 650 uses Bluetooth technology for wireless access. Wait a minute I didn't mention the wireless access before! Our library has just installed wireless internet access. This is so exciting because a significant number of our students own laptops or PDA's which support wireless access to the internet. Considering most of our e-journals and databases are available electronically on the web this was high on their list of priorities. So now instead of plugging into ethernet enabled carells they are spralled all over the floor or in the squishy chairs happily surfing the internet. Not only are they using it in the library but our wireless extends out into a nearby atrium. They can have their lunch and get their coffee while online.

Our library is on the mezzanine level.

I'd like to tap into the wireless access. Why? Well I think that only through experiencing the same kind of technological trials and tribulations as our patrons can we help them. Back to wireless. There are many different standards for wireless access over the internet. I'm not going to go into the technical side of things I just want to deal with to types: WiFi (pronounced why-fie) and Bluetooth. The library makes WiFi wireless access freely available to all faculty, staff and students of the university. This is great and as cheap as I am I want to take advantage of this. In order for me to get the same access using Bluetooth technology on the Treo 650 I would have to pay a monthly fee to the cellular service provider. Now in the US I have heard the Treo 650 plans are pretty reasonable. In Canada, where the Treo 650 hasn't been released yet, the rumour mill puts the data access plans as pretty expensive. This means that while I think the Treo 650 is an amazing product. Maybe I can find enough room on my belt for my cell and a new PDA (with a camera and built in mp3 player of course). But then again, I do still covet the iPod photo. Hmmmm. Maybe I won't give up the purse just yet. Technological convergence is a good idea, it's just the humans that get in the way.

We now have RSS feeds!

I'm so excited. Our library now has RSS feeds! I posted a while ago about why I'm not blogging at my library in this posting I talked about software our institution purchased to to facilitate the creation of news and events announcements. This blog-like software product is called nTreePoint and is made by Unidigm. It's flexible, is easy to use and produces a nice end product. A while back I discovered has the ability to generate an RSS feed. Further investigation showed that the RSS feeds it produced were all branded the exact same way regardless of where the content was coming from. All of the feeds were entitled nTreePoint. This is obviously good for Unidigm but not optimal for the Faculties of Medicine or Fine Arts! Yesterday, I discovered that Unidigm has done some wonderful programming and now the RSS feeds are more appropriately branded! I'm giddy with delight! Now I have to figure out a way to promote this on our web site. NJMHSL News Feed NJMHSL Events Feed

Open mind

It's amazing what you can learn in an airport. Okay, maybe I didn't learn it in an airport ... but I got to thinking about it in an airport. I have noticed for a while that I've am resting on my laurels and not learning much of anything new. I have also noticed that when someone approaches me about a new software, new technology or a new way to use these things that I have been extremely skeptical. I didn't ignore them but I have turned a deaf ear to their enthusiasm. Why? I think I arrogantly thought I knew it all. I have since learned that this is not the case! I have re-discovered that it is very important to keep an open mind about all this technogeekery stuff. Yes, you may not see how it can be immediately applied to libraries and librarianship but in the long run some incredibly creative person will show you what can be done. My husband and I were waiting in an airport for our flight. Having arrived well in advance of our departure time we were walking about looking in the concourse shops. I was content to dive back into the book I was reading (The Professor and the mad man by Simon Winchester) and did not think I needed anything else. My husband wandered over to the magazines and came back with Wired Test magazine. This isn't something that I've ever picked up before and my husband, while a technogeek, is more apt to grab Cycling or F1. He pointed out that in this month's issue there are a large number of product reviews looking at products such as: digital cameras, laptops, phonecams, mp3 players, tablet PC's and much more! He also said that there was a Handheld Computing magazine with a host of reviews on smart phones and the new photo iPod. Open minded, I grabbed both, paid, deposited myself in the nearest seat and was amazed and delighted to find some seriously useful information. The information on smartphones was eye opening and the review on the photo iPod only made me want it more! My husband says that the Wired Test information on Plasma TV's is very interesting and that we should probably wait for newer technology before purchasing in this area. I think I'll be looking at magazine racks a little more closely in the future. It's amazing what you can learn in an airport.

Instant Messaging - Trillian and Mundu

Further to Carol's entry regarding "Instant Messaging -an almost newbie's experience", I looked into the world of "all in one" IM interfaces. I have downloaded Trillian and here is my review. As an avid user of ICQ and MSN, the user is allowed to keep some of the most important features of each program. Of particular, the emoticons and avatars are highlights for myself. The whole notion that there is less clutter with the use of one window being open helps. Chat windows are tabbed, you no longer find yourself lost with an onslaught of windows popping up when you log in. It's been ages since I've used irc but now that it's readily available to me here on Trillian along with AIM and Yahoo messenger, I think I'll be giving them a try as well. It's a fantastic product as you can sign on to all the IM programs or simply the ones you choose. File transers, audio chat and group chats still exist. I have just found another program called Mundu http://wireless.mundu.com/ that is an all in one interface for IM but it is for use on PDA's. It supports AIM, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ. Mundu works on 3.5 and above Palm OS enabled device. I will be downloading this and giving it a good try. More to come...

Firefox extension fatigue

The Firefox enthusiast can get carried away with the many extensions (not to mention themes) that are available from the Firefox website. I found I was beginning to forget which extensions I had, and the whole thing was getting out of hand — that is until I found a simple little program called InfoLister. Once downloaded as an extension, InfoLister lets you designate a file that will be automatically updated with a list of all extensions, themes and plugins currently installed in your version of Firefox. A handy toolbar button will give you instant access to the information. The latest version for download is InfoLister 0.8. It works in Firefox 1.01 and Thunderbird 1.0. After installation, right-click the toolbar, select Customize... and drag InfoLister's icon to the toolbar. Click Done and then the InfoLister's toolbar button. It's so useful it makes you wonder why it isn't part of the original program. Here is an example of InfoLister's text output: Last updated: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 18:32:49 GMT User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1 *** Extensions (enabled: 13, disabled: 0) Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.2 ForecastFox 0.5.9 Auto Copy 0.5.0 Image Zoom 0.1.7 Sage 1.3.1 deskCut 0.4.1.2 OpenURL Referrer 1.0.11 LiveLines 0.4.1 Feedview 0.9 InfoLister 0.8 SpoofStick 1.05 Bloglines Toolkit 1.5.3 Favorites Converter (export) 1.0.1 *** Themes (1) Firefox (default) 2.0 [selected] *** Plugins (7) Mozilla Default Plug-in Shockwave Flash Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Update 1 Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Plug-in 6.0.2 Microsoft® DRM Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library

Canadian universites and libraries who blog

Canadian university libraries who blog McMaster University Libraries site: feed: software: Mount Allison University Libraries site: feed: software: Simon Fraser University Library site: feed: Software: developed in house University of Alberta Libraries site: feed: [too many to add! ] software: MovableType University of Saskatchewan site: feed: software: MovableType University of Victoria Libraries site: feed: software: MovableType University of Windsor – Leddy Library site: feed: software: powered by SquishDot, Zope, and Mita Sen-Roy. University of Winnipeg Library site: feed: software: MovableType Canadian universities blogging Dalhousie University - Computer Science site: feed: software: Planet (Note: is a flexible feed aggregator. It downloads news feeds published by web sites and aggregates their content together into a single combined feed, latest news first.) University of British Columbia (offers software use to staff and students) site: feed: software: MovableType University of Calgary site: feed: software: MovableType University of Calgary (offers software to staff and students) site: feed: software: Drupal University of Prince Edward Island (offers software to staff and students) site: feed: software: ? University of Toronto site: feed: software: MovableType Who have I missed? Notice any trends? :)

Librarian Bloggers Unite

blogperson
Originally uploaded by cacemlis.

There oughta be a t-shirt. Thanks to Michael Stephens for the idea and and Greg Schwartz for the work.