Facebook and Libraries

January 30, 2009 at 12:48 am (Technology)
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For those of you who haven’t heard about this group, there’s one called: Facebook Apps for Libraries. According to the group, “FacebookAppsForLibraries is a Global Group devoted to the use of third-party Facebook applications for enhanced library services.” There are also a couple of articles: Reaching Users Through Facebook and Digital Reference in Facebook App that talk about how libraries are using Facebook.

Cathy

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Interesting development…

January 29, 2009 at 2:28 am (Food for Thought, emerging technology)

http://cultofmac.com/dc-public-library-has-nations-first-iphone-app/7637 shows that the DC PL has a nifty way of reaching out and touching their users.

Larry

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Top Tech Trends

January 27, 2009 at 2:31 am (emerging technology)

The LITA blog has a video of the Top Tech Trends presentation from ALA. Take a peek – http://litablog.org/2009/01/26/top-tech-trends-midwinter-2009-video/

Patty

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Money is a Beautiful Thing

January 8, 2009 at 6:45 pm (Food for Thought)

This is what $24 million will get you in Darien CT — http://allaboutdarien.com/2009/01/the-new-darien-library-its-for-me/

There are some things about the new Darien library that can easily be applied without the added bonus of $24 million and a new building — such as the “dewey translations” mentioned in the post. We did something like this at Ogden and it was very well-received by patrons, and I know Greece recently restructured how they shelve picture books into subject categories like Dinosaurs, Trucks, etc. What things are you doing to make life easier for your users?

Patty

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Cool Tools

January 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm (Convenience, emerging technology)

I’m always coming across cool little tools for making digital life easier, but most often they are flashy and fun but not very useful. However, every once in awhile, something comes along that is really innovative and incredibly powerful and useful. My “cool tool” for 2008 was Book Burro, a Firefox add-on that pops up whenever you view a page with an ISBN or other recognizable book info on it, and allows you to search WorldCat for the closest library location that has the book. I read the Amazon feeds every day, and this makes placing holds in the MCLS catalog a snap. You can find out more about Book Burro here – http://www.bookburro.org/.

Today I came across what will probably be my favorite tool for 2009, although it’s early yet. Hyperwords is another Firefox add-on that essentially makes every word on a webpage a hyperlink. You can select any word or phrase on a page and have a menu pop up that lets you search the word/phrase in Wikipedia, Britannica, or other online sources, or lets you invoke a web search. I tested it in the MCLS catalog and the MCLS databases and it works like a charm. Take a look at Hyperwords here – http://www.hyperwords.net/

Do you have any favorite web or other computer tools you can’t live without? I bet you do, and I’m thinking that we can pull together a nifty Tech Camp around them. What are your favorites?

Patty

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