Feedity RSS Generator

Via birdie at LISNews: Feedity is an RSS Generator for Web Pages without Syndication. Per Michael Balmer: "Feedity aims to make it easy and possible for anyone to extract and reuse content from any website."

500 jokes

From Dilbert blog via LISNews, hundreds of favorite (mostly filthy) jokes submitted by readers.

Tim Spalding at the Library of Congress (webcast)

Via LISNews, the Library of Congress hosted Tim Spalding of LibraryThing as part of it's "Digital Future and You" series.

Ghost Towns in Second Life

Via Rosenzweig on alaworld list, a wired.com article on dim prospects for Second Life, noting, e.g., that over 85% of created avatars have been abandoned.

"Uncontrolled Vocabulary"

This looks intriguing ... By way of LISNews and Chronicles of Bean, a weekly podcast entitled Uncontrolled Vocabulary, where librarians discuss current events in their profession and listeners can participate by text-messaging their comments through Talk Shoe.

OpenBiblio (free ILS software)

OSS ILS OpenBiblio used by the Yale Film Study Center. Written in PHP, includes OPAC, circ, cataloging, and staff admin modules.

Free information for the taking

C|NET article Via Blake at LISNews, on the "wealth of free resources out there--on-line databases, audio books, museum passes. You just need to know where to look."
Includes annotated links to resources like JStor , The Historical New York Times Project, Ebrary, etc.,

read more | digg story.

Google Librarian Central

Via birdie at LISNews, a collaborative blog called Google Librarian Central Recent posting: Creating your Custom Search Engine just got easier

What Some Successful CEOs are Reading (hint: not management books)

From the New York Times 7/21/07 business section, via LISNews: C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success. E.g., Steve Jobs loves William Blake; venture capitalist Michael Moritz likes to read and re-read T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom and admires Andy Grove's Swimming Across.

Springshare Library Widgets

Includes LibMarks for social bookmarking & tagging and Libguides collaborative publishing platform. No mention of costs on website.

eXtensible Catalog (XC) Survey Results

The U. of Rochester Library has released the results of survey designed to gauge public "interest in the XC system and readiness to implement it."

According to the 10-page report, the Mellon-funded XC will be open source and freely-available to all interested libraries. Phase One of the project (2006-2007) has reviewed potential partners, complementary source code, and other environmental variables.

On page five is a table listing the most commonly desired OPAC enhancements (as selected from a large list, reproducced in the appendix). The top ranked feature is "Optional grouping of related works in search results". One feature listed here, not mentioned in our PIC document, is "Personal showcase pages for institutional/faculty-created content".

Debate Over Dewey

Via LISNews, article from Wall St. Journal on public libraries rejection of Dewey classification in favor of broad, bookstore-style, genres categories. In one case, at least, results are encouraging: "Since the doors opened last month, visitors have checked out about 900 items a day, far more than the 100 to 150 that typically circulate daily in nearby branches." But the ether has been churning on Autocat, and it seems extrapolation to large libraries would be misleading.

If Libraries had shareholders

Peter Brantley on O'Reilly Radar via BG Sloan on Web4Lib: If Libraries had shareholders Cites Web interface for querying ARL statistics

NEUG Annual Meeting

The Northeast ExLibris User Group is meeting at the Yale Divinity School.

Schedule of Events:


8:30-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-9:15 Welcome Address Niebuhr Hall (N123) NEUG Officers

9:15-10:00 ExLibris Update - Company updates, Future of RUGs at ExLibris Niebuhr Hall (N123) Susan Stearns, VP Customer Services (ExLibris)

10:15-11:15 First Sessions

• Voyager Product Update Voyager 6.5 release, ILL 6.5 release, Voyager 7.0, Analyzer Niebuhr Hall (N123)

• Jenny Forbes, Customer Liaison (ExLibris)

11:30-12:30 Second Sessions

• Querying Voyager with MS Access CANCELLED

• SFX at Yale University Library A look at the staff administrative module of SFX and local practice at YUL Niebuhr Hall (N123) Nisa Bakkalbasi (Yale)

12:30-2:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 Primo and Verde Product Updates Niebuhr Hall (N123) Susan Pastore, VP Sales (ExLibris)

2:00-3:00 Third Sessions

• Enhancing Your OPAC without Losing Your Mind Enhance your Voyager OPAC using: book covers from different sources, Google Books, and other customizations. Source code for all the enhancements will be provided as well as a few tips and tricks regarding general issues with the OPAC. J. Edwards Dining Hall (N126) Julia E. Allen (FLO- WIT)

• Panel: A Look at the Aleph ILS and a Discussion on the Future of the ExLibris ILS An overview of managing the Aleph ILS followed by a group discussion on the future of Aleph and Voyager at ExLibris Niebuhr Hall (N123) Jan Jourdain (Amherst College), Tania Fersenheim (Brandeis University)

3:15-4:00 SIGs

• DIGITool Discussion of the different ExLibris products, including various Voyager modules Library Seminar Room (L104) Rodney G. Obien (WPI)

• Acquisitions J. Edwards Dining Hall (N126) Lora Brueck (WPI)

• Cataloging Niebuhr Hall (N123) Catherine Touhy (Emmanuel)

• Systems Library Seminar Room (L104) TBA

• Circulation Common Room (N226) TBA

4:00-4:30 Business Meeting Niebuhr Hall (N123)

VuFind

Per announcement on ngc4lib list, Andrew Nagy of Villanova University has posted the source code to his VuFind software on SourceForge. Initially designed to work with Voyager, it will eventually be compatible with other systems, including Evergreen and Koha, once necessary drivers are developed. Nagy reports achieving very fast speeds using Apache Solr. Demo and download can be found at VuFind web site.

Since demo included only 10,000 records, Casey Durfee recommends testing against larger set, e.g., LC MARC records provided through archive.org as he had done with the Seattle Public Library HELIOS catalog. Durfee adds, "Solr faceting performance scales pretty linearly with the number of records, so things that work fine on even 500,000 records can be unusably slow on 5 million +."

"Future of Librarians" interview archive

From degreetutor.com via LISNews, an archive of interviews withprominent librarians, information scientists, etc., on the Future of Librarians

Open Library (Aaron Swartz)

From LISNews : Aaron Swartz--co-author of RSS, former member of W3C's RDF Core Working Group-- now, in partnership with Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive, announces founding of the Open Library. This new global resource will be "a product of the people: letting them create and curate its catalog, contribute to its content, participate in its governance, and have full, free access to its data. In an era where library data and Internet databases are being run by money- seeking companies behind closed doors, it's more important than ever to be open."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Librarians

The Occupational Outlook Handbook on the "Nature of the Work": "The traditional concept of a library is being redefined from a place to access paper records or books to one that also houses the most advanced media, including CD-ROM, the Internet, virtual libraries, and remote access to a wide range of resources. Consequently, librarians, or information professionals, increasingly are combining traditional duties with tasks involving quickly changing technology ... "

Wireless Networking

[2007-08-17]

Attempt to link wirelessly new Mac Powerbook to Linksys WRT54GS router (hardware version 6; firmware v1.50.6) so far unsuccessful. Even though I enter correct password when prompted, the Mac says there is a "problem joining the selected network". New 1.52.2 firmware available as of 7/2/2007. Tried to install, but formatted as .bin file, which I don't seem able to open or execute. Someone named Larry_Kahan on Linksys forum thread, says "Do not expand the .bin file. Just start the update routine and point the router at the downloaded .bin file." and provides specific steps.

One suggestion offered on linksys forum is to insert $ before one of the alternate WEP key (i.e., as alternative to entering password?).

Apple Discussions has a similar thread.

Personal install disk designed for Windows O.S. only. Able to patch to router with physical cable. Also, O.S. X recognizes suzukinet signal, but not correct password. Trying to diagnose problem at local unit address, i.e., http://192.168.1.1.

If all else fails, install Bootcamp, and access the router via Windows XP.


[2005-12-13]
Motorola Surfboard FAQs

Online rebate form

www.rebatestatus.com - Results

Comcast New Haven service packages

New Haven Service Center:
630 Chapel Street
M - T 8:00-5:00; F - 8:00-6:00 PM;
SAT - 8:00 - 12:00

[2005-12-03]
Per Zoom Tech Support: Windows 2000 and XP Users: You must install the software before installing the PC Card. Software not yet tested with Windows XP logo, according to installer/OS. And then: "Unable to initiate HotSync operation because the port is in use by another application".

Unable to get Model 4312 Zoom Bluetooth PC Card Adapter to talk with Tungsten E2. Purchased card through Amazon for $54.99 on Dec. 23, Order #: 103-0127648-1186243 .

Telephone: (561) 997-9686
Fax: (561) 997-2163
E-mail: Personal Assistance
(8:30 AM - 11:00 PM ET, Monday-Friday)
(9:00 AM - 5:00 PM ET, Saturday)

[2004-01-04]
Walking through WEP steps with Linksys tech support.
At first, new setting worked with intermittent disconnects, but after disabling IEEE 802.1x authentication, it seemed to be all right. Earlier, I had been trying to set up the WPA (Wireless Protected Access) to my Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I found what appears to be a set of instructions for this procedure on the 10 most frequently asked questions on the Linksys Support Page. I'm also waiting on the phone for a tech support person, since I'm finding the instruction a bit vague.

Planet Feed Reader

Planet Feed Reader, a Python-based aggregator, underlies Planet Cataloging.

U. of Rochester Ethnographic Study

ACRL announces forthcoming title: “Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester” (Thanks, Matthew)

Planet Cataloging

Planet Cataloging: “an automatically-generated aggregation of blogs related to cataloging and metadata"

Evergreen Milestone

Brett at LISNews notes: "A big milestone [has been reached] in adopting Evergreen outside of PINES", following an announcement in the Evergreen open-ils blog. Release 1.20 can be downloaded here. An "Anonymous Patron" adds that "the adoption of Evergreen by the British Columbia libraries [bclibrary.ca] is also a huge catalyst for moving the project along to the next level." The only working implementation so far, though, seems to be the Georgia Pines catalog.

Equinox can help with server hosting local implementations.

The Space

At The Space Tuesday, July 10, in Hamden: David’s Circumspection Trio (featuring David Chevan on processed acoustic bass, Jesse Chevan on drums, and Jeff Gitelman on Stratocaster guitar). "Original Music that is Loud, Proud, and Jewish for the progressive lounge lizard." 295 Treadwell St, Hamden, Connecticut, (203) 288-6400.

Testing AAC 128 vs. 256 kbps sound quality

In test of 128 vs 256 kbps AAC files (i.e., what iTunes 7 calls "high quality" vs. "higher quality"),none of the ten subjects was able to tell the difference. Slashdotted on 5/31/07, where there seems to be a consensus that on good speakers the 128 sounds "tinny" and the high frequencies are distorted.

David Swanson on the Case for Impeachment

Here is a timely article from the The Smirking Chimp given the coincidence of Bush commuting Libby Scooter's sentence on the same week as Independence Day. As Swanson reminds us, Bill of Rights author George Mason had argued at the 1787 Constitutional Convention that the President might using his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised by himself" or, in advance of an indictment or conviction, "to stop inquiry and prevent detection." For this reason, the House of Representatives would need to possess the power of impeachment as a check and balance on the President.

James Madison added that "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

So this seems like a pretty clear case:

Libby Scooter was found guilty of obstructing justice. His motive was to protect his boss Cheney, who, along with Bush, had authorized the disclosure of Valerie Plame's secret CIA identity. Plame's cover was blown, in turn, in order for Cheney and Bush to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, after he exposed the bogus intelligence they used to justify war with Iraq.

Bush's interference in the legal system at this point represents a profound conflict of interest and abuse of power. If there were ever a time for impeachment, therefore, it would appear to be now.

Paprika

Notes on Rotten Tomatoes.