Tuesday, December 16, 2003
For the most part, I’m avoiding “gee, what a neat feed” posts, but as a long-time Weather Channel addict, I’m delighted that the National Weather Service is providing regional feeds for weather updates. Bookmark to:
Monday, December 15, 2003
http://www.barbstripling.net/ We are very fortunate to have two very highly qualified candidates running for ALA president. ALA has benefited from the many contributions of both Michael Gorman and Barbara Stripling. Both of them share core values I can identify with. However, it is Barb’s candidacy I am excited to throw my weight behind. Barb Stripling […]
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Breathlessly reported on library blogs is a change to Google that SWISH-powered LII has used for years: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html#stemming “Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for ‘pet lemur […]
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Walt Crawford is a charter member of the “I was dialing up Dialog on my 300-baud modem when Al Gore invented the Internet” club, and he’s a great writer, to boot. He quickly dispatches Ashcroft’s lies in the latest issue of Cites & Insights, and is also very funny about RSS, cataloging, OpenURL, and anything […]
Friday, December 12, 2003
McSweeney’s just launched Dispatches from a Public Librarian, at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/librarian/. Author Scott Douglas says he “will update this dispatch on a sometimes-regular basis, and will include stories about strange patrons, strange tales, and otherwise just strange things.” This is an interesting start, although when he says librarians have “been in a tiff about the Privacy […]
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Someone on Web4Lib asked about posting symbols or signage to identify wireless access in libraries. This is a slightly revised version of my reply on the list, sent after several folks referred the original poster to the wireless warchalking symbols popular among the digerati. Essentially, this is basic library marketing 101. If you’re planning to […]
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Carla Hayden, current ALA president, is one of ten Ms. Magazine Women of the Year for 2003. ALA’s press release notes, “Hayden drew nationwide attention by voicing the ALA’s opposition to sections of the USA PATRIOT Act,” and played a key role in forcing Ashcroft into declassifying the Justice Department report on Section 215. ALA […]
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Ouch! Based on preliminary phone calls, it appears both San Diego and Orlando conference centers charge conference attendees $4.95 an hour or $24.95 a day for wireless access. I have a second call in to San Diego to reverify these costs, which are at least a couple weeks old. Bookmark to:
Nat Hentoff brought ALA sharply to task on this issue, and I can’t say as I blame him, even though I don’t know who told him that the Washington Times is a credible publication. Bookmark to:
The library director who was canned due to her well-advertised extracurricular hobby as a sado-masochist dominatrix is at the top of my “Library Darwin Arwards” for 2003, leading even OCLC’s attempt to sue the Library Hotel over using Dewey numbers for its hotel scheme. Still, it’s fascinating that though the story has cropped up–oops, no […]
