ONLINE MAGAZINE FOR JULY/AUGUST 2007

The latest issue of Online magazine is a good one. There’s a nice article on “teachable moments”—those occasional opportunities to teach clients—at the point of need and when they are most approachable—techniques for better searching (and the value of the librarian at the same time. The author, William Badke [Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia, Canada]. writes of these, “when it works well, a light comes on. We can only hope it will stay shining through the next search and the one after that. Making at least some attempt to raise skill levels is the way to help our patrons out of mediocrity.” Online 31(4):43-45

There’s an interesting story on libraries in SecondLife (Who’s on Third in Second Life? From Library 2.0 to Library 3-D, by Lori Bell and Kitty Pope [Alliance Library System, East Peoria, Illinois, USA], Tom Peters [TAP Information Services, Blue Springs, Missouri, USA], and Barbara Galik [Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA].

I really liked the article by Mary Ellen Bates (editor of Online) on Blog Searching with Technorati on page 56. I can’t wait to try it myself. Her editorial, Silos, Us, Them, and User-Generated Content (p. 5) is wonderful as well. She asks, “Is there a[n information] silo for information professionals and a different one for library users?” “Despite our best efforts [and those of Library 2.0], information silos are likely to continue, and users, whether they generate content of not, will need our help to find what they need in whatever silo it’s stored.”

Check the Online website to see which of the articles from this issue are available free (July/August) wasn't up when I posted this.

URL: http://www.infotoday.com/online/

BLOGGING LAW YOU NEED TO KNOW

Jeff Behrendt of Aviva Directory has a great article on 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know. They are: Whether to Disclose Paid Posts, Is Deep Linking Legal? The Legal Use of Images and Thumbnails, Laws that Protect You From Stolen Content, Domain Name Trademark Issues, Handling Private Data About Your Readers, Who Owns User-Developed Content and Can You Delete It? The Duty to Monitor Your Blog Comments, and Liability, Basic Tax Law Issues in Blogging, Limited Liability Laws and Incorporating, Spam Laws and Which Unsolicited Emails are Legal, and Are Bloggers Protected from Journalism Shield Laws?

If you blog, you should read this very carefully—I certainly learned a lot from it.

URL: http://www.avivadirectory.com/blogger-law/

DO YOU HAVE JUST A FEW MINUTES TO READ?

Try a selection from Classic Short Stories. There are many selections here, all in the public domain, from authors like Poe, Twain, O. Henry, de Maupassant, Chekhov, etc. There are indexes by title and author (with word count), a dictionary of archaic or little-known words from the stories, and links to other short story sites. Now you’ll have no excuse not to have something to read.

URL: http://www.classicshorts.com

THE FUTURE OF DESIGN BLOG

Inhabitat is a blog about design, technology, and materials “that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.” From Jill Fehrenbacher, “freelance designer, green deign consultant and architecture grad student at Columbia.” Interesting site.

URL: http://www.inhabitat.com

FREE PHOTOS

Uncle Sam’s Photos is a collection of over 190 photo collections taken by the US Government and free to use. From Alex Upton who has used the photos and thought others would like them collected in one place. Thanks, Alex.

URL: http://www.unclesamsphotos.com

IS THERE AN EMBASSY IN (INSERT COUNTRY HERE)?

Next time you are asked this question, turn to the online Directory & Search Engine of the World's Embassies & Consulates. Answer "whose embassy?" and "in what location?" and you're taken to list. You can also search alphabetically by nation and there are 34 pages of embassies inside the USA and an alphabetical list of US embassies worldwide, United Nations peprmanent missions, and links to other resources (international telephone directory, global reference desk, maps of the world, and international voltage directory).

I wish there were more contact information, but at least there are links to the embassies's websites. It seems to be sponsored by ads and links to international real estate, employment, and yacht websites. That's ok, I can ignore them to be able to access this information.

URL: http://embassyworld.com/

ETHNOLOGUE: LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD--ONLINE

New from SIL International [Dallas, Texas, USA], is the electronic version of Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Everything that is in the 1272-page hardcover book (cost US$80) is available for free online. This includes articles about 6,912 living languages (number of speakers, region, alternate names, dialects, use, etc.) and links to entries in the SIL bibliography on the language. Everything except the maps and statistical summary tables, it seems. What a neat resource!

URL: http://www.ethnologue.com/

MAKE YOUR OWN EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE WEB PAGE

Dartmouth College and Yale University medical librarians and other staff have created the EBM Page Generator. In just a few easy steps (mostly adding links to your own electronic databases), you can create your very own EBM web page. At the top is the EBM Pyramid that shows the increase in quality of evidence from background information to systematic reviews.

Now you have no excuse for failing to have a web page portal to EBM information!

URL: http://www.ebmpyramid.org/

GOOGLE'S PUBLIC POLICY BLOG

Did you know that Google has blog on public policy? such as censorship, anti-trust, etc.
Interesting.

URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/

KEEP UP WITH EMERALD MANAGEMENT JOURNALS

Emerald, a journal publisher, now provides RSS feeds for its approximately 180 individual titles, including many in the field of librarianship.

Some of the titles you may want to watch are: (bolded titles seem most interesting to me)

International Journal of Career Management, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Librarian Career Development, Strategy & Leadership, The Learning Organization, Women in Management Review, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Journal of Knowledge Management, Measuring Business Excellence, Journal of Health Organisation and Management, Journal of Management in Medicine, Leadership in Health Services, Aslib Proceedings, Campus-Wide Information Systems, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Information Management & Computer Security, International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, International Journal of Web Information Systems, Internet Research, Journal of Documentation, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, OCLC Systems & Services, Online Information Review, Records Management Journal, Electronic Resources Review, International Journal on Grey Literature, Reference Reviews, Reference Services Review, Library Management, Performance Measurement and Metrics, The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, The Electronic Library, Library Hi-Tech, Library Hi-Tech News, New Library World, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers.

You received weekly abstracts of the Table of Contents. You can’t see the articles online unless you have a subscription to the journal, but you can order them for approximately £20 each.

Thanks to Library Boy Michel-Adrien Sheppard [Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario] for pointing out this resource.

URLs:
Emerald Feeds: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/
JournalRSSFeeds.do#58
Library Boy: http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/

IMPORTANT--BOOK SIGNING AT ALA

Stephen Abram and my co-author, Jonathan Lorig, will be signing our latest book, Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders, compiled by Judith A. Siess and Jonathan Lorig, ALA Editions, 2007, at ALA. Come by the Renaissance. The signing will be at the Mayflower Grand Ballroom on Saturday, 23 June, right after “The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?” starring Stephen, Joe Janes, Karen Schneider, and Andrew Pace from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Y’all come!

UPDATES TO THE CYBERSLEUTH'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET

Get updates for Web addresses that have already changed in the newest edition of
The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet.

URL: http://www.netforlawyers.com/updates_06-07.htm 

UNCONFERENCES, ANYONE?

Betsy McKenzie [Suffolk University Law Library, Boston, Massachusetts, USA] has a great post on Out of the Jungle on unconferences. She refers to the blog, Unconference, by Connie Crosby and a book about them being written by wiki, which is so like an Unconference.

What is an unconference? UCs are put together on short planning schedules, through brainstorming with a group of “influencers and innovators” in the field. They might solve some of the problems we all have with the large association-wide conferences, such as:

Programs are selected so far in advance that new issues aren’t covered. All the sessions you want to go to are at the same time. Unofficial sessions can’t be scheduled at the last minute. Too many panels and “talking heads.”

Connie Crosby [WeirFoulds LLP, Toronto, Ontario, Canada] wrote, “an unconference is more informal, nimble and cheap than any conference I’ve been to. The mantra that drives them is the Rule of Two Feet: Any person not either learning from or contributing to a discussion, should use their two feet to move to another group discussion. The other, huge difference, is that the discussions are much more inclusive -- the audience is part of the presentation. They also help shape the agenda and sign up the day of the conference in a discussion session.”

Unconference: The Book is due to be published this year and is being written collaboratively with the use of a wiki. It started in India, but authors are invited from elsewhere. See the wiki for more information and a table of contents.

URLs:

Betsy’s post: http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2007/06/introducing-

unconferences.html
Crosby’s post: http://www.slaw.ca/2007/06/01/unconference-the-book/

Wiki book: http://www.unconference.info/wiki/index.php?title=Book

DO YOU HAVE AN INTERNET DISORDER?

David Rothman pointed me to an article in Wired by Lore Sjoberg called Narcissistic Blog Disorder and Other Conditions of Online Kookery. It seems the American Medical Association is proposing adding gaming addiction as a subcategory of "Internet addiction." I didn't even know there was a name for what I have, much less that it is a real disorder--Internet addiction.

Sjoberg proposes these additional disorders. Do you see yourself in any of them?
Narcissistic Blog Disorder
Bookmark Loop Disorder
E-mail Gullibility Syndrome
Atemporal Fad Disorder
Pugilistic Discussion Syndrome
Amusement Identify Disorder

URL: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2007/06/alttext_0620

M.D. SOCIAL BLOG IN THE UK

According to David Rothman’s blog, “Doctors.net.uk is the largest, most active medical network in the UK. Created by doctors for doctors, it is now the most popular, trusted medical channel enabling communication to and between 144,369 doctors, all day every day.”

URLs:
Rothman’s post: http://davidrothman.net/2007/06/20/uk-social-network
-for-physicians-doctorsnetuk/
Doctors.net: http://www.doctors.net.uk

FOR “ACADEMICALLY TALENTED YOUTH”

Cogito (I think, in Latin) is an online community for academically talented youth. There are interviews, projects, articles, Inspired and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Cogito is being developed through a collaborative effort by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth and eight partners (Center for Talent Development, Northwestern University; Talent Identification Program, Duke University; Rocky Mountain Talent Search, University of Denver; Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, University of Iowa; Carnegie Mellon Institute for Talented Elementary and Secondary Students, Carnegie Mellon University; Center for Excellence in Education, McLean, Virginia; Davidson Institute for Talent Development, Reno, Nevada; and Science Service, Washington, DC. Affiliates of the program are: The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University; the Siemens Foundation, Iselin, New Jersey; the Irish Centre for Talented Youth, Dublin City University, Ireland; The Society for Excellence through Education Jerusalem, Israel; Centre for Gifted Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the American Regions Mathematics League.

URL: http://www.cogito.org

FREE LIBRARY-RELATED E-LEARNING SITES

Library 2.0 has a nice list of Free Library-related eLearning sites drawn from Stephanie Gerding’s Accidental Technology Trainer List. Thanks Steph. (She has a book, The Accidental Technology Trainer coming out from Information Today in Winter 2007.)

URLs:
Library 2.0: http://library20.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?
id=515108%3ABlogPost%3A30994
Gerding’s list: http://home.earthlink.net/~stephaniegerding/
accidentaltechnologytrainer/id2.html

WORLDCAT DOES LISTS

OCLC’s WorldCat now gives you the ability to create lists from “library-owned items you have found while using WorldCat.” You have to create an account, but it’s free and quick. You can create as many lists as you want, share them or keep them private, add and delete items, export the list to your own computer, and add brief (up to 256 characters) notes to the entries. You can even export citations in comma-delimited format and they plan to add EndNote and RefWorks supporting APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, and Turabian styles. How cool! Check out the lists already created by others, too.

URLs:
Other people’s lists: http://www.worldcat.org/webservices/root/search/lists?listquery-book
FAQ: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/help/ and click on lists

LOOKING FOR A MILITARY RECORD?

Ancestry.com has added a database of military enlistment and draft records. Access is free for a limited time. For more information, see the article from Internet for Lawyers: Internet Legal Research Update from Carole Levitt and March Rosch. (While you’re there, sign up for their free newsletter.)

URL: http://www.netforlawyers.com/ancestry_military.htm

MLA GUIDE TO CANCER INFO BLOG

Ruti Volk’s Medical Library Association Guide to Cancer Information is being updated via a blog. What a great idea!

URL: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/VolkMLAguide/

DO YOU COORDINATE CME?

If you are a medical librarian who serves as coordinator of continuing medical education, you might want to join the CME Librarians and Coordinators Forum. “Its purpose is to foster communication and resource and information sharing for those who handle AMA accredited continuing medical education within their institutions.”

URL: (to join) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmelibco

SOCIAL ISSUES WEBSITE

Social Issues is from the Gale Group and has articles and “debates” on various US social issues. This would be useful in academic libraries, especially for secondary or undergraduate education support.

URL: http://socialissues.wiseto.com/

POWER NETWORKING FOR INTROVERTS

This is a relatively new site from Marcy Phelps [Phelps Research, Lakewood, Colorado, USA], a professional researcher and trainer who spoke at the recent SLA conference.

This is from her first post. “Welcome to Power Networking for Introverts, a blog for introverts who want to overcome their fear of networking. I'll be posting tips and techniques, recommended books and websites, and information about my upcoming presentations. I look forward to talking with introverts and hope that this blog helps you develop your personal and business networks.”

There’s some good stuff here—take a look.

URL: http://www.introvertscannetwork.com/

FEDERAL LIBRARIES THAT ARE CLOSED OR ENDANGERED

“This public wiki is established as a central place to post information and inquiries about rumored closings and threats to federal libraries.” It is co-hosted by the Washington office of the American Library Association and the Committee on Legislation’s Subcommittee on Federal Libraries. There’s not much there—it should only stay that way!

URL: http://wikis.ala.org/fedlib/

UPDATED MEDICINES INFORMATION DATABASE

“A second version of the EudraPharm database of information on medicinal products approved within the European Union has been released today. The main new benefits of this update are: Inclusion of product information documents in all available EU languages, Inclusion of maximum-residue-limit information for veterinary products, Inclusion of an advanced search function to make information searches more accurate, Inclusion of a new site map to improve navigation. EudraPharm is a long-term project being funded by the European Commission and implemented by the EMEA [European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products], in close cooperation with the medicines agencies of each EU Member State, to provide information about all medicines for human or veterinary use authorised in the EU.”

URL: http://eudrapharm.eu/eudrapharm/welcome.do

LOOKING FOR A WEB APPLICATION?

Try The Unofficial Web Applications List. I don’t know who put it up, but it looks useful. There is a sidebar with the following tasks you may want to do: convert to PDF, edit photos, send large files, make web buttons, translate, use spreadsheet, use word processor, read RSS feeds, scan for viruses/spyware, play Sudoku, etc.

URL: http://www.webapplist.com/

AMA CHOOSES AN “OFFICIAL SOCIAL NETWORK”

The American Medical Association (AMA) and Sermo today announced a collaborative agreement to empower physicians by making their collective voice heard in a way never before possible. By teaming with Sermo, the AMA will be able to address important professional and public health issues in a multi-phase, multi-year alliance aimed at improving medical practice, physician advocacy, and patient care.

This will include: A “Discuss on Sermo” link in AMA print and online publications, including the AMA’s award-winning American Medical News, which reach more than 350,000 physicians. This new link will allow physicians nationwide to immediately discuss, survey, and corroborate opinions about the latest health care news and research.

Plenty of academic and public librarians have stressed the importance of being where their patrons are and having a presence in Facebook or MySpace. This announcement may indicate that a greater number of physician patrons are going to be using Sermo. Perhaps your medical library (or librarian) should, too.

When David Rothman posted this on his blog, one librarian responded, “I just found it odd that some medical bloggers were expressing fear of discussing the cases they see while Sermo seems to do the exact same thing only on a mass scale.”

This all seems rather strange to me [Judy]. Isn't the idea of Web 2.0 to allow people to use multiple, user-chosen tools to interact? AMA is controlling something that shouldn't be controlled.

BLOGS ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The AlternativeEnergyBlog is a gateway to the following Energy Blogs: The Bioeconomy Blog, The Bioenergy Blog, The Geothermal Energy Blog, and The Wind Energy Blog. All are from Gerry McKiernan [Iowa State University, Ames]

URL: http://alternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/

LIBRARY TECHNICIAN BLOGS

Compiled from various sources...

Aus Library Technician, http://auslibrarytechnician.blogspot.com, The library life of Australian library technician, Kevin Dudeney [New South Wales Department of Corrective Services, Australia]

The Library Dude! http://librarydude.blogspot.com, The Day by day of a Library Technician in the big bad world, [ACT Library and Information Services, Griffith, Australian Capitol Territory] but changing jobs

LibrarySupportStaff.org, http://blog.librarysupportstaff.org, not a blog, is a great resource for finding blogs and other resources for library techs

Library Technician, http://librarytechnician.blogspirit.com/, Life as a long term techie of the library variety, from Australia

Library Technician Training in Australia, http://www.auslttraining.blogspot.com, also from Kevin Dudeny

Library Technicians: Education, Training, Practice, Career, Jobs, etc., http://lit2542006.blogspot.com, Educational techniques, tools, and trends have a great similarity among many disciplines that have adopted the Information Technology. This blog will adapt what suits the Library profession, with special reference to Library Technicians, from Mohamed Taher [Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

Nova Scotia Association of Library Technicians, http://nsalt.blogspot.com/

Paraprose, http://nclpa.wordpress.com, North Carolina Library Paraprofessional Association (NCLPA).

WLA Paraprofessionals, http://blog.wyla.org/parapro/, Wyoming Library Association

DON’T CALL IT JCAHO!

This just in from Jim Johnson [VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania] via the MEDLIB-L electronic list.

“We were told in an orientation session yesterday not to refer to the
organization as JCAHO because its name is now Joint Commission, and
that they would make a point of correcting us if we show we are not aware
of the change whenever they show up for an on-site inspection.” 

NEW BLOG FOR WOMEN LAWYERS

Ms. ND: Changing the Face of the Legal Profession

“Concerned by the rates at which women opt out of the legal profession, the lack of representation of women in the highest courts and echelons of the legal community, and the role of gender in the progression of many women’s legal careers, a group of female law students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Yale came together and created Ms. JD in March 2006. Serving women in law school and the legal profession, Ms. JD is an online community that provides a forum for dialogue and networking among women lawyers and aspiring lawyers.” Ms. JD launched at a national conference co-hosted by Yale Law School Women on March 31, 2007. The Chairwoman of the Board and President is Elizabeth Pederson, a third-year law student at Stanford Law School.

URL: http://ms-jd.org/