Libraryola

I’ve added a feed for my del.icio.us bookmarks to my sidebar. It’s mostly links about copyright and fair use, e-government, and mobile phones right now. The fair use stuff will probably drop off, though, once I’m done with my fair use paper.

As I expected, I have generally stopped paying attention to the Ning.com social networks I’ve joined. It’s nothing personal; I’ve just had too much to do lately to keep up. It happens, and it doesn’t mean I won’t be re-engaged in them later.

That said, I did notice a post in the forum for Librarian Bloggers that piqued my interest. It’s actually been the featured link in the sidebar for a few days, but I wanted to comment on it here in the main body as well. Adam Paszternak, a librarian from Hungary, asked for comments on a library science search engine he built called FIKSZ E-ngine. He used the “Create your own search engine” feature at Google Co-op to create the site, which searches biblioblogs, listservs, library websites and e-journals for results.

The drawback to the site is that the interface in Hungarian. I mean, it’s a drawback to anyone who doesn’t speak Hungarian. Hungarian speakers will find that the interface is not a drawback at all. Paszternak provided translations to the search limiters in his post about the site. Also, I know someone who wrote a Hungarian dictionary if you need one.

FIKSZ E-ngine is worth leaping over the language barrier, though. Take a look at the results page for the term “Library 2.0.” Not to shabby, huh? Compare it to the results from LISZEN and I think it matches up pretty well. Both leave room for improvement, but using both can certainly cover all your bases, library science web searching-wise.

One of the small side discussions that arose after the shootings at Virginia Tech was over how the school notified the campus body about what was going on. In light of what happened during that situation, the University of Maryland announced this week that it is going to send out text alerts to warn students about emergencies. Expect other colleges to follow suit.In Ireland, Dunshaughlin Community College announced it will install a program called Truancy Call to help cut down on absenteeism. The program will call, email and text message parents to alert them of their children’s truancy. Parents can then respond in one of those ways to provide the school with information about their kids.

Of course, just as texting can be used for the forces of good, it can also be used for the forces of evil. (Although your opinion on whether Truancy Call is good or evil depends on how often you skip classes at Dunshaughlin.) The NCAA has passed a ban on text messaging from coaches to prospects after a number of high school students complained about being texted way too much by overeager recruiters.

In a related item, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on today’s front page about how Motorola failed to capitalize on Razr’s success by trying to capitalize on Razr’s success:

“‘A lot of you are always asking what is after the Razr,’ [Motorola Chief Executive Ed] Zander said in an April 2006 conference call after another quarter of 30%-plus growth. ‘I say more Razrs.’”

References:

Beki. “Irish school sends text messages to beat truancy.” PublicTechnology.net (27 April 2007). Accessed on 27 April 2007. Via eGovernment Resource Center.

Bisson, Casey. “NCAA Set To Ban Text Messaging Between Recruiters And High School Students.” maisonbisson (26 April 2007). Accessed on 27 April 2007.

Fowler, Daniel. “U.Md. to use texting to warn of emergencies.” The Washington, DC Examiner (24 April 2007): p.4. Accessed on 27 April 2007.

Marot, Michael. “NCAA Passes Text Messaging Ban.” AP (SFGate.com) (26 April 2007). Accessed on 27 April 2007.

Rhoads, Christopher and Li Yuan. “How Motorola Fell A Giant Step Behind.” Wall Street Journal (27 April 2007): p.A1. Accessed on 27 April 2007.

Odds and ends while I work on my term paper:

•  James Quinn and I haven’t been able to update Library Underground for awhile because our host was going through an elaborate server upgrade. The upgrade is done, access has been restored, updates will be happening soon.
•  As a side note, the server upgrade means I can update a couple of other domains I own: Lemur Love and Zammarelli.com. The former is a goofy little personal site for me and my wife Jennifer. The latter forwards to my sister Angela’s home page right now, but she and I plan to put up our own sites there soon. Mine will probably be more of a C.V., while hers will be more awesome.
•  I’m giving Twitter a go again. I have to admit that it’s like Taco Bell: I never liked it before, but now I hate how much I enjoy it!
•  I am sometimes asked why I am such a cynical person. Here’s an example of why from Romenesko: “Courant readers protest VT photo, claim it shows genitals.” Said Courant photo lab manager Dennis Yonan, “If readers are more offended by a piece of anatomy than the tragedy, maybe they should rethink some things.”
•  I registered for the ALA conference yesterday. On my confirmation page, there was a survey to fill out. Here are the last two questions (and you’ll want to click on the image to make it bigger):

What’s missing from this picture? Perhaps a fourth option: “live in the area.”

The University of Rhode Island University Libraries have cataloged Libraryola. Sweet!

If you search the Helin Library Catalog for “Library Web sites,” you can see some of the other library blogs they’ve added to their collection. One site that I hadn’t seen before was Maire Kruppa’s blog.skagirlie.net, so already this cataloging blogs idea is working for me.

The British Prime Minister’s website features a section of e-petitions. If you’re bored and your laugh doesn’t annoy your co-workers, browse through it. I recommend starting with “Leisure and culture.” Specifically the “Rejected petitions.” Dammit, why did they reject “Persuade Graham Coxon to rejoin Blur?”