I love this tool that allows you to link directly from Flickr to your blog. Thanks to Leslie for pointing it out!
This photo was taken by my very talented friend William. He is a photographer who is into toy and antique cameras. You can see more of his work on Flickr here.
17 August 2007
I saw you on CSPAN...
You just have to love a music video that checks CSPAN AND universal health care reform. Well, ok, maybe you don't have to - but I do! I know this is a well-worn YouTube phenomenon, but I can't help but post the "I've got a crush on Obama" video, featuring Obama Girl:
Of course, now there are a ton of spin-offs, from the Romney girls to McCain mama. But this one remains the most amusing, I think.
Of course, now there are a ton of spin-offs, from the Romney girls to McCain mama. But this one remains the most amusing, I think.
14 August 2007
Fisher Price's My First Podcast
Listen to me! This is just a test #1
Yeah, yeah, yeah...no one likes the sound of their voice, especially when it's being transmitted via phone onto the web. The one consolation for me is that I sound vaguely furtive in this recording, like possibly I'm hiding out, on the lam, giving testimony from behind a pillar in the UWB parking garage. If only I knew some juicy secrets about the Nixon administration...
Yeah, yeah, yeah...no one likes the sound of their voice, especially when it's being transmitted via phone onto the web. The one consolation for me is that I sound vaguely furtive in this recording, like possibly I'm hiding out, on the lam, giving testimony from behind a pillar in the UWB parking garage. If only I knew some juicy secrets about the Nixon administration...
Identifying peer-reviewed research on the Internets
From the ScienceBlogs consortium comes this interesting idea: what if there was an icon that allowed bloggers to signify when they are discussing/citing peer-reviewed research? More details and discussion is available here.
It's an interesting idea & one that I was surprised to run across. Obviously, this is something that science bloggers, or academic bloggers in general, would be concerned with...I doubt that Go Fug Yourself is really concerned with such issues (although I would love to read a peer-reviewed article that dealt with heinous fashion crimes by celebrities).
Anyhow, it's good to know that it's not just librarians who are so worked up about such things.
It's an interesting idea & one that I was surprised to run across. Obviously, this is something that science bloggers, or academic bloggers in general, would be concerned with...I doubt that Go Fug Yourself is really concerned with such issues (although I would love to read a peer-reviewed article that dealt with heinous fashion crimes by celebrities).
Anyhow, it's good to know that it's not just librarians who are so worked up about such things.
24 July 2007
Politics on the interwebs
Salon.com features a minute-by-minute account of the scintillating debate between Democratic hopefuls...with questions from YouTube. Hilarious!!
18 July 2007
In which I complete my own assignment
I asked folks doing the RSS module of our Learning 2.0 experiment to reflect on how this model of information delivery might impact libraries. I'm going to take a few lines to reflect on that very question myself.
I think our patrons are demanding that services be delivered to them, whether it be news via RSS, books shipped to their local branch or instruction conveyed through a web tutorial. I really liked the analogy made in the little video that I linked to the RSS module - RSS is like Netflix; instead of going to your local video store & picking from what they have, you tell the service what you want & it's delivered. On the one hand, this model is great: the consumer determines what they want/need and then has myriad options for configuring how it gets to them. For example, I love the fact that I can not only have New York Times stories constantly flowing to my aggregator, but I can specify that I only want stories that deal with Europe. Or hip librarians. Or whatever.
But there's also something disturbingly insular about this mode of information delivery, as well. I think it restricts the amount of "information encountering" that one might experience - that sort of serendipitous stumbling upon an interesting counterpoint or seemingly random fact from a different discipline or subject area. From a liberal arts education point of view, that's a loss. There's also a loss of community when everyone simply stays parked behind their computers & has everything delivered (this goes beyond the library, obviously and extends into the world of commerce & civic participation. You don't even want to get me started on voting by mail...). Are we destined to become a society of isolated, narrowly informed hermits? Or is that what we've already become?
In any case, I'm not giving up my Netflix membership.
I think our patrons are demanding that services be delivered to them, whether it be news via RSS, books shipped to their local branch or instruction conveyed through a web tutorial. I really liked the analogy made in the little video that I linked to the RSS module - RSS is like Netflix; instead of going to your local video store & picking from what they have, you tell the service what you want & it's delivered. On the one hand, this model is great: the consumer determines what they want/need and then has myriad options for configuring how it gets to them. For example, I love the fact that I can not only have New York Times stories constantly flowing to my aggregator, but I can specify that I only want stories that deal with Europe. Or hip librarians. Or whatever.
But there's also something disturbingly insular about this mode of information delivery, as well. I think it restricts the amount of "information encountering" that one might experience - that sort of serendipitous stumbling upon an interesting counterpoint or seemingly random fact from a different discipline or subject area. From a liberal arts education point of view, that's a loss. There's also a loss of community when everyone simply stays parked behind their computers & has everything delivered (this goes beyond the library, obviously and extends into the world of commerce & civic participation. You don't even want to get me started on voting by mail...). Are we destined to become a society of isolated, narrowly informed hermits? Or is that what we've already become?
In any case, I'm not giving up my Netflix membership.
17 July 2007
Facebook + librarians = ???
I just read an interesting post about librarians in Facebook at User's Lib. From a small, informal poll done on Facebook, it turns out that a majority of students prefer interacting with librarians face-to-face, rather than via Facebook.
This doesn't surprise me necessarily. To me, Facebook seems like students' domain...where they go to interact informally (ie, hook up & swap compromising photos of one another at parties). It seems hard for me to believe that a student would be IMing with some guy from her chem class and then SUDDENLY REALIZE that she should also contact a librarian about tracking down some scholarly articles.
That said, I did meet an int'l studies librarian at ALA who said that he gets a lot of interaction with students in his department via Facebook and feels like he is more "trusted" now that he has a presence there.
I can't seem to remember to check my Facebook account regularly...it seems outside of my normal everyday existence.
This doesn't surprise me necessarily. To me, Facebook seems like students' domain...where they go to interact informally (ie, hook up & swap compromising photos of one another at parties). It seems hard for me to believe that a student would be IMing with some guy from her chem class and then SUDDENLY REALIZE that she should also contact a librarian about tracking down some scholarly articles.
That said, I did meet an int'l studies librarian at ALA who said that he gets a lot of interaction with students in his department via Facebook and feels like he is more "trusted" now that he has a presence there.
I can't seem to remember to check my Facebook account regularly...it seems outside of my normal everyday existence.
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