libraryland

After a lot of thought, I have decided to move the libraryland content over to my other library blog, Cool Librarian.

The Cool Librarian blog has been around for a while now, and has a larger readership than libraryland - mostly because I update over there much more frequently. That blog has always been a more general, and slightly more personal, library-related blog, so I originally thought that separating the two blogs was a good idea. I also wanted the experience of creating a WordPress blog. And now that I have “been there, done that,” I have decided that combing the two will give me more time to keep up with both types of content.

So, now you will find all of the libraryland pages re-created and linked at Cool Librarian. I will continue to post new resource content (hopefully more frequently now!), as well as my adventures as a “cool librarian.” I hope you will visit!

Please update your bookmarks to http://coollibrarianblog.blogspot.com, and update your feed once you get there if you don’t already subscribe.

Things have been slow on this blog primarily because things have been busy on my other blogs. I am also preparing for an up-coming job interview for which I have to give a presentation.

While preparing for said presentation, I have come across oodles of resources on the subject (Women’s Studies) produced by students, librarians, teachers/instructors/professors, colleges/universities, other types of info professionals, business professionals, and just “everyday people” who have an interest in the subject. It’s been great pawing through it.

But while doing so, I keep wondering, “Why is it so hard to get my colleagues/friends/internet acquaintances/librarians to submit evidence of their obvious talents to libraryland?

Yes, I know I am whining, but I really am curious. Is it because no one reads this blog? Are people too busy? Do peolple (current students, especially) think their work isn’t up to par? Is the process of submitting too much of a hassle? I’d really love some feedback on this, because I think that the Info Share page could be just an awesome resource for students and librarians if I could get people to “play.” And, I am totally open to the concept of turning it into a wiki, if that appeals to people.

Comments? Suggestions? Ideas? Shut-the-Hell-up?

Do you have a bookmarks toolbar crammed full of social software links? Wish you had room for more? Well, now you can pack all the widgets you want into one simple Blummy link on your toolbar! This free little utility allows you to select and arrange many of your social software links under one tab - hit that link, and you get a nice drop-down menu of all your “stuff.” Check it out! (Thanks, Kaijsa!)

testing/messing with sociable….

I have posted a few new items to the Info Share page.

• Article: Movie Rantings
• Article: Pay Attention and Watch Your Child’s Back
  Author: Stacey Antner

• Webliography: Selected Literacy Websites
  Author: Shelly Quezada

I asked Stacey a while back if she had anything she’d like to share, and I’m just finally getting my act together. And while at the Simmons Skill Share, I asked the presenter of the Literacy workshop, Ann, if she would share the webliography she used. She checked with the webliography’s author, Shelly Quezada, and, voila, here it is! Thanks, guys!

I’m going to keep begging until I get more stuff…

You may (or may not), have noticed that I have changed the name of the Original Works Page to Info Share.

After attending the Skill Share at Simmons College two weeks ago, I was so impressed by their concept that I decided that Info Share was better suited to what I would like this page to be about - quite simply, sharing information. For some reason, it has been a challenge to get people to share some of their work, findings, papers, pathfinders, etc with libraryland. Perhaps it’s a time issue, perhaps people think it’s hard to do, and perhaps people are concerned about copyright. But, as librarians, I think most of us want to share information - and I hope that I am giving people an outlet to do so (especially if you are not a blogger yourself) and also providing a somewhat “consolidated” repository.

At any rate, please take a look at the page, and if you have something you’d like to contribute, please do! I will attribute however you like, and I will copyright however you like. I will convert files to PDF for you, if you like (especially if you choose to have full copyright on the piece).

Spread the word, and spread the info!

OK, I’m probably the last one on the bus again, but I’m just now discovering the cool-factors of Meebo. Meebo is yet another IM program (and sometimes I wonder how many you can have), but the best thing about this one is that you don’t have to download it - so you can IM and run on whatever computer you have in front of you. This is great if you are on a public computer and can’t download programs. It lets you log-on to AOL, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, Jabber and GoogleTalk. Another cool goodie is the widget you can customize and add to your blog or website - you can chat with your visitors if you are online. Nice.

A word about Trillian: As much as I love the versatility of Meebo, I am a die-hard Trillian user.  Trillian’s been around a while, and I think it’s a great, and stable, multi IM platform. If they get around to adding Google Talk, and perhaps a widget, I’ll love it even more.

Want to add a tag cloud to your poor, tagless Blogger blog? Well, meet Zoom Clouds (thanks Geeky Artist Librarian)! Zoom Clouds lets you add a tag cloud to any blog, regardless of whether the blogging tool supports tagging (or catagories) or not. It’s self-updating and customizable. However, the tag words are not controlled by the user - they are picked by Zoom Clouds based on frequently appearing words in your blog.

For even more control, pair Zoom Clouds with Qumana, and create tag clouds based on the tags you choose.

For a look at Zoom Clouds in action, visit Geeky Artist Librarian and my Cool Librarian blog. (And, you can look here for a more detailed post on these tools.)

I posted about Odeo a few days ago in the social software catagory. Though I had given it a look, I hadn’t experimented with it too much, as I have yet to get into podcasting, etc. Well, just for fun, I did a test “podcast,” and let me tell you, it was so ridiculously easy that I had a cast up and running on my personal blog in under 3 minutes. Nothing to download, no audio experience outside of Skype and voice on assorted IM programs, no fancy equipment (my headset came from the dollar store, so, yeah, not fancy), no impossible code - EASY, I tell ya! So, if you are at all interested in getting into podcasting and don’t know where to start, definitely give Odeo a look.

I was sitting around, wondering why it seems that no one uses Spurl besides me, and I decided to take a look at some of the other social bookmarking sites and apps out there. What I found was a.) there’s a boatload of ‘em, and b.) they all do pretty much the same thing, with changes in style, presentation, etc. Basically, social bookmarking sites allow you to save your “favorites” so that you can view them on any computer, tag them, and if you wish, share them with others who use the bookmarking site.

My primary reason for choosing Spurl remains the same - it is one of the few that allow you to arrange your bookmarks in folders, rather than just by tags. I am a organization freak, so I really like this part of Spurl; Spurl is one of the “early” online bookmark managers, and based their app on “traditional” organization principals and added tagging. The cool kids are now using tagging and search rather than folders - that’s cool, and maybe some day I will get the hang of that. There are some really nice apps out there, so here’s a list of a few of the popular ones - check ‘em out!

del.icio.us - Easily the most widely used. One of the first to “tag.”
Spurl - My favorite. Not overly popular. Old-school organizing plus tagging and searching.
digg
BlogMarks.net
reddit
scuttle
Smarking.com
simpy
netvouz
Furl - One of the more popular ones
shadows
Backflip -Another oldie. Yahoo stylings.
Connotea - Designed for “business” - looks business-y, works like the others
Wists - Called “social shopping,” this is like a wish list on steroids. Love it.