Tuesday, November 17, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: Open Sesame

The Internet as Right?
A case for open internet.



The Internet - In a box!
I can't embed this video, but follow the link for hilarity.


The IT Crowd - Series 3 (The Internet)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Impress Your Professor: Lose the Books

NPR has a rather interesting story posted on its website about how a school library is saying goodbye to its print collection. It seems to me like this yet another tipped domino in an increasing move towards digital collections and e-books.

NPR quotes the schools Academic Dean as stating, "Part of our desire to move in this direction is to meet the students where they are most comfortable... And it's our responsibility as well to help students understand the emerging technologies that they are going to be faced with."

But with great new power comes great responsibility. (Oh, Spiderman.) This week, NPR also posted a story about a Vision Group requesting that a school stop buying Kindles until Amazon comes up with better way to turn on the vocal reading option.

So, my question to everyone is, how do we continue to move forward with our digital and electronic tools without leaving people behind?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: Mobile

iBook
There's an app for that.

 


Biblioburro
Think book mobile.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Impress Your Professor: Unprepared

I was not prepared to post anything on the blog today. No stories stuck out in my mind. I didn't come across any incredibly interesting articles. Frankly, I was drained of all my energy because I had to teach two courses of library instruction / information literacy yesterday. (After 3 hours, I have a new found respect for teachers who stand up and talk all day.)

So, here I sit, blanking on any information to type. I could discuss more about Google Wave (named after a communications method from my beloved and bygone space cowboy show Firefly), but it's been done and will continue to be done. I could peruse the ASIST journal and bulletin for articles, but I'm not in the mood. Ultimately, I've decided to do what most people do when they're stuck: procrastinate.

(1 hour later)

Success! In my procrastination, I decided to clean out my e-mail files. Look what I came across: Library101.

A large part of working in an academic library is teaching to undergraduates. We have to make the library look all sorts of awesome while still teaching them how to use all our (awesome!) tools and resources. Library101 offers a (somewhat hokey) crash course in what it means to remain relevant in a changing and technologically innovative society.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: Overload, Part II

Facts and Stats
Just how much overload is overload?



The Cure?
Has anyone found Bing to be the cure to IO?