Information Center Connections

Federal library world updates

The Federal Library Directory is a new resource of incredible value.

The directory, organized by FLICC, is searchable and provides detailed information about more than 1,000 U.S. federal libraries worldwide. Contact information, available services, and welcome audiences are listed, among many other characteristics of interest.

Read more about it in the press release.

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As you may know, GPO Access, the federal government's site for documents and reports, is being replaced by FDsys.  The transition has begun, and no new materials will be added to the old site. That site will be "retired" during the 2012 fiscal year, specific date yet undetermined.

FDsys stands for "Federal Digital System" and it is also a product of the U.S. Government Printing Office. The system provides access to information products from all three government branches, including fulltext documents and metadata.

Learn more about this resource on the FDsys site.

New ventures for Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy

Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy, formerly of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker, have launched two new not-to-be-missed resource sites.

INFOdocket brings us industry news, and a whole lot of resources and tools.

FullTextReports...well, it's just what it says!  Reports from think tanks, scholarly organizations, industry analysts, and more.

Each site has an RSS feed and a Twitter feed (@INFOdocket and @fulltextreports), so it's easy to keep up with what's new, and each site is accessible on your mobile device.  How's that for great information service?

 

News from Dialog and ProQuest

Three cheers for Dialog and ProQuest!

Dialog is offering some discounts for access to its services for laid-off librarians and information professionals.  A press release from early October announced that the company is waiving standard Dialog start-up and service fees, offering free Dialindex, and discounting Dialog usage by 10% for librarians who have become unemployed since September 2008.  The company hopes it will help info pros find jobs and maintain their search skills during a difficult time.  Sign up for the program here.

And, for SLA members, here's another program to take advantage of:  free trials of Dialog and ProQuest resources.  Ninety days of complimentary access to databases will be offered on a rotating basis.  During the first 90 days of the program, the featured products are Environmental Impact Studies (full-text) and Papers Invited.  What's up next?  Conference Papers Index and Illustrata.  What better way to evaluate products than through a free trial?

That Twitter thing

I've avoided it for long enough.  A post about Twitter.

Why have I been avoiding it? 

Well, in the beginning, it was lack of knowledge.  I had an account (@triviachick), had made a post or two, but just didn't get it.  What's retweeting, again?  How is this good for business? 

In the middle, it was realizing that, although I was tweeting (that's the verb form of Twitter), there was much more to learn.  Not only had an account been set up for the SLA 2009 conference (@sla2009, which is still active, by the way), but I created one for SLA HQ (@slahq) for more general posts.  (@sla was taken...I didn't move fast enough!)  Articles and e-mails about Twitter were everywhere (that seemed to happen overnight, and the activity only grew), but was I ready to talk intelligently about Twitter and tweeting and how to do this, that, and the other thing?  Nope...but I collected all those e-mails and articles and put them in a safe place (that is, I shoved them in an e-mail folder).

Today, 116 followers, 191 updates, one staff training, and 117 items in that e-mail folder later, I came to the conclusion that if I don't write this post NOW, it'll never get written.

So, here's the Twitter post.  Rather, *a* Twitter post, since I'll be writing about it periodically...way (way) too much information to share in one post at this point.  And, how could I not start today when I saw this stat, from Nielsen, on Mashable (@mashable):  Twitter has grown 1,928% in one year. 

Whoa.  Are you a part of that?

So, let's begin...

Question:  What is Twitter? (no sense in making assumptions and leaving people behind)

Answer:  Twitter is an easy-to-use online service through which you share short messages with those who "follow" you.  You, in turn, follow them (possibly) and others.  There is a 140-character limit on the messages...which is more than you think, but is sometimes not quite enough.

Question:  Why would I want to tweet (that is, use Twitter)?  What's in it for me, or my library, or my business?

Answer:  People use Twitter for many reasons, from personal to corporate.  You can share what you're doing in a moment, put out a call for assistance or opinions or information, promote a product or service, spread news (yours or someone else's).  It's (another) way to connect with clients/patrons/enter-audience-type-here.  From the other side, it's a way to receive information (news, questions, tips) from those you want to receive it from.

Question:  No, really, why would I use it?  How do I use it?

Answer: Take a look:

LISNews Company introduces new DVD to protect data 1,000+ yrs http://bit.ly/19c26k  [and here it is on Twitter]

resourceshelf Springer Launches Innovative Publisher-Based Image Collection http://tr.im/sGD6  [Twitter version]

SLAAcad Call for editorial board members! http://bit.ly/11nIgo  [Twitter version]

tywebb75 Adding Shirky's "Here comes everybody" to the lo-o-ng list of books I want to read. Think his ideas may backup own thoughts re ass'n future  [Twitter version]

Jill_HW Been reorganizing my RSS feeds in Bloglines. Hope this helps me archieve "reader zero" on a more regular basis.  [Twitter version]

triviachick Just got an extension for my Information Outlook column. The blog post is taking longer than I want it to...but it must be done.  [Twitter version]

What else you'll find:  job postings, links to photographs and research reports, local traffic updates, and a heck of a lot of U.S. government information.

Does it make more sense now?  Is that enough to get you started?  If so, visit Twitter to look around, sign up.  Updates are public (unless they are made private by account holders), so exploring doesn't involve setting an account up.  Not sure where to start?  Take a look at the list of tweets above, my followers and following lists (at @triviachick) and those of your tweeting colleagues.  There's also a directory of SLA Twitterers, both individuals and units, in SLA's wiki space.  Search for topics and read some posts.  Some of it is serendipity.

My next Twitter post will have some information on the mechanics of posting, including some helpful commands and other tips.  Plus, tools (including search) and even more tips.  In the meantime, a fairly comprehensive Twitter resource you may want to look at is Mashable's Twitter Guide Book...lots of answers there.

Worth a click

If you aren't wholly satisfied with your Twitter experience, you might need a tool or two to make your life complete.  Take a look at the Ultimate List of Twitter Tools from the Social Media Guide.

Fifty Best Blogs for Law Librarians.  You be the judge.

What is Web 3.0 exactly?  Here are a few explanations.

GovFresh is a mega-feed of U.S. government updates from various 2.0 tools.

Stuff...need some?  Need to get rid of some?  Try takemeimfree.com or Freecycle.

Worth a click

DeepDyve, a new "research engine" that hits the deep Web.  Enter your complex search here.

Analyze the flow of news with Media Cloud, from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. 

Get blog and other Web site updates in your e-mail inbox.  FeedMyInbox...no feed reader required! (Thanks to member Brandy King for this tip.)

Need resumé help?  Mashable presents ten tools that help you create and refine your resumé using the social Web.

Wolfram|Alpha

A new tool has entered the search arena, and you've probably heard of it by now.  Wolfram|Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine," aims to bring you more data, the more hidden of what's out in the universe.

As I attempted a test run, I received the message the "current maximum load" had been reached, but I encourage you to take a look and see what you think.

The folks who bring us ResourceShelf created a user guide for our searching pleasure. 

Reviews and more information from Search Engine Land, PC World, Lifehacker, and Digits.  See what the tweeps are saying on Twitter.

Worth a click

Copyright and Wrongs, a debate at the Economist Web site.  So very interesting.  Add your thoughts.

I missed this February report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on Twitter.  "Eleven percent of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter...."

Have you seen Let Me Google That For You?  It creates a link that actually runs a Google search for the link recipient.

ZipWho.com is a demographics search engine.

Search for knowledge with Wolfram Alpha (due for release sometime this month).  Thanks to member Ken Wheaton for the tip!

Tips and tools from Computers in Libraries

Of course, there were waaay more resources shared at the recent Computers in Libraries conference than can be reported here, but I wanted to write about some of the interesting things I learned at the event, which took place March 30th-April 1st in Arlington, Virginia.

The first day's keynote was CIL regular Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.  He reported on the results of the newly-released The Mobile Difference in his presentation "Friending Libraries:  Why Libraries Can Become Nodes in People's Social Networks."  Sixty-two percent of those who connect to the Internet (as of 2008) do so wirelessly, which just eight years ago was impossible.  In the information "ecosystem," the volume, variety, velocity, and access points of and for information have increased...and the relevance of information has also improved (along with our ability to find it), although we sometimes suffer from "continuous partial attention"...which means our capacity to focus has decreased.  So much to do (and read and see), so little time!  Lee described the characteristics of the ten groups identified by the survey results, from those who "lead the pack" as digital collaborators to those who are "tech indifferent," who don't even have cell phones or connectivity.  His point was that libraries need to determine who their audience/clients are and work within their universe(s) to meet their information needs.

The following tools are collected from the various presentations throughout the conference.  Be sure to check out the conference site or speakers' own blogs and sites for full presentations.  Explore and experiment...plenty of inspiration here!

Skype...Calls and video calls over the Internet

EngagedPatrons.org...free/lowcost services that help libraries connect with their patrons

Image generators (for your staff avatars, of course), like Generator Blog, Imagegenerator.org (I remember this from 23 Things), and ImageChef.

Google Webmaster Central, where you can find a variety of tools for improving site traffic

Use BoardTracker, BoardReader, and Omgili to find out what people are saying on discussion boards.

FireShot...a Firefox extension for screenshots

XnView converts all sorts of files to other formats

The Top Posts widget from PostRank lists your top blog posts on your blog

Screencast with Jing

Qapture and TweetDeck are just two of the many Twitter applications I heard about 

Brand new Hunch helps you make decisions after you answer a set of questions

Find out which usernames have already been taken with Checkusernames.com

Coordinate global meetings with the World Time Server

Google 101

Ok, some of you may be such advanced Google users that you are on Google 201 already, but I picked up a few good tidbits about Google's many search tools when I participated in the Google 101 seminar (and webinar) that was presented by the D.C. Chapter on March 17th.  The session, Google for Researchers, took place on the NIH campus and was also available live to those of us still at our computers.

The speaker was Galen Panger, who works at Google in the Public Affairs area.  He covered the basics all the way through the hidden gems that Google offers. 

What I learned about Google Search:

• Use the ~ to find results with terms similar to your own.  For example, the search ~nutrition will also find results that also have the terms health, carbohydrates, and vitamins (among other words).
• Find sites related to another site...as in related:epa.gov.  Note that there is no space between the related command and the URL.
• Custom Search allows you to designate a group of sites that can be searched together.  This is a similar tool to Rollyo.
• The wildcard search lets you substitute an asterisk for terms within a sentence.  As in, [ Hand sanitizer is * effective ], which leads you to results that explain the circumstances under which hand sanitizer is 99.9% effective, less effective, and cost effective.

Fortunately, the videocast and slides (through Slideshare and as a PDF) are available for viewing!  I encourage you to take a look.  Learn a few things for your own research, and wow your clients when you train them.