Virtual Archives @ Stanford University Library

Mattie Taormina, Head of Public Service & Processing Manuscripts Librarian for
Stanford University’s Special Collections and University Archives hosted a virtual “Open House” in Second Life (SL) on Friday morning, 7-31-09. Avatars "dropped in" for an overview of Stanford's new Virtual Archives.

Now scholars (and anyone) can visit Stanford's closed stacks and browse manuscript collections—this option is not allowed in real life, so it opens the small collection to the world. According to Mattie, "Patrons can open virtual Hollinger boxes and a sampling of scanned documents from the real life box will appear along with a link to that collection’s online finding aid. They can then post their reference questions on the bulletin board which sends email to our Special Collections staff. Stanford's Virtual Archive provides access to patrons around the world without endangering the collection."

Second Life (SL) is an online world where visitors create avatars (representations of themselves), explore places like Stanford and other libraries, and interact with others from in real time. Today's tour brought together visitors (avatars) from across the country. See the above snapshot of the visitors to Stanford Virtual Archives and my avatar below, looking at an archival photo. Reference in SL occurs through in-world text and voice chat as well as our reference bulletin board. SL coordinates for Stanford Virtual Archives = 85/224/33.

Facebook Now #1 Sharing Site

According to an article in Mashable: the social media guide, Facebook is now the #1 content site that provides readers with an easy way to share stories across multiple social media sites. Data is from AddtoAny, a company that makes the most popular widget for websites to allow sharing of stories across multiple social media sites. So true! I just shared this story via my Facebook account.

1. Facebook = 24% share
2. Yahoo = 14.4% (includes Delicious, Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Buzz, Yahoo Messenger)
3. eMail = 11.1%
4. Twitter = 10.8%
5. see full pie chart
   

OpenOffice's Education Site - under development

Just learned that OpenOffice.org has a site especially for educators and their students.
The mission of the OpenOffice Education Project:
"Its purpose his to help teachers as well as students or anybody involved in education to enter the OpenOffice.org project and find a place where to contribute or to find information. Another aim is to be a central point for tools and initiatives around OpenOffice.org the product and the sources that can be shared by our international community and where students of any level can find a place to easily participate." For more information about this productivity tool, or to contribute, see the Education Project wiki.

Twitter Tips

Mashable carried a useful article on 7/20/09 by Josh Catone on "Twitter for Beginners: Five Steps for Better Tweeting".

1. Find people you already know. Find them. Follow them.
   
2. Find Like-minded Users.
3. Find People in the area.
4. Get a desktop or mobile client (upgrade from web interface).
5. Learn the ropes.
   

Web Browsers -- Which One Is Best?

Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Google, and others have all recently upgraded their browsers to be faster and fancier. PC Magazine carried an article on "How to Choose the Best Browser". Here is what Michael Muchmore wrote in his introduction: "The recent launch of Firefox 3.5 was just the latest in a crescendo of activity on the browser front over the past few months. We've seen Google tout speed with its bare-bones Chrome 2. We've seen Apple's Safari 4 bring on both the speed and all the interface eye candy we've come to expect. Opera has come in with not only a beta of its feature-packed version 10, but also an alpha of an app called Opera Unite that makes the browser a server as well as a consumer. Starting it all was that juggernaut Microsoft, coming out with Internet Explorer 8, which the company claimed was more compliant with open Web standards."

See the full article for how Michael rates each browser and read the comments from readers.

FTC -Federal Trade Commission Consumer Protection Websites

ALA Chicago Conference exhibits included the FTC - Federal Trade Commission. Here is a sample of some excellent consumer protection resources promoted at the FTC exhibit.

• CURE-IOUS: be skeptical of websites hawking cures for cancer and such. Order free bookmark and other resources at http://ftc.gov/curious

• Money Matters: Homeowner consumer information - consumer protection and counseling. See FTC Money Matters website at http://ftc.gov/MoneyMatters

• YouAreHere - a site for kids to learn how to be smart shoppers. The site is geared for 5th through 8th grade students and can complement lessons in critical thinking, writing, language arts, media literacy, business, civics, and social studies.Here is a sampling of topics covered in the virtual mall: Shuman’s Shoes (Lesson: Ads and Endorsements), Gr8 Gadgets (Lesson: False or Misleading Ads), Pizza Pizza Pizza (Lesson: Competition), and Triple Cold Creamery (Lesson: Mergers). The teacher and parent section includes a variety of ways for you to promote the site to students. Order free banners, bookmarks, and posters; copy and paste images (like above) or html for webpage buttons for linking to the site. Lots of options.
  

• Bookmark on "6 Signs that your Scholarship is $unk" - scholarship scams

MIMIO - interactive whiteboard w/out whiteboard

ALA Chicago Conference: Here is a cool new portable whiteboard technology from MIMIO seen at ALA Chicago Conference. It won a 2009 Best-in-Techonology award from Scholastic Administrator.

A follow-up e-mail from the company is below:

The mimio Interactive system transforms an ordinary dry erase whiteboard into a fully-featured, multi-media capable interactive whiteboard—quickly, easily and more affordably than conventional interactive whiteboard systems. What does this mean for your school?

• More interactive whiteboard-enabled classrooms within your budget. mimio puts its patented technology on existing classroom whiteboards saving your school hundreds of dollars per room.
• No need to retrofit classrooms with new equipment. mimio Interactive systems work with your school's desktop and laptop computers and projectors.
  
  
• Teachers can share mimio Interactive systems. mimio Interactive is small and portable and can be moved from one class to another almost instantly.
• Full-featured interactive whiteboard performance. Control PowerPoint files, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and more. Browse the web and bring multimedia content onto the board and into the classroom. Annotate, mark up and edit slides and screens on the board.

Need more Information?

Get all of your questions answered in a free live online demo! Schedule your demo today!

Request special Educator Pricing.

Call us at 877-MY-MIMIO to schedule a demonstration at your school.

Check out our website to learn more about all that mimio has to offer.

OpenOffice.org vs. Free Version of MSOffice

Last night, I downloaded a free software office suite for my new netbook. The software is from OpenOffice.org -- I'll experiment with it this summer. Now, when there is no free wireless Internet access when I'm at conference hotels (like ALA Chicago Conference) or on the road, I should be able to write up my notes and reports so they are in an easy place for sending or posting. Time will tell. This is timely.

Microsoft won't be left behind! Apparently Microsoft is testing its own free downloadable version of MsOffice -- WORD and Excel. A technical preview version will be out this summer and a consumer version should be available in early 2010. It looks like the free Web version of Office 2010 will be supported by advertising.

Apple to Add Video -- Compete with Flip Video

Today's San Francisco Chronicle carried an article about Apple's plans to take over the lead in the low-cost camcorder/video market, leaving Cisco's Flip Video in the dust. Soon, iPhone and especially iPod Touch will offer a video tool and allow for wireless downloading.

Also reported in the same newspaper is a rumor that China is busily manufacturing Apple netbooks or a similar device that will be offered this October.

Connecting in the 21st Century - Broadband

ALA conference offered a Sunday morning program on "Connecting inthe 21st Century". Much was an overview of what ALA surveys, papers, position statements and more that it has already done, then launched into new information.

John Windhause, SHLB Coalition Coordinator:
The $7.2B broadband funding went to both RUS (rural communities) and NTIA (intent to go to all parts of the nation). Rules for giving out funds took a long time, with ALA closely following and nudging. One new coalition created is SHLB Coalition, for schools, health, and library broadband. 45 members. Purpose is to highlight the benefits to and broadband needs of various institutions. Another purpose is to use the local links to better serve the broader community. Purpose #3 -identifies libraries and community anchor institutions. Libraries are eleigible for public computer center capacity dollars. Rules of Broadband Funding not ideal. For example, much of NTIA grants are also meant for rural communities.

Larry Strickland was just brought on as leader of NTIA. He specifically mentioned libraries. Schools, Health, and Libraries were defined as "middle mile" applicants (better than "last mile") so it should be easier for public libraries to apply for the money. They can seek fiber rings.

There are 3 rounds of funding. This one was the first one. Hopefully the rules of the next 2 rounds will be better. This is public infrastructure money.

Public computing center is a smaller bucket of money, but # applicants are smaller too. Ideal for public libraries and potentially schools. $200M minimum for the public computing center capacity funding. Some rules are still in flux (like definition of rural).

Alan Inouye - ALA OITP. Recommended actions

• Sustainable adoption category applications (20% match in cash or in-kind)
  
• Public computer center (focus on computers, software, internal connections; not clear you can increase bandwidth.)
  
• Multi-sector applications encouraged
• Which funding route should you pursue? Sooner the better, even though next 2 funding rounds give you more time to submit a better application.
• Governors get to contribute to the ranking of applications. Make sure your governor knows and values role of library in supporting public access to Internet/broadband. Get governor to help!
  
• A lot of interest and competition in the money. Manage your expectations.
• Applications will be reviewed by small group of volunteers. Be sure to have your application address how ARRA will help your community.
• A number of items to fulfill. Read application carefully.
• Worst day to submit your application is Aug 14 (deadline). Know your stimulus website = www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus
• ALA will be pushing for rule changes at NTIA. Major updates, so keep watching.

E-Rate is a way to help pay and continue to maintain your network.
Minimum of one award/state.
If your application makes it through first round, then reviewers look at it. If they deem it worthy, they send on to Governor's office. Should coordinate your school and library requests through your State Library.

Technology & the Developing World

Great ALA Conference session on Technology & the Developing World. See Research4Life.org , inveneo.org, and laptop.org.

More to follow!

ALA Conference Notes (COGNOTES) goes digital

ALA Conference Live!

I took a break to check mail, tweet, post to blogs and facebook. It is a day before the ALA annual conference and exhibits really start, but the crowds of librarians are building. Waiting in my email was a digital version of COGNOTES, the daily conference newsletter. I've been looking forward to the exhibits and also was curious about which vendors were library "Champions", the highest level of supporters. Well, COGNOTES has a fancy version of its exhibits floorplan. Some booths are colored blue and some are red. Blue ones indicate Library Champions -- click on the blue and go to their website. For example, Demco and WH Wilson are Library Champions. Red colored booths indicate vendors who have paid extra for a link to their website.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO OPEN DIGITAL LIBRARIES / GOOGLE BOOKS SETTLEMENT

All Day OPEN WORKSHOP on Alternative Approaches to Digital Libraries and the Google Book Settlement, 7/31/09. Harvard Law School registration is required. *
Announcement:

"The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called “orphan works” that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.This workshop seeks to bring a fresh, unique perspective to a complex and widely debated topic. It will focus not on the specific merits and demerits of the settlement itself, or the particular antitrust and privacy and other objections that have been raised. Instead, it will examine the idea of possible alternative universes and offer specific proposals for scenarios that may arise whether or not the settlement is approved . What can libraries, or universities, or non-profits, or Congress, do in the current landscape? And how might these possibilities help us to define a better world than the one that we have today and, more importantly, than the one that will exist if the Google settlement is approved in its current form? Regardless of what happens with respect to the Settlement, what alternative possibilities could lead to a richer, more open and better information ecosystem than the one we have today or might have tomorrow with the Settlement? By exploring these alternatives, this workshop seeks, in the end, to help inform the debate over the Settlement and its terms and to illuminate some of the key policy considerations that are at stake. Its ultimate goal is to develop a series of options and proposals that could improve on the status quo in novel ways."

*Registration is not required for remote participation.
Follow the Berkman Center on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/berkmancenter
Join the IRC: irc://irc.freenode.net/berkman (requires an IRC Client such as Chatzilla)
Questions? Contact Amar Ashar at ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Wordnik - A non-Dictionary and more

Bloglines helps me track hundreds of current and former participants in School Library Learning 2.0 professional development course. It is most rewarding when I learn new cool tools from former "students". That is how I learned about wordnik, an online dictionary of sorts. Thanks, Joan!

According to the wordnik website, it is still in beta test mode. It defines itself as "An ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them." The team behind the site is based in Chicago -- wonder if I'll get to meet them at the American Library Association conference this week?! Stay tuned.

BagIt - Digital Preservation

The Library of Congress offers an easy and free digital preservation solution called BagIt. Here is a description from the website:

"The Library – with the California Digital Library and Stanford University – has developed guidelines for creating and moving standardized digital containers, called “bags.” A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another.

Bags have a sparse, uncomplicated structure that transcends differences in institutional data, data architecture, formats and practices. A bag’s minimal but essential metadata is machine readable, which makes it easy to automate ingest of the data. Bags can be sent over computer networks or physically moved using portable storage devices.

Bags have built-in inventory checking, to help ensure that content transferred intact. Bags are flexible and can work in many different settings, including situations where the content is located in more than one place. This video describes the preparation and transfer of data over the network in bags."

The Library of Congress has been adding to its digital collections for years. Over time, LOC has refined its digital preservation standards.

Aviary - Copy Web Pages With Ease

Foxfire's tool for copying a web page, Aviary, captures a full website, not just a screen shot. Now, there is a new tool that allows you to simply insert ‘aviary.com/’ in front of a URL. I experimented with my 2CoolTools blog and several professional development sites:
http://aviary.com/2CoolTools.blogspot.com (too large -- but can crop.)
http://aviary.com/ClassroomLearning2.blogspot.com (Just right!)
http://aviary.com/DiscoveringAT.blogspot.com (Just right!)

I'm taking an introductory art DESIGN course, so finding this site is timely. For a novice art student, a free digital imaging tool is an attractive alternative to pricey software. Below is a video clip about Aviary.