Digital Bookmobile

In March I wrote about the Special Library Association’s 23 Things Initiative proposing you spend 15 minutes a day or an hour a week exploring and learning about new technologies. While I haven’t quite done that, I have made an effort to pay attention to mentions of various, relevant, technologies in order to keep current. The recent visit of the Overdrive Digital Bookmobile to the Auburn Public Library was a great opportunity for librarians and the public to learn more about some of the digital resources available to CWMARs cardholders. The digital collection of e-books, e-audiobook and videos is a great resource, but difficult to market due to its abstract nature and variety of formats. While actually downloading materials at the Digital Bookmobile was not an option, there were a variety of electronic devices on display with helpful staff available to answer questions. I recommend visiting the Digital Bookmobile if it comes around again. In the meantime, according to this article you can link to http://tinyurl.com/ks5lky, it looks as if we might be able to go to the nearest Best Buy to experiment with a few of these devices.

CMRLS Regional Reference Center is on Twitter

Worcester Public Library, CMRLS Regional Reference Center, would like to invite all librarians in the region to follow us @WPLREF.

Worcester Public Library intends to use Twitter
· To share updates from WPL, reference Q&As, database and internet search strategies and reference tips
· To post all Regional Reference Center Blog entries
· To keep you updated with new technologies and new developments in the information field, and share with you how the WPL uses those tools to improve reference services
· To provide an easy communication platform to enable librarians in the region to exchange ideas and share experiences

Getting started:
· If you don’t have a Twitter account and just want to watch or listen:

Please go to http://twitter.com/wplref or http://wplrefblog.blogspot.com/ (look for Twitter updates in the right column) or follow @WPLREF via RSS on Twitter

· If you have a Twitter account, please follow us @WPLREF

· If you don’t have a Twitter account and wish to start one, please sign up at http://twitter.com/, and then use Search tool at the bottom of your Twitter page to find wplref and then follow us.

We’re looking for suggestions on how you’d like to use the regional reference center Twitter and blog. We’re also interested in having you to write and post on something that you are particularly knowledgeable about or curious about. If you have any questions or after you follow us, you would like us to follow you, please contact Pingsheng Chen at pschen@cwmars.org

Twitter Travel

Twitter has become a Web phenomenon lately, partially due to celebrity use. But a recent article in http://www.travelandleisure.com/ points out the practical side of Twitter's networking capabilities, especially in relation to making travel plans. Author Everett Potter gives the example of a business woman who used advice from friends on Twitter for recommendations on which airport to use, where to stay and what are the best local restaurants. Potter also mentions that Twitter is a good resource for travel deals, saying hotel chains, food critics and bloggers not found on conventional travel sites have Twitter profiles as well. Browsing Twitter groups such as @travelpeople or @WeJustGotBack can be used in addition to Twitter's powerful search engine to find obscure information such as rafting companies in Central America.

The nature of Twitter is to be informal, conversational and immediate which appeals to a lot of people. It can be local or worldwide in scope as well. Try it for planning your summer vacation, you might be surprised at the amount of information you find. Happy tweeting!

Google is Taking Spoken Questions via iPhone

The New York Times reported that "Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company’s search software for the Apple iPhone."

Users of the free application can ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?"

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Death by PowerPoint

Have you suffered through a “Death by PowerPoint”? Boring presentations with PowerPoint where a speaker reads and repeats slide after slide of the exact words on the screen, or shows screenshot after screenshot of pages?

I just attended a workshop on one of the new types of PPt presentations, Pecha Kucha from Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha) that is helping to save people from the deadly and or excruciatingly long presentations.

How it works is you must present your topic with only 20 slides and you have only 20 seconds with each slide to talk so that your presentation is completed in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. And you must do it with mainly images, which I learned should also be emotionally evocative relating to your subject.

It is one way to narrow, organize, and focus your subject matter but also great fun to do, too. There are even Pecha Kucha nights held in various cities.

In the library setting it can help you in giving presentations, for example to the Board or funders or students in a class, as you’ll know and can guarantee them it will last for less than seven minutes!

Granted, it won’t work for all presentations as some subjects do require more time, however, it has given me a new way of looking at how I do my own productions and how to make them more interesting and stimulating. If you use PowerPoint, or want to try it, look into this format, it’s a positive.

Examples of Pecha Kucha are on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ (Check out this librarians show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKFLw_HdxI called Pecha Kucha 2.0 Podcasting Edition) and search in Slide Share http://www.slideshare.net/ .

Have fun with it and if anyone wants to do a Pecha Kucha library program, let me know!

Blogging! Some Legal Questions

According to Technorati, the "recognized authority" on the World Wide Web, there are currently 112.8 million blogs. Blogs, shorthand for Web logs, were started by reporters during the war in Iraq. Blogs are now becoming as essential to the American workplace as the Internet and E-mail.

There are some very compelling arguments for and against blogging.

On the plus side, blogging is an excellent way of storing expertise, improving internal communication, keeping abreast of professional issues, trends and resources, and blogs are a powerful online marketing tool. Further, blogs are updated on a regular basis and they are cited by search engines.

On the other hand, blogs have already shown themselves to be a danger to employers when sensitive information is leaked to competitors, or when blogs are used to disparage a company, superviors, customers, or other employees.

While some employers have banned blogging altogether the statistical research is clear - that kind of policy is not good for business. Contrarily, "overly restrictive" blogging policies may be in violation of employment laws. Marc Cote, writing for the Washington Law Review, argues persuasively that the National Labor Relation Act protects employee bloggers from policies that discourage blogging. The Act also discourages "individual adverse emplloyment actions against employees who engage in protected employee blogging." The relevant sections of the Act can be found in 29 U.S.C. sections 7 and 8.

Specifically, the Labor Relations Act inhibits an employer from restrictions that "infringe on employee rights to engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid or protection." Congress enacted the NRLA "to protect the right of workers to act together to better their working conditions" whether they are members of a union or not.

The most reasonable solution for an employer is to write a flexible blogging policy with provisions that protect them from any liabilities. To that end, Jennifer L. Parent has assembled a list of "tips" to include in any blogging policy. She also cautions that these kind of policies should always be reviewed by legal counsel.

Cote, Marc. "Getting dooced: employee blogs and employer blogging policies under the National Labor Relations Act. " Washington Law Review 82.1 (Feb 2007): 121(28).

Parent, Jennifer L. "Can employee blogging put employers at risk? New Hampshire Business Review 29.13 (June 22, 2007): 37(2).

Read the NYT and PW Book Review on the Regional Reference Blog for Free

Free NYT and PW RSS feeds have been added to the Regional Reference Blog. You will be able to read the latest book reviews, daily book news, find bestseller lists and preview first chapters of new books. Just visit Regional Reference Blog at http://wplrefblog.blogspot.com/.