PEW report - GEN Y

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/231/report_display.asp

This is all over the libraweb2.0 and I think it is important for academic as well as public libraries to pay attention.

recombinant potential

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001518.html

Lorcan Dempsey talks about interoperability, particularly in this instance the lack of convenience when it comes to electronics and the way they each have separate plugs, chargers, accessories, etc.

Sure, there is a small industry creating various ‘recombining’ devices, but this requires additional thinking and investment, something we are not organized or inclined to do.

Now, I am sure that I could rustle up a literature on the economics of all of this, suggesting why vendors are interested in this level of lock-in. But for the moment, I just wish that their recombinant potential were higher, reducing our traveling clutter and increasing our convenience.

Seems to me like the person who could make a recombinant equalizer would  make a mint (I like the word recombinant.)  I know that there is a fear of some Big Name having a monopoly (Apple) or taking over the world (Google) but Open Access is the way of the future in the software world.  It should be a goal for Hardware as well.

RIP Netscape

http://blog.netscape.com/2007/12/28/end-of-support-for-netscape-web-browsers/

I just read  this story thanks to LIS.org and I am sad.  Netscape is becoming extinct after evolving into Mozilla/Firefox yada yada.  I LIKE Firefox, and I quit using Netscape quite awhile ago because the university didn’t support it (even though it was invented as Mosaic at the University of Illinois) but it still makes me sad.

Happy New Year to libraries

From the Chronicle Review

random reference question

(actually a question from my once upon a husband) (total response time:5 minutes or less)

I’m having trouble with my left knee. I may add a Daffy Duck quotation to my e-mail signatures “I’m not like other people, I can’t stand pain, it hurts me”. but I want to get the film it was from to credit it properly.

answer:

The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094939/quotes

Daffy: Oh Bugsy! Bugsy buddy!
Bugs Bunny: Oh hi, uh, what’s up, Duck?
Daffy: Come here old pal, hm?
Abominable Snowman: [picks up Bugs Bunny] My OWN little bunny rabbit, d’oy.
Bugs Bunny: Hey! An abominabuble snowman!
Abominable Snowman: I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him…
Daffy: Oh sure, I know I’m a louse, but I’m a live louse.
Abominable Snowman: And I will give him security! And I will keep him warm like a mother hen, so he will never feel rejected or lack for love.
Daffy: Poor old Bugs. But, anyway you look at it, it’s better HE should suffer. After all, it was me or him, and obviously it couldn’t be me. It’s a simple matter of logic. I’m not like other people, I can’t stand pain, it hurts me.

 

Other quote sources:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daffy_Duck

 http://www.petcaretips.net/daffy-duck.html

 

final class note

Here is the link to my del.icio.us account and all of the strange tags. I love del.icio.us. Being able to tag interesting stuff as I run across it and put in in a “folder” so I know WHY I saved it is invaluable. Now all I have to do is find time to read it all and integrate it into my reality.

This class, even if I wasn’t able to take advantage of all of the different technology projects, kickstarted my ambition to learn more about library 2.0 and to work on my library blog. I appreciated the opportunity to check out the various readings and class commentary and it was great to see Michael Stevens in action.

I still want to set up a flickr account and maybe try to figure out how to do a youtube video and I still need to catch up on all of the interesting articles I have saved, but over break I need to rotate my reserves from fall to spring, tidy up any projects that are unfinished, prepare some circulation training documentation, and take care of my committee assignments for the ACES/CPLA integration project that will be happening in the summer of 2008.

It’s been real.

open source, zotero and research

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/12/12/zotero

This is great.  Not only is there a plan to archive and give access to researcher material and notes under way, it’s going to use zotero.

a definition

http://tametheweb.com/2007/12/w00t_is_word_of_the_year.html

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.

It’s like saying “yay,” the dictionary said.

Thanks, Michael.

F&ck Harvard

From the current issue of Business Week:

There is not likely to be enough talent or funding to go around as the Ivies pursue their ambitious goals. “One thing we all must worry about—I certainly do—is the federal support for scientific research. And are we all going to be chasing increasingly scarce dollars?” says Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s new president.

Not that Faust seems worried about Harvard or other top-tier research schools. “They’re going to be—we hope, we trust, we assume—the survivors in this race,” she says. As for the many lesser universities likely to lose market share, she adds, they would be wise “to really emphasize social science or humanities and have science endeavors that are not as ambitious” as those of Harvard and its peers.

Response from Stuart (a staff member in the U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, library):

So capitalizing on the void left by Harvard’s abandoning of its traditional strengths would be a surrender? Let them become the new hybrid of DeVry and “The Real World:Cambridge”. We’ll sneak in and become the new Harvard (or Reed, St. John’s, Swarthmore…)

or, sez I, Cornell….