Guidance on Social Media for Libraries

February's AALL Spectrum featured an article by Elizabeth Farrell, linked below. I read it two minutes after I had sent a message to the managers to ask what their stance was on moving forward with a Twitter presence for the library. It has been passed back and forth for a few months, so I figured I might as well move ahead and see what we can do.

This article is a great guide to have right now, when we all are trying to figure out how best to use these new social media sites to connect with faculty, students, and the world. I think it is very easy to get wrapped up in the technology, rather than the purpose. Farrell does a wonderful job of defining clear steps to creating a useful social media site. Perhaps it will still have few followers, but at least it will remain focused!

I look forward to using her steps if we decide to move forward.

Read more @ If You Build It, Will They Come? Social media strategies for law libraries

A Web 2.0 Reading List

Here is a list of books compiled that the author "...think[s] significantly inform the conversation about Web 2.0 in education, along with their accompanying blog or Web site, where readers can continue the conversation."

What I really like about the list is that the books have an "accompanying blog or web site" how very Web 2.0 of them to create print books, that are bound by their pages.

Read more @ Web 2.0 in Hardcover: A recommended reading list on 2.0 and education - 2/1/2010 - School Library Journal:

Google Tablet?

Now I hear that Google is going to release a tablet computer to compete with the iPad? Or, well, I suppose they would have had to already have had plans for this. I wonder if it will act more like a computer and less like a restrictive device. Very interesting. Google is quickening its pace, I recently read that Android phones are on a very fast rise, Chrome is being used more and more, and now this Google Tablet (not to mention the politics of Google recently)...

Read more and see pictures @ A First Taste Of What The Google Tablet’s Interface Will Look Like (Pics)

This just in, Entourage Hybrid Tablet/E-Reader/Netbook Provides Dual Screens

Tags for Research?

When Google started sending out scan stickers for the very popular Locations I thought it was neat, but kind of useless. Microsoft apparently has introduced a similar technology that draws users into the scanned area for more information. So, those flipping through magazines can find out more information via their phone. I would imagine the advertise can also collect some data from this transaction as well. Very interesting.

I think this is also of interest in an educational setting. Imagine text books with scanner stickers in it that you can just snap and move on to find more information about later, or perhaps even just capture the citation data. How neat!

Read more @ Gotta love those tags image - When it comes to Tag, Microsoft's it (photos) - CNET News

A Living Room as a Library

This article was actually sent around to our library listserv internally. It is a very interesting read about how American University is attempting to transform their library. If you like academic libraries, you may find this interesting.

Read more @ Next Steps: Change at American University | American Libraries Magazine

And then there was... iPad

The iPad is the hot topic of the moment, in case you needed me to tell you. Apparently the sheer excitement over the announcement brought the internet to a crippling stand still with all of the live blogging and tweeting. The world was watching, but were they impressed?

Can you imagine, you educational technologists out there, a text book with media within the pages? I can. Now.

Below is a list of articles that have proved to be helpful in informing me, an onlooker who has yet to grasp an iPad directly.

The good:
Its sexy, because it's apple.
It is so much more than an eReader.
Compatible with all apps from the App Store.
Very light and portable.
Long battery life.
Allows many more file formats than say, the Kindle.

The bad:
Will it actually be named the iPad or will prior companies win and prevent it?
Is the screen really good for reading or will it cause fatigue?
Poor portable keyboard option.


Selected Readings:

Adobe speaks out about iPad Flash omission | The Digital Home - CNET News. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10443465-17.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Apple - iPad - The best way to experience the web, email, and photos. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Apple's iPad: The Future of Mobile Computing in Education? -- Campus Technology. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/01/27/apples-ipad-the-future-of-mobile-computing-in-education.aspx

Futurelawyer: Apple iPad - Not Ready For Prime Time. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://futurelawyer.typepad.com/futurelawyer/2010/01/apple-ipad---not-ready-for-prime-time.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Futurelawyer+%28Futurelawyer%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

iPad or Kindle: will our wallets decide? -- Engadget. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/ipad-or-kindle-will-our-wallets-decide/

iPad unites Apple's media and mobile ambitions | Circuit Breaker - CNET News. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10443138-260.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Is Apple's iBooks e-reader app a rip-off? | Crave - CNET. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10443476-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Tabuchi, H. (2010, January 29). IPad? That's So 2002, Fujitsu Says. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/technology/companies/29name.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

The iPad Is Like Holding The Future. But Only Because I Graduated From iPhone School. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/27/ipad/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business. (n.d.). . Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/28/top-10-reasons-ipad-kindle/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

"Cyberwar"

When I was working on my undergraduate degree we had to do a few senior projects, one was in senior seminar, which happened to be entitled terrorists and terrorism. I took this not very long after 9/11 occurred, same as many of my peers found themselves in similarly themed classes shortly thereafter. My topic du jour was, Cyber-terrorism. I picked this arbitrarily from a list that the professor had picked. I figured, I liked technology, and cyber terrorism sounded very interesting, mysterious, and threatening.

I can't say that I was disappointed to discover, but I was a bit let down, when I realized that cyber terrorism did not exist. It was smoke and mirrors, at that time, all predictions of the damage that could be done, rather than actual stories of what had occurred. It was a lot of fear, and very little fact.

It would appear that it was also, predictions of what was to come. I try to read things like the following article with the same opinions I held back when doing research on this topic, it's mind boggling to realize just how different technology has made our world, in such a short amount of time. In under a decade we went from creating a fanciful demon, to birthing it outright into the physical world. Technology has become something we now defend.

Read more @ Cyberwar - The U.S. Studies the New Art of Cyberwar - Series - NYTimes.com