BozPages

Bozpages are simple one-off pages of RSS feeds, so you can keep track of a bunch of feeds in one place. Same idea as Pageflakes/Pagecasts, which you'll find over on the right, and which I posted about below. Here's a ready-made Bozpage drawing from major web2.0 blogs.

Felon Spy

Enter a street address in the U.S., and Felon Spy will reveal names, addresses and convictions of felons living in the neighborhood. After all, you have a right to know who they are! The site is very professionally done, and the rhetoric rings true...and thank goodness it's just a spoof! I was suckered for about 15 minutes, checking out familiar neighborhoods in the U.S. and gaping goggle eyed at all the criminals out there. This is brilliant and hilarious, but also ominous! The comments at LifeHacker are interesting...many seem annoyed that the site doesn't work very well ("It's not very accurate. I know of three guys with felony convictions living on my road & it didn't show any of them.") I guess it's a commentary on our current state of affairs that anyone - even someone as gullible me - could fall for this!

To read or not to read

Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, reflects in an article in the Guardian on the alleged decline in reading, and on last year's National Endowment for the Arts study To Read Or Not To Read. See also post at Lorcan Dempsey's blog, with links to related items on reading.

White paper: Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization

This 60 p. white paper "Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization" was written by Cornell librarian Oya Rieger for the Council on Library and Information Resources in Washington DC. Here is the executive summary:

The digitization of millions of books under programs such as Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Search Books is dramatically expanding our ability to search and find information. The aim of these large-scale projects—to make content accessible—is interwoven with the question of how one keeps that content, whether digital or print, fit for use over time.

This report by Oya Y. Rieger examines large-scale digital initiatives (LSDIs) to identify issues that will influence the availability and usability, over time, of the digital books these projects create. Ms. Rieger is interim assistant university librarian for digital library and information technologies at the Cornell University Library.

The paper describes four large-scale projects—Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project—and their digitization strategies. It then discusses a range of issues affecting the stewardship of the digital collections they create: selection, quality in content creation, technical infrastructure, and organizational infrastructure. The paper also attempts to foresee the likely impacts of large-scale digitization on book collections.

Book rental

This snippet has been making the rounds and inspiring mirth among librarians...

book rental service? - Selekta
was just thinking. my sister does -alot- of reading, and spends like $1000 a year on just books alone. most of them she reads once then never looks at again. is there any kind of like…video rental store but for books? would make things alot cheaper, plus once one person has read the next person can get enjoyment from it etc

Yet this is not necessarily a laughing matter, and Krunk4ever adds some perspectives worth thinking about...

The Leading Public Policy Research Organizations in the World, 2007

If you like poring over lists and charts, and also like think tanks, this document should be in your bathroom. Contains lists, tables, pie charts and ratings of think tanks all over the world. Norway has only 15, soundly humiliated by our Nordic neighbors; Finland has 26, Denmark 30, and Sweden 69. Thankfully, I'm 1/4 Swedish (maternal grandmother)

Silobreaker

Paula Hanes writes in Information Today:
(excerpt)"While news might be a readily available commodity in our internet world, a small U.K.-based company thinks there’s a better way to present it to users—with relational analysis and explanatory graphics that provide users with contextual insight. Silobreaker (www.silobreaker.com) has officially launched its new search service for news and current events. Its goal is to provide meaning, context, and insight to content using easily understood graphical tools. Silobreaker pulls current content from approximately 10,000 news, blog, research, and multimedia sources. It then automatically and on-the-fly extracts and tags people, companies, topics, places, and keywords; understands how they relate to each other in the news flow; and puts them in a visual context for the user. The free service is aimed at anyone wanting an in-depth perspective on current news for personal or business use, but it should prove especially appealing to journalists, researchers, scientists, consultants, marketing professionals, and industry analysts."

I tried a search on "missile defense", and the returns were impressive! A good supplement to Google News...

useful webmaster tools

webmaster-toolkit has much useful stuff...

http://linkmachine.net

http://www.electric-scooters-galore.com

http://www.email-auto-responder.com

http://www.linkadage.com/Auction/XcAuctionPro.asp

http://www.linkmetro.com

http://www.mysitespace.com/

http://www.patrickgavin.com

http://www.recycled-traffic.com/

http://www.seoelite.com

http://www.seoelite.com/dt/t.php?idP

http://www.text-link-ads.com

http://www.text-link-ads.com/

http://www.totaloptimizer.com

http://www.uncoverthenet.com/

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/advertise.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/class-c-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/contact-us.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/cron-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/css-menu-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/dig.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/directory.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/dns-query.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-name-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-name-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-name-tools.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-typo-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/dreamweaver-code-cleaner.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/expired-domain-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/frontpage-code-cleaner.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/htaccess-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/html-entity-chart.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/html-tools.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/http-header-viewer.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/ip-address-locator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/ips-tag-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-research-tool.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-appeal.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-extractor.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-popularity-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-to-us.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/linkxl_contextual_links.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/meta-tag-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mime-types.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mod_rewrite-rewriterule-generator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mx-record-lookup.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/ns-lookup.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/ping.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/regional-proxy.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/resources.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-optimisation-tools.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-position-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-simulator.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/spam-block-list-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/toolkit.css

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/top-ppc-bids-checker.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-page-analyser.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-utilities.shtml

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/websafe-colour-tool.shtml

http://www.webmasterbrain.com/

http://www.webuildpages.com

Picturing America

The National Endowment for the Humanities project "Picturing America" uses art as a a catalyst for the study of American history—the cultural, political, and historical threads woven into our nation's fabric over time. U.S. schools and libraries are invited to apply online for a set of 20 laminated posters, but anyone can download the handsome 120 page"teacher's resource book" - a useful tool for any teacher who would like to use art to enliven history lessons.

Rules of thumb

When digging a grave by hand, haul away 17 wheelbarrow loads of dirt and pile the rest by the hole. You will have just the right amount to backfill.

When you are working in the vicinity of high voltage, keep 1 foot of distance between you and the power source for each 1,000 volts. For instance, stay 13 feet away from a 13,000 volt power source.

Wish I had a penny for every time I needed to have those rules of thumb at hand (sigh) while working the reference desk! Now that I've discovered the superb rulesofthumb.org, I'm prepared to field any question that comes my way!

Tech Tools for the American Voter and the 2008 Congressional Election

Interesting/useful site...
"This tutorial is a visual walk-through of how to find what you need to know for the upcoming Congressional elections. Use the tutorial to help you find out if you are registered to vote, biographical information on your Congressman or Senator, his or her voting records, and money donations and campaign fundraising for the upcoming election.

The tutorial is divided into five parts – “Can I Vote?”, biographical information on members of Congress, voting records for members of Congress, fundraising and campaign finance activities of candidates, and challenger research. The tutorial shows the different sites and how you can find the information you seek to learn more about the voting process and the candidates."

Common Craft

Hats off to Laura for alerting me to Common Craft...short videos that explain, with exemplary clarity, things worth knowing. Try for example "RSS in Plain English" (below)

USAengage

USA*ENGAGE - in its own words - "is a broad-based coalition representing Americans from all regions, sectors and segments of our society concerned about the proliferation of unilateral foreign policy sanctions at the federal, state, and local level. Despite the fact that unilateral sanctions rarely achieve our foreign policy goals, they continue to have political appeal. Unilateral sanctions give the impression that the United States is "doing something," while American workers, farmers and businesses absorb the costs." Read more

Cue Prompter

Nothing is more annoying than being told, just before addressing a stadium or a rally, that your communications folks have forgotten the teleprompter. Now there's help - with CuePrompter, you just type or paste in a text, and your browser prompts you with big white letters on a black screen, at your chosen speed. Also works for smaller audiences.

Google generation needs knowbuddies

‘Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future’

From resource shelf... "A new report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web."

My bet is that this resonates with knowbodies everywhere!

Ideology of Facebook

UK philosopher Tom Hodgkinson takes a very dim view of Facebook in the Guardian earlier this week....

LC and Flickr

Here's an interesting use of Web2.0's "architecture of participation" by the Library of Congress at Flickr...and lot's of beautiful photos without copyright restrictions!

(excerpt)...."the launch of a brand-new pilot project the Library of Congress is undertaking with Flickr, the enormously popular photo-sharing site that has been a Web 2.0 innovator. If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity. In many senses, we are looking to enhance our metadata (one of those Web 2.0 buzzwords that 90 percent of our readers could probably explain better than me).

The project is beginning somewhat modestly, but we hope to learn a lot from it. Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images."

Finding People

Lot's of stuff on how to find people from Marcus Zillman

Native American Wiki

Here's a useful resource on Native Americans...see the review at ResearchBuzz

10 library blogs for 2008

LIS News has named the 10 library blogs to read for 2008. Curiously, Knowbodies is not on the list, an oversight...but here they are. Those that are feeds can be sampled on the lib/tech pageflake page.

The Annoyed Librarian (Feed)
David Rothman (Feed)
iLibrarian (Feed)
Judge a Book by its Cover (Feed)
Law Librarian Blog (Feed)
Library Stuff (Feed)
Marylaine Block (Email list)
Off The Mark (Feed)
ResearchBuzz (Feed)
Stephen's Lighthouse (Feed)

Prosumers and future scenarios

Here's another future scenario for the information age, introducing the term "prosumer" which I encountered today for the first time.



And here, if you missed it, is EPIC 2015 Interesting despite unbearable music...

Buying of the President, 2008

From the Center for Public Integrity comes "Buying of the President 2008", the Center's quadrennial investigation of how money shapes presidential campaigns. "This website is a companion to The Buying of the President 2008. Like the book, this site explores the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics. But unlike the book, which will provide a behind-the-scenes examination of how big money influences the presidential election process, this site is a work in progress — a continually updated window into the 2008 race that’s also richly supplemented with details, insights, and revelations from previous campaigns and, where feasible, those who engineered them."

From here to there

Google Map's from here to there is amazing. Just enter your departure and destination points in the here and there boxes, and hey presto...up comes a map with your route marked clearly, and step by step driving directions on the left. If you run into detours...or are instructed to change your route to see some sights on (or out of) the way, just put your cursor on the route marker and drag it to the desired destination.

Hyplets

Hyplet is a neat web2.0 application that allows you to create nifty digital business cards and other promotional materials that can be pasted into emails, blogs, websites, etc. Fun to use!

Get your own Hyplet!

Wikia search

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is launching Wikia search today. Here's the "about" page, and here's a New York Times article describing the service. In a comment to a very negative review at TechCrunch, Wales himself emphatically points out that Wikia Search is "a project to *build* a search engine, not a search engine."

2 election sites

Congressional Quarterly has released a 2008 Primary Guide - read more about it here. For questions about historical election returns, Philip Lampi's A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825 is a treasure trove. Read more about it here

Search trends/zeitgeist

Knowing what interests people is a key to success in marketing and public relations, and presumably also in librarianship and public diplomacy. Google Zeitgeist's annual review of search trends is now available for 2007, and particularly interesting is the breakdown by country. For years I've been lobbying for more funny pictures...

Community election site

"Why08.org is a conversation community dedicated to Election 2008. To have a voice, you don't need to be a media mogul, a talking head, or even a blogger. There's an audience waiting for you at Why08.org"...and further...
"All of us at Why08 are political junkies and we've always wanted a better way to talk politics with friends and others on the web. Message boards are fine but they could be so much better with social networking, community voting, and more. We always assumed somebody would build a site for us. No one did and we got tired of waiting."

Rich States/Poor States

In the "tough reference questions" department, I recently fielded this one: "What two states, which begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet, are ranked 1st and 50th?" Instead of getting annoyed and barking back "What do you mean ranked 1st and 50th - in WHAT?" I checked the American Legislative Exchange Council's new report Rich States/Poor States which provides a wealth of interesting data on the comparative economic competitiveness of the 50 states - and was able to answer politely, and without further ado, "Utah and Vermont".

Finding government information

The OMB watch report Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines discusses why Google, Yahoo and other commercial search engines sometimes come up short when looking for government information...and what searchers and government website managers can do about it.