 Thursday, September 19, 2002
"SUSANNA CORNETT has the solution to Florida's election problems. Sadly, I think this might actually be the way to go...." [InstaPundit]
This was too good to pass up posting. Go ahead - make your day.
Introduction to XML
"If you've been producing sites for any length of time you probably hear about XML, and wonder exactly why so many people are excited about it. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Let's take a closer look at the parts of the acronym, and then we'll show you how it all fits together." [Digital Web Magazine, via meryl's notes]
I want to highlight this article because some people seem to have a bias against XML that I just don't understand. If you're not familiar with XML or why we would want to use it in library projects, please read this explanation!
RSS for All Major Newspapers and Websites
"I am working on an tool (as part of my Reptile project) that can take any website (CNN, NYTimes, Pravda, People's Daily (Chinese Newspaper), etc) and produce a high quality (verbose descriptions) RSS 1.0 feed with the mod_content module.
For the most part it is functional....
What this enables is a system of RSS aggregators that can monitor newspapers around the world for the latest articles and view the content within their favorite aggregator.
For most people this exponentially increases their ability to manage news. For example I can just login in the morning, turn on my aggregator, and see the recent 50-100 articles since I went to sleep. I don't have to check all 100 of my websites and my aggregator supports advanced functionality such as offline mirror and export to my PDA....
Right now we have about 7/12 major targets supported. I need to fix a few bugs and the others should work just fine.
If this sounds cool and you know a little about HTML and regexp, we could really use your help. This will only scale if we have sponsors supporting these URLs. Ideally we would have a few hundred RSS channels out of this so we need volunteers... maybe 6-12 would be ideal.
If you want to help just sign up to the Reptile mailing list." [Peerfear.org, via RSS Engine Blog]
Okay, a little mind blowing going on here. I want-want-want this yesterday!
"ONE OF THE COOL THINGS ABOUT BLOGGER is that you can be a homeless guy and still have a blog.
UPDATE: Bo Cowgill was skeptical, and checked it out. Here's what he found." [InstaPundit]
Here's a direct quote from The Homeless Guy's (Kevin Barbieux) blog:
"On Blogging Homelessly
Public libraries are magnets for homeless people. And thanks to Bill Gates - when the government started talking 'Anti-Trust' ol' Bill suddenly became charitable, giving computers to public libraries across the country, including this one. What I know about computers I learned at the library."
Libraries were providing public internet access, guidance, and computer classes long before ol' Bill starting handing out computers. However, the next time you dismiss the role and relevancy of libraries, remember Kevin. The Nashville Library plays a large role in his life and provides him with resources and services he can't get elsewhere, besides a way to blog.
Addendum: Steven found a great article about Wired Life: Use of Public Libraries Grows with Internet that reinforces how important libraries are.
"Want to make librarians laugh? Ask whether patronage is down because so much information is available on the Internet. Once they stop rolling on the floor, you'll get your answer: No!...
In April, the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign surveyed 18 of the country's 25 largest public libraries -- including the Sacramento Public Library -- and found that overall usage has been rising for several years....
The University of Illinois survey, "Public Library Use and Economic Hard Times," found that since the economy tanked in March 2001 average monthly circulation has been up as much as 12 percent when compared to 2000.
Interestingly, librarians say the Internet and related technological advances also seem to be fueling interest in public libraries and increasing and diversifying their workloads. Instead of making libraries irrelevant, the Web seems to be making them more valuable than ever." [The Sacramento Bee]
liveTopics finally released.
"Kind of a double celebration:
- Today, and with great relief, I formally announce the release of liveTopics (v1.0.3) which is now available for download.
- You can read more about it at my company's website which I am also launching today.
It's been hard work putting together even the little currently on the website, but I hope to improve it significantly in the days and weeks ahead. Any feedback would be very welcome." [Curiouser and curiouser!]
Congratulations to Matt!
BTDN (Before The Digital Nightmare), I was starting to install liveTopics on my site. At the moment, I'm a little too scared to touch anything under the hood just yet. (I have complete confidence in Matt's code - it's my own aura of I'm scared.) After the next full moon and when the planets align a little differently, I'll get back to installing LT.
A couple of days ago, I highlighted to the Memorial Hall Library as a good model. The assistant director, Beth Mazin, sent me some details about their program:
"We just started circulating Audible devices and content two weeks ago. We sent an email alert to the 2,100 subscribers on our list (town population is 30,000) and we had an overwhelming response -- 40 plus online requests in the first 24 hours, scads of phone calls and in-person inquiries. We have never had such 'buzz' about a new service. The email list is VERY effective, and the eAudio program is awesome."
As I said in the previous post, I have yet to hear of a library circulating Audible titles that didn't get an overwhelmingly positive response.
What we need is a way to track penetration of this service in libraries. It shouldn't be that difficult, especially since Audible is clearly the leader. Participating libraries need to work with each other, their patrons, and Audible to concretely illustrate this emerging market. Publishers need to see the demand, because libraries can be a big chunk of the money pie, and they could be raking in the money if they'd just release the content. (Maybe it could even be a foundation for expanded discussions of how to rake in the money by working with libraries to offer other types of digital content.)
Hey BigpPubs, are you listening? If you put your ear to the ground in libraries, you can hear the demand. How about you pony up some supply?
If you're at a SLS library and you're not providing remote access to your databases, please-please-please contact me! We're running authentication scripts for several of our members now, and we can set this up for you, too. It's a free service and we do all of the work, so how can you lose?
To get a sense of how this works, check out Woodridge Public Library's new web site. They've added a very detailed section about the databases to which they subscribe, and we set up barcode authentication for several of them. We're running OCLC's Webscript for FirstSearch, too, which means you can provide scripted access (the patron doesn't have to worry about authorizations and passwords - they just enter their barcode and click!) as well as direct access to a particular FS database (such as ERIC, Medline, or WorldCat).
All you have to do is contact me, so what are you waiting for?!
Some things you missed while I was gone:
- Mars is test marketing a new candy bar called Overload, an accurate name. I found the "King Size Assorted" in Ladysmith, Wisconsin. There are three Reese's peanut butter cups, one with a chocolate chip cookie on top, a second with M&M Minis on top, and a third with an Oreo cookie on top. I haven't seen them anywhere else, but there's apparently a second assortment with Butterfinger pieces, Nestle Crunch pieces, and M&M Minis on the tops. I'm on the lookout for that one.
- We were in Ladysmith for a family reunion, and the day of the big picnic, everybody was taking pictures of all of the kids. Strangely, our kids were the only ones who would run up to the picture taker after the shot was taken to ask to see the picture. It took them several tries before they realized that most of the other folks there were using old-fashioned 35mm cameras that don't let you see the picture right after you take it.
- I found out my parents are addicted to eBay. Time to invest in that company. :-)
- We started buying the Iron Kids Crustless Bread. Laugh all you want, but it rocks!
- Towards the beginning of my electronic nightmare, I was working on my PC one night, becoming more and more frustrated. Six-year old Brent came downstairs and asked how things were going. I told him not well. In a very authoritative voice, he said that he knew more about computers than me (a claim I was beginning to believe even at that early point), and that what I really needed to do was change it to .org. If it had only been that simple....
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