I've been working on a big project at work, and today we unveiled it for SLS member libraries. We had already made the SLS Union List of Serials (journal holdings at participating SLS libraries) available as a searchable database using ColdFusion. However, we recently made some improvements that will be very exciting to you if you're at a SLS library.

For starters, now when you do a search for a specific title, the page that shows which libraries own it also lets you know if the periodical is available as a full-text database in FirstSearch! If it is, we tell you which databases within FS and even the time period each one covers. If your library provides a script to log patrons into FS automatically, we'll be adding the URL to your library's info page so that public users can get the full-text of articles online themselves.

If you want to know more about a library that owns a specific title - say, if you want to request a photocopy of a article - you can click on the name of the library and view full contact information and copy chart info (do they honor express requests, do they charge, etc.). If you're a participating ULS library, there's even more good news - on the library info page, you can log in to fill out a photocopy request form that automatically fills in your library's info and the owning library's info. Just fill in the article info, print the form, and fax it! There's also a link from the main ULS page to a separate section where you can update your library's holdings in real-time, rather than making it a once-a-year project. If you didn't attend one of the ILL workshops today, a memo is on its way to your library with your login and password.

Another benefit is that the ULS will always be current, and we can expand the number of participants rather easily. If your library isn't participating yet, now's the time to join! Contact Kate in our ILL office for more info.

Next up, the Community Organization Guide (COG)!

"' nf0's Life: "I just hacked together this little perl script. Its called eBayTools . It will take a list of items, search ebay, and create an RSS feed with the results. Ideally you can set it up as a daily cron job to find your favorite goodies.'

Cool! Looks like Josh has been pretty prolific these past couple of days. Can't wait to get a chance to try this little, but useful script." [...useless miscellany]

Which begs the question, why can't eBay provide RSS feeds for individual items? Of course, I wouldn't subscribe to any of them until they fix their misguided privacy policies.

Ericsson, Sony Music Strike a Ttune

"Ericsson and Sony Music Germany today announced that they will collaborate on a new digital mobile music service, called M-USE, to deliver music-related content to consumers. The tracks will come from Sony Music's current international and local artist roster as well as its extensive archives. The new service will initially be available to mobile users via mobile network operators in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Ericsson and Sony Music Germany said the two companies have worked together to develop the service, which enables consumers to send and receive music clips together with messages that incorporate information about the music, the artist, and associated artwork in MMS format.

The digital music delivery service features an intelligent learning system, which stores up a consumer's list of selections and is able to make further suggestions of music that system predicts he or she may like to listen to. The system also makes it possible to set up communities with mailing lists, forums, lists of hits and recommendations." [infoSync]

Wow - is Sony finally figuring out a way to leverage the technical and content ends of its company? No middleman. This would be a hit in the U.S., too, although it would need to grow to include artists from other labels to gain any real traction. It would be cool if they let users have mobile blogs that take advantage of the recommendation system.

Mobiles 'Let You Control Your Life'

"Mobile phones are used by people to decide how and when they communicate with the rest of the world, say researchers.

The findings are the result of a three-year study into the evolution of consumer mobile behaviour, entitled Me, My Mobile and I, by a team at Lancaster University in the UK.

The report, presented at 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, suggest that mobile devices are increasingly offering people a way to control their relationships, location and self-image....

Researchers found that mobile phones are primarily devices of control and censorship, allowing people to decide the time and context with which they communicate with the rest of the world.

'The mobile phone is our own form of reality TV, the single most important device to let people control their relationship with others and to self author their image and lives,' said Michael Hulme, Research Fellow at Lancaster University and Chairman of the Teleconomy Group.

Young women told researchers that mobile phones allowed them to take control over events such as walking home late at night, offering them the comfort of a friendly voice in the dark.

Older women said their mobiles allowed them to keep track of their husbands, while students told researchers that texting provided the perfect solution to a boring lecture.

Children used their mobile phones to ask their friends for advice. They also tended to have strict views on the use of mobile, seeing parents using text messaging as inappropriate....

Another key finding of the study was that text messaging was not the emotional form of communication that operators assume it to be.

'The evidence shows that texting is a form of emotional censorship because they are composed and clearly structured,' said Mr Hulme....

But the good news for the mobile industry is that mobile phones are likely to remain and increasingly become the one device people are unwilling to live without." [BBC News: Technology]

Actually, if you plan it right and actively work with your child and technology, I don't think they'll see text messages from a parent as intrusive or "uncool." But it does point out the need to have an understanding of this stuff.

On the Trail of the Memex: Vannevar Bush, Weblogs and the Google Galaxy

"While blogs are creative and often charming tools in the hands of individual bloggers, by harvesting the collective power of armies of bloggers, the power Google stands to wield in online publishing begins to stagger the imagination....

If Google’s PageRank algorithm is the shimmering star of the cyberspace firmament, it presides over a vast array of fellow travelers and hangers-on. For all intents and purposes, Google owns the Web, by virtue of its superior and highly popular search engine. It owns the history of the Internet, thanks to GoogleGroups, which searches over 20 years of Usenet archives. It owns the present, thanks to GoogleNews, which constantly scans the front pages of thousands of online newspapers, deduces which stories editors around the world consider the most important, and snags the headlines and lead paragraphs from those sentences to assemble a patchwork quilt that exposes news readers to a wide variety of editorial and political opinions....

The future of intellectual life, as mediated by hypertext, may well be defined by collaborative, member-driven “writerly” communities such as Slashdot (where extremely brief “articles” are drowned out by hundreds posts, which are then sorted and rated by volunteer moderators who separate the wheat from the chaff) or Wikipedia (a user-created encyclopedia, created two years ago and recently collecting its 100,000^th user-authored article)." [dichtung-digital]

And one ring [Google] to rule them all? Will it own the past, present, and future (breaking news, "where should I go next")? Dennis G. Jerz sent me the link to his article, saying that he had already written the article and submitted it to his editor when the big news broke. A few modifications, and voila - serendipity.

It's an interesting article, so read the whole thing.

Medscape Jumps into RSS

"I am really happy to announce that Medscape, the leading news, information, research and CME site for Physicians on the Internet has joined the RSS revolution. We are now publishing RSS feeds of our headlines in each specialty for which we have a home page. And if you really want the full picture of what's going on in medicine, you can subscribe to a full site feed that syndicates just about every article, news story and CME program that is published.

This is a direct result of my experiments here in weblogs, as well as interactions I've had with the 'Doc Bloggers' in the column to the right. Admittedly, we are one of the few sites that rely on getting people to look at our content on our site launching this feature (and outside of technology-oriented sites, you can probably count the major media participants on one hand), and are certainly the first serious medical resource to do so.

So why aren't we afraid that publishing an RSS feed will actually lead to less traffic on our site? It comes down to this...we believe in the quality of our content. We know there is nowhere else on the Internet where you can get the same timeliness, focus and professional quality of medical information. If you are a doctor (or you are interested in medical information), our RSS feed is the best way to stay up to date on what we are publishing, and you will invariably want to visit our site to see the whole story." [Tales of Hoffman]

Add Mescape to the "ClueTrained-In" column!

Remember - RSS doesn't have to be a supplement for site visitors; it can easily be a complementary channel. Congratulations to Steve and Medscape for taking the long view! I truly believe this will benefit them in the long run, and I hope Steve will be able to provide us with periodic updates.