"To make up for the lack of RSS Feeds of the week during the past month, I thought I would release two this week.

One of the first people to link to Library Stuff was Marylaine Block, creator of Neat New Stuff I found on the Web This Week, Ex Libris, and many other worthwhile publications.

I'm finally returning the favor, by providing RSS Feeds for both publications mentioned above. Here they are:

1) Neat New Stuff
2) Ex-Libris

Enjoy!!" [Library Stuff]

Whoo-hoo! Marylaine's [going to be] back in my aggregator! Doing the happy dance... as soon as I get my aggregator fixed.... Still happy - thanks, Steven!

Youth Prefer Texting to Voice Calls

"Text messages have superseded phone calls as the most common use for a mobile phone among young people, a new survey reveals.

Mobile phone text messaging has more than doubled since March 2002, according to the survey by mobile phone insurer CPP.

And, the younger people are, the more likely they are to text.

More than eight out of ten people under the age of 25 are more likely to send someone a text message than call.

But, at the other end of the scale, just 14% of those aged over 55 said they preferred to text. " [BBC, via Smart Mobs]

I already prefer IM to voice, so I'm sure I'll use texting quite a bit when I get a phone that handles it.

Censored!

"A reader wrote to point out that weblog.infoworld.com is categorized by SurfControl as 'Usenet News' and is, therefore, being blocked for people in organizations that deploy SurfControl's server-based filter....

I guess there's a good chance this will be fixed in a few days. Not that it matters much to readers of this blog, since few of you -- I suspect -- work in SurfControlled organizations. Still, the experience has opened a window onto a world I'm glad I don't live in." [Jon's Radio]

Dave Winer also notes that his site "is blocked by all of them because I sometimes use one (or more) of George Carlin's words. Otherwise it's a pretty G-rated site. I figure the kiddies know how to circumvent those things."

While Jon and Dave view this issue in terms of employees and kids at home, as a librarian I naturally view this as a true censorship issue that comes up every day in our buildings. Imagine for a moment that you don't have internet access at home, school is closed for the day, or you're just at the public library doing your homework. In the near future, Congress may finally get its wish to force libraries to install filtering software like SurfControl on all of their internet terminals. They claim it's to protect the kids, but in reality it censors adults and kids alike. States are trying to do this, too, rather than leaving it up to you and your local community.

Imagine going to a library to find information and you can't get to Jon's and Dave's sites, never mind the problem of finding health information, non-profit groups (like NOW or Planned Parenthood), or even your legislator's information if his first name happens to be "Dick." There are thousands of documented problems with forcing this approach on a public library, so Jon is right to title his post "censored."

Again, not to get too political, but are you truly aware of where your legislators stand on these issues? They really do affect you and your kids, so please be an informed voter.

University Library Navigation Enabled by Ekahau

"Library users prefer map-based guidance on PDA over traditional methods

Ekahau, Inc. today announced that it has enabled the first location-aware library navigation system deployed by the Oulu University Main Library, Finland. Wireless PDA based system called SmartLibrary helps users to find books and other material from the library collections. The help is provided in form of map-based guidance to the target bookshelf on a PDA. Ekahau Positioning Engine(tm) software is used by SmartLibrary system to pinpoint the accurate mobile client location.

The guidance is integrated to the online catalog of library, so that books retrieved from the catalog can be located. Wireless connectivity is provided in form of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) network. The guidance is based on dynamic Wi-Fi positioning of the user and static location information of books. The service is a completely software-based solution, which can be provisioned atop a Wi-Fi installed for wireless Internet access, without any additional hardware.

User evaluation with real library users showed that SmartLibrary saves time and makes book finding easier. In the study all male test users and 64 % of females preferred map-based guidance over traditional shelf classification. After evaluation the main library added SmartLibrary system into their standard customer service." [Directions Magazine, via Resourceshelf]

I don't know if Teri is reading my blog while she's on maternity leave, but I hope she sees this one. For a few years now we've been talking about using GPS and PDAs for locating materials within a library, so it's nice to see someone implementing a solution.