Just a reminder that registration is open for our upcoming workshop The Reference Interview in the Real and Virtual Worlds. It will be held at the Suburban Library System, Burr Ridge, on February 12, 2003, 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We are very pleased to have Ellen Keith, Reference Services Coordinator, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD presenting this important workshop. The workshop is appropriate for both the experienced reference librarian and those new to reference work.

Register online via the SLS Calendar of Events at http://www.sls.lib.il.us/calendar or contact Linda Bennett, Admin. Assistant for SLS Ref Service, at bennettl@sls.lib.il.us or at +1 (630) 734 5113.

If you have questions regarding the workshop, please contact Jolene Carlson at carlsonj@sls.lib.il.us or +1 (630) 734 5110 or 5114.

Lori Bell sends word that North Suburban Library System has jumped on my RSS bandwagon and is making their weekly newsletter available via RSS. This would be great, since the participants in my grant project will be able to read NSLS news in their aggregators, but I find neither hide nor hair of an orange XML button anywhere on their site or in their search engine. Hopefully they'll make more of their site available this way, not just the one newsletter. For our grant project, every service area and all interested individuals will have their own blogs and RSS feeds!

Update: ah, you have to look on the pages of the individual issues to find the RSS feed.

HarperCollins Publishers Becomes First Major Trade Publisher to Sell E-Books to Libraries (emphasis below is mine)

"HarperCollins Publishers today announced that it has finalized agreements with netLibrary and OverDrive to sell PerfectBound e-books to libraries across the country, making it possible for libraries to lend them to their patrons.

These are the first such deals by a major U.S. trade publisher.

Both the OverDrive and netLibrary e-book management systems make it simple for libraries to add e-books to their collections, check e-books out to patrons, and check them back in again automatically at the end of the loan period. In addition, the systems allow each e-book copy to be loaned to only one person at a time, in the same way that a print book is loaned. As with all PerfectBound e-books, digital rights management technology will be used to protect the copyrights of HarperCollins authors....

'The technology is now in place to expand our e-book sales to the library market, which we believe has enormous potential,' said David Steinberger, President of Corporate Strategy and International for HarperCollins Publishers. 'Many libraries have already been managing electronic collections for several years, and recognize the benefit of instantaneous remote access to a large selection of high-quality books for their patrons. In addition, we believe that libraries will play a critical role in educating readers about the benefits of this developing format. This deal represents another opportunity for us to serve our authors and market their books to the broadest possible audience in as many formats as possible, consistent with the strategy articulated by our President and CEO, Jane Friedman.' " [Business Wire, via Library Stuff]

Centralized TrackBack Aggregation for News and Links

"Popdex now offers the ability to host TrackBack threads for any arbitrary URL.

The Problem: Conversations (threads, memes, etc.) tend to revolve at any given moment around a particular link (i.e to an online article or blog post). If you want to see what others are saying about that particular newsworthy item, there's no succinct way of doing so. The only option tends to be clicking through all the citation links, and trying to see what people are saying about that particular item.

Part of the Solution: TrackBack pings can now be sent to Popdex for any arbitrary URL, thus creating a hosted, third-party TrackBack solution for any URL on the web. A reverse chronological (most recent first) list of TrackBacks are now listed on all Popdex citation pages.

But I need your help, thus I am invoking the LazyWeb! [Popdex Blog]

Great idea, Shanti! I love this idea because I'm not technical enough to build something myself and I really want trackback for individual posts. How can I do this for Radio, though?

This type of tracking will be essential to my grant project so that I can monitor reactions and conversations across Illinois Library Systems and eventually my own libraries.