I highly recommend Karen Schneider’s TechSource blog post about IT planning. If only for reading the first couple paragraphs that aptly describe what library IT operations are likely to have on their plates. Next time you see one of your library’s IT professionals, thank them for all their work! A couple choice quotes: If idle …
Author Archives: abigail
Passing Time with the AADL Catalog
I’m in the Atlanta airport for a good while, waiting for my flight to San Antonio for Open Repositories, so I shelled out for wifi access. And now that I have, I’m going to find things to do online until the last possible minute or until my battery dies! One good way to pass time …
Articles on Managing and Career Development
Boxes and Arrows, a web zine about design and information architecture, has two articles about making career choices in its current issue. The first offers some tips for deciding whether or not you want to manage and the second looks at the “three-pronged fork in the road,” reminding readers that managing isn’t the only option …
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Don’t Click: Choose or Use
It’s easy for those of us who use a mouse or trackpad on a daily basis to forget that many people use computers without them. If you maintain web pages and are still looking for a New Year’s resolution, please consider working to eliminate “click” from your lexicon. In most cases, you will find that …
5 Things
OK, OK, I haven’t been especially inspired to blog for a while, but this is an easy one. 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me 1. The first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was a veterinarian. 2. When I was in first grade, I had a lot of warts on my …
Signing up, Signing in, and Searching
I finally started cataloging my books on LibraryThing over the holiday break. Two things struck me immediately. 1. Library Thing is better than any other website I have ever used. Why? The sign-up process is identical to the sign-in process! What a concept! Reason enough to upgrade to a paid account and support them! No …
NYPL Database Access
Did you know that any New York State resident can apply for a free New York Public Library card, which allows you to access some of their electronic resources from home? Among the databases are Ulrich’s, Rosetta Stone’s Online Language Learning Center, Library Lit, a bunch of Ebsco databases, and the Columbia Gazetteer, my personal …
10 Technologies to Watch for 2007
Popular Mechanics has published a list of 10 Tech Concepts You Need to Know for 2007. My favorites: data clouds (“you’re one step closer to retiring the original data storage device—the one in your head”) and smart pills (“could make a wide range of invasive procedures obsolete”).
User Experience and Choice
One of my favorite blogs right now is Creating Passionate Users, by authors of O’Reilly’s Head First series. Yesterday’s post led me to Choice = Headaches at the blog Joel on Software. The entry is about the obscene number of ways to turn off a Windows Vista machine (up to 15 by Joel’s count), but …
LibraryThing UnSuggester
I’m fascinated by LibraryThing’s new UnSuggester, unveiled Sunday along with their “real” recommender system. UnSuggester gives you opposites instead of similar titles. For example, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky overlaps least with Daughters of the Moon by Lynne Ewing. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins overlaps least with Wild at Heart: Discovering the Passionate …