June 2006

There were 15 posts published in June 2006 (this is page 2 of 2).

ALA Schedule

Here’s where I’ll be at ALA:

http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/ALA_Schedule-1.xls (no, the colors mean nothing in particular)

Disclaimer: Everything is open to change due to unforeseen circumstances and plain old burnout 🙂 Some of the longer events in particular I just can’t see myself sitting still that long.

I’m still debating whether or not to buy a ticket to the scholarship bash Saturday night – anyone else going and want to meet up? Meeting up any other time would be great as well.

I was looking forward to hearing Chris Anderson of Wired magazine in particular, until I noticed he’s speaking on the exact same topic he did last year (The Long Tail). Oh well, that frees up time for the Professional Blogging topic!

E-Info Global Symposium

I’m going to go ahead and point to something I’ve been somewhat involved in since my first week of working here:

http://Symposium.UAH.edu/

On Friday, Nov. 30 & Saturday, Dec. 1 2006, we’ll be holding a library-related symposium here at the University of Alabama in Huntsville! The topics are loosely focused around transitions from traditional resources to electronic.

Speakers include:

Stephen Abram, VP of Innovation for SirsiDynix
Andrew Dillon, Dean of Univ. of Texas’ School of Information
Chris Jasek, manager of Elsevier’s User Centered Design Team
Danuta Nitecki, Associate University Librarian, Yale University
Bernie Sloan, Univ. of Illinois
Sue Medina, director of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries
Mona Klausing, VP of marketing for Blue Mine Group
And more we don’t have full details on yet.

We’ll also have brief presentations from the CEOs of Kaplan, Auto-Graphics, SirsiDynix, EBSCO, and LSSI.

(of course, more details are either on the site now or will be going up shortly. The full PDF agenda is here.)

We also have a symposium blog, which I’ll be maintaining: http://symposium.uah.edu/blog/ (hooray! our first official blog!)

One of our main concerns has been to make the symposium accessible to everyone. Until September 8th, registration is $99 (including a Friday night buffet/reception). We’ve also struck a deal with a few local hotels, including one that is campus-run and directly next door to the symposium site, for around $60/night. More details on hotels will be online pretty soon. We’re also in the process of arranging free registration for some library school students.

I’d be glad to answer any questions I can, or point you to those more in the know than I!

eBible

The other day I received an invite to the beta release of eBible.com. I’m really impressed!

The site’s core functionality of full text bible searching isn’t anything new. Instead, the difference is in the details. Users can tag verses, and browse the tags others have assigned. Different translations of the text are displayed side by side, and commentaries dynamically show up next to the relevant passages.

Unfortunately, eBible does not contain the popular New International Version translation. But I have heard before that NIV is copyrighted, and rather expensive to get the relevant rights, so this is understandable.

I have one minor quibble that doesn’t really impact usability of the site: the bookmark functionality is redundant when tagging is available. I would much rather assign a tag like ‘bookmark’ to a verse than have to view my tags and bookmarks in separate sections of the site.

eBible is not yet accessible to the general public, but if you’d like one of my three invites just leave your e-mail address in a comment.

Tech Convergence

I’ve been thinking recently about the convergence of technology. Specifically, the idea of multiple gadgets being squished into one unit. Cell phones with cameras are an obvious example. In fact, cell phones are at the root of a lot of convergence. Think of how often new devices are described that way: “It’s a cell phone that plays iTunes songs.” or “It’s a cell phone with PDA functions.”

I tried to think of what gadgets I’d gotten rid of through convergence. My cell phone has a very basic low quality camera that I sometimes use, but it isn’t even remotely functional enough to make me toss my standalone camera. I stumbled around the recesses of my mind for a while, trying to figure out something I’d gotten rid of thanks to convergence.

Then, I had an a-ha moment: I no longer own a stereo.

Well, perhaps that isn’t entirely true. I own one, but it is still in my parents’ house a thousand miles away – it didn’t make the move with me. Instead, I have a decent set of speakers hooked up to my computer and iTunes. For the rare time I need to listen to ‘normal’ broadcasts, I use a clock radio. I hadn’t even really noticed the change, but when I think back to middle school a decade ago – 12 year old me could never imagine living without something so basic as a stereo.

I wonder what else I’ve forgotten using, or will in the future.