Circulation http://lindybrown.com/blog Mixing Student Affairs & Information Sciences Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:26:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 A Google a Day http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/09/a-google-a-day/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/09/a-google-a-day/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:46:13 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1721 Here’s a site to practice your web searching skills: a Google a Day.

Be careful. You might find yourself wasting as much time here as you would on Facebook, LOLcats, or whatever your fancy. Have fun!

via @SwissArmyLib

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/09/a-google-a-day/feed/ 0 Quick and Easy Co-Browsing: Channel.me http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/quick-and-easy-co-browsing-channel-me/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/quick-and-easy-co-browsing-channel-me/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:57:15 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1722 channel.meWant to co-browse a website with another person at the same time? Check out channel.me. Share the link via Facebook or through email, and your friend can open the website and view with you in real time. Chat together, add notes, switch to other pages – this is pretty neat.

One (big) issue is channel.me doesn’t provide much information about their product, so I wonder what they do with information shared during browsing sessions. Despite this possibly major privacy issue, it is so easy to use and the applications are endless.

Thanks @webmaster_ref for sharing this resource!

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/quick-and-easy-co-browsing-channel-me/feed/ 0 Staying Current http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/staying-current/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/staying-current/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 06:53:20 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1717 Lately, a few folks have asked me how I manage to keep up/stay fresh with the latest information for professional development. Thanks to the beauty of RSS, I can follow many blogs, podcasts and free webinars, and I can access the information when I have free time in the evenings.

A few of my (highly recommended) favorites are listed below…

Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to pass the time while driving to work.

  1. EDUCAUSE
  2. T is for Training
  3. Adventures in Library Instruction
  4. NPR Technology

Blogs
I follow many, but here are a few of my favorites:

Library Blogs

  1. ACRLog
  2. Agnostic, Maybe
  3. Attempting Elegance
  4. HackLibSchool
  5. In the Library with the Lead Pipe
  6. Information Wants to be Free
  7. Info-mational
  8. Librarian by Day
  9. Librarian In Black
  10. Musings about Librarianship
  11. Resource Shelf
  12. Swiss Army Librarian
  13. Tame the Web
  14. The Unquiet Library
  15. Virtual Dave…Real Blog

Education Blogs

  1. EDUCAUSE 7 Things You Should Know
  2. Inside Higher Ed
  3. The Student Affairs Collaborative
  4. Pew Research
  5. ProfHacker
  6. Chronicle of Higher Education

Tech Blogs

  1. Digital Inspiration
  2. Digitzd
  3. Mashable
  4. ReadWriteWeb
  5. Six Revisions
  6. TechCrunch

Webinars
Webinars (especially free ones, of course) are a great way to actively participate and learn from other professionals.

  1. WebJunction (archived webinars are free)
  2. Marianne Lenox’s Google Reader Bundle
  3. Library Webinars Blog

A few other favorite websites:

  1. TED Talks
  2. MIT Open Courseware
  3. Open Courseware Consortium Courses

In addition to the above, I follow a few Listservs and many Twitter feeds and lists. Subscription-based periodicals are great, as well as open access library and information journals, but the above links provide information daily.

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/07/staying-current/feed/ 2 Save the Data! http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/save-the-data/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/save-the-data/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:27:10 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1702 Save the Data! From the Sunlight Foundation:

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/save-the-data/feed/ 0 Twitter & Libraries, revisited [excel file] http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/twitter-libraries-revisited-excel-file/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/twitter-libraries-revisited-excel-file/#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:35:14 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1697 It was over two years ago when I researched Libraries using twitter for a library school assignment. Back then, there were about 90-100 libraries on twitter. As much as time has allowed, I kept an updated list. Just typing them into a blog post is a bit user unfriendly, so I put the list in an excel file. The goodness that comes from this is the ability to filter and sort by academic, public and special libraries, or subspecializations like law or teens.

It is saved in dropbox (public link here) for all to enjoy, in case folks want to use it for research.

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/twitter-libraries-revisited-excel-file/feed/ 2 Tax Day – See Where Your Taxes Go! http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/tax-day-see-where-your-taxes-go/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/tax-day-see-where-your-taxes-go/#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 22:03:03 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1685 For those of us scrambling to get our tax returns done, why not take a quick look to see where your taxes actually go? Whitehouse.gov’s website has a tax receipt calculator. How many times have folks filled out their taxes and didn’t have a thought as to where the money went? Or, for those on the other end of the spectrum who might’ve assumed where their taxes were going using Jon Kyl-style math, this is a nice resource to get a more authoritative idea where the dollars flow.

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2011/04/tax-day-see-where-your-taxes-go/feed/ 0 Oct. 1st: #followalibrary day http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/oct-1st-followalibrary-day/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/oct-1st-followalibrary-day/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:01:27 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1639

Tomorrow – Friday, Oct. 1st – is follow a library day — aka #followalibrary – on Twitter. Read more about it on the #followalibrary blog.

#followalibrary has a lot of great lists, especially for international libraries. I also have a long list of twittering libraries (U.S.) posted in my blog – check it out. Pick a few. Tweet about ‘em. Share your love for libraries!

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/oct-1st-followalibrary-day/feed/ 0 Online Music Goodness: Shuffler.fm http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/online-music-goodness-shuffler-fm/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/online-music-goodness-shuffler-fm/#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:17:26 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1617 Looking for fresh music? Shuffler.fm takes music blogs and makes them into a live-streaming radio station over the internet. The opening page has a list of  ~108 different genres ranging from Indie to Rap to Oldies to Emo, Brit Pop, Tech, Country, and so on. After you choose a genre, Shuffler.fm does the work for you – surfing from one music blog to another. A toolbar resides at the top of each blog that allows you to click through songs or change the genre. While not always reliable, if you want to learn more about the song you’re hearing, just take a look at the website Shuffler.fm has landed on. (Not every site included information about the particular song playing).

How do they do this? Shuffler.fm says they “aggregate music posted on a (more or less) curated list of blogs. Every time something new pops up on a RSS feed from one of these blogs [they] find out what music the blogger is talking about on that post and then ask last.fm for some genres for that song.” Once they get the genres back, they filter and file the song into the genre channels.

- I heard about Shuffler.fm via @laurapasquini – thanks!

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/online-music-goodness-shuffler-fm/feed/ 0 Bloglines Bye-Bye http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/bloglines-bye-bye/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/bloglines-bye-bye/#comments Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:33:40 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1600 bloglinesR.I.P. Bloglines. My first RSS-feeder. Thanks for keeping me organized and sharing the latest news with me. They say that sites like Twitter and Facebook killed you, but I still think there’s a need for RSS-feed readers such as yourself. The speed at which info runs through other social networking sites is fast and constant – unless I’m logged in 24/7, I’m bound to miss information if I rely on my social networks. Ah, but with you, my RSS-Reader, I never missed anything!

RSS feeders and social networking sites serve different purposes for me, so one doesn’t replace the other.

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/bloglines-bye-bye/feed/ 1 Creative Ways Libraries are Using Twitter http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/creative-ways-libraries-are-using-twitter/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/09/creative-ways-libraries-are-using-twitter/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:17:46 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1579 The typical ways libraries use Twitter include sharing library announcements, posting news about special events, exhibits, and instruction sessions; as a way to keep in touch with other libraries and librarian peers; as a short newsletter, a way to share information about new items in the collection; and for public relations and marketing. Here are a few libraries that are thinking outside the box and providing creative ways to promote themselves, share information and connect with their followers.

Skokie Public Library [@skokielibrary]

SPL sends out Tweets every Wednesday, asking their community of followers to try to “Stump the Librarian.” The tweets direct people to their Facebook page, where people post questions to test the librarian’s skills. The game runs all day and Skokie Librarians post the answers they find to the Facebook page.

skokie tweet

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library [@Kennedy1960]

The JFK Presidential Library created @Kennedy1960, where they re-enact JFK’s 1960
presidential campaign trail. The tweets are done in “real time” as if it were 1960. The library not only tweets what JFK was doing at the moment, but they tweet quotes from his campaign speeches and links to archived material such as congratulatory letters and other
documents created or received during the campaign. Yesterday they posted a link to a scanned copy of a letter from May 12, 1960, from Congressman Daniel Flood congratulating JFK on his win in West Virginia. It’s really neat to actually see the scanned copy of the original document. @Kennedy1960 has over 2,100 followers!

jfk1960 tweet

Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library’s Job Help Center [@JHCatCML]

CMPL has created a Job Help Center for their community. It has a manager, they have a job finder (a self service tool that helps job seekers explore local career opportunities) and they have access to career-related databases. In addition, they offer programming for people interested in employment, career changes, etc. Their twitter account provides information about all these resources.

jhcatcml tweet

Nebraska Library Commission [@nlc_reference]

When they originally created their account, they published tweets with only the questions they received, but no answers. However, recently they started adding links to answers. It’s fun to follow them to see what types of questions they get as well as the authoritative sources they use to find the answers. Patron information is not revealed in these tweets, so there are no privacy issues to worry about.

New York Public Library’s multiple accounts [@nypl]

The NYPL has created Twitter accounts tailored to different segmented markets. This is a great idea because it allows folks to pick and choose NYPL Twitter feeds that fit their interests. Some examples of NYPL Twitter accounts:

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