SLA Information Technology Division Blog

Lights out at Google.com homepage

If you've visited the Google website today, you'll see that the familiar white screen of the well-known search engine has been turned black.  This is an effort on Google's part to raise awareness about Earth Hour.  This focus of the effort is to raise awareness of worldwide energy conservation efforts.  Today, Earth Hour is asking people around the world to turn off their lights from 8pm - 9pm in their local time zone.  Cities around the world are planning events in order to show their commitment to energy conservation.

Helpful Tools: Time Zone Converter

While trying to schedule several teleconferences with people in other time zones on one particular day, I looked for a tool that would help me make the necessary conversions from EST.  I came across the Time Zone Converter.  This tool allows you to convert your time to the time zones available in the United States or in countries throughout the world.  You can also print out a helpful time zone reference card that allows you to coordinate your meetings or other events in various time zones.

Five Methods to Deal: Email Overload

Want to learn how to tame your email overload?  An article on the Read Write Web blog describes five methodologies and the implementation strategies you'll need to get it done.  These include:
1. The Get It Done Method
2. The 4-Hour Workweek Method
3. Treat Email as SMS
4. The Folders and Rules Method
5. The Email Bankruptcy Method

In my opinion, #5 seems to be the most drastic approach.   But with so many people keeping in touch on Facebook and LinkedIn and the popularity of their communication systems, this might not be as extreme as one might think. 

How do you cope with your email?  As a member of one of the many social networks, do you find that you're relying less on email and more on the site's messaging system to communicate?

Click U free course of the month -- Getting Ready for the Job Search

The course below is available to SLA member for FREE until April 14, 2008.  No matter where you are in your career, you may find this course to be beneficial.

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Getting Ready for the Job Search.  Whether you are already embarking on a job search or just thinking about it you must be prepared to effectively market yourself.  If you know  you have excellent skills, ideal experience and incredible passion for your work but don't know how to package yourself to effectively communicate your professional message then participate in this seminar. 

Marshall A. Brown, CPCC is a certified career and life coach with extensive experience in the association and nonprofit sectors and has been involved in the career management profession for over 8 years.   

2038 Bug

I came across an article on the ReadWriteWeb (RWW) site describing the bug that will affect Unix-based systems in 2038.  Similar to the Y2K bug, the glitch has to do with the date/time function.  The latest time that can be represented by the Posix standard is 3:14 AM on January 19, 2038.  After that, times will be represented by a negative number. 

What is the expected fallout?  If you think about it, most of the machines that contain this glitch should be replaced well before then. The article goes on to state that the systems that are the most vulnerable are legacy and embedded systems which include: embedded systems in traffic light controllers, process control computers, gas pumps, navigation systems, etc. 

Upcoming Click U programs of interest

Likely you received today an email about upcoming Click U programs.  And likely, you did not scroll through the entire email.  Well...towards the bottom were these two that may be of interest to members of this division:

9 April 2008
Part 1: E-library Collection Planning
Presenter: Diane K Kovacs, president, Kovacs Consulting - Internet & Web Training

23 April 2008
Part 2: E-library Collection Strategies, Organization and Maintenance
Presenter: Diane K Kovacs, president, Kovacs Consulting - Internet & Web Training

Click on the links for additional information.

The value of expert information in a user-generated content world

An article in Newsweek's technology section focuses on the increased importance of authoritative information sources in a user-generated content world.  Understanding this, some companies are starting to focus on building sites that provide the authoritative content that many users are seeking.   Not only will this increase site visits from those who are tired of bad information, it also improves the site's ad revenue potential.

One example of this is Mahalo.com.  The site provides users with a people-powered search engine that offers quality results reviewed by real people.  "The more trusted an environment, the more you can charge for it," says Mahalo's founder, Jason Calacanis.  According to him, the "wisdom of the crowds has peaked".  "Web 3.0 is taking what we've built in Web 2.0—the wisdom of the crowds—and putting an editorial layer on it of truly talented, compensated people to make the product more trusted and refined."

If web users are starting to focus on more authoritative information resources, what does that mean for us as librarians?  As information professionals, how can we capitalize on this change in information tastes?  How can we better market ourselves as an excellent option in this increasingly DIY information environment?

Tip for planning your Annual Conference experience

Hopefully you have made your flight and hotel reservations for Seattle, and will soon be sending in your registration form for the conference.  (Notice that securing flight and hotel truly need to be done first, so you get better deals.)  Early bird registration on the conference ends April 1 (no fooling!), so you need to figure out soon -- if you haven't done so already -- what ticketed events you want to attend.

With planning your conference experience in mind, here's a tip:

You can browse the Personal Planner by SLA Units.  That means you can look at all of the Information Technology Division events at once!  Notice that there are three ticketed events this year:

• Taxonomies for Indexing: A Hands-On Approach ($ 299/member or student, $399/non-member)
• Digitization Essentials ($ 299/member or student, $399/non-member)
• Information Technology Division Business Meeting ($15)

For more information on these events, check the Personal Planner.

And...if you are not an SLA member, do not despair!  You too can use the Personal Planner in order to get organized for the conference.  Check it out and be sure to look for IT Division events!

The Immersive Experience

An article in today's New York Times provides readers with a look at technology that takes on an immersive approach.  One example of this is PicLens.  Created by Cooliris, PicLens allows users to view images and other digital media on a 3D wall.  After reviewing the demo, I was very impressed with what I saw.  This and other immersion innovations will provide web users with the ability to broaden their experience beyond the confines of the traditional web browser. 

Search Engine Ranking Factors

I came across an interesting article on search engine ranking factors on SEOmoz.  Within the article, the contributors list what they believe are the best SEO tactics to affect search engine ranking - with a primary focus on the Google search engine algorithm.  If you've ever wondered why some search engine results come up ahead of others, you should take a look at this article.