Blogging Section of SLA-IT

March of the Librarians

Video from YouTube filmed at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference.  I laughed outloud!

SlideShare

What to share slides (PowerPoint) on the Internet?  Here is a place that may be useful to you.

Blog post: THE WORLD NEEDS ONLY FIVE COMPUTERS

Greg Papadopoulos, Sun's CTO, wrote an interesting post recently about the need for only five computers in the world.  Only five?!  It's an interesting thought.  (Go ahead...skim it...I'm not going to give away his thoughts.)

Second Life tour, Mar. 1, 11 a.m. - 12 noon (EST)

I will be giving a tour of Info Island in Second Life on Thursday, March 1 from 11 - 12 noon (Eastern Time).  The tour will begin at the Welcome Area on Info Island. 

• The map coordinates for the Welcome Area are 99, 123, 33 (the coordinates have changed from what I posted before). 
• You can also get there by using a Second Life URL (SURL) in address bar of your Internet browser.  The SURL is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/99/123/33/  Once you place this in your browser (and press Enter), you will be taken to the SURL web page and asked to confirm what you want to do.  If you are not signed into Second Life, you will be asked to sign in.  Once in, you'll have to confirm that you want to teleport to the location.  The multiple steps go VERY quickly.

Second Life now has more than 4 million residents.  There are many events being held in SL -- lectures, photo exhibits, and more.  For example, ALA hosted David Lankes, from Syracuse University, who presented a paper to more than 60 people.  Read more here.

There are also cool tools available to people in SL.  One that we'll explore during the tool is the ability to search real world resources while in SL.

Teach others about MySpace

Do find that people think only negatives when they think about MySpace and can't think of any positives?  Do you find parents concerned about what their children are saying about themselves on MySpace? 

Consider doing a talk in your library -- geared towards parents and other adults -- about MySpace.  Teach them what it is.  Show them the positive of MySpace.  Show them who is on MySpace (including libraries, artists and bands).  Discuss issues related to privacy and security.  Show them how to search MySpace to find pages (like those of their kids).

The result -- The adults (parents) will know more about MySpace and will be thankful for your help.

Libraries with MySpace accounts

There are many libraries that have decided to venture into MySpace.  Why?  So that they can be where their patrons are.  They want to interact with their patrons using the technologies that their patrons are using.  And they want to understand what their patrons are doing and thinking. 

If you are curious about what libraries are saying about themselves and their services in MySpace, here are several MySpace pages to check out.  Please note that there are more libraries than this on MySpace...this is just a sample.

• Albany County Public Library (Wyoming), http://www.myspace.com/acplwy
• American Library Association (Illinois),  http://www.myspace.com/atyourlibrary
• Alameda County Library (California),  http://www.myspace.com/alamedacountylibrary 
• Benton Harbor Public Library (Michigan),   http://www.myspace.com/bhpl
• Birmingham Public Library (Alabama),  http://www.myspace.com/birminghampubliclibrary
• Brooklyn College Library (New York), http://www.myspace.com/brooklyncollegelibrary
• Hennepin County Library (Minnesota),  http://www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary
• Missoula Pubic Library (Montana),  http://www.myspace.com/missoulapubliclibrary
• Shrewsbury Library (Massachusetts), http://www.myspace.com/shrewsburylibrary
• SUNY Morrisville College Libraries (New York), http://www.myspace.com/morrisvillecollegelibrary
• Tonganoxie Public Library  (Kansas), http://www.myspace.com/tonganoxielibrary
• Westmont Public Library (Illinois), http://www.myspace.com/westmontlibrary

Librarian Trading Cards Photo Pool

In 2005, a group was begun in Flickr called the Librarian Trading Cards Photo Pool.  This is a fun pool (grouping) of nearly 300 photos.  Each photos looks like a trading card.  They were created using a free  tool.  Steve Cohen helped get this idea to grow and you can read his  first post about this here.

Anyone can create a trading card and some people have created more several!  If you don't have trading card, consider creating one.  The cards are viewed by many people, so they are a great way of getting more people to know who you are and what you do.

Ten reasons to learn and use web standards

Although anyone can create a web site, a good web site is one that follows standards.  Why follow standards?  Here are ten reasons, which include:

• Faster loading and reduced bandwidth usage
• Provide the foundation for accessibility
• Future-proof content
• It’s the right way to do things

To read the rest of the list, go here.

Blogging and Second Life

BlogHUD lets you blog from within Second Life, either to blogHUD.com or to your own blog if you pay for the Pro service.

Blog entries include a map of where you're posting from in Second Life, and you can subscribe to individual people's RSS feeds or RSS feeds for places.

So has anyone used this for a Second Life library newsletter?

Web site: WeblogMatrix

WeblogMatrix says that it "allows you to build a custom search query to find a Weblog matching exactly your needs."    Looks interesting...and they cover more blog sites/software than I could ever compare on my own.