Blogging Section of SLA-IT

License your RSS or Atom Feed

Thanks to Ken, I now know how to add the creative commons license to my RSS feeds. 

Did you know you that it's easy to add a creative commons license to your RSS and Atom feeds -- not just to your blog's web site? Here are brief instructions for adding your Creative Commons license to RSS and Atom feeds...

On my personal blog, I have already chosen a creative commons license that fits me, now I have to update my RSS feed to include this licensing information. 

Make sure you read Ken's instructions to update your RSS feed.

Social Fund Raising

Looking to raise some funds for a project in your library but not sure how to collect money online?  Fundable give you an easy way to raise funds online.

Similar to online auctions, Fundable's pages are created by people who use this site. Each project has a description of how much money needs to be collected and what it will do. Once enough pledges (not payments) have been collected, Fundable turns them into real payments and sends the total to the project's organizer.

No one takes a risk when making a pledge: if a collection expires before reaching its total in pledges, Fundable deletes all pledges and never charges money. This lets you participate in a group purchase or fundraiser without worrying about what other people will do. No one pays until and unless everyone else makes a pledge.

Sounds pretty handy and worth looking into.

Can we legally use book jackets?

There has been a lot of discussion around the use of book jackets in library OPACs lately.  We heard this back when Amazon let us access their covers - and then again when the Google Books API came out - and now it's because of the newest announcement from LibraryThing about sharing their covers.

I've heard both sides of this argument - that it's legal and that it's not.  Well, Mary at the LibraryLaw blog has a great post helping us all out with this issue.

Blog post: Blogging Is Not A Crime

Quoting TechCrunch's blog post:

The number of incidents it tracks went from five arrests in 2003 to 35 last year. As blogging expands internationally, so do the risk of speaking one’s mind. (Something many of us take for granted).

Most of those arrests are in countries with oppressive regimes, such as Egypt, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.  But bloggers have been arrested in Canada, France, Greece, and even the U.S. (with Josh Wolf being one of the most famous incidents—he spent the better part of a year in jail for refusing to turn over journalistic video footage to a grand jury).

Blog post: This is what 2.0 means.

This is so simple.  People on Twitter are guessing that this explanation will catch on like wildfire.  As one commercial says, "Brilliant!"

An authoritative place for information: Knol

I just signed up for Gmail and noticed an interesting tool offered called Knol.  Knol is in essence a mix between an authoritative wiki and a social networking site such as Linkedin.  Users get to determine the collaboration allowed with others on articles they author (open, moderated,closed), network,  and can even verify their profiles by phone or credit card number.  Articles and authors are both rated in the tool. 

When I took a peek at some of the Knols authored, many appeared to be written by current or former professors with specific expertise in the field of the article.  Other authors included mechanical engineers, artists and physicians.  With Knol, authors can add as little or as much information as they want about their credentials, and many had incredibly impressive credentials.  What's nice about Knol is that the tool serves as an innovative solution to the growing need for information from authoritative, credible sources.

Social Networking for your Dog: DoggySpace

Web 2.0 has now gone to the dogs.  According to a recent article in CNN, DoggySpace is a social networking tool for your pets that allows users to post video, share photos and create a profile for your best friend.  Launched in July, the site is projected to have more than two million accounts by the end of the year.  The projection is quite an ambitious one considering the site includes just under 5000 profiles and about 400 videos at last look.  Still, it is one site to keep in mind if you or someone you know is a devoted dog lover.

Kindle gaining on the traditional book?

According to a recent article in Wired, sales of the Amazon Kindle are expected to grow to almost double the previous forecast for 2008 - now estimated at 380,000.  The article quotes Mark Mahaney of Citigroup as noting that the Kindle is becoming "the iPod of the book world."

I've been able to take a look at both the Amazon Kindle and the Sony E-book due to the technology loaner program available through my employer.  After testing it, I can see why the Kindle has become so popular and it was easy to get others excited about the gadget.  The Kindle is easy to read and provides books and other traditional media on demand in seconds.  Who wouldn't love that kind of access?  But what happens when the Kindle ultimately gets the chance to become equivalent to the traditional book?  Could  it happen in as little as 5-10 years?

There's an elephant in the library: Hathi Trust

The Hathi Trust is an exciting new shared digital repository project being spearheaded by the University of Michigan along with Indiana University.  Although there isn't much on the Hathi Trust site except for the mascot and slogan, you can find more information on Wikipedia and from the Indiana University Information Technology services site.  With the repository currently storing digitized book and journal content of close to 1.5 million volumes and over 1 million titles as of August, it'll be interesting to see what this elephant can do.

Information can't be free at Beijing 2008

If you've been following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, you know that officials with the International Olympic Committee along with Chinese government officials had promised that there would be no censorship of the internet for accredited journalists at the games.  According to Wired, that promise hasn't held true.  Journalists are complaining that some sites remain inaccessible, including those holding information about Tiananmen Square, Tibet and Taiwan. 

On the topic of blogs, some sites that host thousands of blogs appear to have some specific blogs blocked.  Chinese officials have honored some requests to unblock a few sites, but they remain firm on blocking other sites on the basis that they may "jeopardize the national security of China or harm the healthy growth of the country's young people." 

Should the IOC have paid more attention to the harm that could occur due to the stringent blocking of information in candidate countries?