Blogging Section of SLA-IT

Email as if you were texting

Having recently been on vacation and traveling, the pain of a number of days away from the email box is still fresh. So, when I came across this I desperately wished many of my correspondents had deployed the method.

http://three.sentenc.es/

'The Problem
E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution
Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

three.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be three sentences or less. It’s that simple.'

They also have 2, 4 and 5 sentence versions, which I didn't totally get, but I really liked the 3 sentence idea. You can say a lot in three sentences. I just did.

(sorry, couldn't resist.)

c.

Should you be a "Sentence Spartan"?

Everyone is trying different techniques to manage the amount of time they spend in email.  Tom Peter's blog quickly points to a few options and outlines a strategy called three.sentenc.es.  That strategy could make writing and reading email go much more quickly!

Google Trends: Library Catalog

Have you see this: http://www.google.com/trends?

Ok, you probably already have, but go look just for fun (and because I had a thought about it and it's fun to look at -- people search for some strange stuff). In a nutshell, the Google trends show you what people have been searching Google for. I'm sure they use it in their crazy ad sales bit which drives their bottom line.

We have this nice SirsiDynix system that shows me what people have been searching for, but what do I use it for? Interesting reading when I remember to check it. Not so effective, I know. But it occurs to me that this is really good data that other organizations (in this case Google) are using to drive the bottom line that I (and doubtless many of my colleagues) are ignoring.

So, do you have such data? If so, do you do something with it? Can you tell me so I can start doing it?

c.

Safe music for podcasting

PodSafe Audio is a website where musicians can upload music under the Creative Commons license for use in "Podcasts, Mashups, Shoutcasts, Webcasts and every other kind of 'casting' that exists on the 'net." Therefore it is a website where podcasters can find music to use in the 'casts without worrying about copyrights. Good deal !Just make sure to remember to not resell the music and to give credit to the artists!

March of the Librarians

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

Interview with Michael Habib

On January 30, the ALA TechSource blog published an interview with Michael Habib. Michael graduated recently  from the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Many know him because of this "Academic Library 2.0 Concept Model" from his master's thesis.  Michael published a draft of this chart on Flickr, which received notice.  This link will take you to the final version of that graphic.  Wondering how physical and virtual spaces interact?  Look at Michael's chart for the answer.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The topic of search engine optimization (SEO) came up during the IT Division Board meeting (I think as a possible program topic for the future). 

There is a blog called SEObook.com that I've been following (http://www.seobook.com/) and I promised to post the URL for it.  There are likely others...and if you find one that is useful, please let us know.

I also mentioned that Steve Arnold (Arnold IT) had some information on his web site about SEO.  You can view that information here. 

One important thing to realize about search engine optimization is that it is important for those sites that rely on search engines to drive traffic to them.  There are some web sites that many not need SEO because they don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry finding them through a search engine, but instead use other methods to drive qualified prospects to their sites.

Steve Abram's post on his SLA activities

Association President-Elect Stephen Abram has written a post on his SLA activities since June as well as what he'll be doing over the next six months.  It is a very good post and worth reading.  Thanks, Steve!

New library news podcast

Marv K. has launched a new, hopefully regular, podcast called LibVibe. The podcast features a "review of library news headlines in an upbeat, professionally-produced format". Marv K. describes himself as a reference librarian and former broadcast radio personality.

Blogs for small businesses

Something of interest for the entrepreneurs and small business employees among us. AllBusiness.com is a website that caters (mostly for free) to the needs of small businesses. The offerings include a whole series of blogs on different aspects of the business world (PR, RH, taxes, work-from-home, working mothers, strategic planning, finances, etc etc).

One of the bloggers, Denise O'Berry, also maintains a directory of small business blogs.