a sometimes blog about mostly libraries
Once again Lia's UCSD Arts Blog clues me into something rad: FontStruct, an awesome web-based program that lets you design fonts and share them via Creative Commons. Download and rate "fontstructions" in the site's Gallery. A few examples of styles created with the program:
Because I'm a little terrified of the exhibits hall, I rarely find anything of interest in the deluge of pre-Annual mailbox fodder. Yesterday was an exception - SPARC, one of my favorite organizations (judged in part on the strength of its acronym - the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) sent a mailer introducing its... Continue Reading →
PC Magazine has put together an excellent list of the best free software available (open source and proprietary) for a host of uses - the article features brief descriptions of free tools from operating systems to blogging to audio and video communication that link through to full product reviews. Definitely worth looking over.
I hadn't heard this before, but back in 1971 my library was apparently the first to catalog books electronically, in partnership with the OCLC. Lightning coincidentally struck OCLC headquarters that same night - perhaps signaling their "auspicious beginning," or perhaps as electrostatic retribution for those 17 OU cataloging positions that weren't refilled as a result... Continue Reading →
In case you don't keep up with the ever-useful Distant Librarian, you missed a writeup today that is guaranteed to warm the heart of anyone interested in library technology integration and user engagement. It highlights a post on ruk: peter rukavina's weblog, maintained by a nonlibrarian "superpatron" who regularly creates or brainstorms the types of... Continue Reading →
In the wake of the recent Harvard faculty decision to allow open access to their intellectual output and recent moves by some academic publishers (Columbia University Press, for example) to make electronic books freely available, the open access movement in higher education is definitely gaining momentum. Today's Inside Higher Ed features an article that considers... Continue Reading →
I've been testing out a web-based videoconferencing tool that approximates the features and functionality of Adobe Connect (formerly known as Macromedia Breeze) - DimDim is freely available via the web or through an open source platform. Not having quite enough time (yet) to mess around with the open source version, my experience thus far has... Continue Reading →
I typically recycle every last bit of vendor flotsam I receive before the ALA Midwinter and Annual conferences, not being patient or seizure-resistant enough to handle the exhibits floor in any meaningful way. This time around, however, I decided to take part in an extremely lucrative focus group on (anonymous) new software for "Making Database... Continue Reading →
CNI Session, Tuesday Dec 11th @ 9 AM (I only caught the second half of this presentation) Designing course-specific web pages using a simple, interactive, drag/drop and WSIWIG editor developed at Oregon State Libraries by Kim Griggs, systems programmer. Software known as the Interactive Course Assignment Project (ICAP). Using the software results in easy/attractive course... Continue Reading →
CNI Project Briefing December 11th at 2 pm, presented by G.W. Brian. PKP, or the Public Knowledge Project, has developed an open-source scholarly publishing software module at University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. Their stated goal is to "improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through the development of innovative online... Continue Reading →
info-mational 