Blogging Librarian » New Technologies

Video: Social Media Revolution

Isaak Kwok — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:17:05 +0000

A condensed look at the impact of social media. Very interesting facts indeed!

Quick Links - World’s Modern Libraries and Others Stories - 10 September 2008

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:12:20 +0000

- The 25 Modern Libraries in the World
A listing of libraries that shows libraries are no longer like the libraries of old. Libraries are now at the cutting edge of information management as well as design and web technology. Unfortunately, MPOW is not listed as one of them.
(via kottke.org)

- Future-Proof Your Library
Some wonderful ideas from Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers on how to ensure a library’s relevance in future.

- John Prescott and Kama Sutra abandoned in hotel rooms
No, they were not intimately related. They were related in that they were books that were abandoned in budget hotels in the United Kingdom this past summer. The list was compiled by Travelodge, a chain of budget hotels in the UK and Ireland, and is done annually. In all, 7,000 books were left behind in Travelodge hotels throughout the year.
(via LISNews)

- 2008 Booker Prize announced
The shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced this past Monday. The following novels are on the list: Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture, Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, Linda Grant’s The Clothes on Their Backs, Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency, and Steve Toltz’s A Fraction of the Whole. Surprisingly, some of the hot favourites from the longlist such as Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, Michelle de Kretser’s The Lost Dog, and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland did not make it. I was quite surprised that Salman Rushdie did not even make the shortlist considering that he is a double Booker of Booker winner as well as Best of the Booker winner. The winner of this year’s Booker Prize would be announced on 14 October 2008.

Video: Google Reader in Plain English

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:56:17 +0000

Another wonderful video by the people at the Common Craft Show explaining how to use Google Reader.

Quick Links - Gaming in Libraries and Other Stories - 09 July 2008

Isaak Kwok — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:48:39 +0000

- Gaming for a book
Interesting article on the use of games to draw teens to the library. Although most of the teens were more interested in playing the games, the aim is to bring the teens INTO the library and then introduce them to the different books in the library.
(via LISNews)

- Students not as Web-savvy after all
If you always thought the younger generation is more web-savvy, think again! Here’s another report to show that students are the exact opposite of what most people have assumed. Personally, having interacted with students, while providing advisory services and during library workshops, I have found that a large number of students do not know how to evaluate information that they have found on the Internet or online databases. In addition, they may not know about the many uses of social media applicable to their studies other than the fun they have on MySpace, Facebook and Friendster.
(via Tame The Web)

- From Scuba Diver to Jet Ski Rider
The article doesn’t deal with water sports. But it is a metaphor of how the art of reading has evolved for the author of the article. I feel the same way when I previously was able to read through a book, but I now find myself more interested in reading short articles in magazines, newspapers and online.
(via LISNews)

- Once upon a bonzer time
Seems like an Australian publisher have adapted many of the popular fairy tales to add on a more Australian flavor. Cinderella has been re-named Cindy Ella whose evil stepsisters force her to bake meat pies for tea, clean the dunny (Australian slang for toilet) and feed the budgies. Other titles in the series include Three Little Bush Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Koalas and Three Kangaroo Gruffs. I wonder what my son would think of these fairy tales.

- Book in the movie ‘Sex & The City’ doesn’t exist
In the movie, Carrie Bradshaw, the lead actress, was reading Love Letters of Great Men” with Mr Big, her boyfriend. However, the book doesn’t exist. However, it has resulted in a rather similar sounding title “Love Letters of Great Men and Women: From the Eighteen Century to the Present Day” (published in 1920 and recently re-published) to become a bestseller on Amazon.com. You can read the table of content on Google Books.
(via The Millions)

Bookeye Book Scanner

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:26:29 +0000

photo originally by akseabird

The above photo is a tool called the Bookeye Book Scanner and the one pictured here is installed in the library of the University of Alaska at Anchorage for the students to scan documents and books as PDF, JPG, TIFF or PNG and then choose whether to save it to a USB drive, burn into a CD, ftp them, save them on a network drive or email it to themselves. And of course, you can just print it out. It’s interesting to note that the library at the University of Alaska only provided usage stats on how the scanner is been used. Hmmm … maybe this is the next step in the provision of reprographic services to the public. The only worry, I guess, would be how are we going to enforce the Copyright Act.

(via librarian.net)

Common Craft’s Social Media in Plain English

Isaak Kwok — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:30:21 +0000

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo

Covering the basics of what social media is all about. Helps you understand that everyone can be a producer of content.

Top 100 Tools for Learning Activity

Isaak Kwok — Sat, 03 May 2008 05:13:04 +0000

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT) in the UK has just released the Summary Information report (PDF) of the Top 100 Tools for Learning. The tools were decided by inviting learning professionals to submit their personal Top 10 tools.

Of the top 10 of the 100 tools listed, I think I use maybe 6 of them on a daily basis:

Besides these tools, I also use Wikipedia, flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook quite frequently.

So, what are some online tools that you use at work or for personal leisure?

(via heyjude)

Quick Links - Book-Beer Pairings and Other Stories - 2 May 2008

Isaak Kwok — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:23:10 +0000

- Book-Beer Pairings:Part I and Part II
Authors share what beers would go best with their books. I’ve heard of wine pairings with food, but definitely the first time I’m hearing beer pairings with books. Unfortunately, most of the beers mentioned are not easily available in Singapore. And I’m sure I know a couple of my colleagues who would be really interested in these pairings! Guess it’s time for a beer now.
(via LISNews)

- Life-changing books: Recommendations from 17 leading scientists
Some of the world’s leading scientists share which books have inspired them. Do check out the comments as well as others have contributed their own life-changing books.
(via Boing Boing)

- WebTools4u2use
A wiki was created by 2 school library media specialists from the University of Central Florida to provide information on some of the Web 2.0 tools and how they can be used by librarians, students and teachers. What’s really interesting is that anyone with a Wikispaces account, or register for one, can add to the wiki to expand the resource. Interesting use of social networking tools!
(via LibrarianInBlack)

- Libraries Unleashed
The Guardian, in association with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), has published a special supplement that features 18 articles on libraries and technology. Do have a look to find out what libraries in the UK are doing with new technologies.
(via iLibrarian)

- Quotations Book
An online resource on quotations. Currently, there are more than 40,000 quotations available on the site.

Quick Links - Web 2.0 Tools and U.S. Teens Online Behavior - 22 August 2007

Isaak Kwok — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:23:12 +0000

- Web 2.0 Search Engine
Need help looking for Web 2.0 tools? Well, look no further as the Web 2.0 Search Engine allows you to search for any Web 2.0 tool that you can think of. Recently, they released a list of the Top 1,000 Web 2.0 Applications. Go have a look at the huge listing of Web 2.0 tools that you can use.
(via iLibrarian)

- Online Behavior of US Teens and Tweens
Seems like more and more teens and tweens are going online to connect with each other through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. A huge amount of them also do their homework online as up to 96% of school districts in the US have some form of e-learning. I know schools in Singapore are increasingly making use of e-learning tools to conduct their lessons as I’ve helped quite a number of students submit their homework online through the library’s multimedia stations.
(via iLibrarian)

5 Alternative Ways to Browse Amazon

Isaak Kwok — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:22:02 +0000

All this while, whenever I wanted to look for books and movies, I’ll go to Amazon.com directly or through BookJetty if I also wanted to see its availability at the National Library Board.

Well, there seems to be another 5 more ways to browse Amazon according to this article from Read/WriteWeb. They mentioned the following 5 sites: LivePlasma, Flowser, BrowseGoods, Tuneglue, and Coverpop.

I must say all the 5 alternative ways of browsing Amazon are really interesting and visually simulating though it can be a little overwhelming for some of the sites. I particularly like LivePlasma and Tuneglue mainly because of the graphical linkages that they provide on-screen. However, both these two services only either provide access for music and movies (LivePlasma) or just music (Tuneglue). They look a little like mind maps to me.

But I must put in a special mention for Coverpop. According to the website, the site is more an experiment in art than an e-commerce project. When you click on a particularly category, it generates a collage of the covers of products within that category. Clicking on the one you’re are interested in brings you to the product page on Amazon. They also have non-Amazon collages such as the ones from YouTube and Flickr, which you can explore.

Technorati Tags: amazon.com, bookjetty, coverpop, flowser, liveplasma, browsegoods, tuneglue