The Distant Librarian

Author: Paul R. Pival

  • LJ Movers and Shakers 2007

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    Paul R. Pival
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    The nomination form for the 2007 Library Journal Movers and Shakers is up, and I’m pleased to see that this year it’s an electronic submission form.  From the site: The editors of Library Journal need your help in identifying the emerging leaders in the library world. Our sixth annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile…

  • Sony eBook Reader PRS-500

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Looks like the North American version of the Sony eBook reader will be out in time for Xmas.  Still a little light on important details like price, and whether it will be possible to borrow books from a library, but Engadget has a slew of pictures that make me think I could do just fine…

  • Collaborative Screencasts and Blog Recommendation

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    Paul R. Pival
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    I’ve got an undersung blog to recommend to you: Brain_blog from the Library at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario.  The librarians there are using this blog more as a newsletter, and only publish to it once per month, with a single lengthy post, and that’s why it’s probably not as well-known as it should be. …

  • Examples of screencasts built with Wink

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    Paul R. Pival
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    It’s been an awful long time since I took a look at Wink, one of the free screencasting tools that are floating around for Windows.  Last time I looked, Wink didn’t even support audio, something that has come to be a necessity in my checklist for screencasting tools.  It seems it now does, and I’ve…

  • Zotero: Web-based citation manager

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    Paul R. Pival
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    When people like Lorcan Dempsey and Peter Binkley suggest one pays attention to a service like Zotero, I’m gonna pay attention!  It’s in private beta right now, so I haven’t actually tried it, but here’s what it’s all about.  From thier homepage, Zotero: captures citation information you want from a web page automatically, without typing…

  • Linking to chat services in the catalogue

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Stephen Francoeur at Digital Reference has an intriguing post about how the New Jersey Instititute of Technology has a feature in their catalogue where a search result that ends in no hits provides a link to the school’s virtual reference service. That’s a great idea!  I’ve already told our Catalogue Wrangler how lucky he is…

  • Libraries and Google – Internet Reference Services Quarterly

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    Paul R. Pival
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    I wonder if I’ll ever fully understand the World of Serials.  I just got an email alert that Volume 10(3/4) 2005 of Internet Reference Services Quarterly is a special issue titled "Libraries and Google".  We have a paper and electronic subscription so I checked and see that we received this 2005 volume one week ago. …

  • Who wants paper tickets?

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    Paul R. Pival
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    OK, I know the airlines prefer not to issue paper tickets anymore, but have you seen what they actually charge if you decide you do want them?  Holy Cripes!  I just booked my flights to Monterey for Internet Librarian, and happened to glance at one of the confirmation pages as it flew by.  Can you…

  • Website Heatmap

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    Paul R. Pival
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    OUseful Info blogs about a neat tool called the Clickdensity heatmap.  Check out the neat screenshot, and note that they provide a free trial.  I’m passing this one on to our webfolk. Technorati Tags: usability, heatmap

  • Yay, no snow down here

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Well so far the forecasters have been wrong; while it’s damn chilly and we did get rain all night, so far there’s no snow here in Calgary.  Took a peek at the webcams on the ski hills in Banff, and they did indeed get some snow.  You know what though?  I forget that of course…