The Distant Librarian

Author: Paul R. Pival

  • Sorry for any feed weirdness

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Hey all, sorry if any or all of you are getting weird or double entries on my feed.  I’m trying to sort out a problem reported by a reader, but I’m backing off for now so things should stabalize.  Will you let me know if, either prior to today, or after this afternoon’s glitch, the…

  • Free Online Books

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Rich at eContent has pointed to two interesting sources of free books in the past week.  The first is to a site called FreeLoad Press that sounds really familiar, but I didn’t blog it before so I must’ve not seen it before 😉  From the site: “Thanks to our sponsors, you can “freeload” e-textbooks and…

  • Adobe Captivate 2 webinars

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Last week Adobe announced the imminent release of version 2 of Adobe Captivate (formerly Macromedia Captivate).  I didn’t mention it then ’cause you can’t actually get your hands on the product yet – they say another 3-4 weeks before it ships.  Oddly, in one of the comments the product manager says this delay is due…

  • The all-important end-of-Summer weather update

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Gosh it was a nice day today.  Sure wish it was going to last.  Here’s the forecast for the next few days, presented in both C and F for your horror: I’m not sure what that icon for Saturday is – it’s either ghosts or blowing snow.  Either way… shudder.  

  • Great example of how voice can enhance your screencast

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Shelly Drumm at Houston Community College Libraries has just posted a great Macromedia Captivate screencast that walks her students through the various IM options available to them (native client, Meebo, Chatango).  The screencast’s really well done, with options to choose what to learn about, and to repeat if necessary, but what really struck me was…

  • PowerPoint tips

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    Paul R. Pival
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    It’s the beginning of the semester and you’re likely to be making at least a few ppt presentations in the coming weeks.  Next time you’re giving one, why not try one of these nifty tricks?  You can get this help box by pressing the F1 key while your presentation is running.  I particularly like the…

  • Camtasia studio on the Mac?

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Techsmith is trying to justify developing a version of Camtasia Studio for the Mac.  As you know, this is something I’d love to see, and I’ve been contacted by other librarians looking for this to happen as well.  Troy Stein, product manager for Camtasia Studio, has a survey up at http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225KKUB3JMP – if you’re a…

  • How does your site stack up?

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    Paul R. Pival
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    I only finished this short article today, but it was "published" a year ago – not sure how I missed it then, or found it now – probably someone’s delicious feed.  Regardless of the provenance, I’d like to recommend the following article: Nicholas, M., Tomeo, M. (2005). Can You Hear Me Now? Communicating Library Services…

  • Canada Post Library Book Rate extended to Jan 2008

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    Paul R. Pival
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    CLA today announced that Canada Post will extend the current Book Rate until January 2008.  That’s great, though what actually impacts my department is the last little paragraph in the press release (PDF) that reads: Recognizing that some smaller libraries have had challenges in implementing the new electronic tools, Canada Post has also extended the…

  • CFP: Loex 2007

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    Paul R. Pival
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    LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange) 2007 will be held in San Diego, CA May 3-5.  The call for papers was recently announced, and when I read it I thought it sure sounded like a natural fit for DE Librarians.  The theme of the conference is Uncharted Waters: Tapping the Depths of Our Community to Enhance Learning,…