Author: Paul R. Pival
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In praise of instant feedback
This past Wednesday evening I drove from Calgary to Edmonton to participate in the TAL NEXT Library Futures Symposium. That was great, but is the topic for later posts. This one is how my new car provides instant feedback to improve fuel economy, and why that makes me think we're on the right path with…
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Recent Updates from Techsmith Camtasia
A recent newsletter from Techsmith alerted me to a handful of updates to their screencasting product line – Camtasia Studio 7.1 for Windows is out, and while I haven't tried it, it promises "Now you can create searchable videos (even the audio!), and automatically generate 508-compliant captions. Plus, you can import caption files in foreign…
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The eReaders Bill of Rights (the Kobo Perspective)
Teleread.com points to a refreshing post on the Kobo eReader blog: The eReaders Bill of Rights (the Kobo Perspective). Here are the five rights, but you should go read the explanations behind each of them as well. The Right to Get Your Books Out The Right to Get your Books In The Right to Preserve…
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Readability brings one of Safari’s best features to Firefox
I've been using the Readability Firefox extension since shortly after the feature was baked in to Safari 5 a couple of months ago. Just love it, and it's pretty much taken away my need for previously-mentioned tool Aardvark. Check it out:
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Have a listen to EBSCO’s Text-to-Speech feature
EBSCO recently announced that they have "added text-to-speech (read aloud) support to EBSCOhost databases, including its major school and public library databases, by embedding Texthelp Systems’ SpeechStream toolbar—a valuable benefit provided at no additional cost to the user. Users will be able to take advantage of this new feature with any full-text articles available in…
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A couple of screencasting links
Michael Steeleworthy posts his opinions on Camtasia vs. Captivate vs. the Organization. I'm not sure where the Organization part comes in, but he makes some interesting points about why he gives Captivate a nod over Camtasia. Personally, I don't care about the file size, which seems to be his biggest concern with Camtasia, 'cause I…
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Mark Leggott vs The World
The title is an homage to the soon-to-be-released movie based on the Canadian Scott Pilgrim comic book series, which you should read. So Mark Leggott, University Librarian at the University of Prince Edward Island, is making some waves in the mainstream press. In the Toronto Star: Canadian librarian leads worldwide digital revolt for free knowledge.…
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SafariBooks Online to support institutional subscriptions later this year?
I received an email the other day letting me know I hadn't been selected to participate as a beta tester for SafariBooks Online iPad app. I exchanged a couple of emails with the Mobile Product Manager, letting him know that our users want to be able to access our institutional subscription, and he responded that…
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Yuuguu: A Desktop Sharing App
At his Digital Reference blog, Stephen Francoeur has a comprehensive post and screencast taking a look at Yuuguu , a cross-platform desktop sharing application that may prove to be a nice tool to have in your toolkit. Looks pretty slick!