Category: Electronic Reference
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Macromedia Captivate vs. Qarbon Viewletbuilder Pro
At the end of last year I finally got around to playing with the demo version of Macromedia Captivate, and my initial impression was quite favorable. In that brief review I promised that I would create identical tutorials in each tool so we could all compare the output. They’re not pretty or pedagogically sound; I…
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VRD 2004: Presentations
The proceedings of the 2004 Virtual Reference Desk Conference are now available online. This conference was held Nov 8-9 in Cincinnati, OH. There are 37 presentations online in the following categories: Management, General, Evaluation & Standards, Technology, Resources, and Research & Policy. The 2005 VRD 7th Annual Reference Conference will be held on November 14-15,…
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Term Paper Help Now! The Writing Survival Guide Enters the Blogosphere
Not really a library function, but something I get asked fairly regularly by distance students. Fortunately we have an Effective Writing Centre here on campus so I can refer students to them, but if you don’t, you might bookmark or incorporate some of these links into your general support pages… Link: E-Learning Queen: Term Paper…
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Chat’s Positive Side: Reference Services Online – Carol Tenopir, Library Journal
A very short piece – won’t take you any time at all to read… Chat’s Positive Side: Reference Services Online – Carol Tenopir, Library Journal "I have absolutely no regrets about enhancing our reference services through chat." "It’s been a smooth and successful expansion of our existing reference service." "It’s so successful we’ve moved from…
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Best Videoconferencing Solutions For Classroom-based Work: What To Choose?
Many years ago a collegue and I wrote up our experiences of using NetMeeting to deliver library instruction to distance students: Pival, Paul R. and Johanna Tunon. “NetMeeting: A New and Inexpensive Alternative for Delivering Library Instruction to Distance Students.” College & Research Libraries News. 59(10) (November 1998), p. 758-760. Haven’t really done any experimentation…
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Google Scholar – half way there?
OK, here’s where we stand on making Google Scholar (aka Schoogle) work much better for distance students. Ross Singer from Georgia Tech has modified a bookmarklet for Google Scholar that works in Firefox 1.0, Mozilla 1.73 (according to my testing), and IE 6.0. His bookmarklet furthers the work of Peter Binkley (U of Alberta) and…
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Full stream ahead: database instruction through online videos
Just finished a really good article in the most recent issue of Library Hi Tech: Title: Full stream ahead: database instruction through online videosAuthor(s): Daniel Yi Xiao; Barbara A. Pietraszewski; Susan P. GoodwinJournal: Library Hi TechYear: 2004 Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-374 I believe this link should take you directly to the PDF if…
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update – Google Scholar OpenURLs – Firefox Extension
Well Peter posted some better instructions on how to edit the extension, and I’m happy to report that if I can do it, pretty much anyone who has the desire to try will be able to do it . I don’t want to post the U of Calgary extension that points to our resolver until…
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Google Scholar OpenURLs – Firefox Extension
Ahh, the Alberta Advantage! 🙂 Peter Binkley up the road at the University of Alberta has taken my original idea and run long and far with it. Programming his first Firefox extension, Peter has built a proof-of-concept OpenURL extension for Google Scholar. Basically if you have this extension installed in your version of Firefox, anytime…
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Late Night Thoughts on Google Scholar
Art Rhyno at the U of Windsor has also been thinking about how to make Schoogle work for the distance students. You’ll find a screenshot of his preferences idea down in the comments section. I like it, but think asking students to fill in the proxy info themselves is asking too much. I’m sticking to…