Free SirsiDynix Web Seminar the Info Island Project on Second Life

Please join your colleagues for a free, live, hour-long web seminar ---

The Info Island Project on Second Life
When: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 from 11:00 - 12:00 Eastern
Register at: https://events.livemeeting.com/106/3035/reg.aspx

Program description:
One of the central tenets of Library 2.0 is "go to where the users are". The online, 3D virtual world Second Life has more than 1.5 million residents all potentially needing the services that a library can provide. This session, presented by Michael Sauers of the Nebraska Library Commission will introduce attendees to the both the world of Second Life and to the Second Life Library 2.0 project and the services that it offers.

Due to the bandwidth requirements of Second Life and those of the SirsiDynix Institute attendees will not have a live Second Life experience during the session.

A nine-week library curriculum in Web 2.0 tools

Librarians Get a Tutorial in Web 2.0
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a primer on interactive Web tools conceived by a public library official in North Carolina which gives library staff a list of 23 tasks to complete over a period of about nine weeks.

WorldCat search box added to LIS website

WorldCat.org's search box has been added to the LIS website to enable you to search beyond items held at L.I.U. to all of WorldCat. Features of the WorldCat interface include a list of nearby libraries that own the sought item with distances shown based on zip code. A link for "Cite This Item" displays five major citation styles for your item. Purchase option links are available with partners that have revenue-sharing agreements that return a portion of sale proceeds to OCLC. Setting up a personal account allows you to add content such as book reviews. OCLC plans to roll out more social networking services within the year including the ability to create a Facebook style profile and lists of favorite books. Visit OCLC ResearchWorks for demonstration of OCLC's other works in progres.

Book news from the UK

Austen 'too ugly' for book cover

Novelist Jane Austen has been given a makeover for the cover of a book about her life after publishers decided an original image of her was unattractive.

"She was not much of a looker," said Helen Trayler, managing director of publisher Wordsworth Editions.

Publishers traditionally use a portrait of Austen painted by her sister but Wordsworth have added make-up, hair extensions and removed her cap.


Schools refuse gifts of 'boring' classics

Schools have rejected gifts of free classic books because today's pupils find them too 'difficult' to read.

Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring.

Books by Lazerow Lecture speaker

Tonight is the 2007 Lazerow Memorial Lecture "The Future of Information" with speaker Larry Prusak at 6:30 p.m., Top of the Commons, Hillwood Commons, C.W. Post.


The library owns several of his books if you are interested in taking a look at them.


In good company : how social capital makes organizations work

HD58.7 .C6214 2001


Information ecology : mastering the information and knowledge environment

HF5548.2 .D3724 1997


Knowledge management and organizational learning : a reader

HD58.82 .K5835 2006


Storytelling in organizations : why storytelling is transforming 21st century organizations and management

HD30.3 .S765 2005


The value of corporate libraries : findings from a 1995 survey of senior management

Z675.C778 M37 1995


What's the big idea? : creating and capitalizing on the best management thinking

HD53 .D38 2003


Working knowledge : how organizations manage what they know

HD58.82.D38 1998

Invitation to College of DuPage Teleconference

Please join us on Friday, March 23, 2007 to view the College of DuPage Teleconference "Library Transformation: Making it Happen." The teleconference will feature noted librarians discussing library transformation, "not as an abstraction or buzz word, but as something real with hard, practical things necessary to make it happen. They will spell out what needs to happen in facilities, budgets staffing management and leadership to make transformation a reality."

The program will take place on Friday, March 25th from 11:45 to 1:30 in the B.Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, Room 220. If you are interested in attending the program please email mboyd@liu.edu. Coffee will be served, feel free to bring your lunch.

Visualization Site

IBM has been testing Many Eyes, a site for sharing data visualizations.

How Digitization is Affecting Research

History, Digitized (and Abridged)
By KATIE HAFNER
Published: March 10, 2007
In the Internet age, historical records that have not been converted to digital form could vanish from the nation’s memory.

"There's an illusion being created that all the world's knowledge is on the Web, but we haven't begun to glimpse what is out there in local archives and libraries," said Edward L. Ayers, a historian and dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia. "Material that is not digitized risks being neglected as it would not have been in the past, virtually lost to the great majority of potential users."

Conservapedia

Conservapedia is a self-described online resource and meeting place for Christianity and America in general. It touts itself as a much needed alternative to Wikipedia and claims that it has been created as a mechanism for combating the bias in Wikipedia. Check it out and form your own opinion.

Happy surfing.

Wikipedia

Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side

The New York Times reports "Contributors to the popular collaborative encyclopedia turned against one of their own who was found to have created an elaborate false identity."


An interview with this wikipedia contributor appeared in a New Yorker article, Know It All.

American Library Association to Open on Second Life

The American Library Association has announced that it now has a space in Second Life, the online community of more than one million users and home to a growing number of library organizations. According to Jenny Levine, ALA Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, ALA will have one half of ALA/Arts Island, which will be utilized as a new method for disseminating ALA news and information. It will also be used for reaching out to new audiences, holding events, interacting with members and the public, and exploring the future of library services. The half-island was given to ALA by an anonymous donor."Virtually anything is possible in this online world, so we look forward to investigating how we can support our members and our profession as a whole in this unique online setting," Levine said."We are seeking input from ALA members on how they would like to interact with us in Second Life. If you have ideas on what you'd like to see there, please send them to Jenny Levine at jlevine@ala.org

2007 Long Island Library Conference

The 2007 Long Island Library Conference will be held at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury on Thursday, May 3. Susan Isaacs will be the 2007 Keynote Speaker. Volunteers are needed to help out on the day of the conference. All volunteers will receive a complimentary lunch and free admission to the conference. If you would like to volunteer please contact Martha Kahn via email at mkahn@suffolk.lib.ny.us.