Lock those virtual doors

What would happen if your library closed up at night and purposefully left the front door unlocked?  Every night? Eventually, some unscrupulous individual would figure it out.  He/she would have the run of the library at night, and could easily…

Figuring out Foursquare

Physical locations in combination with the web are starting to hit it big, and is predicted to seriously take off this year.  One example of an application that is rapidly heading that way is Foursquare. From Wikipedia: Foursquare is a…

Unsticking Glue

This week I’m chatting about a web application called Glue .  I look at a good number of web applications, and some are useful.  Unfortunately, Glue is not one of those. The premise of Glue is that it “shows you…

Intermediate Twitter: #hashtags

(Thanks to Don Yarman for suggesting this topic–I’m always on the lookout for new fodder.  Send your ideas to meanlaura@oplin.org.) I have to assume that, by now, your library has finally jumped on the Twitter wagon.  (See here for additional…

Sharing your slides

Whether you do presentations in Powerpoint, OpenOffice or something else, making your slides publicly available can sometimes be a headache.  Enter Slideshare, which could arguably be considered the YouTube of presentation slides. Slideshare allows you to create a (free) account,…

Getting buy-in

I am often asked about how to get buy-in for new web-based initiatives.  I ran across this slideshow today, which is fabulous material for demonstrating the usual roadblocks one can run into. Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person View…

Signing in with ONE account

One of the most common complaints I’ve heard about using various web services and social networking sites is the need for multiple accounts; multiple user names, multiple passwords, multiple things to forget.  Who hasn’t used those handy “Forgot your password?”…

I can haz internet meme?

It’s the day after Turkey Day. Obviously, not a day for deep thoughts or complex topics, since most of us are probably still zoned out from large quantities of comestibles. Therefore, LOLcats are the perfect subject for today’s post. To…

Walking the Web

Virtual worlds are everywhere now, it seems. Their purposes range from socializing and networking to education and conferences. And some just…are. Yoowalk seems to be one of these latter. Well, ok. I guess it has a purpose. I just don’t…

Hulu: TV on demand

If you’ve ever seen my Facebook profile, you already know that I basically don’t watch television (much to the chagrin of anyone who attempts to engage me in conversation about the latest programs). My husband and I used to say…

Short and sweet…URLs

Sometimes, URLs can be insanely long.  For example: http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com/ Or: http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032301951%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e Yes, both real.  Both annoying.  And, if you try to email these, they will not display properly in some email clients.  Some people won’t be able to click them…

Grabbing a gravatar

Do you like to use online forums or comment on blogs?  If you do, chances are you’ve seen, or perhaps even have, a small icon or picture that often sits to the left of a commenter’s name.  These are called…

Beyond the visual avatar

(Something kind of fun for a slow(er) Friday.) A couple of weeks ago I covered Weblins here, and someday, I promise, I’ll get to avatars and gravatars.  Each of those examples is a visual way to represent yourself on the…

Facebook and public libraries

“Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more…

Why Flickr for libraries?

There has been an awful lot written about Flickr, one of the top online photo-sharing sites. I’m not out to re-create the wheel, so here is an excellent slideshow presentation on what Flickr is, from Michael Sauers, the Travelin’ Librarian.…