Stephen's Lighthouse: December 2007 Archives

« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »

December 31, 2007

1907?

"THE YEAR 1907

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1907.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the Year 1907 :

The average life expectancy was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles or paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in 1907 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION.
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the comple xion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.'

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE !U.S.A.

Now I forwarded this from someone else (Dad) without typing it myself, and sent it to you and others all over the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years. "

Interesting. Can we verify this? I checked Snopes etc. I did a quick Google search and found this document or versions of it dated 1902, 1904, 1906, and 1910 as well as 1907. Maybe this sort of semi-authoritative web document would make a great treasure hunt for an information lteracy team project.

For example "Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write"? and other assertions. Try this link. After the assignment, have a debate: "Who can you trust?"

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 5:26 PM | Comments (1)

Happy New Year

Hope - In the end it's all we have.

Happy New Year

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:28 AM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2007

30 Library Technology Predictions for 2008

I rarely do this formally but I'm in the mood this year! I prefer to work in 3-5 year timeframes.

Anyway, here's a few things, in no particular order, that I think will happen in 2008 that might/will have an impact on our little library world.

1. There will be some Internet speed and congestion issues in 2008 on a scale that hit AOL in the early days. There will be hand-wringing blog posts and I-told-you-so stories in the MSM.
2. Facebook will suffer some wonkiness in '08 but will grow rapidly through acquisition and business partnerships. The F8 platform initiative will do better in 08 than the Google OpenSocial initiative but OpenSocial will win out in the end. Ads will survive and all the chest beating will have the same effect that it had when the web went commercial. Watch for financial, global, mobile, multilingual, and other niche stuff from MySpace.
3. Microsoft and Yahoo! will suffer some acrimony and that will result in some sort of business alliance. The Open Content Alliance will be part of this and some relationship to academia, research, and scholarly publishing.
4. Google will continue to draw more attention and this may expand into the beginning of a US federal or EC investigation into their growth, power and business practices. The end of the religion is nigh. We'll see strong evidence of a public Google backlash and more questioning and distrust in '08. Libraries should capitalize on their position as trusted, non-partisan services at this point.
5. The Apple iPhone will see lots of competition as the mobility space gets very crowded and exciting. Everyone will be be working very hard to meet mobile content and experience user expectations. Watch for new 'cool' or 'sick' phones from Nintendo, Motorola, Nokia, Google and Microsoft. End users are increasingly mobile.
6. Open Source software will grow - especially in the user experience space where it will do very well. Most niche-based projects will have very wobbly years and lose the attention of the host institutions supporting the initiatives. Think Sakai vs Blackboard. Follow the money. Can it sustain the developers and their healthcare premiums?
7. Many (1,000's?) of the start-up Web 2.0 companies (especially those expecting huge ad revenues) will fail or merge into mainstream web companies. Start up consolidation will start to look like another bubble bursting - perhaps we'll see the rebirth of the famous F#ckedCompany.com? Some equity and venture investors will be looking to other investment areas and planning their exit.
8. SaaS and Hosted solutions will grow rapidly in 2008.
9. The DRM wars are just beginning. Open Access rules for government information will expand. The RIAA will suffer loss of financial strength (especially after strongman Valenti's passing) as members rebel over the high cost of RIAA dues and lawsuits against tweens and their own shrinking margins. Suing customers is rarely a good strategy.
10. Bad laws will be attempted with regard to phishing, spam, viruses, filtering, censorship, ID Theft, and privacy. Library associations will be challenged to deal with a heavy load in representing end user rights and balance. The issue is global and few governments, associations or businesses are equipped to address the problem effectively on that scale.
11. Private, enterprise social networks will take off but no one will be able to see them because, well, they're private and a competitive advantage and secret. Many librarians will rule these initiatives. Intranets will evolve beyond content.
12. The Google Docs suite will make real inroads into the enterprise space. It will be very hot in high school and college/academic spaces too. Like all popular useful tools many institutional IT managers will attempt to block them.
13. In 2008 there will be many communication, information policy and other tech issues in the presidential election on a scale and depth unseen in any previous election. The public will understand these complex issues at the soundbite level. Libraries will need to be backroom players.
14. Gaming, RSS and Blogs are totally normal in 2008. Not to be using them is to be well behind the curve of your average user. Few users will be able to point to them since they're just normal. It would be like asking users to point to HTML, CSS or SMTP. They're like the freon in your fridge.
15. 2008 Internet hotspots are India, China, Turkey, Brazil, and ANZ. Look for innovation from there. Watch for many acquisitions in the Internet space by China.
16. Watch for more OpenID adoptions by the big guys. Nobody wants to own this problem outright
17. Watch for some interesting mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. I'd watch for action around RIM, Tumblr, Digg, Twitter, Zoho, eBay, Skype, Semantic apps like Hakia and Twine, Technorati, and more.
18. "Local" will take off - watch for local ads, local search, GPS, GIS, Maps, and more. It will become increasingly personal and creepy. It will also affect browser settings, social sites and tools.
19. There will be attempts to regulate or tone down the wild west atmosphere of the blogosphere. Scandals, libel, slander, lies and anonymous/pseudonymous ad hominem attacks will attract lawsuits and other attention. A MSM type ethical policy will be attempted similar to MSM reporters and columnists. Citizen journalism will require journalist ethics.
20. Virtual Worlds will continue to show great promise but are not ready for prime time yet for a number of reasons. Still, you can't have that future without an investment now. That investment is now more volunteer labour and creativity than dollars - unless you're SL.
21. The US and Canadian elections in 2008 as well as the Olympics in Beijing will serve as catalysts for advanced uses of the web and 2.0 and mobile apps. They'll do for some unheard of today apps what the NASA Space program did for Tang.
22. 2008 will be the beginning of the end for DVD (Blu Ray is a distraction) as streaming media is adopted by Hollywood and the (dying) major networks on a much larger scale - dwarfing YouTube as it exists today. New licensing models will emerge for libraries in '08.
23. With the end of life of the Netscape browser in Feb. 2008, watch for more EOL announcements driven by standards changes and business model failures. 2008 will see a huge ramp up in HDTV hype as analog TV hits its 2009 end with lots of confusion benefitting TV sales.
24. eBooks will go mainstream in the business and professional space. Standards issues won't be solved in 2008 and that's sad for everyone, including libraries.
25. Blockbuster will begin its death throes in earnest in 08. Libraries need to discuss why and what they need to learn from this.
26. 2008 will see some cool - almost ready for primetime - uses of integrated e-paper in portable devices, readers, and wireless signs, etc.
27. Better identification and classification of user-generated content will give usage of that a bump in 2008. Can libraries play in that space locally?
28. Continued consolidation of content owners and aggregators. Some will be acquired by non-content based companies.
29. Hosted solutions / Software as a Service, Mashups and API's will be very hot in 2008. This will address the consortia scalability and staffing issues in libraries.
30. Emerging recession, increased national debt, increased consumer debt, global credit crunch, currency volatiity, mortgage crises, threats of terrorism, war, natural disasters, political assassinations, et al. Stuff happens. Libraries don't operate in a vacuum. We'll survive.

I'm out on a limb but what the heck. Happy New Year!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:45 PM | Comments (6)

Libraries and Problem Solving: New Pew Report

Lee Rainie told me a couple of weeks ago that this was coming out before the end of the year and here it is:

Information searches that solve problems
How people use the internet, libraries, and government agencies when they need help
DECEMBER 30, 2007
Leigh Estabrook, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Evans Witt, CEO, PSRAI
Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Key news:

1. Most people were successful in getting information to help them address a problem no matter what channel they chose and no matter what problem they faced. 64% of those who went to the public library were very successful.

2. The problems covered in the survey: 1) dealing with a serious illness or health concern; 2) making a decision about school enrollment, financing school, or upgrading work skills; 3) dealing with a tax matter; 4) changing a job or starting a business; 5) getting information about Medicare, Medicaid, or food stamps; 6) getting information about Social Security or military benefits; 7) getting information about voter registration or a government policy; 8) seeking helping on a local government matter such as a traffic problem or schools; 9) becoming involved in a legal matter; and 10) becoming a citizen or helping another person with an immigration matter.

3. 13% said they went to the public library for these problems. The survey results challenge the assumption that libraries are losing relevance in the internet age. Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in this survey. And it was the young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) who led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose.

"Executive Summary

This report emerges from a national survey that looks at how people use a variety of information sources to help them address some common problems that could be related in some way to government agencies and programs. The problems about which we queried included: dealing with a serious illness or health concern; making a decision about school enrollment, financing school, or upgrading work skills; dealing with a tax matter changing a job or starting a business; and getting information about major programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The survey’s major findings:

• The internet is a go-to source. In general, more people turn to the internet (at
home, work, libraries or other places) than any other source of information and
support, including experts and family members. There was some variance in the
results, depending on the type of problem people faced. Experts mattered most
when people faced health problems; government agencies topped the list when
information about specific programs was the concern.

• Searchers usually end up satisfied. People tended to use two or three
information sources in their quest and they generally report good results,
especially when they consult government agencies, librarians, and the internet.

• Libraries meet special needs. Young adults in Generation Y (age 18-29) are the heaviest users of libraries when face these problems. They are also the most likely
library visitors for any purpose. Most of those who visit libraries to seek problemsolving
information are very satisfied with what they find and they appreciate the
resources available there, especially access to computers and the internet.

• Digital divides matter. Compared to those who have broadband connections,
people who do not use the internet or who only use dial-up connections have
different problems and different search strategies when they face personal issues.
We call this group the low-access population and they are less successful than
those with high-access to the internet in getting the material they need to address
these problems.

• Government documents should be created and delivered in all shapes and
sizes. A plurality of respondents said they prefer access to government documents
on the internet, but significant numbers said they still would prefer to get printed
government publications by mail or from government offices and libraries.

• E-government is not an option, it’s a necessity. The vast majority of Americans want and expect information about government programs to be available on the
internet. People have different preferences for dealing with government,
depending on the issue they face. They prefer to use the internet for information
queries, but they want to use the phone or face-to-face visits to address more
personal matters."

Table of contents

Executive Summary and Major Findings
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Libraries, Information, and the Internet
A Portrait of Those with Low-access to the Internet
Views of those with Low-access
Chapter 2: Americans in contact with their government
78% of internet users have visited government websites
How would American like to contact their governments?
Chapter 3: Who goes to Public Libraries?
Chapter 4: Where do Americans turn for information or help?
What search strategies do Americans use for problem solving?.................................13
Specifically, how did they contact the government?
Non-internet users who “use” the internet
Chapter 5: Public Libraries step up
Which problems drive people to libraries?
The kind of help people got at libraries 0
Did people get personal help at the library?
Why not go to the public library?
Will the public library be a source in the future?
Chapter 6: Successful Encounters and Best Sources
Which sources provide the most?
Chapter 7: The Impact of Privacy Concerns on Information Seeking
Chapter 8: The Special Circumstances: Low-access to the Internet
Chapter 8: Where Libraries stand
Methodology

I will look forward to hearing Lee present the findings at the SirsiDynix SuperConference in Detroit. His annual reports to our customers are always the hit of the event.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

December 28, 2007

Marketing Your Library on the Internet

Techipedia has a wonderful list of the best blog postings about internet marketing.

Here are their sections:

Social Media Sites: General
Facebook
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
Twitter
Mixx
del.icio.us
Sphinn
Social Media and Social Media Marketing
General Internet Marketing
Viral Strategies
Link Resources
Blogging: General
Blogging: Inspiration
Blogging: Promotion
Content Generation
Reputation Management
Video Articles
Business
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Stuff
Web Development
Search Marketing Tools
Paid Search
Recommended Books
Affiliate Sites
Domaining
Miscellaneous
Techipedia’s Best Posts for 2007

So if you're planning to modernize your marketing of your library's programs and services in 2008, this might be a nice place to start.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:05 PM | Comments (0)

Web 2.0 in the Enterprise

This article might be interesting mto special libraries. It discusses IBM's launch of a suite of Web 2.0 and social networking and collaboration apps inside IBM for business purposes.

IBM Gulps Its Own Web 2.0 Kool-Aid
By Clint Boulton, eWeook.com
December 19, 2007

Behind the firewall, Big Blue staffers are embracing a host of conventional and experimental Web technologies.

NEW YORK—Google is often portrayed as the technology hipster, rolling out Web applications almost at whim.

"But unseen to the public, IBM is rolling out Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, mashups and virtual reality technologies to help its employees be more productive. Inside its firewall, Big Blue looks pretty hip.

IBM officials, led by IBM CIO Mark Hennessy, demonstrated several of those technologies for a small group of reporters and analysts at the company's main Madison Avenue office Dec. 18.

IBM's Metaverse virtual reality software is one of these areas. Though still a bit rough around the edges—it won't be mistaken for Second Life—some 2,200 IBM staffers are testing ways to collaborate with colleagues in the Metaverse, according to Mike Ackerbauer, innovation manager for collaboration development at IBM.

Ackerbauer said IBM staffers leverage IBM's internal virtual conferencing application through Web services to have online meetings in 3D. This approach is a boon for IBM employees, who are spread out all over the world."

Also discussed in the article are mashups and wikis.

Pretty advanced for old Blue. It shows that somme of these 2.0 thingees are finding traction in the world of business too.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:49 AM | Comments (1)

December 27, 2007

Information Outlook Dec. 2007

And to cap off 2007, here's my last column as president-elect of SLA. For all of 2008 i'll be doing a few more as Prez.

Autumn 2007: A few weeks that shook our world

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:58 PM | Comments (0)

Information Outlook Nov. 2007

Here's a copy of my column from Information Outlook in November:

The New Mobility

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

Information Outlook Oct. 2007

Here's a copy of my column for Information Outlook in October.

The Future of Reference in Special Libraries

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

SLA Western Canada Chapter

Twas a nice trip to Vancouver and an event for the SLA Western Canada Chapter. Lots of friends therre! Here are the PPT slides:

Charting the Future of SLA and Libraries

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:51 PM | Comments (1)

Thomson Visit

While I was in Minneapolis I took a short side trip to Eagan and visited the good folks at Thomson. Here are the PPT slides:

Web 2.0: Information Industry 3.0

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

SLA Minnesota Chapter

Heading north from Toronto and visiting the SLA Minnesota Chapter. Here are my PPTs:

Charting the Future of SLA and Libraries

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:47 PM | Comments (0)

Online International in London

I had a nice trip to London for the annual Online International conference. (A side trip to the annual CIty / SLA Europe Holiday party was fun too!)

Here are my PPTs:

Library 2.0: Fact or Fiction?

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)

Medical Library Association: Southern Chapter

A quick trip to Charleston SC for the Medical Library Association: Southern Chapter and a fun workshop.

Arrghhh: A Tech Forecast
MLA Southern Chapter

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:42 PM | Comments (0)

Indiana Library Federation Conference

Here's my PPT for my luncheon presenation in November to the Indiana Library Federation Conference.

Waiting For Your Cat to Bark:
Competing with Google’s Ilk

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:40 PM | Comments (0)

Illinois Unicorn Users Group

Here's the PPT from my presentation to the Illinois Unicorn Users Group.

Arrghhh: A Tech Forecast

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)

Global eInformation Symposium

I had the wonderful opportunity to chair the Global eInformation Symposium 2007 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. A great roster of speakers made for a great two days.

Here's my PPT contribution;

Library 2.0: Fact or Fiction

Streaming video of all of the presentations given should be available in early January of 2008.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2007

2008: Year of Information Overload?

Special Librarians take note:

2008: Year of Information Overload?

"Interruptions aren't merely annoying; they're also bad for productivity. And when you multiply the interruptions made possible by email, phone calls, text messages, and Twitters across the entire US, the result is lost productivity on a massive scale: $650 billion in a single year.

That's according to research firm Basex, which chose "information overload" as its 2008 "Problem of the Year." Failure to solve the problem will lead to "reduced productivity and throttled innovation." The situation is dire enough that Intel's Nathan Zeldes estimates "the impact of information overload on each knowledge worker at up to eight hours a week." "

Well, there now. There's a nice Christmas / New Year's gift.

Sounds like these companies need librarians! This isn't the first of these studies that show the massive impact on productivity for knowledge workers of poor information strategies. If we are truly entering a knowledge-based economy (and I believe we have), we better speak up more clearly on the roles the variety of information professionals and librarians play in assuring success. Perhaps we should target investors, venture and equity capitalists? Don't invest in firms that have horrible information practices and lack professional staff and software to manage knowledge assets.

Hmmmm.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 7:55 PM | Comments (1)

YouTube Catcher

Have you ever wanted to use a YouTube Video in a presentation and were frustrated that you have to be connected to show it? Well here's a useful site / tip.

YouTube Catcher

Youtube is "a great place that allows you to watch, upload and share videos on the internet. But the YouTube doesn't allow you to download that amazing video that you watched. Now you can! YouTube Catcher allows you to download YouTube videos easy and fast!"

Thanks to Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day..

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Top Social Networks and Blogs

Nielsen released their top 10 social networks in the U.S.:

This is interesting. Bebo which is very popular in the UK doesn't register in the top 10 in the US. Also Google's Orkut which does very well in Brazil doesn't make the radar. I wonder if their are cultural differences in social networking software just like in real life.

Nielsen also released the top 10 blog sites:

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:32 PM | Comments (1)

Fresh Science Stories

Are you looking to freshen up your web training for 2008? We're all mightily sick of / . grin.

Anyway, try some of thee fresh stories:

Scientific American's Top 25 Science Stories of 2007

Wired News Top 10 New Organisms

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2007

Happy Longest Night

OK - it's all a matter of perspective. Today is always called the shortest day but it's really the longest night. I am a night person!

Glass half full . . .

Anyway, we're heading to a leap year too.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:59 PM | Comments (1)

2008 Predictions

As always I like to collect the better prediction stuff that comes out at this time of year.

As I find them I'll link to them here.

1. Mashable's 2008 Predictions: Mark's List.

2. Science Magazine is providing free online access to its series of articles on Breakthroughs of the Year 2007 and things to watch in 2008.

3. Mashable's 2008 Predictions: Adam's List.

4. Mashable’s 2008 Predictions: Sean’s List

5. Technology in 2008 Three fearless predictions from Economist.com

6. 2008 Web Predictions written by Richard MacManus at ReadWriteWeb

7. 107 Magazine Predictions for 2008 (And counting.)

8. Ypulse 2008 Teen Tech Predictions

9. Predictions for Google's 2008 (Google Operating System blog)

10.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

Google Grows and Shrinks

Check out these 2007 (over 2006) Google growth numbers at TechCrunch.

Check it out here now.

Did you notice anything unusual?

I find it interesting that:

1. iGoogle growth is incredible - 268%. That's a pretty clear indication that the end user market might be ready for more personalization tools even if it's still a small base.

2. Use of Google Scholar declined 32%! Very Interesting. What's up with that?

3. Use of Book Search is up 55%. But when you look at the numbers you see it might be just a function of small numbers.

4. Clearly Google Maps and gMail are the stars with the most added users. Both provide a firm foundation for localization and local ad strategies.

UPDATE: You can find similar analysis of Yahoo! here.

UPDATE: You can find analysis of Ask.com here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2007

Congratulations CLA

Well well. CLA and Don Butcher made the CBC and CTV news as well as Page 1 and 2 of the Globe and Mail on the Canadian copyright issue. Balance in copyright rights is only fair.

Good.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)

Google and Privacy

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has a little scoop..

US Representative Joe Barton sent Google a letter with 24 questions relating to privacy.
Google has replied to the letter with a 19-page response with answers. You'll find the responses in this PDF file. It's Danny says that Google is providing the PDF file to media outlets that asked for it but it'll take a while to hit the mainstream media.

Read the real story about privacy and Google in Google's own words.

Anyway, as I've said before the most interesting stuff happensv over holiday breaks.

Expect to see a lot of commentary over the coming weeks. This is also very useful for teaching good web sense skills.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2007

CLA Steps Up on Copyright

As a past president of the Canadian Library Association, I laud the current CLA efforts to balance the copyright discussion in Canada. Michael Geist University of Ottawa prof and columnist with the Globe and Mail, Howard Knof at Excess Copyright blog and Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing have been very articulate about the current government's plans to make so many accepted copy 'rights' unlawful. Their founding and/or promotion of Facebook group that went national and BIG derailed, at least temporarily, the government's plans. Geist made a Facebook page on Dec. 1 as a focal point for the opinions and efforts of Canadians who were concerned about the direction of copyright law. As of yesterday, there are 32,102 members of Fair Copyright in Canada growing at more than 1,500 names every day. That's one way to scare politicians who try to pass legislation quickly that you can't legally upload your own bought CD's to your iPod. Then again, you can never be too careful over what legislatures do over holidays when they think no one is paying attention.

In comes the power of the web! CLA has played a big role in this discussion for years and this puts CLA's efforts into the forefront - with our users. Balance in copyright is essential.

21 Million Library Users Concerned About Copyright

OTTAWA, Dec. 21 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, the Canadian Library Association
(CLA) outlined the concerns of over 21 million library users and member
librarians about pending copyright legislation.
"Our members are hearing from a growing chorus of public library users
that copyright laws must reflect the public interest," commented Don Butcher,
CLA's Executive Director. "Whether it is through library blogs, Facebook
groups, or at the library front desks, we are getting the message that
Canadians want a fair and balanced copyright approach."
As a result of this public debate and feedback, CLA is making public its
core issues that it wants to see in any new copyright legislation.
"As the voice of library users and professionals, we have an obligation
to let the Government know that copyright issues are striking a cord with
average Canadians and that this is an issue that will impact any election,"
added Butcher.
"Just one simple Facebook group on copyright gained 30,000 members in a
few short weeks with another Canadian joining the group every 30 seconds.
There have been public rallies in Calgary and Toronto. The Government needs to
listen to average Canadians," concluded Butcher.
The most important change in copyright in recent years both for libraries
and for all Canadians has been the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada judgment in
CCH Canada Ltd. v. The Law Society of Upper Canada. Should the Government
introduce amendments to the Copyright Act, any change must reflect the broad
interpretation of fair dealing outlined in this judgment and ensure that
users' rights are well-protected.
The library community's key concerns were outlined in a letter to the
Minister of Industry and the Minister of Canadian Heritage released to the
public today. These concerns include:

- Any new copyright legislation must be carefully crafted so that it
punishes copyright-infringing behaviour but does not ban devices that
might be used to circumvent technological prevention measures.
"Technological measures can be used to invade privacy and prevent
Canadians from invoking their rights," Butcher said.

"The legislation must protect Canadians who are merely upholding their
rights."

- The Government needs to recognize that government documents and
government data belong to all Canadians and that all Canadians should
have liberal access to these materials.

"Current Crown copyright rules can mean Canadians pay multiple times
for the same information," Butcher said. "The increased costs are
barriers to learning."

- Persons with perceptual disabilities must have the same right to access
copyrighted materials as all Canadians have. This right should apply
regardless of format in order to accommodate their particular needs.
Legislation is required to give persons with perceptual disabilities
access equity with others.

"Digital information is extraordinarily useful in overcoming physical,
learning and perceptual disabilities," Butcher said. "This is a real
opportunity to level the playing field."

- Libraries oppose legislation that makes the same mistakes as the
American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. American law makes no
differentiation in penalty between a counterfeiter circumventing
technical protection measures for illegal profit and an individual
circumventing technical protection measures to make a single copy.

"Even one of the architects of the DMCA has admitted it is flawed
legislation," said Butcher. "Let's not make the same mistakes."

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) is Canada's largest national and
broad-based library association, representing the interests of public,
academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library
workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of
Canadians through information and literacy.
CLA represents the interests of approximately 57,000 library staff and
thousands of libraries of all kinds across Canada on a range of public policy
issues; however, none is more critical than copyright. Libraries and
librarians speak on behalf of all users: millions of students, educators,
scholars, researchers, lifelong learners, special library users, recreational
readers, from children to seniors.

For further information: Catherine Fortin LeFaivre, CLA Public Affairs,
(613) 233-8906, catherine@impactcanada.com

Posted by stephen at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

Things the Internet Tells Us that are Wrong

Here are a few exercises that you might use to build information literacy awareness.

Each of these statements is incorrect.

• People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
• We use only 10% of our brains
• Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
• Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
• Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
• Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy
• Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.

Source: Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine

You can learn a lot on the web. Content is [sort of] King. Kings are not always right!

Then again people still believe that water drains in different directions on either side of the equator!

If we can only get everyone to use the Snopes, Hoaxbusters or Urban Legends sites more often. A lot of folks are going to get better access to the web this holiday season. Prepare for the deluge of newbie goodness.

Be careful out there.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

I do like the Positivity Blog. I see myself in their advice so often. I particularly like this one today:

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

1. Not showing up.
2. Procrastinating half the day. To keep it short, my 3 favourite ways to get out of a procrastinating state are:
3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn’t the most important thing right now.
4. Thinking too much.
5. Seeing the negative and downsides in just about anything.
6. Clinging to your own thoughts and being closed to outside influences.
7. Constantly on information overload.

Read the longer post if you're interested in having a positive 2008.

Other favourites:

■ 7 Ways to Move Beyond Procrastination
■ 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself
■ 5 Life-Changing Keys to Overcoming Your Fear

Happy New Year.

How to Make a New Year’s Resolution That You’ll Actually Follow Through With

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

The Coming Platform Revolution

This is a cool slide speculating on the coming platform wars for social networks. It was developed by Dave McClure who blogs at Master of 500 Hats.

I think it's an interesting visual of where things stand now. 2008 is going to be very interesting. I wonder how SirsiDynix clients are going to use the thousands of API's already developed and more in this world of SirsiDynix Symphony/Unicorn/Horizon?

Happy New Year.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)

Printer Ink Rip Off

I recently had to update my home printer.

The first one was a disaster from Best Buy. I bought it in August and they NEVER had hte ink cartridges in stock - even by November. Appalling. I finally went in to complain to the manager and got him to take it back. The printer was exclusive to Best Buy so they werer the only ones who could have the cartridges. Amazingly I didn't find that out until I returned it and AFTER the staff had sent me on a wild goose chase to many other office supply stores and Best Buys on two continents and 3 countries. They eventually told me to refill the ink cartridge. Now this is one of those smart ink cartridges that the newer printers have which cause you to have to click through four messages for every print command because they embed a chip in the cartridge and disable your PC's ability to sense the toner levels. And these chips make it impossible for there to be a thrid party market.

Crap - that's really awful. What law makes it unlawful to refill your cartridge and what gives them the right to mess with MY PC? It's the digital equivalent of Ink DRM! And have you seen how many different cartridge [standards] varieties there are? Of course, since these printer manufacturers charge up to $8,000.00 per gallon for printer ink, you can see their motivation! People scream about gasoline prices! And people pay way more for bottled water than they do for gas and are starting to scream about that (why pay for something that should be free and trustable out of the tap? Especially since most bottled water is tap water - eg. Coke's Dasani or Pepsi's Aquafina). And to hear that printers lie that your ink is low when it is not . . .

Anyway, why aren't we demanding this rip off end?

Why aren't there ink usury laws?

Read this post for more.

Anyway, my new printer is better and I really love the photocopy feature.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:13 AM | Comments (6)

Why Are Virtual Worlds Different

Why are virtual worlds different? Second Life et al DO feel different but why? This video is a good start on explaining that.

YouTube Video here.

Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning

"Dr. Tony O'Driscoll describes the 7 Sensibilities that Differentiate Virtual Social Worlds from other interactive media and makes the argument that these sensibilities provide us with unprecedented freedom to create true experential learning opportunities."

The Sense of Self
The Death of Distance
The Power of Presence
The Sense of Space
The Capability to Co-Create
The Pervasiveness of Practice
The Enrichment of Experience

I like it.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2007

Lifehacker’s 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps

Some folks just love free stuff. I'm not sure free is all it's cracked up to be. Since there's so much experimentation and learning involved, you wouldn't want the productivity impact of everyone trying everything freely on an enterprise waide basis.

Nonetheless, Lifehacker puts together an authoritative guide of the best free web applications in these 25 categories:

Application Launchers
Backup Utilities
BitTorrent
Bookmarks
Calendar
Desktop Search
Disk Space Visualizers
DVD Rippers
File Syncing
Image Editing
Image Viewers/Managers
Instant Messenger
Macro Makers
Media Players
Password Managers/Helpers
PDF Readers/Writers/Editors
Personal Finance/Money Managers
Start Pages
Telephony Managers/Helpers
Text Editors
To-do List Managers
Virus Killers and Malware Cleaners
Web Clippings
Wikis
Zip File Extractors

Find it here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)

Free Report from Jakob Nielsen On Accessible Web Design

Jakob Nielsen's Nielsen Norman Group is offering a free repoprt as a holiday season gift to their readers. These reports normally run about $124.00.

And this one is on a vitally important topic - the usability and accessibility of websites for differently-abled people. It's a big report with lots of research driven insights.

So, from one of the design gurus, get your copy here.

Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities
75 Best Practices for Design of Websites and Intranets, Based on Usability Studies with People Who Use Assistive Technology

148 pages PDF format
Download Report (7 MB)

"The report contains:

Results of usability tests of 19 websites with users with several different types of disabilities who are using a range of assistive technology:
- blind users using screen readers
- blind users using Braille readers
- low-vision users using screen magnifiers
- motor-impaired users

Test data collected mainly in the United States, with some additional studies in Japan to ensure the international applicability of the recommendations

A total of 104 users participated in the usability studies:
- 84 users with disabilities
- 20 non-disabled users who served as a control group
- 75 detailed design guidelines

The report is richly illustrated with 46 screenshots of designs that worked well or that caused difficulties for users with disabilities in the usability tests as well as 23 photos of assistive technology devices. The examples and guidelines are directly based on empirical observation of actual user behavior. "

"This report addresses the second level in improving the user experience of websites and intranets for people with disabilities. Yes, you must ensure technical accessibility but you should also ensure good usability, ease of use, and high productivity for employees and customers with disabilities."

Good for Jakob! This is a nice thing to do. Get it soon.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Here Comes Another Bubble (Again)

I mentioned this very funny video a while back. As you might know it got caught up in copyright issues and was taken down. Anyway, The Richter Scales, a San Francisco singing group that did the piece, have posted a new one - Version 1.1 - that it hopes is copyright safe.

Here Comes Another Bubble (Again)

It's just fun but with than kernel of truth and fear.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

eLearning Tips

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day alerted me to this free PDF.

162 Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools

The eLearning Guild asked members for their favorite tips for using software for the creation of e-Learning. Members could submit tips in any or all of the following five categories:

Courseware authoring and e-Learning development tools
Rapid e-Learning tools
Simulation tools
Media tools
Combining and deploying authoring tools

A total of 122 members responded to the survey, contributing 162 usable tips. The tips range in length from one-sentence ideas all the way up to page-long discourses. Some are very basic in nature, and others are quite advanced. We have not edited the tips in any way, other than to correct spelling – everything you see in this book is in the tipsters' own words. As a result, these tips will be useful to any designer or developer looking for best practices to incorporate into their own production process.

You can download the 65 page ebook in PDF format.

162 Tips and tricks for working with e-learning tools

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2007

Academic Library Website Intentions

I picked this up from the SLA IT Division list and thought that it was interesting:

Primary Research Group has published Academic Library Website Benchmarks (ISBN #: 1-57440-094-0). The report presents data from 82 North American college libraries about their library website policies and development plans.

Some of the report’s findings are that:

More than three quarters of all respondents plan a major redesign of the library website within the next two years. Nearly 85% of research universities (84.6%) planned a website redesign in this period. A high percentage of colleges with FTE enrollments below 2,000 (82%) planned to redesign their website within the next two years, compared to 72.7 to 78.3% of colleges with higher enrollments.

The library information technology or web staff accounted for over 76% of the total man-hours spent running the college library websites for the colleges in the sample. College-wide IT or web staff performed an average of just 15.76% of the labor necessary to run the college library websites in the sample

Nearly 42% of survey participants used a content editing system provided by the central college web staff.

Of the libraries that do use a content management system, just over a quarter expressed satisfaction for the most part and had no plans for changing software or management methods in the future. Another 31.4% reported that they were not completely satisfied and might change content management systems or their policies.

The mean number of library staff or personnel who entered content into the college library website in the last full semester was 13.24. Community colleges had just 2.5 library employees entering content, compared to 5.2 employees at 4-year/MA granting institutions and 11.1 at PhD-level granting institutions. Research universities reported the highest number of library staff entering data, at 51.8, and a maximum of 200.

Nearly half of survey participants selected JavaScript as their most commonly used scripting language on the college website.

For a shade less than two thirds of the libraries (64.9%) the library website budget was part of the library IT budget, and not separately broken out; 35.1% considered it part of the college IT budget.

More than 8 out of 10 college libraries use cascading style sheets at least to some degree.

Approximately one in ten college libraries have a presence on the social networking site MySpace.

The mean number of interactive tutorials on how to use the library or its services made available on the library website was 3.84, with a maximum of 50. Community colleges reported the fewest available interactive tutorials with a sample mean of just 0.82, while other institution types reported an average of between four and five. The mean number of end users who have visited or used these interactive tutorials in the past year was 3,757 with a maximum of 33,657.

Over three quarters of the libraries in the sample (76.8%) do not have a “My Library” type of service for users to log in to, save research or favorite places, and bookmark other commonly used library resources.

The mean number of files on the library website was just over 5,400.

Just over a third of the sample responded that they were currently offering federated search capabilities from the website, so that a broad range of library databases could be searched at once. Three out of four research universities had federated search capabilities, compared to just 53.33% of PhD-level granting institutions, 29.27% of 4-year/MA granting institutions, and just 8.33% of community colleges. The mean number of subject-specific search windows offered through federated searches was 19.72.

The study gives detailed data about budgets, technology, personnel, policies, use of consultants, relations with the college IT department and many other issues of interest to college library webmasters or staff. Data is broken out separately by level of overall enrollment, Carnegie Class or type of college, and for colleges with and without academic library website webmasters, and for public and private colleges. For a list of colleges that participated in the report and further information contact Primary Research Group at www.primaryresearch.com or call 212-736-2316.

They seem to havde a lot of research of interest to libraries. Recent reports include: Academic Library Website Benchmarks,The Survey of Library Database Licensing Practices, Fundraising, The International Survey of Institutional Digital Repositories, Survey of Library Cafes, Survey of Distance Learning Programs in Higher Education, Corporate Library Benchmarks, Best Practices of Academic Library Information Technology Directors, Emerging Issues in Academic Library Cataloging & Technical Services, Creating the Digital Art Library, Trends in the Management of Library Special Collections in Film and Photography, and Current Practices and Future Plans of Public Library Webmasters. They seem to run from $90-500.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

Combining Libraries, Genealogy and Social Networking

OK, here's a way to bring folks into the library by combining two big trends.

Read this article in the NYT:

Zygotic Social Networking

See, all you have to do is start to collect the human genome patterns of all your users and connect them to their genomic peers.

And we thought some libraries go over the top on ID! (Thanks Randy)

LOL

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)

Holiday Trivia Strategy

OK, I don't tend to be very good at sports stuff. And over the holidays it seems to be a topic of many cocktail conversations. Anyway, here's my trivia soundbite for this year:

"In major league sports (Major League Baseball, Football (NFL & Canadian FL), Hockey (NHL) and Basketball (NBA)) there are only 8 teams whose names do not end in the letter 'S'. What are they?"

Even the most fanatical of sports fans have trouble getting all 8.

Have fun.

Stephen

(The answer is in the comments)

Posted by stephen at 9:41 AM | Comments (6)

December 18, 2007

Digital Economy Fact Book 2007

The Ninth Edition of The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s “Digital Economy Fact Book” was released Dec. 18th and is available on the PFF site here. This reference book, authored by Stephen McGonegal and Daniel B. Britton. is praised by ResourceShelf as a "vital source for objective statistics and information on the digital economy. "

Just to give you an idea of the stuff packed into this free 188 page PDF, Here's the table of contents:

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: The Growth of the Internet
Host Computers and Domains
The U.S. Online Population
The Worldwide Online Population
Websites on the Internet
Internet Service Providers and Web Browsers
Internet Search Engines

Chapter 2: The Hardware Sector
Adoption Rates of Entertainment and Communications Technologies
Semiconductors
Personal Computer Sales
Cell Phones
Smartphones and PDAs
Data Storage
Gaming Hardware
Televisions
Other Hardware
Software

Chapter 3: The Communications Sector .
Telephone Subscribership
U.S. Broadband Adoption
Worldwide Broadband Adoption
Emerging Broadband Service Platforms
The Wireless Industry in the U.S.
The Worldwide Wireless Industry
Third-Generation Technology
Spectrum
Radio Frequency Identification
Voice Over Internet Protocol
Email and Instant Messaging
Convergence and the Bundling of Services

Chapter 4: Digital Media
Television
Internet Video and DVDs
Cell Phone Content
Music
Radio
Gaming
Online News and Classifieds
Blogging, Podcasting, and Tagging
Social Networking

Chapter 5: Electronic Commerce
Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business E-Commerce
Internet Advertising
Types of Internet Advertising
Online Finance
Online Travel
Online Health Care

Chapter 6: Threats to the Digital Economy
Malicious Software
Spam
Phishing
Identity Theft
Piracy

Chapter 7: The Worldwide Digital Economy
Funding for New Ideas
Mergers and Acquisitions
IT-Sector Revenue Trends and Stock Indices
IT Spending
IT-Sector Employment and Productivity
Outsourcing and Offshoring
The European Digital Economy
The Chinese Digital Economy
The Indian Digital Economy

Appendix: Digital Economy Timeline, July -June
Endnotes
List of Abbreviations

Need some quick facts about the emerging digital economy? This one covers it and especially now with expanded global facts. I guess this is where all those news story soundbites come from.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

2008 Horizon Report - Academic Libraries

Ooops - I got fooled. This is last years report. The 2008 report will be released on Jan. 18, 2008. If you want a preview you can look at the Horizon Project Wiki... Cool, So far it looks like they'll be discussing:

2008 Academic Trends Short List

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
- Webware
- Collaborative Workspaces
- Simple Video Capture and Sharing
- Community Tagging

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years- Mobile
- Geotagging
- Socially-Centered Virtual Worlds
- Scholarly Mashups

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years- Collective Intelligence
- Social Operating Systems
- Open Education Resources
- Alternative Interaction Devices

Key Trends
- Growing use of Web 2.0 and social networking tools is changing our ideas of scholarly contribution and community
- Increasing globalization continues to affect the way we work, collaborate, and communicate
- The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are pushing the boundaries of scholarship
- As the amount and variety of content increases, it is becoming more difficult to filter the noise to find the signal
- Smaller, more powerful devices are offering increased access and portability
- The gap between students’ perception of technology and that of faculty continues to grow
- The environment of higher education continues to change, with a growing trend toward open innovation

Critical Challenges
- Academic review and faculty rewards are increasingly out of sync with new forms of scholarship
- Assessment of new forms of work continues to present a challenge to educators and peer reviewers
- There are significant shifts taking place in scholarship, research, creative expression, and learning, and a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy
- There is a growing need for formal instruction in 21st-century literacies, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy
- Higher education is facing a growing expectation to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices
- The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment

Stephen

2007 highlights follow:

The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have published the 2007 edition of the Horizon Report, the 4th edition. The annual Horizon report is a neat and interesting report that is a "research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education." This year they cover:

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less
User-Created Content
Social Networking
Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years
Mobile Phones
Virtual Worlds
Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years
The New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication
Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming

A Half Dozen Key Trends

"As it does each year, the Horizon Advisory Board again reviewed key trends in the practice of teaching, learning, and creativity, and ranked those it considered most important for campuses to watch. Trends were identified through a careful analysis of interviews, articles, papers, and published research. The six trends below emerged as most likely to have a significant impact in education in the next five years. They are presented in priority order as ranked by the Advisory Board.

1. The environment of higher education is changing rapidly. Costs are rising, budgets are shrinking, and the demand for new services is growing. Student enrollments are declining. There is an increasing need for distance education, with pressure coming not only from nontraditional students seeking flexible options, but from administrative directives to cut costs. The “shape” of the average student is changing, too; more students are working and commuting than ever before, and the residential, full-time student is not necessarily the model for today’s typical student. Higher education faces competition from the for-profit educational sector and an increasing demand by students for instant access and interactive experiences.

2 Increasing globalization is changing the way we work, collaborate, and communicate. China, India, and other southeast Asian nations continue to develop skilled researchers and thinkers who contribute significantly to th global body of knowledge and whose work fuels much iinnovation. Additionally, globalization of communication, entertainment, and information iprovides students with wider perspectives and resources than ever before, placing them in a new and continually changing learning space.

3. Information literacy increasingly should not be considered a given. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the information literacy skills of new students are not improving as the post-1993 Internet boomlet enters college. At the same time, in a sea of user-created content, collaborative work, and instant access to information of varying quality, the skills of critical thinking, research, and evaluation are increasingly required to make sense of the world.

4. Academic review and faculty rewards are increasingly out of sync with new forms of scholarship. The trends toward digital expressions of scholarship and more interdisciplinary and collaborative work continue to move away from the standards of traditional peer-reviewed paper publication. New forms of peer review are emerging, but existing academic practices of specialization and long-honored notions of academic status are persistent barriers to the adoption of new approaches. Given the pace of change, the academy will grow more out of step with how scholarship is actually conducted until constraints imposed by traditional tenure and promotion processes are eased.

5. The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are pushing the boundaries of scholarship. Amateur scholars are weighing in on scholarly debates with reasoned if not always expert opinions, and websites like the Wikipedia have caused the very notion of what an expert is to be reconsidered. Hobbyists and enthusiasts are engaged in data collection and field studies that are making real contributions in a great many fields at the same time that they are encouraging debate on what constitutes scholarly work—and who should be doing it. Still to be resolved is the question of how compatible the consensus sapientum and the wisdom of the academy will be.

6. Students’ views of what is and what is not technology are increasingly different from those of faculty. From small, flexible software tools to ubiquitous portable devices and instant access, students today experience technology very differently than faculty do, and the gap between students’ view of technology and that of faculty is growing rapidly. Mobile phones, to name just one example, are very different tools to students than to faculty; rather than being mere tools for voice communication, these devices store music, movies, and photos, keep students in touch with their friends by text and voice, and provide access to the wider world of the Internet at any time.

As usual there is a lot of depth in this report as it discusses critical challenges facing academic libraries and the key technologies to watch. Further readings are referenced too. Read the full 32 page PDF here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

Do students retain information literacy training?

From the Journal of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (2007 2:4)

Evidence Summary

Skills Gained from University Library Instruction Sessions Are Perceived as Useful
Four to Eight Weeks Later

A review of:
Wong, Gabrielle, Diana Chan, and Sam Chu. “Assessing the Enduring Impact of Library
Instruction Programs.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 32.4 (July 2006): 384‐95.

"Main results – Out of 133 workshops taught in the fall of 2004, 25 were included in the sample: 15 CS and 10 OW. The overall response rate was 68%, with 466 participants completing questionnaires. Most participants indicated that the workshops
were useful for learning about sources and search methods for finding information quickly. The majority (72.2%) responded that they felt an increase in confidence when conducting library research and slightly more than half (57.9%) agreed the workshops led to an increased interest in using the library. The responses differed significantly for the CS and OW groups: OW participants consistently rated the usefulness of the workshops higher than CS participants. In regards to retention of skills, 68.5% of participants responded in the affirmative when asked of they had continued using the skills taught, with rates ranging from 56 to 83% depending on the workshop. There was little difference in perceived retention between the CS and OW groups.

The skills most frequently identified as having been learned included the abilities to “form better search strategies” and “find better Internet resources.” Written feedback included remarks on reducing class size and length, and increasing practice time and the number of handouts.

Conclusion – A “delayed perception survey” revealed positive feedback from library workshop participants on questions about confidence, usefulness, and retention of skills learned. There was a significant difference in confidence levels reported between CS and OW groups, with OW participants reporting higher levels of confidence. The researchers surmise this might be a result of self‐selection, as OW participants volunteered both to attend the library instruction workshops and to respond to the survey questionnaire. The short questionnaire is an efficient tool for assessing the perceived usefulness of library workshops for both course‐integrated sessions and elective workshops.

Commentary: This study attempts to assess the quality of a university library’s instruction program in a given semester. Assessment on such a large scale is a difficult undertaking, especially considering the lack of validated standardised assessment tools available to librarians. The authors selected a reasonable method, the perception survey, to conduct their assessment. Their questionnaire is also made available in the publication, thus enabling others to adapt it for their own use. While this study makes a contribution to assessment studies of library instruction programs at institutions of higher education, it falls short in several areas. The convenience sample was not randomised, making it difficult to assume representativeness. In addition, there is no indication that the results of the survey are normally distributed, and that the 2 groups exhibit homogeneity of variance – requirements for parametric testing such as the t‐test employed. It is therefore questionable as to whether the results have any statistical significance. Also typical of many assessment studies is the absence of a control group or testing prior to the intervention. This also makes the results less conclusive. The article omits an explanation as to how class size was determined, placing into question any conclusions on the impact of class size on retention. It is also important to keep in mind the survey did not assess actual learning, but the perception of such learning. While the authors state that the survey assessed the “enduring impact” of the instruction program, further assessment is required to conclude that any long‐term learning has taken place beyond the four to eight week period. "

So there you have it - they do remember what you teach them. Iit is worth it.

Read the whole works here.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

Free Web-based Office Suites

This is interesting!

Study: 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs

A new survey by NPD has found that the 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs and other online office applications like Zoho or MS Office Suite.

Source

"According to the study, 94 percent of US computer users have never tried a web based productivity suite. More than 20 percent say they've at least heard of Google Docs or other suites, but have still never tried them. And only 0.5 percent of users say they've replaced Microsoft Office with an online office suite."

I think that we're just on the beginning of an adoption curve as we move to a software as a service, web-based model. I doubt that folks prefer to have to dowload applications and keep them up to date. My feeling is that we are moving inexorably towards hosted application models since they offer many benefits (short of the need for connectivity but what doesn't require that anymore!).

For libraries these applications, especially since they tend to be interopable with licensed software document standards, allow us to ramp up what is offered on our public workstations to truly go beyond just bridging the digital divide. This is one opportunity that is quite inexpensive and libraries can get on the bandwagon before the crunch and show true value add to their users. Just imagine.

So do we plant the bulbs now or wait for the nurseries to grow plants and we plant them later. Our choice.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 9:09 AM | Comments (1)

The Year in Blog Postings

I like this meme that's going around the biblioblogosphere. I first saw it on Walt's blog - which is called Walt at Random - and this seems so random, sort of.

Anyway, here are the first lines of my first Lighthouse post in every month for the last 12 months in 2007:

Jan.
"I am very excited about what we have scheduled so far for the SirsiDynix Institute in 2007."

Feb.
"The SirsiDynix Institute is doing its first international (or at least outside of North America) program and it's coming from Australia! (Actually I can hardly wait to return to this beautiful country.)"

Mar.
"YAY! Jenny is coming to the SirsiDynix Institute. It'll be awsome."

Apr.
MySpace is a Bully. OK, last week I got this e-mail: "Your MySpace account has been deleted for violating our Terms of Service."

May
"Here's a link to my latest column in the SirsiDynix OneSource newsletter for May 2007:
"Earning the Right to Give Advice "

Jun.
"Here are the slides from my keynote to the Massachusetts Library Association on May 2. It was a lovely conference set in bucolic Sturbridge. "Technoschism:Reorganizing and Restructuring Libraries for the Real Future."

Jul.
"My Humiliation at Wii - OK - this kid at ALA beat me at Wii Tennis."

Aug.
"I'm on vacation this week after acquiring an apartment in Montreal for my son, Zachary, to start his master's degree. It was such HGTV fun - right down to the digital photo reveal. However, I am looking forward to speaking at IFLA in Durban South Africa in the coming weeks followed by a short tour of Australia."

Sep.
"Looking for over 180 tools to make del.icio.us - our favourite tagger - more potent? Head over to Mashable."

Oct.
"OK, I am in the UK in London at Internet Librarian International. Much of my family is all gathering in Toronto for Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I'll try to find some turkey tonight. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving."

Nov.
"Here is a (hoax) picture of the home computer as predicted in 1954 by Rand Coproration."

Dec.
"The semantic web is coming closer. It's not entirely ready for prime time yet but it's definitely time to keep an eye on it."

I find this "random" thing interesting. My blogging reflects what my work is. The first line a month covers SirsiDynix Institute, speaking engagements around the world, my personal life, writing articles and tracking interesting technologies for libraries. All I wanted to do when I started this blog in '05 was, from the start, to muse about things librarianesque and post things that interest me that might or might not interest others.

I hope other bibliobloggers try this meme. It's interesting to me.

Happy New Year (I guess I'll feel more writer's block for the first posting of every month in '08!)

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2007

Explore Your Inner Librarian

Folks are pointing to this cool site - Explore Your Inner Librarian.

One library school trying to recruit with style!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

Identity

The blogs are picking up the soundbite - "Nearly half of all internet users (47%) have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22%, as reported by the Pew Internet Project in 2002."

That's just so mainstream media. Shouldn't blogs be more thougtful?

They seem to imply that searching your own name is ego-centirc and narcissistic. Could be. But it couild also be good practice to make sure you know whow your identity is being used. I remmeer a period when people were shocked to discover they could search their SSN's on the web and get hits! It's under better control now but not perfect. I'd also suggest bthat it's not bad parenting to occasionally search your kid's or young teen's name on the web and see what turns up.

The meat of the latest Pew Internet and American Life report is what it tells us about digital identiy and ther state of the general public in managing their identity, privacy etc.

As usual they have their interesting profile categories:

"Online adults can be divided into four categories based on their level of concern about their online information and whether or not they take steps to limit their online footprint:

􀂄 Confident Creatives are the smallest of the four groups, comprising 17% of online adults. They say they do not worry about the availability of their online data, and actively upload content, but still take steps to limit their personal information. Young adults are most likely to fall into this group.

􀂄 The Concerned and Careful fret about the personal information available about them online and take steps to proactively limit their own online data. One in five online adults (21%) fall into this category.

􀂄 Despite being anxious about how much information is available about them, members of the Worried by the Wayside group do not actively limit their online information. This group contains 18% of online adults.

􀂄 The Unfazed and Inactive group is the largest of the four groups—43% of online adults fall into this category. They neither worry about their personal information nor
take steps to limit the amount of information that can be found out about them online.
Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information."

It is well worth a read.

Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency
Embargoed until 4pm Eastern on 16 December 2007

It's also a good place to start to figure out how to present the concept of 'identity' online to both adult and youth audiences.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2007

Nanotechnology and Massive Change

Sometimes I get the impression that some folks think that change is only happening this fast in libraries and that it's not a common condition of all sectors. I suppose naievete is a protective condition that helps make the world a less scary place. If we absorbed all of the change happening around us we'd overload like a circuit board! Of course it's fine to choose to create an island of calm in our personal lives, it's not a good option for professionals tasked with running institutions and caring about their ability to thrive..

Batelle Memorial Institute released a report called "Productive Nanosystems: A Technology Roadmap." (198 page PDF) It's a complete analysis of this world-changing technology. "Atomically precise technologies (APT) hold the potential to meet many
of the greatest global challenges, bringing revolutions in science, medicine,
energy, and industry. This technology roadmap points the way for
strategic research initiatives to deliver on this promise." Just the 14 page executive summary is exciting. Anyway, the transformational potential of this one technology to have an impact on more industries than I can count is huge.

Does it dwarf the impact of Web 2.0 stuff on Libraries. Yes. Does it dwarf the impact of Web 2.0 on the rest of the world. Maybe not. Web 3.0 or Information 4.0 probably does. Either way it's not about the labels it's about what's happening and how we react.

Notice anything else changing extremely fast? Try researching:

Stem Cells (from sloughed skin cells now)
Cloning (Glow in the dark cats!?)
Human Genome (a whole country volunteers to create a DNA databank of everyone)
Encyclopedia of Life (all of it!)
Light (backwards, fast, slow, and more with Roumulan cloaking devices)
Global Warming (slow, faster and scary)
Book digitization projects approaching critical mass (like articles did years ago)
World trade and globalization
Electronic games
Cancer research
And so much more excitinng discoveries.

At the turn of this century we are seeing a return of transformational, disruptive change - just like that caused at the turn of the last century when the full impact of changes in mechanization, publishing, electricity, communication, transportation, and more changed society forever.

This will become more clear as we move through 2008. 2007 Was The Year of Social Media. 2008 is the Year of Mobile Media. That's just the thin edge of the wedge as we try to adapt. Human behaviour trumps nearly everything.

W00t!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:49 AM | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday Transistor

Trivia for today!

The lowly transistor turns 60 years old today today. Talk about your transformational technology! You're likely using billions of transistors today alone.

Not exactly household names - John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley - invented the thing that ended the dominance of tubes. (See Internet of Tubes)

I remember my first transistor radio in the mid-sixties - AM only! I remember taking TV tubes to the hardware store to test which one was dead on this giant robot like machine. I am certainly under 60 but it shows that it takes a while for these inventions to diffuse.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:16 AM | Comments (1)

December 15, 2007

A Personal Anniversary Post

Forgive me a personal post but I felt I needed to write this one. It's a special anniversary.

Ten years ago this week I was diagnosed with fairly severe cancer. I was excited about heading to Online International in London to give a speech and had an MRI for back pain the Friday before leaving. I was told to call my neurosurgeon right away and he told me to cancel my trip because he had to remove a huge tumour from inside my spine. He did so on Dec. 9 and a week later the results came back - non-Hodgkins lymphoma - about ten and half inches of it wrapped around my spine and ribcage.. So I set about the long trek of chemotherapy and radiation through 1998. My wife was told that the outlook was not too good and thankfully she never told me that for years. I learned to walk again. I made my cancer 'fun' for my young kids (we did whiteboard markers on my bald head). I actually never missed a day of work or an SLA meeting that I didn't cover with a vacation day. I survived.

On the 10th anniversary of my MRI I gave that speech at Online International in London. Life does go in circles.

I won't bore you with the details here. It was a pre-blog era so I sent e-mail letters to a wide group of friends and colleagues. It was therapeutic for me and I enjoyed writing them every time I had an event such as an appointment, chemo or radiation treatment. These letters still exist on the web and you're free to read them here. They're called: Stephen's Most Excellent Cancer Adventure... . It is a series of 10 letters. If I had to do this today it would be a blog but e-mail was state-of-the-art in 98. I am grateful that this SLA chapter has archived the letters and they tell me they're still one of the more popular pages on their site. I hear other cancer sites link to my story. I hope it helps folks.

Anyway, here we are in the holiday season and it's always a time for reflection for me. Every year has its ups and downs. This year was no exception. When you hear you have cancer you have a choice of how to react. I chose to be positive, open and keep working. It worked for me. Today I am ten years cancer free. I visit my oncologists regularly and get regular X-rays, blood tests and MRI's. So far every one of them is clean and my doctors tell me I am cured. I like to believe them. I talk openly about my experience since I often discover folks who need to talk. That's a gift to me.

Anyway, this time of year is my Thanksgiving. I am thankful every day for:

1. My wife, Stephanie. She puts up with more than her share being married to me. Without her I would be nothing. After almost 36 years together I can't imagine any other life.
2. My kids. Zachary and Sydney are the best son and daughter I could ever have. I learn so much from them. At 22 and 19 they seem almost 'done' and with so much more to do. I get excited for them. They're both home for the holidays. Yay.
3. My friends and family. I have many friends and love them all. Some are so close that I feel like they're family. I couldn't survive without their support and friendship. I don't see them enough.
4. My colleagues. I have so many good relationships with the people I meet at work and through work. My great colleagues I meet and get to know through my volunteer work and associations are awesome. From them I find inspiration and a connection to a passion for libraries that has sustained me for my entire career.
5. My passion for libraries and librarianship. I can't imagine a better career. I love meeting my colleagues and I especially love teaching new library students, meeting library users and sharing that passion with others. Together we are great and brimming with potential.
6. Writing and Speaking. I told a friend once who was considering stopping writing that you can't take the writing from the writer. It will damage you more than you know. I am glad he didn't stop and found other ways to rebalance his life. I need to write. I am driven to speak. This blog is just one way I let the steam out of the kettle. I am thankful for this and readers.

Anyway, forgive me a highly personal post. I am a pretty open person so blogging this just seemed natural and it has been written in the air for months as I approached this anniversary.

From me to you I hope that you know joy. May all the wishes of the season come true for you. We are a profession that shares. When we make choices about what to do, what to say and what to feel, we must make those choices positively. I know. I faced a challenge and won. Even if I had not won the battle over these past ten years, I know I've lived my life with passion and a modest attempt to make a positive difference. I chose to. 2008 will bring us new challenges and new choices. I hope to approach them with with a positive attitude.

Either way we put up the tree today. We're going to a few parties. We having family over a few times for dinner. Tis the season to remember that we are all gifted with time and a choice of how to use it. I hope your wishes come true.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year.

Stephen

Posted by test.user at 9:56 AM | Comments (10)

Top websites now

Hmmm, Alexa's current ranking of the highest traffic websites globally is interesting. Here it is for the week ending Dec. 12, 2007.

Rank Web Site

1 yahoo.com
2 google.com
3 live.com
4 youtube.com
5 msn.com
6 myspace.com
7 facebook.com
8 wikipedia.org
9 hi5.com
10 orkut.com
11 rapidshare.com
12 blogger.com
13 megaupload.com
14 friendster.com
15 yahoo.co.jp
16 baidu.com
17 fotolog.net
18 google.fr
19 microsoft.com
20 ebay.com

This ranking is traffic based. If you did it on time spent per user you'd see few search engines in the top rankings. Apparently YouTube beats everyone on weekends now using that measure. Also note that almost have hte sites in the top ranks are socially driven - a category that was just a sparkle a few years ago. Of course Google will be only 10 this coming year and web search search is still basically a teenager. Change happens fast.

Stephen

Posted by test.user at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)

Search 2010

Search 2010: Thoughts on the Future of Search by Leading Experts
View the archived webinar now! (60 minute WebEx presentation)

"On December 11, 2007 leading experts on search met to discuss the future. In fact they met to share their thoughts on the future of Search in the year 2010. Enquiro previously released a Search 2010 Whitepaper where topics of discussion included:

Impact of Personalization of search
How much change will we see in 3 years? In 5 years?
Impact of Universal Search Results
The promise of Mobile
What might happen with search advertising?
How will the user experience with search evolve?
What might happen with the search interface as we know it?

You might want to go over the white paper itself so you're familiar with it. If you don't have it yet, it's available at http://enquiroresearch.com/personalization/ .

What's The Future of Search Going to Look Like?

This Webinar, Search: 2010 is the follow up to a white paper Enquiro released this past summer. First, we talked to the people who have literally defined the search experience as we know it:

Marissa Mayer - VP, Search Products and User Experience, Google
Larry Cornett - VP, Search Experience, Yahoo
Justin Osmer - Senior Product Manager, Live Search, Microsoft
Daniel Read – Senior VP of Site Product Management and User Experience, ASK
Michael Ferguson (unable to participate in Webinar) - Senior User Experience Analyst, Ask

Then, we talked to some of the best known industry observers to get their thoughts

Jakob Nielsen - User Advocate and Principal of Nielsen Norman Group
Chris Sherman - Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Greg Sterling - Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence.
Danny Sullivan (unable to participate in Webinar) - Chief Content Officer, Search Engine Land

After getting their thoughts, we put them together and did some eye tracking research on what a search results page might look like in 2010. We invited special guests to participate and have the opportunity to throw questions at this Search Dream Team. This webinar is the end result. Enjoy"

Good show. Gwen Harris has listed some of the highlights on her blog here.

Stephen

Posted by test.user at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2007

Seniors in Libraries

OK - folks say I talk a lot about Millennials and young scholars. True.

In the interest of balance (I am personally and ironically eligible for AARP), here are a few things that might help libraries with their seniors' strategies (anyone over 50 according to the AARP!):

Check our Isabelle Fetherston's blog Senior Friendly Libraries. I subscribe.

Spam takes control

It's easy to see why so many of us have started to use our Facebook's e-mails, RSS feeds and aggregators to control our communications.

"Spam now accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all e-mail, with no end in sight.

The numbers come as part of the e-mail security company's annual spam report, in which it analyzed over one billion messages sent to its 50,000 customers. Barracuda says that the percentage of spam increased from 85-90 percent in 2006, and is way up from 5 percent back in 2001. After conducting a poll of 261 business professionals, Barracuda also found that over half—57 percent—consider spam to be the "worst form of junk advertising," almost double that of junk snail mail. Only 12 percent cited telemarketers as the worst."

It must work - however - or people wouldn't invest even a modest amount of time.

Luckily our corporate filters seem to work pretty well. I am willing to bet that I get far more e-mail spam that I get legitimate e-mail. And we won't even talk about the thousands of blog comment spam I get weekly.

Now - why do governments debate ad nauseum giving a single extra statutory holiday a year because of their worries about productivity and seem to never debate criminalizing spam.

Howl!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)

63 percent of US population now plays video games, says report

The NPD Group has released the results of its study Expanding the Games Market, showing that gaming is moving firmly into the mainstream of American life.

the report "shows that an increasing number of people see gaming as a viable and fun hobby. The report also notes that while gaming might be a more isolated activity for the "hardcore" market, most gamers use their hobby as a way to connect with their friends and family."

"The sample included 5,039 members of the NPD Group's online consumer panel, and the majority of the respondents said that games were a good way to alleviate stress and unwind. Impressive for the gaming industry was that the stress-relieving aspect of the hobby was mostly seen in older gamers ranging from 15 to 65 years of age."

"With the data showing that 63 percent of the US population is playing games—and 30 percent are playing more this year than last year—gaming is on the move."

I have a bunch of late middle-aged friends addicted to Scrabulous and Wii Brain Age. So it's seems true enough to me. I still like Jeopardy online and admit to Solitaire.

W00t!

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)

MySpace and Skype

Does your librray serve a broad area where long distance charges become a barrier to personal serivce? Are you global? Then maybe this announcement is useful to you. You can now add Skype to your library's MySpace presence.

"For all of you MySpacers out there eager to call your MySpace friends over Skype via MySpace IM, the feature is now available. Skype has finalized a deal with MySpace to extend the one-click call feature."

"This Skype feature isn’t a software download, and is free for the users. Any costs from your computer to landline will be charged to MySpace users."

December 11, 2007

Social Networking for Newbies

Are you looking for a decent outline to teach social networking to newbies? Find resources to teach social networking safety? An article about the real basics? I think that this one from September's FastCompany is a good start:

The Social Networking Guide for Newbies

Don't be left behind. Everybody's doing it: politicians, kids, moms, rock stars, even granny.

From: FastCompany.com | September 2007 | By: Karen Post
A mother reads a message from her son in Iraq, a student gets a job with Teach for America, a German rock band receives feedback on a new single, and your niece dumps her boyfriend. What do all of these events have in common? They all took place on a social network.

Part I: Getting Started

Step 1 - Finding the online social networks best suited for you.
Step 2 - Registration.
Step 3 - Creating your User Profile.
Step 4 - Start networking.
Step 5 - Enjoy your new connections.

Part II: What Can You Do on a Social Network?

Things to do in a social network.
Bulletin boards.
Chat rooms.

Part III: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the benefits of a social network?
What is an online friend?
How do you establish new friends?
How do you reach out to new friends?
How do I make a friend go away?
When people are trying to connect with you, do you get a regular email letting you know?
Is content on social networking sites censored?
What happens if I see something that offends me?
What about calendars?
How do groups work?
Is social networking safe?
What is the difference between simple friend communications and group communications?
How do you send many friends a notice or piece of information?
Will I get more spam?
What is an RSS feed and what do I do with it?
Is my intellectual property protected from thieves?
Can I have multiple online user name identities?
Where can I read more about safety and social networking?
Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens
What are some of the top social networking sites?

Karen Post is CEO of Oddpodz, a social network for creative-minded people, author of Brain Tattoos, and monthly columnist for FastCompany.com.

Sometimes when you're too close to your own social network it takes something like this to simplify it so we can explain it to others.

Stephen

Posted by stephen at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)

Visions of the Future

I love these old videos with views of the future that never were.

The Motorola concept video 2000 A.D.(produced in 1990 and focuses on the fantastic wireless future.)

Motorola part 2 200 A.D.

Motorola Part 3 2000 A.D.

Pacific Bell Concept Video (1991) (3 parts)

December 31, 2007

1907?

Happy New Year

December 30, 2007

30 Library Technology Predictions for 2008

Libraries and Problem Solving: New Pew Report

December 28, 2007

Marketing Your Library on the Internet

Web 2.0 in the Enterprise

December 27, 2007

Information Outlook Dec. 2007

Information Outlook Nov. 2007

Information Outlook Oct. 2007

SLA Western Canada Chapter

Thomson Visit

SLA Minnesota Chapter

Online International in London

Medical Library Association: Southern Chapter

Indiana Library Federation Conference

Illinois Unicorn Users Group

Global eInformation Symposium

December 26, 2007

2008: Year of Information Overload?

YouTube Catcher

Top Social Networks and Blogs

Fresh Science Stories

Top 10 Technology Videos of 2007

December 23, 2007

Happy Longest Night

2008 Predictions

Google Grows and Shrinks

December 22, 2007

Congratulations CLA

Google and Privacy

December 21, 2007

CLA Steps Up on Copyright

Things the Internet Tells Us that are Wrong

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

The Coming Platform Revolution

Printer Ink Rip Off

Why Are Virtual Worlds Different

December 20, 2007

Lifehacker’s 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps

Free Report from Jakob Nielsen On Accessible Web Design

More Teens are Creating Web Content - more girls too

Here Comes Another Bubble (Again)

eLearning Tips

December 19, 2007

Academic Library Website Intentions

Combining Libraries, Genealogy and Social Networking

Holiday Trivia Strategy

December 18, 2007

Digital Economy Fact Book 2007

2008 Horizon Report - Academic Libraries

Do students retain information literacy training?

Free Web-based Office Suites

The Year in Blog Postings

December 17, 2007

Explore Your Inner Librarian

Identity

December 16, 2007

Nanotechnology and Massive Change

Happy Birthday Transistor

December 15, 2007

A Personal Anniversary Post

Top websites now

Search 2010

December 12, 2007

Seniors in Libraries

Spam takes control

63 percent of US population now plays video games, says report

MySpace and Skype

December 11, 2007

Social Networking for Newbies

Visions of the Future