Archive for May, 2008

Banned Books and Censorship: Big Read Event at Webster Public Library

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Tonight: Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.
Webster Public Library
980 Ridge Road West
Webster, NY 14580
This evening of lively discussion features three wonderful speakers on the topic of banned books and censorship. This program will be an intriguing look at thought control appropriate for adults and teens.
Red Star: Science Fiction Under Soviet Dictatorship
Censorship usually means destroying books [...]

Set Your Mind on Fire! The Big Read Goes Virtual

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

The Big Read comes to Cybrary City II on Wednesday, May 14 at 5:00 pm (SLT). Join us as Rebekah Cavan leads a lively discussion of Fahrenheit 451, censorship and the value of books at The Monroe County Library System Amphitheater in Second Life.
The discussion starts at 5:00 pm SLT, but get there early [...]

Psychological Upswing of Virtual Worlds

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

This article from Wired goes back a few months - it’s from January. But it’s still relevant.
Anyone involved with Second Life is likely to know that NASA has made a large commitment to virtual worlds and their potential for reinvigorating public interest in the space program. I’ve attended and blogged on some of NASA’s mixed [...]

bnet: Present like Steve Jobs

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

I’ve signed up for email newsletters from bnet. The information provided is concise and highly useful. This video, in particular, is worth sharing with anyone who has to give a presentation. Whether your presentation is a one-time thing or if speaking is what you do for a living, there are tips here that will help [...]

Roll Your Own Multi-touch Display

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Were you totally wowed by Microsoft’s Surface? Trying to figure out how to come up with $10K so you can have one for yourself? Save some cash and build your own instead! Technology Review has an article on Eyebeam engineers who created an open source version, and there’s a nice exploded-view image  of it at [...]

Web Design Research from Tufts University

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Here’s another useful link on usability:
http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/staff/webTeam/ethno/

Library Terms that Users Understand

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

It’s been a while since I’ve written about web design, but this came across my radar screen this morning and I found it to be very bookmark-worthy:
http://www.jkup.net/terms.html
We tend to forget that terms like “catalog” or “database” can be confusing to users. John Kupersmith’s site is a much needed reminder that we have to think like [...]

Technology Trends and Library Services