All of My Stuff

• U.S. Attorney in Minnesota Faces Probe

• Department of Justice letter to Gov. Rick Perry about findings at the Evins Regional Juvenile Center http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/031607dntextycevins.3b5976f.html

• Blogs And Podcasts Are Getting Students Engaged In Learning Blogs and podcasts are making their way into traditional college classrooms, changing the way students learn and professors teach. Learning becomes more interactive and can take place in the middle of the night. Professors said the new learning modes impr
• Libraries Still Offer Value To College Students From an article in the American University student newspaper: Students prefer online resources and databases to traditional print sources in libraries, according to an article in Educause Review. This switch to online sources has led libraries to change t
• Site for Listing Educational Podcasts Looking for educational podcasts? Check out Ed-Cast.org , a site devoted to listing podcasts related to higher education.
• Can Comparison Shopping Tools Be Trusted? Online shopping has hit the US$211 billion mark, according to Forrester Research. It is no wonder, then, that a plethora of shopping comparison sites have sprung up, all purporting to help people find their way to -- and through -- the hundred of thousand
• Social-networking sites a place to mourn Matt Frank had been dead for eight hours when the first goodbye message was posted on his MySpace page
• Tittle-Tattle: Counting Crows Star Starts Record Label - The Post Chronicle The 42-year-old rocker had no plans to set up his own company until he came across two artists on social networking website MySpace that he wanted to sign
• New weapon helps track copyright piracy - International Herald Tribune As media companies struggle to reclaim control over their movies, television shows and music in a world of online file-sharing software, they have found an ally in software of another kind.
• Presidential Campaigns Tread Carefully Into Web 2.0 World campaign officials acknowledged that such efforts are not without substantial risk. For example, pushing the limits of Web 2.0 technology, such as opening blogs for quick, public postings, could lead to unwanted or libelous posts, analysts said.
• Voluntown librarian says Internet is homework helper I don't think a lot of parents know what is available to help them and their children and what is actually available on many library Web sites.
• Son of DOPA? Social Networking Bill in Illinois May Be Replicated Elsewhere - 2/20/2007 - Library Journal While the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly may not be too receptive to new social networking legislation proposed by freshman Republican Senator Matt Murphy, the bill may be the first in several state attempts to achieve the goals of the fede
• Five questions: Tim Ludwig Tim Ludwig is co-founder, along with his wife, Noelle, of San Diego-based Parentography, a family activity planning and networking site for parents at
• New York Times Google Maps Travel Guides (Worldwide)Google Maps Mania It now appears that the New York Times Travel has hit the mother load of Google Maps integrations by mashing up almost all of their Travel Guide pages (1000 +) and nearly all the hotels, restaurants and such for each guide (tens of 1000's?) which are plot
• New Revenue Stream For Bloggers: TextMark SMS Alerts (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch) TextMarks will announce a new product tomorrow that allows publishers to charge people to receive breaking news and other information via text messages.
• JetBlue C.E.O. Vows Overhaul After Fliers Are Stranded The airline’s founder said in the future JetBlue would pay penalties to customers if they were stranded on a plane for too long.

Yesterday, I returned 3 overdue books to my local library. As I handed the 10 dollar bill over to the clerk, I thought: I wonder if she will DDR-off me for it. Then the thought quickly subsided as there was a long line behind me whose attendees wanted to check their books out and go home. But what if there wasn't a line... Truth be told, I'd rather pay the fines than try to get out of them by winning a contest. I see nothing wrong with "Food for Fines", because this gives back to the community. Also, paying fines adds a sense of duty to the borrower of the material. Teens (or adults for that matter) will think, heck, I don't have to return this book on time because I know that I have the fastest legs in the west and could kick the beans out of the teen librarian at DDR. Paying overdue fines is also one of the most important fund-raising activities for many cash-strapped libraries across the country. Last, there's an socio-economic issue at hand. In low income areas where DDR is not available in every household, how fair is it to the person who doesn't have the time nor the tools to practice to beat the librarian. Example: Two teens walk into the library. One is middle class and has been playing DDR for a few years. The other can't afford DDR and has no experience with it, other than trying it out at the library a few times (note: I see nothing wrong with video games at libraries). Both owe $5 in overdue fines, but only one has the skills (skillz?) to beat the librarian, who of course, is pretty good himself. Libraries are equalizers and "DDRing" off for a chance to waive fines is not. Doing so will cause a rift between those who have and those who don't. So, play DDR, Wii, SL, etc. But don't make a competition out of paying overdue fines. Also, if teens (or adults!) are misbehaving, why reward them with video games, or something else they love to do? I've only been a parent for 4 years, but I know that if Hallie misbehaves, she is less likely to do so again if she doesn't get to play her favorite game for an hour or two.

Rochelle should get a kick out of this one. Brian Smith links to Get a First Life. Hilarious.

My cousin, Eric Komar is a genius. Not only does he speak a slew of languages, but he's an amazing musician. His songs, half of which are in Hebrew, focus on contemporary Jewish issues with a tinge of the traditional. His second CD, Two Life, is being released next week at a launch party in NJ and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Having heard a few tracks, I have to say that this will be a huge hit in the Jewish community. My mom just e-mailed me an article about Eric and his work: "The concert will not only help launch Mr. Komar's new compact disc, "Two Life," but will help raise money for brain cancer research." "I knew I wanted to celebrate the release of the CD, and because the temple community has considered me like family, I wanted to give back by making the concert a combination," Mr. Komar said." Good on ya, Eric. See you next weekend.

According to CNET, Google is now talking openly with book publishers. Which means one thing. They will probably start a blog for the book publishing industry. Well, they did it for librarians, just in time for ALA Midwinter. I'm not a fan of the Google Librarian Center for one important reason: The history between the engine and the profession. Before the book scanning project, Google ignored librarians. As soon as they needed something from us (our books), they started the PR push. Take a look at the timeline. Google shows up at their first ALA conference during the exact time when they were being pushed around for scanning books. Librarians are being used (Brainwashed?) by Google all over again and they don't even realize it. This is one reason why I'm so excited to do my "Research is Hard" presentation in April to a local library system in NY. Here's something else that is interesting and yet more proof that Google doesn't "get" librarians. Yesterday, when I looked at the Librarian Central Blog, I was a bit perturbed that they used an image of three books in their banner. Today, I looked again and it's an image of a library building. Someone must have said something to them and it was changed. Am I the only one who finds this odd? Isn't this a big deal? If they understood librarians (and not just cared about us for our books), they would put a "sexier" image up there. Postscript: Due to the discussions last week on Merediths blog, I should say that my opinion is my own and may or may not be different than those of my publisher and/or employer.