laurien @ April 17, 2008 # No Comment Yet
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature has many amazing materials, but I’ve never before seen one quite like A Story of Stops. The book itself is wonderfully illustrated, so wonderfully in fact that I haven’t yet read it. I can’t get over the idea of a “story of stops,” written in 1891 for [...]
laurien @ February 3, 2008 # No Comment Yet
In working toward the new virtual libraries pages, the UF Libraries’ Library 2.0 Group is also working on tools so that users can use library services more easily. These tools are on the new tools page, and include links to a Firefox toolbar that searches the library catalog, library services related to games, and how [...]
laurien @ January 30, 2008 # One Comment
Librarian subject specialists build guides based on subject area to help students and researchers quickly find all of the most relevant resources available at a particular library easily. Given the cost of commercial databases, different libraries will necessarily have different databases, and some of the most popular resources are in multiple databases. Thus, researchers going [...]
laurien @ January 17, 2008 # One Comment
The Library of Congress is now using Flickr, and Flickr’s new commons area, to load images for collaborative tagging. This is wonderful because the Library of Congress has built so much core infrastructure using hierarchical definitions and adding Web 2.0-style folksonomy information to that is exactly what the Semantic Web (sometimes called Web 3.0) is [...]
laurien @ January 2, 2008 # No Comment Yet
The discovery of Kryptonite, or at least a new mineral matching the chemistry described in Superman Returns, was found earlier this year. As a feral librarian (a librarian who hasn’t attended library school) I haven’t had a cataloging course, so I’m curious as to how articles on the new mineral will be cataloged for both [...]
laurien @ January 2, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Library of Babel” told of a fictional library with every possible book. Within the vast library, all useful books and books of gibberish would be included together putting the process of finding information into a desperate state.
The rise in digital archives without a corresponding rise in organizational structures could [...]
laurien @ December 4, 2007 # One Comment
UF’s Libraries are testing different methods and uses of the library-buildings as third spaces (the not home and not work, where you go for social time and a break from the confines of home&work). This Thursday we’re testing Guitar Hero in Library West (third floor from 12-2pm). We’ve also set up a game section of [...]
laurien @ December 3, 2007 # No Comment Yet
Matthew Daley and Chris McHale (along with other UF Library folks, and maybe others–I only know a couple of the people in the video so I’m not sure who everyone is) made an INFO ZOMBIES film for the SPARC Video Contest. Since the SPARC contest centers around information sharing, the idea of sharing information as [...]
laurien @ November 27, 2007 # No Comment Yet
In the 1970s Gainesville, Florida was home to many of the radical women of the Women’s Movement. Despite a rich web of activity and impact, much of this history is in danger of being lost or at least obscured by a lack-of-presence from current and accessible avenues. Luckily, researchers like Leila Adams are not only [...]
laurien @ November 20, 2007 # One Comment
UF’s Digital Library Center is working on digitizing videos and putting them into the Digital Collections. In order to make sure these videos are preserved for the long run, we’re saving large and small files and taking the necessary steps. In order to make sure they’re found and used as soon as possible, we’re loading [...]