August 4, 2009
July 8, 2009
Rent! those textbooks
From Wired Campus:
“When the company began, it billed itself as “the Netflix for college textbooks.” Textbooks are mailed to students for a 125-day period, with the option to purchase the book. Comparing the amount spent on rentals to a book’s listed sale price, the company’s Web site says Chegg has saved students more than $40-million, or between 65 percent and 85 percent of their book costs.”
Renting textbooks make a lot of sense, if the instructors will commit to using the same edition for at least a few years.
The current system of purchasing increasingly expensive books is not sustainable.
June 6, 2009
Brendan Patrick Paver Arrives!
On May 16, 2009, Brendan Patrick Paver, son of Lauren and Rob Paver, entered the world at 5:15 a.m. Shari and I are very excited first-time grandparents. Of course we think he is the most beautiful baby ever, our own children excluded.
He was 5 weeks early and spent a few days in the NICU but is doing well now, putting on weight a fast clip.
The picture below was taken on May 30, 2009 when he was just two weeks old.
Brendan at 2 weeks
November 24, 2008
Tech Therapy: The Library Building
Tech Therapy: The Library Building:
Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast discuss the future of library buildings on the latest
edition of Tech Therapy. The Athenaeum, the new library at Goucher College that will feature not only books but treadmills, is the initial focus of the discussion. Libraries are increasingly all things to all people, and planning needs to reflect on that. ‘As you are planning library spaces, you need to find ways to bring nuance and agility into the conversation about what the library will become,’ Scott says. ‘You need to stay away from saying the library will be all one thing or the other, or we’re going all electronic or going all paper, or whatever.’
(Via Wired Campus.)
November 15, 2008
Bridging Ages of Librarianship
Bridging Ages of Librarianship: “
I had a great time at the Bridging Worlds Conference and spent some amazing vacation days in Cambodia and Malaysia, so I’m late following up on my conference promise to post a link to the slides for my talk Librarian 2.0: New Breed or Just Another Day at the Office? (12.2MB PDF). Please note that these slides are more current than the ones on the conference site. I’ll find out about posting the accompanying paper, too.
The conference itself was wonderful (the organizers did a good job), and I was especially pleased to meet in person:
- Hazman Aziz – I wish I had half of Hazman’s energy
- Ivan Chew – I loved Ivan’s presentation
- Peter Godwin – Peter is a very funny fellow
- Kathryn Greenhill – finally!
- Joann Ransom – who is doing some amazing online community work in New Zealand
I also highly recommend playing any of Brian Kelly’s conference speaker games if you ever get the chance. 
For those of you who asked for links, the two major papers I discussed in my talk are Fiat Lux, Fiat Latebra: A Celebration of Historical Library Functions (which details ‘The Seven Ages of Librarianship’) by D. W. Krummel and Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation by David Lankes. Both of these gentlemen did all of the heavy lifting for illustrating how we’re moving into an eighth age of librarianship (’participatory librarianship’), and Scott Nicholson connected the dots for me while discussing the historical context of gaming in libraries.
As for pictures, it’s going to take me a couple of weeks to cull and label the 5GB of shots I took (especially since GLLS2008 starts this weekend!), but they’ll eventually appear on my my Flickr account. Thank you to everyone who helped make this one of the most amazing trips of my life.
brian kelly, bridging worlds, bw2008, d w krummel, david lankes, hazman aziz, ivan chew, joann ransom, kathryn greenhill, participatory librarianship, peter godwin, scott nicholson, seven ages of librarianship“
(Via The Shifted Librarian.)
June 12, 2008
Blocking cell phone (SMS) spam
David Pogue, the tech writer for the New York Times, posted an interesting item detailing techniques for blocking text message spam. The techniques require visiting your cell phone carrier’s web site and setting some preferences.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/index.html
March 28, 2008
Southwestern Web Design Final Candidate !
The final design for the new Southwestern University home page is now available via White Whale’s blog at www.whitewhale.net/southwestern/blog. Make sure that you read the design notes which illuminate the thinking and process behind this design which is, literally, out of the box.
The Southwestern Web Management Team and White Whale are eager to hear your comments about the new design. Your comments may be submitted via the blog. We’ll hope that you’ll identify yourself so that we can follow-up with you.
If you’d rather react via e-mail, you can send your thoughts to any member of the Web Management Team which is comprised of: Hal Haskell, John Kotarski, Cindy Locke, Tom Oliver, Bob Paver, Derek Timourian and Todd Watson.
January 28, 2008
MacHeist II a Smash Hit, Sets New Record for Shareware Sales
MacHeist II a Smash Hit, Sets New Record for Shareware Sales: “The shareware promoters known as MacHeist made a splash in 2007 by running the most successful shareware sale ever. This year, the crew sold over 40,000 low-priced bundles of new Macintosh shareware, breaking last year’s record and raising half a million dollars for charity.
(Via Wired News.)
January 25, 2008
One of my favorites: The Scout Report
The Scout Report, a publication of the Internet Scout and sponsored by the University of Wisconsin – Madison Libraries, is one of my favorite weekly e-mails. The Scout Report summarizes interesting useful web sites. These sites are of particular interest to educators.
January 18, 2008
Cell Phone Directory and Telemarketers
Cell Phone Directory and Telemarketers: “E-mail claims you must sign up with the national Do Not Call list to prevent telemarketers from calling your cell phone.”
(Via 25 Hottest Urban Legends.)
No need to call or worry about this. Telemarketing to cell phones is prohibited by FCC regulations. Read more at the link above.