I went on campus yesterday and as I was locking up my bike I noticed some large bins that read “PSU Recycles” and “free binders.” I didn’t really need a binder but out of curiosity I peeked in. It must have been a bit of a time machine in there because it contained binders with all sorts of 70s and 80s designs. The red striping on the back of this one caught my eye. I turned it over and to my delight it was the former home of a guide to searching Dialog. Always a librarian!

Anyone ever use this guide? Is Dialog still being taught in LIS programs? Have a great weekend all!

As we try to port library services to mobile devices, or actually try to create new services for mobile devices, we should be encouraged by news of increased battery life. Hybrio rechargables allegedly last 4 times longer than regular alkaline batteries and can be charged 500 times. According to some MIT micro-jocks, batteries might soon be a thing of the past. See the article “Engine on a chip promises to best the battery”. I can’t really get my head around the idea of having a fuel burning engine inside of my laptop, but if it gets me 10 times the life of a charge, I’m all for it.

Meanwhile, how are teens using their cellulars? They’re not using them to tunnel in to Unix servers or even watch live doppler radar loops. A study by online cell provider LetsTalk says that teens are all about texting. No surprise, really. Think there’s a service opportunity there? [hint: yes]

Will you be at Internet Librarian or any of the following events? Make sure to say hello!

Internet Librarian 2006 - 22-25 October
-Moderating the Social Computing track. It’ll be fun!
-Preconference workshop: Social Tools for Your Library
-MySpace & Facebook, with Cliff Landis
-Blogging Update: Applications & Tips, with Karen Coombs and Walter Nelson
-Gadget Update, with Barbara Fullerton and Sabrina Pacifici

Soaring to Excellence Teleconference - 27 October
-Best New Technologies: Keeping Up with the Storm, with Steven Bell

Hawaii Library Association - 10-11 November
-New Literacy and New Opportunities: Gaming in Libraries
-Social Tools for Your Library

Michigan Library Consortium - 15 Novemebr
-Having a Phone: IM Reference (also on the schedule that day are Meredith Farkas and Jessamyn West. Yay!)

North Suburban Library System - 30 November
-IM for the Reference Librarian

We’re all aware that some academic and public libraries have been using MySpace (see Jenny’s post about the recent US News article too!) to remain relevant and market themselves, but what about school libraries?

It being a hot-button issue and certainly blocked in 99.999% of schools, I imagine school librarians would have a heck of a time getting any sort of admin approval for this. I can hear the conversation. “If we have a MySpace, that’ll *condone* kids visiting the site and it will connect them with molesters!” Right. Because they’re not using it anyways. God forbid there’s any positive influence or education by example going on.

But I digress. Please let me know if you know of any school libraries (or schools in general) with a MySpace account. Thanks!

Working in a library (especially one in the same town in which I lived) for the past 5+ years I never really placed ILL requests using anything other than the staff mode of our ILS. Now that I’m a bit more removed from a library setting I’m having to work a bit harder to look at books.

I think only 15 minutes had passed from when I got my Multnomah County Library card to when I placed a hold online. A few days later, I received my first ever hold notification via email, and now my limit of 15 holds at a time has been nearly met.

It’s like I’ve passed some sort of milestone.