Thursday, December 31, 2009

Obsolete Technology

What is obsolete? Check out CNN's tech report on what has become obsolete such as yellow pages, encyclopedias etc.
CNN

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Service Trends in U.S. Public Libraries, 1997-2007 Report

We already know this just by looking at our users and what they are needing - but a study often helps make our case!

Studies of a more qualitative nature have focused on the prevalence of patrons using the public library’s online resources to engage in vital economic activities. The fact that the majority of America’s leading retailers now require potential hourly employees to submit applications electronically and that most public libraries report being the only source of free Internet access in their communities means that many job seekers who do not have Internet access at home turn to the library.

A recent American Library Association (ALA) study found “greatly increased” use of libraries’ electronic resources in job-hunting. This study echoed what many news outlets have reported anecdotally in the wake of the current economic downturn. Another ALA study reported increased use of library computing resources to access e-government services, such as online applications for unemployment benefits. Library staff often assist patrons in these efforts.

Full Report

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Don't text and drive

Study: Texting While Driving Is Dangerous


Drivers can be substantially more distracted by texting than talking on a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle.

By Marin Perez
InformationWeek
December 22, 2009 01:26 PM



A study by the University of Utah found that texting while operating a motor vehicle can be up to six times more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving.
The study, "Text Messaging During Simulated Driving," had 40 participants use a virtual driving simulator to test their reactions while sending text messages and while talking on the phone. The researchers said drivers who texted often followed other motorists too closely, were less likely to hit the brakes in time to avoid a crash, and had delayed reaction times.



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Find out how to increase availability while reducing data center energy consumptionTexters showed a "substantial" increase in the risk of a crash because texting "requires drivers to switch their attention from one task to the other." Those just talking on a mobile phone "apparently attempt to divide attention between a phone conversation and driving, adjusting the processing priority of the two activities depending on task demands," the researchers said.
The study said there is "little doubt" that conversing while driving can affect performance, but the concentration levels needed for reading, responding, and sending texts can make this practice more dangerous.

"Overall, the present findings suggest that text messaging while driving is more risky than... many other distracting activities drivers currently engage in," the researchers said.

Text messages are booming, as the CTIA said there were more than 1 trillion texts sent last year and that number is expected to increase. The study comes as this issue is gaining a lot of attention from federal legislatures, safety organizations, and the major mobile operators. President Barack Obama has already banned federal workers from sending texts while operating a government vehicle, and lawmakers are mulling legislation that would make states ban this practice or face reduction in federal highway funds.


Application mobilization tools are both more effective and more confusing than ever. To develop this report, InformationWeek Analytics polled nearly 700 business technology professionals and interviewed mobile application experts. Download the report here (registration required).

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Literacy Program Toolkit, 3rd Edition

This is the 3rd edition Literacy Program Toolkit, brought to you by Libraries for Literacy. We have developed this toolkit to help libraries develop adult literacy programs that meet the need within their communities. We hope this toolkit will address the questions you may have and will help your adult literacy programs succeed.

Read more at libraries4literacy.org.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Cool Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree made of books. I took this photo at the University library last year and was sure to tell one of the librarians how good an idea this was. As far as I remember the books were old reference books that weren't used much anymore - they are bound to be available online
Keep in mind that this was just a picture i took at the locval University Library in Aalborg - www.aub.aau.dk/ - thanks for the nice comments and making this a fave.

Library christmas tree 2006 by donaldist.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Humanities Texas Exhibits & Events in North Texas

Balch Springs
"The Bonfire of Liberties: Censorship of the Humanities." This exhibition gives an overview of censorship in its various guises over time. The exhibition also examines the struggle between those who want to censor difficult, controversial and revolutionary material from sensitive viewers and those who want to protect the freedoms of all people to read, view and think for themselves. Viewers may be surprised to learn just how many of their favorite books and plays have been censored at some point in history. City of Balch Springs Library, 12450 Elam Road; December 15, 2009–January 15, 2010.

"Black Art—Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art." This Humanities Texas exhibition features the work of forty-five artists, including unknown Africans and Haitians, through fifty-four photographs, two color posters, and concise texts. City of Balch Springs Library, 12450 Elam Road; February 1–March 1, 2010.

Burleson
"The Road to the Promised Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement." Featuring photographs, facsimiles of landmark documents, and quotations by Dr. King and others engaged in the struggle for civil rights, this Humanities Texas exhibition surveys the Civil Rights Movement from the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 through the 1990s. Burleson Public Library, 248 SW Johnson Avenue; January 1–February 28, 2010.

Carthage
“Texas History Month Lunchbox Lecture.” Humanities Texas speakers directory member Dr. Armando Alonzo will deliver a lecture in conjunction with the Humanities Texas exhibition “Border Studies.” Panola College, M.P. Baker Library Community Room, 1109 W. Panola, 12:00 p.m.; March 1, 2010. Contact Zeny Jett: 903-693-2005.

Dallas
“Green Fields, Black Smoke: Nature and Progress When Dallas was Young.” This multimedia exhibition explores Texas social and environmental history by asking whether people lived “greener” lifestyles in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dallas Heritage Village, 1515 S. Harwood. October 1, 2009–December 30, 2009. Contact Evelyn Montgomery: 214-413-3666.

"Behold the People: R. C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949–1961." This is an exhibition by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin, presented in partnership with Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. R. C. Hickman was a Dallas photographer whose thousands of images produced from 1949 to 1961 document aspects of life in an African American community in Texas. Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture, 100 South Houston St.; January 29–April 20, 2010.

Denton
"Africa in the Americas: Slavery in Spanish and Portuguese Realms." Between 1500 and 1800, millions of Africans sailed to the New World against their will, with almost ninety percent going to Spanish and Portuguese colonies. This Humanities Texas exhibition explores the lives of Africans during the first three centuries of the American enterprise, with particular emphasis on how the slave trade created the prosperity of the New World and stamped the evolving society with indelible aspects of African culture. Denton Public Library, 3020 North Locust Street; February 1–28, 2010.

Farmers Branch
"Images of Valor: U.S. Latinos and Latinas of World War II." Through images and stories, this twelve-panel exhibit, created by the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project in partnership with the School of Journalism and Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, provides a historical overview of U.S. Latino participation in World War II. Brookhaven College, 3939 Valley View Lane; February 1–28, 2010.

Richardson
"Black Art—Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art." This Humanities Texas exhibition features the work of forty-five artists, including unknown Africans and Haitians, through fifty-four photographs, two color posters, and concise texts. Richardson Public Library, 900 Civic Center Drive; February 1–28, 2010.

Tyler
"The Dust Bowl." In the 1930s, photographers working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) captured unforgettable images of human fortitude and despair in the face of calamity; Nebraska photographer Bill Ganzel set out in the late 1970s to find and re-photograph Dust Bowl survivors for a book and exhibition. This exhibit, abridged from the original by Humanities Texas and displayed in Sherman in 1999, combines the FSA photographs and Ganzel’s interviews to create an eloquent story of human fortitude. Tyler Public Library, 201 S. College Avenue; February 1–March 31, 2010.

Weatherford
"Alamo Images: Changing Perspectives of a Texas Experience." This Humanities Texas exhibition surveys the Alamo of the Texas imagination through illustrations drawn from historical documents, paintings, sketches, cartoons, comic books, television and movie interpretations. Doss Heritage and Cultural Center, 1400 Texas Drive; January 15–March 1, 2010.

"Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence" On the frozen morning of March 1, 1836, forty-four men shivered in an unfinished house in the tiny hamlet of Washington, Texas. They and fifteen other men who later joined them, representing all the municipalities in the Mexican province of Texas declared the province to be a free and independent republic. Through twenty panels of photographic images and captions, this exhibit presents an expanded look at these fifty-nine extraordinary men who brought modern Texas into being. Doss Heritage and Cultural Center, 1400 Texas Drive; January 15–March 1, 2010.

Wichita Falls
"Russell Lee Photographs." This traveling Humanities Texas exhibition of photographs by renowned documentary photographer Russell Lee draws from the magnificent archive that he donated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin just prior to his death in 1986. Wichita Falls Museum of Art, 2 Eureka Circle; November 20, 2009–January 2, 2010.

For information about exhibits, funding and other opportunities available from Humanities Texas, visit http://www.humanitiestexas.org/ .