That’s it, show’s over.
Library News & Notes 1/22/10
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
January 22, 2010
This is the final issue of Library News & Notes. I am grateful to have served as librarian in the Rowland Institute these past twelve years. The science keeps getting better and better. Thank you.
Quotes of the week
There is no way unless you’re dead, and even then there is still a question, that you’re not going to offend somebody. There’s always someone that’s going to get offended over something that somebody does. -Frank Zappa
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you got to spill the news … – Sonic Youth “Winner’s Blues”
Internet Sites of the Week
Books/eBooks
E-books bibliography
(Source: Anna Akerberg)
E-readers: the compatibility conundrum
How Copyright has Banished Millions of Books to History’s Scrapheap
(Source: Eric Rumsey)
The Writing on the Wall for Independents
Computers and Internet
Doing Real Time Search? Watch Your Word Order
Five for Friday (Five4Five) #1: A Casual Roundup of the Best Online Research Tools
(Source: Roy Kenagy)
How is the Internet changing the way you think?
(Source: bibliothekarin)
Logan airport planning free wi-fi rollout
See also: Passive Aggressive Wi-Fi Hotspots
(Source: A Cup of Jo)
PDFmyURL Generates PDFs from Any Web Address
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
ShowMeWhat’sWrong
for remote PC troubleshooting
(Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly)
Thoughts on To-Do Lists & Personal Information Management (PIM)
Tweaking an old router to extend a wireless network
5 Google Wave Search Tips for Research, Trends & Tracking
(Source: Pandia Search Engine News)
Libraries
Bite-Size Marketing
(Source: The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries)
Bridging the Silos: Creating sustainable research infrastructure with implications for digital scholarship
(Source: Bill Mayer)
The Condition of U.S. Libraries: Trends, 1999-2009
(Source: beSpacific)
Cornell Library Proposes New Model to Keep arXiv Going
Discovering Primary Source Material
(Source: markemoran)
Finding American Treasures With The New Archivist
(Source: ResourceShelf)
The Full Spectrum Librarian
(Source: SonjaandLibrary)
Harvard Library Twitter feed
(Source: Gloria Korsman)
Library IPhone apps – a short list
Most Interesting Libraries of the World
(Source: bibliothekarin)
Science Online 2010: Scientists and librarians
Stop Freaking Out and Head to the Library!
Or, to quote @oodja, “1999 called. It wants its business model back.”
Why Libraries Exist
(Source: Christina Pikas)
yes, and…
(Source: sharon370)
See also: think in other categories
Scholarly Communication
LaTex Search Tool (beta)
Springer lit search w/LaTex strings
(Source: Robin Dasler)
Very quick note on things that are used but not cited
Science and Technology
The Back-Channel of Science
(Source: John Dupuis)
Blogs you should be reading
women in sci-tech
Gathering clouds and a sequencing storm
How Soon Was Now?
Polaroid
Nano-Scale Robot Arm Moves Atoms With 100% Accuracy
Powering the national labs as engines of discovery
The Promise and Peril of Big Data
(Source: The Scout Report)
Science and Engineering Indicators 2010
(Source: Docuticker)
A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work
Time Crunch for Female Scientists: They Do More Housework Than Men
When science asks, what if
(Source: Science in the News)
Social Networks
Gary’s Social Media Count
(Source: Joseph Esposito)
How to Stop Boring Your Readers To Sleep
(Source: kbloemendaal)
7 Lessons for Better Networking with Social Media
(Sources: Library Web and Ellyssa Kroski)
That’s Life
Eight Tips for Maintaining Friendships
It Is Who You Know and Who Knows You
The Slow Issue
(Source: sustainable)
Library News & Notes 1/8/10
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
January 8, 2010
Happy New Year and New Decade
“How are things? Just as they are.”
Rowland News
Shriram Ramanathan, leader of the Oxides Research Group, is the editor of the recently published Thin Film Metal Oxides. Congratulations, Shriram!
Harvard Libraries News
Kathryn Allamong Jacob, curator of manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library, published King of the Lobby:
The Life and Times of Sam Ward, Man-About-Washington in the Gilded Age. Congratulations, Kathryn!
Internet Sites of the Week
Books/eBooks
From Spotify to Bookify: how playlists could revolutionize the books market
(Source: Library Web
)
Pico Iyer on the tyranny of the moment
(Source: Roy Kenagy)
There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen
(Source: JosephJEsposito)
Computers and Internet
Google Nexus One review roundup
See also: Nexus One vs Droid vs iPhone [Comparison Chart]
(Source: The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian)
PayPal vs Fake PayPal: Can You Tell the Difference?
(Source: nahumg)
Thanks Technology
(Source: Paul Steinbrueck)
5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock
(Source: Michael Sauers)
Libraries
Academic Library Learning Network
(Source: David Osterbur)
Accessing library catalogue & databases on your Mobile phone
Do Librarians Really Do That?
(Source: Shamsha Damani)
Harvard Hacks Away at its Priceless Libraries
(Source: HarvardNews)
In Praise of Public Libraries
Reasons for College Students to Use Libraries
Scholarly Legitimacy
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Social Media, Libraries, and Web 2.0: How American Libraries are Using New Tools for Public Relations
(Source: New Jersey Library Association)
7 arguments for building new libraries
(Source: ALDirect)
10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010
Life
Finding Happiness in Helping Those Who Have Less
How to Lower Your Cable Bill Now?
How to Protect Yourself From Identity Theft
(Source: Stephen’s Lighthouse)
Man Unable To Wear Nice Clothes Without Everyone Asking Questions
Peacefully Adrift as the Mississippi River Just Rolls Along
Scholarly Publishing
Should Copyright of Academic Works Be Abolished?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Unheard Voices: Institutional Repository End-Users
(Source: ResourceShelf
Why Hasn’t Scientific Publishing Been Disrupted Already?
(Source: Joseph J. Esposito)
Who will pay for the arXiv?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Science and Technology
Academic research, DOE facilities are buoyed by recovery act
Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up
(Source: Brad Pierce)
The Blueprints Database
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
biological wiki comparison
(Source: phylogenomics)
Cherry Murray seeks impact for next-generation global leadership
A Decade in Computational Structural Biology
(Source: Bradley Pallen)
Epernicus
Science networking
An Experiment on Prediction Markets in Science
How the Scientist Got His Ideas
How to Train the Aging Brain
(Source: CommonHealth)
Resuscitating industrial research without monopoly money
Social Networking
How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic
(Source: Xuemei)
How To Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page
(Source: Xuemei)
Why Twitter Will Endure
(Source: Roy Kenagy)
10 Ways to Use Speed Networking in Your Job Search
(Source: Alexis S. Kim)
“think in other categories”
An interesting post shown to me yesterday is Kibbe and Klepper’s “EHRs for a Small Planet.” They borrow Rene Dubos’s “small planet” concept (Evidently, Dubos also first said “think globally, act locally) and underline five suggestions for the implementation of electronic health records on a small, manageble, measurable scale. Among their suggestions are: “Define success with local health and health care problems in mind;” use existing technology; concentrate on “the smallest unit of care delivery, with a focus on connectivity and communications; ” consider people’s desire for personal connections in using technology; and that “data – the message – is deliverable regardless of the sending or receiving applications, and independent of the network or transport layer that carries it.”
I’d like to consider these in light of my experience working in libraries.
1. Defining success locally connotates direct interaction with patrons and getting to know their needs, from the individual to the community (may include demographics, education-level, facility with technology, cultural competence, sensitivity to persons w/disabilities.) I’m able to do this in my current environment, working with the scientists at the Rowland Institute at Harvard. For example, one group I know studies bacterial motion. By getting to know their projects, I learn their interests may extend to forces on cells, communities of cells, statistical physics and mechanics, and microscopy and related instrumentation. What a patron requested once, they may like something similar or analogous to it in the future. Amazon, among others, really exploits this well with suggested purchases based on what similar buyers read and like, customer reviews and lists, and we have seen similar execution with communities such as LibraryThing and GoodReads. So I meet my patrons, share anything that may contribute (alerting the user to new books, papers, news stories, blog posts, etc.) and accept feedback and see what works. I apply this method to all the labs I serve and I maintain that this can be applied elsewhere. I have to engage with my patrons and demonstrate my commitment and my usefulness. What if there is no answer? It may be, as some say, “contented silence.” Or, maybe I can take the lesson from my college days. A professor was on the street and a student passed him and they greeted each other. “I came by your office the other day and you weren’t there, ” the kid said. “So what?” replied the professor. “You stopped trying?”
2. By “using existing technology, ” Kibbe and Klepper urge consideration of what’s available to us now, as opposed to investing in expensive EHR technology, software and hardware. Yes, we librarians need to keep current with new applications (such as databases and social networking) and see that our libraries are up-to-date with computer hardware and software. At the same, the barrier for adopting technology and getting a lot of computing power is lower than it ever has been. But using existing technology reminds me of Edwin Land’s thinking, that the problem can be solved with the materials in the room at the time. And, with a certain amount of time and patience, alternatives appear. The expensive textbook the patron wants is not available; but maybe there are similar books which would fill the need, or maybe even an article, with all the databases at our reach in many academic and public libraries. One of my LIS professors emphasized to me that sometimes the article or the paper contains the essentials, the kernel, which would take longer to find in a book. This gentleman also drilled into me the concept “there’s a literature there to help you,” and that it’s unlikely that a problem hasn’t been experienced, written about and even solved by someone before me.
3. “The smallest unit of care delivery with a focus on connectivity and communications.” To care seems to me the essence of service provision. I am reminded of when my ex and I were flying to Minneapolis for the holidays and our flight was cancelled. Travellers were scrambling for alternatives. An irate older woman, listening to a flight attendant list her options, sputtered “I don’t care, ” to which the other replied “Well, I don’t care, either, Ma’am.” And sometimes, the problem may not be solved and it may appear that for some individuals the systems we have just don’t work. However, I have to be equal to every encounter with a patron, and if I don’t know the answer, ask for help, take the time to consider alternatives while considering the other person’s time. Sometimes, people have said to me “Sorry for disturbing you.” Sadly, many among us may think they’re coming to a busy office, rather than a library, and that the employees are very busy and not to be interrupted. (My mother, a reference librarian for more than thirty years, always kept a sign which read “please interrupt me.” For me, this means engaging with the individual now and thinking what might this person need and what can be done. And I am engaging with library users more (if not almost entirely) through email, and maybe I will through social networks. Many librarians consider Twitter and Facebook a waste of time. I need to be there because my current and potential patrons may be there, and while I’m there I am exposed to information about libraries and technology that I might not have learned about otherwise. And I have helped and been helped by people I would never have known otherwise. My world has expanded through social networks where as before it was so small. Nevertheless, there is nothing like the face-to-face, listening and responding encounter now, which makes the library a place worth seeking.
4. “Recognize that what sustains most information technologies is people’s desire to connect with one another.” Kippe and Klopper state that current EHR technology does nothing to alleviate barriers of communication among providers and nurses and between providers and patients. So what are the barriers of communication between my patrons and me? Kippe and Klepper add:
EHRs that can share data, information, and connect the experience of patients, caregivers and doctors more directly are much more likely to be utilized at the community level than EHRs that in essence capture and remove data, isolating them and their potential social uses in faraway databases that no one can get into.
What might that mean for libraries, service and interaction with patrons? Could it mean getting rid of arcane systems like LC, Dewey and MARC and adopting a more social experience for the user who could rank and recommend materials through the online catalog? Could it extend to Facebook pages, groups, Google waves, games, sharing among patron communities local and remote and sharing and collaboration between libraries to “save the time of the user” and supply the information to whomever needs it at that moment in time? (Kippe and Klopper mention the success of health social websites, that they are closing the “”collaboration gap” between patient and provider, or even patient and patient. Stephen Abram and others surely have thought more deeply about this than I am at the moment. And while we want a system that will serve the greatest number of people, it is the individual encounters between patron and librarian that make up my life – now. That’s my work. William James, in the Varieties of Religious Experience, spoke of the scholars who were not interested in individual religious experience but who rather demanded a God “who does a wholesale and not a retail business.” However, James went on to show, taking theology rather than one’s own individual experience, was like looking at the menu rather than having the meal. So it is with serving the patron in the moment, and we may never meet again or there may no acknowledgement. I keep on, this is what I do. It’s now.
5. Finally, Kippe and Klopper stress that the information can get where it’s going, that the sender and the recipient can both be served and accomplish what’s needed, regardless of the specific software/hardware or particular system. “[D]ata – the message – is deliverable regardless of the sending or receiving applications, and independent of the network or transport layer that carries it.” They go on to talk about the barriers to information sharing that would result if EHRs, for example, are kept behind “”walled gardens,” such that hospitals using different platforms can’t communicate with each other. Interoperability is key. Likewise, maybe a patron shouldn’t have to learn a new system just to use a library or access information. This could be the promise of open access, open data, social sharing, and a levelling of such barriers and an enhancement of communication and our lives.
I don’t remember where I heard the phrase “think in other categories, ” but Kippe and Klopper’s lucid proposals can be applied in other settings, with similar goals and potentially similar outcomes.
Library News & Notes 12/18/09
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
December 18, 2009
Note: this is the last LNN for the calendar year. The next issue will be posted on January 8, 2010. Happy Holidays to one and all.
Quotes of the Week
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ―Martin Luther King Jr.
(Source: Real Simple)
“Libraries: Unlike banks, we are still lending” – unknown
(Source: oodja)
Books/eBooks
Easy and Inexpensive Mechanics of Creating Your First E-book
How to Destroy the Book
(Source: The Shifted Librarian)
Legal Battles Over E-Book Rights to Older Books
(Source: Matthew Fraser)
Open Content Alliance (OCA) vs. Google Books: OCA as superior network and better fit for an emerging global public sphere
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
See also: Libraries Ask For Oversight Of Google Books Product
(Source: Bernie Sloan)
Preserving business models
(Source: Joseph J. Esposito)
Random House unveils book-excerpt sharing on Facebook
(Source: Library Web)
Women’s 2009 Books Enjoyed a Banner Year
See also: 8 Awesome Books By Women: An ’00s Virtual Bookshelf
Computers and Internet
Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac
Deep Web Research 2010
(Source: beSpacific)
A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing
(Source: Michael T. Peper)
Google Collaborates with D-Wave on Possible Quantum Image Search
How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB flash drive
How to stream your next event live for free in 4 easy steps
(Source: The Shifted Librarian)
If web services were vintage paperbacks
Send Large Files Of Any Size: Guide To The Best Tools And Services To Transfer Large Files
(Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly)
Slaves of the feed – This is not the realtime we’ve been looking for
(Source: Hacker News)
See also: Why We Don’t Care About Information Overload
(Source: MLx)
TeuxDeux: a simple online to-do list manager
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
The Top 10 Gadgets of Decade; Will the Data These Devices Hold Be Accessible in Another 10 Years?
Wave Federation: Building An Open Network
YouTube unveils most-watched, most-searched list for 2009
100+ Sites to Download Everything Online
(Source: Lone Wolf Librarian)
Education
Have the learners leapfrogged the teachers?
(Source: Library Web)
How to Prepare Your College for an Uncertain Digital Future
The Purposes of Learning Technology
Ten Steps to Successful Teaching
(Source: Hacker News)
Libraries and Archives
The All-Digital Library? Not Quite Yet
The Collaborative Imperative: Special Collections in the Digital Age
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
A Collaborative Learning Experiment: Top Ten Customer Service Skills for Library Staff
Cornell University Library Partners with the Internet Archive
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Daguerreotypes at Harvard
(Source: Jan Merrill-Oldham)
E-Books in the Sciences: If We Buy It Will They Use It
Electronic Scientific Data & Literature Aggregation: A Review for Librarians
How to Read Scientific Research Articles: A Hands-On Classroom Exercise
Librarians: The Secret to Narrative History
Rebecca says “librarians helped make my book possible to write” and “librarians rock!”
(Source: BoraZ)
Managing free and open access electronic resources
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Of Moore and Magic
(Source: Librarian of Fortune)
Provost Addresses Library Changes
Question: What’s the biggest dead-end you ever hit in your research where you suddenly, unexpectedly found a way forward?
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Resource of the Week: A Freebie for Info Pros from ebrary
Search engine use behavior of students and faculty: User perceptions and implications for future research
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Text Message Reference: Is It Effective?
(Source: Library Web)
Widening your Nets, Decentralizing your Web Services
Life, Family, Work and Money
Alphabet Updated With 15 Exciting New Replacement Letters
Ditch the Resume; Make a Chart Instead
The Encyclopedia of Counterintuitive Thought
(Source: The 99 Percent)
How Remarkable Women Lead
(Source: HarvardNews)
How to measure product/market fit
(Source: Hacker News)
Job Hunting During the Holidays
A Long, Elaborate History Of Time
(Source: Randy Reichardt
)
Managing to Learn: The Discussion
Online Privacy and Reputation in Job Hunting
Performance Reviews that Energize
That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work
Underrated career skill: Asking questions
What Would a Fashionable Academic Wear to a Job Interview?
(Source: Fashionable Academics)
5 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More
(Source: Girlie Girl Army)
Scholarly Publishing
Author Identification Systems
See also: Credit where credit is due
Citemine: preparations for the publish:filter revolution have begun
Dramatic Growth of Open Access
How do I feel about open-access journals? The president wants to know
(Source: BoraZ)
Open Access Encyclopedias
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Open Their Eyes: How the Open Access Movement has Changed the Scholarly Publishing World for Academics
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Scholars Seek Better Metrics for Assessing Research Productivity
See also: Another idea from the scholarly evaluation metrics workshop
Should Editors Influence Journal Impact Factors?
(Source: Joseph J. Esposito)
Snappy answers to stupid questions: an evidence-based framework for responding to peer-review feedback
(Source: laikas)
Sustaining On-line Research Resources
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Timeline of a scientific article
(Source: BoraZ)
Science and Technology
Alice’s adventures in algebra: Wonderland solved
(Source: Liz Bryson)
Apollo: Reflections and Lessons
Atomic spins measure ultracold temperatures
The best books of 2009
New Scientist weighs in
A Christmas Reading List
(Source: Boing Boing)
Creating Citizen Scientists
(Source: Science in the News)
Did You Hear the One About the Former Scientist?
Evolution Going Great, Reports Trilobite
New NIH forms raise concerns
(Source: Science in the News)
Rain or Shine? Computer Models How Brain Cells Reach a Decision
Science-themed cookies for all your holiday baking needs
Scientists Crack ‘Entire Genetic Code’ of Cancer
(Source: Science in the News)
Slowed light breaks record
Lene Hau’s latest breakthrough
Strange Physical Theory Proved After Nearly 40 Years
stemming.org
“growing the community of girls and women in science, technology and mathematics”
(Source: Under The Microscope)
Top 9 organizations women in science should consider joining
Social Networking
Complete History of Social Networking
(Source: Matthew Fraser)
Conference Information: Managing Before, During and After
Facebook Suggests You Lie, Break Its Own Terms Of Service To Keep Your Privacy
A futurist’s view of the “next big thing” in social media
Six scientific steps to social media success
Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Twitter Is a Boon, But with a Catch
(Source: NAE Spotlight on Engineering, Technology, and Policy)
9 Tips for Enriching Your Presentations With Social Media
(Source: CyberlandGal)
Library News & Notes 12/11/09
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
December 10, 2009
Quote of the week
“What a man hears he may doubt, what he sees he may possibly doubt, but what he does himself he cannot doubt.”
Seaman Knapp, as quoted in Atul Gawande, Testing, Testing: The health-care bill has no master plan for curbing costs. Is that a bad thing?
Rowland News
The upper surface of an Escherichia coli swarm is stationary
A new paper from the Berg lab, where they “deposited MgO smoke particles on the top surface of an E. coli swarm near its advancing edge, where cells move in a single layer, and then followed the motion of the particles by dark-field microscopy and the motion of the underlying cells by phase-contrast microscopy.”
Apex Green Roofs – New England Eco-Roof Installation-The Rowland Institute at Harvard
Internet Sites of the Week
Books/eBooks
The End of Book Publishing As We Know It
(Source: inkyelbows)
Formula to detect an author’s literary ‘fingerprint’
(Source: bibliothekarin via ResourceShelf)
inkmesh
“Find free ebooks and compare ebook prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader and more!”
(Source: Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
Is an e-book a book?
(Source: bibliothekarin)
Jeff Bezos on Kindle & e-Books
(Source: Om Malik)
Ode to Books, or Why E-Book Readers Will Never Replace Them
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Some Things I Like the Best and the Least About eBooks
(Source: ResourceShelf)
10 strangest books in English
(Source: Amanda McNeil)
Computers and Internet
An App for Those With Airport Time to Kill
Firefox note-taking add-ons are Web supersaver
Flash flood: the (very short) story of YouTube
See also: Quiet Tube
removes comments and adds from YouTube videos
(Source: Technology Tidbits)
The future of WiFi: gigabit speeds and beyond
Germany pays to fix Microsoft users’ computers
Google Visual Search Coming To Android
(Source: vroblespac)
Google, Washington Post and N.Y. Times create news tool
Great expectation for cutting-edge tech firms
How fake sites trick search engines to hit the top
How Search Engines Cope With Real-Time Data
How to be the world’s greatest ISP
How to fit a pharmacist in your pocket
Optimism as Artificial Intelligence Pioneers Reunite
A periodic table of visualization methods
(Source: Stephen’s Lighthouse)
See also: Swimming in Data? Three Benefits of Visualization
(Source: aabibliographer)
Readability
“Readability is a browser bookmarklet (sort of like a bookmark on steroids).”
(Source: Christina Pikas)
A review of the main reference management softwares
(Source: tweeterpeter)
Stephen Wolfram: ‘I’m an information pack rat’
Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009
(Source: Xuemei)
The Virtual Private Library and Deep Web
What the Real-Time Web Can Deliver
When Google Runs Your Life
(Source: msauers)
See also: Search Me
(Source: Jill Lagerstrom)
See also: Google Magazine
(Source: Cassandra Eckhof)
When Real Time Is *Not* Fast Enough: The Intention Web
(Source: Lone Wolf Librarian)
WhoCrashed Explains Why Your Windows PC Crashed
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
Why Websites Are Lost (and How They’re Sometimes Found)
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Libraries
Faculty Calls For Library Funding (Harvard Crimson)
See also: Weiss to guide Library Implementation Work Group
The Implications of Web 2.0 for Academic Libraries
(Source: Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
See also: Social media adoption, policy & development
(Source: shamsha)
Increasing Retention Rates in Minority Librarians Through Mentoring
(Source: Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
Jumping onto the Bandwagon: New Librarians Navigating the Science/Technology Librarianship
(Source: Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
Staffless “library” opens up in King County
The USA PATRIOT Act and academic libraries: An overview
(Source: twittbraries)
Life, Family, Work and Money
The Hidden Business Cost of Mental Illness
(Source: Sloan Work & Family Research Network)
How to Never Be Late For Work or Anything Again
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
How To Research A Legal Problem: A guide for non attorneys
Internet resources on violence against women
(Source: twittbraries)
New Study Reveals Most Children Unrepentant Sociopaths
Thoughts on the Future of Work
Three Ways to Keep Your Ego in Check
(Source: Matthew Fraser)
Scholarly Publishing
Digital Repositories : An investigation of best practices for content recruitment to academic digital repositories and the conditions for their livelihood
(Source: DigitalKoans)
Does Reviewing Your Peers Create Better Results Than Peer-Review?
(Source: Joseph J. Esposito)
”Free” Open Choice – beware of Greeks bearing gifts
(Source: Ingegerd Rabow)
How to Cite Twitter and Facebook
Source: Amanda Clay)
Hybrid OA journals: A progression or a destination?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
International Standard Name Identifier
(Source: Ahmed Hindawi)
Missing Web References — A Case Study of Five Scholarly Journals
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Overcoming barriers: access to research information
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Scholarly Communications must be Mobile
(Source: BoraZ)
What is the impact of discovery tools on researcher self-archiving behavior?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Science
Bohr-Einstein Debates
(Source: Ars Physica)
Calculating how to tell atoms where to send their photons
Caltech Archives Presents “50 Years of ‘Plenty of Room’”
(Source: Dana Roth)
The Circular Logic of the Universe
Funding science research as a sustained enterprise
See also: Science Matters: It pays to fund research
(Sources: sciencegoddess; Steve Silberman)
He Must Be Joking
(Source: Catharine Zivkovic)
History of Medicine: Online Syllabus Archive
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Hubble peers deeper than ever into the universe
Mental health issues for researchers
More on proximity to industry – and similar ideas
New Model of the Universe Says Past Crystallizes out of the Future
(Source: Steve Silberman)
New Project Promotes Virtual Science Labs, Despite Skepticism
Physics-Online.ru
Russian physics network
(Source: Lev Malov)
A scientist talks about requirements for social software for scientists
Scientists Create World’s Smallest Snowman
Should we talk about disciplines?
Why Bother?
ACS has a social networking site
Social Networks
the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks
(Source: Manhattan User’s Guide)
Facebook, Twitter and More: The New Rules of Social Networking
(Source: Sharon Hayes)
Faux Friendship
See also: Social networking is not killing friendship
HOW TO: Start and Run a Successful Twitter Chat
(Source: AAUW)
Is Social Media Worth Your Time?
(Source: nahumg)
A Tale of Three Conferences
(Source: Simon J. Bains)
Texting, tweeting ought to be viewed as GR8 teaching tools, scholar says
Twitter Really Works: Makes $6.5 Million in Sales for Dell
Library News & Notes 12/4/09
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
December 4, 2009
Quotes of the Week
“I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean.” ~Rumi
(Source: Lori Moreno)
“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.” -Antoine De Saint-Exupery
(Source: justsocial)
Rowland News
A High-Throughput Screening Approach to Discovering Good Forms of Biologically Inspired Visual Representation
David Cox and colleagues demonstrate potential advances in computer “vision” using powerful information processing and video game technology combined with principles from molecular biology in this PLoS Computational Biology paper.
Internet Sites of the Week
Books/eBooks
Best books of 2009: fiction
A list by the Christian Science Monitor, with links to reviews
See also: Book reviewers on the Web
(Source: Maxine Clarke)
‘The Cusp of Every Bibliomaniac’s Dream’
Funny conversations between book dealer and customers
(Source: Boing Boing)
Future of book publishing is unknowable
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
In defense of books
Article about Robert Darnton in the Gazette
See also: Google and the New Digital Future
An Introduction to the Mechanics of Writing a World Famous E-book
One Way to Improve Your Book Sales
Protect eBooks Or Trust Customers To Do The Right Thing?
(Source: bibliothekarin)
See also: What Does it Mean to “Buy” an E-book?
(Source: O’Reilly Radar)
See also: Ten Predictions For The E-Reader/E-Book Market In 2010
(Source: Lisa Carlucci)
The Scholars’ Catalog Project
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Stop, you’re killing me
A website for mystery lovers
(Source: FreePint)
Computers and Internet
ACM Names 47 Fellows for Innovations in Computing, Information Technology
(Source: Computational Complexity
DEC may be gone, but it’s not forgotten
How to YouTube with Success
(Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian)
If you want to test a man’s character, give him power*point
(Source: Hacker News)
Music library disaster? How to rip songs from your iPod
New Technologies That Save Time & Money
PC World’s Top 10 How-To Videos
Programmer search engine
(Source: Hacker News)
Test Your Internet Connection Speed
Tools for Remote Collaboration and Interaction
(Source: The Distant Librarian)
Top 8 Disposable Email Address Services
Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009
(Source: Library Web)
Verizon Droid: A 60-second review
Where Google Goes From Here, Part 1
See also: Why Should You Care About Google Wave?
See also: 5 things you can only do on Google Wave
(Source: mistygirlph)
See also: New Chrome Browser: Fast, Safe and Simple
See also: Un-Google Yourself
(Source: Sharon Hayes)
Libraries
Another reason data services need librarians
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Bookkeeping: The right library reforms will preserve the health of Harvard’s collections
Catalyzing Collaboration: Seven New York City Libraries
(Source: Digital Koans)
Enhancing ur work
(Source: ALA_TechSource)
The future of bookstores is the…
(Source: Bonnie Swoger)
The Hyperlinked Library in Times of Change and Challenge
(Source: Librarian in Black)
Information Architecture Principles: Use in a Library Setting
Information Society
“This collection includes several thousand of articles and books on the information society, in various languages, freely available for download.”
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
“The Law of Stackable Hamsters”
(Source: Roy Kenagy)
Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Libraries and crowdsourcing – 6 examples
(Source: Library Web)
Libraries Consider Merging Despite Faculty Questions
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
More Cuts Coming to Yale University Library
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Networking: Overcoming Your Hesitation
Next-Gen Libraries Presentation
(Source: Library Web)
North American Institutions Most Frequently Represented in High-impact Library Journals
(Source: Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
Preserving the Library in the Digital Age
(Source: The Distant Librarian)
So you want to write about libraries?
Social Construction of Authorized Users in the Digital Age
(Source: ResourceShelf)
What is the Next Trend in Usage Statistics in Libraries?
(Source: schopfel)
Life, Family, Work and Money
America Without a Middle Class
(Source: beSpacific)
Be Prepared
List of questions compiled from an academic job search
Control is an Illusion You Need to Let Go
Eight Tips to Know If You’re Being Boring
‘Fear of fear’ can lead to depression
Find a Mentor/Role Model
(Source: masswomen)
FlyOnTime.us
“Find the most on-time flight between two airports or check how late your flight is on average, in good weather and bad, before you leave.”
(Source: beSpacific)
Forgiveness: Letting go of grudges and bitterness
(Source: MEDLINEPlus)
Former Polaroid owner found guilty of running Ponzi scheme
How to Prepare for a Performance Review
How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
(Source: Hacker News)
How to Stop Taking Things Personally
Leverage the advantages of being an introvert at work
‘Tis the Season for Better Credit
When to Confront Someone: The Rule of Three
(Source: HarvardBiz)
Scholarly Publishing
Best Thinking
“Open access publisher and syndicator of journal quality content”
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
The next generation of electronic journals: prospects and problems
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Online Journals and the Evolving Genre Ecosystem of Science
(Source: BoraZ)
Open access and the Google book settlement
Paying for open access? Institutional funding streams and OA publication charges
Peer review, data quality, and usage metrics
(Source: Open Access News)
Tenurometer
(Source: Stevan Harnad)
When Scholarly Publishers Reduce Author Rights in the Face of Open Access Initiatives
(Source: mrgunn)
Science and Technology
Beating the diffraction-limit using CARS microscopy
BioKM: Cloud-based Research Knowledge Management
(Source: mrgunn)
The complicated history of simple scientific facts
(Source: konfigmaster)
Division of Condensed Matter Physics Image Gallery
(Source: Condensed Concepts)
Ground-Breaking Science: Very Old Papers Are Both Awesome and Hilarious
(Source: Hacker News)
MIT Mad Scientists Say Corpse-Reanimation Still 10 Years Away
The most important letter in your scientific career?
The Mystery of Bosnia’s Ancient Pyramids
(Source: Science in the News)
Physics Model Determines Dynamics of Friends and Enemies
Playing tricks with the speed of light
Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences
Science Matters: It pays to fund research
(Source: sciencegoddess)
Scientist takes aim at her longtime silent scourge
(Source: Cameron Partridge)
Scientists demonstrate multibeam, multi-functional lasers
(Source: HarvardNews)
SEAS, Murray engineer solutions to global problems
Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein’s Spacetime
The Value of New Scientific Communication Models for Chemistry
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
See also: Are chemists really grinches?
(Source: phylogenomics)
Where Are the Female Scientists in Research Articles?
(Source: Under the Microscope)
See also: More PhDs for women
Why should anyone give credence to industry sponsored research?
(Source: Andrew Spong)
Wired for Sound
list of science podcasts
(Source: Maxine Clarke
You Choose
Advice on selecting grad students for a lab
Social Networking
The Anti-Social-Network Social Network
Are Facebook Groups the New Drug Interventions?
How Social Media Completely Changed Overnight
(Source: konfigmaster)
“I Want To Use Twitter For My Conference”
(Source: Roy Tennant)
Jack Dorsey on Square, How It Works & Why It Disrupts
(Source: Hacker News)
Listimonkey
“Google alerts for Twitter lists”
(Source: rstoup)
mentionmap – a Twitter visualization
(Source: Sharon Hayes)
Library News & Notes 11/20/09
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
November 20, 2009
Note: there will be no LNN next week. Happy Thanksgiving!
Quote of the Week
“To be one with the truth for just a moment, Is worth more than the world and life itself.” ~Rumi
(Source: Sharon Hayes)
Rowland news
Howard Berg has a review paper in the special issue of Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, “From bacterial chemotaxis to cellular systems biology: a tribute to Dennis Bray.”
Books/eBooks
Downloading Optimism
(Source: Boing Boing)
Interview with Boston Book Festival Participant Nicholas Negroponte
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization
(Source: Joe Esposito)
Revised Google Books Settlement
See also: Revised Google Settlement Offers Minor Changes on Antitrust Issue, No Response on Library Pricing
(Source: Bernie Sloan)
See also: Universities Add Their Own Search of Google Books
(Source: Michelle Pearse)
See also: Will Google survive Google Books?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project
See also: Google’s Earth
Some Choice Book Blogs
(Source: Law Librarian Blog)
Computers and Internet
‘Augmented reality’ fuses your world and the Web
The dizzying ambition of Wolfram Alpha
Fixing E-Mail
(Source: NYT Technology Journalists)
Google’s Chrome OS is all about the Web
Hacker News
(Source: Jennifer Smith)
Microsoft Launches Pivot, A Radically New Visualization of Online Objects
New “Microformat” Could Change the Way We Read Online
New Web Site Makes Internet Time Traveling Easier
Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions
(Source: Cassandra Eckhof)
Only Disconnect
(Source: The 99 Percent)
Real-time newcomer Factery Labs finds you facts
Safe Mac Computing on an Unsafe Web
(Source: raduboncea
Search the real time web with LeapFish
SPDY: Google wants to speed up the web by ditching HTTP
What is Windows 7 Starter Edition?
See also: Migrating to Windows 7: Final Touches
See also: Running Windows 7 under OS X: Ars reviews VMware Fusion 3
See also: How To Change Default Programs In Windows
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
See also: Windows Clipboard Manager PasteCopy
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
Why Web widgets will invade your TV
Yahoo! Pipes: Relevant information on tap
7 Cloud Computing Myths Busted
(Source: raduboncea)
See also: Is Cloud Computing a Credible Solution for Education?
Education
FAS To Decrease Size of Faculty
Friends and Colleagues Search for a Missing Scholar, Philip Agre
Herc – Higher Education Recruitment Consortium | Academic Jobs
(Source: Angela Healy)
Learning’s online fate
(Source: Harvard in the News)
Libraries
E-Science Survey Preliminary Results and Resources Released
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Harvard College Library YouTube Channel
(Source: Harvard Music Library)
Improving Library Services: Using Mashups
Library Terms That Users Understand
(Source: slait)
Mobile Access to E-Books at Yale
(Source: oodja)
New Librarianship
(Source: The Shifted Librarian)
Old Boston, New Ways
(Source: j’s scratchpad)
Quotes on the Value of Libraries
(Source: Library Web)
This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson
(Source: Library Web)
Life, Family, Work and Money
Caregiver Crunch: How To Find Affordable Care
Change Your Culture by Changing Your Stories
(Source: HarvardBiz)
Don’t be a snob about career advice
Duck! It’s the Holidays
(Source: Cassandra Eckhof)
How To Keep Track Of What You’ve Learnt
(Source: The 99 Percent)
How To Remember Things
(Source: The 99 Percent)
Social Networking Explodes As Job-Search Tool
(Source: ResourceShelf)
Study: Soft skills highly valued by employers
(Source: Heather Huhman)
Scholarly Publishing
Article-Level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact
(Source: Theo Bloom)
Bridging the DiGital Divide: A New Vendor in Town? Google Scholar Now Includes Case Law
(Source: beSpacific)
Elsevier Begins Pilot of Cutting-Edge Research Tool Named “Reflect” in the Journal Cell
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Faculty Perspectives on Open Educational Resources and Open Access
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Mendeley, the-Last.fm-of-research, could be world’s largest online research paper database by early 2010
(Source: LibraryStuff
No Journal Access? Email the Author, Colleague
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Participation Value and Shelf-Life for Journal Articles
(Source: tweeterpeter)
Revisiting OA Priorities
(Source: Stevan Harnad)
‘SciPlore MindMapping’ – A Tool for Creating Mind Maps Combined with PDF and Reference Management
Science and Technology
Academic Researchers’ Conflicts of Interest Go Unreported
(Source: Harvard in the News)
AIM problem lists
Unsolved math mysteries
(Source: Slashdot)
BioTorrents – a file sharing resource for scientists
(Source: phylogenomics)
Careering out of control
See also: Advice on a research career
Chempedia Lab
“A place to ask and answer questions about experimental chemistry.”
(Source: Christina Pikas)
Congress rejects most of Chu’s energy ‘Bell Lab-lets’
Effective Lab Skills: Managing People, Projects, and Money
Emerging shortages
“Some of the world’s fastest-growing economies are facing science and engineering workforce shortfalls.”
FutureGrid to provide platform for experimental computation
The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It’s Coming Soon
See also: Is There a Method in Cellphone Madness?
Nature Medicine Classics Collection
New Brain Cells May Knock Out Old Memories
Next-generation sequencing data analysis
Open science at web-scale: Optimising participation and predictive potential
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Physics, Astronomy Degree Production Is Up, Says AIP
Record-Breaking Radio Astronomy Project to Measure Sky with Extreme Precision
Report: Fiber Optics Not A Real Thing
Ripples in space divide classical and quantum worlds
ScienceWorksForUs
Research supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(Source: Chronicle of Higher Education)
Seeking a Shorter Path to New Drugs
Stimulus grant to enhance arXiv e-preprints for scientists
(Source: tweeterpeter
Taking the plunge into the animated ocean
Twitter Lists of Health and Science
(Source: tweeterpeter)
The Unraveling of the Real 3D Mandelbulb
(Source: Mandelbulb)
The Virtual Lab Book
(Source: the Scout Report)
Social Media
Conference Humiliation: They’re Tweeting Behind Your Back
See also:
Tweckling Twitterfolk: Chronicle Readers React to the New World of Twitter Conference Humiliation
See also: Why your major academic conference doesn’t have (good, free) wireless internet
(Source: Karen Schneider)
See also: Life is a Conference (Oh Chum)
(Source: tweeterpeter)
Free Tools and Applications For More Efficient Online Interaction
(Source: beSpacific)
How Can Social Networks Become Smarter?
Magntize Helps You Build a Simple Social Media Business Card
(Source: Matthew Fraser)
The Nervous Breakdown
(Source: Lisa Moricoli-Latham)
Top 5 Must-Read Social Media Books
(Source: HarvardSocial)
Tracking A Million Conversations
(Source: HBSmktg)
Twitter and the learning technology stream
(Source: tweeterpeter
We mean you no harm
(Source: ReadWriteWeb)
Wikis in the workplace: a practical introduction
YouTube to Help Sites Gather News Clips
(Source: Google News)
3 Flavors of Social Search: What to Expect
5 Impressive Real-Life Google Wave Use Cases
(Source: reffervescent)
See also: A Google Wave Cheat Sheet
(Source: shamsha)
10 Ways to Archive Your Tweets
New Books
November 14 -20, 2009
No new books received this week.
Howard Berg commentary in journal special issue on bacterial chemotaxis
The most recent Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology features the theme “From bacterial chemotaxis to cellular systems biology,” in tribute to Dennis Bray. It includes Rowland’s Howard Berg’s commentary The Gain Paradox.
Harvard affiliates follow this link.
Library News & Notes 11/13/09
Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
November 13, 2009
“A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere” – Groucho Marx
(Source: Cassandra Eckhof)
Internet Sites of the Week
Books/eBooks
Hate reading text online? There IS a better way…
How to Purchase Books Online for Less
(Source: hrouda)
Kindle readers beware – big Amazon is watching you read 1984
(Source: Liz Bryson)
Publishers and Booksellers Rally to Support eBooks and eReaders
(Source: Peter Scott)
The Second Generation of e-Book Readers is on the Way
(Source: Library Web)
Computers and Internet
The Age of the Informavore
(Source: Liz Bryson)
Clicker launches for all–watch it
Online video and TV directory
(Source: raduboncea)
Copyright overreach takes a world tour
(Source: lapsedluddite)
See also: A Call for Copyright Rebellion
Google Dashboard: Its unintended uses (and abuses)
Google: Free Wifi at Logan, other airports
Google Wave: Better than Twitter for Conference Chatter?
(Sources: Library Web; Ellyssa Kroski)
See also: Uncovering the meaning of Google Wave for publishers
(Source: TheOccasional)
A glut of Google can give you a virtual fever
Harvard’s Web Ecology Project
Part 1 and Part 2
(Source: BoraZ)
It’s All Semantics: Searching for an Intuitive Internet That Knows What Is Said–And Meant
See also: The Rapid Evolution of Search
(Source: asu132
Maggwire
“Experience magazines online”
(Source: Bernie Sloan)
Marissa Mayer: The Visionary
(Source: NYT Technology Journalists)
Open and Save DOCX Files Without an Upgrade
QOTD: protocol-based time travel for the web
Rev The Engines: Bing Video Pulls In Hulu And YouTube
U.S. to speed up broadband plan
Where Are the Mile-High Hookups?
Wikipedia Bookshelf Project
(Source: Peter Scott)
See also: Wikipedia: How Accurate Is It?
See also: Edit This Page: Is it the end of Wikipedia?
(Source: Colleen McCaffrey)
Harvard
In Case You Didn’t Know: Harvard Is In A Lot Of Movies
Queer Artist Speaks at Women’s Center
Libraries
Bubbles, Panics & Crashes: A Century of Financial Crises, 1830s – 1930s
(Source: Laura Linard)
Climbing out of the “Ivory Tower”
(Source: Peter Scott)
How to be a person: Tips and tricks for virtual reference
(Source: Peter Scott)
In Face of Professors’ ‘Fury,’ Syracuse U. Library Will Keep Books on Shelves
Librarians and the Future of Work
Libraries and the future of search
(Source: Jacqueline Snider)
Libraries check out the eBook
(Source: ResourceShelf)
The Ripple Effect: Part 1 Extending the library’s reach
(Source: Peter Scott)
Rise Of The Web Librarian: An Elegant DMOZ Solution
(Source: Pandia Search World)
Support for the Research Process: An Academic Library Manifesto
(Source: Peter Scott)
University Libraries’ report issued
Report of the Task Force on University Libraries
(Source: Steven Hyman)
Web 2.0, Marketing and Libraries
See also: Web 2.0 and Libraries
Life, Family, Work and Money
How to invest your 401(k)
See also: A 401k No-No
How to Write a Mission Statement that Isn’t Dumb
(Source: The 99 Percent
Over 50, and zero job offers
See also: Dealing with Age as an Older Job-Hunter
The Secret to Learning is Unlearning
(Source: Lone Wolf Librarian )
Self-Employed Retirement Magic
Top 10 Clever Fixes for Your Broken Stuff
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump)
Scholarly Publishing
European University Presses Fold, Consolidate in Economic Downturn
(Source: Michelle Pearse)
Is Peer Review Broken?
(Source: Theo Bloom
Learning to share
(Source: Stevan Harnad)
Open Access Memberships: Are Libraries Paying Too Much?
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project
University Public-Access Mandates Are Good for Science
Science and Technology
Adding a Sixth Sense to Your Cellphone
Bad Decisions May Be Contagious
Cell size and scale
(Source: Boing Boing)
Choose From the Latest Sound Systems
Discovery launches science news Web site
A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain
Emotions Influence Perception of Pain
(Source: psychcentral)
Federated Search – Don’t Get Caught Taking the Narrow View of What is Possible
GotReception
info on cellular reception in different US locales
(Source: beSpacific)
A Laboratory for Mixing Art and Science
LED Galaxy Dress: The World’s Largest Wearable LED Display
Mimicking the building prowess of nature
New report calls for family-friendly policies in science
Preparing for Behavioral Interviews
Pushing light beyond its known limits
(Source: lsmarshall)
Radio Stories Feature Women with Disabilities in Science
The Science Behind ‘Stop Me If I’ve Told You This’
A Scientist’s Guide to Academic Etiquette
Should you buy refurbished electronics?
Strength in science collaboration
Tactics for Successful Grant Writing
Time to take gene therapy seriously
Want a Solution? Try Offering a Prize
(Source: Science in the News)
www.sciforum.net, the unique international platform for holding electronic conferences for scholars
(Source: Open Access Tracking Project)
Social Networks
How Twitter is Changing the Face of Media
(Source: libraryfuture)
I’m Innocent. Just Check My Status on Facebook
Social Networking and the New Me
(Source: Sharon Hayes)
TwitCritics
(Source: Beyond the Black Stump
Travel
How to make business travel manageable
New Books
Received November 7 – 13, 2009
Geometry of Quantum States
Bengtsson, Ingmar and Karol Zyckowski
(Cambridge, 2006)
QC 174.12 .B453 2006
Requested by M. Burns
