I'm thrilled to finally be able to point to a blog by Art Rhyno, Library Systems Stuff!

"Does the world need another blog? I am sure several have appeared while I typed this. This is probably more of a thought experiment than anything else but it provides an opportunity to describe library systems work that I am involved in, and some open source projects that I participate in."

One to watch, made ever so much easier by the fact that there is an RSS feed!

Mobiles Outnumber Fixed-line Phones

"In 2002, for the first time, the number of mobile phones worldwide outnumbered fixed-line phones, according to the ITU....

In less developed countries in Asia and South America, where fixed-line infrastructure is underdeveloped, mobile phones are the most economic means of communication, and as a result there has been massive mobile phone growth in these countries. This is likely to continue for some time.

According to the ITU only 36.35% of the world’s population had a phone in 2002, up from 28.74% in 2000. What is striking, however, is that the adoption of mobile phones is having a major impact on the total teledensity throughout the world. At the rate of mobile phone growth worldwide, 50% of the world's population will have access to a phone by 2005." [eMarketer]

So as mobile phone ownership (or access) increases, how will libraries serve these patrons? What do remote library services look like when viewed through a cell phone rather than a desktop computer?

canadia represent!

"Since ALA, we all have known that the Canadian library schools are really putting out some top librarian talent. But who knew they had a fashion sense as well. The students from the SLIS at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia are hawking some mighty fine librarian t-shirts, possibly ones even too racy to wear to work. And, 'action figure' aside, my favorite one has to be the NLA shirt." [librarian.net]

Kate points us to the Open WorldCat site for more information about the project (mentioned here last week).

"The goal is to help libraries provide faster, more convenient service to current and potential users through familiar Web channels, and to point more people—even those who don't typically visit libraries—to library collections for the material they want. The pilot promotes the value and relevance of libraries on a scale far greater than any library or group could achieve alone....

OCLC will carefully evaluate feedback from pilot participants and focus groups as well as click-through statistics and other metrics to understand the pilot's strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, the results will be considered in the light of the question, 'Does this help libraries and their users?'...

The Open WorldCat pilot is available to libraries that have contributed cataloging records and/or ownership information to WorldCat."

Further reading includes building on a success, how it works, frequently asked questions, and how to get involved. It looks like libraries have to manually opt out of the service, but I would argue that libraries should wait and see how the project goes before pulling their plug.

Unfortunately, we found that a Google search for " "da vinci code" libraries" didn't produce any WorldCat records in the first four pages. I know that makes us bad librarians for not reading further, but we're simulating patron usage. ;-) We also tried to use the example OCLC shows in their explanation for how it works, and we didn't come up with anything there, either, and that's adding the word "libraries" to the search. I guess we'll have to keep testing this to see when and how the records do appear in searches. If you come across searches that produce WorldCat results in Google, please me know!