Yahoo "Gets It"

"While most of you will read/have read this cNet article, I feel compelled to add some comments related to this quote:

'Yahoo has had some small success with RSS for News. It said that the news service has 'grown steadily since the introduction of the RSS feature.' '

Yahoo is one of the first 'major' portals to understand the power of RSS. Why haven't library organizations followed suit? I know ALA has their own problems right now, but that doesn't mean that they should be on the cutting edge with content syndication technology. And it's not not ALA. Where is Library Journal? Where is InfoToday? They find it important enough to publish articles about RSS but not enough to use it? I just don't get it." [Library Stuff]

Major ditto on my part, and a loud, supportive, "you go, boy" shout-out!

Now it's my turn for an RSS-related rant. Unless you're trying to trade eyeballs for ad money on your site, there is no reason on this or any other planet to offer an RSS feed that displays something like 25 or 40 words of the beginning of your post. Especially if your blogging software doesn't support titles properly so it ends up displaying the first few words as the title and then displays them again as the beginning of the post.

But, let's just say that you personally don't like full text RSS feeds. Okay, fine, you're entitled to your beliefs, but how about accommodating both sides of the coin. What if you provide two feeds -- one truncated, one full -- and let your readers choose which style best suits them? That's a middle ground most bloggers should be able to get behind.

And Movable Type people, you really have no excuse for this because it is so insanely easy to copy your existing feed and make the second one full text. My guess is that TypePad works in much the same way so TP folks, I'm looking in your direction, too. If you're not sure how to do it, please, please, please contact me, and I will help you.

Because if you really want to build an audience and get your ideas out there, then the worst thing you can do is offer only half of them to the very people interested enough to subscribe to your feed. If you're in my aggregator and you're sending me a truncated feed -- or worse yet, only headlines -- there's a very good chance that I'm not clicking over to your site for the full content, either due to a lack of time or to a lack of interest in the first 25 words of your post.

Friends don't let friends offer only truncated feeds from their blogs. Won't you be my friend?

The Human Element: Lovers' Lane Now Paved With Online Rejection Slips

"In a study of U.S. teenagers' online habits conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 17 percent of teens who use IM said they had used it to ask for a date--and 13 percent had used it to break off a relationship. With over 12.5 million teenagers estimated to be using IM, that's more than 1.6 million young hearts broken while staring at an emoticon.

It shouldn't surprise us, really. Of the almost 75 percent of U.S. teens who go online, about the same percentage routinely use IM to correspond with friends. They also use it to initiate friendships. So, naturally, they use IM to end relationships...." [PCWorld.com]

You don't suppose that any of those kids would want to ask a reference question via IM, do you?

Penn State Launches Online Music Service

"The launch of Napster's online music service for Penn State students generated about 100,000 downloads or streaming-audio requests Monday, three days after its debut, school officials said.

A first in higher education, the service is designed to curb students' use of illegal music sharing and piracy. Peer-to-peer file sharing sites have generated lawsuits against users filed on behalf of recording artists.

As spring semester classes got under way Monday at Penn State, more than 2,600 students had registered for the Napster 2.0 service, which comes free with their tuition. All 17,000 on-campus resident students are eligible to use it.

School officials said the new system, which offers about 500,000 songs to choose from, appeared to work flawlessly for the vast majority of users.

....For a fee, students also can burn music onto compact discs.

The school plans to offer the service to all of its 83,000 students this fall. Faculty, staff and alumni will qualify for reduced-price Napster memberships.

Penn State's Napster site: www.napster.psu.edu" [SunHerald.com, via JD's New Media Musings]

Don't you wonder what kind of obligations this places on Penn State's libraries? Do they need to be cataloging the music that is in Napster so that the students can find it from within library resources? Or do they just outsource music to this private company that could go bankrupt at any moment (because they sure don't own anything since it's only licensed)? I know they probably don't circulate popular music anyway, but are they now completely out of the music loop? Do they get a discount if they make physical copies of works for a PSU class or for archiving, and can they then circulate that media? My guess is no on all counts.

I guess my next call will be to Napster to find out how much a license for a public library costs. Will Napster be the first company to work with libraries in this arena?

Gadget Jacket Charged by the Sun

"Seemingly aimed at the technophile environmentalist on the go, the jacket has integrated solar panels that charge cell phones, PDAs, Game Boys, MP3 players and most any other mobile device its wearer slides into its multitude of interior pockets.

And despite its gadget-oriented accommodations, the jacket's style resembles those worn at the slopes or on the hiking trails. Fashionista outdoorsy types are assured of cloaking their geek status as they lug Palms, iPods and cell phones into the wilderness without losing power.

'As we move to an always-on environment, how can people depend on their device if in three to four hours they are going to lose their charge?' said Scott Jordan, CEO of ScotteVest, which designed the jacket and its wiring technology.

The jacket has two small snap-on photovoltaic panels that fit onto its shoulders. These charcoal-gray solar panels convert the sun's rays into energy, which then feed a hidden battery pack about the size of a deck of cards. The batteries are wired to all the pockets, which can have almost any mobile devices plugged into them.

The PAN, or Personal Area Network, used by ScotteVest's Technology Enabled Clothing division provides jacket-pocket holes and fabric conduits that connect all the gadgets to each other without exposing any wires. So what appears to be an unassuming anorak jacket is really a web of wires and technology in disguise....

When the solar jacket launches this spring, Jordan said it will retail for about $300, a $100 increase over the nonsolar Version Three.0.

Since power cannot be transferred wirelessly, ICP and TEC designers were faced with different power-connector protocols for mobile devices. Consequently, the jacket will be sold with a small assortment of adapters to accommodate all major lines of phones, PDAs, cameras and other mobile devices....

'We are also working with (major outerwear manufacturers) to license the technology into a lot more products,' said Jordan. He said he expects 30 percent of outerwear to incorporate the solar and PAN technology combo within the next five years. That's a long shot, but as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, there will be travelers with a jones for staying connected." [Wired News]

I've bolded some of the phrases I've been trying to introduce to librarians because the concepts behind them will definitely impact our services, or rather, our users' expectations for our services. On a personal level, I'll have to start saving up for one of these to power my Treo!

Addendum: how long will it be before they figure out they should be making purses and backpacks, too? After all, you can't be a PAN if you can't power a PAN.

Hard Drive Growth

"Hard drive growth: Sounds boring, I know, but the dynamics here have implications for future work. The number of drives in consumer devices is expected to triple over the next three years, while over the preceding three years the storage capabilities have quadrupled, with cost-per-byte falling by a factor of five. More things that you see during everyday walking-around will have drives, processors, and communication abilities. Putting an interface into each device will likely be more expensive, and clunkier to use, than in connecting each device to the preferred, persistent interface you carry around in your pocket." [JD on MX]

Yes-sir-ree-bob, people will indeed be shifting their information with them. Emphasis above is mine, because in the type of world described above, information literacy will become even more important than it is now.

Library Portals Could Lead to Increase in Resource Usage

"A recent case study on the implementation of the MetaLib library portal at the University of Loughborough has revealed a significant increase in network database usage once the portal was launched to users. Included were databases that could be cross-searched. Top of the list was zetoc, searches on which rose by 1385%; SportDiscus was close behind on 1207%. Whilst many other databases couldn't match these figures, increase in usage was widespread.

The library portal was observed to act as a focal point for the databases being made available. One major advantage of this is that it this also increased awareness of the resources on offer. The case study also covers the full planning and implementation decision-making process followed by the University Library at Loughborough, and provides an excellent reference point for other institutions considering the introduction of a library portal.

Read the report to find out more." [JISC, via Resourceshelf]

Proposed Guidelines for Installing Library Web Filtering

"The Center for Democracy and Technology issued 'Proposed Guidelines for Libraries Installing Filtering under Federal Law' during the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting, underway in San Diego.

• Version 1.0 of Principles for CIPA-Mandated Filtering in Public Libraries 'are intended to help libraries that are required to install Internet filtering software under the Childrens Internet Protection Act do so in a manner that promotes free speech and robust access to information. CDT invites public comment on the principles.'
   
• See also CDT's resource on CIPA and the Court Challenge and previous beSpacific postings on library filtering." [beSpacific]

How stupid is CIPA? Let me count the ways.

Where I work, we are already understaffed, underfunded, overextended, and overworked. However, the geniuses behind CIPA are forcing us to filter all of our computers. Mind you, we don't interact with the public; in fact, only our staff and folks from our member libraries ever enter our building (for the most part, but no Joe Q. Public, that's for sure).

So why are we being forced to filter? Because CIPA forces any library entity that gets e-Rate funding for internet service to filter ALL computers in the building, including ALL staff terminals, and we can't afford to lose the thousands of dollars we receive from the program. So now we're spending valuable time and money to find a filtering solution that can be turned off for our staff on a user-by-user basis when requested.

Look no further for a stupid law that is overly-broad and over-the-top-period.

TSL is Feedster's "Feed of the Day," so a hearty welcome to new visitors! If you're not already following their FOTD, it's a cool way to find new sites, and naturally there is an RSS feed for it.

"Of all the RSS feeds now floating around, there are many you long know about--but don't. That's why Feedster puts a new "Feed of the Day" on our home page seven days a week. We used to call this 'Interesting Blog of the Day'--but there are so many good feeds that just aren't blogs."

See past honorees here. If you're not using Feedster as (at least) a search engine for recent news and events, then you're really missing out. It has saved my searching butt more than once.

Thanks, Feedster!

Larry Sloma works at the Moraine Valley Community College Library, one of my members I'm proud to say, and his family got him a Tungsten T3 for Christmas. He loves it as much as I love my Treo 600, so he's devoted his entire personal home page, Arbitrary Content, to it for the moment. On it, he explains why he loves it so much, lists the software loaded on it, and provides screenshots of some of the software. His exact phrase is "I loaded it to the gills with useful ready reference stuff," and it makes for interesting reading. I'm impressed with the newer Tungstens, and I'll probably recommend to Sheree that she get one when she's ready for a PDA.

Larry asked me if anyone has done a "What's on Your PDA" survey. I know Palm Addicts recently asked users to list what's on their Palm, and you can often find such information in the forums at Brighthand, PDA 24/7, pdaPhoneHome, and in my case, TreoCentral. Any other suggestions?

On a side note, and as another PSA for Treo 600 users, I was on the BoxWave site and they are selling the miniSync charger/USB retractable cable for $15.50. It's normally $24.95, so even with the $4.50 shipping fee, it's still a great deal. This one small cable will be great for traveling, and you can also buy a wall or car adapter to go with it so that it can charge anywhere (they're on sale, too), not just from a computer. Oh, and they do sell miniSyncs for other devices.