A Good Reader Feedback Form

"Amazon's 'Suggestion Box' that appears at the bottom of every product provides a potential model for news sites to capture audience feedback. We provide a mockup of a way to capture reader feedback." [Hypergene MediaBlog]

I'm highlighting this one because this is something libraries also need to consider. Too often, we don't provide easily found links for contacting us electronically, whether it be via IM or email (in addition to the requisite phone number and location information), and we're even worse at soliciting feedback.

<rant>
In fact, I'll use this opportunity to rant about one of my biggest pet peeves lately - library blogs that don't include a link back to the library's main site, let alone include contact information. If your library has a blog, please oh please oh please make sure it has a link back to the rest of your site (and therefore the rest of the resources you make available!)! This seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many sites forget to add this essential information.
</rant>

Library Hackfest?

"Most of you have been to an Access Conference Hackfest (and if you haven't, see this). I think it may be time to take that idea and run with it. That is, we all know that we have a pile of problems we'd like to solve. And we also increasingly have tools around with which to solve them. But so far our efforts have been piecemeal and fragmented. What if we plan a library services architecture that can support next-generation library services, and bring together the best hackers we have to bang together some prototypes over the course of a few days to a week?

I'm fairly certain we could round up sponsors (e.g., OCLC noted hackfests as potentially being important in their recent environmental scan). Idea papers like Dan's recent piece on library groupware can begin to form a plan for a set of foundational services upon which end-user applications can be built. Services such as OCLC's xISBN service provide useful models for the kind of building blocks I'm talking about. And librarianship finally appears to have spawned enough raw programming talent to make it possible for us to collectively kick tail and take names.

So...what do you say? Is this a lame idea? Or not?" [/usr/lib/info]

/usr/lib/info also points to OCLC's new ResearchWorks site, which seems comparable to Google Labs. Now we just need  RSS feeds in order to track these projects!

In the larger context, though, ideas like the Hackfest are critical.

AllMiMedia

" 'Think of AllMiMedia as home networking on steroids,' said Dr. Luc Julia, BravoBrava's co-founder and vice president of research and development. 'With AllMiMedia, you have a personal network that is always with you, giving you access and control over your digital content, whether you're at home or on the other side of the country.'

AllMiMedia allows a person's digital content -- including photos, music, Microsoft® Media Center-stored content, live television channels and Internet TV and radio -- to be remotely accessed and controlled through a web-enabled cell phone or PDA. 'With AllMiMedia, a person could remotely program his TiVo® to record 'The West Wing' and play it back later, or even watch it live from his cell phone,' said Julia...." [via Daily Palm]

There's a TiVo Edition of the software and a Windows XP Media Center Edition, described below:

"This $12/year service allows existing Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2004 users to remotely program video recording with a wireless device such as their web-enabled cell phone or PDA. For an optional $20/year, it also allows users to view photos remotely and to listen to their music stored on their Windows® XP Media Center Edition PC as well as accessing information such as weather and stocks. Check if your cell phone is AllMiMedia compliant now!"

I am happy to report that the Treo 600 is compliant, but I don't have Windows XP Media Center. It's the "listen to their music stored" on their PC that piques my interest, but not enough to go with Media Center.

Ad, Media Execs Need 'Attitude Adjustment'

"That's the jist of Friday's interactive TV discussion at an advertising conference in Orlando. 'The consumer has moved. We are the ones who need to catch up,' said one media buyer. Adds Tim Hanlon, SVP of Starcom Worldwide: "TV today is less about watching TV than it is about consuming video in many different environments." Terry Heaton points out that the definition of "video" should include video games and the Internet. 'Redefining the use of a TV set is the beginning of salvation for broadcasters.' Heaton said." [Lost Remote]

Which makes you wonder about where libraries fit into the digital video environment. If 2003 was the year MP3s truly went mainstream so that even your grandma has heard of them, then 2004 is going to be the equivalent for video.

How on earth do you explain OpenURL to your patrons? You don't! Here's a great explanation posted on the Library News Blog for Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore:

TRICO: Turbocharge your Research with more!

"When you see the button near a citation in an online database, be sure to click on it! You’ll call up a menu of links that will allow you to connect directly to the full text of an article (if available), a Tripod search, ILL request form, or Live Help."