The Biblio File

From Lifehacker, a link to this tip sheet for recovering lost Word docs. Since lost Word docs are one of the bigger reasons our students request tech help, might be good to have bookmarked.

Ning, according to it’s website, is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. I visit Library 2.0 pretty regularly but never realized that Ning was the powering technology, until I read Connie Crosby’s article on keeping up with Web 2.0 technologies. I can see where this might be an interesting technology for an instructor to use for a class, perhaps as a substitute for course managment softwae, especially considering its compatibility with facebook.

The LibrarianInBlack points to a report (download word doc  on bottom right hand corner of page) from the metasearch engine Dogpile, which states that “88.3% of total results”  are “unique to one engine.”  This means that, if we’re only using Google, we are missing quite a bit.

In their continuing bid for world domination, ars technica reports that Google has “slipped” facial recognition software into their image search.

Google upped its stalker factor this week by adding face recognition abilities to its image search. While currently unofficial and unannounced, users can now search for images that only contain faces by appending a query string onto the end of a search URL. For example, a general image search for “Ars Technica” produces a variety of image results, but when appending “&imgtype=face” to the end of the URL, all new results contain photos of people.

David Lee King is reporting that ALS now has a video blog called AL Focus.

The LibrarianInBlack reports on this post by Helene Bowers, who suggests that Reactee shirts can be used to promote library services. Basically, librarians would wear a t-shirt that says something to the effect of “What’s my favoirte book? Text ‘Book’ to 12345 to find out.” It’s an interesting idea. And, the shirts don’t actually look all that bad. . . .

Several big names in the library world are in the process of contributing presentations for the BIGWIG (Blogs, Wikis and Social Software IG) Social Software Showcase, which will run parrallel to the ALA national conference. All of the presentations will be posted to the BIGWIG wiki. David Lee King has just posted his screen cast about Twitter, who quotes the LITA blog about the showcase:

The Social Software Showcase will be occuring around and during Annual. We have gathered eleven librarians and leaders in the field to present on cutting edge technology and social software. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to view and discuss the presentations on the official Social Software Showcase Wiki.

Michelle Boule has a very nice write up on ALA Tech Source on a couple of Content Management Systems (CMS) that can be used to replace your Course Management Software (CMS). One is called Drupal, the other is Joomla. Both are free and open source. I especially like her argument for why we should consider switching from our traditional course software like WebCT and Blackboard to one of these alternatives:

Most of the options for course management, like WebCT and Blackboard, are very expensive and clunky. Institutions and organizations could reasonably charge students large amounts of money for enrollment and participation in an online course if they were using one of these two tools. WebCT and Blackboard are archaic structures that resemble how students learn in face-to-face environments. Continuing to build online education in ways that resemble the face-to-face environment harms our students and reflects poorly on us as educators. We should know better than to create a hostile learning environment.