Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

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Peter E. Murray

Library technologist, open source advocate, striving to think globally while acting locally

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  • Voting open for Code4Lib 2009; Central Ohio is a candidate

    The Columbus Metropolitan Library, OCLC, and Ohio State University and OhioLINK have put in a bid as host site for the 2009 Code4Lib meeting. Code4Lib is an informal organization of self-selected librarians and technology professionals. It exists as a volunteer organization run by consensus of interested individuals. The meeting in …

     Posted on  February 21, 2008
     and last updated February 21, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Microsoft Giving Away Developer Software to Students

    Stu Hicks, one of OhioLINK's systems engineers, told the OhioLINK staff last night about a new program at Microsoft called DreamSpark. Through this program, post-secondary students around the world who are attending accredited schools or universities can download some of Microsoft's big developer and designer tools free of charge. At …

     Posted on  February 20, 2008
     and last updated February 20, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Note to Future Self: Use `ssh -D` to bypass annoying interception proxies

    Dear future self,

    If you are reading this, you are remembering a time when you ran into a really nasty interception proxy ((Version of the "Proxy Server" Wikipedia page when this posting was written)) and you are looking for a way around it. Do you remember when you were sitting …

     Posted on  February 18, 2008
     and last updated February 18, 2008
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Would the Real "Dublin Core" Please Stand Up?

    I've been following the discussion by Stu Weibel on his blog about the relationship between Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Dublin Core Abstract Model (DCAM), and I think I'm as confused as ever. It comes as a two part posting with comments by Andy Powell Pete Johnston (apologies, Pete), Mikael …

     Posted on  February 18, 2008
     and last updated February 18, 2008
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • Is JPEG Good Enough for Archival Masters?

    On the ImageLib mailing list, Rob Lancefield (Manager of Museum Information Services for Wesleyan University) posted a link to the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) for image creators. The introduction says: "These 12 guidelines — provided as a Quick Guide plus an in-depth Complete Guide — aim to clarify the issues …

     Posted on  February 05, 2008
     and last updated February 06, 2008
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Soundprint's 'Who Needs Libraries?

    OhioLINK's Meg Spernoga pointed our staff to a 30 minute audio documentary called Who Needs Libraries? from Soundprint.org:

    As more and more information is available on-line, as Amazon rolls out new software that allows anyone to find any passage in any book, an important question becomes: Who needs libraries …

     Posted on  February 01, 2008
     and last updated February 01, 2008
  • OAI-ORE Open Meeting, April 4 2008, Johns Hopkins University

    Copied from the press release announcing the U.K. Public Meeting for OAI/ORE.

    Open Archives Initiative Announces U.K. Public Meeting on April 4, 2008 for European Release of Object Reuse and Exchange Specifications

    Ithaca, NY and Los Alamos, NM, January 21, 2008 - As a result of initiatives in …

     Posted on  February 01, 2008
     and last updated February 01, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Textbook Disclosure Rules in U.S. House Bill

    The Chronicle of Higher Education had an article today [subscription required] about legislation pending on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that in part includes rules for disclosure of textbook selection and pricing. The lever is the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a major law that …

     Posted on  January 31, 2008
     and last updated February 01, 2008
     ·  13 minutes reading time
  • DLTJ the Target of Real Dead-Tree Junk Mail

    Dorothea Salo started a conversation late last year that was picked up by Walt Crawford and others about receiving unsolicited "PR spam" with the expectation that the content of the message will be blogged about. In a related matter, I got my first example today of someone scraping DLTJ to …

     Posted on  January 28, 2008
     and last updated January 28, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • The Cost of a Phone Call Drops to Near Zero

    The title of this post is true, under certain circumstances. Last week's e-mail brought word from Michael Robertson of Backdoor Dialing - Free Calling to Millions of U.S. Phones. By using Gizmo, the freely available, no-spyware computer-based telephony application, it is now possible to call about 10% of the mobile …

     Posted on  January 27, 2008
     and last updated January 28, 2008
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • DLTJ Updated, Readers Yawn

    At least I hope that is the correct headline. I've been having some problems with this installation of WordPress lately -- in particular, I could no longer activate or deactivate plugins -- and the only solution offered in the WordPress codex was to start with a fresh installation of WordPress. Now you …

     Posted on  January 27, 2008
     and last updated January 28, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Google and DataNet: Two Ships Passing in the Night, or Maybe Something More?

    Wired Magazine's blog network says "Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data" while the National Science Foundation (NSF) is reviewing submissions to the DataNet solicitation "to catalyze the development of a system of science and engineering data collections that is open, extensible and evolvable." On the surface, you might …

     Posted on  January 24, 2008
     and last updated January 24, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • What's the Deal with NCIP?

    What's the deal with NCIP? For those that don't know, NCIP is the NISO protocol that attempts to "define the various transactions needed to support circulation activities among independent library systems." For example, "patron and item inquiry and update transactions, such as hold or reserve, check-out, renew, and check-in."

    I …

     Posted on  January 24, 2008
     and last updated January 24, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Ann Arbor District Library Camp, 20 March 2008

    Formal information about the AADL Camp is available on the Library Success wiki, including logistical details, a list of people that are planning to attend, and a list of possible topics. Registration at the Library Success wiki is required to edit the page.

    Last month, Ed Vielmetti posted about the …

     Posted on  January 17, 2008
     and last updated January 17, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • 10 Great Reasons to Attend ODCE 2008

    Still deciding whether to attend the Ohio Digital Commons for Education 2008 Conference – The Convergence of Learning, Libraries and Technology? Here are 10 great reasons to register today.

    1. Meet, connect and share success stories with colleagues from across Ohio. ODCE 2008 will provide endless opportunities to talk with 300+ faculty …
     Posted on  January 16, 2008
     and last updated January 16, 2008
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Pointless E-mail Disclaimers

    I've been collecting disclaimers that appear on the bottom of e-mail messages in a draft post on DLTJ for about a year now -- every time I'd get a new one with a different twist, I'd save it anticipating the day would come that there would be enough humor here to …

     Posted on  January 15, 2008
     and last updated August 10, 2022
     ·  12 minutes reading time
  • Google Map of ALA Midwinter Hotels

    Here is a map of official conference hotels and a link to download the KML file into Google Earth.
    ALA Midwinter 2008 Hotel KML Location file

    I'm somewhat disappointed by the display of the KML file through the Google Maps API. The KML file contains

    tags, which in the Google …

     Posted on  January 07, 2008
     and last updated January 08, 2008
  • Wireless JPEG2000 Video and a Paper on How JPEG2000 Works

    Two items of recent note in the JPEG2000 world. The first is the announcement of "the world’s first fully integrated wireless HDTV" that uses JPEG2000 over the air:

    The High Definition LCD TV, featuring Pulse~LINK’s integrated CWave® UWB Wireless HDMI technology, will be on display for the …

     Posted on  January 04, 2008
     and last updated January 04, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Meeting of the JPEG 2000 Interest Group on Jan 12th in Philadelphia

    hCalendar Encoded Microformat
    Download iCal file

    Saturday, January 12th from 1:30pm to 3:30pm — j2kIG Meeting at Chestnut room in the Radisson Plaza hotel

    The JPEG2000 Interest Group of LITA will be holding a business meeting to discuss plans for a program at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim in June. Anyone …

     Posted on  January 04, 2008
     and last updated January 04, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Seeking Details on Websites for Digital Textbooks

    This topic is a bit far from "library technology" but part of my day job at OhioLINK has been involved with research on digital textbooks. To that end, I've been looking at companies that sell a digital form of the printed-and-bound textbook. The sites that I've found are summarized below …

     Posted on  December 26, 2007
     and last updated December 26, 2007
     ·  1 minutes reading time