Video on Evernote

Alabama attorney general parody song

Porta.San.Niccolo.2

Porta.San.Niccolo.2
Originally uploaded by jingo74

yep.

Photo I took in Italy included in photo mashup site

My girlfriend and I took a trip to Italy earlier this year. One of the pictures I took while in Florence of the San Niccolò Oltrarno was included in the Schmap Italy Guide.

Porta.San.Niccolo.2
Originally uploaded by jingo74

New web apps discovered on FeedMyApp

Organization

• FuseCal
• Luminotes
• Jott

Web Development/Scripting

• markItUp!
• Taffy DB

External hard drive connundrum

I've been wanting to buy an external hard drive for some time now. I already have a 120 GB hard drive which I use to hold my music library and to backup essential files. I'm pretty loyal to the Seagate brand because the 60 GB hard drive I bought my girlfriend hasn't failed her yet. I'm also looked into the drives put out by Western Digital. From a Computer Shopper article, I've learned that these are the criteria to evaluate when considering an external hard drive:

1. Capacity
2. Connectivity
3. Networking

Capacity I understand. A drive with at least 250 GB is my bottom line, but I'd prefer a 320 GB or 500 GB capacity for longevity. Connectivity requires more consideration. The external hard drives I've looked at have several connectivity options. There is the old standard, USB 2.0. The data transfer speed is a bit slow, which isn't a big problem for me. Still, it would be nice not to have to schedule backups at night because it takes so long. FireWire and eSATA are connectivity interfaces which beat USB 2.0 hands-down. The eSATA interface requires an additional PCI card I'd need to install.

So, my options are:

1. Buy a larger internal hard drive to replace my secondary drive.
2. Buy an external hard drive that meets my specs. and is the right price.

Bloglines - Involving more librarians and library staff in technology projects

Bloglines user jingo74 (jkneip@aum.edu) has sent this item to you.

TechEssence.info blogs

Involving more librarians and library staff in technology projects By Jenn Riley on Services I was at a meeting of librarians and library staff recently in which the topic of how to involve more individuals in technology projects was raised. One individual made a particularly salient point – that librarians and library staff be given opportunities and encouraged to participate in technology projects, rather than being given a timed ultimatum to do so. This is a wise approach to a thorny problem. Overall directions of libraries are changing, and it is essential we involve more staff in technical activities and allow our positions to evolve. We must re-imagine our methods while keeping our overall goals in mind. But telling our staff they must change for change's sake, and to do it right now isn't the answer. For one thing, your technology staff won't be able to handle all the new projects and ideas generated by your staff all at once. No one institution can follow up on every good idea. Having to put off a good idea from an early adopter due to time constraints is one of the surest ways to quash what good will that did exist. For another, good ideas for technology initiatives from your staff won't come on command – even the most creative and resourceful people need time to reflect, plan, and be inspired. None of these things incubate well under pressure. Instead, be moderate. Your staff have a great many valuable existing skills and initiatives that they shouldn't be asked to just ignore for the sake of something new. By setting up an environment where experimentation is encouraged (but not mandated on a schedule), you allow individuals to react once they see or think up something that is meaningful to them, in their own area of expertise. Give them the opportunity to take ownership of an initiative, on their own or in partnership with a few of their peers. Rather than seeing a technology project as something thrust upon them, they are likely to see it as their own project, as a new means to do the things they love about their jobs. Technology projects take time—more time than any of us would like. Use that time to your advantage. Start with a few led by particularly visionary individuals. Their success will likely breed more success in the form of new projects from new individuals that wouldn't have been the earliest adopters. The cycle can continue. After a while, re-evaluate. Who is participating and who is not? Why? After a record of successful technology projects, the potential for using technology to advance your library's goals should become clearer, and along with it the ways in which it is appropriate for specific types of tasks. We need change in libraries. We have always needed change, constantly evolving into institutions meeting the needs of our society and its information. But blind change can be just as damaging as no change at all. Simply telling your staff they must participate, even take leadership roles, in technology initiatives is the easy (and ineffective) way out. Instead, give each individual the opportunity to participate, and the resources to capitalize on these opportunities. The initiatives that emerge may surprise you. Allow early adopters the room to experiment, and give the rest time, resources, and flexibility to find their own way. Comments

Student projects

Here are a couple of the projects from ENG 425 that I really liked:

Design & Usability

The Survivors

Step-by-Step Web Design

This is something I've dreamed about...a list of steps to follow in creating a website. I tend to get
distracted when I start surfing in order to answer a "best practices" question that comes to mind. Each section has a link to Barrios' course website! (please don't pull it down for a long time)

1. ROUGH OUTLINE OF CONTENT AREAS
   
2. MAKE A LIST OF BASIC DESIGN NEEDS
   
3. SURF, SURF, SURF / NOTE, NOTE, NOTE
   
4. STORYBOARD AND SKETCHING
5. ROUGH TABLE LAYOUT
6. DESIGN BASIC GRAPHICS
7. CREATE THE STYLE SHEET
8. ROUGH OUT THE INDEX
9. TWEAK AND TEST
10. ROUGH OUT INNER PAGE DESIGN AND NAVIGATION
11. TWEAK AND TEST
12. MAKE TEMPLATES AND FOLDERS
13. START GENERATING PAGES AND POPULATE THE SITE
14. TEST THE WHOLE SITE
15. PUBLISH AND LAUNCH

Web design vocabulary

While exploring through Google looking for site on writing blog posts, I came across a great resource for web design. Barclay Barrios taught a web authoring class at Rutgers and placed all the course materials online. I'm blogging some of the concepts I find to be most useful in case the site one day is pulled down.

I've read/browsed through tons of books on web design trying to grasp the "big picture" in order to determine the best way to approach creating a website. One of the areas in which Barrios has helped me is the design vocabulary.

Below is an excerpt from his online course materials on design vocabular:

Space... the final frontier. Sorry. Nerd moment. LOL!

Seriously, though, the central design concern of any page is space, or what is sometimes called browser "real estate." Real estate is a tricky issue, because it varies from computer to computer. Not only does the space for the page change from Netscape to Explorer, from Windows to Mac, and most especially from 800x600 to 1024x768 screen resolution, but the whole issue is further complicated by what toolbars someone has activated in their browser. Arghhh!

Despite all that variation, there are some terms we can use to think about and describe how that real estate is being used:

1. Horizontal Space: As its name suggests, horizontal space is the space from the left edge of the page to the right edge of the page. It is the width of the real estate. When we use the term, we're really talking about how well that space is being used. For example, if you've ever been to a site that has all the text centered and scrolls down forever, then you could say that the page is not effectively using horizontal space; to the contrary, it privileges vertical space.
   
   
2. Vertical Space: Vertical space is the counterpart of horizontal space. It refers to the real estate from the top of the page to the bottom. We speak of effective use of vertical space when elements of the page make use of the real estate from top to bottom. But unlike horizontal space, vertical space is (theoretically) infinite (well, OK, technically so is horizontal space, but let's not get into that) because a page can scroll on forever. Of course, just because a page can do that does not mean that it should. In fact, it's important to pay attention to the fold.
   
   
3. The Fold: The fold is the line that divides the part of the page first visible to a visitor from the part she or he has to scroll to see. Content that is immediately visible is called "above the fold." This term comes to the web from the newspaper field, and it's useful for thinking about what's important on a page. Essentially, if it's important, put it above the fold, because you can't assume someone will scroll to see anything else. Thus, navigation (for example) is usually above the fold.
   
   
4. White Space: White space is not always white, but the term comes from print as well, where pages really were white. White space is that space with nothing on it. We might also think of it as "negative space"—the blank areas of the page. White space is important to consider because it can attract the eye as much as used space can. Too much white space detracts from content; not enough and the page is crowded and unreadable. White space, therefore, is essential to balance.
5. Balance, Symmetry, and Asymmetry: Balance is just what it sounds like—it is achieved when elements of the page balance each other. So, if there is a block of text in the upper left corner, have something to balance it in the lower right. If there is a large image on the middle left, have something to balance it on the middle right. Balance, that is, works by symmetry. Symmetry is hardwired into our brains through the shape of our bodies—it just intuitively looks good. But because symmetry is so automatic to us, asymmetry can be quite powerful. Elements placed out of balance, if done purposefully and well, can be a strong mechanism to draw attention. Because we sense the asymmetry, it screams to us, and so we note it and pay attention.
   

These are the basic terms we're going to use to describe space. Later in this assignment, you'll see them in action. For now, just make a mental note of them and begin thinking about how you may or may not have noted these elements as you just wrote about a well-designed site.

Space, we might say, is the structure of the design, its layout. But the look of the design says a lot, too. Let's start with color.

Disaster planning workshop

At the end of May, The University of Alabama's SLIS program hosted a two-day Library of Congress workshop on disaster preparedness.

Topics for Day One:

• Creating a disaster plan.
• Establishing a response team.
• Creating a list of supplies and equipment to have on hand in case of an emergency.
• Identifying local and state emergency response agencies.

Topics for Day Two:

• Types of emergencies and their effects on materials.
• Conducting a risk assessment of your collections.
• Setting up a recovery area.
• Handling & salvaging wet materials.
• Strategies for prioritizing what materials can/should be salvaged.
  
• Packaging wet materials for conservation treatment.
  

The workshop was taught by Alan Hale of the LOC's Preservation Department. The LOC held this workshop at locations around the US in order to help libraries prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. Many of the attendees came from libraries on the Gulf Coast that suffered damage from Katrina, Ivan, or sometimes both. Alan put a tremendous amount of effort into planning this workshop, especially the mock-recovery exercise.

Brain Rain

Allowing one's mind to wander is a necessary part of brainstorming and solving problems. What often happens when we perceive we're at a roadblock is that we venture off in other directions to avoid the problem at hand. Funnelling that Brain Rain into a bucket for future consideration can save you from switching tasks out of sheer frustration.

Origin of blog title...

Read Line 46.