Ref Tech Rob

Here is a snippet of a recent announcement from Google: Starting today, we're enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey ), or by topics (like desegregation ) or other queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button, and try the query separate but equal . Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education , which explore the acceptablity of "separate but equal" facilities for citizens at two different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played an important role. This looks like a useful featur...

This blog doesn't usually touch on my personal life, but I just wanted to brag about my wife a little bit. After a few years of hard work and prayer, her first book has been published! A Dress for Anna , the memoir of our first adoption has been published by CSS Publishing, and is available through Amazon , as well. Deb hopes that the book inspires many people to look into adopting a child, and that it would also be an encouragement to anyone currently facing difficulties in their own adoption journeys.

Image by Matrixizationized via Flickr As readers of my blog may have noticed, I'm a heavy Google user. I use Google as my primary search engine, I use GoogleDocs , Blogger , Gmail, GoogleVoice, etc., and I eagerly await an invitation to try out Wave. When Google Chrome was released, I immediately downloaded it and started using it exclusively for awhile. I have noticed that I'm using it less every day, though, so I thought I'd take a look at my usage patterns to see if I could identify the source of my discontent. The first, and probably most important, thing I noticed was that I rely on a large number of Firefox extensions: Delicious, FireShot, Zotero , ScribeFire , WebNotes , Zemanta , Twitter Bar....My Firefox browser has become my Personal Learning Environment (PLE). At this point, Chrome offers very little of this functionality, although that may change. Secondly, although Chrome loads much faster than Firefox, and renders pages faster, there are pages that ...

Fox19 's take on the library budget and rallies: http://www.fox19.com/global/Category.asp?C=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=15048&topVideoCatNoB=109491&topVideoCatNoC=104760&topVideoCatNoD=141804&topVideoCatNoE=142722&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3896795

Here is a nicely done video on the importance of libraries. The embed feature was not working, so here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6CtH3V8Us

Image via Wikipedia Friday morning, libraries across Ohio prepared for another busy day as a new generation of library users discovered the benefit of free libraries in the middle of a down economy. By Friday evening, those same libraries were scrambling to alert these new patrons that the pot of gold they had just discovered was in danger of being ripped away. Public libraries in Ohio have been dealing with budget cuts since 2001, so news of more cuts was hardly a surprise. Many libraries had drawn up plans to deal with this year's reductions, as well as anticipated cuts for next year. Apparently, however, institutions that were told to expect cuts of up to 20% were shocked to find out that they were being asked to shoulder an excessive 50% cut in state funding. Libraries were blindsided by a process that, in today's communication utopia, should no longer be the norm. How many of us are aware of the workings of the state budget? As numbers get shuffled, twisted, added, erased ...

In a Columbus Metropolitan Speech given on Monday, May 4, 2009, governor Ted Strickland referred to the need to reform education for the "21st century economy." However, in laying out his plans, Mr. Strickland reverted to an old fashioned way of thinking of the school as "place." As advances in communication have allowed for instant access to some information, education has expanded beyond the classroom. For Ohio's citizens (of all ages) to have a national and competitive advantage, they need access to a breadth of information sources anytime and anyplace. While the internet is an invaluable tool for society, the closest thing we have to a true information infrastructure is our library system. Schools have a certain role in every society, but while we place all of our hopes in one institution, the cultures which outpace our educational system emphasize the value of learning which extends beyond the school walls and into the library . Here are some of governor S...

An open letter to Ted Strickland and Ohio's lawmakers, It has come to my attention that you plan to cut public library funding in Ohio by over 50%. That would be a mistake. To do so would cripple the state's economic recovery. Free public libraries represent society's last chance at educating and empowering our most desperate citizens. They provide free opportunities for families, workers, entrepreneurs, students, and small businesses to move forward and contribute to the community. Families across Ohio are relying on public libraries to get them through these hard times. As budgets tighten, they are able to seek enlightenment and entertainment for free at their public libraries. Boomers who have had steady employment for years find themselves out of work, and are told when they apply for new jobs to apply online. Many of these people have felt no need to own computers or to have internet access. When they tell potential employers of their predicament, they are inevitably ...

My wife has asked me to help her in the creation of a research skills class for the homeschool co-op we participate in. I accepted, but the challenge has reminded me of how much I do is on the spur of the moment or off the top of my head. I decided it would be in my best interests to create a formal Personal Learning Environment (PLE). I will try to document my efforts over the next few weeks. I have a few articles and documents I have collected over the last two years and I will try to make those available here, either through links or references. The first thing I have done, however, is to make sure that my Firefox browser is equipped with the latest versions of Zotero , Scribefire , FireShot , and Delicious plugins. Zotero allows me to capture web pages and journal articles, as well as the accompanying bibliographic information. Scribefire allows me to create blog entries on the fly without actually signing into my blog account. FireShot is an excellent screen capture utility. I can...

Here's something that could come in handy for a small scale presentation: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/technology/personaltech/05pogue.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

In today's New York Times article, "I.B.M. Has Tech Answer for Woes of Economy," I.B.M.'s CEO calls for technological investment in overhauling the country's infrastructure. Samuel Palmisano calls for public and private investment in addressing problems with traffic, energy grid efficiency, food distribution and a host of other challenges faced by society today. I agree with this approach and I think that libraries have a part to play in this, as well. Technology is a powerful tool for problem solving, but not as powerful as technology partnered with efficient information sources--like libraries. This dovetails rather well with what I was trying to say last year about libraries as information producers . We have the information, we just need to do a better job of pushing it. Libraries are strategically positioned throughout the country to serve as information hubs for large scale information intensive projects. Some may argue that the Internet as it stands righ...

I ran across an article this morning on Google's Android project. Android is Google's attempt to create an open source operating system for mobile phone technology. The idea is that Android would serve as an open source operating system and companies would develop hardware around it. Recently, T-Mobile announced that they would be releasing the G1--the first handset designed to operate with Android. In his article, Chris O'Brien points to a number of Google's recent projects, including OpenSocial , which is designed to create an open API standard for social networking sites. O'Brien points to a lack of promotion and development for past initiatives and emphasizes their failure to gain significant market share. If you are just evaluating these initiatives on their individual merit, O'Brien has a point. I'm not certain that I would buy shares in T-Mobile based on the G1, and I wouldn't purchase one of the phones at the moment, either. I think, however,...

As reference librarians, we are expected by the public to be know it alls. Many patrons ask me questions and they seem surprised when I consult a resource to answer their question. I have also fielded questions over the phone where the patron has said, "If you don't know it off the top of your head, don't bother looking it up--I'm in a hurry." Sometimes this confidence can be a refreshing moment in a day of lost books, damaged books, disputed fines, rowdy patrons, and long lines. At other times, however, it can be a tad disconcerting because sometimes, we haven't got a clue. Now, the problem isn't always that we don't know anything. Sometimes, the patron is mumbling (or we're hard of hearing.) Sometimes, the patron was sleeping: "Do you have Raven in the World , by Aldiss Hussey?" "Do you mean Brave New World , by Aldous Huxley?" Sometimes, we're wrestling with inadequate technology, like a million d...

My little experiment with the portable apps on a stick didn't work so well in the end. Not only does the network interfere with my ScribeFire application, it also resets the bookmarks, toolbars, and extensions in Firefox when I switch computers. I will need to use a laptop if I want access to my favorite applications, and I want to keep my data with me.

I think that I have ScribeFire working-but it only works at home. Apparently, I can't get it through the network at work. Bummer.

As many of you know, MPOW has a very active filtering system. They haven't blocked sites totally, but trying to use services like IM, Google services and anything else that's AJAXy can be a real pain in the butt. I find myself instructing patrons and saying things like, "on a regular computer this would work," or, "what you should have seen at this point is...." Needless to say, that gets old. I cannot teach classes where I just show the patrons how to do something--they have to use their imaginations. Anyway, I'm trying to build a collection of portable apps on a thumb drive that will allow me to show our patrons how to do things without some of the network restrictions on downloads. So far, I have Portable Firefox with The following add-ons: ScribeFire , Zotero , Meebo , del.icio.us , FireShot , a MindMeister shortcut, and the Google Toolbar. I have made my iGoogle page the homepage for this experiment and added gadgets for todo lists, Gmail, Google...

Google has finally re-released JotSpot as Google Sites . I've given it a quick look over the last couple of days, and I'm still not sure what to think. It seems slanted toward organizational use, so I don't believe that I, as an individual, can give it a complete test. It is being rolled out as a feature in the Google Apps category, but I think that they would be better off billing it as the feature-not that it's so great, mind you. When you tie a domain name to Google Apps, it starts you off at that stupid Google 'Start' page, which is basically just an iGoogle page with your logo at the top (if you add it). I haven't figured out how to change the default to my Sites page, which would be much more functional. My biggest gripe with Google, to this point, is their inability to really connect all of their features. Google's suite of applications still has the feel of a Frankenstein's monster assembly of parts which sometimes give an appearance o...

I came across letter to the editor in the Cincinnati Enquirer ( The Enquirer - With so much info on phone, why huge library? ) a little over a week ago, and I felt I needed to comment on it, but not without thinking about it a bit more. At first, I was a bit miffed at Aaron Gillum. I thought, "Hey, you have no idea what you're talking about. Data isn't the beginning and the end of information. There's also interpretation, and people want money for that. Who's going to provide that for the people who have no internet skills or access? You? 'Hey, everyone who can't afford a Blackberry with a data service plan go see Aaron--he'll let you use his!'" But then I looked a bit more closely at his argument, and at the library in question, and I did begin to wonder, "Do libraries have an edifice complex?" Now, before you judge me, I do believe that Mr. Gillum is missing part of the point--unless you are ready to digest all of the data required ...

There was an interesting article in the New York Times today about health research and data sharing in the cancer research field ( Cancer Data? Sorry, Can’t Have It - New York Times ). The article discusses the reluctance of many researchers to share valuable data with other researchers. It seems to me that in an age where people collaborate to crack the genetic code, it is irresponsible to withhold data that could be used to help people suffering from cancer. It's this kind of selfish thinking that can contribute to our early extinction.

The annual list of the United States' most literate cities is out and Cincinnati is 11th . It's unfortunate that we couldn't make LiveScience's prestigious top ten , but we'll take #11.