Welcome to a very long links roundup, as it’s been a few weeks. (I expect they’ll be fairly regularly through most of July, and then sporadic, as I get myself moved and settled in Maine.) Since I’ve got a ton of links, let’s do these in some simple categories.
Communicating:
- Tame The Web talks briefly about a nicely phrased new policy at the Oak Park Public Library.
- Jenica made an awesome post about cover letters and there’s extensive discussion in the comments.
- And in response, Steve created opencoverletters.com to collect effective cover letters from librarians (letters that resulted in an interview or job – I’ll be sending mine in too.)
- John Scalzi has a great post about how technology changes over time – and why maintaining some consistency of control over your online materials can be very helpful.
- Joyce Valenza has a round up of infographics and their role in information literacy.
Library issues:
- Rochelle talks about the meatier questions she’s been getting at the reference desk.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article about what you might not know about copyright.
- 100 articles librarians should read project, with collaboration to collect more.
- A fun video on how to cite things right from the University of Texas libraries.
Online communities:
- Stack Overflow talks about three different methods for managing difficult users and commenters.
- The Pew survey folks came up with some interesting (and perhaps surprising) data about whether being online isolates people from each other.
Privacy and security:
- Synecdochic (one of the co-founders of Dreamwidth, speaking as a person, not from her official account) has a great post on IP logging and geolocation and privacy concerns.
- An interesting article from NewScientist about digital security.
- Things to consider with Facebook’s use of photo/facial matching software.
- danah boyd posted her presentation notes about networked privacy.
Usability
- iLibrarian links to 18 articles on usability resources for librarians.
- Usability of library websites – and whether the search box should be front and center from Dr. Troy Swanson at Moraine Valley Community College.
- And from one of the blogs I read in my personal reader, one I thought applicable to a lot of workplaces: a post from the Unclutterer about keystone tasks (the stuff that, if you don’t do it, other systems break down), especially end-of-day tasks.
Technology:
- Doug Johnson has a great series on making the most of your technology budget
- There’s a nice roundup of iPad apps for ebook reading.
- Wired has a roundup of reasons why ebooks aren’t there yet. I’d add my own: a desperate desire for an ebook reader that handles series books elegantly and easily.
- The Internet and procrastination – and some tools to help. (I use both LeechBlock and Concentrate, depending on what my goals are.)
- There’s a round-up of the 30 best books for educational technology geeks. I’ve read some, and a bunch of the others are now on my reading list.
- Scott McLeod asks and thinks about educators and their responsibility to learn from social media channels.
- Tildee is a method for creating simple and fast tutorials.
- Weaving History (great name!) is a way to combine maps with movement over time.
