January 13, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

"Getting excited about Midwinter."

So says the inaugural tweet from the latest incarnation of ALA Secrets, just in time for the semi-annual librarian gathering in Boston starting at the end of this week.

And, of course, you just know the word 'excited' is operating on multiple levels there.

If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, then head over to our interview with the anonymous librarian behind the handle, "...Read More

July 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

There's some good analysis of the Twitter hashtag usage from the recent ALA conference posted by Eric Hellman on his Go to Hellman blog.

According to his numbers, there were more than 1,500 tweets using ALA-related hashtags from the more than 28,000 conference attendees. That works out to about one tweet for every 19 visitors, though it's abundantly clear that a (very) vocal Twitter minority is responsible for the lion's share of the posts.

Certai...Read More

June 19, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

From our June 15 issue, check out "Working the Social: Twitter and FriendFeed" by social media mavens Colleen Harris and Laura Carscaddon for tips on making the best use of these social networking services come conference time.

May 30, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

As seen on Reporter News, students at Abilene Christian University (ACU) are taking up the work done at the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) to create a mobile library catalog app, extending it to serve their own university's libary population:

Jacob Poulette presented a group project tied in to the city's Abilene Library Consortium, based on a open-source project started by the District of Columbia's public library.

"They created an app to allow users to search their catalog and reserve books," he said. "We're taking, adding on it and expanding on it to make it useful for the Abilene area."

Poulette said he hopes the project will be done by fall, meaning students and tho

April 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Internet darling webcomic xkcd is getting a proper print run through a small online distributor (breadpig). Not shocking news in and of itself, but interesting (if unsurprising) in that the book will be sold almost entirely through standalone websites, outside the domain of the traditional book publishing and distribution machine. From the NYTimes article about the forthcoming book:

"The print xkcd book is not being published through a traditional company but rather by breadpig — which was created by Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of the social-news Web site reddit. The site has sold high-concept merchandise like refrigerator magnets o...Read More