Monday, April 24, 2006

MultiRSS

MultiRSS :: Multiple RSS Feed Readers, One Solution.
One button to allow anyone to subscribe to your feed, rather than a different button for each reader. Save space.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

SDI in ALEPH 500

ALEPH allows SDI but it just hasn't been 'activated' here, so to speak. Apparently nobody has shown interest... Anyway, RSS will be available with v. 18, and we're probably not going to migrate until the Winter break or even Summer 2007. Hmm.

Integrating RSS Feeds Into WebCT

Low Threshold Applications: LTA #44 -- Integrating RSS Feeds Into Your Course Management System looks like a pretty good read: definitely something to explore further. Looks like where there's a will, there's a way.

The Access Principle - The MIT Press

The Access Principle - The MIT Press
Cool. Not only do we have this book (hey, I found it using the bookmarklet "Title Browse" for the McGill Catalogue) but it is available free online from MIT Press after you register. Open access book that is open access - of course!

Yet Another Firefox Plug-in For Libraries

Yet Another Firefox Plug-in For Libraries - LJ Tech Blog - Blog on LibraryJournal.com
In case you did not hear about this from a gazillion other sources.

Desktop Zen

AJ's Blog - Desktop Zen - Reducing Visual Clutter on your Desktop
The timing of this post above is so perfect I really have nothing to add.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Advanced Tricks in MS Word

General Disarray � Blog Archive � Ten things every Microsoft Word user should know
Since you were asking me about the TOC in Word today, I thought this post was appropriate...

I took a course once on advanced features in Word. Plus, I like to play around a lot with the underused features like Forms, etc., especially as they relate to instructional design.

This website has 10 great tips for efficient (and stylish) formatting in Microsoft Word. And hey, you know me - always efficient and stylish! Ha! How corny?

Writely - The Web Word Processor

Writely - The Web Word Processor
Although I am a big fan of the Backpack suite of social software, I wasn't overly impressed with Writeboard. Here is an alternative that looks even better. On the one hand, it's been acquired by Google (usually a good sign), although on the other hand, this means no registrations for now. I'd really like to try this out. In the meantime, I submitted my email address to be notified when it is open again.

At first glance, the main difference seems to be in the formatting options and the export/import flexibility. Hopefully, with collaborative software being the next "wiki" more sites like this will pop up and we'll have dozens to choose from.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

EBSCO: Which RSS Readers are supported by EBSCOhost?

EBSCO: Which RSS Readers are supported by EBSCOhost? lists Bloglines, and I am able to get an RSS feed, but the trouble is then getting to the database from the postings: A username and password are requested. Argh!! Oh ya, this seems to happen with LISTA, whereas I can get to the citations from my other EBSCOhost alert, or at least to citations from Academic Search Premier (the alert includes "Academic Search Premier; Business Source Premier; Humanities International Index; Canadian Reference Centre; SocINDEX with Full Text; Communication & Mass Media Complete.")

Meticulously Underthought: Pruning - A Malfunctionable Act

Meticulously Underthought: Pruning - A Malfunctionable Act is pretty old, but does cover some issues which are still relevant in RSS feeds, such as redundancy (then again, redundancy can be an albeit crude source of info on popularity of items) and lack of ranking of results via news aggregators. Word!

Friday, April 14, 2006

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

HigherEd BlogCon

Library & Information Resources � HigherEd BlogCon

Looks promising. Must check back at the end of the week!

Monday, April 10, 2006

Podcasting: The Short Course

This brief article by Stephen Abram, VP of innovation for SirsiDynix, also includes a reasonable definition plus potential uses in an academic environment, a bunch of directories, and a bunch of search engines (in the PDF version). Requires a Proquest subscription to view.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Google Reader

Google Tutor & Advisor � Blog Archive � Google Reader
FYI. Some details about Google Reader. I don't think it is anywhere near ready to compete with Bloglines. Yet.

Beginner's guide to podcasts and podcasting

Beginner's guide to podcasts and podcasting (plus: how to create a basic podcast of your own) at Forever Geek

Way beyond what we need, but a nice definition (and distinction ) of podcasts vs. RSS for downloading audio.

Humor Skills - Where To Find Resources For Humor

S. Frank Stringham � Humor Skills - Where To Find Resources For Humor
How appropriate!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Keep Google from caching my site?

Interesting piece of info for webmasters and Google searchers alike.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Internal search on this blog ain't workin'

I just tried an internal search and was dismayed to find... nothing. Using keywords from recent posts also returned nothing. Argh!! Not sure why this is the case as the settings were supposed to allow the blog to be ping'ed. The setting for 'notify weblogs.com' was 'yes', but 'add your blog to our listings' was set to 'no'. Not sure if the latter had anything to do with the problem. Will have to investigate further... I've set it to 'yes' and will check back in a couple of weeks at the latest...

NYRB's got a feed too

You can subscribe to the New York Review of Books feed, which is pretty cool. Not really sure how they're authenticating users though. Once subscribed to the feed (while authenticated), I was able to access the full-text via postings in Bloglines without being connected to VPN. Hmm.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Elf | Your Personal Email Library Reminder Service

Elf | Your Personal Email Library Reminder Service
No Quebec Libraries are yet on this list. Do we want to be? Possible topic for brainstorming session.

Best Podasting icon ever

Monkey Bites
in Wired
This is too cute. Maybe we can use the image in our presentation.

How to Use RSS to Know More and Do Less

SLA.pdf
Love the title. Not so into the ppt, but we can use for ideas, maybe.

Factiva follow-up

Been trying to test the Factiva feeds. Looks like you can only add your own searches if you use Newsgator, although I'm not 100% certain. I tried adding the Factiva pre-customized feed for 'Internet/Online Services' and although I could get the items to display in Bloglines, I could only access the full-text from Internet Explorer; via Firefox, an ID and password were required. Might have to play with this a little more.

Factiva feeds

Apparently, the results of any Factiva search folder can be turned into an RSS feed, which can be accessed through Newsgator (Alicia Hawkings, posted on Web4Lib, March 31, 2006). I'll have to try this!

TechCrunch | The State of Online Feed Readers

A Web4Libber recommended this article, published on March 30, 2006 in Techcrunch: The State of Online Feed Readers. Rojo and Bloglines came out on top on a "feature-set basis only" (Rojo beating out Bloglines on "'web 2.0' type features") whereas Google Reader and FeedLounge were the fastest performers in the web-based category. However, for true speed, NetNewsWire and FeedDemon, both desktop aggregators, beat the rest.