« February 2009 | Main | April 2009 »
March 26, 2009
New Report Published by Pew Internet & American Life
The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a new report by John Horrigan which attempts to evaluate and categorize how people are using mobile technology and how comfortable they are with this technology. Horrigan, author of the 2007 Pew report A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users came up with ten different technology personalities to describe his findings.
1. Digital Collaborators
2. Ambivalent Networkers
3. Media Movers
4. Roving Nodes
5. Mobile Newbies
6. Desktop Veterans
7. Drifting Surfers
8. Information Encumbered
9. Tech Indifferent
10. Off the Net
Read the full report here or take a quiz and see how you fit in this continuum.
Posted by swortman at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2009
Are you a Library Shover and Maker?
Didn't make the cut as one of this year's Library Movers and Shakers? No problem. Make yourself a Library Shover and Maker winner.
Just go to Steve Lawson's blog and follow the directions he gives and you can post your own Shove and Maker profile and why you're a winner. Check out some of the winners already posted.
We're all winners!
Posted by swortman at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2009
KGB? (No not THAT KGB!)
What are the richest towns and cities in the United States?
What was the last dinosaur on earth?
How far away is Alpha Centuri?
KGB Knows All
Find out at KGB (Knowledge Generation Bureau) a new texting answer service. You text them a question - their "special agents" give you an answer. Maybe libraries need to spice up our services like this.
Posted by swortman at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2009
Mental Floss's "25 Most Powerful Books of the Past 25 Years.
The March/April issue of Mental Floss has an article by Rosemary Ahern called "The 25 Most Influential Books of the Past 25 Years." I thought the list might be of interest to library-types. The magazine's blog only lists a few books from the list but here's the entire list. See what you think - and feel free to comment if you have other suggestions.
1. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
2. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1991)
3. Listening to Prozac, Peter D. Kramer (1993)
4. Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin (1995)
5. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
6. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
7. The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie (1988)
8. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)
9. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (1988)
10. The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, Allen Carr (1985) - Not available from U-M Library
11. A Perfect Spy, John le Carre (1986)
12. What is the What, Dave Eggers (2006) - Not available from U-M Library
13. On Writing, Stephen King (2000) - Not available from U-M Library
14. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1994)
15. The Known World, Edward P. Jones (2003)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling (1998)
17. How Proust Can Change Your Life, Alain De Botton (1997)
18. The Bonfire of the Vanitites, Tom Wolfe (1987)
19. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (1996)
20. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera (1984)
21. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
22. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
23. Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (2005)
24. Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, Lynne Truss (2003)
25. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
Posted by swortman at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)