Tag: blog

trying out Windows Live Writer

So far, it has been an easy installation and setup.  The software took the URL of my blog, along with my user name and password, and in less than 30 seconds had created the connection needed to make this work.

My plan is to use the software when I travel or for live blogging conferences. I have slacked off quite a bit on the latter, although I do still use my laptop to take extensive notes. Mainly, I haven’t had time to sit down after the conference and compose those notes into a blog entry.  Hopefully, a Word-like tool such as this will help me compose my thoughts quickly and post shortly after each session, rather than whole-sale summaries days (or months) after the conference.

Windows Live Writer seems to be very easy to use. It has all the functionality of composing in WordPress and then some. Haven’t run into any snags yet, but then again, this is my first post from it.

i iz blogginz / leef I alonze

since when did this become a column?

To all columnists out there: don’t worry — your information dissemination medium isn’t going away because of blogs.

I started to respond to Michelle’s post in her comments section, but then it got too long to be a comment, so I’m posting it here.

I attended a session at NASIG entitled “Column People: What’s their Future in a World of Blogs? The Role of Columnists in Academic Journals.” I erroneously thought it might be an interesting discussion of blogs in scholarly communication, but it turned out to be a “bloggers are hurting our profession!” diatribe. A poorly organized and presented one, at that.

At one point, the presenter pulled a quote out of a blog that seemed to lean more on the cat-blog side of blogging. Although I didn’t recognize the source, I thought it was a rather weak point in an already weak presentation. Not only that, but upon reading the full context, the blog post seems to be more substantial than the presenter would have us believe.

The conversation would have been better served if he had focused on the positive aspects of blogs and the relationship they have to columns. Some of the unwashed actually have pretty good self-editing skills, in addition to having useful things to say.

In the Q&A part of the session, I posed the question of “why worry?” — blogs and columns can continue to co-exist, and as per usual, readers will be drawn to what interests them. Bashing blogs and bloggers will not result in more edited columns in academic journals. They’re serving different purposes and users. It’d be like saying that we should stop using toothpaste because shampoo is an effective personal hygiene tool.

I also noted that the blog medium is just a tool, and it can lend itself to peer and editorial review. For example, I can write whatever I want here, but if it’s crap, at least one of my peers will correct me. There are also collaborative blogs that have evolved to become online magazines with editorial staff, such as Blogcritics.

To all columnists out there: don’t worry — your information dissemination medium isn’t going away because of blogs.

five non-librarian blogs

I meant to do this last night, but I forgot. So, here are five non-librarian blogs that I regularly read: WWDN: In Exile – Wil Wheaton’s not-so-temporary blog that he created when the one at wilwheaton.net crashed and burned in September 2005. I think that the exile has become a more permanent blog home. Regardless, … Continue reading “five non-librarian blogs”

I meant to do this last night, but I forgot. So, here are five non-librarian blogs that I regularly read:

  • WWDN: In Exile – Wil Wheaton’s not-so-temporary blog that he created when the one at wilwheaton.net crashed and burned in September 2005. I think that the exile has become a more permanent blog home. Regardless, his writing is often witty, poignant, and full of geek empowerment.
  • Feminist SF Blog – Yes, I am a science fiction geek and a feminist. As if you didn’t know that already. Make sure you read the Women in Battlestar Galactica essay.
  • A Year in Pictures of Working – I went to high school with Arnie and we both were involved with several theater productions. I ran across his old blog, A Year In Pictures Following The Break-Up, when I was doing a random Google search of various classmates. One thing that I remember most about Arnie is his witty and slightly silly sense of humor, and it seems he hasn’t lost any of it in the past twelve years.
  • Jonathan Coulton – “Code Monkey like Fritos / Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew / Code Monkey very simple man / With big warm fuzzy secret heart / Code Monkey like you”
  • Blogcritics Magazine – I would be remiss if I did not include this on my list. I don’t read everything that is published (approx. 50 articles every day!), but I do browse the reviews and news items. I’m also one of the writers and involved in some of the behind the scenes work. About 95% of the lengthy reviews you see published here are from materials I have received as a BC writer, and the reviews are all cross-published on the BC site. Their version is after an editor has looked it over, but my version is pre-externally edited. Usually, they’re the same copy.

Are you a librarian blogger? Tag. You’re it.

star wars reference convergence

3PO! Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!

Yesterday I caught up on reading librarian blogs, and several of them I had not read since mid-February. One of those was the Librarian in Black, who may be prolific in the number of posts, but is thankfully brief in the content of those posts. Back in February, she pointed to a site that has a large collection of funny cat pictures. One of them includes a reference to a scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. It made me chuckle at the time, and then I saw today’s Unshelved strip. I just spent the past fifteen minutes trying to remember where I had seen something like that recently. Finally, after searching the past few days worth of comics, I remembered the cat picture site. Whew!

blogger payola?

Unsolicited email becomes fodder for blog post — learn from their mistake.

From my email inbox:

Dear eclectic librarian,

My name is **** and I am the webmaster of the book price comparison site: **********.com . Recently we released a new redesigned site and we thought it might be interesting to you:

http://www.**********.com is a free service of finding the best price on books among the major online stores. Our real time price comparison can help you save as much as 60% from the retail price. At ********** you can look for the cheapest price on new & used books, and also compare the price on a purchase of several books together.

I will appreciate if you can post a comment on your eclectic librarian blog about our service, to inform your readers about this useful and free service.

We understand the effort that is involved in our request, and would like to offer you a small gift in return:

Please choose one of the books from the Price Nobel Winner Orhan Pamuk: “Snow” or “My name is Red” and we will be glad to send it to you.
Just reply to this e- mail with your chosen book and your shipping address and we will send the book to you.(Don’t forget to write us your feedbacks, too).

This offer is not connected to posting our site on your blog but we will be very happy if you will write about us!

I hope that you find the service interesting. If you have any queries or you’d like more information, kindly contact me.

Sincerely,

**** ******
Webmaster
****@**********.com
www.**********.com

Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t blog for bribes.

blog day 2006

So, apparently yesterday was Blog Day and I’m supposed to recommend five other blogs for you to read. I could come up with only four I’m really keen on at the moment, aside from the ones everyone else reads, too. In any case, I’m a day late. Thinking Out Loud – This is Jenica Rogers’ … Continue reading “blog day 2006”

So, apparently yesterday was Blog Day and I’m supposed to recommend five other blogs for you to read. I could come up with only four I’m really keen on at the moment, aside from the ones everyone else reads, too. In any case, I’m a day late.

  • Thinking Out Loud – This is Jenica Rogers’ sometimes library but mainly personal blog. I really like the way she writes.
  • A Year In Pictures of Working – I went to high school with Arnie, so I was thrilled to find his old photo blog last year. This is a new one, but still the same daily pictures with entertaining commentary from Arnie. Even after all these years, he still makes me laugh in a way only he can.
  • WWdN: In Exile – Not quite the same as the original, but I think he’ll be leaving exile sometime soon. I’ve been reading Wil Wheaton’s blog for over three years now, and it just keeps getting better.
  • Out of Ambit – Diane Duane is quite possibly my most favorite Star Trek author. Her blog is worth reading, too.

monitor/screen meme

Photograph this blog post (including your monitor and its immediate surroundings), and post the resulting pic on your blog. Then the next person photographs your blog post and posts it, and so on. Leave your post URL in the comments so people will be able to follow the chain, and link your image to the … Continue reading “monitor/screen meme”

monitor/screen meme

Photograph this blog post (including your monitor and its immediate surroundings), and post the resulting pic on your blog. Then the next person photographs your blog post and posts it, and so on. Leave your post URL in the comments so people will be able to follow the chain, and link your image to the post you photographed… this way people will be able to zoom into the monitors by clicking.

as seen on mike, i am (.net)

internet librarian

Internet Librarian – the conference for the library geeks with well funded travel budgets.

Today I got a program book for Internet Librarian in the mail. I’ve been reading the buzz about this conference all over the blogosphere, so I decided to give it another thought. I checked the dates and it butts up against ACRL-OR/WA, but I’d have all morning on the 26th for travel, so I started browsing through the program. Looks like there will be an interesting collection of presenters and topics. I was almost set on going until I flipped to the registration form and saw the cost. Okay, $400 for a conference isn’t too bad, as far as these things go, but $185 per night (plus taxes and fees) for the hotel rooms is outrageous! It’s even more stunning when the literature calls it a discounted rate. NASIG has been in very nice hotels in large cities for the past few conferences and never has the room rate been over $110 per night. Internet Librarian should look at getting some real discounts or moving to a location that is more affordable. Until then, I’ll continue to read the buzz from the A-list bloggers who attend the conference.

updates

General update about blog stuff and things happening in my life.

My recently read/reading list is gone for a little while. I tried upgrading the plugin last week, and it broke. The author says he’ll have a fix for it sometime this week. I’m heading out to NASIG on Wednesday, so it will probably be sometime next week before I can get it up and running again, if all goes well.

Speaking of NASIG, the hotel this year has free wifi in public areas and some meeting rooms. The conference organizers have a blog available for attendees to post and comment on. If you aren’t able to attend the conference and you have an interest in all things serials, then do keep tabs on the blog. I’ll be attempting to some live blogging both here and there.

As you may know, I write reviews for a website called Blogcritics.org. I’m trying to catch up on the backlog of review items in my house, which is why that’s about all I’ve been posting lately. Hopefully things will get back to normal once I get caught up. You can keep tabs with what’s pending, if you’re interested. I’m really behind on the books. Arg.

tagging

So, I’m finally hopping on the blog tag bandwagon. I thought my categories were enough, and I didn’t know how to make the keyword field show in the entry creation process. But now that I have a brand new plugin, I’ve started adding keywords to my posts with Technorati links. I tagged the last however … Continue reading “tagging”

So, I’m finally hopping on the blog tag bandwagon. I thought my categories were enough, and I didn’t know how to make the keyword field show in the entry creation process. But now that I have a brand new plugin, I’ve started adding keywords to my posts with Technorati links. I tagged the last however many entries just now and I will tag future posts, but at 457 entries, I don’t plan to do any retrospective tagging. Heck, I think some of my earlier entries aren’t categorized, either. Probably for the best. There are some things I’d like to forget.

Oh! I had a brainstorm yesterday evening for an article topic, so maybe I’ll get cracking on that soon. After all, I just have to have stuff submitted. If it gets published, well, so much the better.

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