Browse: Home /
Technology
By
Ken on
October 28, 2009
In March 2008 we (the Duggan Library) did an exhaustive user survey (we do this every four to five years). There were 166 student respondents and several questions focused on web 2.0 technologies and applications. For example, 56% replied that they read/had read a blog but only 8% had subscribed to an RSS feed. When [...]
Posted in Technology
| Tagged blogs, rss, social networking, Technology
|
By
Ken on
October 22, 2009
I don’t know if you caught this or not but Finland recently declared broadband access to the Internet a legal right (low affordability though not compulsory). Come again? According to the Communications Minister it is part of Finland’s effort to develop an information society. “We decided that broadband connections are no longer this kind of [...]
Posted in Misc., Technology
| Tagged access, government
|
By
Doug on
October 16, 2009
According to this morning’s Louisville Courier-Journal, students see lots of flaws in using Kindle to replace textbooks. Amazon.com gave out Kindles to more than 200 college students at several different campuses. Among the biggest complaints was a small keyboard under a 9.7-inch screen that made typing notes difficult during class. This may be the wave [...]
Posted in Technology
|
By
Ken on
August 4, 2009
It is a deluge of rain outside my window as I type and it has been as good of a day as any to tackle the deluge of RSS feed entries that I have let pile up since the end of May. I have come across some interesting and even informative posts but this one [...]
Posted in Misc., Technology
| Tagged communication, social networking, Technology
|
By
kathy on
May 18, 2009
Guys, guys, Wolfram Alpha went live on Friday! I can already hear you thinking: Wow, Wolfram Alpha…what the heck is that?
The answer, gentle readers, is that Wolfram Alpha is a new search engine, and arguably a new breed of search engine – a semantic search engine, if you must know.
Consider: You ask it a series of [...]
Posted in Humor, Resources, Technology
| Tagged search engines
|
By
Ken on
May 12, 2009
It had to happen sooner or later. I have officially become a victim of electronic obsolescence. For the past six years I have faithfully relied on my Sony Clie Palm Pilot for addresses, calendar schedule, memos, and important documents. I purchased the Palm Pilot from a Hanover student who had received another one as a gift [...]
Posted in Humor, Technology
| Tagged Technology
|
By
kathy on
May 11, 2009
Once in a while – oftener than I’d care to admit – something academic gets me “all het up.” This time around, it’s an article in Anthropology News (April 2009) on information access. I know, I know: the title and byline even sounded boring to me, but once I started reading, I got both interested and semi-indignant.
The crux [...]
Posted in Resources, Technology
| Tagged access, community, digital resources, search engines
|
By
Doug on
May 11, 2009
Several Special Collections repositories have made use of Flickr, primarily as a way to communicate with specialists who may help with the identification of unknown items. We have a number of items in our vault that would benefit from this approach, including printer’s devices and illuminated manuscript leaves. With the assistance of the Photo Archives, [...]
Posted in Resources, Technology
|
By
heather on
May 8, 2009
Thanks to a terrific open-source tool developed and provided to libraries by Virginia Tech, Duggan Library users now have a convenient option for looking up citations and doing simple keyword searches on the fly.
Introducing the LibX Toolbar!
Imagine reading through any web document, and searching a citation you wish to find, or doing a quick keyword search to [...]
Posted in Duggan Library News, Reference Resources, Services, Technology
|
By
Ken on
April 22, 2009
A friend shared with me this animated sketch about Twitter. And, while humorous, also confirmed some of my own thoughts about why I haven’t been tempted to open up a Twitter account. (Of course, I am also the same guy who just a year ago said that I couldn’t see the value in having a [...]
Posted in Humor, Technology
| Tagged Technology
|