TechBits

Librarians do Old Spice, Gaga, and Carly Rae Jepsen

What's missing in the YouTube videos for Old Spice, Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe"? Librarians. Luckily, the Harold B. Lee Library, students and faculty from the University of Washington's Information School, and the New York State Reading Association have found a way to remedy that!

Love those Old Spice Guy commercials? Here's the Harold B. Lee Library's version, promoting the library!

(Wondering how they made the video? Take a look at their "Behind the Spice" page) 

Like Lady Gaga's song, "Poker Face"? Try "Librarians Do Gaga"!

Can't get enough Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", but want to focus on books and reading? Take a peek at the New York State Reading Association's "Read it Maybe" video...

And how could I forget "B*tches in Bookshops", based on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Ni**as in Paris"? It's missing librarians, but has TONS of literary references. (Warning: explicit lyrics on both of these)

Have other favorites? Share them in the comments!

Behind the rings

This past week has been a busy week on the technology front. The successful landing of the Mars rover Opportunity and the subsequent full color images it has already sent back have been all over the news. The other major news has, of course, been the Olympics.

So what does the Olympics have to do with technology? Lots! From the touchpads for the swimmers to the systems that feed data to the commentators to the security system there was a lot of technology infrastructure in place for the London games. According to one article, the main network center will hold 180 techs at a time around the clock and upwards of 5,000 tech staff, mostly spread across the 94 venues.

But what about the spectators? How were the Olympics going to handle the large number of visitors posting to Facebook, uploading pictures, checking results and Tweeting from their personal devices? Prior to the games, 30 masts and one of the world's best wi-fi networks were added on the Olympic Park. Vodafone said its network saw data usage from the stadium equivalent to the sending of 400,000 smartphone pictures.

There were some rough spots though. During the cycling road race onlookers were asked to stop using Twitter and texting because the GPS electronics on the athletes' bikes were using the same mobile network. The volume of traffic on the network was so heavy it was keeping the organizers from receiving the timings for the race.

Bit of trivia: This was the first year the Olympic pentathlon used laser pistols.

Googliciousness!

Guest post by Jean Anderson
----------------------
Googliciousness is coming to SCLS this fall!

Stef Morrill, director of WiLS and Beth Carpenter, director of the Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library, will be at the Wintergreen Resort in Wisconsin Dells on October 5 to present Googliciousness! (Register here!) Beth & Stef will introduce various Google services and share tips and tricks for using them. They’ll cover maps, mobile, photo, productivity tools and even more awesomeness!

I need your help, though. Stef and Beth’s program will be the morning of October 5. As this will be our annual Tech Day, what topic(s) would you like to see covered in the afternoon? Do you have some new tech-related service or program that you’d like to share? While we have a few ideas floating around, we wanted to find out from you - the audience - what your tech education needs are.

Share your ideas by leaving a comment on this post or by emailing me. Thanks for your help and I hope to see lots of you at Googliciousness!

A little Friday library video fun

They're a little late for National Bookmobile Day (held on the Wednesday of National Library Week), but here are two fun (but very different) approaches to "Why We Love Our Bookmobile!"

Arlington Heights Memorial Library (pleasant and colorful with lots of smiling and enthusiasm, 1:33)

Sno-Isle bookmobile (a little long at 6:51, but very creative and well-done---and there are zombies! ZOMBIES!!)

Has your library tried video creation yet (by staff or patrons)? What tools did you use? How did it go?

Credit where credit is due?

Well, I thought I had my post all settled when I found the picture on the right.  Then I started having problems when I tried tracking the picture to its source.  While I really want to give credit where credit is due, I can’t find exactly who to give the credit to for this idea.

Where I saw it originally saw the picture, the title on the picture said Dublin’s Digital Library and gave Reddit as the source.  One of the commenters on the site said it was from Planet PDF. 

On Reddit there wasn’t an official source listed but one of the commenters said the flier was for Project Gutenberg.  Reddit linked to the picture posted on imgur.  From the picture title, it looks like it was taken somewhere in Dublin.  Alright, but which Dublin?  Ireland?  Ohio?  In the comments on imgur, a number of people say it's Ireland and one said the fliers were done by the Dublin city council to encourage reading. 

In any case, the picture is of a flier posted on a lightpost with QR codes you can scan that take you directly to free versions of the titles on the spines of the books in the picture.  The QR codes link to files on both Planet PDF and Project Gutenberg.  Still don’t know for certain who put up the fliers.  Whoever posted it though, I thought it was rather neat!  If anyone knows where this actually came from, let me know. 

The picture on imgur:
http://imgur.com/EjUku

PicMonkey

 Regular oatmeal with blueberries.
Had-too-much-coffee-before-my oatmeal with blueberries.
You'll find effects, tools, and more with the ever-so-awesome PicMonkey - a free online photo editing and effects site from some of the former Picnik developers. For a chuckle, have a peek at their "About" page. Need a review before you swing on over to play*? Try this one at the Photo Software Blog.

* When you swing on over to play, be sure you've got some time. I found myself investigating the various tools and trying out all the effects and quickly lost an hour. Neat effects, and pretty easy to use!

Google's augmented reality glasses

As part of its Project Glass initiative, Google has begun testing its augmented reality glasses. See this New York Times article for more information. Pretty stylin', huh?

Here is a video from Google which shows potential uses for Project Glass:

Link to YouTube video: http://youtu.be/9c6W4CCU9M4

What do you think about the idea of wearable computing? How might this impact libraries? (Did you notice the part of the video around 1:03 where he's in the book store, asks where the music section is located, and his glasses show him the way?)

Everybody Let's Jump (For Your Library)

Ran across this great example of a library using social media for fundraising and advocacy! Too cute not to post (and share, and talk about, and donate), right? Nicely done!

Watch the video on YouTube

Espresso Book Machine arrives at the Brooklyn Public Library

Self publishing-in the most literal sense of the word-is now available to public library users in Brooklyn, NY.

On Demand Books' Espresso Book Machine was installed earlier last week at the Main Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The EBM machine allows patrons to choose from nearly 7 million titles, producing a bound and printed book in a matter of minutes.  Moreover, aspiring novelists can bring in electronic versions of their own works and can have the EBM print those as well.

Unlike the typical EBM installation at a bookstore or University library, Brooklyn's machine is owned and operated by On Demand Books, meaning no $150,000 investment by the library!

Does the Espresso represent the future of physical books?  Do you think in the future libraries will be installing EBMs and printing off all their print acquisitions, as opposed to going through the traditional publisher and distribution channels?  Leave your comments and perspectives below.

Space Cases

One of the things I like about the beginning of the year is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  A lot of the tech coverage for that week is either of the show itself or other items introduced by companies not at the show.  I enjoy seeing all of the gadgets and new technology, even for the things that won’t be available for some time yet.  (And, to be honest, the inadvertent amusement of the demos that go wrong.)

This year one of the items that caught my attention wasn’t actually a gadget per se.  It was a case for a gadget.  Normally cases are, well, kind of boring.  Sure, they might be pretty along with providing some protection but that’s about it for most of them.  Not so for this case.  To show how effective the case was, they put an iPad in their case and had it fall from the edge of space.  While I doubt any of us really have to worry about quite such a drop for our gadgets, I do admit it did make it one of the more memorable demonstrations I’ve ever seen. 

Wonder how well it'd hold up versus patrons...