Last updated on December 4, 2007
This week’s 4cast:
1. Do You Know the Way to Monterey?
The Internet Librarian 2007 conference is underway in Monterey, California, and many of the library world’s illuminati are in attendance, liveblogging the event and individual sessions.
- Bloggers at the Conference (Internet Librarian 2007 Conference Wiki)
- Peppy le Pew and Snidely Whiplash (ALA TechSource)
- il2007 (The Shifted Librarian)
- IL 2007 (Google Blog Search)
2. OCLC is Your “Friend”
OCLC has just issued a new report called Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World, exploring the impact of online social networks (such as MySpace, etc.) and where libraries currently fit into the picture.
- OCLC’s report on privacy and trust: the nut graf (Free Range Librarian)
- New OCLC Report about Sharing Online (The Shifted Librarian)
- libraries & social networking (Libraries Build Communities)
- OCLC Social Networking Report (Thingology)
3. Twine Wants to Tie Your Knots
Twine is a new service (in private beta) that allows users to neatly organize and share their many disparate web activites through a single, easy-to-use interface. What sets it apart is its “intelligent” automated tagging, which some are saying could be a huge step towards a next-generation, semantic web.
- The Semantic Web Goes Mainstream (Technology Review)
- Twine Laucnhes A Smarter Way To Organize Your Online Life (TechCrunch)
- Web2Summit: Radar Networks Unwinds twine.com (O’Reilly Radar)
- Twine: The First Mainstream Semantic Web App? (Read/Write Web)
4. As the Catalog Goes, So Go Libraries?
Unless significant improvements are made to library catalogs (OPACs in particular), some foresee the end of the local catalog, and possibly the downfall of the library altogether. Meanwhile, OhioLINK’s Disruptive Library Technology Jester has written out the four approaches that libraries can take to improve their OPACs, from small changes to wholescale replacements.
- “The Catalog’s Last Stand” (LISNews)
- Catalogs/Cataloging Memes (Cataloging Futures)
- Cataloging as Industry (Coyle’s InFormation)
- Schemes to Add Functionality to the Web OPAC (Disruptive Library Technology Jester)
