This week’s 4cast:
1. Technology Trumps “Traditional Librarianship”
Library of Congress employees who don’t want to learn new technology skills are being offered incentives to retire. Meanwhile, other library organizations (particularly in Canada) are trying to recruit more tech-saavy people into the profession. More than ever, it’s important for established librarians to keep up with the times.
- Digital Transition Brings Changes to LC’s Workforce (American Libraries Online)
- Library of Congress Solves Their Techie Divide (David Lee King)
- library careers – two national organizations (librarian.net)
- Continuous Learning: Making it a Priority Without Breaking the Bank (TechEssence.Info)
2. Microsoft Bumps Into Google at the Water Cooler
Google has just released Google Apps for Your Domain, a suite of productivity tools for organizations (including e-mail, instant messaging, and a group calendar) that is entirely free and online, requiring no downloads of any kind (although there are ads).
- Google releasing package for the office (Yahoo! News)
- Google Announces Office Suite, Takes Aim at Microsoft (Monkey Bites)
- Google Makes Its Move: Office 2.0 (TechCrunch)
- Tools for the Digital Divide (Stephen’s Lighthouse)
3. Social Search: Everyone’s a Reference Librarian?
More and more search engines are incorporating a human touch into the search process, by allowing communities to rank results and give answers to questions that had previously been provided by complex algorithims.
- Social Networking (Stephen’s Lighthouse)
- Internet search gets Web 2.0 style (ZDNet)
- Is Yahoo Answers Really the Answer? (ABC News)
4. You Should Be in the Digital Movie Downloads Business, Kid
In recent weeks, a whole slew of Hollywood studios have signed on with a whole slew of major players to distribute digital movie downloads. Still to be determined, though – how much will it actually cost for people to download a movie?
- iTunes Movie Studio Details Leaked (DailyTech)
- Screenshots of new Amazon video store hit the Web (Ars Technica)
- AOL to sell digital movie downloads (CNET News)
- GUBA Begins Movie Download Price War (DailyTech)
