This week’s 4cast:
1. Browsers Buffed & Braced for Battle
New and improved versions of the two most popular web browsers have just been unleashed. In this corner, it’s the latest version of Microsoft’s reigning champion, Internet Explorer 7. And in the opposite corner, it’s Mozilla’s up-and-coming contender, Firefox 2.0.
- Microsoft Releases IE7 (Wired News)
- Firefox 2 (CNET editors’ review)
- Firefox 2.0 shows promise but UI needs a face lift (ZDNet)
- IE7 vs Firefox 2: The memory usage showdown (Lifehacker)
2. Second Lives Impact First Ones
Second Life is a virtual, online world that went public in 2003. Now home to over a million players, it’s beginning to have an impact in the real world, as players spend more time, create businesses, and exchange real money within the game’s framework. Will public library computers see more and more of its “citizens” living at their workstations?
- Second Life (Wikipedia)
- A Virtual World but Real Money (New York Times)
- Taking ‘Second Life’ to the next level (CNET)
- Making a Living in Second Life (Wired News)
3. E-Mail’s for Fogeys
For new generations of computer users, e-mail is about as useful as sending a telegram. So has your library embraced instant messaging yet?
- Teens: E-mail is for old people (Ars Technica)
- Millenials and working habits (Thoughts from a Library Administrator)
- Engaging Youth on their Own Terms: Instant Messaging and Gaming in Libraries (SirsiDynix Institute)
- Digital libraries Ala carte: Where Our Users Are: Instant Messaging for Libraries (Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology)
4. Remote Possibilites
Several library bloggers have recently pointed out that when potential library patrons cannot or don’t want to come to the library, it’s still important for the library to try and supply them with cards.
- Why the highest priority to helping distance students should be getting them library cards (Laurie the Librarian)
- The importance of getting library cards to remote users (LibrarianInBlack)
- Library Cards & Distance Students (Life as I Know It)
- Students to get new library cards (Louisville Courier-Journal)
