This week’s 4cast:
1. The Digital Natives Are Restless
At the ALA Annual Conference (wrapping up this week in Washington D.C.), librarians were given some advice about appealing to a generation raised on the Internet – to understand these digital natives, you must immerse yourself in their culture. And that means social networking, tagging, and -gasp- gaming.
- When ‘Digital Natives’ Go to the Library (Inside Higher Ed)
- Information in the World of Digital Natives (YALSA)
- College Librarians Urged To Play Video Games (Slashdot)
- ALAAnnual2007_DigitalNatives (geeky artist librarian)
2. The Only Thing to Fear is the Sound of Crickets
Is your library afraid of the digital natives and their cacophonous culture? What about when they become taxpayers and voters?
- Practioners of Panic and the Culture of Fear (LibraryCrunch)
- Culture of Fear (LibrarianInBlack)
- Libraries without fear (The Fifth Law)
- Getting Beyond “Yes, but” When We Talk about Change (Blog on the Side)
3. Oh OPAC, What Are We To Do With You?
Anytime a library blogger mentions the sorry state of the OPAC, everyone piles on. But strong ideas on how to fix the OPAC have been slow to emerge. Recently, the Phoenix Public Library unveiled their new website/catalog combo, as an example of one approach.
- Phoenix Public Library’s Way Cool OPAC (The Shifted Librarian)
- The Next Generation [INSERT WORD HERE] Trend (Infomancy)
- Future of the Catalog (What I Learned Today…)
- Faceted navigation and browsing features in new OPACs… (ResourceShelf)
4. Where Money Flows, Taxes Follow
While their constituents enjoy the free exchange of ideas and services on the Internet, some lawmakers see a potential source of revenue in the government’s net.
- Death, Taxes, and Internet Taxes (Yahoo! Tech)
- Read Our Lips: No New Net Taxes Likely (Wired)
- Government groups oppose permanent Net tax ban (InfoWorld)
- Congress set to issue virtual taxation report in August (CNET)
