Give Your Users a Tweet: Social Media for Libraries
August 20: SWON libraries – Blue Ash, Ohio

Give Your Users a Tweet: Social Media for Libraries
August 26: Wilmington Public Library – Wilmington, Ohio

Born Digital: How Kids Live in an Online World
September 3: International Paper – Cincinnati, Ohio

Tech News You Can Use
September 10: SWON Libraries online classroom

Websites Evolved: Content Management Systems in Libraries
September 17: SWON Libraries – Germantown, Ohio

Beyond Websites: Content Management Systems for Libraries
October 1: Kentucky Library Association – Louisville, KY

Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into Your Web Site
October 22: OELMA Annual Conference – Columbus, Ohio

My small contribution to the day was a lunchtime presentation on using Linux for back office stuff like web servers, mail servers, networking, etc. It’s a very general overview of the popular projects and tools out there for Linux. It’s mainly intended as a starting place for people looking to install a new service on a Linux platform. The slides from my talk are below.

Things I like:

• The multi-touch interface is very cool.  I quickly adapted to using gestures and pinching to use the phone.  It makes the phone very intuitive and easy to use.
• Multitasking works really well.  My last phone could multi-task, but the Pre gets it right.  It’s easy to see what you have running and switch between those programs.
• The hidden keyboard is very usable.  Even though it’s smaller than my previous phone’s keyboard, I can type very well on it.  I was actually quite surprised how usable it is for me.
• The web browser is fantastic.  Being able to view full web pages like I would on my laptop is very cool.  Most sites optimized for iPhones also work perfectly on the Pre.  Flash isn’t supported (yet), but that’s yet to cause a problem for me.
• Online syncing works.  Some people hate the way the Pre merges information from Google, AIM, and Facebook, but I like having it all in one place.  However, I have not synced my Facebook account and I can see how that might be overwhelming to some.  Syncing my Google contacts, email, and calendar seems to work flawlessly.
• The GPS is very accurate.  Google Maps actually tracks me as I walk around my house.  Several of the applications already make use of your location.
• The camera is 3 mp.  It takes pretty decent pictures and even has a flash.  Using the entire screen as a view finder makes it nicer to use than my Canon camera.
• The charging/data port is standard.  Micro-USB is becoming the standard interface for mobile phones.  It’s nice that I don’t need to use expensive Palm-branded cables for the Pre.
• It’s Linux.  Knowing that the platform is built on open source is comforting.  A development community has formed and they’ve already figured out how to root the device and access the command line.
• It’s Palm.  My first PDA was a Palm III.  I moved to other devices before the Treo came out, but it’s nice to come back to Palm.  I’m rooting for them and hope the Pre can turn things around for the company
• It’s Sprint.  They get a lot of bad press (especially when it comes to customer support), but I’ve been with them for about ten years and have always been happy.  Sprint’s coverage is great in this area and their data plans are cheap compared to the other carriers.

Things I don’t like:

• It’s a new platform.  WebOS is very much in its infancy and that means there’s not many applications available yet.  Also, there’s not a whole lot you can customize yet.
• The email application is pretty basic.  It gets the job done, but there’s no way to mark all messages as read or easily move messages to other folders.
• The music application is also basic.   While it’s fine for listening to music, I mostly listen to podcasts.  However, there’s no way yet to manage podcasts or listen at faster speeds.
• The built-in backup application is ambiguous.  The phone’s data is automatically backed up daily to your Palm account.  However, it’s unclear where that data goes and what does and doesn’t get backed up.  I’m really not sure what I would lose if my phone was reset.
• Tethering is not supported (yet).  I would like the option of getting my laptop online via the Pre if needed.  It’s not clear of Palm/Sprint will eventually support this, but it’s just a matter of time before someone figures out a way to do it.
• There no way to manage files.  You can connect the Pre to a computer as a USB mass storage device, but there’s no way to add/move/delete from the Pre itself.  You can’t even save files from the web browser.
• There’s no video camera.  I’m hoping this will be resolved with a future software update.  I don’t take too many videos, but I’m sure there will be situations where I wish I could do it.

While there’s plenty that I don’t like, I think most of that will go away as the WebOS platform matures. There’s a lot of potential in the Pre and there’s already a development community forming around it. Hopefully more WebOS devices will follow over the next year or so.

Below are my slides from my talk on cloud storage services.

Send it to Cloud City: An Introduction to Online Storage Services
May 19
TechConnections 2.0.0.9 – Columbus, Ohio

Tech News You Can Use
June 16
SWON Libraries online classroom

Tech News You Can Use
July 9
SWON Libraries online classroom

Welcome to Cloud City: Online Software for Library Staff and Users
July 15
SWON libraries – Blue Ash, Ohio

Welcome to Cloud City: Online Software for Library Staff and Users
July 28
Clark County Public Library – Springfield, Ohio

Tech News You Can Use
August 11
SWON Libraries online classroom

Give Your Users a Tweet: Social Media for Libraries
August 20
SWON libraries – Blue Ash, Ohio

Give Your Users a Tweet: Social Media for Libraries
August 26
Wilmington Public Library – Wilmington, Ohio

Born Digital: How Kids Live in an Online World
September 3
International Paper – Cincinnati, Ohio

Tech News You Can Use
September 10
SWON Libraries online classroom

Websites Evolved: Content Management Systems in Libraries
September 17
Germantown Public Library – Germantown, Ohio

Beyond Websites: Content Management Systems for Libraries
October 1
Kentucky Library Association – Louisville, KY

Most of it is common sense, but common sense isn’t always common, right?

Recommended Online Drupal Resources

The Librarian in Black shares her collection of resources. It’s got some great links for people trying to wrap their heads around Drupal.

Is Dreamweaver being beaten by Drupal?

This article on oreilly.com doesn’t really answer the question posed in its title, but it does a pretty good job of contrasting static and dynamic websites. It gets a little technical, but provides a lot of food for thought.

more drupal, if you can stand it

Amanda Etches-Johnson wraps up her series on Drupal. Be sure to check out her earlier posts as well. It’s a great way to learn about what libraries can do with Drupal.

A n00b goes camping – Drupal Camp at Darien Library

DrupalCon was held in D.C. last week, but libraryland recently held its own Drupal event. Darien Library in Connecticut held a Drupal unconference. I watched a live stream on the web and it was a very cool event. Cindi Trainor attended in person and posted a very in-depth writeup over at ALA TechSource. She makes a great point that Drupal can be used for almost anything and is only limited by the expertise found in libraries.

Drupal Taxonomy Tutorial

This popped up in Cindi Trainor’s FriendFeed (FriendFeed is a great way to keep up with what others are bookmarking and sharing). Anyway, taxonomies are one of the more difficult concepts to grasp in Drupal. So it’s nice to have a tutorial like this that steps you through the process.

Service Providers For Libraries

This was posted on the Libraries Drupal Groups site. It’s a nice roundup of companies providing Drupal-related services for libraries. Providers like these make Drupal available to libraries even if they don’t have in-house support.

Software System’s Fans Gather to Talk Code

Even the NY Times has picked up on Drupal’s popularity. This article gives some good examples of companies and groups using this CMS for their websites.

Oh, if you are near Cincinnati there is a Drupal Users Group here that formed a few months ago. The group is shaping up nicely and is great for newbies and gurus. Meetings are at 6:30pm on the 1st Wednesday of each month at the Public Library’s main branch.

The post is based on Aaron Swartz’s rant against OCLC and WorldCat.  It is, however, a valid rant.  Libraries have tolerated OCLC’s “less than open” practices because there wasn’t much alternative.  Now that open alternatives such as Open Library and ‡biblios.net are growing, it will be interesting to see what happens.  With the growing popularity of open source in libraries, having open records and open cataloging will be very important.

Most of the slides are screenshots and the URL for the tool or example site can be found at the top of each of those slides.