PressDisplay

My favorite news database is PressDisplay. More than likely you have free access with your library card. Check out your public library website list of databases or call your local librarian.

PressDisplay touts itself with:

Over 1,000 U.S. and international newspapers in 40 languages. Newspapers are available in full-color, full-page format with a 60-day archive.

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Sears is the new Google/CIA/Big Brother?

The FTC has released a report detailing an invasion of privacy by Sears. In short, Sears enticed users with $10 in order to have them downloaded software to assist in consumer research. This software then collected an insane amount of web-surfing data. [via LibraryLaw Blog]

Sears now has to cease the operation and delete all collected data. I wonder if lawsuits are on the horizon or if the agreement keeps Sears safe. For the most part, no one reads software license agreements (not that most of us could make sense of the legalese anyway). Either Sears really gets the Internet and how to manipulate it or they are a bunch of goombas. At any rate, users need to be better educated on WWWdangers, especially potential offers from “trusted” companies.

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iPad, Macbook Air, The Librarian, etc.

Gizmodo wrote up a piece on an important difference between computers (e.g. the new MacBook Air) and the iPad.The gist of which is: creation is greatly hindered on an iPad or iPhone. While I’ve edited photos on my iPhone, they weren’t quality/skilled changes but simple template driven adjustments. I’ve done research on my iPhone but never delivered a product that encompassed a gamut of databases and files/reports.

Could an iPad replace a librarian’s computer? Doubtful. Results would take more time to deliver and would leave out inaccessible Internet resources. We can easily digest information on an iPad, find a title, call-number, or even a citation. Yet, doing a full background search on a corporation, a legislative history, or finding a medical article from 1934 would prove tedious if not impossible. A research project can involve dozens of PDF, word, and image files, I can only imagine the pain of organizing and sifting through them on a touch surface.  The same headaches go with spreadsheets or power point presentations. Lastly, would you even attempt to catalog on an iPad?

I look forward to the day when we can do research with touch screens or projected images (see Minority Report); but that day isn’t today.

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Twitter: Follow A Library

Today is follow a library day on twitter. So get on it! You may be best served finding your local libraries but can get some great information from nearly any library twitter!

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Findings

The dissolution of a library often leads one into the deepest pits of archives, storage, offices, and the back of file cabinets. Hidden in the recesses of one of these cavities was a California Continuing Education of the Bar floppy diskette: Marital Termination Agreements.

Now where did I put that old 486 PC and my copy of WordPerfect? Here’s a bonus, care instructions.

If this were a copy of the original Oregon Trail, then I’d see about finding a machine to run it on.

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Library of Congress : the Video Game!

The title of this entry is a bit of a misnomer. The Library of Congress hasn’t put out a video game, although it would be fantastic to have an LOC board game; rather, they have released an iPhone app.  The application is a virtual tour of the library, taking adventurers into the deep and mystic rooms of knowledge and history. The application is optimized for the iPhone 4, containing rich graphics, sounds, and interface structures. In short, a free must download app.

I decided to tackle the app in the most rigorous testing regime I know, as a video game. Here’s the opening scene:

The LOC is epic and luckily the app serves as a Virgil, casting light onto a certain path. After reading the opening scene I knew this journey was not for the weak of heart. Thusly, I finished my sandwich, braced myself, and tapped “explore”. Without hesitation the game was afoot! Gracing my screen was a list of levels, luckily I didn’t have to unlock them- I could travel wherever I wished:

I’m no fan of spoilers or jumping ahead, so the main reading room was the only place to start. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t craving excitement or adventure, as it so happened, I had found it:

The initial screen contained a detailed history and description of the Main Reading Room/ Level 1. The beginning textual mission could have been better displayed if the font were adjustable, as it stands its hard to get a paragraph onto one screen and it becomes difficult to visualize. However, this is quickly remedied by the audio mission.

Sheridan Harvey gives life to the Main Reading Room and engages my imagination. She calls the Main Reading Room the “living heart of the library” and she truly makes The LOC an inviting place, as anyone 16 or older with a valid ID can use the space and materials. She would be perfect for audio books too! After my encounter with Librarian Sheridan the game had me. I was ready for the next mission: photos!

The text and audio description prepared me for a battle with living statues. These high quality images put me in The LOC, feeling the DC sunshine light up the room and bask me in a fountain of olden days. It’s easy to click onto each image, zoom in and out, and learn.

The last mission, link, is exactly what is sounds like: related links to supplemental information. How often do we go to presentations, read an article, or visit a blog with related links? It’s great to have but I bet dirt to donuts that the percentage of actual related links clicks is less than 10%. This mission didn’t challenge me as the others before it had. Yet, minus related links, The LOC app/virtual tour left me pleased to have spent a portion of my lunch break wandering the Main Reading Room, listening to Sheridan’s tales, and mingling with greatness of past times. I look forward to the next levels and expect the same captivating lessons.

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Government Apps on Tap: TSA

Apps, ideally, are designed to take advantage of a mobile-phone’s interface: touch-screen, small screen real estate, accelerometer, etc. Functions that the web, ultimately, cannot equally provide. The Transportation Security Administration has an app that is both useful and functional for the iPhone.

The “status” list displays all delayed airports in the USA. While I always recommend checking your flight status with your airline and flight number this is a handy option nonetheless.

Tapping into the airport will give you delay information. It’s a great tool for when you’ve volunteered to pick up a friend from the airport and find yourself sitting in the parking lot wondering, “how long is this gonna take.” Moreover, the bottom icon to the right, “Wait Times”, gives a run down of time needed to get through airport gates/security.

What self-respecting TSA app would go without a feature that details carry-on items and travel tips? The typical stuff is provided: how to dress, how to pack liquids and how much, what to expect, what is forbidden, acceptable IDs, traveling with kids, etc. Yet this app goes a step further and offers a search function. As you can see nun-chucks are going to have to go with checked-luggage.

I can easily see myself using this app when traveling to/from home. And being useful for family and friends who often ask about what they can or can’t pack. While most of us won’t use this app everyday or even every few months, the TSA app is a must download, given the information it provides, ease of use, and constantly updated data.

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Government Goes Mobile

Federal cell-phone apps and mobile websites are available in greater numbers, check it out here.  I’m not sure if these will stream-line librarian duties but they are worth having available if we are stuck in the stacks or fielding reference away from a computer. However there remains an opening for native programs that provide the most basic of legal needs: codes, regulations, & bills. While the latest mobile phones can navigate many Government web sites there is plenty of room for improvement, making information easier to search and browse on a cell-phone lends itself to enhancing traditional web landscapes. Even for Attorneys, public Government sites prove  cumbersome and confusing.

GPO Access hosts an overwhelmingly large amount of Government data but still looks like a website from the late 1990s/ early 2000s. FDsys is stuck in beta (personally I like it) and it could use an “Instant Message a Librarian” function; or something similar to help users get through the vast links and content available. I still can’t get my head around the discrepancies between these sites: GPO has the 2006 edition of the US Code whilst FDsys offers the 2008? Any law practitioner would be crazy to rely on either of these databases as current law, driving those unable to access books to Westlaw/Lexis. As the Government churns out more web-based and mobile functions it leads me to believe that for every new feature worth praising there are even more limitations worth ruing.

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Freedom to Tinker

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is a thorn in the side of exploration and freedom of use. It effectively criminalizes using owned works/software outside of normal/intended means. For example, if you buy a song on iTunes and it is protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM): it is locked to your account, your computer, and only to a number of devices that support playing it,  iTunes, iPods, and perhaps a few other devices. You are also restricted to burning the album or songs to a limited number, 3 or 5 CDs or so. CDs don’t last. I’ve had to purchase my favorite albums a number of times, despite my immaculate care, they became unplayable. The music purchased can only be used in the way they want. Want to remix it? You’ll have to get a different version or illegally free it from DRM. Want to play it on a non-Apple/non-iTunes device, same thing. While it’s easy to circumvent the processes in place, it is technically prohibited. Additionally, as far as I can tell, there is no easy way to resell music.

The latest DMCA news involves the Apple iPhone. There’s a world of uses for the iPhone some of which may only be discovered or tapped into if used outside of its design/intended purpose. Jailbreaking could lead to illegal actions, but jailbreaking shouldn’t be illegal. If one were inclined they could download applications without paying for them, that’s obviously illegal. However still considered illegal would be connecting wirelessly to printers or finding ways to make it more efficient and user-friendly. I bet one could turn the iPhone into a full-blown computer, simply by installing a full operating system and connecting it to a monitor and keyboard. Maybe the iPhone would be great for checking in books and scanning shelves via RFID. However, you’d have to install an RFID scanner and software onto the phone. Perhaps the only way to do that would be via jailbreak.

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Apples to Apples

Two years ago I wrote a post on how I decided to pick a blackberry curve over the iPhone. I’ve lived in regret ever since. My friends who have had their iPhones the last two years remain happy (At&T issues aside) and are certainly ready for the next iteration. Moreover, the old iPhone remains in constant comparison to mobiles currently being released and even those in prototype phases. Any phone worth its mettle looks like an iPhone and offers functionality that Apple popularized and nearly perfected.

I went with the blackberry and it has been problematic (T-Mobile issues aside). Within the last year the phone has proved sluggish, unreliable, and in varied states of freezing. Hardly a day goes by where the curve’s battery isn’t pulled for a hard reset. It’s limited in OS functionality, application availability, web browsing, music or video playing. The curve’s only good use is text related. Twitter is fine and messaging/e-mail is OK. However, it’s a smart-phone and should be able to do a little bit more.  Attempts to perform outside basic text usage proves cumbersome and clunky. I’ve taken a good share of pictures on the device and the Google Maps application has proven useful, perhaps the only two redeeming qualities; yet in this day and age a phone with a usable camera and map isn’t much about which to get excited. Especially when considering the sluggishness that coincides with using any of these features.

All is not lost. Today Apple is holding their World Wide Developers Conference [IGN live blog] and the obvious news being the release of a new iPhone. The standard I hope that they set though will exist in the cloud, leading to seamless integration/syncing of several devices we use everyday: phones, computers, and the web. Mostly though I want a cellphone that can navigate my public library catalog, allowing me to search and request items without problem. The blackberry browser on the curve supports this but it never really works.  Blackberry had their two years and failed, time to move onto a brand that has rarely let me down.

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