As mentioned in my last post, I recently presented at the online Library 2.011 conference. Talking a little about how we scan the net for mentions of my library , the results of such scans and how, when we actually respond and reactions of users. Proactive scanning Twitter and web.

We all know that library conferences are expensive. Though I fully enjoyed my experience at ALA Annual earlier this year, for someone like me in Singapore, it is hard to expect to attend many such conferences overseas because of the distance.

While many people were slightly disappointed with iPhone 4S, the one feature that was considered cool and perhaps the main selling point is Siri , the intelligent assistant that among other tasks reads your email, manages your schedule, calls/texts your contacts etc. Still, will people find it strange to speak commands out-loud in public? Is Siri smart enough most of the time or will it be frustratingly wrong most of the time?

Steve Jobs first pitched for the iPhone at MacWorld 9 Jan 2007. Here is the original transcript and below is the video of the master at work. There Steve claimed to be reinventing the phone. How would he reinvent the library catalogue? "This is a day I've been looking forward to for almost 140 years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.

We live in a world where it seems we have countless ways to communicate with our users. Recently, I have added a new one to my toolkit - WebEx a popular web conferencing software. At our institution we also have other tools/services options such as Camatasia Relay, Ink2Go, Adobe Breeze,Live sessions can be recorded as  "webcasts", while the free tools like Skype, Hangouts in Google+ gives us even more options.

I have written plenty of posts on why you want to proactively scan Twitter & other online spaces for mentions of your library so you know what people are saying about your library and help if needed. But today I am going to focus on just Twitter. For Twitter I have written plenty on the options available whether desk-top,webbased clients, social media search engines etc for scanning.

I don't have much artistic or design skills so I like playing with tools that help mask this lack of skill. The following are some tools that allows even someone like me to create more flashy presentations/visualizations/mashups without much skill or effort. Some of the tools below could be used at presentations, others could be a unusual visualization that you show on LCD monitors and other digital signages.

Warning : Self indulgent personal post follows So I celebrated 4 years in librarianship on Aug 27 2011, big whoop right? Typically such posts would wax lyrical about how with 4 years under my belt, I am too experienced to call myself a newbie but not too experienced to become a veteran (most associations use 5 years as a cut-off to determine whether one is a "new professional"). I will then go on to muse about how

Just as mobile friendly library sites (including library catalogues) are becoming common (see my survey on library mobile sites and survey on library native apps), library vendors providing databases are keep pacing with mobile friendly databases either as a native app or more commonly as a mobile web version. The main issue of course is do users actually want or desperately need the ability to search library databases on the go?

I wrote about Helene Blower's new digital divide here It's one of those slides where you look at it, and you are instantly struck by the brilliance of it. One criticism I've read about this idea is that it's not nuanced enough, and too simplistic. I think It's not quite fair a criticism since the word "divide" , implies only two possible sides?

I had the opportunity recently to populate the "Contact us" option in our new library page which led me to realize how diverse library communication channels are. Typically most libraries would offer Phone Email (mailing lists?) Instant Message/Chat (e.g. MSN, meebo chat rooms or paid options like Libraryh3lp) SMS