As a new mom, I’ve been thinking nonstop about family. I look at my son and wonder what I will tell him about his family. Genealogy has been a quest for every generation, and has become much more popular in recent years. Still, until now there have not been many online tools that could map out family trees.

Enter Geni. With the tagline "Everyone's related," Geni takes family relations and adds all the bells and whistles the Internet has to offer. The best part is that this tool is free, user friendly, and easy on the eyes. It was built by former employees of PayPal, eGroups (which was bought by Yahoo! in 2000), Tribe, and eBay and has many design features that users will find familiar. Read more »

First up, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Folks at ALA 2008 in Anaheim, California were all “A-Twitter!” Of course there was also much Flickring, texting, blogging, IMing and any other 2.0-ish, social-networkey “ing” you can name going on as well.

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Stick a microphone in front of a famous person--a makeover victim, a home owner aspiring to an increased selling price, or a washed-up celebrity looking to reclaim former greatness (if only in his own mind)--and it seems they will all invariably announce their concern with “keeping it real.” My (almost) daily ritual of imitating outdoor activity on a machine plugged into the wall of a window-deficient warehouse while watching talking heads has proved to be an education in our cultural obsession with authenticity.

Library culture is not national culture. Libraries keep things real by not being imaginary, and authenticity is not something that is consciously pursued. Library culture has typically been focused on perfection and the willingness to spend time getting there.

But as our resources and users move online, can we afford to ignore the culture of the Internet? The web, moving faster than perfection, has handed everyone a megaphone and authenticity is online currency. Read more »

Ah! Summer break. It’s nice to have some time to breathe and energize. My eyes fall on the stack of fiction and just-for-fun reading that awaits me these next few weeks. I must confess, however, that my thoughts also return to teaching and prep for next semester. I’ve already started work on integrating Drupal into my courses, working with my graduate assistant Kyle Jones, a TTW Contributor and blogger in his own right. Read more »

When you are training a dog, you do not start with something complicated. You begin with something small and easy: sit. From sit, you move on to tricks that build on that one skill, like shake and lie down. You never start with lie down or shake, because a dog has to be sitting to do those things.

When we teach children to read, we sing them the ABCs first and then teach them how the letters form words. We do not show them words and then teach them the alphabet. We know that to learn a skill there is a logical progression of learning. We know this, but often, when dealing with technology, we forget about it. Like all other knowledge acquisition, learning how to use technology tools should follow a logical progression. We should start with cornerstones before constructing the building. If you are a technology trainer, consider what cornerstones are already in your staff's arsenal when planning a training. Read more »

In the past few months, I have had the privilege to work with some amazing school librarians. Many of them want to begin incorporating more technology into their libraries, but are hampered by filters and lack of knowledge about the available tools on the Web. For some, even the most basic tools are blocked by overzealous IT and administrations. Read more »

While in Denver for LITA Forum recently, I read an article in the Denver Post entitled “We are our friends, our friends are us: MySpace and its offspring have transformed our link' thinking.” I found this article interesting for two reasons.

First, the author, John Wenzel, stated that MySpace will make $1 billion in ad revenue this year. One billion dollars. I had no idea, but I am not surprised. With all of the money we spend on things everyday, why wouldn't MySpace's 200 million members be clicking on those ads?

The second reason, and the one that really caught my attention, was this line:

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In just 12 months, from the time ALA Techsource published Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software, the influx of 2.0 type tools, books, articles about the tools, and conference presentations has been overwhelming. So much excellent content to take in!
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I keep my eye on many innovative libraries. These libraries are at the outer edge of our market, leading the way with new takes on service and outreach. They inspire me. They also help me do my job. I love to see what Hennepin is doing, and what Darien will do as they build their new library, as well as many other libraries across the country and around the world. And I'm also keeping a close eye on the state of South Carolina. If there ever was a state filled with library goodness, it would be there.

Here are just a few reasons why:

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A post from the field of Computers In Libraries 2007.

Lee Rainie, from the Pew Internet and American Life Project was the first speaker at this year's Computers in Libraries conference. His talk, as expected, was bursting with numbers that illustrated how people use and interact on the Internet. On Thursday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new study called “Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace”. As a result, much of Rainie's talk focused on young people.

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