LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Safelibraries sent over a link to List of commercial games released as freeware that could be useful for libraries looking to build some gaming resources for cheap. Commercial games released as freeware are games that, in their original license, were not considered freeware, but were re-released at a later date with a freeware license, sometimes as publicity for a forthcoming sequel or compilation release.

Troubles for Reference Librarians: Rick Roche:

At the risk of sounding old fashioned and crotchety, let me say that this sounds like the result of having had too much easy success in the past and settling for just enough. I think we as librarians should work to make our tools as easy to use as possible, with the goal of connecting clients and information/content that they seek, but we should convey that the tools are not perfect. I think some of our marketing that says "Hey, use this , it's easy!" backfires on us. Students and other clients believe us and then assume that if the easy search does not find anything, there is nothing to be found. How we can have positive and encouraging promotions that are still realistic is tricky. We need to think about this.

David Lee King has something for you to ponder, next time you're looking for something to ponder. What can you actually DO at your website? Can you do most of the the real “stuff” that your library offers as activities?

But what else? Can you browse your collection? Probably not. Can you subscribe to feeds, so you can get updates whenever a page is updated with new info? Maybe. Can you instantly contact a librarian to ask your burning question or get clarification through IM, chat, email, or Twitter? Probably not.

New York Times: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Ben Zimmer, executive producer of a Web site and software package called the Visual Thesaurus, was seeking the earliest use of the phrase “you’re not the boss of me.” (ed-my husband and I were just discussing use of that particular phrase with our son yesterday). Using a newspaper database, he had found a reference from 1953.

But while using Google’s book search recently, he found the phrase in a short story contained in “The Church,” a periodical published in 1883 and scanned from the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Google’s book search “allows you to look for things that would be very difficult to search for otherwise,” said Zimmer. But ...do we really care when the phrase was first used? Don't most little children think of the phrase on their own anyway?

So then; should Google be be the only worthwhile place to search for content in old books? If not Google, then who? Post your opinion if you'd like.

My thanks to Walt for editorial assistance.

This week's episode brings a chat with Cameron Kaiser, the creator of Twitter client ttytter, as well as a piece from The Effing Librarian and a commentary written by the program's engineer.

Links:
Blog entry referenced in the engineer's commentary
The prepared commentary text that was presented
The Twitter client, ttytter
The book by The Effing Librarian
The blog by The Effing Librarian
One book by the podcast production team
Another book by the podcast production team

Wikipedia is a demonstration of the wisdom of crowds? The crowd may be smaller that you think. Full blog post here.

As reported in the most recent regular edition of LISTen, podcast hosting provider Podango collapsed on New Year's Day. All that remained was a parking page. LISHost announced its response that same day.

Proposing to better police the Internet so as to protect children, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport in the United Kingdom's cabinet is proposing international legal norms for websites. At present Secretary Burnham does not believe the UK itself has a body to undertake classifying websites although he is interested in a film-style rating system. Burnham's proposal would involve talks with the incoming Obama administration to lay the groundwork of international legal norms to force change in industry.

A proposed Internet filter dubbed the ''Great Aussie Firewall'' is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government -- mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.

''This is obviously censorship,'' said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.

Full article here.

This year as for the last 53 years the North American Air Defense Command, a US-Canadian military operation has worked to keep the skies of North America safe.

Since Santa must travel very qucikly to get all his deliveries done in one night, NORAD tracks him so that aircraft may avoid him, and so we don't mistake him for an unwanted visitor.

This year you can again get a peek at what NORAD does to keep us safe in our beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads by going to NORAD Tracks Santa.

I try to keep an eye on that, and Midnight Mass on EWTN (it starts at 6PM ET, but right on time in Rome).

Happy Christmas all!