The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

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Mix it up: Libraries mash up data, services and ideas

From the NextSpace: The OCLC Newsletter website

One of the fastest growing trends today is combining data and functionality from several sources to create new services that provide a unique user experience. They’re called mash ups. Think Google Maps. Yahoo Pipes. Facebook Plug-Ins. Libraries are doing Web mash ups as well: Meebo Instant Messaging. Library Lookup. Bookburro. And, in a way, they’ve been doing all kinds of mash ups for years. Think story hour, open-shelf access, cafes, book lockers.


Power to the People. Social Media Tracker: Wave 3 (Note: PDF)

From Stephen Abram's blog

According to latest findings, half of U.S. adults use social media. In this particular study "social media" includes text messaging, blogging and social networking. These three technologies combined are used by 50% of U.S. adults for communication purposes.
* 1 out of 10 U.S. adults now publish blogs (up from 5% last year)
* 1 out of 5 18-34-year olds publish blogs (up from 10% last year)
* 22% of U.S. adults use IM (up from 9% last year)
* 21% 18-34-year olds use IM (up from 14% last year)
* 57% have joined a Social Network, now the primary mode of creating and sharing content
* 23% of social network users have installed an application
* Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration
* 73% have read a blog
* 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog


12 Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs

From Stephen Abram's blog

A list devised while discussing how the "information behaviours" of Generation Millennium differs from those of previous generations, and what that means for the tools they (and the rest of us -- they outnumber even the boomers) will and won't be using in the future. Out of the research on this has come a list of tools, technologies and other artifacts that will probably disappear within the next generation, just as Fax essentially disappeared less than 20 years after it first became popular, and just as CDs, which are disappearing even faster.
1. Hard Drives
2. "Wall of Text" Reports & Documents
3. "Best Practices"
4. Email and Groupware
5. Corporate Websites
6. Corporate Intranets
7. Corporate Libraries and Purchased Content
8. Cell Phones
9. Classrooms
10. Meetings
11. Job Titles
12. Offices