LibraryTechtonics

The library in the Museum of Science here in Boston started “Book Club for the Curious” in the fall 2004. I stumbled on the page on the web site trolling for items for the Free Stuff calendar. The club meets once a month, in the museum library, with tea and coffee provided, and the books focus on interests in science and technology.

So very, very cool. I think I’ll ask when I go in to the library for my hours tomorrow if they’d be interested in coordinating a library display with the museum…

I’ll be heading down to DC for Computers in Libraries from March 16-18, and blogging every bit I can get my grubby little upstart hands on.
I’ll probably be staying through the weekend, so if anyone wants to hang between March 16-20, let me know.

I gotta say, PBS is so cool.

I turned on the TV today after I got home from my volunteer hours at the library, and flipped around until I stopped on a NOVA progam about preserving the founding documents of the United States, codenamed “Elvis” (I’m watching it right now). The program is talking about how the entire process to create the new cases for these documents cost around $5 billion dollars, how the cases were made, and snippets of the committee of preservationists during the process, as well as tidbits about parchment paper as a material.

I’m *such* a library geek.

PBS has a really groovy site for the program with all sorts of interactive bits about the documents and the preservation process and issues, and the program itself is really engaging. You can check the local listings to see when the program is being shown in your area.

OK, I just heard someone say, “Luckily, the law of physics still apply,” during the testing of the super glass for the cases. Freaky.

The Socket gadget, which plugs into your PDA, in conjunction with the OrganizeIT Suite, allows a user to scan the barcodes of DVDs, CDs, and VHSs in order to catalog them. An online service provides the software suite with title, artist, track, price, publisher, and other details on each item. There’s a dandy write up about the product on Popgadget.

How hot would it be to have it also handle books, so tech services librarians scan books, acquire info, and sync to a desktop or laptop to complete copy cataloging, or even just people with home collections being able to catalog everything with one app? Because, well, people still own books :).

I’m a geek girl like you wouldn’t believe, but really, I understand the need to just know how to get something done. Lifehacker is a great blog, sponsored by Sony, for librarian non-geeks, or budding librarian geeks, to follow for tech trends, tips and tricks, and answers to patron questions. It covers Mac and PC (I haven’t seen any Linux stuff yet, but I’m sure it’s around or coming), and gives you the goods on everything from how to Photoshop a photo like an iPod ad to how to install and uninstal a font on a Windows machine, in digestible snippets that don’t read like stereo instructions.

Lifehacker
[c/o misbehaving.net 1 feb 2005]
“Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the downloads, web sites and shortcuts that actually save time. Don’t live to geek; geek to live.”

I think I’ll add this to my Bloglines blogroll…