Hello iBraryGuy readers!  We are excited to announce that iBraryGuy has been nominated for a Shorty Award in the #tech category.  The Shorty Awards recognize individuals and organizations that use Twitter as a means to reach their audiences and contribute meaningful discussion.  If you enjoy our blog, PLEASE consider casting a vote for our way.
 
There are two ways to do it:
 
 
  • Or from Twitter, tweet the following:  #shortyawards @ibraryguy #tech because librarians know info best!
 
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

As much as we here at iBraryGuy pride ourselves on original content, sometimes we come across postings written by others that are just too good to not share.  So it is with this exceptional teaser on the forthcoming changes to Westlaw.  For you law librarians and legal researchers, Jason Wilson’s blog is an excellent source of news and information.  Check out his musings on Westlaw’s “Project Cobalt“.  Exciting!
Great work, Jason!
Having heard quite a bit about this Twitter client designed for professionals, the iBraryGuy editing team decided to give HootSuite a try.  Were we impressed?  Well, to say that we got hooked on HootSuite toot sweet (“toute de suite”, for our many Francophone friends) would be an understatement!  HootSuite is one of the very best Twitter clients on which we have EVER tweeted.  From it’s clean, logical, and dare we say “visually pleasing” interface to its high degree of customization, HootSuite is a professional tweeter’s dream come true!

Let’s start with the basics…  What is HootSuite?  HootSuite is an all-in-one social media client for users who need to manage multiple accounts and who want control of what, when, how, and where they post their messages.  From one interface, you can manage your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, and WordPress streams.  You can create a tab for each and, within each tab, create columns of just the streams you wish to see.  For instance, we created a Twitter tab that with colums for our timeline, mentions of iBraryGuy, and direct messages to us.  We created similar tabs for our Facebook and LinkedIn networks.  We even created a “Featured” tab that we first see when we log in.  We use this tab for the streams that interest us most.  It has two columns . . . one follows tweets from members of the Librariana Twitter list and the other searches Twitter for library-related tweets (using keywords that we set).  With HootSuite, our view of our social networks suddenly feels less chaotic and far more organized than ever.

But that is not all that HootSuite has to offer.  There is much more to this Mashable Open Web Awards winner!  You can use HootSuite to pre-schedule postings, help with analytics on your social networking efforts, and even stream your RSS feeds to your social networks.  Sounds overwhelming, huh?  Well, it would be if only HootSuite did not make it SO easy.  Set-up is a breeze and best of all, access is currently free.  Yes, HootSuite is looking at premium plans, but they have not launched yet.  There is no better time to try it out than the present!
Happy birthday, THOMAS!  The premier site for free, U.S. legislative information turns 15 today and it’s better than ever!  The Library of Congress is celebrating THOMAS’ birthday in a fashion that is seldom seen today . . . they are giving away birthday presents in the form of greater functionality and new features.  A happy birthday indeed!

Anyone who does federal legislative research in the USA will tell you that THOMAS (named for Thomas Jefferson) has long been an indispensible resource.  Not only has it been free and easy to use . . . but comprehensive and feature-rich as well.  Covering the 93rd Congress (1973) on, THOMAS provides bills and resolutions in full, searchable text.  Additionally, users can find the Congressional Record back to 101st Congress, committee reports back to the 104th Congress, presidential nominations back to the 100th Congress, and a sweet collection of treaty materials all the way back to the 90th Congress.  Sprinkle in some additional government resources links and you can see why THOMAS has been so valuable for 15 years!

In honor of the 15th birthday of this amazing tool, the Library of Congress has been seeking user feedback for a slew of new improvements and features.  These candles on the cake were unveiled today with some much-deserved fanfare.  If you haven’t checked them out, join in the birthday celebration and do so.  There is a new bookmarking and sharing toolbar for you social networking fans, a rundown of the top five bills of the week, a wonderful new RSS feed (that iBraryGuy will be adding to Librarians.Collected and LibraryVibes), and a cool tip of the week section.  They say that some things get better with age . . . clearly THOMAS is one of them!

Check out the newly enhanced THOMAS today!  Heck, have a slice of birthday cake while your at it!

There has been a great deal of buzz on the ‘net today regarding the acquisition of Ping.fm by Seesmic.  For those unfamiliar with either of these companies and/or their applications, let’s just say that this tidy combo is the first really big social networking news of 2010.  It’s a match made in cyber-heaven!

Seesmic is one of the more popular microblogging clients available today.  Up until now, it has been working with Twitter and Facebook, bringing the tweets and status updates you follow directly to your desktop or smartphone in a nifty column format.  We here at iBraryGuy have been using it for several months and are enamored of its easy use and streamlined interface.  Using Seesmic, you can follow, repond to, and retweet the tweets and status updates of others, as well as sending your own.  It’s a great way to go if, like us, you follow a lot of folks in social netverse.

Ping.fm has also been revolutionizing the social networking stratosphere.  Anyone who has accounts on multiple social networking applications knows how difficult it is to keep them all updated. Ping’s raison d’etre is to allow users to update them all at once.  In fact, Ping.fm makes updating up to 50 of these networks a snap!  It’s tagline is “Post from Anywhere > > to Anywhere!”.  Talk about a powerful time saver!

Combining the power of Seesmic with the reach of Ping.fm is a real coup and should excite any hyperactive social networker.  With the prognosticators hailing another big year for the growth and importance of social networking, more of us are exploring ways to incorporate it into our work and professional lives.  Whether you are new to social networking or looking to refine how it is you do it, checking out Seesmic with Ping.fm is a great way to get on the right path.

Well here it is . . . the last day of 2009 and our last blog post of the year.  We started iBraryGuy just six months ago.  While we were certainly hoping this little blog of our would catch on, we were still overwhelmed by the support of our readers.  Thank you all!  Each of you has been a bright spot in what was definitely a trying year.  Our little editorial team wishes each and every one of you a safe and happy New Year.  May 2010 bring you new joys, new successes, and fulfillment.

Our last posting of 2009 is a simple one.  We are going to share our professional New Year’s Resolution with you.  A new year brings hope and promise, but to seize it, we must go into the year with our own hopes and promises.  Won’t you please join us in sharing your professional hopes for 2010?  Together we can generate some really positive energy with which to kick off the new year and renew this wonderful profession of ours.

iBraryGuy’s New Year’s Resolution: 
In 2010 we will do more with less, not because we have to as much as we want to.  We will renew ourselves, our skills, and our unwavering dedication to quality customer service.

Please share your professional New Year’s Resolution in the comments below.  It will only take a minute to do our profession a whole year of good!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Another year is quickly drawing to a close.  It is that time of the year during which all those “Best of” lists begin popping up.  From books to music to movies and even moments, everyone has an opinion on what were the best of 2009.  We at iBraryGuy are no different. However, with so many available “best of”  lists out there, we decided to decline the chance to reinvent the wheel and publish our own lists on specific topics.  Instead, we thought we would help our readers find some of the best of the “best ofs”.  Between now and the end of the year, we will be sharing them with you.

Best of the Best of 2009:  Inventions

Innovation, where would our lives be without it?  We certainly would not be reading blogs like this via the internet on our lightning fast computers!  The capacity for people to dream up and make real things designed to make life and work better is limitless.  Each year, thousands of new inventions are unveiled.  Some have immediate impact, while others take quite a bit of time to catch on.  Today, we are featuring lists of some the most revolutionary new inventions born in 2009.  Here they are, in no particular order:

  • Time’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009:   We have featured quite a few of Time Magazine’s lists in our “Best of the Best Lists” for 2009.  Their editors have certainly been busy compiling them and we have been duly impressed with their quality and breadth.  Time certainly has one of the best inventions lists we have seen so far.  You can enjoy it here.
  • Popular Science  The venerable, and dare we say “ever popular”, Popular Science magazine announced the winners of its 2009 Invention Awards back in May.  If you have not yet seen the list, there is no time like the present.  PS’s Invention Awards celebrate the backyard scientists and garage inventors who not only dream the big dreams, but have the determination to make them happen . . . with their own bare hands and few spare parts!  You can explore the winners here.  

Another year is quickly drawing to a close.  It is that time of the year during which all those “Best of” lists begin popping up.  From books to music to movies and even moments, everyone has an opinion on what were the best of 2009.  We at iBraryGuy are no different. However, with so many available “best of”  lists out there, we decided to decline the chance to reinvent the wheel and publish our own lists on specific topics.  Instead, we thought we would help our readers find some of the best of the “best ofs”.  Between now and the end of the year, we will be sharing them with you.

Best of the Best of 2009:  Inventions

Innovation, where would our lives be without it?  We certainly would not be reading blogs like this via the internet on our lightning fast computers!  The capacity for people to dream up and make real things designed to make life and work better is limitless.  Each year, thousands of new inventions are unveiled.  Some have immediate impact, while others take quite a bit of time to catch on.  Today, we are featuring lists of some the most revolutionary new inventions born in 2009.  Here they are, in no particular order:
Another year is quickly drawing to a close.  It is that time of the year during which all those “Best of” lists begin popping up.  From books to music to movies and even moments, everyone has an opinion on what were the best of 2009.  We at iBraryGuy are no different. However, with so many available “best of”  lists out there, we decided to decline the chance to reinvent the wheel and publish our own lists on specific topics.  Instead, we thought we would help our readers find some of the best of the “best ofs”.  Between now and the end of the year, we will be sharing them with you.

Best of the Best of 2009:  Web Sites

Web sites, web sites everywhere!  It seems like no matter what the interest, question, or need, there is a web site or hundred dedicated to it.  There are the good, the bad, and the ugly and more of each than we can count.  Web sites are literally a dime a dozen.  So too are lists of the best web sites.  Here at iBraryGuy, we have looked at a lot of those lists this year. Here are some of our favorite best web sites lists for 2009, in no particular order:

  • Time’s 50 Best Sites of 2009:   Time Magazine’s list of the best 50 sites of 2009 was by far our favorite.  With sites to educate, entertain, and make you more productive, Time’s list truly has something for everyone.  It includes many of the most popular Web destinations as well as some of which you probably have never heard.  You can see it here.
  • The Webby Awards:  For an amazing 13 years running, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences has been unveiling its list of best sites on the web.  Annually, thousands of sites are nominated.  Few, however, are the chosen.  It is quite a list and quite an honor to be recognized on it.  The Webbies are nicely divided by category and the Academy’s very user-friendly site.  You can explore the winners here.  
  • RUSA’s Best Free Research Sites: RUSA is the Reference and User Services Association.  A division of the American Library Association, RUSA too offers and annual list of the best.  The focus of their list, however, is research . . . specifically free research.  We all like free research sites, so long as they are good.  RUSA’s list is invaluable for separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff in the world of free online research.  You can get your fill here.
Web sites come and go.  It is quality, utility, and popularity that set the winners apart from the losers – those who are here to stay from those who will be gone tomorrow.  The lists above are chock full of sites that, in some cases, have and in others may withstand the tests of time and taste.  Did your favorites make the lists?  We any left out?  Let us know with your comments!