Tweeting in Unison – CoTweet Public Beta
The folks at Twitter have released a new product into public beta, and libraries need to take notice! CoTweet is a business tool designed to allow organizations to coordinate their Twitter use under a single brand and share the tweeting resposnsiblities between several folks. In CoTweets own words:
CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. No dropped balls, no stepping on each other’s toes.
There have to be some possibilities for libraries here! Could this become a nifty sort of asynchronous eReference platform? A new way to engage customers\patrons\users with a more interactive Library Twitter experience? I think CoTweet needs to be on our radar and implies some exciting possibilies.
At least I’m already looking for work…
UPDATE: For the most up to the minute information, refer to the Ohio Library Council site specifically this article.
I don’t usually comment on politics publicly. I frankly don’t care to share my opinion with others, as I don’t really care about theirs. However, sometimes things happen that are, frankly, so boneheaded that I can’t help myself.
The Governor of my state, Ted Strickland, has lost what remaining respect I had for him (limited though that might have been in the first place). In his revised budget proposal, he has proposed cutting the Public Library Fund $227,000,000, roughly half of the $400,000,000 fund over the next biennium. He has other proposals to cut funds OhioLINK for Adult Education and GED programs.
So, in a down economy, this genius’s idea of good policy is to gut the institutions that help people acquire new skills to reenter the workforce, support the public education system, and otherwise facilitate the enlightenment of humanity.
I am, perhaps understandably, a bit biased on this issue. After all, I am a Librarian that lives in Ohio, and this proposal both goes against my professional beliefs and seriously threatens my livelihood. I have to say that I am honestly at least as concerned about the folks most affected by this idiocy, Library customers, as I am for myself. They rely on their libraries for services including checking-out materials, reference service, storytime and children’s programming, job searching, entertainment, homework assistance, and countless other things.
I understand that Ohio is facing a serious budget shortfall. I would have been understanding, even amenable, to a modest, responsible cut in funding. This goes far beyond what is responsible. For my library, this will be devastating as it is. If the cut is applied evenly across the board, my library, supported by the state and a local levy, looks to loose roughly a quarter an eighth of its funding. Other small libraries rely wholly on on the state funding and will loose half a quarter of their total revenue with a single piece of Legislation. As few entities can afford to loose half so much of their funding and survive, many (indeed most of the smallest) won’t, especially considering the pressure many already face. Those that do will may have to so drastically significantly roll back services that they will be shadows of what they once were.
I’m honestly having trouble coming up with intelligent things to say, as this proposal is so utterly foolish that I can’t really think straight at the moment. When will people and politicians get it in their head that libraries are not luxuries or amenities, but requirements for a modern, technological, economically viable society.
If you care about Ohio libraries, please contact your state representatives and state senators. This is not law yet. Hopefully we can get enough outrage build up that the cuts can be reduced to a more tolerable level.
I am not hopeful however. After all, the local headlines about this proposal read something to the affect that “Governor Supports Expansion of Gambling to Cover Budget Shortfall” rather than “Governor Guts Library Funding While Claiming to Protect Education”.
Ohio has long enjoyed some of the best libraries in the country. If this cut in funding comes to fruition, this seems likely to end. Saddest of all, it will be through no fault of their own.
A quarter century sounds a lot longer than it really is…no seriously!
To commemorate my 25th Birthday, I thought I’d throw together a list of those things that are making me feel prematurely ancient these days (with commentary). Enjoy!
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone: Tenth Anniversary Edition - Tenth What??!
- My best friend’s “little” sister graduating from college. - This one had me looking for my sensible shoes. Congrats Carrie!
- Eight seasons of American Idol – Dude, like, this totally feels like too many to be true, Dawg! Dreadful! Appalling! (I tried to do Paula, but I can’t sound properly unintelligible in print.)
- Teen Culture – I used to try to be current. I at least knew what was popular. Now I just fake it.
- Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, and other childhood memories being “rebooted” so they are “cooler” – sigh…
- I actually recently uttered the words “damn kids”. – Heavy sigh…
- Any time I’m at work and a young customer looks at me like I’m from another planet (daily occurrence)… – Damn Kids…
Okay, seven items is enough. Anymore and I’ll become suicidal. Well, Happy Birthday to me I suppose… I’m going to go talk to my parents now. Maybe it’ll make me feel better…
Hey, didn’t I just say that?
A great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education popped up in Google Reader today (thanks LISNews). The Author read the same Dickens book 4 ways: paperback, audiobook, iPhone, and Kindle.
This article is delightfully written and thoughtful. What’s more, she agrees with me about Kindle (agreeing with me is always a direct path to my good opinion, I’m only human).
Read and Enjoy!
Well, I’m Impressed… (not that you should care)
Prior posts might leave you with the impression that I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to ebooks and eBook Readers, especially Amazon’s Kindle. I’m still a pessimist about Kindle and dedicated readers, but I have to tell you I’m coming around of eBooks.
I never doubted that eBooks would “take over” someday, as there are too many plusses to the technology. What I really objected to was the speed with which everyone though it would happen. The Kindle app has changed my mind.
I’ve had it on my iPod Touch for several months now, but I didn’t have anything to read on it, or any desire to acquire anything. Recently I left work without a book I wanted to finish. I had a largely unscheduled evening ahead of me and nothing to read! Being the type of guy I am, I decided to turn a problem into an opportunity. I went on Amazon’s site and bought a Kindle copy and started reading.
Let me start with the purchasing process. Its too easy, and I’m only partially kidding. I found the book, and clicked “buy with one click” and it was mine. Wow! All I had to do then was fire up the Kindle App and synch it with my Kindle account! My book came to me over my wifi connection almost instantly, no pluging in required. Wow again.
The recent 1.1 upgrade to the Kindle App is extraordinary. It uses the motion sensing capabilities of the iPhone\iPod touch to allow a landscape presentation and lets you lock in in your prefered orientation. This is huge for those among the uninitiated, for it lets you keep the print big enough to read without having to have only 3 words per line. One can therefore actually follow the book you’re reading as you can string coherent thoughts together! You advance the pages with a tap on the right side of the screen, and flip back with a tap on the left. It seems Amazon learned a few tricks from LexCycle when they bought them.
This app is whats going to sell eBooks for Amazon long term, not their overpriced one trick pony. When I think of what will be possible when the rumored large-form iPod/iPhone/Apple Tablet comes out…
This does leave me with a rather galling question for librarians. Why don’t we have a method of distributing digital material that is this easy to use? My library offers a collection of Overdrive eBooks, eFlicks, eAudiobooks, etc. Why can’t overdrive create an app(s) for the numerous portable devices out there to seamlessly deliver our material to where people want it? There are no technological limitations to this. Apple wouldn’t be stupid enough to deny such an app admittance to the App Store (I don’t think).
This would certianly allieveate some of the clunkiness assoicated with using Overdrive materials on iPods. One could browse ones “checked out” items and start it up immediately! This might also help with compatibility issues, who really knows what’s possible until someone does it! I might actually use my library’s digital collection if it was as easy as my Amazon experience!
Here’s hoping someone gets it togather and gets this done!
PS. Owners of the iPod Touch and iPhone need not spend money to try out their Kindle Apps. Amazon has several (good) titles available for FREE. I’m enjoying Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson at the moment. Also available (and highly recommended) is His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (Anne McCaffery meets Patrick O’Brien, what could be better?).
My Recent Additions- Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
- American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph J. Ellis
- How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders by Bill Fawcett
- Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies (Hornblower Saga) by C.S. Forester
- The Wizard Lord: Volume One of the Annals of the Chosen (The Annals of the Chosen) by Lawrence Watt-Evans
- The Ninth Talisman: Volume Two of The Annals of the Chosen by Lawrence Watt-Evans
- A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R.R. Martin
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