Some state governments moving away from Microsoft?

Last year Governor Schwarzenegger looked into Open Source software for government use, that means, away from paying for commercial software packages such as Microsoft. Whether California will go that way is not yet clear. However some state governments are moving that direction. The following was found on Government Technology Magazine website:

Open Source Activity
Finally open source applications continued to make inroads into government -- a trend that sparked its own series of policy questions throughout the year.

The rap on open source is that it can't be trusted, and relying on it for important back-office functionality is premature. Several jurisdictions, however, are in the process of proving that statement wrong.

Mississippi made Linux the core of a new mobile data infrastructure, the Automated System Project (ASP), which will link police, fire and emergency medical personnel from three counties. The ASP will launch in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, but the hope is that it will go statewide and perhaps serve as a model for a national program.

The ASP team used open source software components running on Linux to take two formerly isolated systems -- a records management system purchased from a vendor and an in-house developed jail management system -- and got them talking to each other. The open source tools didn't come with the hefty price tag associated with commercial integration products.

Furthermore, Chicago is fine-tuning a vehicle registration system using HP servers running the Red Hat Linux operating system and an Oracle database that will replace an aging mainframe system.

The registration system issues more than 1 million vehicle stickers annually, and was ready to go into production for this year's renewal cycle, said Steve Philbrick, first deputy CIO of Chicago. Stickers went on sale in June, so the system was set to begin generating notices in late April.

"The registration system generates several million dollars in revenue," Philbrick said. "Government is real big into mission-critical when it comes to revenue generation."

Philbrick said Chicago reduced maintenance costs by replacing hardware based on proprietary UNIX software with an open source platform.

But the biggest open source story in 2005 was a year-end battle in Massachusetts. All hell broke loose in November when state CIO Peter Quinn released a policy decision that sought to phase out office productivity applications from Microsoft and other providers in favor of those based on open standards, including the recently approved OpenDocument standard.

The state first described the plan in early September, and Massachusetts agencies would have had until Jan. 1, 2007, to install applications that support the OpenDocument file formats and phase out other products.

Quinn's decision created a firestorm.

The secretary of state attacked the proposal in the press, questioning the reach of the IT Division to enact the standard and force agencies to adhere to it. Then the Legislature jumped in, and the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight held hearings to determine the process that Quinn's IT Division used to formulate the new open document policy.

The state Senate then tacked a provision mandating the creation of a four-person IT task force to approve technical standards in state government onto an economic stimulus bill. If approved, the provision would hamstring the IT Division from issuing such standards.

Like many other challenges that arose in 2005, it's a policy issue destined to occupy both policymakers and IT professionals well into 2006.

OO/Gwen

Internet Library Conference Statistics

I wrote to the Internet Library Conference to inquire about statistical representation amongst libraries in terms of attendees and speakers/presenters. The reply follows:

OO/Gwen

Internet Librarian, as you know, is designed for all types of librarians. The approximate percentages of types of library attendees are as follows:

30% University
20% corporate
20% Public
10% government
10% medical
5% K-12

Obviously public library attendees, at around 20% are very well represented. As you know, at Internet Librarian 2005, we also had a full days track devoted to public libraries, called Top Tech Trends in Public Libraries.

While we do not keep a demographic of the speakers, it looks like about 20-25% were from public libraries.

To answer the subject of library vendors being involved in the presentations, we take pride in the fact that our events are among the most well-planned learning opportunities in the library field. Unlike some library association events, our very existence relies on the fact that our attendees find value in the presentations and continue to want to attend year after year. Our presenters are picked based on the value those presentations can bring to the attendee. While some vendors do speak, it is because of some ground-breaking new product or initiative of special interest to the library community. Vendors speakers might make up 5% of the total number of presenters.

We feel that Internet Librarian has become a place where librarians of all types can gather to discuss the future trends and practical applications of the Internet and technology in libraries. It is not geared towards one specific library segment, because libraries of all types face similar issues with respect to technology. Public libraries are obviously well represented in both the programming and attendance figures, and we continue to hope that more and more of your public library colleagues realize the value of this conference and decide to join us in future years.

Oceano Library

Thanks to the assistant director's invitation, I was invited to visit the new Oceano Library prior to the Grand Opening on the 22nd of October. It is a bright, inviting and colorful library. It gave me the tingles to see how attractive everything was arranged for easy access. Compliments to all who worked to bring it together -- librarians, tech services and administrative staff members. It was inspiring to see first hand what a happy space this is/will be for the community of Oceano!!

Congratulations everyone!

OO/Gwen

Internet Librarian Conference

Two other reference librarians and I had a very busy, and enjoyable time last Sunday and Monday in Monterey at the Internet Librarian Conference 2005. There are always so many practical things to take away with you when leaving the conference, my knowledge and skills as a reference librarian are enhanced each year. If I miss a year... I fear that I will not keep up or be "employable" in this field! I learned so much the first day that I have enough to practice for a whole year. Day two of the conference re-emphasized much of the same skills I am in need of gaining if I want to stay current.... and the amount of information was both exciting and overwhelming.

This year there was a lot of emphasis once again on using more than one Internet search engine. Google is great, but AskJeeves (soon to be called Ask.com) and Exelead, and SearchYahoo (great, streamlined version that looks similar to Google), A9 (an Amazon engine) and MSN Search... are some of the few additional search engines that the speakers urge librarians maintain familiarity.

Other tools stressed in most presentations included the efficacy of RSS (Rich Site Summary... or "Really Simple Syndication" :-) tools) . Also there was a lot of discussion about "social networking services." This is where the data you collect is available online for others, and theirs to you, if you choose to participate. Librarians are finding that the networking that was usually done by phone and mail and meetings, are done more and more online. Documents are exchanged, or sites and search tips are shared and compared. Some of these social networks can be joined anonymously to avoid mass mailings to your personal e-mail.

Podcasts in audio and now video are other services that many speakers stresssed. There is a way to search word by word television newscasts ... I hope I am describing it correctly. For a detailed description on one of the advanced services to to blinkz.tv and read:


More later.

OO/Ref

Internet Browsers, Evaluations

Some people prefer one web browser over another. Because so many pop-ups occur when using Internet Explorer, we at SLO reference, spent a great deal of time each morning running AD-Aware so we could quarantine and junk the stuff our computer downloaded each day.

About a year ago we tried Firefox as our Internet browser and have been using it ever since.

This Spring 2005, the University of Pennsylvania Computing Department did a comparative study and report on browsers. This is part of their report (which can be found in full at www.upenn.edu/computing/eval/2005/webbrowser/rec-sup.html)

Summary:
On the Windows platform, the team recommends Firefox and supports Internet Explorer.
On the Macintosh platform, the team recommends both Firefox and Safari; a majority of testers preferred Firefox.
Opera receives an honorable mention on both platforms.

Informational Caveats:

1. Some BEN Financials users will need to use Internet Explorer on a PC (or via Virtual PC) to perform some specific actions.

For sites requiring IE on Windows, Firefox has a Windows-only extension that allows you to "View this page in Internet Explorer" or "Always view this page in Internet Explorer." Using this extension will launch the active window (or specified link) in Internet Explorer. If you choose to "Always view this page in Internet Explorer," any time you go to open that page (or click on a link for the specified page), it'll launch it in Internet Explorer.

2. Midway through the testing process, Mozilla froze its suite development to focus on Firefox. The team decided the Mozilla Suite browser should no longer be supported or recommended in favor of Firefox.

3. For Linux users, Firefox and Opera both run on Linux.

4. The team decided that Netscape version 8.0 released too late in the evaluation to merit much testing or discussion. Given that Mozilla is developing Firefox on it's own and it has begun to gain wide acceptance, the team decided to not to evaluate Netscape 8 further.

5. Both Safari and Opera announced significant upgrades at the end of the testing process; we should keep a collective eye on the development of these two products.

Gwen/OO-Ref

More Training and Workshops

August 24th in the SLO Computer Lab, I am looking forward to additional training in using the California Library Catalog, which is a work in progress/collaboration with OCLC.

In late September, I plan to go to Cerritos Library to be trained in online ready reference resources: Free, Fast, and Factual: Online Ready Reference Sources for 2005 and Beyond.

In late October several of my colleagues and I plan to go on our days off to attend the Internet Librarian Conference... always the place to attempt to catch up the one-year falling behind we've experienced in reference and technology leaps. It's always exciting! It's always lots of work! And if you don't go... you lose! :-0

keep on paddling...
Gwen at OO-Ref

post script August 20th. I won't be going to Cerritos Library afterall. There is a possibility that this workshop may be brought to our region?

FYI Articles

Cheers to Kristen on her great article honoring Liz Krieger this week.

And that article by Diane Ludin describing the new CD-rom about the Morro Bay estuary prompted Judi Horner to suggest that the reference staff venture over to OY on a field trip to see what it is all about. Gwen/OO

technology races onward

I suppose others may already know about podcasting, but I only discovered it by looking at one of the other library blogs...
and I was led eventually to OPAL http://www.opal-online.org/

" OPAL allows library patrons and library staff members to participate in online library programs from anywhere. Everyone is welcome to participate in OPAL programs, and libraries of all types are encouraged to become OPAL members."

This is totally new to me; when do people have time to keep up with WHAT is happening, let alone PARTICIPATE in it? Gwen/OO

Other blogging librarians

For fun, I thought it would be interesting to look at some other blogging librarians:

(July 3, 2010, I am editing the list to indicate which sites are no longer active:)

http://www.libraryplanet.com/

http://lcld.library-blogs.net/ defunct

http://blogs.csmonitor.com/liblog/ defunct

http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/libblog/

http://blog.xrefer.com/ defunct

http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/

http://eprintblog.crimsonblog.com/ defunct

http://www.explodedlibrary.info/

http://www.chickeninthewoods.com/brary/index.php defunct

http://blisspix.net/index.php defunct

http://librariansonedge.blogspot.com/

http://librarianoutreach.blogspot.com/

http://wirelesslibraries.blogspot.com/
Moved to http://babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com

http://vip2.blogspot.com/ defunct

http://libraryinfo.blogspot.com/

http://librarystories.blogspot.com/

http://www.rcpl.info/services/liblog.html

Oh, well, there are tons more.... but you get the idea.

Gwen/OO-Ref
edited July 3, 2010 to indicate defunct sites.

Reference Vision Meeting

This week the reference staff at OO are meeting on Saturday to talk about our concerns and hopes for the big weeding project here this fall.

Personally, I also have some concerns about the future of reference librarians! Will our role transition more toward instructional librarians, as in academic libraries? Some library literature suggests this may be the trend.

My co-worker and I will have an opportunity to also venture into these questions perhaps at the Reference Focus Group (sponsored by the State Library) which we will attend here July 21st.

OO/Gwen

Convenience

After reading so many things about merchandising libraries, I was struck by how SLO's branch breaks the No.1 rule - it's inconvient to get to. Imagine what we could do with a large single-story building out by Home Depot and Costco where people actually go and there's parking to be had! Such a layout would offer a world of opportunities to arrange the collection in new ways - and probably make it much easier to staff too. Lynn

sample entry 2

By selecting "Settings" "Publishing" and "FTP" the blog can be moved to our own server.

sample entry 1

After attending the Internet Librarian Conference in 2002, I joined with Steve Robertson in offering a Blog for the library branches for staff to participate in library concerns in a forum-like environment. This "BLOG" idea was perhaps a little too new for most library staff, and did not catch on.