Oh, hello there! It’s been a long time since my last blog post.    A quick look in my draft view shows a long list of abandoned posts.  It seems that each time I’ve wanted to blog something, someone has already retweeted or Tumbled it.   Social media is about rewind, it seems.  I’ve made the decision to only blog, reblog, tweet, retweet and Tumblr what is really interesting to ME. If you want to stop reading now, I’m cool with that.

My lack of blog posts is also the result of switching to a Mac.   After years of frustration with my current computer, I decided to get an iMac.   I was tired of using my PC for simply surfin’. I was tired of the problems I’ve had with Windows viruses.  I’m not a Windows-basher, as I live in a Windows world by day. My “PC-friends” are looking forward to Windows 7 and one day, just one day, I may even try Bootcamp.

At the end of the day, it’s nice to come home to my Mac.    You see, I now spend more time exploring my music and photos. iLife and PhotoBooth rocks in our house. Things just seem to work more harmoniously on a Mac.

I believe that technology is both a tool and an experience.  If the tool isn’t giving you a happy experience, like an old boyfriend, fix it OR ditch it.

Move over PC-boyfriend, my Mac now gives me that happy experience.

(Now you can’t blame a gal for spending less time blogging, can you?)

Dieter Rams, an industrial designer for Braun, is well known in the design world for his ten commandments of good design:

• Innovative
• Useful
• Aesthetic
• Self-explanatory
• Unobtrusive
• Honest
• Durable
• Thorough
• Environmentally-friendly
• As little design as possible

Tor Løvskogen Bollingmo takes it one step further with his Design Commandments.

Built on Ram’s 10 Commandments, the site provides some useful links to help you apply the principles to website and application design.

The McKinsey Quarterly has just released it’s top articles of Q1 2009.
(Register to read the articles.)

I’ve been silent on this blog for a few weeks now. A look through my abandoned draft posts says it all, I live in the Internet NOW and Twitter is at the heart of it. I just discovered TweetDeck, and it’s nursing my Twitter addiction.

That’s all for now. Heading back to TweetDeck for my Twitter-fix ……

Looking for a comprehensive list of libraries using Twitter? Take a look at the awesome list compiled by lindyjb.

Found via the Blogging Section of SLA-IT.

The Faculty of Information Quarterly is a new journal produced by the students at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies.

The primary mission of F/IQ is “to create an intellectual space for the Information community to analyse and critically assess the divergent topics that comprise our field of study and practice. To define and direct the iSchool Movement through scholarly and professional communications, as a means to fostering collective identity among students, faculty and practitioners of the field.”

F/IQ is published four times a year, October, January, April and July, and supports an open access policy.

The First Student Issue covers a variety of engaging issues including: graphic novels, net neutrality and information policy, and a look at semiotics and folksonomies.

I’m looking forward to the OLA Super Conference.  This year’s theme is, “you live, you learn”. This will be my fifth conference, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint. I always walk away inspired (and sometimes envious!) by all the amazing things happening in other libraries.

Whether this is your first or hundredth conference, be sure to check out Stephen Abram’s timeless Conference Tips list. You can also connect with other attendees and bloggers via the conference blog.

Where will I be during the conference?  Check out my preliminary schedule.

See you there!

• How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website
  “Learn how to embed almost anything in your HTML web pages from Flash videos to Spreadsheets to high resolution photographs to static images from Google Maps and more.”
  (tags: webdesign tools)
• 10 Best Intranets of 2009 (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
  Intranets are getting more strategic, with increased collaboration support. Team size is growing by 12% per year, and platforms are becoming integrated, with a strong “showing for SharePoint. Improving usability increased use by 106% on average.”
  (tags: intranets webdesign usability)

I mentioned in a previous post that I was spending a bit of time learning Drupal.

In my foray of Drupal learning, I’ve come across some great resources for libraries using this open-source content management software for running their websites, portals, or blogs.

Drupallib a place for library drupallers to hang out. Drupallib “is intended as a place for Drupal implementors in libraries to share ideas, configurations, themes, and maybe even to incubate the development of some modules that allow commonly desired functionality in library websites (both for libraries’ principle sites or for secondary or specialized subsites). Drupalib features a blog, a forum, and a listing of drupal sites implemented by libraries.”

Drupal for Libraries listserv is a very active discussion list, where you can discuss various aspects about implementing Drupal in your library.

Drupal Groups including a group for libraries.

The September issue of The CyberSkeptic’s Guide to Internet Research has an article on Drupal and Libraries. Writtern by Elyssa Kroski from iLibrarian, the article provides an overview of Drupal and applications in libraries. Elyssa also has a presentation on Drupal for Libraries from Computers in Libraries 2008 worth checking out.

Want more? Amanda Etches-Johnson at blogwithoutalibrary.net has a 3 part series on Drupal. Amanda demystifies Drupal modules. The McMaster Library website was completely redesigned using Drupal. Impressive!

Going to the OLA Super Conference? Take a look at session #413, Building User Centred Websites with Drupal. I’ll be there!

A brilliant trend map for 2009.

There are some fascinating and frightening (albeit humourous) trends, risks and red herrings here including:
GLOBAL RISKS: Major Internet failure
FAMILY: Debt stress, Allowable luxuries, IMBYs, Middle class unrest, Unplugging
MEDIA: Flight to quality, Facebook fatigue, Skimming, Micro boredom, Digital diets

This “multi-tentacled hydra” map is available under a Creative Commons license, so feel free to share!