The Distant Librarian

You can search Google, but only on their terms

The Serials Solutions Blog Libific reports that they're no longer able to federate any of the Google offerings in their Federated Search product, 360-Search.  Apparently the Google TOS states, “You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers) and shall ensure that you comply with the instructions set out in any robots.txt file present on the Services.”  And despite attempts, Serials Solutions has not been given permission.

Do those of you with Federated Search products other than 360-Search notice the loss of Google searches at your end?

Google

My secret career as a music critic of albums for kids

Back in July I posted a PSA entitled Road trip survival - children's music you'll atually enjoy too! As a result I was contacted by two different small publishers asking if I'd review their CDs as well. I said sure, send 'em up and I'll have my kids pass judgement, and lo, they did. Here's a quick review of those two, plus one recommendation I can't believe I forgot last time around. 

• Rock Daddy Rock: silly short songs for silly short people. (also available on iTunes). You can listen to  samples on the website. The subtitle speaks volumes on this one - it's for silly short people, but not their parents. In fact, the kids didn't seem to care for it much either. A fair amount of body-related humour, but even more prescriptive songs about turning off the tv, cleaning rooms, don't spit, etc. 
• Let's Go Green Kids (also available on iTunes and with song snippets on the website). This one was much better for both my kids and the parents. Much better songwriting and singing, with a good message as well. The only drawback is that while individually the songs are very good, listening to a whole album about going green became a little repetitive for the Wife and me. Kids didn't seem to mind, and the 4-year-old regularly sings the Tin Can Can around the house.   As expected, this one ships in a simple cardboard sleeve.  :-)
• Finally, I should've included Charlie and Lola's Favourite and Best Music Record in my first posting. Definitely a winner at our house; a CD I'll actually choose to listen to from time to time (like, over adult music). Wonderful reproduction of the whimsy of the show and books by the same name.  I think the magic here is in the percussion instruments, somehow.  Only drawback is that it appears to be a real bear to obtain in North America, but it's worth it - trust me on this one!

That's it for the early Fall installment.  That'll probably be the end of this segment, unless I trip across any more winners, or unless someone out there wants to send more - I'm happy to let the kids to the reviewing :-)

Keynote speaker at 2010 Off-Campus Library Services Conference

Tim Peters writes to the OffCamp mailing list:

I am very pleased to announce that Camila Alire has accepted our invitation to appear as the keynote speaker at the 2010 Off-Campus Library Services Conference. Camila is currently the President-elect of the American Library Association and the Dean Emerita of the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University, and she will be the President of ALA when she joins us in Cleveland in 2010. I am excited that such a distinguished individual and leader of our profession will attend and participate in our Conference.

Tim
 
Timothy Peters
Director of Off-Campus Library Services
Central Michigan University

ocls2010

ProQuest and Google Strike Deal To Digitize Newspaper Pages

oooh, now this is interesting. We already have http://news.google.com  Will this be http://newspapers.google.com?

google, proquest, newspapers

Canadian Library Association Grassroots Copyright Advocacy Kit

The CLA has a Grassroots Advocacy Kit for Fair and Balanced Copyright for Canadians, including background information and advice for speaking with your local MP. Of course the point may be moot what with a new election coming up, but it's still very good information to have. Did I mention that our Prime Minister called a Federal Election this past Sunday, and we go to the polls on Oct 14th, six weeks later? ;-)

copyright, CDCMA, BillC-61

Screencast.com now has Commenting

Just like YouTube, Screencast.com now allows viewers to leave comments below screencasts hosted on that site. This includes stuff created in Jing. More details are at the Screencast.com blog. While YouTube is more popular and free, you'll get much better video quality out of the screencasts you post on Screencast.com, and you can still embed outside the site. I still kinda prefer Viddler.com for my hosting needs.

screencasting, techsmith, screencast.com, jing

JSTOR - PDF Incompatibility with Mac Preview

JSTOR reports "We are glad to report that we have located and fixed a problem that caused an incompatibility between JSTOR PDF files and older versions of Mac Preview. This problem caused only part of the article to be viewable in Preview. The fix released today means that JSTOR PDF files should now be viewable in their entirety in Preview 3.0.9 (the current version integrated with Mac OS 10.4) as well as newer versions integrated with Mac OS 10.5. Users of Preview 3.0.9 should note, however, that the page images of articles are usually highly compressed to save file size, and may be slow to open on this version of Preview. It is believed that this is a limitation of Preview that Apple corrected in the version of Preview shipped with Mac OS 10.5."

I've had one patron report this problem, and thought I'd post the official word from JSTOR for wider discoverability:

We have recently become aware that certain versions of Mac Preview are incompatible with the newest generation of JSTOR PDFs. For some users, this means that only the cover page is displaying. Other users have reported that the downloaded article appears to be missing the first portion of the article—it begins somewhere after the first 10 pages of the article. The article is in fact intact and complete, but some pages are not displayed properly. We are working to fix this and plan to continue to support the use of Preview with JSTOR PDFs. We apologize for the problems that this is causing for Mac users.

For now, the quickest workaround is to download the latest free copy of Adobe Reader, available on the Adobe web site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

Once Adobe Reader is downloaded, please check to make sure that the default PDF viewer is set to Adobe Reader rather than the original PDF viewer installed on your Mac.

The default viewer for PDF documents in Mac OS X is Preview. To change the file association for PDF files:

* Select any PDF file and choose File > Get Info.
* Choose the application that you want to open PDF files from the Open With menu.
* Click Change All, and then click Continue.

You will also want to make sure that the popup blocker is turned off for the JSTOR site. The new PDF files are set to open in a new window and popup blockers may affect this.

jstor, pdf, preview, acrobat

2010 Off-Campus Library Services Conference - Cleveland

Timothy Peters writes to the OFFCAMP mailing list:

After having reviewed proposals from nearly forty hotels in eight different cities in the United States and Canada, the decision has been made to hold the 2010 Off-Campus Library Services Conference at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center in Cleveland, Ohio from Wednesday, April 28 through Friday, April 30, 2010.
 
The Marriott is a lovely facility that offers excellent accommodations and amenities. It should be a wonderful host property for our Conference. Learn more about it at http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/clesc-cleveland-marriott-downtown-at-key-center.
 
I am excited about the choice of Cleveland as the host city for our next Conference. The city is undergoing a civic renovation of sorts and now offers so many options in terms of culture, entertainment, and dining, and more attractions and improvements will be available by the time we arrive in April of 2010. I expect that there will be no shortage of diversions for us after our meetings adjourn. The Cleveland Convention and Visitors Bureau site at http://www.positivelycleveland.com/ has more information.
 
Our web site for the 2010 Conference is in production and should be up shortly. Check with us for updated information on the Conference, the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center, and attractions in the city of Cleveland.
 
See you in Cleveland in 2010!
 
Timothy Peters
Director of Off-Campus Library Services
Central Michigan University