Montana BiblioTechies

Ecosystems

2012-01-18T14:35:00.001-07:00

I gather that a lot of the talk at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) this year has been about ecosystems. The major competing ecosystems at the moment are Apple, Google/Android, Microsoft Windows and Amazon. I find it difficult to really compare and contrast these ecosystems because their business models and philosophies are quite different. But I think it's important to consider ecosystems when talking about gadgets these days. You're not just buying a gadget, you're more often than not buying into an ecosystem. Ideally, as far as the company is concerned, your ties to that ecosystem may well last long after the particular gadget has met its end, preferably in a sound recycling program ;)

I'm currently straddling all four. I have a Mac, iPhone and iPad. I realized when I recently went back to iPhone after about 2 years with Android how easy it was to slip back into the Apple ecosystem with my phone. Apple's ecosystem is built around hardware. They create software and content largely to encourage hardware purchases. So, new hardware is easily integrated into the ecosystem. Apple helpfully synced my new iPhone with iPhone/iPod and iPad apps I'd already bought for other devices. Now, iCloud promises to sync music, photos and docs across my Apple devices. I have to say, technology can be almost painless when you drink the Apple Koolaid. This is ease of use and integration is why a lot of people, including Windows and Android advocates, suggest that Apple is often the safe choice.

But what happens to the part of my life that's firmly embedded in the Google ecosystem? I rely on Gmail both for email and account integration. I use Google docs, calendar, blogger, groups, etc. I also have a fair number of Google Android apps. The Google/Android ecosystem is largely based on software and content. So it will run on a large number of devices. Most Google products run on Apple devices fairly well.

What surprised me was that many didn't run on the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is built on Android but it's designed to entrench users into the Amazon ecosystem NOT Google/Android. For Amazon, it's really about content. They create hardware to sell their content. So, while you can run a number of Android apps on it successfully, some of Google's competing apps won't even install. While there are workarounds for those of us who are truly dedicated, I think the best user experience for Kindle users comes when they're using Amazon-approved content.

I've had friends express concern about Nook since it's outside these dominant ecosystems and the future of Barnes & Noble and Kobo are uncertain. Can they withstand the Amazon juggernaut? I honestly don't know. Since these e-readers support EPUB, you will continue to have content for as long as that format remains. I expect it will easily outlive the current generation of e-readers. Yet, the concern about the ecosystem remains. On the one hand, how many e-books should you buy from vendors who may not be around in 5 years? On the other hand, if people stop buying their e-books, their death spiral will be certain.

What about our library ecosystem, which is designed to support content across devices? One of my librarian colleagues, Melora Ranney Norman, recently opined on Facebook that she wished Nook would become the library-friendly e-reader. That would certainly make our jobs easier wouldn't it, if we only had one device or family of devices to support. But it also got me thinking about how to make any device library-friendly. Why not create our own ecosystem? And even if we can't control the hardware, couldn't we come up with some ideas on how to optimize as many devices as possible for a library ecosystem? Imagine a collection of apps that would allow a library user to easily locate materials of interest from his/her library, download library and/or public domain e-books and read them, listen to audiobooks or music from the library, perhaps watch selected videos from a library YouTube channel.... And, of course, one of my fantasies, interact with other library fans. One problem with this is that it requires a comfort level among library staff with a wide range of devices and ecosystems, if only to be able to advise patrons on what they need to make their device library-friendly. I think that's why I'm so taken with the Douglas County Library Systems rebate program to get e-readers in the hands of library staff.

What do you think? Could we make a viable library ecosystem?

E-Readers 2011

2011-11-22T10:15:00.010-07:00

There's a whole new crop of E-Readers out in time for the holiday season. And there are a number of websites providing reviews that might help you make up your mind on which, if any, is right for you:

Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: e-readers
CNET Best e-book readers - includes links to full reviews
Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet: how to choose

If you want to compare specs on various devices, here's an extensive list:
Comparing E-Readers and Tablets

I put together a much less comprehensive version that I wanted to fit on two sides of a page:
Comparison of Devices for Reading E-Books

Now that we've gotten the objective reviews out of the way, I'm presuming that some of you at least are willing to read on for my very subjective opinions.

E-Readers v Tablets

When you're trying to decide which type of device is best for you or the person for whom you want to get a gift, you first need to decide how this device is going to be used. Will it be used primarily for reading books? Will it be used for reading magazines? Is it important that you be able to watch videos on it? Listen to audiobooks or music? Are you expecting to do email and surf the web? Are games important?

Just about everyone agrees that e-ink readers are best for reading e-books. They're light and simple and relatively inexpensive. The pearl e-ink displays that are now common provide a very pleasant reading experience. I've heard some tech journalists say that the longest they can read on an LCD backlit display device is about 45 minutes without eye strain. But you can read comfortably for hours with an e-ink display.

I recently bought one of the new Kindle $79 e-readers with ads. The ads are relatively unobtrusive. They show up as screen savers when you're not reading and as a banner across the bottom of the home page. It's much smaller and lighter than my Kindle 2. They removed the keyboard from the bottom. I read a lot of nonfiction so I find highlighting and note taking to be important features. The new Kindle does highlighting about as easily as my older model using the directional keys. Not surprisingly note taking is a bit more cumbersome without the keyboard but that's really the only time I miss it. Overall, I think it's a perfectly satisfactory e-ink e-reader at an incredible price. One negative that I just discovered is that the ad screen gives you no indication when the battery is low. I tried to turn it on last night and nothing happened. I had no idea what was going on. Finally, I thought, maybe the battery is low and plugged it in. My older Kindle had a message that came up instead of the screen saver telling me to recharge. Another concern is that it feels a bit fragile and I've heard of people breaking theirs fairly quickly. I think an individual who can treat it fairly gently can probably get a reasonable amount of use out of it. But it may be too fragile for library checkouts. I've also heard complaints about an overall Kindle redesign that changes the on-off from a sliding switch to a push button and places both that and the audio jack at the bottom. This hasn't been an issue for me as I have a cover but if you're someone who rests your e-reader on your chest or stomach while you read, you can fairly easily turn it off by accident.

My current favorite e-ink e-reader is the Nook Simple Touch. Barnes & Noble recently lowered its price to $99. This e-reader is also small and light but has a really nice textured and sturdy feel to it. Another feature I like is that you have a choice of touch page turns in addition to forward and back buttons on the side. The only things I don't like are highlighting and inadvertent page turns. You highlight passages by touching the text. Maybe its just my own clumsiness but I have a difficult time getting just the phrases I want. And while the Nook has a nice border around it, I often find that as I'm drifting off to sleep, my thumb moves toward the page and frequently starts turning pages. It's not uncommon for me to open my eyes and find myself at an unfamiliar part of the book. But neither of these are deal killers by any means.

Both the Nook Simple Touch and the basic Amazon Kindle are wifi only devices. You need to be on a wireless Internet connection if you want to shop at the Barnes & Noble or Amazon stores and buy and download books/periodicals directly to your device. Both work with Montana Library 2 Go's OverDrive ebook collection. The Kindle doesn't require Adobe Digital Editions. You just check out the Kindle edition of the book. When you get to the Amazon page, you can choose to download the book to your computer and transfer it manually to your Kindle or take advantage of their whispersync over wifi to transfer library e-books. Barnes & Noble has suggested they'll be adding a similar feature to Nook.

Touch seems to be the big new feature for e-ink e-readers this fall. Kobo has introduced a new Kobo Touch. They've followed Amazon's lead and are offering a $99.99 version with ads and a $129.99 version without ads. Sony has a new Sony Reader Wi-Fi at $149.99. Amazon has several new Kindle Touch editions - $99 wifi w/ads, $139 without, as well as the only new 3G e-readers - $149 w/ads, $189 without. 3G is nice if you think you're going to be doing a lot of e-book shopping while you're away from a wifi connection, e.g., in airports or hotels where the wifi is often not free and/or not usable. 3G can also offer a convenient way to check email or do web searches. But be advised that the Kindle experimental browser is not an optimal web experience. I haven't used any of these new touch editions so I don't really have any insights or opinions to offer on which might be better.

The only e-ink e-reader that I've really disliked recently is the Google iriver Story HD. The only good thing I can say about it is that they've apparently lowered the price to $99.99 at Target. It just came out this summer but the style is at least a generation outdated. It comes with horrible little buttons on a keyboard with an awkward navigation system. The dictionary requires you to physically type in a word to look it up. It made me login to Google repeatedly. It couldn't seem to retain my login information. It is a first generation device entering the market against Amazon which is offering 4th generation Kindles and Barnes & Noble with 2nd generation Nooks. It may get better with time, but I have to ask why bother.

And I have to put in a plug for the old Sony Pocket Reader. It's no longer being sold by Sony and the online prices are often outrageous - $150+? But I've also seen refurbished models available for around $50. While not a big Sony Reader fan initially, I've come around to thinking that the Sony Pocket Reader may well be the best device for library checkout use, particularly for school libraries. That is, if you want a workhorse e-reader. These are easily the sturdiest little e-readers out there. And they don't connect to wifi so you don't have to worry about young people getting on the Internet with their e-reader and getting into trouble. You load the books and all they can do is read them. If you're looking to make e-book content available, particularly public domain books, this strikes me as good device to use to do it. It won't be so helpful if you're checking out e-readers to familiarize your library patrons with various devices since the Pocket Reader is not a current device.

E-Reader Tablets

This is probably the hottest category this Christmas season. These are in-between devices. They generally offer more features than an e-ink e-reader but fewer than a full-fledged full-priced tablet. They're also half the price of an Apple iPad or most Android tablets. So, I think it's important to have realistic expectations. E-Reader tablets are not going to be as good an e-reader as an e-ink e-reader. They're not going to support as a wide range of apps as a tablet will. Nor will they satisfy someone who's longing for an iPad.

That said, at $199 the Kindle Fire is probably a reasonable e-reader tablet option, particularly for Amazon customers. You can quickly and easily access all of your Amazon purchased content - books, magazines, newspapers, movies, tv shows, music.... In fact, it even comes with your Amazon login pre-loaded as well as listings of all your Amazon-purchased content. So, all you have to do is turn it on and login to a wifi network and you're ready to go. You also have access to Android apps available from the Amazon app store. Even more are available if you change a setting to allow installation of third party apps that aren't from Amazon. One thing you don't have, which has upset some people, is access to many of Google's apps - Gmail, Google books, etc. I did manage to install the Nook and Kobo apps fairly easily as well as OverDrive Media console. But I haven't been able to install a basic e-pub reader app. Many of Google's services are web-based so there are alternatives. But there's no question, that Amazon seeks to exert some control over how the Fire is used. The $199 price is subsidized by Amazon. So, I'm neither surprised nor disappointed that Amazon is apparently seeking to make up that loss through sales of their content.

Another potential concern is its lack of onboard storage. It has only 8 GB available and there's no SD slot to add more. The Kindle Fire is designed as a cloud device. Your Amazon purchased content is stored on their web servers rather than locally on the device. If you want to read a book, you download it from the cloud. If you want to listen to music, you can listen to the songs you've stored on Amazon's music cloud via their streaming music app. If you want to watch a movie, you can stream it from their servers. This is all great if you've got a pretty robust wifi connection available. If not, you can download some content and store it on your device. But with only 8 GB storage, you're not going to be able to download 20 movies to watch during your European vacation.

Barnes & Noble has lowered the price of its Nook Color to $199 and introduced a new Nook Tablet for $249. The reviews I've read give the edge to the Nook Tablet over the Kindle Fire. It has better specs, is more powerful and offers more storage. It's also $50 more. Barnes & Noble products also have the advantage of in-store trials and support. This has been very helpful to at least one friend who bought a Nook Touch upon my advice and has been able to go into Barnes & Noble in Billings to get support and have questions answered. I think that Nook also has the edge at this time when its comes to children's books. They have a number of books with Read to Me and occasional automation as part of their Nook Kids collection.

I think the decision will ultimately come down to which store you choose to provide your content. Amazon customers will probably choose the Kindle Fire. Barnes & Noble customers as well as those who already use a number of third party content suppliers like Netflix and Hulu will probably prefer one of the Nooks. Another consideration if you're looking at one of these as a gift is how comfortable you are with giving a child perhaps full access to your Amazon account. As a cloud device, it needs a consistent connection to a wifi network for you to be able to access your content. But this persistent connection and login also makes it really easy for the user to order new content at will. Barnes & Noble allows you to set a password to purchase additional content.

There are also similar tablet-like devices produced by Kobo - Kobo Vox at $199.99, Aluratek, Pandigital and others. They are competitively priced. Since these are all primarily content consumption devices, like the Kindle Fire and Nook Color and Tablet, I'd base my decision on the pricing and availability of content. For example, it looks like Pandigital has an agreement with Barnes & Noble to be a content supplier. Otherwise how easy is it to find the content you want from other suppliers and transfer it to your device. Will the gift recipient be comfortable with this process?

Tablets

My goal here is to differentiate tablets from e-readers and e-reader tablets. The foremost representative of the tablet class right now is the Apple iPad. At prices starting at $499 for the 16 GB wifi model and going up to $829 for the 64 GB 3G model, we see a significant price increase. Android tablets are made by numerous manufacturers but are priced comparably. One of the ways to differentiate a full Android tablet from one of the lesser models is by operating system. Most full Android tablets run Android 3.1 (Honeycomb). Honeycomb was the first Android OS designed primarily for tablets. Cheaper, less full featured Android tablets run Android 2.3 which is essentially a cell phone OS. This is the operating system used by Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet and Kobo Vox. But in the case of Kindle and Nook (I'm not sure about Kobo Vox), these Android versions have been highly customized by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. We'll soon be seeing Android 4.0, which promises to bridge the gap between cell phones and tablets. It's doubtful that many of the Android 2.3 tablets will be able to be upgraded to the new OS.

Tablets are all about the software or apps they run. Whether or not a given model can be upgraded to the latest OS will impact how many of the new or updated apps will run on it in a year or so. Does this mean that a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet will be obsolete in a year or so when it no longer supports the latest apps? Probably not, in the case of these special purpose tablets. At least not while Amazon and Barnes & Noble continue to support them. They'll make sure that you can continue to access their content at least. But, we've already seen HP bow out of the tablet competition, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of other tablet orphans out there in the next couple of years.

One of the benefits of tablets is that they can run a multitude of apps. If you're looking for a truly open e-reader platform, a tablet is more likely to give that to you. Everyone wants to make an e-reader app for iPad. Consequently, you can find apps for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Google E-Books as well as a number of open epub apps that will allow you to download and read free public domain books. There are also cloud reader web pages available that perform very much like apps but also connect to the online e-bookstores. Newspapers and magazines are being designed for tablet consumption with beautiful layouts, easy navigation and continual updates. There are multimedia children's book apps that include interactivity, video, music, choice of narration. You have a wide choice of video and audio content, not to mention thousands of games. You can even do work with word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, video editing. In short, tablets are computers that can pretty much do it all given the right app. And if that app isn't currently available, it probably will be soon.

So, if you want a handheld touch device that will do it all for you, you probably want a tablet. If you already have a tablet, you don't need an e-reader tablet. But you might want an e-ink e-reader especially if you read a lot. If you already have an e-ink e-reader, you might want to consider an e-reader tablet as a step up. It will enable you to enjoy more audio and video content. And I have to say, photographs in magazines like National Geographic look stunning on Kindle Fire and Nook Color. Are you going to be able to find the perfect gadget that will satisfy all of your needs now and in the future? Definitely not, but that's the game.

And here's one last piece of advice. If you're buying as a gift, keep in mind the recipient's preferences instead of just your own. Whether or not you like Apple, they do produce some of the most consumer-friendly devices on the market. I think the same can be said for Amazon. These are probably going to be safer bets than some of the lesser known brands. At the same time, if your gift recipient is a book store afficionado, you might want to go with a Barnes & Noble Nook. They can get in-store perqs and assistance.

Which smart phone should I buy?

2011-08-09T09:57:00.009-06:00

As I predicted, Montanans are swiftly moving to smart phones. But I have to admit being surprised by some of the people I see with new iPhone 4s nowadays. I look and think to myself, really?

I think there are a lot of good reasons to buy an iPhone and I'll go into some of those below. But I really question buying one now. We're getting really close to the launch of their new model, whatever it is. The current iPhone 4 technology is over a year old. If you buy one today with a two year contract, you'll be stuck with 3 year old cell phone technology by the time you can upgrade. If that's a prospect that doesn't bother you, if you wait until the new model comes out, you can at least get an iPhone 4 with a significant mark down.

What do I think are the best features of iPhone?

If you're already an Apple fanboy/girl, it's a no brainer. It will work seamlessly with Macs, a number of the apps will run on both iPhones and iPads. You can lead a simple happy life in Apple's gated garden of eden community.
iPhone gets almost all the cool apps well ahead of its competitors in the smart phone market. So, if you're someone who hears about the latest trend and has to jump right on it, you'll want an iPhone.
iPhones also have all the cool accessories, from skins to cases to speakers... Just about all the major accessory manufacturers and their cheap knockoffs design for Apple products.
Simplicity - you've got one button that takes you back to the home screen. It doesn't get much simpler than that. And Apple determines when updates to its iOS system take place. When they announce it, you can get it.
I think iPhone 4 currently has the best camera on a smart phone. It's not just about megapixels. Apple seems to have a better grasp of what you need to take a good photo.

What are the downsides of the iPhone?

You're very much locked into the Apple corporate world and its mindset. Don't even think about getting an app from anyplace but the Apple app store. And Apple frowns on jail breaking and unlocking their devices. They'll do everything they can to make your life difficult if you should try to break out.
At the moment you have to do all of your syncing and updates by attaching your iPhone to a computer with iTunes.
App developers have determined that iPhone users are willing to pay for their apps via the iTunes stores. Often apps that are free on Android are not free for iPhone. In other words, it's going to cost you to have all the latest cool apps.
Since iPhone hardware is only updated about once a year, it's often lagging behind the latest processors, memory, cellular capability of its multiple competitors. For example, Android phones are now coming out with dual processors, increased memory, 4G compatibility. The year old iPhone 4 has none of it. And reports are the the new model won't have some of these features either. Apple tends to be a bit conservative.
Phone call quality - there was a joke for some time that iPhones were great as long as you didn't want to use one to make a phone call. And there was always finger pointing between AT&T and Apple as to whose fault it was that iPhones dropped so many calls. I haven't heard if this has gotten better or not with Verizon coming in as another carrier. But with the exterior antenna issues of the iPhone 4, I'd still assume that making phone calls is not Apple's biggest concern when it comes to iPhone design.
Fragility - iPhone is all about design not about practicality. The iPhone 4 is probably the most fragile smartphone out there with a glass front and back. It's not for those who tend to drop their phones a lot.

What are the best features of Android phones?

Diversity - there are several big manufacturers designing the hardware - HTC, Motorola, LG, Samsung... You can buy Android phones with slide out keyboards or without, with varying size screens, and differing hardware specs. You can even find some that will take and display 3D video or that offer a specialized gaming environment. Android phones are available to work on just about every cell phone carrier around.
If you're someone who uses and depends on a number of Google products, it's a no brainer. Android works well with just about all the Google products - search, Gmail, calendar, maps, Google+. Voice commands work great for search and dictation. And as Google rolls out new products, it will generally roll them out for Android first.
Buying apps from multiple sources. Amazon recently rolled out its own app store for Android. So you can choose to buy from the Android app store or from Amazon. You can also get apps from other sources as well with just a small settings change.
Since there are fewer restrictions on app developers, you'll find some really nice features created for Android that probably wouldn't meet Apple's criteria. For example, one of my favorite keyboard apps for Android is Swype. You don't have to try to type each letter on the tiny keyboard, you just swipe your finger between the letters of the word and the app figures out what you're trying to say. It's really very good and eases much of the frustration of trying to type on a small touch keyboard.
Back button - I know Apple is all about simplicity, but please. It's so nice to have the option to just go back a page rather than having to go back to the home screen and start over. A few little buttons are not going to confuse most people. I find them very helpful.

What are the downsides of Android?

Diversity - there are so many choices it's down right confusing. Do I want Samsung or HTC? Which model? And you'll know that the really great top of the line model you just bought will be superseded by another better faster phone in a month or so.
Lack of consistency in updates. The current Android OS is 2.3 (Gingerbread). There are some Android phones being sold that are still running Android 1.5 and are not capable of being updated. I have two Android phones - a Motorola Droid X and an HTC Incredible. Both are on Verizon. My Droid X got a 2.3 update over the air about a month ago. There's still no sign of an update for my Incredible. This fragmentation becomes an issue as new apps require the new OS and/or important security updates aren't available to all phones.
No quality control on apps. While developers complain about Apple's rigorous approval process and control of the app store, it does bring with it at least a modicum of quality control. And Apple is not going to allow anything it considers porn into the app store. With Android, there are no controls. So, you need to be a bit more cautious about what you're loading onto your device. There have been trojans and malware found among Android apps.
Battery life - there are times when its hard to get through an entire day on a charge. There are ways to improve this, e.g., by shutting down apps that run in the background and using airplane mode when you're in places with spotty cellular. But it requires a bit of tech savvy and willingness to get in and dig around to figure a lot of this out.
Android is really not a great operating system for the faint of heart or people who just want things to work.

Other phone options

Windows Phone 7 - this is the one that's most intrigued me since it came out last fall. I like the idea that they're taking a different approach to the user interface and seem to be focusing on function. However, I do have a couple of concerns which have kept me from getting one of their phones. My primary home computer is a Mac so I need a phone that will work in a Mac as well as Windows environment. I'm also concerned about Microsoft's slow update process. It's taken them about a year to come up with their first major OS update, Mango, which is due out this fall. But we'll see what comes out of their partnership with Nokia. There could be some really innovative hardware and software coming out in the near future.
Blackberry (RIM) - Blackberry is just not keeping up with the competition. When I've been traveling recently, I still see a lot of Blackberry phones in use. The problem is that when it comes time for an upgrade, few people are sticking with Blackberry's less than desirable hardware and software options, they're jumping ship for iPhones or Androids. I can see no reason whatsoever to choose Blackberry as a smartphone option at present. They really need to come up with something new and competitive to stay in the game.
HP/Palm/WebOS - The Palm Pre was a phone that everyone liked when it first came out but was widely regarded as too little too late to really compete in the iPhone - Android wars. When HP bought them, it was hoped that they'd pump some life into it but it looks like they're focusing on tablet/computer uses of WebOS. All reports say that it's a good platform but with few apps and little prospect for increased app development since it represents such a small piece of the smartphone market.

Personally, I think I'm sticking with Android but I am looking for a new phone to replace my HTC Incredible. It only has 8 GB of internal memory which can't be upgraded so I'm forever getting messages about low memory. I'd also like a better camera, particularly for flash/night photos. But I love Android for traveling. Google maps and navigation have saved my rear a number of times on recent trips and they're free! I also love the voice search and dictation capabilities. Plus, it works great with Gmail and Google calendar, etc. As someone who goes between the Mac and Windows world, Google provides a good way to steer between both platforms.

I think if I were shopping for a new smartphone for a teenager, I'd go with an iPhone. I think they'd appreciate the style, variety of apps (that are all prescreened by Apple), accessories, etc. I'd probably put a limit on their purchases through the app store/iTunes. The glass is a bit of concern but a good case should help protect it.

For everyone else, certainly take a look at Android and Windows Phone 7 smartphones. There are other and often better options available than iPhone for most people. CNET has a lot of great reviews of all the latest devices. And I'm happy to help interpret specs. Price should not be your only concern. Any smart phone you buy is going to end up costing you several hundred dollars over the course of a two year contract. It's not the up front price that should concern you as much as whether the device is going to be at all functional at the end of those two years.

July 2011 - The State of E-book Readers

2011-08-01T12:46:00.003-06:00

Whenever I mention something about e-readers, I get some requests for advice on which product to buy so I thought I'd provide some updates on where some of the e-reader players are at this moment in time.

My preferred e-book reader at the moment is the Barnes and Noble Nook Touch or as their trademarked name reads: The All-New Nook The Simple Touch Reader. The name is bigger than the device. It's available for $139.99 from Barnes and Noble's website and stores as well as Best Buy and potentially other retail outlets. Walmart sells Nooks but didn't have the Touch available at least in its Billings West end store.

It's small and light and easy to use. The touch interface is intuitive and for everyday reading, the device disappears and you're left with just the content you're reading. My only negative is that I think the Nook navigation tends to be a bit clunky. It's sometimes difficult for me to figure out just where the book or magazine I want to read is located in the file structure. But I always manage to find it without too much frustration.

Very similar in design is the Kobo eReader Touch. This retails for $130 but if you live in a location like Billings with a closing Borders store, I'm watching the discounts on this device. When it reaches 30%, I think this will be a very nice device for that $100 price point. I haven't actually used this aside from playing around with it in the Borders store, but it's very light and seems responsive enough. A review on PCmag.com talked about the Kobo Touch lacking the finesse of the Nook. I think that's probably a fairly apt description. If we're talking about only a $10 price difference, I'd stick with the Nook but at going out of business discounts...

Most of the tech reviews are giving the nod to the new Nook Touch over the Amazon Kindle. But we're comparing different generations of devices. Amazon did start offering lower priced versions of its 3rd gen Kindles with special offers (limited ads) for $114 for wifi and $139 for the 3G version.

Amazon will no doubt be coming out with its next generation of Kindles sometime this fall. Rumors are flying that Amazon will be presenting a Kindle tablet that will enable you to view videos that you've purchased from Amazon, read books you've purchased from Amazon, and listen to music you've purchased from Amazon. And I expect you'll be able to use apps you've purchased from the Amazon app store. So, we're no doubt looking at an Android Kindle tablet designed to compete with the iPad.

They're also reportedly coming up with a software update that will enable you to read library books on existing Kindles. I wouldn't be surprised if they also offered a next gen e-ink reader to compete with the Nook and Kobo Touch readers.

Why Twitter?

2011-06-02T10:26:00.002-06:00

As some of you may have noticed, the bloom is definitely off the rose for me as far as Twitter is concerned. But a lot of people are still using it, more and more all the time, so I thought I'd put out a query as to what others think of it. I'm more than willing to admit that I might be missing something.

As a librarian, I'm interested primarily in library-related information uses. But if you find it useful for another profession, or personally, I'd like to hear your reports on that as well.

I'll post links to this blog post on Wired-MT, my Facebook wall, and Twitter, of course. Feel free to retweet and share.

You can reply via comment to this post, email, Twitter hash tag #whytwitlib, Facebook comment.

I'll compile responses and post to Montana Bibliotechies. Let me know if you prefer anonymity.

Mikrotik Routers

2011-05-02T16:19:00.003-06:00

Let me just say right up front that I think Mikrotik (mikrotik.com) routers are great. I have no Mikrotik stock and I don't get a cut every time I install one at a site, but, to my mind, they really are the best thing since sliced bread.

I use Mikrotik routers for access points (APs), for firewalls, and for routers. I no longer use Cisco, Sonicwall, or whatever AP is hot at the moment. It is all done with the Mikrotik platform.

Mikrotik is a company whose corporate office is in Latvia. They have little market share in North America, but are very popular over much of the rest of the world. They have an extensive product line but I am only going to describe a single model that is useful in a small library, the Mikrotik 433AH with radio card and antenna.

Before I do though, I'll point out the down side. They are hard to learn and configure. You must be very familiar with TCP/IP to configure one. With that out of the way, I'll get to the upside.

This router is cheap. If your were to get a comparable Cisco device, you would spend multiple thousands of dollars. This is less than $300, sometimes closer to $200. It costs less to get a backup Mikrotik device to keep as a spare than the 1 year service contract you would spend with Cisco. Not that Cisco is the only alternative, but the features for the cost is unusual.

It is feature rich. This one device has three routable ports and can have 2 radios in it. Thus, in a small library, one port connects to the ISP, one to the public network, one to the staff network, and a radio card for the hotspot. This provides for segregation of the libraries' PCs.

I often use these as library hotspot APs. I require users to logon, but the logon is simply "patron" with no password. This is easy to inform the public about, and this technique can give me stats on the number of logons to the hotspot, a number our board likes to see. The hotspot can also be scheduled to turn off and on. I get better coverage than I did with Linksys, Netgear, Sonicwall, or Dlink APs, using the low end antenna.

I presently have about a dozen installed in various libraries and, for the past year, not a one has had to be rebooted to correct a problem. But I have been using these for about 2 years. I wasn't using the firewall correctly for the first year and it seemed like I had to reboot them about once a month. Since I figured out the firewall issue, they just sit and hum.

The feature that first attracted me to the 433AH are the 3 routable RJ45 ports and the separate radio port. It is very easy to segregate traffic with this device. One problem small libraries have is that public users will soak up all the library's bandwidth downloading movies and such. The Mikrotik can limit the bandwidth through a port, so you can allow the hotspot users only 2 Mbps as a group, or you can limit bandwidth by IP address, allowing each public PC no more than512Kbps.

I could go on, but maybe I should stop here. If you want to learn more and think you have sufficient tech support to manage one of these, drop me an email at jims@missoula.lib.mt.us. I can help get you started. It will be fun. At least for me.

The 9 Suggestions

2011-05-02T14:49:00.003-06:00

At MLA 2011, I presented on what a small library should be doing to keep its PCs running. I gave 9 suggestions for what a library should do. Here they are.

Microsoft Updates: Do Microsoft updates, not just Windows updates. The second Tuesday of the month is when Microsoft releases many updates, but they also occasionally come at other times of the month too.
Also keep your other applications current. Pay particular attention to Firefox, and Adobe Reader and Flash. But try to keep all your applications up to date. I agree with you though that it is a royal pain in the neck. Larry, our new IT guy at the Missoula Public Library, has some good ideas on that front. I hope to be posting about how to make this easier in a couple months.
Use Firewalls. XP, ME, Vista, Windows 7 all have firewalls built in. Use them. Also use a firewall at your perimeter device. That's the device in the phone closet that connects to your ISP.
Block SPAM. If a malicious email never shows up in your mailbox, it can't infect you. Most email clients have some kind of SPAM blocking feature. Also many ISP's provide a SPAM blocking service that will usually cost a little bit but will keep your mailbox cleaner.
Protect your Browser: Al the major browsers have a variety of tools built into the application to protect you from a variety of malicious activities. For example, IE has the pop-up and active-x blockers, protected mode, and a variety of other things. Another useful tool is something called the WOT. It's a 3rd party app. Find it by googling "web-of-trust".
PC Restrictions: This is something you would consider mostly for your public PCs. The primary product for this is Group Policies. It you had a week long class on this product you would just be scratching the surface. But there are much more user-friendly products such as SteadyState from Microsoft (It's free but it doesn't work on Windows 7) or Winselect from Faronics.
Antivirus and antispyware: As time goes by, this genre of tools becomes less and less useful because the malware is getting too clever. But they are still useful. Use them. Keep them updated.
Separate Public, Staff, and Hotspot PCs: Your staff will at least try to not get infected. The public doesn't care and so you can assume the public PCs are infected not long after a patron touches it. On the hotspot, patrons can use their own tools to hack into your environment. Stop all this by disallowing any communication between your staff, public, and hotspot users. See a previous post on ARP poisoning to learn how to do this easily.
Passwords: Never leave a device with its default password, or no password, or "password", or any of dozens of silly selections. You have good locks on your doors? You should also have good locks on your software. This applies to both your vocation and your personal life. Don't always use the same password. Can someone watch you logon to your PC every morning and then know how to get into your online banking?

So there is a lot of stuff here. You are not going to go home and do all this right away, if at all. So people ask me for the short list. What three things from this list should they do?

If I had to say only three, I would say 1&2 first. Do the Microsoft and application updates regularly. Then 8, because you can always safely assume that your public PCs are infected, and you don't want that to spread to your staff PCs. Finally 9, passwords are locks, use good ones and use them correctly. There is a lot of good info about how to use passwords well.

But I would also put antivirus and antispyware in the top 3 as well. I know there are 4 items in the top 3 but they all need to be there. AV and AS are less important on public PCs if they are using Deep Freeze, but definitely important on PCs not running Deep Freeze.

Be careful out there.

The Standard Model for Small Library IT Management

2011-04-27T17:56:00.011-06:00

I help maintain the IT infrastructure at the Missoula Public Library, but I have also been able to work with a number of small libraries across western Montana for more than 15 years now. These small libraries often have 10 to 25 PCs they have to keep running.

The Standard Model is simply my best guess at any given time for how these small library IT environments should be deployed and managed. With this post I am going to describe the Standard Model, hoping this will give small library directors, and their IT help, direction for how to deploy an environment that works.

This is not to say it's the only way to do it. There are many ways. I will simply be describing the model that is working for me. Note that this model is always in flux, particularly so now because of the BTOP deployments and several of my clients have purchased new servers this past year. But equipment, and software, and user needs are always changing so the infrastructure needs to continually adapt.

These comments are written for someone pretty skilled with PCs and small networks. I encourage any librarian who reads this to pass it on to their tech support and to share this with any interested person. Folks with questions should please post them here as comments so that we can all share in the responses. I would also appreciate anyone with alternative techniques to post those as well.

I'll break the environment up into areas of management, because each of these areas are managed differently. The three areas are the staff PCs, the public PCs, and the hotspot. All these comments assume a Microsoft Domain environment. I am currently using Server 2008 or Server 2008R2.

The staff PCs are managed just like any other business user PC. It has to print, run apps, stay uninfected, store documents, etc. There is nothing particularly unusual in supporting staff PCs so I won't take space for that.

The hotspot is not particularly unusual either except that access is available to all. The important features about the hotspot are that, first, no traffic from it should be allowed to any wired PC, and second, bandwidth must be limited so that there is always sufficient bandwidth available for the staff PCs.

Hotspot Tips:

Librarians want stats. It is how they justify expenditures. A good stat to get from the hotspot is the number of logons to that hotspot. Do this by logging logons at the Access Point and archiving that data on a syslog server. Make this data available to the librarian so she/he can tally up stats daily, weekly, or monthly. I use Mikrotik hardware for APs, firewalls, and routers and will describe how I collect stats from it in a separate post describing the features of the Mikrotik platform.
Some of my sites do not leave the hotspot on around the clock. The Mikrotik platform has a scheduler that can turn the hotspot on and off as desired.
Security dictates that hotspot users cannot have access to any of the staff or public PCs so filter packets from hotspot users so that they have access only to the gateway and not to any resources in the building. One possible exception to this is to allow access to a printer on the wired network. I'm not doing this anywhere because the problems with excessive after-hours printing and with troubleshooting user's printing problems make it appear not worth the effort.

The public PC is a beast that even skilled system and network technicians often have trouble with. The trouble is that they do not understand what the library really wants regarding the configuration of the PC or the management of the public side. Furthermore, librarians often have difficulty articulating what they want in sufficient detail. Thus, there is a gap filled in with tech speculation and librarian dissatisfaction.

Public side management guidelines:

The fundamental problem libraries have is that they invite people with absolutely no inhibitions to come in and use their computers. A patron told one of my directors that they always come to the library to visit a certain web site, because they always get infected when they go there.
Assume all public PCs are infected as soon as a patron touches it.
Focus primary efforts on area segregation and PC recovery, rather than restrictive or blocking techniques. Make sure that public PC's cannot communicate with staff PCs to as low a level as possible. I do the blocking at layer 2.
Library staff typically are not sufficiently skilled to be able to troubleshoot public PC problems, so the tech's job is to configure the PC so as to create as few questions as possible during its use. Even when they are sufficiently skilled, librarians often have many other things they should be working on.
Automate the environment as much as possible. For example, automate the turning on and then off of the public PCs. This is easily accomplished with most PCs. There are many other tasks that can be automated. Actively look for ways to minimize staff interaction with public PCs. Also minimize staff/patron interaction over computer management issues.

Deep Freeze is a product from faronics.com that I have long held is the best PC management money a library can spend. There are a number of products similar to Deep Freeze but I have only used this product so will only comment its use. The use of Deep Freeze dictates much about how the public side is managed, so its use will be described in some detail.

Deep Freeze is an application that will allow you to roll back any and all changes to the file system on a PC when it is rebooted. It is switched between frozen and thawed with a reboot. If it comes up thawed, you can make changes and have them stick. If it comes up frozen, all changes are removed at the next boot. So as long as a PC stays frozen, it remains unchanged.

Public PC and environment configuration:

The tech's primary goal regarding the public side is to limit damage, and facilitate recovery. In a previous post about ARP poisoning, I describe a relatively easy technique for disabling communication between groups of PCs sharing a subnet. That is one way to do it, but however it is done, it must be done.
Easy recovery is accomplished with Deep Freeze.
Damage is limited through the use of antivirus and antispyware, local and perimeter firewalls, and restrictions on the PCs functionality while in the patron's hands.
I use F-prot antivirus because it is lean, good enough, and $3.75/PC/year. I also use Spybot anti-spyware, predominately for the host file it provides. There are other ways to get useful host files to block access to unwanted sites (for example mvps.org), but I find Spybot useful.
Run the Microsoft firewall at each PC and have a firewall at the perimeter device.
Restrictions are provided via Group Policy at most of my sites, but at some sites without servers I use a product called WinSelect, also from Faronics.
I allow three kinds of access to a PC to support centralized and remote management: File and print sharing to allow access to the file system, Remote Registry service to allow manipulation of the registry, and Remote Desktop sharing to support Terminal Services.
Limit patron logons to only those PCs that patrons use. This is can be done easily in Active Directory Users and Computers in User Properties.

As I have mentioned, Deep Freeze determines much about the way the public side is managed, so I will describe in some detail how I use it.

Deep Freeze has an Enterprise version that allows central management of Deep Freeze clients. All PCs can be changed to frozen or thawed with a few clicks.
Deep Freeze has what it calls a thawspace. This is a separate drive where patrons can store documents that will survive a reboot. I use this only for short term storage. I run an automated process that will delete thawspace on all patron PCs on a daily basis.
I use Imagex, the Microsoft product, to create a disk image that will be copied to many PCs. Do not install Deep Freeze as part of this image.
Once a month, I go in during library closed hours to thaw all the PCs and run Microsoft updates, as well as updates for a number of applications. Much of this process has been automated, but I still spend too much time on updates.
Never let any patron touch a PC that is not frozen.
If you need to thaw a public PC during open hours, make sure that its firewall is set to block all incoming connections.
Do not do any general surfing on any thawed public PC. Access your update sites only.

Finally, the server is a component available to both the public and staff side. A server does three things. It is my platform for remote support. It is where documents are stored. And it is the platform providing a variety services to the LAN.

I configure the perimeter device to forward port 3389 packets to the server, and I access it via Terminal Services.
All critical documents are kept at the server in shared folders which are regularly backed up to external drives and removed offsite. Appropriate permissions are also applied to shared folders. I actively deny access by patron side logons to staff shared folders.
The server is then used to access all the PCs on site via Terminal Services. It runs the Deep Freeze console. It collects updated antivirus signature files to be disseminated on the LAN. It runs the Active Directory tools such as Users & Computers, and Group Policies. It runs various automated processes with the Task Scheduler. And more.

Excuse the length of this document, but there is a lot of material, even when covered superficially. I have posted documents recently on ARP poisoning and on configuring a public PC. I will soon post a document on the Mikrotik platform and another on the 10 suggestions I have for small library security. These should cover all the issues I discussed at the presentation at MLA.

Good luck configuring and maintaining your IT environment. Share these comments as you wish. Post your questions as comments here at the Montana Bibliotechies, or send me an email at jims@missoula.lib.mt.us.

Content filtering for public libraries

2011-04-26T10:23:00.005-06:00

The issue of content filtering of the Internet has come up yet again. Some libraries are seeking more E-rate funding in the Internet Access categories and are thus looking at CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) compliance and "technology protection measures." Others are looking for solutions to problem patrons abusing the library's internet.

Internet filtering is a difficult and contentious issue among librarians. Some feel that filters must NEVER be used for ANYONE in the library. These librarians see the defending the First Amendment access to information as the overriding responsibility of librarians. Filters can interfere with constitutionally protected speech so they cannot even be considered. Other librarians are interested in protecting library patrons from illegal and objectionable materials that may be encountered on the Internet. Schools often block anything that might possibly be considered problematic or objectionable. Unfortunately, this can prevent students from accessing information they need to complete assignments. It can also prevent public library patrons from accessing legal and unobjectionable sites like web email or social networks from school/community libraries.

Many librarians find themselves between the two extremes and are looking for solutions that will help block illegal and objectionable sites while allowing access to the vast majority of Internet content. I think that filters when chosen with care and used judiciously can help and will allow the libraries to comply with CIPA.

Unfortunately for busy librarians, selecting the right filter is going to take some study and trials. TechSoup has some good basic information:

Understanding Content Filtering: An FAQ for Nonprofits - What to know before you restrict access to online materials
Content-Filtering Tools: An FAQ for Nonprofits - Advice to help you choose software or hardware for your computer lab
One of the resources recommended in these articles is LibraryFiltering.org
Another recommended review site is Top Ten Reviews Internet Filter Software Reviews

I think you need to start with your library's Internet policy. My colleague Tracy Cook led a workshop at the 2011 MLA/MPLA Annual Conference on Library Internet Policies. It might be helpful to take a look at her notes from the session to help stimulate a discussion with your library's board. You should spell out in your policy just what is considered inappropriate and for whom. CIPA requires you to block web sites that are obscene or contain child pornography for everyone including adults. There are additional requirements for minors.

Internet Safety Policy
The Internet safety policy must address the following issues:

Access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and World Wide Web
The safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications
Unauthorized access including "hacking" and other unlawful activities by minors online
Unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors
Measures designed to restrict minors' access to materials harmful to minors

Once you've defined as a board what you deem "harmful to minors," Internet filters can be used to help restrict access to those materials for minors. But I think you need to be very careful and thoughtful about just what you want to restrict adults from accessing. I would recommend getting a filtering product that allows several different levels of filtering to account for different age groups. That way you can apply filters in an age appropriate manner.

As objectionable as it may be to many community members and library staff, pornography is not necessarily obscene and therefore may be constitutionally protected speech. Web sites depicting racism, sexism or violence are probably also protected by the First Amendment. Blocking these sites with a filter can subject the library to a First Amendment lawsuit. Hence, I repeat my caution to be very judicious about which categories you choose to block for adults and make sure that library staff can disable the filter at the request of an adult library patron. It's a very good idea to get a filter that lets people know that it's blocking a site and gives them the option to have the site unblocked by library staff.

Once you've come up with a draft internet policy, you can start looking at filters to meet your needs. I would certainly want to test filters before I committed my library to buying, installing and using them. This is another good place to bring in your board and/or staff to help. Install each filter you're considering on a computer and then test it for a while. Make sure it blocks sites you want blocked and doesn't block those that should be accessible. You'll probably also want to test how easy it is to turn on and off. If you don't like it, try another. This is something that library staff and patrons are going to have to live with so you want the filter to be something that works for you.

If you're filtering for CIPA compliance, make sure that discussion and approval of your Internet Use Policy is listed on the agenda for your library board meeting. This meeting must be accessible to the public. Also, keep records related to your filter purchase and testing with your E-rate files. If your library is audited for E-rate, auditors may ask to see proof that you're in compliance with CIPA.

It would be great to hear from libraries as to which filters they're using and how satisfied they are with their choices. This is another one of those areas where we can learn a lot from each others experiences.

Deep Freeze on Public PCs

2011-04-13T23:06:00.005-06:00

You spend a lot of time and money setting up a PC for the public to use. But soon everything is running slow on it, or you keep getting infected warnings from your anti-virus, or you keep getting unwanted pop-ups. What do you do?

Unfortunately, the first thing you have to do is completely wipe the hard drive on the PC and start over again. But this time, before you give the PC to the public, you install Deep Freeze on it.

Deep Freeze is a product that completely rolls back any changes made to a PC every time it reboots. This is good for when a patron makes unwanted changes to the PC, like changing the background, or for when a PC gets infected. It is not so good for when you need to update the PC, because that will be removed too.

Deep Freeze runs in two modes: frozen and thawed. When its frozen, any changes made are removed at the next reboot. When its thawed, you can do your updates and they will stick.

I have been using Deep Freeze for more than a decade and am very impressed with it. I think you should use it too, or a product like it, to keep your public PCs running well.

Windows Steady State has a similar component but Microsoft does not make a version of Steady State for Windows 7. There are other paid products as well such as DriveShield and Centurion Guard, but I haven't used those so cannot comment on them.

I purchase the Enterprise version, which means I have a central console from which I can switch all my PCs from frozen to thawed with just a few clicks. This console also allows you to update the Deep Freeze configuration, to startup and shutdown the PCs, send screen messages to the PC, and more.
Deep Freeze is also sold in a Standard edition, which installs on a lone PC and is managed only at that PC.
When I get a PC configured for the public, the last thing I will do is install Deep Freeze on it. Then I let the public use it only in the frozen mode. When I have to do updates, I wait until the library is closed, boot the PCs in thawed mode, and do all the updates on each PC. Then I freeze the PC again before I let the public use it.
Deep Freeze is not a restriction tool. It is a recovery tool. It doesn't stop patrons from doing bad things to your computer, it just allows you to recover easily when they do. You have to use something like Group Policy, or a Local Policy, or Winselect to impose restrictions.
Deep Freeze has what is called a "Maintenance Mode" which is simply a configuration feature that will make the PC boot thawed if it is ever on at a certain time. For example, if you always do your updates after you close Tuesdays at 6 PM, you can set the PCs to automatically turn on and thaw themselves every Tuesday at 6 PM and then freeze again at 9 PM.
Deep Freeze is not perfect. It does not protect against Master Boot Record infections, but these are rare anymore. I have had a few problems with it, mostly due to a PC getting turned off when it shouldn't during a windows update, but the company has a good fix for this and their tech support has been very helpful when I have called.

If you are having trouble keeping your PCs working, have a look at Deep Freeze to start making that effort less work.

ARP Poisioning

2011-04-13T21:10:00.010-06:00

This will be one of a few posts here relating to the presentation I made at the Montana Library Association conference in Billings recently. I told the attendees I would present further details about how to do some of the procedures I discussed, so here is the first one.

One of the most important things a small library should do is to create an environment where the public PCs, the staff PCs, and the hotspot can not see each other. This is because staff PCs are usually used by people who try not to get infected. Public PCs, alas, are not. It is wise to assume that your public PCs are infected by the end of the day. Hopefully, you are using a product like Deep Freeze so that the public PCs will be uninfected again when they reboot.

There are a variety of ways to accomplish this separation between staff and public PCs and many of them are expensive. This is the poor person's technique for disabling communication between staff PCs and public PCs. It is called ARP Poisoning and it is a technique of lying to your PC.

In order for this to work, you must manually assign IP addresses to your PCs. They need to have an IP address that remains constant and DHCP will not do that.

Let's say you have two staff PCs with the following IP addresses:

192.168.1.21

192.168.1.22

And you have two public PCs with the following IP addresses:

192.168.1.55

192.168.1.56

Create a batch file with the following name: "staffARP.bat"

It should have the following two lines in it.

ARP -s 192.168.1.55 00-00-00-00-00-00

ARP -s 192.168.1.56 00-00-00-00-00-00

Then create another batch file called "publicARP.bat". It should have the following two lines.

ARP -s 192.168.1.21 00-00-00-00-00-00

ARP -s 192.168.1.22 00-00-00-00-00-00

Now each of the batch files gets put into the respective startup folder of each PC. That is to say the staffARP.bat file gets put into the startup folder on a staff PC and the publicARP.bat files gets put into the startup folder on the public PC.

Then you would reboot a staff and public PC and ping one from the other. The ping should fail indicating that the two cannot communicate.

In your environment, add a line in the batch file for each PC to which you want to block access. Note that the string after the IP address is a bunch of zero's and dashes, not ohs and dashes. Note that the IP addresses above are just samples. Naturally, you would use your own IP addresses.

There ya go, the poor persons blocking between staff and public PCs.

Next week I'll make a few comments about Deep Freeze. It is the product that, IMHO, is the most cost effective money a library can spend to keep its PCs running.

Configure a Public PC

2011-03-14T13:41:00.005-06:00

Good morning.

This weekend I configured a BTOP desktop PC for the North Lake County Public Library District in Polson. Since many of us are doing similar configurations, I thought this would be a good time to describe the steps I take to configure such a PC.

I had to setup 6 of these PCs. What I did was to configure one of them just the way I want it, and then create an image of that PC and copy that image to the other PCs. If you have more than a few PCs, it is a great time saver and it makes sure there is a consistent experience on each of the PCs so deployed.

What I describe here is simply how the master PC is configured. I do not describe the imaging procedure, or the restrictions I apply on a public. I use imagex and group policies respectively for these tasks. Both these tools are built into the Microsoft environment.

The accompanying document is not meant to be a step by step recipe for configuring the PC. It is simply a rather cryptic list of tasks, somewhat in the order they should be done. It requires a bit of familiarity with Windows 7, Microsoft domains, and installing applications. It is meant to be a fairly complete list of what needs to be done, but I confess that I have probably forgotten a task or two. I occasionally add a bit of explanation.

The public logon is named “inet” and the administrator’s logon is “acme”. If this process is done on a network with other PCs turned on, I always turn on “Block all incoming traffic” in the Sharing Center to minimize the chance of getting infected. Then unblock this before creating the image.

I use Deep Freeze on all public PCs at my day job and for all my clients. IMHO it is the most cost effective PC management money a library can spend. There is other “freezing” software, but I use this. Deep Freeze provides an area it calls Thawspace. Thawspace is a place that is not wiped when a PC is rebooted. I use it as the default location for “My Documents” so that patron documents can survive a reboot. I then use an automated procedure to delete contents of this folder on a regular basis, daily or weekly.

Some of these items are specific to the way I manage the environment so may not be appropriate to your environment, but you can use it as a starting point.

Here is the list.

Configuration of NLCPLD BTOP Optiplex 980 Public PC - March 12, 2011

W7 Pro 64 bit OS
Set PC name and temporary user during initial startup configuration
Set TCP/IP config for IPV4; Turn off IPV6 off
Set local admin password and enable
Join domain; add inet (the public user) to local administrators group
Confirm that Device Manager shows no problems
Set virtual memory to 2xRAM

Logon as inet
Install Office 2007 Pro Plus - Run all - no Outlook icon on desktop
Install MS Math 3.0, MS Streets & Trips
Install Adobe Reader-Flash-Shockwave; Install Java
Install Firefox, Google Earth, Picasa, Itunes/Quicktime
Place icons for auto repair, ibistro, infotrac on desktop
Place items on desktop: MS games folder (add in programs & Features), snipping tool, notepad
Keep Roxio Creator on desktop
Install Spybot, fprot
Do all Microsoft and application updates
Turn off all automatic updates (MS, java, adobe reader)
Activate windows Set remote registry service to delayed start Add acme & inet to Remote Desktop Users Turn on file/print sharing
Confirm remote access to remote registry, file system, RDP
BIOS settings: password; WOL; no energy saving; boot order
Remove initial user and associated profile
Install Printers
Set default web/search in ie &ff, screen saver/power
Populate icons on desktop and set icon location, do initial start of all apps, set background, set ie to default browser

Make sure volume control is available in systray; test sound with headphones Confirm flash drive can be removed gracefully

Logon as acme (The administrative user)
Create c:\port and set permissions to allow only acme access
Set default web, folder options, background, printer, screen saver, power,
Install Deepfreeze and thaw

Log back into inet
After DF install: set mydocs to T: (only T in list), T icon on desktop, my docs icon on desktop
Run disk cleanup, defrag, and chkdsk
Confirm ARP Poisoning is working
Run fprot/spybot scans

Log back into acme
Remove inet from local administrator group
Leave deep freeze unfrozen
Sysprep to oob experience; do not generalize
Capture the image with imagex

open v closed or simple v complex?

2011-03-11T11:09:00.005-07:00

I attended a very interesting workshop at Broad Valleys Federation meeting on Open Source Software in Libraries. Nicole Engard spoke quite persuasively on the benefits of open source and contrasted it with Microsoft's wares as an example of closed or proprietary software.

But somehow that didn't seem to be the point to me. I was struck by the irony that she was talking up open source with a presentation running on a Mac. It seems to me that Apple is actually the epitome of closed proprietary hardware and software. If anything that would seem to lend credence to the argument that what you should really be striving for is an entirely closed infrastructure. Where Microsoft went wrong was in trying to make software that was compatible with a wide variety or hardware and software options. The frustration could be from the fact that they've tried to be too open rather than too closed.

Then I listened to Paul Thurrott on Windows Weekly. He argued that where Apple really has the market cornered is in simplicity and elegance of design. I think it's the simplicity that really appeals to people. The iPad and iPhone have one button to take you to the home screen. I've often made the off hand remark that if you're content to live within the Apple universe, your life will be peaceful and hassle free. That's not something you can often aspire to in the technology world. But if you buy the latest products, download the latest updates and function through the Apple app store buying and using Apple approved apps, you're pretty much guaranteed a pleasant user experience.

Unfortunately, that's not always the case in the open source world. And I'm not going to get into an argument about the value of open source software because I use quite a bit and I like it. But I use Apple and Microsoft products as well. That's probably partly me and partly my job. As a tech consultant, I don't think I can afford to be seen as an evangelist or shill for any particular product line. I also see advantages and disadvantages to all of them.

I think the challenge for librarians is to provide simple and elegant solutions instead of complex ones. And I think that's a big challenge. We want to provide all the options and answers while our customers often just want something that works. We librarians can get rather ideological and rigid in our positions. And that might prevent us from compromising and adding alternate solutions. Even if we're dedicated to running an open source based library, we may want to have a few computers or gadgets running Mac OS or Windows software for the comfort and convenience of our customers. And the same goes for libraries that primarily run Windows or Apple. They should also try to find some open source apps and gadgets for people to try out. From my happy place, I'd like see librarians making decisions on ILS, databases and other software primarily on the basis of usability. We need to focus on finding the best tools for the task at hand. Kudos to Nicole Engard for her example of going with proprietary software when it makes sense for her to do so.

I always hate to see librarians wasting energy battling each other on ideological grounds. In the meantime, our customers are finding our solutions too complicated and are turning to simpler ones like Google search, Kindle books, and iPad apps. We've got to turn our attention in that direction as well, if we're to stay in the game.

Looking for an E-Reader for Christmas?

2010-12-14T11:16:00.005-07:00

For many of us in Montana library land this may be the Christmas of the E-Reader. There are new models out there and many of our libraries are participating in MontanaLibrary2Go, where their library patrons can download e-books with just their library card number.

So, what's the best choice? Let's look at this from a couple of different categories.

E-Ink Readers - These are the standard black and white or gray scale readers.

Amazon Kindle - This is the best known and probably best selling of the e-ink e-readers. And for good reason, its hardware and software are superior to its rivals. And the Amazon Kindle store is easy to use, has a great selection and good prices. Prices for the Kindle itself are also very competitive - $139 for wifi and $189 for 3G and wifi. They also have a larger model the DX which might be what you're looking for if you want to read textbooks or newspapers or PDFs. It sells for $379. Kindle has e-reader apps for most smart phones, iPad and computers. So you can read your Kindle books just about anywhere. They even sync across devices. The only drawback? It uses a proprietary format and won't work with MontanaLibrary2Go.

Barnes & Noble Nook - The e-ink version of the Nook falls into second place after the Kindle. It has color touch screen navigation in a little ribbon at the bottom of the device. But the navigation is somewhat clunky and not terribly intuitive. It can be a bit frustrating but you're probably going to spend more time reading than navigating if e-books are what you're after. It does work nicely with MontanaLibrary2Go. It would be my choice for those looking for a reader to use with library e-books. It sells for $149 for wifi and $199 for 3G and wifi. Barnes & Noble also has a good bookstore with competitive prices and apps that run across various devices and sync. A perfectly usable second choice. My only caution is that the technology is now a year old. Instead of updating and improving the e-ink Nook, Barnes & Noble chose to go in the direction of the NookColor. I suspect this is where they'll be putting their emphasis in the future.

Sony Readers - Sony has been making e-book readers for some time. Their main advantage seems to have been that they were available in a lot of different stores. So, if you were out shopping for an e-book reader, you probably ran across Sony. And that's the only reason I can see to buy one over Kindle or Nook. At this point, they're seriously under-featured and over-priced. And they haven't come up with anything new in about a year. If you've never used a Kindle or Nook, you might be satisfied with it. They do work with MontanaLibrary2Go books as well as public domain. But I found I couldn't enlarge the text on Google e-books. And navigation was difficult and cumbersome.

Other E-Ink Readers. There are a lot of other choices out there. If you think you might be interested in one of them, I'd suggest looking at reviews. CNET reviews just about all of them so that would be a good place to start. You just might run across the perfect e-book reader for your needs. One caution is to consider where you can get your e-books for this device. If it works with MontanaLibrary2Go and that's where you plan to get all of your reading material that's one thing. If you'd also like to buy books, consider what might be available to you in that area. Most of the booksellers copy protect their current bestsellers to run only on their devices. So Amazon Kindle books work only on Kindles and Kindle reader apps. Barnes & Noble Nook books work only on Nooks and Nook reader apps, etc. Independent online booksellers sometimes sell e-books and many are doing so now under the auspices of the Google e-Bookstore. But you might want to do some price comparisons.

LED Readers

Barnes & Noble NookColor - This is the newest kid on the e-reader block and it's creating quite a stir. You might want to read David Pogue's recent review in the NY Times. I got one about a week ago and haven't had enough time with it to form a strong opinion. As for now, I'm still keeping and using my Kindle 2. But the e-ink Nook may be on its way out if the NookColor proves a worthy replacement. On limited usage the screen seems easier to read than the iPad. Photos are beautiful so a magazine like National Geographic is pleasant to read. I'm not sure yet how it is for prolonged reading. I'll do a review later on after I've had more of a chance to run it through its paces. For now, I'll say that it's a first generation product so be prepared for some bugs and glitches particularly in its interactions with some other products. I think it shows promise and may be great in its second generation and/or with a software upgrade. The latest rumor is that they're going to upgrade its operating system to Android 2.2 so it will be able to use apps from the Marketplace and function as more of a tablet in addition to an e-book reader. NookColor sells for $249 in a wifi only version.

iPad/Tablets

I'm pooling these two categories because right now iPad is really the only tablet in the game but there will probably be more coming out all the time. The iPad is not really an e-book reader even though many hailed its arrival as the Kindle killer. It's much larger and bulkier than dedicated e-book readers making it awkward to hold for long periods of time. The screen resolution is such that I see pixels both in the letters and the background. I find that distracting to say the least. And many people don't like reading on a backlit screen for long. That said, it's got e-reader apps from all the major players - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Google, Apple iBooks. So you can use it to read books you buy from just about any bookseller. And there are some great children's books being developed just for the iPad. There are a number of interesting newspaper and magazine apps. But they have yet to work out reasonable pricing schemes. It also has a new Overdrive Media Console app which means you can download books from MontanaLibrary2Go directly to your iPad. That should help eliminate some of those Adobe Digital Edition incompatibility issues that create challenges for some of the other e-readers. If you want a tablet computer for video or games or internet and want to be able to read on it occasionally, iPad might be just what you're looking for. If you want something primarily for reading e-books you can find better and cheaper alternatives. The iPad starts at $499 for a 16 GB wifi version and goes up to $829 for a 64 GB 3G and wifi version.

MontanaLibrary2Go's mobile Overdrive Media Console also works with iPhone/iPod Touch and Android smart phones. These phones also have all the e-reader apps available. While I can't imagine anyone wanting to read an entire book on their phone, the option is available. And I find the Kindle app for my Droid to be a wonderful way to kill time when I'm stuck somewhere waiting. I can pick up where I left off reading a book on my Kindle. When I'm done on my phone, it will sync up again with my Kindle at home. Nook promises to do that as well but I haven't tried it. I expect it only works with books purchased from Barnes & Noble, however, not with MontanaLibrary2Go books.

3G or Wifi?

You've probably noticed by now that most of these devices come in two flavors - 3G or wifi. Wifi means you need to be on a wireless internet network to download data. Many people have wireless networks in their homes. All you need is a broadband internet connection and a wireless router. I suggest you secure your home wireless network with password protection. You've probably noticed that there are more and more public wifi hotspots available all the time. Many libraries offer free wifi as do coffee shops and other businesses. 3G means that you can download data from a cellular network. This can be a plus if you don't have wifi at home and/or if you travel a lot and want to be able to download newspapers, magazines and/or buy books without having to worry about finding a wifi hotspot. Unfortunately, AT&T is the cellular service provider chosen by all the big players - Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble. Given that AT&T does not yet provide service in Montana, it's probably not worth the extra cost at this point in time. That might all change in the next couple of months. The other option for getting content onto your device is to download the content onto your computer, attach the device with the provided cable and transfer the books to your e-book reader. That's the way you get MontanaLibrary2Go e-books onto your e-reader. So, if that's your primary aim, go with the cheaper wifi option.

Tech Reader Gadget Comparison Sheet - I created this for the staff at Bozeman Public Library and modified it for workshops at Parmly Billings Library. It may be helpful in comparing prices and features.

Apps for Android

2010-08-18T15:01:00.004-06:00

First of all, if you're looking for a central clearinghouse of Android apps outside the Android Market, perhaps on your computer where you can browse without going blind, you'll definitely want to check out AppBrain

Library-Related Apps (pretty much all from Android Market)

AccessMyLibrary from Gale. The public edition finds your closest public library and allows you to search their InfoTrac databases from your phone.
Ebook Readers - Borders, Kindle and Nook all have their ebook readers available for Android devices. The only one I use on a regular basis is Kindle because the Whispersync with my Kindle make it easy to pick up where I left off.
Book scanners - Goggles will let you scan a book cover and will identify the book and tell you where it can be bought online and for how much. LibraryThing scanner will scan a book's barcode and give you information on that book and allow you to add the title to your LibraryThing account. Amazon also has an app where you can scan in a barcode or a photo and it will search for the book within its collection.
OverDrive Media Console has an Android app. You can download audiobooks from the MontanaLibrary2Go collection right to your phone.
WorldCat - you can search the OCLC WorldCat database. Librarians will think this is pretty neat - too many results in too many far away libraries.
ALA 2010 - a handy app for keeping track of sessions and vendors at conference. You'll find quite a few libraries using Boopsie for their library apps. You might want to download one or two to try out. I've got Seattle Public Library on my Android.

Information at your fingertips - what librarian can resist?

News - BBC, News Pro (Thomson Reuters), NPR News, NYTimes, TIME Mobile and more
Weather - The Weather Channel
Sports - ESPN Score Center covers all sports but there are also apps for individual sports, e.g., MLB.com At Bat (yes, there's a charge for this one but if you're a baseball fan, it's worth it).
Comic relief - ONN Onion News Network, The Word from Colbert Report - I just downloaded this one today and the video playback has some bugs which hopefully they'll work out.
Restaurants and more (particularly useful when you're on the road) - Urbanspoon, Yelp
IMDb (Internet Movie Database) - uses location information to give you showings, theaters and reviews of movies in your area.
Tech News - Mashable, Twit.tv, CNET, Engadget

Just fun and useful apps

Gesture search - allows you to search for contacts, apps, etc. with one letter
Google Sky Map - point at the sky and it shows you and identifies the constellations overhead
Google Translate
Maps and Navigation - some people have problems with Google maps and navigation. While it's directed me into some kind of interesting areas sometimes, I've never had any serious problems. Many times, I've found it extremely useful
Swype - instead of trying to type on the touch keyboard, you just move your finger from letter to letter to spell out words. Unless it's something obscure, it's usually pretty good at figuring out what you're trying to say.
Voice Search - you speak and it types out the words. It's pretty impressive really

Feel free to add some of your own favorites.

Protect Your Network Ports

2010-07-05T12:01:00.004-06:00

I generally sleep pretty well, especially in a tent in a light rain. But one of the things that sometimes wakes me up and keeps me up in the middle of the night is the physical security of my network ports. The prospect of someone having their own piece of equipment, with their own tools, on my wired network is scary, especially in the dark.

What could happen? A user may simply plug their notebook into a port they find available, thinking it's OK to do so. They may be infected with malware clever enough to inspect the local LAN and infect whatever it may find there. But this isn't so bad. We already have to protect ourselves against ourselves getting infected, and infecting the rest of our LAN.

What if you have a malicious user? If the user is interested in getting information, then having access to your LAN is more than half the battle. Generally the information kept by libraries is boring and of little interest to others, but some of it is private and we are bound to protect it. The most obvious, easiest, and best way to keep curious hackers out of your data is simply to keep them physically away from your LAN.

Or if a user can get access to the back of one of your PCs they can put a key logger on. A key logger is a device about the size of a thumb drive (memory stick, USB drive, whatever you want to call it). It gets plugged into a USB port on the back of your PC when you aren't looking. It's small and innocuous and how often do you look back there anyway. It records every keystroke you make on that PC. They come back days later and remove it, when you aren't looking. They take it home and find all the passwords keyed in while it was attached. It takes 3 seconds to install and 3 more to remove.

It gets worse. What if the user is not interested in grabbing data, but instead is a simple vandal? They may wire together a power cord and a network cable, walk into the library, find a spot with a power outlet near a network drop, and game over! All of a sudden, all network devices and PCs, potentially everything on your wired network, needs to be replaced. How do you stop this? Not easily.

So what is the action plan to protect ourselves as best we can from these situations?

Leave no network port available for a patron to plug into. This is frequently much easier said than done. But it is important.
If your network uses patch panels, make sure that any unused drop is unplugged back at the patch panel.
If you have a particularly seculded PC and network drop, consider getting an RJ45 lock (Google "rj45 lock"), so that a user cannot unplug the PC and plug their own equipment into the port.
Make the back of a PC inconvenient for a patron to access and insert a key logger. Put the PC under a desk, or put some kind of cover over the back of the PC.
Be wary about your patron's behavior around your computers and network ports. Some patrons here seem to expect access to a network port. I know some places do provide that service. We may too someday, but only under carefully controlled conditions.

I hope your summer is going well, and I'm not disturbing your sleep patterns. And by the way, did you hear we were selected to receive the BTOP grant? The Montana State Library rocks!

Top Technology Trends 2010

2010-07-02T10:38:00.002-06:00

Sean Fitzpatrick takes better notes than I do so I'll refer you to his blog postings about Top Technology Trends for American Libraries:

And you can watch a recording of the Top Technology Trends session:

What did I take away from this session? I think we're definitely on the right track with our focus on mobile computing. We need to keep the focus on our users and how to provide for their needs in a mobile environment.

ipad - perhaps not a game changer but certainly handy

2010-06-01T11:07:00.005-06:00

I've had my Apple iPad for a couple of weeks now, including taking it on a couple of trips, and people want to know what I think of it.

Friday's Buzz Out Loud featured a comment from a listener that seemed to sum it up fairly well. The iPad is really all about content consumption. If you need to spend time in content creation, iPad is not going to be the magical answer for you. These limitations are largely built into the operating system (iPhone 4.0 vs OS X).

I think the best way to look at it is as an addition to your desktop or laptop computer instead of as a replacement. Are you looking for a device you can use on the couch to check email or look for quick information on the web? If so, this might be just what you're looking for. And it's satisfactory as a travel email/web device. I love the long battery life and lack of a brick charger. I also bought the keyboard attachment so I found I could answer emails comfortably from my hotel room. I use my cell phone for quick email checks but I much prefer to answer them from a larger device.

The lack of multi-tasking and Flash are continual annoyances to me. I did a recent webinar on mobile devices. I'd thought it would've been good to be able to do the webinar via iPad. But while GoToMeeting does have an iPad app, you can't run both it and Keynote (Apple's presentation app) at the same time. So, once again, you can consume content, i.e., view a GoToMeeting presentation easily but you can't create/conduct one yourself. Very frustrating from a professional point of view. But then when I'm traveling, how often do I really have to create content in a major way? Mostly I'm just trying to stay on top of things/consuming information. And I'd be happier if it ran flash so I could watch Hulu or Comedy Central but that's not a deal breaker. I've managed to find workarounds.

As summer rolls in, hopefully, I think I'll like using it around the house. I have a hundred year old two story house without air conditioning. The upstairs where my office is gets really quite toasty on summer afternoons. I could always take my laptop out on the porch but the iPad is even more portable, and with its long battery life, it's a much more attractive portable option than my netbook where I have to look for an outlet after only an hour of wifi use.

The final point that I think you need to be aware of when considering whether or not to get an iPad or another similar tablet device is that it's all about the apps. The iPad does have a certain appeal as an internet access device. But I don't know that most people need it for that limited function. After all, many of us have laptops and/or desktops and/or cell phones that access the internet as well. Desktops and laptops have bigger screens and keyboards and cell phones are more portable. What really sets the iPad apart are its overwhelming number and variety of apps. Sure I can get baseball updates from mlb.com or a lot of other websites but their iPad app really brings it all together. This is something that libraries need to keep in mind if they're considering buying iPads for checkouts. What apps are you going to put on them?

Speaking of apps, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple iBooks all have ereader apps for iPad. This has led some to call iPad the ultimate ereader. While I like the fact that I can read books I've bought for other devices on iPad, I don't like it as an ereader. It's about twice as heavy as a Kindle, a lot more bulky and I don't like the backlit display. I still find the e-ink on Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers a lot easier on my eyes. Still with 2 million sold, this could bring a lot of people around to ebooks who hadn't used them before.

I brought my iPad to a mobile computing workshop we held at MSL last week. So some of my colleagues got to try them out for the first time. I thought I'd include their first impressions here.

Lauren McMullen - It's not a mobile device in the same sense that a pocket-sized device is mobile. I've never used Macs before so the apps thing is new to me - apps replace programs on these devices, don't they? Apps are a nice way of customizing your device. It's a nice computer for travel but my eyes would probably go bad if I tried to do much work on it because it's small for showing web pages (although many younger people don't seem to have trouble with the size). As a computer user, I'm always plugging things into my computer, like external microphones, printers, monitors, keyboards, speakers, drives, etc. Maybe all these functions have wireless equivalents but I'm not aware of them - and I didn't see too many places to plug into the ipad. I think the iPad would be a great 2nd computer to have for taking with you on trips, but you really couldn't depend on it to be your computer for all purposes.

Jennie Stapp - I think the ipad is a wonderful compromise between the portability of a mobile device and the usability of a laptop. Since I don't use a mobile phone, the internet connectivity is all I need.

Hold & Overdue Messages

2010-05-26T07:14:00.003-06:00

Hi. We just started a new service for sending out holds and overdue notices and I thought you should hear about it.

We have been looking for ways to cut costs and have been discouraged about the costs associated with sending paper mailers for holds and overdues. I found about this service from the good folks at the North Valley Public Library in Stevensville and we thought we would give it a try. We have just finished our trial period and love it. There is no going back to mailers for us.

We started this service with OneCallNow (onecallnow.com). After speaking with NVPL, I called OCN and was directed to a nice, and very helpful, sales person. After asking a lot of questions about what we needed to accomplish, she got me started on how to setup what I need. She got us started with a 30 day trial of the service and pointed me to the website where I could our service configured. I was a little confused at first about how things would work, but the website is very helpful.

We use one of many features available called a “canned call”. Our patrons get a phone call with a generic prerecorded message stating they have a hold at our library. Or a different message that they have an overdue. Here is how it works.

I started by logging into their website and registering information about our institution and setting up the procedures for a canned call. Then I had one of our librarians with a beautiful, friendly voice record the two messages we would be sending. She did this just by calling a phone number and speaking the message into the phone.

Then the talented Mike Price at the state library was able to use the same criteria used to create our hold and overdue Workflows reports to create a document with the appropriate phone numbers formatted in a manner suitable for OneCallNow. We setup a procedure whereby the documents automatically find their way to the librarian’s computer, but this could also be done simply by creating an appropriate Workflows report.

So now, every day, an MPL librarian finds the new daily documents on her PC, opens them up to verify the correct formatting, sometimes making minor changes. Then she logs into the OCN website and uploads the documents. That’s it.

All the phone calls are made within minutes. If a person answers the call, they hear the message. If a machine answers, the message is left on the machine. If there is no answer, OCN will try 12 times over 12 hours before giving up. When the process is finished, we get an email with stats about how many calls succeeded and failed, and which numbers are which.

We used to spend 44 cents first class postage per mailer, taking about an hour of staff time daily, plus the cost of the paper mailers, and the expensive equipment, sometimes requiring maintenance. Now it is 8 cents per call, taking 15 minutes daily of staff time, utilizing no equipment or consumables. It’s a no- brainer.

We do get some complaints, but a very low percentage, and involving issues we are still tweaking and improving. We think it’s a great service. Feel free to call me or one of the folks in the circulation department if you want to find out more about this. Or call OneCallNow with your questions. That’s it for today.

container vs. content

2010-04-23T09:48:00.005-06:00

Jason Griffey brought this up during a WebJunction/ALA webinar on gadgets and libraries yesterday. And I think it's a key question for libraries in this day and age. It used to be that the container and content were singular - books and periodicals. That made it pretty easy, you bought the container and got the content within it. This lasted as long as the container. You could extend the life with mending and/or binding but that was about it. Then we started microfilming, scanning, etc. putting the content into new containers to preserve. But there's always been the unanswered question of what happens to the content when the containers are no longer accessible or viable.

This has all gotten even more difficult of late with the advent of container-dependent ebooks, audiobooks, video, etc. Just a few years ago, librarians were complaining of having to buy the same content in multiple formats - hardcover, large print, audio... Now we're also worrying about multiple containers. And we don't even own the content anymore. Instead we're just buying licenses to access it under often restrictive conditions.

I came away from the webinar yesterday thinking that librarians can't afford to get distracted by the containers. These are bound to change all the time. This year is supposedly the year of the tablet and ebook reader. No library can reasonably be expected to provide all of these various devices to their patrons. Librarians are rightfully concerned about the cost of replacement of damaged devices. Do you charge a patron for the cracked screen on a $499 iPad? What if s/he can't afford to pay for it? Do you then send out a collection agency and/or cut off borrowing privileges? I can't see that this is a road we want to go down. Nor do we want to have to spend large portions of our budgets on expensive devices that will only work with a limited amount of content.

I feel very strongly that we need to be focusing on the content itself. We don't want to get into this DRM (Digital Rights Management) game where Barnes & Noble purchased ePub content will only work with B&N ebook readers. We need to be pushing for open standards and content that will work with as many containers as possible. We are not pirates if we want to to purchase one digital copy of a book and lend it to our patrons who use Kindles, iPads or netbooks. And once the dust settles a bit and there are some functional under $100 ebook readers, we need those to be able to support all of our digital content.

This is the fight we need to be leading right now - protecting access to intellectual content. It is about the content. We can't let all the shiny new containers get in the way of that access.

Spot and Earthmate Devices

2010-04-19T21:48:00.004-06:00

This post doesn't really have any direct relevance to the library environment, but it does for montanans who like to enjoy the landscape. This is security for your person rather than your PC.

I have picked up a couple of interesting devices these past few months and I think it'll be useful to share what I've found out. These devices are the Earthmate PN-40 and the SPOT.

I first picked up the SPOT (http://www.findmespot.com/) several months ago. The idea with the Spot is simple. First, it knows where it is, because it is a GPS device. Second, it can send any of 3 types of messages. All the messages are pre-recorded. That's it. The device is a little bigger than a cell phone and it has 4 buttons: Power, OK, Help, and 911.

When you first get the device, you register it at the findmespot website. You assign emergency contact numbers, and other similar information. You also compose the text that is sent if you send a message. My "OK" message is "Everything is fine". My "Help" message is "Better send help".

I'm frequently out in the woods alone. When I'm out, I send "OK" messages every morning and evening. If a problem were to come up that my climbing or hiking buddies could help with, I would send a "Help" message. If a really serious problem were to come up, I would press the 911 button. The "OK" and "Help" messages go to whoever I configure them to go to when I regestered the device. So my wife gets both email and text messages twice a day letting her know that "Everything is fine".

The SPOT also has an add on tracking feature I use. I put the spot into this mode and it registers my location every 10 minutes and copies that location to a web site that my wife can logon to and see how things are going. At the web site she sees my location superimposed on a topographic map. This helps her sleep better at night. But it makes it harder for me to sneak off to Las Vegas for a few days when I tell her I'm going into the Bob Marshall. I find this feature useful because I can come back after a trip and see just where I was.

The other device I recently acquired is an Earthmate PN-40. This also is a little bigger than a cell phone. The purpose of this device is to get you information while you are on the trail or road trip. It is a GPS device and it has a small screen. It also has software that lets you download USGS quad maps to it.

The only thing I don't like about it is how fast it sucks batteries dry. It uses 2 AA batteries and will deplete those in a single long day of constant use. But I love everything else about it.

The screen is easy to read in direct sunlight. If you leave it on, it is recording your total distance traveled, or if you just turn it on occassionally, you can just use the waypoints feature to record specific locations.

For example, when we are on these long day hikes, my wife never has a clue about where she is or which way to go to get back to the car. We record the location of the car when we leave it in the morning and all day long we can see the distance to the car and a direction arrow pointing to it. Of course the straight line direction to the car is not necessarily the correct direction to go, but it is a start to know which way to go.

If you are using this in a car, you can plug it into a USB port and keep it powered on that way instead of using up the batteries.

Of course I love all these new devices, but I also note that my day pack now has a full complement of new devices to weigh it down. I have my digital watch and SLR camera, the cell phone, and now the SPOT and the the PN-40, extra batteries, and don't forget the manuals. It's a little different than the daypacks I was packing 35 years ago.

So this summer get away from your computer and enjoy the marvelous country we live in. And consider these devices to help make sure you are able to get back again. Be careful out there.

mp3 player recommendations

2010-04-01T10:00:00.002-06:00

I use a cheap little SanDisk and it works okay. Sometimes it has problems with putting the parts in the wrong order, but you reset it and it works fine.

Michelle Fenger

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Creative Zen Mozaic works great for me.

Maggie Meredith

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I'm using a Creative ZEN 8gig that I'm very happy with. (About $75.00 on sale from Costco online.) Easy to use. Can download both MP3 and MWA formats. Have enought space with 8gig that I have 7+ books at a time. I just delete when finished.

In my vehicle, I use a SoundFly FM thingy (can't remember what it's called) to broadcast the books to channel 100.1 on my car's FM radio so I can listen there. Plugs in to cigarette lighter -- OK, I know there's a better name for it than that, but what is it?

Oh, yes -- Even if ZEN is out of juice (battery charge) the SoundFly will power it so I can continue to listen until I can connect ZEN to a computer with USB and charge it up.

Diane Van Gorden

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My daughter loves listening on her iPod. She loves her iPod for her music and not having to have something different is great. Before we could put WMA titles on the iPod, we had a different MP3 player just for audiobooks. It worked okay, but was a pain to have to have two devices.

Now, she can go from music to book to music when she is on a trip and she is just more comfortable using the device that she uses all the time for other things.

Susie McIntyre

Troubleshoot Bandwidth Issues

2010-03-25T10:45:00.003-06:00

Determining why your web application is slow can be difficult. Whether it is Workflows or Firefox or Quicktime, slow responsiveness can be annoying and so it grabs your attention. The fundamental problem, though, could be at your own PC, or the remote server, or any point in between, and any number of issues at any point. Even clever experienced network people can have trouble. You'll soon see why I had to include that last sentence.

The task can be daunting if you're not a network engineer, and I suspect many of you are not. But I just went through a "teachable moment" at one of my clients, and that, as well as Suzanne's excellent recent post about bandwidth, compells me to describe what happened and what it could mean for you.

The users at the site complained about slow Workflows responsiveness between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. Workflows was the only thing they complained about. I have some software tools to look at the circuit from the library to the Internet and that always looked good. It was always well below what the circuit could carry. The router at the edge of the state firewall was always very responsive (I've seen problems there in the past), so I did what I almost always do when I first look at a problem. I assume it's someone else's fault.

They continued to complain. It would sometimes be so bad their Workflows application would close. This makes it hard to run a library. So, the next time I was there, I downloaded and ran a free program called Ping Plotter (www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html). It is basically an enhanced traceroute program. If you don't know what traceroute is, you should probably give this post to your tech. I point it to any place out on the Internet and see how responsive the path is. When troubleshooting Workflows, I always point to 216.146.126.246 because that is the last router I can see before the route goes inside the state firewall.

Within seconds after starting this tool I could see there was a problem, a big problem. Most of the packets our library was sending to the Internet were not being responded to. We were seeing frequently more than 70 % packet loss. It was amazing that any of our applications were working at all. The curious part though was that we were seeing packet loss at all hops, not just one bad spot having trouble. Sticking with my previous assumption, that its someone else's fault, I called Qwest. The Qwest guy was fantastic, but basically he proved to me that it wasn't his fault. And furthermore, he also proved that the problem was inside the building. Uh-oh, it looks like my fault.

This site has a CentreCOM 24-port switch they got from one of the early Gates hardware distributions in Montana. I think this came with the 2002 distribution. When I finally replaced it with a different switch the problem was gone. The switch had just gotten to the point where it could not reliably move packets through itself and it looked like the problem was a bad Internet connection. Or actually, it looked like a bad Internet connection, until I used the right tool to look at the problem.

So one moral of the story is try using ping plotter. Its free. Its easy to install. It might point you in the right direction if you are having a "slowness" problem, chronic or otherwise. It does require a little understanding to be able to use it.

Another is to be suspicious of these switches. Maybe this one had just been mistreated at some point, but maybe they are getting old as a group.

Another, possibly, is to not assume initially that it's someone else's fault. Naa... I think I'll continue to do that.

How much bandwidth is your library currently getting?

2010-03-12T10:24:00.002-07:00

We frequently talk about bandwidth and broadband speeds. I've been asked how you know just how much bandwidth you're getting from your provider, especially as opposed to what they're telling you.

The answer is, you run a speed test. There are several out there. But I'd like to call your attention to this one because it's being conducted by the FCC. The data may go into the National Broadband plan.
http://broadband.gov/

You do need to have Java running on the computer you're testing.

If you want to share your results and see what other libraries are getting, you can enter comments to the post.

Montana is running its own speed test for broadband mapping. You probably want to participate in this one as well.
http://www.mtspeedtest.org/

I've been asked by several people whether or not they should be concerned if they get different results from different tests. I don't think you should be concerned. Your speed can be greatly influenced by what tasks are being done by others on your network at the time the test is taken. As an example, I ran a speed test while I was downloading 2 200 MB podcasts. I got 3.44 Mbps. I ran the test again right after the podcasts had downloaded and got 5.1 Mbps. Audio or video downloads, streaming video, online games can all greatly affect your speed.

The Web of Trust – A Useful Tool.

2010-03-07T21:05:00.006-07:00

I have had a couple incidents recently that highlight the usefulness of a tool I have been using of late and I thought I would pass on the name. The tool is called “Web of Trust”. You can download and install it from www.mywot.com. It is a tool you would use on your own PC, either at home or work. I don’t think it’s worth the effort to put it on a public surfing PC.

It's an add-on for your browser and you can install it on IE, Firefox, or Chrome. If you run all three browsers, you will have to do an install for each one. Then, of course, you have your staff PC, your staff notebook, your home PC, your spouses’ PC, and so it goes. There could be a lot of installing.

The idea with the Web of Trust is that you and I and the other users of the web have opinions about the reliability of various sites. Sites are rated based on these opinions and your browser will show you the results of these combined opinions with a red, yellow, or green circle on a site.

For example, I did a Google search for free music. A portion of the results are posted below.There are two red circles, and two green circles. I wouldn't go to the sites indicated by the red circles but I would go to the sites indicated by the green circles. If there were any yellow circles, I may have a look at them, but I would be pretty wary.

There is more to the Web of Trust than just colored circles. It can pop up warnings for risky sites, and you can get more information on a given site by clicking on the circle associated with that site. It is a useful tool that can help you stay away from risky sites. This would not be useful on Public PC though because patrons on our PCs don't care whether a site is risky or not.

Let me give you a couple examples how this was useful for the two incidents I mentioned earlier.

One of the staff here received the email shown below. Now there are a lot of reasons why this would look suspicious at first glance, and so she got suspicious and asked me about it. Well the “click here” phrase is a link. You know that you can put your cursor over a link in your email program and it will show you the link before you click on it. When you’re doing this make sure you DO NOT CLICK on the link. So this link had a URL, the domain of which I Googled. The hits that came back had a lot of red circles, just confirming her suspicions.

**************************

From: Smith, John [mailto:john.smith@cspb.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 9:13 AM
To: webhelpdesk@admin.org
Subject: Your E-mailbox Has Exceeded Its storage Limit.

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB as set by your
administrator, you are currently running on 20.9GB, you may not be able to
send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox.
To re-validate your mailbox please
CLICK HERE

Thank you for your cooperation.
Webmail Help Desk.
System Administrator.

**********************************

Another user here had discovered a database on the web look at every driver’s license in the US. She was appalled by this and sent an incredulous email with the URL to me and some others. Well, I’m sad to say, I bit. But as soon as the site came up in my browser, along with the red circle, I knew it was bad and just closed out the browser. Then I Googled again and found a comment about the bad site at Snopes. The bad site is probably nothing more than a prank site, but we really don’t know.

Snopes keeps track of urban legends and rumors. Find out about the drivers license site by going to snopes and use their search tool for “driver’s license look-up”. I am not going to give you the link to the driver’s license site itself.

You should have a look at snopes if you haven’t yet. It’s at www.snopes.com and it gets a green circle. Also try out WOT. Be careful out there, and may all your hits be green.

Offline Links

2010-02-23T10:54:00.008-07:00

Here's a list of the sessions from Offline 2010. If the presentation is available on the web, there is a link.

Mark Sheehan - New Technologies
Liz Babbitt & Jason Clark - Open API
Phillip Curtiss - Rocky Mountain Supercomputing
Mary Anne Hansen/Sheila Bonnand - Synchronous Library instruction
Matt Beckstrom - Google Wave and Open Source Update
Suzanne Reymer - eBook Readers
Previous MT Bibliotechies postings on eBooks
Tony Hines – Posting Secrets: The Paradox of Online Privacy
Catherine McMullen - Considering the Digital Branch
Sarah McHugh - Webscale for Libraries (Andrew Pace presentation)
Webscale Management Services (pdf)
Colet Bartow - Social Networking for Schools
Suzanne Reymer - Mobile Computing and Libraries: Are you ready?
Previous MT Bibliotechies postings on Montana cell phone issues/reviews
Mark Sheehan - Sustainable Technologies

Feel free to keep the conversations going in the comments.

Nexus One - or the next new phone to disappoint us in Montana

2010-02-09T09:22:00.009-07:00

I recently replaced my jailbroken unlocked iPhone with a brand new Google Nexus One. I got tired of fighting with Apple over updates. My iPhone is running OS 3.0.1 and several of the new apps I've wanted to download recently require 3.1 or newer. If I had unlimited time and patience, I could probably go through the jailbreaking process every time I needed to update, but it seemed time for a phone without all the hassles. At this point, I'm angry with Apple for putting me through this because they continue to go with AT&T as their sole service provider in the U.S.

Along came Google's unlocked Nexus One. So, I bought one, transferred my Cellular One SIM card from my iPhone, put in the data settings and it worked. Of course, we don't have 3G coverage over a GSM network in Montana so it has to run on the painfully slow Cellular One EDGE network, but that's good enough to check Facebook updates, email, do web searches, etc. And much of the time, I can find a wifi network to jump on.

As for features, this is the phone that Google put all of it's cool new toys into:

Google Goggles - you can take a photo with the phone and Google does a search on the object. If it's a well known piece of art, you can find out the name artist. If it's a building, it uses GIS and Google maps information to identify the business. If it's a book jacket, it will give you prices at nearby stores and/or the internet. I suggested to WorldCat that they should get library info in this.
Google voice recognition - I hate typing on touch pads. I love the fact that Google has voice recognition down well enough that I can usually just dictate into the phone.
Google translator - Not that I really have a need for this at present, but you can speak an English phrase into the phone and it will translate into another language. Right now you get a written translation. I tried the Polish version and it seemed pretty accurate. I understand that soon the phone will be able to speak the translated phrase. It's the babble fish.
It works great with just about all of the Google's products. So, if you use Gmail, Google calendar, etc., it seamlessly updates.
The recent update was wonderfully easy. It was just sent to the phone. I didn't have to do anything. You have to update iPhones through iTunes. So, Big Brother Apple can check on you and make your life difficult if you're not playing by their rules.
OverDrive has a media console for Android and Windows Mobile devices. You still have to use the clunky search interface in a separate browser. But if you can find an MP3 title you want to listen to, you can download it directly to your phone. Now that is the promise of mobile technology! Once again, this is something you'll want to take advantage of via wifi instead of EDGE, unless you're VERY patient. EDGE is like a dialup connection.

Now for the disappointments:

Many of the cool new features don't work over the EDGE network. You need a faster connection. So, I find myself looking for wifi connections. I have yet to try out the turn by turn navigation on Google Maps. But if it requires a fast connection, it's not going to do me much good in Montana. Rarely do I find myself in need of direction inside a wifi enabled building.
A lot of iPhone apps are not yet available on the Android platform. Amazon and B&N ebook readers, various news apps, Gale's Access My Library app... And some of them that do exist don't work as well on the Android, e.g., Facebook.
Like many open source software products, Android is not entirely user friendly, particularly when compared to Apple products. I think you have to be a person who likes to fiddle with things to figure them out. If you're someone who just wants it to work without fiddling, you'll prefer the iPhone. For example, it took some hunting in Google's help to figure out how to get photos off the phone. I never did figure out how to remove some of the bizarre things that showed up in my photo gallery on the phone. I finally realized it's pulling them off Picasa web so graphics from Blogger show up on my phone. Apparently my customization options are limited.
The battery life is pretty limited. All the updating from the Google cloud takes a toll. I'm not yet in the habit of recharging every night. So, it often happens that I pull my Nexus One out of my purse only to discover the battery's dead.
I haven't been able to figure out how to do a screen shot of my Nexus One without rooting the device. Apple forced me into jailbreaking my iPhone by bricking it when I did an update. I'm not yet willing to risk my new $500 phone.

I'm sure there are a lot more pros and cons. I just thought I'd share a few of my initial impressions. And for anyone who reads this before Offline, you'll have some background for the Mobile Computing session.

I'd love to hear comments from people using the Android on Verizon's network that actually does offer 3G. The Android 2.1 OS is supposed to be rolled out this week. What do you think?

Update 11Feb10 - Bad news for Montanans waiting for an iPhone on Verizon. Apple just extended their exclusive contract with AT&T into 2011. That and news about 4G network developments has led to speculation that iPhone won't unlock in the U.S. until 2012. At that point, AT&T and Verizon will probably be using the same LTE standard. I know a lot of this is gibberish. But the gist is, if you're looking for a smartphone on Verizon I'd be looking at Blackberries and Androids.

Windows 7

2010-02-07T19:21:00.002-07:00

Have you used Windows 7 yet? Are you planning to soon?

I was hesitant to jump into Windows 7 early on. I didn’t want to get too involved with it if we were going to have another distribution like Vista. Early last fall I had seen some statistics that 80% of IT managers at large firms were planning on waiting for quite a while to see how the release of this OS was going to play out. I fell into that camp.

But I had some clients that wanted Windows 7 on some PCs right away, so I thought it would be a good start and get some experience on someone else’s dime. Thanks Renee. It went pretty well. It was a public surfing PC, actually four of them, and I was able to install it on two of the four. Here is how it went.

All four PCs were Dell Optiplexes. I forget the model numbers, but two a little newer and two a little older. I did a fresh install on one of the newer ones, then installed all the standard Public PC software, which for me is MS Office, Itunes/Quicktime, Google Earth, Adobe Reader/Flash/Shockwave, Java, Picasa, and probably some other things. I should also point out that Windows 7 recognized all the hardware in the PC. All of it. I didn’t have to go to Dell Support to get any drivers.

The first glitch was with Deep Freeze, which I use on all public PCs I manage. Windows 7 needed the most recent version which is 6.61. Our maintenance contract was still live so I just downloaded and upgraded Deep Freeze to 6.61.

Then I imaged the install on the first PC and copied that image to one of the two older Dells. This brought the second glitch. It did not recognize the audio hardware and Dell said they did not have a Windows 7 driver for that hardware yet, but she thought they would at some point. You need audio on public stations so I had to pass those two up. The other two have been working fine for a few months now.

I have done several other installs and, with one glaring exception, it has gone very well. I even have some staff members running Workflows on Windows 7 and have not heard any complaints yet. Keep in mind that Sirsi still does not support Windows 7.

The glaring exception is OCLC’s Connexion. Now this is not really a Windows 7 problem. It is a 64-bit OS problem. The latest version Connexion will not run natively on a 64-bit operating system. So when I bought a bunch of new “latest and greatest” hardware for our Tech Services department and started installing all the apps they need, I hit a roadblock with Connexion. They MUST have Connexion and I had already put a lot of effort into using the 64-bit version of Windows 7, so I had to accommodate somehow. Now Connexion would have worked fine (I’m told) if I had used the 32-but version of Windows 7, but that is the old and I’m bringing in the new.

I complained vociferously to a number of folks at OCLC but they have limited resources, and we all know about that, and they’ll get to it when they get to it. They have a solution which I won’t go into here, except to say that you have to install a guest operating system. So I will have Connexion and my 64-bit OS on these boxes.

The anticipated release date for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is this September. It looks like it’s not going to bring any big changes because Windows 7, so far, seems to be a pretty solid release. That is not to say that everyone is satisfied with all of it. Search on “Windows 7 annoyances” to see a sampling of current grumbling.

I think Windows XP released in October of 2001. I’m hoping I’ll be able to stick with Windows 7 as long as we have been using Windows XP. If I do, I’ll only have to go through one more OS upgrade before I retire. That sounds pretty good to me.

kindle wireless update

2010-01-05T11:08:00.009-07:00

This ebook reader wireless business threatens to strip away the few remaining vestiges of sanity I have. And I'm convinced more and more that the AT&T logo is indeed the death star.

A quote from the Amazon web page:

"Due to strong customer demand for the newest Kindle, we are consolidating our family of 6" Kindles. The new Kindle has 3G wireless that works in the United States and also globally in over 100 countries. We will continue to fully support Whispernet for all U.S.-only Kindles. You can buy used and refurbished versions of the U.S.-only Kindle on this page."

My completely unfounded explanation is that the Kindle global has a different wireless chip set from the Kindle US - GSM vs. CDMA. AT&T is their primary GSM provider. Sprint was their primary CDMA provider. Never the twain shall meet.

This switch over is not good news for Montana customers. Sprint had wireless partners in Montana to extend their coverage. I've always presumed it was Verizon. Verizon has very good coverage in Montana and even 3G in spots.

AT&T provides NO 3G service in Montana. I continue to be mystified by the AT&T commercial where they cite Bozeman, MT as a spot with 3G service. But they do partner with other carriers to provide less than 3G service. For example my wireless provider, Cellular One, is an AT&T partner.

I don't think the 3G less than 3G is a huge issue. When you're downloading books, magazines, etc., they're pretty small files and you'll get them fairly quickly over any wireless connection. But I expect that the coverage map for Montana will show a lot more blank spots following their move to a new provider. Make sure to check the map and ask customer service for clarification.
Wireless coverage map.

Kindle 2 US wireless devices are still available used and refurbished. I find it interesting that almost all of them are more expensive than new.

And we can be hopeful that the Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony Reader Daily Edition, which both use AT&T wireless, will also have wireless partners within Montana. If so, I'd expect that their actual service map would resemble the Kindle's more than AT&T's 3G map.

We're just going to need some more first hand accounts. So, I want to hear from all of you with ebook readers. How's the wireless? How's the overall experience?

And if you're still procrastinating over purchasing an ebook reader, relax. There will probably be a lot of new devices unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. So, we can all be even more confused!

Tis the season for ebook readers

2009-12-23T13:44:00.013-07:00

Judging by the questions I've been getting, there are a lot of people with ebook readers on their Christmas lists this year. It looks like 2010 may well be the year that digital books hit the mainstream.

That said I don't think that ebooks or ebook readers are for everyone. If you get most of your books from the library, downloadable ebooks are not yet available in Montana libraries. Or if you like to keep your books on display or donate them to others when you're done, ebooks may not be for you. But for those who buy and read a lot of books and/or travel a lot, it can be quite handy to be able to store hundreds of books and magazines on a small portable device.

I have both a Kindle 2 and a Sony Reader Touch edition. I bought the Sony specifically to take advantage of Google public domain books and potential library ebooks. But as I said earlier, MT public libraries don't offer access to downloadable ebooks yet. And I've discovered that the new Kindle firmware update allows one to read Google public domain books more easily than does the Sony.

One of the problems with reading PDF files on either device is that you can't enlarge the type. I found the fonts on PDF books too small to read comfortably on the Sony, small but readable on the Kindle. And navigating PDF books on an ebook reader is really clunky regardless of the type. You pretty much have to click next page repeatedly to get to the page you want. That's not too bad if you're reading a novel but irritating if you're browsing for just the right poem.

I know that a lot of people (including a friend in Billings) are buying Sony ebook readers probably because they're available in stores. I prefer my Kindle 2, however. You have the Amazon Kindle store to shop from. Most hardcover bestsellers are $9.99 in the Kindle store. Most of the titles I was interested in from the Sony eBook Store are more expensive. Some from other online bookstores are close to the hardcover price for electronic editions. My friend claims she's found good prices for Sony ebook titles at other outlets.

The big plus for Kindle 2 is that you can download titles from the Kindle store wirelessly. I haven't found a location in Montana where I was unable to access the wireless connection. Sony ebooks have to be bought on a computer, downloaded to the computer and then transferred to the ebook reader. Wireless availability for Kindle also makes subscribing to newspapers and magazines an attractive option. All I have to do is turn on the wireless and the latest issue is downloaded to my device automatically wherever I am. Kindle wireless coverage map.

Kindle also offers reader apps for iPod Touch, iPhone and PC. The Mac app is supposed to be coming soon. So, I can read a chapter or two of a book on my iPhone and then pick up where I left off later on my Kindle. It's a bit quirky still in actual use but I love the idea.

The only real argument I've heard in favor of Sony ebook readers over Kindles is their use of the epub format. And this gets pretty techie. Suffice it to say that epub is the standard ebook format. Amazon uses it's own azw format. That means that books you buy for the Amazon Kindle can't be read on any other devices (aside from phones, computers, etc. running Kindle software). Epub books can in theory be read on multiple devices. But most bestsellers will come with their own DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection which will limit them to their own devices. For example, Barnes & Noble DRM-protected epub books cannot be read on Sony readers. I learned this the hard way.

On Tuesday, December 22 Sony released their Daily Edition with wireless capability. While I'd thought that the lack of wireless was a real drawback, that now seems to put Sony back in the mix, for most of the country. With its 7 inch screen and $399 price, the Sony Reader Daily Edition seems to be positioning itself somewhere between the 6 inch screen Amazon Kindle 2 at $259 and the 9.7 inch screen Kindle DX at $489.

But not in Montana. I checked out their wireless coverage map and Montana is blank. That's not surprising to those of us who've been wanting a legal iPhone. AT&T does NOT provide coverage in Montana. So, it looks like the Sony Daily Reader will be like the Amazon Kindle 1 in that Montanans will be asked to pay a premium for second-rate service.

The most talked about new rival to the Kindle is the Barnes & Noble Nook at $259. It offers wireless capability like the Kindle as well as the epub format. You have Barnes & Noble's stores and website to shop from and they promise to offer prices competitive to Amazon's. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get my hands on one to try it out. But most reviewers seem to like it. It runs Google's Android operating system and has reportedly already been hacked to allow web browsing. But web access is not particularly attractive on a slow black & white device. It's always been a feature of the Kindle. Still, there are enticing possibilities with Android for tech geeks. But, since their wireless is also provided by AT&T, I'd be very surprised if this feature worked in Montana. I received confirmation of this in an email from Barnes & Noble. They sent this link to AT&T's coverage information.

If wireless connectivity is important to you and you live in Montana, it looks like Kindle 2 is the only option at present unless you prefer to download to your computer.

We'll be talking about ebook readers at Offline in Billings on February 19-20, 2010. Come and offer your opinions.

In the meantime, here are some additional resources:

Amazon Kindle 2 Review

2009-10-19T15:08:00.004-06:00

I think the biggest selling point for the Kindle 2 for consumers in Montana is we finally get wireless and the opportunity for instant gratification. Once you set it up with your Amazon.com account, you can buy books and magazines with one-click and have them downloaded instantly to your device. If you subscribe to a newspaper or magazine, the Kindle will be updated automatically with the latest issue whenever you turn on wireless access. For libraries, this is probably not as big a deal because we would shut off the one touch ordering.

Another fun feature I’ve recently taken advantage of was the clipping. I’ve always highlighted passages and made notes. But I just discovered that the highlighted passages are copied to a My Clippings text file that can be retrieved via computer from the Documents folder on the Kindle. You can clip an entire article or a section of an article or just a few words or sentences. I gave a talk yesterday on ethical eating and it was really handy to be able to integrate passages from some of the books I’d read on Kindle. Once again this is probably of more use to an individual consumer than to a library. I imagine libraries would want to make sure that the clippings file was emptied after each use for privacy considerations.

Some features that are useful to everyone:

The variable text sizes – you can make any book or periodical large text by clicking on the Aa button.
Text to speech – most items can be translated into computer-generated speech again by clicking on the Aa button and selecting Text to Speech. This was rather controversial when it first came out. Some publishers objected and their works will not have this feature enabled.
Dictionary – you can get a definition for many words by simply moving the cursor near and up comes a definition at the bottom
The search function can be very useful. Say you’re trying to find the chapter that talked about Sally Smith. Just type it in search and you’ll go right to it.
You can use it to listen to music and some audiobooks (unfortunately, not OverDrive).

Some negatives:

Navigation can be clunky. It’s not easy to go back to previous sections unless you have them bookmarked. You’ll often have to go back to the table of contents, find the chapter and click through to the page you want.
Maps and charts can be difficult to read and use.
It’s expensive - as of today $259 for US version.
It uses its own proprietary e-book format.
Formatting is often lost. I recently read a book that used a lot sidebar material. It was randomly inserted into the text.
It’s clunky to transfer your own Word.docs or PDF files. You need conversion software. Amazon.com charges $0.10 to translate a document and email it to your device.

And probably the biggest drawback for libraries considering purchasing Kindles to lend to their patrons for e-book use is that Amazon.com is still unclear about whether or not library use is permissable under the user agreement.

iphone in montana?

2009-07-27T09:56:00.008-06:00

As some of you who follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook know, I recently got an iPhone. After contemplating just about every smartphone option openly available in Montana, including Blackberry and Nokia, I decided that what I really wanted was an iPhone. Actually, I did own a Nokia E63 for a couple of weeks. I concluded that while it wasn't a bad phone, it was too complicated for me. I continue to believe that needing instructions to use any electronic device constitutes a serious design flaw.

I've had several people ask, how do you get an iPhone to work in Montana? I'm not going to go into the details here, if anyone's really interested I'll give him/her the lowdown offline. But for this posting, I'll just talk in general terms and address some of the pros and cons to going this way.

It is possible to get an unlocked iPhone along with service from a local wireless provider. An unlocked iPhone is going to be used and probably an earlier model. So, if what you really long for is the latest greatest iteration - at this point a 3GS, this will not be an option. And you're going to be paying full price for the older used model you get. There aren't a lot of unlocked iPhones out there. It appears to be a sellers/hackers market. Knowing all this, I have to admit being a bit taken aback that I was getting a 1st gen iPhone. But since we don't have 3G in Montana, it didn't seem a big deal upon reflection. And the 1st gen iPhone actually has better battery life than its successors. Besides it's got the 3.0 software so it can run all my apps.

Those are the first two cons, price and hardware antiquity. Add to that, the additional data surcharge I found out I needed to buy to use the data network. This is going to end up costing me about as much as an AT&T contract would. But with a painfully slow data network. Remember, we don't get 3G speeds in Montana. The final con would have to tech support difficulties. I have to find the manager at my wireless store whenever I have a question or problem. The iPhone is not an officially supported device.

Still, I'm very happy with my purchase. I now have one purse-sized device I can use to take pictures, send and read email, check my calendar, twitter, post facebook updates, listen to Mariners games, watch movies, browse the internet, listen to music and audiobooks. Oh yes, and I can also ignore phone calls coming in on it. I really do hate phones, cellular and otherwise so the phone is probably the least important part of it for me. That's probably a good thing because techies claim that it's really not a very good phone.

For me that's where the iPhone really stands out is with the apps! There's a Kindle app whereby I can read books on my iPhone and it will sync with my Kindle so I can start up on one where I left off on the other. It's a bit quirky in practice but the potential is certainly there. I've got Epicurious with which I can look up recipes and compile a grocery list in the store. AroundMe lets me find drugstores, gas stations, restaurants, etc. in my vicinity. This probably would have saved me from a recent extended tour of Idaho Falls, looking for a gas station. The big plus of the iPhone being so popular is that there are big incentives to create apps for it. And it works like a dream with my Mac. The first time I plugged it in, it automatically synced with my iPod Touch - email accounts, calendars, everything. I can't tell you how long I struggled with the Nokia trying to set up a couple of email accounts.

Weighing the pros and cons, I'd have to say that in Montana, the cons seem to definitely outweigh the pros - particularly the high cost and lack of a high-speed cellular network. So, unless you're pathologically geeky and/or have more dollars than sense (sorry, couldn't resist), you'll probably want to wait a bit on the iPhone (hmm, apparently both of those descriptions could apply to me). I continue to think that the iPod Touch is a pretty good alternative for Montana, especially if the rumors about cameras in future models comes to pass. It runs just about all the iPhone apps as well as music and video. All you need to do is get on a free wi-fi network and you can do just about everything you can with an iPhone for no monthly fee.

One complication for Montanans who've been hoping that Verizon may offer iPhones at some point in the future are the competing standards. The iPhone is set up to run on GSM networks such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Cellular One and others. Verizon uses CDMA. I don't pretend to understand the difference between the two standards, but apparently, for the iPhone to work on a CDMA network, it would need an entirely new chip set. Even if Apple decides to drop their exclusive AT&T agreement, they're probably not going to build an entirely new iPhone with a Verizon-compatible chip set.

Would I trade in my iPhone? At the moment no, but ask again after a few months of wireless bills. We'll see if the always connected promise is worth the cost.

windows 7 pre-order offer

2009-07-10T12:05:00.003-06:00

Today and tomorrow - July 10 and 11 are your last days to pre-order Windows 7 at Microsoft's special price of $49 for Home Premium Upgrade and $99 for Professional Upgrade. You order today or tomorrow but don't pay until the operating system is shipped on October 22.

Microsoft Windows 7 pre-order

You can find even better prices from some of the participating retailers like Costco.

Microsoft is also offering free upgrades to Windows 7 from Windows Vista for any new PC you buy from now until October.

Windows 7 Upgrade

You'll probably still be able to get cheaper licenses from Tech Soup for your library computers after Windows 7 is shipped. But this is a good opportunity to upgrade your home computers. I bought a copy for my Acer netbook.

The system requirements are not as high as for Windows Vista. It reportedly runs great on netbooks. But you still might want to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure your PC will be able to run the new OS.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

And if you prefer to try before you buy, Microsoft is offering Windows 7 Release Candidate free for download until the end of July 2009. You can use it until June 2010 before it expires and you have to buy a copy.

Windows 7 Release Candidate

I've heard that the Release Candidate is very stable but you're generally advised not to try on your only PC and/or on any computer that is absolutely vital to your operations. And for library use, it's a pretty good idea to wait a bit on new software and operating systems and let someone else work the bugs out for you.

Public PC Restrictions - Part Two

2009-06-23T00:50:00.002-06:00

So this is really part 2 of what I had described in an earlier blog. You should read the first part or this won’t really make much sense. It's called "Public PC Restrictions without Steady State".

OK, well there is one thing you do NOT do, and that is to enable the restriction called "Prevent access to Microsoft Management Console utilities". Remember that the Administrator account is what you use to make changes to your policies with the Group Policy Editor. The Exec account can’t make those changes because it does not have read access to the “User” folder that has the policy. The Group Policy Editor is one of the Microsoft Management Console utilities, so if you enable that restriction, you can no longer change your restrictions. This would be an unfortunate series of events indeed.

I list the policies I have used on a set of PCs running XP in a Workgroup and that have Deep Freeze installed on them. This list is just what I am using and in no way means it is just right for you. But you might usefully use this as a good starting point. I consider these restrictions to be mild to medium. Good luck and please let me know if you found this useful or not. Thanks.
This is the list of enabled policies.

General Settings
Set Internet Homepage (to whatever)
Prevent Access to Drives from My Computer - Restrict C drive only

Start Menu Restrictions
Allow only the Classic Start menu
Remove the Control Panel, Printer and Network Settings from the Classic Start menu
Remove the My Documents icon
Remove the My Recent Documents icon
Remove the My Pictures icon
Remove the My Music icon
Remove the My Network Places icon
Remove the Control Panel icon
Remove the Set Program Access and Defaults icon
Remove the Network Connections (Connect To) icon
Remove the Printers and Faxes icon
Remove the Run icon
Remove the Frequently Used Programs list

General Windows Restrictions (In this section DO !NOT! prevent access to the MMC)
Prevent right-click in Windows Explorer
Prevent Autoplay on CD, DVD, and USB drives
Prevent users from saving files to the desktop
Prevent access to Windows Explorer features: Folder Options, Customize Toolbar, and the notification Area
Prevent access to the command prompt
Prevent access to the registry editor
Prevent access to Task Manager
Prevent users from adding or removing printers
Prevent users from locking the computer
Prevent password changes (also requires the Control Panel icon to be removed)

Internet Explorer restrictions
Disable Autocomplete
Empty the Temporary Internet Files folder when Internet Explorer is closed
Prevent access to some Internet Explorer menu choices
Security Tab
Programs Tab
Privacy Tab
Advanced Tab
Connections Tab

Microsoft Office restrictions
Disable Add-Ins (both check boxes)

Additional Start Menu Restrictions
Prevent programs in the All Users folder from appearing

Additional General Windows Restrictions
Remove the Shared documents folder from My Computer

Additional Internet Explorer Restrictions
None

Conficker April First Non-Event

2009-04-01T06:40:00.003-06:00

It's only early morning here in Montana on Apriil First 2009 but parts of the world have already moved on to April 2 and the Conficker worm has not shown a dramatic turn for the more destructive. No news is good news on this front.

If you would like to find out more about the Conficker worm, have a look at
www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx. If you need tools or information to help you rid yourself of this scourge, have a look at www.dshield.org/conficker.

Remember it can also spread by using a memory stick. Those of you that use a memory stick that is occassionally plugged into a PC in a school network should be particularly careful. I only mention schools because they are often filled with uninhibited surfers, but so are many other places as well. Public libraries come to mind.

Enjoy your April 1st. May all your jokes be clever and all your victims be of good humor.

Public PC Restrictions Without SteadyState

2009-03-30T15:25:00.002-06:00

I have come to dislike Windows SteadyState. The version I was running on some XP boxes was not compatible with Windows Service Pack 3 for Windows XP and the only way to remove SteadyState was to format the hard drive and reinstall. But I still need to apply restrictions on public stations that are part of a Workgroup instead of a Domain. A Domain enables you to use the powerful Group Policy environment. I love it. But there are places I cannot put a server, so what to do? Do this. It’s a somewhat complicated process, so you should be pretty familiar with Windows XP to set this up.

This is on a new install of a fully updated post-SP3 Windows XP Professional box. I have a public user named “pub”. I have a workstation management user called “exec”. And I also use the built-in Administrator account. Both “exec” and “administrator” are members of the Administrator’s Local Group. The user “pub” is a member of the Users Group. As you’ll see, we need all three accounts.

There are a number of Group Policy settings included with the XP Pro install. To these we need to add the restrictions found in Windows SteadyState. All SteadyState restrictions are on the User side, not the Computer side. You’ll soon see what that means. Keep in mind that what we are doing with this step is making these restrictions available for configuration. We are not here turning them on or off.

First, we need to get the Administrative Template included with Windows SteadyState. The most obvious technique is to install SteadyState on a box and grab the file. The file you are looking for is c:\program Files\Windows Sdeadystate\ADM\SCTsettings.adm. A much cleaner solution is to extract the file “SCTsettings.adm” right from the Steadystate msi installation file. Search on “msiexec” to find how to use a tool to avoid having to install to get the file.

Next we want to put this file where it belongs. On the PC we are going to lock down, put SCTsettings.adm in the c:\windows\system32\grouppolicy\adm folder. Open the admfiles.ini file for editing. Add a line for the SCTsettings.adm file ending in 1 like the other lines.

Reboot. Logon as Administrator. Run gpedit.msc at the Run line. In the left pane, note that there is a folder following the path “User Configuration – Administrative templates – All Windows SteadyState Restrictions”. In this folder are all the same restrictions you find in Windows SteadyState and you don’t have to worry about pulling all your hair out dealing with a SteadyState problem sometime down the road.

But we’re not finished yet. How are we going to apply these restrictions to only one specific user on this PC? Not being the brightest crayon in the box, I didn’t know. So I googled it. To solve that problem, I will simply point you to www.theeldergeek.com/gp07.htm. He solves it using permissions. I have made one change from his description. I modify permissions on the “User” folder in the “GroupPolicy” folder rather than the “GroupPolicy” folder itself. All SteadyState restrictions are User restrictions, so as long as you are making only SteadyState restrictions, you only need deny access to the “User” folder.

There is one last clue. If you don’t find the Security tab where you expect it, as per the elder geek’s instructions, turn off “Simple File Sharing”. Open Windows Explorer, go to Tools – Folder Options – View, scroll to the bottom of the list and you’ll see the checkbox.

Now here is how my procedure works. I set “pub” to logon automatically. The restrictions are applied and the user is restricted. When I want to change a restriction, I logon as “Administrator” and make changes using gpedit.msc. If the administrator is blocked from accessing that tool, then the only option is to use the technique described at the end of the elder geek’s description. For all administration that doesn’t involve changing these restrictions, I use the “exec” logon.

OK, so that is how you would apply and manage restrictions on a public workgroup XP station. What restrictions should you apply? I’ll talk about that in the next blog.

keeping track of social networks

2009-01-13T10:57:00.004-07:00

Do you belong to several social networking sites?

Twitter
Flickr
Facebook
Delicious
Google Reader
Others

If so, you probably have friends on a number of these sites as well. So, how do you keep track of all of this activity without making yourself crazy (okay, crazier, in my case)?

One solution is FriendFeed. Here's a FriendFeed widget with my recent activity:

You can subscribe to FriendFeed and add your friends. Of course, there's another step that can take some time. Facebook also has a FriendFeed application you can add. It will automatically add your Facebook friends to your FriendFeed as they sign up without your having to go through another step.

I find FriendFeed particularly useful professionally in regard to seeing what web sites my library colleagues are bookmarking in Delicious. And that's really what social networking is about - learning from your peers.

Video - Can you say it in 12 seconds?

2009-01-06T13:52:00.002-07:00

There are some tools out there that make videocasting really easy. All you need is 12 seconds of your time, a webcam, microphone and a willing or perhaps not so willing co-star:

sreymer on 12seconds.tv

So you want to be a podcaster?

2008-12-31T09:20:00.016-07:00

One of the questions that inevitably comes out of Web 2.0 workshops is how can I produce my own podcasts?

I have to admit my initial response is a rather skeptical, REALLY?

Why am I so skeptical? Let's look at what a podcast really is. Let's look at the definition from Wikipedia:

"A podcast is a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. Though the same content may also be made available by direct download or streaming, a podcast is distinguished from other digital-media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added. Like the term broadcast, podcast can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

"The term is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast", the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting). Such scripts allow podcasts to be automatically transferred from a personal computer to a mobile device after they are downloaded. As more devices other than iPods became able to synchronize with podcast feeds, the term was redefined by some parties as a backronym for "Personal On Demand broadCASTING"."

Okay, so when I hear a librarian say s/he wants to do a podcast, I interpret it to mean that s/he wants to offer an on-going audio/video program for syndication over the internet. Frequently, that's not what s/he means at all, instead s/he is using podcast to cover any audio or video program. Perhaps s/he just wants to take a video of the end of summer reading. If that's what you mean, there will be another blog post just for you. And the good news is that producing an occasional audio/video program is SO much easier than producing a podcast.

I think the first task of anyone starting a new project is to see what others are doing so you can get a good idea of what works and what doesn't. So, if you haven't done so already, by all means download iTunes, Juice, Ziepod or one of the numerous other podcast aggregators out there. Then subscribe to some library-related podcasts. Unfortunately, many seem to have been brief experiments and are no longer being updated. The only current ones in my iTunes library are podcasts of author/speaker events at some of the larger public libraries: Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles. But do look around and see what you find. I also recommend an archived presentation from the SirsiDynix Institute: A Beginner's Guide to Podcasting: Part 2 - A Creator's Guide. It's over 2 years old already but provides a good overview.

So what do you need to be a podcaster?

1) Passion. This can be a lot of work and thus tough to maintain over the long run. So pick a topic area you really feel passionate about. This advice comes from some of the big name podcasters who've been doing it for years.

2) Set some reasonable timetables and goals. IMO, a real podcast should have new programs at least once a month. You want to reward your subscribers with a regular product. So, let's say you decide to create a podcast highlighting your library's programs for the upcoming month. That means next month's program needs to be available for download by the end of the current month. In the meantime, you need to decide how long the finished product will be - say 1/2 hour; who you'll need to interview - story time readers - what are their themes, potential books?; other children's/teens'/adult program leaders. Next come up with some scripts so you'll know what to ask them. The key is to keep it brief but to come up with something interesting and compelling to bring people into the library for the programs you're promoting. Set aside some time for editing. Chances are not all the interview content will be what you want so you'll want to cut extra, off topic stuff and perhaps hems and haws, coughs, sneezes, dog barking and other extraneous noises. Then you add information about the program to your feed and upload it to your server.

3) Equipment

There are some hardware/software needs.

The easiest way to take care of a lot of your equipment software needs for creating audio and video content is to get a Mac. They all come with built in web cams and microphones and with audio and video editing software. While the quality is not professional grade, it would suffice for most beginners. And the learning curve is not steep.

Microphones/speakers - many Windows laptops also come with built in microphones and speakers. But while the speakers on newer laptops are tolerable, I've never been able to get the built in microphones to work to my satisfaction. There are a number of reasonably priced headsets on the market which will take care of both headphones and microphones. MSL bought headsets from Plantronics. They work pretty well but you do get some popping noises when you speak. I was looking for a portable microphone/recording unit to use to record family oral histories. I recently bought a Zoom H2 from Amazon. It's small and very portable but the instruction manual is so daunting that I have yet to really try it out.
There's a lot of audio editing software out there. The most commonly recommended free option is Audacity. It's open source with all the positive and negative connotations therein. I've used it a couple of times with no significant loss of hair from pulling it out in frustration. But I can't say I feel like I know how to use it. And of course, there are a number of software products you can buy from fairly reasonable to very expensive. And, do keep in mind that audio editing and video editing in particular require a fast processor.
Feed creator software - you can create your own XML feeds but it's much easier to buy software to do it for you. That way you just fill in the blanks. I've never gone so far to create any podcasts myself so I haven't used any of the feed creators enough to recommend one. But some of those referred to the most are FeedForAll and JitBit.
Web space and bandwidth - this is potentially the most costly on-going expense. Audio and video files in particular are much larger than the average library web page. So they require more web space for storage. An NPR technology highlights program which runs 25 minutes is 11.5 MB. If you have 100 MB of web space available, you won't be able to keep more than 8 programs - not a big deal if this is a monthly event update but something to consider if you're recording local oral histories. And most service providers will charge you extra for what they consider excessive bandwidth usage. If your podcast has 10 subscribers who each download your program once a month, that's 115 MB of bandwidth used. You may need to buy additional space and bandwidth. So, you'll definitely want to ask questions of your service providers as to what's available and what are the costs. Also, when you're deciding whether or not to create podcasts, you may want to take into consideration the bandwidth available to your most likely subscribers. Even a relatively small program of 11.5 MB takes hours to download on a dial-up connection.

For video podcasts add:

a video camera
video editing software
a fairly new computer with fast processor
a web server with even more space and greater available bandwidth for downloads

You'll also need to make some decisions about video format. While audio podcasts generally use a standard .MP3 format, there are more choices available for video including high definintion. The potential expense for a video podcast is much higher than for audio. If you are contemplating creating video content, I suggest you look at some other alternatives, including YouTube. We can come back to video podcasts and talk about them in greater detail at some time in the future if there's an interest.

Two more points for consideration are copyright and privacy issues. One of the possible uses I've heard mentioned frequently for podcasts is recording story time. You can work out for yourselves whether or not you think it would have an appeal in an audio format but regardless of whether you use audio or video, keep in mind that most of your story time books are under copyright restrictions. Making the text available over the internet in an audio format and/or showing the illustrations in a video format would most certainly be viewed as copyright violations without the permission of the author/publisher. Regarding privacy, I'd be very cautious about including people, especially minors, in any internet video in particular without consent.

My final suggestion is to share the load. Put together a podcast team from among staff, board members, friends, etc. I think that will make it more likely that this will be an on-going library project than if one or a few overworked individuals try to add it to existing workloads. Small libraries may want to join together with others in their area/federation to create joint podcasts. You can share equipment, expenses and expertise.

Security Tip - F-Prot Antivirus

2008-12-22T07:24:00.004-07:00

Hi. Long time no see. I just wanted to fill you in on a good product. F-prot Antivirus (http://www.f-prot.com/) is a very good and simple antivirus product I have been using for a few months now. I used to use it back in the early-mid 90s (ancient computer history) and I have recently run across it again. I'm glad I did. It is $5 per PC per year. It that price, I am able to run antivirus on all my public stations now.

I get the corporate edition which provides 10 licenses for $50. There are two installation options. First, you can install a version that will check the Internet to upgrade signature files. Or you can install a version that will check a local shared drive for the signature file. There are a set of fairly easy instructions to setup the shared folder and keep it populated with the current signature file.

I installed the Internet checking version on a server, created a shared folder on that server, arranged for F-prot to put the signature file in that folder, and then all the other stations have the "LAN update" version on them and they check that shared folder to upgrade their signature file.

The reason you would want to do this is so that you don't have every station downloading from the F-prot Internet site when an upgraded signature file becomes available. You would just have one station downloading the file and then sharing it with all its associates on the LAN. This makes for a more efficient use of your WAN connection.

I hope you're all staying nice and warm these days. I'll be back in touch next year.

Security Tip - Windows PE

2008-10-31T09:17:00.003-06:00

Good job on the new look for your blog, Suzanne.

A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law brought me her PC that would no longer boot. These things get dumped on me from time to time with a request to recover all their documents, make it work, and tune it up so that it runs faster than it ever ran before. My sister-in law is a sweetheart, so I figured I would have a go at it.

I started by trying a variety of the boot options provided through the F8 boot menu. Mostly the boots just ended at the same blank screen, but one presented the BSOD, otherwise known as the Blue Screen of Death. The BSOD is an error screen that happens so frequently on MS operating systems that it has its own acronym. The error message on my sister-in-law’s machine suggested some sort of video problem.

So I’m figuring the PC is dead, I’m going to have to do a fresh install of Windows XP and maybe replace the video card, but I want to save whatever I can from the disk so she can get her documents back. So I pull out the Windows PE disk.

The windows PE disk is something I have just started using, but I can already see that it will be a common tool for a variety of tasks managing a Microsoft environment. Have a look at www.windowspe.com or just search “Windows PE” to find out more. It’s an operating system on a CD. You put it in your CD drive, you boot it, and you have a MS environment to work in. It’s just a command line, but there is a lot you can do with this. Here is what I did with this troublesome PC.

I intended just to copy the entire contents of the hard drive to an external drive. I booted Windows PE to the command prompt, plugged in the external drive, and copied the entire hard drive successfully to a folder on the external drive. I was then free to do a fresh install on the PC’s hard drive because I had captured all my sister-in-law’s documents.

But my sister-in-law has kids, and there is a general principle known to people who manage PCs that PCs don’t work for very long in households with kids in them. So I plugged the external drive into my own PC and ran a virus and spyware scan on the folder of files copied from the offending PC. I found a couple dozen hits. I then went back to my sister-in-law’s PC and, using Windows PE, manually deleted all the couple dozen files that my scanner had identified as malware on the external drive. When I booted her PC off the hard drive again, after deleting those couple dozen files, the PC booted just fine. I then updated her virus scanner, installed and ran the Spybot spyware scanner, and presto she has her PC back.

I have been doing some other things with the Windows PE disk as well. Most interesting is that the Windows PE disk has enabled me to stop using Ghost to image and deploy PCs. More on that later.

Why Twitter?

2008-10-28T13:22:00.003-06:00

A couple of questions keep coming up during Web 2.0 sessions when I talk about Twitter:

How is this different from email and email lists?
How is this different from RSS feeds?

Email vs. Twitter

The first difference from email is that you're limited to 140 characters in a twitter posting. So, you'd better be able to make it brief. Even URLs are routinely shortened. The good thing is you don't have to wade through pages of prose to try to figure out if this is something you need to know. Some people attempt to get around this limitation by sending out tweet after tweet. But I think the preferred procedure if you want to wax eloquent is to do it in a blog post and just send a link via Twitter.

Another difference is that Twitter posts are ephemeral. They're usually gone after 48 hours. They don't clutter up your inbox. Of course the downside is that if there's something you're interested in pursuing further, you'd better bookmark it or else you're going to have a hard time tracking it down later. But I was able to track down by a graphic I'd liked but neglected to save by contacting the person who'd sent it out. Within an hour, I had it.

Finally, email contacts tend to be fairly limited. Even if you subscribe to wired-mt, there are a lot of people on the list you never hear from. And while there are ways to check, most of the time you don't even know who's out there reading the emails you send to a list. With Twitter you know who's following you and getting your tweets. You decide who to follow based on your interests. In many cases, whoever you follow will also choose to follow you. And vice versa. So you can end up with people on your Twitter network that you didn't know at all before you started following and being followed. You can make some useful contacts. And, once again, using the principles of social networking, you can make a lot more useful contacts by seeing who others in your network are following and following them too.

RSS vs. Twitter

I think the biggest difference between RSS and Twitter is that RSS is really just one way communication while Twitter can be more two-way. And those who really use it effectively set it up as a two-way communication tool.

Say you're in a library looking for new ways to promote your new acquisitions and/or activities. You have an RSS feed from your catalog of new acquisitions. You can use a tool like TwitterFeed to take the RSS feeds and make them into Twitter posts. You can do the same thing with RSS feeds from your library's blog. If nothing else, this can be a fairly easy way to reach additional potential library users. And you probably will get some followers especially if you promote your Twitter page. You can also set up two way communication by following your followers. If these are library users, you can find out about their interests. You can also get feedback to your RSS enabled posts or to any questions you may direct toward them.

Let me give a recent example of what I think is the great potential of Twitter. When I initially signed on, I started following a number of libraries to see how they were using Twitter. Some had accounts but weren't using it at all. Others tweeted about an occasional event at the library. I found one library would send out 20 or more tweets in a day each referring to a new book or DVD. I thought this was overkill and used this library as an example of how you might not want to use Twitter in a couple of recent Web 2.0 sessions. But I felt bad about using them as a negative example without telling them so. This library wasn't following me, nor could I find an email address on their website. So, I used Twitter. I was soon contacted by their branch manager. I learned how they were attempting to use Twitter. He was interested in the feedback. And I've made a new contact who's experimenting with a lot of interesting social networking applications in his library in Arizona. Might we have connected sometime without Twitter? Possibly, but this was definitely faster.

It really is all about making connections. And Twitter seems to be one of the more useful tools for doing that at this moment in time.

using delicious links in your web page

2008-10-21T09:51:00.005-06:00

Do you have a Delicious account with all kinds of great links that you'd like to share with others via your website or blog?

Delicious provides several tools on their website to make this easy to do.

Click on Help in the upper right hand corner
Click on Bookmarking buttons and add-ons for your browser or website? under Need Tools?
Select the tool you want and copy and paste the html code into your web page/blog editor. You'll need to use the Edit Html section.
Warning - these rely on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to make them look pretty and aligned. What you have set in your blog or web page will probably override the CSS from Delicious. This can make it look really goofy. That's one of the reasons I changed the template for this blog.

Following are examples of Linkrolls and Tagrolls and how they'll look integrated into a blog.

Linkrolls will provide access to some of your recent bookmark additions:

Tagrolls put your tags into a tag cloud. The larger tags are used more frequently:

You can play around with some of the settings to customize for your website.

Do You Trust Your Tech?

2008-10-08T11:40:00.004-06:00

I ran across an interesting article last month. A survey was recently conducted in which IT workers were asked whether they use "their IT privileges to gain access to employees' confidential data". One in three admitted to doing so. Have a look at
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/99515/do-you-snoop.html for a little more detail. If a third of them are admitting to it you would think the number actually doing it would be somewhat higher.

It is hard to provide a tech solution for privacy from your system administrator. It can be done but it is a lot easier and cheaper just to trust your tech. It is what we do at my employer and my clients. All these places do have personnel records, for example, and I should not have access to them, but I do. I don't even need to be in the building to see any of it, as long as it is an electronic file.

But look at it from the tech's side. If for some reason the trust fades, then the tech is automatically a suspect simply because he has had access to the confidential information. So it is not a very good situation for the tech either. I don't anticipate providing any good solution to this though anytime soon.

Sorry there is not much of a tip here but I thought you would enjoy hearing about the high moral standards of the average tech these days. Truth be told, I suspect this would be accurate for the population at large, if they had similar access to your information.

Note to my own employer and clients: My lips are sealed.

Security Tip - Renaming Tools

2008-09-18T13:52:00.002-06:00

Some malware is smart enough to recognize its enemies. I ran across one of these this week cleaning up an infected PC. The PC had a recent version of the Spybot anti-spyware tool (www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) on it so I started that up to run a scan. Nothing happened. I tried again but still nothing.

So then I downloaded Autoruns from Sysinternals (technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx). I started that up and again nothing happened. So what can you do when you can't even open your tools to try to get rid of some malware?

In this case, I renamed my tool and ran it under the new name and it worked. The executable at the core of the Spybot version I was using is a file called "spybotSD.exe". I renamed it to some arbitrarily chosen name. I called it "bobo.exe". Then when I double-clicked on that file I just renamed, it opened the Spybot program. I ran my scan. It found the malware and removed it.

So if it seems like one of your scanning tools isn't working, this is one thing to try. Be careful out there.

World Community Grid

2008-09-08T12:58:00.003-06:00

The World Community Grid (www.worldcommunitygrid.org/) uses your computer to help solve problems we are all interested in solving, for example cancer and AIDS. Have a look at their site to find out more about the problems they work on, or go to YouTube and search on "World Community Grid". The idea is simple. They mean to use the leftover processing power of your PC to cure cancer.

I first heard about it a couple months ago and I have been running this software on some of my public stations, and my own, as a test. Though I suspect a number of you are already familiar with this application, I thought I would share my experience with and plans for this software.

I have been running this software on a half dozen stations for about the past month. I have noticed no response degredation at any time on any machine because of this software. It certainly does use resources but it is efficient about keeping its use to a minimum and not getting in your way.

One of the installation options is to run it as a service. This is what I use. This means it runs in the background. I use no screensaver or graphics so there is no indication there is anything going on in the background. Whenever the PC is on, this computer is working on one of these problems.

I am installing this on my public stations. I have been using it on OPACs so far. OPACs spend most of the minutes in a day just sitting there waiting for a person to use it. Now they are put in service for the good when someone isn't using them. I am just getting ready to install it on our surfing stations too.

Once this is fully in place we will provide a little promotional packet telling our our patrons what we are doing with these PCs and show them how they could put their home PC to similarly good use as well.

Security Tip - Hosts File Security Filtering

2008-09-02T09:00:00.001-06:00

Here is another option for DNS filtering. As Suzanne described, OpenDNS is a great way to provide content filtering. But here at MPL, we simply won’t do any content filtering at all. On the other hand, as the guy who has to keep all things tech working, I am very interested in filtering access to sites that can do us harm. So I would like to filter not content, but malware.

Let me digress into techspeak for a moment. DNS is all about translating human language to computer language. You want to type blahblah.com but your computer needs to know it is 55.555.55.55. This translation can occur at a variety of places, for example at a DNS server at your ISP or the OpenDNS server. But before your computer checks some other machine, it will check its own records to see if it has the translation stored from a previous visit to the site. You can manipulate these records yourself. So if you know you want to never access the site malware.com, you can lie to your PC and tell it malware.com is found at 127.0.0.1. That IP is a dummy IP address. So when your computer checks its records as it tries to get to malware.com, it gets lied to and it can’t get there. End techspeak section.

But there are thousands of bad sites that you would potentially block for security reasons. Wouldn’t it somewhat time consuming finding those sites and changing all your records? It would. So have somebody else do it for you. That is what they do at www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. The ‘records’ I refer to above are kept in a file called “Hosts” deep in your file system. This site creates a custom Hosts file with thousands of entries. It is up to you to download it and put it in the right place on your PC. I won’t tell you how to do that because there are instructions at the site. You have to be at least a little tech savvy to do it though.

I have automated the process of disseminating the current hosts file to all my PCs by using logon scripts. I still have a couple glitches but I almost have it right. If you are running a server in your environment and you would like the description of how I have automated it, drop me a line at jims@missoula.lib.mt.us and I’ll send you the description when I get it right. Or, if enough of you drop me a line, I’ll just post the description here at Montana Bibliotechies (http://mtbibliotechie.blogspot.com/). Thanks y’all.

Addendum: The IP address 127.0.0.1 is not really a dummy address. It has a definite meaning. It means the present PC, regardless which PC that is. It’s called the “Home” PC. That is why you see those bumper stickers on geek cars that say “There is no place like 127.0.0.1”.

Security Tip - XP Antivirus 2008 - BAD!!

2008-08-26T09:57:00.001-06:00

XP Antivirus 2008 is NOT the latest antivirus tool we should all be using. It is malware. It’s starting to get a fair bit of traction too. If you get infected, you will find extremely annoying fear-mongering popups urging you to purchase the product. Here is a description from an infected user:
"Last week a pop-up appeared that landed on my icon line.... xpantivirus2008. Thinking that it was another security alert from windows, I clicked on it. It proceeded to "scan" my hard drive and inform me that I had 90+ security "issues" that needed to be addressed..... while the scan was underway, a windows msg appeared saying that it did not recognize the program source. I found that odd... but, as a result, did not buy the xpantivirus2008 program. Now, one week later, I am constamtly being asssaulted by never-ending pop-ups, regisdtry scans, bubbles, etc. I followed a suggested uninstall (though I never installed the program) plus all of the usual ateps in detecting and removal of unwanted programs... but, although I removed everything that I was able to find via search commands, and using the process recommended by TomT (using regedit, hkey current user, msconfig, and unchecking "xpa" at the startup file, the program continues to reappear, pop-up every 2 minutes and at every start up.... Although I finally succeeded, attempting to delete xpantivirus.exe would not allow me to delete saying that it was being used by another user or runniong in another program which, obviously, it was not.... Even with all of it apparently gone, it still reappears and performs its maddening process. Even a file search at this point does not detect xpantivirus.... HELP!!!!!"

One of my library clients recently found this on one of their staff PCs. The popup window cannot be moved, minimized, or closed, and you can't see anything behind it of course. Luckily, Spybot 1.52 (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/) found and removed it. More recent versions of Spybot would probably also remove it. Trend Micro antivirus did not find it. This PC had a couple other infections on it as well. That PC was setup a few years ago and we have had no trouble with it until this. What had changed? Not the antivirus on it. Not the applications on it. Not the firewall for the library. The only thing that changed is one user’s lack of restraint. User restraint is one of your best protections.

My spam filter blocked a message that is probably the infecting source. The message is shown below. I have removed all the hyperlinks from the text. The first line is linked to an IP address in Moldova (That’s a country in eastern Europe) with an executable called Install.exe. It looks like this: http://555.555.555.555/install.exe. I have changed the actual numbers in the IP address. That line then is asking you to install software from a site that it will not even identify in English (or any other human language). There are also three links at the bottom: Unsubscribe, More Newsletters, and Privacy. They all link to msn.com which would seem to lend an air of authenticity. This email is a good example of what you should never ever do, should you run across something like this.
_________________________________________________________
Free Update Windows XP,Vista
About this mailing: You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice.©2008 Microsoft Unsubscribe More Newsletters PrivacyMicrosoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
________________________________________________________

Moral: Use spam filters. Use Spybot. Keep it updated. Exercise restraint. Be paranoid about links presented to you in email. Have a nice day.

OpenDNS filtering

2008-08-20T14:15:00.008-06:00

Jim mentioned OpenDNS as a possible fix for the DNS vulnerability.

I've been using OpenDNS for the past several months on my laptop, but not just as an alternate domain name server but to test its filtering capabilities. Yes, OpenDNS also offers free internet filtering. Once you set up an account, you can go into Dashboard - Settings and either go with one of their pre-selected filtering levels or customize your own.I was running a fairly restrictive version for quite a while and only had it block two sites - South Park and blip.tv - both as adult themed sites. The description provided by OpenDNS warns you to only choose Adult Themes if you want to be very restrictive on your network.

One nice feature is that you get a customizable block page that tells you why the site was blocked. You can give patrons information about how to get the site unblocked. This is an important feature for 1st amendment considerations.Yesterday, I thought that as long as I was changing DNS settings for my new ISP, I might as well set my router to OpenDNS and see how the filtering works on a network. I discovered that it filters every device on my wireless network including my iPod Touch. So, how do you turn it off? You go into your dashboard and remove whatever restrictions you choose. It's pretty easy to turn on and off but because the filtering takes place at remote servers, it takes a few minutes to deactivate and reactivate the filtering. In the meantime, your entire network is unfiltered. If you're interested only in complying with CIPA for public library E-Rate purposes, and want to avoid potential problems, I'd suggest being very selective in what you choose to filter, particularly for adult patrons.

We'll be talking about this more at the E-Rate session at Fall Workshop.

Security Tip - Recent DNS Vulnerability

2008-08-16T17:59:00.001-06:00

A new DNS vulnerability was recently discovered and information about it was released to the public last month. You may have heard about it in various tech-related news stories. Google "kaminsky dns vulnerability" for more info. A lot of the coverage and commentary is about how the information was released but that is not what I am interested in here.
DNS is what translates English into IP. When you type www.ups.com, some DNS server somewhere translates that to 96.6.81.243, which is what your computer needs to know to get you the UPS site so you can send a package. If you have ever configured a computer to use the Internet you know that one of the blanks you have to fill in is for the DNS server. You usually get that information from your ISP. It is usually the DNS server your ISP maintains for all of their clients.
It is pretty important that the DNS server you use has been patched to be resistant to this particular flaw. How do you know if the DNS server you use has been patched? That's what I want to tell you today.
Point your browser to www.dnsstuff.com. In the "DNS Vulnerability" box, click on "TEST NOW". Wait for it to process. If all the results come back "good" or "great" then you have an ISP that has taken care of this problem on their DNS server. If your result is less, such as "fair" or "poor", then call your ISP, tell them about your results, and request they patch their DNS server.
If they don't fix it, use a different DNS server. Have a look at opendns.com for more info.

internet speed test ranks montana 49th

2008-08-15T11:04:00.007-06:00

The organization Speed Matters just issued its 2008 report on internet speeds in the US. You can download the entire report, a state ranking table and/or reports on individual states.

Montana's results were as follows for 2008:
Number of tests - 497
Median download speed - 1,320 kbps (1.32 Mbps)
Median upload speed - 378 kbps
Download speed ranking - 49

While this is not exactly a scientific study, individuals go to the website to test their speeds similarly to DSL Reports. It's just that these results are collected. And I think they are interesting nonetheless. But I probably wouldn't give them a whole lot of credence particularly when broken down by county. I couldn't help but notice that Custer county was awfully red - 6 Mbps +. It could have been only one person with high bandwidth testing per zip code. Why not add your library's data to the mix, especially if you're in one of the blank areas. Use this box to test your speed:

I did want to bring greater attention to this report because it supports my assertion in a posting to the E-Rate blog that we really do need to be working on increasing bandwidth for our public libraries. 1.32 Mbps just does not cut it in a video/audio downloading/streaming world!

check your dsl/cable speed

2008-08-07T10:51:00.003-06:00

I ran across the site DSLReports.com a couple of years back. It's handy to go in occasionally and run a free speed test to see what kind of bandwidth you're getting. I recently upgraded my home account to 7 MB and wanted to see if Qwest had made the upgrade yet - today was supposed to the day. So, I ran the Flash test and got the following results:

Apparently, the upgrade has not yet taken place...

linux for library pcs

2008-08-01T10:12:00.005-06:00

In May, I took an old IBM laptop that was destined for surplus and loaded Ubuntu on it to test the usability of Linux OS for library use. This has become the laptop I take with me on road trips. I want to see how it works and I figure it's less desirable for thieves and hackers.

I downloaded a recent stable version of Ubuntu onto my current laptop, burned it onto a CD and loaded it onto the IBM, reformatting the hard drive. This does erase everything you've got on the computer so be sure and backup or move contents before you do this. I have to say that the initial install didn't work. I was given several options, took my best guess and apparently chose the wrong one. So when I tried to boot the new OS, I was met with an error message. Linux doesn't come with instructions. Instead you have user forums. The forum solution for my problem had command line instructions. I chose to reinstall instead, this time making a different choice for how to format the hard drive. The second install was successful. But my initial thoughts were that this may not be for the faint hearted.

Once I've had a chance to work with it, I've discovered some pros and cons.

Pros:

Switching to Linux and open source can potentially extend the life of some old computers. The Ubuntu Operating System came with other open source programs including Open Office. The whole thing was only about 800 MB in size. It doesn't require as much hard drive space, memory or processor power as Windows, particularly Windows Vista.
You can do most common computer tasks easily using open source software:
- Surf the internet with Firefox - wifi connections are easy to set up
- Do office tasks with Open Office - word processing, spreadsheets, presentations
- Listen to music, download podcasts
- Upload and edit photos from your digital camera
- Work on graphics
- Watch YouTube videos
- Open and read PDF files
- Play DVDs and CDs
It's pretty easy to pdate current and download new open source programs. I made this much harder than it had to be until I found out where to go within the system to find more program options.
It's pretty secure. Most spyware and viruses are designed to go after Windows systems. Firefox vulnerabilities have been exploited so open source is certainly not invulnerable. But they seem to come up with fixes fairly quickly.

In short,my Ubuntu has performed admirably. Right off the bat, it got called into service at the May Montana Shared Catalog meeting when Sarah's Dell couldn't get onto the hotel's wi-fi connection. My Ubuntu laptop located and got onto the hotel's wi-fi easily. It also displayed web pages, word.docs and excel files (with one exception that will show up in the cons) from the internet, and ran PowerPoint presentations off a USB drive. Few knew they weren't looking at a Windows computer.

Cons:

If there are specific programs you have to have on your computer because of patron demand, you want to make sure these programs have Linux versions. Some don't - iTunes and Windows Media Player are good examples. There are open source music players and podcatchers but if patrons use library computers to purchase and download music or video from iTunes or stores that use WMA copy protection, they probably won't be able to access these via open source programs. I haven't spent a lot of time researching this, but I don't think you could use a Linux computer as an OverDrive download station for the above reasons.
It doesn't work well with all Microsoft "features." During the MSC demos, the open office spreadsheet program would not open an excel spreadsheet using macros. This isn't a bad thing for security sake, but if you're doing very sophisticated spreadsheet or database work, you'll probably want to stick with the software you're currently using. Neither could Open Office cope with a PowerPoint 2007 presentation at a Parmly program I attended. A Windows computer running PowerPoint 2003 can't open a 2007 file either, but it will give you an option to download a viewer. Open Office can't do anything with them. But being open source, someone might be working on or have even come up with a fix for this problem already.
If there's something that's a bit buggy or you really don't like, you're pretty much stuck with it until someone in the community decides to fix it. That is, if you're a regular library user. If you have programming skills, you can get into the open source code and make changes yourself. But if coding's not your strong point, you may feel frustrated if you don't like a current version. And you don't really know when new versions are coming out unless you read the updates.
Most open source software does not come with tutorials or much help. If you have users who are already comfortable using browsers or office software, they can probably figure out the open source versions fairly easily. But if you're getting started with graphics design, moving right into Gimp can be a bit daunting. Not that PhotoShop isn't daunting as well, but there is a lot more help available to learn the program.

It's still a Windows world so I think that most libraries will want to have at least a few Windows PCs available. It's what people expect. But putting Linux on some of your older PCs may be a good way to help keep those computers usable and help meet demand for a bit longer. Open source is getting more user friendly all the time. I think that most library staff with a good computer comfort level could use and update it pretty easily. There are also vendors like Userful that will take care of it all for you for a fee. My advice is to give it a try. What have you got to lose? Besides your sanity and for me, that's probably pretty much gone already.

I'd love to hear what others have to say about open source in their libraries.

gadget du jour

2008-07-28T11:14:00.002-06:00

While this is technically an MP3 player, I think it deserves a post of its own. I've had my iPod Touch since October of last year but I've recently become enraptured by it. The big difference is the 2.0 update. I got a little whiny initially about having to update iTunes and pay for another update but this one is so worth it. The Touch now has a number of new apps available for it that really add to its usefulness in a wi-fi environment. A few of the ones I've added are: Twitterrific, Facebook, NYTimes and Pandora Radio. I found it pretty easy to get into Twitterrific in hotels and libraries and send off quick updates. Very cool!

Another feature I'm trying out is Apple's new MobileMe. This purports to allow you to sync email, calendars and bookmarks between PCs, Macs and iPod Touches and iPhones. I just set it up yesterday so I can't really offer a solid review at this point. I've noticed two things right away - one positive and one negative. The positive is that I've been able to set up a number of email accounts on my Touch. So, it will be much easier to check email when I'm traveling. I just click on Mail, choose the account and my messages are right there. And I can type quick replies. But the touch keyboard continues to make me a bit crazy. It will also open up Word docs for viewing.

The negative is that when I first synced my Touch, it erased everything on my calendar. But I'll have to play around a bit more to see if it comes back when Outlook starts syncing with iCal. When did life become so complicated that I've had 3 calendars now 4 to worry about keeping in sync? But if this works, I love the idea of being able to keep web calendars and calendars and contacts on various devices in sync.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not this works. MobileMe does have an annual fee. I get 60 days free as a new iMac owner. Hopefully, by then I'll be able to figure out if it's worth continuing.

And, I was please to see iPods now listed as being compatible with OverDrive at least for MP3 formatted books.

mp3 players revisited

2008-07-28T10:39:00.004-06:00

As we get closer to implementation of the downloadable audio content project, I expect there will be more questions about what MP3 players to recommend. As I've covered some of the issues to be considered in previous presentations and blog postings, I have no intention of going over all that again. Instead I'll provide some updates and links to already available information:

MLA 2008 MP3 player presentation - PDF
MP3 players for downloadable audiobooks - blog posting from May 2007

The above links are just my advice and you can feel free to take it or leave it. I hesitate to see libraries invest heavily in just one type of MP3 player, especially before library staff have had a chance to test them out. I'd suggest purchasing a couple of different players. Try them out and/or have patrons try them out and see which ones you like best before committing to just one brand and model.

That said, if I had to choose one make and model to recommend for patron purchase, it would probably be the Creative Zen V (or Zen V Plus). They're essentially the same except for more features in the Plus model. Do note that this is a different model from other Creative Zen players. What sets this one apart in my opinion is bookmarking capabilities. These are available from many different sources. One source I'd look at, particularly for library test models is the Creative labs savings center for refurbished players. You can get a refurbished Zen V 1GB player for $29.99 as of 7/28/08. So, try a couple of different models. Just make sure they're on Overdrive's list of compatible devices.

A relatively new player that I think is worth a look is the the SanDisk Sansa Clip. It's comparable in size to the Creative Zen Stone but gets better reviews. I picked one up from Costco not too long ago and have been pleased with it's features. It does hold the place in an audiobook when you turn it off.

And I do have a couple of the cheaper replaceable battery-powered models available if you'd like to try them out for yourself. Just let me know and I can drop one in the mail.

Hacking Service Economy

2008-07-14T12:31:00.002-06:00

I’m currently enrolled in a distance learning Windows security class. There is a lot of useful information about how to manage and protect Windows systems. But they also throw in some interesting descriptions of the current state of the environment we need to protect ourselves against.

In just the past year the hacking service economy has been made available and is quite popular. The Russian mafia seems to be very entrepreneurial in this area. Let’s say your ex-spouse runs a website and you’re thinking its payback time. You contact the right person electronically and arrange to rent a botnet. You pay via Paypal. You get access to 4000 PCs that will do your bidding. You are given access to a website that gives you a control panel to manage these 4000 PCs. You make your selections that will cause these 4000 PCs to swamp your ex-spouse’s website with garbage information, which basically shuts it down. Your ex loses their job, and life is good.

This new kind of service is so popular that it is sure to be offered by other “vendors”. Have a look at this site from Harvard Business Publishing (conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2008/02/the_cybercrime_service_economy.html).

This is what is happening on the other side when your PC gets infected. You may become one of those 4000 PCs in that botnet. So keep your Windows updates current, run antivirus and antispyware, be very suspicious about clicking on unknown links and unsolicited email. As usual this note can also be found at the Montana Bibliotechies Blog (mtbibliotechie.blogspot.com).
Thanks.

Web-based screen reader for vision-impaired users.

2008-06-27T16:58:00.002-06:00

For those of you interested in making provisions for patrons with vision problems, this is really slick. The University of Washington has developed a web-based screen reading program that works from any internet connected computer, without needing to install any software or obtain permissions. And it’s free, which is just the right price for all of us. It's worth promoting to patrons who need this type of assistance. It's in alpha release, so it will undoubtedly be tweaked, but it's worth testing.

Find out more and see a video demo at: http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=42563

Are You A Spammer?

2008-06-12T16:01:00.003-06:00

A number of folks had indicated they would appreciate a tip or two to help them determine whether they spam or not. So here I go.

Caveat 1: There is no button you can click that will tell you yes or no about this. What I will describe here will be a series of techniques to help you get clues to answer this question.

Historical preface: During my past 5 years as an MPL employee, I have had to deal with two infections. Both were during the past year. I think this means the bad guys are winning. It could be that I’m just getting more stupid. Folks here suggest as much occasionally.

One infection was only on a single user notebook. The user was looking at their email, knew they should not click on a link presented in an unsolicited email, but they did anyway. A Trojan was downloaded and that user’s notebook became a zombie, which is a PC that does what some remote site tells it to do. It was told to spam. It did and that user’s mailbox was full of “Undeliverable” messages.

The other infection was on my mail server which I have recently described in previous posts. That issue seems to be resolved but it did get worse before it got better.

For both of these issues, the antivirus software initially failed to discern the infection. These were both popular vendors, Symantec on one and Trend Micro on the other. Both were installed so that they were running in the background whenever the PC or server was on. Both had the latest signature files. Both initially failed to catch the infection when a manual scan was run. Do you wonder why you spend so much on antivirus software? I do.

In the first case, I used a nifty product called Autoruns (http://www.sysinternals.com/) to find the offending executable. I then googled the name of the file and found out that, at that point, only one AV company (Pharos) had identified a signature for the Trojan. I then downloaded a trial of their AV software and the Trojan was found and removed.

I have already described what I went through with my mail server but the bottom line is that I probably had the infection for at least a couple weeks before my AV vendor provided a signature file that identified it. So finally a manual scan did turn up an infection.

In both these cases the first symptom was that a users’ mailbox was filling up with garbage. See example below. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to open up the Mexican Wrestling Squirrels message. Alas, it remains a mystery.

Hundreds of these messages would arrive in a short period of time. So it wasn’t hard to think that we had a problem. It was more like a slap in the face.

So technique # 1: If you get a lot of messages with “Undeliverable” in the subject line, you may be a spammer. This will not be hard to discern. It may be hard to clean up the mess though.

#2 Ask your ISP. One of the indicators I had was a friendly call from my ISP saying they had noticed somewhat elevated outgoing traffic on port 25, which means sending a lot of mail out. Your ISP may be so small that they don’t watch things so closely or so large that they don’t care to bother with you.

#3 Check to see if you have gotten yourself on a spammer blocklist. First go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ to see what your outside IP address is. Then go to cbl.abuseat.org and use the IP address lookup to see if you are listed Composite Block List or CBL. Some email vendors filter incoming email traffic based on a block list like this.

#4 Make sure your antivirus program and antispyware programs have the latest signatures and run full scans. When the response comes back clean, still be suspicious.

#5 Run the Autoruns utility mentioned above. This is a great tool but I think a person needs quite a bit of experience at working with Windows under the hood to be able to use it effectively.

That’s all. Excuse my droning. I will make the next post short and possibly sweet.

kindle review

2008-05-22T10:13:00.006-06:00

I've had my Kindle for about a month now. And I had a chance to try out its wireless features during a recent trip to Chicago. So, I feel ready to to post a fairly serious review.

I think it's fine for reading. The contrast is good. It's not backlit so you do need to find a light source. And I have noticed some reflection from the screen.

The size is reasonable - about the same as a quality paperback, smaller and lighter than a hardcover.

The navigation - next page, previous page is adequate. The main next page button is on the right. I get ahead of myself sometimes and hit next page before I'm ready. Then I fumble for a moment to get back to the previous page. It's on the left but so is another smaller previous page button. I find the other higher level navigation somewhat clunky. That might be a result of the fact that I don't read directions. But it seems to take several tries to get to the top level navigation.

It works like a charm with audiobooks from Audible. Unfortunately, it won't work as of yet with Overdrive or Netlibrary. But for Audible purchases, the navigation is good and you can listen via a small speaker or headphones. You can also add your own MP3s. But this is apparently intended as background music. You can play MP3s but I haven't been able to figure out how to select an individual track. It seems you just listen to them one after the other.

I LOVE the wireless features. They're what really makes this device work. So, it's a pity that Amazon chose not to make that available to anyone in Montana or Alaska as well as wide swaths of other rural states. I don't know what browser Kindle uses. It's found under Experimental, if that's any indication. I understand it uses a Linux OS. It works fine for largely text-based sites like news sites. I loved being able to scan the headlines on BBC's site. I was also thrilled to be able to use it to (in theory) locate and map restaurants while on the el in Chicago. I say in theory because while I found the restaurant listing, kindle froze before I could map the location. You'd think a techno-geek like me would know never to put faith in technology, especially new untested technology. I had to reset it. Since I often don't have a paper clip on me at such moments, I had to wait to reset it until I got back to the hotel and could do the always popular earring reset. Not something to attempt on a subway for a lot of reasons. Also, due to the browser quirks and limitations I couldn't get into my IMT or mtlib.org emails, but it worked okay with gmail. It also worked with Twitter, but Twitter's so glitchy, I wouldn't use that as a standard.

It's probably a good thing that I can't use the wireless. If I could I'd probably be buying far too much from Amazon. I bought 4 books in the 2+ days I was in Chicago. And I would certainly be subscribing to at least one daily newspaper. It's ridiculously easy to shop the Amazon kindle store and click buy and have your purchase downloaded to you within minutes. For a biblioholic like me, I could really go bonkers. It works okay with computer downloads but it lacks that immediate gratification. I talked about the rather clunky purchase and loading previously. It's workable but makes me less susceptible to that tendency to buy on impulse. I have a feeling that they still would have made money off me had they to pay for roaming for wireless access.

The built in memory is pretty limited in this day and age of terabyte drives. But it's amazing how many print books/magazines you could carry with the 185 MB. I discovered fairly quickly that was not going to go very far with audiobooks, however. So, I bought a 2 GB memory stick and installed it. That helped.

Without the wireless, I really couldn't recommend this for purchase for anyone but the highly geeky must-have-the-latest-gadget type (like yours truly), and/or for those who travel quite a bit outside of the rural west. And I've been pondering it's potential usefulness for libraries. The $399 price tag means it would hurt if it were loaned out and lost or damaged. But possibly more of a concern would be the easy purchase features in most of the country. So, you check it out to a patron who decides that he wants the entire Stephen King collection and clicks buy to charge it to the library account. I'm sure this instant purchase feature could be turned off, at least I hope it could. But it's certainly not in Amazon's interest to do so.

In short, I do like it. I enjoy being able to carry a bunch of books, magazines, audiobooks and music all in one pretty compact package. It's gotten me to subscribe to several magazines again. I stopped because I couldn't keep up with reading, particularly weeklies. I don't feel so bad when the evidence of my backlog is strictly digital. And it's a great conversation starter. Some of my state E-rate colleagues were very intrigued. It also started a great conversation about YA books with the woman sitting next to me on the Chicago-Denver flight. But I'm going to continue to complain about the lack of wireless availability.

I, Spammer

2008-05-13T16:49:00.004-06:00

OK, so everything I said in my last post (Fight SPAM with reCaptcha) is true. It's just not applicable to my present situation. Here is the latest on my SPAM epic.

We get very little SPAM in our accounts here at MPL. So we really noticed it when it started coming in during the middle of April. Like I said, we have three layers of protection, so I didn't think it was our mail server. I ran some anti-virus and anti-spyware scans on the mail server and some of the affected PCs, which indicated nothing to worry about. It would go away soon.

Well, it hasn't gone away and it's getting old so I felt I needed to look into it a little more. The final kick in the butt for me was when my ISP called last week to say that they are seeing somewhat elevated port 25 traffic coming from our site. That is mail traffic. It was confirmation that we are the problem. We had become a spammer.

Since all our traffic comes out from behind a single public IP address, the ISP could only say it was coming from the library, but not where inside the library. That's my job. Suspecting that someone has infected their PC by doing something inappropriate, I block outgoing email from everything except the mail server. Still SPAM goes out. So I know the problem is with the server itself.

Finally, yesterday I decide to run another virus scan. Bingo! It turns up something called "Troj_Dloader.amt. The scanner removed the trojan and I haven't seen any "undeliverable" messages since. The Anti-virus vendor, Trend Micro, first identified this trojan on May 6. It had a solution to remove it on May 8. I ran a manual scan on the mail server on May 13 which found it.

There are a few interesting points here.

I don't yet know how this server got infected, but I work pretty hard to make my servers resistant to this sort of thing. If I find out, I'll let you know.

My AV program is always running on my server. I would have thought it should have recognized the infection, even though the infection was there first, once it downloaded the signature file that recognized the problem. But it didn't. It didn't catch it until I ran a manual scan.

We have been infected for about a month now. Yet the SPAM volume was never so high as to cause my ISP to shut me down, or the mail server to slow down substantially, or to make humans so annoyed that I had to immediately find and fix the problem to keep them from cutting my throat. The bad guys are now less concerned about making a big splash by rendering unusable thousands of PCs and more about making money. So the parasites are smart enough to keep the host alive and functioning. They are trying to stay under the radar.
That said, I wonder how many of you are spammers too. The trojan I had doesn't necessarily require an existing in-house mail server to work, so you could have just one PC and still be sending someone's SPAM out. How can you tell for sure? That's a good question. For many of us we only find out when the PC doesn't work anymore or the ISP shuts us down.

If you are interested in knowing a few tricks to help determine whether you are a spammer or not, drop me a line saying so and I'll show some ideas in a future post.

Fight SPAM with reCaptcha

2008-04-29T16:44:00.002-06:00

We’re having trouble with SPAM here at the Missoula Public Library. Four times in the past week, on four different accounts, the user gets a lot of SPAM. This will last for hours. Then it stops.

Our accounts generally get a few to a few dozen SPAM emails over the course of a day. But these episodes will bring in hundreds of messages over a period of minutes to hours. So it is a pretty noticeable effect when it happens.

We have three layers of SPAM and virus protection at MPL. You may think that Jim wears suspenders, a belt, and hangs on to his pants as well, and maybe I do sometimes, but layered protection is one of the main tenets of computer security. We have a layer of protection at our ISP, there is a layer at our perimeter (the router), and another at our mail server. Still we see this SPAM.

We are in a period that is seeing a lot of new exploits being tried out. Have a look at http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4343 for an interesting analysis of one’s person’s SPAM.

We’re not actually getting so much SPAM itself as the failed detritus of attempted mailings. We are getting a lot of “Undeliverable” messages. It works like this. This spammer has a list of millions of email addresses. Some of them are valid, some are not. He sends a mortgage refinancing email to all the millions of addresses. He is careful to set the sender address of all these emails to some valid address, because email servers are getting clever enough to verify that the return address must be valid or they won’t accept the email.

So what valid sender email address does he put in the SPAM he sends out. In some of them he is putting our main library contact address. So when the SPAM gets to an email server and the server says there is no such user at that address, the mail server automatically sends out an “undeliverable” message. And that comes back to us here at MPL.

How do they get our email addresses? There are robots that roam websites looking for email addresses and collecting them. Have you looked at our website lately? We have email addresses all over it; contact addresses, staff addresses, board members, etc. That’s only one way these robots collect addresses. They also get them from listservs, signatures, and more.

Contrary to my inclination, we have had addresses on our website for a long time, but now we have a good alternative. Ben Miller is our webmaster and a bright color in the box here at MPL. He is in the process of doing good in the world and protecting our email addresses at the same time. Before you can see one of our email addresses you have to identify a word. The words that are presented are part of a digitization project.

Take a look at recaptcha.net and think about what you can do to protect your addresses and help digitize hard to read texts. See how it is working for us by going to http://www.missoulapubliclibrary.org/contact.htm. Try clicking on “Ben Miller” to see how the process works.

initial thoughts on kindle

2008-04-28T10:12:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I broke down and bought a Kindle. The deciding factors proved to be that they had finally caught up to demand so I could have it in hand within a week of ordering, and I'm starting my spring/summer travels so I would actually be in locales where I could try out the wireless capabilities.

I like the fact that I could pretty much figure out how to use it right out of the box. I'm one of those people who never reads instructions. As one of my tech gurus put it, having to resort to reading instructions amounts to a product design flaw.

Ordering and transferring books and periodicals is a bit clunky without the wireless function. You have to

get on your computer
go to Amazon's internet site
find the item
purchase it
open up the Amazon library
download the item to your computer
open up Windows Explorer
attach your Kindle to your computer via USB port
copy and paste to your Kindle document folder

The location of the document folder turns out to be a key factor. Not having read the instructions, I got as far as copying to the Kindle but couldn't figure out why it couldn't find my book. Instructions and/or Amazon support staff are very helpful.

I also had some problems with a couple of Kindle periodicals I subscribed to. Their status was listed as pending for two days. I contacted Amazon's support staff and they "reactivated" the subscriptions. Once they were active, I could download and transfer using the steps above. While it seems workable for books and monthly, or possibly even weekly periodicals, I don't think I'm going to be subscribing to any newspapers in the near future.

One of the interesting pluses I've discovered is that the Kindle works with Audible.com audiobooks. I already had a couple on my computer so I was able to copy one to my Kindle using Windows media player. One of the downsides of the Kindle is that it only has 185 MB of available memory built in. While this is probably quite adequate for book reading (I was surprised to find that the first book I ordered was only 227K in size), it's going to fill up quickly if you want to listen to audiobooks and/or MP3s on it. But you can add a memory card which will be one of my next purchases. Anyway, I did load one 16 hour audiobook on it, at a Audible 3 quality level. The Kindle has a small speaker and a headphone jack. The audiobook controls on the Kindle are really nice. But then this is a very expensive audiobook reader! Still it's a nice feature. It does not, however, work with Overdrive.

It comes with a dictionary so you can look up words while you're reading. You can also add notes and clip and bookmark sections. There are also a number of wireless features that I have yet to try out, including wireless access to the Kindle store. I suspect that the absence of that feature will save me money in the long run. I also still have to try out converting and transferring other documents.

I'd rate the readability and usability right out of the box as good. I like the fact that you can easily increase or decrease text size. This becomes increasingly important to aging eyes. I brought my Kindle along to Walker's last night and passed it around to a table of friends. They were all fairly tech savvy and picked up how to navigate and use it pretty quickly. It was readable even in jazz night lighting. One appeal is the green aspect of fewer magazines and newspapers in land fills. They were impressed but thought it too pricey at $399. They might be interested at about half that price.

Overall, I'm pleased with the Kindle thus far. I wouldn't recommend it for purchase in Montana until wireless is available in the state. That seems to be what really makes it work. For those of us outside Sprint's wireless network, it's like we're being sold a car without wheels. Yeah, it's all great but it doesn't go anywhere. For the foreseeable future, it will always be slightly broken. Nor do I have any immediate notion of how or whether Kindle will be useful in libraries. IMO, it's too expensive to purchase and check out. And it remains to be seen what this access vs. ownership model of books will mean for libraries. But one could argue that we've already moved in this direction for periodicals. And it is another significant move toward instant electronic availability at a time when Montana libraries are still struggling with how to move large quantities of books across the state. Sometimes it seems like I'm caught living simultaneously in two different eras.

twitter and pownce

2008-04-18T09:34:00.004-06:00

I finally gave in and signed up with Twitter. I have to say up front that I've had some mixed feelings about it. There is something at least slightly creepy about signing up to follow and be followed. I can't help but translate into stalking or being stalked.

But Steve McCann convinced me that I really do need to know about this. So, I'm stalking him.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twitter, you send brief updates periodically via the web, IM or text message. Those updates are posted on your Twitter site and go to those who are following you. In return, you get updates on your site from everyone you're following. If you want to see what it looks like, you can check out my Twitter page. Note the somewhat scary and crazed-looking South Park avatar in the background. This should make any potential for real stalkers think twice.

I'm still not sure about how libraries can make use of this. Certainly you could use it to keep patrons informed about upcoming library events and/or new books. There are also ways for blog updates to show up on Twitter. In the meantime, I'm looking for some good library examples. So, if you know of any, send them my way. And I'm trying to avoid those that give me TOO MUCH INFORMATION. I set up a Twitter account for MT Bibliotechies that will use an RSS feed so Twitter's another way you can keep up with tech postings.

Pownce is another variation. What's different about Pownce is that you can not only share text but also media with your friends. That means you can send photos, videos, music files. I'm not sure what the size limit is for free accounts. But if I'm puzzled as to how to use Twitter in libraries, I'm even more puzzled with Pownce. But the event feature has some potential. I just posted a notice about an upcoming author event at Parmly on my Pownce page.

Don't be surprised if one or both of these apps shows up in a future Library 2.0 class. In the meantime, if you want to try them out and start building a network, feel free to follow me. It really is all about being where your users are.

Latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report

2008-04-15T10:48:00.005-06:00

This is my first post on the Montana BiblioTechies blog. Thanks to all you MBTs for inviting me. I hope to be a good MBTT (Montana BiblioTechie Trainee). My angle is security and my inclination is toward Microsoft products. I run a completely Microsoft shop at MPL, although that is slowly changing with some MAC OS and soon some Linux flavors.

Every six months Symantec publishes a document called the Internet Security Threat Report. The report on the last six months of 2007 has recently been released. The short version, which I have linked to above, is 36 pages of geek-speak.

One of the leading interesting points is that attacks are increasingly going web-based. What does this mean? Haven't we always had to be careful about clicking on urls we get in email?

Yes, you have, and now you need to be even more careful. The document states at one point that "... attackers are particularly targeting sites that are likely to be trusted by end users, such as social networking sites." Attacks against generally trusted sites are getting more clever and so more successful.

What does this mean for the Montana librarian, who doesn't have a CS degree and doesn't stay up to the wee hours learning how to protect themselves? I think it means that you simply pay attention to the basics, and always keep your ear open to getting a little more security savvy.

The basics are Windows updates, anti spyware and anti virus, and good passwords. This is a good start. Keep up with your Windows updates. The latest from Microsoft are released the second Tuesday of every month. You should have your PCs updated by the end of that week.

All the main antivirus vendors are good so which one you use is not as important as that you should be using one or another. I also use Spybot which is a free antispyware product. Run a manual scan every week or two and you might be suprised at what you collect on your PC.

I'll talk about passwords in a later post as I tend to drone on about passwords.

Thanks y'all.

online audio/video poetry

2008-04-04T10:28:00.007-06:00

April is poetry month so I thought I'd put together some of the websites where you can find poets reading their works:

Borders Open Door Poetry - video poetry readings along with print versions of the poems.
UCTV (University of California Television) - UCTV has a series called Lunch Poems. You can watch or listen online or you can subscribe to the podcast and download new programs as soon as they become available.
PBS NewsHour Poetry - watch or listen online, download readings, subscribe to podcasts, read profiles along with additional information for teachers.
YouTube has poetry videos. You should probably exercise some caution if you're directing patrons there as a resource. For example, there are a number of Def Poetry videos where some might find the language offensive. But you'll also find fascinating gems like Billy Collins Animated Poetry:

Poets.org (Academy of American Poets) - information about poets and poems, resources for teachers and librarians for National Poetry month. Listen to poetry readings, sign up to receive a poem a day by email in April. They also have some interesting widgets for Mac users and a Poetcast (podcast) - you can subscribe to.
Writer's Almanac - you may be familiar with Garrison Keillor's program on NPR. It's also available as a podcast.
Poetry Foundation - a lot of information and poems you can listen to as well as several podcasts.
Classic Poetry Aloud - listen to classic poetry online or as podcasts.
Finally, it's worth keeping an eye on some of the events podcasts from major public libraries. I ran across a reading by one of my favorite contemporary Polish poets, Adam Zagajewski, as part of theLos Angeles Public Library ALOUD series.

YouTube - It's not all silly

2008-03-25T10:36:00.007-06:00

I've read a lot of blogs by participants of the Montana Library 2.0 Challenge saying that they didn't find anything worthwhile on YouTube. I can understand that as a first impression. You go in and look at what's popular and find a cat playing a piano, a guy climbing a parking garage, and lots of other at best entertaining but not-quite-educational videos.

Well, there is a lot of quality material as well. Like podcasts, there are a number of organizations that don't get much mainstream media attention finding their way to YouTube as a distribution outlet. So, how do you find the gems? One good way is by making use of social networking connections. If you find a video that you think is worthwhile, look at who produced it. Do they have a channel you can subscribe to to find more quality videos? What else do they subscribe to? Who subscribes to this channel? The logic here is that you'll find similar tastes. You'll find that a number of organizations have channels on YouTube where you can find collections of their videos, subscriptions, etc. By subscribing to a channel, you'll find out whenever new content is posted.

Here are some of the interesting channels I've run across on YouTube:

ForaTV - you're getting just tastes of their content on YouTube. If you want the whole programs, many are available for download or subscription via podcast.
UCTelevision - programs from the University of California. I get a lot of these on satellite television and am pleased to be able to share some of the wonderful lectures with others.
TEDTalksDirector - lectures from the annual TED conference
AtGoogleTalks - not too surprisingly, Google gets a lot of big names coming to talk to their employees - authors, candidates, etc.
LinkTV - another satellite channel with interesting world news reports.
AmericanLibraryAssoc - mostly promotional videos. Here's one promoting National Library Week:

And of course, you can always rely on people you know to help find good stuff. If you want to subscribe to my personal channel and see what I've picked out, including a lot of the channels listed above, go to mtbibliotechie.

adding image links to your blog or website

2008-03-13T11:28:00.005-06:00

Copy and paste this html code into the edit html portion of your web page editor or blogging software:

<a href="http://askmontana.org/">

<img src="http://askmontana.org/images/askmt.gif" alt="Ask Montana">
</a>

to create this logo and link to the Ask Montana virtual reference service

book trailers

2008-03-04T16:37:00.002-07:00

I just heard about book trailers last week. They're short promotional videos for books. Here's one for Stephen King's new novel Duma Key

Book trailers might be something fun to add to New Books pages.

google rejected my query

2008-02-25T12:43:00.003-07:00

Has anyone else ever received one of these 403 error messages from Google?

This is the second one I've received today. I got this first one when I tried to search for "academy awards." I also got one when I tried to search "403 error."

I'll do as they suggest and clear my Google cookie - but for now, rejected by Google! How will I ever get over it?

classical music performances on youtube

2008-02-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

I happened to catch a segment on Morning Edition on NPR this morning talking about classical music performances on YouTube. Here's one featuring Maria Callas:

What a wonderful to expose young people to some of the stars and performances of yore.

RSS feed widget

2008-02-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

I ran across this widget for displaying RSS feeds on your blog or web page at Library Journal.

Get this widget!

Apparently you can do this with just about any RSS feed.

I have to warn you that I ran into some problems copying and pasting this one into my blog, however. This is where it's helpful to know some html. I was able to fix it by just adding a tag. I'd be curious to see if this works better if you use their automatic post to blogger option.

If anyone tries it, leave a comment as to whether or not it worked.

speaking of widgets and podcasts

2008-02-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'd added this NPR widget to my Facebook page some time ago. Then I just realized it could probably be used elsewhere. This might be a way to introduce library patrons and staff to podcasts.

Add NPR to your page

Pretty neat, huh?

amazon buys audible

2008-02-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've blogged previously about Amazon's innovative approach to distributing printed materials as evidenced by the Kindle. Now, I ran across a news item from the NY Times talking about Amazon's purchase of Audible.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Audible, they offer downloadable audio content largely via subscription. You pay a monthly fee and can download so much content for that fee.

I'm still not sure what the potential implications are for how libraries deliver service. But there are a lot of innovations going on in the marketplace. I think it's well worth considering what these trends might mean for us.

Open Source Software

2008-02-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

You hear a lot of talk about open source software particularly in techie circles. And it has some real advantages - namely it's usually free. But you do need to keep in mind that open source software is created by techies for techies and is therefore not for the faint of heart.

I'll share a recent experience as an illustration. I wanted to create an audio introduction to the podcasting lesson for the Montana Library 2.0 Challenge. I decided to try out Audacity - open source audio recording software. I found it was easy to download and install and figure out how to use. I even figured out how to do some basic editing. Great!

Then I needed to save it. When I tried to just save it I got a warning that it would be saved as an .aup file that few if any other programs could use and that I might choose to export it as a different type of file. Okay, so I looked at some of my other options. One was to export as an MP3 file. Perfect! MP3 files are the common format used by podcasters. So, I chose that option and was prompted to name my file.

That's when the fun began. I got a popup box telling me that a file lame_enc.dll was required and it wanted to search my newly created folder for the missing file. Not surprisingly, it didn't find it there because my new folder was still empty. I went back to Sourceforge.net the website where I got Audacity and searched for the missing file name. I found a file called lame-3.97.tar which looked like it would contain the missing file. So, I downloaded it. When I tried to open it, I was prompted for the program. Huh? I tried Audacity and got a popup warning that it was looking for a .dll file, did I really want to use the .tar file instead? Probably not. I chose to let Windows look for an appropriate program on the web. It helpfully found a number of zip utilities that I could purchase for roughly $20-$50. No thanks! But thanks for telling me that I needed a zip utility. Didn't I already have one on my computer? Apparently not this one.

Luckily, I do have some techie tendencies so I decided to look for freeware and went to Tucows. There I found a free zip utility that was rated well - ShellZip. So I downloaded and installed it. I must add it was one of the slowest downloads in history. But I went back to the lame-397.tar file and told Windows to open it with ShellZip. And I got a whole mess of files, none of which was lame_enc.dll. Let me add just how much I hate dealing with unzipped files that I have to try to figure out what to do with.

Okay, my frustration was definitely mounting. What now? Well, perhaps I just wasn't seeing the right one in the mess of lame files (very aptly named, I might add). So, perhaps I could use the Windows search mechanism to look for lame_enc.dll? Well, it did find it - in a program I'd never heard of TC Web Conferencing. So, all I had to do was direct Audacity to look there for the required file and my MP3 file was created. But the whole saving as an MP3 process took a good hour and a couple of needless downloads to accomplish.

Like I said, this is not for the faint of heart or anyone who gives in easily to frustration. The assumption with most open source software is that you know what all the stuff is and how to use it. There are few, if any, instructions and those that you do find are seldom helpful unless you're a computer programmer or software engineer. But there are a lot of useful open source software options out there. So, if you've got a lot of patience and/or you enjoy a good challenge, it's well worth pursuing. If not, you might want to go with an off-the-shelf software product that you buy complete with support and upgrades.

Kindle update

2007-12-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the Kindle is another device we can pass on when we live in Montana. I was looking at some more of the Kindle reviews on the Amazon.com website. Steve Gibson had asked Security Now listeners to locate his review. After we read it, if we thought it was helpful, we could help raise its ranking by indicating so, and thus make it more accessible to people looking for genuine reviews rather than opinion pieces. In so doing, I ran across a review by a woman in Missoula who said she liked her Kindle even though the Whispernet wireless connectivity was not available in Montana.

Not available in Montana?! This was certainly different information from the coverage map I looked at when the Kindle first came out. Sure enough, if you check the coverage map today, you'll see that Montana is just one big blank spot on the map. And there's the following:
Note: There is no wireless coverage available currently on Sprint’s data network for Kindle in Montana and Alaska.

I called the Kindle help desk this morning to verify the information and find out why the coverage maps had changed. He said the initial map showed coverage based on roaming (access via other networks). The coverage map changed when Amazon decided it would not be paying for roaming charges. That makes sense. But I think it also makes sense for us in non-covered areas to be able to reconsider whether or not we want to pay full price for a device when we won't have full access to the services. I think I would have felt cheated had I purchased a Kindle only to learn that I had to download titles and periodicals via my computer and then transfer them by USB connection.

We sure do get opportunities to save money in Montana - we don't have to waste our money on iPhones that don't have coverage in our state. Nor do we have to spend top dollar for Kindles without wireless connectivity. Perhaps by the time these devices work in our state, the prices will have come down and they'll have worked out the bugs!

Think positively, fellow gadget geeks!

internet start pages

2007-12-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

With the incredible array of information available on the internet nowadays, where does one begin? Let's look at some of the available options out there for your personal start page, public access and staff computers.

What is a start page? How does it differ from your library's home page?

A start page is the page that comes up first when you open a web browser. It can be your library's web page. It can be any other page you set. Some web pages will have a button you can click on to make that page your home page. Or you can change the settings in your browser.

Go to the page you want to set as your browser start page.

In Firefox, click on Tools - Options
Under the Main tab, Startup click on Use Current Pages.

In Internet Explorer, click on Tools - Internet Options
Under General, Home page click on Use Current.

Note that both Firefox and IE 7 enable you to set multiple pages under different tabs to open up at once for your Start Pages.

Why do you need to think about a new start page for your library patrons and/or staff?

With the proliferation of web sites with RSS feeds, you can put together a lot of information that's updated automatically. So, people can have the latest news and you don't have to worry about updating it.

iGoogle

iGoogle is what I use for my start page on my personal computers.

You can use tabs to create multiple pages.
You can subscribe easily to RSS feeds for up-to-date news and weather reports.
You can subscribe to and display Google calendars.
You can display Gmail.

But I wouldn't recommend this for public access computers because I haven't found a way to lock it down. Any user could come along and make changes. Once you've spent the time getting it all set up, you don't really want someone else to come along and change it. Nor do you want to give others access to your Google account.

Protopage
Example: http://protopage.com/mslbillings

We introduced this start page tool at Fall Workshop in 2006. It's probably the most flexible. There are a wide variety of widgets available and you can modify them pretty easily to display just about anything you'd like from web pages to video podcasts to photos from Flickr. You can also lock it down so that users cannot make permanent changes.

The chief downside is that it won't always display properly. I tried viewing the page from my mom's computer that has a lot of accessibility options turned on and got NOTHING. You couldn't even see most of the widgets. And if you've got a lot of different monitors, your carefully planned layout is bound to look a bit off on many of them. And you have to be careful if you want to use it to display web pages because the widget isn't really a browser window. If you start clicking on links, you'll soon find out you don't have any way to navigate.

But I still think this might be a good way to design a start page with resources designed for specific target groups like teens.

Pageflakes
Example: http://www.pageflakes.com/sreymer/19041249

Pageflakes is my current favorite. You can display RSS feeds for news, weather, sports, calendars.... It also works with Web 2.0 tools like Delicious and Flickr. You can add message boards, sticky notes and maps. It also has a social aspect in that you can use an existing page by subscribing to the pagecast. Then you can make your own modifications and use it for your own.

So, anyone interested in getting started with Pageflakes can set up an account, subscribe to my pagecast, delete any of the boxes with information that isn't interesting to you, add more feeds of local interest, and save it.

Pageflakes offers an option to save as your home page. You can set it up on public access computers using the instructions above. One thing I'd be careful about is only logging in and making changes from a staff computer. I suspect it's storing cookies and does remember you so if you've logged in from a public access computer, someone could make changes you might not like that would show up on all your computers.

If anyone's interested in an online training session on how to set up any or all of these tools, let me know. It can probably be arranged.

Amazon's kindle as a new service model

2007-11-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

I think that what people are missing by focusing on the Kindle device is the appealing service model. What Amazon is offering here comes very close to instant gratification for readers. It's not tied to a physical bookstore or library. It's not even tied to a computer or a wired or wi-fi connection to the internet. Instead the service is tied to Sprint's cellular network. This may not make it particularly appealing to a lot of Montanans due to Sprint's spotty coverage in our state. But it does make it very accessible for many Americans. And Amazon is picking up the cost of the cellular connections.

I presume that once you've set the device up, you can have ready access to your Amazon account. So, you search for a title, click on order and it's downloaded to your device in less than a minute. Pretty darn easy. And even easier in regard to periodicals you subscribe to via the service. You can just leave your device on overnight and the New York Times (or whatever newspaper you subscribe to) will be downloaded automatically. You wake up, pick up the device and read away. No trudging out in the snow to pick your paper out of the bushes. You don't even have to turn on your computer and wait for it download - as I do with my NYTimes subscription on Audible.

A lot has been made of the fact that there are digital rights management issues and that you won't really own a copy of the work. I'd agree that you're probably buying access to rather than the book itself. Does that really matter to most people? I suppose if it does, they won't find this model appealing. I have to confess that I am a certifiable book junkie. But I find that there really aren't that many that are keepers, especially now that I'm reading a lot of topical nonfiction.

The big question that remains to be answered is does Amazon have the pricing right? Most people seem to agree that $399 for the Kindle itself is too much. But $9.99 for current bestsellers seems a good deal. And the newspaper subscriptions are cheaper than print. $13.99/month for the Times is even cheaper than their own electronic edition.

I don't think there's any argument that devices like the Kindle will ever replace books and other print materials. For example, I really can't imagine reading the Sunday Times on a paperback sized reader. There are some things you just want to spread out all over the dining room table to enjoy. And pictorials on a black and white reader? Not incredibly satisfying, but will it suffice? And will convenience win out over the overall quality of the reading experience?

What does this emphasis on convenience mean for libraries? We seem to have put the emphasis on free rather than convenient. That has, no doubt, had an impact on who is actually using our services. If Amazon's model catches on and saps demand for current topics and titles, we may need to be ready with alternate service responses, if we are to remain vital centers of our community.

Anyway, I think there are a lot of possibilities out there for how libraries might respond and look forward to reading some interesting comments.

Read Steve Gibson's review of the Kindle on Amazon.com. He's actually used it!

Ask a Ninja explains podcasting

2007-10-31T13:26:00.000-06:00

What better way to explain the concept of podcasting?

libraries as refuges

2007-09-10T11:31:00.000-06:00

I watched a speech by Garrison Keillor to ALA conference goers that was televised on Book TV over the weekend. You can watch it on Book TV's website if you have Real Player:
http://booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8439&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No

He made a case for public libraries as refuges where people can go to escape from the craziness of the modern world. A place where people can gather their thoughts and think.

He compared a library to a secular church and concluded by saying that libraries were sacred places.

As someone who has been caught up in the role of libraries in bridging the digital divide, I am somewhat concerned about this potential loss of library as refuge. I remember seeking refuge in libraries at various times in my life. The library was a place you could go to escape from family pressures as a teenager, from annoying roommates in college. There aren't very many places like that available.

So, perhaps while we're planning for our next bank of computers and printers, let's make sure we set aside a few quiet spaces for refuge.

lots of news on the ebook front

2007-09-06T14:58:00.000-06:00

There's more on Amazon and Google stepping into the ebook fray in today's NYTimes:
Technology
Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books
By BRAD STONE
Published: September 6, 2007
Two new offerings from Web giants this fall will test if consumers are ready to leave the paper book behind.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/technology/06amazon.html?ex=1346817600&en=ec897cbcb6f1f910&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

There are also some interesting comments to the article on TechCrunch.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/06/amazon-google-to-enter-ebook-business/

Plus, Google is offering a new tool enabling people to embed the text from a book directly into a blog or other website.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/06/google-books-embed-book-clips-into-websites /

free sesame street episodes

2007-08-06T14:54:00.000-06:00

iTunes offers some free Sesame Street episodes for download as part of Learn Along With Sesame.

These might be good to recommend for parents to download for use on home computers or iPods and/or could be available on library computers to watch with QuickTime.

if the nytimes says it's so...

2007-07-11T07:46:00.000-06:00

I just ran across this article from the NYTimes: A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

Interesting that it's from the Fashion Section...

Transforming your library with technology

2007-07-09T14:23:00.000-06:00

Here's a link to Lori Bowen Ayre's blog about her presentation at ALA:
http://www.galecia.com/weblog/mt/archives/000268.php

From there you can access PowerPoints and/or a podcast of the presentation.

wait on iPhone

2007-07-02T16:12:00.000-06:00

One toy we don't need to worry about for now in Montana is the iPhone. And that's because it uses the AT&T (was Cingular) wireless network. A quick look at their coverage viewer shows that Montana only has partner coverage.

And, even if you buy the AT&T wireless plans but try to use it too much in Montana, your service can be terminated.

From the AT&T website popup box about Coverage Legend Terms:

"PARTNER: The areas shown as an orange stripped pattern represent the coverage of unaffiliated carriers and should have sufficient signal strength for on-street or in-the-open coverage, but may not have it for in-vehicle coverage or in-building coverage. Excessive use of Partner coverage may subject your service to early termination, in accordance with your service terms. Data services may not be available. "

So the bad news is we can't be a part of the iPhone craze. The good news is we can save the $499 to $599 retail price to use for something else. Perhaps we'll have coverage in Montana by the time the 2nd or 3rd generations come out.

Text Messaging and Reference

2007-07-02T10:13:00.000-06:00

It seems like there are many challenges to offering customers reference via text. How do you have a cell phone number that everyone can check? How can staff constantly monitor text messages? And of course we can forget the issues of money and time (or lack thereof).

The Southeastern Louisiana University Library may have found a solution to at least some of these problems. Check out the following link from the "ALA Tech Source Blog" about the way this library implemented text messaging for students. http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2007/06/can-u-txt-the-lbry.html

Of course before implementing anything like this, you need to think about whether or not your customers will want this service. However more and more people (especially young people) are texting these days. Why not give them another way to reach the library?

Apple producing web browser for Windows

2007-06-11T15:11:00.001-06:00

I ran across this article in the online NYTimes: Apple Releasing a Windows Browser.

I'm pretty happy with Firefox but this can't make Microsoft happy.

Oh, and if you're going to post a link to an article from the New York Times, look for the Permalink under Share. Reportedly, that will allow your blog or web page readers to access the article for free even after it's gone into the archives.

Microsoft Surfaces

2007-05-30T16:50:00.000-06:00

I saw this on It's All Good and wanted to share it with you. As George from OCLC said, it's a "touch screen on steroids." I was pretty amazed by what I saw. I'm not sure how well this is developed at this point, but it will be convergence of a lot of different technologies when/if it comes together. Essentially it's a computer within a coffee table that you can touch to find information, download pictures, or order items. You can also place physical objects on it. For example a user could place a digital camera on the screen. Instead of working through software to download the pictures, they appeared instantly with no work on the part of the user.

Check it out http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

I can think of some library uses already. Customers could place a book on the screen and get reader's advisory. They could pay library fines, find out more about the library or even the community. I'm sure there are other uses for it as well.

adding feeds to your blog or google page creator web page

2007-05-11T10:52:00.001-06:00

Another way of using feeds is to have them show up on your blog or web page. If you look at the right hand navigation bar for this blog, you'll see that I have feeds from 3 blogs showing up on my blog. This is one of the features available in the new blogger. You go into the Template and choose Add a Page Element. From the popup box, click on Add to Blog under Feed. You then copy and paste the URL for the feed you want to subscribe to in box marked Feed URL. The feed for this blog is: http://mtbibliotechie.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Then click continue. If your Feed URL was correct, you should see a new box with the title of the blog, the most recent postings and a box where you can select how many items you want to appear on your blog. I chose 3 because I have several feeds on this blog. Be sure to click Save Changes and you've added a feed to your blog. If you've got a Reader's Advisory blog, you'd probably want to add an MSC feed for your new books. You might also want to add a feed to NY Times book reviews. Here's a list of all the NY Times RSS feeds.

Google Page Creator also makes it easy to add RSS feeds to your site. Open the page where you want to add a feed. Choose where you want to add it on the page - usually a side bar is best - and click on Add Gadget at the bottom right hand corner. BTW, there are lots of other interesting gadgets that can be added as well.

using rss feeds

2007-05-11T09:39:00.000-06:00

Now that the Montana Shared Catalog is going to be offering RSS feeds to notify patrons of new resources, it's probably time to take a look at RSS feeds and how to use them.

If you just want to be able to read the latest from one of your favorite news sources or blogs, you can subscribe to a feed using a feed aggregator.

Bloglines - one of the most popular web-based aggregator. You can set up a free account and access your news from anywhere via the web.
Google Reader - Google's answer to Bloglines. Both of these are social software so others can see what feeds you're reading.

Personally, I decided some time ago that I wasn't about to go anywhere else for news updates. I want my news to come to me. So I use Google's homepage (now know as iGoogle). I can subscribe to anything I want and it will come up in my homepage. I just click on the little orange icon in the address box, a new page comes up with a box where I can select the reader I want to use

Here you can select Live Bookmarks (a Firefox feature), Bloglines, My Yahoo (similar to iGoogle) or Google Reader.

If you select Google Reader, the next screen will give you a choice between Add to Google homepage or Add to Google Reader.

It really is that simple.

iGoogle also gives you the option of setting up multiple tabs for different pages for your feeds. So you can have news feeds on one page, sports on another, tech stuff and so on.

Here is what my libraries page looks like.

This makes it really easy to keep track of recent postings from a lot of different blogs. If none of the titles interest me, I can just ignore them. Only the three most recent appear on the page. They are eventually replaced by newer posts.

If I find one that's interesting, I click on it and read the whole post. I've used RSS feeds to replace some of the email lists I used to subscribe to but rarely read. This way I can read it if it interests me. If not, it's not cluttering up my inbox.

librarian trading cards

2007-05-11T09:25:00.000-06:00

I've come up with another fun time waster - librarian trading cards. Of course, your patrons will want to collect a complete set of your library staff.

You simply upload your favorite photo to Trading Card Maker where you can add your information and decide upon a look. This is my crazed reference librarian persona. "Let me help you with all your reference needs!"

Once you've created your trading card, you can download it to your computer, and print it. You can also upload it to your Flickr account and add it to the Librarian Trading Card group.

free audiobooks

2007-05-09T15:50:00.000-06:00

Some people have mentioned some websites where you can download audiobooks for free:

AudioBooksForFree (http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp)
Project Gutenberg Audiobooks - includes both human narrated and computer-generated text to speech (http://www.gutenberg.org/audio/)
Telltale Weekly - some free, some available for purchase at prices ranging from $0.25 to $12 (http://www.telltaleweekly.org)
LibriVox (http://www.librivox.org/)

If anyone has tried out any of these sites and would like to comment on the quality of the offerings, please leave a comment so all of us can learn.

Also, if you run across any more sites offering free downloadable audiobooks, let me know, and I'll add them to the list.

learning about digital audiobooks

2007-05-08T12:36:00.000-06:00

I wanted to post here, Lauren's recommendation about an excellent resource for those who want to learn more about digital (and downloadable) audiobooks:

Hello Everyone

There is a very good discussion of digital audio books in libraries available from the OPAL archive of special events at http://www.opal-online.org/archivespecial.htm . It’s the third event listed – a Library U Live workshop titled *Day of the Digital Audio Book,* aired in February last year. You can view the recorded webcasts - three sessions which run about an hour each, or just review the presentation slides. The full workshop covers just about everything having to do with downloadable audiobooks – including hardware, software, vendors, service considerations and lots of other Q & A. This is good information both for librarians who need to know the basics, as well as for committee members working on a pilot project. If you have a serious interest in e-audiobooks, check it out.

Lauren

mp3 players for downloadable audiobooks

2007-05-04T11:38:00.002-06:00

If you're looking for players that can be used with OverDrive and/or NetLibrary, I think OverDrive requires a bit more caution because the players have to be able to work with the OverDrive console. I'd thought that I read a while back that if a player was Plays for Sure compatible, it would work with OverDrive. Now they claim that's not always true. Sigh...

But they do have a list on their website of compatible
http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/compatibledevices.asp

and incompatible devices
http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/incompatibledevices.asp

It looks to me like NetLibrary should work with any MP3 players that play WMA (Windows Media copy-protected files).

But they do have a very helpful list of tested players - pdf file.

I did a little browsing on the internet and came up with a list of possibilities that met my criteria:

Had at least 1GB of flash memory
Used replaceable batteries instead of internal rechargeables - I really don't think libraries want to deal with recharging batteries. Do you check out the cords and adapters along with the devices? No thanks.
Worked with WMA copy protection.

This was the list of possibilities I came up with. I looked up prices on Amazon to get an idea of what they would cost. You can probably find them cheaper elsewhere.

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB - $49.99
Creative Muvo V100 1GB - $39.99
Creative Muvo V100 2GB - $66.34
iriver T30 1GB - $109.45
iriver T10 1GB - $83.98

There is a note on the OverDrive Device Resource Center page that the iriver players require a firmware update. I don't know whether or not this would resolve Robert's complaint in the comments. I suspect that the T series is being phased out because they are not currently offered for sale on the iriver website aside from refurbished models.
SanDisk Sansa c140 1GB - $69.98 - listed as compatible with OverDrive
SanDisk Sansa M240 1GB - $49.63
SanDisk Sansa M260 4GB - $154.92
SanDisk Sansa M250 2GB - $69.63

Only the M230 is listed as compatible by OverDrive. That model has a 512 MB flash drive. The others in the M series would have to be tested.
Samsung YP-U2J 1GB - $45.83

For personal use, I'd be very interested in trying out Creative Zen Stone 1 GB - $39.99. But it's a rechargeable so I wouldn't recommend it for patron check out.

At any rate, I'd try to look at the device and try it out before I committed to buying several for my library to check out. If you hate it and can't use it, you can't expect your patrons to embrace it. One caveat, most of these are small with very small screens and controls.

For my own use, I prefer the slightly more upscale devices better. I find them easier to use. But most of these come up with internal rechargeable batteries. I haven't found any with bookmarking capabilities.

Montana BiblioTechies

Ecosystems

E-Readers 2011

Which smart phone should I buy?

July 2011 - The State of E-book Readers

Why Twitter?

Mikrotik Routers

The 9 Suggestions

The Standard Model for Small Library IT Management

Content filtering for public libraries

Deep Freeze on Public PCs

ARP Poisioning

Configure a Public PC

open v closed or simple v complex?

Looking for an E-Reader for Christmas?

Apps for Android

Protect Your Network Ports

Top Technology Trends 2010

ipad - perhaps not a game changer but certainly handy

Hold & Overdue Messages

container vs. content

Spot and Earthmate Devices

mp3 player recommendations

Troubleshoot Bandwidth Issues

How much bandwidth is your library currently getting?

The Web of Trust – A Useful Tool.

Offline Links

Nexus One - or the next new phone to disappoint us in Montana

Windows 7

kindle wireless update

Tis the season for ebook readers

Amazon Kindle 2 Review

iphone in montana?

windows 7 pre-order offer

Public PC Restrictions - Part Two

Conficker April First Non-Event

Public PC Restrictions Without SteadyState

keeping track of social networks

Video - Can you say it in 12 seconds?

So you want to be a podcaster?

Security Tip - F-Prot Antivirus

Security Tip - Windows PE

Why Twitter?

using delicious links in your web page

Do You Trust Your Tech?

Security Tip - Renaming Tools

World Community Grid

Security Tip - Hosts File Security Filtering

Security Tip - XP Antivirus 2008 - BAD!!

OpenDNS filtering

Security Tip - Recent DNS Vulnerability

internet speed test ranks montana 49th

check your dsl/cable speed

linux for library pcs

gadget du jour

mp3 players revisited

Hacking Service Economy

Web-based screen reader for vision-impaired users.

Are You A Spammer?

kindle review

I, Spammer

Fight SPAM with reCaptcha

initial thoughts on kindle

twitter and pownce

Latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report

online audio/video poetry

YouTube - It's not all silly

adding image links to your blog or website

book trailers

google rejected my query

classical music performances on youtube

RSS feed widget

speaking of widgets and podcasts

amazon buys audible

more on video podcasts

Open Source Software

Kindle update

internet start pages

Amazon's kindle as a new service model

Ask a Ninja explains podcasting