To the Moon, Annie! Librarian Looking for Flags on the Moon

There's a flag, man.  Look closer.

UC Santa Barbara librarian Annie Platoff is looking for the six flags that were planted on the various space missions to the moon.  So far she has found four of the flags, all weathered and beaten due to exposure to the elements. [Time]

This is outrageous!  Those flags have been up there nearly 60 years, beaten and neglected, never put at half mast, exposed to sun damage, micro meteor impacts, moon rain and who knows what else!  We gotta go get those boys out of there!  The flagmanity!  How can we ever celebrate Flag Day again while these six brave soldiers wave ever more spreading the message that "'Merica Wuz Here!"

Plus, I hear there's giant transmorphing robots up there and we gotta check that out.

Call of Dewey: Modern Librarians Create Video Game

shudder

Librarians at Fairfield University in Connecticut have created a video game to help with freshman orientation at their school library.  The video game was inspired by Scene It (hopefully not the Twilight edition) as a point and click question and answer type game to familiarize students with basic library functions. [Library Journal]

This is a cool step in teaching the young'ins about libraries, but how about we go further.  Video games were doing 3D animation nearly twenty years ago with titles like Doom and Duke Nukem.  Why can't there be a tool like that in libraries?  With lower graphic standards on extremely popular Internet games (Minecraft, how I love thee), someone out there could create a virtual library that users could run around in, click on switches and items and be led to real time catalog searches and eBooks.  Think that's a weird idea?  Ask anyone who played the first Dragon Age or Mass Effect games how much crap there was to read in those games.  A 3D virtual library could revolutionize catalogs as you could look at a library shelf in real time, see what's there, pick out an ebook version, or just find something interesting by browsing.

Looks like a library to me.

If any programmer out there wants to start programming this library "game" I have presented, be my guest.  If you make money on it though, I want a kick back and a mention in the credits.  And you better follow me on Twitter.

Lordy, Lordy, eBooks are Forty

The 2011 World eBook Fair, which apparently exists, is celebrating 40 years of ebooks, claiming the 1971 copy of the Declaration of Independence by Project Gutenberg as the first ever ebook.  Amazon was also on hand to jump up and down like a puppy about to piddle and announce ebooks are outselling print books on their site..

First of all, I think it is a stretch to call the electronic version of the Declaration of Independence an eBook.  The narrative is weak, it is pandering to national sensibilities and quite honestly, the protagonist is kinda a douche.  It's a "classic" though, so whatever.

Second, they picked the DoI on Independence Day to make the first ebook?  Coincidence, I think not.  Like that movie where the aliens landed on ID4.  [PCWorldNewZealand]

Avocado Ken-dolla! Harry Potter Franchise Near End

Two weeks away from the Harry Potter Part 8 and, man, you can feel the tension in the air.  Everyone is holding their breath in anticipation for how this monkey will hang.  Will Volvomelon kill Harry Potter?  Will Harry and Hermyknee get together like we all know they will?  Will they finally kill off that red haired kid that's been following Harry around all these years like they did with JarJar the House-elf* in the last movie?  I can not wait.

Does anyone know if they have made novelizations of the scripts?  I would love to see how they handled this series in print form.

Hit the jump for all the Harry Potter links you can imagine if you can only imagine about nine or so.

Top 5 Harry Potter Smackdowns

Parseltongue translator

Footage of the Bank Heist

Emma Watson Growing Up

What Harry Potter Really Thinks of Quidditch

Harry Potter Digital

Mark Reads Harry Potter

Harry Potter Movie Site

Random Article about Last Film

*I sobbed like a baby when Dobby died.  This is all in fun, please don't hate me.

MySpace Reaches Basement, Keeps on Digging

The social network MySpace has reportedly laid off over half its 450 member staff in preparation for sale to Specific Media.

Well, as the snake eats the lion, so goes the way of MySpace.  I absolutely do not know what that means.  I mean, my brain went "Think of something MySpace related" and immediately went to that guy who friended me that REALLY liked snakes and then somehow a lion became involved.  I worry about what all this social networkage is doing to my brain, folks.

WSJ via CNET

Google+ Becomes Google-

Will you be my friend?

The new social network service Google+ has been forced to shut down access to new members.  The service started up just a while ago with and "invite only" policy and quickly became overwhelmed with requests. 

I have just one question:  how come noone invited meeeee?  I'd totally be your friend and play Farmville with you and help you attack another mob and stuff.  I mean, Facespacester is just so yesterday.  My mom's on it, you guys.

But to be not so serious, how come this seems a little like a social experiment to me?  This is Google we are talking about here.  Are you telling me they do not have the resources to handle this kind of traffic?  I think they just did this to see how fast something online would spread.  They put the plague of social network out there just to see how fast it would spread, am I right?  I would not be shocked to learn they were working with the CDC on this to invent a cure for another blue social network that will not be getting a Facebook group.  [computerworld]

Life in the Swag, ALA 2011

Well, I just got back from the American Library Association's 2011 New Orleans Conference and boy is my drinking arm tired.  New Orleans welcomed the library community with open arms and the library community responded in kind.  So let us delve into this exciting and wondrous event that was ALA 2011.

Drinking
I know what the people want so let's just put it on front street, or "rue el fronto" as the locals say.  Seriously, there was so much partying, dancing, and goings-on that you would have thought a dentist hygienist convention was going on.  But that's the point of a convention in New Orleans.  Nothing too untoward was released to the public, so let's keep it that way.  It's not like there was a robot that got taken out for a night, right?

You don't want to know how he got those beads and hat.

Technology
Possibly the biggest complaint about the conference was the lack of wifi at the convention.  To be true, the annual conference from one of the most forward thinking professions lacking a basic function that our national parks system can handle is a little sad.  But that's accentuating the negative.  The conference also had these cool key cards that you could swipe at booths instead of passing out business cards.  Mine stopped working after a day.

It also doubled as a hotel keycard for then entire city!   I watched people sleep!

Panels
I can't speak for all the panels (pun intended) because I only went to a couple because I had and "Exhibit Only" badge which means I had to crash. Which, honestly, was not that hard. Come to think of it, they only ever checked my badge at the exhibit entrances. Huh. Anyway, the panels I did go to were all about good speak and forward thinking. One in particular was a library of the future one with Orson Scott Card, Bill Willingham, and other sci-fi writers although come to think of it they mostly talked about copyright and stuff. It was good. Thought about asking about how Card felt about the New York gay marriage decision, but I felt that might have derailed it a bit.

My favorite panel.  It was all fun.

Exhibits
Here we go into the meat and potatoes of the convention: The people who give us stuff!  The swag merchants were out in force from the automated book thingies to the chair folk right on down to the database mages.  Every corner of librarianship stuff was represented, and all of them had stuff to take.  Often you would have to sit through a 10 minute talk to get a t-shirt, but if you put your business card in a fishbowl you might win a Nook or something.  It was all very exciting.  Special mention to the guy who did magic and the people with the smoothies.  We may never know who you worked for.

Some set up faster than others.  This was at 6ish on Friday.

Swag
I saw at least 4 people getting their arms reattached in the first aid area from collecting books in bags and hanging them off their shoulders.  The swag collecting was intense and diverse.  But can we talk about one thing?  The Red "I am a librarian from out of town mug me and over charge me, please" Bags.  All you who were there know what I mean.

All tote bags should have fighter jets on them.

Food
Hellz yeah!  This is New Orleans, the center of Cajun cooking!  Crawdads, gumbo, benya... beinge... those awesome pastries with the powdered sugar!  And what did most people eat?  Food court food.  Seriously, the only place within walking distance of the convention center was the crap in the convention center itself.  We could not find a couple sponsors willing to put authentic local cuisine?  Whatever, I am sure most had the other major food group in New Orleans.  Alcohol.

This is half the line for fairly dry roast beef sandwiches.  Spot the Red Bags.

Underground
Secret parties.  Dancing and carrying on.  I really can not talk about it too much.  My call sign was Albatross.

We got dangerous.

People
Someone on twitter asked what our favorite moment of ALA 2011 was. I responded "Walking on the floor first and seeing a sea of inspired, wonderful librarians sharing and having fun." That's the truth.  With all the problems and jokes, I met so many people that were excited about our future.  Before this convention, the best I could say about the library's future in society is "I hope."  After this trip, that hope is invigorated. 

   

Jackson Square.  And my thumb.