Introducing: Perpetual Beta
PrintWelcome, Fine Reader, to Perpetual Beta, a new blog by me (Jason Griffey) and American Libraries. This space will be a place where you will be able to find the very edge of new technologies, as well as tips and tricks about how you can do interesting things with existing technologies. I’m going to try and introduce technologies that libraries and librarians should be paying attention to, and at the same time give you tips and tricks to make better use of the technologies that you may already be playing with.
A few examples of the sorts of things that I’ll be covering in this space: How to get any piece of text you want onto your eReader, How to automate delivery of information to your staff and patrons, setting up your own Media Server for your library, and much, much more.
In addition to these sorts of “Lifehacker for Libraries” posts, I’ll also be posting interesting things that I find around the Library and Technology infosphere, and I’ll be producing some video podcasts as well. Expect the first of these very soon, as I am even as I type this on my way to the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show. I’ll be reporting over the next several weeks about my discoveries there, and will include audio and video interviews, demos, and anything else I can think of that might be interesting.
This blog is an experiment between myself, American Libraries and you. Please, please let us know if you are interested by commenting, tweeting about, or otherwise spreading the news. Kudos to the American Libraries team, and specifically Sean Fitzpatrick and Leonard Kniffel, for being willing to experiment with both form and content. This isn’t going to be what you might expect from American Libraries, but I hope it’s something that you discover you wanted.
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Comments
bon voyage
"Lifehacker for Libraries" … you know it’s got to be good. Best of luck with the project. I’ll be checking in regularly.
Sounds like a good idea, I
Sounds like a good idea, I look forward to hearing your news across the sea to Australia.
New technologies
Great I look forward to reading about all the new technolgies. This will be especially helpful for us in the rural library arena.
Thank you!
Great idea, I work in a small rural library and appreciate access such as this to new tech ideas, trends, etc.
fantastic
fantastic
audio books
Washington State Library is facilitating the subscription to an audiobook provider for many of the libraries in Washington State. We will be purchasing devices to store these audio books on such as I-pods. They are in the process of evaluating the most economical device with the best features. We are supposed to be able to access this new service by the end of February.
Do you know of any others states who already use one of these subscription service? I’d like to be in touch with someone who has incorporated audiobooks into the curriculum.
Colette
Great title!
Looking forward to all of-the-above.
fun!
Ah hah! This must be the new project! Fun stuff… looking forward to this experiement unfolding….
Nice Gig, Jason!
I can’t wait to see more of this experiement.
Peter Murray
Nothing selected
RSS RSS RSS RSS RSS
Feature request: RSS
I see the little, little RSS chiclet way down there bottom right. I mean per blog and move that chiclet way up top and boost its size. How about throwing some meta-love in too, so Firefox throws me an icon/clue.
Thanks!
RSS faux pas
My bad. Sorry, guys. The feed link is up, and “meta-love” coming soon.
...and an email feed?
I don’t see a way to get an email feed, a la Feedburner. Or am I just behind the times if I want new posts in my Inbox? … This is great. I’ll find it either way.
guest blogger
Jason is a very busy guy and I wonder why it seems he’s the only one who’ll get all the fun writing techie stuff. ;-) I suggest to have a guest blogger every other month so Jason could take a deep breath and rest. ;-) Open up somekind of a GetSatisfaction account or whatever where interested librarians/library staff can pitch in the topic they want to talk about, and, when accepted, Jason would be the editor for that particular topic.
In the plans
Guest writers are definitely in the plans…I want to set a tone and get it started. But guest writers/crowdsourced articles/radical infostream mashups…all possible. :-) When I said “experiment”, I meant it.