Mis-information Management

Article in today's Washington Post talks about a US government website that aims at answering conspiracy theories and mis-information. Subjects tackled include: 9/11 was an inside job, US is using organs from dead Iraqis and AIDS was invented in a Pentagon lab.

Brits are better searchers

This article highlights research that suggests internet searchers in the UK are better than those in the US. It appears that we search less but are better at finding what we want quicker.

Drug testing the librarians

News from the US is that librarians at public libraries in Levy County, Florida are being tested to see if they've consumed any illegal substances. Whether they're looking for signs of recreational or performance enhancing drugs in the urine samples is not clear . . .

Citizen media

A weighty article by a cone head called Milverton Wallace on how the web is socialising journalism. Addresses the differences between old and new media, and the response traditional media needs to make to the new wave of amateur reporters.
It seems likely that newspapers will have to adapt if they are to survive - Rupert Murdoch and the Telegraph have already started to integrate.

Your mum

Sorry, but this has absolutely nothing to do with media libraries but what the heck, it's Friday. From the BBC, a video that reminds us all that you should never let your mum help you launch a political party. Ever.

YouTube

So YouTube has been bought by Google for £883 million. So what? So you can continue to watch stuff like this . . .

Map resource

Stumbled across this blogpost of cool/useful map mashups. Worth a bookmark - you never know when you might get asked for a map of the hotspots in Lebanon.

Web libraries

LibraryThing is a beta site that allows members to catalogue their books online, for free. The beauty of it, aside from the chance to utilise free cataloguing software, is that the site also networks members, so you can link to other libraries containing similar items, or browse content. A search for the tag 'librarians', for example, comes up with some intriguing titles.
Organisations can also hold accounts, paying a minimal fee for anything over 100 books. There's even a blog widget, so readers can browse your library - we'll get back to you when we've weeded out all the embarrassing titles...

Who do you trust?

A survey by LexisNexis has found that people trust traditional news sources more than blogs and other online media. LN says the "future of trust" lies in mainstream media such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Well, I suppose they would say that but the survey did find that more than half of those quizzed (52%) rely on traditional sources for news that significantly affects their lives, while 13% do rely mostly on emerging media, such as citizen journalists, blogs and podcasts.

Very interesting, however, a study by the Newspaper Association of America reveals that monthly visitors to US newspaper websites rose by nearly a third in the first half of 2006 while print readership went on falling. According to Nielsen/NetRatings , the average number of unique visitors to online newspaper sites was more than 55.5m a month compared with 42.2m a year earlier. Alarming for some but it does show that people still turn to mainstream media for news, only in its new media guise.

Dream job in the Caribbean?

Sounds pretty easy too. Based on a user requirements you can catalogue books under K for Koran although the A-Z of Torture might be a suggested acquisition. If you are interested check out Lisjobs.com