Readability on the web

In my work as a Web Services Librarian I am constantly looking for ways to improve accessibility for the web sites and resources our library provides. In library school I took a class on "Resources and Services for Persons with Disabilities" and learned that (at that time) the most popular software packages to assist persons with visual impairments were created for Windows-based systems. As an avid Mac user this troubled me, and I was delighted to find today a free application for Mac called Readability. Here is an excerpt from the online article:

As Web sites have gotten more and more complex, many Web pages have become more and more difficult to read. Type is smaller, page layouts are getting more cluttered, and ads and other objects are breaking the flow of text. So I’m a big fan of programs and services that make the Web more readable.

Which leads me to today’s Gem, Readability, which, unlike most Gems, isn’t a program you download to your Mac, but rather an online service. Call it—with apologies to ESPN—a Web Gem.

Readability, a project of the Arc90 Lab, is a bookmarklet-based browser tool that reformats a Web page and presents the page’s text content in a plain, easy-to-read format. Inspired by Instapaper, the save-it-for-later-reading Web service, Readability lets you make almost any page more readable with a single click—or even a keyboard shortcut.

I intend to test this as soon as possible.

Happy Holidays!

Late lunch but worth the wait: guacamole-chicken sandwich with lots of fresh garlic in the guac -- MMM!

Making Web 2.0 Work at Work

After a 5-day weekend battling the flu I now seek to utilize Web 2.0 technology with a practical issue at work: remodeling. I have been advised that our building's fire suppression systems need to be brought up-to-date, and they are embedded in a ceiling that includes asbestos. So we are gathering our entire collection and moving it to the lower level. We will be closing the library for 8 months and our staff will be scattered to nearby buildings. I have committed to combining notifications on our website, Facebook page, Twitter and (yet to be created) Flickr accounts. I have played with these tools off and on for awhile now, so it should be no problem. Yet I am nervous about taking the first steps and actually doing it. I am a perfectionist, and not happy when I make mistakes. So I will post to my personal blog one more time to make sure the system I've created works here. Then I can venture out and do the same thing for my job.

Always take notes

As part of my new job it has fallen to me to manage the library's Facebook presence and add other social media as needed. I found out how to link together my personal blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. Now I cannot remember how I did it. So I have to start over learning how I made it all work together. I realize that human beings often have to repeat the same mistakes in order to learn from them. I just did not expect to have to repeat a success in order to re-learn it!

Beautiful mountains

This past weekend we camped in the Uintas, and my 9-year old daughter led our whole group as we climbed from 10,700 feet to nearly 12,000 feet, and she's only been in UT for just over 2 weeks!

Our moving truck is unloaded, and getting ready for work today felt akin to running an indoor obstacle course!

is eagerly awaiting the arrival in UT of the rest of my family (Alissa, Sonia & Marie). A month apart is TOO LONG!

Now I am testing posting directly from Ping.fm to my blog, Twitter & Facebook accounts.

Elusive Integration

Yesterday I posted to this blog hoping that HootSuite would pick up the update, then pass it on to Twitter, which would then pass it on to Facebook. I'm trying again to see if I can get this to work. Otherwise I will have to try another combination. I feel like I'm trying to untangle a mess of yarn into its half-dozen different colors, then braid them together all at the same time!
#fb

Juggling Web 2.0 for my first job

Streamlining a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account and news blurbs on the website.
In July I began work as a Web Services Librarian at the Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. One of my first tasks is to wrangle together the library's blog (unused), Facebook page (well-used) and add a Twitter account (yet to be created). In addition I am to draft a proposed policy for these social media for approval.
I began by sending an inquiry to the listerv at LITA (Library Information Technology Association) for advice on tools and software to help. I quickly received a number of helpful responses from colleagues and as a result of their advice chose to use HootSuite to combine updates for Twitter, Facebook and a blog. I am now posting to my blog to see how it feed through HootSuite to my personal Twitter account set up for just this purpose. I will see how well this works. #fb

Libraries on the Today Show

Public libraries and their role in today's difficult economic times were featured on the Today Show recently. Though short, this piece effectively summarizes the situation of libraries and library professionals as they try to cope with increased demand and falling funding.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy