• Using QR codes in the catalogue's bibliographic records. Students can have the record information sent to their mobile devices.
• Add QR codes to current periodicals on the shelves. The QR codes will tell students what the other holdings are in the catalogue.
• Add them to the library staff's business cards. They will link to the library website and contact information.
• Add QR codes on the library website that link to the library's ebooks.

The session also outlined the key benefits and drawbacks of QR codes.

Benefits:

• Inexpensive.
• Easy to create and read.
• No typing required on a mobile device to obtain the information provided by QR codes.

Drawbacks:

• Not many people are aware of them or know what they do.
• Users have to install special software on their mobile devices.
• The mobile device must have a camera.

After this session, I couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities of barcodes. I've been thinking about what they can do for firms and other organizations, and not just libraries. A recent post in HBR's The Conversation blog illustrates these possibilities. "How Barcodes and Smartphones Will Rearchitect Information" raves about the barcode because it has the ability to link any physical object/information with its digital information. There are three powerful implications of using barcodes:

• Proactive, customized service
• Enhancement of the user experience
• Efficient secure storage

Organizations using barcodes can definitely transform the service and information experience for their clients/customers.

• On-demand self service.
• Broad network access, mobile and multi-device.
• Resource pooling.
• Rapid elasticity.
• Measured service.

It illustrates how Silicon Valley Education Foundation's use of cloud computing enabled it to respond quickly to a valuable business opportunity, and it concludes by linking to the HyperStratus Cloud Computing Agility Checklist, which provides ten conditions that indicate a business case for adopting cloud computing.

• 4.1 billion people on the planet have cellphones.
• More cellphones and cellphone contracts than people in some countries. People are carrying multiple devices.
• 2.4 billion people in the world use text messaging on their cellphones.
• More people are accessing the Internet via mobile devices.
• People are expecting to access your organization's services via wireless connectivity.
• Modern smartphones aren't the most popular phones being sold right now, but this is expected to change very quickly.

• The iPhone is the most popular image of a modern smartphone in the US and Canada.
• Apple is an enormous force in the tech world.
• Apple is the second largest company in the US. It is worth about $226 billion (Rogers is worth about $20.88 billion).
• Canada has a low cellphone penetration rate. 61% of people have a cellphone. This is a low rate for a developed nation.
• The US has a penetration rate of 91%.

• Cellphones aren't the only mobile way people get connected to the Internet.
• Digital e-readers are becoming very popular.
• They are going to get very cheap very fast. There will probably be a $100 one by Christmas, and a $50 digital e-reader by next year.
• It makes more sense for a library to buy a $50 e-reader and put 1,000 books on it than to buy a book in print.
• Tablets will become very popular.
• The iPad is the most important tablet right now.
• Apple sold 2 million iPads in 60 days.

Jason concluded his talk with the idea that sometimes asking our users/clients what they want doesn't always tell us what they really want or need. We have to know what they want before they do because they might not be aware of important technological trends and issues.

• Multitasking: You can switch between third-party apps instantly.
• HD video recording: Shoot, edit and share video in HD.
• FaceTime: Video calling from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi.

• Next Gen Learning with Web 2.0
• Enterprise Social Networking. Is Your Company Falling Behind?
• Web 2.0 Bridges Gap for Information and Knowledge Management

Library Journal has an article that summarizes the decision and provides reactions and predictions from various experts.

Characteristics of work tools that are designed for today's knowledge worker:

• Utilize the power of networks. Must be social.
• Not tied to a desktop computer.
• Can access information and projects very quickly.
• Must work on mobile devices.
• Access information anytime and from anywhere.

Opportunities of cloud computing:

• Radically lowers the cost. Much cheaper than on-premise solutions.
• Much faster application development. Pace of innovation is much faster.
• Scales across businesses of all sizes. Larger organizations benefit because its cheaper than supporting a large IT group. Small to medium size businesses can leverage alot of technology for a similar price as a large business.
• Frees up an organization's IT group's time to work on more strategic projects.

What is cloud computing?

• Using a large scale service to hold an organization's information.
• Accessing information anytime and from anywhere.
• Data and applications reside in the network.
• 1) Based on massive data centres that are very secure, 2) purpose built hardware, and 3) software platform of Internet scale

Google's enterprise vision:

Google Cloud

a) Google apps (e.g., video, chat, docs, etc.)

b) Platform – The platform allows you to connect and build your own apps. Since many businesses have existing systems that will still need to be implemented, a range of APIs are developed that allow you to take the existing systems and connect them to the API platform.

c) Access – You can access information from different platforms (e.g., Chrome OS, mobile devices, etc.)

Objections/challenges to cloud computing:

• Security issues.
• IT group will want to protect their turf.

See the Canadian Tax Foundation website for more information.

• Internet access is now one of the most sought after public library services, and it is used by nearly half of all vistors.
• People use library computers to perform both life-changing tasks (e.g., find work, apply to college, secure government benefits) and routine tasks (e.g., connect with family and friends, read the newspaper, plan family outings).
• People of all ages, income, races and levels of education go to the library for Internet access, whether they have a connection at home or not.

The second report will look at the effect of library characteristics and policies on public access computing use and impact. It is expected to be released in July 2010.

The Tax Court of Canada's Current Appeals Docket is now online. Finally.

• Males are spending significantly more time online than females (20 hours compared to 16).
• There is a minimal gap between age groups. For example, 18-34 year olds are spending 20 hours a week online, compared to 18 hours for those over the age of 35.

Chris Pirillo's new e-book 140 Twitter Tips, a 14-page PDF, offers useful and practical hints for all types of Twitter users. Tips include:

• The best time of day to get retweets
• How to effectively respond to debates and criticisms
• Don't use too much jargon
• Oversharing vs. undersharing

The best part: the e-book costs only $1.40.

See ReadWriteWeb for more information about this e-book and Chris Pirillo.

1. Food choices (e.g., lbs per capita prepared meals, lbs per capita solid fats, lbs per capita fruits and vegetables)

2. Health and well-being (e.g., adult diabetes rate, adult obesity rate)

3. Community characteristics (e.g., child poverty rate, poverty rate, median household income).

• Millennials in the Americas and Asia-Pacific have very positive perceptions of technology, whereas most of them in Europe think that technology takes up too much time.
• Chinese Millennials spend the most time using real-time communication tools for both work and personal use.
• Millennials want to choose what technologies they use at work, especially in emerging markets.
• Millennials increasingly choose their employer based on access to leading technology.
• Millennials routinely bypass corporate approval when using devices and applications.

The report concludes with ways management teams can benefit from the survey findings. The report suggests the following:

• Adapt IT policies to deal with generational diversity.
• Accelerate experiments with social networking.
• Bridge the generation gap.

It reviews tax developments in the US and Canada from the past year, and it also provides perspectives on the key developments impacting the US and Canadian taxation of international companies and investors in 2010.

• You can choose to be notified when a site you have included has new content.
• You can create groups and add links to each group.
• You can pick from themes to customize the way your page looks.

• Is it necessary to have a corporate policy around social networking? Yes. It must be short, simple, and clear.
• Which way works best? Definitely get involved with the 4 dominant social networking players: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Maintain a four-pronged public networking strategy. Its also recommended that companies build a dual social media strategy that incorporates homegrown online communities with an involvement with the key public social networks.
• Where's the ROI? Don't think of social networking as only a marketing activity. Don't think of sales as the only end goal of social networking. Its about conversations and relationships, not salesmanship or messaging. ROI is hard to track, but the cost savings can be measured.

Note: The report isn't free, but you can download the Table of Contents and a sample chapter at no cost.

See Toronto Public Library announcement.

• the iPod
• Text-messaging
• Wi-Fi
• the BlackBerry

The University of California in Santa Cruz is looking for an archivist to maintain the band's archive (consisting of fan letters, photos, tour schedules, posters, recordings, and personal correspondence). The position is an academic appointment, it offers a salary of up to $68, 892, and it becomes available March 2010.

More information on this opportunity:

• Job posting
• The Grateful Dead Archive, University Library – Special Collections & Archives, University of California in Santa Cruz
• National Post article "Like, hey man, no running in the library, OK?" (November 11, 2009)

• It lets you select and save text on a webpage. Instead of saving the entire page, iCyte allows you to save the most important parts of a webpage.
• Webpages are saved on the iCyte server, so you don't lose them even if they've been changed or deleted.
• You have the option of inviting others to join your online research projects, or you can keep them private.

Unfortunately, a Conference Board of Canada account is required to access this report.

• Open source software and APIs
• Increasing demands on bandwidth and infrastructure from streaming audio and video
• Growing usage of mobile devices
• Future of bibliographic control

The full audio of the Top Tech Trends panel is posted at the LITA blog.

The Globe and Mail had an article this week about animal law classes being the cool new area of study at Canadian law schools. About six Canadian universities currently offer animal law classes, and the University of Toronto and Queen's University will join this group when they start offering the classes this fall. The article reviews common topics that are covered in these classes (veterinary malpractice, custody, animal rights and personhood) as well as mentions some Canadian cases from the past that have focused on animal law.

 For more information on animal law in Canada, see this previous Slaw post.

Article from The Globe and Mail

Toronto Star reports that Toronto Public Library has finally caught up with other library systems and bookstores by allowing food and drinks in most areas of its 99 branches.

• Digital divides in Internet use persist, specifically on the basis of income, education and age.
• High-speed connections are becoming far more popular.
• More Canadians are participating in blogging, chatting and downloading.
• Internet use rates are highest in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

This was the first time the survey included Canadians aged 16 and 17.

• Movie files are much larger than music files and take up a lot of room.
• The lack of a universal digital video format that allows movies to be played on any device.

According to the article, iTunes starts off with a collection of more then 1,200 movie titles, including 200 of those in high definition. Rentals will cost from $3.99 to $5.99, and the cost to purchase movies is between $9.99 and $19.99.

According to online chatter, a recent patent application filed by some Apple employees hints that the company is working on making its mobile devices, like the iPod, solar powered. MacRumors.com briefly discusses the advantages and challenges of doing this.

Youth court:

• Fewer young people have been appearing before a judge since the enactment of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in April 2003, and fewer are being sent to custody.
• The youth court caseload has declined in every province and territory since the introduction of the Act.
• The proportion of cases in which young people either pleaded guilty, or were found guilty, has been gradually declining.

Adult criminal court:

• Cases in adult criminal courts are taking longer to complete.
• Fewer cases are being disposed of in adult criminal court each year.
• Nearly half of the cases completed in 2006/2007 involved crimes against the person and crimes against property.

Reported in The Globe and Mail

McMaster University Library is now using WordPress and PmWiki to host blogs and wikis for interested faculty and staff. As Amanda Etches-Johnson, the leader of the project, says in a news release, this new service responds to faculty's growing interest in using blogs and wikis to extend and encourage class discussions, group work and collaboration. See Amanda's blog post "A toolbox for faculty" for more details on this project.

Thanks to Nicole Engard for first spotting it.

 Enjoy!

Thanks to Dealbreaker for noticing.

I've been attending mesh for the past 2 years and I can't recommend a more inspiring Web conference experience.

HP BookPrep, a new offering from HP's IdeaLab, is a print-on-demand service where you can order a book (current or out-of-print or rare or damaged) and have it produced for you as a print-ready PDF file.

• more than one-third of Canadian adults, over half of them women, used the Internet to find health information
• about 38% reported that they had discussed their findings with a doctor or other health care professional
• of the estimated 15 million Canadians who used the Internet from home in 2005, 58% went online at some point to find health information
• The type of health information sought by Canadian adults online include information on specific diseases, lifestyle information (diet, nutrition, exercise), specific symptoms, drugs or medications, and alternative therapies 

 The Toronto Star is reporting today that the University of Toronto's Robarts Library will be receiving a new $75 million upgrade for the first time in 35 years. The Ontario government is also expected to announce today a $15 million grant to go towards this project. The revitalization and expansion plan includes:

• a new wing with over 1,000 new study spaces
• improvement of over 1,000 existing study spaces
• adding over 1,000 more study spaces to the existing building
• outdoor ampitheatre-style seating
• the removal of some of the upper concrete walls to let the sun come in

• Offline web applications: Programmers using Web technologies to build desktop applications that people can run online or off.
• Reality mining: Using data gathered by cell phones to learn more about human behavior and social interactions.
• Wireless power: Moving towards a world of wireless electricity.

See Globe and Mail article

• What is KM?
• Challenges to KM successes
• Key KM skills
• Importance of KM sponsors
• Suggestions to ensure success
• Knowledge managers vs. librarians
• Measuring the success of KM projects