Over the weekend the NYTimes.com published an article, Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast, by Matt Richtel. The article’s explains how the major IT companies have formed a non-profit organization to deal with information overload. The new group, Information Overload Research Group, has resources on its web site that include, tips, and research articles on email and information overload. Some of the articles are available freely online, others not. It is not a new topic, but maybe the creators of the tools may find ways to tame the beast.  Also, here is a discussion on the Chronicle’s Tech Therapy podcast on email overload.

Today, on the Chronicle.com’s Wired Campus blog sociologist “Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s sociology department, has discovered that students aren’t nearly as Web-savvy as they, or their elders, assume.” Most librarians and many professors have already discovered this. This Q&A article is a good reminder that most “digital natives” are not knowledgeable about web technology nor the many tools (e.g. search engines) they use work. Read the article’s comments too.

I just attended the Off-Campus Library Service conference in Salt Lake Cityand received many good ideas.  One session discussed using screencasting sofware (e.g. Adobe Captivate) and how the library can track usage with Google Analytics.  It appears the average time a student watches a library demo is about 2 minutes.  A few sessions discussed e-resources (proprietary e-books, e-reference, free e-books, government sites, etc).  Two of the session were trying to figure if students use e-resources and how to make student more aware of them.  Another tried a visual display to simulate “browsing” the reference stacks.   There is no doubt on and off campus want more access to electronic resources, but trying to figure out the best way for students to find and these resources is a challenge.

Today, the WashingtonPost ran an article about WEbook.com.  It is “an online publishing platform that allows writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators and others to join forces to create great works of fiction and non-fiction, thrillers and essays, short stories, children’s books and more.”  For example, multiple people may write one book together.  All of the “publications” are online, but this week WEbook is publishing its first print book, Pandora, written by 72 authors.  I could not think of a more appropriate title.

PC Magazine has put together a list of The Best Free Software.  It places each program into a category (e.g. Operating System, Blogging, Firewall).  I have used some of these, especially the ones listed in the “Hall of Fame.”  Look through this list and see if any of the program will make life a little easier.

A friend (DanToday) of mine clued me in to the MIT SIMILE project.   The SIMILE Exhibit project is quite interesting.  The Exhibit page provides examples and I foresee many uses for it.  We probably will use it for our archival online exhibits, and may use it for finding periodical indexes and databases, and possibly a journal or book finder.

EBSCOhost has recently updated it Visual Search, for the better. It now is Flash-based and no longer uses Grokker or those awful circles. The visual search is more user friendly, but I do not think it makes the quality or relevance review of articles any easier or faster. I think one might be more quick to dismiss an article in the visual search interface versus the normal list interface (I see a study on the horizon). Plus, one is not able to search a specific field unless he knows the field codes (e.g. SO = Journal). I am now contemplating how to teach this search interface during my instruction. View EBSCO’s Flash demo of the new Visual Search and try it yourself.

The 2008 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report was recently released and it provides quality information to help institutions, faculty, and students to better understand trends in technology and higher education.  The report discusses six emerging technologies, critical challenges to higher education institutions, and significant trends.  Some of the report restates what is already known, but places the information in context and provides a time line for adoption.  This report is always worth the time to read.