ALA TechSource has an intriguing article by Daniel A. Freeman called “The G Drive and Cloud Computing.”  He discusses the possibility that Google will make a giant hard drive available to all through the Internet, using Google’s file system.  He also discusses relevance to libraries.  Read the article here:

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2009/01/the-g-drive-and-cloud-computing.html

[SD]

Are you interested in learning about electronic health records?  The NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region held an Electronic Health Record Forum in October of 2008.  The purpose of the forum was to “ensure that health sciences librarians are an integral and important part of the electronic health records (EHR) team in healthcare organizations.”  Speakers included several medical informatics experts.

The forum audio was recorded, and you can access it as well as notes and resources from this page:

http://nnlm.gov/pnr/advocacy/ehr-forum.html

[SD]

Alison Aldrich, Technology Coordinator for the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region, wrote an interesting blog post called, “(Fire)Wallflowers Invited to Dance?” She presents some evidence that firewall rules against Web 2.0 tools (such as blogs, wikis, etc.) are beginning to relax a bit at hospital libraries.  Her blog post is available at:

http://nnlm.gov/pnr/dragonfly/2009/01/27/firewallflowers/

Well worth reading!  Note also the comment below the blog post.

[SD]

Sharon Dennis, Technology Coordinator, and Rebecca Brown, Technology Liaison, are asking for volunteers to participate in a regional social bookmarking project. Social bookmarking is a Web 2.0 tool. Delicious is a social bookmarking site that allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Delicious can be used to tag any site that you feel is pertinent to your professional work and also of interest to medical librarians throughout the region.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, please e-mail Sharon at sdennis@lib.med.utah.edu or Rebecca at rbrown3@kumc.edu.

Join me on February 19, 2009 at 11 a.m. CT for a 60 minute session to explore RSS: Really Simple Syndication. The session will be held online using Adobe Connect; all you need to participate is a web browser and a telephone (the phone call is free of charge).

To sign up for the presentation, contact Rebecca Brown (NN/LM Technology Liaison) at rbrown3@kumc.edu

WebJunction is pleased to host the third cookbook from TechSoup’s MaintainIT Project, Planning for Success. This free online resource brings together the most current ideas and best practices for planning, building, and managing your library’s computer technology. Librarians from around the country have contributed their experience and knowledge on over 50 topics ranging from security solutions and strategic maintenance practices to community building experiences. http://www.webjunction.org/maintainit-cookbooks/articles/content/34716950 [posted on WebJunction Newsletter - January 2009 Crossroads] scb

“PrintWhatYouLike is a free web page editor that gives you control of how web pages look when printed.” Watch the short demo and see how easy it is to print only the elements you want on a web page. You can eliminate inline ads and unwanted text. There is nothing to download. Just enter the URL for the page you want to print. http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/[rb]

From School Library Journal

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1410038141.html

[rb]

I am reposting a post I made a year ago.

With the whole year ahead of us, you might want to consider backing up important files on your home and work computer. If you ever save a file to your Desktop or other place on your local hard-drive, there is a chance that it is not included in nightly Network back-ups. Microsoft has a short article on the subject at:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/what.mspx

Windows XP Professional, XP Home and Windows Vista all have a built-in back-up utility. You can read more about it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/backup.mspx Instructions for making manual back-up copies are included in the article.

And then, once you have backed up your files, you need to protect your back-up files. You can read more about it here: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/tips.mspx

You can read about different external storage options at: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/storage.mspx

There are also online storage options available:
SugarSync http://www.sugarsync.com/
Drop Box http://www.getdropbox.com/ (Free)

[rb]

iSpring Free will convert your PowerPoint documents into a Flash document, which can then be easily uploaded to your web site, blog, or e-mail. iSpring Free is a free download and includes a PowerPoint plug-in. [SD]