The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has given a grant to Drexel University, working with the University of Michigan and Florida State University, to transform the Internet Public Library (IPL) into a virtual teaching and learning laboratory for digital reference.  The grant is part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian awards.

According to Drexel, the project will help librarians as well as students in library and information science programs to keep up with the new technological developments in digital reference services.  Users want to access information around the clock via handhelds, cell phone text messaging and online virtual environments, the university said.

“The grant will be used to develop and disseminate digital reference curricula, establish an online learning community to support the IPL, and design and determine the feasibility of a technological training center for digital librarianship,” according to the statement. 

Because of the grant, more library and information science students will receive hands-on digital library experience and more faculty members will be able to collaborate on new projects in the area of digital reference.

I have seen people at conferences taking cameraphone pictures of presenters’ PowerPoints, notes, or whiteboard jottings but haven’t tried it myself.  The Lifehacker post on Qipit caught my eye as I thought about what one might usefully do with those shots after you have them.

Qipit is a web app that can turn digital photos from a cellphone or camera into a PDF.  In essence, you use the digital camera to make a copy of a document by sending photos of it via email or MMS, or uploading them to your Qipit account.  You can archive and manage online digital copies of up to 100 documents for free.  The documents can be tagged and made public if you like.

Gina Trapani says that Qipit handles lower-res photos better than ScanR which requires a 2MP cameraphone, but finds the site a bit slow and flaky.  “Still, once it stabilizes and speeds up, Qipit will be a nice option for students and professionals who want to capture that whiteboard quickly.”

Qipit has a cameraphone compatibility chart here. 

I learned about Firefox add-on Shareaholic from Amit Agarwal and immediately downloaded it and tried it out.  Works beautifully. 

When you are on a Web page you want to share, just right click, move down the menu to Shareaholic and make your selection.  You can submit the Web page to digg, del.icio.us, Facebook, google bookmarks, Magnolia, reddit, StumbleUpon, or twitter. Or you can e-mail the page.

While you are there you can check whether the web page you’re on has been dugg, and how many times it has been saved on del.icio.us.  Stats are displayed in your browser, at your request.

Several blogs are posting about the new Zoho Start app that represents first steps toward integrating the various applications in Zoho’s online office suite into a single cohesive whole.  Zoho includes a number of separate applications for writing documents, creating databases, managing projects, and showing presentation, among others.

Zoho Start has a centralized login allowing you to access various Zoho apps instead of having to move to different URLs to get from Writer to Show or other Zoho apps.

Read/WriteWeb says Zoho Start is still quite rough around the edges but applauds their effort to build a cohesive web-based suite.

Will podcasting survive?
Read/WriteWeb says that the original idea of a podcast was simple. A user-generated audio broadcast (radio) thrown on top of RSS so that people were aware of it and could consume the content on demand.

Anyone with a decent microphone, a computer, and recording software can create one, and large audio files are available to many since broadband is widespread.  When podcasting was introduced in 2004 it quickly became popular, but that may be changing.

The post contains trend charts and RWW’s ideas about why podcasting seems to be stagnating.

Free video stock footage resources online
I love free stock photos and image sites so I naturally noticed this post on free video stock footage available online.

At Robin Good’s you’ll find the first hand-picked selection of readily-available 100% copyright-free online video footage sources online that you can start using immediately:  Public domain video — 9 legal sources by Michael Pick

Back to school with open source
Free stuff:  Office Suites, Project Management, Image Editing, Organization, Stress Management — an open source version of Risk game.
 

MyHeritage is an online genealogy site with 180 million people profiles, eventually hoping to have 3 billion profiles, including people who’ve passed away.

There are four products now available, three of them free: Family Tree Builder, MyHeritage Research (with a robust search engine of many genealogy databases), MyHeritage Face Recognition.  Family Pages has a monthly subscription fee, although there is one free plan with a small amount of storage space. 

At their site they say, “MyHeritage.com was founded by a team of people with a passion for genealogy and a strong grasp of Internet technology. Our vision has been to make it easier for people around the world to use the power of the Internet to discover their heritage and strengthen their bonds with family and friends.”Version 2.0 of Family Tree Builder was released this week.  It is a major update of th free genealogy program, from which you can create a family tree, add photos, and optionally publish to the Web for sharing with family members.  You can download it here, it’s 100% free.

They have also recently released a new project to connect all individuals on the planet via family ties, called the Smart Matching Initiative.  It’s based on their free Smart Matching™ technology.   [via TechCrunch]

Track and explore real-time earthquakes and volcanic activity
Three helpful resources:  USGS, Google’s Earthquake Mapplet, and Google’s Volcano Mapplet [via Lat Long Blog]

Where the Web archives are
Lifhacker points to Historical information, Multimedia, Print media, Science, Web-specific information, and Government.

72 more Blog tips from the blogging community
A compilation of blogging tips from those who do it.
 

Google Maps — easily embedded
Now you can easily embed Google Maps (except Traffic maps, Street View imagery, or Mapplets) into blogs or website by clicking on the “link to this page” link, then copy and paste the code.  This is a good way to share maps you have created with others. [via Lifehacker]

Creating a Movie with Web 2.0 products
Read/WriteWeb has a toolkit for budget movie making from from idea to finished film using as many web 2.0 products as possible. This is a follow-up to a previous post reviewing eight online video editors.

Should Do This: Internet suggestion box
O’Reilly Radar posts on a new product call Should Do This.  At the new site they say, We all have ideas for making things better. Ideas to improve a product, a company, your city, or just about anything in the world. Should Do This is the best suggestion box for getting your ideas heard. Suggest improvements for the world around you, see what others are suggesting and join the dialog of thinkers and tinkerers. Let people know what you think would make just about anything, better.”

If you can make a suggestion directly, they encourage you to go for it, but you may get more traction by going public where others who have the same suggestion can add their voices.  Go here to get started.

Facebook integrates book swap feature into Marketplace
Facebook has developed a book swap feature for its Marketplace application called Marketplace Book Exchange that enables users to buy and sell books from and to each other. 

Books are identified by buyers and sellers by their ISBN numbers, and “curiously it looks as though there is no way to view all of the books offered in a particular network,” says TechCrunch.

Those who enjoyed Moo’s MiniCards  — calling cards printed with your choice of Flickr photos — will welcome the news that Moo now has two new products:  sticker books and notecards.   [via LibrarianInBlack] 

StickerBook details:  

• 90 stickers in a book for $9.99 
• Stickers are printed on high-quality, scratch-proof vinyl
• Six stickers are printed per sheet
• There are 15 tear-out sheets
• Each sticker is 22mm x 22mm
• You can choose the colour of your StickerBook

See the FAQ for complete information.

Moo Notecards details:

• Box of 16 cards with envelopes for $24.99.
• The flat cards are designed to fold and stand
• Use up to 16 different images or designs on your square NoteCards
• Have up to 6 lines of text printed on the reverse, or write your own message
• 100mm x 100mm picture area
• Printed on heavy paper with a smooth satin finish

Want to know more? Read the NoteCards FAQ. 

And more Flickr news — Nikon has opened an educational site on Flickr called the Nikon Digital Learning Center.

Get tips and techniques from the experts. Find resources on action, nature, travel and close-up photography.  [via Mashable]