http://userslib.com Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:05:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This is a follow-up to my last post. From the Ann Arbor.com news article: Next stop for the majority of the card catalogs is U-M Property Disposition on North Campus, where the university will attempt to sell the old catalogs one by one. Courant said he isn't quite sure who is ... http://userslib.com/2010/03/07/what-to-do-with-an-old-card-catalog/ The University of Michigan's card catalogs are scheduled to be removed from the library stacks tomorrow. We desperately need the space but I'm still a little sad to see them go. Even though I'm firmly stationed in the digital realm, I still love the analog world - especially artifacts that ... http://userslib.com/2010/03/07/farewell-to-the-um-card-catalog/ If you're new to web accessibility, it can be super overwhelming to figure out how to get started. Over the last few years I've spent quite a few hours days months pouring over the tedious guidelines, trying different techniques, playing with tools & evaluators, and reading books, articles, and tutorials... ... http://userslib.com/2010/02/09/quickish-start-guide-for-accessibility-evaluations/ NCSU recently launched a new mobile website - and it's very impressive! It offers standard features like catalog search, locations & hours, etc., but also allows you to view a map of where available computers are and webcams of the libraries including the line at the coffee shop. Love it. Read ... http://userslib.com/2009/12/04/ncsu-library-mobile/ It's that time of the year again - to take a minute and think about our incoming college freshmen! They were born in 1990/1991! As a genX kid I'm most astonished by the fact that the baby from Nirvana's Nevermind album cover is one of them. Here are some technology related highlights ... http://userslib.com/2009/08/24/take-a-deep-breath-and-welcome-the-class-of-2012-2/ Usability guru Jakob Nielsen released a study this week about mobile usability: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html. The result? "The mobile user experience is miserable." Here are some highlights: The average success rate for mobile websites was 59% compared to 80% for regular sites. Small screens are limiting since they have to show less at a time ... http://userslib.com/2009/07/23/nielsens-mobile-usability-study/ Some photos I took a couple of months ago of some of our lovely special collections items. Full size here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sukisuki/sets/72157614076348795/ http://userslib.com/2009/04/28/i-take-photos-of-things-special-collections/ NYPL Mobile Congrats to NYPL for the beta release of a fantastic NYPL mobile website! They call it a "very rough beta" but I didn't see anything rough about it. Not only does it do a great job in providing key information (browse events, contact information, library locations, hours, & directions) in ... http://userslib.com/2009/01/23/2-new-mobile-library-interfaces/ The latest Horizon Report has just been released. The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression ... http://userslib.com/2009/01/21/2009-horizon-report-mobile-technology/ The new bad usability calendar is out for 2009. http://www.badusability.com/ http://userslib.com/2009/01/13/bad-usability-calendar-2009/