Science Reference Center Subscription is Now Active

As many of you know, SEMLS has selected Ebsco’s Science Reference Center as the new database subscription available to SEMLS members this year. The funds for a new database subscription were made available after the state took over the region’s ProQuest newspaper subscriptions. Ebsco has finished setting up access for SEMLS members. Since we already subscribe to Literary Reference Center through Ebsco, the access information is similar to what you use for that product. To access Science Reference Center and Literary Reference Center from one link, use the following URL: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,cookie,uid&custid=xxxx With this URL, you need to replace xxxx with your library's Ebsco customer ID. This is the same customer ID that is used in your library's link to Literary Reference Center. It usually starts with the letter s and is followed by seven numbers. If you want to link directly to Science Reference Center, the URL is: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,cookie,uid&profile=scienceref&custid=xxxx Once again, the xxxx needs to be replaced with your library's Ebsco customer ID. If you have any questions about setting up access for this subscription or cannot find your Ebsco customer ID, feel free to send an e-mail to helpdesk@semls.org.

Wikipedia Changes May Become More Restrictive

According to the NY Times, Wikipedia may restrict who can make updates to the encyclopedia. Under the new system, only registered, reliable users will be able to make live updates to Wikipedia. All others will be flagged to be reviewed by one of those reliable users. Will librarians be more accepting of Wikipedia with these rules? And is this a good move for Wikipedia? According to the article, under a test case with German Wikipedia, some revisions took as long as three weeks to appear on the site.

Digital Paper: a few years late, and not so flexible - The Boston Globe

Digital Paper: a few years late, and not so flexible - The Boston Globe

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Top 100 Web Apps for 2008

OK - so it's the beginning of the new year, and it looks like I'll be posting a bunch of lists over the next couple of days. Here are the Top 100 Web Apps for 2008 from WebWare. Some, like WordPress, Flickr, and Pandora, are old favorites. Others, like ooVoo, are fairly new. I'll have to spend some time over the next week checking out some of these sites.

Top Technology Breakthroughs from Wired Magazine

Wired's list of Top Technology Breakthroughs for 2008 gives us some good ideas of what will be seeing over the next couple of years. Some, like the edible chip, are just creepy. Others, like flexible displays, could have a big impact on libraries as we continue to wait for the eBook device that will catch on with the public.