• Express Scribe – Digital Transcription Playback System and Transcription Pedal Software
  (tags: transcription software)

• NFL Films’ Exhaustive Archive Is Rushing Into the Digital Age
  (tags: digital library video sports)

www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/09/25/cu_baseballfranchise_in_works

I have the following to say about the possibility of minor league baseball in Champaign-Urbana:

* Woot!
* They should totally open a franchise here. We’re ripe with sports fans and they’re right, summers kinda lull without college sports.
* I would be good for at least a season ticket, if not a split of a season ticket with someone else.
* I would consider investing in this franchise, as long as it didn’t have a dorky name, like the Bandits or the Colts.
* I will consume no less than 2 beers at each game, doing my part to make the effort of obtaining the liquor license worthwhile.
* I would buy the giant pickle bucket of mini-David sunflower seeds bags and devour them religiously.
* Do they need a librarians/stats guy?

It’s a little disappointing an independent league and not a MLB-incubator league is considering CU, but it’s a start. The renovations to Illini Field alone make the process worthwhile even if the franchise doesn’t stick around long, the uni would still gain (ie: the videowall thanks to the Bears)

The “Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film” is the first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians. The Library and the Information Science Library will screen the new film at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 and 5 in Room 126 LIS Building. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the LIS library. Tickets, available at the door, are $8 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. Admission is free for librarians, library employees, and LIS students.

Using the context of American movies, the film will hold some surprises for people who may think they know what librarians do. American film contains hundreds of examples of librarians and libraries on screen – some positive, some negative, some laughable and some dead wrong. Dozens of interviews of real librarians will be interwoven with movie clips of cinematic librarians and serve as transitions between the themes of censorship, intellectual freedom, children and librarians, pay equity and funding issues, and the value of reading. “The Hollywood Librarian” is being released nationwide during Banned Books Week as a fundraiser for libraries. It is an independent film, written and directed by Ann M. Seidl and produced by her company, Overdue Productions.

For background on the film and early reviews, visit the film’s Web site: www.hollywoodlibrarian.com.

From the website,

“The Hollywood Librarian is an illuminating portrait of librarians as they have been portrayed in the movies–often bespectacled, occasionally glamorous, sometimes too brainy for their own good—juxtaposed with the real-life librarians, both men and women, who are the gatekeepers of knowledge in an increasingly digital and globalizing world. A touching, amusing, insightful and entirely delightful film, The Hollywood Librarian also manages to make critical points about how censorship still intrudes on our lives and how the freedom to read remains a right we must all defend.”

~Vartan Gregorian
President, Carnegie
Corporation of New York

I’ve got a conflict on Tuesday night, but I plan on going to the Friday night showing. Too bad I don’t have a corduroy blazer with elbow patches and tortoise shell (or solid black plastic) rectangular glasses. If you want to come with, let me know.

Mental reminder to buy some Yonder Mountain String Band stuff. Like their Mountain Tracks vol 4 with the killer Girlfriend is Better 13 minute lovefest. Everything is better with a banjo.

Also, mental note to listen to more WPGU on Sunday nights after 10pm. Jambana and Red Light District play good music.

www.myspace.com/yondermountainstringband

Would I be interested in a job like this? Am I even qualified for it? I wonder if I know anyone at the Library of Congress. I know I know people in the DC area.

Before anyone freaks out, I’m not really job hunting. I’m trying to figure out what people with my skill sets do, and a good way to do that is by watching job ads. It’s an interesting way to evaulate the skills I already have and help me plan for what I need to focus on next if I want to obtain one of those roles.

jsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/getjob.asp?JobId=62451862&AVSDM=2007%2D09%2D14+10%3A58%3A10&TabNum=1&rc=5

Develops policies and guidelines for multimedia projects and programs relevant to the Library’s digital holdings. Applies technical understanding of multimedia digital content, systems, techniques and technologies.

Conducts IT strategic planning and project management activities related to the life cycle management of digital content. Plans and/or accomplishes a range of IT projects for digital library applications.

Plans and manages projects for digital library applications related to Web-based systems such as monitoring emerging technology and making recommendations accordingly. Provides major input towards a long-term Web technology strategy. Installs and maintains Web-based systems, Web-based information services and/or Web-based research tools.

Analyzes ways in which information technology might improve workflow, operational duties, or information services. Evaluates the usefulness and usability of databases and software applications. Works with computer specialists to translate library requirements into information systems.

Serves as a project leader, team leader or chairperson for working groups, task forces, or committees which have been assigned responsibility for digital library projects and programs. Participates in planning the work of a team, including formulating goals and objectives, task plans, milestones, critical paths, and deliverables.

I wonder how LoC would feel if I told them almost every digital library experience I have has sucked, and the only things that are somewhat close to be usable digital repos don’t masquerade as ones — things like search engines and Flickr and YouTube. I wonder how progressively non-librarian they would want this IT specialist to be, or if they would allow the person to explore why libraries are so far behind the interactive social repository webspheres and see how they thrive as libraries without classic library norms.

Flickr has an ad on the left bar of its post-login main page for boredomhurts.com that really is starting to freak me out. It’s this intense face shot of a guy looking at you. Well, that’s not true. He’s more looking over your left shoulder. At what? What’s behind me that I should be looking at?

And only his face is in focus — even his ears are blurry. That contrast, and the fact I can’t read his pouty expression — is he annoyed? scared? aroused? amuzed? — is beginning to freak me out. Kudos to the photographer, because my eyes are drawn to it each time I load the page, but I wish they’d move on to a new picture. This one is freaking me out.

Oh, and there’s new random pictures from the week up on flickr.

• Woman crashes into six vehicles : St. Augustine Record
  (tags: dumbpeople)

• The Ultimate Steal Offers Students Easy Access to Microsoft Office 2007: Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 is offered via the Web to higher-ed students looking for a premium Microsoft Office suite at an affordable price.
  (tags: microsoft)

This is stuck in my head now, and soon it will be in yours.