Webcast — 10 Ways to Wreck Your Database

Want to make sure your database loses data, duplicates records, and can only handle 5 transactions a minute? Want to make your application developers curse you, your sysadmin hate you, and get yourself fired without a reference? These ten database design techniques will set you on the road to downtime perdition and maintenance hell.

Date: Friday, July 10th at 10 am PT
Price: Free (registration required)
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes

Source: O’Reilly Media

From the Web Site:

C&RL News “Job of a Lifetime” column editor Erin Dorney talks with Brian Mathews about his work as User Experience Librarian at Georgia Tech. Mathews is now assistant university librarian for outreach and academic services at the University of California -Santa Barbara. Read more about Mathews in the June 2009 issue of C&RL News.

Direct to Interview

The program runs about 14 minutes.

Source: C&RL News

From an Announcement:

“Libraries have emerged as one of the go-to place for people looking for work or filing for unemployment, starting new businesses, or learning how to use computers for the first time,” said Anne-Imelda Radice, IMLS Director. “Libraries are proving just how important they are to their communities. In these episodes, library leaders share their expertise so others don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

Libraries to the Rescue provides valuable insights from:

+ Mary Boone, State Librarian of North Carolina
+ Bernard Margolis, State Librarian of New York
+ Sheryl Mase, Michigan Library’s Director of Statewide Services
+ Jan Walsh, State Librarian of Washington, and Randall Simmons, Program Manager for Library Development in Washington
+ Kendall Wiggin, State Librarian of Connecticut

The five episodes cover a range of topics, including how libraries are increasing access to key information through virtual libraries, the importance of broadband access, and new partnerships between libraries and state and federal agencies to help citizens access all types of assistance. The Libraries to the Rescue episodes are short (12-15 minute), digestible audio episodes designed to educate IMLS’s library audience.

Direct to Podcasts and Text Transcripts

Direct to a List of Services Mentioned in the Podcasts

Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

From a News Post:

HBO Archives is making complete episodes from The March of Time newsreel and documentary series, produced from 1935 to 1967, available for online viewing at its stock footage portal.

The award-winning series, produced by Time Inc., contains original footage shot in the 1930s through 1960s, with historic footage dating back to 1913. HBO Archives, launched in 2002, reintroduced The March of Time in 2007 and has been re-cataloging, restoring and transferring the original 35mm films to HD video. HBO Archives has also been developing additional The March of Time productions.

“We are thrilled to put portions of this vast, unique collection online for instant access to researchers,” said Barbara Thomas, the senior VP of HBO Sports. “Unlike the traditional news-style featurettes of the Hollywood newsreels, the long-form documentary style of The March of Time newsreels stood out from its competitors. This series is priceless for all of today’s storytellers.”

Direct to The March of Time Collection
To view online you must register (takes about 2 minutes). Viewing the online video appears to be free.

Source: WorldsSreen (via AMIA)

From the AMIA Newsbrief

“Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez, ‘You may remember the FedFlix program from Public.Resource.Org. We got the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, to send a couple dozen videotapes every month. We digitized the tapes, and sent them back to the government with a DVD. No cost to .gov, and we got public domain data to post as high-res stock footage, plus great casual viewing on YouTube and the Internet Archive. The program went well for a year, the DC folks were happy, and I’m pleased to say we were able to renew the Joint Venture, but with a twist. They’re now sending a minimum of 100 tapes a month and we have rights to all 6,000 masters in their warehouse.’”

Direct to FedFlix (via Internet Archive) ||| Direct to FedFlix (YouTube)

Source: BoingBoing (via Association of Moving Images Archivists)

Around the World in 32 Minutes With The Geek Atlas

In this webcast, author John Graham-Cumming presents a tour of 32 places from his book, The Geek Atlas, in 32 minutes. From Jaipur to Hawaii, via Spain, Paris, London, New York and beyond, The Geek Atlas covers places that will fascinate anyone interested in science, technology or mathematics.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:00 am
Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)
+ Free registration

Source: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

This video webcast was recorded at the Library of Congress on March 24, 2009. The presenter is David Hay. It runs 102 minutes

From the Description:

When an organization is planning to develop or revise the automation of information processing, a typical first step is to analyze the underlying structure of its business. The ‘entity/relationship’ (or simply ‘data’) model is a good vehicle for doing this. What has been discovered over the years is that there are a number of structures that are universal and applicable to all kinds of organizations, both private and public. There are four fundamental categories: People and Organizations, Geography, Physical Resources and Activities and Events. Overlaying all of these are the topics of Accounting and Information Resources. This webcast will also relate this model to the Library of Congress Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR).

Source: LC

This audio only podcast discusses finding business records in the National Archives. This presentation is part of the National Archives podcast series.

Direct to Podcast (MP3 File)

Source: National Archives (UK)

From the Summary:

Scholarship in the digital age is characterized by data-intensive, information-intensive, distributed, interdisciplinary, collaborative research. The same can be said of learning, especially as the research infrastructure is leveraged to support cyberlearning. At the intersection of these themes lie research data, which have become a new stream of scholarly capital. Data can be aggregated to ask new questions, in new ways, and to make comparisons over time and circumstance that were not previously possible.

Capturing and curating data for reuse is among the key challenges of cyberinfrastructure. If research data can be made useful for learning, the payoffs are even greater, as students can engage in scholarly processes, learn by doing, and explore their own research questions. Making research data useful for learning is even more difficult than for scholarship, however. This talk will compare developments in scholarly information infrastructure and in cyberlearning, reflecting on the implications for scholarship in the digital age.

This presentation by Christine Borgman, Professor and Presidential Chair in Information Studies at UCLA, was recorded on May 29, 2009.

Direct to Video Download

Source: Oxford Internet Institute

A chat with two attorney’s who reviewed some of the terms in the latest edition of Black’s. They also discuss how they use this reference tool.

Direct to Audio (MP3)

Source: West Publishing / Thomson Reuters

See Also: Black’s Law Dictionary Now Available for the iPhone

This panel discussion took place at MIT on April 24, 2009 and runs about two hours. It is moderated by Peter Walsh. The event features four speakers:

+ John Miles Foley
+ Lisa Gitelman
+ Rick Prelinger
+ Ann Wolpert

From the Text Summary:

Scholars of “dead tree technologies” feel increasingly uneasy in a culture overwhelmingly consumed with innovation. Although we may “live in a condition of perpetual flux,” David Thorburn hopes that “we won’t allow utopians and futurists to intimidate us.” Moderator Peter Walsh poses a series of questions to the archivists and historians on this panel, who reflect the anxiety and exhilaration of a digital age that is constantly transforming their disciplines.

Direct to Webcast

Source: MIT World

From a Blog Post:

Our team is hard at work going through the tens of thousands of comments, suggestions, and questions coming in about Wolfram|Alpha.

We thought you’d enjoy hearing Stephen Wolfram respond to some of this feedback directly.

This Thursday, June 4, at 4 pm US CDT, we invite you to join us for a live webcast as Stephen answers some of the questions you’ve sent in. He’ll discuss the problems, the fixes, the future, and more.

Source: Wolfram Alpha Blog

Listen online.
Segment runs about four minutes.

From the Summary:

The White House has launched several new Web sites as part of its “Open Government Initiative.” The Obama administration calls it a groundbreaking expansion of citizen access to the data and process of government. NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook quotes Sunlight Executive Director Ellen Miller saying the government should make it a priority to get the most important information up sooner.

Source: NPR (via Sunlight Foundation)

From the NY Times Post:

The Internet is awash in content — and a whole lot of it is junk, spam or inane status updates. How do you begin to navigate through the zillions of news articles, Web sites, tweets and other stuff online to find content that matters to you?

These are the online equivalents of the extremely savvy, clued-in friends you always turn to for new new music, and who always get an invite to your cocktail party because you know they’ve got something interesting to talk about or show off.

The following video “curator” sites are mentioned in this article:

+ nizmlab

+ Chunnel.tv

+ Video Antville

Source: The New York Times

PublicRadioFan is a wonderful database that we’ve been writing about for years. It’s not only browsable but also shows you what’s airing or streaming at any given time on public radio stations around the globe. You can personalize the page for your time zone, direct links to favorite programs, etc.

In the past couple of years, PublicRadioFan has been gathering direct links to podcasts (here the podcast format is being used as an alternative delivery vehicle) for public radio programs from broadcasters around the globe.

If you’ve never visited PublicRadioFan and its podcast directory, it’s more than worthy of your attention. More than 1,250 public radio podcasts and the directory continues to expand.