Search Archive

30 Mar 2007

Will libraries die?

Medical Wikis

7 Mar 2007

Ten Tech Trends for Librarians 2007

Do we practice what we preach?

My today’s mailbox included two special emails. One contained an attachment of proceeding of an International Conference having about 600 pages. I was very glad to receive it and hurried went through it. But it was the second email which forced my to think – it contained information on availability of another conference proceedings as a priced publication. I am asking myself a number of questions. Why should not the conference proceedings be archived somewhere and available through Open Access? What is the ultimate aim of any conference? Why do authors contribute and participate in such conferences? What are the organizers looking for? Perhaps all this is done to spread and share experiences among the professionals. But then, are there better ways?



LIS community from the very beginning had been the champions of “Access to Knowledge”. Why can’t then the proceeding of every LIS conference be made Open Access through archiving? Aren’t their enough LIS Repositories? Or we do not practice what we preach.



While I seek answers from my inner self, may I appeal to LIS Conference Organizers – Let the Knowledge Spread through Open Access.

6 Mar 2007

Me, My Phone and Internet

When, I am not in Office, I use my Mobile Phone to Access Internet.



However, I do not use expensive solutions like Black Berry.



What I use is a Sony Ericsson, k750i to access Internet. One can even use a low-end phone like NOKIA 6030 or any other phone having a GPRS facility (About Rs. 3K). I use Pre-Paid SIM (TRUMP) from MTNL (Delhi), Which gives best value for money. For GPRS facility there is no rental for TRUMP. It only charges 2 (Two) Paise per KB of download. With this I can:



1. Read my Gmails (Other mails should also not be a problems

2. Reply to email in that is urgent.

3. Moderate a number of Yahoo Groups

4. Track http://openmed.nic.in by logging in.

5. Do Google search at times.

6. Login in Orkut (A social networking plateform).

7. Can use Google Talk and other (IM) accounts using a JAVA application http://www.reporo.com/

8. Can also use an Innovative Email Client (http://flurry.com/).

9. Do a WIKIPEDIA Search.

10. I forgot to mention that I use OperaMini (http://www.operamini.com/ as my browser.

11. In fact one can visit any normal site with GPRS. However there is some problems with AJAX enabled sites.



Only problem is the tedious typing that one has to do on the normal phone keypad. PDAs / Phones with QWERY keyboards (Touch Screen like O2 or Blackberry type) can make typing more easy. Anyway, just keeping in touch with emails and Just-in-Time searching can also be done. But then for Serious Typing - Cyber Cafes are always around. After all My requirements are not that of a Businessman!!



5 Mar 2007

TOXNET





TOXNET

Databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases.

PubDrug





Pubdrug

The open access drug resource

Wikisurgery





Wiki Surgery

Wikisurgery,
the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
360 articles in English

Ask Dr Wiki





Ask Dr Wiki

Ask Dr Wiki

A medical wiki with the goal of creating a collective online memory for physicians, fellows, residents, and medical students.

IzyMail





IzyMail - WebMail in your Inbox

IzyMail enables you to access webmail from major providers such as AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail or Windows Live with any eMail application.

E-Journal module for Drupal



E-Journal module for Drupal

This module allows you to create and control own electronic journals in Drupal - you can set up as many journals as you want, add authors and editors. Module gives you issue management and provides list of vocabularies (to browse) and archive of published articles.