Sure, it may be an outmoded idea, not really a 21st Century Idea.  And sure, the State of Utah has huge budget cuts and we need to keep a balanced budget. And sure, I support our Governor Herbert and our legislature on keeping a balanced budget. After all, we try to do that at home and it seems to be workin’.

I especially support USL admin for doing their homework and finding the least used service, since we can’t keep them all in these tight times. Hopefully one day we’ll be back to the days we had pre-recession. I’m all for that.

Moreover, many people may have given up the radio for something zestier like facebook, like twitter, like Salt Lake Tribune online, who has thoughtfully written an article about it.

But really….

I remember when Frank Layden (President of the Utah Jazz) used to come in and read for the radio. People loved that. They liked to listen in, hear his voice, feel his personality, his presence.

I remember when Gerald Lund donated his latest greatest book to be read to the blind. Right when it was sizzling hot off the press. He brought it right on over, didn’t waste a minute. People loved that too.

I remember when Governor Matheson spoke up for the blind patrons and one of them walked on over, slapped him [hard] on the back and said how much he loved him. Those were the days.

Maybe the time has come to give up sacred  (purple) cows, especially when the State Library is facing such huge budget cuts that we can’t even breathe in and out all day long, but always remember these words:

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one;
but I can tell you anyhow;
I’d rather see than be one

–Gelett Burgess, 1895

Introduction to Resources for Self-Represented Parties

The class introduces the resources available for people representing themselves in court, including how to find an attorney, legal clinics, forms, the Online Court Assistance Program and other resources. The presentation will be followed by a tour of the Utah State Law Library introducing the print and electronic resources available.

• Monday, April 13th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 15th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Westlaw Basics
This class will teach you how to search for case law, statutes, and other information using specialized search techniques. You will also learn about the various options for printing and saving.

• Tuesday, April 14th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Introduction to HeinOnline
HeinOnline provides access to historic and current legal publications, including law reviews and Federal material, and includes content not available on Westlaw or LexisNexis. Learn how to access these documents and view, print, and download them in PDF form.

• Thursday, April 16th 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Registration is required for all classes. To reserve your spot:

• Call 801-238-7990
• Email library@email.utcourts.gov
• Or, stop by the State Law Library

Where:
All classses will be held at the Utah State Law Library
Matheson Courthouse, 450 South State Street, Room W-13

For more information please visit the:
Utah State Law Library Blog

At least $200 million of this funding will be available in grants for upgrading broadband at public computing centers including community college libraries and public libraries.

Get the details about these broadband grants at:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/

These free classes will be offered in March and April. Feel free to attend any or all of the classes. Registration is not required.

Estate Planning 
East Millcreek Library, Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m.

Bankruptcy 101
Columbus Library, Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m.

Foreclosures 101
East Millcreek Library, Tuesday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m.
West Jordan Library, Thursday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m.
Taylorsville Library, Wednesday, April 29 at 7:00 p.m.

Overview of Landlord/Tenant Law
East Millcreek Library, Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Columbus Library, Wednesday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m.
West Jordan Library, Thursday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Visit the Salt Lake County Library Services map for location information.

Want more information? Contact the Utah State Law Library at 801-238-7990 or library@email.utcourts.gov.

Who represents me in the Utah Capitol?

http://www.scottriding.com/utahlegislators/
This extremely useful mashup by Scott Riding shows what is possible in combining Google Maps with geographic data from the Automated Geographic Reference Center and legislative directory information from Legislative Research and General Counsel. Just type in your address or select your community from a list to see who is representing you (thank you Phil Windley for the alert).

Mappify

http://lib.byu.edu/cdmmaps
Mappify is another truly wonderful mashup that Scott Eldredge at the BYU Harold B. Lee created and demonstrated to the UALC Digitization Committee on January 12. It uses the user-friendly geo-spatial browsing tool, Mappified to pull some test Savage collection photographs from their CONTENTdm repository. BYU intends on adding the Overlands Trail Collection in the future. Here are some things to try out:

1. Drill down by Collection browse, by Geography browse, and by Chronology (date) browse. Then try the search feature for the word “canyon”.
2. Then click “View Timeline” to view images in a Timeline.
3. “Map Overlay” is one of the coolest features. Click “Go to Map Overlays”, then zoom in and click “High Res”. Use the Opacity slider to compare 1930s maps of the border between Denmark and Germany with the current map in Google satellite view. I can imagine that this application will be of tremendous interest to genealogists interested in comparing old maps with the modern landscape.

Scott received a grant in 2007 to do something interesting with historical maps and this is the result. BYU added longitude and latitude values to their CONTENTdm DC.coverage metadata fields. It was laborious, so they are now developing a database of the longitudes and latitudes associated with town names. Clicking on a city name will automatically add the coordinates. Google automatically adds the towns with no manual intervention required. The title and description showing in Google Maps is pulled from CONTENTdm from the Title and Description fields.

Scott says that as long as you can get at the data from OAI-PMH command and put it into a mySQL database, you can use this process. BYU intends to share the code they have for others to use.

ISIS: Interactive Spatial Image Search

http://digital.library.unlv.edu/isis/
Cory Lambert and Alex Dolski at the UNLV library built this project to showcase maps in their Special Collections and to create a portal for searching Nevada maps.

Cory and Alex say that ISIS can be installed by anyone. It’s open source and not specifically tied to CONTENTdm. You can download the source code and download the User’s Manual at Google Code.

Virtual Utah

Jeannie Watanabe reports in the AGRC GIS blog that representatives from the University of Utah Marriott Library, State History, State Archives, Utah Geological Survey, Utah Dept. of Community and Culture, and AGRC met this past week to discuss how best to provide map access digital historical information and to kick-off a group interested in building a Utah History -GIS Portal.

She writes that the vision of Virtual Utah “is to provide online access to digital historical documents, photographs, maps, audio and video materials based on location identified on an interactive map. Accessing the historical assets of these organizations would be a beginning. Other rich sources of historical information lie with local governments and private collections. It is anticipated that by combining efforts under this initiative, the group can take advantage of future funding opportunities such as grants.”

If you are interested in adding your expertise to this project, please join AGRC’s Virtual Utah Project Forum.

FDsys: http://fdsys.gpo.gov/

One spankin’ new government publication it includes is the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents from The Office of the Federal Register (OFR). This publication appeared on January 20, 2009 to coincide with the incoming President’s term of office. The online Daily Compilation will replace the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. The OFR has partnered with the Government Printing Office to make the Daily Compilation the first publication specifically engineered for the new FDsys platform. More new web services will be added throughout 2009 allowing FDsys to gradually replace GPO Access. For more information see the FDsys project website.

FDsys has the full-text of the presidential inaugural ceremony as printed in the Senate pages of the January 20, 2009 Congressional Record, pages S667 through S670 (PDF). Enjoy!   

Citizen’s Briefing Book:  http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov

Simply log-in and submit your idea.  Your fellow citizens will rate your idea, comment on what you’ve said, and the best ideas will float to the top.  These will be gathered and delivered to President Obama after he is sworn in.

For example: “Libraries of all types need our support”

The collection can be searched, browsed, and sorted by most popular and most recent submissions.

How about we implement something like this locally to gather the best ideas from our citizens for bettering library services?