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The new Cloudbook is an ultralight PC (2 lbs) with all open source software installed including Open Office which provides a very nice substitute to the oh so pricey Microsoft Office suite.

At a cost of only $399, this might be a very nice option for libraries thinking about making laptops available to their users.

Not only is the OS (gOS Rocket) and the applications Open Source (Mozilla Firefox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xing Movie Player, RythemBox

I struggled quite a bit with my decision to vote for Obama in the California primary but since then, it has become crystal clear to me that I made the right decision. At least it's the right decision for me.

I submit two excellent creations that speak to the head and the heart and explain why it is so important for Barack Obama to become our next president:

Do you understand that you can incorporate automated check-in machines and sorters for your library without taking on the enormous costs associated with RFID tags? Self check out is old news. Everyone is doing it (or should be) and they are getting a very high rate of self checkout use (85% and higher) with and without RFID. If you are NOT getting 85% self check on your machines it properly has more to do with where the bar codes are located, whether everything in your library is indeed self check out-able.

I was part of the panel Transforming Your Library, and Your Library's Future, with Technology held at ALA this year. I spoke with Casey Bisson and Roy Tennant. I went first and approached the transformation issue from a big, physical technology point of view arguing that we need to use less of our library spaces for books and start using the library space to ensure our users have a productive experience. We have to do more than warehouse books in our libraries.

I've been a very very bad girl. No postings for over a month. Turns out when I'm trying to get a report of some kind written, I can't post a blog entry. It feels like an adulterous act - like I'm cheating on my client. Writing....but not for them.

As always, in writing the report, I learned something. I learned that I could make a very conservative ROI estimate of 9-12 years for not just a a central sortation system for a medium sized library system but also for two or three individual library sorters. That's a lot of automation with a pretty good payback.