How soon before library barcodes are on your cell phone?

Ars Technical reports that American Airlines will start rolling out cell phone boarding passes today at O’Hare international airport.聽 Instead of printing your boarding pass* you’ll get a barcode sent to your cell which you can bring to the airport. TSA can scan it and allow you to your gate–you’ll still need an ID, of course.聽 How soon before we can get a barcode on our cell phones for everything–supermarket key tags that get you the lower prices, and everything else including…library cards? *See “Why is Printing so Hard?” by Ed Felton, Princeton Professor and apparent leading candidate for Obama’s new Chief Technology Officer position.

Training videos

If you feel like you would like to learn about new web social networking sites–and how to use basic software–and you don’t want to go to a conference to learn, www.teachertrainingvideos.com has great videos on basics or special applications using Second Life, Flikr, Audacity and around 40 others.聽 They may not be as good as ElementK, but they cover new technologies that ElementK may not have. The target audience is teachers and the focus is how to use these technologies to improve your teaching. Karen

Election Day! Go Vote!

Hi everyone — just wanted to remind you all to make sure you vote today! I won’t push my view on anyone, but this is what democracy is all about. Whoever your candidate is — make sure your voice is heard! 馃檪 And if you’re interested in some good election and polling analysis, one place you can find it is www.fivethirtyeight.com.

Ex-BPL head Bernie Margolis compared to Babe Ruth…

“Just as the Yankees took Babe Ruth, Boston’s loss is our gain,” said Tom Dunn, New York Education Department spokesman, speaking of Boston’s well-liked ex-public library head, Bernie Margolis.聽 Margolis was ousted from the Boston Public Library last year by Mayor Menino, and has just landed a very plum job as State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner of Education for the state of New York.聽 Congratulations, Bernie, it was good to know ya! Read more in yesterday’s Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/22/ex_bpl_chief_margolis_lands_library_education_post_in_ny/ Karen Merguerian