However, there it is, in print. Go take a look, I’m sure something in it will be of interest. You can purchase a copy from the link at the start of this post, or download it for free (PDF, 211 pages).  Kudos to Christian, Nadine and Sarah for making this happen, it must have taken a lot of effort to coordinate with all the authors.

It’s great that users will find it easier to locate this material, but how often will they be searching solely for NZ material? We’ve already got the National Bibliographic Database, which allows subscribers to see any item held in any library in NZ; why not just expand that to the general public? I’m confused as to why we need a separate database, with less content than the NBD (albeit a much nicer interface).

Adults ‘encroach upon young people’s turf online‘, and aren’t necessarily welcome on sites like FaceBook and MySpace; and what happens when one’s different worlds collide in these networks (both Techdirt). The latter is something I’ve mentioned here before recently.

Social networking for law librarians (LLRX)

A virtual bookshelf for new books (The Shifted Librarian)

How to promote databases at your library (BlogJunction).

Kawerau is the first community in New Zealand to benefit from the Aotearoa People’s Network, which provides free access to broadband internet services through public libraries to small rural areas (National Library).

Archives New Zealand have placed a selection of old New Zealand films online, for viewing (though not downloading, I think).  The films seem to be mostly (or solely?) documentaries. A nice feature is that the site is built on a wiki, and viewers can add their own descriptions of each film. A perfect example of combining authoritative cataloguing and the wisdom of crowds. (The first link goes to descriptions of the films, the second to the films themselves).

The government has launched a web standards wiki (National Library blog).

Kete is “a community built digital library” that enables people to upload and share their stories, memories and images.  It’s designed for people with little or no computer experience, and it’s an open system, meaning that other users can edit the topics, add pictures, audio/visual material, tags, or links to other pages. Users can also comment on each story/topic. It looks (to me at least) rather like Wikipedia, but with multimedia content, and focused very much on the Horowhenua community and its stories.

Kete won a special mention at the World Summit Awards, and won the 3M Award for Innovation at LIANZA 2007.

Horowhenua Library Trust is also responsible for Koha, the open-source ILS.

The word ‘Kete’ is a Maori word meaning ‘basket’. It’s often used as a name, or part of a name, for a collection of resources, like a database.