At my program on Twitter last week, I was asked about the public record ramifications of Twitter.  The main question was how long Twitter maintains its database and how that impacts public record.

My response was that you probably would not be tweeting public record items, or if you do it would not be the primary document about it.  That may have been a tad glib.

I have one good option for those of us who would like to have a Twitter history to have on record. 

Twistory is an app that feeds your Twitter posts into a calendar.  It can be a Google calendar, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.  This way your tweets are chronological.  I find it very interesting to see my tweets like this and to look back historically for trends and as a sort of diary.

I did try several other apps and they are less useful because they also archive items that people are sending to you.  One Outlook app filled my inbox within minutes with hundreds of new posts from the people I follow.  Not what I was looking for!

This one is strictly your own tweets, a handy archive, and in chronological order.

• Enormous Twitter application list!

• Library Cloud Atlas offers information on the different options for cloud computing.  Glimpsed this in LJ and had to take a look at the full article online. 

• The main points of Chris Anderson’s recent speech about things being Free.

Very important to libraries!  We must figure out what we are beyond “free” and market that.

“Quality is more and more defined by relevance and not price. Thus, you can’t use price to win market share when everything is free. You have to use product differentiation and relevance.”

“The challenge for companies is to create premium goods and services that they can sell to “free” customers. Companies need to offer people ways to save time, increase their status, or heighten their reputation and convert these ways to cash.”

• KidLitCon 09 this previous weekend had a lawyer from the FTC come and do a presentation on the new FTC blogger guidelines. 

You can read summaries of the presentation at Writer Jenn, Chair A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy, and GalleySmith. 

The gist is that blogs that review books need not disclose the source of the books, though if they are Amazon Affiliates they do need to disclose that prominently (meaning on each post.) 

• Took a library blogging survey.  Thanks to Tame the Web for linking to it!

• New Pew Research Center Publication on the graying of the workforce. 

“According to one government estimate, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older.”

Thanks to Retiring Guy for the link.

Watch Barbara Ehrenreich on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart speaking about her new book Bright-Sided that I already have on hold.  Thanks to the great EarlyWord blog for the heads up!  Greatest quote from the interview “I never think delusion is OK.”

Five worst excuses for not using Twitter.  Golly, I think I have heard all of these first hand.  Wonder if I will hear them at WLA next week when doing my Twitter program.  I’d bet I hear the “I don’t have time” one.

Sendak tells parents to go to hell if they are worried about the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are being too scary for their children.  Then he goes on to be profound about art, fear and truth.

Trying out the Samfind Bookmarks Bar 2.0.  Sweet!  And I can put it at the bottom of the window which makes my top area much cleaner.

Blu-Ray not taking off – which is good news for libraries that can’t afford a new format right now

Slowly making my way through the new FTC guidelines.  So far I’m very pleased by the expectations.  They address concerns I have had as I see new blogs advertise books rather than review them.

Reading a pdf of Librarian.net’s presentation on Library 2.0 Ethics.

A new study by Robert Half Technology shows that companies are limiting employee access to social networking.  The study polled 1400 Chief Information Officers in companies across the country with at least 100 employees. 

54% of companies completely prohibit visiting social networking sites
19% permit visits for business purposes only
16% allow limited personal use
10% allow any type of personal use

My question is how this breaks out for libraries.  I think it will fall along the same lines as email did over a decade ago.  I remember having heated discussions about whether employees should even be given library email addresses and if they were given those addresses whether a time limit should be imposed! 

Now social networking is the new kid on the block.  Do you allow your staff to use Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace?  I’m sure you can guess my answer.  Yes!  Please, please, please use them!

Thanks to Brian Solis for his post on the study.

Here’s what I found today:

Concerns over the new FTC rules for bloggers.  I find them especially confusing for people who blog for libraries.

SoundBible looks like a great resource for podcasters.  And since I have an eventual goal of eventually making an eventual podcast, I have merrily bookmarked it.  I plan to look at it – eventually.

A mind-expanding article from School Library Journal is about the future of school libraries, but works for all types of libraries.  I have been reading it for the last couple of days, savoring it, returning to it again and again.  They speak to the future of libraries that I envision too.  This is one to be shared, discussed and explored in every library and library system.

SLJ also had a wonderful article about the library as kitchen rather than grocery store.  How can you in your library make it more of a laboratory, a place to build, explore, create connections?  Is that the future of your library?  Or would that be too messy, too loud, too much?

Blogging in the Public Sector is filled with tips and ideas for people in government who are starting to blog.