Recently one of our authors asked me for a list of of ALA Presidential Themes, 1990 to the present. I knew that our in-house library staff would have the answer, and I could have walked or called upstairs to the library, but I’m all about the multi-tasking, don’t you know. So I pasted the question from the author’s e-mail message into the Ask-the-Librarian VR chat box on ilovelibraries.org, which is staffed by our very own librarians.

Snip, snap, and the answer is served up, easy as pie. A great service for our authors and our copy editors! Thanks!

If you haven’t been watching the TED Talks that are now being posted online, you’re missing out. I’ve started watching one every (well, nearly every) Monday morning. These talks from the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference are sometimes related to library or publishing issues, but they are always related to thinking big and taking risks. Plus I get a nice motivational kick in the pants when I see how much these speakers are accomplishing in their lives.

I watch the streaming video versions, but you can also download the video or just the audio to your desktop or to iTunes. Here’s a great one to get you hooked: Jeff Hawkins on how brain science will change computing. These should make for great patron recommendations: for students in search of a good paper topic, for commuters tired of trying to read on a bumpy bus or train, for joggers no longer inspired by “Eye of the Tiger”…

Pictured above: Hmm…what do you think? Leave a comment with your best out-of-the-box guess. I’ll post the answer next week.

I work full-time, go to school part-time, and have a two-year-old, so I’m always looking for ways to better manage my overcommitted life. Last night my husband (aka my personal productivity monitor) sent me (aka the queen of random recollection) a link to jott.com. Jott is a free to-do list program that takes messages by phone, transcribes them into e-mail messages, then sends them to the person you choose (notes to self being the primary intended use).

I’ve tried Tada List without success, and I was planning to try Remember the Milk next. I’ll think I’ll try Jott instead (or at least first).

I’d be interested in hearing your experiences with any of these list/reminder tools.