Add Instant Definitions, Explanations to Your Site

AnswerTipsTM are small information bubbles that define any word when double-clicked. An AnswerTips-enabled site or blog means visitors get fast facts on 4 million topics provided by Answers.com when they double-click on any word, without opening a new browser or following outbound links. AnswerTips deliver instant definitions, explanations and facts including biographies, tech terms, geography, pop culture and much more.

AnswerTips™: Information from Answers.com

This is pretty cool. It puts a javascript wrapper around a page and when a word is double clicked info is grabbed from answers.com and displayed in a little bubble. It works pretty well. For an example, check this out on my CALI dev site and double click on your favorite legal term for a bit of a definition. Pretty neat.

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Paragraph Level Embedded Comments for WordPress

CommentPress is an open source theme for the WordPress blogging engine that allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text.

CommentPress

This remarkable WordPress plugin is being developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book.  It adds a high level of interactivity and coinversation to WordPress blogs by allow for comments at the paragraph level with the comments displayed in a floating window.  I think the implications for this in education are astounding.  Imagine providing a text that be readily commented on, paragraph by paragraph by students and teachers.

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Do Students Actually Use Library Services?

If Libraries had shareholders – Article offers up some interesting graphics that seem to indicate that the actual use of library materials and services at major research libraries has been on the decline since before the Internet came along.  This decline continues, with libraries apparently used more as study and social space than for actual research. 

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