Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in digital, Google and OCLC.
OCLC and Google Inc. have signed an agreement to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.Under terms of the agreement, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search™ program, which makes the full text of more than one million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to better facilitate discovery of library collections through Google. Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library services. Google will share data and links to digitized books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in Library of Congress and audiobooks.
Blind people across the US fear they may lose access to free audiobooks because of a budget shortfall at the Library of Congress which operates the service. The National Library needs an extra $19.1m (£9.5m) a year to transfer its collection of audiobooks from antiquated tape cassettes to the latest digital format using flash technology. But Congress is expected to grant only $12.5m (£6.25m) a year, which will delay completion of the project until 2013 and could cut the production of new audiobooks.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in libraries, environment, green and design.
Two leading library magazines have recognized Appalachian State University’s Carol Grotnes Belk Library and Information Commons for its green architecture. The April edition of American Libraries included the Library among 27 facilities spotlighted in its “2008 Library Design Showcase.” The libraries featured were said to “demonstrate a commitment to making a beautiful space that serves both the community and the planet.” Prior to American Libraries, Belk Library was included in last December’s issue of Library Journal which highlighted 21 academic buildings at 168 public library projects in an article titled “Going, Going, Green.” Belk Library and Information Commons opened in summer 2005. It has 221,000 square feet, making it about 50 percent larger than the 1960s structure it replaced.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in consumers and Cuba.
Cubans are getting wired. The island’s communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time recently, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro. A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.
Read the full article here
Share This
Rudolf Hulshof-Schmidt writes: “The vast majority of caped and masked superheroes are either scientists or socialites (or both, in the case of Tony [Iron Man] Stark), identities that lend themselves to flexible hours and personal fortunes. But where are the librarians? Surely information professionals deserve their place in the pursuit of truth and justice. And we are there, if in somewhat smaller numbers. Certainly the most famous costumed librarian is Barbara Gordon (right). By day the librarian daughter of Gotham City’s police commissioner, by night Barbara donned cape and cowl as Batgirl.”
Read the full article here
Share This
Joy Piedmont identifies 18 movies where significant scenes play out in a library, from Desk Set (1957) to Jumper (2008). In The Mummy (1999), she writes: “We first glimpse librarian Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) in a less than adventurous moment, but her reaction after toppling several bookcases (‘oops!’) reveals her sense of fun.”.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in education and virtual worlds.
Cory Ondrejka, the co-founder of the virtual world Second Life who is now a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, said in a speech today that virtual worlds are here to stay, and that professors are among the most active pioneers. “In my view the academy has been blazing the trail of adoption of virtual worlds far more than gamers or industry,” said Mr. Ondrejka, who spoke at a conference at Case Western Reserve University called Collaboration Technology and Engaging the Campus 2008.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in Second Life and virtual worlds.
Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in “Second Life.” A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world. But Edd is different. His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or AI, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out “Second Life” is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It’s also a frontier in AI research because it’s a controllable environment where testing intelligent creations is easier.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in libraries and Second Life.
Not the whole of congress, but one person in particular - Republican congressman Mark Kirk. This is the same man who is targeting social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, but not content with going after them, he has now tried to drum up support for his cause by bringing Second Life in to the argument. Kirk is a Republican congressman seeking re-election next year. He is the man behind a bill known as the Deleting Online Predators Act. This bill basically takes the stance that all social networking sites are havens for pedophiles and children need protecting from the danger at all costs.
Read the full article here
Share This
Telecommuting, which once seemed impractical for librarians, is swiftly becoming a viable option for employees in both technical services and public services. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by May 2004, 20.7 million people regularly worked from home at least once per week as part of their primary job. This number represented 15 percent of total nonagricultural employment—and 30 percent of managerial/professional positions. Societal changes such as increased commuting time, rising numbers of dual working-parents, and an explosion of technology that facilitates remote work have fueled both the desirability and the feasibility of alternative work arrangements. Traditionally, librarians have been tethered to a facility either because their public service role demands face-to-face interaction or because they work with materials housed in the building. As collection formats and service mechanisms change, however, librarians may be poised to take advantage of more flexible scheduling arrangements.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in technology, trends and cloud computing.
Let’s say that you’re Intel, and you spent $5.5 billion in capital expenditures in 2007, much of it on the 45nm transition, and all of it for the purpose of beating rivals at delivering performance-per-watt increases across a range of market segments that spans the computing spectrum from servers to ultraportable devices. What, then, are you supposed to think about Web 2.0, the resurgence of the thin client model, and the popular “cloud computing” notion that users should be able to do almost all of their work and play with nothing but a simple Web browser (maybe running on an ARM-powered web tablet)? Judging by the comments of some of the Intel folks in the recent Directions Symposium, the chipmaker thinks it stinks
Read the full article here
Share This
For a second consecutive year, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning And Tango Makes Three, a children’s book about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg, tops the list of ALA’s 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007. Three books are new to the list: Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes; The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman; and TTYL, by Lauren Myracle.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in technology and politics.
Find out where Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain stand on key technology issues, such as privacy, net neutrality, stem cell research, and biofuels.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in knowledge management.
Knowledge management has changed so much over the last decade, it would be handy to know what to expect in coming months to help develop the most effective strategies. Louise Druce asks Larry Prusak, founder of the Institute for Knowledge Management, for his thoughts on what the future holds for KM. One of the major achievements of KM in recent years has been getting knowledge into the discourse and discussions of organisations, according to seasoned expert Larry Prusak. But it’s only half the battle – simply holding on to it is not enough if firms want to survive in the future. Prusak is probably most well-known as the founder of the Institute for Knowledge Management, a global consortium of member organisations self-tasked with advancing KM through action research. He currently co-directs a knowledge research program at Babson College, where he is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence, but extensive work as a researcher and consultant has also meant he has seen a fair few changes to KM in his time.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in demographics and social networking.
A new study across a wide range of social networks sheds more insight into the ways men and women approach these service. As it turns out, women are more likely to be in it for the socializing, while men are more likely to use these sites for business. Social web search company Rapleaf performed a study of over 30 million users across sites like Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, LiveJournal, MySpace, Flickr, and more. Each user included in the study had at least one friend on one of these services, and Rapleaf broke its results down according to the number of connections users had: “Social Networkers” have 1-100 friends, “Connectors” have 100-1,000 friends, “Super Connectors” have 1,000-10,000 friends, and “Uber Connectors” have 10,000 friends or more.
Read the full article here
Share This
Jason Kuhl is the manager of St. Louis County (Mo.) Library’s Cliff Cave branch. He’s been working in the library system for eight years and agreed to answer questions about the experiences, challenges, and rewards of being a public librarian
Read the full article here
Share This
Close to half of all people in the UK will be members of a social networking site within four years, a new report indicates. The study found that the UK has the highest number of users in Europe who are members of sites such as MySpace and Facebook. At least 9.6 million people in the UK use these sites and that is expected to increase to 27.1 million by 2012. The report by Datamonitor, an independent market analyst, predicts that the UK will see healthy growth in numbers in Europe over the next five years. The growth is not only being driven by the young, but increasingly, older people are showing interest in social networking.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in mobile/cell phones and education.
Amid concerns that cellphones in class distract from the educational experience, this brief article offers a checklist of ways cellphones can assist learning in the classroom, with links to the new technologies that make such assistance possible.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in children, books and reading.
Children have welcomed the Harry Potter books in recent years like free ice cream in the cafeteria, but the largest survey ever of youthful reading in the United States by Renaissance Learning revealed May 5 that none of J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally popular books has been able to dislodge the works of longtime favorites Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton, and Harper Lee as the most read.
Read the full article here
Read the full report What Kids Are Reading here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in libraries and collections.
To feed the need to weed, NYPL senior librarian and self-described weeding “life coach” Lauren Lampasone provides a simple guide on what reference materials to toss and what to keep, as well as advice on mentally preparing to let go.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in Pew Research, technology and writing.
When you were a teen, did you consider those notes you passed in class “writing?” Probably not. And according to a new Pew report, more than half of teens that are text-messaging at school don’t consider that “writing” either. No surprise, girls (ages 12-17) are much more prolific communicators than boys. Gotta love this quote from one of the older boys : “If it wasn’t for girls, we wouldn’t be talking on the phone or using IM or anything else like that.” For YA librarians already committed to high level programming and services , the new report from the Pew/Internet and American Life Project, “Teens, Technology and Writing,” will validate much of what you do. If your library is developing or reviewing its teen services, it provides strong support for placing programs that encourage writing at the foundation of its strategy.
Read the full article here
Read the Teens, Technology and Writing here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in peer review.
“If it’s wrong” is the big if, the question that plagues librarians and teachers today. Of course, the information you see online might be right—in one study, published in Nature, Wikipedia was found to be only slightly less reliable than Encyclopedia Britannica. But without peer review, it’s so easy to be wrong, and for your wrongness to become the top Google hit on a subject, and for your wrongness to be repeated by other people who think it’s right, until everyone decides that it’s raining in Phoenix….
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in web sites and gaming.
This site (originally compiled as part of the Pinball Pasture site in the mid-1990s) is “a comprehensive, searchable listing of virtually every pinball machine ever commercially made. It is an ad free, popup free, registration free resource. [The site does] not buy or sell games.” Listings include details such as the pinball machine’s manufacturer, machine type, notable features, images, and user ratings and comments. Also provides a glossary, player guide, and other supplementary material.
Internet Pinball Database website
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in education and web sites.
Collection of online tutorials for small businesses. “In general, the courses are all self-paced and should take about 30 minutes to complete. Most of the courses require a brief online registration.” Topics include planning, management, finance and accounting, marketing and advertising, government contracting, risk management and cyber security, e-commerce, international trade, federal tax training, and retirement. Some material also available in Spanish. From the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Small Business Administration Online Courses website
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in demographics and research.
US Hispanic-American Internet users are more likely to spend time online than watching TV, according to a February 2008 comScore Media Metrix survey conducted on behalf of Terra Networks USA. While 50% of the Hispanic-American Internet users surveyed said they spent at least one hour per day watching television, 56% said they spend at least one hour per day online.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in search and Google.
Some eight out of ten web searches conducted in Europe in March were carried out using Google, new figures have shown. Digital research firm comScore reported that over 19 billion searches were carried out on Google in March, making up a total of 79 per cent of Europe’s entire search market. “With nearly 80 percent of all searches conducted in March, Google is far and away the leading search property in Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice-president of comScore.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in Google, mapping and Microsoft.
Microsoft will launch Worldwide Telescope, a tool for exploring images of the night sky, by the end of May, free to anyone who wants to use it, Microsoft’s chairman said recently. Worldwide Telescope is software that allows people to gaze at the universe through the data collected by telescopes all around the world — and above it: there’s even data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in video and digital.
Logo has launched the world’s largest library on online video aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. LOGOonline.com is now home to more than 1,200 video clips, spanning an array of programming genres.
Read the full article here
Logo online website
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in digital and trends.
Pope Benedict will text message thousands of young Catholics on their mobile phones during World Youth Day in Sydney in July, hoping going digital will help him connect better with a younger audience. The Pope will text daily messages of inspiration and hope during the six-day Sydney event while digital prayer walls will be erected at event sites and the church will set up a Catholic social networking Web site akin to a Catholic Facebook.
Read the full article here
Share This
The Library of Congress is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, members of Congress use the library for research, but next to them, in the Main Reading Room, are the Americans who elected them. Anyone 18 or older with a Library of Congress library card can use any of the 22 reading rooms and access its 650 miles of bookshelves.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in books and collections.
Imagine owning a copy of Galileo’s 1632 book, Dialogo di Galileo Galilei (Galileo’s Dialogue), challenging the traditional thinking that the universe revolves around the earth. At the time, the book and its concepts were so controversial, that Galileo was convicted of heresy in 1633 and the book was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Or perhaps a first-edition, autographed copy of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine is a more suitable choice for your own personal library? These books and more will be made available to the public, beginning this fall, through a unique partnership between Canada’s McMaster University Library and U.S.-based companies Kirtas Technologies, Inc. and Lulu.com.
Read the full article here
Share This
Published by rwatstein May 26th, 2008
in digital and collections.
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein submitted a report, entitled The Founders Online, to the Committees on Appropriations of the U.S. Congress. This report is the National Archives response to concerns raised by the Committees that the complete papers of America’s Founding Fathers are