Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in digital, OCLC and archives.
This 14-page document is a user guide for collection administrators using OCLC’s Digital Archive. It provides instructions for using each of the Digital Archive features to manage your content. The three primary functions of the Digital Archive are covered in this Guide:Ingestion. The process of moving your content into the Archive. Reporting. Getting feedback from the system in order to manage your content. Dissemination. The process of getting copies of your content out of the Archive.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in future, innovation and internet.
Technology Review magazine asked technology innovators, luminaries, and users what the Web might be in five to ten years.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in LibraryThing.
Tim Spalding has revamped LibraryThing, the social networking site for book lovers, to give every member a home page that serves as a center to visit the rest of the site. It offers pieces or “windows” into the site—your library, your connections, your recommendations, talk, hot books, hot reviews, early reviewers, and so forth. And it’s editable….
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in internet.
An obscure blogger films his three-year-old daughter reciting the plot of the first Star Wars movie. He stitches together the best parts–including the sage advice “Don’t talk back to Darth Vader; he’ll getcha”–and posts them on the video-sharing website YouTube. Seven million people download the file. A baby-faced University of Minnesota graduate student with an improbably deep voice films himself singing a mind-numbingly repetitive social-protest song called “Chocolate Rain”: 23 million downloads. A self-described “inspirational comedian” films the six-minute dance routine that closes his presentations, which summarizes the history of popular dance from Elvis to Eminem: 87 million downloads. Video is clogging the Internet. How we choose to unclog it will have far-reaching implications.
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With self-proclaimed “authorities” influencing an uninformed public, John N. Berry III, Editor-at-Large, of Library Journal says that libraries need to be the forum where citizens hear differences of opinion on the important topics challenging society and question those offering them to facilitate a better understanding of these complex issues.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in search, Google and Firefox.
Google has managed to build an awesome search engine to my mind: it has a simple user-friendly interface and returns the most relevant results. However naturally, Google just can’t satisfy everyone’s needs.The following FireFox Extensions will help you to adapt Google’s interface and results to what you need, in the most efficient manner possible, making Google even better.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in digital, software and music.
Andrew H. Bullen writes: “As an (admittedly amateur) local historian, it has been frustrating to be presented with spectacular examples of sheet music that give shape and depth to history yet be totally inept at playing the tunes on a piano or other musical instrument. Happily, as it turns out, through a combination of Optical Music Recognition (OMR) and music composing software, I can scan the music, ‘read’ it to detect the notes, time signature, etc., and tweak its playback to get just the right sound I want.”
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in Google and green.
Google Transit is a tool based on Google Maps, which lets you plan trips using public transport. Now it’s even easier to do your part to prevent global warming: Google Transit is part of the latest upgrade of Google Maps for Mobile.
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Roxana Benevides never planned to become a librarian, but she’s glad she did. “Once I started working for Brooklyn Public Library, it was a whole new world,” says the 45-year-old El Salvador native. “And because we are in the greatest city in the world, in the best borough, I got to see exactly how the library could help people.” As the Young Adult Librarian at the Sunset Park branch of BPL, Benevides spends her days doing just that. Despite her job title, Benevides will assist anyone in need of guidance, particularly immigrants.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in libraries, education and e-books.
Ebook provider ebrary this week released its third survey in two years of attitudes toward ebooks, this one measuring students’ perception and use of the emerging medium. Completed this May, the survey reveals few major surprises for librarians, confirming the continuing rise of web-based resources in students’ lives—and also suggests that the book on the book is not closed when it comes to print. “Print books still command respect,” noted Allen McKiel, dean of library and media services at Western Oregon University. In fact, a passion for print books emerged from the survey. That surprised McKiel, who has analyzed all of the recent ebrary surveys. “Lack of interest is perhaps too mild a characterization for the reaction that some students have to ebooks,” McKiel noted in his analysis. “The loss of print books is personal. Books are loved. Ebooks threaten them. I think it is important to acknowledge that for many students, faculty, and librarians, perhaps most acutely for librarians, e-books threaten the loss of something approximating the loss of a personal friend.”
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MLIS student Christopher Baker finds his first trip to the annual Charleston Conference a dazzling experience. Rather than being treated like “a lowly student and serials clerk,” it was a true confidence booster as veteran attendees welcomed him as a colleague while opening myriad networking opportunities from common social situations. His experience may help newbies at the ALA Summer Annual in Anaheim.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in education, digital, publishing and e-books.
Digital content services provider Ingram Digital has announced a new survey of e-book users conducted by its Education Solutions unit. The survey is seen to confirm the top three factors driving a surge in adoption of digital textbooks that led Ingram’s January-May sales to surpass 2007 results by more than 400 percent. Data from the survey’s 680 respondents revealed that when deciding whether to purchase a digital title, 47 percent believe that ‘cost in relation to print copies’ is very important. A similar proportion of respondents identified the convenience of e-books and interactive features as also being very important.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in education and green.
In a push driven initially by students, the environmental fervor sweeping college campuses has reached beyond the recycling and organic food and is transforming the curriculum, permeating classrooms, academic majors, and new research institutes.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in education and social networking.
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The same study found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in libraries, library services and OCLC.
OCLC announced they are piloting a new end user discovery service in the Netherlands, OCLC TouchPoint. The service promises greater accuracy for researchers with more complex discovery needs and richer insights into chosen resources. User generated content, like reviews and lists, which have been contributed to WorldCat.org, are for the first time going to be made accessible via a locally hosted solution. TouchPoint will be piloted first with a library using the LBS system, the pilot will commence later this month. OCLC invited the University Library of the Erasmus University Rotterdam to collaborate in this pilot project. The Rotterdam University Library strives to excel in economics/management and related fields. It stands for client orientation, innovation and efficiency.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in demographics and internet.
Nearly a quarter of the world’s population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30 percent of the world’s population, in 2012, according to IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast. “The Internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight years, a testament to both its universal appeal and its availability,” said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. “In this time, the Internet has also become more deeply integrated into the fabric of many users’ personal and professional lives, enabling them to work, play, and socialize anytime from anywhere. These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the Internet becomes truly ubiquitous.”
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in innovation and technology.
Your IRS tax rebate check can buy more tech fun than you think. A search for goodies from Apple, Asus, LG, Magnavox, Garmin, and others turns up computers, flat screens, a Blu-ray DVD burner, and more.
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