sophia's current awareness

2009-10-26T10:52:00.001-04:00

2009 ECAR Study of Undergrads and Technology

by Ellyssa

1 person liked this

Educause has published the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology for 2009. Some of their key findings include:

Desktop computer ownership has decreased 27% while laptop ownership increased nearly 23%.
Despite the state of the economy 8 out of 10 freshman entered school with a laptop which was one year old or less.
9 out of 10 students use the college & university library website.
Over 44% of students have contributed content to video websites, over 41% to wikis, and over 37% have contributed to blogs. 35% of students use podcasts.
Social networking websites and text messaging were used by 9 out of 10 respondents.

2009-10-26T10:51:00.003-04:00

Global Trends

by stephen

These National Intelligence Council reports are worth a read. I particularly enjoyed the report on 2010 Trends that was written in 1996 and then revised in late 1997. I find that it is nteresting to see what they get right and what they get wrong.

The others are more up to date in a Dr. Who kind of sense.

Global Trends 2025

Mapping the Global Future 2020

Global Trends 2015

Global Trends 2010

2009-10-26T10:51:00.001-04:00

New Pew Report on Twitter

by stephen

The Pew Internet Project just released a new report on Twitter (and other status update services) at 4pm Eastern today. Their September 2009 survey shows that three groups are driving the growth of this activity: younger internet users, mobile users, and those who are already using social network websites. They like to share, they have the means to do so, and Twitter makes it easy.

It is interesting that Twitter did have more older users but that youth are coming on board later.

I suspect that bigger growth will happen in the coming quarters with the real time search capabilities added to Twitter by Bing (and probably Google later).

"Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices, and younger internet users – those under age 44.

In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices, and 10% of internet users with one device.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

It will probably become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa. For now, it is clear that a “social segment” of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online."

2009-10-26T10:50:00.002-04:00

Ten Technologies You Can't Afford to Ignore

by stephen

Here is the Gartner Group's 2009 and 2010 Top Ten Technologies You Can't Afford to Ignore:

2009-10-26T10:50:00.001-04:00

Does the Brain Like E-Books?

by stephen

The Room for Debate feature of the NYT has an interesting series of articles:

Does the Brain Like E-Books?

2009-10-26T10:49:00.001-04:00

Library Use of eBooks

by stephen

Some useful reports on the data in ths review. It appears to be a useful book too.

Library Use of E-books: 2008-2009 Edition Reviewed in Learned Publishing

"The PDF file available here is of a book review (really a “report” review) from the October, 2009 issue of Learned Publishing. The report being reviewed, Library Use of E-books: 2008-2009 Edition, was published by Primary Research."

2009-10-09T13:47:00.001-04:00

Barnes & Noble rep outs company’s plans for color e-book reader

by Kevin Harter

Barnes & Noble will offer a color e-book reader next Spring, according to a company representative at the ongoing CTIA show. Few details were discussed, and the news isn’t necessarily “official,” but the rep did indicate that B&N fully intends to compete with the Kindle and will focus on the obvious hue-oriented difference.

iRiver outs new e-book reader Photos and
Barnes and Noble adds ebook reader for iPhone The brick-
Fujitsu shows off FLEPia color e-book reader Fujitsu is

2009-10-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

New YouTube logo: One billion served… each day

by Kevin Harter

YouTube is touting its astonishing ongoing achievement of over 1 billion views per day with an updated logo. Although the change is subtle, it serves as a gentle reminder that the video site continues to be one of the top five visited sites in world.

Also of interest, today is the third anniversary of Google’s purchase of YouTube.

YouTube streams over a billion videos each month According
YouTube allows off-site links via video overlays The popula
YouTube mobile uploads jump 400% after iPhone 3GS launch YouTube ha

2009-09-02T11:44:00.001-04:00

Most Pirated eBooks

by stephen

GalleyCat notes that "Yesterday the file sharing news site FreakBits posted a list of "The 10 Most Pirated eBooks of 2009," one of the first glimpses into the surreal, evolving world of e-book piracy."

So I ask my library land friends:

How many of these books are on your shelves?
If you do have it, has it been stolen?
Does the hard copy circulate well?
Do you have the eBook to borrow?
Hmmm, would this make a good Library Card Month display?

1. Kamasutra
2. Adobe Photoshop Secrets
3. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex
4. The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
5. Solar House – A Guide for the Solar Designer
6. Before Pornography – Erotic Writing In Early Modern England
7. Twilight – Complete Series
8. How To Get Anyone To Say YES – The Science Of Influence
9. Nude Photography – The Art And The Craft
10. Fix It – How To Do All Those Little Repair Jobs Around The Home

Apparently all the titles on the list were downloaded between 100,000 and 250,000 times. These are numbers large enough to worry publishers but note that the titles are usal not somthing yu see on the front of the store displays and ends of aisles.

The article notes: "The list shows us that illicit book downloads are not yet threatening the best selling authors you'll find in the New York Times list. In fact, most books that are downloaded on BitTorrent fall into the nerdy niche, are porn related--or both."

Thanks to GalleyCat for pointng to this one.

2009-09-02T09:10:00.000-04:00

AMA eBook Strategy

by spolanka

In an August 25th press release the American Medical Association announced it’s eBook strategy. They launched an eBook portal, hosted on iPublishCentral from Impelsys. The platform will allow publishers to provide both formats - e and p to users. Apparently the platform will have the look/feel of the traditional pages of the print book, but with value added features like access anywhere, searching, bookmarking, and “user personalization.”

quoted!

2009-09-02T09:07:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine wrote to say that a colleague of hers had read about me in a book she was reading….I’ve been quoted in Rachel Singer Gordon’s book called, “What’s the Alternative?: career options for librarians and info pros. ISBN: 9781573873338

Available in Google Books:

http://tiny.cc/ZjZnD

Social Media vid

2009-08-28T10:16:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

2009-08-28T10:11:00.001-04:00

Libraries, are you feeling the love?

by dlenares

As was reported earlier, Sony and Overdrive have partnered to promote library e-book collections. Sony seems to be embracing the library world as its competitive edge. Why would one want to buy a Kindle and then have to buy content when you can buy a Sony and borrow much content for free?

It’s unlikely that Amazon will be interested in integrating the Kindle with library e-book collections, since the purpose of the Kindle is to act as a mobile storefront.

It’s been interesting to read blog comments related to the announcement. There’s a lot of love out there for libraries, and, it seems, a lot of potential customers who are interested in the remote use of library e-collections.

A large part of the integration of Sony and Overdrive is the “Library Finder” feature linked from the Sony Ebook Store. I’m rather disappointed in the execution of the service. Instead of being able to search for a title and see which libraries have it, which you can do from the Overdrive site, you first have to search for a local library and then search for a title.

I’m hoping for a Sony integration partner on the academic market side. There are academic e-book vendors who support the epub format who would be a natural fit for Sony integration. In the library where I work we’re planning to circulate Sony Readers to support our EBook Library collection.

The Sony press conference was held at New York Public Library. I’m still trying to figure out if the partnership with NYPL goes beyond the use of the Overdrive collection. If any NSR readers have some insight please post a comment.

2009-08-28T10:10:00.001-04:00

Overdrive and Sony to cross-market

by spolanka

From an Overdrive press release:

(Cleveland, OH) - August 12, 2009 - OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global digital distributor of eBooks and audiobooks to libraries, announced today a joint marketing agreement with Sony Electronics, Inc., developer of the Sony Reader Digital Book (www.sony.com/reader). OverDrive and Sony will cross-market OverDrive’s library network and the Reader, the leading eBook device that is compatible with industry standard eBook formats offered by libraries. (more…)

2009-08-28T10:02:00.001-04:00

OCLC announce agreements in Europe to extend coverage in WorldCat

(August 25, 2009). OCLC today announced four new agreements have been signed with European national libraries and affiliated institutions which significantly increase the coverage of records in WorldCat and the visibility of libraries in WorldCat.org within the Europe and Middle East regions. These latest agreements in Denmark, Switzerland, Slovenia and Israel show that libraries from around the globe are responding very positively to the opportunity that WorldCat offers to streamline workflows and increase visibility in WorldCat.org, a global destination web site for libraries, which surfaces to a worldwide community the collections they hold and the services they deliver.

2009-08-28T10:01:00.001-04:00

Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready

by Ellyssa

2 people liked this

Josh Catone at Mashable suggests 3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready for Digital Textbooks. And from his observations it seems that digital textbooks have some major hurdles to overcome before they’re ready for mass adoption such as:

Cost Savings Must be Greater
A Standard Format is Needed
Questions of Ownership

2009-08-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

Sony’s E-Reader vs. Kindle

by Ellyssa

Jared Newman at PCWorld takes a look at the two hottest e-book readers on the market right now with Sony’s E-Reader vs. Kindle: 5 Reasons Amazon Should Worry. The article discusses five features that may make Sony’s E-Reader the device of choice for e-book fans including:

More Choice
Touch
It’s Cheaper
Open Format
Cool Features

2009-08-28T09:56:00.000-04:00

Labeling Library Archives Is a Game at Dartmouth College

by Ellyssa

2 people liked this

Marc Beja at The Chronicle of Higher Ed’s Wired Campus reports on a new social tagging initiative at Dartmouth College which challenges players to beat the clock as they add metadata to library images for free.

“Ms. Flanagan, a digital-humanities professor at Dartmouth College, is creating an Internet-based game in which users create descriptive tags for library images to improve searching through the library’s database. Although the program will be tested at the college’s library, Ms. Flanagan says the game will be open source and available for others to download and build upon.

2009-08-27T10:52:00.001-04:00

What The F**k Is Social Media?

by Jason

Below are a couple great presentations I came across via the Slideshare newsletter. The first one is from a year ago and does a bang-up job of explaining what social media is and why it's important. The second is a sequel of sorts that updates some of the information for today.

This is especially timely since I'm doing a presentation for a local service club in a couple weeks about...what social media is and why it's important.

But even though it's basically the same topic, I don't think I'll crib (too much) from these presentations. And I'm pretty sure I won't title my presentation "What The Fuck Is Social Media?"

What The F**K is Social Media?

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

2009-08-27T10:17:00.001-04:00

Obama’s Beach Reads

by Thessaly La Force

President Obama is taking ten days this month to be with his family on Martha’s Vineyard. What’s he reading?According to Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, he has packed:

Tom Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded”
David McCullough’s “John Adams”
Richard Price’s “Lush Life”
Kent Haruf’s “Plain Song”
George Pelecanos’s “The Way Home”

2009-08-27T10:14:00.001-04:00

Only in America: Sony’s new wireless e-reader

by Scott MacDonald

There’s a lot of hubbub south of the border today about the launch of Sony’s new Daily Edition e-reader, the first Sony e-reading device to go wireless. According to The L.A. Times:

The Daily Edition has a 7-inch screen, can hold up to 1,000 books, and can be read either vertically or tipped horizontally to mimic the two pages of an open book. The Daily Edition will be available in December for holiday shoppers for about $399.
The Daily Edition will use AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband technology (just like the iPhone) which it can use for downloading new books. Amazon’s Kindle, which has made tremendous headway in the marketplace, is already wireless.

This is great news for Americans, but it looks like Canadians have once again been left out in the cold. According to a spokesperson from Sony Canada, the Daily Edition is, like the Kindle, only available in the U.S.

2009-08-09T17:25:00.001-04:00

Online Trends

by stephen

What do people do online every month?

Mashable is reporting that with "Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites growing rapidly, it’s not too surprising that on the whole, the number of social networking users has doubled since 2007.

Specifically, 55.6 million adults – or just less than 1/3rd of the population – in the US now visit social networks at least monthly, according to a new report from Forrester Research. That’s up from just 15 percent of adults in 2007, and around 18 percent last year.

At that level, social networking is now more popular than instant messaging among adults, which 54.3 million people report using. However, watching video, online shopping, and email (contrary to other reports we’ve seen) are still more widely used than social networks."

2009-08-09T17:11:00.000-04:00

May eBook Sales +197%

by spolanka

The IDPF released May statistics on eBook sales. They are up $197%, approximately 23 million in revenues. See the IDPF site for the detailed stats.

2009-08-06T19:36:00.001-04:00

Overdrive Interactive Social Media Map

by stephen

2 people liked this

Overdrive Interactive Social Media Map:

2009-08-06T19:24:00.001-04:00

Sony Cuts eBook Prices to $9.99

by spolanka

NYTimes article on Sony cutting eBook prices from 11.99 to 9.99.This is my favorite section: ”Regarding the price cut for digital books, Mr. Haber said: “We have to offer value. It’s clear e-books should be less expensive than regular books, with the savings on printing and logistics getting passed on to the consumer.”and this is the worrisome part: ”Book publishers will still retain their traditional cut of every e-book sale — about half the hardcover retail list price. But they are concerned that as online retailers like Amazon and Sony gain market power, they will eventually tire of losing money on e-book sales and ask publishers for lower wholesale prices, a move that would cut into their profit margins.” To me this says less publishers and more publishing control by Amazon and Sony. Toss Google in that mix and we’ve got ourselves quite a trifecta.

2009-08-06T19:23:00.001-04:00

eTextbook Article from EduCause Quarterly

by spolanka

Great article in the EduCause Quarterly “A Campus-Wide E-textbook Initiative.” Authors, Jon T. Rickman, Roger Von Holzen, Paul G. Klute, and Teri Tobin describes the process that Northwest Missouri State University followed to transition from a textbook rental program to an eTextbook rental program. eBook Readers, Laptops, and the NMSU implementation plan are discussed in detail. (more…)

2009-08-06T19:18:00.001-04:00

50 Excellent Open Courses for Techie Librarians

by Ellyssa

9 people liked this

Sarah Russel at BestCollegesOnline compiles a mega-list of 50 Excellent Open Courses for Techie Librarians. This guide to free online courses includes the following areas of study:

Open Source
Information & Research
Engagement
Technology
Books & Writing
Law
Education
Communication
Operations

2009-08-06T19:17:00.000-04:00

Library of Congress Talks Digital Initiatives

by Ellyssa

For this month’s Stacking the Tech column I had a chance to interview three Library of Congress librarians about all of their recent digital initiatives.

The Library of Congress (LOC) has established itself as one of the leading institutions making use of social media to engage audiences and build community. And they have made great strides since January 2008 when they first began their Flickr Commons pilot. They have since launched a blog, a Facebook Page, YouTube and iTunes channels, and a Twitter account which claims over 13,000 followers. Most recently they have begun experimenting with the Semantic Web/Linked Data and cloud computing. I was fortunate enough to have a chance to chat with three of their librarians about these initiatives.

2009-07-29T12:30:00.003-04:00

New articles of interest

by spolanka

Articles linked from my delicious account this week include:

University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts - 7/17/2009 1:56:00 PM - Publishers Weekly

Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic; Opens up; Targets Kindle

Amazon Charts Course Toward E-Book Advertising

Release E ahead of P? Might be the future, says pub guru Mike Shatzkin

Giving away free books online helps academic sales

U.K.’s Blackwell to distribute 185,000 Ingram e-titles via Blackwell platform

Book insurance—to try to guarantee you can read your DRMed e-books in the future?

E vs. P price debate: Sourcebooks delays e-book version of potential bestseller

Amazon releases sheet music for the Kindle

2009-07-29T12:30:00.001-04:00

UM to sell digitized books on Amazon

by spolanka

First Google, now Amazon, UM has certainly got connections. They announced this week a plan to offer book reprints for sale on Amazon as reprints on demand. According to their press release,”The University of Michigan will make thousands of books that are no longer in copyright — including rare and one-of-a-kind titles — available as reprints on demand under a new agreement with BookSurge, part of the Amazon.com group of companies. The agreement gives the public a unique opportunity to buy reprints of a wide range of titles in the U-M Library for as little as a few dollars. As individual copies are sold on Amazon.com, BookSurge will print and bind the books in soft-cover form.” (more…)

2009-07-29T12:29:00.001-04:00

LISWire: Developers of Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) Receive Coutts Award for Innovation in Electronic Resources Management

Developers of Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) Receive Coutts Award for Innovation in Electronic
Resources Management

SERU Recommended Practice from NISO Offers an Alternative to E-Resources Licenses

Baltimore, MD - July 22, 2009 – The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is pleased to announce that Judy Luther, President of Informed Strategies, and Selden Lamoureux, Electronic Resources Librarian at North Carolina State
University Libraries, are the recipients of the Coutts Award for Innovation in Electronic Resources Management for their work in developing SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding, a NISO recommended practice.

The award, sponsored by Coutts Information Services, is given by the Collection Management and Development Section (CMDS) of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). It was presented to Luther and Lamoureux in an awards ceremony at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago on July 12, 2009.

"Selden Lamoureux and Judy Luther brought together librarians, publishers, and subscription agents to address the labor-intensive process of negotiating licenses for electronic resources, a process that has increasingly overwhelmed both libraries
and publishers," explained Andrea Imre, chair of the selection committee and Electronic Resources Librarian, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. "SERU offers a congenial and painless method for achieving a mutual
understanding between publishers and libraries. With the potential for drastically reducing the amount of time and money it takes to bring resources to users, SERU is a significant step forward in the electronic resource acquisition process."
"It's amazing to realize that the idea for SERU was first shared at the Charleston Conference a little more than three years ago," stated award recipient, Judy Luther. "Thanks to Karla Hahn's leadership as co-chair with me of the working group and
the support from NISO, consensus was reached among librarians, publishers, and agents, leading to the adoption of a best practice that can streamline acquisition of electronic products."
"The experience of working with SERU has delivered on its promise of fast, effective turnaround time for ordering e-journals from what used to take months to what can now take as little as an afternoon," confirmed award recipient Selden Lamoureux.
"A number of organizations have been quick to sign on and the value of SERU will continue to expand with the growing number of participating publishers and libraries."
"This is wonderful recognition of the contributions that the SERU project has made to the community," Todd Carpenter,
NISO Managing Director, declared. "Licensing is a significant bottleneck in the information distribution supply chain. Through its consensus process, NISO is able to bring together libraries and publishers to address these inefficiencies and
SERU is a great example of the results that are possible. Hopefully, this award and the recognition of its impact will continue to spur adoption of SERU."
NISO hosts on its website (www.niso.org/workrooms/seru/) the free SERU recommended practice and related support materials, including the SERU registry of publishers and libraries who have indicated interest in using SERU for electronic resources. Currently, the registry lists 35 publishers and content providers and over 100 libraries and consortia.
About NISO
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages
libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest
and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website:www.niso.org. For more
information please contact NISO on (301) 654-2512 or via email on nisohq@niso.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Karen A. Wetzel
NISO Standards Program Manager
Tel.: 301-654-2512
E-mail: kwetzel@niso.org

2009-07-29T12:25:00.001-04:00

WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway helps libraries maximize Web visibility of digital collections via WorldCat

(July 24, 2009). OCLC has released the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway, a new service that helps libraries and other institutions maximize the visibility of unique primary source materials, such as digital photos, newspapers, letters and diaries, through WorldCat on the Web. The WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway is available to all users of OCLC CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software at no additional charge.

2009-07-29T12:24:00.003-04:00

Popout

JISC, the UK organization that “inspires UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies”, has published a 10-minute documentary on Libraries of the Future.

2009-07-29T12:24:00.001-04:00

Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities

by Ellyssa

Ruth Reynard, Dean of Faculty Services for Career Education Corp, writes for Campus Technology about creating effective learning communities using social networking websites in Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities.

“Much has been written recently about the impact of social networking tools in teaching and learning and how educators can build on the skills of their students in using these tools. My discussion here does not negate that good work but introduces the idea that social networking is only the beginning of a longer and more complex process of socially constructed learning and ultimately collaboration and knowledge building. That is, if educators only integrate the ability of students to connect and socialize, deeper points of learning will be missed. While good teaching and learning rests on effective relationships (Cummins, 2000), in an active learning community, those relationships should evolve into actual idea exchange and knowledge construction.”

2009-07-29T12:23:00.001-04:00

Twitter 101 for Business: A Special Guide

by Ellyssa

Twitter has launched a getting started guide for businesses who want to learn how to effectively use the microblogging app. Twitter 101 includes everything from specific case studies to Twitter terminology and even offers users the option to download a set of slides in order to train others on using Twitter. The guide is divided into the following sections:

2009-07-29T12:22:00.000-04:00

eMarketer has published statistics which reveal that 41.6% percent of Twitter users use the microblogging application to keep in touch with their friends. Other findings include:

Secondarily, men were interested in finding news and women in updating their status.
Users under age 35 were more interested in broadcasting their status than their senior counterparts.
Older users were more likely to use the service for work-related purposes.
More women interacted with friends, family and celebrities than men, but men were more likely to follow bloggers.

2009-07-29T12:20:00.002-04:00

Barnes & Noble launches world’s biggest e-book store

by Suzanne Gardner

U.S. mega-chain Barnes & Noble announced in a press release yesterday the creation of the world’s biggest e-book store comprising “more than 700,000 titles, including hundreds of new releases and bestsellers at only $9.99.” Unlike Amazon’s Kindle-only e-books, e-books purchased through B&N’s store will be compatible with a number of platforms (aside from the Kindle, of course): iPhone, BlackBerry, and most Windows and Mac computers. Through a partnership with Google Books, the B&N e-book store will also offer more than 500,000 free and downloadable public domain e-books.

B&N als announced an exclusive agreement to provide e-books for the forthcoming Plastic Logic e-reader, a device that is geared toward business professionals. From Fortune:

Plastic Logic vice president of business development Daren Benzi says his device is geared for business travelers, and as such will support the display of PDF files, Microsoft’s MS Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, as well as newspapers and magazines. But e-books are a big part of the game plan. “Will we carry every single one of those 700,000-plus titles? I don’t know. We’ll announce that as we get further along,” said Benzi. “But we will have access to them all.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, The Book Oven analyzes how B&N’s move will affect the e-book market.

2009-07-29T12:20:00.001-04:00

Amazon’s Kindle 2: “An alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorization.” NOT!

by Steven W. Beattie

At least, not according to author Nicholson Baker, who has written a long, occasionally pedantic article about his experiences with the machine for The New Yorker. The piece is full of typically florid Bakerisms: he likens the Kindle 2 to “a restaurant accordion,” refers to the “gray and Calvinist” typeface it employs, and complains about the page-turning deficiencies of the Kindle 1, which are “accompanied by a distracting flash of black as the microspheres dived down into their oil-filled nodules before forming new text.”

But the article is occasionally quite funny – offering, among other things, the title of an erotic novel that features “the mother of all orgasms” – and is a welcome respite from some of the more tech-oriented responses to the digital device. Baker offers an infuriating quote from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (“We think reading is an important enough activity that it deserves a purpose-built device” – yeah, that would be THE BOOK, you chucklehead), and compares switching from an iPod Touch to a Kindle 2 to “going from a Mini Cooper to a white 1982 Impala with blown shocks.”

Baker’s ultimate conclusion is that the Kindle 2 is a viable reading device if the book is compelling enough to make you forget the device itself. He uses the example of Michael Connelly’s thriller The Lincoln Lawyer:

I began pressing the Next Page clicker more and more eagerly, so eagerly that my habit of page turning, learned from years of reading – which is to reach for the page corner a little early, to prepare for the movement – kicked in unconsciously. I clicked Next Page as I reached the beginning of the last line, and the page flashed to black and changed before I’d read it all. I was trying to hurry the Kindle. You mustn’t hurry the Kindle. But, hell, I didn’t care. The progress bar at the bottom said I was ninety-one per cent done. I was at location 7547. I was flying along. Gray is a good color, I thought. Finally, I was on the last bit. It was called “A Postcard from Cuba.” I breathed an immense ragged sigh. I read the acknowledgments and the about-the-author paragraph – Michael Connelly lives in Florida. Good man. The little progress indicator said ninety-nine per cent. I clicked the Next Page button. It showed the cover of the book again. I clicked Next Page again, but there was no next page. My first Kindle-delivered novel was at its end.

2009-07-29T12:19:00.001-04:00

News Release: The Once and Future Book: O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Opens Call for Participation

by Jackie Hadley, Communications Associate

Sebastopol, CA, July 21, 2009 — The O'’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference (TOC) will explore the critical trends emerging around the business of digital publishing February 22-24, 2010, at the Marriot Marquis in New York City. From authoring, editing, and layout to distribution and consumption, new technologies are changing all aspects of publishing. As digitalization and globalization continue to accelerate the rate of change, publishers face the urgent necessity of building a solid business on the shifting foundation of paid vs. free content, format and device innovations, conflicting standards and royalties. TOC offers publishers the blueprints for success.

Program Chair Andrew Savikas invites proposals for conference sessions and tutorials for this fourth annual TOC Conference, where the program will decipher the tools of change in this industry, show how to put theory into practice, and cut through the hype for a more profitable future in publishing.

Read the full press release.

2009-07-29T12:18:00.003-04:00

Feeling Down and Unmotivated?

via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 7/14/09

Are you a little short on Vitameatavegamin? Are you feeling down and unmotivated? Is your Kazoo missing its buzz? Did you get lunchbag letdown or miss ALA this year and not get your motivation tank topped up?

Try watching these short and long videos - one or two a day for a few weeks.

100 Incredibly Inspiring Videos for Leaders

This one is a favourite:

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

If you're worried about your budget, watch this one. Stick with the program. Grit your teeth and show real determination.

2009-07-29T12:18:00.001-04:00

Issue 12 of NextSpace now available online

via OCLC News on 7/17/09

Cover Story: Library cooperation in the 21st century. As competition grows for users' attention, 21st century libraries have more challenges—and more opportunities—for broad, flexible cooperative efforts.

View full article

2009-07-29T12:17:00.003-04:00

eBook Standards - summary of NISO/BISG program

via No Shelf Required by spolanka on 7/17/09

Last Friday at ALA I was part of a NISO/BISG panel on the changing standards landscape. There were many speakers, each discussing various aspects of eBook standards like business models, ISBNs, epub, DRM, and the standards and features needed by librarians (which was my part). I’ve summarized my presentation here and would welcome additional suggestions and ideas from librarians. Sue (more…)

2009-07-29T12:17:00.001-04:00

LITA Top Technology Trends 2009 (video)

via Blogging Section of SLA-IT by Jill Hurst-Wahl on 7/14/09

This was streamed live on the Internet during ALA and recorded for later viewing. On the panel were Clifford Lynch, John Blyberg, Roy Tennant, Joan Frye Williams, Eric Lease Morgan, and Geert van de Boogaard. Participating online were Marshall Breeding, Sarah Houghton-Jan, and Karen Schneider.

2009-07-20T15:43:00.001-04:00

The Most Engaged Brands On The Web

by Erick Schonfeld

What big brands do the best job with social media? A new study by analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint ranks the top 100 brands by social media engagement. You can find the report embedded below or on ENGAGEMENTdb, which was presumably created with Wetpaint’s site-creation software.

The study scores the engagement level of each of the top 100 brands across more than ten social media channels, including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, wikis, and discussion forums. Starbucks scored the highest, with 127 points. The top ten brands are:

1. Starbucks (127)
2. Dell (123)
3. eBay (115)
4. Google (105)
5. Microsoft (103)
6. Thomson Reuters (101)
7. Nike (100)
8. Amazon (88)
9. SAP (86)
10. Tie – Yahoo!/Intel (85)

The report categorizes brands into one of four types, depending on how many social media channels they participate in. The most engaged are “mavens,” while the least engaged are “wallflowers” (McDonalds and BP are examples). The study claims a correlation between social media engagement and revenue growth. The “mavens” saw revenues grow an average of 18 percent over the past 12 months, while the Wallflowers saw revenues drop 6 percent. I really doubt that their level of social media engagement had anything to do with their revenue growth, it is just that the strongest brands are the mo

2009-07-20T15:39:00.001-04:00

2 eBook White papers

by spolanka

Picked up these two white papers from Springer at the ALA Conference. They are in pdf at the Springer site.

eBooks - Costs and Benefits to Academic and Research Libraries

eBooks - The End User Perspective

2009-07-13T14:40:00.001-04:00

Top Technology Trends: July 2009

(2009-07-12 12:04:10).

Although I am not attending this year's American Library Association annual conference in Chicago, IL, I will be participating virtually in the LITA Top Technology Trends panel. The following are some of the trends that I see playing out in the niche of library automation.

Discovery Interfaces Expand Scope

The genre of Discovery Interfaces has been an ongoing trend for the last few years. These interfaces aim to replace the traditional, stodgy OPAC with a modern interface, delivering library content through an interface more consistent with what patrons experience elsewhere on the Web. They offer visually appealing design, relevancy ranking, faceted navigation, and other standard Web navigation techniques. These products offer an attractive replacement for the online catalogs delivered with the ILS.

The initial phase of this genre of products delivered a new interface. Yet, they remained largely tied to the content managed in the ILS, despite the ever increasing investments in electronic content. In many cases, a federated search component would aim to supplement the primarily print content of the ILS with a clumsy mechanism for accessing e-journals and database.

We're now seeing a new wave of discovery products that deliver pre-populated indexes of e-journal content, providing access to the individual articles represented in the library's body of subscriptions on equal footing with the print materials managed within the ILS. Products in this genre include Summon from Serials Solutions, WorldCat Local from OCLC, EBSCO Discovery Service, and Primo Central.

The technology for a new-generation library interface with Google and Amazon-like features has become increasingly commonplace. Every library automation vendor offers one – Innovative Interfaces' Encore, Ex Libris' Primo, AquaBrowser now owned by R.R. Bowker, LS2 PAC from The Library Corporation, VTLS Visualizer, SirsiDynix Enterprise etc, and open source versions prosper as well: VuFind and Blacklight. Open source components such as Apache Lucene and SOLR, make the construction of a modern interface less of a technical feat.

Today, it's the scope of content addressed that differentiates discovery interfaces. It's now within reach to produce discovery interfaces that address the full breadth of a library's collection through a single consolidated index, spanning print, articles within e-journals, and each of the individual objects within the digital collections, institutional repositories.

The major change that enables this breakthrough involves a relenting of the stranglehold of publishers and providers of content. Until recently, few were willing to allow wholesale access to the content held within their information products. That left the primary means of discovery outside their native interfaces the far-from-elegant approach of metasearch that incessantly hammered their servers with a very low possibility of connecting a user to their content. The new paradigm of pre-populated indexes involves the risk of wholesale exposure of their key assets, yet stands to increase the use of their products through a more efficient search model.

Social networking powers library discovery

Web 2.0 concepts have been churning in the library technology space for half a decade, but have yet to become part of the core infrastructure that power libraries. Tags, ratings, and reviews have been an expected feature in new discovery interfaces, but have yet to make a substantial impact on the way that patrons interact with library collections.

Library Thing for Libraries and ChiliFresh have become popular add-ins to help existing library catalogs and discovery interfaces add a measure of user-generated content.

BiblioCommons aims to bring social networking into the patron's basic experience of the library. An interesting new approach to discovery interfaces, BiblioCommons brings user-generated content, social interactions among library patrons, and other Web 2.0 concepts into the process of selecting reading materials. Following a longish period of development, a dozen or so libraries expect to launch BiblioCommons catalogs by the end of the year.

I anticipate that social networking components will increasingly become embedded into the inner fabric of library products and not merely add-ons and afterthoughts.

These interesting products have yet to displace the legacy catalog. Despite a plethora of products available to replace them with more modern interfaces, the vast majority of libraries continue to offer vintage OPACs. Even in the best of times, the replacement cycles of automation products in libraries turn extremely slowly.

The demise of the single-library ILS

In today's environment of highly-scalable computer platforms and increased interest in resource sharing, the concept of each library operating its own ILS becomes less defensible. We're seeing a trend toward larger-scale implementations that serve many libraries:

Vendor-hosted Software-as-a-service offerings that aggregate many instances of their products.
Consortial, Regional and state-wide implementations that aggregate many libraries into a single instance of an ILS platform.
OCLC's WorldCat Local cooperative library system that aims to provide a global platform for library automation to its member libraries.

Web Services and SOA advance

Development of technology products for libraries increasingly embraces SOA or at least offers legacy functionality through Web services. Projects such as the Mellon-funded OLE Project and Ex Libris URM aim to build new frameworks for library automation through a service-oriented architecture. Existing products increasingly use Web services to provide access to internal functionality and data. Today's environment that fully embraces the concept of openness and holds distain for closed systems. Open source, open APIs, and open access content continue to advance into the mainstream of library technology.

2009-07-13T14:36:00.001-04:00

Are e-book ads the way of the future?

by Suzanne Gardner

The Internet’s been abuzz with news of some recently filed Amazon patents. A blog post on the Fast Companywebsite looks at two of the patents, which point toward a new future in which ads are embedded in e-books.

The patents are designed to solve a supposed problem: that “out of print or rare books … typically do not include advertisements.” For electronic versions of magazines, the inclusion of advertising makes sense, as this would merely reflect how print magazines are already constructed. But if Amazon intends to use these patents for all materials available on the Kindle, including books, readers will start to get understandably uneasy. From Fast Company:

Would you be happy reading a copy of The Hobbit, only to find an embedded ad for pedicure treatments on certain pages? The framework for this to happen isn’t clear from the patent, though it would be reasonable to expect Amazon to start by offering the ads in books with discounted prices. Or the ads could appear in texts by self-published authors who need to fund their work but don’t have the backing of a traditional publisher. That would be a sensible way for Amazon to get the public accepting the idea, and it would be a great sales hook for Amazon to entice advertisers into the scheme in the first place.

2009-06-29T20:50:00.001-04:00

How Google Book Search Affects Academe

by Ellyssa

The Chronicle of Higher Ed talks with Adam Smith, director of product management at Google in this podcast discussion. The two talk about “Book Search, the proposed settlement in the authors-and-publishers lawsuit against it, what it means for academic authors and researchers and so-called orphan works, and fears of a Google monopoly”.

2009-06-29T20:49:00.001-04:00

Library automation in a Difficult Ecomomy

(2009-06-24 21:33:43).

It's no secret that libraries face incredibly difficult prospects in these lean economic times. In recent days, for example, American Libraries ran a story about a possible $227.3 million devastating cut proposed for Ohio libraries over the next two years. Libraries of all sorts are taking extraordinary measures to deal with shrinking budgets. Reduced hours, flat or reduced salaries, voluntary furloughs, layoffs. Not to mention reduced expenditures for collections. Not all libraries experience the same level of hardship—some find themselves fortunate and lightly touched, at least for now.

Do these economic times strike the death knell for technology projects? In my March 2009 column in Computers in Libraries, I suggest that at least in some cases, strategic technology projects may prove worthwhile investment. Well-conceived technology projects can help maintain or improve the position of a library forced to make cuts in other areas.

The downturn in the economy has taken its toll on libraries. Even in the best of times, most libraries have to work with budgets that are barely adequate to support their essential activities. In these recent months, the recession has subtracted significant funds from the parent organizations of many libraries: city, county, and state governments; public and private colleges and universities; schools; and corporations. In the sphere of libraries with which I've interacted, some have faced drastic budget cuts, including givebacks in their current fiscal cycle; others have been more lightly touched, facing only a year or so of zero-growth budgets. I've not heard from any libraries that expect increases in funding on the order of what they had a year ago.
I expect that this harsh economic climate will make an impact on the library automation industry and will likely force many libraries to reconsider the technology projects planned for the next year or so.
Most libraries that I've encountered routinely find ways to execute any given project with the lowest cost and the greatest impact possible. We're frugal organizations used to making every dollar count. Today's environment requires responses that go beyond even the strictest frugality, prompting a strategic reassessment of how a library allocates its resources. In this context, technology and automation may well be wise investments that help maintain the library's mission in times of diminishing resources.
In times like these with budgets constrained more than ever, it's necessary to take a step back to consider technology and automation issues. I don't think that tight budgets necessarily have to mean that all new technology projects should be set aside until brighter times. It's possible that innovative use of technology might provide the most effective way for a library to carry out its objectives with fewer overall resources. Nevertheless, routine technology projects will inevitably suffer.continue reading...

(The full text of my Systems Librarian columns are available on Library Technology Guides 90 days following thier original publication in Computers in Libraries magazine.)

2009-06-29T20:46:00.001-04:00

The New Marketing Mix

by stephen

David Armano at the Logic + Emotion blog has done it again. He always creates the best visuals that explain complex topics.

As we evolve our way through making changes in balancing our traditional marketing mix with the digital and social marketing tools that are emerging as so important to our relationship with our communities.

Have you reviewed your marketing mix for your library lately? Is it flexible enough to adapt to coming changes in SEO, Yahoo!, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, and whatever?

2009-06-29T20:45:00.001-04:00

Encouraging Positive Behaviours

by stephen

I first heard these statistics from Ken Haycock and I was reminded of them last week when I saw them in the Wall Street Journal (May 20, p. A13)

There are some good reasons to encourage hotel guests to re-use towels on longer stays. It saves the hotel laundry costs and every little bit adds up in helpig to reduce our impact on the environment. Read these communication differences:

1. "Help the hotel save energy" results in 16% towel reuse.
2. "Partner with us to help th environment" results in 31% towel reuse.
3. "Almost 75% of guests reuse towels" results in 44% towel reuse.
4. "75% of the guests who stayed in this room reuse towels" results in 49% towel reuse.

Hmmmm. And Wow.

Now think about libraries. We have alll followed the Flickr group on bad library signs. There's much to learn. If we had a good discussion about behaviours we wanted to encourage what would our signs look like?

If you accepted the research based communication results above, how would you:

1. Communicate about fines or returning books (on time)?
2. Communicate about not reshelving books?
3. Encourage parents and caregivers to attend story hours?
4. Pushing DVD's or books that weren't bestsellers?
5. Appropriate mobile phone use?
6. Encouraging good teen behaviours or dealing with loud and boisterous seniors?
7. Etc.

Lots of good stuff could emerge while creating a postive communication environment.

Stephen

2009-06-29T20:35:00.001-04:00

Web 3.0 in Plain English

by stephen

I picked this up from Lone Wolf Librarian (again - it's a library blog worth the RSS feed).

Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English

"Web 1.0 - That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz.

Web 2.0 - This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era.

Web 3.0 - This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things."

This blog posting has 6 web presentations on Web 3.0.

1. The Evolution of Web 3.0 (28 slides)

2. Why Web 2.0 / 3.0? (101 slides)

3. WWW 3.0: This time it's personal (130 slides)

4. Web 3.0 (44 slides)

5. Web 3.0 Explained with a stamp : The Basics (45 slides)

6. Web 3.0 Explained with a stamp : The Techniques (51 slides)

2009-06-22T20:24:00.000-04:00

Google Book Search announces new features

by Scott MacDonald

While the publishing industry frets about Google’s looming supremacy over the written word, Google itself just continues on its merry way, scanning books and fine-tuning the presentation of them. Yesterday, Google announced a number of tweaks to its Book Search product, which include improved word search functionality, improved page-turn functionality, and newer, faster ways of jumping back and forth in the text.

You can read about all the changes here.

2009-06-03T18:47:00.001-04:00

Google unveils plans to sell e-books

from Quillblog by Steven W. Beattie

Look out Amazon, Google’s coming. That was the message at BookExpo America over the weekend. According to an article by Motoko Rich in yesterday’s New York Times, representatives from Google were in discussions with booksellers at the annual trade show about a new platform that would allow users to purchase digital copies of new books directly from Google. The search engine already allows users to browse portions of new books, and includes links to booksellers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon, where traditional print copies or e-books can be purchased. The new proposal would eliminate the middleman and allow Google to sell directly to consumers.

It would also allow booksellers to set the prices for their titles, which has been a bone of contention between booksellers and Amazon. From the Times:

Google’s move is likely to be welcomed by publishers who have expressed concerns about Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy for e-books. Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers. In early discussions, Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices.

Something else that may have Amazon trembling in its corporate boots is the fact that Google’s proposed program would allow users to access digital copies of books from any device with Web access, such as cell phones. Amazon’s e-books are only compatible with the company’s own Kindle reader.

The proposed new e-book project is separate from the ongoing Google Book Search settlement, which involves payments to rightsholders whose books have been digitized by Google without permission.

Though competition is a healthy thing, Quillblog thinks that the notion of allowing publishers to charge the same price for e-books that they charge for traditional hard copies won’t gain much traction. No one is going to want to fork over $30 for a digital copy of a book, especially when websites (such as, ahem, Google) are already making so much content available online for free.

2009-06-03T18:46:00.000-04:00

Print-on-demand titles outnumbered traditional books in 2008

from Quillblog by Suzanne Gardner

Publishers Weekly is reporting that U.S. book production both rose and fell in 2008, according to statistics just released from Bowker’s Books in Print database. While the number of new and revised titles released by traditional production methods fell 3% in 2008 to 275,232, the number of on-demand and short run titles jumped a whopping 132% to 285,394. With the two numbers combined, total output increased by 38% to 560,626 books. This marks the first time that print-on-demand titles have topped traditional books in production numbers. From PW:

Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publisher services for Bowker, said the decline in traditional books reflects not only the difficult economy but the decision by publishers to become smarter and more strategic in the titles they published last year. A breakout by segment shows the impact of the economy on publishing. The number of travel titles was down 15% last year as Americans stayed closer to home, while fiction titles fell 11%, to 47,541. The religion segment also had a significant decline with new titles off 14%. The biggest gain among traditional segments came in education where output rose 33%, to 9,510, while new business titles rose 14%, to 8,838.

Since 2002, production of print-on-demand books has leaped 774%, compared to a 126% growth for traditional titles. Gallagher cited the vast improvements in print-on-demand printing technology as a major reason for the change.

2009-04-30T13:43:00.001-04:00

Will Print-on-Demand Stifle eBooks?

from No Shelf Required by spolanka

There is a really interesting article (with comments) on the TeleRead blog about the Espresso Book Machine. If you remember, UM purchased the Espresso back in October. This new article, written by Court Merrigan, focuses on the machine’s use in bookstores - store front or in one’s closet. It’s big in the UK, with plans to expand the 500,000 title Espresso offering even further if Blackwell can negotiate the rights to in-copyright books.

Merrigan ponders the future of bookstores, amazon, and the impact of POD to the eBook industry. Comments from publishers offer even more ideas and perspectives. One comment, from Michael Pastore, states “This machine could also be deployed in libraries, and help make some money for libraries, which are much in need right now. And independent bookstores might be looking at this machine reverently, as a mechanical messiah.”

2009-04-30T13:41:00.001-04:00

E-book Usage Data Article

from No Shelf Required by spolanka

The April 1, 2009 “Off The Shelf” column features an article on E-book usage data. The article surveyed 10 e-book vendors and aggregators for information on their usage data. A comparative chart accompanies the article, which is only available online, on the NSR articles page.

7 vendors replied to the survey, 1 couldn’t participate due to usage data restructuring, and 2 did not reply. The 2 no replies serve primarily the public and school library markets, so this usage chart is heavy on academic providers.

2009-04-30T13:28:00.002-04:00

OCLC announces strategy to move library management services to Web scale

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 23 April 2009—OCLC is connecting the content, technology and expert capabilities of its member libraries worldwide to create the first Web-scale, cooperative library management service. Member libraries can take the first step to realizing this cooperative service model with a new, “quick start” version of the OCLC WorldCat Local service.

"Our strategy to move library management systems to Web scale builds on OCLC's 40-year history of innovation and cooperation," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "In 1967, OCLC Founder Fred Kilgour revealed a strategy to create an online union catalog through shared cataloging in order to reduce individual transaction costs for libraries. The result has been WorldCat, which has saved libraries millions of dollars in cataloging and interlibrary loan costs. Today, we are extending that strategy of cooperation to reduce the costs of library management functions such as circulation and acquisitions. Our goal is to lower the total cost of managing library collections while enhancing the library user's experience."

"Thanks to the pioneering efforts of member libraries that participated in WorldCat Local pilots and those that became early adopters, we now have the opportunity to accelerate the movement of library management services to Web scale through 'quick start' and additional services. OCLC will soon name an advisory council that will provide valuable input and experience as we move forward with our cooperative Web-scale library services,” said Mr. Jordan.

Libraries that subscribe to FirstSearch WorldCat will get the WorldCat Local "quick start" service as part of their subscription at no additional charge. WorldCat Local "quick start" offers libraries a locally branded catalog interface and simple search box that presents localized search results for print and electronic content along with the ability to search the entire WorldCat database and other resources via the Web.

OCLC plans to release Web-scale delivery and circulation, print and electronic acquisitions, and license management components to WorldCat Local, continuing the integration of library management services to create the Web-scale, cooperative library service. OCLC will begin piloting the Web-scale management service components this year.

This new library service design will support library management for print, electronic and licensed materials built on a new, Web-scale architecture that provides streamlined workflows and cooperative solutions. This Web-scale solution will not only include the functionality of disparate systems, it will interoperate with third-party business process systems, such as finance and human resources, and will reduce the total cost of ownership for libraries. The cooperative nature of the platform will create network effects for libraries with enhanced discovery, resource sharing, and metadata management, and through sharing collection management information, identity management, and collective intelligence fueled by data shared through the cooperative and with partners.

"Visits to libraries, focus groups, and over a decade of engagement in the library automation world have convinced me that libraries require less complexity in their management systems,” said Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director for Networked Library Services. "To truly deliver network-level services—a platform-as-a-service solution—and not simply Internet-hosted solutions of current library services, new system architectures and workflows must be built that are engineered to support Web-scale transaction rates and Web-scale collaboration. OCLC is in a unique position to create cooperative network effects in library management services on a par with OCLC Cataloging and OCLC Resource Sharing."

OCLC will work with the more than 1,000 libraries and partners that are currently using OCLC library management systems in Europe and Asia Pacific to help build this service. OCLC will continue to develop and support its existing systems in Europe and Asia Pacific. OCLC will accelerate efforts to create robust data-exchange capabilities between OCLC library management systems and the WorldCat platform. Libraries and partners using current OCLC library management systems will be able to participate in this new development by adding Web-based services to their local solutions to extend their services for end users.

In 2006, OCLC launched WorldCat.org, which provides Web access to the world's richest database for discovery of library materials through a single search box, and through the world's most popular search engines. To date, more than 25 million user requests have been connected to local libraries from a Web search. WorldCat Local, introduced in 2007, brought this single, integrated search to the library's own branded Web page.

In July 2009, libraries will be able to start using WorldCat.org as their user interface for the OCLC FirstSearch service, providing integrated access through a single search box to NetLibrary eBooks and eAudiobooks, Electronic Collections Online eJournals, OCLC FirstSearch databases, ArchiveGrid archival collection descriptions and CAMIO (the Catalog of Art Museum Images Online). At the same time, OCLC will add an enhanced, comprehensive search capability to WorldCat Local, which will return all print, electronic and licensed content available to the library from any location.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 69,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials. Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

2009-04-30T13:28:00.001-04:00

News and Events

OCLC partners with popular social book community weRead

weRead will provide WorldCat.org with more than 2.3 million reviews, 17 million ratings and use of its recommendations engine.

OCLC has partnered with weRead, a social reading site and community for book lovers, to provide valuable content on WorldCat.org, which now features weRead customer reviews alongside Amazon, Educational Media Reviews Online and original user review submissions. In addition, WorldCat.org also uses the weRead recommendations engine to make “Read By Others” suggestions for additional titles of interest on a WorldCat.org detailed record page.

weRead helps people find other readers who have similar interests and provides title recommendations. It is the latest organization to join the WorldCat partners program. With one of the largest and most popular social book discovery applications on Facebook, MySpace, bebo, Hi5 and Orkut, weRead is a natural fit to partner with OCLC to enhance the social networking and user-discovery aspects of WorldCat.org, says Cindy Cunningham, Director of Partner Programs for OCLC.

See also:
View weRead Web site

2009-03-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Transformation of NRC Research Press

On February 18^th, 2009, The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced the results of a strategic review of NRC programs conducted by the Federal Government of Canada. As a result of this review, the Government of Canada and the National Research Council of Canada have decided that the journals and services of NRC Research Press will be transferred to the private sector.

Over the next year, a new not-for-profit corporation will be created for the NRC Research Press journals and services. The National Research Council of Canada and senior management of NRC Research Press are working to ensure that this new entity will continue to provide a viable Canadian option for publishing Canadian and international research, support our Canadian scientific societies and develop new scholarly publishing practices and technologies. Therefore, the mission and objectives of this new corporate entity will remain largely the same as before.

NRC Research Press has operated as a cost-recovery program within the National Research Council. As such, this transformation is not the development of a "new business" but the movement of a successful program into a new legal and business environment. It is our belief that this new environment will afford us more flexibility to manage our publishing activities.

For all our subscribers, we would like to assure you that we are an ongoing Canadian scholarly publishing program delivering affordable, quality journals with great plans for the future.

Specifically for our Canadian clients and subscribers, since 2001 our journals have been provided electronically, free to all Canadians. This has been available due to the generous support of the Federal Depository Services Program. This availability will continue to be in place for the calendar subscription year 2009.

However, the Depository Services Program is not mandated to provide funding for publishing operations outside of the Federal Government of Canada. As the exact date of the transfer of NRC Research Press to a new legal entity in 2010 is still in question, we are unable at this time to inform you of the termination date of the free electronic access. We are attempting to persuade the Depository Services Program to provide this access through the remainder of calendar subscription year 2010. We will keep you informed as soon as we know the situation for 2010. It can be assumed that the support for free electronic access will cease for the calendar subscription year 2011.

NRC Research Press would like to thank the Depository Services Program for the funding they have provided over the last 8 years. It has been of great benefit to all Canadians.

The NRC Research Press will be posting progress reports of this transformation on our homepage website (http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/home.html). If you have any further questions, please email us at pubs@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Cameron Macdonald

2009-03-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

The Dalai Lama Joins Twitter

by Ellyssa

His Holiness The Dalai Lama joined the popular microblogging website Twitter yesterday and already has over 13,000 followers. In other social media news, the Vatican has created a YouTube channel, as has UK Parliament, (which is also blogging, on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter), The US House of Representatives andSenate. Know of any other interesting personalities or organizations which have recently joined an online community? Please link to them in the comments!

Update: It has been reported that the Dalai Lama Twitter account was actually started by an impersonator - news which hit Twitter almost immediately after the account was suspended. Although the account has been restored, it no longer claims affiliation with The Office of the Dalai Lama.

2009-03-06T14:52:00.001-05:00

Twenty-Nine Reports About the Future of Academic Libraries

by Ellyssa

John Dupuis, Head of the Steacie Science & Engineering Library at York University in Toronto has compiled a list of Twenty-nine reports about the future of academic libraries. All of the reports are freely available. Here are just a few, be sure and check out the full post for more:

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

2009-03-06T14:41:00.001-05:00

Now playing on an iPhone near you…

by Eric Emin Wood

Turns out the fastest growing category on Apple’s iTunes app store isn’t games or music, but books.

At least, in terms of “unique applications” (i.e. individual titles). As the O’Reilly Radar points out, “releasing an e-book for the iPhone is a lot easier than writing a gaming application using the iPhone SDK.” However, while 2,065 “unique” e-book applications were sold this week versus 561 three months ago, gaming apps continue to be the most popular:

Games remain the dominant category both in terms of number of apps (24% of all apps), and in terms of sales. During a typical week, two-thirds of all apps on the TOP PAID APPS list are Games, while a lone Book spends time on the list.

If nothing else, this illustrates that while the format might be changing, the market for literary entertainment in some form will continue to exist.

2009-03-06T14:40:00.001-05:00

Kindle ideal for self-gratification, says Bezos

by Derek Weiler

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday night to promote the second-generation Kindle. Gawker has a clip collage that focuses on Bezos’s habit of laughing maniacally, but they seem to have missed a couple other things. One was Stewart’s instinctive pushback on the Kindle’s US$359 price. When Bezos tried to mollify him by saying that books are only $9.99, Stewart’s response was along the lines of, “You have to buy books too?”

Also notable: the loose and laughing Bezos tossed out a previously unmentioned fringe benefit of the device. To wit: you can, er, read it with one hand. Give Captain Amazon credit: it’s hard to imagine any other book-biz CEO being willing to mix it up with Stewart on the host’s own terms.

2009-03-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

O'Reilly News Release: Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Shows Way to Digital Future

by Jackie Hadley, Communications Associate

Innovation Transforms How Readers Receive Content

Sebastopol, CA, March 2, 2009 - The O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, held February 9-11, 2009 in New York City, highlighted the many dynamic possibilities ahead for publishers who embrace a digital future. At the heart of the world’s publishing capital, TOC showcased the tools, the business models, and the knowledge that publishers need to succeed in a changing landscape. The conference deciphered trends and technologies that can keep the industry profitable and more connected to readers.

In a time when naysayers question publishing’s very survival, TOC showed the industry how to flourish.

Featured keynotes included one by Tim O’Reilly, CEO and founder of O’Reilly Media, who gave conference-goers reasons to stay excited and optimistic about the future of publishing. Nick Bilton, who explores technologies for The New York Times R&D Labs, talked about the future of news. Bob Stein, executive director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, said books are no longer objects but instead are becoming places where readers and authors congregate. Other keynote speakers included Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo, Peter Brantley of Digital Library Federation, Neelan Choksi of Lexcycle, Cory Doctorow of Happy Mutants LLC, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books, Jason Fried of 37signals, Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com, Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan, and Nina Paley of Nina Paley Productions.

Read the full press release.

2009-03-05T21:59:00.003-05:00

NSR Interview with Susan Danziger, DailyLit

by spolanka

NSR introduces a new interview with Susan Danziger, CEO and Founder of DailyLit. Susan discusses the idea behind DailyLit, to bring books to readers in small bit and pieces, via email or RSS feed. For more info on DailyLit see the NSR Sept. 2008 blog post.

Catch up on other NSR interviews by visiting the interviews page.

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Original audio source

2009-03-05T21:59:00.001-05:00

University of Pennsylvania to Digitize and Print-on-Demand

by spolanka

I read this article in LJ about another library digitization/print-on demand product. This time it’s with the University of Pennsylvania (UP) and Kirtas. UP is now part of the elite group of libraries providing print-on-demand services including University of Michigan, Emory, and Cornell.

The UP project will scan books in the public domain (200,000), but only when a title is requested by an end user. So, it’s kind of like the Patron Driven Acquisition ebook model, but now it’s being done in reverse. Take the print, digitize it, then print a copy on demand to ship to a user. Price information was not listed on the UP Press Release.

2009-03-05T21:58:00.003-05:00

E-Books Are Not Books

by spolanka

I read an interesting paper by Mark T J Carden of Ingram Digital. He presented this paper at the Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (see citation below). Mark discusses how eBooks are following the same evolutionary path of physical books and won’t be fully adopted until the “traditional book is deconstructed and reconstructed to create new paradigms for storing and delivering content in electronic forms.” He offers suggestions for re-inventing the eBook.

1. classify the content into groupings like data, explanation, instruction, or narrative and identify user behaviors like look up, skim, view, enjoy - map these together

2. examine models of acquisition and possession, skim or view vs. consume or immerse. These require different business models and licensing

3. examine page layouts and formats. What might be suitable for a print page may be unsuitable for the electronic one. reformat as necessary

4. establish effective reading devices and the unfortunate format wars that come with them. DRM or no DRM. my format or your format, or do what the music industry is doing - open access to content, if you can find a business model to support it

Conference on Information and Knowledge Management archive
Proceeding of the 2008 ACM workshop on Research advances in large digital book repositories table of contents

Napa Valley, California, USA

SESSION: Enriched digitized books table of contents

Pages 9-12

Year of Publication: 2008

ISBN:978-1-60558-249-8

2009-03-05T21:58:00.001-05:00

eBooks I: Business Models and Strategies, OReilly TOC

by spolanka

The OReilly Tools of Change conference is underway in NYC, with many presentations and discussions about ebooks. One that caught my eye was a panel discussion of eBook business models and strategies. The presenters were: Michael Smith (International Digital Publishing Forum), Kenneth Brooks (Cengage Learning),Leslie Hulse (HarperCollins Publishers), Cynthia Cleto (Springer Science+Business Media. Cynthia Cleto was featured in the NSR audio interview in October, 2008.

The presentation demonstrates various drivers of ebook publishing, challenges, and patterns in user behavior that are driving the market to offer various business models. It breaks down ebooks into the trade, higher ed, reference, and STM categories providing comparison charts on challenges, strategies, formats, etc. I was happy to see catch phrases like - epub, DRM not necessary, and sales by the chapter, but unfortunately, they were not listed in each of the four categories.

eBooks II: Formats, Standards, and Implementation, part two of the series on eBooks, discussed epub, but on the developer side of things.

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Original audio source

2009-03-05T21:57:00.003-05:00

New audio interview - Leslie Lees, ebrary

by spolanka

A new audio interview has been posted to NSR’s interviews page. This one features Leslie Lees, VP-Content and Market Development, ebrary. Leslie and I discussed methods of ebook purchasing that involve patrons and what ebrary is doing to plan for these new business models. Check it out, it’s absolutely the best thing you’ll hear all week!

NSR interviews are generally 15 - 20 minutes in length. I recommend you download the mp3 file, then listen.

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Original audio source

2009-03-05T21:57:00.001-05:00

Once and Future e-book

by Phil.

The Once and Future e-book: On Reading in the Digital Age
A veteran of a former turning of the e-book wheel looks at the past, present, and future of reading books on things that are not books. -by John Siracusa, Apple Technology Specialist at Ars Technica.

John writes about the history of ebook devices, corporate mis-steps, outmoded business models, DRM, and the market vibe. Technologically minded librarians will empathize with his frustrations. Those who aren’t can get a quick background of the way tech, business, and customer interests interact and conflict. Publishers will recognize the plea for new business models. The post suggests that an immediate change in attutude and practice is needed or publisher’s will lose the moment’s opportunities.

2009-02-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

New Kindle may come with King-sized content

by Steven W. Beattie

Today, Amazon has announced the release of Kindle 2, the new version of its popular Kindle e-reader. Priced at U.S.$359, the new version of the device includes an improved display, with 16 different shades of grey (who knew?), 25% longer battery life, and the capability of storing 1,500 books.

And, according to the Wall Street Journal, one selling point may be a new work of fiction by Stephen King, produced exclusively (at least in the short term) for the device.

It is possible that the King work — in which a Kindle-like device plays a role in the story — could be published as part of a physical book at a later date by the author’s current publisher, Scribner, an imprint of CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster publishing arm. Scribner last November published Mr. King’s most recent book, “Just After Sunset: Stories.”

Efforts to elicit an email response from Mr. King were unsuccessful. Spokesmen for Amazon and Simon & Schuster both declined to comment.

This Quillblogger has in the past got into some hot water for daring to criticize the unchallenged ascendency of e-readers, and will refrain from doing so here. Presumably Oprah’s endorsement last fall (which, according to theWSJ might have contributed to the device’s unavailability over the crucial Christmas selling season), along with the King story, will result in healthy sales for Kindle 2.

2009-02-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

Ontario school library funding comes through

by Stuart Woods

Ontario’s elementary school libraries – and the retailers and wholesalers that supply them with books – can breathe a sigh of relief: a much needed influx of funding, promised by Premier Dalton McGuinty during the 2007 election campaign, has finally come through.

The initial influx of $15-million (part of a promised $80-million) has already been divvied up among individual school boards, with each elementary school in the province set to receive a base sum of $1,500, plus additional monies calculated based on school size. The libraries can use that money to buy books from a list of 73 qualified vendors, who applied to the program last fall.

The list of vendors was first due to appear as early as last October, and the delay prompted concerns that the funds would not be forthcoming.

However, agreements with qualified retailers and wholesalers began to go out last week, and the ministry expects to have deals in place by the end of February, at which point the school libraries can begin placing orders. (For now, the vendor list has yet to be made public.) Those agreements will be valid for two years, a ministry spokesperson told Quillblog, with the ministry having the option to extend the agreement by two more years after that.

2009-02-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

Peter Carey stands up for imperiled Australian publishing

by Stuart Woods

According to Peter Carey, publishing Down Under is in crisis. And the threat – that Australian publishers will “have their roles reduced to that of distributor in a global corporate chain” – may sound familiar to Canadian readers.

Carey’s fears are prompted by the Australian Parliament’s decision to review the country’s protectionist copyright law, which the two-time Booker-winning author argues is what has allowed Australian literature to flourish in the first place. As it currently stands:

Australian publishers have a window of 30 days to bring out an Australian edition of a book once it has been released anywhere in the world. If they do so, then Australian bookshops have to sell the Australian version, and can’t import the book from overseas. This can mean that books are more expensive – and harder to get hold of – in Australia than they are elsewhere, but also allows the country’s local publishing to flourish, rather than forcing it to compete with a flood of cheaper-priced editions from overseas. (via The Guardian)

In Canada, retailers are obliged to stock the Canadian edition of a book, so long as it is priced within 10% of a U.S. one. Carey argues that Australia’s even stricter laws need to be protected.

As long as we have a territorial copyright our publishers have a commercial argument to support Australian literature. They will battle for the sake of our readers and our writers, even if their owners have no personal commitment to the strange loves and needs of Australian readers, or the cultural integrity and future of the Australian nation.
Take copyright away from them, and they no longer have a commercial leg to stand on. And then? Then the global companies will decide that their Australian offices will be much more profitable as distributors of product than publishers of books. If this sounds creepily colonial, it is because it is.

2009-02-09T08:40:00.001-05:00

Another new format?

by Eric Emin Wood

We’ve all heard of audiobooks, but videobooks?

HarperCollins is trying to pitch short films of authors summarizing their books (until recently known as an online promotional trailer) as a new format – even going so far as to sell the resulting 23 minutes on Amazon for slightly less than the cost of a new paperback.

Even if watching Jeff Jarvis talk about his book, What Would Google Do?, turned out to be as informative as reading the book would be, how do you consult it for reference? Sure it saves on printing costs, but so do e-books and audiobooks – without sacrificing valuable content.

If HarperCollins wants to move into the self-help video market, they should just say so

2009-02-09T08:32:00.000-05:00

More books on phones

by Stuart Woods

Remember when cell phones were considered to be solely the accoutrements of inveterate workaholics? Well, people with eyes glued to their iPhones – and other mobile devices – now have a culturally legitimate excuse, with Google’s announcement that it is making some of the books it’s been digitizing available for free for cell phone users.

The Globe and Mail reports:

The Internet search leader announced today it is making more than 500,000 books already in the public domain available for free to smart-phone users through a mobile version of its Google Book Search website. Readers in the United States will have access to more than 1.5 million books through the service.

The new service will be compatible with Google’s G1 Android phone, the iPhone, and several phones from Nokia, the Globe reports.

However, there are still plenty of old fashioned types out there who are standing by their trusty e-readers. Here, the technology website Ars Technica weighs in on why the uptake for commercial e-books has been “excruciatingly – and yes, you guessed it, unjustly – slow.”

blog's wordle cloud

2009-01-14T18:31:00.000-05:00

2009-01-11T17:26:00.001-05:00

ebrary now has on demand MARC records

by spolanka

From ebrary:

ebrary Announces On-Demand MARC Records

January 6, 2009 – Palo Alto, CA – ebrary®, a leading provider of e-content software and services, today announced that customers can now immediately upload free MARC records for individual titles they purchase as well as e-books and other documents added to the company’s subscription databases. Additionally, ebrary’s new MARC features make it easier for customers to manage MARC records and upload large batches.

“As well as providing our customers with the best possible technology for acquiring, sharing, and distributing authoritative digital content, we also strive to provide support and services that make it easier for librarians and information professionals to use and integrate our products,” said Neal Strickberger, ebrary’s Vice President of MIS and Customer Operations. “In gathering feedback from our customers, we heard loud and clear that developing a quicker, more efficient way to obtain and manage MARC records would greatly enhance our offerings. We are pleased to make this request a reality through on-demand MARC features.”

Available today, ebrary’s on-demand MARC features offer the following capabilities:

* Instant MARC updates – Customers can download new MARC records for purchased titles and additions to subscription e-book collections at any time, as incremental or complete record sets.
* MARC records separated by collection – Customers with multiple subscription collections and purchased titles can download complete or incremental sets of MARC records for specific collections.
* Deleted MARC records – Customers can now obtain deleted records as MARC delete records or on an Excel spreadsheet.
* Complete MARC record sets for large collections – To simplify loading, complete MARC loads are now available from ebrary’s extranet site as batches of 5,000 in a single ZIP file.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)
ebrary® is a leading provider of e-content services and technology. The company helps libraries, publishers, and other organizations disseminate valuable information to end-users, while improving end-user research and document interaction.

The company has developed a flexible e-content platform, which customers may use in a number of different, integrated capacities: ebrary customers may purchase or subscribe to e-books and other content under a variety of pricing and access models, and they may license the ebrary platform to distribute, sell, and market their own content online. All options are delivered using a customizable interface and include a choice of ebrary Readers with QuickView™ for instant viewing in a browser and InfoTools™ software which provide contextual searching and integration with multiple online resources..

ebrary currently offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 e-books and other titles from more than 300 leading publishers and aggregators.

Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

###

Tish Wagner
ebrary
Library and Public Relations
707-963-2035- office
707-227-0870- mobile
tish.wagner@ebrary.com

2009-01-11T17:24:00.001-05:00

Project Gutenberg Over 32,000 Strong

by spolanka

In the 2008 Project Gutenberg Year in Review, it is reported that during 2008 they surpassed 32,000 original Project Gutenberg eBooks. “This now means that the original Project Gutenberg editions now list as many book titles as your average U.S. public library,” says Mike Cook. Additional statistics on the project can be found in the Year in Review.

2009-01-11T17:20:00.002-05:00

eBook programs at ALA Midwinter

by spolanka

If you are headed to Denver in a couple of weeks, see if you have time to pop into one of these panel discussions of eBooks and patron driven acquisition. If anyone knows of other programs, please let me know. This was all I could find in the online planner by keyword.

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM on 01/24
OCLC 10 Years of eBooks - What’s Next?
Location: Colorado Convention Center in Room 301

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM on 01/26
PVLR Forum: Patron-Driven Acquisition and Its Impact on Libraries, Vendors, and Publishers
Location: Colorado Convention Center in Room 301

2009-01-11T17:20:00.001-05:00

A Digital Library, Free to the World

by Jason

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, gives a TED talk on his vision of a digitized future...
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I'm famous!

2009-01-09T16:48:00.001-05:00

Professional Profile: Sophia Apostol - Coutts Information Services

Question: Tell me about your career so far.

Sophia began her library career at YBP Library Service as a library vendor that provided books (both in print and electronic) and supporting collection management and technical services to academic, research and special libraries. Through her co-op placement at the University of Guelph, she met a librarian who put her in touch with a manager at YBP, and she landed her first job with the organization even before she had completed her degree! Sophia worked as the Sales Manager for Canada, which entailed managing accounts for all of the organization’s Canada clientele. Sophia traveled all over the country, working with clients to determine their collections development needs and offering YBP’s products and services to help meet their demands.

Having established herself in the professional world, and sufficiently tired of the all-familiar “airplane smell,” Sophia decided to pursue a different field of librarianship by accepting a position at the Seneca@York campus of Seneca College. There, she worked as an Instruction Librarian, providing reference services, information literacy classes, and collection development. The knowledge she gained at YBP – working with academic librarians and academic library products – assisted her in understanding her new role in an educational setting.

Upon completing the contract position at Seneca, Sophia turned back to the world of library vendors to seek out her next position – a position for which she herself wrote the job description. Tapping into her personal network of information professionals, she wrote to a former colleague and described exactly what she was seeking in her next job. Her assertiveness paid off when the colleague called back to say he had the perfect job for her, which is how Sophia found herself in her current position as the Knowledge Resources Manager for Coutts Information Services.

Question: What does your current work for Coutts entail?

Coutts is a full service supplier of books and electronic content from publishers and distributors worldwide. They provide collections services and resources to libraries to make sure they get the books and e-resources they need to serve their patrons effectively.

As the Knowledge Resources Manager, Sophia ensures sound knowledge sharing practices within the organization to create better-informed team members and more satisfied clients. She ensures that people within the organization have access and exposure to the information and knowledge not only to do their jobs, but to do them better, by meeting clients’ needs and developing stronger, more usable products.

Sophia’s work is also client-facing: she provides user training on Coutts library products, working with collections development librarians and instructing them in how to use Coutts’ collections management products.

What’s more, Sophia is very excited to be embarking on interface design and information architecture for Coutts’ products. She works with the IT department on how to create usable, accessible products that meet the changing needs of academic and research librarians.

It is clear from her enthusiasm and positivity that she is incredibly excited about her role at Coutts, and is thoroughly enjoying her role with the organization!

Question: What are your tips for new professionals embarking on their careers in the information professions?

Network, network, network: Sophia got all her professional positions through professional contacts, and she cannot emphasize enough how important it is to meet people in the field and get your name out in the library world. This includes participation in professional associations, conferences, networking events and other venues, where you can meet members of the library profession, and maybe meet your future boss! We’re especially lucky in this profession: Librarians are friendly, approachable, and they love helping new professionals find their bearings, so don’t be afraid to network.

Be your own advocate: You have to be assertive with your employer if you want support for your professional development; time away from work to attend conferences, the ability to pursue continuing education, support in skills upgrades are all things you will have to negotiate with your boss, so be prepared to stick up for yourself and advocate for your needs. Librarians are not famous for being demanding and assertive, but it will pay off professionally, so don’t be scared to speak up!

All experience is good experience: Sophia gained a lot from the work experience of Western’s co-op program. Not only did she learn more about the field of librarianship, but she also figured out her professional likes and dislikes. It was in these co-op positions that Sophia made the first contact that has subsequently led to her various professional positions. So get exposure to a variety of library settings through work experience, job shadowing, or practicum classes – even if you don’t love it, it will help you make decisions about the direction of your career, and help you make professional connections in the field.

Question: Where do you see the future of our profession?

Sophia hopes that librarians will continue to explore collaborative technologies and become more and more proficient with social software. Make sure to maintain your technical skills and be curious about new and emerging tools – these collaborative tools have huge potential for improving information sharing and distribution, which will help librarians do their jobs better.

She also encourages librarians to be savvy with their marketing and advocacy approaches: When working at Seneca, Sophia created a Facebook page to answer students’ reference questions – and it was a big success! Know your users and your stakeholders so you can make informed decisions about how to meet the objectives of libraries: Making information accessible! Don’t be scared of applying some “business savvy” in your job. Being strategic, visible, and accountable is not a bad thing, whether you are in a public, academic or special library.

Although the economy is slowing down, there are lots of jobs out there for new professionals, but they’re not always posted. Get your name out there in the library world, and your chances of getting a call from an information organization will only get better!

-Interview Conducted by Meghan Ecclestone

2009-01-08T11:26:00.001-05:00

Watch Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, unveil Apple’s latest innovations at Macworld 2009. See the video-on-demand event right here, exclusively in QuickTime and MPEG-4.

Watch the Keynote Address Watch the Keynote Address in HD

2009-01-07T13:05:00.001-05:00

Five Best Visualization Projects of the Year

by Jason

Coooool!

2008-12-29T14:11:00.001-05:00

What NOT To Do In Social Media

by Ellyssa

Robin Broitman at IIG has put together a Superlist of What NOT To Do In Social Media, linking to eye-opening examples of blunders made by major corporations and individuals when launching social Web initiatives. Learn by (bad) example and avoid the social media mistakes listed in this handy guide including:

2008-12-29T14:10:00.001-05:00

E-Books Gaining Ground

by Ellyssa

A recent article in the New York Times reports that e-books are steadily gaining popularity and according to publishers such as HarperCollins, Random House and Simon & Schuster, sales of these digital publications have tripled or quadrupled in the last year. In Turning Page, E-Books Start to Take Hold, Brad Stone and Motoko Rich discuss the rise of the Amazon Kindle and other electronic book readers.

“Amazon’s Kindle version of “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” by David Wroblewski, a best seller recommended by Ms. Winfrey’s book club, now represents 20 percent of total Amazon sales of the book, according to Brian Murray, chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.”

via Micro Persuasion

Making sense of the 'semantic Web'

2008-12-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

Excerpt:

(CNN) -- The "semantic Web" does not sound like it's fun and easy to use, but it could make surfing Web 3.0 a more rewarding and interactive experience. Some believe it could even lead to a new form of artificial intelligence.

Spotlets pop up on a 'semantic Web' kiosk run by a pair of German researchers.

The idea behind the semantic Web, very broadly, is that things on the Internet will be described with descriptor languages so that computers can "understand" what they are.

An object might be a marked as a car part or a person, for instance. If objects were thus identified, an enormous network of linked data would emerge and machines, with their vast processing speeds, could suggest surprising and useful links that the human mind could never come up with, posing the possibility of a new sort of artificial intelligence.

The semantic Web is considered a key part of the upcoming "Web 3.0." It's starting to occur here and there, but widespread adoption is still a long way off.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/17/db.semanticweb/index.html

2008-12-22T11:26:00.001-05:00

New Audio Interview with UT-Austin Librarian, Lindsey Schell

by spolanka

UT-Austin Libraries has a huge eBook collection, about 600,000 titles in all. Lindsey Schell, Librarian for Journals, English Lit, and Women’s Studies, has had plenty of experience in acquiring eBooks for UT-Austin.

In this interview, Lindsey and I discuss the variety of eBook collections/platforms at UT, the successes and challenges of their eBook program, purchasing eBooks through Patron Driven Acquisition, and other neat and cool things about eBooks. So, if you have eBooks, want to expand your collection, or are on the fence about starting an eBook collection, give it a listen. You’re bound to learn something. And, hopefully you’ll be jazzed about eBooks!

Other NSR interviews can be found on our Interviews page.

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2008-12-22T11:24:00.001-05:00

Wikis That Work In The Real World

by Ellyssa

Thinking about starting a wiki for your library? Read about the different ways that four companies are making the most out of wikis and reaping the rewards of these collaborative tools in Wikis That Work In The Real World. Here’s a bit about just one:

“Angel.com, a 70-employee subsidiary of Micro Strategies that provides interactive voice response software, has more than 10,000 internal- and external-facing SocialText wiki pages. That’s from about 100 employees, customers, and partners with access.
One customer-facing wiki acts as a knowledge base for Angel products, while others for employees include video tutorials, training quizzes, and space for collaboration efforts, from developing marketing ideas to planning company picnics.
New employees get an hour of wiki training and set up a personal space that’s like a social networking profile.”

2008-12-18T11:58:00.001-05:00

How to be a Twitter All-Star

by Ellyssa

If you’re new to the microblogging phenomena and you want to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, find some great tips in How to be a Twitter All-Star by Denise Zimmerman. This article passes on wisdom from Twitter stars who are effectively using the application for branding and audience engagement.

“For example, on Election Day, Flying Dog Brewery tweeted that if you buy something from the store and enter promo code “I Voted” you get 20 percent off. In exchange, Flying Dog saw a spike in store sales and directly traced those sales through the promo code. That success can be credited to a loyal and enthusiastic consumer base and promotions that reflect the spirit of the brand and trusted relationships.”

2008-12-18T11:43:00.001-05:00

New York Public Library joins Flickr Commons

by Cory Doctorow

The New York Public Library has joined the Flickr Commons, uploading an initial contribution of 1300 images from its photographic collections. Next, the NYPL is promising even more material!

2008-12-16T14:49:00.001-05:00

LISWire: BCR, BiblioLife and Ingram Digital Launch Partnership to Help Libraries Digitize Collections and Expand Access

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2008
Brandie Baumann, communications coordinator
bcrpress@bcr.org; 800.397.1552

AURORA, COLO — BCR, BiblioLife and Ingram Digital are pleased to announce a new program designed to help libraries improve access to their collections through digitization. BCR’s Shelf2Life program digitizes pre-1923, U.S. published monographs and offers those and other previously digitized materials in both digital and print-on-demand formats. Brenda Bailey-Hainer, President & CEO of BCR, says of the program, “The Shelf2Life program allows us to offer a new service that benefits libraries and cultural heritage institutions as well as the opportunity to be part of an innovative partnership.”

The Shelf2Life program grew from a desire to help libraries and other cultural heritage institutions make their unique collections available in digital format. “The University of Colorado Boulder Library sees this program as an opportunity to bring our hidden collections to researchers, students and general readers regardless of where they are located,” commented James Williams, Dean of Libraries at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “Making these titles available as print-on-demand and as e-books allows delivery to all types of information seekers and provides an invaluable return-on-investment for these types of information resources.”

The program works through close collaboration between the libraries, BCR, BiblioLife and Ingram Digital. Participating libraries work with BCR to identify materials to digitize or supply files of previously digitized titles. BCR uses its new imaging center to scan the books utilizing custom software developed by BiblioLife. BiblioLife then post-processes each title assuring a quality digital book. BiblioLife delivers the e-book to Ingram Digital who adds the title to its MyiLibrary platform. Titles may also be delivered to Lightning Source so that the book can be offered as a print-on-demand title. Rich Rosy, Vice President and General Manager of Ingram Digital’s Institutional Solutions, says, "With Ingram Digital providing virtually unlimited access to digital content, students will have the ability to access content that has been previously unavailable. It's very rewarding to be able to work with BiblioLife and BCR on the Shelf2Life program to create a real win for everyone, especially libraries. That's why we're here."

Libraries and other cultural heritage institutions can gain access to these once-hidden collections by subscribing to the collections through the Ingram Digital MyiLibrary platform. Readers who want a print copy of the book can purchase a copy through one of Lightning Source’s participating retail partners. Libraries and bookstores worldwide can also order copies wholesale via Ingram's industry-leading ipage® portal. Mitchell Davis of BiblioLife, says, “Online discovery and print-on-demand give these books a new life that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Over the next five years, we aim to work with BCR and their member libraries to bring back into print over 600,000 unique and currently unavailable works that are an important part of our cultural legacy.”

About BCR
BCR brings libraries together for greater success by expanding their knowledge, reach and power. They offer a broad range of solutions and their hands-on, personal attention to each member enables them to deliver effective and timely solutions that help libraries keep pace with new developments in technology and services. BCR is the nation’s oldest and most established multistate library cooperative. Since 1935, the BCR team has helped libraries learn new skills, reach patrons, increase productivity and save money. BCR (Bibliographical Center for Research) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Aurora, Colorado. For more information, visit www.BCR.org or emailinfo@BCR.org.

About BiblioLife
BiblioLife launched the BiblioLife Network (BLN) in May 2008. BLN is a pragmatic end-to-end ecosystem aimed at addressing the huge challenges facing book preservationists around the world. BiblioLife provides funding to libraries and archives for digitization hardware, software, post-processing, QA and book packaging in a highly scalable and efficient work flow process. In addition to receiving institution wide digital access to their own content, libraries and archives also receive a share of the revenue created from BLN global merchandising and distribution of content they provide for the program. The BLN includes libraries, library networks, archives, subject matter experts, and online communities. For more information visit www.BiblioLife.com or email info@biblilolife.com. BiblioLife is a trade name of BiblioBazaar II, LLC.

About Ingram Digital
Ingram Digital is an Ingram content company. The Ingram content companies provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry, and immediate access to the largest selection of books and book-related products in the industry. The content companies are Ingram Digital, Lightning Source Inc., Ingram Book Company, Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Coutts Information Services, Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., and Tennessee Book Company LLC. For more information about Ingram Digital, visit the website www.ingramdigital.com.

2008-12-16T14:33:00.001-05:00

The bad news continues for U.S. publishers

by Danielle Ng-See-Quan

Black Wednesday saw three of the largest U.S. publishers announce massive layoffs and restructuring, and it seems there will be no end to these types of changes as the economy continues to spiral downward.

Macmillan, which publishes authors like Thomas Friedman and Janet Evanovich, is cutting 64 jobs — just under four percent of its work force.

From the Associated Press:

“Going forward we are tightening our belts in response to the current recession, but we are also reorganizing and rethinking our business to position ourselves for the long term,” Macmillan CEO John Sargent wrote in a company memo, a copy of which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
In a move he said the publisher had been looking into for months, Macmillan will combine its seven children’s companies into a single division, the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, effective Jan. 1. Macmillan also plans reductions through a “centralized business and production group for its adult and children’s publishing companies,” according to the memo.

The Associated Press also reports that Macmillan’s presence at BookExpo America will be reduced, while the use of digital technology will increase in an effort to cut costs.

2008-12-14T11:12:00.001-05:00

40 Great Resources for Making Lists

by Ellyssa

For those of you who are as crazy about making lists as I am, you may want to check out this article from Mashable titled 40 Great Resources for Making Lists. Doriano “Paisano” Carta details 40 useful organizational tools which are categorized into the following list types:

Wish lists
Checklists
List Making Apps for the iPhone
List Apps for Other Mobile Devices

2008-12-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

the alphabet in books

by Aaron

2008-12-14T11:01:00.001-05:00

An Academic Library Value Study

by stephen

I've written before about the paucity of good ROI studies on the value of academic libraries. Therefore I was happy to see this new study published in LIBER Quarterly:

The Library as Strategic Investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study
Paula T. Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

"University administrators are asking library directors to demonstrate their library's value to the institution in easily articulated quantitative terms that focus on outputs rather than on traditionally reported input measures. This paper reports on a study undertaken at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that sought to measure the return on the university's investment in its library. The study sought to develop a quantitative measure that recognizes the library's value in supporting the university's strategic goals, using grant income generated by faculty using library materials. It also sought to confirm the benefits of using electronic resources and the resulting impact on productivity over a 10-year period. The results of this study, which is believed to be the first of its kind, represent only one piece of the answer to the challenge of representing the university's total return from its investment in its library."

Sample ROI calculations included:

"More than 78% of tenure-system faculty who have grants used citations to the scholarly literature in their proposals.

Over 50% of grants awarded to the campus came from proposals that included citations to materials accessed through the library.

The average grant income at Illinois is approximately $64,000.

Multiply these 3 numbers to calculate the average grant income generated through the use of the library of just over $25,000.

Multiply this average amount of grant income by the number of grants expended in 2006 at Illinois and divide that by the total library budget to arrive at a return on investment of $4.38 for every dollar invested in the library."

2008-12-14T10:54:00.002-05:00

Twitter Grows 343% According to Nielsen

by stephen

With the demise of Pownce in two weeks . . . it's interesting to note that Twitter has been growing at 343% according to Nielsen:

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/leading-social-networking-sites-still-growing

2008-12-14T10:52:00.001-05:00

FeedVis: An RSS Tag Cloud on Steroids

by rss4lib@gmail.com (Ken Varnum)

FeedVis is a word cloud/feed visualization tool. Give it a bunch of RSS feeds (in OPML), it will digest them for you, and present a word frequency chart which you can interact with by selecting date ranges, specific blogs, or both. I selected about 75 RSS- and library-related feeds and generated an OPML file, which I then uploaded to FeedVis. This is what the interface looks like. Across the top is a time scale -- a yellow bar indicates each day in the 30-day window, with the number of posts for each day shown. Beneath that is a word cloud, showing the most common words in the collection of feeds for the selected time period (in this case, all feeds for all 30 days).

If you select a single blog, FeedVis focuses on that blog and redraws the word cloud for you with a slick AJAX effect. The size of the word shows frequency (per thousand words), as you'd expect. The color indicates recent shifts in popularity. If a word has been used more in the selected time period than overall, it shows up as green. If a word has been used less frequently in the selected time period than overall, it's red.

You can interact with this data yourself at http://jasonpriem.com/feedvis/index.php?account=varnum. Of course, you can also create your own by exporting an OPML file from your favorite RSS reader (no more than 100 feeds can be imported at once, however).

Thanks to Suz of userslib.com.

2008-12-14T10:51:00.001-05:00

Creative Commons Scores One of Its Biggest Wins Ever: Democracy Now!

by Marshall Kirkpatrick

The Creative Commons Foundation announced today that award winning TV and radio news show Democracy Now! will now be distributed under a CC license. Democracy Now! is broadcast daily on more than 700 television and radio stations around the US and as a podcast online.

Whether you agree with the show's political perspective or not, Democracy Now! is undeniably one of the best produced and distributed independent media projects in the world right now. If there are more high profile collections of media distributed under the innovative Creative Commons License, we don't know what they are. Creative Commons is a variation on traditional copyright that switches permission to republish content to opt-out with publisher applied conditions.

Sponsor

How CC Works

Traditional copyright, as currently defined in the United States and increasingly around the world, requires by default explicit permission before any reuse of content is legally allowed. There are a variety of variations of Creative Commons, but Democracy Now for example is being distributed under a license that allows any reuse without further permission as long as that reuse includes attribution of credit to the original source, the reuse is in a noncommercial context and the original content is used in whole with no derivative works are made. It's one of the most conservative variations there is - but it's still Creative Commons.