Research Library Issues, No. 269 (APRIL 2010) Online: Special Issue on Strategies for Opening Up Content…06.16.10

Research Library Issues, No. 269 (APRIL 2010) Online: Special Issue on Strategies for Opening Up Content

BP Gulf Disaster: official leak estimate revised upward to 35,000-60,000 barrels per day…06.16.10

Explaining Google TV…06.15.10

Useful ALA TechSource Workshops…06.15.10

From ALA TechSource:

“ALA TechSource is proud to announce ALA TechSource Workshops, our newest online initiative in furthering discussion, learning and information sharing for librarians and other information professionals interested in keeping up with and applying technology effectively.

Do you need to purchase library software but feel you don’t have the knowledge to make the best decision? Are you looking to build a new website but don’t know where to start? Do you need to think about building a digital branch? Do you need to know more about selecting online reference sources? Each interactive ALA TechSource Workshop will provide participants with a unique hands-on experience that will help simplify the key concepts involved with making important technology decisions for their library. Each workshop is hosted by a prominent library technology expertf ocusing on his or her area of expertise.

Coming workshops will feature topics like selecting library software, building a digital branch and using online reference sources. This summer’s events, priced at $50, will be facilitated by library automation expert Marshall Breeding (Vanderbilt University) and library web site guru David Lee King (Topeka and Shawnee County Library). More workshops will be announced for Fall 2010…”

Librarian’s Frustration with Library eBooks…06.15.10

Comments from David Lee King:

“…My questions -

• Why is Overdrive that hard to use? If Sarah and I can’t easily figure this thing out, our patrons won’t be able to, either. They’ll try once, then go use something else.
• Thinking of my library here – normal books? Easy to check out. Videos in our Mediabank DVD dispenser? Easy as RedBox or an ATM machine to use. Overdrive? Hard enough to use that we set up a special PC right by our Reference desk so we can help patrons figure the thing out.
• Check out the pic to the right – it’s the iPhone app. Help is prominently featured, front and center, right over the iPhone’s Home button) . At the least, that sends the wrong message. Why can’t there be something like “3 easy steps to downloading?” when you turn on the app for the first time, then have Help go under a secondary menu? If you really need Help on the main page, you probably need to redesign.
• It’s a digital file – why can’t I access the ebook when someone else has it “checked out?” That doesn’t make much sense to me.
• Why doesn’t the app have me make a connection to my local library the first time I use it? The process goes like this: download app, turn app on. Read Help. Click a link … that takes you out of the app, and onto the web. It would be much better to at least keep me in the app.

I know, I know – DRM. That’s the problem, right? I’m not completely buying that. At least SOME of the problem is on the design and usability end (of at least Overdrive). But there HAS to be an easier way to manage DRM concerns, like allowing someone to check out stuff, but then adding one extra step or something that makes you “prove” you’ve deleted the file? Netflix’s digital downloads and the movie rental part of iTunes are similar (except for that whole for-profit thing) to a library setup. They also deal with people “borrowing” their stuff, some of it even digitally. But it’s easy. Why can’t our library vendors (Overdrive, Netlibrary, etc) also build something easy to use and manage?…”

Searching for PDF’s…06.15.10

PDFPick.com

New Upgrade to Google Docs Goes Live…06.15.10

Google Earth 5.2 – “Hiker’s Edition”…06.15.10

Excerpted from TechCrunch:

“Today, Google Earth released a new edition of its desktop app which hikers, runners and cyclists are going to love. They call it Google Earth 5.2. I call it the Hiker;s Edition. One of the new features allows you to recreate the path of a hike or bike ride by ingesting geo-data from one of your GPS devices. The visualizations show you the speed, elevation, and other stats from your hike, which you can see as an animation inside Google Earth.

If you collect other data about your trip, such as your heart rate or other body monitoring stats, those can be overlayed as a graph below at the bottom of the screen. I’d love to see an iPhone or Android fitness app that takes advantage of these new capabilities.

Another new feature in Google Earth is the ability to launch a regular Web browser from within the desktop app. Hopefully, that is the first step towards bringing Google Earth completely from the desktop to the Web…”

Information Literacy for the 21st Century…06.15.10

Library Mobility & Post-mobility…06.15.10

Information Literacy and Self-Deception…06.15.10

Sugar Grove Public Library…06.14.10

The Future of the Classroom…06.14.10

The following is excerpted from a post by Brian Matthews, the Ubiquitous Librarian:

“This week is NeoCon, the big show in the furniture world…One new product that I am really excited about is the Steelcase Node. I hinted about this back in March but wasn’t able to reveal anything more at that time…

My initial reaction was that it looked kinda cool, but so what. It has the tablet-like arm, which they refer to as “personal work surface” and wheels… and it looks very modern, but I couldn’t see my University administers rushing out to buy hundreds of these chairs for their classrooms.

My opinion changed then I saw these photos:

The brilliance of the node is how it functions as a complete system. It’s not just an individual chair or a set of chairs, it is a mobile grid. It enables the instructor to customize the learning environment accordingly.

They way they explained it—you could have the chairs arranged in lecture mode, but then very quickly have the students break into pairs or small groups, or into a circle or into a u-shape, whatever is needed. Node adds flexibility into the configuration of the space, so rather than deal with the limitations of static furniture, it enables the class to have the shape required for the lesson or activity at hand. This is really beneficial for variations in teaching style as well as differences across the disciplines.

Beyond the portability factor, there are some other great qualities of the node. I encourage you to review the official site because they articulate the features better than I can...”

Google to Digitizes 1 Million U of Minnesota Library Books…06.14.10

“The University of Minnesota is partnering with Google and letting the website digitize about a million books from the 14 campus libraries. Recently, the university library put more than 1,000 books on a semi and shipped them to Google to be scanned.”

See video here: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/8178/1471811

The Texas Roadrunner…06.14.10

I saw two Texas roadrunners Sunday afternoon by Lake Grapevine.  When they’re not running, they look like the one above.

2-D Barcodes – QR Codes Blanket the Big Apple…06.13.10

City of New York Blanketed with QR Codes

SLA and Solo Librarians…06.12.10

Flying Solo: Working Together for Those Working Alone

eBooks on the iPad…06.13.10

3 Ways Social Media Must Scale…06.12.10

Stanford Time Presentation: “The Secret Power of Time”…06.12.10

Challenge vs Skill Level for Librarians…06.12.10

Credit: Oliverbeatson

Government Documents 2.0…06.12.10

UNCG Libraries Video…06.12.10

7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources…06.12.10

The latest “7 Things You Should Know About…” report from Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources

Social Media Strategies…06.12.10

NEW Pew Internet Report: “The Future of Cloud Computing”…06.11.10

From the new Pew Internet and American Life Report overview:

“A solid majority of technology experts and stakeholders participating in the fourth Future of the Internet survey expect that by 2020 most people will access software applications online and share and access information through the use of remote server networks, rather than depending primarily on tools and information housed on their individual, personal computers. They say that cloud computing will become more dominant than the desktop in the next decade. In other words, most users will perform most computing and communicating activities through connections to servers operated by outside firms.

Among the most popular cloud services now are social networking sites (the 500 million people using Facebook are being social in the cloud), webmail services like Hotmail and Yahoo mail, microblogging and blogging services such as Twitter and WordPress, video-sharing sites like YouTube, picture-sharing sites such as Flickr, document and applications sites like Google Docs, social-bookmarking sites like Delicious, business sites like eBay, and ranking, rating and commenting sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.

This does not mean, however, that most of these experts think the desktop computer will disappear soon. The majority sees a hybrid life in the next decade, as some computing functions move towards the cloud and others remain based on personal computers.

The highly engaged, diverse set of respondents to an online, opt-in survey included 895 technology stakeholders and critics. The study was fielded by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Some 71% agreed with the statement:

‘By 2020, most people won’t do their work with software running on a general-purpose PC. Instead, they will work in Internet-based applications such as Google Docs, and in applications run from smartphones. Aspiring application developers will develop for smartphone vendors and companies that provide Internet-based applications, because most innovative work will be done in that domain, instead of designing applications that run on a PC operating system’…”

The Evolution of Social Media?…06.11.10

College Degree Density By US City…06.11.10

BP disaster update: 40,000 barrels a day and the ocean on fire…06.11.10

The Cognitive Surplus…06.11.10

The Cognitive Surplus

“…Cognitive Surplus fizzes with great insights about how people use networks and interact with each other. For example, Shirky dismisses generational explanations for technology use and misuse. He rejects the idea that kids today value their privacy less than their forebears because they put all their personal info on Facebook, proffering this explanation instead: the older generation kept its info off of Facebook in the 1980s because Facebook didn’t exist then, not because they possessed the wisdom to abstain from oversharing. Likewise, there’s nothing inherent about being a senior citizen that makes it implausible that you’ll use email — which is why there are so many elderly emailers today.

But the meat of the argument is about how the best explanation for many of the group phenomena we see online, from ICanHazCheezburger to Wikipedia, is that people like sharing with each other and collaborating. Not always, of course. But there are architectures of participation that encourage the kind of sharing and generosity that enriches us all, and by experimenting with them, we can create media and social change that harnesses millions of people to help and amuse each other…”