Here’s an interesting article from the San Francisco Gate about how Google has so far undertaken their Herculean digitization task. According to the article, at the rate they’re going at the University of Michigan, it will take approximately 19 years to do all 7 million books in the collection (and at $10 a book will …
Since I was up for a teen librarian position (which I did not get, sigh…) I’ve been thinking a lot about what libraries do for teens. The library I was interviewing at had a small area by the DVDs that was called the “teen section.” All this consisted of was YA books and magazines and …
The ALA president-elect, Michael Gorman, has expressed his opinion on Google print and book digitization in an op-ed piece in today’s Newsday. He essentially thinks that the Google deal is a lot of hype and that putting most of these books online really won’t offer that much to users: The nub of the matter lies …
The New York Times has a quite interesting piece today about what we lose and what we gain with the growth of digital libraries. In Questions and Praise for Google Web Library, the author explores a variety of viewpoints regarding Google’s recent announcement about digitizing the works of five of the great world libraries. I …
This is also huge digital library news, but, with the Google frenzy, they’ve really been the victim of bad timing. International Libraries and the Internet Archive collaborate to build Open-Access Text Archives Today, a number of International libraries have committed to putting their digitized books in open-access archives, starting with one at the Internet Archive. …
I’ve been quietly reading about the Google deal with the libraries of Stanford, University of Michigan, Harvard, Oxford, and New York City, and the resultant debates/rants on various blogs. I didn’t really want to go off on a half-cocked rant of my own, so I’ve spent the last few days thinking about what Google’s digitization …
Chris Jowaisas of TechnoBiblio brought up an important point about implementing Wi-Fi in libraries (or anywhere for that matter): the need for power. Sure, it’s great to have Wi-Fi, but with the terrible battery life many laptops have, not offering power outlets around the library may make it difficult for people to actually enjoy using …
When I looked at my page stats (which this time actually told me that someone other than my husband was reading my blog – woo hoo!) I found that people in Denmark had visited my site. I actually studied in Copenhagen for almost a year, and I think it is one of the best places …
Wow, so today is the day I graduate. Being that my whole library educational experience was virtual (except for my internship and a trip to the ALA conference in June) it all feels somewhat unreal or surreal. Since I’m not driving up to Tallahassee for graduation, there really isn’t going to be any fanfare. Maybe …
I remember years ago, when I would travel and wanted to keep in touch with my friends and family, I would just pop into the local library and use the Internet. Sometimes I’d have to sign up for a specific time to use it and wait, but I certainly never minded waiting and exploring libraries …
LexisNexis is now offering its articles ala carte, which allows regular folks who are not affiliated with an institution of higher learning to search LexisNexis and buy the full-text if they so choose. You have to register to search (though the search itself is free), and then any article you wish to read costs only …
I think our ALA president-elect, Michael Gorman, has the right idea on what the ALA should be focusing on. Education. According to the Library Journal, in a meeting entitled “The Future of Library Information Education”, Gorman expressed serious concerns about the state of library education and accreditation. Although I’ve only gone through one MLIS program, …
Yesterday, at my job interview, I was asked to talk about the 21st century library and what I would bring to it. I wish I had read this article by Robert S. Martin of IMLS (in College and Research Libraries News) before I went to the interview. While I did talk about libraries changing their …
Rory Litwin has an excellent editorial in Library Juice this month. Undone by Flattery is about what librarians give up because we are so susceptible to flattery. After suffering daily with ungrateful and difficult patrons, we often feel like no one appreciates the service we offer to society. We love to hear people talk about …
Tame the Web this week has a great little guide on Teaching RSS to Reference Librarians. He’s got great links to other resources that will educate and inspire librarians to get excited about RSS. The Kansas City Public Library System and the Minneapolis Public Library are good examples of public libraries that have embraced RSS, …
I’m back from my wacky wild trip into our legal system. I’ll just say that I hope I’m never on the other side of the law, because it was nerve-wracking enough just being in the jury pool! And I don’t know if this is typical, but the courtroom was the coldest room I’ve been in. …
Michael McGrorty has an eloquent article about the homeless and public libraries in his blog today. This is a really tough subject in public libraries. As librarians, we really don’t want to restrict access to anyone, but at the same time, we also don’t want to discourage many people from coming to the library because …
There have been a number of recently published or written scholarly articles on blogging. Communications of the ACM has devoted most of their December 2004 anniversary issue to articles about The Blogosphere. I read the articles for free (one of the benefits of still being a University student) and didn’t really find anything in them …
I’m probably grossly oversimplifying this, but I think there are two types of librarians: those who embrace technology and those who are antagonistic towards it or ignore it. I have seen this in my work at a public library and, surprisingly to me, at library school. I have been amazed that many people in my …
December 2004’s American Heritage magazine features America Unabridged: The Definitive Guide to the Greatest Books About Our Past. This annotated bibliography covers a wide variety of topics and all of the time periods in American History, with materials chosen by many well-known historians. It includes not only books, but movies, photographs, and other works of …