Do We Need Libraries Anymore?

One Washington Post blogger's question received some attention.

Random Friday Question: Do We Need Libraries Anymore?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/06/random_friday_question_do_we_n.html

I am impressed by the sheer volumes of responses. I wasn't able to read all of them, but the good many that I read were heavily in favor of keeping libraries open. Many commenters made excellent points, including their costs savings of checking out books instead of buying them, particularly for their kids; the Internet access for those who can't afford it otherwise; the help the librarians give them; access to better quality, more reliable information; and a peaceful place to read and study.

Hmmm...I see a great marketing campaign somewhere in this...

found via the NexGenLib list

Blogging: Controversy on the Britannica Blog

Like I said, I like the Britannica blog...


Currently, there is a rather controversial Web 2.0 discussion going on there as well. Michael Gorman has made a couple of posts that have received a great deal of attention from the information world.


Have a read...

Web 2.0: The Sleep of Reason, Part 1 and Part 2
http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/2007/06/web-20-the-sleep-of-reason-part-i/
http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/2007/06/web-20-the-sleep-of-reason-part-ii/

Books: Fun Trivia from the Britannica Blog

I like the Britannica blog. The Britannica contributors post articles on a range of topics - current events, sports, culture, history, and they are often quite interesting articles to read.

Here is an example of the interesting things this blog includes frequently.

10 Things You (Maybe) Didn’t Know About Books
http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/2007/06/oddments-from-the-world-of-publishing/

Database Tips: Books Lists in WorldCat

WorldCat Lists

http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/worldcat-lists.html

Alice from the It's All Good blog reports that WorldCat.org has added a new list-making functionality. She also offers some great suggestions for how to use this feature.

It took me a little while to figure out how to use this. You need a free account to create lists, and it helps if you are already logged in when you run your search. It also helps if you create a list first and then add items to it. Once you create a new list, use the the search box to find items. In your list of search results, you will have a dropdown menu to choose to save it to any list you have created or the Things I Recommend, Things I Own, or Things to Check Out lists that are already created for you.

I did a quick search of other lists (Search > Lists) and found these ideas:

• children's books (I bet you could have lists for grade/age levels or certain themes/topics)
• favorite authors
• books read recently
• books to read soon

You can also search for people who have created profiles under Search > Contacts.

Anyone have suggestions for how to use this list feature?

Vendor News: Good News for History Buffs

EBSCO Publishing and ABC-CLIO Reach Historic Agreement
http://support.epnet.com/support_news/detail.php?id=366&t=h

EBSCO Publishing and ABC-CLIO have formed an alliance. "EBSCO has acquired two of ABC-CLIO’s renowned databases, Historical Abstracts (HA) and America: History and Life (AHL), and will distribute eight additional award-winning history databases in addition to ABC-CLIO’s online history eBook collection, History Reference Online."

Vista Tips: Saving a Search

Find files faster: Save your searches in Windows Vista
http://blogs.msdn.com/tiptalk/archive/2007/04/30/save-your-common-searches-in-windows-vista.aspx

Vista is designed with a much more flexible folder system in that you don't have to save files in a hierarchical manner. You can create search folders to organize your files in any way.

I haven't tried this in Vista and can't give examples, but I certainly appreciate the shift in thinking about how to organize files.

If anyone is already using Vista and would like to share how they found this feature useful, please share!

found via TipTalk: from Microsoft At Home and At Work

Tutorials: Information Literacy

Five Colleges of Ohio Research Tutorial
http://www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/infolit/

These are nice tutorials comprised of text and hyperlinks - no extra plug-ins required.

Does anyone have recommendations for good online tutorials?

Wiki Help: Which One is Right for You?

Which Wiki is Right for You?
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438167.html?q=which+wiki

School Library Journal has a nice article discussing the advantages and disadvantages of three popular free wikis: pbwiki, Wikispaces, and Wetpaint. There are several other free wiki programs, but these seem to be the easiest to set up and maintain.

Just to give you a visual of what these wikis look like, I've created Learning LibTech wikis for these three. I have purposely not done any editing, so you can see what you get when you first create it.

pbwiki
http://learninglibtech.pbwiki.com/
I like pbwiki because it is *easy* and they do not own your content. You can also choose to have a private wiki (not seen by the public) for free.

Wikispaces
http://learninglibtech.wikispaces.com/
Wikispaces is actually my personal favorite so far. I like the page layout and functions - they just seem to fit my head the best, and creating one is very easy. The problem is that a private wiki costs money, which is fine if you want a public wiki, but if you want a private one for whatever reason, you have to pay or pick another wiki...unless you are an educator - http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

Wetpaint
http://learninglibtech.wetpaint.com/
Wetpaint wikis are just beautiful and have many functionalities. I think the only complaint I have heard so far is that server response when editing them can be slow sometimes.

Accessibility: ADA Tool Kit

ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments

http://www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/toolkitmain.htm

This tool kit is for state and government agencies to better understand how to provide accessible services for persons with disabilities. This guide is helpful to anyone wanting to make their library building and services more accessible.

found via Docuticker

Education Tips: Using RSS in Education

RSS and Education
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-and-education.htm

15 ways that RSS is being used in educational settings = 15 ideas that may work for your educational institution

How are you using RSS personally? How are you using RSS to educate and inform? Please share!!

Book News: There's More than One Way to Digitize a Book

2 Models for Digitizing Collections
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/07/google

A large group of universities, the 12 universities that make up the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, has now partnered with Google to digitize their collections.

However, Emory has chosen a different path. This is discussed in the article, but Library Journal provides a little more explanation.

With Scan Plan, Emory University Takes Control
http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6451403.html?nid=2673#news3

I love the idea of print on demand, and I think this is a great application of that idea. (FYI: I used to be employed by Emory University, and I say YAY! for them.)

Education Resources: Teacher's Corner

Teacher's Corner
http://www.coe.uga.edu/k12/

According to the press release:
"A new website that provides resources for teachers on how to create 21st century classrooms with a focus on technology integration, information literacy and emerging technologies will be unveiled by University of Georgia technology specialists at a national conference this month."

There are pages on this site for information literacy, technology integration, 21st century schools, video, podcasting, multimedia, hardware technologies, e-portfolios, and emerging technologies.

Books: Everything is Miscellaneous Book Talk

Everything is Miscellaneous Book Talk
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2159021324062223592&q=type%3Agoogle+engEDU

This is a link to a video of David Weinberger talking about his book _Everything is Miscellaneous_. It's a hour long, but it's worth the watch - entertaining and informative. The basic premise of the book is that there is no one best way to categorize the world. Libraries have been forced to do this in the print world, but being forced into one organizational scheme is not required in the digital world.

found via STS-L list

Shopping: Books for Purses?

Don't toss that old book!!

This is a great way to use old books. I saw a discussion on COLLIB-L about what to do with old copies of the National Union Catalog, and this was a suggestion - along with recycling the pages and letting art students use the covers as canvas.

Rebound Designs - Hand-crafted Bling
http://www.rebound-designs.com

Oh, and this person will have a booth at ALA! They are a bit pricy though... *says the girl who usually buys purses at Target or KOHL's*

What does this have to do with libraries and technology you ask? I don't know, but I figure I can be a little off-topic in the name of good library bling! ;-)

Database Tips: EBSCO RSS Feeds

I had every intention of blogging about the news when EBSCO announced that it would allow RSS feeds for its alert services, but, alas, I didn't. However, I now can attest to the value and ease of this service.

I decided that I wanted to receive alerts when several library and technology journals were issued. Since I have Google Reader as my feed aggregator and I have a MyEBSCOhost account set up already, it made it pretty easy to get this going.

Here are the steps:

1) Log in to Academic Search Premier (for me, this the database that has full-text access to most of the journals I wanted)

2) Click the Publications link

3) Browse for journals

4) Click the desired journal title

5) Click the Journal Alert link

6) Log in to MyEBSCOhost (if you haven't already)

7) Mark options, but choose "No e-mail (RSS only)"

8) Click "Save"

9) The confirmation screen will provide a URL that can be pasted into any RSS reader

Now I get notified whenever these journals are added to Academic Search Premier. I can read through the titles and sometimes abstracts and decide what to read further. It's a happy thing!

Just as an extra tip, you can also set up search alerts and be notified when an article matching your search criteria is added. You just have to run an Advanced Search on the topic, then click the Search History/Alerts tab, click "Save Searches / Alerts," then check that settings you want, click "Save," and you are good to go!


So, what are some things you've saved or would like to save? Do you have some particular searches or journals that yield helpful articles?

Education Resources: Copyright for Kids (and adults!)

The U.S. Copyright Office has launched a site to teach copyright concepts for kids (and I must admit, I appreciate it as an adult, too!).

Copyright Office Launches Website for Kids
http://www.copyright.gov/newsnet/2007/316.html

Here is the actual site:
Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery/

found via U.S. Copyright Office NewsNet

Accessibility: Digital Libraries for the Visually Impaired

This came across the LITA-L list this morning. This is a great idea for digital libraries, and it addresses a major accessibility issue quite well.

Project Information: Audio Description Illinois
http://www.alsaudioillinois.net/resources.cfm

To see an examples, go to
Illinois Alive!
http://www.illinoisalive.info/

Books: Saving the Books - One Word at a Time

reCAPTCHA
http://recaptcha.net/


So, most of us have had to enter a word from warped text when we sign up for a free newsletter or something else. reCAPTCHA has found a way to use this to help in digitizing books.


The quick, very simple explanation on digitizing books is that you can scan the book and have an image available. In order to make the text searchable, you must do another step using optical character recognitition (OCR) so that all of the text can be read by the system. With older books and odd fonts, the OCR system may have trouble reading all of the characters correctly.


reCAPTCHA helps the system know the correct characters by these words with the warped words to humans so that humans read the text and enter the correct characters for the system to store and add to the text of the book. The human eye is still better at deciphering strange characters than a computer, and reCAPTCHA is taking advantage of that - one word at a time.


Now, that is a crude explanation, but I hope it makes sense. reCAPTCHA has a much prettier explanation on their page.




found via Chronicle: Wired Campus blog
(and Brad Baxter's post to an internal list at work)

Vendor News: ProQuest, yep, just ProQuest now

So, I think I have this straight (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong). CSA bought ProQuest, and they decided to call it ProQuest CSA when the two companies merged. Now, "guided by customer research," they have decided to just call it ProQuest...yep, just ProQuest. And, there's a new logo to go along with the decision:


PROQUEST CSA FINALISES COMPANY NAME; UNVEILS NEW LOGO
http://www.proquest.co.uk/pressroom/pressrelease/07/20070604.shtml


Now, maybe all of the databases will have the same logo every time I log in. I was beginning to feel confused.

Higher Education News: Stanford Imposter

You gotta love a girl for trying to get an education, but this is taking it just a little too far.

Imposter Caught
High school graduate pretends to be a Stanford student, even living in the dorms, buying textbooks and ‘studying’ for exams
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/5/24/imposterCaught

found via The Chronicle: Daily News Blog

Vendor News: EBSCO and the 508 Compliant Interface

For those of you who must deal with accessibility issues with library interfaces, EBSCO is making it a little easier for you.

EBSCO's Advanced 508 Compliant Interface
http://support.epnet.com/support_news/detail.php?id=362&t=h

Just as an added bonus, here is nice website with a great deal of information about Section 508:
http://www.section508.gov/

Do any of you have accessibility stories to share about your library's website? I'd love to hear them!