From ALA

Microsoft gambles on a touch-based future By @tomwarren Windows 8 is a rebirth, a "reimagining" of Windows and the entire Microsoft brand. It's also the single riskiest project that Microsoft has ever embarked upon - a bet from Redmond that users can adapt to a new way of computing.

Email Print Johnson County reference librarians will take on big questions tonight to help voters get past the spin from the last debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "Who knows what zinger will stick and have the staying power to stand the test of time to be mentioned years from now?"

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science celebrated the ending of its 80th anniversary year by taking a forward look at the future of our field and its graduates. The Information Professionals 2050 (IP 2050) Conference brought in information and library science leaders who discussed key issues related to future visions, skills and values. Themes of the day included the areas of the 1) Information Industry, 2) Libraries and Archives, 3) Education and 4) Information Trends. The contributors are thought leaders of our profession and included: * Marshall Breeding, director for Innovative Technologies and Research, Vanderbilt University Libraries * Anne Caputo, executive director, Dow Jones' Learning and Information Professional Programs * Bonnie Carroll, president, International Information Associates * Mary Chute, deputy director for Libraries, Institute for Museum and Library Services * Lorcan Dempsey, vice president and chief strategist, OCLC * Michael Eisenberg, professor and dean emeritus, University of Washington School of Information * Buck Goldstein, University entrepreneur in residence and professor of practice, Department of Economics University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * William Graves, senior vice president, Academic Strategy at Ellucian * Elizabeth Liddy, dean and trustee professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies * Charles Lowry, executive director, Association for Research Libraries * Joanne Marshall, alumni distinguished professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Nancy Roderer, director, Johns Hopkins University Welch Medical Library * Roger Schonfeld, director of research, Ithaka * David Silver, associate professor, University of San Francisco * Duncan Smith, co-founder, Novelist (EBSCO Publishing) Moderators included, * Susan Nutter, vice provost and director of Libraries, North Carolina State University * Sarah Michalak, university librarian and associate prov

Of the many experiences students expect to have in an academic library, play probably never comes to mind. Seeing a coffee shop within the library probably feels familiar, as do comfortable chairs, and of course they expect librarians, study rooms, and books, and Wii…wait, what?!

Objective: This study sought to better understand the research expectations of first-year students upon beginning university study, and how these expectations differed from those of their professors. Most academic librarians observe that the research expectations of these two groups differ considerably and being able to articulate where these differences are greatest may help us provided more focused instruction, and allow us to work more effectively with professors and student support services. Methods: 317 first-year undergraduate students and 75 professors at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS were surveyed to determine what they each expected of first-year student research. Students were surveyed on the first day of term so as to best understand their research expectations as they transitioned from high school to university. Results: The gulf between student and professor research expectations was found to be considerable, especially in areas such as time required for reading and research, and the resources necessary to do research. While students rated their preparedness for university as high, they also had high expectations related to their ability to use non-academic sources. Not unexpectedly, the majority of professors believed that students are not prepared to do university-level research, they do not take enough responsibility for their own learning, they should use more academic research sources, and read twice as much as students believe they should. Conclusions: By better understanding differing research expectations, students can be guided very early in their studies about appropriate academic research practices, and librarians and professors can provide students with improved research instruction. Strategies for working with students, professors and the university community are discussed.

When it comes to researching for papers, homework assignments, etc., students primarily turn to the Web for information despite its inherent academic dangers. Naturally, with the diversity of content out there, keeping track of pertinent links and bibliographical data is difficult when jumping from source to source. Citelighter launched in the fall of 2011 to address this problem by creating an academic research platform that helps students save, organize and automatically cite both online and offline content. An Evernote for Education.

Good article showing what others are doing with iPads

tl;dr: SUNY Potsdam will not be subscribing to an American Chemical Society online journal package for 2013. We will instead be using a combination of the Royal Society of Chemistry content, ACS single title subscriptions, the ACS backfile, and ScienceDirect from Elsevier** to meet our chemical information needs. We're doing this because the ACS pricing model is unsustainable for our institution and we were unable to find common ground with the sales team from the ACS. Instead, we explored other options and exercised them. You could do the same if you find yourself in a position similar to ours as ACS standardizes their pricing, and maybe together we can make enough choices to make our voices heard in meaningful ways.

There's an old saying: give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he'll die from mercury poisoning because you can't survive on nothing but fish. Or something like that. I never was any good at proverbs.

The publisher plaintiffs who accused Georgia State University of copyright infringement in a lawsuit over course e-reserves aren't happy with the outcome of that case. On Monday they said they would appeal a federal judge's decision, handed down in May, that was largely a win for the defendants.

The main difference between great librarians and Helicopter Librarians is that the former are focused on providing excellent service whereas the Helicopter Librarians are committed to building radically great relationships that students are comfortable with, similar to their relationships with their Helicopter Parents.

A few months ago the Winnetka-Northfield Library launched their mobile application for the iPod, iPad and iPhone, along with an Android device app available at winnetka.boopsie.com.

There's a lot less dust and grime in today's Wild West, but enough unknowns to compete in any new frontier. Case in point: A new electronic book project started by the Nebraska Department of Education with the goal of offering free instructional content to teachers across the state.

Available today, the new suite is considered by CEO Steve Ballmer "the most ambitious version of Office we've ever done." Microsoft has pulled back the curtains on the latest version of its Office suite. At a press conference today, CEO Steve Ballmer announced the new version, noting that a preview edition of the cloud-based Office 365 edition will be available for people to try out today.

In May 2010, Appalachian State University's Hubbard Center for Faculty Development sponsored a weeklong writing retreat designed to help faculty become more productive writers in any academic genre. The retreat began with a two-day workshop conducted by Tara Gray, author of Publish and Flourish: Become a Productive Scholar

Work smarter not harder. Delegate, delegate, delegate. If you want something done, get a busy person to do it. Wise words for the time-strapped librarian. Know what's even smarter? Not spending a dime to do so. The cash-strapped librarian is challenged to "do more with less"* and still be the modern miracle worker that he/she is.

With traditional journals suffering from rising costs and increased disinterest in print subscriptions, online open access is looking more appealing than ever. The team behind recently launched Scholastica is offering a new platform for those interested in joining the movement. Scholastica is designed to make setting up and managing an academic journal about as easy as configuring a Facebook group.

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A new status code to reflect internet censorship could be named after Ray Bradbury's most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury's fiction looks set to enter the structure of the internet, after a software developer has proposed a new HTTP status code inspired by Fahrenheit 451.