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Very interesting concept. I don't know if I really want people calling me at 2 am to chat about Webpacs. By Felicia A. Smith on I recently read an interesting article titled Make Room for Daddy...And Mommy: Helicopter Parents Are Here, which states, "Helicopter Parents hover over their children interceding as soon as the child faces an unpleasant situation or uncertainty. The parents are 'over-involved' in their child's life."

It's never been easier to keep track of all the books you're never going to read.

This seems like a really cool concept (almost makes me want to go back to school . . .almost). The only problems I saw with this article was that the textbooks can be accessed through Blackboard, which is a great tool if professors know how to use it or it can be a nightmare for students if they have a professor who doesn't know how. Also I think its really funny that they stated "periodically" a revised edition of a textbooks come out, but I think most of my undergrad professors only assigned newest editions just so you couldn't buy used textbooks! But I digress. Anyways really neat concept and I'm anxious to see how it all works out.

Big brother indeed. This article talks about using RFID tags to track students for attendance so schools can get funding, which is good. But then they go on to say the cards aren't encrypted so it would be super easy to clone one, which is bad. The first thing I thought of was, why not just hand it off to somebody you had your first class with then you would present and accounted for-doesn't seem hard. I also liked that the parents were up in arms some places about their kids being tracked, but kids are used to it. If they aren't tracked by their parents, they are most likely online via social media and are being tracked there too. Also the only health risk mentioned is radiation not the fact that you have to carry this thing every where-gross, I hate to see what these cards look like at the end of the year.

A little librarian "humor" in McSweeney's. I've certainly had something similar happen on more than one occasion... (I actually think that the "An Open Letter to the People in Charge of Commercials Targeting Women" is even funnier, but it doesn't have anything to do with libraries.)

"The consequences many libraries have feared-loud objections from faculty members and financial penalties from publishers-have not come to pass."

An article about a Maker Space at the Westport, Connecticut library, which includes a 3D printing project. 3-D printing is one of the waves of the future and I know the MST library looked at one; hosting the Maker Space in the middle of the library is a good way to promote it but I wonder if the noise and activity will end up distracting to the other patrons.

This is epic. Someday soon libraries will be repositories of genetic information and in addition to 3D printers they will have biological printers. Even though libraries lending seeds is fairly new, in the not so distant future that function will be obsolete as patrons are able to come into the library and print the genetic materials needed to grow any plant species on record.

A positive four part blog entry about how libraries are evolving to meet new needs, strengthen communities during bad economic times, and are centers for sharing. Overall I think this article is the most realistic one I've read in some time. It still acknowledges that libraries are doing more with less, and that perceptions of libraries are slow to change.

This probably isn't the tipping point for ebooks over print--but is very close to it. Ebooks outsold adult hardcover fiction for the first time in 2011, nearly tripling their marketshare to 15%. However, the overall book market declined by 2.5% and the total revenue of ebooks (2 billion) was still much less than that of all print books (11.1 billion).

Discusses the state of the humanities in education (secondary and higher). Although the article is about three years old, I find a great deal of relevance here. Slouka discusses the commodifcation of education, how America's educational system is being altered to provide "product" for business, rather than critically thinking citizens.

E-Textbooks | News Georgia College Produces Student-Written E-Textbook Nine graduate students in an Advanced Technology for Teachers course at Georgia College have published their own e-textbook, Using Technology in Education, through Apple's iBookstore. The free, downloadable textbook is available on the iPad via iBooks.

This is a highly critical but reasoned examination of the state of the Library and Archives Canada. The author feels that the national library is losing focus by breaking up parts of it's collection, putting undigitized materials into remote storage where they are harder to access, cutting hours, and reducing staff by up to 20 percent--all of which contribute to the dissolution of the country's past and heritage. What he doesn't offer is an examination of what brought the national library to this state (unavoidable funding cuts or bad decisions to streamline or both) and what can be done to fix it.

Penguin Group and electronic-book distributor 3M have made a deal with two New York City public library systems that will return Penguin e-books to library shelves for a one-year pilot. Penguin is one of four major publishers that don't make e-books available to libraries. The pilot, crafted to protect e-book sales, will delay the release of e-books to the libraries for six months after the titles go on sale in stores and online. Each library e-book will expire after a year.

Reading a novel triggers lasting changes in the brain Saturday 28 December 2013 - 12am PST Neurology / Neuroscience add your opinion email MNT FeaturedAcademic Journal Add your rating Current ratings for: Reading a novel triggers lasting changes in the brain Public / Patient: 4.3 (12 votes) 1 2 3 4 5 Health Professionals: 5 (3 votes) 1 2 3 4 5 Lovers of literature can rejoice: a new study combines the humanities and neuroscience to take a look at what effects reading a novel can have on the brain. Researchers say exploring a book can not only change your perspective, but also it can change your mind - at least for a few days.

Reading a novel triggers lasting changes in the brain Saturday 28 December 2013 - 12am PST Neurology / Neuroscience add your opinion email MNT FeaturedAcademic Journal Add your rating Current ratings for: Reading a novel triggers lasting changes in the brain Public / Patient: 4.3 (12 votes) 1 2 3 4 5 Health Professionals: 5 (3 votes) 1 2 3 4 5 Lovers of literature can rejoice: a new study combines the humanities and neuroscience to take a look at what effects reading a novel can have on the brain. Researchers say exploring a book can not only change your perspective, but also it can change your mind - at least for a few days.

In the final books of The Wheel Of Time series, a few of the characters seemed to behave a bit differently than they had in the previous entries. Some fans responded that they were happy to see emotional complexity added and flowery descriptions give way to salient plot.

I'm not sure how I feel about Kindle Worlds. I some how seems wrong to capitalize on fan fiction. I blame 50 Shades of Grey.

An interesting survey where it shows younger readers 16-29 are more likely to use books, use traditional library services, and read e-books on an computer rather than an e-book reader than their older (30-49) counterparts.

The Chicago public library now offers 3D printers to any library card holder.

Wile not particularly new, the gesture technology here uses ideas inspired by devices such as the Kinect motion capture for the Xbox. While interesting I agree with some of the comments that performing gestures for hours on end would be physically fatiguing, along with the impreciseness that a gesture will always be read by the machine correctly. What I would be more interested in seeing is interface design that would offer an improvement over how today's materials are organized on a computer's file system or desktop.

An interesting look at the protest over the proposed remodeling of the New York Public Library's central library and the missteps that led to a poor public reception of the proposal, namely in communication and openness.