Group items tagged

"You're not familiar with the Incunabula? Are you a librarian?"" If not, that's okay. "Our profession's new demands require librarians who can write regular expressions, tweak stylesheets, and manage databases."

"Every generation rewrites the book's epitaph; all that changes is the whodunit."

An article from 1992 about the of books to be replaced by the then-new technology of hypertext. I find it an interesting contrast that back then the change was a new method of reading and access, while today's eBooks are more typically a print book repackaged for an electronic device.

This article is notable for how the New York Public Library is dealing with changes in technology and readership with the Central Library Plan, which is generating controversy. In steps similar to what other libraries have done a good portion of the books will be stored at an off-site facility, while older buildings will be sold and services centered on the main library. Interestingly, the off-site storage will also be used to allow New York City schools to order books directly from it.

This article mentions the court case involving the Camdenton school district, where the library's use of filtering was found to be unconstitutional. The school district agreed to stop blocking LGBT websites, submitted to 18 months of monitoring, and had to pay $125,000 in attorneys' fees.

"If the library has its way, this Beaux Arts-style building on Manhattan's 42nd Street - the one with the giant lions out front - will soon see some changes. A hotly debated renovation plan would demolish the seven stuffy floors of stacks. Some of the books would be stored under nearby Bryant Park, and up to 2 million books would be moved to climate-controlled storage in Princeton, N.J."

An interesting article about some of the strategies Jeff Bezos used in building Amazon. I this example he only wanted to order the specific book he needed, but most vendors had a minimum order of 10. He found that by ordering 1 book and then 9 copies of an obscure book on lichens he knew the vendors didn't carry that the order would be fulfilled for the 1 book. I'm a little surprised, however, that vendors didn't clue in or change their rules that books had to be ordered that were in stock.

This was another session which showed that with community spaces if you build it they will come. I interviewed at this library in 1996 right after graduate school and it was and still is a large warehouse type building in 70's style. One of the substantial changes to Chattanooga since then is it is known as the "Gig City" for large deployment of gigabit Internet which has brought may Internet developers to the area. The development of the attic into a community space stressed the importance of community outreach and feedback as a sort of ecosystem to keep a project viable.

A preview of an upcoming publication it doesn't necessarily appear to cover any new ground but does describe the stages in how a disruptive technology that changes an industry is perceived and takes effect.

An overview of how what we read has changed from 2003-2013 as well as reading styles, covering 1993-1998 as a the era of "brick and mortar" stores, 1999-2009 as the "dotcom era" of online sellers still selling physical boos, and finally the present era of eBooks.

This article was an interesting I didn't agree with a lot of it, but some of it was pretty accurate. Here's a hipster test : "Look around your living space. Do you surround yourself with things you really like or things you like only because they are absurd? Listen to your own speech. Ask yourself: Do I communicate primarily through inside jokes and pop culture references? What percentage of my speech is meaningful? How much hyperbolic language do I use? Do I feign indifference? Look at your clothes. What parts of your wardrobe could be described as costume-like, derivative or reminiscent of some specific style archetype (the secretary, the hobo, the flapper, yourself as a child)? In other words, do your clothes refer to something else or only to themselves? Do you attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or ugly? In other words, is your style an anti-style? The most important question: How would it feel to change yourself quietly, offline, without public display, from within?"

Stories from library patrons talking about positive interactions with libraries, librarians, and library workers.

By Joseph Grenny, Co-Founder, VitalSmarts There's a lot more to influencing new behavior than just delivering high-quality training. Once training finishes, participants return to work and immediately are pulled in a dozen different directions. In fact, research suggests that all these distractions are the reason why less than 10 percent of what is taught in the classroom translates into real behavior change back at work.

Not a particularly useful post I admit, but this was the first time I was interested in merging in a single commit from a remote repo rather than an entire branch. The git command 'cherry-pick' does just that.

An interesting observation by a British librarian that the new, incoming model of cataloging done and stored in the cloud by vendors will cause some shifting in practices.   Namely, vendors' records will be seen as "master records."  Also, the sheer number of different people using the same "master record" will result on an easing of standards, while at the same time a governing structure will have to be set up in order for libraries to determine which standards to loosen and which to adhere to.

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.

"The makers of the POD Espresso Book Machine currently installed in fewer than a hundred bookstores nationwide, have announced new partnerships with Eastman Kodak and ReaderLink Distribution Services. Under the arrangement, the company's POD technology will be made available to retailers who have Kodak Picture Kiosks, currently installed in 105,000 locations according to Publishers Weekly, including drugstores and supermarkets. "