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The Free Library of Philadelphia has a program in which free NOOK Simple Touch e-readers are loaned to patrons over the age of fifty. However, the NOOK is completely inaccessible to patrons who are blind. Library personnel had discouraged two blind patrons from even attempting to check out one of the devices. The library had also been issued letters from the Department of Education regarding the obligation of federally funded institutions to purchase accessible e-book readers and other technologies. It's not clear from the release what steps the library may have taken to remedy the situation or how it escalated to the point of a lawsuit.

"Libraries' most devoted e-users aren't choosing using the web over coming to the library in person. Rather, they are choosing to do both."

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

"Approximately 400 to 600 libraries worldwide have switched to a patron-driven system for purchasing new works, and that number is likely to double over the next year and a half, according to Joseph Esposito, a digital publishing consultant who has spent the last nine months studying the implications of PDA with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."

Ok. I am seriously tired of the popular fiction/non-fiction side of ebooks. Basically Penguin is saying that they will grant libraries access to their ebooks in the way that will tick off your patrons the most, so that they will never want to use your service. Why does 3M say ok to this? Because Penguin dropped OverDrive earlier this year and this is a new way to entice people to their 3M Cloud Library product. Does MOBIUS really want to work with a company that will accept less?

Not really breaking new ground but an interest piece about the St. Louis County Library after county residents improved a tax increase for the system and some details about Vartan Gregorian, the current president of the Carnegie Corporation and the past president of the New York Public Library.

The burgeoning presence of ebooks on library catalogs is producing an unexpected problem-- what if the patron wants a print version of a book as opposed to an ebook version? How do you tease that out of MARC? RDA's GMD appears to be helpful, but not a useful as the Leader, 007, or 008 fields.

A video that explains some concepts about open access; some concepts are a little too idealized, some research involving material that is patented or financed by commercial interests may not be free. However, some other points, such as the extreme cost of journals, or that patrons may not know if materials are suitable until they've already paid for them is spot on.

A concerning article about the rate of theft at the Austin public library. Surprising is how only recently have borrowing limits been enacted and patrons required to renew their cards A collections agency is used for delinquent accounts, but there is little mention of a security system or how much is lost due to simple theft.

An interesting article that mentions slightly over half of Americans 16 or over have visited a library in the past year, and that the proportions of patrons who felt collections should be moved to make way for tech centers and cultural events was less than those who wanted to keep books. Some interesting ideas libraries have started to use include Redbox style lending machines and Rokus with accounts for Internet streaming video services already on them.

"The ALA Washington Office held a special informational session on Sunday afternoon to let librarians get a head start on helping their patrons enroll for healthcare through the new Affordable Care Act, which aims to provide reasonable health insurance for all Americans equally, regardless of any pre-existing conditions."

A positive article about how library use has increased for the public library of Burlington, Iowa. Much of the increase has been attributed to a new building with a single floor for books, several meeting spaces, and in general more programs and events as a result of the heavier patron count.

I couldn't find a way to link directly to presentations or their materials. Probably the most interesting sessions I attended were: Solving the Complexities of Ebook Record Management in Millennium INN-Reach: Implementing Peer to Peer Functionality Between two INN-Reach Systems The Ebooks presentation was about checking for duplication, quality control, and making sure all the records an institution paid for are present and have valid links. There were a lot of good techniques that could be relayed to our members as a group of best practices. The Peer-To-Peer INN-Reach is a new product that allows two INN-Reach systems to share materials as if they were one. It was a done in Ohio as a response after one consortium added two public libraries and began to see their single INN-Reach server overwhelmed. From what I could tell it works well, with each INN-Reach server able to retain it's own loan rules and identity, but did require all the libraries and pickup locations to be added to both servers, which quickly would present patrons with a very long list of libraries to choose from. I wasn't very clear where the super-union webpac resided; whether on it's own server or produced from both of them. The users that were present seemed happy with it.

Normally I'd link to the article itself but the comments on the slashdot page are worth a read. "Will they ban 3D printers?" "Knowing our congress they'll try to ban teaching Geometry in schools... you can't print illegal shapes if you don't know shapes!" Sad but true. These are really the kinds of discussions that we will have to have as a society in the very near term. Libraries should be at the forefront of this discussion - they've always had to fight to protects peoples rights to access information. If they have public access 3D printers it's only a matter of time before the government comes knocking wanting to see the shape files that their patrons have been printing just like they do with circulation records and internet history.

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 fairly brief article that cites the benefits of on-site book publishing (supporting independent and creative authors), formatting and self-publishing academic material, and supporting in a limited manner a patron driven acquisitions model, offset by the machine's high price of $125-$150,000. I think it would be interesting to see numbers on printing volume and overall operating costs, as well as whether any leasing options are available for the book machine.

I'm glad to see the Espresso is starting to get press. It's been around for awhile, and has the potential to be very useful.

This was a concept that I wasn't too sure if it wasn't ready for prime time or was simply a bad idea. Library patrons could sign up for a "Cloud" account and be given a thin client laptop that would access a Windows 7 image via Citrix which is "their" computer to install programs on or use as needed. However the initial outlay was $300,000 with $5,000 a year ongoing maintenance costs and considerable bandwidth requirements to stream an HD Windows desktop. Further it was limited to only laptops used in the library with a maximum base of 160 users. I honestly couldn't see this as a good idea because of the cost and limited use. It would be cheaper to rent out laptops and re-image when they are returned.

Move over OverDrive here comes 3M. Here is my favorite quote : "They're (patrons) able to do it (download books) on their own. [3M] is doing something right." This is huge as someone who worked at B&N for 4 years usability is a big deal. B&N is where people came to troubleshoot and the biggest headache was OverDrive (I hear its easier now). Also it'll be nice having someone else in the e-book market for libraries.

A slight man with a stethoscope and black medical bag regularly walks through Tucson's downtown public library, helping patrons with issues that have nothing to do with books. Daniel Lopez is not a librarian, but one of the nation's first library nurses.