Group items tagged

An interesting although perhaps idealistic view of what could happen. The author contends that Google faltered in paying and making arrangements with publishers rather than defending Book Search as fair use, although I'd argue it led directly to the Google Play store for selling media including books. Libraries cooperating to make a Digital Public Library is to me a much more agreeable plan than getting materials digitized and put online by means of a corporation.

Yoshitaka Fujii is accused of faking 172 out of 249 published papers. Many of his papers were considered "low impact," noticed and published but not heavily cited, and therefore not closely looked at. However, Fujii appeared to be highly productive and and as a result was able to get new jobs, research funding, and and public speaking fees. This is a concern for libraries and the validity of research as now it's easier than ever to self publish papers to online journals, and I have some questions how the retractions are handled--would the databases the articles are in simply delete them, or note they are officially retracted to anyone who did cite them?

The city of McAllen, Texas converted a Wal-Mart into a spacious public library and won the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition in the process.

Pretty amazing and scary how effective it was. It could have so easily offended instead. It does once again show the power of social media.

The state budget for the upcoming year eliminates all funding for public libraries. Commissioner of administration Paul Rainwater stated the libraries could be supported by local, not state dollars. There are two Federal grants within the budget, but they do not cover things such as desktop computer support. Rural libraries with the least amount of property tax are going to be among those most hard hit.

"A new report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project finds that 12% of readers of ebooks borrowed an ebook from their libraries in the past year, and a majority of respondents (62%) don't know if their local library provides ebooks. "

A blog, appears largely inactive, about the Digital Public Library of America and other topics. Notable as it was co-found by Tom Peters, the new Dean of University Libraries at MSU.

A fairly piece but notable as the reasons are relevant even in today's digital era.

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.

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.

The insights in this article were interesting, given that they coming from a trade publication.   I do think Brantley is absolutely right, but I'm not sure what that means for libraries.  The fact still remains that a lot of bestsellers and popular works-- which are still associated with libraries-- are squarely in the hands of the Big Six (Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillian, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster) and it's yet unclear how a large number of independent publishers will have any effect.

In this well-researched and provocative article, the author argues that a "philosophy" of librarianship is needed that is based on "praxis, not practice."  She argues that rather than explaining our value to the public, librarians should explain their philosophy-- "why we do what we do"-- as that will better help librarians adapt to changes in procedure ("practice") that come with changes in technology. Frustratingly, the author never prescribes an actual philosophy of librarianship for her own part, choosing instead to review the work done by others and recap the current philosophy debate in the field.

The Digital Public Library of America initiative received $1 million to support the creation of the infrastructure for a national open-access digital library.

Just a great story... Libraries are not failing "because they are libraries." Neglected libraries get neglected, and this cycle, in time, provides the excuse to close them. Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.

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.

Beginning November 1st only limited public appointments will be allowed to see the State of Georgia's archives, and the staff of 10 may be reduced. The move is in response to a $730,000 budget cut. The reduction still has to be approved by the legislature, it's unclear how many operating hours the archives will have; state law mandates only every Saturday.

The ALA Digital Content and Libraries Working Group published an "Ebook Business Models for Public Libraries" report August 8. You can read more about the process, or jump right to a PDF download of the report.

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.

The Bexar County Bibliotech Library shows both the optimism but also the problems of an all-digital. 10,000 books is a very small collection, and the library is using a vendor's platform app to supply materials. As one of the people in the article mentioned, this was also done before in 2002.

I don't know if this is a hopeful sign or not, as the only reason this stopped was public outcry, and the need for books is not just for research.