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Joseph J. Esposito is an independent management consultant. Kizer Walker is Director of Collection Development at Cornell University Library. Terry Ehling is Associate Director, Project Muse, at the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Libraries along the East coast served as community support centers for residents without electricity or heat.

This sounds like a good choice, and makes me even more excited for what the DPLA could have in store.

Really neat ideas from Harvard Libraries!

An article about the world of prison libraries and how they help detainees with learning, job placement, and constructive entertainment such as performing in plays.

"Here are 10 that should be at the top of anyone's list who is striving to become a great library leader."

The feature article "The Future of Library Systems" has a section about Sierra and a summary comparison of new library services platforms.

An interesting article about some of the diverse offerings the Overland Park county library has begun to offer, including classes and seminars on Wii bowling and hog butchering, which has helped raise attendance 29% from 2004-2010. One comment does ring true, from Michael Gorman, former president of the ALA: "I hope the library doesn't turn into something that is a type of cooking-class meeting place with computers attached and no books."

The article is interesting for what it gets wrong and for what it brings up. The phrase "Boise Public Library's new Enterprise Discover System, which was funded by a consortium of more than 15 Idaho libraries" makes it sound like this was a home grown discovery system, but it's actually Sirsi-Dynix's Enterprise system. It's interesting because it's one of the first general news articles I've seen showing awareness of a discovery service, which means they are gradually filtering their way into the public realm of what libraries are supposed to be about.

Since ALA President Maureen Sullivan threw down the proverbial gauntlet to publishers and they've picked it up, there's been a lot of inspired responses.  Jamie LaRue has a radical one himself-- circumvent the publishers, and ask the authors how they'd like their electronic books to be distributed. It's a bold proposition (posing the question, "Are publishers necessary?"), but certainly a way for libraries to work with authors to maximize their profits.

Karen Coyle's answer is, "Yes, but it can't be an end of itself."  She gives a very nice imaging of what linked library data could possibly do.

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.

A tagent from the seed lending library...how would one catalog this?

"When not in circulation, the dogs will be kept in a shared exercise area, where they most commonly play poker together." - Well played.

Lastly, Harvard is also lending dogs now at one of their libraries. This is one of several experiments in lending things other than books (everything from tools to people) but I still question the relevance:

"The current model of digital content delivery for libraries places library users' privacy at risk. Authorizing the loan of an ebook or the use of a database can communicate unique identifiers or personally identifiable information that reveals a user's identity."

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 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.

I think I have a Tumblr account (?) but obviously I don't use it. Anyone have one? Tumblr got me a job. Being intimidated by the prospect of a "full-size" blog, I joined Tumblr in February 2011. Since then I've shamelessly promoted my "name" and stalked down as many libraries/librarians on the site as I could find. I've connected with libraries, librarians, library students, publishers, writers, readers, Doctor Who fanatics, and cat lovers.

A bit too much of a fan piece but a general description of how librarians can use Tumblr as networking. The basic function is similar to Twitter--namely microblogging, but post aren't limited to 140 characters of text and can include image, videos, and audio clips.

Did you know there was a library for the Olympics? I didn't.

This article points out that many of the values of librarianship (privacy, sharing, preservation) are in conflict with current ebook models. Ebooks are not private ("libraries can't protect data stored with third parties"), ebooks can't be shared ("people can't give their used ebooks to the library"), and ebooks can't be preserved ("we can't preserve files we can't keep"). Even access is not universal ("Does your ebook platform provide content that's compatible with all devices?").

DeKALB - With the help of a $575,000 grant, a group of university librarians and curators hope to have an answer to a growing problem. Lynne Thomas, curator of rare books and special collections at Northern Illinois University's Founders Memorial Library, learned in October that NIU, along with four other universities, secured a grant to study the best practices for storing digital data.