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This one is just for fun on Friday, but makes a lot of good points.

An interesting promotional approach considering the popularity of zombie movies and TV shows like "The Walking Dead." I also found it humorous they got in the mood by watching the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video.

"One Big Six publisher is, to its credit, on the record saying it is granting ownership. That bears repeating: a Big Six publisher says it is granting ownership. Librarians should do everything possible to test the limits of this ownership and to identify specific vendor practices (or clauses) that may undermine it."

The Public Library of Science, or PLOS, has created a guide, the Open Access Spectrum, or OAS to help measure a publication's openness.

This is a look at "the next big thing" in YA literature, but its worth reading just so you can go to this website : http://knowyourmeme.com/

I love reading Bobbi's blogs and I follow her on twitter. She brings up some great points about e-books. This is a really complex issue and I don't think its going to get any easier. Coming from a retail background where I sold e-books and e-readers its interesting to hear the librarians' point of view. I think we've still got a long way to go be for anything will be settled in this big debate.

A summary of the October 17, 2012 Facebook Q&A about preserving your treasures. Great for the DIY archivist in us all.

Motion control: Startup company GestSure uses Kinect for Windows to allow surgeons to look through medical images without having to touch unsterile equipment. While most of the headlines about Microsoft this fall will concern its new operating system, Windows 8, and its new Surface tablet, the company is also working hard on a long-term effort to reinvent the way we interact with existing computers. *I knew my Just Dance skills would pay off!

This is just for fun-I had to post it! Let's face it, a lot of us librarians are geeky, and thus we enjoy geeky office supplies in the workplace. Here are 10 suggestions for stocking up on geeky stuff for this winter. (AKA most of my Christmas list)

A generally positive article, notable that reading is a prominent part of the 16-29 age groups lives. Further, over half have used a library in the past year and consider eBooks not as a replacement for print but a supplement to their general reading habits.

Harvard also had an Oxford style debate about the future or purpose of libraries. While interesting it didn't really cover anything new:

The author raises a good point: is there really a way to teach information literacy in a transferrable way?  Or does teaching it in a particular enviroinment (i.e., backing up concepts with hands-on experience) go further to illustrate the subject?

The librarians of Mali are doing as much to conserve literature as to save their heritage. A vast majority of manuscripts have not been transcribed and remain in their original form, with some dating back to the 13th century. Timbutku is known for it's manuscript libraries, with several publicly accessible collections and at least 24 private collections.

Say, Sharla, would this be something our customers might be interested in?  I'm curious about it myself.

FYI, the training list is largely defunct. It was populated by people who were interested in discussing training with the MOBIUS office, but I was the only one who ever posted anything.

Yeah, that's often how lists go. People are always afraid to speak up.

Publishes critical reviews of online resources for libraries.

I'm going to use it also.

Great!

Jay Leno demonstrates how a 3D printer is used to create new parts from scans of original car parts that would have been exorbitantly expensive to manufacture. Some libraries have looked at getting these, in particular MST, as while expensive they would provide a product and service not readily accessible for engineering and technical students.

Librarians may find this paragraph interesting: The new divide is such a cause of concern for the Federal Communications Commission that it is considering a proposal to spend $200 million to create a digital literacy corps. This group of hundreds, even thousands, of trainers would fan out to schools and libraries to teach productive uses of computers for parents, students and job seekers.

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?