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An abandoned Wal-Mart store in McAllen, Texas, has been transformed into a functioning library. The interior space is the size of 2 1/2 football fields making the library the largest single story library in the U.S. Since the building opened user registration has increased by 23% While a great idea for reusing a building--incorporating everything a library needs except aesthetic appeal, I wonder about the heating and cooling costs of the building, which can be monumental.

The Pacific Branch, one of two branch buildings the Brooklyn Public Library intended to sell, has been given a temporary reprieve. However, the future is murky as the building is old and in need of repairs, while the money raised selling on what has become valuable property could be used for other branches in the system.

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.

An article that references the closure of the University of Missouri last year, and mainly emphasizes that university presses need to focus on fund raising, advocacy, building alliances, and maintaining relevance in a changing publishing landscape.

An interesting article about how the Warsaw Ghetto in World War Two was carefully documented and stored in metal milk cans in the foundations of buildings; the largest cache of which still has not been found.

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.

Oracle is suing Google over the use of their Java API's in Android. This should be an interesting case. Google argues that while you can copyright a finished product, you shouldn't be able to copyright the computer language used to build the product - just like a novelist can copyright a book but nobody can copyright English. Oracle disagrees and says that if the language is unique enough, then it should be protected. They cite Klingon as an example. I read through Oracle's filing and it actually looks pretty strong. I didn't bother reading Google's because it's pretty clear that Google is missing the point that Oracle isn't upset that they used Java, but that they bundled all the extra API's. I really feel for the judge and jury having to hear this case. Oracle's brief isn't exactly light on the technical details...

We have to get these! We can create our own little MOBIUSbots!

http://littlebits.cc/ Ayah Bdeir is from the MIT Media Lab. I love the Media Lab - it produces the coolest of cool ideas. I'm not sold on using these to make a bot, but I'm definitely going to get some for Freya.

Wow, I cannot wait until Henry is old enough to play with these!

Even better than LittleBits (IMHO). The main board plugs right into an Arduino and they have much more interesting bits. Still, at this point of circuit design it seems like you may as well just build it on the breadboard.

Scholr.ly looks like a very interesting tool. They describe it as "Making Academic Search Social". Here is a description of the search engine: "Undergraduate physicists and comparative literature postdocs have very different search needs. We're building an academic search engine that takes these individual differences into account. The more we know about what you do, the better we can tailor our results to fit your needs. Sometimes, though, it's good to look at a problem from another perspective. Maybe you're doing research in an area you aren't familiar with and want an insider's view. Maybe you're doing interdisciplinary work, or want to better understand your colleague's work. To address these cases, Scholr.ly offers you the opportunity to search as another author- literally. You can search as your professor, a famous linguist, or the highly cited scholar in the department next door- and get the same results they would." It's a very interesting idea...

Really great article about how to lead change in academic libraries. Apparently, trust and authenticity is the key.  "Building trust through authentic action helps lay the foundation upon which leaders can sell their vision for change." 

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.

The rack for the supercomputer has been built using Lego under the guidance of Professor Cox's son James Cox (aged 6).  In a press release Professor Cox said, "As soon as we were able to source sufficient Raspberry Pi computers we wanted to see if it was possible to link them together into a supercomputer." 

"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.

A TED presentation from Sugata Mitra about designing a "School in the Cloud," to create a SOLE or Self Organized Learning Environment.

There are some amazingly awesome buildings pictured here! I'm thinking we need to road trip/fly to some of these.

Unbelievable. And probably delicious.

The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (SNAC) is a project that aims to bring together online resources and archival materials on historical person, to basically allow a researcher to know where all the records are to understand a person. What I found in the prototype is that it resembled a catalog of sophisticated authority records. This could be useful for someone needing quick information or seeing how a historical figure fits in context, but I question if in the end it doesn't repeat information found almost as readily in other resources such as Wikipedia.

I just thought this was interesting. Also how long do you have to work at MOBIUS before you get a sculpture of yourself?

Hmmm....