MOBIUS Libraries

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.

With 3D printing becoming more popular it' worthwhile to consider the perspective of someone who is encountering one for the first time.

An interesting if short article about the process and challenges a library in digitizing a largely unique collection most on their own.

Initially I thought this would be an informative article but it was essentially a long complaint about trying to get scholarly communication working, and I kept thinking if the author is aware of the problems beforehand then why not anticipate solutions?

An interesting article showing the progress of open-access despite DRM and publisher control. However, my next question remains unanswered: Are these the papers that people want to read?

KCPL made it on the list. Now we can start thinking about a MOBIUS Pinterest Board. At the very least we need it for the board dinner.

We'll need this for when we purchase our 3D printer!

As we get more and more databases/ebooks/whatnot this is an interesting read. Esp. since the person complaining about too many clicks is a historian! Its their job to research and they hate clicking too much-what do our average users think? I had an interesting conversation with a faculty member last week that went something like this: "Brian, I want you to know that it's getting harder for me to get students to use the library- especially the databases- anything beyond three clicks is just too many."

A A Here's a sign that e-readers are struggling in the U.S.: E Ink Holdings, the Taiwan-based company that makes e-reader screens for companies such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, just had its worst quarter in four years. This article had some interesting points and the comments brought up some good questions as well. As a former B&N employee it will be interesting to see what they do in the next coming years with the e-reader/e-books.

The memes are great! I think we need some MOBIUS memes for next year's conference--so start brainstorming!

An article that brings up what we lose by having everything recorded, Some points are made in how our memories change over time and instead seeing an optimized or idealized memory we would see out past differently. Also, our methods of interaction and learning will change as things get broken down more and more by probabilities and assessments based on metadata from recorded conversations.

A disappoint article about a library's response to a reading club winner who is perpetually ahead. There is no evidence he is cheating, but because he wins the contest continually the other kids get discouraged and quit. However, rather than discourage the child from his love of reading, I wonder if an alternate idea would be to make leagues, so there is an overall contest but children also complete with reading groups of a similar level.

A somewhat concerning article about how if you visit an area of the world with a mobile device where your eBooks aren't licensed, the Google Play DRM will delete them. This is akin to traveling to another part of the world with a legally owned Region 1 DVD and device to play it on, and it still erases itself.

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.

A fairly interesting read how copyright has diminished the availability of books from 1923 (the start of copyright protections for titles), so there is a large gap of material from before then that is out of copyright and widely available, and currently published material. However, material in between those times is scarce. However numbers can be deceiving as these are books in current publication, not available used copies, and it would make sense that copyrighted material not widely in demand would have low publication numbers.

Thew controversy was mainly about Amazon, and it was as interesting reading the comments as well as the article. Amazon is creating "fulfillment centers" in states for shipping items to consumers, and may even be looking at creating their own delivery service. The business model Amazon uses is very lean with low paid workers, and the American Booksellers Associations claims that for every $10 million that shifts from physical brick-and-mortar stores to Amazon 33 jobs are lost.

HP is offering a service to create magazines and other serial publications in the "cloud." What is interesting is both print and digital publishing is offered. Some of the publications listed do use an ISSN number, but it looks like it's up to the author to obtain it. Print options include worldwide shipping and direct mail, while it looks like the digital version requires a MagCloud account to read the material, although it is available as a downloadable PDF. What I find most interesting is how this service effectively replaces a traditional publisher altogether, although some of the features a publisher can offer--such as marketing and industry contacts, are missing. Digital prices to the consumer are substantially less than print, but I can't find anything about pricing to the user without signing up for an account.

An interesting web vendor that is offering interactive textbooks, which is in some ways the repackaging of the original "multimedia" CD-ROM's of the early 1990's, but now offered as a "book." They claim to be partnered with McGraw-Hill and Pearson, and it looks like a user needs to have a perpetual account to use their material although offline access is allowed. Some features such as streaming video and music are separate from the book so they are not true stand alone files, and purchasing a book as an app is currently only for a handful of titles. The list price of several of the books is very steep, and my main concern is how well the multimedia is integrated with the text and if there is any ability to share or transfer a license, which I can't find listed in their website FAQ.