MOBIUS Libraries

One of the quotes from this post that stands out is "Of course, sifting through vast quantities of information in order to show people the important stuff is what newspapers are supposed to do..." Substitute the word 'librarians' for 'newspapers' and we are talking the same language.

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.

A nice collection of information for those new to the concept of digital preservation, as well as some tools to get your institution started.

"The consequences many libraries have feared-loud objections from faculty members and financial penalties from publishers-have not come to pass."

Here's an idea for our server coffee tables we keep talking about. We can get cards from each institution/library and put it on top of our table. How many do you think we can fit on a server?

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

Redbox for books. I'm mixed on it, I like the ease of it but let's not get rid of libraries.

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.

An article about a Maker Space at the Westport, Connecticut library, which includes a 3D printing project. 3-D printing is one of the waves of the future and I know the MST library looked at one; hosting the Maker Space in the middle of the library is a good way to promote it but I wonder if the noise and activity will end up distracting to the other patrons.

This is epic. Someday soon libraries will be repositories of genetic information and in addition to 3D printers they will have biological printers. Even though libraries lending seeds is fairly new, in the not so distant future that function will be obsolete as patrons are able to come into the library and print the genetic materials needed to grow any plant species on record.

Weird.

I think Scott has it on the nose. It's depressing that not even print format can save us from temporary content!

I think this highlights the ridiculousness of the ebook issue, but I actually think it's a great idea as it's being presented. "The book that cannot wait" just seems cool to me. Probably not as cool as the book of Snoop Dogg lyrics made out of rolling papers but hey - we can't all be as cool as the D-O-Double-G.

A positive four part blog entry about how libraries are evolving to meet new needs, strengthen communities during bad economic times, and are centers for sharing. Overall I think this article is the most realistic one I've read in some time. It still acknowledges that libraries are doing more with less, and that perceptions of libraries are slow to change.

An article that notes the dwindling demand for general information specialists at the Free Library of Phildadelphia, which used to field 400 phone calls a day among a rotating staff of 14 librarians, and is now done to 1 librarian and 9 assistants who deal with only a handful of phone calls and more often do front line customer service and technical support work, with many information requests now handled by online chat.

This is why we can't have nice things...

It's on now...

There are some MOBIUS members in the KC area that are highly considering dropping MOREnet if this actually comes to fruition.

I didn't know that, Sharla. I wonder how many people-- including MOBIUS institutions-- will jump to Google.

A look at the logistics how an open access journal may be set up-- as you can see, it's both cheap and easy, which which may give pause to some people who would otherwise submit articles.  For that reason, the first thing that Eve stresses is to place high priority on the quality of your board and reviewers, to give your new title some legitimacy.

In France eBooks are only 1.8% of the general market, and total sales of books have actually increased by 6.5% from 2003 to 2011. Some interesting conclusions are drawn from this, namely that prices for French language books are fixed by government decree and set by publishers--not by price discounters such as Amazon, and last year the publishers lobbied to do the same for eBooks. The French government is also friendly to booksellers, offering grants and help with rent. The result is French language bookstores are doing well, while some such English language bookstore such as the 30 year old Village Voice are closing because of the competition from resellers like Amazon and eBooks. The article surmises that the French are really only delaying the inevitable, but I find it curious that nothing is really stopping them from turning entirely to eBooks now, the main factor is cost rather than convenience or access.

That's...pretty neat, actually.  If one were in my neighborhood, I'd use it.

This probably isn't the tipping point for ebooks over print--but is very close to it. Ebooks outsold adult hardcover fiction for the first time in 2011, nearly tripling their marketshare to 15%. However, the overall book market declined by 2.5% and the total revenue of ebooks (2 billion) was still much less than that of all print books (11.1 billion).

An interesting resource about Public Domain works leaning towards art/historical material. Works vary from Ebooks to images and articles are well written it not up to scholarly review standards.