MOBIUS Libraries

Very interesting concept. I don't know if I really want people calling me at 2 am to chat about Webpacs. By Felicia A. Smith on I recently read an interesting article titled Make Room for Daddy...And Mommy: Helicopter Parents Are Here, which states, "Helicopter Parents hover over their children interceding as soon as the child faces an unpleasant situation or uncertainty. The parents are 'over-involved' in their child's life."

MOBIUS needs to do this only instead of empty cake pans they should be filled with cake and instead of going to other libraries they should come directly to the office. A longtime practice of checking out cake pans at libraries in Kansas, particularly in rural areas, has increased as people look for a way to save money while still providing treats for special occasions. More cake pans are being loaned at the Great Bend Public Library after employees recently moved nearly 100 of the pans from a back room to bookshelves, The Hutchinson News reported.

I've heard of libraries in Missouri that loan cake pans, too. I can't remember where she was from, but remember at MLA several years ago a librarian telling me about all the different shapes and "characters" of cake pans they had--cool idea!

Well, now I know where all our rain went. It all ended up at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where eight feet of water covered the library's lower level.

I had some friends who live up in Duluth and her pictures at the time were crazy. The zoo flooded and there were animals everywhere too. There were some pics of a seal swimming in a gutter, but they rounded them all up eventually.

That's really cool! I wonder if he would work for MOBIUS? Ha ha!

LendInk was a site that facilitated legitimate ebook lending by putting people with books to lend in touch with people looking to borrow. This was all done at Amazon and Barnes & Noble's websites LendInk merely put the people in touch. The site was shut down because of their host receiving hundreds of Cease and Desist letters from ebook publishers who didn't even take the time to see what the site actually did or who didn't understand that their books were even lendable. 

In this well-researched and provocative article, the author argues that a "philosophy" of librarianship is needed that is based on "praxis, not practice."  She argues that rather than explaining our value to the public, librarians should explain their philosophy-- "why we do what we do"-- as that will better help librarians adapt to changes in procedure ("practice") that come with changes in technology. Frustratingly, the author never prescribes an actual philosophy of librarianship for her own part, choosing instead to review the work done by others and recap the current philosophy debate in the field.

"Every generation rewrites the book's epitaph; all that changes is the whodunit."

"So much for Gen Y stereotypes. Turns out they aren't sun-deprived geeks sitting alone in the basement, with only a controller, joystick, or keyboard, and the final level of Skyrim to keep them company. There's a pile of books next to the game console, too."

"Starting this fall, the 220-member library cooperative Califa Library Group will begin rolling out a $325,000 project with the goal of buying from the smaller publishing companies thousands of e-books that the libraries will own forever."

Interesting (but pretty depressing) article: "But the research is now making it clear that the Internet is not "just" another delivery system. It is creating a whole new mental environment, a digital state of nature where the human mind becomes a spinning instrument panel, and few people will survive unscathed."

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.

This headline caught my attention: "NYU Library Imprisons Students in a Video Game to Stop Them from Killing Themselves." The atrium of the school's main library has been enclosed with perforated aluminum screens, in an effort to curb suicides.

So this is an interesting way for libraries to find funding...

This was good and something I need to keep in mind. The original Ten Commandments that most people are at least passingly familiar with represent rules for how Jews and Christians should conduct their lives.

Coming after Target stopped selling them in May this is likely more from Wal-Mart wishing to promote their online products than from any drop in demand for the Kindle.

This is an awesome tool I saw at the Evergreen conference. I used it on the Merlin git repo which was cool to see but since everything is in a flat directory structure and it's mostly Jessica (and a little bit me) committing it's not nearly as cool as some of the videos from other projects.

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:

At least two of the big-six publishers are refusing to sign new annual contracts with Amazon. While that could result in their "buy" buttons being turned off, it is more likely that the feud will result in less promotion of big-six publishers' titles on the site.

No real surprise here. With Amazon trying to make deals directly with authors to avoid having to pay big money to these publishers it's no wonder. It's only a matter of time before these big publishers either go out of business or wise up and scale back.

The city of McAllen, Texas converted a Wal-Mart into a spacious public library and won the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition in the process.