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The Internet Archive, in conjunction with 150 libraries, has rolled out a new 80,000 e-book lending collection today on OpenLibrary.org. This means that library patrons with an OpenLibrary account can check out any of these e-books. The hope is that this effort will help libraries make the move to digital book lending. "As readers go digital, so are our libraries," says Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive

A report, released by American Library Association (ALA) President Molly Raphael, regarding meetings with e-book distributors during the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference, March 13 - 17.

Ebooks outlawed in class. The September issue of School Library Journal addressed not one, but two reader issues pertaining to digital access by K-12 students. Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, has dealt with many a book challenge and attempts to ban library materials. In her column, "Scales on Censorship," she addresses situations faced by readers. But "this is the first I've encountered in which a book's format has been censored," she writes.

100 blogs about school libraries, educational thinking and books

"The days of being shooshed in the library are well and truly over at The Illawarra Grammar School. After a $1 million facelift, the school's staid old library reopened this week as a bright, open space where children are allowed to draw on walls, watch TV, play games, gather to chat, or wander around on their own while listening to stories on headphones."

Thought Audio is a producer and provider of free audio books featuring classic titles across a variety of genres. Thought Audio audio books are professionally narrated works that you can listen to online or download to play offline. The library of audio books on Thought Audio contains some titles that are hard to find as audio files. For example you'll find titles like Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Life of PT Barnum, and The Madman. You'll also find more commonly read titles like Alice in Wonderland, and Poe's The Raven.

Electronic resources represent an increasingly important component of the collection- building activities of libraries. "Electronic resources" refer to those materials that require computer access, whether through a personal computer, mainframe, or handheld mobile device. They may either be accessed remotely via the Internet or locally. Some of the most frequently encountered types are: E-journals E-books Full-text (aggregated) databases Indexing and abstracting databases Reference databases (biographies, dictionaries, directories, encyclopaedias, etc.) Numeric and statistical databases E-images E-audio/visual resources

Post from lybrarian "The replacement for OverDrive digital AUDIOBOOKS is going to be Recorded Books OneClick Digital. The State Library of Kansas is currently testing this new-to-us service and there are several libraries across the nation already using it. She then lists a few examples

WorldCat connects you to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide

Strathmore Secondary College library have recently set up their own library blog

Offers a subscription approach to world e-book library. From their site: "Our goal is to provide Free public access for a month to 2 Million eBooks. During the rest of the year you may continue to download your selection of about 750,000 PDF eBooks by joining the World Public Library. Annual membership is only $8.95 (US) per year."

Your Library - Edinburgh City Council has a a great example of a library breaking out and getting into the wider community. This is a map that details literature based within the city. There are more than 100 books on the map which covers the whole city, from Edinburgh Airport to Portobello Police Station, and Muirhouse to James Gillespie's High School

The students at the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women's University have created for many trailers for the Printz Award winners and Honor Books dating back to 2000.

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo