Group items tagged

I posted the brief which has links to the original Google study and Nicholas Carr's underwhelmed response because the summary is nice and easy to digest plus if you wish to delve further you can. Basically Google challenged students in a library versus those using Google to answer 'random' questions- Nicholas Carr responds- " How did the University of Michigan researchers come up with the questions that they had their subjects find answers to? They "obtained a random sample of 2515 queries from a major search engine." Ha! Maybe the question we should be asking, not of Google but of ourselves, is what types of questions the Net is encouraging us to ask. Should human thought be gauged by its output or by its quality? That question might actually propel one into the musty depths of a library, where "time saved" is not always the primary concern".

Ok, this is exciting, however, we don't know the details yet: "The company did not say how long the lending period for Kindle e-books would be, or if there were any restrictions on the number of checkouts for any books."

There is a lot of back and forth about this news in the library world. I have yet to give the Amazon annoncement the fine tooth comb treatment, but there are plenty of questions. Chief among them for me would be: What is a library's financial incentive to promote the Kindle (free or exceeding cheap content to loan would be a fine answer for me). Another issue has come up on public library list serves regarding Harper Collins' policies. It has come out that part of the agreement is that Harper Collins will have access to patron information. Although I have yet to see anyone explain the details of this aspect of Harper Collins' agrrement, would that be something Amazon would want as well?

The director of Harvard University Library argues that the best digital library would be a non-commercial public digital library. Here, here!

Great article on some digital humanities projects and how they relate to undergraduate teaching. Many of the projects involve digital archives, libraries or databases. I think this is the kind of work future academic libraries can help facilitate

Not sure why it isn't registering that I viewed this... Fascinating article- wish I could share via FB since only classmates see this and I think my teacher friends would find this interesting as well. Just another way diigo limits its usefulness. Great find though!

A nice overview of how DPL differs from other mass-digitization projects such as Europeana and Google Books

I have uploaded other pdf documents at the bottom of one of my pages, but not the Times articles because I thought they would be accessible through the link. However, I don't know whether people notice docs at the bottom of the Google page even though I say "attached below" in the citation. The Times articles are now on ecollege in doc sharing and attached to my discussion reply. I hope that the Economist doesn't block users.

I recently also uploaded the Times articles as PDFs to my second page.

A group effort sharing information about all literacies (digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, 21st century literacies, transliteracies ) with special focus on all libraries.

Just realized this is missing "geospatial literacy" which is one of the areas I am interested in, but this looks like a great site. Similar to what we are doing on the topic of social informatics via diigo.

I like that there is so much interest in Transliteracy! We have to include Henry Jenkin's blog as well: http://www.henryjenkins.org/

I read this article detailing why e-books are better for the environment, cheaper, easier for eyes to read, convenient... My question is if anyone has an e-book reader and how they like it. I'm considering one of my own.

I have a Kindle and I LOVE it. I will admit that I hate that I cannot share my books with my friends as this is something that I used to do all the time. The Nook has that capability and there are rumors that Amazon will push through software that will allow this capability and I really hope they do. The Kindle has done amazing things for my book shelves and I think my husband is thrilled that we no longer have to keep adding. It is a dedicated ereader so it is limited to what I can do compared to an iPad but when I just want to read something the Kindle (or ereader) cannot be beat. While you are reading the iPad you are looking a computer monitor and that really strains my eyes. The Kindle is exactly like reading a book and there is no eye strain. Plus, the Kindle is a lot lighter than a book so it is much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. It is great when I travel because I have a ton of books loaded onto my Kindle and I am set to go and I do not have to worry about their weight or carrying them around. Dessi mentioned that she liked having the old-fashioned paper in her hands and I thought I was going to be that way as well but I got over it real quick! I will admit that I do not like it for my school text books because I like to be able to visually see my books and I place notes all over the place with post-its and an old-fashioned book is just better for me in that respect.

They all seem to have advantages and disadvantges... I agree one problem with the ipad is the screen - it's better than a typical computer screen, but not as easy on the eyes as a dedicated e-reader. I am still attached to the physical experience of reading and writing, but that's cool that has really worked for Heather. One of the reasons why it might have not worked for scholarly reading is that the tools still seem limited for engaged reading, marking up texts, highlighting, etc. I am hoping there will be good apps for this with the ipad (i just got it and haven't had a chance to look). Beestel, you have to read through the details of each device to find out what is best for you and your reading needs.

I love the note about library closings being equivalent to child abuse!

Some statistics on the use and availability of public library computers.

This is an organization that publishes credible statistics and research reports on internet usage

Great place to find stats of internet use and demographics

I've seen their director Lee Rainie speak a few times as the lead keynote at Computers in Libraries. He is such an amazing speaker, I keep going even though each year he pretty much gives an update on their research into internet usage.

I have used Marcus P. Zillman as a resource in previous papers for school so I was intrigued when I saw this HUGE list of social informatics and networking websites that he had compiled. He also writes for LLRX a highly regarded Law Librarian e-zine here: http://www.llrx.com/authors/398

Wow, this list is huge. Problem with a list like this is I wonder how often it is managed, to make additions and remove URLs that don't exist anymore.

I think I plug this every year in a class, but it is a conference for library developers. Essentially the coders and hackers who represent those most likely to bring theory to production regarding many of the ideas that come out of Social Informatics. I've gone to 2007 to now and its very interesting on many levels.

SXSW-i 2011 "didn't feel blindly focused on discovering the killer app. Tech didn't feel like an end unto itself -- rather, it was about processing data with a purpose; data for a greater good." Librarians were a big part of the conversation at this year's festival

I saw this too and was really excited. I caught a story on WNYC yesterday about the importance of curating content, which I'll find and post to the group.

I think there's a special topics course on curation of information/data in the fall!

This strikes me as an incredibly uncritical and self serving article. Maybe this is just because every time one "moves" to the next page a Dell ad pops up. With the decrease of school funding and the increase of connection costs and databases, I would hate to have to rely on only online resources.

I just found this, and don't recall seeing it before. It is a peer reviewed journal aimed at MLIS students. It comes out of Buffalo. I just wanted to share, no specific article, but it looks like a good resource. Open access journal.

Thanks for sharing this Judy... I think someone once posted something about it on LISSA. I just checked the editorial team and there's two Rutgers students listed. I don't them though.

I mentioned this video in a comment I made in this week's discussion. It highlights several reasons why school librarians are so essential now more than ever.

NYU's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World has a new website with their nice collection of digital books.

From the article: "Still, books are one of the last ad-free zones, and by showing ads on an e-reader, Amazon risks alienating some users, he said. " Libraries too are one of the last ad-free zones.

They may try to release a tablet. "An Amazon tablet could tie together the seemingly disparate parts of the company's business, Mr. McQuivey said, including e-commerce, e-books, video and audio."