Anyone who has tried to parse dates already knows what this piece is going to be about. This is because dates, which seem so easy on the face of it, are very complex entities that create any number of difficulties for software. I mean, witness the whole Y2K debacle. And that’s just for starters. There […]
With New Funding, DPLA Sets Sights on Search
By on July 31, 2012
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded $1 million to fund the creation of the infrastructure for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) last week, and the organization will now turn its focus toward developing a way to search across the many disparate collections involved with the project.
Fifty Ways to Leave Your Library
By on July 31, 2012
I’d like to help you in your struggle To be free There must be fifty ways To leave your lover – Paul Simon We’ve all been there — or will be. You feel like you’ve come to the end of your time, or that you’ve accomplished what you can and need new challenges. Maybe you […]
Google Seeks Dismissal of Authors Guild Case [UPDATED]
By on July 30, 2012
Arguing that authors have suffered no economic harm from the scanning of more than 15 million books, Google on Friday filed a motion seeking the dismissal of the long-running Authors Guild v. Google case. The motion states that the digitized books, and the Google Books service that they enable, are “not a substitute for the [physical] books themselves—readers still must buy a book from a store or borrow it from a library to read it. Rather, Google Books is an important advance on the card-catalogue method of finding books,” that allows full-text searching.
Ebooks Choices and the Soul of Librarianship
By on July 30, 2012
A member of the founding team at Unglue.It says ebook models make us choose. And she doesn’t mean choosing which catalog, or interface, or set of contract terms librarians want — though they do make those choices, and they matter. She means that librarians choose which values to advance, and which to sacrifice.
Canadian-Controlled Ebook Infrastructure Project Progressing
By on July 30, 2012
The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) is in the process of clarifying technical aspects of nine responses it received this month, after issuing a Request for Information (RFI) invitation to vendors concerning its Canadian public library ebook lending initiative. The goal is the development of an ebook infrastructure in which Canada’s libraries would control “the storage and distribution of digital content, as well as…the management of lending agreements and transactions between public libraries, publishers and library patrons,” the organization has explained.
25 Twitter Accounts that will Make You Smarter and More Links of the Week
By on July 29, 2012
Sally Ride Science, the organization the famed astronaut founded to help support kids’ interest in science, math, and technology, is among the Twitter accounts said to make you smarter, the first of our links of note.
Library Websites Adapt to Smartphone Growth
By on July 26, 2012
Using cell phones to explore websites that are not optimized for mobile devices can be a frustrating experience. Libraries should consider this more than an aesthetic issue, since mobile devices are the primary Internet access point for a growing number of their users. Almost 90 percent of U.S. adults now own a cell phone of some kind, and 55 percent of them use their phones to go online, according to a June report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Seventeen percent of respondents said they do “most” of their online browsing on their phone.
National Federation of the Blind Honors Axis 360
By on July 26, 2012
The National Federation of the Blind has honored Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 digital media platform with the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that have “made outstanding contributions toward achieving the full integration of the blind into society on a basis of equality.”
The Role of a New Machine
By on July 25, 2012
My five-year-old laptop (would I kid about this?) is due to be replaced soon, so it has me thinking about old and new machines. My first (personal, not work) computer was, believe it or not, a laptop. It was an Apple Powerbook 145 I received as part of the Apple Library’s “Network Citizen Award” back […]
