Eric Hellman of Openly Informatics fame (subsequently bought by my employer OCLC) has launched his new project: Unglue.it. The site uses a crowd-sourced funding (or “crowdfunding”) model to raise enough money to pay book authors to open up their books as ebooks for free. As described on the site: Unglue.it is a a place for individuals […]
Taming that ‘Monster of Content’ YouTube
By on April 19, 2012
Joyce Valenza’s tips on using the latest tools to help conference presenters and educators better use the video resource.
Early Newbery Winners Pose a Challenge to Nerdbery Participants
By on April 10, 2012
“The early books are really, really rough,” says school librarian John Schumacher, who helped launch the online Nerdbery Challenge. “They’re completely dreadful. They’re really long. They’re just not very good.”
New Apps Bring OPAC Functionality to Library Facebook Pages
By on April 5, 2012
Recently released apps from ChiliFresh and SirsiDynix allow library OPACs and Facebook to play nice together. Both apps integrate OPAC functionality into library Facebook pages, enabling patrons to search the catalog, place holds, log into their accounts, and pay fines — all from within Facebook.
Essential Apps and Services for the Great Library Roadshow
By on March 10, 2012
I’ve been doing some app and technology recon in the weeks leading up to the official start tomorrow, and below you’ll see just a few annotations of the tools I’ve found most useful, and others that are old standbys that I make frequent use of during my travels.
Syracuse Launches Pinterest Contest for the New Librarianship
By on March 7, 2012
The iSchool at Syracuse University is looking for a few good pins. Joyce Valenza details the challenge to Create a Future of Librarianship Pinterest Board.
Q&A: SirsiDynix CEO Bill Davison on Social Networking, Self-service, Mashups, and Ebooks in Libraries
By on February 9, 2012
At LJ’s Virtual Tech Summit, “Power to the Patron: From Systems to Services,” held on December 8, librarians and tech experts took on an array of topics facing libraries, including social networking, self-service, mashups using application programming interfaces (APIs), and the future of integrated library systems (ILSs). Library automation company SirsiDynix was a platinum sponsor of the summit, and LJ asked its CEO, Bill Davison, to weigh in on the issues.
Top SLJ Comments of the Week
From School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books and The Hunger Games to the latest on ebooks—they giveth Harry Potter and they taketh away—a lot went on this week.