“Librarians of the future will be knowledge navigators. They will understand digital resources as well as printed books and other formats. Their services will not be restricted by physical location, either of the materials or of themselves.” That was what Deanna B. Marcum, then on the cusp of creating the Council on Library and Information … Continue reading What’s New in LIS Schools
Karen Keninger became director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in March. She is the first person who is blind to direct the Braille and talking-book program. Keninger is former director of the Iowa Department for the Blind, a provider of … Continue reading An Interview with Karen Keninger
Meet Michael. In June, he graduated from a high school where he was encouraged to use his own technology for teaching and learning, and to connect to the district’s Wi-Fi network, where he shared almost complete open internet access on school- and personal-learning devices while on campus. The district’s guidelines for appropriate conduct are delineated … Continue reading A Tale of Two Students
The world today is clearly not that of our library predecessors, of Melvil Dewey and Charles Ammi Cutter, not even of Seymour Lubetzky or Michael Gorman. The changes that have taken place since the introduction of the personal computer and the globalization of communication over the World Wide Web are huge, and they affect in … Continue reading A New World of Data
Interested buyers found tech products that press beyond established boundaries as well as those that enable bread-and-butter library activities in the Anaheim Convention Center during the 2012 ALA Annual Conference. Products ranged from discovery services that aim to deliver access to the universe of library collections to new library management systems bringing together print, electronic, … Continue reading Vendors Showcase Their Wares in Anaheim
A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project finds that 12% of readers of ebooks borrowed an ebook from their libraries in the past year, and a majority of respondents (62%) don’t know if their local library provides ebooks. Somewhat startlingly, even 58% of library card holders were unsure if … Continue reading New Research Finds Public Awareness Gap about Ebooks in Libraries
In March, Apple announced the latest product in the evolution of what it calls the post-PC computing world, and called it simply “the new iPad.” While almost exactly the same shape, the new iPad is heavier because of a battery with a far larger capacity. The extra capacity was needed because of two key differences … Continue reading Apple Product News: The Spin for Libraries
If you think it is hard to explain to nonlibrary users what a librarian does, try explaining the job of a cataloger. Not long ago (when I was still in library school), if someone had asked me what exactly a cataloger is, my answer would have been, “a guardian of the catalog.” This still holds … Continue reading Cataloging Then, Now, and Tomorrow
If out of frustration comes new ideas, creativity, and entrepreneurship, then ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group (DCWG) is due its lightning-bolt moment. Following the 2012 ALA Midwinter Meeting in January, there were optimistic signs for future dialogue with publishers over the crucial issue of library access to ebooks, and the newly formed DCWG … Continue reading Digital Working Group Pushes for Expanded Ebook Access
It’s here. Long heralded, the e-revolution has finally arrived in the form of rapid adoption of e-reader devices. It seems safe to assume that by the end of 2012, public libraries may be directing as much as 20% of their collection budgets to digital content. By the end of three years, it may be closer … Continue reading Navigating the Ebook Revolution
Welcome to the world of constant change. Every week sees a new twist in the world of public libraries and ebooks, and if you are feeling bewildered, you’re not alone. What happened to the physical-book world that we knew so well? It’s still here, but in the last two years a newcomer has started to … Continue reading Warning: You Are About to Enter the Ebook Zone
Our mission with Outside/In has been to take useful ideas from the larger world of trends (outside) to see how they apply to libraries (in). In that vein, we’re bringing you a roundup from our spring Libraryland conference tour, during which we made several stops and met hundreds of amazing folks and organizations along the … Continue reading Spring Libraryland Tour
