Technology is eating the world. Like a hungry dragon seeking out new villages to pillage, the tech world continues to find new markets to disrupt. And, like some mythical beast of apocalyptic proportions, technology is just as unstoppable. Good? Evil? Technology is code and that is all that matters. Some use it for good, and … Continue reading A Passion for Coding
“Everyone’s an author, everyone wants you to buy their book, everyone wants you to put their book in your collection,” said moderator Melissa Rice, head of adult services at Frankfort (Ill.) Public Library District, at “The New Library Imprint: Libraries and Self-Publishing” program at ALA Annual Conference Saturday morning. With 391,000 self-published titles launched in 2012 … Continue reading Libraries as Publishers
3D printers may be the coolest new tech for libraries, but the complicated relationship between interactive content and libraries means that ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) need to set policy. In “3D Printers and Library Policies,” presented by United for Libraries on June 28, Barbara Jones, Corinne … Continue reading 3D Printing and Libraries
Librarians need to take sharp notice of the sudden and disruptive trebling of intellectual content: mainstream (which we’ve always focused on), small and independent publishing (which has ramped up its annual title count by four or five times over as many years), and self-published (now more new annual titles than the other two combined). Three … Continue reading Smashwords and OverDrive
“Our Maker Lab has already served more than 42,000 visitors in just 10 months, and this gift from the Motorola Mobility Foundation and our foundation will allow us to offer thousands more patrons hands-on experience with the latest in 3D software and advance manufacturing technology,” CPL Commissioner Brian Bannon said in an April press release. … Continue reading Long Live the Maker Lab
Have you watched American Libraries Live, our free, streaming library program? If you want to sample it, we have an excerpt in our June issue from our mobile technology in the library program. Hosted by Heather Moorefield-Lang, education and applied social sciences librarian for Virginia Tech, the expert panel included Bohyun Kim, digital access librarian … Continue reading Don’t Let It Stay in Vegas
Five years ago, I wrote about the value of screencasting software—software that films the action on your computer’s desktop—to create instructional videos on how to use the library and its resources (“Your Desktop: The Movie,” AL, Nov. 2009). Since then, librarians have created thousands of instructional videos on information literacy concepts, library resources, and services. Through … Continue reading More than Words
As part of its ongoing initiative to offer library patrons access to 21st-century technology, Chicago Public Library (CPL) has added programmable Finch Robots to its catalog. The library is partnering with Google to offer 500 of the robots, which can be picked up at the Harold Washington YOUmedia Center, two regional libraries (Sulzer and Woodson) … Continue reading Google Donates Robots to Chicago Public Library
Media is a complicated format for librarians: Issues involving fair use limitations and allowances, individual versus institutional rights, closed-circuit rights, public-performance rights, streaming rights, licensing details, and copyright and access questions are ever-present. Finding titles in a required format can also be problematic. The payoff comes in the many video resources available, both for free … Continue reading Media in the Classroom
Progress has been made in closing the digital divide between computer-based tools and infrastructure, but an equally debilitating digital divide in internet literacy affects the American public, according to “Responding to the Second Wave of the Digital Divide,” a briefing of local government, public-policy, and library experts held May 6 at the National Press Club … Continue reading Responding to the Second Wave of the Digital Divide
Kelechi Nwafor (above) and his mother Chioma Nwafor and Chloe Warwick (right, with her father Mark Warwick) get absorbed in two of Harford County (Md.) Public Library’s (HCPL) iPad minis at the recent launch of the library system’s Little Leapers 3.5 program. The $24,000 initiative—funded by the Morris A. Mechanic Foundation, the library foundation, and … Continue reading Little Leapers 3.5 Launches in Maryland
It seems unlikely that people will give up their reliance on general-purpose search engines or their practice of beginning a search using Google or one of its competitors. But people should be encouraged to use other research tools when needed, such as databases and more specialized search engines—otherwise known as the Invisible Web. What makes … Continue reading Going Beyond Google Again
