One of the key characteristics of digital content is that it is licensed under contract law as opposed to being purchased with first sale rights from copyright law. While being the cause of great pain for libraries and ebooks so far, this double-edged sword can swing the other way and cut through annoying license restrictions … Continue reading A Simple Digital License
Today’s hottest web and mobile technologies are offering libraries a new world of opportunities to engage patrons. Ultra-popular social media websites and apps combined with the availability of affordable cloud-based services and the evolution and adoption of mobile devices are enabling librarians to share and build communities, store and analyze large collections of data, create … Continue reading 10 Great Technology Initiatives for Your Library
The fully electronic collection is pretty far from being a reality at most libraries. Given the current limitations of ebooks and the large print collections that libraries continue to manage and grow, most libraries exist in a hybrid space where much is digital, but also, much is still in print. For patrons, this can be … Continue reading E-Discovery with QR Codes
Confusing as it may sound, this is what is playing out in the larger publishing world right now. Publishers are upset because Amazon is becoming a successful publisher. So Hachette, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster thought they would try becoming booksellers, like Amazon. Thus was born Bookish, a website where the three publishers are trying … Continue reading Piggyback Technology
Book publishing has the big six; console gaming has the big three. As the only major survivors from the more robust console ecosystem of the ’90s, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have dominated the console system market for over a decade with big name consoles and bigger game franchises. But that might be changing thanks to … Continue reading Ouya: A Game-Changing Game System
Kids gather to make Lego robots; teens create digital music, movies, and games with computers and mixers; and students engineer new projects while adults create prototypes for small business products with laser cutters and 3D printers. Many libraries across the US have developed makerspaces—places to create, build, and craft—and they are experiencing increased visits and … Continue reading Manufacturing Makerspaces
ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group (DCWG) was busy at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Between formal business meetings of the full DCWG and its individual subgroups, presentations to ALA Council and the ALA Executive Board, meetings about related initiatives, one-on-one discussions on the Exhibit Hall floor and with ALA members, and … Continue reading Seattle, Ebooks, and #ALAMW13: Cloudy with Drizzle, but Better Weather Ahead
“All of us are makers,” said Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE magazine, to a capacity Midwinter crowd at “The New Stacks: The Maker Movement Comes to Libraries” on Monday. “It’s in all of us. Librarians are makers of spaces, keepers of resources shared by many, makers of a culture of learning.” Along with Travis Good, … Continue reading Librarians Flock to Maker Monday
At a customer lunch on Saturday, electronic publisher ProQuest offered some insight into the wealth of primary source materials in the company’s digital History Vault resource. ProQuest Manager of Customer Service and Training Andrea Sevetson detailed several modules in the History Vault that can be used in women’s studies—some of it from not-so-obvious sources. Over … Continue reading Women through Time
A new report by the Pew Research Center indicates that free access to technology in public libraries is as important to Americans ages 16 and older as printed books and reference services. “Library Services in the Digital Age” (PDF file), released January 22 by the center’s Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that 80% … Continue reading Public Library Users Want Both Books and Technology
But Williams was holding history in her hands, thanks to an app developed by North Carolina State University Libraries in Raleigh. The Red, White, and Black app allowed Williams to tour campus with an eye on the history of African Americans at NCSU. Where she used to see just another building, she now sees the … Continue reading University’s App Provides Tour of Black History
Over the past few months, the ALA Executive Board has been involved in a range of discussions that reflect some of the more urgent issues facing libraries, and the Association’s strategic priorities. Because the Association, like libraries, must change and evolve to best serve our communities, a series of brainstorming meetings this fall asked both … Continue reading Reenvisioning ALA
