Twenty years after the creation of Mosaic, the first popular graphical web browser for the World Wide Web, the involvement of digital technology in our lives has changed drastically. At Saturday morning’s all-conference program “All Things Digital,” sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), moderator Anthony Smith, a senior program officer at … Continue reading “All Things Digital” Kicks Off Day 3 at JCLC
The Mario-themed, cube-shaped lamp cha-chings when punched. “That light was awesome,” said a Texas participant in the online chat sidebar. A bike rider’s jacket features an embedded turn signal indicator on the back. At the ALA Virtual Conference, held July 18–19, attendees learned that these are just a couple of ideas hatched in makerspaces, and … Continue reading Virtual Conference Talks Trends, Ideas
It’s no surprise: As a profession, we are facing a rapidly developing issue of growing significance, and that is e-content. It comes down to this: Libraries often cannot offer the types and amounts of e-content our users want and need. A lot of material is simply unavailable for us to access and circulate in electronic … Continue reading Essential Bookmarks
It’s amazing how quickly things change in the world of technology. When I wrote a book in 2005, I printed out all my research sources so I could highlight and take notes on them. I kept track of things I found on the web using a social bookmarking tool that only helped me find the … Continue reading Tools for Optimal Flow
I wrote here a few months ago about reading—its power and ubiquity and transcendence of format: “The authors and publishers get it; the ways in which the stories are displayed come and go, and what matters are the story and the storytelling.” Events in the ensuing months—the Department of Justice settlement with publishers, which may … Continue reading Amped-Up Ebook Apps
How many books are on your “to read” list right now? 10? 20? More? The real truth about ebook purchasing—really about any content acquisition these days—is that we are so overwhelmed by choices that our to-be-experienced list is already quite overwhelmed. That doesn’t even take into account the revisiting of older content! So when publishers … Continue reading The Real Truth about Ebook Purchasing
Today, Simon and Schuster is trying to drum up a bit of social media attention for the release of the first Judy Blume ebook, her 1975 classic Forever. The tweets are rolling in at #JudyBlumeForever but many of them reveal a darker side of this ebook release. For example, this tweet from YA author Jenny … Continue reading #JudyBlumeForever . . . Unless You Are a Library
As a school librarian, I am currently being inundated by vendor emails from not only the upcoming ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, but also the near-concurrent ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference being held just down the coast in San Diego. This does, however, make for some interesting comparison points for marketing … Continue reading Does OverDrive Really Care About Libraries?
As digital content continues to grow in diversity and importance, libraries must make use of multiple strategies to support access for their users. ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group has been exploring issues of business models, advocacy, education, accessibility, privacy, and libraries as providers of content. But innovative approaches to making digital content available … Continue reading An Anaheim Evite to Explore Diverse Approaches to E-Content
This week, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center discovered that ebooks and print books are not that different unless you take an enhanced ebook designed for independent use and try to force it into a co-reading situation. Or at least that is what their report “Print Books vs. E-Books” (PDF format) says if you read beyond … Continue reading Obvious Ebook Research Is Obvious (and Oblivious)
“E-Content: The Digital Dialogue” is the title of a new American Libraries digital supplement in which authors explore an unprecedented and splintered landscape in which several major publishers refuse to sell ebooks to libraries; proprietary platforms fragment our cultural record; and reader privacy is endangered. Here’s a sampling of what’s included: “Publishers, distributors and libraries … Continue reading Exploring the Challenges to Equitable Access to Digital Content
As part of the work of ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group of ALA (which is tackling our many ebook-related issues), we are seeking some focused feedback before the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim next month. If you are experimenting with the creation, publication, and preservation of digital content, we need to hear … Continue reading Library as Publisher: Your Feedback Needed
