For those libraries looking to purchase e-books, you are not alone. According to the Library Journal 2011 survey of ebook penetration and use in libraries, 95% of academic, 82% of public, and 44% of school libraries are already offering ebooks, and many more are considering it. For anyone contemplating purchasing ebooks, asking why is the … Continue reading A Guide to Ebook Purchasing
A lot of library and ebook pundits (all five of us?) have been talking about it, but Amazon finally launched its Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. Well, really it’s more of the “Amazon Prime members ($79/year) who have an actual physical Kindle device and not just the iPhone app library,” which was what made this such … Continue reading Amazon’s Library Model: Can we learn from it?
I found a couple of fun e-content tidbits on the exhibit hall floor of the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) 15th National Conference last week in Minneapolis. First up is ThingLink, a site that provides image enhancements through tag links. Think old-school image maps, but taken to an entirely new level. ThingLink tags can … Continue reading From the Floor: AASL 15th National Conference
Ideas about information literacy have always adapted to changes in the information environment. The birth of the web made it necessary for librarians to shift more towards teaching search strategies and evaluation of sources. The tool-focused “bibliographic instruction” approach was later replaced by the skill-focused “information literacy” approach. Now, with the growth of Web 2.0 … Continue reading Information Literacy 2.0
The trouble with agreeing to blog this conference is that the days are so chock full of great sessions and good friends that I can’t sit still to write— or maybe I’m just suffering from sensory overload and unable to slow down on my own! Cheryl Steele and Ty Burns did a fabulous job planning … Continue reading AASL – Streaming and Teaming for Strong School Libraries
Minneapolis, the location of the 15th National Conference of ALA’s American Association for School Librarians, is gorgeous and friendly—and the cool temperatures are certainly welcome after my endless Texas summer! I arrived Tuesday evening, and found a group of AASL leaders including Susan Ballard and Debbie Abilock in the hotel restaurant. Two hours later, we … Continue reading AASL Day One: E-ink and Collection Development
Working in the K–12 library world, one of my concerns with the plethora of e-content options available today is the risk of platform fatigue. With each publisher and distributor offering a distinct site design (sometimes quite a few different site designs!) with different search interfaces, navigation buttons, and content interactions, I worry that students will … Continue reading I want it all, but learn that I can’t have it all
The library world was thrilled at the September 21 announcement that library vendor OverDrive had enabled its library customers to loan the ebooks they’d licensed from OverDrive to patrons with Kindle e-readers—provided that the ebooks were in Kindle-maker Amazon’s sales inventory. Since then, examination of the fine print between OverDrive and Amazon has caused ethical … Continue reading Librarians Weigh Kindle Ebook Lending against Reader Privacy
I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed … Continue reading Open Source, Open Mind
Over the past decade, a large number of academic libraries have created online learning objects for their patrons. Whether it was a basic guide on doing research or a suite of tutorials for every database and topic, there has been growing recognition that learning objects are an important way to instruct patrons at their point … Continue reading Tutorials That Matter
At the invitation of the vendors, I spent a chunk of time Monday at three booths in the exhibit hall in New Orleans during ALA to hear the lowdown on the new Springer Reference Database, Centurion Technologies’ Energy Saver, and Ship Index, the brainchild of Mike and Peter McCracken. Every night libraries around the country … Continue reading Exhibit Hall News: Springer “Pedia,” Centurion Rebates, Ship Index
A report by the Presidential Task Force for Improving the Effectiveness of ALA’s Council (Council Document #45), chaired by past ALA president Jim Retting, was the hot topic on the agenda of the third session of the Association’s governing Council in New Orleans. Three of the many suggestions required and received formal action. Others, except … Continue reading Council III: Effectiveness Task Force Recommendations Dominate Session
