A news and resources site for Library Professionals.
Archive for February 2010
Susan Hildreth, The City Librarian of The Seattle Public Library, and the Library Board are hosting an Open House series to find out from users what direction they want to see the Library take in the coming years. They will use this information along with future surveys, focus groups, and public forums to develop the strategic plan.
A great, forward-thinking library like The Seattle Public Library is successful because it listens to its users.
This past week, the judge in the Google Books Settlement heard more testimony for and against the deal according to The New York Times.
Among the supporters of the deal, which would allow Google to create an extensive digital library and bookstore, were the president of the National Federation of the Blind, the librarian of the University of Michigan and a lawyer for Sony Electronics, all of whom said that the agreement would make millions of hard-to-find books available to a vast audience.
Opponents — who cited various concerns relating to competition, privacy, abuse of the class-action process and the violation of copyright — included lawyers for rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, representatives of various authors and estates, literary agents and speakers representing Pennsylvania and Germany.
A judgment isn’t expected anytime soon.
Read the rest of the article from The New York Times website.
From Andy Boze, Web site Manager, ITAL, for the Editorial Board:
The December 2009 issue of /Information Technology and Libraries/ (ITAL), LITA’s peer-reviewed quarterly journal, is online and accessible to all LITA members. Issues older than six months are open to all.
ITAL’s main page is at <http://www.lita.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/ital/italinformation.cfm>.
ITALica, the weblog discussion area for ITAL, has been updated with information about the latest issue. ITALica features supplementary materials not included with the regular print and electronic versions of /Information Technology and Libraries/, such as “letters to the editor”, updates to articles, and other materials we can’t work into the journal. One of the most important features of ITALica is a forum for readers’ conversations with our authors, wherein authors host and monitor discussion for a period of time after publication of their articles, so that you then have a chance to interact with them.
ITALica offers you the opportunity to discuss with the following ITAL authors their papers in the latest issue:
“‘Discovery’ Focus as Impetus for Organizational Learning” / Jennifer L. Fabbi
“Information Discovery Insights Gained from MultiPAC, a Prototype Library Discovery System” / Alex A. Dolski
“Usability as a Method for Assessing Discovery” / Tom Ipri, Michael Yunkin, and Jeanne M. Brown
“UNLV Special Collections in the Twenty-First Century” / Thomas Sommer
“Smartphones: A Potential Discovery Tool” / Wendy Starkweather and Eva Stowers
“Building Pathfinders with Free Screen Capture Tools” / Patrick Griffis
“Enhancing OPAC Records for Discovery” / Patrick Griffis and Cyrus Ford
No membership is required to view or participate in ITALica. We hope to see you there!
Web4Lib is a library mailing list covering all topics of library web development. The website, a blog, contains pages on databases, ethics, hardware, Library 2.0/3.0, library software, library systems, and open source. Beginning this month is a summary of the best topics for the month:
This first edition of Best of Web4Lib covers the month of January 2010. This month includes questions about library job descriptions, thought-provoking discussions about library database marketing , library link placement, and the effectiveness of library jargon.
Go to the Web4Lib Electronic Discussion site.
Flavorwire compiled a list of the 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians. The list includes artists such as Green Day, Frank Zappa, and My Morning Jacket and includes links to listen to the songs from the article. Don’t forget to read the comments for even more suggestions.
Read the article 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians.
