Technology

Smartphones Have Bridged The Digital Divide

Blake — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:39:24 +0000

Good News Everyone... The Digital Divide has now been bridged by smartphones - the most advanced personal computing devices ever. While personal computers were disproportionally used by the rich, the white and the male, smartphones are more likely to be used by Blacks and Hispanics than Whites, and by girls as equally as boys.

Gadgets you can borrow at the library

Bibliofuture — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:13:37 +0000

Gadgets you can borrow at the Stanford Law Library. Interesting collection of items. Five Fuji bicycles are on the list.

What gadgets does your library lend? Successes? Problems?

Google's Schmidt, Cohen Describe a 'New Digital Age'

Bibliofuture — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:02:56 +0000

Schmidt and Cohen authored a book - The New Digital Age

Next-Generation Search: Software Bots Will Anticipate Your Needs

Blake — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:27:01 +0000

Now things have changed. First, and most obviously, mobile devices are everywhere. Second, there are now legions of interesting Web services to automate. The final ingredient is the most important: With the rise of Big Data, there is now enough information available for a software agent to actually use to perform anticipatory actions. In that context, the challenges of applying software agents and artificial intelligence to business solutions is nothing compared to the potential payoff to users.
The combination of automated agents, contextual search and a sea of data from our devices, services and the Internet of Things, search is poised to become vastly more useful and efficient than it already is. The pieces are getting there with agents like Siri and contextual search like Google Now. If it all works as promised, information we need will be delivered to us just when we need it, without our having to invest time and effort looking for it."

Reading a Bedtime Story Together from Afar

Bibliofuture — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:40:32 +0000

Kindoma Storytime combines e-books with video sharing features. So now you can share a bedtime story with your child or grandchild from anywhere, if you both have iPads, good Wi-Fi, and have downloaded the free app from iTunes.

Originally a research initiative at Nokia, the project has been spun off as an independent company with the project leader, Tico Ballagas. According to Mr. Ballagas, the iPad was not around when the project was conceived, but has become the ideal device for delivering synchronous storytimes.

Full article

A quick look at the National Digital Library Endowment Plan from LibraryCity.org

Blake — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:34:07 +0000

Note: For more details, see a longer FAQ at http://librarycity.org/?p=6933. David Rothman's email is davidrothman@librarycity.org.

Q. Why a national digital library endowment?

A. U.S. public libraries now spend roughly $1.3 billion a year on books and other content in all formats, around 12 percent of operating expenditures. The figure in the 2010 fiscal year was $1.42 per capita in Mississippi and nationally just $4.22. As reported by the Economist, library sales are approximately 5 percent of those of U.S. book publishers (no wonder the ALA can get only so far in talks with the big publishing conglomerates).

Q. Why should the endowment focus on e-books and other digital content?

A. Costs and greater ease of sharing resources at a national level--while still compensating publishers fairly. Not to mention other possibilities such as reliable interbook links and extensive annotations. Librarians should curate annotations and other user content. The Amazon buyout of Goodreads is an example of the perils of libraries NOT updating their mission.

E-books can efficiently help libraries honor S. R. Ranganathan’s classic Five Laws of Library Science--such as “Books are for use” and “Every reader his book” (or her book). Even academic libraries at well-off universities have limited resources. As for the typical U.S. public library branch, it carries just 4,350 books, a fraction of Amazon's more than 1.7 million, according to the Economist.

The endowment would at least indirectly free up a bit more money for possible spending on paper books at the local level while still responding to readers’ burgeoning interest in e-books.

Q. How would the plan work?

A. The new endowment could be either a nonprofit or government agency (I favor the latter). The endowment could focus on raising the money, while the existing Institute of Museum and Library Services dealt with challenges of distributing it amid institutional rivalries. Better to separate the raising of the money from the spending. Don’t let the wealthy micromanage the library world, even though librarians certainly should listen to good ideas from anyone, whether Bill Gates or a book-loving janitor.

As donors, the endowment would focus on the super rich, a good way to reduce the overlap with typical local efforts. People like Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison could win formal and well-publicized recognition from Congress and the White House for being modern Carnegies in spirit. Gates has been a godsend in certain ways to the library world, but currently isn't financing zillions of e-books for public libraries even though he could afford it.

Here’s a chance to spotlight Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth and appeal to the signers of the Gates-and-Buffett-promoted Giving Pledge, who have agreed to donate at least half of their wealth to philanthropy during or after their lifetimes.

Q. What if the rich won’t give to the endowment?

A. A small endowment is better than none, and besides, if the endowment failed, this would reinforce the argument for more tax money for libraries.

Q. Is this a total solution to libraries’ funding challenges?

A. Absolutely not. Tax money still welcome. The LibraryCity plan also calls for other revenue streams, such as a low-cost, high-volume subscription service that people could join through tax-form checkoffs (with breaks for low-income people).

Q. Would the publishers participate?

A. Large publishers might be holdouts at first, but many small ones would leap at the chance to participate in the subscription service and grow with libraries' help. The big boys would probably come aboard in time.

As pros at this, librarians could maintain quality control and highlight the better titles from publishers of all sizes. Local and state librarians could link directly to national content (their autonomy is essential, and nothing here would prevent local libraries from buying their own titles).

Nonsubscribers could still have access to everything. They would simply have to wait longer for some of the more popular items from two separate but very tightly intertwined national digital library systems, one public, one academic.

Q, Why two national digital library systems financed by the endowment?

A. As I’ve written at LibraryJournal.com, the needs of typical patrons of public and academic libraries are rather different. Academics as a rule don't care as much about library-related digital divide issues for the masses, which the public system would help address.

Q. What’s LibraryCity?

A. A public interest site. An ex-poverty beat reporter and creator of the TeleRead e-book site, I cofounded LibraryCity with Tom Peters, now dean of library services at Missouri State University, at his suggestion.

Q. Where can I find the original proposal?

A. http://librarycity.org/?p=6800. A related item on the Atlantic's site is at http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/infrastructure-watch-buffett-as-the-next....

Q. How can I help?

A. Librarians could refine the plan with a community FAQ. Meanwhile letters to Congress members would help---encourage them to contact IMLS and the White House, and document the need with local specifics. CC davidrothman@librarycity.org.

For Libraries, MOOCs Bring Uncertainty and Opportunity

Blake — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:11:50 +0000

Lynne O’Brien, director of academic technology and instructional services at Duke University, said the “rapid uptake” of MOOCs had taken many people by surprise. As she put it, “These courses don’t seem to fit anything of the model that we have for how to do online education well.” She’s been hearing from instructors that “the process of preparing courses for this environment made them rethink” how they teach their on-campus courses. “Faculty have said it’s a huge amount of work but that it’s also a wonderful opportunity,” she said.

Massive Fiber-Optic Installation Lights Up Library Queries

Bearkat — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:22:02 +0000

Getting a glimpse into the curious minds of others has never been so beautiful – or so bright.

Designers Brian W. Brush and Yong Ju Lee of E/B Office New York created an extensive fiber-optic installation for the Teton County Library grand opening in Wyoming that visualizes library searches in flashes of colored light. Dubbed Filament Mind, the installation, which opened at the end of January, uses over five miles of fiber-optic cables and 44 LED illuminators to collect, categorize, and render searches from libraries all across the state of Wyoming into glowing bursts of color.

See and read more from Wired.

From Wikipedia to our libraries

Blake — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:10:18 +0000

"Looked at the right way, Wikipedia can be a big help in making online readers aware of their library’s offerings. One of the things we spend a lot of time on in libraries is organizing information into distinct, conceptual categories. That’s what Wikipedia does too: so far, their English edition has over 4 million concepts identified, described, and often populated with reference links. And Wikipedia has encouraged people to add links to relevant digital library collections on various topics, through programs like Wikipedia Loves Libraries and Wikipedian in Residence programs. But while these programs help bring some library resources online, and direct people to those selected resources, there’s still a lot of other relevant library material that users can’t get to via Wikipedia, but can via the libraries that are near them."

Librarian Of Congress Shoots Back At White House Over Phone Unlocking: We're Just Doing Our Job

Blake — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:45:37 +0000

Following the White House officially coming out and saying that mobile phone unlocking should be legal, the Librarian of Congress has issued what feels like a passive aggressive response, basically saying that their job is not to consider the public policy, but just to follow the specific rules under the DMCA.

How to Delete Accounts from Any Website

Blake — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:43:26 +0000

Deleting accounts you've created on Facebook, MySpace, AOL, and elsewhere on the Web isn't always easy. Here are the details on leaving 23 services behind.

What was the first novel ever written on a word processor?

Blake — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:37:21 +0000

Would best-selling novelist Len Deighton care to take a walk? It was 1968, and the IBM technician who serviced Deighton’s typewriters had just heard from Deighton’s personal assistant, Ms. Ellenor Handley, that she had been retyping chapter drafts for his book in progress dozens of times over. IBM had a machine that could help, the technician mentioned. They were being used in the new ultramodern Shell Centre on the south bank of the Thames, not far from his Merrick Square home.

The Trouble With Finding Books Online - And A Few Solutions

Blake — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:49:48 +0000

“With the glut of self-published books on the market, the biggest obstacle for authors is discoverability – to rise above the noise and clutter and distinguish one’s work. A Rotten Tomatoes sort of rating system seems inevitable.

What the Library of Congress Plans to Do With All Your Tweets

Blake — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:13:11 +0000

While you can’t yet make a trip to Washington D.C. and have casual perusal of all the world’s tweets, the technology to do exactly that is readily available—for a cost. Gnip, the organization feeding the tweets to the Library, is a social media data company that has exclusive access to the Twitter “firehose,” the never-ending, comprehensive stream of all of our tweets. Companies such as IBM pay for Gnip’s services, which also include access to posts from other social networks like Facebook and Tumblr. The company also works with academics and public policy experts, the type of people likely to make use of a free, government-sponsored Twitter archive when it comes to fruition.

In India, phone-based information service targets rural consumers

Blake — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:02:17 +0000

Rural Indian consumers need only dial 58080 from their mobile phone to be connected with Apna Chaupal. From there they can browse various subscription packs focusing on categories including agriculture, health, education, employment, entertainment and religion. The service is available in all local languages, with highlights including Mandi crop rates, love advice, astrology, English lessons, visa information, music and more. Subscription pricing begins at INR 10 for 10 days. It is also possible to request expert advice for solutions to specific problems.