LISNews: Librarian News

The NYTimes Asks What is a megabit worth? And what the heck is a megabit anyway? These questions are hard to avoid for consumers trying to make sense of the fast-growing menu of options for high-speed Internet access.In many cases, consumer advocates and industry analysts said, customers do not get the maximum promised speed, or anywhere near it, from their cable and digital subscriber line connections. Instead, the phrase "up to" refers to speeds attainable under ideal conditions, like when a D.S.L. user is near the phone company's central switching office.

Business Week Reports Amazon's CEO wants to run your business with the technology behind his Web site. But Wall street wants him to mind the store. Yes, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, the onetime Internet poster boy who quickly became a post-dot-com piñata, is back with yet another new idea.Bezos wants Amazon to run your business, at least the messy technical and logistical parts of it, using those same technologies and operations that power his $10 billion online store. In the process, Bezos aims to transform Amazon into a kind of 21st century digital utility.

Anonymous Patron writes "From The Republican in MA: A specialized company with an office and climate-controlled warehouse in this town's Three Rivers section, has long helped planners anticipate moving large library collections during construction projects.

But more recently, National Library Relocations has been responding to climates out of control in the form of destructive wet weather--north and south.

First it was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when a series of recommendations from other campuses landed the job of clearing out the water-damaged Alexander Library at Dillard University in New Orleans."

Anonymous Patron writes "Business First of Columbus: The Online Computer Library Center said it has published the first complete translation of the Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index into Vietnamese.

The system, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, is an organizational tool for library collections that provides sorting and browsing tools for easier access to resources, Dublin-based OCLC said. It is used in more than 135 countries."