April 2000

Future of Books

Ron Force writes:
The Washington Post has a very interesting Article entitled \”The Last Book: The Future of WordsThe future of reading, writing, storytelling, the words we use and the very way we think just might be a crotchety old guy named Harvey Ross, the inventor of the Bookbuilder, a machine that produces bound books on demand from electronic files. Imagine a PAPER copy of ANY book EVER written in your library!

Ron Force writes:
The Washington Post has a very interesting Article entitled \”The Last Book: The Future of WordsThe future of reading, writing, storytelling, the words we use and the very way we think just might be a crotchety old guy named Harvey Ross, the inventor of the Bookbuilder, a machine that produces bound books on demand from electronic files. Imagine a PAPER copy of ANY book EVER written in your library!
To anyone who reads, Ross\’s apparatus is remarkable not only because it promises to print, bind, trim and deliver just about any book you want from any era in any language in five minutes. More important, it is at ground zero of the most earth-shaking, tradition-breaking revolution in publishing in more than 500 years, a techtonic shift in the way books are made, bought, sold and ultimately, perhaps, rendered obsolete.


The BookBuilder is only one primitive example of the complete, complex and ever-changing digital make-over of the $24 billion idea-publishing industry. Slightly more advanced are electronic reading gizmos cobbled together by two companies, NuvoMedia\’s Rocket eBook and SoftBook. Several firms, including Microsoft (who else?), are developing software that will allow folks to read books on anything with a screen.


Random House, the largest trade publisher in America, is digitizing every one of its 20,000 titles. Other publishing giants such as Simon & Schuster and McGraw-Hill are not far behind.

April 25, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

People flock to libraries to check out e-books

The Chicago Sun Times has this article on the circulation of e-books in libraries.


Patrons who are checking out e-books from their local library are finding them easy to use, but not as easy to read from as traditional printed books. However, they are still flocking to their local library to use them.


\”At the Algonquin Area Public Library, which began offering the gadgets last summer, patrons typically wait several weeks to check out one of six e-books. The library is adding a seventh.\”

The Chicago Sun Times has this article on the circulation of e-books in libraries.


Patrons who are checking out e-books from their local library are finding them easy to use, but not as easy to read from as traditional printed books. However, they are still flocking to their local library to use them.


\”At the Algonquin Area Public Library, which began offering the gadgets last summer, patrons typically wait several weeks to check out one of six e-books. The library is adding a seventh.\”


\”Since the gadgets are pricey, libraries warn patrons they are on the hook if they break them, and most allow only adults to check them out. So far, people seem to be taking care of them, and librarians say the e-books are worth the investment.

\”There a lot of materials that are expensive,\” said Roberta Burk, a former Algonquin librarian who oversaw the e-book purchase there and is still a big fan of the devices. \”You don\’t want that to be your only criterion to judge if you are going to provide a service to people. You want people to have information, access and ideas regardless of their incomes.\”


\”Of course, no matter how high-tech the e-books get, it still won\’t quite be like reading the real thing.\”

\”There\’s an emotional connection in the way we grew up thinking about what books should be,\” said Burk, now at Northern Illinois University. \”That\’s missing.\”

April 25, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

AOL’s filters evil democrats and Nader

CNET has a
funny (In a sad way) Story on AOL\’s
\”youth filters\” that are filtering out sites like Ralph
Nader\’s Green Party or Ross Perot\’s Reform Party, and
The Democratic National Committee is blocked.

Sites promoting gun use are available, including
Colt, Browning and the National Rifle Association. But
prominent gun safety organizations are blocked,
including the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Safer
Guns Now and the Million Mom March.

CNET has a
funny (In a sad way) Story on AOL\’s
\”youth filters\” that are filtering out sites like Ralph
Nader\’s Green Party or Ross Perot\’s Reform Party, and
The Democratic National Committee is blocked.

Sites promoting gun use are available, including
Colt, Browning and the National Rifle Association. But
prominent gun safety organizations are blocked,
including the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Safer
Guns Now and the Million Mom March. \”It\’s not just indecency that AOL is trying to keep away
from children,\” says Susan Wishnetsky, a Chicago
librarian.

As a board member of a youth rights organization,
Wishnetsky feels the dominant Internet service provider
is \”eliminating the scope of experience kids have
access to.\”

AOL spokesman Rich D\’Amato said today that he was
\”unaware of any conservative bias\” in the youth filters
used by the service.

The software firm that produces the filtering rules is
The Learning Company, a unit of toymaker Mattel,
which the toymaker says it plans to sell off.

April 25, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Library waives fines on overdue books

This article appeared in the Montreal Gazette.



\”When it comes to excuses for not returning a library book on time, Vesna Dell\’Olio has heard them all.



The librarian has seen adults shuffle up to her counter with their heads down and their faces flushed, mumbling something about ex-husbands and ex-wives having made off with the book. Or people admitting that they didn\’t want to return their late books because they thought the fine would be too hefty.\”

This article appeared in the Montreal Gazette.



\”When it comes to excuses for not returning a library book on time, Vesna Dell\’Olio has heard them all.



The librarian has seen adults shuffle up to her counter with their heads down and their faces flushed, mumbling something about ex-husbands and ex-wives having made off with the book. Or people admitting that they didn\’t want to return their late books because they thought the fine would be too hefty.\”



Why don\’t people return the books?


\”Some people have their books squirreled away at home and after a certain length of time are too embarrassed to return them, she said.\”



They don\’t get handcuffed…


\”People can\’t be arrested for not returning their reading material, but they won\’t be able to borrow any more books until their late ones have been returned.\”

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Library to review books after porn ruling

The Union Tribune has a follow up Story on the Story from last week that a judge ruled 2 library books were pornography, not art.

\”\”It raises concerns, obviously,\” said Beverley Becker, associate director of the association\’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. \”Material shouldn\’t be found illegal because one person finds it offensive.\”

The Union Tribune has a follow up Story on the Story from last week that a judge ruled 2 library books were pornography, not art.

\”\”It raises concerns, obviously,\” said Beverley Becker, associate director of the association\’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. \”Material shouldn\’t be found illegal because one person finds it offensive.\”

In initial screenings, librarians who are considered experts in a wide range of fields decide what to add to the central library\’s 700,000-volume collection.


But in light of the judge\’s ruling, police investigators, the city attorney and library officials plan to work together to figure out what to do with the books, which remained on the library\’s shelves in the reference section of the second floor yesterday.


\”To the best of my recollection, we have never pulled any books as a result of complaints,\” said Helga S. Moore, deputy director of the central public library and an employee for more than 35 years.


The Office for Intellectual Freedom does not have any record of complaints against the authors and their books: \”States of Grace\” by Graham Ovenden and \”Twenty Five Years of an Artist\” by David Hamilton.

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Stupid Research Tricks

Another interesting site sent in by Bob Cox

A Page from Erica Olsen (The Librarian with the Cool T-Shirt).

A collection of short funny library stories

\”This happened about 10 years ago, in the last days of the card catalog. A student came to the reference desk, having been referred there by the security person near the front entrance. She said, \”The catalog said to see main entry for further information, so I went to the door but they couldn\’t help me.\” Keeping a straight face was very difficult.\”

Another interesting site sent in by Bob Cox

A Page from Erica Olsen (The Librarian with the Cool T-Shirt).

A collection of short funny library stories

\”This happened about 10 years ago, in the last days of the card catalog. A student came to the reference desk, having been referred there by the security person near the front entrance. She said, \”The catalog said to see main entry for further information, so I went to the door but they couldn\’t help me.\” Keeping a straight face was very difficult.\”From: Michael Connelly
Where: Beijing


When I flew into Burlington, Vermont too long ago for my summer internship interview, I found an open hotel and crashed, setting my alarm for the morning. I woke up, grabbed my stuff and tried to figure out where the newspaper office was. I got to the middle of town and there was the library.


I went in and the woman at the desk said \”May I help you?\” I said, \”Yes, I need three things. I need a place to change clothes. I need a place to stash my suitcase. And I need to learn all the basic stuff about Burlington and the surrounding county in two hours.\”


Boom, boom, boom. She took me in the back, showed me where to change, then took my bags and made them vanish, then plopped me down at a table with books, periodicals, maps and brochures and said, \”Go to it.\”

So you can see that no one has a higher opinion of librarians than I myself do. Great people. They know how to solve problems.

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Six library forum speakers seek ban

A Story from NC that has several people calling library materials \”pornographic\”

\”Six of eight speakers asked for some materials to be stored in areas off-limits to children, and for filters on computers to limit access to obscene information. The other two speakers asked the committee to look into extending children’s summer programs and to consider building a library somewhere on or near Murchison Road.\”\”“On Holy Thursday, let’s consider wisely what we are doing,” Barton said\”

A Story from NC that has several people calling library materials \”pornographic\”

\”Six of eight speakers asked for some materials to be stored in areas off-limits to children, and for filters on computers to limit access to obscene information. The other two speakers asked the committee to look into extending children’s summer programs and to consider building a library somewhere on or near Murchison Road.\”\”“On Holy Thursday, let’s consider wisely what we are doing,” Barton said\”Long, the administrator at First United Pentecostal Church, handed the committee a stack of papers. He said the 2,100 signatures were from people who want controls on what children can see at the library.

“I’m here to ask: When are the libraries going to come on board?” Long said.

Billy Strickland, a Republican candidate for the Board of Commissioners, told the committee it should place filters on computers in the library.

“When are we going to stop this?” Strickland said. “Are we going to have pedophiles in here, molesting our children?”

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Trying to fix the library? – hire a poet!

Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Fransisco Chronicle has this article about Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown\’s idea to hire Maya Angelou to become city librarian.


\”The library system in Oakland is in a state of semi-controlled chaos. One reason for that is that Jerry Brown has delayed appointing a new city librarian, the boss of said system. Indeed, libraries have seemed to rank just behind street shrubs among municipal priorities.\”


A well written \”librarian-friendly\” piece that adds to the debate as to who should be running libraries.

Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Fransisco Chronicle has this article about Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown\’s idea to hire Maya Angelou to become city librarian.


\”The library system in Oakland is in a state of semi-controlled chaos. One reason for that is that Jerry Brown has delayed appointing a new city librarian, the boss of said system. Indeed, libraries have seemed to rank just behind street shrubs among municipal priorities.\”


A well written \”librarian-friendly\” piece that adds to the debate as to who should be running libraries.

\”Many people seem not to understand that being a librarian is hard work. Remember the whole Reading Wizard flap? The premise of that was: Reading to kids is easy; anyone can do it. Have you ever tried to keep a bunch of 5-year-olds interested in a book you are reading to them? Here\’s the news: not easy.


The Internet has been a huge boon to librarians. They are becoming stars. There\’s a book called “Secrets of the Super Net Searchers\’\’ by Reva Basch. It\’s composed of interviews with really hotshot librarians. Librarians do not yet have groupies; rarely do they travel by limousine. Still: People are beginning to catch on.

Oakland deserves a professional librarian.\”


Here here!

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

SHelf Esteem

The
Washington Post Has a fanatasticArticle on the Library
of Congress. Everything you wanted to know, and more.

\” Another truth America\’s Founding Fathers
held to be self-evident was that ignorance is the enemy
of democracy. In December 1800, before our young
government had finished moving to its new capital at
Washington, the good ship American left London
bearing 740 books bound for what was to become our
national library.

The
Washington Post Has a fanatasticArticle on the Library
of Congress. Everything you wanted to know, and more.

\” Another truth America\’s Founding Fathers
held to be self-evident was that ignorance is the enemy
of democracy. In December 1800, before our young
government had finished moving to its new capital at
Washington, the good ship American left London
bearing 740 books bound for what was to become our
national library.
The problems and promise that face the Library of
Congress in the year 2000 are not unlike those of 1800,
just infinitely more complex: keeping its resources safe
and yet readily available; keeping track of what\’s where;
preserving and restoring fragile books, documents,
maps and other artifacts; serving the needs of
Congress and the other branches of government;
staying abreast of national and world art, the lively arts,
history, the sciences and medicine, literature,
government and scholarship; collecting the icons and
ephemera that will help future citizens understand the
attitudes and spirit of previous generations; and
anticipating developments in information technology.
The Library has been an international leader in
computerization and document digitalization–and has
paid some penalties for being out in front in adopting
recording and storage techniques and media that have
rapidly become outmoded. Trying to maintain morale
and efficiency among a staff of 4,194 that\’s perpetually
overworked and underpaid remains a management
nightmare, exacerbated by allegations of racial, sexual
and cultural discrimination–all evidenced by several
lawsuits and in-house studies. These themes
resonate throughout \”America\’s Library\” by James
Conaway, who was commissioned to write the
handsome coffee-table commemorative volume from
which this account is largely cribbed.

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

Promoting the Library by E-Mail Alert Service

Shar
on Giles writes:
My colleague Jon Crossno
and I have recently published an article on our Library\’s
email alert service (University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas.) It\’s a weekly service that
alerts our users to new Library resouces and
biomedical sites and news on the Web. It\’s not just a
rehash of our printed newsletter.
\”Promoting the Library by E-Mail Alert Service\” was
published in the April/May 2000 issue of MLS: Marketing
Library Services, pgs.4-6. It\’s also online at Infotoday.com

Shar
on Giles writes:
My colleague Jon Crossno
and I have recently published an article on our Library\’s
email alert service (University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas.) It\’s a weekly service that
alerts our users to new Library resouces and
biomedical sites and news on the Web. It\’s not just a
rehash of our printed newsletter.
\”Promoting the Library by E-Mail Alert Service\” was
published in the April/May 2000 issue of MLS: Marketing
Library Services, pgs.4-6. It\’s also online at Infotoday.com

When the library began increasing its electronic
collections in 1997,
our marketing team investigated ways to promote the
new products in a timely
and efficient manner. Our print newsletter, UT
Southwestern Information
Times, was functioning as a venue for publicizing
library products
and services, but because it was published bimonthly
and shared equally
by the library and three other campus departments, it
was not an efficient
forum for our late-breaking news. So we sought
additional methods to highlight
and promote library-specific information. One proposed
avenue was to develop
a periodic e-mail alert service, or an e-mail newsletter.

We thought e-mail was a potentially viable medium
for several reasons:

  • Ease of distribution
  • Relatively inexpensive cost
  • Extremely customizable format
  • Delivers relevant information directly to users
  • Superb vehicle for “just-in-time” marketing

An e-mail alert service also allows libraries to engage
their users’ attention
and counter the competition from the growing array of
information providers
on the Internet. It is an effective way to strengthen
“brand” loyalty and
to encourage user feedback.

 

April 24, 2000 by Uncategorized 0

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