November 2005

Norwegian children’s books to cross Atlantic

Norwegian children’s literature celebrates its 200th anniversary this year. An exhibit opening at the Capital Children’s Museum (CCM) in Washington, D.C., will give children and adults a chance to walk through those eras and get to know the stories and characters created by authors and illustrators from this little northern country of 4.5 million people. News of Norway has more.

Ripley’s Bizarre Artifacts

Bearkat writes “”The keeper, as it were, of those storied treasures is Edward Meyer, a self-described library science dropout who as vice president of exhibits and archives is Ripley’s main shopper. Even his office is weird, with its own collection of oddities including a human scalp, a Mother Teresa figurine made out of chewing gum and a pair of Judy Garland’s ruby red “Wizard of Oz” slippers. He has acquired an estimated 95 percent of Ripley’s collection, and shares the same endless fascination with otherworldly items that made the well-traveled, real-life Ripley an entertainment baron to begin with.” Read the scoop from the Charleston Post Courier

Library of Congress plans world digital library

Reuters Is One Place reporting on The U.S. Library of Congress where they are kicking off a campaign on Tuesday to work with other nation’s libraries to build a World Digital Library, starting with a $3 million donation from Google Inc..

Librarian of Congress James Billington said he is looking to attract further private funding to develop bilingual projects, featuring millions of unique objects, with libraries in China, India, the Muslim world and other nations.

LOC Has more. In making the announcement, Billington emphasized the little-known fact that more than one-half of the book collections of the Library of Congress are in languages other than English. Like the materials in American Memory, those in the World Digital Library will either be in the public domain or made available with special permission.

Google’s Book Search: Best of Times, Worst of Times For Libraries

A Post by Mike Elgan: He says suddenly, the quality of the libraries has been combined with the speed and accuracy of Google searches to bring students the best of both worlds. And, of course, the other factor is the sheer number of works available, which has now increased by several orders of magnitude.

It’s also a great leveler. Students and researchers at Slime Rock College will have access to many of the same works as people at Harvard and Cambridge — as will non-students.

Indian Prez calls for digitisation of libraries

President A P J Abdul Kalam wants all libraries in schools, colleges and universities to be digitised within the next four years. the President said the digitisation of books has to be in regional languages. Knowledge has always been the prime mover for prosperity. It is important to take up the mission of integrating all forms of knowledge and culture into our digital library. In the venture, we should ensure availability of fibre optic cables, satellite communication and wireless infrastructure, especially in remote areas.

Writers turn to self-publishing

With consolidation in the publishing industry, major publishing houses have become tougher to crack and self-publishing has become an increasingly popular alternative. The Miami Herald Says Technology has fueled the trend toward self-publishing. Not only has the Internet made it easier to market and distribute books but digital technology has also made printing cheaper and given authors more flexibility in the number of copies they want.

And that’s encouraged a growing number of new authors to drop the idea of distributing manuscripts and take matters into their own hands.

Some Comments on “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transforme

An LISNEWS reader sent these comments on the book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

I have read through chapter 10 in the book. Battelle has definitely written a fascinating glimpse of Google and a few of its rivals. Some things that have stood out to me:

The majority of the quotes from Google executives come from Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt; there are hardly any from Larry Page. However, Page has a self-confessed reticent nature (p. 68) so that probably is enough explanation.

It is interesting to read about how hit levels in Google effect businesses, small ones in particular (Chapter 7: “The Search Economyâ€). It makes sense that there is such a strong correlation, but I had never quite realized the impact before reading the story of Neil Moncreif’s specialty shoe business.

The controversy of Google Print and publisher’s concerns is barely covered, but give the recent and evolving nature of the issue, that is probably understandable. Unless I missed it, there is also not a direct reference to librarians’ concerns over Google and Print.

I did find an interesting reference to libraries and privacy on page 193 and 194. Battelle mentions a book by sci-fi author Piers Anthony. The book is entitled Chthon and was originally published in 1967. The apparently undated future is a “dictatorial future†where all knowledge is stored on computers. The protagonist who is “tracking down a mysteryâ€, decides to do all of his research in libraries where he know that his trails won’t be found and that he won’t “alert the authoritiesâ€. Interesting twentieth century speculation of our present day online privacy concerns.

In Chapter 10: “Google Today: Google Tomorrowâ€, Battelle offers an interesting comparison of Google and Yahoo’s cultures and practices. How their intended end results are the same yet their approaches to those have been quite different. Yahoo has made no bones about equating search results with commerce and media delivery. At least in the past, Google’s Page and Brin have been reluctant to tie search and commerce so intimately. However, that has been changing over the last couple of years and is sure to continue to change. Battelle makes the point that Google is looking to be an all-purpose content delivery company.

An LISNEWS reader sent these comments on the book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

I have read through chapter 10 in the book. Battelle has definitely written a fascinating glimpse of Google and a few of its rivals. Some things that have stood out to me:

The majority of the quotes from Google executives come from Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt; there are hardly any from Larry Page. However, Page has a self-confessed reticent nature (p. 68) so that probably is enough explanation.

It is interesting to read about how hit levels in Google effect businesses, small ones in particular (Chapter 7: “The Search Economyâ€). It makes sense that there is such a strong correlation, but I had never quite realized the impact before reading the story of Neil Moncreif’s specialty shoe business.

The controversy of Google Print and publisher’s concerns is barely covered, but give the recent and evolving nature of the issue, that is probably understandable. Unless I missed it, there is also not a direct reference to librarians’ concerns over Google and Print.

I did find an interesting reference to libraries and privacy on page 193 and 194. Battelle mentions a book by sci-fi author Piers Anthony. The book is entitled Chthon and was originally published in 1967. The apparently undated future is a “dictatorial future†where all knowledge is stored on computers. The protagonist who is “tracking down a mysteryâ€, decides to do all of his research in libraries where he know that his trails won’t be found and that he won’t “alert the authoritiesâ€. Interesting twentieth century speculation of our present day online privacy concerns.

In Chapter 10: “Google Today: Google Tomorrowâ€, Battelle offers an interesting comparison of Google and Yahoo’s cultures and practices. How their intended end results are the same yet their approaches to those have been quite different. Yahoo has made no bones about equating search results with commerce and media delivery. At least in the past, Google’s Page and Brin have been reluctant to tie search and commerce so intimately. However, that has been changing over the last couple of years and is sure to continue to change. Battelle makes the point that Google is looking to be an all-purpose content delivery company.

Electronic paper ready to make its mark

The Australian IT Section Reports thin flexible displays known as electronic paper, or e-paper, are starting to come of age and appear in autotellers, kiosks and portable devices.

Research labs have touted their advances but there have been few mass market products to date.

Fujitsu recently showed off e-paper with vivid colour images that are unaffected when the screen is bent.

Its e-paper requires little power, making it suitable for displays such as advertisments.