July 2009

An avid reader in south west Scotland is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th book from her local libraries.

Louise Brown, 91, from Stranraer, took her first book on loan from Castle Douglas library in 1946.

DENNIS THOMPSETT says…

So quit deluding yourself. If this column has discouraged you, good. Give up writing and get a life. Reconnect with your family and friends and make a real contribution to humanity. For those of you who have not been deterred, God help you, you’re a writer. And your life will be full of disappointment, humiliation frustration and depression.

Check by check, a veteran accountant detailed the bank accounts Tuesday that prosecutors hope will help them convict three people in Sacramento’s library kickback scandal.

Sixteen months after felony charges were filed against two former library officials and the wife of one of them, testimony began in Sacramento Superior Court aimed at bringing the case to trial.

In small libraries, there’s no reference librarian. All staff members answer the phone and respond to the questions, many simple requests such as directions, times of local activities, phone numbers, genealogical information.

Evadna Bartlett collected some of the others.

“Do you know the phone number for the post office? I don’t think it’s in the phone book.”

One of the most anticipated uses for Apple’s (AAPL) forthcoming tablet device is as an e-book reader: With a bright, color touchscreen, it could be an awesome device to read books and magazines on. (And a formidable rival for Amazon’s Kindle and other reader devices.)

So what is Apple talking about with the publishing industry?

Looks like urban libraries are getting a bum deal when it comes to applying for broadband stimulus grants. The American Library Association wants this fixed.

Microsoft and Yahoo have now officially announced the search deal that has been rumored for long and finally confirmed by us and other news outlets yesterday evening.

Official press release (emphasis from TechCrunch) apart from title and subtitles):

When I first conceived the idea for Hyperlinked History and the whole Faceless Historian thing, I wanted it to be an online television show. At the very least I wanted to make an online documentary series with video, music, and the whole bit. So I shot a couple of test things and edited them together. Then I deleted that crap because it was terrible.

A year later, I have skills and equipment I didn’t originally possess. So I’m excited to announce that Hyperlinked History will be moving into the realm of online video!

The opening of the show is available online as a sort of teaser/trailer and you’ll be able to keep up with the programme both here on LISNews and on the Hyperlinked History site. Episodes should start going online around the end of August, so stay tuned!

President Obama is said to have picked David S. Ferriero, now chief executive of the research libraries at The New York Public Library, to be the Archivist of the United States, a post that includes making sure that highly sensitive presidential papers and electronic records are saved and made available to the public. The selection, which had been rumored among historians, was reported earlier today by the National Coalition for History’s newsletter. A spokesman for The New York Public Library declined to comment.

Launched in March 2002, COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is an international initiative serving librarians, publishers and intermediaries by setting standards that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way. The first COUNTER Code of Practice, covering online journals and databases, was published in 2003. COUNTER.s coverage was extended further with the launch of the Code of Practice for online books and reference works in 2006. The body of COUNTER compliant usage statistics has steadily grown as more and more vendors have adopted the COUNTER Codes of Practice. This has contributed to the new discipline of usage bibliometrics and a great deal of work is underway to try to establish .value metrics. associated with usage, in which the COUNTER compliant statistics play an increasingly important role..