John

OCLC Pulls a Qwikster with WorldCat Discovery

In 2015, OCLC announced that WorldCat Discovery Services would replace FirstSearch at the end of the calendar year. The Discovery interface, similar to Open WorldCat, features a revamped design, faceted results, and improved listings of related editions and formats. However, it lacks a few advanced search functions available via the FirstSearch version. In response to complaints about these missing options, the retirement date for FirstSearch was extended to 2016. This week it was announced that FirstSearch would continue into 2017, while work is done building a new platform to support full-featured searching. Since Worldcat Discovery will apparently also be enhanced with new capabilities, OCLC’s prolonged development cycle and plans to maintain two product lines seem confounding.

March 18, 2016 by John Uncategorized

Ten Stories That Shaped 2015

It’s that time of year again! Here’s our thirteenth annual rundown of notable library stories from the last twelve months.

10. Go Set a Watchman Raises Eyebrows

Strange circumstances surrounded Harper Lee’s first publication since To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960. Mixed reviews and strong sales followed.

9. Open Source Textbooks Gain Momentum

This year saw an increased push for more affordable course readings, as well as the growth of the Open Textbook Library.

8. Scandals from Coast to Coast

In June, the head of the Boston Public Library resigned over missing rare prints that were later found. In May, the New Orleans Public Library was investigated for diverting funds to the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. In January, an archivist at the University of Oregon was fired over an unlawful records release.

7. Yet Another Google Books Judgment

Although the case can still be appealed, a decade-old lawsuit against the Google Book project by the Authors Guild reached another milestone when the Court of Appeals ruled that the project did not violate copyright law.

6. Elsevier Journal Board Quits

Last month, the entire editorial board of a linguistics journal published by Elsevier resigned to form a new title. Contentions were over pricing, access, and control.

5. Vendor Merges Aplenty

There’s a dwindling number of publishers, aggregators, and service providers in the library business, thanks to several recent acquisitions and mergers.

4. RIP Another Metaphor

OCLC printed its last catalog card on October first.

3. 3D Printing Inches Towards Mainstream

3D printers in libraries continue to make headlines, and given the mature marketplace, if your library doesn’t yet offer this service, it is behind the times.

2. Billington Resigns

This year saw the end of Reagan-appointed James Billington’s tenure as the head of the Library of Congress. The retirement of the non-librarian who did not use e-mail brought many discussions about what is needed in his replacement at the nation’s library.

1. Je suis Charlie

Although not directly a library story, the murder of twelve people at the French magazine’s Paris office by Muslim terrorists had a measurable impact on our profession.

What was your favorite story of 2015?

Ten Stories That Shaped 2014

With 2015 around the corner, it’s time to look back at this year’s notable headlines.

10. Little Scofflaws

The Little Free Library movement ran afoul of local ordinances in several locations this year.

9. IKEA Catalogue

Amidst the hoopla over 3D printers, many of us got a chuckle out of this tongue-in-cheek parody.

8. The Bottom Line

If a library visit is as good as a pay raise, does that explain librarian salaries?

7. Prix Fixe

A payout structure was established this year for the long-standing case over Apple’s illegal price-fixing practices with e-book publishers.

6. Fuhgettaboutit

Google and other search engines started removing results to comply with a new European Union ruling over the "right to be forgotten."

5. Quote of the Year

Speaking about the publishing industry, Ursula Le Guin stated, "We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable-–but then, so did the divine right of kings."

4. Texas Textbooks

Controversy over the purported slant of social studies textbooks were again in the news this year.

3. Honorable Mention

The protests in Ferguson, Missouri were the backdrop for one positive story: the public library stayed open, and received much acclaim for doing so.

2. Open Access Baby Steps

As more authors and publishers embrace ways for their content to be freely available, questions remain about the best way to do so.

1. The Year of Discovery

"Discovery" has become a buzzword, but the way that libraries deal with new search systems is a pivotal issue.

What was your favorite library story of 2014?

December 15, 2014 by John EBooks Google Legal Issues Libraries Stories Of The Year

EBSCO to Share (Some) Metadata

After a long-standing feud over allowing their metadata to be accessed by subscribers via other discovery services, EBSCO has announced a metadata sharing policy wherein they “will be making available all metadata (and full text when contractually allowed)” . . . except for when they don’t want to: “The only EBSCO research databases that are not yet included in the above policy are those resources that are built upon and subscribed to primarily for their subject indexing.”

April 18, 2014 by John Uncategorized

Another Q&A App Launches. U Jelly?

Jelly is a new app that lets you share pictures of objects you cannot identify. People you know are then asked to identify the objects for you. Is this an inefficient, narcissism-enabling way of obtaining information, or yet another revolutionary killer app? At what point should your library get on board?

January 8, 2014 by John Libraries

Ten Stories That Shaped 2013

Once more we look back at the notable library happenings of the past year.

Memorable Stories

10. Timbuktu Library Rescue

In January, Islamic militants torched an archive that had contained many ancient manuscripts. Fortunately, prior to this, people had removed the materials from the city.

9. The Hudson Falls Free Library Reading Contest

Tabloids loved the story of a library director who tried to take the perennial winner of a children’s reading contest out of the running. Two librarians lost their jobs over the scandal.

8. Fairfax County Library’s Dumpster

Libraries discard and destroy titles from their collections all the time, but when it’s done sloppily and in plain sight, outrage ensues.

Hip Trends

7. MOOCs! Video Games! Makerspaces! 3D Printing!

Are these nifty new avenues to reach patrons, or a feature creep beyond a library’s mission?

6. Little Free ‘Libraries’

Although perhaps better named "community bookshelves," the growth of the Little Free Library movement continued this year. How many are in your neighborhood?

5. The New Librarian Stereotype

Commenting about the latest calendar models in the profession, a LISNews poster noted, "the bun wearing shushing librarian stereotype is long dead. Now the stereotype is hipster tattooed librarians."

Big Issues

4. Open Access versus Publisher Profits

In a case of "If you have haters then you must be doing something right" (similar to the harassment of Jeffrey Beall over his list of predatory publishers), Science published a flawed hit piece on Open Access journals.

3. Metadata Wants To Be Free

As more libraries move to web-scale discovery systems, the issue of interoperable metadata will become important. A vendor dispute highlights how libraries can be caught between competing economic interests.

2. Kindle MatchBook &c.

Amazon unveiled a new e-book pricing model this year. Other e-book headlines include the Apple price fixing lawsuit, and new subscription services launched by Scribd and Oyster.

1. Spying Scandals

If information is power, then privacy—a fundamental tenet of librarianship, according to many of us—is freedom. Several disturbing surveillance practices were revealed this year, making it important that librarians continue their efforts to safeguard people’s privacy.

What was your favorite library story this year?

December 13, 2013 by John EBooks Legal Issues Libraries Stories Of The Year

JSTOR Introduces Individual Subscriptions

JSTOR recently launched a direct subscription service called JPASS. Researchers wanting more content than their library provides can pay for access. Is this the future of aggregator publishing?

September 23, 2013 by John Libraries

History Group Slams Open Access

In a stunning demonstration of Poe’s law, the American Historical Association has released a policy statement favoring the restriction digital theses (“with access being provided only on that campus”) for fears that open access versions could be read. The basis for this argument is FUD about a tenure system that apparently cannot be changed. See Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle for more coverage.

July 24, 2013 by John Legal Issues Libraries

Mendeley and RefWorks Flow: The next, next generation of citation management software

A decade or so ago, ISI’s EndNote bought out most of the competition, practically obtaining a monopoly on the reference manager business. In the early Library 2.0 boom, web-based products like Zotero and CSA’s RefWorks became the norm. Thomson Reuters played catch up by introducing EndNote Web, and NoodleBib and other adware/freemium clones cropped up in what is now again a crowded marketplace.

Mendeley, recently purchased by Elsevier, has gained fame by offering social media integration and and sharing cababilities. It notably works on the old Questia model of selling itself directly to individual users, not institutions. ProQuest is also putting the finishing touches on RefWorks Flow, which features similar collaboration tools.

The way these newer products allow users to share articles with peers raises interesting questions about them potentially being used as a new “Napster for subscription journals,” especially since they are now both owned by major publishers. See my comment for some more philosophical questions….

July 15, 2013 by John Libraries Music

Listed Predatory Publishers Fight Back, with Criminal Impersonation

Earlier this month, a new version of Jeffrey Beall’s List of Predatory Publishers 2013 was posted at scholarlyoa.com. Since then, faked quotes have been posted to multiple blogs, claiming that Jeffrey Beall has been trying to extort money from publishers. This is an apparent smear campaign to discredit the efforts to name predatory publishers. The criteria for listing these publishers is also posted at scholarlyoa.com.

December 17, 2012 by John Publishing