Electric Librarian

In case anybody was wondering how to catalog a live animal

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:30:44 -0500

In case anybody was wondering how to catalog a live animal:

Cooper is a therapy dog available for check-out at the Harvard Library for 30 minutes intervals from 9-5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The discussion came up in my cataloging class as to how one would go about creating a record for him. The link above will take you to his OPAC record. I think my life has been completed.

Perfect.

"In truth, the problem is much larger than Terry Deary himself – the media has been getting libraries..."

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:42:36 -0500

“

In truth, the problem is much larger than Terry Deary himself – the media has been getting libraries wrong for a long time and it doesn’t look like the issue will resolve itself anytime soon. Instead of angrily blogging about it, however, as I’m wont to do, I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and try to offer positive solutions – or at least get a dialogue started regarding possible solutions. (Don’t worry, though: if others angrily blog about him, I will read the posts and shake my fist at the sky in solidarity.)

There are things we can do that don’t include angry letter writing, angry blogging, or Deary book bonfires. I’ve listed below five ways to support libraries RIGHT NOW. These are simple, very obvious (hey, sometimes we need reminding) tips that librarians talk about all the time, but they can have a big impact if they are done by enough people in enough communities.

”

- Rita Meade, Why We Shouldn’t Ignore Terry Deary: 5 Ways to Help Your Library Right Now (Go, @screwydecimal!)

Inside Higher Ed: Amherst Launches OA Academic Press

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:05:11 -0500

Inside Higher Ed: Amherst Launches OA Academic Press:

datamuse:

…and the impetus comes from within the library!

I like this a lot - libraries do need to take a stronger leadership role in creating solutions for the current state of scholarly publishing. Amherst’s librarian, Bryn Geffert, also wrote a great piece on the topic a while back (in the style of The Screwtape Letters) that I really enjoyed too. Both are well worth reading in full.

literatureismyutopia: Uncle Hugo’s / Uncle Edgar’s bookstores...

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:47:27 -0400

literatureismyutopia:

Uncle Hugo’s / Uncle Edgar’s bookstores in Minneapolis, MN by Zach K on Flickr.

My all-time favorite bookstore(s)!!

Librarians will fact-check Obama, Romney in final debate (Kansas City Star)

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:06:29 -0400

Librarians will fact-check Obama, Romney in final debate (Kansas City Star):

thelifeguardlibrarian:

This. is. THE THING.

Now WHY didn’t we do this sooner??

The HathiTrust Ruling

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:41:33 -0400

This past week a federal judge threw out the Authors Guild copyright infringement lawsuit against HathiTrust and the universities collaborating with it on Google’s book digitization project. Some links:

Judge Baer’s opinion and ruling
HathiTrust’s statement on the ruling
James Grimmelmann’s summary of the ruling

The Authors Guild had a weak case to begin with in the first place, so it probably would have been more of the surprise if Baer had given a ruling in their favor. One of the nice things to come out of this case is that, in addition to a nearly complete victory, librarians now have some more legal precedent for taking advantage of using digitized works and other electronic resources in an online learning environment. We should take this, along with recent rulings such as the Georgia State case, as a sign to act more confidently in our application of fair use.

thecommonlibrarian: I’m writing a Literature Review on the topic of the impact of electronic books...

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:29:15 -0400

thecommonlibrarian:

I’m writing a Literature Review on the topic of the impact of electronic books in public libraries. I’ve found some really good journal articles, but I’m worried I’m overlooking something seminal. Are any of you up on this topic? Is there a particular person you think I should check out?

I’m not sure about particular people or articles (or books?) - I bet there are some other folks here who would have a better idea, since I’ve mostly looked at ebooks from an academic library perspective. But the stuff with how DRM and ebook licensing have impacted library ownership, budget, and access control are all pretty big issues to keep in mind when doing the literature search on this topic. I’d be curious to hear about what you find!

"Nearly all the spokespeople and committee members I’ve seen in the press (the library trade press..."

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:21:00 -0400

“Nearly all the spokespeople and committee members I’ve seen in the press (the library trade press aside) about e-textbook pilot projects come from academic-affairs offices or campus IT, and that worries me.”

- Preventing the Second Big Deal | Peer to Peer Review

The same is true of the MOOC phenomenon. We need to get librarians in these conversations, and open access in these conversations, before it’s too late. - (arlpolicynotes)

Another reason why proactive engagement with faculty and administrators is really important. Librarians need to not just be part of the conversation, but be the one of the groups initiating the conversation in the first place.

This is probably easier said than done, but I wish there was a lot more talk in our profession about how we go about doing this rather than just saying that we should be doing this.

aroundherrk: txtr beagle | the world’s lightest, smallest and...

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:07:00 -0400

aroundherrk:

txtr beagle | the world’s lightest, smallest and cheapest eReader.

Wow, pretty colors! It runs on two AAA batteries, so you don’t have to mess with a charger cable. The technical specifications say it handles all media formats “supported by smartphone,” so that would include epub, mobi, and pdf.

How to build and organize a digital library?

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:26:00 -0400

How to build and organize a digital library?:

There is a lot of initial leg-work involved in building your own digital library, especially if your interested in actually scanning the text of your books (never mind the copyright issues you can run into if this a library you want to share). Though the DIY Book Scanner they mention looks pretty amazing - that’s something I hope I can take time to look at more closely later on.

I was interested in reading about the author’s exploration of cataloging tools. LibraryThing, which is the first tool the author, Rachel Coldicutt, mentions, is what I personally use for my collection of books and have used it to set up a catalog for another institution with an organizational account. The best part of LibraryThing, I believe, is that it’s very user-friendly and requires no software installation. However, it just a catalog of book records and not a fully digital library. For something a little more comprehensive, Coldicutt looks at Delicious Library, which catalogs other objects and media besides books. This is something I’ll have to take a close looks at in the future (it requires some downloading and doesn’t appear to be free), but for now I’ll stick with my LibraryThing.

Tumblrarian 101: Tumblr for Libraries and Librarians

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:28:23 -0400

Tumblrarian 101: Tumblr for Libraries and Librarians

Librarian Patience Has Run out on E-Book Lending Issues, Library Association Says

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:00:26 -0400

Librarian Patience Has Run out on E-Book Lending Issues, Library Association Says:

thelifeguardlibrarian:

Speaking at a private gathering of publishers organized by the Association of American Publishers, Sullivan was explaining why earlier this week the ALA sent a strongly worded open letter to publishers about the need to figure out way for publishers to sell libraries e-books for “equitable use at a reasonable price.”

…

“We recognize that e-books are a different character than books in print,” said Sullivan, clarifying the ALA’s position. “We want to ensure with e-books that there is equitable access and that access is at a reasonable price.”

But the most pointed questioning came from Wiley’s director of digital business development Peter Balis.

“When will the ALA start proposing to us some best practices on what models you think will work from your digital solutions working group? You put a lot on us and it’s created a lot of chaos and clearly it’s [e-book library lending] broken. We have twelve different models,” he said. “You have to come back to us with more than just ‘equitable access at a fair price.’”

As the question was being posed, many heads in the publisher-heavy audience were nodding in ascent.

Bob Wolven, associate university librarian at Columbia University and head of the ALA digital working group agreed that it was incumbent now upon librarians to think of models that can work for both publishers and librarians. Wolven also referred to a document issued to the public by the ALA in August but sent to six of the largest U.S. publishers months earlier reviewing the state of e-book library lending and proposing several new business models for publishers to consider.

The document, titled EBook Business Models for Public Libraries, includes a list of three essential characteristics that libraries will look for in plans to buy e-books from publishers — inclusion of all titles, enduring rights (the option to own the e-book) and integration of e-books into the existing library processes — but no concrete recommendations on models.

The business model suggestions have to “come from you and [have] to be a lot more specific than what I’ve heard here. I challenge you with that,” said Balis.

“That’s a good challenge,” said Wolvin.

Photo

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:28:13 -0400

danhickey: elibrarian: danhickey: Google is running an online...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:26:37 -0400

danhickey:

elibrarian:

danhickey:

Google is running an online course designed around becoming a power searcher. Has anyone signed up yet? I might give it a go, if I’m not too busy. I’m mostly interested in the project to scope out the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) learning format borrowed from Stanford and MIT. […]

I had a late start on this, but last week I had enough time to work my way through this tutorial. I was expecting this to mostly just be a bunch of Google-specific tips and tricks, but I was actually impressed with the depth the went into explaining important principles of developing and refining one’s search. They explain the basics of identifying and using search terms in a way that I think undergraduates would find very accessible.

For most librarians, the basic principles of good researching, this will feel very familiar. Since I’m a couple years removed from the reference class I took at library school, this was a nice refresher - and a nice perspective on doing effective research outside of any library context (which I think can sometimes bog librarians down). And there were still plenty of specific tools and tricks that the course covers, so I did get to learn some completely new things as well.

Fantastic! I was thinking of powering through this over Thanksgiving, and with your endorsement I think I’ll have to make it a priority. MOOCs have been getting tons of attention in higher education, so I think it’s only a matter of time before librarians begin thinking about library applications. As a business librarian, I think it would be amazing to design MOOCs around competitive intelligence, market research, &tc. Hire an instructional designer into the library for support, and you have an opportunity to push library instruction from a local to international scope. We have the expertise, so why not?

I would love to get another librarian’s perspective on this course. In my first post I failed to mention that I didn’t spend any time on the class forums (only had time to plow through it solo), so I was not able to observe how well this worked as a MOOC where participants have conversations about what they’re learning and what problems they’re running into when following the lessons or working on the exercises (which did have some flaws, I thought).

The forumla that Google chose for their course is pretty similar to what most academic libraries do in a typical library session: breifly explain the concept, have the student do hands-on practice, allow for discussion, then transition to the next concept. More or less. Besides a required 50-minute session for freshment, my university’s library also offers optional in-person classes on using Google for academic searching, which covers Scholar, Books, Patents, etc. But the challenge with something like that is trying teach a lot of info in a very short period of time and even just getting an interested audience to show up in the first place.

A class like Power Searching with Google seems to overcome both of those challenges - its online format is very accessible and participants can go at their own pace. I think this could be a great model for what libraries can do to make information literacy and research more accessible to their students while also making this kind of knowledge available to a much wider audience.

incidentalcomics: Ban This Book.

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:17:31 -0400

incidentalcomics:

Ban This Book.

poprzecinana: YES, I AM!

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:26:34 -0400

poprzecinana:

YES, I AM!

"The purpose of the copyright law is to advance learning by enabling the broad dissemination of..."

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:27:06 -0400

“The purpose of the copyright law is to advance learning by enabling the broad dissemination of knowledge, creative works, and information. Educators are stewards of that purpose for their educational or library community. This means not only that educators and librarians should care about copyright, they’re responsible for defending the educational mission that’s key to the purpose of the law. As professionals, educators and librarians must demonstrate their strong support of users’ rights to information. One way to do this—understand the exceptions allowed for educators and librarians—and exercise those options. Don’t break the law, but don’t spurn creativity and learning.”

- Carrie Russel, author of Complete Copyright for K–12 Librarians and Educators, a useful tool to help school librarians and teachers better understand copyright law. (via libraryadvocates)

A Practical Guide to the Georgia State eReserves Copyright Case for Librarians

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:59:00 -0400

A Practical Guide to the Georgia State eReserves Copyright Case for Librarians:

Super late in posting this, but still worth re-reading even if you’ve already seen it.

danhickey: Google is running an online course designed around...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:55:00 -0400

danhickey:

Google is running an online course designed around becoming a power searcher. Has anyone signed up yet? I might give it a go, if I’m not too busy. I’m mostly interested in the project to scope out the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) learning format borrowed from Stanford and MIT.

Becoming a Google power searcher is an idea that I broach frequently in my library instruction, especially with undergraduates. It resonates with them, because they feel comfortable using the search engine and like the idea of improving their skills. It’s also a jargon-free way to introduce more complex information literacy concepts. (A pill in the jam, if you will. Haha!)

Unless undergrads are already technologically literate, they’re often unfamiliar with basic strategies for searching Google. Most have heard of Scholar, but may not know about other specialized searches (Books, News, News Archive, Uncle Sam [r.i.p.]) or how to leverage advanced searches (site searches, &tc).

It will be interesting to see how deep this course goes, if it’s a success, and how much it overlaps with library concepts.

I had a late start on this, but last week I had enough time to work my way through this tutorial. I was expecting this to mostly just be a bunch of Google-specific tips and tricks, but I was actually impressed with the depth the went into explaining important principles of developing and refining one’s search. They explain the basics of identifying and using search terms in a way that I think undergraduates would find very accessible.

For most librarians, the basic principles of good researching - this will feel very familiar. Since I’m a couple years removed from the reference class I took at library school, this was a nice refresher - and a nice perspective on doing effective research outside of any library context (which I think can sometimes bog librarians down). And there were still plenty of specific tools and tricks that the course covers, so I did get to learn some completely new things as well.

"For print books, library prices are generally on par (and often slightly cheaper) than consumer..."

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:00:30 -0400

“For print books, library prices are generally on par (and often slightly cheaper) than consumer prices for the same book. The digital picture, however, is entirely different. Great swaths of the spreadsheet are missing, illustrating the effect that publisher boycotts are having on the ability of libraries to provide access to their patrons. And, in those cases where ebooks are available, the report shows usurious markups, up to six times the consumer price for the same title. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, for example, is available for $9.99 at Amazon, but libraries have to fork out $47.85. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is $12.99 at Amazon, but an amazing $81.00 from both 3M and Overdrive.”

- In case you were wondering why libraries aren’t as able as they want to be in providing our patrons with access to ebooks, check out the whole article.

from What’s A Library Dollar Worth? by Peter Brantley, Publisher’s Weekly

(via brkteenlib)

Yeah. Publishers are really holding libraries feet to the fire with e-books. It is the suck.

(I am so glad to be done with e-book support. I really shouldn’t bitch about working the non-fiction desk. There is a finite number problems one can experience there.)

This is some bullshit right here.

(via offthetable)

I’m presenting to our board tomorrow evening on this topic.

(via pandamans)

Explaining this mess to users is one of my least-favorite things to do.

(via punkassbookjockey)