While other libraries are shipping library materials to patrons, similar to the NetFlix business model, the Hayward Public Library in Ohio is going a different route: pay a $2.99 monthly fee to check out 3 items at one time, and never worry about overdue fines.

The idea is intriguing, and I suppose it would appeal to those who have perpetual overdue fines (or perhaps a huge amount of fines). However, for the majority of library users who return materials on time, this would not be cost effective. Why pay $2.99 a month ($35.88 dollars per year) when you don’t have to pay anything at all if you return things on time?

At my public library, which charges $1.00 per video and a hefty charge for overdue items, this would sound appealing (especially if the $1.00 movie fee were removed!). It would be a known amount instead of an unknown amount that is suddenly sprung on you.

According to Mercurynew.com, the library director said,

“if only 2 percent of library users opt into the program, it will more than match $94,000 the library took in from late fees last year. And the other 98 percent of users who don’t opt to go fines-free will still be putting in money the old-fashioned way”

It is an interesting concept which has the support of the local city council to begin the program before Christmas. I am curious how it will turn out, but doubt that they will have 2% of user involvement initially, but I may be wrong as the call of overdue fines becomes louder.

View original source.

I had to post this…

The Librarian movie poster.

The Librarian series, which stars Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen in an Indiana Jones knockoff, will produce a fourth movie that will likely be released in 2010. The previous movies include “Quest for the Spear” (2004), “Return to King Solomon’s Mine” (2006), and “Curse of the Judas Chalice” (2008).

Librarians, archivist, library staffers… Lets just say anyone who enjoyed the first three movies will look forward to the next release. I will!

Yes, you’ve read the title of this post correctly.  An engineer at UCLA has created a cheap way ($10 of off-the shelf hardware) to turn ordinary cellphones into microscopes by using the camera function of cellphones and laptops.  While this technology won’t replace high tech microscopes, it will benefit those who collect samples away from laboratories. When I read this article, I had to post it!

Read the original NY Times article.

For practically the beginning, Google has collected information about individuals to analyze, store, and occasionally provide to third party vendors. Although asked countless time from various people and organization about what kind of data Google collects about individuals, the corporation has kept tight-lipped.  Or it has until yesterday at Spain.

Google’s unveiled a new product called Google Dashboard yesterday (Thursday) in Spain.  Supposedly, it will give users “more transparency and control.”

I haven’t had the time to explore Google Dashboard yet, so I’ll post more when I do. Until then, I just took a screen shot to show what info is being disclosed about individuals.  It is clear that not everything is disclosed through this new service, although it appears that Dashboard will continue to evolve and incorporate more Google services/products in time.

Visit Google Dashboard: https://www.google.com/dashboard/

Read original NY Times article

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/google-offers-users-a-peek-at-stored-data/

For those who seek to explore Google Wave, check out this guide:

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a comprehensive user manual by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

http://completewaveguide.com/guide/The_Complete_Guide_to_Google_Wave

 

Chapter 1	Meet Google Wave
	Find out what Google Wave is and what problems it solves.
Chapter 2	Get Started with Wave
	Set up your Wave account and create your first wave.
Chapter 3	Manage Your Wave Contacts
	Find and add people and groups to collaborate with in Wave.
Chapter 4	Find and Organize Waves
	Tag, file, search, and filter waves.
Chapter 5	Dive Deeper into Wave
	Add rich content to your waves like maps and photo slide shows.
Chapter 6	Master Wave’s Interface
	Navigate Wave from the keyboard and customize your Wave interface.
Chapter 7	Wave Gadgets
	Add interactive content to your waves with gadgets.
Chapter 8	Wave Bots
	Automatically update the contents of your waves with bots.
Appendix A	What Wave Can’t Do
	It’s not just you. See what’s NOT working in the current version of Wave, and what features the Wave team has promised are Appendix B Contribute to The Complete Guide to Google Wave In the spirit of Google Wave, this guide is a collaborative effort. We need you (yes, you) to help revise and expand this guide as Wave evolves. If you just can’t get enough of Wave, see also our growing compilation of Wave-related links and video clips from across the web.

Here is some interesting news on the international level.  According to ReadWriteWeb.com, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has drafted regulations largely in secret on Internet hosting;  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would be required to regulate the content of the web sites to which they provide service.

This push by several international governments (and major corporations) has been kept low, so there has been little press or coverage on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In a brief search within major U.S. and world publications (non-English & English speaking publications, web publications, news press, T.V. and radio broadcast transcripts, legal news and blogs), I found just over 400 “publications” that mention the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).  Below is a definition of ACTA international trade agreement.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is claimed by its proponents to be in response “to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works.”^[1] The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods, as well as “internet distribution and information technology”.^[2]

… ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis^[1] and would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.^[4][12] Citing a fact sheet published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the USTR’s 2008 Special 301 report the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) states that the goal of ACTA is to create a new standard of intellectual property enforcement beyond the existing standards in the TRIPs Agreement and to increase international cooperation, including the sharing of information between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.^[2]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

What this means is that there could quite possibly be a new global entity that monitors and decides what you can and can’t post on your professionally hosted web site (primarily those who do not host your own server in your house).  If you post any content that is under copyright or the intellectual content belongs to someone else, say Disney for example, and you post it publicly without their permission, your internet service provider would be legally obligated to remove the content that is under question of copyright violation without proof of the violation. There also appears to be a section completely on prohibiting Digital Rights Management workarounds.

This really has huge implications for any internet user (those trying to access digital information), and for anyone who post content online to make it publicly viewable.  It also tosses what we now use as copyright law out the window!  Potentially, this could be very beneficial for the entertainment industry who is suffering from pirated music and movies, the business industry for those companies who have been suffering from cheap knock-offs, and the information industry those who want to post information that might not be legally theirs to post.

Coming from a librarian’s perspective, this is also very scary on many levels because it touches on privacy (who posts what), freedom of speech (what one can or can not say), consumerism (establishing internationally sanctioned monopolies that essentially go outside of U.S. laws), who policies the activities of individuals or corporations, who controls the consequences, and so on.

There have been many issues dealing with copyright laws, and these laws are far from perfect.  However, the warning flags start going up when issues are being discussed behind closed doors.

For more information, see:

• White House shares the ACTA Internet text with 42 Washington insiders, under non disclosure agreements
  http://keionline.org/node/660

• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

• U.S./International Copyright Treaty Leaked, Trouble Ahead for ISPs & Users
  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/copyright_treaty_leaked_trouble_for_isps_and_in.php

Starting in 2010, URLs will being to include non-Latin text. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) voted last week for these changes, and representatives of this organization stated that this is a major milestone since the organizations inception in 1989.

For as long as the Internet has existed, it has used Latin characteristics. So what should we expect to see in the near future? URLs will begins to incorporate characters from the Russian, Chinese, Arabic alphabet.

It will make evaluating sources more challenging for those who do not use the alphabets. However, it will be likely that existing web sites will keep their current URL address(es) and incorporate newer “alternative” URLs that compliment and direct global traffic to existing or parallel sites.

Sampling music through Google and Facebook

Here is an unofficial announcement by the NY Times that both Google and Facebook plan to offer music samples through streaming music sites, like Lala, Imeem, and iLike. This move is a no-brainer decision on Google and Facebook’s part. This relationship is a win-win for all parties involved as long as Google and Facebook don’t “improve” the product and come up with their own streaming music services (this is less likely, but still very possible).

Facebook and Google Expected to Offer Music
By BRAD STONE
Published: October 21, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — Music fans are about to get two new ways to find and sample songs on the Web, as Google and Facebook introduce new features on their services.

Google, the search giant, plans to announce a music initiative at an event it will hold at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood next Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the details, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the service before it was announced.

The service will give users a more efficient way to find, learn about and sample music after they search for information about bands, albums or songs, said a person who has seen an early demonstration…

Through relationships with streaming music sites, like Lala, Imeem and the MySpace division iLike, users wanting to sample a song will be presented with a pop-up box from one of the music partners that will play at least a 30-second sample, and in some cases, the whole song.

Read more from the NY Times…

One of the big issues for libraries in the future will be the adoption of e-books. There has been a subtle cultural shift in reading habits among our society; people are reading more through electronic access. This is not to say that individuals are reading less from printed materials. However, what I am saying is that people seem to be reading digital materials in addition to reading what they normally read in print. This is from my personal observations of people’s reading habits instead of anecdotal evidence.

I believe part of this shift is due to the increased use of mobile devices, but also to how new generations of readers are exposed to digital documents while they are growing up. As younger patrons grow up with these technologies readily available to them, the acceptance and expectation of these technologies develops into a social norm; if one grows up reading online, chances are good that you’ll continue to read online when older.

Wouldn’t this be a benefit for publishers if readers consume more information? One would think, but there are concerns from publishers that libraries won’t buy as many printed books and vie for the digital copy instead. Publishers say that ebooks do not take up shelf space,and they don’t have to worry about the physical wear and tear of an item. They do not necessarily have a faster turn around from customer to customer since most vendors have set amount of limited simultaneous access per book (e.g. one person at a time), and currently no way to “return” books early for other patrons to use (the loan expires after a set amount of time).

The later is one of my pet peeves–why have artificial access limits? This is just a mechanism for libraries to order more “digital copies” of a book (more money in the pocket of the vendor). Vendors, take note! You’ll have a lot more value to your product if these kinds of restrictions are removed, especially if you’re one of the few vendors who offer unlimited access to materials.

So why is there concern over people reading materials in digital format in addition to or perhaps instead of the print equivalent? Here is another important question to ask. Are the digital consumers the same group of people that are switching to print to electronic format, or are they an entirely different demographic unit (e.g. new library patrons that would not normally set foot in a library building)?

Libraries will continue to collect information whether in print or electronic format, but the real concern is for the publishing industry’s sheer existence should authors begin to publish materials on their own instead of going through the traditional routes. With the birth of the Internet, there has been a move to take the middle man (publishers) out of the equation, and to sell books and information directly to individuals.

Will publishers become an endangered entity?

Google offers an inexpensive way to spread the word of your product or business through its Google AdWords service. I personally have never used this service by Google, but I ran across an article that provided tips for small businesses to help get the most bang for your advertising buck.

Here are the basics: Google AdWords [http://adwords.google.com] are keyword-driven ads that show up along the right-hand side of a Google search page under the rubric “sponsored links.” People who search for terms related to those you select — say, “widgets for sale” — will see your ad alongside the results of their search. How high up your ad appears on the list of sponsored links will depend on how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign. The more you spend, the higher your ad will rank. Because AdWords is a pay-per-click service, you pay Google only when someone clicks on your ad.

Quick Tips:
* Set a budget, a daily or monthly amount you’re willing to spend.
* Begin by casting a narrow net, advertising in your local market and then expanding to additional markets like Google’s AdSense network.
* Try to choose keyword terms that your competition has overlooked to keep per-word costs low.
* Remember that good campaigns require constant adjustment.

Suggested Readings and Resources:
* Google’s step-by-step guide to getting started.
* Google’s blog about AdWords.
* AdWords for Dummies

Read more…

iPod apps continue to diversify.

While reading through my email this morning, I noticed an announcement made by the American Institute of Physics that said they’re making articles available to download to iPhones and iPods. According to MarkLogic.com, one can download the application at http://www.apple.com/itunes/, and get support at http://scitation.aip.org/iphone.

I just shake my head at amazement with how technology continues to shrink and become more mobile. Information is literally on the move more than ever; with the increased and diverse uses of mobile devices to access information & store info, our mobile phones will soon be the main technology that one can’t live without.

On a side note, the AIP released an article about how small vibrations can be converted into energy. Now if we could use this technology to power mobile devices, think about the potential. Consider how much the average person moves around in one day, and if you could harness that energy–then again, do you know of any energetic children? Maybe we could literally make energy ourselves throughout the day to help power the digital things we use.

Federal District Court presiding over the Google Book Settlement has set Nov. 9th as the renegotiating settlement deadline for all parties involved with creating the world’s largest digital library. While the original agreement between the various parties involved is not entirely out the window, the new agreement must meet the Justice Department’s guidelines in order for Google to gain the court’s preliminary approval.

This settlement has huge implications for writers, both past and future, readers, publishers, and those who traditionally collect these materials (e.g. libraries). The American Library Association has put together a very useful chart that outlines all of the players involved with the settlement and their positions. Granted, ALA is one of the parties involved, but they’ve done a wonderful job of summarizing things. Other interest groups argue that Google should use this time to add privacy information into the Google Book Search.

Read more from ALA and the NY Times.

April Bunn wrote a fabulous blog post on internet filters in school computers. As a college librarian, I am periodically shocked with the lack of information literacy skills (specifically searching the internet & evaluating it) that incoming freshman arrive with at my institution. I understand why the filters are in place, but to the extent that the filtering takes place is not acceptable. When the filters become a regular barrier to education and learning, they can begin to do more harm than good.

This is a future topic that I might have to explore some more, perhaps on the city or state level!

Most of us have no control over it.
It gets people really upset when they run up against it.

The Internet Filter

Hopefully you aren’t trying to read this at a school computer because you’d probably have your “access denied” with most of my links below.

As a School Library Media Specialist, I am all too familiar with a great teaching moment being ruined by a blocked website. Linda Underwood’s School Library Monthly article “21st-Century Learning Blocked: What is a School Librarian to Do?” (September’s issue-not available online yet) inspired me to think more about this topic. This past week one of my colleagues was blocked from using National Geographic and another was blocked from downloading her Promethean Board software, so I knew it was time to get this done. The technology teacher and I just convinced many of these teachers to branch out and use new technology and this filter is discouraging them rapidly. Just to give you an idea of what it’s like with these filters:

* We can’t use any image or video sites at all (so long to those Google Images on our web pages and for student projects and no-can-do on that great video you found on Abraham Lincoln on YouTube).
* Also, no access to sites that have a shopping cart feature, like Barnes and Noble, making it a serious challenge to place orders when we are registering for conferences, ordering books and supplies.
* No technical or business forums (see below).

Ironically, as I try to finalize this post, sitting at my desk after school dismisses, I am blocked from previewing the post on WordPress with the response screen below:

Read more…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Monday that bloggers and those who use social media to review products (given to them by vendors to review and post their opinions) must provide full disclosure of their relationship with the vendor. In other words, if a vendor ships you a free product and you choose to publicly write about it (whether good or bad), you must include a statement that the vendor sent you the product to review for free.

For some reason, I had assumed that the guidelines, which were last updated in 1980, had automatically applied to the digital realm. This is not the case. For roughly the last 30 years, people have not been required to post their relationship with vendors when providing endorsements and testimonial ads on the Internet. However, effective December 1st, bloggers and social networkers need to abide by these new rules.

Some think that this might limit the number of free giveaways by vendors. In my opinion, it might deter the free gifts to some degree, but probably not much. Even with full disclosure, personal testimonies and endorsements by individuals are powerful tools for consumers and advertisers. Consumers want to hear this info, and advertisers know this. The question will be how the new rules will be enforced and policed.

Google Scholar’s ghost authors and other problems

Peter Jacso writes: “Research faculty and academic libraries dealing with Google Scholar face a metadata disaster. Millions of records have erroneous metadata, as well as inflated publication and citation counts. A free tool, Google Scholar has become the most convenient resource to find a few good scholarly papers—often in free full-text format—on even the most esoteric topics. For topical keyword searches, GS is most valuable. But it cannot be used to analyze the publishing performance and impact of researchers…”
Read more. Library Journal, Sept. 24