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Kim Westad at the Times Colonist reports that Publishers Put the Squeeze on Library eBook Lending. This excellent article discusses the current state of e-books and libraries in Canada and provides a great list of 13 websites for free e-books. Here’s a short sample:

“In the Greater Victoria Public Library system alone, there has been an eightfold increase in the use of ebooks. In 2010, total ebook circulation at the GVPL’s 10 libraries was 3,699. That jumped to 29,741 in 2011. And that interest isn’t expected to dwindle…

…library users can’t download Steve Jobs’s biography. It’s published by Simon and Schuster, and they will not sell ebooks to libraries. You can download the Stieg Larsson trilogy at the library, but not the new Stephen King – different publishers, different rules.

Five of the titles on last week’s Globe and Mail fiction bestseller list were not available in ebooks, although they are in print. They are published by companies that are still struggling to find a way to deal with a way to sell ebooks to libraries.”

Neil Patel at QuickSprout provides a mega-list of 100 Ways to Become a Twitter Power User. This amazing post is made up of 10 informative lists of 10 tips each. Here are the respective lists you can find in this post:

1. 10 Reasons why twitter power users are so influential
2. 10 Twitter tools that’ll make you more effective and efficient
3. Generate more retweets using these 10 tips
4. 10 healthy habits of Twitter power users
5. 10 iPad apps for Twitter users
6. 10 Ways to be more interesting on Twitter
7. 10 ways to maximize Twitter usage to promote your events
8. 10 ways power users get more Twitter followers
9. 10 Twitter metric tools for power users
10. 10 Twitter power users I admire

Connie Malamed at The Learning Circuits Blog suggests 10 Ways to Bring A Conference Back to Work. These are all excellent recommendations for how to share what you learned with co-workers and administrators following an event.

• 1. BLOG LIVE FROM THE CONFERENCE
• 2. GIVE BROWN BAG SEMINARS
• 3. OFFER A WEBINAR
• 4. SHARE THE BACKCHANNEL
• 5. TRY POST-EVENT BLOGGING

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

DJ Waldow at the Social Media Examiner suggests 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing. This useful post provides a number of ways to amp up your marketing strategy by combining your social media efforts with email blasts. Here are the first 5 recommendations discussed:

• #1: Include Social Icons in Emails
• #2: Ask Email Subscribers to Share and Connect
• #3: Send a Dedicated Email Campaign
• #4: Provide Incentive
• #5: Promote Email Sign-up Via Social Networks

I’ve been researching e-Books for my library and an upcoming talk I’m giving at a conference and I’ve noticed that not all e-book formats are compatible with all devices. As a matter of fact, it seems that most devices have their own set of formats that it reads and these are rarely congruous with other readers. To help sort this all out I’ve taken a crack at creating my first infographic which displays the most popular devices used for reading e-Books and which of the most popular formats they can read. Please let me know if you think I should include anything else!

Barry Friedman, a professor at the New York University School of Law and the author of “The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution”, writes about Privacy, Technology and Law for the New York Times Sunday Review Opinion section. This thought-provoking article raises questions we all need to consider in this digital age.

“EVERY day, those of us who live in the digital world give little bits of ourselves away. On Facebook and LinkedIn. To servers that store our e-mail, Google searches, online banking and shopping records. Does the fact that so many of us live our lives online mean we have given the government wide-open access to all that information? “

The folks at the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog have rounded up 50 Fun, Useful, and Totally Random Resources for Nonprofits. This excellent list of free or low-cost applications is a must-see for non-profit orgs who want to track mentions of their organizations on social networking sites, create charity review sites, collect donations, and much more.

In her latest “Technology in Practice” column titled Providing the Tools, Meredith Farkas writes about “bringing digital creation technologies to libraries”. I love the idea of libraries providing patrons with access to expensive video editing software like Final Cut Pro. Not only would this enable people to be creative and produce videos, but this is a valuable skill to have for people who are in the job market!! Here’s the first paragraph of the article, be sure and click in for more.

“In the 1990s, libraries were pioneers in providing access to the internet in their communities. Even today, libraries are the only place some community members can get online. Over the past few years, libraries have begun positioning themselves as the go-to place for digital creation technologies, providing hardware and software that most people wouldn’t have at home. By providing these creative tools to their patrons, libraries fill a valuable niche in the community, a niche consistent with their historical commitment to bridging gaps in technology access.”

Matt Petronzio writes for Mashable about 10 Pro Tips for Writers Using Social Media. “Six well-known authors and writers, who are experts in this type of personal branding, share their methods and suggestions on how to use social media to push yourself forward in the writing industry.” Here are the first 5 recommendations discussed:

• 1. Sign Up for the Big Networks
• 2. Interact and Engage — Enthusiastically
• 3. Minimize Self-Promotion
• 4. Consider Privacy and Comfort Levels
• 5. Find a Happy Medium

While I was at LegalTech on Monday, I had a chance to attend a session titled “Talking Tech to Lawyers” which could have easily been titled “Talking Tech to Faculty” or “Talking Tech to Library Decision Makers”. The panel was made up of three CIO’s at law firms who gave some pretty solid advice on ways to build relationships for support of IT initiatives. Bob Dolinsky of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Terry Pressley of Leonard Street and Deinard, and C. Kirk Scruggs from Bracewell & Giuliani LLP offered the following advice.

“You can’t build support sitting in your office”.

1. Have a service attitude.
2. Talk in terms of their businesses rather than the technology, in other words how will the technology help them solve their problems.
3. Express what’s involved in a technology rollout so that they are aware of how much needs to be coordinated in an initiative.
4. Don’t use technology terms.
5. Don’t argue with the attorneys.
6. Realize that the younger, more tech savvy attorneys will want to know more about the technology and it’s okay to talk with them about it.
7. Make yourself visible through periodic user group meetings, committee meetings, etc.
8. Be your own marketing department spinning positive accomplishments and letting people know what’s going on.
9. Start early in your communications if you have a rollout approaching, don’t catch people by surprise.
10. Always be prepared to answer these two questions…Why should they? and What’s in it for them?
11. Be knowledgeable about what other firms are doing with tech.
12. Be sure to align your initiatives with the firm’s core values.
13. Never say no to decision makers, always give them options.
14. Realize that early training is very important prior to a major implementation.
15. Have a decision maker, such as a managing partner send out the email announcement about a new tech rollout so that it won’t be ignored.
16. Manage expectations of decision makers, let them know what you’re doing, what the key steps are, the main issues or concerns, and when everything will happen.
17. Make your email communications visually appealing, succinct, and understandable with tech language in layman’s terms.
18. Work one on one with attorneys to build relationships.
19. Find out what decision makers’ pain points are and try to fix them.
20. Keep educated about what’s going on in your tech community by attending conferences, reading white papers, etc.

The folks at Best Colleges Online have created a list of 9 Ways Mobile is Moving into Academia. Mobile devices have made computing ubiquitous and colleges and universities are taking advantage of all that mobile has to offer in the areas of marketing, learning, mobile library access and more. Here are the first 5 ways discussed:

1. Expanding university apps and mobile web
2. Nomadic learning
3. Augmented reality learning scenarios
4. Mobile apps for education
5. Twitter feedback in class

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

Casey Zeman at the Social Media Examiner writes about YouTube’s recent facelift in 5 Ways to Brand Your New YouTube Profile. If you’re wondering about the best ways to optimize the new YouTube layout for your library or organization, you’ll want to check out this article. Here are the points discussed and illustrated with annotated screenshots:

• #1: Add Your Custom URLs in the Newly Placed Description Area
• #2: Add Overlays to ALL of Your Videos
• #3: Prevent Other Ads from Showing on Your Video
• #4: Check “Always Take Subscribed Users to the Feed Tab”
• #5: Prioritize Your Favorite Channels on your Home Page Using the Pinned Subscribers Feature

I attended the LegalTech conference yesterday here in NYC and went to this inspirational panel sponsored by ILTA. David Neeson, CIO at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, LLP kicked off the session with some eye opening stats such as:

-There were 25 million iPads sold by June 2011
- the iPad holds 83% of the tablet market

His 80 attorney firm just finished an iPad rollout to all their associates. He shared that while he thinks that the iPad is an outstanding device for the consumption of information, it’s not so outstanding for the production of it. These are some areas where he thinks the iPads really shine:

Reading and Reviewing – great for reading deposition transcripts, reading ebooks, using GoodReader for reading documents.
Notetaking - iPads are excellent for typing notes, using Evernote, Draftpad, Notability, and OneNote. They’re also great when you need a handwritten signature for a pdf.
Research - the iPad is great for conducting searches on Fastcase, researching on Lexis and West apps.
Presentations - while not as strong in this area, iPads can be used to create presentations using Keynote and TrialPad.

The challenges for IT that Neeson identified have to do with device management and what happens when the user takes the iPad home and syncs it with their desktop’s iTunes. Also, app deployment, the update process, and deploying them en masse have all been challenges for his team. However, he mentioned that there are third-party utilities available for mobile device management which can help with deployment and configuration, policy enforcement, app management, remote control, tracking lost devices, and selective wipes of devices.

Brett Burney of Burney Consultants spoke about his recommended list of iPad apps, many of which I can’t wait to try out. These are the apps he suggests:

• GoodReader: This is an excellent app for reading documents. It can carry thousands and they can be organized and synced with Dropbox.
• PDF HD: Place bookmarks in pdf documents to quickly jump to that section.
• PDF PROvider: Read and create PDF documents with this app.
• PDF Expert: Fill out PDF forms and create signatures.
• IA Writer: A simply word processing app that syncs with Dropbox.
• SoundNote: Record audio notes that sync up with your typed and handdrawn notes.
• Noteshelf: Scan in handwritten notes and work with them through a zoomable interface. They can be exported to Evernote or as PDFs.
• Notes Plus: This notes app provides a dual pane interface where you can have your notes up in one and a webpage or PDF alongside it in the other pane. This app will convert written notes to text.
• Favorite News apps: USAToday, Guardian
• Zite: Similar to Flipboard but it makes recommendtions based on user behavior.
• Documents to Go: Create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentation with this mobile office suite.
• Atomic Web Browser: this browser can identify itself as other browsers such as IE, Firefox, and Safari.
• Legal apps: Westlaw Next, Lexis Advance HD, Fastcase HD.
• Find My Phone/iPad: Locate your missing, (or stolen), iPad with this tracking app.
• Klammer: open up files you would normally need Outlook to open such as .eml and .msg
• PST Mail: Transfer Outlook pst files to your device, and have access to your messages.

Mallory Woodrow at the Social Media Examiner offers 9 Tips for Integrating Social Media on Your Website. This helpful article includes annotated screenshots describing how different companies and organizations are making social media a part of their websites and their brand strategies. Here are her first five suggestions:

• #1: Include Visible Social Media Buttons
• #2: Integrate Social Where it Makes Sense
• #3: Include Up-to-Date Buttons
• #4: Include Share Buttons
• #5: Use Analytics

Time is almost up for those of us who haven’t switched over to the Facebook Timeline yet. Facebook announced earlier this week that all users will be getting the Timeline over the next couple of weeks. To help everyone get up to speed, Matt Petronzio at Mashable has put together a list of 28 Essential Facebook Timeline Resources.