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Financial Aid
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Bobbi Newman at Librarian by Day offers advice about How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries. This helpful post provides a suggested script for discussing ebooks with patrons, contact info for publishers, and plenty of resources on the topic.
Friday, February 10th, 2012
This post is a follow-up to an earlier post titled 5 Ways to Use Pinterest in Your Library. Since it was so popular I decided to continue with 5 more suggestions for using this hot new social site for your library.
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Since Pinterest supports sharing YouTube videos, the library could create boards highlighting tutorials, webcasts, and instructional videos for researching different subject areas, using specialized databases, or navigating the library website.
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Are you trying to spread the word about your new e-books program? Create a Pinterest board highlighting new and popular e-books. You can even specify which devices each e-book is compatible with and pin video tutorials for uploading to patrons’ eReaders.
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Create a Pinterest board with an annotated photo tour of your library. Show off your new renovation, computer lab, or children’s area through pins. If you’re feeling adventurous, download the mobile app and take the photos with your iPhone and add location information to them.
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Use Pinterest to let patrons know about exciting upcoming events, workshops, and classes at your library. You might even create boards with photos of past events as well.
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The visual display of Pinterest’s boards offers an excellent opportunity for libraries to showcase their special collections. Create boards of interesting manuscripts, exhibits, and image collections.
Bonus Suggestion:
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Pinterest can be used to save ideas for later use, like other social bookmarking applications. Create a space where librarians can pin fun and interesting ideas for library programs, events, and services.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
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.”
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
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.”
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
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:
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
ALA Midwinter has kicked of the 2012 library conference season and soon we’ll be looking forward to Computers in Libraries, PLA, and ALA Annual among others. Here are 8 phone apps which will come in handy at these all of these events:
Check in not only at the event itself, but into indiviual sessions, receptions, luncheons, local restaurants, museums, and other venues. See who else is there, leave tips for other conference attendees, and network via this mobile social app. (Available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phones, & more).
This app lets you connect with business professionals in your proximity. It uses geo-location and smart tagging to help you find and be found. (Available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, & Windows Phones).
beamME finds interesting people nearby based on your profile. You can then easily chat, share your actual location or contact information and meet – all from within the app. You can even connect it to Facebook and Twitter to see which contacts are at the event. (Available for iPhone only).
Access social information about the conference you’re attending such as scheduled events, who’s attending the conference, what people are saying about the sessions and the locale, view photos that friends are posting, and chat with other conference attendees. (Available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phones, & more).
Share all sorts of contact and social network information by bumping two phones together with the app. Just choose what you want to share/send and then hold the phones together. you can then message them through the app as well. (Available for iPhone and Android).
Stream live video from the event to your Ustream account from your phone. You can notify your Twitter and Facebook social networks as you start your broadcast so that they can join you. You can make your broadcast social by integrating a live Twitter or Facebook feed. (Available for iPhone and Android).
Shhmooze lets you check into conferences or meetup events and find out who’s interesting based on your profile and theirs. Connect with other attendees by virtually waving to break the ice.
(Available for iPhone and Android).
This handy app uses your iPhone’s GPS and network triangulation capabilities to instantly locate free Wi-Fi Internet hotspots wherever you are in the world online or offline. (Available for iPhone and Android).
Please list the apps you find most helpful at library conferences in the comments!!
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Carrie Russell writes for American Libraries about Threats to Digital Lending. This is a great article about e-books, licensing, and ownership.
“When the Kansas Digital Library Consortium’s contract with digital-content distributor OverDrive was up for renewal last year, two issues made Kansas State Librarian Joanne Budler decide it was time to move on and transfer the ebook titles to another vendor who could offer a better deal. First, OverDrive planned to raise license fees by almost 700% by 2014. But even more disturbing was a change to the contract that would have changed the consortium’s ownership of the ebooks to a subscription.”
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
The Library Of Congress announced yesterday that it has released a free iPad app that it developed at the initiative of House Leadership and under the guidance of the Committee on House Administration. Through this app, The Congressional Record is delivered as fully searchable pdf documents which can be read and saved on the iPad and also shared via email.
With this app you can:
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Pinterest is a digital pinboard application which started just last year but has quickly become one of the top 10 most trafficked social networking websites according to Hitwise. During the second week in December the website had over 11 million visitors. This is pretty impressive considering that the site is still in the invite-only stage.
Pinterest’s inspiration boards have a lot of potential for libraries and other organizations for creating visual displays of resources and services. All of Pinterest’s boards and posts can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Here are some ideas for how you can make the most of this popular social network for your library:
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Pinterest is a great visual tool which can help you draw in your readers, so why not set up boards of book covers to engage your patrons. Create separate boards for different book categories such as: fiction, non-fiction, young adult fiction, science fiction, horror, travel, most popular, recommended, etc.
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Use Pinterest’s photo boards to spotlight your friendly and helpful library staff. Make your librarians more approachable by putting up a picture of them helping patrons in the library along with a brief bio about them.
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If you’ve got an upcoming author talk you might create a pinboard with information about that author such as the author’s book cover(s), photos of the author, links to interviews, biographical information. Or you may just have a “What’s New” or “Events” page onto which you pin their book cover.
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A great social feature of Pinterest is the ability to allow others to contribute to your boards. I can think of a million boards you may want to ask patrons to contribute to such as; photos of patrons in your library, covers of their favorite books, book covers of titles they recommend – or would like you to purchase, etc.
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Encourage patrons to create their own boards for summer reading programs, pins of books they want to check out, research or homework topics, etc. Have them each “follow” the library’s Pinterest profile in order to enter and award the best board a prize.
Additional Resources
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Andrea Fleck-Nisbet gives A Publisher’s Perspective on Ebooks in the latest issue of American Libraries. This is an insightful look at the digital revolution from the viewpoint of the publishing business.
“Although the possibilities for producing interactive ebooks and apps are now seemingly endless, resources for most publishers are limited and the market has been slow to keep pace with our enthusiasm for creating these new products. One of our biggest challenges today is deciding where to focus our time and energy as the digital landscape evolves and the consumer’s needs change. At Workman Publishing, we have always made it a priority to produce high-quality book content at retail prices that are friendly to readers. We must now figure out how to remain true to that mission while broadening our scope from creators of books to creators of content in multiple formats. This issue is only exacerbated from an operational perspective by constantly changing file formats and metadata specs, all of which need to be customized to some degree for each vendor.”
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
The folks at the Tampa Bay Library Consortium have put together a guide to How Facebook Can Help Market Your Library. This helpful article not only discusses the perks of having a Library Facebook page, it provides a quick list of ideas to effectively leverage the social network to benefit your library.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Alan S. Inouye writes for American Libraries about The Revolution Isn’t Just Digital. This thought-provoking piece talks about how libraries must reassess their missions, learn to share control, and start to take action to redefine old paradigms.
“The digital revolution in libraries is not exactly a secret. Every day we read about some upheaval in the ebook industry, a new development in digitization, or yet another service from Google. And the recent announcement of an ALA-wide initiative on digital content and libraries, while important and necessary, won’t exactly make media headlines.
It is natural enough to focus on digital content, whiz-bang technology, and how libraries should provide innovative services for our communities. Yet there is more going on than meets the digital eye.”
Monday, January 9th, 2012
Scott Gerber writes for Mashable about 10 Easy Customer Engagement Ideas for Small Business. After reading these suggestions, I can see most of them being easily adapted for use in libraries. There are some great ideas here:
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Mia Breitkopf at Information Space has compiled a list of 61 Non-Librarian Jobs for LIS Grads. These are links to actual job postings that require an MLIS degree which were posted over the last few weeks. Although most of them do not have librarian in the job title, all are relevant to our skill set and education. Those of you looking for a job in the field won’t want to miss this post! Here are just a few of the job titles, click into the full post for the links:
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
I have just finished reading Sue Polanka’s extremely helpful No Shelf Required Guide to E-Book Purchasing. This timely Library Technology Report outlines the various ways to purchase e-books including directly from publishers, through aggregators, and buying through consortia. I was thrilled to see a whole chapter on open access e-books written by E.S. Hellman. If you’re going to be proposing an e-book initiative in your library you’ll want to check out this issue.
Chapters include:
