The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library

A very cool library being built at the University of Chicago.



The robotic arms sound great. I hope they're easy to maintain and they have a lot of backup power. I also hope all that glass doesn't make the library into an oven on sunny days.

Shelf Reader App

Snagged from librarian.net:


Very cool. I wonder how well it deals with the really freakishly similar long call numbers. I also wonder if one day I'm going to be carefully sticking little squares with the scanning IDs on book spines in the future. Hold on to your stomachs, the video has lots of shaky bits.

Not really on topic, save that it involves paper and paper is in books, which are in libraries: Simon Schubert is a German artist who uses paper as his medium. Just paper and folding. The results are pretty fantastic.

The Rosetta Disk

The Rosetta Disk is the physical companion of the Rosetta Digital Language Archive, and a prototype of one facet of The Long Now Foundation's 10,000-Year Library. The Rosetta Disk is intended to be a durable archive of human languages, as well as an aesthetic object that suggests a journey of the imagination across culture and history. We have attempted to create a unique physical artifact which evokes the great diversity of human experience as well as the incredible variety of symbolic systems we have constructed to understand and communicate that experience.

News from the Rosetta Project of interest to archivists and others! I like how it's not platform-dependent.

For the extreme longevity version of the Rosetta database, we have selected a new high density analog storage device as an alternative to the quick obsolescence and fast material decay rate of typical digital storage systems. This technology, developed by Los Alamos Laboratories and Norsam Technologies, can be thought of as a kind of next generation microfiche. However, as an analog storage system, it is far superior. A 2.8 inch diameter nickel disk can be etched at densities of 200,000 page images per disk, and the result is immune to water damage, able to withstand high temperatures, and unaffected by electromagnetic radiation. This makes it an ideal backup for a long-term text image archive. Also, since the encoding is a physical image (no 1's or 0's), there is no platform or format dependency, guaranteeing readability despite changes in digital operating systems, applications, and compression algorithms.

Also, it looks really cool.

"Vote for the Internet"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for widespread, cheap internet usage. But I can't say I'm for the "Vote for the Internet" movement, because really, I think there are maybe some more important issues. I guess if that's the only concern you have, go to it?

Mr. Edison's Kindle

Apparently Thomas Edison had an idea for metal-paged books that had 40,000 pages and weighed about a pound, sort of like a forerunner for e-readers if you squint and tilt your head funny. Still, an interesting read. Included are summaries of such forward-thinking projects as wireless automobile telephones (1913), telenewspapers and electric writers (1928), watch-case phonographs (1936), "magic lantern talkies" (1937), Colorfax (1947), neck-strap TVs (1965), and a bunch of others.

Michael Geist: How to Vote for the Internet

Of interest to Canadians: Michael Geist explains How to Vote for the Internet by asking a few questions of the candidates on subjects including affordable broadband, usage billing, and copyright legislation.

Movie Streaming Run-Around

Oh, blog. I have not forgotten you. Either I have been unintrigued by library news or hammered by schoolwork, but I can change. I promise.

Of interest: a new streaming-movie service allows you to rent remote access to a DVD player, thus sidestepping some copyright stuff.

Zediva has set up hundreds of DVD players. They’re automated, jukebox-style. You’re not just renting a movie; you’re actually taking control of the player that contains the movie you want. The DVD is simply sending you the audio and video signals, as if it were connected to your home with a really, really long cable.

It’s kind of hilarious to think that this arrangement is the solution to the future of online movies: data centers stacked to the ceiling with DVD players... Zediva is just buying dozens of copies of each popular movie on the day it comes out, and presto, it’s yours to rent by long distance.

10 Myths From Usage-Based Billing Supporters Debunked

Peter Nowak posts 10 myths from usage-based billing supporters. (There is an ongoing debate in Canada about usage-based billing, by the way.)

1. Data is not a utility.
2. Delivery cost is paying for expansion.
3. Congestion has not been proven.
4. Investment is not making big ISPs poor.
5. Heavy users are not all pirates.
6. Pirates are not necessarily bad.
7. Not all opponents of UBB are hogs.
8. Market forces won’t take care of problems.
9. Facilities-based competition is not the holy grail.
10. Everyone else makes it work.

My favourites are probably the first and last:

Data is not a utility. There have been many attempts, including by the CRTC, to equate internet usage to a utility such as electricity or gas. Very simply put: it is not. The electrons that make up the data that passes to and fro over the internet are limitless and are not consumed and destroyed every time a YouTube video is watched. The “pipes” and other equipment over which these electrons flow are, of course, finite and therefore need to be continually expanded as the amount of traffic grows. These are two very different things, however. In electric-bill parlance, we’re talking about delivery and usage – the nice people at the hydro company bill us for both and the big ISPs would like to do the same. The difference is, the actual kilowatts that go over the hydro company’s pipes ARE finite and ARE destroyed once they are used. If you want to talk about fairness, then yes, it is okay to charge internet users for delivery, but how is it fair to charge for consuming a non-consumable?

Everyone else makes it work. I love pointing out how unlimited or practically unlimited internet usage is common in just about every other country because this disproves every argument there is in support of UBB. If ISPs in every OECD country except Canada, Australia and New Zealand can make it economical to give customers big or non-existent usage limits, why can’t we? ...The price of bandwidth continues to fall globally, so those countries aren’t having conversations about whether the internet is like electricity or whether it’s fair to charge heavy users extra, they’re talking about how to make all of their citizens heavy users. The reason we’re not having that conversation is because all those other countries have something we don’t: competition and consumer choice between providers, which keeps prices reasonable and usage limits high.

Think Finland.

The Beauty of Data Visualization

Another post taken from my Database Searching class, here is David Candless on the beauty of data visualization:

The eBook is Not the Enemy

From a friend of my Database Searching instructor: The ebook is not the enemy, so who is? by Trudi Stafford.

Here’s the thing: public libraries are in a unique position to promote and support reading and publishers should want to be our friends, not try to cut us off at the legs. That approach just doesn’t make sense and it smacks too much of out-and-out greed. Remember Gaiman’s point: if anything, sharing leads to more buying, not less – publishers need to recognize the symbiotic relationship they’ve always shared with libraries, who act as promoters and advertisers. Libraries get us hooked on books, and eBooks are going to help libraries do that even more. Why then are publishers feeling the need to punish an ally like the public library, or the consumer for that matter?

The article is full of good points like this, and also has The Ebook User's Bill of Rights, which I had not yet seen before:

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights


Every eBook user should have the following rights:

the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks
I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.

These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.

Keyloggers in Public Libraries

A keylogger is a program that logs what's typed on a computer. Hardware keyloggers are wee portable devices that hold keylogging software.

The devices - which look similar to USB drives - capture all keyboard activity, meaning that if everything you type (such as when you log into your email, book a holiday, check your bank account or make an online purchase) can be gathered by a returning criminal for later exploitation.

They've shown up in libraries in England. Be careful! Hopefully this won't lead to a rash of concerned patrons looking askance at anything attached to their computer. ("That is not a keylogger. That is a mouse.")

How to Dissuade

A piece over at Closed Stacks about the necessity of tech programs in library schools:

We talked a little bit more, and I learned that she wants to do something with information literacy instruction, but she was very unimpressed with the required technology course.

“It is very basic.” I agreed.

“No, it’s not that, it’s good that it’s basic.” She insisted, “I’m technologically illiterate and the kind of librarian I’m going to be doesn’t really need to know all that stuff. I don’t think it should be a requirement for everyone. Plus, they don’t do anything for the people who don’t already know all about computers, we’re just left to flounder.”

Two-thirds of the classes I've taken so far in my two-year program have involved sitting in front of a computer screen. There are a few where computers don't seem strictly essential, but having them around is useful, mostly courses involving learning cataloguing (a large part of which involves learning MARC coding). Mostly the courses without computers have been language courses.

I find most people in the program know how to use computers, or at least navigate around them enough to be on Facebook, but I've seen a few people get kind of lost when it came to email (even one younger guy fresh out of high school) and especially when dealing with HTML coding. And that's normal, I think, and I also think that knowing what it feels like to be a new, confused user is a good thing to keep in mind when showing other people how to use programs. But I do agree with the post's author that if people are unwilling to learn, libraries are perhaps not the best place for them to work. But then, if people are unwilling to learn at all, maybe school isn't the best place for them to be. Or maybe it will help them be willing to learn. See how wishy-washy I am?

A few of the comments on the post mentioned the idea of having computer skills as a pre-requisite to go to library school. Which sounds sensible, but on the other hand, where are people supposed to learn, anyway? Sometimes I find people proficient with computers can be kind of snotty toward people who don't use them often, especially since many people seem to think computers are so common everyone has one.

I also take exception to the sniffing at people who join library programs because they 'like books'. That's why there are introductory courses, and I'm one of those people who tried it out due to a love of books and reading. Everyone starts somewhere.

One comment I particularly liked:

I have blogged about my experiences with technology before: http://saucurriculumlib.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/technophobia-epidemic

When I went to library school, I was proficient at using the “usual suspect” software (Microsoft products, etc), and had participated in various social media, but was not comfortable with much else. We had a required tech course, but it was very, very basic, and mostly about how computers physically work, with a little self-taught HTML and PHP thrown in. I definitely didn’t think I was going to need it. We also had a rather intensive digital libraries course (not required). I didn’t think I would need much of it. I was very wrong.

Coming in to school, I did have an idea of what librarians did. I’ve worked in libraries since I was sixteen, both public and academic. I could search databases and OPACs like no other. I just didn’t realize exactly how tech-heavy librarianship had become. I learned fast.

My point is that you can’t judge who will make a good librarian from prior technical knowledge or experience. I think a much better indicator is aptitude for and attitudes about learning. People who can and are willing to learn new things will make good librarians. People who know coding, or have lots of technical knowledge, but are not willing to learn new things, may make good librarians for a time, will quickly become dated.

Our Puny Human Brains

Ken Jennings writes about his experience playing against Watson, the IBM computer, in Jeopardy.

One part that made me laugh:

Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It's very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman.

Swinging this back around to libraries, I don't think librarians will be replaced by computers any time soon. I want to know how well Watson would do bibliographic verification is what I'm saying here.

Digital Magazines Take Too Long

I could pretend I didn't post yesterday because I was off doing romantic Valentine's Day things, but really, I wasn't. My Valentine's Day take totaled one Pokemon Valentine from a classmate ("You're fun!"). And some free chocolate from a certain teacher passed around in a really adorable bag. But anyway!

This article from the New York Times amused me: Nick Bilton decides to hold a bit of a race - which can he get faster, a digital copy of a magazine or the print version. The winner may surprise you, but I have to wonder about how crummy his internet connection is. (I guess that was a spoiler, but then, so is the title of this post.)

Building Digital Libraries to Contain the Data Deluge

The full article is at IEEE Spectrum, but you might want to dip your toe in with the PSFK article first.

The Coming Data Deluge talks about how digital libraries will be needed to store, filter, and organize the massive amounts of data from scientific projects. This makes me happy, because a) I love science, and b) I would really like to have a job when I graduate, and information management is right up my alley.

In the past, most scientific disciplines could be described as small data, or even data poor. Most experiments or studies had to contend with just a few hundred or a few thousand data points. Now, thanks to massively complex new instruments and simulators, many disciplines are generating correspondingly massive data sets that are described as big data, or data rich. Consider the Large Hadron Collider, which will eventually generate about 15 petabytes of data per year. A petabyte is about a million gigabytes, so that qualifies as a full-fledged data deluge.

Another One About Books vs. E-Books

Another article about books vs. e-books.

More of the same, though some newish points:

• Losing a hardcover isn't as bad as losing an e-reader, cost-wise
  
• E-books don't have everything, like esoteric stuff and newly published stuff by young writers
  
• Most readers will probably use e-readers to augment, rather than replace, their libraries
  

Overall, the sky doesn't appear to be falling from this article's viewpoint.

E-Readers in Ghana

Hey, it's my favourite bugaboo about the digital divide turned on its ear! Worldreader.org is sending e-readers to students in Ghana and it seems to be going well so far. They also have a project in Florida. One thing both projects have in common: kids are great hackers. There are some differences, too:

One of the differences is in motivation. If a teacher in Florida doesn't want to bother with the training or believes the technology is a distraction, it is probably because they already have access to the paper books the texts are from. In Ghana, that is not so. In Ghana, the e-reader program has made the difference not between one type of book or another but books or none.

Digital Lending 101

From the Dear Author blog, Digital Lending: How it works and who allows it. An exceptionally good guide of interest to anyone owning or considering owning an e-reader.

E-book Piracy

Jenn Webb has written an article called Book Piracy: Less DRM, More Data for the O'Reilly Radar. She interviewed Brian O'Leary on the subject.

Some highlights:

First, the method for counting downloads of pirated books is clunky at best. Second, you can't say that every download is equivalent to a lost sale. Some are, but there's at least some likelihood that the pirated titles either spurred sales or represented a download that never would have resulted in a sale anyway.

The other thing, too, is you've got to look at where the downloads occur. If it's a North American title and the downloads occurred in Romania, I'm not that worried about it if I'm a publisher. It actually, if anything, says to me I should be moving my English language rights and my translation rights faster.

It's not that piracy is not a problem, it's just that it's not demonstratively a problem until you know what's actually happening.

Some companies are focused on applying fairly strict DRM software to their digital books. I'm pretty adamant on DRM: It has no impact whatsoever on piracy. Any good pirate can strip DRM in a matter of seconds to minutes. A pirate can scan a print copy easily as well. DRM is really only useful for keeping people who otherwise might have shared a copy of a book from doing so.

Absolutely agreed. Any code can be broken.

I think piracy has become more acute with ebooks, not because ebooks are easily pirated but because ebooks are easily visible. So, for example, if I'm living in South Africa and I speak English, but I want to read Nora Roberts, and Nora Roberts is only published in North America, I might have to wait through a four-year cycle to get her latest book. That lead time made sense when it was about ink on paper. But if it's an ebook, as a reader, I want to read it today — I love Nora Roberts, and I'd pay for her latest book, but I can't get it here because there's no service that will sell me an ebook in South Africa. That's when piracy starts to occur. Readers say: "I would have paid for it, but they wouldn't give it to me. They frustrated my demand."

I think this frustrated demand is a big reason for piracy, either of music or movies or books. While new music is pretty available if you want to consent to using iTunes (and some don't), some older things are quite difficult to find. Movies, too; if I go to my local movie rental place, I can find new things alright, but anything older than maybe ten years is quite iffy.

Lone Wolf Fruit Shop Talk

Stolen from The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian:



Oh, British humour. How I love you.