Internet News

Gale acquires Questia

Gale Reaches for More End Users With Questia Acquisition, by Paula J. Hane, Newbreaks (Feb 1)

Gale changed course somewhat in taking over HighBeam in late 2008. Now it has bought Questia.

"Gale is continuing down this path in its just announced acquisition of Questia Media, Inc., a provider of information and educational resources to high school and college students through its Questia.com and QuestiaSchool.com products. Questia provides an affordable premium subscription service that gives users access to more than 76,000 books from 300-plus publishers in the humanities and social sciences, plus about 3 million articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. The companies see considerable potential for the combination of their resources and tools."

Of interest: "Barnes says that HighBeam is doing very well, and with Questia, the services will reach some 30 million visitors per month. In addition to the synergies of HighBeam and Encyclopedia.com with Questia, Gale will look to integrate Questia with its AccessMyLibrary service (www.accessmylibrary.com), which connects users through web services to their local libraries for access to more than 30 million articles from premium sources. In December, Gale announced a free AccessMyLibrary mobile application for the iPhone."

Extending the Library Catalog

Q-Sensei presents new way of searching the Library of Congress catalogue, Q-Sensei, AltSearchEngines (Oct 22)

Here's something that will get library users and authors involved in the library catalog.

"Q-Sensei collects and preprocesses data on literature. To support knowledge sharing about individual records, Q-Sensei has developed an open system that allows users to further enrich each individual record and share their knowledge within an interested community. This allows users, especially authors, to gain control over metadata and to benefit from additional, valuable information that aids searches by also showing editorial reviews, outlines or presentations, links to authors’ or publishers’ websites, as well as institutions that authors are affiliated with."

OCLC and EBSCO work together

New Discovery Tools for Online Resources From OCLC and EBSCO, by Paula J. Hane, Information Today (Apr 16)

"OCLC (www.oclc.org) announced that it signed an agreement with EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com) that makes it possible for libraries that subscribe to both the WorldCat Local and EBSCOhost services to provide their users with online access to the full text of a wide range of authoritative electronic content through the web. As part of the WorldCat.org Partner Program, EBSCO's content will be more visible to library patrons through WorldCat Local, the OCLC service based on the WorldCat.org platform that connects library users to local, regional, and global library resources through a single search box. The agreement is for indexing the metadata in databases that EBSCO publishes; OCLC is working on separate agreements with other database producers and has already signed 30 or so. EBSCO in turn will provide its EBSCOhost users with seamless access to WorldCat content."

OCLC picks up Open Access

OCLC and Open Access: Riding to the Rescue or Rustling the Herd? by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Feb 5)

Lots to take in in this article about OCLC's new partnerships to gain open access materials.

"OCLC (www.oclc.org) has announced a partnership that would ultimately transfer an open access icon, the University of Michigan Library’s OAIster service (www.oaister.org), to OCLC."

Why did OAIster and OCLC do this? Perhaps OAIster had become too big to manage. And OCLC says that ""Adding records for open archive collections is a natural complement to WorldCat and will drive discovery and access of these collections for a broader community of scholars.""

HathiTrust is also covered in this article. "The HathiTrust is a new player in the open access arena, but it’s a major one with more than 2.6 million documents." Most of these come from Google Book Search Library partners.

"Under the new agreement with OCLC, the millions of books and archived documents hosted in a single repository by HathiTrust and made available for reading online will become more visible and accessible with the creation of WorldCat records for content. OCLC will also link to the collections in its Open Web WorldCat.org service as well as its WorldCat Local service. As executive director of the HathiTrust, Wilkin sees "the connection between HathiTrust and WorldCat as a natural. WorldCat and HathiTrust are both built by and for libraries, and their pursuit of comprehensiveness will aid our community in pursuit of more effective collection management, as well as integration of services across our institutions.""

Libraries and Open Source

Open Solutions for Libraries Gain Momentum by Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (Feb 2)

How to provide materials for free while respecting copyright or owner's rights? LibLime might have the answer.

"LibLime (www.liblime.com), an upstart company that has provided open source software solutions for libraries for several years (best known for its Koha ILS), has made its move to the next frontier of openness—providing open data and open library content. In 2008, LibLime introduced ‡biblios (http://biblios.org), an open source, web-based metadata tool for libraries, and it has just launched ‡biblios.net, a free, browser-based cataloging service with a data archive containing more than 30 million bibliographic and authority records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons (www.opendatacommons.com), making the service the world’s largest repository of freely licensed library records. Moves like this by LibLime and other open source and open data providers, such as U.K.-based Talis (www.talis.com), clearly have the potential to shake up some competitors, notably OCLC."

Databases from Resource Ontario

Resource Ontario, part of Knowledge Ontario, has licensed access for Ontarions to many premium online databases through their public libraries. Funding comes from the Ontario Ministry of Culture.

Databases are listed in this about-the-databases page.

Teen Health and Wellness from Rosen Publishing is one of these - expected to be available in March.

Unfortunately the public information has been written for libraries to use to register, and not for users to find or access. For that you must go to your public library website.

Toronto Public Library has this list of its databases. . You'll need your library card number to login.

Library Thing for Libraries

LibraryThing Finds a ‘CIGnificant’ Other by Marydee Ojala, Newsbreas (Jan 29)
LibraryThing is now sibling to ProQuest, Dialog, AquaBrowser, Syndetic Solutions, and Bowker -- all owned by Cambridge Information Group. Expect to see it more in libraries - "CIG’s investment in LibraryThing will give it the exclusive right to distribute LibraryThing for Libraries through its Bowker (www.bowker.com) subsidiary"

Of interest: "In mid-January, LibraryThing had more than 35 million books cataloged and some 500,000 registered users. LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) adds data and features directly into a library’s OPAC, resulting in new ways for library users to discover the library’s holdings through social networking."

Mobile WorldCat for Library Holdings

OCLC Launches WorldCat Mobile Pilot, Newsbreaks (Jan 26)

This should ease the lineups in libraries at the machines for library holdings - use your mobile device - if your public library subscribes to OCLC.

"OCLC (www.oclc.org) has launched a pilot program to make collections from libraries visible through mobile devices. The WorldCat Mobile pilot allows users to search for and find books and other materials available in their local libraries through a web application they can access from a PDA or a smartphone. The pilot will gather data to inform and help shape future mobile access to WorldCat.org. The pilot is now available in the U.S. and Canada and is expected to last 6 months."

Preserving the National Memory

Websites 'must be saved for history', by David Smith, The Observer via The Guardian (Jan 25)

The ephemeral web and digital information stores present serious concerns for historians in the future.

"Historians have become increasingly concerned that while the Domesday Book, written on sheepskin in 1086, is still easily accessible, the software for many decade-old computer files - including thousands of government records - already renders them unreadable. The ephemera of emails, text messages and online video add to the headache of the 21st-century archivist."

Lynne Brindley, the head of the British Library, warns of gaps in the national memory and has proposed that "the British Library as the repository that will ensure emails and websites are preserved as reliably as manuscripts and books."

Let's hope that the Canadian government notes this and funds Library and Archives Canada for a project to preserve our national memory.

Clay Shirky - Words for Info Pros

Clay Shirky, noted for his writings about Internet technologies, was the keynote speaker at the Online Conference in London in 2008. Adrian Dale, conference chairman, spoke with Shirky in these two videos of roughly 10 minutes each.

Online Information Conference 2008

- Part 1 - the change to many-to-many exchange and the growth in group work; mass amateurism where there is a spectrum from the professional to the amateur (rather than sharp differences); departure from the quality filters provided by publishers to today's situation where all the filters are done after the fact. These will affect the library information world. Shirky sees a shift for library science from organizing information to discovery.

- Part 2 - considers changes to information companies, such as those happening to Encyclopedia Britannica - a hybridization - away from top-down directed toward more community - staff and customers. He sees a fusing of broadcasting with community - and cites the power of the Facebook as a "site of collective action". For the information professional, there comes a change from having the power to inform to one of being able to "convene" - take action.

More about Clay Shirky at http://www.shirky.com/

Librarians at Work

OCLC, Syracuse University, and University of Washington Team Up, Econtent (Nov 11}

"Researchers and developers from OCLC and the information schools of Syracuse University and the University of Washington announced their participation in a new international effort to explore the creation of a more credible web search experience based on input from librarians around the globe. "

Internet Librarian 2008

Internet Librarian 2008 in Monterey, California is over but the presentations are coming online at the conference site. Watch these pages for more.

General Conference - Monday October 20, 2008 - especially Track A Information Discovery & Search. Mary Ellen Bates mentions a few new search tools in Super Searcher Shares.

Tuesday, October 21 - Three contributors are packed into the Business Info Online: Super Searcher Strategies presentation: Greg Notess with updates on major search engines, Mary Ellen Bates with advice on using Web 2.0 tools and sources for research, and Marcy Phelps showing video search engines and also "Going Local: Case study in finding local and hyperlocal information". This one is a real gold mine.

Wednesday, October 22 - "Social Media & Networked Technologies: Research & Insights"

Download from Toronto Public Library

Toronto Public Library has been adding e-books, audiobooks, music and videos for its card-holding patrons to download. There are three services: OverDrive, NetLibrary, and Safari Online. Select 'Download Books, Music and Video'.

Users will need a Library card at the Toronto Public Library to browse NetLibrary and Safari, and to download anything from OverDrive.

OverDrive distributes premium digital content and provides the technology for managing access and digital rights. "A single platform for eBooks, audio books, music and video simplifies both the management and end user experience." ( OverDrive About Us )

Users must install the OverDrive Media Console to download and navigate through the audio and video media library. Audio and video require Windows Media Player.

TPL has sections of "always available" video and audiobooks - similar to a permanent collection, and featured items. It might be easiest to use the Browse by Subject to see what is available across all formats in a topic of interest rather than taking a stab at keyword or title searches.

The video selection embraces Classics (Farewell to Arms, Tale of Two Cities), Comedy, Drama, Health and Fitness, Foreign, Horror, and Instructional. Video can be transferred to some portable devices .

The music is mainly classical along with opera and some lighter pieces such as the classics in cinema.

Books must be read through Adobe Reader 8. The eBooks are protected with Adobe DRM (Digital Rights Management). Some books are also available for portable devices as Mobipocket eBooks. Travel, cooking and diet, self-help, fiction - there is a good range of material although it is lacking in depth at this point.

Lending periods vary according to the format. Books and music are for 21 days, video for 7. After it times out you can't access the item.

NetLibrary has 1,800 audiobooks and nearly 7,600 ebooks. Audiobooks may be browsed by subject, but not the ebooks. Best bet is to search on a keyword to see if anything matching an interest turns up. Drawing as a keyword turned up the Inside Out text on Word 2003 - not what I had in mind but potentially useful. These eBooks are only to be viewed online - chapters or sections cannot be downloaded - and print is only possible for individual pages. Fortunately you can save the title to a favourites list and add notes.

Audiobooks can be downloaded in CD quality (larger files) or radio quality (fine for spoken word) to be played through Windows Media Player, Winamp, or Musicmatch Jukebox on a PC or on one of the supported PDAs. Unfortunately, files cannot be played on iPods or Microsoft's Zune devices. We have to stick with this list of tested players. This seems to be a grave limitation, considering the popularity of the iPod.

Safari Online is the third section. It has over 300 full-text computing, I.T. and other technology books from O'Reilly Media (via ProQuest). This is not the most welcoming of interfaces. A popup window will display categories for browsing - certainly the easiest way to navigate this. The Advanced Search offers search by title, category, date, publisher. Items tend to be older - there were only 27 titles published in 2007. Reading must be done online - no downloads.

Anyone who needs the current books and topics will want to stayed in touch with the main Safari site at www.safari.com where books can be read in part or full for free and printed or shipped for a price.

All in all, this is a great move forward to providing e-content to the user community in Toronto and area. Nearly anyone is likely to find something of interest among the titles for books, audiobooks, videos, and maybe classical music. However, we can't be too set on what we want to find - better to let serendipity kick in by browsing. The various limitations on viewing and on use of portable viewing devices will dampen enthusiasm and use of these services. But those with the devices will surely benefit, and those who just need to find very specific information from a text, will save some money using NetLibrary or Safari.

Virtual Reference through askON

What to do when Google doesn’t cut it By: Kathleen Lau, Computer World Canada (Jan 18)

Ask Ontario (http://www.askon.ca/) is an online research service that is manned by librarians there to deliver virtual reference through several public libraries and post-secondary schools.

From the article:

"A free service that lets Ontarians engage in a real-time chat over the Web with a librarian on a number of research topics could be useful to IT professionals seeking a more targeted virtual search approach, said the initiative’s project manager.

askON’s Virginia Roy said the initiative is designed to grant equity of information access to all areas of the province.

The service, managed by Ask Ontario (which is a project by Knowledge Ontario), launched its first phase last week across 10 public library systems and seven post-secondary libraries in the province. "

Questions about PEW Study into Information Searches

New From Pew Internet: Information Searches That Solve Problems; Where are the Social Networks? ResourceShelf (Dec 31, 2007)

Excerpts from PEW study - Information Searches That Solve Problems - along with comments and questions about the study and its findings on use of libraries.

Books and Authors

InfoTech: Gale Releasing Books & Authors Reader’s Advisory Tool Library Journal (Jan 15)

Gale Cengage Learning has announced a reader’s advisory tool, Books and Authors. It will include include book reviews from more than 30 sources such as Publishers Weekly. Users will be able to add their own reviews, bibliographies, and links to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. Users can also create lists of books or searches in a personal "reading room".

Books and Authors listings will also show in Google search results. Access to the service may be available through public libraries.

Virtual Reference Services

The Dec/Jan 2008 issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is mainly about virtual reference.

Virtual Reference Services
6] Introduction by Yungrang Laura Cheng, Guest Editor
8] An Informal History (and Possible Future) of Digital Reference by Joseph Janes
11] Virtual Reference to Participatory Librarianship: Expanding the Conversation
by R. David Lankes
15] Evaluation of Online Reference Services by Jeffrey Pomerantz
20] Implementation of Professional and Ethical Standards
by Pnina Shachaf
25] On the Trail of the Elusive Non-User: What Research in Virtual Reference
Environments Reveals by Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Marie L. Radford and Timothy J. Dickey

Your Own Library

The Library Problem HackitoErgoSum (

How to inventory a personal collection of 3,500 books. Mentions four cataloging software programs and then they built their own.

OCLC Study on Social Spaces

OCLC releases new international research study New release (Oct 22)

OCLC has released a report on Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World

It examines:

* Web user practices and preferences on their favorite social sites
* User attitudes about sharing and receiving information on social spaces, commercial sites and library sites
* Information privacy; what matters and what doesn't
* U.S. librarian social networking practices and preferences; their views on privacy, policy and social networks for libraries

"The report is based on a survey (by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC) of the general public from six countries—Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—and of library directors from the U.S."

Available for download at www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/ as the complete report (over 250 pages) or by section. Can also order a print copy for a price.

Digital Environment for Libraries

Library and Archives Canada Partners with the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the National Library of Australia on RDA Implementation, Press Release, Library and Archives Canada (Oct 22)

"Four national libraries have joined forces to implement a new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital environment in which libraries now operate. Library and Archives Canada, the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the National Library of Australia have agreed on a coordinated implementation of RDA: Resource Description and Access, the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules."

[Thanks to Carmen for article.]

Combatants: Libraries vs Google

Them! Google’s Ambivalence toward Library and Information Science by Shawne D. Miksa, ASIS&T (Oct 2007)

Combatants: Libraries vs Google -- "It is a bit extreme to paint librarians and Google locked in the same battle, but the questionable characterization by some librarians of Google as a mutant technology lamentably exists alongside those who admire it for its many innovations."

Methods: relevance ranking based on links vs applied classification -- "Library classification is one process of information organization that does not work based on the concept of popularity as employed by Google. "

Book Search: "Brewster Kahle of the Open Content Alliance (OCA) contends that the “idea of making all books accessible online in new and different ways is all good news. But if you do this in a way that the materials that have been housed in libraries for centuries are made available only through one corporate interface, this is an Orwellian future.”"

Internet Librarian 2007

Internet Librarian 2007 begins October 29 and runs to October 31. Follow the Info Today blog at http://www.infotodayblog.com/. Links to presentations are often available a few days later.

Library 2.0

Discovered blog for fans of Library 2.0

Blyberg.net - from John Blyberg "library geek" with reflections on Library 2.0 and other matters related to libraries - together with a long reading list of books. View the tag cloud and archives.

The Social Library

The Social Library: Becoming Library 2.0 [pdf] - presentation by Stephen Abram to King County Library System, Washington State (Feb 15, 2007)

Everything about Library 2.0 is in here - making connections through maps, blogs, wikis, social bookmarks and ultimately Second Life (has screen shots of libraries in the virtual world.)

Also see Stephen's article for Information Outlook (April 2007) - Second Life and Special Libraries.

OCLC WorldCat Local Pilot

OCLC’s WorldCat Local: A Promising Development for Library Patrons , by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Apr 23)

OCLC is developing a new service called WorldCat Local for subscribing libraries for finding books, articles, reports etc.

"Local libraries adopting WorldCat Local will have a locally branded interface presented to their patrons through the library’s Web site. Options will make it possible to integrate the services with circulation records, resource sharing, and licensed full-text collections. Cooperative efforts are already underway with three major integrated library system/OPAC vendors—Innovative Interfaces, SirsiDynix, and Ex Libris Voyager. When fully interoperable, it should allow WorldCat Local to support users’ requests for items from library collections, including interlibrary loan and accessing online resources. In time, OCLC hopes to add connections to social networking services."

My guess is that this will be only in the United States - at least for some time.

Library Community Toolbar

Libraries Leap onto the Webtop with Conduit-powered Community Toolbars, Press release (Feb 13)

Here's a fantastic idea - provide a toolbar to your community to facilitate search, provide news feeds, open up chat with you, show the weather. Conduit makes it possible for free. About 300 libraries (presumably in the US) are using it.

"Conduit , a breakthrough marketing platform for creating community toolbars that drive traffic and loyalty, today announced the availability of Conduit for libraries. Libraries can launch a free community toolbar that delivers constant browser access to resources and services, and connects patrons to create vibrant online communities. Conduit is the first free, branded solution available to help libraries promote their services and resources all via users' browsers. Now patrons, including research professionals, students and enthusiasts, are interacting with libraries in a whole new way."

Colorado State University library is given as one example.

The Management and Economics Library at Purdue University calls theirs MyMEL.

There are more examples of organizations using the Conduit toolbar under testimonials at Conduit .

The toolbar searches Google and has Google ads.

Future of LCSH

Subject Headings or Keywords? Google, Microsoft Join LC Working Group on Bibliographic Control , Library Journal (Dec 7)

Does reliance on search engines for keyword searches mean inferior results? The Library of Congress "has convened a Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control "to examine the future of bibliographic description in the 21st century," according to an LC statement. Besides representatives from several library organizations, the working group also includes representatives from tech behemoths Microsoft and Google. The group aims to advise LC on its role in steering the library community to analyze "how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices" can help librarians manage and users access library materials."

Refers to The End of LCSH? Provocative Report Stirs Up Cataloging Discussion (April 24) where there was the suggestion that libraries "should reduce the costs of producing catalogs".

"LC Associate Librarian Deanna Marcum said, "Tom [Mann] quite rightly points to the superiority of doing searches the library way." However, she said, "Instead of trying to force the users into our systems, are there ways we can take our vast resources to where the users are?""

WorldCat Find in a Library

WorldCat Beta is here. Search for titles in 10,000 libraries. This is the union catalog we could only dream of 10 years ago. It works. I searched for May, Nuala and found The Story of Chicago May by Nuala O'Faolain in the Toronto Public Library. Search for books, sound recordings, videos and other formats.

"This Web site lets you find an item of interest and then locate a library near you that owns it. WorldCat search results usually link you directly to the item record on the library's Web site, and often point to the library's other online services, including "Ask a Librarian." The library's Web site may allow you to join a waiting list, reserve an item, check it out and even have it shipped or delivered. These services will vary from one library to another, and a login associated with an active library membership is commonly required to use them."

You can also buy books at WorldCat through Baker and Taylor in a transaction that will also help your local library.

Virtual Reference Troubled with Tech Problems

Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2 By Pascal Lupien, Online (Jul/Aug 2006)

"Real-time virtual reference (VR) has been around for several years. Although it has become standard in our libraries and widely discussed in the professional literature, the evidence indicates that libraries are not satisfied with the service. Usage statistics have been disappointing; frustration levels with the technology remain high." Why? Too many technical problems.

OCLC WorldCat Search Site

OCLC to Open WorldCat Searching to the World by Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (July 17)

"In a move designed to reach users outside library environments, OCLC (http://www.oclc.org) is planning to launch a new destination site and downloadable search box for searching the content of libraries participating in WorldCat. Scheduled for a beta release sometime in August 2006, the new WorldCat.org site will continue OCLC’s efforts begun with its Open WorldCat program"

Site will be at http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/dotorg/default.htm

Collection Development Site for Librarians

Collection Development: H.W. Wilson Launches New Web Site (Free) For Librarians: Standardcatalogs.com, ResourceShelf (july 6)

"Standardcatalogs.com is a free clearinghouse for tools for collection development: “Best” lists, Editors’ picks, hot topics, periodicals lists, best professional books, librarian home pages and blogs, profiles of editors (and others) who shape the Wilson Standard Catalogs, and more."

About OPACs

Library Search Tools Don't Stack Up, Genie Tyburski, TVC ALert (June 1) - Summary of a three-part article by Karen G. Schneider on what is wrong with search tools for library catalogs. The article is at ALA Tech Source, Schneider's blog -- How OPACs Suck.

OCLC and RLG Merge

RLG and OCLC to Join Forces, ResourceShelf (May 4)

From the press release: "Two of the world's largest membership-based information organizations have agreed to come together. The combined organization will offer an integrated product and service line, and will give libraries, archives and museums new leverage in developing services, standards and software that will help them support research and disseminate knowledge online."

Note this: "RLG's program initiatives would be continued as RLG-Programs, a new division of OCLC Programs and Research that would provide programs to support architecture, standards development and best practices, to name a few."

LCSH Questioned

The End of LCSH? Provocative Report Stirs Up Cataloging Discussion, Library Journal (Apr 24)

"Should the Library of Congress (LC) jettison Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the longstanding professional taxonomy? That's one of the provocative suggestions in a new report announced Tuesday by the LC."

CIL2006

Computers in Libraries 2006 (March 22 to 24) has just wrapped up.

Presentation links are at http://www.infotoday.com/cil2006/presentations/.

There is a fair amount on wikis, podcasting, rss, and use of mobile technologies, and, of course, some on Web 2.0.

There are some interesting bits from the weblogs. Bloggers are listed at Information Today - http://www.infotodayblog.com/CILbloggers.shtml

Tags were CIL2006, ISE2006

ResearchBuzz had an entry on the Chris Sherman Keynote (Mar 23) - Emphasis was on the big four search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com, whereas in the past it had been only the big three. There may not be room for another general search engine, but there is for vertical search engines, seen as the next growth area. More on the Sherman keynote from Paula Hane - Sherman Sees Differentiation Among the Major Search Engines

There's a small report on the search duet by Gary Price and Rita Vine in the InfoToday Blog -- The Faster I Go, The Behinder I Get

Search European National Libraries

The European Library Announces Availability of Searchable Collections, EContent (Dec 2)

"The European Library has announced the launch of version 1.1. There are now 113 searchable collections across 12 libraries, with access to a further 30 as hyperlinks. Early 2006 will see the addition of 3 more national libraries and their collections and by the end of 2006 there will be at least 23 libraries and more than 200 searchable collections online."

Federated search of European national libraries - "The European Library webservice is a portal which offers access to the combined resources (books, magazines, journals.... - both digital and non-digital) of the 43 national libraries of Europe. It offers free searching and delivers digital objects - some free, some priced."

Library Wiki

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

"Welcome to Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. This wiki was created to be a one-stop-shop for great ideas for all types of librarians. All over the world, librarians are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology that no one outside of their library knows about. There are lots of great blogs out there sharing information about the profession, but there is no one place where all of this information is collected and organized."

Web 2.0 and Libraries

Web 2.0: Building the New Library in Ariadne (Oct 2005). "Paul Miller explores some of the recent buzz around the concept of 'Web 2.0' and asks what it means for libraries and related organisations."

This excellent article describes Web 2.0 and possible opportunities for libraries. Web 2.0 is more than participation. It is also about repurposing content, remixing, recombining and in the words of the author, the "freeing of data"; Web 2.0 "permits the building of virtual applications".

For libraries - "Leveraging the approaches typified by Web 2.0's principles and technology offers libraries many opportunities to serve their existing audiences better, and to reach out beyond the walls and Web sites of the institution to reach potential beneficiaries where they happen to be, and in association with the task that they happen to be undertaking."

Article mentions several blogs and podcasts people can plug into to stay tuned into the Web 2.0 using the Web 2.0 way.

Just for Librarians

Google is warming up to librarians with the promise of a new quarterly newsletter with tips and news. This is to be delivered through Google Groups. Over 7,300 have subscribed so far - likely in the last week or two. See the Google Librarian Center.

Audio books for download

Canadian libraries mull audio downloads, Canadian Press via Globe and Mail (Sept 7) - In the US 1,200 libraries offer downloads of audio books to their patrons. Will Canadian libraries do the same? Service is provided through arrangements with OverDrive Inc. or NetLibrary who license books from publishers, then provide them to libraries using the Windows Media format. Fraser Valley Regional Library in Abbotsford, B.C. offers the service, and Ottawa Public Library is planning to do so by the end of the year.

SLA 2005 Conference Review

The Toronto SLA Courier newsletter for Summer 2005 has several articles about the SLA 2005 conference in Toronto.

Of particular interest:

Swing Dances and Smarties: Volunteer Adventures at the SLA Toronto Hospitality Booth by Greg Barber

The Future of Search: Observations from SLA 2005 Conference by Gwen Harris

Session: Mining the New Web for Information: RSS feeds, blogs, social networks and more by Daniel Lee - report on Mary Ellen Bates' presentation.

Session: Self-Archiving, Information Repositories and Knowledge Management: What Can Different Types of Libraries Learn from Each Other? by Alan Harnum

SLA 2005 - Conference Presentations & Handouts Available on the Web by Stephanie Hilson

US Libraries and the Net

Library Internet access better than ever Anick Jesdanun, AP via Globe and Mail (June 24)

The American Library Association has released a report on the use of the Internet in US public libraries.

+ "99.6 per cent of libraries are now connected to Internet, with all but a handful offering access to the public. That compares with 20.9 per cent in 1994 when the study was first conducted."
+ there are shortages - 70% can't cover peak periods, 16% are always short.
+ Only 42% of libraries have high speed access; 73% in urban, 34% in rural. 18% offer wireless.
+ "Only 28 per cent offer regularly scheduled classes — 16 per cent in rural areas."
+

AccessMyLibrary from Thomson Gale

Thomson Gale Launches AccessMyLibrary.Com to Allow Tens of Millions of People to Access Trusted Library Information Online Marketwatch [subscription] (June 16)

"With the launch of AccessMyLibrary.com, Thomson Gale has enabled its content to be crawled and indexed by Yahoo! and Google. In doing so, Thomson Gale is not only making high-value content resources visible to a broader universe of information seekers, but is also highlighting the critical role libraries play as providers of quality information. Once desired content has been identified and made visible through the search engine's results, it becomes available through AccessMyLibrary.com if the searcher is an authorized user of a library that subscribes to that content."

Enter some keywords, get a citation and abstract, see the source - something like InfoTrac (a Gale product), look for your library - IF you are in the United States.

Thomson Gale has this to say to people outside the United States. "During this time, we are providing access to only a select number of libraries in the United States. While we offer you access to thousands of libraries across the U.S. with which we have relationships we have many more libraries to add, so check back soon. If you would like us to let you know when resources from your library are available, click here to send us an email indicating your country and local library, and we will be glad to alert you when the time is right."

SLA Toronto 2005 Conference Reviews

"Two Views of the SLA Conference, Toronto, June 2005" By Mary Hudson and Joanna Kaczmarczyk, Freepint (June 16) - Impressions of two SLA members from the UK of the conference in Toronto: keynote speakers, sessions, breakfast and evening events, and the general networking scene. Joanna Kaczmarczyk found a unifying theme in the three keynote speakers that argued for transparency and innovation.

The Stephen Abram Page

Stephen Abram, prolific writer and speaker about libraries, information services and technologies, has a web page through SIRSI of his articles and presentations. If you missed him at a conference this year in Canada or the U.S. you can likely pick him up here.

Google Print Hype

Google Out of Print By Roy Tennant, Library Journal (Feb 15) - Questions the value of Google's huge digitization project of library books - even if Google is able to bring it off. Copyright law will severely restrict what can be made public: content will be mainly pre-1923 text and small snippets of the rest.

"Google hype to the contrary, blind, wholesale digitization is no more a good thing than buying books based on color."

Listen to Quint

Tick, Tock, by Barbara Quint, Searcher (Feb 2005) -- Barbara Quint with her inimitable style and with her usual uncanny eye for the implications of information technology casts forward in time and sees that -- "the Universal Virtual Library is growing out of the Web and its search engines and that, some day, this emerging phenomenon will threaten and finally engulf the world of traditional, brick-and-mortar libraries." Google's digitization project and the open access movement will have enormous implications for libraries and information professionals. She has many visions but mainly advises designing services that serve many people at one shot and reach beyond the traditional constituencies.

Library City

The Future of the Digital Library: An Interview with Tom Peters by James Morrison and Tom Peters, Innovate - Journal of Online Education from Nova Southeastern University (Feb 2005) [subscription required]

About LibraryCity, a project to create a free online library of thousands of e-books in easy-to-read formats as well as an online community of readers.

Tom Peters, consultant to the project, states -- "Our goal is to construct a worldwide digital library of both public-domain and copyright-protected e-books. LibraryCity will focus in particular on the "last mile" issues related to helping individuals and groups access the content in extremely flexible, usable, interactive ways. When people use LibraryCity, we want them to feel that they are part of an online community, not just individuals in cyberspace accessing a digitized text. "

Comments on funding issues, technology options, stakeholders.

Google in Libraries

Two articles in the Library Journal (Feb 2005) about Google.

Google in the Academic Library By Carol Tenopir - about Google Scholar

Describes content - journals from some aggregators like ScienceDirect, bibliographic information from OCLC Worldcat, book reviews, other publishers; and citations for most items. Her test searches brought back mainly scholarly

Compared the search to results from premium services such as Ebsco. These "showed a much wider range of journal titles than Google Scholar".

Says that "Google Scholar has real potential to provide easy, one-stop access to articles in both subscription journals and items in institutional repositories, open access journals, and e-print servers."

Reported some weaknesses that were identified by Gary Price - lots of non-scholarly material, and by Karen Blackman - poor search features.

Notes that "Whatever it does, Google Scholar will be wildly popular with students." Libraries have to teach people how to use it.

The Google Opportunity By Stephen Abram

Presents long lists of Google developments -- " Google Scholar (see "Google in the Academic Library," Online Databases, p. 32), Google Print, Google News, Google Alerts, Google Deskbar, Google Desktop Search, Google Library Digitization Project, Google Suggest, Google Local with Keyhole (maps), Google Gmail, Google Orkut, Google Picasa (digital photo organizer), and on and on". It's a googlized landscape.

Lists "ten key things your institution, your library, and you can do in a Google world"

OCLC connects with Alibris

Alibris Offers Access to Books For Sale Through OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing Service - 50 million new, used, and hard-to-find books can now be purchased through ILL -- Libraries using WorldCat Resource Sharing can order a book immediately through Alibris. [Mentioned in ResourceShelf]

Ultimate Mega-Base

Round Up the Unusual Suspects! by Barbara Quint, Searcher Magazine (Jan 2005) - Examines implications to libraries of Google Scholar and Yahoo!/OCLC's toolbar and the opportunities these present.

Yahoo's OCLC toolbar taps into OCLC's full collection of 57 million WorldCat library records. "The structure of the toolbar looks like it would allow Yahoo! to expand the segregation of library-style material to other sources, including all the access introduced by its Content Acquisition Program, e.g., OAIster, a special collection from Getty, Project Gutenberg, etc."

Quint sees that "we are present at the birth of the ultimate mega-bases for locating the content which, up to now, resided on our [library] shelves, but has begun to veer off into the open Web or some more proprietary digital venue. "

Information professionals can influence Google, Yahoo and the vendors to improve coverage and reliability.

Google vs Library Databases

Googlizers vs. Resistors By Brian Kenney (Dec 15, 2004) Library Journal -- Thrust of discussion at the Pennsylvania Library Association Annual Conference, October 27, in King of Prussia, on "Googlizers and Resistors: Librarian's Role in a Googlized World".

"For starters, Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines raise questions about expensive, proprietary databases. While the latter deliver precise and high-quality results, users may find them too complex and not be willing to learn how to work with them. But can librarians ever accept providing the public with "good enough" results as opposed to the "best quality" results that are so much a part of our professional mantra?"

E-Books and Wi-Fi in Libraries

Libraries reach out on-line By TIM GNATEK. New York Times via Globe and Mail (Dec 29) -- Without fanfare libraries have been adding e-books and audiobooks to their offerings, turning web sites into information portals, and providing Wi Fi access for free in the library.

"E-books are only one way that libraries are laying claim to a massive on-line public as their newest service audience. The institutions are breaking free from the limitations of physical location by making many kinds of materials and services available at all times to patrons who are both cardholders and Web surfers, whether they are homebound in the neighborhood or halfway around the world."

Most libraries identified in this article are in the United States but there was one from Canada -- "The Richmond Public Library in British Columbia (www.yourlibrary.ca), for example, offers registered users ways to track books and personal favourites, or receive lists of suggested materials, much like the recommendation service at Amazon."

Article mentions -- "The Wireless Librarian (people.morrisville.edu/drewwe/wireless) lists more than 400 such library hot spots in the United States."

Google Web Library

Questions and Praise for Google Web Library By FELICIA R. LEE, NY Times (Dec 18)

Many academics applaud Google's project to digitize library collections, but do question the implications.

"How will research be improved for students already struggling with, among other things, how to authenticate Internet information? What new roles will librarians play in helping people parse a vast amount of more easily obtainable information? Will libraries have to cooperate to prevent redundancy in their collections?"

Open WorldCat Pilot

Open WorldCat Pilot:A User's Perspective by Nancy O'Neill, Searcher (Nov / Dec 2004) Describes the OCLC's Open WorldCat Pilot Project http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/pilot/] to add library records to the Google and Yahoo databases. Has tips on how to search. Problem remains - will it really find the book in the closest library and will you be able to get it from the library?

Google Scholar Ctd

Google Scholar Focuses on Research-Quality Content by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Nov 22)

"... Google Scholar enables specific searches of scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, pre-prints, abstracts, and technical reports. Content includes a range of publishers and aggregators with whom Google already has standing arrangements, e.g., the Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE, OCLC’s Open WorldCat library locator service, etc. Result displays will show different version clusters, citation analysis, and library location (currently books only). Although claiming coverage “from all broad areas of research,” early evaluation seems to show a clear emphasis on science and technology, rather than the arts, humanities, or social sciences."

Extended look at capabilities, possibilities, implications, and initial reactions.

Also see -- Google Scholar as Academic Metasearch: Political not Algorithmic by Andrew Goodman (Nov 21) -Traffick.com - re-examines the library search component of Google Scholar provided through OCLC Worldcat. His search was for "Peter deLeon's Thinking About Political Corruption" which he found listed in York University, Ryerson and a few other Canadian university libraries. Goodman notes the citations given, and the regional libraries that Google selected. In passing he noted that University of Toronto libraries weren't among the results.

Virtual Reference

To Chat or Not to Chat — Taking Yet Another Look at Virtual Reference, Part 2 by Steve Coffman. Searcher (Sept 2004) - Time spent in online reference can make it expensive, but Coffman says, "If you don't like the idea of killing off your chat service, then try to improve the way it works." He also has several suggestions as alternatives to virtual reference.

Library Portal

LibPortal: Library Portal Survey and Review A study about the use of portals for academic libraries is now available from Loughborough University in the UK. The primary aim of the project was "to gather information that enables the JISC [Joint Information Systems Community] community to understand the development, implementation and use of library portals by FE and HE institutions."

Google and the public library

Libraries try to fit into a Google world By Katie Hafner The New York Times via CNet (June 20) It is now widely documented that students and instructors start research by going online. According to this article "A few research librarians say Google could eventually take on more of the role of a universal library. " But Google and other search engines only skim the surface of digitized materials. Research libraries are working with Google to get more of their content indexed. Yahoo is doing the same with the University of Michigan.

LIbrarians get good press

When a Search Engine Isn't Enough, Call a Librarian By JEFFREY SELINGO. New York Times (Feb 5) - librarian at Rockville Regional Library in Maryland used everything at hand to answer a question that came through their live-chat desk about Ross Perot.

"Librarians fear that people are too trusting of the Web, particularly for health and corporate information, areas in which some libraries say they have been receiving fewer inquiries in recent years. In both fields, the accuracy of the information often depends on its source. In New York and at many other libraries, cardholders can gain access to subscriber-only databases - including popular ones like Medline Plus for medical information and Gale for business resources - from a remote location. "

OCLC Scans the environment

OCLC has published Pattern Recognition: The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan "to examine the significant issues and trends impacting OCLC, libraries, museums, archives and other allied organizations, both now and in the future. The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions."

Site has an interactive world map showing spending on libraries, education and technology as a percentage of GDP. Report is available as web pages, pdf, or dowload.

Looks at social landscape, economic, technology, research and learning, library. Closes with future frameworks.

Fight Googlefication of Search

Gary Price exhorts librarians to not succumb to the Googlefication of search in What Google Teaches Us that Has Nothing to Do with Searching Searcher (Nov/Dec 2003) Instead they must learn to do "web collection", stay up to date with good tools and their features, and market their services and specialized fee-based products. He closes with "eight starting points" as a call to action.

Library Catalogs No Longer Invisible Web

OCLC Project Opens WorldCat Records to Google by Barbara Quint. Newsbreaks (Oct 27) - OCLC will test opening up the WorldCat database of library holdings to Google. They will begin with 2 million representing books that are held by at least 100 libraries. "Searches on Google will retrieve the records and link through OCLC to library holdings. The move expands the scope of the Open WorldCat yearlong pilot project to make library resources available from non-library Web sites and will “test the effectiveness of Web search engines in guiding users to library-owned materials.”"

Clicking on a Google citation will take one to a prompt for location in order to find the nearest library. This will work at zip code level for the US and postal code for Canada.

One problem noted was the thinness of a bibliographic record compared to a full text page for relevancy ranking.

Unintended Consequences of the Internet

How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet
By Marylaine Block, Searcher (October 2003)

The Internet has been both good and bad for libraries. Marylaine Block looked at the challenges and identified imaginative solutions adopted by librarians. This article lists the threats and some of the responses. It also has an excellent list of resources refered to in the article.

The article is a preview to Laine's new book Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet.