The Distant Librarian

RenewBot vs Library Elf

Fight!  (I looked, but couldn't find a picture of a robot fighting an elf)  I just discovered RenewBot, which will automatically renew your library books X # of days before they come due, where X is set by you.  First two months are free, then if you want to continue it'll cost $2.99 per year for each library card you run through the system.  How many days would your book have to be overdue to pay for that?!?  I was impressed at how quickly they added Calgary Public Library and the University of Calgary to their system after I requested those additions (less than 24 hours).  Turns out RenewBot also does pretty much everything my longtime fav Library Elf does too; after logging in you can see which books are checked out on that card, and which holds are still in the queue.  Here's the RenewBot privacy policy, and here's the policy for Library Elf.

Many libraries are lending Kindles

While we wait to see if BYU will reinstate their Kindle lending program, take a look at the list of libraries that are still lending them put together by iReaderreview.  I's not just a list; there's a fair bit of supporting content in the post.

Kindle, Libraries

BYU suspends Kindle program over legal concerns

Sometimes it's a problem pushing the envelope - seems that the BYU Library initiative to use Kindles instead of getting books via ILL has been suspended after "some buzz on library-related blogs for breaking ground in the uncertain area of lending books on the Kindle." 

"We are playing it safe," Layton said. "Two people here said we have verbal permission. But if we don't have it in writing, that's a different thing. We don't want to do anything that Amazon doesn't completely agree with."

Everyone in the comments seems to be in favour of the initiative.  Hope this forces Amazon to acquiesce!

Ready to try Summon? Go ahead!

Dartmouth, one of the first two (I think) libraries to sign on as beta partners with Serials Solutions' Summon Unified Discovery Service, has opened the beta up to its entire campus community.  And you can search it too!  You'll find a prominent link on their home page, or you can jump directly to the search page.  A brief overview of the product for their users is also available.

So whattya think?  About the speed, relevancy, accuracy, or in general?  The University of Calgary is also a beta partner with this product; we've recently had our MARC records loaded, and are awaiting the inclusion of metadata from some of our other local collections before opening it more widely to our clientele.

Summon, Discovery

Brigham Young Library Tests Kindle as ILL Alternative

Gerrit van Dyk, Document Delivery Services Manager at Brigham Young University, blogs about their new initiative to loan Kindles to faculty members instead of trying to obtain new material via ILL.  You can also read a brief article about this at Library Journal.

Kindle, ILL, BYU

Simon & Schuster to Sell Digital Books on Scribd.com

I looked at Scribd.com when it first came out and dismissed it as lawyer-bait because it appeared to be so easy to upload pirated content.  Just did some searches and found lots of links to questionable content, but after clicking through, every one had been removed, so apparently they're doing a good job policing that.  Such a good job, in fact, that the New York Times is reporting that Simon & Schuster have just signed a deal to sell digital books on the site.  "Scribd, a start-up based in San Francisco, also says it is working on a reading application for the iPhone, which should be ready in a few weeks."

Do you love books or do you love reading?

Ann Kirschner has a thought-provoking piece in the Chronicle describing how she read a 1,000 page novel across four different formats; paperback, audiobook, iPhone and Kindle.  You might be surprised at what she decided was the best format, at least for her.  As an aside, I'm now reading my fourth book in the Stanza iPhone application. I love the fact that it's always with me, and I can change the font and lighting depending on my situation.

This time we mean it! - Google to sell e-books

The New York Times is reporting that Google plans to begin selling ebooks by the end of 2009.  "In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device."

TeleRead has a couple of posts around this announcement as well.

I'm betting it will be USA-only.

More on Libraries and eBooks

Following up on my earlier post about licensing issues around ebooks and libraries, Sue at No Shelf Required discusses the same Teleread post: Is it possible to donate an eBook to the library?  In the  comments,  Dan D'Agostino mentions he's got a new blog on his (collection development librarian) perspective of eBook reader technology at e-Book Reader News (on e-book readers, mobile devices, and the ebook publishing world).  Subscribed.

First Impressions

I finally got around to reading a couple of posts I'd squirreled away, and they turn out to be somewhat related.

Brian Mathews posts about 5 next-gen library catalogs and 5 students: their initial impressions.  Important to us here at the UofC as we continue to beta test Summon.  While admittedly not scientific, there are definitely things to note here.

And Sol at the Federated Search Blog posts What do you call that thing? Wondering if there's a solid mostly-universal term for those "things" we search that hold content.  Research Databases?  Sources?  E-resources?  Doesn't seem to be a consensus out there, unfortunately.  Last summer during a site redesign I changed the tab on our library site from "Research Databases" to "Online Resources", and the single biggest complaint over the first month was that folks couldn't find what they were looking for because the new terminology somehow didn't mean what the old terminology meant to them.

In which the public learns about licensing

Teleread has an interesting post entitled How to give away an ebook after you’ve read it in which the author suggests people purchase ebooks for their local library rather for themselves, thus allowing multiple people to read the book (once the original purchaser has had a chance to read it).  Sounds like a great idea, except, as folks in the comments point out, most licenses won't allow for this.  But there are some ideas in there that, in a sane world, could work.  Alas.

Second thoughts on Shortcovers

Yesterday I blogged about the new Shortcovers service. 

Last night I read a short  story and have the following observations.  I like how I can browse the website from my desktop, bookmark titles, and then have them appear on my iPhone for reading.  (I can also, of course, browse and bookmark from the iPhone). 

I don't like having to scroll down to read, then click next page, then repeat.  I'd much prefer something that would present a screen at a time, and advance each time I tap the screen, or something that would scroll the text at a pre-set speed or something. 

And finally, I really hate the overlay of bars at the top and bottom of the screen - those just have to be hidden while I'm reading.  Still got some potential here though, so far so good.

Shortcovers - mixing traditional and local publishing

I've only just started to play with it myself, but early today, Shortcovers.com opened for business.  Run by Canada's Chapters/Indigo book chain (though oddly not mentioned on their homepage), Shortcovers is the first solution for buying e-books on the go outside of the Kindle platform.  They have apps for the iPhone and BlackBerry, with Android in the works, and you can also read on their website.

The idea is to be able to buy either entire books to download to your mobile device, or in some cases a chapter at a time.  The first chapter is always free. 

You can upload content as well, though I haven't explored how that all works, or whether you can set the content to be free or charge whatever you want. 

I'm puzzled as to why books seem more expensive through Shortcovers than through traditional channels.  Outliers, for example, costs $17.04 on the Chapters/Indigo website, but $19.09 on Shortcovers (though only $15.50 on Amazon.ca, sigh).  I guess I'm paying for the convenience of getting it right now (though I don't know how long the book would take to download, or if I'd want to pay for it to arrive over the air as opposed to wifi).  I dunno, I think I would've launched with some sort of deep discount, or subscription plan maybe. 

They have options for subscribing to all content by a certain author, and lots of social networking sharing options, so it seems as though they're trying hard to build community around the product.  They've got a blog, and they tweet; doing all the Web 2.0 stuff right, but I don't like that overpricing...

My virtual buddy MCM has just posted his thoughts from the small author's point of view.

So I'll keep playing with it and let you know if it really grabs me.  I sure like the idea though!  If you're in the States, and if they're charging Cdn dollars, as it appears, it's gonna be a great deal for you folks in the US, so try it out from there, eh!

Not sure yet what, if any, implications there are for libraries yet, but if the booksellers can adapt to the mobile platform, surely we can too!  Maybe offer a digitization program where the content is optimized for mobile devices on the fly?

Anyhoo, check it out.

Is ProQuest missing the boat with mobile SafariBooksOnline?

Earlier this week, Safari Books Online launched a mobile interface to their product at http://m.safaribooksonline.com.  The University of Calgary has an institutional subscription to Safari Books Online via ProQuest, and I naively assumed after we threw this new URL into our ezproxy configuration I'd be able to access the new site via my iPhone. 

Nope.  When I get to the site I'm asked for a login and password.  I contacted ProQuest Technical Support and was told "The Mobile version of Safari Online is not available with an institutional account. I can send this on to the Product Manager as an enhancement but would not be able to give a time frame for when or even if it would be implemented."  Sigh.

So I've also sent a request to platformfeedback@proquest.com and to safarimobile@safaribooksonline.com.  This is something I'd like to use to promote the innovation that's going on in the library world to our techie users.   In fact I'm already on the agenda to present about this to our campus Information Technology Advisory Group (see naively assumed above).  Don't you think ProQuest would like to be able to advertise they're the first to offer a major database specifically formatted for the mobile platform?  Or maybe they're not - are you aware of any others?

C'mon ProQuest, take the lead on this one!  (my presentation is scheduled for April 17th - can you let me know before then please?)

Wowbrary Notifies You of New Library Books, Movies or Music

Lifehacker points to a service called Wowbrary, which,

regularly informs you by email and/or RSS about your chosen public
library’s newest books, movies and music. We make it easy for you to
browse through the latest additions and place a hold on a new title.
This is a free user service supported by grants, donations,
sponsorships, book sale commissions and volunteers.

It's free to the end user, but not to libraries, which must sponsor Wowbrary.  Only available in the US, and geared towards Public Libraries.  Are any of you using this?