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.

ACRL/DLS Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award

If you're going to ALA in Chicago this year, here's a session you may want to attend:

ACRL Distance Learning Section
ALA Annual Conference Meeting Invitation

Please join us in Chicago for the presentation of the ACRL/DLS Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award to this year's recipient Jack Fritts, immediately followed by a lively open discussion on Future Distance Learning Section Programs, Poster Sessions and Research

Date:           Sunday, July 12, 2009
Time:          10:00 am - Noon
Location:       Hilton, Northwest 2

The Google Wave Highlight Reel

Gina Trapani at Smarterware has a great post where she's chopped out the highlights of an 80-minute presentation showcasing Google Wave.  Now you can see what's particularly cool with this future tool in less than 8 minutes.

Digi-Man and Interrobangs

Another winning episode of the CBC Spark podcast.  Episode 79 talks with Seamus Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto about digital preservation, and I also learned about the interrobang (‽).

Here's a goofy non-library example of the importance of digital preservation:

NRC Research Press soon no longer free for Canadians

The National Research Council of Canada has decided to privatize their journals and services.

"Specifically for our Canadian clients and subscribers, since 2001 our journals have been provided electronically, free to all Canadians. This has been available due to the generous support of the Federal Depository Services Program. This availability will continue to be in place for the calendar subscription year 2009.

However, the Depository Services Program is not mandated to provide funding for publishing operations outside of the Federal Government of Canada. As the exact date of the transfer of NRC Research Press to a new legal entity in 2010 is still in question, we are unable at this time to inform you of the termination date of the free electronic access. We are attempting to persuade the Depository Services Program to provide this access through the remainder of calendar subscription year 2010. We will keep you informed as soon as we know the situation for 2010. It can be assumed that the support for free electronic access will cease for the calendar subscription year 2011."

Here's a list of the journals that will no longer be free: http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/rp-ps/journals.jsp?lang=eng

(Thanks for the pointer, Dani)

ebook pricing stuff

A couple of quick things to note.  Teleread points to an ebook price comparison website: http://www.ebookprice.info/.  Doesn't look terribly comprehensive, and it's only US sources, but a good idea.  Couldn't find Outliers, for example.  But the second thing to note is that I did notice Outliers is now selling for only $4.88 on Shortcovers, vs $19.09 when the site launched a month ago!

Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians

Holy Crap - back up your data!

The collapse of the Historical Archive of Cologne on Tuesday buried more than a millenium's worth of documents under tons of rubble. Archivists and historians hope something can be salvaged, but the future of the city's past is grim.

Thanks for the link, Rosvita.

Value added with social media

One of the things I really like about Rollbots is that the creator (author?), MCM, each week posts a behind-the-scenes recap of the show, explaining some of what was supposed to happen in the episode, or why what did happen happened the way it did.  It's neat to learn extra little tidbits about a piece of media you care about.

That reminded me of how social media, specifically blogs, podcasts and twitter, can be used effectively as marketing tools by libraries, and of course any other business.  I'm thinking of other media examples like the podcasts produced by Lost and Battlestar Galactica, where you can learn more about the shows you love.  I don't follow the twitter feeds of many libraries, but Vancouver Public Library is one that I really like, because they take the opportunity to talk about a little more than the type of stuff that would appear on the regular blog. 

Is anyone aware of libraries that are letting folks know WHY things are happening at their library?  Maybe not quite as mundane as why a book was catalogued with a specific subject heading, but surely there are behind-the-scenes tidbits the public would care about that would make us seem more human?

Serenity Now! - Library Lullaby

"iSerenity offers a relaxing web-based experience that delivers soothing sounds and images designed to reduce stress and calm nerves. Use iSerenity while at work or at home. You can even leave it running in the background while you work on your computer."

I just found Library Lullaby, which will provide background noise of, well, a library.  Does your library sound like this?  Nice pictures too!  There are other environments such as waterfalls, rain, and purring too!

Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008

From the Educause website:

This report is the sixth in a series of annual reports on a study
conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group for the Sloan Consortium.
Using responses from over 2,500 colleges and universities, the study
sought answers to several questions on online education:

• How many students are learning online?
• What is the impact of the economy on online enrollments?
• Is online learning strategic?
• What disciplines are best represented online?

It's a 28-page PDF with nary a mention of libraries, library, or librarian.

Extensive knowledge of the Star Wars film series is a major plus

A job ad for Image Database Administrator, Lucafilm , San Francisco, California was posted to LISJobs a month ago, but was recently forwarded to the Web4Lib list.  That might be a cool job!

I'm # 51,008 in the Kindle Store!

You may recall that last year I discussed some options I was considering for commercialization of this blog.  I have gotten one $25 payment from Newstex in the last year, so my content's obviously trickling out there somehow.  Just got a notice that I'm now available in the Amazon Kindle store, where you can now subscribe to me for $.99 per month!  I didn't set the price, and obviously I don't suggest you pay to receive my content when you can get it here for free.  But I guess if you live and die by your Kindle you now have the option. :-)

3.94 million online students in the US

So says the most recent Sloan-C publication, Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008 (28 page PDF).  Lots of good general statistics (how many, which programs, drivers of distance ed, etc.) but not a single mention of libraries.

Google Prefs for Mobile Devices and XHTML

I'm on the Google Preference page from time to time, and noticed something new today.  Google now allows you to output search results in HTML (default), XHTML or for PDAs!  Or does it?  I just went back to grab a screenshot of what the different outputs would look like, and the setting is gone.  Weird.  Something to look forward to I guess.

The Annoyed Librarian goes for World Domination

I don’t follow the Annoyed Librarian, and I didn’t pay much attention when it was announced that Library Journal was paying him/her to move his/her blog over there.  But holy cow, now the AL has shown up as the author of every article in a “special issue” of the Journal of Access Services! (volume 5, issue 4).  I’m on the  editorial board for this journal and this was news to me; it just showed up in my mail Friday afternoon.  I’ll skim through the articles to see how funny they are, but even if we’re having trouble scaring up contributors, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the path we want to go down with our peer-reviewed journals!