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→ A very friendly and personal nudge from scrabbulous
→ LARABAR (yum!) links to a flickr search of their name for some free marketing
[larabar.com]
→ on mininova.org, one of the most popular bittorrent sites, rukus85 wants more discussion
[mininova.org]
→ Hi. I’m Toni Morrison and I like the Amazon Kindle.
[amazon.com]
Have you seen all of the links pointing to The Future of Reading, a “Newsweek” article by Steven Levey? Well, there’s one if you haven’t. What the excitement? Amazon.com releases their ebook reader, called the Kindle, tomorrow. Along with it comes a wireless content purchasing system. The article is worth a read and it claims that the print book will be a thing of the past in 50 years. Gasp! I’ve heard that one before, but to be honest, the more time goes on, the more I think it could be true.
O’Reilly thinks the device is somewhat irrelevant and finds the wireless book purchasing/download aspect more interesting. This makes sense coming from a publisher, and probably librarians too. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: anywhere on demand delivery is a potentially strong threat to public libraries.
Speaking of libraries, they’re mentioned once in the article and not in the typical doom-and-gloom-the-sky-is-falling-on-them way. In fact, it kind of makes it seem like we’re a step ahead of Bezos and the Kindle.
Bezos explains that it’s only fair to charge less for e-books because you can’t give them as gifts, and due to restrictive antipiracy software, you can’t lend them out or resell them. (Libraries, though, have developed lending procedures for previous versions of e-books—like the tape in “Mission: Impossible,” they evaporate after the loan period—and Bezos says that he’s open to the idea of eventually doing that with the Kindle.)
Of course, this statement isn’t accurate. Libraries haven’t “developed lending procedures,” have we? No. Vendors and publishers have. In a pretty crumby way. The article makes our ebooks seem pretty cool though with a comparison to Mission: Impossible. Librarians reading the article will find the Mission: Impossible comparison apt but for entirely different reasons.
Mystery novelist James Patterson (did you know he came up with the slogan “Toys ‘R Us Kid?”) thinks ebooks will supplant paper books soon and reasons:
“The baby boomers have a love affair with paper,” he says. “But the next-gen people, in their 20s and below, do everything on a screen.”
Kids these days, I tell ya!
Other good bits from the article include thinking of ebooks as potentially social documents. Authors could update content easily. Users could comment, or even hold book discussions within a book. I like the idea of having different layers of a book that can be turned on and off at will.
So, the Kindle. Funny/sad footnote in the history of gadgets, or world changing device? I dunno, but I’m interested to see!
I’ve been emailed a lot with questions similar to this one that appeared on the LibGaming google group.
I do have the question of whether there are legalities of using
Nintendo images/wallpaper images (located throughout their website) for our first upcoming gaming event?
Eli Neiburger chimes in with a great response:
You are in the clear. I was told by GolinHarris, Nintendo’s Marketing Firm, that using their Intellectual Property in promotional materials for a free library event is allowed and legal. You are promoting their products. They love that. =) There is no legal issue here. This is allowed, and even encouraged, by the rightsholders. Let me know if you have any other questions about this!
So then why do some libraries block IM? And why aren’t more libraries available via IM?
Take a look at the press release for the AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey. The first pullout is amazing! The survey also states that teens are most likely multitasking when they’re IMming by researching homework assignments online.
These will come in handy if you’re trying to start an IM project at your library and need to present stats to the stat driven administrator.
-More than half (55 percent) of teen IM users have used instant messaging to get help with their homework. This is a 17 percent increase over last year. Meanwhile, 22 percent of teens say they have sent an IM to ask for or accept a date.
-Forty-three percent of teen IM users say they have used instant messaging to say something they would not say to someone in person. Teenage girls are more likely than boys to do so. Nearly half of teenage girls surveyed have used instant messaging to say something they would not say in person, compared with just over a third of teenage boys.
-Teens today are more likely to upload photos (42 percent in 2007 vs. 34 percent in 2006) while instant messaging. They are less likely to conduct online research for school (57 percent vs. 63 percent) or update their blog or social profile (33 percent vs. 42 percent) while sending IMs.
-Nearly three in four teens (70 percent) and one in four adults (24 percent) send more instant messages than emails.
-Multi-tasking remains very popular, as IM users tend to engage in multiple online activities while sending instant messages. Checking email is the most popular activity among eight in ten adult and teen IM users. After email, adult IM users most often conduct online searches (49 percent), while teens say they like to research homework assignments online (57 percent).
- Nearly four in five (79 percent) at-work IM users say they have used instant messaging in the office to take care of personal matters. One in five (19 percent) IM users say they send more instant messages than emails to their co-workers and colleagues.
Withdrawn!
Originally uploaded by aaron schmidt
I really enjoy weeding.
aka: My Friend Discovers the Library
Two of my friends have discovered their public libraries recently and one of them told me about it via gChat the other day. Like my post about someone I know discovering reference service, this is clearly anecdotal but still interesting.
It takes a second to scroll through this transcript but it is fast to read. [emphasis mine]
#####
steve: i got a library card today
and checked out books
me: what inspired you???
(your library has a flickr account, you know)
steve: improving my coaching
me: you should start placing hold on DVDs online
steve: and i discovered a wonderworld of woodworking books
me: oh yes! nice
steve: some which i have wanted to buy but no need now
me: PERFECT
steve: tons of dvd’s
amazing
me: libraries suck at marketing.
you never knew it existed, right?
steve: so strange that i/people haven’t taken advantage of what is free at the library
i totally didn’t know
so bizarre
it really is a wonderworld now, and not the ancient old books only place
it is sad
you have a tough job
getting the word out
yet it is such an easy sell, if only people knew
me: haha, i know! if only everyone in a community was forced to walk into the library just once!
steve: that is all it would take
LOL
dvd rentals are free now for 7 days
so crazy
reserving online
so much easier than going to a video store even
and FREE
me: practically like netflix, except you need to ride your bike to get the DVDs
steve: yeah
i feel like i just discovered the greatest place in the world to satisfy my interests and it has been there all along
AND I know you which should have motivated me more to get in there
me: so is there hope for everyone else??
steve: Yes, but like you said, libraries suck at marketing
everyone remembers the card catalog world
tough question how to get people in
yet so STUPID not to take advantage!
i love the library
:)
#####
Nice work Westmont Public Library for giving my friend a good experience and creating a passionate user! My other friend says of the librarians he’s encountered, “Some of the women are really nice, and some of them are crabby.” Sounds about right?
I still can’t get over what Steve said about a public library. Not the interwebs, not amazon.com, not school, not a club. The public library.
i feel like i just discovered the greatest place in the world to satisfy my interests and it has been there all along
aka: My Friend Discovers the Library
Two of my friends have discovered their public libraries recently and one of them told me about it via gChat the other day. Like my post about someone I know discovering reference service, this is clearly anecdotal but still interesting.
It takes a second to scroll through this transcript but it is fast to read. [emphasis mine]
#####
steve: i got a library card today
and checked out books
me: what inspired you???
(your library has a flickr account, you know)
steve: improving my coaching
me: you should start placing hold on DVDs online
steve: and i discovered a wonderworld of woodworking books
me: oh yes! nice
steve: some which i have wanted to buy but no need now
me: PERFECT
steve: tons of dvd’s
amazing
me: libraries suck at marketing.
you never knew it existed, right?
steve: so strange that i/people haven’t taken advantage of what is free at the library
i totally didn’t know
so bizarre
it really is a wonderworld now, and not the ancient old books only place
it is sad
you have a tough job
getting the word out
yet it is such an easy sell, if only people knew
me: haha, i know! if only everyone in a community was forced to walk into the library just once!
steve: that is all it would take
LOL
dvd rentals are free now for 7 days
so crazy
reserving online
so much easier than going to a video store even
and FREE
me: practically like netflix, except you need to ride your bike to get the DVDs
steve: yeah
i feel like i just discovered the greatest place in the world to satisfy my interests and it has been there all along
AND I know you which should have motivated me more to get in there
me: so is there hope for everyone else??
steve: Yes, but like you said, libraries suck at marketing
everyone remembers the card catalog world
tough question how to get people in
yet so STUPID not to take advantage!
i love the library
:)
#####
Nice work Westmont Public Library for giving my friend a good experience and creating a passionate user! My other friend says of the librarians he’s encountered, “Some of the women are really nice, and some of them are crabby.” Sounds about right?
I still can’t get over what Steve said about a public library. Not the interwebs, not amazon.com, not school, not a club. The public library.
i feel like i just discovered the greatest place in the world to satisfy my interests and it has been there all along
Among others, Michael Stephens has long been advocating for libraries as a place of content production, and I can’t disagree with him. He mentioned it again recently in his post Centers of Production which included a link to Jon Udell’s Remixing the Library.
Sue Polanka, Head of Reference and Instruction at the WSU Paul Laurence Dunbar Library (recently featured here) wrote in to tell me about the podcasting rooms that Wright State University has set up I have to pull out some of her quotes from the article:
We wanted to bring what’s up-to-date, fun and common for today’s students to the library here at Wright State.By having our own separate room dedicated just to podcasting, we are able to give the students a nice place to come and try out the new software.
One of the things that sets us apart is the sound walls we have in place that will allow students to talk or even make music in the most quiet environment we can provide.
I like that the Dunbar Library has combined the idea of content creation stations, being tech current, and the library as place into one neat project.
→ half-life 2 real-time strategy mod
→ symantec’s FPS about network security
→ micro counter strike
FPS for cell phones
→ Virtual crack houses aid rehab
Gaming, Pavlovian conditioning and recovery
Here’s a PDF of the gadgets presentation I presented along with Barbara Fullerton and Sabrina Pacifici at Internet Librarian last month. It doesn’t exactly capture the revelry of the event, but maybe you’ll find something of use in there.
