Friday, May 27, 2011

First Ever, Found Object Friday

Working in a library I come across the strangest things left inside books. I thought that it would be an interesting idea to make a "Found Object" post every Friday! That way I can share my findings with you.

The first found object, which I think is one of the best, is a copy of the Kansas City Star from 1969. The fact that the paper has stayed relatively intact since 1969 is pretty amazing, but what is even more amazing is the content of this particular paper:



The date on the paper is July 26, 1969. At that time the cost to purchase it was 10 cents. Incredible! I was very excited when I opened the donated atlas (which was in terrible shape) and found this newspaper. I am going to try and see if we can preserve it and frame it. The inside has some really incredible 60's infographics about the mission and the space craft and I would love to frame it.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Librarians: Privacy Superheroes

Libraries must be beacons of privacy in an increasingly public world.

Even the small pubic library where I work does it's part in keeping with our patrons right to privacy. In fact, we take it extraordinarily serious. Everyone who works at the library has undergone extensive training in regards to our privacy policies and all of our staff were required to take online courses in library law/policy. Our LISTEN system allows us access to extremely sensitive patron information, which we never give out, nor do we allow other patrons access to it. Information such as home addresses and email addresses are never used inappropriately (i.e., spam marketing or solicitations).

Another way we protect our patrons is by shredding all documents and labels that contain patron information. This means that every reserve wrapper is shredded almost immediately after it is removed from the book. We also fiercely protect the privacy of our patrons when it comes to what they are reading. I have had friends, husbands, siblings and bosses ask me what 'so in so' has out and that information would never cross to the other side of the desk.

The article was quite interesting and I very much agree with the author that libraries need to set the standard in terms of individual privacy and community based.

What do you think? Do you believe that the library goes above and beyond in regards to your privacy? Is there something more that libraries could/should do?

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Kindle Books Now Beating All Print Versions Combined...

...on Amazon

This statistic is coming from Amazon re: Amazon, it is not encompassing the entire book industry. Even though Amazon has quite the market share when it comes to books, they don't have all of it!

Amazon is, for lack of a better phrase, the "Wal-Mart of the internet" and people treat it as such. When I want to buy a book, I do not normally think to purchase it off of Amazon, rather I venture to Barnes and Noble or an independent book-seller. Especially now that Borders is gone and B&N is the only major chain selling books, I will try to take as much of my business to Barnes and Noble as I can.

How does this affect the library? So far it hasn't. We still have people clamoring for the newest paper copy of James Patterson's book of the week and I don't see it affecting rural/semi-rural public libraries in the immediate future.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book | Video on TED.com

Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book | Video on TED.com

Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth."

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Interesting Studies I Have Stumbled Upon

When I have some downtime, I like to read library/literacy related studies/articles (because I am a massive nerd). Some of the latest studies that I have come across I figured I would share!

1. College students’ use of Kindle DX points to e-reader’s role in academia
A study of how University of Washington graduate students integrated an Amazon Kindle DX into their course reading provides the first long-term investigation of e-readers in higher education. While some of the study’s findings were expected – students want improved support for taking notes, checking references and viewing figures – the authors also found that allowing people to switch between reading styles, and providing the reader with physical cues, are two challenges that e-readers will need to address in cracking the college market.


2. How Reading Improves Your Social Life
...a study[*] suggesting that fiction readers tend to be more empathic than non-fiction readers. This could of course be correlation rather than causation -- maybe the kind of person who likes fiction is more empathic to start with -- but the researchers think not.


*I can not seem to find this study, so if anyone actually finds an active link, let me know!

3. 21 Things that Will Disappear from Education in the Next 10 Years
While libraries as a whole are not schools, they are directly related to the education field and academic libraries are of course impacted even more. As a librarian at a two-year college, we are being asked right now to create our vision for the next ten years and then to extend that to what we believe the college classroom will look like in ten years.


4. Red letter day for Darwin Correspondence Project
The project mapping Charles Darwin's life and work in the 15,000 letters he wrote or received during his extraordinary lifetime will be completed after a £5 million funding package was announced. The awards, announced by Cambridge University Library and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), will ensure the full completion of the definitive, award-winning edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin.


5. Petition against HarperCollins ebook/library policy garners 53,786 signatures

Ok, so 5 isn't really an article, but more of a HUGE PAT ON THE BACK TO LIBRARIANS EVERYWHERE!! Libraries totally made their voices heard by boycotting HarperCollins over the eBook scandal of 2011. Go libraries!