Ramblings, citations and "brainwaves" of a college librarian in Toronto. 475 square feet refers to the size of my home, not the size of my office or library.



Mark Leggott Out Shines Richard Florida At OLA SuperConference


Although I have read everything Richard Florida has written, and enjoyed the inspirational nature of his talk today, being an urban studies scholar myself, Mark Leggott blew my mind, and it seems, many others that attended too, from what I heard in the halls of the convention centre. While Richard talked about changing the world we live in to harness our talents, Mark Leggott and his teams are doing it FAST, and NOW. No talking, no consultations, no debates. He has a vision and he is on a journey to get there. He is building the world we have dreamed about or never even thought possible. Speechless. Should keep my noodle figiting for months to come.

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UNC FlashMob


UNC Flashmob

Maybe we need one at SuperConference on the exhibition floor?


Failblog.org


This is my website of the month! Failblog.org

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures


Convenience Trumps Quality: How Digital Natives Use Information


Written by Derek Law

This new breed of information user doesn't simply want everything made simple. They have a quite different value structure. On the one hand they want choice, being much less clear that there is right information and wrong information, but at the same time they want selectivity. They want instant results and instant gratification because a fundamental tenet is that convenience trumps quality. They want just enough to complete the task in hand - not complete or perfect. So it has to be cheap, fast and good. Both information and technology have to be mobile and available anytime, any place, anywhere.

Such users expect research to be easy and feel they can be independent in the process. They don't seek help from librarians and only occasionally from teachers or peers. As a result, when they can't find what they need, they give up and assume that the information cannot be found. Students often stop after their initial searches thinking they have completed the research process and fail to choose a particular focus. If it's not on the Web, it doesn't exist. Access to full text articles seems to have changed students' cognitive behaviour. Instead of having to read through material at the library, they can now download material at their desks. They do not have to take notes or read through them to develop themes and ideas, an activity central to a focused research project, because electronic articles enable cutting and pasting, almost certainly leading to increased plagiarism - although I suspect that this is done through ignorance more often than malice.




50 Cool Icon Sets



OCLC Has Some PR Troubles




From Gutenburg.com

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard this back in 1998 too.

1. NEW EBOOK READERS WILL MAKE LAPTOPS AND IPHONES LOOK OLD
2. CRITICAL MASS HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, NOW ITS ABOUT GROWTH (see the Overdrive link below)
3. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE DIGITAL INK FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THEY WILL LOVE IT
4. IF THERE’S ONE THING EVERYONE WANTS NOW, IT’S COMFORT
5. WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT IT? – NOW THAT’S PRACTICAL
6. DO YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD 1 MOVIE OR 1,000 EBOOKS?
7. THE MONEY PEOPLE: COST OF ENTRY IS STILL LOW, POTENTIAL HIGH
8. A MILLION EBOOKS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: IT’S THE “OTHER INTERNET”
9. THE BOOK IS JUST A FORMAT, NO DIFFERENT THAN A CD, VHS, OR DVD
10. ONE WORD: POWER
11. AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS, AND DISTRIBUTORS BENEFIT FINANCIALLY
12. PLAYING AROUND WITH BOOKS IS OK, READING THEM IS BETTER
13. A TRULY GREEN TECHNOLOGY – WITHOUT EVEN TRYING
14. WITH A CHALLENGING ECONOMY, COMPANIES WILL LOOK TO ENTER EBOOK BUSINESS
15. TRY IT ONCE, YOU’RE HOOKED FOR GOOD
16. THE IPHONE, NINTENDO DS WILL INSTANTLY EXPOSE AND PROMOTE EBOOKS
17. RIGHTS FIGHTS: IT’S ALL-GOOD WITH EBOOKS
18. THE HUGE NUMBER OF FREE EBOOKS AVAILABLE
19. A NEW GENERATION OF INDEPENDENT AUTHORS WILL NOW COME FORWARD
20. IT’S THE CONTENT, STUPID


DCPL Launches iPhone Application







History of the Internet Video



Textbook Rentals Emerge


We can rent lots of things these days, why has it taken so long to be able to rent textbooks? We have piracy running rampant.

Check these new offerings.


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