Category: ‘puters

Why searching Google for online resources is like buying a CD at Wal-Mart. [libinblack]

All librarians who interact with multimedia at all [that is to say “all librarians”] should start understanding Digital Rights Management issues now. Jenny has a few good anecdotes about why buying items with DRM can be the equivalnet of bad customer service for libraries.

The new LISFeeds covers 131 blogs and even has a search function. The new and today’s items options means you can do a quick check-in with the LIS world with one click. Plus, it’s attractive. Nice job Blake [and Steven for getting the whole ball rolling on this in the first place, mazel tov on the new job].

While this is just a series of slides, I think a narrative can be made that combines them in lieu of the actual talk that was given. Library Technology 2004: The Current State of Library Automation and Future Trends. Of particular note: bigger libraries, and more of them, are going with similar vendors so consolidation of large library resources becomes simpler and searching gets more federated. And, on the next to last slide, “Small, rural libraries continue to struggle with automation.” Too bad. [unalog]

I’d like to see this Google/library overlap really hit the popular culture consciousness. I’d like to see folks songs about the bookmobiles and people writing me letters at my library saying “I will still come there, even if all the books are available online” I’d like to see some good library art and some good library rallying songs and manifestos. I don’t think we have to be anti-Google to do it, I think we just need to stick up for our own wonderful selves and explain why the idea of a publicly owned space for enhancing your own info-lexicon is a social good and one worthy of funding, support, and appreciation. Google will always be a wonderful tool for librarians and others to use, but Google will never belong to me. Google will never have a comfortable chair, and sometimes you just want a comfortable chair.