(via Tame the Web)
Library of the Future in Plain English
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Category Archives: Library 2.0
The Art of (old) Books – publishers’ bindings
Publishers Bindings Online, 1825 – 1930: The Art of Books is a wonderful gallery of decorative bindings with supporting essays.
The aim of this digital collection of decorative bindings, along with a comprehensive glossary and guide to the elements of these objects, is to strengthen the growing interest in and create broader awareness for the “common” object called the book.
The digital galleries of bindings reflect distinct eras, geographic locations, and single authors and titles. They are useful for learning about aspects of 19th- and early 20th-c. American history, life, and culture.
You may just like to browse the Artistic Movements Galleries. Publishers bindings are an interesting way of exploring the advent of modern art and the impact on the artistic styles of the time on book design.
Also includes historical galleries; literary galleries; teaching tools and lesson plans; research tools and bibliography resources.
Worth a visit!
Mobile Medline Plus ~ shows us the way
So why haven’t more libraries adopted mobile tools? asks Eric Rumsey as he considers the advantages of mobile friendly design on iTouch/iPhone or like devices.
I agree – we do need to get on the mobile wagon as quickly as we can. There are many popular mobile compatible sites these days, and blogs are well-optimised on the mobile too. WordPress is a great platform for achieving an integrated look in relation to this, and the mobile-based management tools for WordPress is also impressive.
So it was most interesting to read Mobile Medline:Plus: A Great Example for Libraries. The mobile version of MedlinePlus that was released by the American National Library of Medicine last week is an elegant example of libraries making their sites mobile-friendly. Eric gives a good run-down of MedlinePlus on the mobile.
Eric is on Twitter @ericrumsey
I confess – I access a lot of things via my iPhone instead of on a regular computer. The portability and immediacy of access is irresistibly convenient. Whether this is a good thing or not is vaguely irrelevant – the mobile is embedded in youth behaviours.
Anyone got a good example of this kind of application in schools or school libraries?
Better get our blogs and information services mobile minded soon!
Espresso on demand – and that’s not coffee!
Xerox has entered the 21st Century publishing game, reaching a joint selling and marketing agreement with On Demand Books— the company that makes the amazing Espresso Book Machine that can churn out a book in a few minutes. There are only 21 stores and libraries that currently have the machines, but through this agreement, you can bet you’ll see more of them. On Demand hopes to get 80 machines in the world by the end of 2011.
(via GalleyCat and @creativepenn)
The Espresso Book Machine
2010 Horizon Report ~ read it!
The annual Horizon Report has been released, and should be on the reading list of all teachers and librarians around the nation. The Horizon Report is a global effort ~ reflecting the essential global dimensions and impacts on learning of emerging technologies.
For those who are new to the Horizon Report, since March 2002, under the banner of the Horizon Project, the New Media Consortium has held an ongoing series of conversations and dialogs with hundreds of technology professionals, campus technologists, faculty leaders from colleges and universities, and representatives of leading corporations from more than two dozen countries. In each of the past six years, these conversations have resulted in the publication each January of a report focused on emerging technologies relevant to higher education.
Each time a report is undertaken, the NMC uses qualitative research methods to identify the technologies selected for inclusion in that report, beginning with a survey of the work of other organizations and a review of the literature with an eye to spotting interesting emerging technologies.
What’s on the Horizon?
Technologies to Watch
One Year or Less: Mobile Computing
One Year or Less: Open Content
Two to Three Years: Electronic Books
Two to Three Years: Simple Augmented Reality
Four to Five Years: Gesture-Based Computing
Four to Five Years: Visual Data Analysis Methodology
Download the 2010 Horizon Report (316k PDF)
The magic of the library – oh yeah!
The University of Bergen Library has been helped out in their promotion by a fun video created by Stian and Jade. These two film students made an infofilm for the University of Bergen Library (in Norway).
In addition to being an information film about our specific library, it’s also about how useful and fun the library can be.
Thanks Stian!
You can grab a Subtitled original here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSHfrYI51lM
Twitter borked again – but not Ask a Librarian!
Working ever so hard on editing some book materials, I found I was relying on my online connections to deliver quick answers to curly questions. One port of call was Ask a Librarian from the National Library of Australia.
I logged on for a quick real-time reference query. Wonderful personal service – and a nice chance to chuckle (via text) with a fellow professional. My chat log was emailed to me just as soon as I logged off – containing all the links to information I needed.
This is very cool!
My other port of call was – of course – twitter. My queries resulted in general responses, so quick Direct Message assistance, and some regular help with people willing to go home and ferret around to find specifically the information I needed.
BUT Twitter got Borked! We all went off line – mid conversation! It’s times like this that I realise how having no Twitter is just like having no phone line used to be in ‘the old days’.
From Mashable: Twitter Has Been Hacked; BBC News: Pro Iranian Hackers Hit Twitter and Opposition Websites.
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Retro design in our library
A key feature of our library is its integration of 70s retro design – within a very modern 21st century look. I WILL post up a whole set of images and story of our renovation – when it’s done.
“What?”, you say. “It’s still not fininshed?”.
When you restrict work to holiday periods for a major overhaul – it’s gotta be a long-haul renovation. But we’re nearly there. Here’s what it looks like at the moment…creating a new office, and new AV department! Phew!
Meanwhile, I’m thinking about how to add an interesting graphic element to the space behind the front desk (currently hidden behind those boards/shovel)
It’s a large area – smooth lime green cupboards, that hide filing drawers, slide-out storage baskets, books storage etc, and two whole purpose-designed laptop storage cupboards for laptops for loan. (Designed these ourselves!!) Each drawer has a ventilated base, a swing arm that delivers power and data within the drawer to fixed points – easy to connect laptops quickly.
Pictures later!
What I want to do with the smooth green doors is have different vinyl lettering/images that can transform the interface.
So I was having fun looking at these 40+ Vintage Posters to inspire my developing design ideas.
Next – we need Dean Groom to come on over and get cracking with more ideas.
gr8 lol ~ Great Libraries of Learning
Support for school libraries in Far North Queensland is gr8! The team at the Far North Queensland FNQ Learning Development Centre – ICT, have put together a fabulous brochure promoting change and essential development to ensure quality school libraries. They have allowed me to embed the document here, so that you can download a copy for your own school district.
There is also a gr8 lol::Great Libraries for Learning wiki to support the document – making it easy to cross-reference within your own online sites.
It’s pretty nice to be quoted in this brochure 🙂
British Library sound archive
The Guardian reports that the British Library revealed it has made its vast archive of world and traditional music available to everyone, free of charge, online.
That amounts to roughly 28,000 recordings and, although no one has yet sat down and formally timed it, about 2,000 hours of singing, speaking, yelling, chanting, blowing, banging, tinkling and many other verbs associated with what is a uniquely rich sound archive.
The recordings go back more than 100 years, with the earliest recordings being the wax cylinders on which British anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon recorded Aboriginal singing on his trip to the Torres Strait islands off Australia in 1898.
What an extraordinary record and resource for current and future generations. Amazingly, much of the British archive was obtained by the library in 2000-01 in a lottery-funded project!!
judyoconnell.com 