but i digress. . . again

but not too far, me thinks. although the subject is handwriting. handwriting, you say, as you wring your hands. yes, handwriting. or, verily i say, the decline of handwriting. not the decline of penmanship, mind you (that's the subject of a future 'i digress . . .' handwriting is history. no, i didn't say it. anne trubek said it. in an article for miller-mccune. on a separate note, i had never heard of this miller-mccune magazine before, but apparently it's hot among the librarian set. who knew? well, i guess you did. and, apparently, have been keeping it to yourself.

anyway, i posted this article because while reading, i felt as though i could have replaced the word handwriting with books. some of the same arguments, it seems, have been put forth over generations of technological innovation. and it's a pretty good article. and so is the magazine, for that matter. i shall bookmark it. oops, that means i'll be reading it online, instead of as a printed monograph. shhhhhhhhh. don't tell anyone.

blame canada, blame CANADAAAAAA!!! eh!

remember the south park movie?? the song . . . blame canada. remember?

it seems as though there is a lot of e-reader and e-book activity involving our neighbor to the north (it is north, isn't it? geography was never my strong suit).

an article in the christian science monitor (yes???) is titled 'the e-book, the e-reader, and the future of reading. there's also a link to a previous article about the e-reader generation talking about e-books.

most academic libraries will be closed for winter breaks soon, if they aren't already. i wonder how many students and faculty will find e-readers in their stockings?? how many even want one?

future of the library? neither futurish or library-ish. discuss.

if you're an SNL fan (saturday night live, if you're not), there was a character played by mike myers named linda richman, host of coffee talk [insert jersey accent here]. she would throw random thoughts out, such as "rhode island is neither a road nor an island. discuss."

anyway, back to the lecture at hand. the future of the library. this time, an actual futurist weighs in. thomas frey, senior futurist at the davinci institute, is google's top rated futurist speaker. on his blog, futuristspeaker.com, he ponders the future of colleges and universities . . . IN THREE PARTS!

academics have a much longer attention span than i, so i give you . . . the future of colleges & universities, part one. venture further on your own.

oops, correction . . . FOUR PARTS! discuss. at your own risk.

and in this corner . . .

i wasn't planning on blogging about e-book copyright rights (copyright rights??) because i thought it would be a non-issue. once again, and probably not for the last time, i've been proven wrong.

the question is: who owns the digital e-book rights for backlist titles? you might think the author, since it's a format that technically didn't exist on a massive scale several years ago. you might think the publisher of the hardcover and/or paperback editions. and of course, foreign language rights (think harry potter-47 languages, oui?). but did you think about a third party owning those rights?? of course not. well, apparently, someone did.

start your journey with the new york times story on jane friedman's open road publishing house . then mosey on over to tele-read's article about random house vs. jane friedman and then leap to the future where author stephen covey decides amazon.com deserves exclusive rights to a couple of his titles, and maybe more.

historical note: steven covey is using RosettaBooks as his e-book distributor. never heard of RosettaBooks? not a legal eagle, eh? RosettaBooks was sued by Random House over digital publishing rights back in 2001!!! headline screams: random house claims digital rights to past books. should it also say . . . AGAIN??

okay, kids, time for a pbj, juice box and a nap. that post tuckered me out. zzzzz.

librarian = dodo?

hey, don't shoot the messenger! upon the news of the demise of kirkus reviews (check it out while you still can), david rothman over at the blog tele-read wonders if librarians are on the same path as the esteemed review magazine AND the fabled bird. he references project information literacy's recent paper which states that 8 of 10 college students who participated in their study "rarely" uses librarians for course-related assignments. should we get our helmets because the sky is falling?

is the nook undercooked?

according to tele-read's jean kaplansky, and the new york times david pogue (one of my favorite tech gurus), it is "a sluggish e-reader with confusing navigation," and "slower than an anesthetized slug in winter" respectively." Ouch!

for more in-depth reviews, check out end-gadget's barnes&noble nook review and wsj's walt mossberg's (another favorite tech guru) observation that the nook e-reader has potential but needs work. the resulting conclusions are pretty much the same. double ouch! or is that quadruple ouch? who's counting? hopefully, b&n is and will make the necessary changes before the apple tablet that doesn't exist *wink wink* comes out next year.

can't be funny all the time

yes, i know, that last post was lame. i was distracted yet still wanted to get the info out without taxing myself trying to be entertaining. my bad. i'll try to limit those "just fyi" posts.
now, back to today's link. publishers weekly refers to it as "a terribly written, but compelling, review of The Nook. From The Money Times." i thought that "mini-review" was funny in itself. i've read worse, heck, i've written worse, but i post it for your enlightenment, if not necessarily for your entertainment. and there you have it, and there it is.

oh, wait, i had to add this. normally i would link directly to the article, but you've GOT to read the tele-read intro first . then click through to opinion piece titled 'ode to books, or why e-book readers will never replace them.'

this should be all the literary entertainment you can stand for today.

back to the subject at hand

academia and e-books. and e-readers.

back in june, the chronicle published an article about northwest missouri state university's president, dean l hubbard, and his quest to integrate kindles into his college's textbook distribution system. six lessons one campus learned about e-textbooks, describe hubbard's idea to incorporate e-readers into campus life, seeing as he loved his kindle so much. why wouldn't everyone else?

meanwhile, the e-book skeptic asks, "when it comes to reading, is digital dumber? will higher education have to take this type of research into account when thinking about incorporating e-readers and e-books into their curriculum? hmmmmm??

the international federation

no, trekkies, not THAT federation. the international federation of library associations and institutions (IFLA). they have a journal. and in this month's journal is an article on electronic book collection development. page 9. okay, so it's electronic book collection development in academic libraries in italy! it does reference wayne state university's patron-driven access e-book collection development. wayne state being on this side of the pond, in detroit, michigan. WARNING: it's academic stuff. do not operate heavy machinery while reading, may cause drowsiness.

HEY! this is serious stuff.

serious enough that the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) [yes, i know how to use CAPS, i just don't like to) recently published the results of their study entitled JISC national e-books observatory project [their lowercase, not mine]. never heard of the JISC? me either, but it could be because they're across the pond. read it. it's entertaining, especially when they use ou instead of o, like in behaviour. you'll feel international and cosmopolitan. and smart. warning: it's 56 pages. get a cuppa tea first. and a biscuit. with clotted cream. enjoy.

all i want for christmas is . . .

an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock. okay, maybe only ralphie gets one of those. but apparently i don't want an e-book reader, either. according to mike elgan over at computerworld, there are 7 reasons why e-book readers make lousy gifts. valid reasons for schools and libraries to consider also. maybe. bah humbug.

or check out this video of ny times david pogue, technology editor and his chat with david carr, media columnist as they talk about, what else . . . e-readers!

whatchu talkin bout, willis?

e-books of course. where? at the charleston conference. one of the seminars was titled e-book readers in libraries. two of the presenters pre-conference presentations are available. it's a powerpoint presentation, so info is limited, but you'll get the gist. you're smart librarian-types.

in other news, well not other, but news, blyth academy in toronto, eh, claims to be the first HIGH school in the WORLD to replace textbooks with sony e-readers.

are you still wondering "are colleges interested in e-books and e-readers?"

but i digress . . .

to the national book awards. the winners were announced last night and, of course, they talked about the state of the book, whatever format. these awards remind us that how we read may not be as important as the fact that we do - still - read. and we still - enjoy - reading. and we still get lost in worlds of make-believe and reality. and we learn and we think and we grow. and we read some more. and we understand and we emphathize and we commiserate and we celebrate. and we read.

mommy, what's a library?

when you hear that question, what do you think? is it in terms of the present,while pointing out a building? or in an historical sense, kinda like what's an 8-track cassette?

here are two articles i stumbled across. cnn wants to know the future of libraries, with or without books. the other is about plans for a new "mediaspace" in scandinavia. oh, hadn't you heard? 40 is the new 30 and mediaspace is the new library. things that may you go hmmmmm . . .

what? i can't hear you!!

that's what two universities are saying. the university of wisconsin at madison and syracuse university are both snubbing their noses at the kindle. why? because the device's basic menu navigation is not voiced, thereby making it useless for blind students. just another thing for institutions to think about when investing in new technology.

usa today letter writers like books

someone who's obviously a fan of a naked library (the blog, not the library) left an article in the chair of yours truly. it's an opinion piece from usa today on the decision by headmaster James Tracy to remove 20,000 volumes from the library at Cushing Academy, a private high school in Ashburnham, MA.

kindle for the pc??

say wha??? yes, that's right! now you don't even need a kindle to read a kindle book. why? because it's now available for your pc.

my guest contributor, pongracz, pointed me to this article.

8 reasons to love e-books

dan nosowitz is a writer with the silicon alley insider and he's written an article as to why he thinks b&n's nook might be 'the one.' check it out here.

winthrop prof uses kindle to spark new age of learning

well, here's a story that's pretty close to home. i wouldn't say he's actually sparking anything, but you can check out the story by clicking here.

kindles and sonys and nooks, oh my!

believe it or not, it's been two years since the introduction of the 'revolutionary' amazon kindle. since that time, a few other e-readers have hit the market and several more are on their way.

technologizer.com has a comparison of some of the more popular e-readers here.