29 January 2010

okay, another serious post.

no, seriously. a few posts ago, i linked to an article regarding "the strange case of academic libraries and the e-books nobody reads," by dan d'agostino over at tele-read. well, point-counterpoint. here's a "response" from erik christopher on tele-read. well, not really a response, more like an "uh-huh, i agree, for the most part, just wanted to add my $0.02." but, never let it be said that i don't try to inform the masses.

so wile away your morning (or whenever) over the thoughts of your academic library and e-books. if your library is doing something with e-books or e-readers, let me know. inquiring minds and all that.

28 January 2010

who said i have to be fair and balanced??

okay, fine, i did. for all you haters out there, drinking the hater-ade, here is the other side of the beautiful iPad coin. the seedy, tawdry, we-think-iPad-sucks side. if there's some questionable content, hey, i never said this blog was PG-13!! anyway, have at it.

ps - i still want one!

27 January 2010

it's not a red ryder bb gun, but . . .


I WANT AN APPLE iPAD!!!!!
i didn't think anything would pull me away from the amazon kindle (which i still love and will appreciate if you send it to me). but after seeing apple's video on the ipad, I WANT ONE!!

now, do i think it's a game changer. personally, no. it's just really, really cool. i think it's more akin to a netbook than an e-reader. a big ipod. but if i were going to spend $499 or more for something color, portable and wi-fi ready, why not the iPad??

the key for academia, i think, is still textbooks. i don't see a value-added benefit to having an iPad in a library setting . . . yet. i'm sure many campuses will start to look at it and i'm anxious to see what they find. (i'm hoping my campus will be one of them - fred?? fred??)

anyway, enuf about me. here are some initial responses to the iPad. i still want one.

los angeles times
wsj's walt mossberg
new york times' david pogue
tech journalists/bloggers

you'll find me most days at the james b duke library at furman university if you should decide that generosity is a virtue and making an old woman's simple dream of owning an iPad a reality. blessing you in advance, i am sincerely yours.

26 January 2010

is the apple tablet the electronic holy grail for higher ed?

apparently not. in fact, it's going to wipe higher ed off the planet!!! okay, i exaggerate. but it may be made irrelevant according to the foks over at the website good. the article is titled could the apple tablet make higher ed irrelevant? wow!! what a headline. fortunately, that's not quite what they mean. the headline maybe should have said something like could the apple table change the college campus? not as exciting, tho, huh? didn't get your heart a-pumping or your blood a-boiling? anyway, it's a short article so take a gander. then scroll down to see a couple of other interesting articles while we wait for apple tablet day tomorrow! it's almost like christmas, except without the FREE goodies.:(

25 January 2010

and now a word from . . .

the darden graduate school of business at the university of virginia'. don't you love the way i keep you guessing?? this is a podcast that uva produces and a few minutes in, there's an update on the kindle project with michael koenig, operations director of darden's mba program. just so you know, if you click on 'play now,' don't click on the little speaker icon. if you do, one will start after the other and then you'll hear both and you'll think you've gone schizo. trust me, i speak from experience.

20 January 2010

tick, tick, tick . . . 60 seconds

is that enough time to conduct a survey? apparently, for the library research service the answer is YES! what is the future of the book? here are the results.

i decided to look at this library research service a little closer. they have a lot of information on colorado libraries. i think they're located in colorado.

they ask a lot of questions and produce a lot of reports. they also reference other surveys and reports, like this one on academic libraries.

oh, the air is heady up here.

think about think

no, not about thinking. think. think is the magazine of case western university. yes, they have their own online magazine. and, within the colorful 'pages' of yon magazine is this article called the digital divide. Case Western Reserve is one of seven colleges and universities that have an agreement with Amazon.com to give the Kindle DX a test run on their campuses. The others are Arizona State, Princeton, Pace, Reed, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington.

alas, dear readers, this will send me on a quest to find information on the other trials that are going on. i think i've mentioned the princeton one to you in previous posts.

i, dear reader, never sleep . . . always on the prowl for new information for your edification (and her own).

17 January 2010

i've been punked

imagine my surprise when i woke up to my sunday new york times this morning (on the web, of course). the pic to the left was attached to the arts/books column. i thought, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum (okay, cup of coffee), i've got an e-related article. one click turned into two turned into three turned into a back click and a scan and a click and, okay, you get the picture. apparently that's ALL you get, because there wasn't an article in the bunch on ANYTHING e-related. e-books, e-readers, netbooks, tablets, nothin'. i was punked!

luckily for you, dear reader, my spidey sense was tingling (along with my google reader) and i KNEW there was something out there. here, in no particular order, are some interesting articles (yes, i'm being lazy - i can't entertain you people every time, it's NFL playoff time).

16 January 2010

a rose by any other name???

once again, the scope of this blog is expanding . . . kinda. in the discussion regarding the future of a library without books, i suppose that we have to re-define what a library is. and, in turn, a librarian.

seth godin, writes business books, most notably "Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (available for the kindle for $9.99)."

senor godin has a blog (who doesn't, right??), seth's blog so as not to be confused with bob's blog, and he ruminates on the future of the library.

BUT . . . just when you thought libraries and librarians were unappreciated comes 85 reasons to be thankful for librarians,courtesy of zencollegelife.com. i know what you're thinking . . . only eighty-five??!! baby steps, people, baby steps.

there are some excellent reasons to love librarians, and in turn libraries. some important (#27), some humorous (#s 33, 34). and some (#s 10, 13, 43) that may make you wonder if libraries ARE still relevant in their current form.

things that make you go hmmmmm . . . that's what i'm here for. my work here is done (for today).

12 January 2010

back down memory lane . . . tra la la

1994. gas was $1.09/gallon. OJ Simpson invented the slow car chase. Forrest Gump married his Jen-nay. And you read your newspaper on a tablet. remember? huh? wha?? what chu talkin' bout robyn? apple hasn't even come out with it's tablet yet? put down that wine glass.

whoa, first of all, it's kool-aid and second of all, check this out!! the huffington post introduces us to an idea that the knight-ridder organization came up with SIXTEEN years ago!! like panasonic, just slight ahead of their time. kight-ridder actually had an information design lab whose job was to come up with innovative solutions for media. and what did they come up with. it was a . . . wait for it. . . TABLET!! take a look at the video (it's 15 minutes but the nostalgia alone is worth it.)

innovation whose time has finally come?

09 January 2010

CES e-reader round-up

there are a lot of pretty smart and attentive people out there. lucky for you! it's 23 degrees outside and i'm not going anywhere. hopefully, it's warmer in las vega$, where the consumer electronics show is winding down. and open publishing lab is at the show and they have posted a pretty neat list of the e-readers that were at the show. more to come . . .

i don't digress . . . the consumer electronics show

yes, one of the biggest trade shows in the nation, the 2010 consumer electronics show (CES) is going on in las vega$, and luckily for us, what's happening in vega$ this week, will NOT stay in vega$. i dream of attending one day. what is CES anyway? it is an EXTRAVAGANZA. of course there are every type of celebrity imaginable: james patterson (author), tyson gay (olympian), james worthy (NBA) ,stan lee (comic genius), tommy lee (musician and ex-mr. pamela anderson) and, of course, lady gaga (???). just kidding - lady gaga is the newest smash singer on the scene right now. but the real celebrities this week - the ELECTRONICS. and among those are E-READERS. take a gander at the explosion of e-book readers planned for 2010, thanx to the nytimes. and check out the san francisco chronicle's coverage of e-readers at the CES. coast-to-coast coverage! it's going to be an exciting time for this technology, but i still haven't seen anything yet to rival the kindle, simply because of the amount of books available for it directly through amazon. displays are nice, but it's the content that matters, imho. i predict lots of partnerships between e-reader manufacturers, publishers, and content providers. let the races begin!

07 January 2010

eureka!

well, just when i thought there was a drought on academia-related e-reader news . . . voila!

it has a college - princeton. it has a professor - katz. it has an e-reader - kindle. you'll laugh, you'll cry. okay, probably not. but you will learn about a real-life experience of using (or trying to use) a kindle in the classroom at the post-secondary level.

but, wait, there's more. heard the one about academic libraries and the e-books nobody wants to read?? no? well, i have. and now, you have. not for the faint of heart, i tell you.

never say i'm not working for you, pounding the pavement, to get the stories that will inform and delight you. i know, i know . . . you're welcome.

is this blog titled correctly??

okay, i know what you've been thinking (that's right). why is this named a naked library? is she ever going to write about libraries? or anything academic for that matter? i was actually thinking about this the other day. is there anything going on with e-readers and academia?? can i just not find the information? is it hush-hush? well . . .

one - here's something librarian-ish and e-book-ish. the strange case of academic libraries and e-books nobody wants to read is an interesting observation on the relationship between academic libraries and publishers and mis-steps libraries made upon the advent of e-reading. the author, dan d'agostino is a new contributor to the tele-read blog, and could be considered an expert in the field. he is the collection development librarian at a large research library. so there! credentialized.

two - i think i'm going to have to change the title of my blog. it will still be about libraries and schools and what i like to call 'e-iterations.' that is, all the things i can find e-book or e-reader related (that i think is interesting - quite subjective). but what i've realized is this is an extremely exciting and, for some, troubling time - for libraries, schools, publishers, bookstores, consumers. 2010 will probably be seen as the year of 'e.' at least a dozen e-readers are scheduled to hit the markets, probably more. some manufacturers are producing 2 or 3 models at a time. not to mention the different e-ink formats and color. PLUS . . . HP/Microsoft's Courier and Apple's (no it does not exist *wink wink* iSlate).

but i love the name 'a naked library?' oh well . . . cest la vie. i'll think about it tomorrow. after all, tomorrow is another day. (i got that outta book).

06 January 2010

would you like that nytimes subscription? 'e' or 'p'?

ACK! (is that a word?)

what in h-e-double hockey sticks is nicholas carson of the silicon alley insider trying to do?? what of the poor advertisers? how will i know which razor to shave with and soap to shower with?? is he a secret agent for amazon?? is he a basher of books? is he predicting the demise of the printed newspaper?? (insert music of impending doom *here*).

nah . . . just observing the price of printing the times versus giving every subscriber a kindle. if you know me, you know i LOVE the kindle, so i would subscribe in a new york minute (get it?). would you? what if the e-subscription was cheaper? or they bundled a print and 'e' subscription but you paid a little more? hmmmmmm . . .

in other news, cincinnati just bought 10 kindles! yes, the city. yes, to save money. i don't know. stop asking questions.

ps - okay, in other other news, i had to update. another reason to stay away from e-readers. whatever will i do to stay warm?

02 January 2010

happy new year . . . everything old is new again!

greetings and happy new year! i hope that 2010 will be everything you want it to be and even more.

and speaking of more, in 2010 there will definitely be MORE e-readers and MORE debate about e-readers, e-books and e-verything associated with them.

to start off the new decade, this little ditty is from the opinion page of the new york times website. titled 'does the brain like e-books," five fairly smart (it IS the new york times, you know) individuals from varying backgrounds discuss . . . reading! in all it's glory! electronic vs. print. retention. comprehension. blah, blah, blah - oh wait, i mean extremely titillating and engrossing opinion.

since i started this little blog experiment, i've realized that the subject of e-books and e-reading is almost as volatile as the public option. so that must mean that this is an important time in history. i'm not sure if it's a technological, or monographical, or educational milestone. a combination of all of them, i suspect, and probably more. throw money into the mix (and an apple iTablet or iSlate or iSomething or other that will take over the world) and it should be an exciting (or at least interesting) 2010. i'll try to keep you posted. when i'm not reading.