iPad

Apple have finally released the iPad after so much hype, rumour and guess work. Although not available for purchase as yet it has caused a lot of people to tweet, blog, comment and many articles written about it already. Some of these comments have been positive while others scathing for a piece of technology they still haven't touched yet.

Architectures have even already started to design ideas on how the ipad can be used in libraries.

From these articles, blog posts and tweets people can definately start making decisions on whether this new piece of technolgy works for you.

The major points that I can find that will help make your decision are:-

• iBook app at time of release will not be available in Australia. Even when it is, given the Australian laws limiting what e-books can be purchased, we will be limited, as with iTunes, on the content we can purchase.


• Will iPad will be the death of the Kindle? If the Kindle does not continue to develop it is predicted that the iPad will become the piece of technology that will replace the e-book readers.
  
• Apple have made the decision to use epub as the e-book format. Maybe with Apple adopting this format this will urge publishers to finally make a decision on what the format for all e-books will be.
  
• The cost is reasonable from the cheapest to the most expensive. Will the 3G version work in Australia? Only time will tell.
  
• No allowance has been made for extra memory that could cause problems.
  
• No handwriting recognition. What about making notes on e-books is it possible? Why didn't they think of this as an option?
  
• The name - who thought the ipad was a good option? Must have come from a man!

Stream me up Scotty!

Well it really should be no surprise to some that I'm a bit of a Trekkie, being dedicated enough even to order copies of a series at my local video outlet on VHS, that's how much I was obsessed. but then I became a librarian, and my Trekkie desires somewhat abated.

But this article I recently peruesd over on Agnostic, Maybe made me realise that elements of Star Trek are indeed creeping back into my life. With the increasing mobility of access to information, it is only the freedom of access that is keeping us from coming even closer to the way those space faring corsairs had information at their fingertips.

Now considering the fact that the Star Trek world had almost all information accessible anywhere anytime, where does this leave the path of the humble library building? People will have grown up interfacing with the Trekkie information receptacles, so there is no need for the everyday reference interview. So does this mean I should be looking forward to being out of a job?

Re-thinking about being a twit...

So having been using facebook for a few months now as a birthday present to myself, I've been trying to wrap my head around using social networking sites to the advantage of the library. This really came to the fore of my mind when we had a combined issue with our computers and phone system. I thought to myself 'hey, this would be a great time to tell our visitors about what's going on via twitter!', which has of course made me rethink about its uses as a communication medium. it could be used to remind patrons of events, provide quick reference pointers, even renew items. Whilst browsing through some blogs I follow there was a good one on some tools to enhance the twitter experience. The tools it mentions would go a long way in making twitter an effective and manageable tool in the library world;

bit.ly
Tweetdeck
Friendfeed
Twitter Search
Twitter Sheep

So if you are already using twitter, check them out and see what you think.

One Library to rule them all

So with the increasing digitisation of books, one does have to ponder the belief that will there one day be a singular address that can provide materials to everyone? Project Gutenberg and many others have tried to achieve this in the form of free digitisation, but with advent of online ebook vendors becoming more prevalent, a recent article champions google books as putting up its bid to bring the end of the library age as we know it. But how successful will this be?

Current trends of the now generation may be in their favour, but what will the end result be? The article somewhat takes the narrow view that books are simply a hoarding place for paper knowledge, but it disregards that most are moving toward a gathering place to access information, not just within its walls but online as well. What do you think?

Imagine the image of your images.

Confused? well given the advent of increasing levels of technology being adapted for use in the library, not all are so egalitarian when it comes to accomodating it. This even extends to the view that time honored librarian 'shush' being spurned as libraries become a place for social gathering; a cultural hub if you will. But not all would agree with this sentiment as the signage indicates. I can even remember the formative years of my youth being chided 'no dinner in front of the tv', would it now be 'no twittering at the table'?
So take a look at these pictures and have a think about how technology has impacted on the projected or percieved image of a library you know.

signage, originally uploaded by cindiann.

The Librarian’s Touch!, originally uploaded by vanhookc.

Libraries under threat

Libraries in America are under threat from the Global Financial Crisis. Funding is being cut, opening hours being cut and staff losing jobs . In a climate where statistics are proving that customers are using Libraries more and more how can government justify the closing of such an important service to the community.

The latest library fighting the cut of funding is Ohio Public Libraries, the staff are fighting back having a plan and using technology to reach as many of their customers as possible. They have a plan and are trying to stop the reduction of services throughout the state. Helene Blowers latest blog post and following information on Twitter #saveohiolibraries are using the technology available to their advantage.

Ray Bradbury has joined the cause to save Public Libraries, surely with a well known author mounting the fight maybe if more authors got on side then the government would see that we are an important institution that customers need and not something that they can just slash in their budgets when times get tough.

We will be watching what happens in Ohio with great interest and with all Public Libraries in the US.

how does the other see it.

So it seems social networking is creeping its way into the psyche of many organisations as a legitimate means of communicating information in a fast and formal/informal manner. As I was doing a bit of catchup on my 'professional reading' following a meeting with my fellow technovisionaries, I came across an interesting post in regards to blocks to social networking. You can find the blog post here on Michael Stephen's blog.

The crux of it is a public department using a social networking too, in this case twitter to promote an event in the community, but having social networking blocked on its own public computers. Think if the library in question was hosting an event and people wanted to comment on it whilst at the library, with participants asked to comment on their website/feed?

This is yet another example that highlights the control many public libraries face: being under the jurisdiction of another governing body. It means any communication that goes out for instance from a public library feed needs to meet the governing body's standards. Its still a very murky area, but we'll have to see how it will pan out.