Tag Archives: libraries

Cut in Alexandria, VA, library hours not needed, says city staff memo. Also: Councilman Justin Wilson endorses LibraryCity’s national digital library endowment plan

Justin Wilson, a councilman in Alexandria, VA, Amazon’s “most well-read” city, now threatened with a reduction in library hours, has shared a city staff memo saying that the hours cuts aren’t necessary. He says the library board will have the final say. Would board members challenge the memo? I’ll try to reach Board Chair Kathleen [...]

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LibraryCity’s take on K-12 libraries and the Digital Public Library of America

Yes, LibraryCity has been on an S. R. Ranganathan kick lately (here and here). Still ahead is a DPLA-related essay on his Five Laws of Library Science as applied to K-12, including school libraries—a follow-up to the LibraryCity post by Apple Distinguished Educator Donald R. Smith, a teacher-librarian with 40 years of experience. If you [...]

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FAQ on National Digital Library endowment plan going online this weekend: Be a part of it

Update, April 18, 2013: The FAQ is here. Feedback still welcome! Librarians and others can help build a National Digital Library Endowment FAQ—with questions, suggested answers and other ideas. Just email. Yes, I know: If you’re a typical librarian, for example, you’re busy enough with your regular work But this is an invitation to those [...]

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Dwarf-sized public e-libraries vs. abundance: Listen to veteran publishing guru Brian O’Leary and librarian Sarah Houghton

People in Bexar County, Texas, should be excited about the 10,000-e-book “BiblioTech” library system that the country is starting from scratch—without paper books. This is reportedly the first U.S. public library system to shun paper, cardboard and ink, except for computer printouts. Any books are better than none, and besides, the 10K figure encompasses only [...]

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Not enough library e-books to feed your new gadget properly? Well-stocked national digital library systems could help

If you can’t find the right library e-books for your new Kindle, Nook, iPad or other gizmo, you’re not alone. More than 100 patrons of the District of Columbia Public Library were lined up electronically today for 10 e-book copies of The Racketeer, John Grisham’s new novel about the murder of a federal judge. Some [...]

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The risks if the DPLA won’t create a full-strength national digital library system: Setbacks for K-12, family literacy, local libraries, preservation, digital divide efforts?

Attn. LibraryCity visitors: You can participate remotely in a DPLA board meeting starting 11 a.m. EST, Monday, December 17. The teachers didn’t show up… Not one current K-12 teacher was among the two dozen or so attendees at the Audience and Participation Workstream of the Digital Public Library of America this month—even though the DPLA [...]

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Southern librarian’s thoughtful criticism of Gates Foundation survey unwittingly shows need for TWO national digital library systems—one public, one academic

Mindful of the record number of poor Americans, a thoughtful “Front Line Librarian” in a Southern state is asking an essential question in effect: Why care so much about library e-books and the rest when millions of low-income people lack computers or at least the skills to use them? Front Line says more reliance on [...]

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Hurricane Sandy and the national digital library issue: With smartened-up journalists and voters, could we have stopped or slowed down global warming?

Canned and dried foods, flashlights, radios, cellphones and good UPSes aren’t the only essentials that the wired might buy in an anticipation of the growing number of weather-related exigencies like Hurricane Sandy. I’ve also purchased a $99 battery-powered portable hotspot through which my iPad and other WiFi-equipped devices  can stay in touch with the rest [...]

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Kindle Fire-usable version of OverDrive now in Amazon app store—and a new iOS version offers all-text bold, multiple columns, other capabilities

A Kindle Fire-usable version of the OverDrive e-library app has now reached the Amazon app store. That could give the app’s Android version a nice boost—the Fire is essentially an Android machine turned into an Amazon cash register. Fire owners earlier had to go to the OverDrive site to download the app unofficially. But for [...]

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ALA’s gripes to publishers dance around the e-library world’s Problem #1—not enough money for e-books

I’m still borrowing e-books from public libraries. I loved the digital edition of the late Louis Auchincloss’s memoirs that popped up when I was browsing the electronic stacks of a library system near me here in Northern Virginia. Public libraries at their best can be Serendipity Central. But I rely much less these days on [...]

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How I turned my Kindle Fire HD from a cash register and billboard into a good machine for an e-book lover

H.L. Mencken, the American iconoclast, depicted Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Could the same idea apply to the killjoys at Amazon who so cruelly made the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire HD less of an e-book machine and more of a billboard and cash register? Granted, many readers might not [...]

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On e-books, better speech recognition, tablets, and libraries

Could stellar recognition of speech be The Next Big Thing for tablets and smartphones fit for e-books—well at least eventually? Imagine the possibilities. And I don’t just mean e-book apps set up for “Next page” or “Go to end of chapter” or “Find such-and-such word.” Nor do I simply have in mind the composition of [...]

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