Recent Comments
- Amazon’s book city #1, Alexandria, VA, may cut library hours: Time for a digital-era national endowment to help ease U.S. libraries’ financial woes? | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ LibraryCity.org. [...] }
- Promising DPLA debut—but please don’t confuse special-collection items, exhibits and APIs with a full-fledged ‘public library’ demo | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ librarycity.org. [...] }
- Tom Peters { Excellent review of the nascent D(P)LA e-resource. I agree with all your major points. Tis a pity that the usual suspects (Twain, Fitzgerald, Cather, et... } – Apr 19, 11:28 AM
- Online la Digital Public Library of America, che vuole superare Google e Wikipedia | Tropico del Libro { [...] di questo ambizioso progetto. Non sono mancate, in questo senso, le polemiche di chi ha vivamente esortato i creatori della DPLA a preoccuparsi anche... }
- David Rothman { Thanks for such a prompt and classy reply, Dan---you're indeed giving #dpla its due! I truly truly hope that the DPLA succeeds, and meanwhile the... } – Mar 31, 11:58 AM
- Dan Cohen { Thanks for the great and helpful post, David. To be clear on #2, I'm very interested (as I know others are within DPLA) and plan... } – Mar 31, 10:40 AM
- David Rothman { Hi, Don. Nice to see such enthusiasm from a veteran school librarian. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, agree with your priorities, and will have more to... } – Mar 26, 4:57 AM
- Don Smith { If I might, I would like to propose a statement of purpose for the National Digital Library. Often times during my forty year career as... } – Mar 25, 8:54 PM
- David Rothman { Hey, Ralph, here's a belated but heartfelt reply to one of your points. Around here we love both libraries and librarians and are interested in... } – Mar 13, 9:58 AM
- Some news from LibraryLand | not so quiet { [...] this opinion piece, David Rothman makes a case for folks in the Warren Buffet and Bill Gates income bracket to support [...] }
- Bibliotecas públicas sin libros en EE.UU. ¿A la de tres? | Bibliotecas 2029 { [...] comunicada, tuvo una contestación pública demoledora. No sólo los profesionales de todo el país se escandalizaron por este proyecto sino que los propios usuarios... }
- A National Digital Library Endowment { [...] An interesting concept from blogger David Rothman, founder of TeleRead. He suggests that those who have signed The Giving Pledge (though he doesn’t mention... }
- David Rothman { Hi, Robert. Some quick replies… 1. I envision a variety of business models in use, but if nothing else, libraries could buy multiple e-copies (or... } – Feb 20, 2:05 PM
- Robert Nagle { Generally, a great proposal, but here are some practical issues which pop up in my mind. First, if everything is centralized, when I put a... } – Feb 20, 12:56 PM
- ATG Article of the Week: Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer | Against-the-Grain.com { [...] Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer, is an thought provoking article by David Rothman posted in TeleRead a few... }
- Reading about eReading this week 2/18/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] A national digital library endowment: How America’s billionaires could be modern Carnegies for rea... [...] }
- Reading about eReading this week 1/28/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] Dwarf-sized public e-libraries vs. abundance: Listen to veteran publishing guru Brian O’Leary and ... [...] }
- David Rothman { You're welcome, Anthony. Keep us posted if you can Amy-ize your new Fire without installing a full-strength version of Android. David } – Jan 19, 5:46 PM
- Anthony { Thanks Dave! } – Jan 19, 4:47 PM
- David Rothman { Hi, Anthony. Some possibilities: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/where-to-get-more-help-with-your-kindle.html Happy Kindling, David } – Jan 19, 4:00 AM
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Recent Posts
- On Jillian the Tiger Cub, a national digital library endowment, and the power of the American ego
- E-book usability news: Adjustable line spacing now on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” and perhaps other Fire HDs—although I still can’t narrow the spaces sufficiently
- Voice Dream e-reading app: Stellar for text to speech—and promising as a general reader
- Amazon’s book city #1 avoids cuts in library hours but still might reduce its library book budget—already below the U.S. per-capita average
- Cut in Alexandria, VA, library hours not needed, says city staff memo. Also: Councilman Justin Wilson endorses LibraryCity’s national digital library endowment plan
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- eBookNewser
- Gary Price's INFOdocket blog
- Harvard's Robert Darnton
- Library Journal
- LISNews
- Mike Shatzkin
- NDPL discussion forum
- Save Our Rockford Library
- School Library Journal
- TeleRead
- The Berkman Center's wiki on national digital library policy
- The Digital Reader
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Tag Archives: public librarians
Sad fate of ‘Five Laws’ book shows need for DPLA-related efforts to keep old masterpieces alive
Oh, the irony! In The Five Laws of Library Science, S. R. Ranganathan argued in the 1930s for libraries as improvers of life for rich and poor alike. Now Google Books has digitized 30 million titles, but you won’t find Laws on the Web in its entirety from Google at any price. You’ll see a [...]
eBooks, National Digital Public Library
Also tagged academic librarians, academic libraries, Digital Public Library of America, Don Smith, Donald R. Smith, Donald Smith, DPLA, education, k-12, librarianship, national digital libraies, national digital libraries, national digital library, public libraries, public schools, Robert Darnton, schools
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Library bedbugs: Growing threat to borrowers of paper books—and another justification for library e-books?
“…tiny bedbugs and their eggs can hide in the spines of hardcover books. The bugs crawl out at night to feed, find a new home in a headboard, and soon readers are enjoying not only plot twists but post-bite welts.” – New York Times. The LibraryCity take: No, this isn’t a suggestion to toss out [...]
Library Journal staffer and publishing gurus aid the cause of two well-stocked national digital library systems—whether or not that’s their intent
Library Journal’s Heather McCormack and book industry guru Brian O’Leary may or may not want two well-stocked national digital library systems for the U.S. I don’t know. A second publishing maven, Mike Shatzkin, has been skeptical about the basic national digital library idea. But accidentally or not, all three have recently buttressed the case, especially [...]
An e-smart family literacy approach for Rockford, Illinois? Back to the future?
Could children be better readers if we went “back to the future,” even in the era of e-books and calls for massive budget calls? I’ll share thoughts. But first let’s hear from Andy Strong, a children’s librarian at the library in Rockford, Illinois, during the 1990s: “When the library cut its hours, it drastically reduced storytime [...]
LibraryCity, Uncategorized
Also tagged Andrew Strong, Andy Strong, Digital Public Library of America, DPLA, elementary schools, family literacy, IL, Illinois, k-12, librarians, librarianship, LibraryCity, LibraryCity.org, public libraries, Register Star, Rockford, Rockford library, Rockford public library, teachers
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Coming: More ideas on mitigating Rockford’s e-book mess and other cities’
Update: The follow-up was Should OverDrive sell itself to America’s public libraries? I’m not done yet. Rockford, Illinois, is a depressing but oh-so-useful example of America’s e-book crisis—and of the risk that it could pit the well-off and the cash-strapped against each other. Later today or tomorrow I’ll offer detailed ideas far beyond yesterday’s. On [...]
The hotspot strategy: Cost-justifying free tablet computers for low-income library users
Just one percent of people receiving healthcare in the poverty-and-crime-afflicted city of Camden, NJ, account for 30 percent of costs. But a New Yorker article, a year old but still highly relevant, tells how Camden may become “the first American community to lower its medical costs.” The not-so-secret sauce could be the hotspot strategy, adapted [...]
Hacking a secretive ‘public’ library group: Let’s ask DPLA steering committee members how they voted—and about open meetings vs. a Porcellian Club approach
Update, Oct. 20, 2012: I’m pleased to report that the DPLA is now far more open than before, especially in regard to remote participation. Should the Harvard-hosted Digital “Public” Library of America drop the “P” word from its name? COSLA, short for the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, fears that this branding competition could [...]
LibraryCity
Also tagged American libraries, Berkman Center, copyright, Deanna Marcum, Digital Public Library of America, DPLA, e-books, ebooks, elitist, Harvard, Harvard University, John Palfrey, librarians, librarianship, library of congress, national digital libraries, oligarchies, public libraries, Steering Committee
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Flaws of Harvard-hosted Digital ‘Public’ Library of America: Too secretive, too oligarchical and not responsive enough to U.S. library needs—especially for modern e-books
Update, Oct. 20, 2012: The DPLA is now much more open than in the past, and I can now strongly recommend the group to prospective funders. A fashionable line in the media these days is, “Elections have consequences.” So does governance, whether of the local Rotary Club, the United States of America, or a Harvard-hosted group [...]
Library Journal site carries forking debate between DPLA and LibraryCity—and now here’s a suggested compromise
The publib-academic forking debate is now on the Library Journal site, with a Point-Counterpart essay from me and a well-done reply from DPLA Steering Committee leader John Palfrey. The essays are linked from LJ’s home page. Many thanks to LJ’s Mike Kelley and his colleagues for handling this so well. I myself am very open [...]