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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
Category Archives: Books
Long Copyrights Kill Books
This. The Hole in our Collective Memory : How Copyright made Mid-Century Books Vanish These are frightening numbers, and they should force us to consider the negative effects of longer copyright terms. The publication of knowledge and creativity blossomed during … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Copyright, Ethics, Government, OCLC, Publishing
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Weeding… or Mowing?
The Urbana Free Library in Urbana, Illinois, just conducted a major weeding project. Those of us who work in libraries understand that proper weeding is critical. A collection that isn’t weeded well becomes clogged up with irrelevant and unnecessary volumes, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Classification, Ethics, Libraries
1 Comment
Are Library Books on Borrowed Time?
Are Library Books on Borrowed Time? is a short article in Financial Times that covers what many in libraries have recognized for some time: we are in the midst of a transition between paper books and some combination of e-books … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Libraries, News, Online Services
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Inventor of the Bar Code Dies
The media coverage, rightly so, emphasizes the tremendous impact that N. Joseph Woodland’s creation had on retail sales and inventory. Library folk should take a moment and reflect on how much this one technological achievement as affected our work.
Schema.org
Google, Bing and Yahoo have joined their efforts and have created schema.org, a site that offers “a one stop resource” for metadata structure for web pages. There are two schema that stand out as excellent additions to library web sites: … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Google, Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Web Design
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Google Books Unsettled
The Google Books Settlement was tossed out by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, arguing that it gave too much power to Google in allowing the company “significant rights to exploit entire books.” The major problem appears to be the issue … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Copyright, Government, News, Publishing
Tagged Copyright, copyright law, Denny Chin, Fair Use, Google Book Search, Google Inc., Orphan works
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Not so Hot Off the Presses
The Guardian newspaper has an interesting story about what can happen when a book from a small publisher wins a prestigious literary award. This is apparently happening more often, as ec0nomic pressures are causing larger publishers to skip innovative/riskier books … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Publishing
Tagged Books, OhioLINK, Publishing, Stephen King, the Guardian
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The Skinny on Sheepskin
Wired is running a story that links the size of e-readers to sheep. I think it is a stretch (and they admit it, as well), but the story does have a terrific guide to why books have traditionally been their … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Definitions, History, Publishing
Tagged Books, e-readers, History, paper, Sheep, technology, Vellum, Wired;
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Five Laws of Library Science (Ebook edition)
Andy Woodworth has printed an update of Ranganathan’s Five Laws, only how they relate to Ebooks: Five Laws of Library Science (Ebook edition) Ebooks are for use. Every reader his or her ebook. Every book, any ereader. Save the time … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Ethics, History, Libraries
Tagged Andy Woodworth, Books, ebooks, Ethics, five laws of library science, Libraries, Ranganathan
2 Comments
The Positive No
No One Nos : Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas is an article on A List Apart that discusses when and how to address those situations where, for a variety of reasons, your best option is to tell someone … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Definitions, Ethics, Language, Web Design
Tagged A List Apart, Ethics, Language, No, Web Design, William Ury
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How the Digital Revolution Changed Our World
An visual chart in the current Newsweek sums up many of the changes we have seen over the past decade: Exactly How Much Are The Times A-Changin’? The categories that are in decline speak volumes: The US Postal Service is … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Books, Google, Government, History, News, Periodicals, Publishing, Statistics, WebSearch
Tagged Blogs, Books, Google, History, News, Newsweek, Publishing, Statistics
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Thinking about the Free Range Librarian Thinking about Open Source
Karen Schneider has been Thinking about Open Source. This is a good thing, as she tends to do a great job exploring the interrelationships between people, organizations, and technology. I want to highlight one portion of her post in order … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Groups, Language, Libraries, Library 2.0, Open Source, Software
1 Comment
Anne Frank’s Annex: 3-D Tour
Each year, about one million people visit the site where Anne Frank’s family hid from the Nazis during World War II, which was described vividly in her diary. Now the Anne Frank House has opened a virtual annex site, including … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Education, History, Online Services
Tagged Anne Frank, Diary of Anne Frank, virtual annex site, World War II
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The Importance of Taking Breaks
Most people are viewing this with an eye towards the Dewey Decimal System, but what I see is the importance of taking regular breaks: found on The Cataloguing Librarian
Posted in Books, Classification, Humor, Libraries, Video
Tagged Books, breaks, circulation, Dewey Decimal Classification, Humor, Libraries, shelving, stress, Video
1 Comment
DIY Book Scanner for less than $20
If you have reading material that you would like to digitize, but not enough budget to make it happen, this might be your recipe for a Saturday afternoon do-it-yourself (DIY) project: New & Improved Portable, Paperless, Digital Copy Machine The … Continue reading
Posted in Archival, Books, Libraries, Photography, Software, Tutorials
Tagged book scanner, DIY, Do it yourself, Wired;
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