Category Archives: News

NASA Needs A Library Solution (But So Do Libraries)

In a merging of two of my great interests, NASA has issued a Request For Information (ROI) on how best to “analyze and catalog notes from spaceflight pioneer Wernher von Braun into an electronic, searchable database or other system.“ At … Continue reading

Posted in Archival, Classification, Government, History, Libraries, Library 2.0, News, Online Databases, Software, Space, Web Design, Wiki | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

OCLC Withdraws Records Policy

The Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship has released their final report on OCLC’s proposed policy for use of records (pdf), and after reviewing the report, OCLC has formally withdrawn the policy. This conclusion to the … Continue reading

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American Libraries on Ohio Funding

The American Libraries article is just one of many to explain the issues facing Ohio, but I found the following information worth posting: Strickland’s office was also flooded with phone calls; gubernatorial spokesperson Amanda Wurst said in the June 23 … Continue reading

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Save Ohio Libraries

Odds and Ends: Save Ohio Libraries is the rallying cry as well as the focus of this week’s activities. The Save Ohio Libraries Facebook page is rapidly approaching 12,000 members (and has gone from 11,543 to 11,768 as I have … Continue reading

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Dear Governor Strickland…

Here are two quick and effective ways for Ohioans to contact the Governor’s office and convey our thoughts on the library aspect of the budget crisis: Contact the Governor is a standard contact form that resides on the official governor’s … Continue reading

Posted in Government, Libraries, News, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ohio Libraries Update

A few items of note to update yesterday’s post: The Library is Now Closed (a.k.a. Shuttered Library) is a blog created by an Ohio librarian named Mike (didn’t see a last name) which is compiling links to a vast amount … Continue reading

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Ohio Potentially Cutting Library Support in Half

It’s happening, folks.  State and local budgets are under extreme pressure, and tough decisions are being made by Governors, state officials, countys counties, towns and taxing districts.  Libraries that rely on public funding are now almost certainly facing severe cuts. … Continue reading

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One in Twenty

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest is a New York Times article about blogging, specifically about the study showing an estimated 95% of blogs have not been updated in over 4 months. Does this signal an end to blogging?  The … Continue reading

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HTML 5, Google Wave, and the Future of the Web

Amidst a great many other topics, HTML 5 has been on my mind the past couple of weeks.  It started on Tuesday, May 26th, with Kevin Yank posting HTML 5 : Now or Never? on the SitePoint blog.  He was … Continue reading

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ICOLC weighs in on OCLC

The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has weighed in on OCLC’s proposed policy changes.  Of note: “The proposed policy appears to freeze OCLC’s role in the library community based on historical and current relationships. We share the concern, voiced … Continue reading

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Wikipedia and Journalism

Shane Fitzgerald, a Sociology student at University College in Dublin, Ireland (not Ohio), performed an experiment in March in which he placed several fake quotes about death in the Wikipedia entry for Maurice Jarre, who had just died, including this … Continue reading

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Swine Flu Resources

I suspect that Swine Flu is likely to be a common research question for reference departments around the world during the foreseeable future.  I have had an interest in the 1918 influenza epidemic pandemic for several years, and have spent … Continue reading

Posted in Google, History, Libraries, Medical, News, Open Access | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Oracle buys Sun

Oracle has purchased Sun Microsystems. This is significant on many levels.  Many of our library systems run on software or hardware from these companies.  The Voyager library I used to work for used an Oracle database running on a Sun … Continue reading

Posted in Acquisitions, Blogs, Cataloging, ILS, Libraries, News, Online Databases, Online Services, Open Source, Software, Wiki | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Oracle buys Sun

Google Ventures and Libology

Now that Google Ventures has been officially announced, I can go public with my own news: Libology is one of the first group of startup companies which will be receiving Google Ventures funding.  I have been in talks with someone … Continue reading

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Document Freedom Day!

Today is the second annual celebration of Document Freedom Day! So why are open document formats important?  What happens when someone sends you a document created with Microsoft Word 2007, and saved with the default file format?  You get a … Continue reading

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Movers and Shakers 2009

Library Journal has announced the winners of the 2009 Movers & Shakers awards, and as usual, the recipients are fantastic and enthusiastic innovators who look for new ways for libraries to be better: The Alphabetical List (follow the links for … Continue reading

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UCLA Acquires Huxley Library

The UCLA Library has acquired the library including many papers of Aldous Huxley, who died in 1963 (the same day as John F. Kennedy). As Island is one of my favorite reads, this gives me one reason to actually want … Continue reading

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Touch Book

I don’t normally gush over new tech toys on this blog, but I suspect that we are about to witness a sea change in portable computing: The Touch Book is a netbook-but-more from a company called Always Innovating.  It reverses … Continue reading

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Confusing Assistance with Performance

Amazon.com has given in to the Publisher’s Guild on the issue of text-to-speech capabilities in the Kindle 2. In their press release, Amazon states up front that “Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative … Continue reading

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Hard Economic Times a Boon for Libraries?

There it is, on CNN.com:  Hard Economic Times a Boon for Libraries.  Recognize that, oftentimes, the writer of a news article is not the same person who writes the headline for the article.  However, it does seem as though the … Continue reading

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