Library Mashups : exploring new ways to deliver library data / edited by Nicole C. Engard, Information Today, 2009
This collection of articles conveys a new approach to library services and information architecture. 300 pages.
Posts Tagged ‘library services’
Information Literacy meets Library 2.0
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Information Literacy meets Library 2.0 / edited by Peter Godwin, Facet Publishing, 2008
Here is an interesting discussion of how libraries need to change to meet the challenge of digital content and the semantic web. It is well written and concise at 175 pages, hardcover.
Licensing and Managing Electronic Resources
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Licensing and Managing Electronic Resources / Becky Albitz, Chandos, 2008
Here is legal help for librarians in charge of electronic resources, written by an American librarian. It is well written, 150 pages.
automated library systems
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009Managing technologies and automated library systems in developing countries : open source vs commercial options : proceedings of the IFLA pre-conference satellite meeting / edited by Bernard Dione, K.G. Saur, 2008
This funny little hardcover has academic papers on library automation in Africa. The book is partly in English, partly in French. It is not at Amazon, and that makes it rare! Read the paper by Norwegian students who used the open source Koha ILS in a Kenyan library. Maybe OPL should be using Koha because it is or will be better than Lirico/sirsidynix, so OPL can save money for more book purchases.
Safari Stopped
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008Safari, O’Reilly’s online book access, has lots to offer. It has lots of current tech books, it is searchable, and you can read books before they get to the stores. However, you have to read books on your computer, which may be inconvenient, or you have to print out chapters, which is really inconvenient. Oh, and Safari costs $20 or $40 per month. I discontinued my subscription to save money, then re-subscribed to search out a problem that I was having (in a threaded program in gnu c++, what are those large ‘arena’ anon mappings, that use relatively little resident memory, and why). Safari helped where Google had not. But I much prefer holding a book in my hands, and I have not visited Safari in a week. YMMV.
The library used to have a Safari shared license so any three people could use Safari vis the library site. The service was stopped recently because it was not getting used much. To bad.
A new building for the Ottawa Public Library?
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008A new building for the Ottawa Public Library? Maybe, but let’s look at the options. They are asking for a big new public building in central Ottawa. But the way we use the library has changed; we place holds online and pick up the materials at the local branch. There is no longer a need for a downtown architectural monument. The large sum they are discussing could buy warehouse space near the 417 and stock it with Amazon’s ‘long tail’. Mark Sutcliffe, the Citizen columnist, writes about this option.