Category Archives: Librarianship

Recent Pew Research Links

Posted on by

Broadband Adoption: The Next Mile | Statement of Aaron Smith (Senior Researcher, Pew Research) | Pew Internet

The New Library Patron from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, will discuss the Project’s new research about library patrons and non-patrons: who they are, what their information needs are, what kind of technology they use, and how libraries can meet the varying needs of their patrons.

Photo and Video Sharing Grow Online | Pew Internet
A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project shows that 54% of internet users have posted original photos or videos to websites and 47% share photos or videos they found elsewhere online. Also: AFP: Smart phones boost photo, video sharing: study and from TIME: One Stat that Explains Why Instagram Is Adding Ads.

Tablet and E-reader Ownership Update | Pew Internet
The number of Americans ages 16 and older who own tablet computers has grown to 35%, and the share who have e-reading devices like Kindles and Nooks has grown to 24%. Overall, the number of people who have a tablet or an e-book reader among those 16 and older now stands at 43%.

1 in 7 Americans is offline. Why? It’s complicated | Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Research | CNBC

Pew Data on News Consumption: Millennials Lead the Shift to Web Use | ContentBlogger

Mobile Health in Context: How Information is Woven Into Our Lives from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

Climb Your Family Tree With These Online Genealogy Tools | Gizmodo

Posted on by

The questions of who we are and where we came from can often be answered, not by looking inward, but by looking backward. While nature and nurture certainly play the primary roles in our development as individuals, it’s only through the study of one’s ancestry that we develop a more complete view of ourselves as how we fit into the larger scope of human history. Luckily, tracing one’s roots is easier than ever thanks to the Internet.

The following web services are discussed:

  • Family Search
  • US Gen Web
  • Ancestry
  • World Vital Records
  • DistantCousin

via Climb Your Family Tree With These Online Genealogy Tools | Gizmodo.

Recent Book News Links

Posted on by

Amazon

Publishers

Authors, Writers

Books, Bookstores, Media

Library Catalog Cards For Classic Books | HuffPost Books

Posted on by

For many of us, a trip to the library these days involves an efficient search on the branch’s site, a hold placed on a hot new release, and a quick pop-in to collect our spoils.

It’s great that so many libraries have gone digital — and some have even gone bookless— because to remain open, remaining relevant is key. Still, it’s hard not to pine for the more quixotic days of dusty shelves and hand-written library catalog cards.

For those of us who romanticize a more tactile library experience, Chronicle Books has created stationary from images of The Library of Congress’s original cards for a number of classic authors. The text of each card interestingly matches the mood often evoked when imagining the author’s era.

See all: Library Catalog Cards For Classic Books (IMAGES) | HuffPost Books

30 Notecards from the Library of Congress | Chronicle Books

Jane Austen

News Links

Posted on by

Launching Later This Week: New York Public Library’s Shelley-Godwin Digital Archive | InfoDocket
The archive will offer digital versions of romantic texts.

Blogging Startup Medium Opens to All | AllThingsD
Medium, the blogging startup created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announced on Friday that it is now open for all to use. Newcomers are required to sign in with a Twitter account, and can only post from Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers.

Metadata: Pinterest and Getty Images Announce Partnership | InfoDocket
Getty Images and Pinterest partner to learn more about the images you pin.

Apple CEO: We’ve locked up 94% of education tablet market | CNET
Tim Cook calls the company’s share in the education arena unheard of in most businesses.

Nielsen to add web viewers to future TV ratings, with a little help from Facebook | Engadget
After several months of testing within the industry, Nielsen is finally ready to reveal its efforts to bake mobile viewing habits into its TV ratings system.

Authors face censorship decision to publish in China | Melville House

Kraków joins UNESCO Cities of Literature | thenews.pl

Yandex Buys KinoPoisk, ‘Russia’s IMDb’, To Move Into Film Search And Recommendation | TechCrunch

The Internet Archive Opens Its Historical Software Collection To All | Gizmodo, Internet Archive

Posted on by

Full Post

Gamers of a certain age will no doubt scream Oh wow, I remember that! as they click through the Internet Archive’s latest project.

The non-profit organization recently launched the Historical Software Collection, with the mission of making old programs accessible (including plenty of games!) that were originally released for platforms like Atari 2600, Apple II, and Commodore 64.

Software itself isn’t new to the Archive, but it’s spent the past couple of years making these programs playable in-browser. So whether it’s E.T. on Atari 2600 from 1982 or VisiCalc on the Apple II from 1979, there’s no need to download a heap of emulators to try them out.

Archiving video games can present special challenges, as David Gibson at the Library of Congress has explained so well. But the independent Internet Archive claims to have the largest software archive in the world, and it should be interesting to see how the next few years work out for them.

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges they’ll face is copyright. Technically, all of these programs are still covered under copyright law. And I have no doubt that the myriad companies responsible for managing the rights to something like E.T. are figuring out if they should intervene. Hopefully, no one will try to pull these programs. But if they do, it will be just one more example of how desperately broken our current copyright system is. [Internet Archive]

The Internet Archive Opens Its Historical Software Collection To All | Gizmodo

‘It’s Britney, witch!’: Britney Spears recites the ‘Thriller’ intro | PopWatch | EW.com

Posted on by

‘Tis the season for multiple costume changes! Britney Spears has temporarily traded in her dominatrix whips for bloody axes and wooden brooms.

In a Halloween-themed video for BBC‘s The Radio 1 Breakfast Show With Nick Grimshaw, the pop princess says “It’s Britney, witch!” and recites the intro from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” “Creatures crawl in search for blood, to terrorize your neighborhood,” Spears says in an adorable Southern-fried Vincent Price voice.

Spears reads the famous song intro from a throne, orders pepperoni pizza, rides a broom, and shows that in between working for those Lambos and martinis, she’s got a killer sense of humor.

Watch scary story time with Brit here:

via ‘It’s Britney, witch!’: Britney Spears recites the ‘Thriller’ intro | PopWatch | EW.com.

FAU Student Says He Was Denied A Laptop Because He’s Gay | HuffPost Books

Posted on by

Full Post

An openly gay student at Florida Atlantic University believes a campus librarian denied him the use of a laptop due to his sexuality.

Abdul Asquith attempted on Oct. 23 to check out a laptop at the Wimberly Library on the Boca Raton, Fla. campus. The laptop checkout requires valid university-issued identification, but when Asquith showed his FAU ID, the librarian refused him.

Asquith said the librarian looked at the ID and remarked, “You sound, look and act like a girl and in this ID is a man, therefore I’m not giving you a laptop.”

Asquith was “appalled,” “embarrassed” and “distraught,” he said. He was finally able to obtain a laptop after speaking with several librarians.

“Because he acts a certain way, he can’t possibly be this? It shouldn’t even be like that,” Samantha Lemessy, who witnessed the incident, told WPTV.

“People need to start speaking out and addressing this every time this happens,” Asquit added.

FAU spokesperson Lisa Metcalf confirmed in a statement to The Huffington Post Monday that the student was initially denied his request.

“The situation was quickly corrected and an FAU administrator issued an immediate in-person apology,” Metcalf said. “The University takes allegations of discrimination seriously and continues to investigate the incident.”

For FAU, a public university in Florida, it adds to a growing pile of controversies over the past year.

Another FAU employee with unpopular views, tenured professor James Tracy, claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre and the Boston Marathon bombings were likely staged.

An FAU professor also began receiving threats after a student took offense to a classexercise in the spring where pupils were asked to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and step on it. And early in 2013, the university received heated backlash after agreeing to name their stadium after a controversial for-profit prison group. One student protester said the university’s president clipped them with her car at one demonstration in March. The deal was eventually scrapped and the president resigned.

Read: FAU Student Says He Was Denied A Laptop Because He’s Gay | HuffPost Books

73 Things Publishers Do (2013 Edition) | Stephen’s Lighthouse

Posted on by

See the updated list: 73 Things Publishers Do (2013 Edition) | Stephen’s Lighthouse

Look Inside the Extremely Rare Codex Seraphinianus, the Weirdest Encyclopedia Ever | Wired.com

Posted on by

A couple having sex metamorphoses into a crocodile. Fish eyes from some weird creature float on the surface of the sea, staring at me. A man is riding his own coffin. Text accompanies these surreal images, handwritten, seemingly ancient but totally unintelligible. I’ve just stepped into the bizarre universe of Codex Seraphinianus, the weirdest encyclopedia in the world.

Like a guide to an alien world, Codex Seraphinianus is 300 pages of descriptions and explanations for an imaginary existence, all in its own unique (and unreadable) alphabet, complete with thousands of drawings and graphs. Issued for the first time in 1981 by publisher Franco Maria Ricci, it has been a collector’s favorite for years, before witnessing a sudden rise in popularity thanks to a growing fandom on the Internet. Now a new-and-improved edition from Italian publisher Rizzoli is about to hit bookshelves on Oct. 29, with 3,000 pre-ordered copies already sold out. The Codex attracts a new generation of fans, people who grew up surfing the net and eager to explore the exciting and relentless world outside, as bizarre as it is depicted in the book.

Look Inside the Extremely Rare Codex Seraphinianus, the Weirdest Encyclopedia Ever | Underwire | Wired.com

via Look Inside the Extremely Rare Codex Seraphinianus, the Weirdest Encyclopedia Ever | Underwire | Wired.com.