E-books

Since we always seem to come back to the topic of e-books....

The library I work in now has access to an e-book downloader where patrons can borrow e-books for free. It's really a great system. A major downfall though....it's not compatible (as of yet) with the Kindle or the iPad. However, free e-books! The provider we use, overdrive.com, also gives us access to audiobooks as well, which have been popular with our patrons who are somewhat internet savvy. The service is really very easy to use, but most patrons don't want to take the time to read the instructions on the site to download the software needed. Another downfall to the whole thing is that the site will only allow a few users to "borrow" a book at one time. Otherwise, you are put on the wait list. I find this to be pretty ludacris, but hey, it's better than no e-books or audiobooks.

Here are some links for you...

www.pvlibrary.net

Our Overdrive site for the county

Library newzzzzzzz

LOLZ. (Sorry. I love them LOLCats.)

There are 72 million baby boomers, 11,000 Americans turn 50 every day, 4.6 adults turn 65 each minute, and almost 60% of librarians are 45 or older. There is little balance: only 7% of the library work force is age 20-29! (DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.) (Got this from LISnews.org)

http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/06/08/08readwriteweb-googles-new-secure-search-might-force-schoo-20681.html

Just imagine not being able to use Google. Google, the number one search engine, may not be available for children to use in schools, as well as some of the education tools that go with it because a new version, which is more secure, will not be allowed through the filters set up by the Children's protection act. Hopefully Google figures this all out soon.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/metadata-is-the-new-most-important-thing-to-know-about
Here's an article on metadata (topic of Everything is Miscellaneous for those 2000 people)

AND........

http://www.librarything.com/topic/92663
Twitter article on ebooks. Very interesting debate.

In other news, I need to start studying for the quiz/exam this weekend.
Good luck to all of you!

Zotero Assignment

Whew!
Finally got my microphone to work!

Dabble Assignment

Well, I just finished the Dabble assignment. It was really easy. I was worried for about 5 minutes when I saw that it needed to be done for tomorrow but now it is so I can rest easy.

In other news, I will soon be the proud owner of a Mac Book Pro. I'm really excited. I just need to move everything around so it is on my new computer, when it arrives. It was a total surprise from my parents, who I am so lucky to have.

I still need to do my Jing assignment. And my paper for 2000. However, I am super tired so neither will be getting done tonight. I'm going to try to get some reading done before bed but we will see how that goes.

Good night everyone!

Busy!

Hey everyone!
I've been super busy with everything for school as well as work/everything else! Sorry I haven't updated. I'm really horrible at this whole blogging thing. It never works out for me.

I just found out about the Dabble assignment so I'm going to complete that after this blog...blah.

I'm really horrible at keeping up with all of the lectures and webcasts. I just hate sitting at my computer for that long of a period of time. I started listening to the lectures on my iPhone so that helps to keep me interested and allows me to listen while driving/walking so I don't have to be sitting on my computer with my headphones on for hours a day. I'm also having issues being self motivated. Any one else? It also doesn't help that I was in Rhode Island this weekend and wasn't able to do any work really. It looks like a long night tonight.

I hope everyone is doing well with their work and is staying a lot more caught up than I am. It is a lot more difficult to do web courses than I anticipated, just for the fact that I don't want to be on my computer doing work when there are so many other things to do/people to see/places to go/books (not for school) to read/etc.

I must get myself all motivated and get on with it!

The Hunger Games

I LOVE THIS BOOK SERIES.

http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/05/12/the-hunger-games-survival-mix/

Links

I read a really great article that I found on Professor Tomer's New Basement Tapes blog about links. It was really great. To summarize the article, the author is debating whether links are a bigger distraction or a bigger help to find more information. I personally agree with the author in the fact that when I see a link, I definitely want to click it to find out what that information is, which can be distracting while reading. HOWEVER, clicking that link may be more information about something that I wanted to know/learn that I wouldn't have gotten out of the first article. Yes, it can be a distraction, however, we aren't being forced to follow the breadcrumb trail.

Here is a link to that article : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/links_in_text.php

And that article had a link to this article (http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/05/experiments_in.php) which is also really great. Maybe once I have some time to read something other than school books I will pick up Nicholas Carr's new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

Both of these articles totally fit in with the book I'm reading for LIS 2000, Linked. I think that without the links in these articles pointing to other places, people might spend a lot less time on the internet because they would have to work for the information they are looking for. Or maybe that would make people spend a lot more time on it. I feel that really, it would probably be the first option because it seems like most people, myself included, are inherently lazy.

Have a great day!