March 17th, 2010
The question isn’t whether or not your library needs e-books for your patrons, it’s how do you deal with your patrons once they have them in their 
hands?
There’s a new e-book on the market…the Alex E-Reader, and it will support Adobe DRM technology. Here are reviews for ten of the others: IPad, SchmiPad: 10 E-Readers and Tablets You Can Get Right Now
Cool fact:
One of the holdouts has decided to release his works electronically yesterday: John Grisham joins e-book parade
Still holding out: J. K. Rowling.
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March 10th, 2010
**WARNING - Chatroulette.com is basically a vulgar place, but you need to be warned about it because it’s getting a lot of press and users will be in your library trying to connect. What appears on the screen – and in the links in this 4Cast – may not be safe for review in public areas of your library. The words, slang, and pictures have somewhat been censored, but because of the nature of this site, some vulgarity can’t be avoided. All self-published entertainment, especially anonymous postings that are live and not recorded, should be viewed with discretion.
Based on visual chat and IM (but webcams aren’t required), ChatRoulette is a website that pairs users with a random videochat partner. If you like who comes up, stay and talk a while, if not, click “next” and a new partner will appear.
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March 3rd, 2010
Cloud computing has several definitions but basically, it just means using data or programs from a remote site (for example, Flickr and Google Docs). The thought is that rather than having local servers to handle your data, software, or other internet-based service, you use a remote host. Sharing resources has obvious issues and risks, but on-demand, remote access to resources is a compelling benefit.
In the news lately:
Cool fact!
On a lighter note, here are some good cloud computing links, sorted by weather patterns.
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February 25th, 2010
From online resources to local story times, printed and online materials and copyright go hand in hand. Is what you’re doing a violation? What about your patrons? Here are some copyright articles that may be of interest.
- According to their website, “Copycense is an online publication that provides insight, commentary, and scholarship on copyright, licensing, intellectual property, and digital media.” Check this site out if you’re interested in things like DMCA, public domain works, file sharing/P2P etc.
Cool fact:
The OPLIN Support Center receives approximately 25 copyright infringement notices a month, usually from movie studios indicating that someone has used a bit torrent client to download feature films.
*definition from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copyright
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