A few links of note:

• Library Journal has an overview of the panel session – OCLC Defends Records Policy, Faces Questions, Suggestions, and Criticisms.
• Karen Calhoun, Vice President OCLC WorldCat and Metadata Services, has posted the slides from her presentation.
• The Disruptive Technology Library Jester blog has a couple of posts well worth reading – Consideration of OCLC Record Use Policy and Further Consideration of OCLC Record Use Policy.

I sincerely hope that Karen Calhoun and OCLC are taking into consideration that a licensing structure similar to Creative Commons (to name one that many people have become familiar with) can be a win-win situation, allowing for quality control and prevent reselling of records, while still allowing for sharing and creative use of the data within the records.

A Fire on the Plain is a post by Peter Brantley of the University of California that relates the essence of conversations he has had with several rightsholders who were part of the Google Book Search negotiations.  An exerpt:

From the rightsholders’ perspective, one terminal per library, instead of being stingy, quivered with profligacy. I heard remarked by several individuals (and often enough now to feel it corroborated) that indeed this concession started out far more restricted: either no public access, or starkly limited access – perhaps apocryphally, a single terminal in each State capitol, or one terminal in each city. In short, it was impressed upon me that libraries were lucky to get as much as they did.

As I understand it, rightsholders feared that having unhindered access to books online at libraries might (among other issues) encourage libraries to decelerate buying print books, thereby reducing royalties to authors and profits to publishers. In this equation, more public access = less revenue.

This is not a good sign.  If this is applicable to rightsholders as a group (and be mindful that this is an incredibly small sample of opinion), then the resistance of publishers and other rightsholders is going to increase exponentially when we finally get an e-book reader that becomes the equivalent of what the I-Pod was to e-audio.  Libraries and other organizations need to ensure that Fair Use is respected (and utilized), and that there is a broad understanding of the changes happening to media and culture.

found via Open Access News

TechCrunch is a blog.  A blog about technology startups.  It is run by Michael Arrington, who is someone I consider to be a straight shooter.  When evaluating a new technology, company, or service, he states what he feels about it, and does it in a fair, straightforward manner.  He is not always right in his reviews (who could be?), but he is insightful and correct most of the time, from what I have read.

In today’s post, Some Things Need to Change, he spells out what his life has become over the past few years.  Because he calls things as he sees them, he has had to deal with a great number of indignities, including physical abuse, being spat upon by strangers, and worst of all, death threats upon him and his family last summer from what turned out to be a credible threat.

I have written posts based on items I have seen on TechCrunch at least 18 times over the past couple of years.  If you look them over, you can see the range of ideas and resources that he covers.  That he is needing to take time off and decide whether to continue is understandable; the actions by others that have forced this is not.

Mike, I hope you have a restful break, and that you are able to come to a clear decision that will be best for you, your family, and the world as a whole.

The Open Library Environment (there will be a post on this project in the near future) recently met at Lehigh University’s Linderman Library in Bethlehem, PA.  Pictures were taken and posted on Flickr.

I especially love the stained glass skylight…

Find Any Film is a British site that strives to be the starting point for locating films for purchase and/or viewing.

It is not nearly as comprehensive as the Internet Movie Database (I could not find The Story of English, the award-winning PBS Miniseries), nor does it provide a wealth of detail, but it certainly seems to be worth adding to one’s list of references.

found via ResourceShelf

Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab is an article in today’s New York Times on how this one area of publishing is booming, while it seems all other areas are scaling back.

The headline itself doesn’t quite fit the article (but oftentimes the headline is written by someone other than the article’s writer) in that many of the prominent self-publishing companies don’t require much of a payment in advance (if any payment at all – see Lulu.com).

The downside of self-publishing, according to the article, is the lack of advance payments and the absence of the marketing efforts that traditional publishers offer.  However, when one is publishing a niche book, the marketing offered by a publisher, unless they specifically serve that niche, won’t necessarily do much for sales.

This is, as many things seem to be, reflecting a trend.  With web sites, blogs, wikis and other “new” media flourishing, it makes sense to apply many of those principles to the publishing world.  I want the traditional publishers to do well; they provide access and support to writers that we would sorely miss if they went out of business.  However, I suspect that in five years we will see more self-publishing (especially if you combine the small publishing companies that will form around the idea of print-on-demand and small press runs).

For libraries: prepare to widen your search for materials.  Traditional vendors will eventually need to find ways to include these “niche” publications in their offerings; in the meantime Amazon and others will be the primary nesting ground for these books.  There will be a period of time in which it will seem that it is harder to find the right books than before; afterwards it will be easier than ever.

There is a concept for all this, not mentioned in the article:  The Long Tail.

SitePoint Reference is an online guide with a wealth of information on web design.  Divided into three sections, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it is a great place to find that bit of information you need while designing or editing a web site.  Keep it in your bookmarks.

You might recognize SitePoint from their book publishing, including the recent Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong! which details the use of CSS tables in web design.  The title is hyperbole, in my opinion, but the book itself is excellent.  It has changed how I view the design of web pages, and I hope to put it into practice in the near future.

found via the SitePoint blog

The New York Times Blog announced today that they have released an API for their Best Sellers list.  Library programmers should jump on this.  Imagine being able to display information about an item’s rankings – dates, placement, etc. – in your OPAC like you can show book covers, Google Books, etc.

The data only covers June 2008 forward, but they will be extending it back to 1930 within the next few months.

This is a great move by the NYT; their Best Sellers list is considered definitive, and encouraging its use and adaptation means it will continue to be influential.

found via Web4lib (thanks to Steve Toub)

A post on the Unshelved Blog reminds me of the varying philosophies towards upgrading web sites.

In the post, Bill discusses how much easier it is to make incremental changes to their site fairly often, rather than a major overhaul less often.

I agree, but also have found that completely re-doing a site occasionally, combined with incremental and on-going changes, allows for the least amount of overall work in maintaining a web site.  This is because some changes are more easily accomplished from the ground up rather than afterwards.

Think of it in terms of one’s house: adding forced-air heating, or plumbing, or network cable is much easier in a new construction than in an existing home.  Changing windows, flooring, or updating a bathroom can all be accomplished relatively easily in an existing house.

The trick, with both the web site and the house, is to determine what is needed, what is wanted, and the resources and options you have to make it happen.  There is a great deal you can do to an existing web site / house, but at some point it makes sense to start fresh.  Figure out which is best, and plan ahead for the big changes.

Data, Copyrights and Slogans, Oh My! is a post on the Common Knowledge blog discussing the idea that data is not subject to copyright.  With the OCLC kerfluffle still echoing about the libibliogosphere, it stands out as a nice, succinct argument – and one that is not specifically about library catalogs.

Update: Data, Copyrights, and Slogans, part II has been posted (27 January 2009)

found via Open Access News

A recent post, and the resulting discussion, on Metafilter has put me in a Unicode font frenzy.  A few links of note from there and elsewhere:

• decodeunicode.org is a wiki-based collection of Unicode characters.  You can browse as well as search through the character sets.  There is a lot to see here, and you may get into your own font frenzy; you have been warned.
• FileFormat.info has a Unicode section that provides some great resources, including a UTF-8 Browser Test Page.
• Unicode.org, the official Unicode organization, has a great comprehensive Code Charts.
• Sil.org has an excellent introduction to the Unicode standard, as well as a collection of downloadable fonts and software, including my favorite font for print:  Gentium.
• An additional font family that offers great Unicode support is DejaVu, which was recommended in the MetaFilter comments.
• Two interesting characters I had not encountered before:  Reference Mark (※) and Irony Mark (؟).

As someone who has worked with an ILS that didn’t have Unicode support, which was then upgraded to support Unicode, and then changed jobs and is now working with an ILS with very limited Unicode support, I have a great appreciation for the benefits of Unicode.

Libraries should, in all that they do, attempt to store and present data in Unicode.  This includes our catalogs, web sites, and other data repositories.  Even if you offer very little outside of the standard Western characters, it makes your data that much more accessible and useful.

Why you can’t find a library book in your search engine is an article in The Guardian.  It is a good overview of the broader issues surrounding the OCLC Licensing problem, and is written for the general reader (i.e. this is the article you should recommend to all your non-library friends (and perhaps even some of your library friends).

found on Librarian.net

Karen Coombs has a post on the Library Web Chic blog about getting feedback for a problem she was having with Drupal, an open source content management system.

She points out, and rightly so, the fallacies that techies run into when working with software.  There is an expectation that if you are comfortable working with software, that you are an “expert”.  There is also an expectation that you can find the answer to any question in the documentation.

Most anyone can work with most of this software.  There is a lot to learn, but if you are patient and willing to fail (and try again), you will be rewarded with the ability to install, configure and run software that will make your life (and your library/organization/family/etc.) much more fulfilling.  Just remember the patience – on everyone’s part.

Many people have a memory of the moment they realized that Barack Obama was likely to become president.  For some, the moment came during the primaries, perhaps when they heard the speech he gave after the New Hampshire primary.

Others, and I know several who were present, will point to his announcement in Springfield, Illinois that he was running for the presidency.

There are others who will go back even further and point to his Keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention.

My moment was a bit more obscure, but it had to do with libraries.  I recall becoming convinced that he would run for president, and would likely win.  I expected it in 2012 or 2016 (he was early in his first-term as a U.S. senator, remember), but the past two years has been eerily like what I anticipated that day.

In June 2005, Barack Obama spoke at the American Library Association conference in Chicago, Illinois.  I can’t find a video of the speech, but the transcript is here.  I did find a discussion of his favorite book, however.

LibraryThing has partnered with Cambridge Information Group (Bowker, AquaBrowser, ProQuest, Serials Solutions, and RefWorks), though Tim Spaulding still retains a majority stake.

This means that we will be seeing a lot more of LibraryThing for Libraries in the future (good for everyone)!

The debate has been going on for years, and has recently flared up again on PUBLIB : Does a person need the MLIS degree to do the work of a librarian?

LISNews has decided to take a poll (and encourage discussion)….

Comment : I have been thinking about this issue, and related questions, for many years.  Because of budgetary pressure, support staff have been taking on duties that in the past were considered the role of librarians.  Depending on the library (size, budget, structure, role) there are different answers as to what should and should not be done by various people.

I maintain that training is the key.  The better everyone knows everyone else’s job, the more efficient the library will be.  This means that there should be very few “walls” between job duties.  Personnel issues (hiring, firing, etc.) and certain confidential issues (financial accounts, security) should be kept within a walled garden (but never with only one person!).  Otherwise, everyone should know at lease something about all other duties performed in the library.

This leads to another point : training and knowledge need to be respected at all levels.  Understand and respect that which the MLIS librarian knows and applies to his or her job.  There are years of training behind that degree, and those of us who learn on the job (and on our own) would do well to keep that in mind.  Conversely, librarians should keep in mind that support staff bring a great deal to the table, and it is impossible to know just what we have to offer until you open yourselves to our input.

I worked as a technician in a pharmacy for eight years, and was mistaken for a pharmacist more times than I can recall. Each time was a sobering reminder to never allow my actions or speech to exceed my knowledge, because it carried far more weight than my simple certification could bear.

In libraries, we all need to heed that advice.  Understand what you know; more importantly, understand what you don’t know.  Being a librarian doesn’t mean that you know more about someone’s job simply because that job is support staff.  It doesn’t even mean that you know more about esoteric “library stuff” than someone without the degree.

The same goes, as you can guess, in the reverse.  The key is respect.  Respect each other.  Respect the job.  Respect the degree.  Respect the person’s training and knowledge.  Respect everyone, and expect the same in return.

Make that your mantra : Respect and Expect.

Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has been asked to write a paper for the Obama administration on the benefits of the United States government using open source software for improved security and lower cost.

Yes.  With the right software, the right expectations, and the right training, open source software can benefit nearly any organization.

found via OSDir

Buy None, Get One Free is an article that appeared in BBC News that does a good job explaining one of the business models for the changes sweeping information services (a broad topic covering anything from music to news to journal articles).

It certainly isn’t the only business model we will be seeing a great deal of:  consider ad-supported content on the web, or communal/consortial purchasing (like libraries and databases).  These have been around for years, but the important part is that the cost to supply the content is rapidly decreasing; the main cost is providing it in the first place.  This is forcing information providers to change.

The sooner we understand this, really understand this in our bones, the sooner we have the potential to see the benefits in our budgets and in our services.

found on Open Access News

Add another “knowledge-sharing resource” to your reference grab-bag:  SciTopics, a free, searchable collection of over 600 science topic (hence Scitopics) pages, has just been officially lauched by Elsevier after a lengthy beta.

This is one of those resources that is excellent, if there happens to be an article on the topic you are looking for.  Keep it handy, for it is likely it will help you (or your patrons/students) in the future.

previously : Scirus

found via Open Access News

Add Symantic Richness To Your Markup With (RDF) Ease is the title of an article on SitePoint that delves into a topic I find fascinating, yet have only dabbled in in my own website creations.

Microformats are one of the best ideas I have seen in web design since CSS.  RDF, in some form, is what the semantic web of the future will be built upon.  CSS, for all its complexity, is a powerful tool that is still growing into a transformative design language.

Read the article, even if parts of it are foreign to you.  Think about how this has the power to change the web as we know it.  Think about how it has the power to change our catalogs, our article databases, and online collections of resources (books, images, etc.).  Think about it.