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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
Author Archives: Rick Mason
Weeding… or Mowing?
The Urbana Free Library in Urbana, Illinois, just conducted a major weeding project. Those of us who work in libraries understand that proper weeding is critical. A collection that isn’t weeded well becomes clogged up with irrelevant and unnecessary volumes, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Classification, Ethics, Libraries
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Mapping Libraries (and Museums)
Justin Grimes, of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has created a couple of interactive maps that detail the saturation of libraries and museums across the United States: Peruse the Map of Public Libraries for a few minutes, and … Continue reading
Posted in Google, Government, Groups, Libraries, Maps
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A New Era of Scientific Publishing
This. Why is Science Behind a Paywall? We are in the middle of the most dramatic and significant change in publishing since the proliferation of the printing press. One area that has been resistant to change has been peer-reviewed scientific … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, History, Libraries, Open Access, Periodicals, Publishing, Science
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Dyslexia Typeface
I stumbled upon this typeface nearly eight months ago, and thought that I had written about it, but after recommending it for the 3rd or 4th time, I realized that I had failed to actually create the post. OpenDyslexic is … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright, Education, Licensing, Open Source
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A World Without Database Vendors?
BeerBrarian has a post which explores the result of a hypothetical 100% open access world: As a thought experiment, let’s say we “win.” Professional and academic associations go open access, as much of physics has. The Directory of Open Access … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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III and SkyRiver Join and Drop OCLC Lawsuit
Two related bits of news in the world of libraries: Innovative Interfaces (III) and SkyRiver, companies that had close ties, and who had joined together to sue OCLC in 2010, have merged. Their first combined action? They dropped their lawsuit … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Are Library Books on Borrowed Time?
Are Library Books on Borrowed Time? is a short article in Financial Times that covers what many in libraries have recognized for some time: we are in the midst of a transition between paper books and some combination of e-books … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Libraries, News, Online Services
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Inventor of the Bar Code Dies
The media coverage, rightly so, emphasizes the tremendous impact that N. Joseph Woodland’s creation had on retail sales and inventory. Library folk should take a moment and reflect on how much this one technological achievement as affected our work.
Register to Vote on Libology
The Democratic National Committee recently released code that allows websites to offer streamlined voter registration pages through a Ruby on Rails interface. The Obama campaign quickly modified that code to make it even easier to embed in nearly any website. … Continue reading
Posted in Government, Libraries, Online Services, Politics, Software, Web Design
Tagged elections, html, Politics, Ruby on Rails, Technology/Internet, Voter registration
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Support Your Local Library
Statestats, a recently founded non-profit focusing on education and technology, has created an infographic in support of libraries (thanks to Dan for contacting me with this!): FIND A LIBRARY NEAR YOU FIND YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY INFORMATION INTEGRATED WITH GOOGLE … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Groups, Libraries, Statistics
Tagged Information graphics, Library, Technology/Internet
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OCLC supports Open Data license
OCLC has endorsed the use of the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) for library catalog records. This is a great step forward, as it allows a clear path for use and re-use of library records without fear of a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Wikipedia Redefined
Wikipedia Redefined is a proposal by a creative agency called NEW! which presents changes that would make Wikipedia more usable, both as a user and as an editor. Having used MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) extensively, I can vouch that … Continue reading
Posted in Online Services, Open Source, Software, Web Design, Wiki
Tagged MediaWiki, Technology/Internet, Usability, Wiki, Wikipedia, wikis
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More Master’s Degree News
Guess which field made Forbes #1 Worst Master’s Degree in terms of mid-career pay and job availability…
The Matter of the Master’s
I’ve had some differences of opinion with Will Manley over the years, most specifically his seeming distain for Movers & Shakers, but his current column regarding the reduced impact of the Masters of Library Science degree hits fairly close to … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Libraries
Tagged librarian, Library and information science, Movers & Shakers;
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“None of this works off-the-shelf…”
You may remember Michael Wesch. He has done quite a bit of note since that project (here and here). He is, however, re-evaluating the role of technology in the classroom after receiving reliable reports that his methods don’t always work … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Education, Software
Tagged Education, Michael Wesch, Technology/Internet
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The Common Sense of the Fair-Use Doctrine
Copyright can be a challenging maze for library folk and educators, and no area causes more stress than the Fair-Use Doctrine. This is mainly because it deals with gray areas of use, presenting guidelines rather than rules. The Common Sense … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright, Education, Libraries, Publishing
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Schema.org
Google, Bing and Yahoo have joined their efforts and have created schema.org, a site that offers “a one stop resource” for metadata structure for web pages. There are two schema that stand out as excellent additions to library web sites: … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Google, Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Web Design
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Google Books Unsettled
The Google Books Settlement was tossed out by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, arguing that it gave too much power to Google in allowing the company “significant rights to exploit entire books.” The major problem appears to be the issue … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Copyright, Government, News, Publishing
Tagged Copyright, copyright law, Denny Chin, Fair Use, Google Book Search, Google Inc., Orphan works
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Librarians are Awesome
Wil Wheaton is remembered mostly for either his acting role in Stand By Me, or for his acting role as Wesley Crusher in the first four seasons of Star Trek : The Next Generation. He is, however, involved in many other … Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, Libraries, Space
Tagged librarian, Libraries, Stand By Me, Star Trek : The Next Generation, Wil Wheaton
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How to Create and Run Your Website
The San Jose Public Library has launched their new website. It has a clean design, with clear indications of how to find the information being sought. But what really got my attention was the relationship of the library staff to … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Libraries, Library 2.0, Online Services, OPAC, Web Design
Tagged Blogs, Libraries, San Jose Public Library, Shelf Check, Web Design
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