Category Archives: Libraries

A New Era of Scientific Publishing

Posted on 13 May 2013 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Blogs, History, Libraries, Open Access, Periodicals, Publishing, Science | Leave a comment

Are Library Books on Borrowed Time?

Posted on 21 February 2013 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Books, Libraries, News, Online Services | Leave a comment

Inventor of the Bar Code Dies

Posted on 14 December 2012 by Rick Mason

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.

Share
Posted in Books, Death, History, Libraries, News | Leave a comment

Register to Vote on Libology

Posted on 2 September 2012 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Government, Libraries, Online Services, Politics, Software, Web Design | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Support Your Local Library

Posted on 17 August 2012 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Education, Groups, Libraries, Statistics | Tagged , , | Comments Off

More Master’s Degree News

Posted on 11 June 2012 by Rick Mason

Guess which field made Forbes #1 Worst Master’s Degree in terms of mid-career pay and job availability…

Share
Posted in Education, Libraries, News | Comments Off

The Matter of the Master’s

Posted on 6 June 2012 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Education, Libraries | Tagged , , | Comments Off

The Common Sense of the Fair-Use Doctrine

Posted on 23 August 2011 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Copyright, Education, Libraries, Publishing | Comments Off

Schema.org

Posted on 3 June 2011 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Books, Google, Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Web Design | Comments Off

Librarians are Awesome

Posted on 2 February 2011 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Books, History, Libraries, Space | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

How to Create and Run Your Website

Posted on 6 December 2010 by Rick Mason

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 →

Share
Posted in Blogs, Libraries, Library 2.0, Online Services, OPAC, Web Design | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

IMSLP Petrucci Music Library

Posted on 15 September 2010 by Rick Mason

I’ve been on a project at work that involves tracking down information on some music scores, and have encountered a fantastic resource, the IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library. On this mediawiki-based site resides more than 72,000 scores representing over 29,000 works by … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Copyright, Libraries, Online Services, Wiki | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Five Laws of Library Science (Ebook edition)

Posted on 18 August 2010 by Rick Mason

Andy Woodworth has printed an update of Ranganathan’s Five Laws, only how they relate to Ebooks: Five Laws of Library Science (Ebook edition) Ebooks are for use. Every reader his or her ebook. Every book, any ereader. Save the time … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Books, Ethics, History, Libraries | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

New Hybrid ILS Front End

Posted on 14 August 2010 by Rick Mason

A regional group of public libraries in Antwerp, Belgium have announced a new hybrid OPAC for their library software. They have merged WordPress with AquaBrowser to create a web presence with the capabilities they felt were most important for their … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in ILS, Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Open Source, Software, Web Design | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Library Staff Using Online Tools

Posted on 11 August 2010 by Rick Mason

WebJunction has posted the survey results for online tool usage by library staff, and a few of the results might surprise: The online tool that has had at least some use by the highest percentage of staff is Online Courses, … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Blogs, Education, Libraries, News, Online Services, Software, Training | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

OCLC Questions

Posted on 7 August 2010 by Rick Mason

Jonathan Rochkind at Bibliographic Wilderness weighs in on the OCLC issue, and ultimately asks a lot of significant questions that don’t have easy answers. We all need to be asking significant questions, not only of OCLC, SkyRiver, and III, but … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Cataloging, Classification, Ethics, Groups, History, ILL, ILS, Libraries, OCLC, Online Databases, Online Services | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Chickens in the Library

Posted on 6 August 2010 by Rick Mason

So, what would you do if live chickens were released in your library?  Is this covered in your organization’s disaster plan? If you need to examine another library’s response, review this Shelf Check comic for the following procedure: Alert the … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Cataloging, Classification, Humor, Libraries, News | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

OCLC’s Response to Lawsuit

Posted on 5 August 2010 by Rick Mason

Just received via OCLC Member Update e-mail: The following statement is from Larry Alford, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees, and Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO: “On July 29, SkyRiver Technology Solutions and Innovative Interfaces, Inc. filed suit against OCLC, … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Ethics, Libraries, News, OCLC, Online Databases, Online Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

One Possible OCLC Solution

Posted on 2 August 2010 by Rick Mason

I am going to be very presumptuous and put forth a possible solution to the OCLC situation. Ready? Divide OCLC in two. One entity, which we will call OCLC.org (just to keep from having to make up some name for … Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Cataloging, Ethics, ILS, Libraries, Licensing, News, OCLC, Online Databases, Online Services, OPAC, Open Access, Open Source, Search, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments