Libology Blog

The Annenberg Media website at learner.org is a resource that offers on-demand streaming video for “schools, colleges, libraries, public broadcasting stations, public access channels, and other community agencies”.

These are top-notch programs, several which I recognize as having been used in college-level learning. I stumbled upon this site while attempting to locate a replacement copy of one of the videos offered on the site.  They do require registration (free) in order to view the video streams.

Subject areas include:

• Arts
• Foreign Language
• Literature and Language Arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies and History

Two additional subject area not listed on the site’s menu are:

• Education
• Education Reform

I am not sure why these aren’t listed, but here they are in case you find them helpful.  Chalk this up to my always being curious about how web menus are set up (thanks RFS!)

The quality of the video stream is as good as any I have encountered.  The only suggestion I have to the viewer is if you are using Firefox, you should install the MediaPlayerConnect add-on.  You will find this to be a great addition to the browser and saves you from all the WMP (Windows Media Player) plugin mess.

The work cycle of Library Technical Services as told by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library (in the style of ER).

TS (YouTube video)

Bonus creative points for the idea of using a packing tape dispenser in the style of CPR as a defibrillator!

thanks to Cindy for passing this along

RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, is currently the leading edge in managing inventories  and supply chains of items in a variety of industries, as well as acting as a personal identification device.  It is used in many situations, from retail warehouses, to highway toll collections, and even in libraries.

Post-it notes are a particular brand of notepads that have a coating of adhesive along the edge of each sheet of paper, allowing the user to stick them to nearly anything.  Yes, even in libraries.

And now, some bright group of researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have combined the two to create a new way to use each of these technologies.

MIT Reinvents the Post-It note… with Post-It notes

I don’t see it doing much for libraries, but it is an interesting technology mashup!

found via LISNews

From Nick Baker, the guy who brought us March of the Librarians (and some help from his cohorts at Williams College Library) comes a documentary examining the life of a golf pencil.

Short Pencil Saga

(I challenge you to not burst out laughing at 1:36)

thanks to HangingTogether.org

The Librarian Song (YouTube video) is, well, a song… about librarians… specifically about how librarians train users (Show it to them, do it with them, and then the user can do it themself).

And above all… it is really funny (as well as slightly risque).

found via Extensible Librarian

The Library of Congress  web site has a collection of webcasts that they use for docent training.  If you would like to learn about some of the collections within in the library, this is a fantastic way to do so!

from ResourceShelf

10 Ways to Make Your Library Great in 2008—via Web 2.0 is a webinar being held next week that promises to be very informative.  The focus is on social networking and how libraries and library staff can approach new technologies for improving services.  They will be archiving the presentation, so those of us who aren’t available to view it live can have a chance to see it.

I will stress that Web 2.0 (and Library 2.0) is best approached piecemeal.  Pick and choose those elements that will work for you and your situation.  Do not be afraid to try something new, to experiment with that which is in place, and to abandon that which isn’t working for you.  In the end you will have learned quite a bit about your library, your patrons, and technology - and everyone will be better off for it!

However, some library people just don’t like the word Webinar….

from a post by Ed Rossman (the webinar presenter) on Web4Lib

An interesting video of a graduation project at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.  Enjoy!

found on LISNews

Edelfäule (roughly translatable as “noble rot”) is a video of books being scanned, like those for the Google Book Project or the Open Content Alliance.  Except that these books have mold damage.  And the result is hypnotic…

found on if:book

The World Digital Library is a project that is quite vast in scope, but is looking ready to take on the challenge of combining primary historical resources from many of the worlds great libraries.

This project was started by UNESCO and the U.S. Library of Congress just last year, and was the subject of a presentation at the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) 2007 conference last month.

Using PostGIS and MapServer, open-source programs that together join a database with mapping information, the library will allow users to search for and retrieve information via a well-thought-out, multi-lingual, world map interface, with a variety of tools for narrowing the search parameters.

I say “will allow users to search” because the library is not yet live. They do, however, have a demonstration video available, in two sizes:

• 500×365 pixels, 8MB
• 1010×720 pixels, 35MB

There is also a good article about the project in the Washington Post.

found on One Big Library

I find myself thinking about copyright and fair use more often lately. As our use of technology to disseminate and retrieve information grows, the limits and freedoms of copyright and fair use, very intertwined, become less and less defined.

Georgia Harper’s guest blogger, Carlos Ovalle, writing for the Collecanea blog, has a post titled The Rhetoric of Fair Use. She discusses the lack of definite understanding, even in legal circles, of what fair use actually is. Is it an individual right when using copyrighted material? Is it a defense against charges of infringement? Is it both? What does it mean for it to be either, or both, of these?

She also links to a C|net column by Patrick Ross, Executive Director of Copyright Alliance, titled Fair Use is Not A Consumer Right. Much of his argument, to me at least, seems to be along the lines of “if major league baseball’s copyright statement were enforced, we wouldn’t be able to discuss Barry Bonds around the water cooler”, but since people aren’t charged with infringement for doing so, then things aren’t out of whack.

What do we do? We know that some claimed restrictions are overstated. We know that there is a great deal of copyright infringement, especially on the internet. We even suspect that, in today’s legal climate, that if public libraries didn’t currently exist that it would be a major copyright battle to create an institution dedicated to freely allowing people to borrow copyrighted materials.

We, and this includes me, need to learn more, to better understand what copyright is, and what fair use is. It is one of the best tools we have for learning and sharing what we learn.

We need to teach others how to properly respect copyright, including insisting on and taking advantage of fair use.

Think of it as free speech, but supported by someone else’s creation. This may sound like we are users, but ideas were meant to be shared. That is the only way they can grow into the world-changing paradigms they all have the potential to become.

Take a few minutes and re-watch (or watch for the first time, if you haven’t seen it yet) The Machine is Us/ing Us. Watch for the reference to copyright near the end. Understand that we do need to rethink what copyright means and how we will use it. And then we need to talk about it. Ask questions. Understand that even the really smart copyright lawyers don’t know where all of this will go, or where it should go. Understand that we need to work on this as a group, a very large group.

Two random bits of humor injected into libraryland this week:

• Disco Dancing for Peace in the Biblioblogosphere is a JibJab “Starring You” video created by Michael Porter, a.k.a. Libraryman, featuring himself and Michael Gorman.
• This week’s Unshelved is merging two of my favorite cultures:  the Mallville Public Library crew and an obscure, yet wonderfully funny reference to the Firefly/Serenity universe.

thanks to The Shifted Librarian and The Unshelved Blog

Deceptive Copyright Notices is a post by Karen Coyle post about those notices that restrict the reader’s/viewer’s rights beyond what is allowable under copyright, and an interesting complaint filed with the FTC.

Also included is a neat reversal of the FBI notice that we all see on videotapes and dvds:

WARNING. Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute, or exhibit portions of copyright motion pictures, video tapes, or video discs under certain circumstances without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair use” and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news reporting, teaching, and parody.

In a way, it makes more sense to emphasize what people can do, as opposed to what they shouldn’t, don’t you think? 

The ASL Video Dictionary is exactly that:  a dictionary of sign language that covers words, common phrases, and even religious signs.

found on MetaFilter

This demonstration of Photosynth, software from Microsoft that creates links among pictures based on elements within the picture, is fascinating to watch.

The most fascinating thing about this demo is you can start to sense the potential for this technology, for both the positive (imagine how this could improve searching through archival photographs) and the negative (facial recognition software for public cameras, anyone?).

It reminded me of this demo for a multi-touch interface.

found on Hanging Together

Scitalks is an online collection of science videos, or as they put it, “Smart people on cool topics”.

Many of their videos feature notable researchers, and the topics range from experiments, to demonstrations, to lectures.  Don’t miss the classic Protein synthesis: an epic on the cellular level for your education on how to demonstrate the building of protein molecules using college students.

found on Open Access News

The first segment of “ALA In Focus”, an online video detailing the inner workings of various areas of the American Library Association, features Gwendolyn Prellwitz, Program Officer for the ALA Office of Diversity & Spectrum.

The video is fantastic to watch, but what has really caught my attention is the interviewer.  His name is John Chrastka, and I had the pleasure to work with him when I was the webmaster for Reaching Forward South.

John was (still is?) involved with the $39 support staff membership for ALA, which is directly tied with their efforts to recruit library-folk who happen to not-be-librarians.  This is still one of the best deals that ALA has offered, and John is a really pleasant and friendly presence.  His personality and enthusiasm really shows in the video segment.

As an additional note, videos like this are much more interesting to me than the polished, professional productions that organizations usually craft to show off their projects and people.  This truly feels like a casual conversation between two people who enjoy what they do.

found on The Shifted Librarian

The folks at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana bring you this public service announcement:

Video Contest Submission-Allen County Public Library

from blyberg.net

A CBS News producer has been fired for plagarizing a Wall Street Journal column by Jeffrey Zaslow about how children and adults view libraries in different ways.  The CBS report by Katie Couric has been removed from their website.

The article is interesting, although it is a shame that it came to my attention because of someone’s mis-appropriation of it.

spotted via the Drudge Report

The first, Finding Time in the Penn State Libraries, is an example of what can be very wrong with how our patrons must use our online resources.

The second, Mr. Bean: The Library, is an example of what can be very right with British comedy.

the Penn State video link was posted to the Web4lib listserv by Chuck Lockwood, from a presentation by Ellysa Cahoy of Penn State