Sunday, April 07, 2002

I've had several people come up to me or contact me after recent presentations to ask about the concept of news aggregators and their future impact. I still need to write up something about all of this, but when they ask what to look for, I tell them to start looking for the little orange box that says XML on the sites that they visit. In libraryland, that amounts to a few blogs, but that will slowly change. I'd really like to see American Libraries, Library Journal, LII What's New, Library Juice, and other big-time library sites RSS-ify themselves so that they'll appear in my news aggregator, but I know that's a ways off. It will happen eventually, though. It's exciting to find a new site that interests you and see that little orange box. So imagine how wonderful it is to see a regional newspaper, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in South Carolina, syndicate their headlines! Yes, check out their Latest Top Headlines and scroll down a bit, looking on the left-hand side. Right now, it's something that is incredibly rare for a professional newspaper's site, but what you're starting at is the future. "Our headlines, your Weblog." That's the tagline, and what a succinct one it is, too. Congratulations to the Herald-Journal for shifting themselves into their readers' worlds! 10:42:30 PM  Permanent link here

First Wave of Homeschoolers Comes of Age "Legal in all 50 states since the 1980s, homeschooling has often been criticized as a paranoid practice of right-wing religious fanatics that stunts children's emotional growth. But as that first generation of homeschoolers settles into young adulthood, the criticism is proving unfounded. If anything, some experts say, the homeschoolers are proving to be better prepared for adulthood than their traditionally schooled peers.... Many homeschooled teens supplement their education with community college classes, taking over the direction of their education much earlier than other kids their age. Whether that is good or bad remains a subject of debate." [FoxNews, via LIS News] This should be a group of kids that appreciates and values the library (not that others don't). We need to keep reaching out to them and supporting them as adults. 9:16:37 PM  Permanent link here

For Kate and Andy: Braingle: Brain Teasers "Braingle feautres a new brain-teaser every day. This one totally fooled me: When Sandy was six years old she hammered a nail into her favorite tree to mark her height. Ten years later at sweet sixteen, Sandy returned to see how much higher the nail was. If the tree grew by five centimeters each year, how much higher would the nail be?" [bOing bOing] 8:19:10 PM  Permanent link here

I'm getting some push back on the BooksIsFree idea. First, Eric noted he was already thinking of doing something similar using Movable Type, especially after he found a tutorial for MT explaining how the author of What Do I Know "uses categories to automate the display of the Featured and Recent book reviews". I still think Radio might be easier, but I think MT might handle multiple review authors better. I'm not sure though, since I've only looked at the MT interface once and that was a few months ago. Then along comes Steven, introducing a whole new aspect that I hadn't even thought of. "I think that this is a wonderful and very possible idea. However, I would like to take this is a step further. Not only using librarians to provide reviews over an RSS based web site, but using the insights, knowledge, and love of literature of our patrons in the process. Imagine a discussion group and at the same time having our patrons reccommending books to one another, all with the library at the center of the work." There's a little mind bomb for me. I suppose that if I'm going to advocate hopping on the cluetrain and interacting more directly with your users, then I'd better start thinking that way about my own projects. Steven's idea adds that ingredient to the mix. And the more I think about it, I guess this is really ReviewsIsFree, not BooksIsFree. I have a library in mind to approach with this whole idea, so I'll have to think all of this through before I call them. I'd like to continue the conversation with both Eric and Steven, so flesh out both of your ideas, guys! 8:14:00 PM  Permanent link here

OEBF eBook Survey Out "The results of the survey based on input from 163 people are somewhere in between no surprise to 'Eureka'. From an industry perspective, the top ten features (with the exception of one feature, bookshelf) are commonly implemented in the hardware and software used to read electronic book content as well as the content itself and so the industry is providing to customers, the features they want. Furthermore, it seems that people are not yet interested in extending the design of the electronic book too far from the paper book given the low ratings of features, such as voice navigation, that are clearly, beyond features associated with the paper book. Yet, while people may not want a radical departure from the paper book, they want to do things with electronic books that are not possible with paper books. For example, they want to 'personalize' their electronic book reading experience by changing the fonts, typefaces, and margins, moving illustrations and tables around the page, sizing images differently than text, and so on. In effect, people want to manage the presentation of information within the electronic book. This raises an issue because not only do people want to manage presentation, they want to add content to electronic books they purchased.... Another important point is that while people want to do things with electronic books they could not do with paper books before, they want to do things with electronic books that they can do with paper books. For example, people want 'rights' to donate a book to a library, lend the book to a friend, or sell the book. But these 'rights' are difficult to manage given that while they could not donate, lend, or sell the same paper book at the same time, it would be possible to do all three simultaneously with an electronic book. In the same vein, people also want the 'right' to read the same electronic book on more than one device, such as a laptop and PDA. The issues associated with these 'rights' must be resolved with a combination of business and technology digital rights management solutions which spring from a balance of interests between the consumer and publishers & authors. Furthermore, based on comments by people in electronic forums, newsgroups, and in the press, the 'management' of these 'rights' must be easy to use and the 'eBook industry' must educate the consumer on how their 'rights' are implemented in these solutions." [Open eBook Forum, via Caveat Lector] It's great to see surveys being done in this area, but keep in mind that the 163 people sampled all have some type of affiliation, knowledge of, or experience with ebooks. The authors of the survey openly admit this, and they suggest further research in order to explore requested features by paper book readers, Baby Boomers versus Net Gens, and readers of different genres. Are any libraries that are circulating dedicated ebook readers doing this type of surveying? 4:38:42 PM  Permanent link here