Universities Launch Collective Digital Library, 78 Terabytes Large

via ResourceShelf by ResourceShelf on 10/14/08

Universities Launch Collective Digital Library, 78 Terabytes Large

Twenty three universities have agreed to share and combine their digitized content, including millions of scanned books and documents, in one gigantic, 78-terabyte library that launched Monday.

Called the HathiTrust, the depository contains digital content from 11 University of California libraries and a 12-university consortium that forms the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which includes the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.

+ Major Library Partners Launch HathiTrust Shared Digital Repository

Source: Wired Blog Network

See also: An Elephant Backs Up Google's Library (Bits Blog/NYT)

Webcast: Libraries vs. IT Departments

via ResourceShelf by ResourceShelf on 10/15/08

Libraries vs. IT Departments

Librarians and IT staff might share more similarities than they would like to admit. Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast, Tech Therapy's hosts, talk about the rift between the two groups.

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (Tech Therapy)

Better Answers in Ask.com

via Google Operating System by Alex Chitu on 10/6/08
Ask.com went back to its roots and enhanced the snippets for search results if the query is a question. Snippets are usually excerpts that include your query, but Ask.com replaced them with the actual answers, as you can see if you search for [how to tie a tie]:


"Presenting direct answers to your searches, front and center, has always been at the heart of the Ask.com experience, and we push further down that path today with the introduction of three new answer technologies: DADS, DAFS, and AnswerFarm. These technologies take both structured and unstructured data, and - instead of delivering a title and description for each document - they deliver answers," explains Ask's blog. This is a clever idea, but Ask.com only shows at most 2 results with enhanced snippets.

The new feature is part of a broader update that mixes specialized search results with organic web results, much like Google's universal search. Ask.com goes one step further and almost eliminates standard, as you can see if you search for [Madonna]: in the top 10 results, you can find 4 web search results, one direct answer, image results, news results, event listings, video results and an encyclopedia result.

Enhanced Snippets for Discussion Boards

via Google Operating System by Alex Chitu on 10/9/08
Google has been experimenting with displaying additional information for discussion boards in the search results and now the experiments are live. Below the title, Google lists automatically generated data about forum threads: the number of posts, the number of authors and the date of the last post.

The additional information helps you decide if the search result is likely to be useful. If a thread has a single post or the last post is very old, you could ignore the result.


This new feature shows that Google is able to automatically classify web pages and to extract relevant information. Once Google starts to show data for other kinds of web pages, we can expect to see an option to restrict the search results to a certain category (forums, reviews, blogs, news articles).

Related:
Google detects the published date of a web page
Metadata for scientific papers in Google's search results

I <3 my Kindle

via ALA TechSource Blog by Jason Griffey on 9/18/08

In the past year or so, there has been considerable discussion here in libraryland about ebook readers. Still, the actual personal ownership of them is still reasonably low. So we don't have a lot of actual user feedback on how people like the devices, what they find useful, and what users really experience when reading on one. I thought I'd make an attempt to remedy that as much as one person on one blog can.

In short: I Love my Kindle. I love it the way I haven't truly loved a piece of technology since my first iPod, and for many of the same reasons. It allows me to carry the media that I love with me everywhere I go, in a form that makes it easier to organize and consume.

The iPod comparison is often made-- the press often refers to the Kindle as "the iPod for books". While in many was this is an apt comparison, in my experience there is definitely a point where the similarities stop.

The iPod succeeded in part because of the Compact Disc, and the ease with which CD's can be digitized. When combined with the emergence of the MP3 codec for digitizing music, it suddenly became possible to transfer your previous music purchases into this new format. This is not the case with books. There is no easy way of digitizing your book collection, and moving it onto a portable device. This is not a small problem, and it has hurt the uptake of ebook readers. Still, I think that the benefits of the Kindle outweigh this drawback.

So what's to love? There are a number of things, but primarily it's the screen. The e-ink screen is visable in any light, unlike the more traditional LCD screen. In bright sunlight, the screen is magnificent, crisp and clear, and very closely replicates the resolution of the traditional ink-on-paper. It took just a few hours for me to completely forget I was reading on a screen at all.

The wireless connectivity is what separates the Kindle from other readers like the Sony's device. The Kindle comes with an EVDO modem that connects to the cell phone network to access the Internet. The access is included in the cost of the Kindle…yes, you heard me correctly, you do not pay any monthly fees for wireless access. There is an experimental web browser, but it is very limited. The real key to the wireless access is that it gives you full access to the Amazon Kindle bookstore. Within minutes, you can be reading any of the 175,000 books available there. You click "buy", the book is purchased, and it shows up magically on your Kindle in less than 5 minutes. That is an amazing experience, and it opens the door to some seriously reckless book purchases.

The Kindle also has the ability to bookmark, take notes, search text, look up words, and access Wikipedia articles. All of those features are useful in their own way, and add value to the reading experience on a Kindle in ways that the physical book can't.

What are the other advantages of having an electronic reading device like the Kindle? The biggest advantage that I see right now is the almost obsecene number of free books being made available online. After all, you don't just have to buy from Amazon. The Kindle will read text files, html, and Mobipocket files, or Amazon will convert Word or PDF files for you for free.

For the sci-fi or fantasy reader, a Kindle will pay for itself in just a few months if you do nothing but grab all of the free ebooks from Baen and Tor, two leading publishers who have fully embraced the idea that giving away books means more sales. These two publishers have given away many, many dozens of books, and there are hundreds more from individual authors around the web. Cory Doctorow, for instance, gives away free electronic copies of all of his work on his website. When you combine these sources with the public domain books in Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks (Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen and H.P. Lovecraft, to name a few), you have more books than you could read in a lifetime.

In the 6 months that I've owned a Kindle, I have actually started to prefer it to reading physical books. I now check to see if a book I want is available for the Kindle before I'll think about buying it in paper, and in some cases I have purchased both the paper and the Kindle version (for example, I bought Anathem by Neal Stephenson in both formats...paper for my "Neal Stephenson First Edition" collection, and Kindle to actually read).

The Kindle has changed the way I look at, consume and enjoy reading. What more could you ask for? This is the future of reading, and whether the Kindle comes out the winner for the hearts and minds of the world's readers or not, it is a brave and significant first step.

In the Hub - The Information Commons at University of Kentucky

via ALA TechSource Blog by Michael Stephens on 9/29/08

During the past few months, I've explored various in carnations of the student-centered learning and technology commons. I'm pleased to see this trend in academic libraries gaining more and more ground. We visited the IU South Bend Commons last time, an example of a smaller university library thinking big and applying the same concepts and strategies for student space and making it work. On a wind swept, rainy day last April, I toured the inviting Information Commons at Loyola University, where community, collaboration and connectivity guided the student- centered space. And this summer while in Georgia, we visited the Georgia Tech Library Learning Commons that features spaces and technologies to enable all types of student, faculty and staff interaction.

There's one more stop - and sadly, I haven't visited this outstanding example of student  space in person but via the photos shared on Flickr. So I emailed Stacey Greenwell, Head of the Information Commons (The Hub) at the University of Kentucky to find out more about the incredible spaces and help desk I'd seen on Flickr. She obliged with this detailed interview:

 

MS: What was the genesis of the Hub?

SG: In fall 2005, University of Kentucky Libraries Dean Carol Pitts Diedrichs assembled a group of interested parties from across campus to discuss the possibility of an information commons. The timing was right, with an increased focus on undergraduate education on campus and the desire to improve student success and increase the overall retention rate. While the William T Young Library is a very impressive building that opened in 1997, the basement was largely underutilized except for two large computer labs and the audio visual services desk. The key players in this potential information commons collaboration (IT and the Teaching and Academic Support Center, along with Libraries) were intrigued with the opportunity to redesign the basement of the library to create a high-energy, student-focused atmosphere that could serve as a one-stop shop for undergraduate information needs.

The group wrote a whitepaper further exploring the topic, and by December 2005, the group had secured instructional infrastructure improvement funding to begin the project. I was extremely interested in the project from the beginning, and at this point I became directly involved by serving as a member of the working group to plan the information commons. The group included library staff, IT staff, an IT librarian (myself), as well as an architect and an interior designer. We spent an entire year planning the project—researching the concept, conducting site visits, and soliciting opinions from students and others on campus. I was appointed on an interim basis to become the director (and ultimately accepted the permanent position earlier this year). We opened the UK Information Commons—the Hub—in March 2007.

MS: What were some of the key features you wanted to include and how did you come to those decisions?

SG: While we sought student input throughout the planning process, we were already aware of several features we knew we needed in the Hub. Since the Young Library opened in 1997, staff had been frequently asked about the lack of a Mac lab in the building, as well as the need for in-depth help with computer accounts, laptops, and software. Early in our planning process, we all agreed that IT offerings needed to be expanded in the Hub. IT already had an excellent Windows lab in the basement which included over 200 computers equipped with nearly every software application that students would need. IT created a Mac lab in an adjacent lab space, and the 24" iMacs in the new lab were extremely popular with students from day one. IT also supported staffing the Hub's central help desk with an IT customer service center staff member.

When the Hub opened in March 2007, IT staffed the central help desk 20 hours per week. The staff member could create accounts, reset passwords, answer general queries about software/campus systems, and assist with laptop problems, among other things. We kept careful statistics on what type of IT help was needed and when, and after our first year, we were able to show that IT support needed to be expanded. I'm delighted that we opened the fall 2008 semester with IT staffing Sun-Thu 1-10 pm and Fridays 1-5 pm. This effectively doubles the number of hours IT help is available in the Hub. In general, I feel that emphasizing the partnership aspect of the project was critical in getting the support and buy-in we needed to make the Hub the success it has become. A good portion of what was needed for the Hub had to be provided by IT, so it was essential that they become a key stakeholder in the project from the earliest planning stages. In addition to the Mac lab and the help desk staffing, we also needed a wireless internet upgrade and an upgrade which would allow cell phones to work in the basement. (Yes, that's right—at the Hub we actually installed infrastructure to make it easier for students to use cell phones. We actually encourage cell phone use. Truly the Hub is a No Shushing Zone.)

The key features of the Hub involve more than just technology, too.

MS: I'm looking at the photos you've shared - the shots of the library help desk are great - and I've used them in my talk "The Hyperlinked Library" for some time.

We wanted to create a library help desk in the center of the space, using a very non-traditional style of service desk to hopefully make students more comfortable approaching us. We also knew we had to get away from heavy, wooden, difficult-to-move furniture. It is beautiful furniture that truly makes our upstairs reading rooms grand, but it is not very conducive to collaborative, energetic, all-night study sessions. We also wanted to bring food into the library—while one of the nicest restaurants on campus is housed in the Young Library, patrons must go outside to visit the restaurant. This isn't feasible for late-night study sessions (or in bad weather!) so that's how Grub @ the Hub was born.

MS: What do you think is the next step for student-centered library space on college campuses? Where do we go from "The Hub?"

I keep coming back to this, but conversation and collaboration are essential for continued success.  What do students and faculty need from library spaces--we have to keep asking questions and keep the conversation going with our clientele.  We also have to continue building partnerships with other essential student services on campus, particularly IT.  We're going to have to address students' increasing use of mobile devices and cloud-based applications, and with IT develop ways to meet these changing needs and provide support. One of the things we've just started looking at is virtualizing our labs-- basically students could come to our space with a mobile device and get temporary access on their device to the software they need.  It is truly an exciting time to continue expanding the information commons!