October 29, 2008
State Budget Cuts Read as Bad News for Libraries
October 28, 2008
Licenses for Libraries - Google Book Search
Licenses for Libraries
Libraries, universities, and other organizations will also be able to purchase an institutional subscription, which will give users the ability to access the full text of all the titles in the Google Books index. This, depending on the pricing, could turn out to be a revolutionary development for libraries.
Google Books is already changing the way many of us are doing our research, and having access to even more books is only going to move this trend forward even faster.
It is important to note that this settlement only applies to U.S. copyright holders. Users outside of the U.S. will not see any changes to Google Books yet.
Article in the Greenville News
online at the Greenville News.
Librarians have redefined jobs (by Jeanne Brooks)
Almost certainly you already noticed this. They don't whisper or shush in libraries anymore.
"It's totally different now," Becky Hughes said. And "I'm glad it's different."
So
there you have it. The words direct from a librarian's mouth. Hughes is
a branch librarian for the Anderson County Library. She's got 15 years
experience and so knows how things used to be.
Hughes
was one of 310 librarians attending the South Carolina Library
Association's annual conference last week, this year at the Hyatt
Regency hotel in Greenville. The association has about 400 members.
The
conference's theme was "Going Green in Greenville." Presentations
ranged from Ben Geer Keys, author of "Natural Images of the Southern
Appalachians," who spoke about his nature photography; to David Moore,
architect and partner at Graig Gaulden Davis, whose topic was "Planning
for Green Libraries."
There
was also "Your Cheatin' Heart: Academic Integrity as a Component of
Information Literacy," as well as "Libraries in the Digital Age: Some
Implications for the Practice of Librarianship" and a variety of other
topics, some green, some not.
Keynote
speaker was, as described by the conference brochure, "nationally
recognized eco chef, author and food justice activist" Bryant Terry.
Curtis
Rogers, the library association's president, said he thought "the whole
rule about talking in the library went away when libraries became more
or less community centers."
Right there is the Catch 22 for public libraries in the current economy.
The
Anderson County Library offers among other things, for instance, story
hours, crafts demonstrations, a teen guitar hero contest, poetry open
mike events, a library scavenger hunt, classes in genealogy research,
medical research, family law and computers.
They'll be organizing a communitywide Big Read of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.
Faith
Line, Anderson County Library director, said circulation at her
branches and main library has gone up by double digits within the last
six months.
"During
an economic downtown people tend to use libraries more," library
association president Rogers explained. They use library computers to
look for jobs. They check out movies for free instead of renting them.
Instead of digging into their pockets to buy books in stores, they
borrow them from libraries.
Facing
state cuts, librarians worry about funding. They worry about buying new
books, CDs, DVDs and electronic databases. They worry about affording
gas for bookmobiles.
What
big issues do they quarrel over? "Librarians tend not to be
quarrelers," Rogers demurred. "They tend to just voice concerns."
Although "librarians can sternly make a point."
Rogers said he thought the profession "tends to draw individuals who just want to know about everything."
A
2005 study by the University of South Carolina's School of Library and
Information Science found "the existence of SC public libraries brings
to the state (from federal and private sources) almost $5 million each
year that it would not otherwise have" and that "the value of loans and
use of books, videos, cassettes, CDs, newspapers, magazines, etc. to
users each year is approximately $102 million."
Value
-- besides keeping money they didn't have to spend -- to the users of
those books, videos, newspapers, magazines and the like was beyond
measuring.
October 27, 2008
Do you think gamers are out of touch couch potatoes? Think again.
Videogamers Not Lonely Introverts; More Valuable Consumers than Non-Gamers
Americans
who play video games are more likely than non-gamers to influence their
friends’ attitudes about pop culture and new technology purchases and
are more social than commonly thought, according to a study from IGN Entertainment and Ipsos Media CT.
Findings from the “Are You Game?” research study break long-standing
stereotypes of gamers as solitary introverts and shows gamers are more
outgoing, more active and more valuable as consumers than those who do
not play video games, IGN said.
Newspaper Websites
Maybe libraries should set up local newspaper webpages that organize the local news now that there are so many choices out there. Are any libraries doing this already?
Newspaper Website Audience Up 16% in Q3, Engagement at Record Levels
Newspaper
websites each month attracted, on average, more than 68.3 million
unique visitors (41.4% of all internet users), during the third quarter
of 2008 - a record number, and a 15.8% increase over the year-earlier
quarter, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
October 24, 2008
SCLA 2008 Conference 261
SCLA 2008 Conference 241
October 23, 2008
SCLA 2008 Conference 157
SCLA 2008 Conference 022
SCLA 2008 Conference 105
October 21, 2008
Is your library using email marketing to reach your patrons and future users?
18-34 Year Old Responds to Email Marketing Over Social Network Marketing
Social networking is popular, but how to target consumers through
them is a mystery that has plagued marketers since social media's
inception. Now, a new study from ExactTarget is showing how tough it
can be.
The report showed that 18-34 year olds say they're more likely to
respond to marketing efforts via email or direct mail than they are
social networking campaigns.
Here are more key findings from the study:
- 20 percent of Wired consumers have subscribed for marketing
communications via SMS, more so than any other group, but they want to
receive texts only for urgent customer service issues such as financial
alerts or travel updates. - More than 50 percent of Young
Homemakers use social networks and SMS during the day, but direct mail
and e-mail are their two preferred marketing channels. - 81
percent of Retired consumers have purchased online and 94 percent have
been influenced by some form of direct marketing to make a purchase. - College
Students are very spam-savvy and believe private communication channels
such as SMS and social networks are off limits for marketers. - Teens
use social networking more than any other group but are more likely to
make a purchase from direct mail, followed by e-mail, SMS and social
network sites. - Women are more likely than the men in the
Established Professionals group to use new digital media channels such
as IM, SMS and social networking to communicate with friends and
family, but men and women alike shop online with 92 percent of the
consumers in this group having made an online purchase.
October 20, 2008
Audio meets Visual
October 19, 2008
Fly High with a Book
Are you a good Multitasker in the Library?
October 17, 2008
my Flickr/Social Networking session
October 16, 2008
me and barbara
Iowa Library Assn 2008 Conference
http://lblog.jalcorn.net/archives/1196-ILA-Session-IM-Anyone-Lately-How-to-Get-Your-Library-Chatting.html
Thanks Louise!
October 15, 2008
me at charlotte airport
October 14, 2008
North Americans demand social media
Librarians need to pay attention to these kinds of stats! People expect libraries, information specialists, and knowledge managers to be up on this and offer social media options for users.
Americans really dig social media… but Canadians love it.
Almost 60% of Americans interact with companies on a social media
Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week. These are
among the findings of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study (Cone LLC).
When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans believe:
• A company should have a presence in social media (93%)
• A company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media (85%)
• American consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better
served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media
environment (56%)
• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
http://blog.ragan.com/contentmatters/2008/09/north_americans_demand_social.html
Iowa Library Association sessions
My sessions are:
im ANYONE LATELY? HOW TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CHATTING
Curtis Rogers, President, South Carolina Library Association, Columbia, South Carolina
Sponsored by Iowa Small Library Association
FROM JOOMLA TO BLOGS: GIVING YOUR WEBSITE A REFRESHING NEW LOOK
Curtis Rogers, President, South Carolina Library Association, Columbia, South Carolina
Sponsored by Editorial Committee
FLICKR AND OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS TO CONNECT WITH PATRONS
Curtis Rogers, President, South Carolina Library Association, Columbia, South Carolina
Sponsored by Editorial Committee and Iowa Small Library Association
I'll be seeing you in Iowa real soon!
October 13, 2008
October 10, 2008
My presentation at the SC Public Sector Communications Conference
Even A State Agency Can Do Social Media9703
From: scstatelibrary, 2 minutes ago
SlideShare Link
October 09, 2008
Online Offerings Rise at US Libraries, 68% of Americans Have Library Cards
The US’s public libraries are dramatically increasing new-media
offerings and have signed up an all-time high number of cardholders,
but online services are - in many cases - still not enough to meet
demand, according to studies from the American Library Associaton (ALA).
Google Opens South Carolina Data Center
I wonder if the library was invited?
Google has begun operating its new $600 million data center in Goose Creek, South Carolina. The company marked the occasion yesterday with a grand opening event for local residents and officials.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/08/google-opens-south-carolina-data-center/
October 07, 2008
October 04, 2008
October 03, 2008
SONY’S THIRD GENERATION READER DIGITAL BOOK GIVES READERS A “FEEL” FOR LITERATURE
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 2, 2008- With the latest edition of Sony’s Reader Digital Book, announced today, readers can truly let their fingers do the walking.
An
interactive touch screen display allows for the most intuitive digital
reading experience to date. The new model, PRS-700, will join the
PRS-505 model in the Reader family to give consumers a choice of how
they would like to read electronically.
http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/consumer/computer_peripheral/e_book/release/37586.html
SC Governor Proclamation
October 02, 2008
QandANJ.org Commercial: Knowledge is Sexy: Go Get Some
here is a great example of a library commercial!