JP Rangaswami: Information is food
An interesting concept. I’m not a “foodie” and am comfortable with the most self-righteous of food sources as well as meals composed entirely of processed foods and things from dented cans. But Rangaswami has point in that turning our focus not from information overload to appropriate information consumption (because how can you eat all the food out there?) is an interesting concept, and an apt one for library instruction.
#etextbooks #openaccess #edtech
Hey, my alma mater is doing something cool with etextbooks!
Open textbooks are published under a license that enables students to get free or low-cost versions of their textbooks online, electronically, or in print. The Open Academics catalog is the first of its kind hosted at a major research institution. It is available to faculty worldwide.
Well, done, U of M. (Oh, and Go Gophers.)
#publishing #openaccess
A scathing criticism from Gyrovague on the current ebook market, pointing out that with their fancy e-readers and bazillions of formats, publishers’ current practices for ebook publishing remain squarely rooted in old models, despite the camoflauge of new, hip technology. Their responses to the distribution of ebooks speaks volumes.
So when e-books rolled along with the promise to obliterate barriers to distribution, the publishing industry was faced with either changing everything they do, or sticking to what they’ve always done. Naturally, they opted to circle wagons, stick their fingers in their ears and pretend digital is print.
- Digital makes copying free.
- Reaction: Try to block digital copying by imposing DRM.
- Digital eliminates the constraints of geography from distribution.
- Reaction: Try to preserve regional publishing monopolies by imposing artificial geographical limits on digital distribution.
- General-purpose Web browsers change rapidly and allow the user full control.
- Reaction: Build single-purpose “e-readers” that only allow reading e-books, preferably tightly locked into a monopoly vendor’s authorized distribution channel.
- Digital formats on the Web are wild, woolly and evolve unpredictably.
- Reaction: Try to make e-books resemble physical books by kneecapping them with incompatible “standards” like ePub, created by the publishing industry to serve its own interests.
The saddest part of all of this is that most publishers believe that these practices will save them money in the future. But the threat to publishers’ success isn’t so much piracy as it is that the product they offer is inconvenient and expensive.
#metadata #multimedia #emedia
Carolslib laments the sorry state of metadata in CDs and DVDs. I can add that I’ve seen the same problems with legally purchased or downloaded files.
I still like to buy CDs and DVDs and such (yes, fine, I’m a Luddite, whatever). In order to easily port my music with me when I travel, I convert them to digital … In EVERY case I have to edit the metadata. Sometimes it is minor, just a simple misspelling. In other cases, I have to basically start from scratch. “track 1″ does not give me nearly enough information. Nor does it help when the CD audio book has completely differently formatted metadata on each and every disc – and when the narrator is confused with the author?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the sad little world of the librarian. Carolslib is absolutely right— we could be using metadata as a selling asset, as a way of advertising, but no. It’s an afterthought, obviously the work of an underpaid, overworked intern with no training, best practices, or procedures to build from.
I’ve been reading and listening to the discussions about Transliteracy, and last week went to a one-day conference on the topic. And I’ve come to a conclusion. “Transliteracy” is what people who’ve been doing Bibliographic Instruction and calling it Information Literacy have started calling Information Literacy now that they’re finally on board with Information Literacy’s goals.
Generalization? Admittedly. But try as I might, I can’t see how aiming for transferable skills is any different from what we’ve been doing for years.
There’s some good discussion in the comments to this post.
The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera—point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. Modern digital cameras capture gobs of parsable metadata about photos such…
It’s the subtitle that floors me:
Harvard Library Releases Nearly 100% of Its Records
That’s nearly all of their metadata, ladies and gentlemen— the good kind, the kind curated by metadata professionals. Free and available to the public. This is a tremendous public service.
Even better:
The catalog records are available for bulk download from Harvard, and are available for programmatic access by software applications via API’s at the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The records are in the standard MARC21 format.
You’re welcome! I just wish I could be of more help.
If it’s any consolation, you’ve piqued my interest. But from what little amateur peering around I’ve done, I can’t find anything. I wonder if even the original publishers are no more, at this point. I hope I’m wrong. Good luck!
Anyone have info on this publication “The Record Guide of Southern California”? Start/end publishing dates would be great. It was retitled “The Record, Tape & Accessory Guide to Southern California” in mid-1969. Thanks!
Hmmmm…interesting. Maybe the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s record might help, or any of the Southern California Library Cooperative members?
Edited 10:48am: The link I just posted above to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame probably was created by the same cataloger asking this question. Whoa…talk about a tough one.
#openaccess #publicdomain
It’s a note on Facebook, but the full text of it is below:
Requested books for PG
by Project Gutenberg on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 7:42pm ·
- (This concerns in first instance works first published pre 1923 - if you have access to scans and/or want to help out with the digitizing, let us know.)
- Florence Barclay - The Wheels of Time
- Ethel Turner - The Family at Misrule and Little Mother Meg (scans available at Internet Archive)
- Stendhal - The Charterhouse of Parma
- Jadunath Sarkar - Shivaji and His Times
- José Milla y Vidaurre - (works by)
- E.P. Oppenheim - The Inevitable Millionaires
- Milo Winter (as illustrator): (works by)
- Plato: Works (Stephanus ed. 1578)
- Warwick Deeping: (works by) - some are available at PG of Australia, and scans of some of his works at the Internet Archive.
- Arthur Ransome - Pond and Stream (scans in pdf of the 3 published nature books here: http://www.allthingsransome.net/literary/naturebooks.html)
- Levi Coffin - Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (scans available at Internet Archive)
- Catharine Maria Sedgwick - Hope Leslie (scans available at Internet Archive)
- E. Nesbit - The Red House
- Henry Peacham - The Garden of Eloquence (1577)
- The Avesta - with Zoroastrian texts
- Diderot - Jacques the Fatalist
- Freeman Wills Crofts: (works by)
- H.P. Lovecraft: (works by)
