Erica mentions something that has always sort of bugged me about scanned books, keyword searchable or no: bitonal image scanning. I use Heritage Quest at my library to do genealogical research. They have about 25,000 history and family name books scanned and searchable online. It’s sort of amazing except that the thing I really like to look at old books for — the fancy pictures and odd typography and illustrations — are almost unreadable. At some point, someone made a decision to do this, and I think it was the wrong decision. If we’re saving shelves and shelves of storage space and preservation costs, and I’m not so sure we are, couldn’t we spend a few cents extra to get at least grayscale renditions of the images in these books?
serving the “internet natives” @ your library
This is a neat thing to find, a newspaper article discussing an event at an ACRL conference. The topic? Serving the new generations of college students who come to the library with all new expectations.
One University of Minnesota student had a bagful of electronics with him: iPod, PalmPilot, cell phone. He was bright, opinionated, well-spoken.
And when was the last time he was in the U’s library?
“Last year,” he said.
The collective intake of breath nearly turned the room into a vacuum. What’s a university librarian to do with this generation of college students?
[thanks kathleen]
edible books brainstorm
There are many good examples of edible books to be found online. I’m trying to brainstorm for an idea that my Mom and I can bring to the festival in Albany. [thanks jen]
a cautionary tale about electronic resources
Karen posts about the unpleasant discovery she made that her library was paying twice for an electronic resource because of one small mistake. If someone as tech-sharp as Karen is having these sorts of troubles, imagine how daunting electronic resources can be to someone who is still new to the vast world of subscription services.
This scenario shows just how confusing electronics resources can be. Particularly if you have too many people responsible for different parts and communication doesn’t take place. Mistakes happen but the most important thing is that we learn from them. What I’ve learned from the experience is that electronic resources require a strict attention to detail, planning and constant evaluation. Hopefully by thorough analyzing our resources and keeping a stricter eye on them we will be able to plan more effectively and acquire resources to meet our needs.
congratulations Peter Scott on your retirement!
One thing I really like about the web4lib web interface is that it’s very easy to link to a particular post that highlights information you may not have seen elsewhere. In this case, it’s the firs tplace I read about Peter Scott’s – of library blog fame, among many many other achievements – retirement: announcement and commentary.