Why boys like girls books

Great article on Slate about, well the title says what it's about. The other title is "The Little Men Who Love Little House". Boys, the writer contends, like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books more for the detailed information they provide (how to tap a maple tree for sugar, or how to load a musket) than for the actual story. I'm not sure that was precisely the case for me, although I do recall that the Little House books were among my favorites for that 15 minutes of after lunch reading by the teacher when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade.

The article does slam librarians for liking "books that teach moral lessons" and points to winners of the Newberry Medal as examples! A bit cheeky of the author I thought, but then I haven't been very good about reading the Newberry's myself, so I'm in no position to judge.

I didn't find this article by myself. It was cited in the most recent (March 15) American Libraries Direct electronic newsletter. Their "seen online" section almost always has good stuff worth reading.

Wikipedia and Britannica Considered

Wikipedia has just announced its millionth article. But probably of more interest is an indepth review, comparison and writeup of the differences between Wikipedia and Britannica in the latest issue of Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals. The article is definitely worth a read.

Here's how the article, written by Paula Berinstein, frames the issue:

The primary question for info pros is, of course, reliability. Can "the public" concoct and maintain a free, authoritative encyclopedia that’s unbiased, complete, and reliable? If not, then Britannica may rest on its laurels and its good name, although with the Web so free and accessible, it’s been taking licks for some years. But if the answer is "Yes," what happens to that shining beacon of scholarship, its publishers, and its academic contributors? Is encyclopedia publishing a "zero sum" game?

Keep Up With Available Mashups

Says Tara: "Want to know what mashed-up applications are coming down the pipe? Check out a very nice service: Mashup Feed (http://www.mashupfeed.com/.) "

A brief description of this service is available from Tara Calishain's ResearchBuzz!

What's a "mashup"? See the Wikipedia definition. They're a big part of Web 2.0.

Extreme Makeover: Rebranding an Industry

Did you miss the OCLC Symposium at ALA Midwinter, “Extreme Makeover: Rebranding an Industry”?

Now you can watch the webcast or listen to the podcast.
At this symposium, a panel of experts shares their insights on rebranding the library. Hosted by Cathy De Rosa, OCLC Vice President of Marketing and Library Services, the distinguished panelists include: Antony Brewerton, Subject Team Leader at Oxford Brookes University; Patricia Martin, President and Founder of LitLamp Communications Group, Inc.; Jennifer Rice, President of Mantra Brand Communications; and Omar Wasow, Executive Director of BlackPlanet.com and Internet Analyst for NBC.

View Webcast (password = pass)
Listen to Podcast

From OCLC Abstracts, Vol. 9, No. 9

DaVinci Code Fodor's Travel Guide

Can you believe it? Fodor's is releasing a travel guide to The DaVinci Code! ISBN: 1-4000-1672-X. Release is scheduled for March.

Plus, their website lists DaVinci Code tours of Paris, London, Rome, New York, Scotland and more. All of which are apparently going to be in the printed guide.

This is even better than the patron who walked into Border's (shortly after the release of the movie) and asked for Cliff's Notes for Jurassic Park!

Flickr hacks and tools

As if Flickr weren't enough by itself, BCR's Michael Sauers has compiled a list of Flickr hacks to theoretically enhance your daily life, or at least your daily dose of Flickr. From giving us clocks and ransom notes made out of Flickr photos, to slide shows and color wheels, all designed to work on top of Flickr, some of these developers obviously have too much time on their hands. On the other hand, these tools exemplify the Web 2.0 concepts of openness and decentralization.

The Blogga Song

Now for something silly, listen to The Blogga Song. Lloyd, the Llibrary Llama sings about many of the library blogs and more. Luckily our test blog hasn't been around long enough to show up there!

MySpace Backlash

An interesting story about how schools and parents are reacting to MySpace. The author contests that the problem of online predators is real, but exaggerated. The more difficult issue is whether parents or schools should monitor and censor what teenagers post to their MySpace profiles. Schools may be overreacting and violating first amendment precedents, which protect student speech unless it "materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others."

"the current library catalog is poorly designed"

UNIVERSITY RELEASES BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICES TASK FORCE REPORT

The University of California has released the final report of its Bibliographic Services Task Force. "Rethinking How We Provide Bibliographic Services for the University of California" will provide valuable insights to others thinking about making their library collections more visible and more easily accessible to their users.

The report begins with the premise that "the current library catalog is poorly designed for the tasks of finding, discovering, and selecting the growing set of resources available in libraries." It lists recommendations for enhancing search and retrieval, “rearchitecting” the OPAC, and adopting new cataloging practices. To read the full report, go to http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf.

From Amigos Now, the weekly newsletter from Amigos.

Library 2.0

Walt Crawford has devoted an entire issue of his Cites and Insights publication to the topic of Library 2.0. I haven't read it yet, but it appears to be worth a gander. He also has a piece on folksonomies in a more recent issue.

Internet Sites for Librarians

The February issue of the Amigos monthly newsletter, Amigos Agenda & OCLC Connection, has an excellent Internet Tips article on Web resources for librarians. Guess what! The very first recommended site is the Librarian's Index to the Internet. Another very useful site is the Internet Public Library's List of Library Blogs.

Why Google deserves fruit baskets, not brickbats

Cory Doctorow, a scifi author I have blogged in the past, has written a superb (IMHO) analysis of why the Google Print library book scanning project is a GOOD thing for authors and publishers, and why they should be supporting it, promoting and embracing it, instead of suing Google. The item is posted on the well-known Boing Boing blog.

Doctorow goes way beyond the issue of the Google library program, however, and near the end of this admittedly lengthy post, talks about the future of books and reading in this multimedia age. Some of what he is saying to authors and publishers can be applied with equal force to libraries, even though we may not like it (nor perhaps agree with it). This, for example:

We need to stop telling people that the Internet isn't as good as books. It makes us look like whiny jerks. We need to stop telling people that they have a moral duty to read. It makes us look like imperious jerks.

We need to act like a money-making industry and spare some attention for what our customers demand: books that are no more clicks away than web-pages.

Online NW Keynote

I've posted my account of the Online NW Keynote speaker to the LITA Blog. Take a look.

Will

Testing

Test, test, test