World’s Fastest Librarian

"The World’s Fastest Librarian is a twelve minute short film following Mary, a fictional public librarian at the Madison Public Library, as she prepares for the World’s Fastest Librarian Competition.

The World’s Fastest Librarian is a humorous tongue in cheek film that shows a different image of librarians than that usually found in films. This film was a collaborative project involving over a dozen library school students.

It was a labor of love and is meant as a tribute to librarians everywhere. "
Video : here

"Open Scholarship 2006 : New challenges for Open Access Repositories "-Presentations available online

Presentations and posters given at the Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories conference.

Available at : University of Glasgow institutional repository

Sun releases 'Java' to Open Source Community

Java is used in more than 3.8 billion mobile phones, computers and other devices around the world.

The decision to release the code under an open licence means the world can now use, develop and share Java for free.

The same type of licence also covers the distribution of the core, or kernel, of the open source operating system Linux.

'More capability'

Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said the company hoped to turn more developers into Java programmers.

"The open sourcing of this really means more: more richness of offerings, more capability, more applications that consumers will get to use," Mr Green said.

"The platform itself will become a place for innovation."

Open source software has become a major force in the digital world - with the majority of web servers globally using Apache, an open source web server, many businesses using Linux on their machines and a growing library of open source projects available free to use.

All the Java source code is expected to be released by March 2007, Mr Green said.

Google Books Library Project: University of Virginia becomes new Partner

The University of Virginia becomes new partner in the Google Books Library Project.

Partners:

University of California

Harvard University

University Complutense of Madrid

University of Michigan

New York Public Library

Oxford University

Stanford University

University of Wisconsin-Madison

pilot project with the Library of Congress.

see more details: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/partners.html

The Google Books Library Project digitizes books from major libraries around the world and makes their collections searchable on Google Book Search. More information can be found at: http://books.google.com


Also see today's blog post on the Google Book Search about the announcement: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/.

Digital Libraries for the Blind

Digital Libraries for the Blind ABSTRACT Google serves a minority of humanity reasonably well today. How is Google going to fulfill its mission to deliver the world's information usefully and universally? Character recognition and accessibility pioneer Jim Fruchterman presents his quest to make information accessible to the long tail of humanity (which stillincludes most of the "bulge!" From inventing omnifont character recognition and affordable reading machines for the blind to creating accessible digital libraries for the blind and using technology to teach literacy to people who have fallen through society's cracks, Jim will cover the technical and practical challenges to reaching all of humanity with accessible information

Book: "Libraries and Google " Edited by William Miller

"Google® has become a nearly omnipresent tool of the Internet, with its potential only now beginning to be realized. How can librarians effectively integrate this powerful search engine to provide service to their patrons? Libraries and Google® presents leading authorities discussing the many possibilities of using Google® products as effective, user-friendly tools in libraries. Google Scholar and Print are extensively explored with an eye toward offering an expanded view of what is and may be possible for the future, with practical insights on how to make the most of the product’s capabilities.

It seems certain that Google® is here to stay. Libraries and Google® comprehensively examines this “disruptive technology” that is seen as both a threat and an opportunity by both librarians and publishers. Both perspectives are explored in depth, along with practical applications of this and other Google® technology that may be new to librarians. Google® products and other more familiar research tools are compared for effectiveness and ease of use. The various unique needs of users and scholars are detailed and considered as a springboard for insightful discussion of the future role of librarians in today’s world. Potential problems are closely examined, such as copyright issues of digitization, and privacy concerns sparked by its collection of personal information about its users. The book comprehensively explores the path libraries need to travel to benefit from the search tool, rather than being overwhelmed and destroyed by it.

Topics in Libraries and Google® include:

• the viewpoint that Google® may make libraries obsolete
  
• new opportunities for libraries through using Google® products
  
• technical aspects of purchasing and implementing Google® search products with proprietary vendor databases
  
• testing the performance of Google Scholar and Print
  
• practical use of Google®’s products
  
• personal privacy issues
  
• making digitized library resources more accessible
  
• digitization of copyrighted materials
  
• much, much more!
  

LIS Radio

LIS Radio is a new and exciting series of interactive webcasts brought to you by the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

RSS Feed: http://lisradio.missouri.edu/feed.php

LiS Limited Edition: LiS Limited Edition is a place where you will find a wide assortment of one-of-a-kind webcasts focused on library science topics.

RSS Feed: http://lisradio.missouri.edu/feed.php?series_id=16

LiS ClassCast: At various times, and for various classes, SISLT professors will be using LiSRadio as part of their classes. While the content is usually class specific it might well be interesting to listen in. Watch the schedule for possibilities.

RSS Feeds: http://lisradio.missouri.edu/feed.php?series_id=4