Nebraska state auditor gets worked up over gaming program
Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley slammed the NE Library Commission over the purchase of a Playstation console and the posting of a Youtube video promoting gaming in the library. The news story at the Lincoln Journal Star is here. From my limited perspective, it sounds like the library spent less than $500 on equipment that can be used to put on a few years of programming. Is that really irresponsible?
This really sounds like a case of a clueless bureaucrat to me. Libraries have been providing media other than books for years: music, movies, software, and games. Does anyone really not know this? Why isn't the headline "Creative librarians take advantage of free web media to promote programs for kids"?
The NLC drafted a great response to the auditor's report.
Saluting Unvocab
Greg Schwartz has announced that he's putting the Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast on indefinite hold. I wanted to take a moment to thank Greg for putting on such a great show for almost two years now: always interesting and often hilarious into the bargain. I have always looked forward to seeing UV appear in my podcatcher when I synced up my media player on Thursday mornings. I'm just sorry I never got around to calling in. Thank you, Greg!
Creative Commons instructional materials at GSU
I just got the go-ahead to license our online instructional materials -- tutorials, future planned podcast, etc. -- with Creative Commons licenses to encourage other libraries to use and build on them.
I made the inquiry since I'm planning on starting another instructional podcast for students before spring semester is out (knock on wood) and I wanted to CC license that. I am so impressed: I asked my boss, who asked her boss, who had a thumbs-up from GSU's legal department within a few hours. At no point in the chain did anyone ask "Creative what?", which I take as a good sign for the Creative Commons project.
So this morning I went through all of my Libguides and added CC licenses. It was possibly the geekiest thing I've ever been excited about.
Kindle 2
Amazon announced the Kindle 2 this week, as you no doubt already know. I'm really into the idea of a friendly, portable, readable e-book device, and by most accounts the Kindle is pretty cool. But I've worked in libraries so long that I am just way out of the habit of buying books regularly, e- or paper. I just can't see laying out almost $400 for a device that will allow me to spend $10 a pop on proprietary e-books that I can't move to any of my other devices.
When someone releases a Kindle equivalent that will allow me to save online books from my library, I'll be lining right up -- but so far every reader device I've heard of is so crippled by DRM that that seems unlikely at best.
Edit: For a good counterpoint (from someone who actually owns a Kindle), see Jason Griffey's post at ALA Techsource.
Book review at Tech Static: “Information Literacy”
My review of the book Information Literacy: Search Strategies, Tools & Resources for High School Students and College Freshmen by Zorana Ercegovac is up at The Tech Static blog.
In my review, I mentioned some technology errors that I ran across in the book, but due to Tech Static's length requirements I didn't expand on them. Here are a few examples of what I meant:
- The author refers to Internet Explorer as "Microsoft Explorer" (p. 98).
- Netscape Navigator (discontinued in 2007) is cited as an example of a current browser (p. 98). The book was written in 2008.
- This is a little unclear, but in the discussion of top-level domain names (p. 86) the author implies that .org domains are only run by non-profits and .com domains by companies (of course, anyone can buy either a .org or .com domain).
- URL typos appear from time to time: ".nrt" for ".net", a slash instead of a dot, and so on.
- LII.org is referred to as an invisible web search tool (p. 94). In fact everything on LII is available on the open web and indexable by Google.
As I said in my review, none of these break the usefulness of the book, and there's nothing in my nitpicky list that would trip up a savvy student or instructor (though I would have liked to see more clarity in the discussion of TLDs). It's a good textbook or sourcebook if you work with upper-level high school students or new undergrads.
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- GSU students who ask us when's a good time to find an available library study room: turns out the answer is Superbowl Sunday. #tumbleweeds