Submitted by Daniel A. Freeman on January 13, 2009 - 10:26am
We are extremely excited about the January Issue of Library Technology Reports, “Funding and Budgeting for Library Technology in Today's Economy” by Larra Clark and Denise Davis. With the current economic crisis, librarians are concerned about having the funds to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology needed to serve the needs of twenty-first century patrons. ALA TechSource is responding with an issue that offers not only a detailed look at the library funding landscape, but also expert-authored, practical guidelines for stretching your budget as far as it can go.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on December 15, 2008 - 11:09am
Every now and then, usually when I have a moment by myself, I think about the state of librarianship. I ponder the opportunities, the problems, and the progress. Generally, these periodic, informal "state of librarianship" addresses to myself are optimistic.
Over the past couple of decades, rather than concentrate on outright threats to librarianship, I have tended to focus on things that are holding librarianship back, or retarding its growth and development. Questions of momentum, acceleration, and deceleration are much more mundanely interesting than questions about the life and death of a profession. Although Google is doing some interesting and large-scale things to make information findable and usable, and thus seems like it poses something of a threat to librarians, we really cannot do much about what Google does or plans to do. By concentrating on the retarding factors, perhaps we can identify tangible problems that we can work to solve.
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Submitted by Daniel A. Freeman on November 19, 2008 - 12:34pm
Last week, you may have read Tom Peters’ post on the new, green Mancos Public Library in Colorado. It’s very exciting to see libraries and other institutions around the country making a concerted effort to build green—we get to watch the future of technology, libraries and architecture unite right before our eyes.
While it’s inspiring to see these new buildings springing up, it is important to remember that it takes people to get there. The exciting developments in places like Mancos cannot be an excuse for complacency—librarians must take the greening of our profession into our own hands through action and advocacy. For every librarian in a new, green building, there are dozens of us still stuck in older buildings using up financial and ecological resources, and usually with no plans for a new building. Read More »
Submitted by Tom Peters on July 26, 2006 - 10:39am
Two news items that scurried across my attention in July have led me to conclude that, in this era of overlapping eras, we have entered yet another age.
The first item was an industry report that Apple shipped more than eight million iPod devices in the second quarter of 2006. That's almost three million per month or 100,000 per day, and the second quarter is not a big gift-giving quarter, unless Apple packaged all those iPods in large plastic Easter eggs. (Remember, you read it here first.)
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Submitted by Tom Peters on March 25, 2006 - 9:35am
Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet and American Life Project gave Friday's keynote address. He's a very lively speaker—mentally I started referring to him as Peppie le Pew—and he has lots of data and facts about how Millenials (those born between 1982 and 2000) think, use the Internet, search for information, communicate and form communities, and believe in themselves and the technologically and media rich lives they lead. If Stephen Abram wants facts, Peppie has 'em.
Rainie organized his talk around eight key realities of the Millennial generation: Read More »
Submitted by Jenny Levine on February 28, 2006 - 6:28pm
At the Ontario Library Association Superconference earlier this month, I argued that library schools need to offer a course in copyright, licensing agreements for electronic products, and digital rights management (DRM), because they all affect the future of how libraries will interact with our users as entertainment and information becomes increasingly digital. It's unfortunate that at a time when the broadcast flag is again rearing its ugly head and media and publishing companies continue to try to buy legislation giving them free rein with users' rights, most librarians are completely unaware of just how much these moves could affect them. Read More »
Submitted by Tom Peters on January 26, 2006 - 5:00pm
 Recently Apple, Inc., announced that it will allow colleges and universities to use a special sector within the overall iTunes service to load and distribute course lectures, other course content, and related digital audio and video files. The Cupertino, California-based company calls its new service " iTunes U."
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Submitted by Tom Peters on December 12, 2005 - 12:03pm
 Throughout nearly all of the twentieth century, large companies controlled the creation, dissemination, and viewing of video information. Motion pictures started first, with television added as another layer in mid-century. Video really was a carefully controlled broadcast medium. The phrase, “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!" captures in a nutshell how public anticipation for a new release of a movie was carefully orchestrated. Time-shifting, place-shifting, and format-shifting generally were not encouraged.
Early in the development of the motion picture industry the companies controlled the production, distribution, and screening of their products—until the U.S. federal government broke up those vertical monopolies. Read More »
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