Citation
Oyelude, A.A. (2014), "What's trending in libraries from the Internet cybersphere", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 31 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2014-0033
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
What"s trending in libraries from the Internet cybersphere
Article Type:Column From: Library Hi Tech News, Volume 31, Issue 4
This edition of the column focuses on trends as reported in library blogs worldwide and also from some tweets related to trends in technology. Please enjoy and let us have your feedback.
Libraries, technology and reading
A blog by Anseo Mhuinteoir in his current notionion of the library, available at: http://www.anseo-a-mhuinteoir.com/2014/04/l-libraries.html, describes a library as "A magical place you enter in this world in order to travel to another. Somewhat like the TARDIS but without the funny whooshing noise". Hellie, a primary teacher from Ireland gives ideas about libraries as space- and place-providing opportunity for enhancing reading. Technology can be entrenched in the library but it has to be provided in schools or classrooms and preferably in comfy cosy reading corners!
Also from library stuff, the library weblog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development (http://www.librarystuff.net/) comes the news that Harper Lee has signed on for Scout, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch to enter the electronic age. The Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, "To Kill a Mockingbird" will become available as an e-book and digital audiobook on July 8. Harper Collins Publishers announced that Lee, author of the book, in a rare public statement, cited a "new generation" of fans in agreeing to the downloadable edition of this classic novel. "I"m still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries", said Lee, who turned 88 on Monday, 28 April "I am amazed and humbled that "Mockingbird" has survived this long. This is "Mockingbird" for a new generation". Apparently reading old classics with new technology is becoming trendy.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and European counterparts EBLIDA have announced a European-wide petition calling for changes to copyright law, so public libraries have the same right to lend e-books as they do printed books. According to Annie Mauger, CILIP Chief Executive,
..... public libraries deserve to be front and centre within the online environment and must be able to offer a full ebook portfolio if they are to capture their future communities and continue to promote and nurture a love of reading amongst a public that is increasingly moving online.
"It would be a complete travesty for libraries to be left behind because they cannot serve changing reading patterns, and that is why this petition is so important." – See more at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/news/why-can-t-libraries-lend-ebooks-european-wide-petition-calls-change#sthash.Dho522BE.dpuf E-books are certainly taking centre stage or so it seems.
Moocie – an Irish-based miniature, open, online course in educational technology
Another trend developing is that of an open course termed a moocie. Launched on the 24th of March, Moocie is similar but different from MOOC and is also free, open to all courses that utilize social media for educators. It comes in two parts – a social media toolkit and Moocie. The social media toolkit opened to facilitate educators, trainers and tutors of all stripes to develop their knowledge of and competency in using blogs and twitter, targeting people new to these platforms, and focussed on the basic skills – sending tweets, embedding images, setting up and posting to a blog. The idea of the kit was to create an opportunity to get those new to social media up to speed with using Twitter and Wordpress blogs in advance of the main course.
The second part, the Moocie, is focused on the theory and practice of using social media in educational contexts. It had five seminars, covering digital literacy, digital curation, 21st skills and tools, online privacy and content ownership on social media, and 20 ways to use Twitter in the classroom. The course ran for one week beginning on April 7th, with one online seminar each evening and Tweets after each seminar, as well as blogging challenges. Keith Brennan, a freelance Instructional Designer, is running a miniature, open online course in social media and educational technology – moocie – as part of his MSc in Applied eLearning research at the Dublin Institute of Technology. More information can be got by visiting http://moocie.org or emailing mailto:keith@moocie.org, or finding him on Twitter @wiltwhatman.
Business school libraries in the 21st century
From a Tweet posted Tuesday, 15 April 2014 by Michelle Dalton in speaking of a guest post by Marie O"Neill, Head of Library and Information Services, Dublin Business School Library, information about the book "Business School Libraries in the 21st Century" emerged. The book explores current issues of relevance to any library setting such as the challenges of measuring library impact and return on investment; embracing new media and technology; the increasing role of the Library"s information resources in the career development of users; the expansion of open-access scholarship; and adapting library design and more. Outdated perceptions of librarianship communication disconnects between the wider college environment and library personnel as well as the challenge of librarians getting their message across regarding their value is also raised.
Published in 2014, the book, edited by Tim Wales, the Head Librarian of the London Business School, uses a mixture of survey tools (with library users and library managers): research literature and anecdotes to share examples of best practices and practical guidelines for modern library practice. The book, by Twitter reports, should "sit on the desk of any modern library manager worth their salt and it should be well thumbed", as a serious message the book gives indicates that "library impact metrics are essential in terms of securing the future of libraries".
E-readers diving deep
According to a report from http://wired.com, posted on http://www.librarystuff.net (a library weblog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development), "Digital publishing is rapidly becoming a haven for struggling writers" but it turns out the format might hold similar potential for struggling readers too". A new survey by a UK charity, Quick Reads, indicates that adult readers tend to read more and stick with books longer if they"re using an e-reader. According to the survey, 48 per cent of the UK adults who use e-readers say the technology gets them to read more. In addition to that, 41 per cent of respondents reported that being able to look up words they do not know makes reading easier and over half say that being able to change the size and appearance of text helps as well." E-readers have advantages for the UK adults according to this report but it will be interesting to find out – What is the effect of e-readers in your part of the world?
Port Harcourt, Nigeria – UNESCO World book capital, 2014
After the conclusion of pilot programs, such as the test run of book clubs, reading tree and the Walking Book in Rivers State, and the initiation of a book donation drive and participation in CARNIVRIV (the annual Rivers State Carnival) held to sensitize residents of Port Harcourt on the project, the week-long Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 kicked off on Tuesday, 22 April 2014. The opening ceremony held on Wednesday, 23 April, the United Nations (UN) World Book and Copyright Day, Bangkok, handed over to Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital. The keynote address was delivered by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
The opening ceremonies featured celebrities reading to children, interactive sessions with some of Nigeria"s most celebrated authors and a dance-drama titled Along Came the Book, which traces the role of information sharing from our oral tradition to the written word, culminating in the PH World Book Capital. It was directed by award-winning playwright Bikiya Graham-Douglas who hails from Port Harcourt.
Literature and literary efforts from around the world were showcased to embassies and foreign missions in Nigeria, local and international book festivals, literary awards bodies and key partners and stakeholders in the book chain industry. The International Literature Exhibition which took place between Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th April (tagged It"s a Small World After All) was one of these.
As part of the book festival, 12 carefully selected books will be featured in each month of this year. The books will be the subject of discussions on partner electronic and print platforms, while a play would be staged throughout the year based on each one. Books selected for the first six months are: Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (April); The Great Ponds by Elechi Amadi (May); This Child Shall be Great by Ellen Shirleaf Johnson, President of Liberia (June); Ake by Wole Soyinka (July); Tomorrow Died Yesterday by Chimeka Garricks (August); and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie (September).
Elsevier and MyScienceWork
From the library blog, http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/ comes the report that:
Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has announced its collaboration with scientific social network MyScienceWork in a pilot initiative to enable researchers to easily share and discover > 11 million articles. The pilot will allow MyScienceWork users to read, annotate and share articles from ScienceDirect within the MyScienceWork interface among each other. The articles on MyScienceWork will be presented the same way as users find them on ScienceDirect: full-text published articles will be available to those affiliated with ScienceDirect subscribers, and open-access articles will be available to all.
History coming alive through technology
A Library of Congress blog posted on 17 January 2014 by Erin Allen includes interviews of about 200 celebrated singers, musicians and industry icons who talk about their lives, music, experiences and contemporaries are being brought to life for the public by Blank on Blank in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios. It is designed to be an animated series designed by David Gerlach, Blank on Blank founder and executive producer, featuring excerpts from the Joe Smith collection, made available through PBS by the Library of Congress.
Open peer reviewing
An article titled "Anonymity and peer review", posted on 21 January 2014, available at: http://mickresearch.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/anonymity-and-peer-review/ is worth looking at, as it critiques the process of open peer reviewing. It may be a trend in future for the sciences as posed by Michael McCarthy of the School of Botany, University of Melbourne. He believes that "Anonymity of reviewers could lead to poorer reviews because reviewers remain unaccountable". However, open reviews, being open, make submitted papers fully available to readers, which can speed up communication of the science. Researchers in librarianship and library science will definitely find some of the insights useful.
AV artefact atlas
A Library of Congress blog post on AV Artefact Atlas posted on January 22 by Kate Murray, available at: http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2014/01/av-artifact-atlas-by-the-people-for-the-people/, reveals the work done in creating an AV Artifact Atlas by Hannah Frost of Stanford Media Preservation Lab and Jenny Brice of Bay Area Video Coalition. It is an online knowledge repository of audiovisual artefacts for in-house digitization labs and commercial ventures. It is helping to define a shared vocabulary and will have a significant impact on codifying quality control efforts. Librarians and artefact preservationists benefit from a common place for accumulating and sharing knowledge and questions about the issues revealed or introduced in media digitization, and technical issues that invariably relate to the quality of the file produced in the workflow. According to them, the Artefact Atlas is "extremely popular with people new to the field who want to learn more and strengthen their technical knowledge".
UP Next and learning
From Up Next, the official blog of the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) (http://blog.imls.gov/? p = 4792), comes the result of a research which reveals that children who visit museums have higher achievement in reading, math and science. IMLS recognizes the importance of learning during the first years of a child"s life and as such give early learning a funding priority. For instance, $4,329,567 was used for early learning funding in the fiscal year 2013. This recent research reiterates the increasing relevance of critical community assets for children who need early support the most. See more at: http://blog.imls.gov/?http://blog.imls.gov/?p =4792#sthash.VWRl8pWe.dpuf
Next? The lesson for managers is that a new technology is not always the only way to get ahead of the curve when older technologies or industries appear to be reaching the end of their useful lives.
Library seating
What else is trending in libraries? Well, this may not exactly be a trend in technology in libraries, but is interesting anyway. It is used in cafés.
Smart Zabuton checks for café seat availability via cushion, a technology developed in Tokyo, Japan, could probably be used in libraries that are crowded or have space problems to find out availability of seats or reserve seats. The device, a Smart Zabuton, is a new type of system developed by Key Value, Inc. works with smartphones and tablets to send out a signal if the cushion is currently being occupied - that is, someone is sitting on it (a Zabuton is a traditional Japanese floor cushion, although in this instance, the target is more like a regular thin cushion that you place on a stool or chair). An update is sent to the phone of the user to let him/her know how many seats are currently available. Details of this can be found at http://www.japantrends.com/. The app also can give details if there are two or three seats available together, and even how long the seat cushion has been occupied for - which would serve as a rough indicator for how long you would have to wait until it became free. This is a technology that could be useful in libraries.
Banana-controlled tetris at computers in Libraries 2014
In the Library Journal website, http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/04/shows-events/under-construction-computers-in-libraries-2014/#_? the news trending is that the terms Google, Twitter or e-book at the last Computers in Libraries 2014 conference was the word building, as both a noun and a verb. While librarians dwell on redesigning their physical spaces and perhaps removing bookshelves in favour of work stations, the building of new tools in the digital realm, new communities through programming efforts and even new businesses through hackathons that reward entrepreneurial spirit, escalates. The conference, according to Stan Friedman, in a 17 April 2014 post made it clear that, more than ever, librarianship is a profession building on change. The changes are becoming more innovative as the days go by. The pre-conference of the Computers in Libraries 2014 displays produced games, gadgets, & makerspaces - games such as a banana-controlled computer game.
The MaKey MaKey invention kit, which can turn any object into a computer touchpad, was an instant favorite, as folks lined up to play a game of Tetris that employed several bananas in place of a keyboard.
Technology and gaming are really going places and of course, libraries are constantly getting involved.
Adetoun A. Oyelude
(toyelude@yahoo.com) is based at Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.