Extra, extra read all about it

What's on your plate today?

Are some of us who are interested in 2.0 librarianship missing the mark? Are we spending so much time learning about new technology and hypothesizing about the future that our eyes are not on the real prize- serving out users today? What is on your plate today?

There is a short essay on The Myth of the Universal Digital Library that is worth reading.

There are three arguments put forth in support of giving up our notion of a unverisal library.

1) Cyberspace does not exist

2) Your human knowledge sucks

3) Digitizing everything is impossible

The summary stands out (added emphasis is mine): "The myth of the universal library is not only widespread; it's also dangerous. Believing in the myth makes us forget that we need to be working hard right this second to preserve information in multiple formats and to make it available to the public any way that we can."

Some of the comments posted are pretty telling: "A case of lazy thinking." "No one's trying to do it all, but it will happen anyway. You're completely wrong on this."

I take this question and direct it to myself- What is on my plate? Am I keeping a balance of learning new tools/trends and serving today's users effectively?

Keep the discussion going...

Harry Potter power

Think people aren't reading? Think again. Think about Oprah's book club. She announced a book on Wednesday, today there were paperbacks of the title she chose in a local Target store (with the little round 'Oprah' sticker on it.

Or think about Harry Potter.

So far, the first six books in the series has earned Scholastic over $800 million dollars. The last book set a record for 10.8 million copies (first printing). It sold over 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release.

This next book will have 12 million copies printed, and I'd wager that over 8 million copies will be sold in the first 24 hours. Wow.

This next book will also likely push the total revenue earned for Scholastic, by the Harry Potter series, to over one billion dollars. Let me say that again. 7 books, over the course of 10 years, will have earned Scholastic over one billion dollars (we will find out later this year if my math is correct).

The information is correct, but I can't recall where I read it. I think it was a print copy of the recent Publisher's Weekly.

Future of Learning Manifesto

I love blogs- someone has an idea, it gets written down and passed around, critiqued and made better.

Such is the case with the following Future of Learning Manifesto (read the original post here):

1. "Playing Small Does Not Serve the World."
2. What Would Socrates Do?
3. Nobody Cares if You Walked Up Hill Both Ways Barefoot in the Snow.
4. Got Passion? If Not, I'll Tell You What To Care About.
5. My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart. Otherwise, I'll Stick with Google
6. Look it Up or Die.
7. Collaboration Ain't About Holding Hands. It’s about Going Cool Places Fast.
8. This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record.
9. It Ain't About the Technology. It's About Being Inside the Story.
10. Nobody Knows the Answer. Get Comfy with the Questions.

Where are people spending time online?

A recent study notes that the top 5 internet sites (in time visited) for December 2006 were MySpace, Yahoo, MSN, Ebay, and Google. MySpace and Yahoo have a commanding lead; of all time spent online these two sites account for over 20% of the use. Hmm- where are the librarians on these services?


Found via LibrarianInBlack

Library Thing and other related sites

If you have not checked out Library Thing head over to the site and see it for yourself. Go ahead, I'll wait.

There are several other sites that are similar, one of which, Shelfari, offers more graphics and you can show off the books you have. Techcrunch suggest we keep an eye on Shelfari- could it be the next big thing?

The interesting thing about these sites is that they let the user tag their books. It is similar to how librarians use Library of Congress Subject Headings to catalog materials, except that the only authority involved is the user.

A prime example of Internet 2.0, and thus Library 2.0- the users are creating content at a staggering speed. Where does this leave librarians?

'Pimp My Bookcart' Winners

Check out the winners of Overdue Media's 'Pimp My Bookcart' contest. Which one is your favorite?

The contest spurred librarians down under (Australia) to start a 'Pimp My Book Trolley' contest...