March 13, 2009
I have no idea where this library is, but I want to be there.
On a related note, the software used to make that page looks pretty interesting. As opposed to the Obama Inauguration photo that everyone was passing around, it doesn’t look stitched at all. Very cool indeed.
February 27, 2009
Wowbrary looks like a great way to keep our patrons updated of new additions to our collection. This site uses the Z39.5 data from library automation programs to generate automatic weekly email newsletters and an updated rss feed that we could easily paste into our public website of new additions to the collection. They include reviews from Amazon, but that could potentially mean a wrinkle since Amazon is unlikely to have data on our additions from outside of the US. They do charge a small fee, but are a non profit organization and it seems fairly reasonable.
BUT, they don’t currently support Follett’s software. Hopefully this will change.
I’ve already been in touch with them about possible improvements that would make this work for us, but no luck just yet. So, for now, we’ll sit and wait. Sigh.
February 10, 2009
…and that’s okay.
I’ve been dedicating most of my time lately to working on assignments for a course I’m currently taking. Things have been quite busy, and will only get busier in March with an upcoming workshop and a few weeks of family visiting here. And although I sometimes feel that blogging can be a distraction, I will endeavour to keep this space more current.
On a different note, I’ve been reading the reviews of Amazon’s new Kindle and wondering how this could be implemented in our library. I still can’t wrap my head around what the best, most efficient and effective way would be to use this tool. More importantly, how can we justify $200 for each unit. Yes, it’s cheaper than the first model, but it’s still $200. Maybe it could be used specifically for newspapers or magazines? Maybe we could keep each title on a separate SD card and circulate them independently of the Kindle units?
Ultimately, I don’t think I’ll be able to really envision how best to use one without trying one out. Unfortunately, Amazon Japan’s first link is to a Sony product when I search for ‘kindle’, so I’m not sure how this will play out here.
December 7, 2008
I’ve been a little negligent with this site lately, but I’ve been ramping up things with our school’s involvement in the Sakura Medal program. So I’ve got another blog up and running for that now, and invite you to contribute if you’ve happened to have read any of the titles from this year’s lineup.
November 10, 2008
So the news is now a little old, but I’ve been thinking about Google’s recent settlement with the publishing industry. It looks like more and more content will soon be accessible, and I couldn’t be happier. Right now they only have very preliminary information available, but I hope that sooner rather than later we will be able to sign up as an institution and begin contributing our own collection to the larger project. Space is definitely at a premium here, so I think it would be fantastic to be able to archive all of our physical copies with an eye to eliminating them alltogether.
As a preK-12 school though, I already see some problems for us with Google’s system. There’s no easy way to search for age-appropriate material, although I get the impression that there really isn’t a lot of elementary or middle school level stuff available anyway. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. Come on Google, keep it rolling – show me where to sign!
October 24, 2008
I know that this discussion has librarians everywhere bashing their collective heads against the wall, but our students (and staff) somehow remain enamored with Wikipedia. Let me be clear on my stance – Wikipedia is a valid source for quick answers to unimportant questions but it is not a reliable credible academic source. Yet. Simple as that.
The Globe and Mail published an article as part of their annual university review dealing with Wikipedia, with a brilliant quote from non other than the founder himself. Jimmy Wales summed up his thought on the prevalence of Wikipedia in university level essays by saying “For God’s sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.”
October 23, 2008
Most of our high school and middle school students have been out this week on field studies all around Japan. To me, that in itself is already a great concept – I am a firm believer in the value of experiential education (although my own experience taking 40 odd students through Greece and Italy has also shown it to be quite tiring!).
One of our grade ten groups (touring around Hiroshima) has been using their phone cameras and posting their experiences to Posterous and Twitter as they go. Those of us still at school have been able to tag along on their journey, which has been awesome. Getting students to put away their cell phones was a constant battle at my last school, but this experience has shown how effective a tool they can be if used properly.
October 23, 2008
Tomorrow we will be installing our new (to us) library management software from Follett. This has been a long time coming, and I’ll be happy when it’s up and running (it seems more than just a bit inefficient for me to be constantly answering emails about what we do or do not have in our collection).
While I’m happy that the new platform will be web-based, I can’t say that I’m really pleased with its interface. Unfortunately Follett has kind of begun to take over the world when it comes to library management software, so there aren’t a lot of alternatives out there at the moment (not that I vehemently dislike their products or anything, I just always like to have other options). Hopefully something more user-friendly and visually appealing will come along eventually. I’m pretty sure the IT department here would have my head if I look for something different too soon, but for now this will have to work as a first step in the right direction.
Break week next week. I’ll be on my first trip south of the equator – tough life, I know.
October 17, 2008
I’ve been working on a couple of projects lately and have come up against some frustrations. Some of this is a bit of a rehashing of things, but I haven’t posted in a while, so here goes.
Ebooks. There’s still no easy way for a library to process these. As I’ve vented about before, we’re stuck with choosing between systems from library vendors (eg Follett) that work well in terms of the back of house library processing stuff but aren’t really intuitive or well designed for our users or systems from non library vendors that are intuitive (eg iTunes) but that aren’t set up well to work with a library loan system. I actually had a chance to share this with a rep from Apple Japan last week, and we’ve got visitors coming from their big house in California next week that will hear the same thing from me. Being non-library people though, I’m not sure if they fully understand our unique constraints and how we’re different from individual users. Maybe they need to hire a library consultant…
My other problem of late concerns databases. I think we have some great ones in terms of content, but again, they aren’t always the most user friendly. As a result, we have some teachers recommending Google Scholar to their students even though we are paying a lot of money for access to a bunch of other databases (EBSCO, Questia, Newsbank, BrainPOP). While I’d obviously prefer that we use the products we’re currently paying for, I fully understand why our users would gravitate towards Google Scholar – it’s an interface that they’re already used to, and therefore much less intimidating. Google just needs to figure out a way to harness this potential revenue stream. If it meant being able to increase their content, they should find a way to charge our library each time one of our students accesses one of their articles and I’d gladly pay the fee.
Google and Apple, I’ll kindly accept a 10% cut in the royalties for these ideas. Given the markets of late though, my preferred form of payment will be in pelts or furs or some sort of payment that I can put in a coffee can and bury out in the woods.
October 10, 2008
Been a crazy week, and there’s no sign of it slowing down yet.
