I think Jeremy brings up some good points here about libraries
(especially academic ones) becoming provisioning organizations versus
collection building ones. In regards to journals, in a number of ways
libraries already are. Libraries send checks to Ebsco, Elserver,
ProQuest. etc. and out patrons
I wonder if Mr Godin, in articulating his vision of the library as a
place filled with so many web terminals there's always at least one
empty, isn't framing it around the Digital Public Library of America
proposal? He didn't specifically name it but, with all the acclaim for
the idea in the
On 6/1/2011 10:46 PM, Frumkin, Jeremy wrote:
that content for the user? If we are indeed trying to meet our users'
needs, perhaps we need not to continue to build just-in-case collections,
but provide just-in-time access to information resources, regardless of
their location, and perhaps even
Karen,
The others who have responded while I was off, you know, doing stuff, have done
a much better job of answering your question than I would have. I would have
said something glib like almost all ways, with respect to open-access digital
materials.
There's a shift in library mindset that
So, selecting which public domain free on the internet works should be included
in the catalog (presumably considering both quality of digital copy and
quality/usefulness of the work itself), keeping track of them all of them in
their various locations, adding links to them all to our
Eric,
The problem with linking open access materials into catalogs isn't
entirely simple, and I don't agree that librarians haven't thought
about how to do this. I was trying to get a file of MARC records for
all of the Internet Archive's open access materials so that those
could be
Hi,
On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Jonathan Rochkind rochk...@jhu.edu wrote:
There are some unanswered questions about what the purpose of the catalog is
or should be in our users research workflow, and it's not obvious to me
whether
that purpose will involve putting any possible book or
So, this is quite a good thread, and it is quite interesting to read the
different viewpoints about what information resources libraries provide.
I'm wondering if we might look at this from a slightly different angle -
most of the discussion has been about what libraries include in their
Not replying for Eric but I hope he doesn't mind me butting in too..
As a newcomer to (academic) libraries from a software background, some
of the things that first struck me were;
1. The amount of money spent on non-free stuff means it has to be
emphasized over free stuff in publicity to try to
Quoting Karen Coyle 05/19/11 1:32 AM
Eric,
In what ways do you think that libraries today are not friendly to free stuff?
kc
From my own (rather limited) experience, I think collection developers see
free/open source/open access stuff as a bit of a management challenge:
- As Graham
On 19 May 2011 12:31, Andreas Orphanides andreas_orphani...@ncsu.edu wrote:
- I think there's a fear of a slippery slope and/or information overload: How
do you assess the whole realm of freely-available stuff?
I dunno. How do you assess the whole realm of proprietary stuff?
Wouldn't the same
On 5/19/2011 7:36 AM, Mike Taylor wrote:
I dunno. How do you assess the whole realm of proprietary stuff?
Wouldn't the same approach work for free stuff?
-- Mike.
A fair question. I think there's maybe at least two parts: marketing and
bundling.
Marketing is of course not ideal, and likely
My short answer: It's too damn expensive to check out everything that's
available for free to see if it's worth selecting for inclusion, and
library's (at least as I see them) are supposed to be curated, not
comprehensive.
My long answer:
The most obvious issue is that the OPAC is traditionally
On 2011-05-18 20:30, Eric Hellman wrote:
Exactly. I apologize if my comment was perceived as coy, but I've chosen to
invest in the possibility that Creative Commons licensing is a viable way
forward for libraries, authors, readers, etc. Here's a link the last of a 5
part series on open-access
Another problem with free online resources not just 'collection
selection', but maintenance/support once selected. A resource hosted
elsewhere can stop working at any time, which is a management challenge.
The present environment is ALREADY a management challenge, of course.
But consider the
Replying to Jonathan's mail rather at random, since several people are
saying similar things.
1. 'Free resources can vanish any time.' But so can commercial ones,
which is why LOCKSS was created. This isn't an insoluble issue or one
unique to free resources.
2. 'Managing 100s of paid resources
I wonder if we aren't conflating a diverse set of issues here.
- free (no cost)
- free and online
- free = not peer reviewed
- online
As Jonathan notes, we already face problems with online materials,
even those we subscribe to. And libraries do take in free hard-copy
books in the form of
There is no such thing as a zero-cost lunch; but there is such a thing
as a freedom lunch. I concur with Karen that (once again) much
confusion is being generated here by the English language's lamentable
use of the same word free to mean too such different things.
-- Mike.
On 19 May 2011
On 5/19/2011 11:01 AM, graham wrote:
Replying to Jonathan's mail rather at random, since several people are
saying similar things.
1. 'Free resources can vanish any time.' But so can commercial ones,
which is why LOCKSS was created. This isn't an insoluble issue or one
unique to free resources.
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 6:24 AM, graham gra...@theseamans.net wrote:
2. It is hard to justify spending time on improving access to free stuff
when the end result would be good for everyone, not just the institution
doing the work (unless it can be kept in a consortium and outside-world
access
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 8:31 AM, Andreas Orphanides
andreas_orphani...@ncsu.edu wrote:
- As Graham says, there's a sunk-cost issue: you're going to prioritize the
stuff you paid for over free stuff since you've already invested resources in
it.
Everybody who believes in sunk-cost should
There are some who argue that if it's valuable to others, then others
should pay for it (even when the improved access benefits your
institution first and foremost, and distribution of the improvements is
an arguably beneficial side effect) . Why should one institution carry
the financial
Some ebooks, in fact some of the greatest ever written, already cost less than
razor blades.
Eric
(who just finished writing a chapter on open-access e-books)
On May 16, 2011, at 7:52 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
1) Why quote the ebook price in 1962 dollars? The reality in 2011 is
that Kindle
Do you mean ones not under copyright?
On 5/17/2011 3:16 PM, Eric Hellman wrote:
Some ebooks, in fact some of the greatest ever written, already cost less than
razor blades.
Eric
(who just finished writing a chapter on open-access e-books)
On May 16, 2011, at 7:52 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
Some ebooks, in fact some of the greatest ever written, already cost less
than razor blades.
Do you mean ones not under copyright?
Those, plus Creative Commons etc.
Exactly. I apologize if my comment was perceived as coy, but I've chosen to
invest in the possibility that Creative Commons licensing is a viable way
forward for libraries, authors, readers, etc. Here's a link the last of a 5
part series on open-access ebooks. I hope it inspires work in the
Quoting Eric Hellman e...@hellman.net:
Exactly. I apologize if my comment was perceived as coy, but I've
chosen to invest in the possibility that Creative Commons licensing
is a viable way forward for libraries, authors, readers, etc. Here's
a link the last of a 5 part series on
On 5/16/2011 7:52 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs
about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device,
1) Why quote the ebook price in 1962 dollars? The reality in 2011 is
that Kindle books in general are too
I think 50 cents would be right in the ballpark. My earliest scifi
paperbacks cost me that much, mid-60's.
Roy Zimmer
Waldo Library
Western Michigan University
On 5/17/2011 11:18 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
On 5/16/2011 7:52 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
And then we need to consider the
I always get suspicious when an author converts current prices into
1962 dollars for no apparent reason, and without explanation.
Keith
On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Roy Zimmer roy.zim...@wmich.edu wrote:
I think 50 cents would be right in the ballpark. My earliest scifi
paperbacks cost
On 5/17/11, Keith Jenkins k...@cornell.edu wrote:
I always get suspicious when an author converts current prices into
1962 dollars for no apparent reason, and without explanation.
Keith
On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Roy Zimmer roy.zim...@wmich.edu wrote:
I think 50 cents would be right
I think the 1962 dollars and the razor blades point both serve to
paper over the main problem with the argument: Netflix is not free,
and libraries are not driven by profit motive.
On 5/17/11, Keith Jenkins k...@cornell.edu wrote:
I always get suspicious when an author converts current prices
It's obvious, isn't it? 1962 was the Best. Year. Ever. And it's all be downhill
since then. :)
--Joel
On May 17, 2011, at 11:45 AM, Keith Jenkins wrote:
I always get suspicious when an author converts current prices into
1962 dollars for no apparent reason, and without explanation.
Keith
On 17 May 2011, at 11:18 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
On 5/16/2011 7:52 PM, Luciano Ramalho wrote:
And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs
about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device,
1) Why quote the ebook price in 1962 dollars? The
Seth Godin is not a library professional -- he's a marketing guru with
a string of best-selling books and a blog that manages to be both
insightful AND brief on an astonishingly consistent basis.
(http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ -- highly recommended). So he's
outside the library world, looking in,
Mike, thanks for the link to Seth's excellent post.
I do take issue with this paragraph, though:
And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs
about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device,
easily. Easy to store, easy to sort, easy to hand to your
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