or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk


A Few Notable News Stories

   March 25th, 2010 Brian Herzog

I usually don't like just reposting things unless I have something intelligent to say about it. Regardless, here are a few news stories I noticed recently that seem to be flying under the radar (intelligent commentary optional):

 

Raj PatelThe Life of Raj Patel
Sure you've heard of Raj Patel and his books The Value of Nothing and Stuffed and Starved - but did you know he is the messiah?

Neither did he, but the folks of Share International are treating him like Brian, despite his denials, because they know Only the true Messiah denies His divinity. (via)

 

Overdrive Announcements
Overdrive logoTwo Overdrive stories: one about LEAP, their New Program for Visually Impaired Readers, and another about a program to Offer Honor System eBook Lending for Libraries, so no DRM. Both worth investigating.

 

Free Music, as in Free Lunch, as in No Such Thing
Freegal logoAlso on the DRM theme is a Library Journal article about a new music service called Freegal, from Library Ideas, LLC and Sony. Interesting in that this service will

  • have no DRM, just plain old mp3 files
  • require no content manager software
  • trust people to follow copyright law, instead of just assume they're criminals
  • charge libraries per download, rather than an annual subscription (or rather, a "minimum annual commitment" which can be managed on a weekly basis)

All good news, but I'm curious to see how the pricing model works - it's not like anything else used in libraries, is it? And who out there thinks a website called "freegal" might get blocked by sex filters?

 

What Do You Know About Knowr.com?
Knowr logoNot a news story, but I got a press release about Ooga Labs' new Knowr.com, billed as a "Question and Answer site that ties to the users social graph ... to create a vibrant knowledge network." What I liked about it is their approach:

At first, we had thought that people ... could use our service to share what they know with each other, both within their own particular industries, and in exciting, boundary crossing ways. With a little research, we saw that these groups already have vibrant communities online.

Then we quickly noticed teens and other Facebook super users are using services like this to conduct informal interviews of each other and celebrities.

I'm not entirely sure what it does, or why, or that it isn't already being done, but I did like that they decided to use existing web platforms (in this case, Facebook) to integrate with, instead of building a whole new networking tool. Good approach.

However, since it requires a Facebook account, that leaves me out.



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