Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Become a Utah iTunes Library

Published on February 19, 2009 in Comments. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday I posted what I thought was an original idea to use the iTunes store to provide access to library multimedia collections.  I’m embarrassed. Apple is way ahead of me on this.

Apple announced back on May 30, 2007 their hosted iTunes U portal.   The concept, which started at Duke University, is that universities and other institutions of learning could post courseware for students to enhance their collegiate learning experience.   All content would be free without digital rights management.  The Disruptive Library Technology Jester at OhioLINK immediately grasped the potential and power of using iTunes as a delivery platform to provide access to collections.

ITunes U has since expanded to include museums, historical societies, PBS stations, state education agencies, and yes, libraries. iTunes U now includes bundles of free multimedia and textual content including lectures, podcasts, instructional guides, oral histories, presentations, and performances.

Go to  iTunes U (this link opens your iTunes program).  Once the iTunes store appears look down the left side click on the links to “Providers.”

Libraries in iTunes U now include:

The University of Utah Marriott Library
Entry page: http://itunesu.utah.edu/
Marriott iTunes U (0pens iTunes)

The University of Utah S.J. Quinney Law Library
Entry page: http://www.law.utah.edu/media/
Quinney iTunes U (opens iTunes)

The National Science Digital Library
Entry page: http://nsdl.org/iTunesU/
NSDL iTunes U (opens iTunes)

The New York Public Library (April 2008)
Entry page: http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/
NYPL iTunes U (opens iTunes)   

University of Hawai’i at Manoa Sinclair Library
Description: http://www.sinclair.hawaii.edu/articles/20071010-1.html
Entry page: http://www.hawaii.edu/itunesu/
UH public iTunes U (opens iTunes)

These institutions use Apple templates and then incorporate their own branding and browse/search integration.  Institutions can elect to keep their content internally password protected to allow access only to their own members.  They can make it public.  Some like the University of Utah libraries and the University of Hawaii provide both internal content to students and external public content.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be many collections from Utah institutions except for The University of Utah and UEN’s Utah Electronic High School. The EHS collection is of interest to me as the State Documents Librarian because they’ve loaded a number of Utah State publications. These include PDF training guides and a video by the Utah State Office of Education’s Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Program and the Parents Empowered television and radio public service messages from the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

iTunes provides a powerful way to view and share these messages.  As Apple says, it’s a simple as “Click, sync, learn.”

We can certainly do more.

Let’s learn how to capitalize on what has already been done in Utah and organize further efforts to offer more Utah library content in iTunes U.  Some of those who have been involved with developing these iTunes U stores include:

  • Dan Sinema, Senior Systems Engineer, Apple Computer Education Division
  • Terry Stone, Higher Ed Account Executive, Apple Computer
  • Paul E. Burrows, Manager, New Media Integration, KUED Media Solutions, University of Utah
  • Joseph F. Buchanan, Technology Assisted Curriculum Center, University of Utah
  • Pat Lambrose,  Technology Facilitator, Salt Lake City School District

Do others of you have an interest in developing a Utah portal or library collections within iTunes U? How shall we proceed?

Here are some resources for those who want to learn more:

ITunes U Resources

Please comment below or email me directly if you have an interest.

Domain Registry of America- don’t get scammed

Published on February 18, 2009 in Colleen Eggett and Website in a Box. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I received notice today that one of us whos name shall remain nameless just got scammed by Domain Registry of America. They are sending out notices to websites that need to be renewed soon asking for $30, three times the price we’re paying.

DON”T GET SCAMMED! There are over 100,000 posts on google about this scam. See: http://trinaallen.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/domain-registry-of-america-scam/
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/domainnamescams.htm
Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.shtm

What you should do:

A. Throw away the letter if you received it
B. Request your $ back if you already paid

C. If you want to move away from us you can transfer your website to your city’s hosting service for free and pay bluehost or another vendor the $10 a year for the domain registration.  You can transfer your account at any time without charge if you are going to your city’s site.  There’s never a good reason to get scammed.

Is an iLibrary in Your Future?

Published on February 18, 2009 in Comments and Ray Matthews. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

I just received a request from a state agency for audio books. After spending some frustrating minutes with our Overdrive collection I had this idea:

Apple iTunesHas anyone ever heard of Apple licensing their iTunes store software? I think that iTunes would be the perfect platform for libraries to use to provide access to their digital music, video, podcasts, courseware, games, and audio books.

Libraries have been stricken by massive inside-the-box thinking. The library model has always been that (1) access needs to be provided through an online catalog; (2) that materials should be provided for free; and (3) that library customers should borrow and return items.

What if, instead of the typical esoteric catalog interface, libraries could offer multimedia content through a city or county library branded version of the iTunes store? It’s SO easy to find and download content through Apple’s iTunes store compared to trying to get any multimedia online from any library site.

Instead of only supporting borrowing and returning, what if libraries were to offer content through micro-purchases like Apple does?

My wife and I love our local Salt Lake County library branch. At the same time we are extremely frustrated that it either lacks what we’re looking for (that’s me) or if they do have it, it’s checked out (that’s my wife). She’s been put on waiting lists that often last for weeks. I can only imagine the pain and frustration felt by customers of rural libraries. Libraries, IMHO, are locked into a dumb business model that ignores lofty customer expectations (‘I want everything and I want it immediately’). To quote my favorite character in Groundhog Day, “Am I right, or am I right?”

iTunes is intuitive for users. Customers would have immediate access to everything in the library. Customers would have access to content as long as they wanted. Vendors could provide content either with Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) or without it (as Apple itself will be doing starting this April). Fees could be adjusted to cover library costs and still remain competitive in the market place. Libraries could provide a fuller range of historical and research materials and government documents than are typically found in online stores. Librarians could spend more time selecting content and building collections and less time processing. iTunes also might provide a perfect medium for offering access to materials for the blind such as podcasts, streaming radio programming, and talking books. It would save libraries oodles of processing and support costs (fewer ILS systems administrators, web mavens recreating online wheels, and shelvers restocking materials).

I think there is a whole range of possible cost-saving and service benefits.

Apple, Inc. are you listening?  Let’s deal.

Books are my drug of choice

Published on February 12, 2009 in Comments. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Herriman» Last Thursday, I attended an open house. There were no refreshments, no wine or cheese. Not even root beer and Fritos for that matter. It was in the Herriman City Library.

The Herriman library is actually only a library in the sense that it has books, a few shelves, and is run by women who seem nice enough but are probably capable of violence if you make too much noise. .

Currently, our book repository is just a couple of rooms in a strip mall behind a Jiffy Lube. It’s not bad as small libraries go, but frankly I have more books in my basement. We deserve a better one. Not only has Herriman grown, plenty of us can even read.

The good news is that a new bigger and better library is on the way. The open house was to show off the artist’s renderings and give the public a chance to talk to the architects, county officials and workers without having to whisper.

As a journalist, I had plenty of questions. For the sake of space, here are the answers: “No, there will not be a helicopter pad, XXX-rated reading room, free doughnuts, hot tub, or parking for elephants. Please sit down.”

Before I did, I forced them to admit one important thing. The new Herriman library will have way more books, thousands and thousands of them. Eventually maybe even a million. I’m happy. You can’t go wrong with books.

Driving home I thought about all the libraries of my youth, many of them smaller than our current knothole of a facility. My family moved a lot and books were my drug of choice. There was only one place to get them legally.

———————————————————

The old man said, “You ditched school

for an entire week and went to

… the library?”

———————————————————

The smallest library I ever held a card for was actually a utility truck. The “bookmobile” came through our desert town once a week. Selection was limited but the driver/librarian was a godsend.

The driver’s name was Lloyd and he only had one foot. Depending on the intensity of his breath, he lost the other in the war or a hay baler.

Lloyd saw that I was bored. He introduced me to Joseph Altsheler’s Forest Runner series. We’ll probably never know how many lives he saved among those unfortunate enough to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with me.

The libraries of my life range from that bookmobile to the Library of Congress. Some are better than others but I’ve never visited one I would have complained about being locked in for the night.

I was thrown out of a library only once. A city librarian figured out that no 15-year-old kid belonged in a library three days in a row during the school year and called the cops.

For once, the old man wasn’t mad that he had to leave work and come and get me. He was deeply confused. The look on his face was a blend of pity and pride.

“Let me see if I got this straight,” he said. “You ditched school for an entire week and went to … the library?”

It’s the only time telling the truth ever got me out of a whacking.

 

– Robert Kirby

 

 

Robert Kirby is a columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune. This story originally appeared his “Kirby” column, February 4, 2009. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11617648

Reprinted in Utah Libraries with permission of The Salt Lake Tribune

Google and Online Books

Published on February 12, 2009 in Comments and Craig Neilson. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The lawyers have spoken the details about Google’s Online Book Project and the rights of authors is now available here.

from the release:
The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and Google announced the proposed settlement in late October 2008. The settlement, if Court-approved, will authorize Google to scan in-copyright Books and Inserts in the United States, maintain an electronic database of Books, and make various uses of the Books as specified in the settlement. For out-of-print Books and, if permitted by Rightsholders of in-print Books, Google will be able to sell access to individual Books and institutional subscriptions to the database, place advertisements on any page dedicated to a Book, and make other commercial uses of Books. At any time, Rightsholders can change instructions to Google regarding any of those uses. Through a Book Rights Registry (“Registry”) established by the settlement, Google will pay Rightsholders 63% of all revenues from these uses. The settlement also provides for cash payments to Rightsholders of Books and Inserts that Google scans prior to May 5, 2009.

h/t Digitization 101